Uri Geller – The Nine

For those readers of this biography who have not read Uri, I will give a synopsis of what the book is about.

After a lengthy introduction, in which Andrija sums up the incidents in his life which brought Uri and him together, he continues to tell about Uri’s childhood in war-ridden Israel, and the years that he lived with his mother on Cyprus.

Uri was just an ordinary child until, at the age of seven, he discovered that he could move the hands of his watch by “wishing” them to move, and that he was able to tell how much his mother had won or lost when she returned from playing cards with friends. He never paid much attention to his unusual gift until his friend Shipi asked him to do his “trick” with the watch for friends.

Just to amuse them, Uri also made them draw pictures, and write numbers on a blackboard, and while blindfolded, he would guess what they had written. Uri didn’t know how he did this; the words psychokinesis and telepathy were unknown to him.

He loved being a showman so much that in 1970 he became a full-time entertainer.

I enjoyed reading about Uri’s youth, and his growing into manhood. What followed, the investigation by Andrija of Uri’s telepathic and psychokinetic powers, I found tedious and boring, the enumerations of the “miracles” that occurred too long to be credible. By miracles I mean that objects materialised, vanished, and reappeared again. I’ll give one example of materialization: One-day Andrija’s camera-case to his super 8-movie camera had suddenly appeared in Uri’s apartment. Andrija did not understand how it could have gotten there, because he had left it behind in the States to save on weight, as he had told Uri, when asked where it was. Uri was all excited that he had ‘teleported’ the case from Ossining to Israel, over six thousand miles away, just because he felt that Andrija would really like to have it with him.

Andrija had absolutely no doubt that Uri’s psychic talents were genuine. Neither did he doubt Uri’s story that he had seen a UFO, and a being from outer space when he was only three years old. “Slowly settling down from the sky was a huge bowl shaped object that looked like one of my mother’s aluminium bowls,” he told Andrija. The “being” he described as the shadow of a huge figure, like the shadow of a man with a long cape, because there were no arms or legs that he could see. As he stared at this figure, a blinding ray of light came from its head, and struck him so hard that he fell backwards, and into a deep sleep.

Not until he met Andrija, at the age of twenty-five, did Uri see anything like it again. According to the book, he and Andrija now both saw UFO’s repeatedly. And not only that, they also received messages from an extraterrestrial intelligence on a tape recorder which started and stopped by itself. After Andrija had listened to the tapes, the cassette would be erased, or taken out without anyone touching the tape recorder. Was it one of Uri’s “tricks?” Andrija did not think so. He had watched Uri closely, but not once did he see him take out the cassette, or even be near the recorder. He himself certainly did not make the tapes disappear. He needed them to prove to the world that extraterrestrials really existed, and that he and Uri had been contacted by them to help mankind, and to prepare humanity for a mass landing on planet Earth at some undetermined date in the future.

One day, when Uri was in a deep hypnotic trance, the “voice” spoke through him, and delivered the following message: “It was us who found Uri in the garden when he was three. He is our helper sent to help man. We programmed him in the garden for many years to come, but he was also programmed not to remember. On this day his work begins. Andrija, you are to take care of him.

We reveal ourselves because we believe that man may be on the threshold of a world war. Egypt has made plans for war, and if Israel loses, the entire world will explode into war. There will be one last round of negotiations that may avert war. America is the problem. “

Subsequent messages were very emphatic that Andrija meditate and pray for peace each time his watch stopped all during December of 1971. “Pray for peace in Mr Sadat’s heart. Pray when we have stopped your watch. You make the prayer; Uri and Shipi will add power wherever they are. We will convey your human love to Sadat. Only you can save mankind.”

When on December 29, 1971 Andrija read in the Jerusalem Post the public announcement of President Sadat: There will be no war, he sincerely believed that he, and many others all over the world who had prayed with him, had helped to avert war in the Middle East.

At the end of that chapter in Uri, Andrija writes in a footnote that the ‘Yom Kipper’ War, which broke out on October 6, 1973, between Israel, Egypt and Syria “had to come.” He was not needed that time to prevent the war, he was told.

I wish he had not put this in the book. He should have kept it for himself, like he wrote in his journal: “The nature of my prayers seemed so sacred to me that I did not tell anyone about it.”

He also left himself wide open for derision when he wrote that the “voice” had said that “they” could only talk to him through Uri’s power on the tape recorder, and that it was a shame that they could not contact such a brilliant mind directly. The voice had apparently also said that Einstein too knew about them, and that Andrija was to carry on his work.

When Uri was published in 1974, these, and other statements provoked the scientific community to make comments like: “A good mind gone off at a tangent,” and “A classic case of omnipotence fantasy.”

But first back to 1972. On April 14, Andrija and Uri received a message on the tape recorder that their work was to be continued in Europe and the United States. Uri went to Germany and Italy where he gave many demonstrations of his psychokinetic powers, which were covered by the press and television. To make the demonstrations more interesting, he had added metal bending to his repertoire.

Andrija returned to New York to take care of his long neglected personal and business affairs, and to raise money to do a research program on Uri.

A month later, while in Chicago, to attend the twenty-fifth annual reunion of his medical school class at Northwestern University, he looked up Captain Edgar Mitchell, who was the featured speaker for the annual meeting of the Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship in Illinois. Andrija had first met Captain Mitchell the previous year in Houston after Mr. Mitchell had just returned from the Apollo 14 mission to the moon. He had participated in a moon-earth telepathy experiment, being the sender in space to four human receivers on earth. Ever since that time he had been a supporter of scientific and scholarly research in parapsychology. He offered to help Andrija with the research program on Uri.

Although the “voice” had at first strongly objected to a scientific investigation of Uri’s powers, Andrija had insisted. He felt that if Uri were to make his way in the world by simple demonstrations, he would always be treated like a magician. How could he deliver the message about the space landing as an illusionist? He would never be taken seriously. More than anything else, Andrija wanted him to be validated in a scientific institute.

In August 1972, he called Uri back from Europe to start the research program. Uri agreed reluctantly. They flew to Germantown, Maryland, to meet with Dr. Wernher von Braun, to San Francisco, to Stanford University, and back to the East Coast to meet some more scientists.

The experiments at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) were conducted by Russell Targ, a specialist in lasers and plasma research, and by Dr. Harold Puthoff, a specialist in quantum physics. They were sufficiently impressed to warrant further investigation.

