A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture

paranoia in another context but in the hands of the space brothers, it was merely an instrument of
use in guiding humans toward the perfection they desired. The space brothers wanted nothing
more than to help humans mend the error of their ways, but they could not force them. Under
universal law “each individual, each group of mankind, all intelligent life on each world, must
decide its own destiny without interference from another. Counsel, yes. Instruction, yes. But
interference to the point of destruction, never.” 252
Adamski offered one of the first full expressions of the space brother narrative.
According to him, humans had long been under the observation of intergalactic forces that saw
their potential and had their best interests at heart. But humans were in danger of destroying
themselves and upsetting the balance of the universe. Thus the aliens were taking an
increasingly active role and were here to help humans mend their ways. They were kind and
beautiful and loving—everything that the grays, who we will first encounter in the next chapter,
are not.
The story of the contactee and the space brothers continues to the present day. The same
themes of imminent catastrophe and the potential emergence of a new golden age still flow
through channeled messages to the faithful, offering visions of a world transformed. In turn, the
articulations of these themes continue to draw upon the bedrock of Spiritualism and Theosophy.
The space brother contactee did little to alter the trope of redemption from afar developed in the
nineteenth century—primarily changing the point of origin to other planets and adding a
contemporary socio-political gloss. In turn, the arrival of the flying saucer on the scene did little
to change established patterns. It did, however, in its invocation of the technical—we are talking
252 Adamski, 1967, 73.
160