extraordinary%20encounters

12 Affa
Saturn. In 1954 Aetherius made his presence
known psychically to George King, a London
man with longstanding occult interests. Soon
King was channeling other space people, including
Jesus. By January he had gone public
with the cosmic gospel—essentially earthbound
occult doctrines ascribed to philosophical
extraterrestrials—and soon was issuing a
mimeographed bulletin titled Aetherius Speaks
to Earth (later Cosmic Voice). In August 1956
King established the Aetherius Society, among
the most successful and enduring contactee
groups. King died on July 12, 1997, in Los
Angeles, where he had been living for many
years.
In the theology of the Aetherius Society,
good and evil extraterrestrials are engaged in
constant warfare. From time to time, during
crisis situations, the Cosmic Brotherhood will
place its spaceships above Earth and direct
positive energy downward. Society members
receive the energy and make sure that it
reaches its targets. Over a three and a half year
period, beginning in 1958, King climbed no
fewer than eighteen mountains at the behest
of the space people.
The society maintains headquarters in
London and Los Angeles, as well as chapters
all over the world.
See Also: Channeling; Contactees
Further Reading
Aetherius Society, 1995. The Aetherius Society: A Cos -
mic Concept. Hollywood, CA: Aetherius Society.
Curran, Douglas, 1985. In Advance of the Landing:
Folk Concepts of Outer Space. New York: Abbeville
Press.
Saliba, John A., 1995. “Religious Dimensions of
UFO Phenomena.” In James R. Lewis, ed. The
Gods Have Landed: New Religions from Other
Worlds, 15–64. Albany, NY: State University of
New York Press.
Wallis, Roy, 1974. “The Aetherius Society: A Case
Study of a Mystagogic Congregation.” Sociologi -
cal Review 22: 27–44.
Affa
Affa first appeared in 1952 among the extraterrestrials
who communicated to a small
Prescott, Arizona, occult group headed by
George Hunt Williamson. Affa, identified as
being from the planet Uranus, first spoke
through automatic writing, then later allegedly
by radio, warning of threats to Earth
by evil humans and menacing aliens from the
“Orion Solar Systems.”
Affa later surfaced in automatic-writing
communications to Frances Swan of Eliot,
Maine, beginning in 1954. Mrs. Swan’s Affa,
like Williamson’s, did his communicating
from a giant Uranian spaceship. Affa urged
Swan to alert the United States Navy so that it
could receive his radio messages. Swan told
her neighbor, retired navy Adm. Herbert B.
Knowles, about Affa’s request. Knowles, a
UFO enthusiast, sat in on a writing session
and addressed questions to Affa. Impressed by
the answers, he wrote the Office of Naval Intelligence
(ONI), which on June 8 sent two
officers to Swan’s house. They also asked questions
of Affa, who promised a radio transmission
at 2 P.M. on June 10. When none came,
ONI lost interest and turned the letters over
to the navy’s Bureau of Aeronautics. John
Hutson, a security officer, was curious enough
to fly up to Eliot for two days in late July. On
his return he spoke with an FBI agent, but the
agency chose not to pursue the matter.
In the summer of 1959 navy Commander
Julius Larsen, an ONI liaison officer to the
CIA’s Photographic Intelligence Center in
Washington, DC, stumbled upon a file on the
incident. Larsen, a navy pilot who harbored a
private fascination with spiritualism, called on
Swan and Knowles. At one point Larsen tried
automatic writing and believed he had communicated
with Affa, though Swan insisted he
had not contacted her Affa.
Back in Washington Larsen talked with
Center Director Arthur Lundahl and Lundahl’s
assistant, Lt. Cmdr. Robert Neasham, a
navy officer. In their presence Larsen entered a
trance state and supposedly contacted Affa
while Lundahl and Neasham peppered him
with questions. At one point, challenged to
prove his existence, Affa replied, “Go to the
window.” Lundahl saw nothing but clouds,
though Neasham seemed convinced that a