by Byrant & Helen Reeve

“Knowledge is cosmic honey’’ — Yada Di Shi-Ite

The story of an amazing private research which took two year’s time
and over 23,000 miles of travel.

HOW IT ALL STARTED

Henry was talking. “Here’s a man who claims he saw a ‘flying saucer’ and talked to the pilot. He says the pilot was from Venus!”

Henry is a fabulous person. He had, as usual, without the slightest warning burst into our home in Detroit, Michigan. Anything new, exciting, beautiful, imaginative — physical or metaphysical — in this world or out of it would excite Henry to a fever pitch.

It was November, 1953, and we were entertaining guests. Although the hour was late, it did not deter dear Henry.

“How insane can these fellows get?” said I, not a little annoyed.

“How gullible do they think we are?” exclaimed one of our guests.

“No! Honestly!” cried Henry. “This is serious! This man has written a book on it. I sat up all night reading an advance copy. It is called Flying Saucers Have Landed and was written by Desmond Leslie and George Adamski. Here it is!”

“Let’s see it,” came an excited chorus. Everybody tried to grab it at once.

Being an engineer, a college graduate, and employed by a staid and respectable manufacturing firm, I really felt it was up to someone to exhibit shall we say a little dignity and common sense. Besides I had never heard of flying saucers, except through a few obscure references in newspapers which always ridiculed them, as of course any sane editor would — and should!

So I sat back utterly disgusted while the guests and, may I add, my wife Helen pawed at the book like three-year olds going after candy.

“Look, it has photographs — real photographs of flying saucers!” shouted a guest.

‘Photographs my eye,” I yelled over the hubbub. “The man’s a fake. How does he think he can get away with this! He ought to be…”

“No, I feel the fellow is really sincere,” put in Henry.

“And besides an Irishman in the first part of the book says there are lots of historical records about these things.”

That respectful reference to the Irish slipped by unchallenged as the controversy in our home became hotter and hotter. The evening grew later and later.

“If there is even a slight chance of this thing being true, it is the biggest thing in the world,” exclaimed my wife.

“There’s only one thing to do,” said Henry dramatically. “Call the man up and get him to Detroit. Where’s the phone?”

That was Henry for you. Direct action always at any cost! It was our telephone, but we were all use to Henry.

Before I could open my mouth he had placed a long distance telephone call to one Mr. George Adamski in Valley Center, California, a man we never knew existed until a few hours previously.

A tense silence settled over the room as we all waited for the operator to call us back — a hush of excited expectancy. My wife Helen was on an extension telephone with pencil poised to take notes. What a contrast to the previous bedlam.

The bell rang. Henry made a bee-line for the phone and got there first. The rest all crowded around.

Henry said, “Hello, operator, hello! Is this Mr. George Adamski? No? Operator! You say he has no phone. No phone!”

“Well,” thought I secretly, “that ought to end this crazy business. Good riddance.”

But this turned out to be wishful thinking. I had momentarily forgotten Henry who was still burning with that unquenchable fire for things unusual and mysterious.

“Look,” he suddenly burst out, “is it worth ten dollars apiece to you to get George Adamski to Detroit to find out the truth about this thing?”

“The truth about this thing?” The way he said it made you feel like a groveling piker — a downright worm — if you did not immediately jump to your feet with check book in hand to support so glorious and worthy a project.

Grudgingly I said, “Sure, but —”

Henry interrupted, “Oh, I know what you’re thinking — ten dollars isn’t enough.”

Confidentially at that time my thoughts were along a rather opposite line, but before I could say a word Henry settled the matter by exclaiming inspirationally, “Then I’ll write Adamski tomorrow and invite him to Detroit to talk to us, and we will all work to get forty people to put up a like amount to cover expenses.”

Well folks, that’s the story! That is the breathless way we got started on a “flying saucer pilgrimage”. Funny thing is, we didn’t realize until later the amazing path we had embarked upon.

But it has been pretty breathless all the way. Little did we realize the interesting “saucer” people we were to meet, the places we were to go, the fascinating experiences that lay ahead of us and above all the earth-shaking revisions in our basic life concepts that would occur in our quest for — what?

What was this pilgrimage all about? What were we after? What was driving us? What was the goal?

Maybe we should blame Henry! Maybe some of his burning white-hot enthusiasm for the unknown, the mysterious, the fantastic, the mystical, the impossible, rubbed off on us.

But the goal really became just one thing — to know the truth about flying saucers! The plain unvarnished truth — shorn of all propaganda, all pros and cons, all “hooey”. We did not want opinions. We wanted facts. Facts that we could “put our teeth into” and hang onto and know that we had something solid! We wanted to convince ourselves, one way or the other!

Now if some of you readers feel this same way, we invite you to relive with us our “flying saucer pilgrimage” — our search for the truth. We are not interested in convincing anyone else of anything. Far from it. That is not our purpose. But so many sincere people have asked us to tell them what we found out about flying saucers, that we decided we would try not only to tell about our experiences, but try to give our readers the “feel” of them so that all may judge for themselves.

We will try to be good and forthright reporters at all times — telling you factually, to the best of our ability, of our experiences. Above all we will try to label our impressions as such, our conclusions as such, and any philosophizing we do as such — as our own, which you may accept or repudiate at will.

This will leave you free to make up your own minds. If you come to different conclusions than we did — fine! No harm done at all. Each to his own. We are all individuals, with different viewpoints — all in different states of evolvement. Surely we are mature enough to respect each other’s views without quarreling or giving way to undue emotionalism. It would be a dull world if we all thought alike — wouldn’t it?

So here we go! Take it easy because we are about to take you on a journey of flying saucer research which covers over two years of time and more than 23,000 miles of travel. And let’s argue all we wish — but let’s enjoy the ride — the meetings — the sights — the experiences — our “flying saucer pilgrimage”!

Excerpt from Flying Saucer Pilgrimage

[Ed – Their pilgrimage took them to many areas of the country visiting some of the most famous contactees of the 1950s and 60s. From George Adamski to George Van Tassel, including visitations/contacts with Truman Bethurum, George Hunt Williamson, Daniel Fry, Meade Layne, Mark Probert, and Desmond Leslie, some of the greats during the contactee era.]

To continue reading see the full pdf download of this flying saucer book classic here.