A full-page report of the experiments appeared in the National Enquirer:

“A young Israeli who can apparently bend metal with his mind has undergone rigidly controlled experiments at a leading research institute. The top scientists who tested him admit they cannot explain his amazing ‘powers.’ The experiments were ‘cheat-proof’ and the scientists reported that Geller participated in experiments where the probability that anyone could have done what he did was one in a million, and in another test, one in a trillion.”

Geller amazed the scientists when he made a balance placed in a bell jar respond as though a force was applied to it – without touching the balance. A chart recorder monitoring the balance showed that Geller somehow produced a force ten to a hundred times greater than could be produced by striking the bell jar, or the table, or jumping on the floor.

He correctly identified, eight out of eight times, the numbers shown on a die shaken inside a closed metal box. Only scientists handled the box, and no one knew what number was on the die until after Geller had made his predictions, and the box was opened.

A magnetometer, a sensitive instrument that measures magnetic fields, registered when Geller just passed his empty hands near it.

Geller also bends metal objects and breaks them in half, without physical force. He stops clock hands without touching them, and makes objects disappear completely.

“I believe these are intelligent powers and they are somehow directed through me. I am a sort of channel,” said Geller.

This honest commentary however would soon be overshadowed by vicious accusations against Uri and SRI.

Not having seen Andrija for over a year, and having received only a few letters, I was thrilled when he wrote on October 13, 1972: “I leave today for Munich, Germany on business with Uri Geller I plan to come to see you in Eindhoven on October 24th, and stay for Andy ‘s birthday, and then return to Munich. You decide whether it should be a surprise for Yvonne and Andy. Since time is short, may I stay with you?”

Like always we loved having Andrija with us, and we hang on his every word about Uri. He didn’t mention UFO’s though.

When I drove him to Schiphol airport I again felt a sense of loss. It had been ten years since I left his house, but I had not left Andrija.

When Andrija returned to the United States, there was a great deal of trouble brewing. The people living in the house in Ossining were sure that the telephone was tapped, and that they were being followed everywhere. Apparently Time magazine was about to publish an article about Uri being a fraud. From what Andrija was able to find out, it appeared that the U.S. Defense Department (DOD) was backing them and making every effort to discredit the scientists Mitchell, Targ and Puthoff personally, in order to discredit Uri.

This unhappy situation dragged on into the New Year.

On March 1, 1973, Andrija wrote to me: “I am in a big storm period of my life. Watch the next two issues (after March 9th) of Time, and Newsweek for the full story.”

Scheduled for many months to give a speech at the University of California about recent advances in parapsychological research, Andrija decided to use this as a platform for a public rebuttal to the charges of Time.

On Sunday, March 4, 1973, he appeared on stage of the Zellerbach Auditorium on the Berkeley campus before some fifteen hundred students.

The Bay area was abuzz with rumors about the heavy pressure on SRI because of their support of ESP research. The student gossip was that the government was trying to suppress this psychic research at SRI. They were angry, and, as Andrija said, there was a smell of riot in the auditorium.

After giving the students the basic information about Uri’s powers (he wisely did not mention extraterrestrials), Andrija continued his speech by saying that there was no question in his mind or in that of his scientific colleagues that they were dealing with a genuine phenomenon. (I quote from “Uri”, chapter nine.)

“I want to give a label to the Geller phenomenon,” he said. “How about, ‘the intelligent control of energy, or inergy,‘ something related to the inner workings of the human mind? One physicist has said that the Geller effect, inergy, pulls out the material platform on which science rests, and also challenges every fundamental principle of science. I know that this is an enormously powerful statement to make.”

After Andrija had elaborated on this notion, he concluded his speech with the following words: “If Uri Geller can do these things, others will surely come along who can do the same thing. If we can study this long enough – and it really is a formidable problem – we may open the fifth force in nature. We may open up new ideas of dimensionality, of space. We may have completely new notions of how this human transducer can tap into regions of nature that our instruments at the moment cannot reach. This gives mankind an enormous, incredible potential that even the gods of old did not have. In this scheme of nature, which I foresee as true, we should really be humble. We should look at what nature has allowed us to see, and not become fearful, not to avoid the facts, not to try to get rid of the implication before the solution is found.”

The students had cheered wildly.

On March 12th Andrija’s worst fears were reaised, Time slaughtered Uri and SRI. Uri was called “a questionable nightclub magician” and Targ and Puthoff were accused of “incredible sloppiness.” in their investigation of Geller.

These “observations” were made by the scientists sent by DOD to investigate what went on at Stanford, Time said.

One of the scientists, Ray Hyman, a psychology professor from the University of Oregon who was frequently used by DOD as a consultant, was quoted:

“I was able to spot the loopholes and inconclusiveness of each feat immediately. I also caught Geller in some outright deception that Targ and Puthoff apparently did not discern.”

Another scientist was George Lawrence, DOD projects manager for the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). He wasn’t impressed by Geller either. “Any magician can do what Uri did,” was his opinion.

However, as Andrija wrote to me: “All the nonsense fabricated by the editors of Time was laid to rest ten days later when the SRI researchers made their report to the scientific world.”

Soon magicians, such as James Randi, appeared on all the prominent television shows in the United States, denouncing Uri as a fraud. To counter this negativity Andrija and Uri leaped into battle. Uri appeared in leading universities and colleges from coast to coast. He was immediately popular, and a folk-hero with the students for standing up to the establishment. He appeared on national television, and for the first time in his career he was able to do ‘remote’ bending of metal and moving clock hands in the homes of persons, who were spellbound by his Presentations.

Andrija, however, had not reckoned with the vengeance of DOD, and the scientific community when he published his book on Uri in 1974.

Writing as sensationally as he did about Uri, UFO’s, and contact with beings from other parts of the cosmos, had made him the laughing-stock of the ‘Learned Society.’ Some of the opinions expressed, I have already mentioned.

But, there were scientists who admired Andrija for his many and remarkable contributions to science; to mankind’s understanding of some aspects of man’s consciousness, and his “guts” to continue with his work in spite of severe criticism.

One of these scientists was Tom Bearden, a nuclear engineer, and long time friend of Andrija.

