George Hunt Williamson
Encyclopedia
George Hunt Williamson (December 9, 1926 - January 1986), aka Michael d'Obrenovic and Brother Philip,
was one of the "four guys named George" among the mid-1950s contactees
. The others were George Adamski
, George King
, and George Van Tassel
.
Williamson, born in Chicago, Illinois
, to parents George Williamson and Bernice Hunt, was mystically inclined as a teenager, but transferred some of his occult enthusiasm
to flying saucers in the late 1940s. In early 1951 Williamson was expelled on academic grounds from the University of Arizona. Having read William Dudley Pelley
's book Star Guests (1950), Williamson worked for a while for Pelley's
cult organization, helping to put out its monthly publication
Valor. Pelley had generated huge quantities of communications with
"advanced intelligences" via automatic writing
, and very clearly was an immediate
inspiration to Williamson, who
combined his fascination with the occult and with flying saucers
by trying to contact flying saucer crews with a
home-made Ouija board
.
After hearing about the flying-saucer-based religious cult of George Adamski
,
perhaps through Pelley, Williamson and
his wife, and fellow saucer believers Alfred and Betty Bailey, became regular visitors to Adamski's
commune at Palomar Gardens and eventually members of Adamski's Theosophy
-spinoff
cult. They witnessed Adamski "telepathically" channelling and tape-recording messages from the friendly humanoid Space Brothers who inhabited every solar planet. The Willamsons, the Baileys and two other Adamski
disciples became the "witnesses" to Adamski's supposed meeting with Orthon, a handsome blond man from
Venus, near Desert Center, California on November 18, 1952. In fact the "witnesses" experienced nothing more
than Adamski telling them to wait and stay put while he walked over a hill, then came back into
view an hour later, with a preliminary story of his experiences--- a story subsequently greatly
changed for book publication in Flying Saucers Have Landed (1953), as Williamson himself
later pointed out.
The initial publication
of Adamski's tale in an Arizona newspaper on November 24, 1952, triggered an explosive growth
in the membership of Adamski's cult. The Williamsons and Baileys continued their Ouija-board sessions,
getting their own personal revelations from the Space Brothers, which led to a drastic falling-out with
Adamski.
In 1954, Williamson and Bailey published The Saucers Speak which emphasized supposed short-wave radio communications with friendly saucer pilots, but in fact depended for almost all its contents on the Ouija
-board sessions
Bailey and Williamson held regularly from 1952 onward. They heard from
Actar of Mercury, Adu of Hatonn in Andromeda, Agfa Affa from Uranus
(presumably not the same Affa who was the exclusive contact of
Frances Swan), Ankar-22 of Jupiter, Artok of Pluto, Awa from Outer Space,
Garr from Pluto, Kadar Lacu from Saturn, Karas the Space Brother, Lomec of
Venus, Nah-9 from Neptune, Noro of the Saucer Fleet, Oara of Saturn,
Ponnar of Hatoon (presumably not the same Ponnar who was the exclusive
contact of Frances Swan), Regga of Mars, Ro of Torresoton, Sedat of
Hatonn, Suttku of Saturn, Terra of Venus, Wan-4 of the Safanian planets,
Zago of Mars and Zo of Neptune. The "board" contacts were in good if uninformative English, but the few reported radio contacts, in International
Morse code, left a little to be desired. Sample: "AFFA FROM THE P. RA RRR OK K5 K5 FROM THE PLA CHANT RRT IT." Perhaps influenced by the Shaver Mystery, Williamson also reveals that while most space aliens are helpful and good, there are some very bad ones hanging out near Orion and headed for earth in force, bent on conquest.
Williamson became a more obscure competitor to Adamski, eventually combining his own channelling and the beliefs of a small contactee cult known as the Brotherhood of the Seven Rays, led by Marion Dorothy Martin, to produce a series of books about the secret, ancient history of mankind: Other Tongues--- Other Flesh (1957), Secret Places of the Lion (1958), UFOs Confidential with John McCoy (1958), Road in the Sky (1959) and Secret of the Andes (1961). These books, when not rewriting the Old and
New Testaments to depict every important person as a reincarnation of one of only six or eight different "entities," expanded on the usual late 19th Century Theosophical teachings (borrowed without credit from Thomas Lake Harris
) that friendly Space Brothers in the distant past had taught the human race the rudiments of civilization--- and, according to Williamson, spacemen had also helped materially in the founding of the Jewish and Christian religions, impersonating "gods" and providing "miracles" when needed. Williamson spiced his books with additional Ouija-revelations to the effect that some South, Central and North American ancient civilizations actually began as colonies of human-appearing extraterrestrials. Williamson can be considered a more mystically-inclined forerunner of Erich Von Däniken
; Secret Places of the Lion also displays the clear and explicit influence of Immanuel Velikovsky
.
