Aboard a flying saucer. truman Behurum and the hot Capt. Aura Rhanes

I assert that the review below is entirely of my own words and is specifically allowed and entirely legal under international and United States copyright laws. This is not an "external quote." I claim authorship of this review, Copyright (c) 2007 by Schuyler, but hereby release it into the Creative Commons License and the Terms & Conditions of posting as stated by ATS.

Aboard a Flying Saucer; (Non-fiction: a true story of personal experience . .) by Truman Bethurum. Los Angeles: DeVorss & Co., Publishers, 1954, 192 pages.

In June of 1952 Truman Bethurum was enjoying life in a trailer park in Santa Barbara as an unemployed (on strike) operating engineer. Unfortunately his good friend Whitey Edwards called him from Mormon Mesa near Las Vegas with a job offer he couldn’t refuse. He needed someone to help run an asphalt mixing plant. Bethurum was his choice. He would be picked up the next day. End of story. As soon as he arrived the plant shut down because of excess capacity. Bethurum kept his job but only on swing shift as a maintenance mechanic. One day after his shift he decided to drive up to a mesa not far from the shop. His wife collected seashells. He had been told the mesa was a former inland ocean and though it might be a good place to explore. After a couple of hours searching he decided to take a little snooze. When he awoke there were several little men surrounding him.

They were all wearing a sort of uniform, later described as similar to a Greyhound bus driver’s. they wore black billed caps and ‘jackets like cowboys.’ One of them spoke to Bethurum in a foreign language. He motioned he did not understand. The man said “You name it.” Bethurum said, “My God! You can speak English too.” The little man said, “We have no difficulty with any language.” Thus assured, Bethurum stepped from his truck and first saw the flying saucer.

All the little men lined up to shake hands with him. When he asked to speak to the Captain of the saucer, they all smiled, for the Captain was a woman, “and what a woman!” He was led into the saucer (a “scow”) to meet Aura Rhanes. The Captain wore a red pleated dress and a black velvet (fitted) blouse. She wore a black and red beret “at a jaunty angle,” had brown eyes and skin of a beautiful olive and roses. She had a radiant smile and seemed amused at Bethurum’s; slack jawed silly reaction.

They begin a conversation in which Capt. Rhanes appears to answer questions before they are asked. She spoke perfect English, of course, but sounded to Bethurum like Mother Goose rhymes. To Bethurum’s question of their motive power, Rhanes answered, “We have no reciprocating equipment aboard.” It was, she said, and Admiral’s scow. And with that the interview was over. Bethurum was escorted outside; and the saucer took off. When Bethurum got back to the shop his boss asked him if anything large had landed in the vicinity. Against his better judgment Bethurum admitted he had seen a flying saucer. His colleagues, of course, hooted with laughter.

At Bethurum’s second meeting with Captain Rhanes on August 4, 1952, was only half an hour. He learned that on her world there were no taxes, no politics, no delinquency of any kind. They had no illness, no doctors or nurses. And even mechanics and laborers are taboo. In short, her world had no troubles of any kind. When he got back to the shop Whitey asked if he had told his wife about the saucer, and about Aura Rhanes. That night he wrote a letter. But by return she said she was afraid of the hot weather and was reluctant to come.

On his third visit to the saucer Bethurum learned that Aura Rhanes and her crew were from the planet Clarion. This planet is on the other side of the Moon and cannot be seen from earth (Note: The position was later changed to the ‘other side of the sun.’ Bethurum had apparently misunderstood.) Other plants such as Mars were also inhabited by people like us. Mars, for example, is a great manufacturing planet. Everyone has a five acre country estate with a beautiful lawn, where flowers and shrubs are everywhere. Turning to technological issues, Captain Rhanes maintained that conquering gravitational force allowed them to dispense with friction of air as a problem in maneuvering their ships.