In his “Memory of Andrija Puharich,” he gives us a good idea of the opposition to his work Andrija faced during the “tumultuous 1960’s and 1970’s”.

“This was the time when science and scientists were particularly snobbish and dogmatic. With enormous defense funds shoveled to them, the scientific hierarchy and many of the scientists were overbearing. They wished to brook no challenge to their superiority, and to the notion that material science was already perfect. Humans were regarded as simply biological machines and meat computers. The prevailing mystique of materialism thoroughly pervaded the scientific community. Anything outside this pale was castigated. In short, science itself had almost turned into a cult of materialism and was itself secretly manipulated and controlled. All science is patronized; someone has to pay for it. If one controls the funds and what those funds are allotted to, one controls the scientists and the direction of scientific research. In controlling the funds, the secret Elite through a shadow government is easily able to control science.

More than anyone else, Puharich initiated an electrifying counter effect in an entire generation, and launched a body blow at this dogmatic control. Geller’s (and rapidly others’) performances under laboratory conditions posed a monstrous new threat to the notion that a human is just a robot and the brain is just a meat computer. The hue and cry – and the commotion – stirred up by the “Geller phenomenon” and its rapid spread of interest in paranormal phenomena was indescribable. Puharich strode through this suddenly emerging counterculture on the world scene, electrifying the younger generation on several continents. From some quarters, the malice and venom directed against Andrija mounted to near frenzy. Secretly, behind the scenes the shadow government – that serves not the electorate but the wealthy persons who run the world – was worried. The shadow control of the populace depends upon convincing them of materialism, and setting group against group to keep everyone isolated and hence powerless. The evocation of Man’s spiritual and moral nature is their greatest enemy, for it continually leads to unification of large groups of people, who thus attain political and economic power by harmony rather than dissonance. And now here was an upstart Shaman, in their view, who posed an unacceptable threat to the status quo because his work was electrifying and unifying across the artificial boundaries that had been established between groups.”

In spite of the negative opinion by the scientific community, Uri did become a best seller. It especially excited the younger generation. Youngsters from all over the world were drawn to Andrija. His house became a beehive of psychic and psychokinetic activity. But more about this later.

The following letter of May 3, 1974 gives an indication how well the book sold: “Many thanks for your cable on publication date. Before I left London, the bookstores had sold out the book. Today, when the book came out here, the first printing of 30.000 was sold out, and Doubleday went into a second printing. It is headed for the best seller list!!

It was beautiful to be with you in London. Thank you for coming.

Here, all is well so far There have not been any bad attacks on me or Uri.

I am getting tired of so much travel, meetings, radio and TV.

I’m looking forward to your visit in July. Uri won’t be here; he is traveling all over Europe. Have you heard the reports from Denmark? Uri is now healing thousands of people over TV.”

Although it was wonderful to see ‘my’ girls again, our visit in July 1974, had not been a happy one. The moment I walked through the front door, I knew that I should not have come. The house had a cold, hostile atmosphere. It looked unlived-in, lacking the cluster of a home. The furniture looked drab, uncared for, and was placed haphazardly in the big sitting room. There was no love in the house.

Although he was gentle and kind, Andrija rarely spent time with us. “You know me, baby,” he said, “always swamped with work.”

Living in the house were three young girls, secretaries I was told, who helped Andrija with his work. Two of them had small children who had the run of the house, and were allowed to remain up until after midnight, keeping everyone awake. It was obvious that the “secretaries” (who pretended to be psychics) were not pleased with our stay. One of the children, a four-year-old girl, even told us to leave. “This is not your home anymore, and we don’t like you,” she had yelled at me.

Not able to live without a female companion, and being a sucker for a pretty face and a sad story, Andrija had taken the young unmarried mothers in when they appeared on his doorstep. In his journals I read that he slept with both girls, and I reaise that my presence must have presented a threat to them, especially to Karin who apparently was Andrija’s girlfriend, but who did not resent him sharing his bed with Simone also. No, she even encouraged it. Phew! It is really pathetic how Andrija let himself be manipulated.

The night before Yvonne, Andy and I arrived, and the following days Karin was real bitchy. Andrija’s journal bears witness:

“Thursday July 4, 1974.

Simone and Karin were restless and went to the city to ‘get bombed.'”

“Friday July 5, 1974.

The girls got home at midnight – slightly stoned. Karin was so turned on that she kept me up until 7 a.m. talking. It was cruelly exhausting. We both fell asleep while talking. I was up at 10.30 a.m. to get to the airport to meet Bep, Andy and Yvonne.”

“Thursday July 11, 1974.

Got home from NYC at 9 p.m. Simone and Karin announced that they were going to leave me. Why are they so destructive? The list of people who have been exposed to the aeons is now quite long, and everyone has failed in taking on commitment and responsibility. I must go on!”

Andrija refers here also to Uri Geller, who, to Andrija’s dismay, had decided to go his own way, and not be part of “the mission” to save humanity.

“Saturday July 13, 1974.

Started this day out by trying to help Karin get over her blocks and hang-ups, but she freaked out.”

“Sunday July 14, 1974.

Worked with Karin until 5 a.m. to clean up her confusion, but to little avail. I slept until 2.30 p.m. so great was my exhaustion.

I am thoroughly fed up with myself, my group and our inability to move in unison. I have decided to go cold turkey on smoking – as a starter and clean up everything else soon.”

He never did, for when Karin came back after a ‘fling’ with another man, he was too happy to say anything. She never realised that Andrija really loved her.

I remember that during our visit, Andrija spent most of the time in his bedroom. However, he would come down for dinner, looking pale, his shoulders drooping. We would each sit at the head of the long dining–room table, which Yvonne and I had laid out beautifully, and slowly he would come out of his apathy. He loved being the “pater” with his clan about him. But, as soon as he was finished eating, he would excuse himself, saying: “Sorry folks, it’s back to the grindstone for me.” As he passed me, he would affectionally kiss me on the forehead, and thank me “for a lovely meal.”

With the arrival of Phyllis Schlemmer and John Whitmore in Ossining, Andrija became even more aloof. Day and night they would lock themselves in Andrija’s study. What they were doing, we hadn’t the foggiest.

In retrospect, I believe that it was the summer of 1974, which set me free of Andrija emotionally, and that it actually was Phyllis Schlemmer who opened my eyes. As I remember she told me to let go, to go forward, and to stop lingering in the past.

