by 'Alexander Blade'

1958

from Flying Saucer Review Magazine

November-December 1958 - Page 24

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This article originally appeared

in the November, 1947, issue of 'Fantastic Stories'

and is reproduced here from

the August-September, 1958 issue

of Round Robin, published by the

Borderland Sciences Research Associates

(BSRA).

 

 

We are already here, among you.

 

Some of us have always been here, with you, yet apart from, watching, and occasionally guiding you whenever the opportunity arose.

 

Now, however, our numbers have been increased in preparation for a further step in the development of your planet:

a step of which you are not yet aware…

 

 

Space People's Landmarks

 

We have been confused with the 'gods' of many world-religions, although we are not gods, but your fellow creatures, as you will learn directly before many more years have passed.

 

You will find records of our presence in the mysterious symbols of ancient Egypt, where we made ourselves known in order to accomplish certain ends.

 

Our principal symbol appears in the religious art of your present civilization and occupies a position of importance upon the great seal of your country: The United States of America.

 

It has been preserved in certain secret societies founded originally to keep alive the knowledge of our existence and our intentions toward mankind.

We have left you certain landmarks, placed carefully in different parts of the globe, but most prominently in Egypt where we established our headquarters upon the occasion of our last overt, or, as you would say, public appearance.

 

At that time the foundations of your present civilization were 'laid in the earth' and the most ancient of your known landmarks established by means that would appear as miraculous to you now as they did to the pre-Egyptians, so many thousands of years ago.

 

Since that time the whole art of building, in stone, has become symbolic, to many of you, of the work in hand - the building of the human race towards its perfection.

Your ancestors knew us in those days as preceptors and as friends. Now, through your own efforts, you have almost reached, in your majority, a new step on the long ladder of your liberation.

 

You have been constantly aided by our watchful 'inspiration', and hindered only by the difficulties natural to your processes of physical and moral development…
 

 

 

It has Happened Before


You have lately achieved the means of destroying yourselves.

 

Do not be hasty in your self-congratulation. Yours is not the first civilization to have achieved - and used - such means.

 

Yours will not be the first civilization to be offered the means of preventing that destruction and proceeding, in the full glory of its accumulated knowledge, to establish an era of enlightenment upon the earth.

However, if you do accept the means offered you, and if you establish such a 'millennium' upon the basis of your present accomplishments, yours will be the first civilization to do so.

ALWAYS BEFORE, THE KNOWLEDGE, THE TECHNIQUES, THE INSTRUCTIONS, HAVE BECOME THE POSSESSIONS OF A CHOSEN FEW:

A FEW CHOSE THEMSELVES BY THEIR OWN OPEN-MINDED AND CLEAR-SIGHTED REALIZATION OF 'THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME'.

THEY ENDEAVORED TO PASS ON THEIR KNOWLEDGE IN THE BEST POSSIBLE FORM, AND BY THE MOST ENDURING MEANS AT THEIR COMMAND.

In a sense they succeeded, but in another sense their failure equaled their success.

 

Human acceptance is, to a very large extent, measurable by human experience. Succeeding generations, who never knew our actual presence, translated the teachings of their elders in the terms of their own experience.

 

For instance, a cross-sectional drawing, much simplified and stylized by many copyings, of one of our traveling machines became the 'Eye of Horus, and then other eyes of other gods.

 

Finally, the ancient symbol that was once an accurate representation of an important mechanical device has been given surprising connotations by the modern priesthood of psychology.

The important fact is, however, that we are here, among you, and that you, as a world-race, will know it before very much longer!

 

The time is almost ripe but, as with all ripening things, the process may not be hurried artificially without danger of damaging the fruit.

 

There is a right time for every action, and the right time for our revelation of ourselves to your era is approaching.
 

 

 

Some Have Seen Our Ships


Some of you have seen our 'advanced guard' already.

 

You have met us often in the streets of your cities, and you have not noticed us.

 

But when we flash through your skies in the ancient traditional vehicles you are amazed, and those of you who open your mouths and tell of what you have seen are accounted dupes and fools. Actually you are prophets, seers in the true sense of the word.

 

You in Kansas and Oklahoma, you in Oregon and in California, and Idaho, you know what you have seen:

do not be dismayed by meteorologists. Their business is the weather.

One of you says, 'I saw a torpedo-shaped object'. Others report, 'disc-like objects', some of you say 'spherical objects', or 'platter-like objects'.

You are all reporting correctly and accurately what you saw, and in most cases you are describing the same sort of vehicle.

…Now that the art of manufacturing plastic materials has reached a certain perfection among you, perhaps you can imagine a material, almost transparent to the rays of ordinary visible light, yet strong enough to endure the stresses of extremely rapid flight.

 

Look again at the great nebulae, and think of the construction of your own galaxy, and behold the universal examples of what we have found to be the perfect shape for an object which is to travel through what you still fondly refer to as 'empty' space.

 

In the centre of the discus, gyroscopically controlled within a central sphere of the same transparent material, our control rooms revolve freely, accommodating themselves and us to flat or edgewise flight.

 

Both methods are suited to your atmosphere, and when we convert abruptly from one to the other, as we are sometimes obliged to do, and you are watching, our machines seem suddenly to appear - or to disappear.

 

At our possible speeds your eyes, untrained and unprepared for the maneuver, do make mistakes - but not the mistakes your scientists so often accuse them of making.
 

 

 

We Can Remain Invisible


We pass over your hilltops in horizontal flight.

 

You see and report a torpedo-shaped object. We pass over, in formation, flying vertically 'edge-on'… Or we go over at night, jet-slits glowing, and you see an orange disc.

 

In any event you see us, and in any event we do not care. if we chose to remain invisible, we could do so, easily, and, in fact, we have done so almost without exception for hundreds of years.

 

But you must become accustomed to our shapes in your skies, for one day they will be familiar, friendly, and reassuring sights.

This time, it is to be hoped that the memory of them, passed on to your children and their children, will be clear and precise.

 

That you will not cause them to forget, as your ancestors forgot, the meaning of the diagrams and the instructions we will leave with you.

 

If you do fail, AS OTHER CIVILIZATIONS HAVE FAILED, we will see your descendants wearing wiring-diagrams for simple machines as amulets, expecting the diagrams to do what their forefathers were taught the completed article would accomplish.

 

Then their children, forgetting even that much - or little - would preserve the amulet as a general protective device - or as an intellectual curiosity - or perhaps as a religious symbol.

 

Such is the cycle of forgetfulness...!