Like his role-model Adamski, Williamson enjoyed referring to himself as "professor," and claimed an extensive academic background, which in fact was completely non-existent. In the late 1950s he withdrew from the contactee scene and even changed his name, concocting a new fictitious academic and family background to go along with the new name,
while continuing to live in California. His 1961 book was published under a still different pen name. Little is known about his life between 1961 and his reported death in 1986, other than that at one time he became a priest of the Nestorian Church, actually the Assyrian Church of the East.
As of 2006, a number of his books are still in print, in paperback editions.
The only other well-known 1950s contactees who still have books in print are Daniel Fry
and Truman Bethurum
.
was one of the "four guys named George" among the mid-1950s contactees
Contactees
Contactees are persons who claim to have experienced contact with extraterrestrials. Contactees have typically reported that they were given messages or profound wisdom by extraterrestrial beings...
. The others were George Adamski
George Adamski
George Adamski was a Polish-born American citizen who became widely known in ufology circles, and to some degree in popular culture, after he claimed to have photographed ships from other planets, met with friendly Nordic alien "Space Brothers", and to have taken flights with them...
, George King
George King (Aetherius Society)
George King was Founder-President of The Aetherius Society, a UFO religion. He was also an inventor, author, lecturer and spiritual teacher.-Early years:...
, and George Van Tassel
George Van Tassel
George Van Tassel was an American contactee, ufologist, and paranormal research leader who commenced building the Integratron in 1958 in Landers, California.- History :...
.
Williamson, born in Chicago, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, to parents George Williamson and Bernice Hunt, was mystically inclined as a teenager, but transferred some of his occult enthusiasm
to flying saucers in the late 1940s. In early 1951 Williamson was expelled on academic grounds from the University of Arizona. Having read William Dudley Pelley
William Dudley Pelley
William Dudley Pelley was an American extremist and spiritualist who founded the Silver Legion in 1933, and ran for President in 1936 for the Christian Party.-Family:...
's book Star Guests (1950), Williamson worked for a while for Pelley's
William Dudley Pelley
William Dudley Pelley was an American extremist and spiritualist who founded the Silver Legion in 1933, and ran for President in 1936 for the Christian Party.-Family:...
cult organization, helping to put out its monthly publication
Valor. Pelley had generated huge quantities of communications with
"advanced intelligences" via automatic writing
Automatic writing
Automatic writing or psychography is writing which the writer states to be produced from a subconscious and/or spiritual source without conscious awareness of the content.-History:...
, and very clearly was an immediate
inspiration to Williamson, who
combined his fascination with the occult and with flying saucers
by trying to contact flying saucer crews with a
home-made Ouija board
Ouija Board
Ouija Board is a Thoroughbred mare racehorse owned by Edward Stanley, 19th Earl of Derby and trained by Ed Dunlop. In a career spanning four seasons, she won 10 of her 22 races, 7 of them Group 1s, including the Epsom Oaks in 2004 and the Hong Kong Vase in 2005...
.
After hearing about the flying-saucer-based religious cult of George Adamski
George Adamski
George Adamski was a Polish-born American citizen who became widely known in ufology circles, and to some degree in popular culture, after he claimed to have photographed ships from other planets, met with friendly Nordic alien "Space Brothers", and to have taken flights with them...
,
perhaps through Pelley, Williamson and
his wife, and fellow saucer believers Alfred and Betty Bailey, became regular visitors to Adamski's
commune at Palomar Gardens and eventually members of Adamski's Theosophy
Theosophy
Theosophy, in its modern presentation, is a spiritual philosophy developed since the late 19th century. Its major themes were originally described mainly by Helena Blavatsky , co-founder of the Theosophical Society...
-spinoff
cult. They witnessed Adamski "telepathically" channelling and tape-recording messages from the friendly humanoid Space Brothers who inhabited every solar planet. The Willamsons, the Baileys and two other Adamski
disciples became the "witnesses" to Adamski's supposed meeting with Orthon, a handsome blond man from
Venus, near Desert Center, California on November 18, 1952. In fact the "witnesses" experienced nothing more
than Adamski telling them to wait and stay put while he walked over a hill, then came back into
view an hour later, with a preliminary story of his experiences--- a story subsequently greatly
changed for book publication in Flying Saucers Have Landed (1953), as Williamson himself
later pointed out.
The initial publication
of Adamski's tale in an Arizona newspaper on November 24, 1952, triggered an explosive growth
in the membership of Adamski's cult. The Williamsons and Baileys continued their Ouija-board sessions,
getting their own personal revelations from the Space Brothers, which led to a drastic falling-out with
Adamski.