As my observant reader may recall, Phyllis is the channel through which the “Nine” speak, and the author of “The Only Planet of Choice”. Since she and John Whitmore played an important role in Andrija’s life, from early 1974 on, it may be as well to introduce them now.

Phyllis’ parents were hoteliers in Pennsylvania, and they entrusted her upbringing up to the age of twelve – when she went into a convent school – to her grandparents, who were Irish on her father’s side and Italian on her mother’s. She lived mainly with her Irish grandparents, but spent the summers on her Italian grandparents’ grape farm. Both of her grandmothers, she says, were psychic, and her Italian grandmother was also a medium.

She vividly recalls the experience that was the beginning of her own mediumship. She was five years old when her Irish grandfather died. In the middle of one night, Phyllis recalls, she was awakened and taken down to her grandfather’s bedroom to say goodbye to him. Everyone in the room was weeping and mourning, and when she went in she wondered what was going on because she could see her grandfather standing beside the bed. On the bed was a big doll that looked like him, and she couldn’t understand why they were all crying and what they were doing with the big doll. As the funeral was not to take place for a few days, the corpse was laid out in a downstairs room. In the middle of the night Phyllis would get up and go to the room, and talk to her grandfather. She also met him frequently wandering around the house. Fortunately Phyllis was able to talk to her grandmother, telling her that gran’pa wasn’t dead, but right there with them. Her grandmother “immediately recognized what was going on,” Phyllis said, “I was fortunate, on this, as on later occasions, to have someone to reassure me that what I experienced was not uncommon.”

At the convent she was made to feel guilty for professing to see auras and spirits. Phyllis had to learn to live with her faculties of paranormal perception, and there were times when it was not easy. Throughout childhood and adolescence she was very much a loner.

At college she studied science subjects because she wanted to be a doctor, but she left before graduating in order to get married.

Four years later the marriage broke down and Phyllis moved with her two small children to Miami, Florida, where she gradually built up her reputation as a psychic. For the sake of the growing children, she later moved to Orlando, where she married again.

As a psychic Phyllis was engaged by many corporations, and did medical diagnostic work. She also had a successful television series. But her main interest and occupation was her work at the Psychic Center of Florida. The Center, which Phyllis had established, was a school for the development of psychic faculties, and her courses soon became booked to capacity.

She and Andrija had met occasionally at conferences, but they had never worked together. When in January of 1974, one of Phyllis’ students, a young boy named Bobby, showed a remarkable ability to heal, she remembered Andrija’s healing work with Arigo, and brought Bobby to his attention.

In early March Andrija set off for Florida to meet Bobby and hear his story.

In order to find out the source of the young man’s paranormal ability, Andrija put Bobby under hypnosis. He did this in Phyllis’ presence. To their astonishment the entranced Bobby became instantly a channel for an extraterrestrial that identified itself as “Ancore” (the pronunciation was Ane-kor) He spoke coherently and gave the following message:

“There will be a time we will be many on your Earth. We wish to be welcomed when we come. We bring no harm. We have come before. We feel the earth people cannot accept us, accept what is happening. We have chosen some as channels. Your people have to see to believe. “

When Andrija asked if they were connected with the space people that had used Uri Geller as a channel, the answer was that they knew of him, but that they did not work with him at that time.

Bobby, or rather Ancore had continued to say that the earth was in great trouble, and that ‘they’ (it turned out that Ancore was not the name of an extraterrestrial, but of a civilization) came with love to help. They had chosen Bobby as a channel, because Phyllis, with her psychic diagnostic experience, could guide his healing.

Many more hypnotic sessions with Bobby were held during March and April, but they are not relevant to Andrija’s story. The book “Briefing For The Landing On Planet Earth” (earlier title: “Prelude to … ), written by Stuart Holroyd, and published in 1977 (out of print), describes in great detail the ‘conversations’ with Ancore. Phyllis’ book “The Only Planet Of Choice: Essential Briefings from Deep Space,” published in 1993, and already translated into Dutch, German, and Croatian, relates her twenty year experience as the channel for “The Nine.”

During one of the hypnotic sessions with Bobby, Andrija and Phyllis were told that they should work as a “triangle.” “You will meet number three soon,” Ancore had said.

In May 1974, Andrija went to London to participate in a symposium and a series of public lectures on “The Frontiers of Science and Medicine,” that John Whitmore and others had organized.

John Whitmore, who had an ardent interest in psychic phenomena, had heard Andrija lecture in California a couple of years earlier, and had been impressed both by Andrija himself and by his talk, which had been about his work with Arigo. Since then they had met occasionally.

The theme of the series of the “May lectures” was “Change”; the subjects diverse. They ranged from “the role of mind in cancer therapy” to biofeedback, the technique for learning to establish conscious control of normally unconscious functions like brain-wave patterns and pulse rate.

As one of the speakers, Lional Holmes, an anthropologist, was going to deliver a lecture on spirit healing, John agreed with Andrija that Bobby should be present at the conference to give a demonstration, and that Phyllis should be there to guide him. Bobby, however freaked out at the last minute, and left London without telling anyone where he was going.

Greatly concerned about Bobby, John suggested one evening that Phyllis try if one of her spirit controls could give them any information about the elusive Bobby. After Phyllis had slowly counted herself down into a deep trance, she began to speak in a totally different voice and an entity by the name of ‘Ryr’ came through. When asked about Bobby, Ryr told them that Bobby was “defying”, and went on to explain why. Apparently Bobby had no confidence in his healing power, and was afraid that some day he might accidentally hurt someone.

Ryr drew the session to a close, saying: “We send love, we send you blessings, we send you peace. We are pleased that you three have decided to continue with us.”

Both Andrija and Phyllis now seriously believed that John was the third person to complete the triangle. But John was not so easily persuaded.

When I had met John in London, I liked him immediately. He was tall, about forty, athletic, outgoing and enthusiastic. He had none of the ‘spaced-out’ characteristics of some of the other people Andrija surrounded himself with. When he had first come to Ossining, and listened to the tapes of the communications with Ancore, (unlike with Uri, the tapes did not vanish), his mind raced with questions, doubt and suspicion. Who is fooling whom, he thought. As a professional racing driver, and an international tycoon, he had been in some bizarre situations, but this beat everything. “It wasn’t only the tapes,” John said. “The people and their conversation, the atmosphere in the house, all contributed to a general eerie effect.”

