extraordinary%20encounters

208 Rainbow City
pended a statement describing it as “the headquarters,
a deserted city of the Gods (or the
Elder Race) under the ice of the [South] Pole”
(Kafton-Minkel, 1989). Hefferlin claimed to
have access to advanced weapons and devices
left over from Rainbow City, but his assertions
about the science behind them were so
full of elementary technical errors that reader
ridicule encouraged Palmer to cease publishing
Hefferlin’s writings.
He and his wife reappeared, however, in
1947 and 1948, in publications of the California-based
Borderland Sciences Research
Associates. In a series of articles, they recounted
their association with a mysterious
man named Emery, whom they first met in
1927. Over time they developed a system of
telepathic communication with him, sending
thoughts back and forth from their Indiana
home to his in New York City. Emery began
to travel widely, dropping out of sight without
explanation, then reappearing. Just before the
onset of World War II, he informed them that
he had met a Tibetan master who lived in a
hidden valley in that nation. Soon he was
working under orders from the Masters of
Human Destiny, otherwise known as the Ancient
Three.
Recognizing W. C. Hefferlin as a reincarnated
engineer who had worked for the ancients
long ago, the Three asked him for help
in constructing a fleet of three hundred-fifty
circle-winged aircraft. After the craft were
completed, they searched Antarctica for the
ruins of Rainbow City, where the Three had
lived during their first earthly incarnation.
Emery himself participated in the search,
which ended on Thanksgiving Day 1942
when he found Rainbow City.
O ver time, Em e ry re vealed the secrets of the
T h ree to the Hefferlins. Once, they said, the
human race ruled hundreds of galaxies. Un f o rt
u n a t e l y, the spacefarers eventually encountere d
the Snake People, and soon deadly confli c t
s p read through the cosmos. After centuries of
stalemate, the tide turned in the Snake Pe o p l e’s
f a vo r. The Snake People pursued the humans
t h rough space, stranding some on obscure ,
backwater planets. The rest made it to the
planet now known as Mars, where the last of
the Human Em p i re lived in re l a t i ve comfort
for a long time. Then the planet began to die,
its oxygen and water evaporating and the temp
e r a t u re growing ever colder.
Thus the humans found their way to the
third planet in the solar system. They settled
in what is now Antarctica, a pleasant, temperate
place. They built seven cities, each with its
own color (Red City, Green City, Blue City,
and so on). The greatest of all was Rainbow
City, constructed from many colors of a very
hard plastic. Under the wise leadership of the
son and daughter of the Great Ruler (still on
Mars) and the daughter’s fiancé (later to be
called the Ancient Three), the colony thrived,
and a golden age ensued, ending when the
Snake People, having discovered where the
humans were hiding, mounted a surprise attack.
In the fierce battles that followed, the
Earth was knocked on its side, turning
Antarctica into a wasteland. The humans were
driven to other, now warmer continents.
Their technology destroyed, they were reduced
to a primitive state and gradually lost
all memory of their former elevated state.
When they rediscovered it, Emery and his
associates found the city surrounded by ten
thousand feet of ice, thus concealing the remains
from previous explorers. Hot springs
beneath the city kept it warm, and the search
party went through all six levels. Inside the
city, plants and trees of all kinds still grew,
along with huge butterflies. All kinds of evidence
of the ancients’ presence survived, including
clothes (which suggested they were
eight feet tall) and advanced technology. The
technology included a teleportation device
and a vast subway system. The trains were
linked to hollow caverns all over the earth.
Emery traveled to some of them and found
yet more wonders from the ancients.
The Ancient Three sought to restore the
human race’s former glories. According to the
Hefferlins, the world’s nonwhite races had already
accepted their leadership, which was
headquartered in seven temples in Africa,