A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture

other myth. You will recall that in the cycle of racial histories, it is whites that have always
been in ascendancy. If movement to the “next level” was imminent, it would make sense that
humanity’s more perfect future selves would be white. There was a whiff of the “oriental” about
Adamski’s space brothers (also consistent with the theosophical predilection for the Tibetan)
with eyes slightly aslant and high cheekbones “but not so high as an Indian or an Oriental.” The
overall impression was more Elfin than Asian. Orthon was something of a racial amalgam, but
he never fully left the confines of Whiteness. Apparently when Earthlings approach perfection it
will be as white people.
The sense of border crossing indicated by Orthon’s almost racial otherness extended to
Orthon’s gender as well, for his beauty was that of a woman. Fine tapered hands, “the beautiful
hands of an artistic woman,” soft skin, no facial (and presumably body) hair and a head of hair to
die for, but lest we stray too far in our sense of his feminine beauty, rendering Orthon too exotic,
Adamski observes that Orthon “was definitely a man.” This constant sense of great beauty
attended the descriptions of all of Adamski’s contacts, as it did in Ballard, Pelley and
Swedenborg before him. The note of sensual pleasure in Adamski’s description was present in
all of the passages wherein he described extraterrestrial encounters. Thus while the space
brothers may have been alien in some ways, their aesthetic appeal was wholly keyed to terrestrial
sensibilities. The space brothers, like the ascended masters and spirits before them, were alien
but not too alien. Also like those earlier precedents, Adamski’s proffered vision was one in
which humanity’s future was comprehensible to then current human sensibilities. Just as
Spiritualism was predicated on the survival of human personality, the displaced utopian
imaginary as discussed thus far was predicated on the survival of the recognizably human. That
everything about the aliens and their craft was pleasing to the senses, to the point of creating a
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