At the end of that day, John lay awake long, reviewing what he had seen and heard. He was afraid that as a rich man, with the reputation of prodigality, he might be made a fool of, exploited, ripped off. After all, it had already been mentioned that the work Andrija and Phyllis were embarked on would need money. But he was also inclined to believe that the coming together of the three of them had not been a matter of chance; that the wealth he had inherited, and the freedom of movement and independence it had given him, had been a preparation for the role he was to play. John decided to ride along for a while and see what happened.

The group had a few more ‘encounters’ with Ryr, but one-day contact with him was not re-established and an extraterrestrial, which identified himself as ‘Tom’ took over from Ryr as the ‘spokesman’ for “The Nine.” and addressed Andrija:

T: You have worked with us for many, many years without proof, and for that we are forever grateful.

AP: I seem to be in a strange position in that I do not have dreams, do not have visions. I don’t have special insights.

T: You have knowledge inside.

AP: I seem to go on faith.

T: Knowledge is faith. Just know that from now on we will be with you. You are being guided, and you are following in the right direction.

As the reader may recall, Dr. Vinod had in 1952 channeled a series of strange communications that allegedly came from The Nine.

“M calling. We are Nine Principles and Forces, personalities if you will, working in complete mutual implication. We are forces, and the nature of our work is to accentuate the positive, the evolutional, and the teleological aspects of existence. We propose to work with you. We deeply appreciate your dedicatedness to the great cause of peace. Peace is a process and will be revealed only progressively. We have designed to utiise you and thus to fulfill you.”

Andrija was convinced that the communications were genuine, that he was to continue the work that had started twenty-two years ago, and that the most eventful and spectacular phase of his work was to begin.

On the morning of July 20, 1974, after another channeling session, John Whitmore made the decision to commit himself to the “Management,” as the Nine called themselves. The main thing that had convinced him that the communications were not the ordinary psychical phenomenon, but came from an external source, was the extent and variety of the information they disclosed. The Management had evidently been observers of the earth for thousands of years. Their communications contained a wealth of detail about the origins and progress of civilization, the origins of languages and mythologies, and the roles of historical figures. Also there was an entire cosmology, comprising information about five different extraterrestrial civilizations, their inner-relations, their technology, and about how the earth related to this cosmic scheme. The Management knew about contemporary political situations and events on earth, and sometimes gave some intriguing information about what went on behind the scenes. They were particularly concerned about the Middle East situation.

And there was much more, other areas and subjects, and there was a lot of wisdom and coherent teaching and it was inconceivable, John thought, that all this could have emanated from Phyllis’ mind, or any of the participants, or even from all of them collectively. He was prepared to believe that he and the others were in contact with beings from another part of the universe who were kindly disposed towards people on earth and who were going to help mankind in this critical time in history.

The preceding I read in Briefing for the landing on planet earth.

In Andrija’s journals I read that he too had made a decision on July 20.

“Sat. July 20, 1974.

Yesterday at 5:00p.m. Karin came to my room and announced that she was going off with Lional. I told her not to come back. I scarcely slept all night so great was the pain in my heart for the loss of Karin, and of course knowing that she was sleeping with Lional. At some time during the cruel and bitter night, I made the decision to terminate with Karin. “

When that evening Andrija, John and Phyllis convened at 11p.m. for another rendezvous with Tom, the Management seemingly understood and appreciated that Andrija and John had both resolved their personal problems.

Early in the session Tom said:

“We are very pleased with Sir John that he will be working with us, and that the doctor is out of the vortex he was in. We are overjoyed. Everyone is around you. This room is filled, this house is filled, even the top of your house is filled.”

Andrija asked if Phyllis could see them.

T: I am telling you, they are all over your home, and outside your home.

AP: This is incredible.

T: We are very happy to be with you. But you must understand that all of this energy is creating a problem for us to communicate. This is a performance this evening, because it is an introduction to you. And so if you kindly bear with us, for everyone involved has gathered around. You must understand that this is the difficulty, in trying to gather information for you.

AP: Perhaps John and I should address ourselves to this marvelous multitude just to let them know how we feel.

T: They would like to address themselves to you, because we are people as you are people. It is a gathering of all that have worked for many hundreds and thousands of your years in order to help you. Whether you reaise this or not, we have come the furthest that we have ever come in order to help mankind. We are all very excited and exhilarated with being close to the completion of our project. In your time it is short, but in our time it is very long. As I look around this group that has gathered in your home, in the top of your home, and outside of your home, I see nothing but joy and peace and love that is being radiated to all of you. And with all of this power that we bring to you, and this love, we cannot fail in this mission. There will be no way that we can fail, because at this time we have on the planet Earth physical beings that will help to see that we don’t fail. This we have never had before. We have never had the communication system that you now have, the awareness that you now have, and the openness that you now have. We are sad that some of you fail. But we would like you to keep in your hearts the understanding that this is pure, and that this is an honest and a sincere effort, and a pure love that we have for you beings.

AP: I am overwhelmed by that statement. I have no words.

JW: Me too. I can feel their presence.

AP: It is overpowering. The prospect of success – that just makes me feel incredibly good. Especially since we have been so pessimistic here at our earth level.

T: We cannot fail with you on our team. You cannot fail with us on your team.

JW: The network that we are forming, we should add people to it. Is it possible for you to identify any more names with whom we could share information?

T. We are going to place this in your hands. As we explained to you at other times, there will be those that just walk away. But it is now time to make most people aware. I am sorry that we cannot give you something more concrete. As already stated, all of us who have gathered this evening feel as if we are – as you would call upon your earth – in a party mood.

AP: May I ask. What is the occasion for this marvelous celebration? What cosmic event is going on?

T: The cosmic event that is going on is the final acceptance that our (this) project is going to be completed.

AP: This is by your council, is that it?

T: Yes, and this came about because of the work that you three beings have done.

JW: I’m completely overwhelmed by what you are saying.

T: We are having a party of joy.

AP: I am just speechless. The three of us have been concerned with very pedestrian earth-bound problems today – almost childish problems, compared to this meeting. What is it that we did today that turned the tide? This is what is so difficult for me to grasp out of all this confusion that went on today. Could you clarify that for our knowledge?

