extraordinary%20encounters

Paul 2
Paul Solem, an Idaho rancher, first heard from
Paul 2—though he did not know his name at
the time—in 1948 when a mental voice from
a flying saucer told him, “You will hear from
us later” (Clark, 1971). Four years later Solem
met Paul 2, a self-identified “angel” from
Venus. Solem was informed that he had been
a Venusian in a previous life and that his mission
in the present incarnation was to work
with North and South American Indians to
prepare the City of Zion. A great cataclysm
was coming, and in its wake a utopian society
would be built with the aid of space people
and their earthly allies.
Solem surfaced publicly in July 1969 at the
Fort Hall Indian Reservation in Idaho, where
he and several Indian associates declared in a
series of campfire meetings that flying saucers
had arrived to fulfill a Hopi prophecy about
the Day of Purification. According to Hopi
tradition, a great fiery explosion would herald
the coming of the True White Brother. Only
those who had remained true to the ancient
Hopi ways would be spared.
Moving his operation to Hotevilla, Arizona,
where the Hopi Sun Clan was headquartered,
Solem worked with the 106-yearold
Chief Dan Katchongva to integrate flying
saucers into the tribe’s traditional faith.
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Katchongva was a friend of contactee and
fringe archaeologist George Hunt Williamson,
author of books speculating about the relationship
of native religions and visiting extraterrestrials.
Younger tribal members resisted
Katchongva and Solem’s efforts, though other
residents of the area were claiming UFO
sightings that they took to be evidence of the
prophecy’s imminent fulfillment.
Solem announced that Paul 2 would bring
in flying saucers for all to see on four occasions,
beginning on Easter Sunday 1971.
Their failure to appear on the first scheduled
date destroyed Solem’s credibility, and soon
afterward Katchongva was ousted from his
position as leader of the Sun Clan. He died
the following year. Solem lapsed into obscurity.
His last known public appearance was on
July 21, 1990, in the resort town of Lava Hot
Springs, Idaho, where he spoke to a small
crowd and tried without success to entice
saucers to fly overhead.
See Also: Contactees; Williamson, George Hunt
Further Reading
Clark, Jerome, 1971. “Indian Prophecy and the
Prescott UFOs.” Fate 24, 4 (April): 54–61.
Davis, Rick, 1990. “Would You Believe, Flying
Saucers over Lava?” Idaho State Journal
(Pocatello, July 15).
Katchongva, Chief Dan, 1970. Hopi Prophecy.
Hotevilla, AZ: Hopi Independent Nation.