Much later in the day Bethurum was having a bite to eat with Whitey at a local coffee shop when he spotted Aura Rhanes and a companion at the counter. When Bethurum attempted to strike up a conversation, she dismissed him with negative answers. Afterwards she called for the check and spoke to the waitress, who returned to Bethurum to tell him Aura had apologized and had answered “No” to several questions when she ought to have answered “Yes.” They then left the restaurant. Bethurum rushed outside where Whitey had been waiting. He insisted the pair never cam out the door. They had disappeared in plain sight. Not long after she appears on a Las Vegas street corner and disappears into a drug store.

Bethurum continues to have problems with his marriage at this point. After a lengthy letter to his wife she wrote back to him not wanting to hear any more about saucers or little people. Fortunately his two daughters (by a previous marriage) are on board with him and do not think he is crazy. Bethurum had been discussing the visitors with local people and had developed a bit of a reputation. This also gave him the source of many more questions to ask when he had the chance. But on his next visit to the scow he confesses to Aura Rhanes that many people think he’s nuts, including his own wife, and that this is troubling to him.

On another visit Bethurum remembers he has a letter from a school girl written in French, which he does not understand. The idea is that he will give Capt. Rhanes the letter and get an answer in French. This will prove Bethurum had no part in the communication. Indeed, she takes the letter, gives it to a crew member, and then Bethurum hears a typing sound. Soon after a letter appears typed in French, which is included in the book. Rhanes also gives him a message written in Chinese. The French letter claims all the inhabitants of Clarion are Christians, and that ‘modern countries’ are devolving into paganism. It also exhorts the young “Chere Marie” to guard against the lure of adultery.

On subsequent visits Bethurum continues to learn more about the Clarionites. Their churches are always full. The like dancing polkas and square dances and also are fond of ballets. Their children have plenty of toys but are never messy; they always put them away in special cupboard. There are no weeds on Clarion. There are no traffic jams and their roads a are wide. They drive ‘nutronic jeeps’ and never have any accidents. They have three power sources: antimagnetic or gravitational, plutonic, and nutronic. Bethurum looks forward to the time when he can travel to Clarion, which Captain Rhanes has promised him.

Bethurum continues to speak of his marital problems. His wife hung up on him during their last phone call. He thinks maybe if she could see Clarion all would be put to rest, but Captain Rhanes says the coming visit must only be made by men. (Note: Bethurum’s wife eventually divorces him, naming Aura Rhanes as a correspondent in the proceedings.)

In the last few visits Aura Rhanes promises to take him and several of his friends to Clarion. She even has a package delivered to him with special flares to call the scow. The visit never happened. On his last day in the desert Bethurum used the remaining flare, but no one came. He moved back to Redondo Beach where sometime later he received a letter from Professor George Adamski who wanted to share experiences with him. He also received visits from scientists and engineers wanting to know about the scow, and speaking invitations began to arrive. At the end of the book Bethurum’s speaking career is about to take off.

Bethurum wrote three more books: The Voice of Planet Clarion (1957), Facing Reality (1958) and The People of Planet Clarion (1970). He also established “The Sanctuary of Thought” in Prescott, Arizona.

admin edit: After discerning the facts of this post (mainly the fact that "schuyler" is the author of this review) I have replaced the review in its original form, in this, the original post. There was confusion as to whether or not this was an original work which has now been cleared up.

I would like to personally thank "schuyler" for his effort in bringing this to AboveTopSecret.com.

S...

[edit on 10-25-2007 by Springer]

Thanks for the nostalgic trip to yesteryear.

You seem to have posted this to show us how the UFO-reports seem to be adapted or TAILORED to a specific time. From this, it follows that the UFO-Phenomenon might be something different than ANY of the popular theories propose.

Could it be that "they" adapt to our current standard, or appear as we imagine them to be?

Could it be that "they" are only a social engineering project conducted by sinister government agencies?

Coult it be that some of "them" are inventions of the authors of that time-period?

Could it be that your last Avatar was better than this one?

Could it be that they are natural phenomena? So bizarre and unexplainable that the best we can do is attempt to fit them into our world-view; shaped and influenced by our culture, technology, et al?

Interesting short story.
If laborers are taboo, I have to wonder how any of the above mentioned things could have been built.