T: In your confusion you also made a decision that you were not going to tolerate any more of this confusion.

AP: Did you inspire me? Because as you know I did not sleep all night thinking of it.

T: We helped.

AP: Thank you!

T. We know that we will be successful, and that is why we are having a party. We promise to work better with you next time.

AP: We are overwhelmed.

T: We go with peace.

JW: We give you our peace and love.

When at one time during the session Andrija had asked if his family members could have a casual sitting with them, Tom answered that we would be welcome.

Our derisive attitude to the shouts of joy, “they’re here, they’re here,” from Andrija, Phyllis and John, as they had rushed down the stairs and outside; and to their announcement that “angels were hovering above the house,” must have killed any desire Andrija may have had to introduce us to the Nine.

This is a pity, for it may have opened our eyes to the reality of extraterrestrials, and given us an understanding of Andrija’s commitment to what he believed to be true. And with the understanding and loving support from his family – something Andrija wanted, and needed desperately – his life might have taken a different course.

Now, in 1995, as it is becoming increasingly more difficult not to believe in UFO’s and extraterrestrials, we must concede that Andrija wasn’t crazy after all. The books on space-communications are numerous, and in almost all of them we find the message that ‘Tom’ gave twenty-one years ago:

“Human greed, desire, jealousy, and emotional imbalance are responsible both for the dire situation the planet is in ecologically, and for the general cosmic crisis, and it would require a fundamental change in human consciousness and orientation to overcome these failings.”

One of the books recently published is Abduction: Human encounter with Aliens, by Dr. John Mack. Dr. Mack is Professor of Psychiatry at the Cambridge Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and founding director of the Center for Psychology and Social Change. His specialty is regression therapy through hypnosis. In the book he describes the experience of ten men and women who for several years have allegedly been abducted by aliens. They talk about spaceships, little grey beings, and an awful lot about sex.

At first Dr. Mack had been skeptical about their stories, but eventually he just had to accept that the experiences of the traumatized people were based upon the truth, and were not caused by hallucinations or delusion. What really struck him was that there are people all over the world who experienced the same, in every little detail, and spoke about it with great emotion.

After they had been taken to a spaceship in a beam of light, the people told him, they were forced to undergo painful examinations of every part of their body, and to participate in sex with extraterrestrials. Some people even spoke of having been shown hybrid offspring. Upon their return to earth they would sometimes notice a small scar, bruises, feel disoriented, or have terrible nosebleeds. But the experiences weren’t all bad. Almost all the abductees spoke of a personal and spiritual growth. They were shown on a wide screen what would happen to planet Earth around the year 2000 if the general destructive nature of earth people continued. They saw hurricanes, floods, storms, droughts, plagues and earthquakes. Witnessing the devastation of their beautiful planet had awakened them. They grew more conscious of human aggression and destruction, and became determined to put a halt to it.

According to Dr. Mack, the motive for the abductions could be to induce an altered consciousness in people in order to avert a crisis and an ecological catastrophe on planet Earth. Or it could be that “they” are cultivating a new breed of people that can inhabit planet Earth if humanity causes its own extinction. In 1974 Andrija had asked Tom why the Nine could not prevent the degeneration of planet Earth?

Because we cannot do for this planet what this planet must do for itself, they had answered. Our intent is not to control or to rule over you. We are not to interfere, but we are permitted to guide.

Shortly after we had left the U.S. in August 1974, Andrija made a pact with John and Phyllis to team up, and to use Ossining as a base of operation. John bought the guesthouse on the property, and another house further down the road. The barn was converted into an office and the house into a laboratory.

During one of the sessions with the Nine Tom suggested that Andrija purchase a Faraday cage to eliminate electromagnetic interference. The cage was put in what we used to call “the Japanese room” and was of the same structure as the cage that Andrija had worked in with Eileen Garrett; an ugly 8x8x12 feet metal box, lined with copper and placed on insulating supports.

87 Hawkes Avenue became known as “Lab Nine”, to the local people, a place where “weird” people congregated. Andrija’s and John’s plans to turn it into a Health Research Center, where they would combine modern medicine, surgery and healing, unfortunately never materialised.

Throughout the remainder of 1974 the daily communications with the Nine continued.

On October 16, 1974, Tom announced that there would be increased potential of a war breaking out in the Middle East between November 8 and December 12, and that it might be necessary for them to go to the area in order to intervene through meditation and prayer.

Three weeks later a message came through that the international situation was getting worse; they should be prepared for a “perimeter meditation series”. It was important, Tom said, that they should make two trips, the first keeping within a 1,500-mile distance of Moscow so they could have a stabilizing influence on the Russian leaders, and the second to Israel itself. It was of vital importance that they should be there between the 5th and 13th of December. They were to go as a trio, the triangle was not to be broken, Tom emphasized.

So on November 7, 1974, when Henry Kissinger returned to Washington after an unsuccessful peace mission, the three emissaries set off from Kennedy airport for a trip that would take them to Helsinki, Warsaw, Ankara, Teheran, Moscow and Copenhagen. Tom assured them that the Nine would be with them each step of the way. “This is a time when we shall not be separate, we shall be one, and when we are one our energies are not dispersed “

They were the most unlikely trio to ever travel together by choice, and right from the start there were disagreements. John and Andrija contended that Phyllis looked like a middle-aged American tourist doing Europe, lugging her three suitcases around. Phyllis had countered that John resembled a hippie in his track suit. Both Phyllis and John were irritated with Andrija for carrying with him a load of gadgetry for photography and recording.

What was supposed to have been a mission of peace, became a heavy strain on all three and was the beginning of a severe stress situation between them. It reached a climax by the end of February 1975.

“We reached the nadir of all human relations at Lab Nine. Everyone split. I even went to the ski country to get away. Why people let their lives be ruined by jealousy and hatred I’ll never know. Because of all this negativity, Bobby (the terrific healer I wrote you about) will not work with us. Another tragic loss!”

What Andrija didn’t write to me, but which I read in his journal, was that again he had a house full of women, ‘psychics,’ who were “inordinately” jealous of each other, and “thickly into psychic exchanges.” Andrija of all people should have known how competitive psychics are. And to make matters worse he had become “enamored”, as he called it, with one of them.

