extraordinary%20encounters

product of alleged angelic dictation to New
York occultist John Ballou Newbrough. In
this complex alternative history of Earth and
the universe, “ashars” are guardian angels who
sail the cosmos in etheric ships. Oahspe had a
wide readership among devotees of the early
contactee movement.
See Also: Athena; Contactees; Korton; Monka;
Portla; Sananda; Van Tassel, George W.
Further Reading
Alnor, William M., 1992. UFOs in the New Age: Ex -
traterrestrial Messages and the Truth of Scripture.
Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
James, Trevor [pseud. of Trevor James Constable],
1958. They Live in the Sky. Los Angeles: New Age
Publishing Company.
King, Beti, 1976. Diary from Outer Space. Mojave,
CA: self-published.
———, 1976. A Psychic’s True Story. Mojave, CA:
self-published.
Soltec, n.d. “Ashtar Command and Popular Cu l t u re . ”
h t t p : / / w w w. e a g l e s w i n g s . c o m / a u / s o l t e c 1 . h t m l
Tuella [pseud. of Thelma B. Turrell], ed., 1989.
Ashtar: A Tribute. Third edition. Salt Lake City,
UT: Guardian Action Publications.
Van Tassel, George W., 1952. I Rode a Flying Saucer!
The Mystery of Flying Saucers Revealed. Los Angeles:
New Age Publishing Company.
We t t l a u f e r, Brianna, 2000. “A Brief Ba c k g round bet
ween Ashtar and Ashtar Command.” http://www.
g e o r g e va n t a s s e l . c o m / Pa g e s / 0 0 5 . 1 a s h t a r. h t m l
Asmitor
In Revelation: The Divine Fire (1973) Brad
Steiger reports a story related to him by
Robert Shell of Roanoke, Virginia, concerning
a malevolent entity that attached itself to a
young man experimenting with psychedelic
drugs. The being called itself “Asmitor” even
as it explained that this was not precisely its
name, but the closest approximation that the
human voice could manage to pronounce.
Shell said that he met Mark while both
were living in an apartment building in Richmond,
Virginia, in 1969. Shell and a friend
were pursuing an interest in ritual magic.
Mark, then eighteen years old, expressed no
interest in such things; his interests were in
electronics and occasional use of hallucinogens.
Thus, Shell was surprised and skeptical
Asmitor 29
when Mark began speaking of contact he was
beginning to experience with what he called
an “entity” that gave him certain things in exchange
for periodic occupation of his physical
body. Around this time Shell and his wife observed
poltergeistlike manifestations in their
apartment.
These experiences led Shell to be more
open-minded about Mark’s claims. Mark confided
that the entity was a multidimensional
energy being. It extended across the entire
universe, though by force of will it could
focus on a particular place for purposes of
communication. It never explained why it
sought such contacts, but Mark came to sense
that it had a deep interest—again for reasons
it would not clearly divulge—in this level of
reality. As time went by, Mark came to see the
entity, now calling itself Asmitor, as evil and
deceitful. It also would not let him alone and
more or less possessed him.
Before that happened, however, Shell accepted
Mark’s endorsement of Asmitor’s essentially
benign intentions and asked for a
personal contact. One night he underwent a
frightening experience in which he awoke
with a crushing sensation on his chest, which
he interpreted as a visitation from Asmitor,
though the sensations he describes are classic
characteristics of sleep paralysis. The next day
Mark, passing on Asmitor’s words, told Shell
that Asmitor had found him—Shell—unfit
for contact.
Asmitor claimed to be in conflict with another
entity, with the climactic battle imminent.
The other entity was just as malevolent
as Asmitor, but the two were deadly enemies,
their conflict having been set up, for inscrutable
reasons, by a “higher ruling force.”
Mark was to create a “landmark”—a “specific,
easily accessible point for it to hold onto”—
consisting of a pentagram with symbols
drawn around it.
Though Asmitor had promised Mark complete
physical protection, the young man
learned otherwise when he was arrested for
possession of LSD and marijuana and sentenced
to jail. After serving three months, he