extraordinary%20encounters

———, 1972. The Stranger at the Pentagon. Second
edition. Van Nuys, CA: International Evangelism
Crusades.
Valdar
In 1960, a young man identified only as
Edwin was working in a factory in Durban,
South Africa, when he met and befriended a
new supervisor. One night while the two were
fishing together, the latter spoke into a mechanical
device, called up space people, and
produced a sky show with UFOs. Soon afterward,
the man confessed to Edwin that his
real name was Valdar. He also told Edwin that
he was from Koldas, a planet that existed in
an anti-matter universe to which he must
soon return. He left Edwin the device before
he disappeared. In a few months, the two
were talking over the interdimensional radio.
Edwin learned that Koldas is one planet in a
twelve-world confederation.
The exchange continued for years. Before
long, Edwin channeled the messages rather
than taking them through the radio. Many of
the messages were of a technical and scientific
nature. Others were occult and metaphysical.
In 1986, South African ufologist Carl van
Vlierden published a book-length account of
Edwin’s alleged experiences and messages.
Further Reading
Hind, Cynthia, 1996. UFOs over Africa. Madison,
WI: Horus House.
Van Vlierden, Carl, and Wendelle C. Stevens, 1986.
UFO Contact from Planet Koldas. Tucson, AZ:
UFO Photo Archives.
Van Tassel, George W. (1910–1978)
Besides being a contactee himself, George Van
Tassel made his mark as the foremost promoter
of the early contactee movement. Every
year he sponsored the Giant Rock Interplanetary
Spacecraft Convention at his residence in
the high desert between Yucca Valley and
Joshua Tree, California. He also introduced
Ashtar, among the most ubiquitous and
beloved of channeling entities, to the occult
and flying-saucer world.
Van Tassel, George W. 255
Born in Ohio, Van Tassel moved to California
in 1930 with his family. He worked as an
a i rcraft technician for, among others, How a rd
Hughes. In 1947, the Van Tassels took up re s idence
inside an immense, partially hollowe d -
out rock called simply Giant Rock. Van Ta s s e l
s t a rted receiving psychic messages from extrat
e r restrials in Ja n u a ry 1952, the first of them
f rom “Lutbunn, senior in command first wave ,
planet patrol, realms of Schare [pro n o u n c e d
Sh a re-ee, a starship station in space]. We have
your contact aboard 80,000 feet above this
p l a c e” (Van Tassel, 1952). A flood of other
messages followed in the next days, weeks, and
months, all from peace-loving space people associated
with the Council of Se ven Lights on
the planet Shanchea. Van Tassel wrote what
may be the first contactee book, in the modern
sense, I Rode a Flying Sa u c e r ! (1952). Its title
notwithstanding, at that point all of his contacts
had been mental ones. Not until Au g u s t
24, 1953, would Van Tassel board a spacecraft
(or “ventla,” in the vo c a b u l a ry of his space
f r i e n d s ) .
Beginning in early 1953, Van Tassel held
weekly public channeling sessions. The Giant
Rock conventions began that spring, attracting
the new contactee stars and their followers
and affording the emerging movement much
publicity. Soon Van Tassel, in person and
through his College of Universal Wisdom,
was raising money for the Integratron, a machine
to be built according to extraterrestrials’
specifications. It was supposed to rejuvenate
tissue and restore youthful vigor. By 1959, the
structure was partially built, but for all Van
Tassel’s subsequent efforts it would never be
completed.
More than any other single figure, Van Tassel
gave direction and cohesion to what otherwise
would have been a disparate movement.
He supported contactees whose claims—as
was often the case—conflicted with his own,
to the expense of his own credibility. Ufologist
Isabel L. Davis, for example, saw him as a
charlatan who knew fully well that the contact
stories were bogus. Others, however, judged
him to be sincere and dedicated to a meta-