In March 1975, the trio re-assembled in Ossining, but the damage had been done. Andrija no longer had faith in the channeling sessions. He feared that the atmosphere in the house had contaminated the messages from Tom, and that their peace mission was in jeopardy. To counteract this negativity, he rounded up his entire crew of twelve to help. James Hurtak, a good friend, and later the Founder and President of the Academy For Future Science, came from California, and all of them together began to meditate daily on the war potential in the Middle East. When Andrija left for Israel with John and Phyllis on March 8, 1975, he felt that the group at home was disciplined enough to give them contributing support.

In Israel they traveled by car over the green hills of Judea, and through the Arab towns of Ramalla, Nablus, Tubas and Jenin. From there they went to Tiberias, on the lake of Galilee, where they sat with their feet in the water while meditating. Everyday they held their three o’clock meditation session synchronized with that of the group back in Ossining. They meditated in Jericho, and stood in the still and sticky water of the Dead Sea. In Eilat they prayed sitting with their feet in the Red Sea.

This time there were no major disagreements. On the surface they appeared to be quite a compatible group, and when not meditating, praying, or communicating with Tom, they behaved like ordinary tourists.

On my birthday, April 2nd, 1975 Andrija wrote to me from the luxurious Galei Kinnereth hotel in Tiberias.

“I am alive and well – and as you can see by the newspapers, there is no war – as of today. We continue to work for peace. I do not know how long the crisis will last – so I don’t know how long I will stay here. I have traveled about 4000 km. all over Israel in the past few weeks and am back at this hotel now. Please write to me here – but send the letter express right away, because I should be here for only another week or so.

When I am not working I do hiking in the mountains, or swimming when there is water I have already gotten deeply tanned, and do feel fine. I think of you often. I pray for you every day. I trust that you are creating, each of you, the kind of life you want. Shalom, and Happy Birthday!

P.S. A special note to Andy: Please do not forget to spend the summer with me. You must also bring Yvonne. Much love. “

Two days later Tom told them that through their meditation they had averted the immediate war threat, and that they should take a short break to attend to their personal affairs, and to revitaise their physical bodies. But they should be back within two weeks, he said, because there was still a great deal to be done in the months ahead.

Andrija used this unexpected time of leisure to go with Janice, his new lady-friend, to Makarska, Yugoslavia, to visit his relatives. He called it “the greatest home-coming of my life. An unforgettable experience.”

On the 12th of April, he returned to Israel, filled with the spirit of love and peace. But, being naive to a fault where interpersonal conflicts and underlying tensions were concerned, he had the audacity to invite Janice to come with him without consulting Phyllis or John. The row that ensued was for Andrija the limit, as he said. But he also knew that in walking out he was leaving the trio, and “turning my back on every attachment in life.”

As a true Aquarius, Andrija never understood why people got so worked up about “the unimportant things in life.” But neither did he understand his own bullheadedness when he was wrong and someone told him off.

The fight with Phyllis and John did not mean the end of their peace missions though. Andrija did join them in Israel in June and July 1975, when the Nine urgently asked for his presence.

By mid-July, 1975 Egypt and Israel were each willing to make some concessions, and in August Dr. Kissinger was able to announce that as a result of the negotiations of the past few weeks the Sinai Agreement was practically concluded.

As the reader will recall, the actual peace treaty between Israel and Egypt wasn’t signed until March 26, 1979. During the interim time Andrija went to Israel and Egypt on several occasions to sit in quiet prayer for peace.

With his work in Israel finished, Andrija was anxious to get back to his ESP research. A series of events that had taken place in May 1975 made him decide to start a program with children. After his row with John and Phyllis he had gone with Janice to her home in England. While there he met several youngsters who could bend spoons, blades of pocketknives and keys. This had created fear and anxiety with their parents. They did not want their children to be different from other kids. Would it affect their lives, they asked Andrija? Is it good for them? Is there any danger? He assuaged their fear, and got permission to further study their paranormal powers.

Having been fascinated all his life by the Celtic legend of King Arthur, he took the kids to Glastonbury Tor, the alleged “Avalon” of Arthur, where the power of the magician Merlin supposedly still hovered. “Let’s see if we can draw on the legendary powers of this hill,” he told them, “and see if we can influence the great energy of Nature. Here’s the idea: It has been cloudy today ever since dawn, some seven hours ago. Look up at the sky. Do you see any hole in the clouds? Can you spot where the sun may be on the other side of the clouds?” The collective opinion was that there was not a single opening in the clouds, and that it was not possible to see where the sun might be located. “Let’s all face south,” Andrija continued, “and concentrate on the clouds overhead and see if we can punch a ‘hole’ in the clouds, in order to see the sun.” One of the kids commented that this would be a heavy job, much heavier than bending a knife blade. “Do you think we can do it,” he asked. “How long do you think this will take?” Andrija replied that he thought seven minutes would be enough. When after several minutes absolutely nothing had happened, the kids wanted to quit, but Andrija asked them to hold the meditation for two more minutes. Then at the eighth minute it began to happen. An area of brightness appeared overhead. One minute later the clouds rapidly dissolved in a small area, the sun shone through a mist at first, then came on full face, bright and clear. Within a moment the hole in the clouds closed. It was the only appearance of the sun that day. The youngsters were baffled. They all started to speak at once. “I don’t believe it, but I saw it.” “Did we do this?” “Was this mass hypnosis?”

“What happened is simple, and yet very complex,” Andrija explained. “Almost anyone can concentrate on a small cloud in the sky, that is, one cloud in a field of clouds, and make it disappear while all the others remain. This has been done by many people under controlled conditions, and documented with motion pictures. However, to punch a hole in the clouds is not easy. It takes the massed effort of people who are in harmony. That’s why I suggested this exercise, because I felt a close harmony between us. This oneness amplified our individual power that brought into resonance the earth energy here on Glastonbury Tor and the sun energy some 93,000,000 miles away. In fact we didn’t really exert any power, we became a clear open channel for natural, but still mysterious energies.”

This experience with the kids was the first time that Andrija thought about a program for children, to make them aware of the enormous potential of Mindpower they had, and that they could use this power to create a better world for themselves and for others. The second time occurred two weeks later in Mexico.

Upon his return to Ossining on May 20th Andrija’s secretary informed him that there had been several telephone calls from a television station in Mexico City with the request for him to participate in an open forum on Medicine, Magic and Religion on a very distinguished program called ‘Encuentro’.

