The Saucer Life

In this episode, we begin the story of Dorothy Martin and her prophecies of cataclysms that would strike the world. She received these via channeled messages from the planet Clarion (Aura Rhanes was not involved!). It’s a sprawling story, so hang on! Website: saucerlife.com Twitter: @saucerlife Instagram: saucerlife Facebook

We’re starting our fourth batch of episodes and, to get you the best quality (ha!) possible, we’re going to be bi-weekly for the foreseeable future. This time around, we’re examining stories in which the saucer life touches real life, mundane life in some way. First up, Donald Keyhoe’s appearance on Armstrong’s Circle Theater. Is it […]

While we’re taking a week off trying to get ahead on production of series 4, here’s something to tide you over. This is George Adamski speaking at the 1955 flying saucer gathering at Giant Rock. George Van Tassel arranged these for many years and nearly everybody who was anybody in the saucer scene appeared here […]

This week, we look at George Hunt Williamson, one of the classic 1950s Contactees whose work stretched into a number of different facets of the Saucer world, and beyond. There’s more to Williamson’s story, but we’ll be seeing that in a few weeks in Encounter 402: The End of the World. We return on February […]

In early 1953, the CIA convened a panel of scientists to investigate whether or not flying saucers were a threat. We’re going to look at what happened next. The most complete version of the report is here if you want to check it out. I got everything else from the CIA’s electronic reading room, which […]

Normal service has resumed here at Saucer Life Central, and today we’re looking at one of the most effective takedowns of George Adamski’s initial contactee claims (see Encounter 105 for some background on this, if you feel like you want it), the reaction from Adamski and, finally, we’ll take a quick look at Adamski’s continuing […]

Happy New Year! This is the story of the time sometime-guest voice Nelson Sanat and I investigated a crop circle and the havoc it caused. (This is a substantially new telling of the tale, so if you’ve read The Chaos Conundrum, know that it’s a different thing!) The crop circle in question was, actually, investigated […]

‘Twas the Week Before Christmas, and all through the house some guy was recording a podcast episode. So: my Christmas gift to you all; here’s some flying saucer poetry for you. More accurately, here’s some poetry which appeared in flying saucer magazines. “Ode to a Spaceman” and “Reflection” originally appeared in Encounter 204. Poetry featured […]

Just a very quick take on the recent news from the New York Times about Pentagon study of UFOs, the connections to private money, and the long history of acknowledged and un-acknowledged interest in and study of the saucers. Note: this is a little unpolished, but I wanted to be timely! Some of the best […]

In this Encounter, we’re looking at an incredibly popular book from the late 1960s, Coral and Jim Lorenzen’s Flying Saucer Occupants. The stories told in this slim volume range from the weird and obscure to some that were groundshaking in their saucer significance, including the Antonio Vilas Boas case and the Betty and Barney Hill […]

In this Encounter, we’ll take a look at the the entity known as Ashtar and the cast of extraterrestrial characters that he commands. From his emergence through the writings and teachings of George van Tassel, the development of the Ashtar “brand” to the concept’s evolution during the following decades, this is a fun jaunt through […]

Welcome to series 3, in which we’ll focus on the broad themes of mind, body, and spirit. It’s “mind” this week with Meade Layne, Mark Probert, channeled messages about the Etherians, and a story of some early, somewhat different interpretations of the coming of the saucers. Guest starring the spirits of Lao Tzu and Thomas […]

It’s the Series 2 finale! We’re digging deeper into an entity we saw briefly in Encounter 204:the Detroit Flying Saucer Club. We’ll see one example of “government interest in flying saucers” and why it really was never about the saucers, in some cases. We also look at a useful illustration about the way one story can connect […]

A quickie that got left on the cutting room floor from Encounter 203 and Encounter 204. It’s a Contactee story in reverse from the pages of Nexus and you’ll probably recognize at least one of the characters. And yes, Melvin Morbid sounds like Johnny from The Room. It was totally unconscious. Have a good Thanksgiving if you’re in […]

This week it’s some Flying Saucer pre-history with the Mystery Airship Wave of 1897. There was a bit of this in the talk released here as Bonus Encounter 1, but we’ve got even more aerial weirdness this week. Thanks again to CUFOS for their vast archive of historical UFO goodness. You can find out more about […]

This week, we conclude our epic look at 1954 through four flying saucer zines and newsletters (The APRO Bulletin, Saucerian, Nexus, and Vimana). As last week, much thanks to the online archive of the Center for UFO Studies, for having such a wealth of great information. Website: saucerlife.com Twitter: @saucerlife Instagram: saucerlife Follow me on […]

This week we start our look at 1954 through the pages of four flying saucer newsletters and magazines. While this wasn’t the biggest year for sightings in the US, there was no lack of news or controversy. The Al Bender mystery (see Encounter 102), the growing popularity of contactees (see Encounters 105 and 106), and […]

Romance and flying saucers certainly aren’t an unheard-of pairing (check out Encounter 106 if you doubt me) but few interplanetary romances were as intense or interesting as that of South Africa’s Elizabeth Klarer in the 1950s (although she didn’t write her book Beyond the Light Barrier until much later. This week, we’ll be looking at Klarer’s story […]

Welcome to Series 2! In this encounter we travel to the heady days of the 1980s and look at a number of documents, events, and people who would have a lasting effect on the direction of saucer culture. Meet O.H. Krill and his pals John Lear, and Bill Cooper, and learn just why it was […]

One week ahead of schedule–don’t get used to it! This week we meet Truman Bethurum, who was the second contactee and who met a stunning space sister, Captain Aura Rhanes. His story is interesting not only because it features a woman in an authoritative position, but because he sort of seems to have written it to make […]

This time around, we’re looking at the contactees–those who thought they had physical or psychic contact with human-appearing space aliens. Their messages were often more earthly than cosmic and they’re a lot of fun. Learn all about George Adamski and tune in next time when we’ll cover some more classic contacteeism. Thanks this time go […]

This is the talk I gave on September 30 at the 50th Anniversary Festival commemorating the Shag Harbour UFO Incident in Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia. A few notes. First, the ending is a bit rushed and lacking detail near the end. For reasons beyond my control, what was supposed to be a 75 minute talk […]

A change of pace this time, as we look at four books that either are–or, I predict, one day will be considered–classics in the realm of flying saucer lore. Purchase the books below, or check out your local library! Messengers of Deception The Gods have Landed Shockingly Close to the Truth The Cryptoterrestrials

The Flatwoods Monster appeared in Braxton County, West Virginia in September 1952, at the tail end of a summer full of flying saucers all over the United States. The bizarre sighting drew the attention of people from established saucer figure Donald Keyhoe to neophyte Gray Barker and, even today, the brief incident remains a tourist […]

In this episode, we’ll be looking at the story of Albert K. Bender and the origins of the Men in Black strand of flying saucer lore. Bender’s story is an odd one and, in my opinion, oddly touching. As a special treat, we feature some great audio of the man himself speaking in 1967. If […]

Welcome to our first episode! In this brief encounter, we'll introduce the basic idea behind The Saucer Life, explore a flying saucer book I am almost positive you've never even heard of, much less read, and look down the road a bit to upcoming episodes. You can find Helen Gismondi's book on Amazon. You can follow on Twitter (@saucerlife) or on Facebook. Stay tuned for the next installment in about a month!