A number of high-profile trials followed, accusing the Society of kidnapping and Leadbeater of being a pedophile. But the Society hung on to Krishnamurti until he reached adulthood, at which point he declared that he wasn’t the World Teacher and had no interest in becoming him. He promptly left Theosophy, pausing only to dissolve the Order Of The Star In The East, a secret society that had been built at great expense to prepare the way for his reign as Lord Maitreya. This was a major embarrassment, and Theosophy subsequently dwindled, although splinter groups remain active to his day, including an offshoot that recently tried to convince a surprised British economist that he was Maitreya, after he fulfilled a mystic prophecy by appearing on an episode of The Colbert Report.
Before moving to Mount Palomar, George Adamski had run a Theosophist temple called the Royal Order of Tibet in Laguna Beach (America’s most mystical city). His wise 1,000-year-old aliens ultimately weren’t much different from Blavatsky’s wise 1,000-year-old masters, albeit with a cool, sci-fi twist. Many of the Space Brothers’ teachings were clearly Theosophy mixed with 1950s social mores and transferred to space, a much trendier setting than Tibet. So let that be a lesson to any aspiring spiritual leaders out there — you can resurrect a dying religion by just jamming it together with whatever pop culture bullshit is cool at the time. Why, Scientology would probably rule the world by now if they had only thought to announce Xenu was actually a Bionicle.
Adamski Was Running A Scam (And Set Serious Research Back Years In The Process)
Let’s be blunt, Adamski was clearly a scammer. Even his early Theosophical temple was actually started as a front for bootlegging sacramental wine during prohibition (he ran his bootlegging ring with the assistance of some old buddies from his time in Mexico fighting Pancho Villa). Aside from the hilariously faked photos, many of his descriptions of alien spaceships are clearly lifted from The Day The Earth Stood Still. It was the equivalent of a guy claiming to have met wise aliens and then just flat-out describing the Na’vi from Avatar. There were plenty of other scammers too. Billy Meier, for instance, was humiliated when his blurry photo of beautiful Venusian women was recognized as an old publicity shot of Dean Martin’s backup dancers.
But once Adamski’s books started selling, thousands of true believers came out of the woodwork, including hundreds who claimed their own contact with the Space Brothers. It’s hard to see Truman Bethurum as a faker, particularly when his book describes fixating on a random woman at a cafe as his beloved Captain Aura Rhanes in disguise, then being confused and hurt when she curtly told him they had never met and then walked out. That really only works as a scam if you’re trying to hustle a pharmacist out of an emergency supply of thorazine.
All of this was much to the irritation of more serious researchers. Kenneth Arnold was just a guy who saw something mysterious. Many other pilots have done the same over the years, leading to several government investigations. But the people who genuinely do want to look into the phenomena often have to work to ignore Adamski-style contactees. Maybe no one person did more to discredit UFO research as a legitimate interest. As Arthur C. Clarke put it, Adamski did “a real disservice by obscuring the truth and scaring away serious researchers from a field that may be of great importance.” Great work George, hope it was worth it to sell $20 flying saucer photos out the back of your cafe.
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