In 1954, Williamson and Bailey published The Saucers Speak which emphasized supposed short-wave radio communications with friendly saucer pilots, but in fact depended for almost all its contents on the Ouija
Ouija
The Ouija board also known as a spirit/fire key board or talking board, is a flat board marked with the letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0-9, the words "yes", "no", "hello" and "goodbye", and other symbols and words are sometimes also added to help personalize the board...
-board sessions
Bailey and Williamson held regularly from 1952 onward. They heard from
Actar of Mercury, Adu of Hatonn in Andromeda, Agfa Affa from Uranus
(presumably not the same Affa who was the exclusive contact of
Frances Swan), Ankar-22 of Jupiter, Artok of Pluto, Awa from Outer Space,
Garr from Pluto, Kadar Lacu from Saturn, Karas the Space Brother, Lomec of
Venus, Nah-9 from Neptune, Noro of the Saucer Fleet, Oara of Saturn,
Ponnar of Hatoon (presumably not the same Ponnar who was the exclusive
contact of Frances Swan), Regga of Mars, Ro of Torresoton, Sedat of
Hatonn, Suttku of Saturn, Terra of Venus, Wan-4 of the Safanian planets,
Zago of Mars and Zo of Neptune. The "board" contacts were in good if uninformative English, but the few reported radio contacts, in International
Morse code, left a little to be desired. Sample: "AFFA FROM THE P. RA RRR OK K5 K5 FROM THE PLA CHANT RRT IT." Perhaps influenced by the Shaver Mystery, Williamson also reveals that while most space aliens are helpful and good, there are some very bad ones hanging out near Orion and headed for earth in force, bent on conquest.
Williamson became a more obscure competitor to Adamski, eventually combining his own channelling and the beliefs of a small contactee cult known as the Brotherhood of the Seven Rays, led by Marion Dorothy Martin, to produce a series of books about the secret, ancient history of mankind: Other Tongues--- Other Flesh (1957), Secret Places of the Lion (1958), UFOs Confidential with John McCoy (1958), Road in the Sky (1959) and Secret of the Andes (1961). These books, when not rewriting the Old and
New Testaments to depict every important person as a reincarnation of one of only six or eight different "entities," expanded on the usual late 19th Century Theosophical teachings (borrowed without credit from Thomas Lake Harris
Thomas Lake Harris
Thomas Lake Harris was an American mystic, spiritualistic prophet and poet.-Early life:Harris was born at Fenny Stratford in Buckinghamshire, England. His parents were Calvinistic Baptists, and very poor. They settled at Utica, New York, when Harris was five years old...
) that friendly Space Brothers in the distant past had taught the human race the rudiments of civilization--- and, according to Williamson, spacemen had also helped materially in the founding of the Jewish and Christian religions, impersonating "gods" and providing "miracles" when needed. Williamson spiced his books with additional Ouija-revelations to the effect that some South, Central and North American ancient civilizations actually began as colonies of human-appearing extraterrestrials. Williamson can be considered a more mystically-inclined forerunner of Erich Von Däniken
Erich von Däniken
Erich Anton Paul von Däniken is a Swiss author best known for his controversial claims about extraterrestrial influences on early human culture, in books such as Chariots of the Gods?, published in 1968...
; Secret Places of the Lion also displays the clear and explicit influence of Immanuel Velikovsky
Immanuel Velikovsky
Immanuel Velikovsky was a Russian-born American independent scholar of Jewish origins, best known as the author of a number of controversial books reinterpreting the events of ancient history, in particular the US bestseller Worlds in Collision, published in 1950...
.
Like his role-model Adamski, Williamson enjoyed referring to himself as "professor," and claimed an extensive academic background, which in fact was completely non-existent. In the late 1950s he withdrew from the contactee scene and even changed his name, concocting a new fictitious academic and family background to go along with the new name,
while continuing to live in California. His 1961 book was published under a still different pen name. Little is known about his life between 1961 and his reported death in 1986, other than that at one time he became a priest of the Nestorian Church, actually the Assyrian Church of the East.
As of 2006, a number of his books are still in print, in paperback editions.
The only other well-known 1950s contactees who still have books in print are Daniel Fry
Daniel Fry
Daniel William Fry was an American contactee who claimed he had multiple contacts with an alien and took a ride in a remotely piloted alien spacecraft on July 4, 1949....
and Truman Bethurum
Truman Bethurum
Truman Bethurum was the second of the classic 1950s contactees, individuals who claimed to have spoken with humanoid aliens and entered or ridden on their flying saucers...
.