Thanks schuyler for your Reader’s Disgust Condensed Version of “Aboard a Flying Saucer” which you neglected to mention was copyrighted in 1954.

I assume that you are posting this under the provisions of Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, but that you just neglected to mention the material was copyrighted.

The mixing plant that you refer to was a batch plant owned by the Wells Cargo Co. who had the contract to improve Hiway 91 long before Highway 15 was built.

Wells Cargo was formed by Robert, Howard and Joe Wells. Both Howard and Joe passed away many years ago. Robert, a friend of mine, passed away in 2002. I still keep in touch with his wife Karen who knows the story about Truman.

Hiway 91 still exists but is rarely used. I point it out to friends on my way up to the mine. And I also tell the Truman Bethurum story as we are traveling along the Morman Mesa from Glendale (where the batch plant was) to the Riverside cutoff.

I show them where hiway 91 cuts down the Morman Mesa on a Dugway just west of Riverside.

I found Trumans story very interesting and I thought your highly selective of facts and condensed version typical.

But thanks for the post and the review. I called Karen this morning to refresh my memory on the names of Roberts’s brothers.

.

Yeah S, I liked this one. The paragraph about Mars confirms what J Lear has to say about there being a people there, only he says they live below ground, this talk about above, but it was the 50s. Plus mentioning people like us on the 'other side of the sun' was pretty interesting. Anymore info like that?

Originally posted by Skyfloating
You seem to have posted this to show us how the UFO-reports seem to be adapted or TAILORED to a specific time. From this, it follows that the UFO-Phenomenon might be something different than ANY of the popular theories propose.

Your conclusion. Not my intent, but I would agree. I'm just trying to review many of the fifties contactee books. They do have a lot in common and tend to fit a pattern that is worth exploring. I call the fifties and these books the 'Naive Phase' of contactee stories. It was a time just prior to the Space Era when most of the populace did not have an idea of what was really out there. We had no close up pictures of other planets and were entertained by the nuts & bolts and rocket ships era of science fiction (Bradbury, Asimov, etc.) which suggested there could be a thriving Martian civilization, for example.

Once we blasted off and got out there, the contactee stories had to change to avoid running into the facts we were finding out. Oh, there are a few people who claim the moon has an atmosphere, but they have to claim we didn't get there or postulate a vast conspiracy to maintain their fantasies. So rather than human civilization on Mars we started to get much more inter-dimensional and psychic, always just out of reach of the science as we know it.

I've got a few more in my collection that I will tend to, but they're on the obscure side--self published books and the like. I will have to hunt for some of the other classics.

Could it be that your last Avatar was better than this one?

Now, you just let Moses get his few minutes of fame here. He's a good dog and is nowhere near as sinister as our friend the Dark Lord. He also agrees with everything I say.

Originally posted by johnlear
Thanks schuyler for your Reader’s Disgust Condensed Version of “Aboard a Flying Saucer” which you neglected to mention was copyrighted in 1954.

Sigh. It says so right in the title in a standard form for a bibliography. Perhaps you missed that part or were too eager to attempt to take me to task on that that you missed it. You failed, by the way.

I assume that you are posting this under the provisions of Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, but that you just neglected to mention the material was copyrighted.

I can post any review I want well within the provisions of copyright law. That is perfectly acceptable. I can retell the story using my words. It is not the idea that is subject to copyright, but the EXPRESSION of an idea.

In any case, the copyright is EXPIRED, John. It was written well before the corporate take-over of copyright which maintains copyright for the author's life plus seventy years to accommodate Disney Studios. The entire book is now in the public domain and is subject to 100% copying, and probably is somewhere on the Net. It's a good candidate for Project Guttenberg. Please don't pretend to be an expert on copyright law, John. You blew it. The copyrigt on this book expired in 1982.

I found Trumans story very interesting and I thought your highly selective of facts and condensed version typical.