Having been out of touch with “profane affairs,” Andrija was astounded to find that his book Uri had been translated into Spanish and become a best seller in Mexico. As a result the publisher, the press, radio and television, all descended upon him when he arrived in Mexico, and before he knew it he was besieged by people who had similar experiences as Uri – metal bending and contact with extraterrestrials.

As Andrija said “the UFO buffs” found him. However, three boys, Jaime, Jonathan and Octavio were so impressive that he decided to invite them to Ossining for a summer program.

The urgent call to come back to Israel in June had interrupted his plans, but at the end of July the program was all set up.

The letter Andrija wrote to me in July scared me half to death:

“We got back from our long voyages three days ago. Andy received all the cards and letters that you sent. They made him real happy. As he probably told you by mail he had a great time with me in England, Israel and Italy.

I got a bad tooth abscess when we landed in New York. I was in agony and have been in bed since. I didn’t reaise how debilitated I had become from the work I have been doing. I am getting better now.

My work is too complex to describe, but scientists all over the world are now taking the ‘Geller effect’ seriously. At present there are many books and papers being published. So that job is done.

The U. S govt. sponsored a TV show, called ‘The UFO Incident’, which in effect admits (after 24 years of denials) that UFO’s exist.

The book on Arigo is a best seller, and may be made into a film in a year or so.

It is kind of comical, but at this late stage I am being recognized for many years of pioneering work. I am now turning my attention to healing work, and work with children. I started an experimental school. The 9 “space kids” are all here, and Andy is living with them. He’s having a great experience, and is learning a lot.

So although I lie in bed, I feel swamped with work.

Don’t worry about Andy, he is really quite happy, and keeps very busy with his friends. Too bad you’re not with us, Yvonne, you would have enjoyed the school also. “

I had no idea what “the experimental school” entailed, and I was sick with worry about my fourteen-year-old son. But Andy’s letters soon reassured me that nothing dangerous, weird or spooky was going on. On the contrary, he was really having a wonderful experience. All the kids lived by themselves at the “Turkey Farm”, a house on the estate, and maintained a strict daily routine of meditation, dream telling sessions, hobby time, workouts and swimming. They took turns cleaning the house and do the cooking. Either Andrija or somebody else would give talks on the hazards of drugs or smoking, or any subject they felt was detrimental to the physical or emotional well being of the youngsters. Andy wrote that his father also gave interesting talks on religion, the Self, and personal growth, but that he could not always understand what daddy was talking about, because the words he used were too difficult for his limited English.

But Andy never told me what it meant to be a “space kid” until recently. If he had told me back then that each kid was hypnotized in order to go back to his “parent civilization,” I would probably have flipped, and kept him home.

According to Andy, most of the kids present came from another planet. They had voluntarily returned to planet Earth to help in the raising of human consciousness. By being born as a human they had to go through the same things anyone has to go through, meaning that they could also get trapped by all the earthly distractions and forget about their true self. “That’s why daddy set up that program,” Andy told me, “to remind those kids of their mission in life, or at least tell them what they were, and what their mission was. Also to help them evolve themselves, and teach them how to use the knowledge they already had. Even the child Jesus was born as a regular human being,” my son continued, “and he had to evolve himself just like anyone else. As he grew up he knew that inside he had all knowledge, but that he was too trapped in his ordinary life. So he went into the desert for forty day to drop all earthly desires, to let go of self, and become a higher spirit. Buddha in fact did the same.”

The program with the kids lasted until the end of August, but all through 1975 and early 1976, young people from all over the world kept coming to Ossining. After reading Uri they were no longer afraid to talk about their psychic abilities: telepathy, psychokinesis, psychometry, and metal bending. Some of them turned out to be healers, others channeling mediums. Andrija was so impressed with the young people that he wrote a book, entitled Time No Longer In the preface he says:

This book is written for the young people all over the world who came into being during World War Two and in the years following.

They share in common experiences from participating in the modern Cultural Revolution against war, in struggling for personal freedom, and for a peaceful way of life. This revolution goes on in full force in the Americas, in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and apparently in the Soviet Union.

One of the great unanswered questions of this revolution has to do with the nature of man. Are men and women essentially of the nature of a high-grade meat, eternally locked in the three-dimensional framework created by a materialistic science? As such, the course of a human life has about the same value as that of a steer being cultivated for the slaughterhouse.

Or is man/woman essentially of the nature of “spirit” passing through the three-dimensional world with access to higher dimensions of existence while on earth?

The appearance of a new kind of human being on this planet is the starting point towards a solution of this age-old question. An analysis of this enigma is what this book is about.

The book was finished on December 20, 1976, but, to my knowledge, never published. At the time Doubleday felt that “although interesting,” it was not something that they could “undertake and do properly.”

Determined to make man aware of their potential, and to reassure them that paranormal powers were not something to be afraid of, Andrija then wrote a TV film approach entitled: It’s all in you.

While writing the book, Andrija’s watch had begun to stop, and restart at regular intervals again. It had not done so since December 1971, during the high war potential period. He knew that it meant some kind of trouble, but having booked an extensive lecture tour in the U.S., Canada and Europe he had no time to do anything about the warning. He also knew that, having turned his back on everyone, he was on his own. Uri was somewhere in Europe, and John and Phyllis had transferred operations to Israel.

His lecture-tour started in Boston on April 30, 1976 at Emerson College, where he received an honorary degree. He was made a Doctor of Laws for his outstanding work, “not only as physician, but also as founder, consultant, researcher, inventor, explorer, administrator, and author: a true communicator “

It was the proudest day of Andrija’s life.

In May he interrupted his lecture-tour for meditation and prayer in Egypt. He wrote to me:

“Have been here for two weeks, doing my usual ‘war and peace’ assignment. All is going well. I am healthy. The Inspector of the Pyramids, Zahi, and I have become great friends, so I am allowed to go in each night alone, and meditate in the dark of the King’s chamber it is an awesome experience to be in the Great Pyramid all alone at night. But I have some friends; a little mouse comes up to me each night. I call him King Khufu. Then there are two small bats that are friendly.

I leave here May 30th for Athens. I hope to be back in Ossining by June 15th. Is Yvonne still coming for the summer? All my love to you. “

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