Nonsense and balderdash. I can't quote the entire book verbatim within the constraints of a post and no reasonable person would expect me to. I just went through and reviewed it in a concise way. I beseech you to find anything better or find ANY misperceptions in that review AT ALL. Thanks for the additional information, but it really is irrlevant to the story as a whole. Somebody's brother's names weren't in the book at all.

I stand by my review 100%. If anyone wants to check up on its accuracy, go read it yourself.

Some folks remain fans of this kind of contactee story, although it's certainly gone out of fashion. These days, we prefer to have our aliens look like little grey creatures, rather than good-looking human-types. And they abduct us in our sleep, rather than just landing and offering us a ride around the planetary neighborhood.

One of the more interesting cases, that of Travis Walton, combines both types of aliens. Little greys who do the examinations and big, good-looking Nordics who are apparently more in command. It can therefore be seen as a "transitional" abductee/contactee story.

Realistically, I suppose, there's no reason why the aliens can't look like us, any more than they can look like anything else, from spiders to rocks to plates of pancakes. Particularly if they're time travelers, or spacetime travelers, since it's basically the same thing.

Unfortunately, pretty much all the interaction that supposedly took place with these humanoid types by people like Bethurum, Daniel Fry, George Adamski, and a few others, and Billy Meier later on, never really amounted to much of anything.

These humanoid types are pretty free with the advice -- always preaching to us about atom bombs or pollution or whatever the popular concern of the day was -- but pretty stingy with helpful technology, preferring us to work stuff out on our own and leaving their contactee friends out in the cold with basically nothing in the way of proof.

After visiting OZ, Dorothy never gets to keep her ruby slippers.

Really enjoyed this Shuyler, thanks. I've always liked the historical side of UFOs, but it's the cases that don't involve conversations with aliens that have more credibility for me.

This case is a good example. If aliens were to trouble themselves enough to have conversations with humans, who to them probably seem like primates, it doesn't resonate that they'd also give out false information. I also notice that it's always the witnesses who have personal relationships with aliens that wind up $elling book$.

In contrast, the famous Socorro case wherein aliens are observed outside their craft, but they high-tail it out of there to avoid direct contact with Zamora, make more sense--to me. Keep em coming.

Elevatedone, you've undone the intent of the OP, which was to provide a concise book review. Isn't that permissable? I'm sure Shuyler wouldn't have bothered if he knew this was going to happen.

Also, it isn't clear to me that it's an "external source" at all. Even if Schuyler has abbreviated and/or edited an existing review, it still isn't--is it?

[edit on 10/24/2007 by yuefo]

[edit on 10/24/2007 by yuefo]

These book reviews are a very good way to introduce the younger members to such a subject. It also puts these stories in a more temporal context, thereby profiting us with what the mindset was, and now is, regarding UFOs.

It is interesting that the UFO has "kept pace" with the ideals and expectations of humans. The "airships" of the late1800s and early 1900s are an example. Comparing them to the "saucers" of the '50s gives us an idea of how these "aliens" evolved at the same pace as our own ideas on the subject did. This current crop of triangles and rods fit the overall evolving nature of such reporting.

While it is true that the "Wheel-in-a-wheel" from the Old Testament seems out-dated to us, it was relevant to the people of that era. Each area seems to "translate" whatever, if anything, that occurred into a format that fits in with the current world view.

While this in no way actually invalidates the truthfulness of the witnesses, or the subjective "reality" (whatever that means) of the event, it is useful, nevertheless. By comparing such things, and keeping in mind the fluid nature of these related experiences, we may see a pattern. Or an anomaly.

Excellent posts OP. A star here and in your other thread of a similar nature. And flags for both.

What has happened to my review is an absolute and complete outrage. I just spent the better part of a day reading and reporting on this book for the benefit of ATS members, a book that has been in the public domain for a quarter century. Those are my words. To have them ripped apart like this shall not go unchallenged.

reply to post by schuyler
I read the post while it was fresh, so I didn't at first understand the side play here by John Lear's comment at the end of his post. John, if you and elevated conspired to mangle the OPs work you have violated any pretense to respect that might have been yours.

And John, to even gloat about such a thing is contemptible. You owe an apology to the OP.

Elevated, you should do the honorable thing and restore this work, and apologize.

You have both behaved badly in this, and if it was collusion, then both of you deserve banning.

That is shameful.

This post intentionally short.

reply to post by NGC2736


Not really sure what is at issue here. as noted by the link the moderator placed in the edited posts

Mod Edit: New External Source Tags – Please Review This Link.

The 'Fair use" quidelines are not really an optional activity. Unless the OP is the author of the origional work, it is required that posters comply with those rules.


Click on the link above and it will take you to the related thread on this issue.

reply to post by FredT


The issue is that this was not a quote in any way. It was a book review, with comments about what the book stated, and how the OP felt about those statements. The OP was NOT quoting passages excessively, but was instead showing how the time (1950s) led to a certain "expectation" of technology that was reflected in the books wording.

+It seems, on the surface at least, that John Lear took some offense. Then, in an amazing coincidence, the work was butchered by a mod. And John Lear publicly gloated over this, implying that this is what comes of crossing him.

Now I have on a few occasions crossed swords with the OP, so I am in no way trying to "protect" a friend. But I think fairness and integrity are important, even if some people don't. This was an obvious glaring error on the part of the mod, and a low vile "take credit" action by John Lear, or it was a conspiracy to butcher an original work by another member.

Originally posted by schuyler
I can post any review I want well within the provisions of copyright law. That is perfectly acceptable. I can retell the story using my words. It is not the idea that is subject to copyright, but the EXPRESSION of an idea.

That's not quite correct. If you look at some contemporary book review sources, they don't retell the entire story... what's the point in that?

In any case, the copyright is EXPIRED, John. It was written well before the corporate take-over of copyright which maintains copyright for the author's life plus seventy years to accommodate Disney Studios.

Ah... but we aspire to hold a slightly higher standard here... respect the work of others deeply, no matter what usage is allowed, and perhaps ours will similarly be respected.

The entire book is now in the public domain and is subject to 100% copying, and probably is somewhere on the Net.

Hrm... how many more are like this within our topic area? This raises an interesting possibility of replicating the titles here in some way, then channeling the ad revenue to some worthy cause/group.

I stand by my review 100%. If anyone wants to check up on its accuracy, go read it yourself.

Perhaps we need to find a better way to support these kinds of member-authored reviews of material within our topic areas... then I'd certainly like to see a re-post of your review, but with less "telling of the tale" involved.

There are a couple forum changes we're considering, perhaps it's time for a "review" forum.

SO, I could understand the "squeeze play" put on the OPs work were it a quote, but it was not a quote from external sources, as it was a review. I hope this is cleared up in the future.

I would also hope that John Lear is not immune to some censure for his gloating over this. I find it distasteful in the extreme, as must others. John Lear has no more validity than the next member, and ought have no more pull. Because his name is so openly associated with ATS, he really ought to be held to higher standards, not lower ones.

At the very least a public apology from him and the hasty moderator would go some distance in assuring this community that there isn't a double standard here.

Originally posted by NGC2736
It is interesting that the UFO has "kept pace" with the ideals and expectations of humans. The "airships" of the late1800s and early 1900s are an example. Comparing them to the "saucers" of the '50s gives us an idea of how these "aliens" evolved at the same pace as our own ideas on the subject did. This current crop of triangles and rods fit the overall evolving nature of such reporting.

This was one of the reasons why Jacques Vallee was led to think that UFOs could be evidence of some kind of "teaching curve," an educational process apparently designed to move us toward an unknown goal, by an unknown agent. The craft and interactions with the occupants are generally geared only to what we can understand at the time, given the current social and technological context. It's hard to believe that given the billions of years that aliens could have in advance of us, they often show themselves to be only a few decades ahead of us technologically. It's like they're showing us what can be done, then letting us catch up.

We don't know who's running the school (or if it's some kind of psychic communal expression we generate ourselves), or what the ultimate goal is. "Enlightenment" of some sort, presumably.