Eugene Harry Drake was a pioneer, publisher of
some of the first literature on UFOs, leader of an early organization,
discussed alien abductions, and was possibly the first person claiming to have
met extraterrestrials and taken a ride in one of their spaceships.
“Certainly a much lesser known source of
inspiration but still a valid one, was the writings of Eugene H. Drake,
Director of the "Fellowship of Golden Illumination" headquartered on
Lake Street in Los Angeles, who penned, in 1950, the booklet: Life on the
Planets - A Visit to Venus. Drake claimed a visitation from two
Venusian-saucer pilots named ‘[Aramia] and Estralon’ who: ‘... impressed me to
go to a certain desert location to be picked up.’"
Drake has been the subject of two previous articles
by ufologists, and we are indebted to both of these authors for their work to
prevent Drake from being another one of the Ufologists That Time Forgot.
by Luis Ruiz Noguez, 2016
by Håkan Blomqvist, with biographical data from Joshua Blu Buhs, 2017
Eugene Harry Drake, Sept. 22, 1889 - Feb. 21, 1973
It Began in California
Drake was born on Sept. 22, 1889, in his early
30s in 1920s, employed as a cashier for the New England Life Insurance company in
Los Angeles, California. He had big dreams and started a motion picture company,
Eugene H. Drake Productions, incorporated in June 1921. Grace and Carl Moon
were authors and illustrators of children's books about Native Americans. Their Lost
Indian Magic was being adapted by Drake into a movie, but the project
ran into financial problems. Drake’s film business was struggling for cash, and
as a result of his short-term solution, he was arrested for a forgery charge of
embezzling $6500 from the insurance company. There’s no indication how the
case was resolved, but apparently the experience led Drake to pursue other employment.
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| Stockton Independent, April 21, 1922, Picture circa 1924 |
Drake’s occupation as shown in the US Census
by decade: 1920 - Film exchange manager, 1930 - Building materials salesman, 1940
- Restaurant cook. Drake was not drafted for service In World War II, but
his 1942 draft registration card seems to indicate that whatever his
profession, he was self-employed. Jumping ahead to 1952, Drake wrote a letter
of praise to a spiritualist magazine, The Open Way, giving his
occupation as, “Writer, Teacher, Spiritual healer.”
By 1948, Drake had founded the religious
organization, “The Fellowship of Golden Illumination,” based in Los Angeles. He
was lecturing in churches about “The Impending Golden Age,” listing himself as a
reverend, “Dr. Eugene H. Drake.”
Drake and the Visitors from Space
Drake published the 38-page UFO booklet, Visitors From Space, in 1950. He seems to have “Dr.” seems to have been dropped, and
he referred to himself as “Eugene H. Drake, Director.” In the introduction,
Drake drew from Theosophical lore, saying: “The Elder Brothers from space, the
forces of the White Brotherhood are here in greater array than any time since
man walked the earth. They have the answers.” The title page illustration was of
several spacecraft of different shapes, one of them, a bell-shaped flying saucer
with three balls on the bottom, very much like the one George Adamski would
later claim to see and photograph.
Drake’s booklet is remarkable on several
fronts. While lacking the exposure of the others, his publication appeared as
early as the first UFO books, Donald Keyhoe’s The Flying Saucers are Real
and Frank Scully’s Behind the Flying Saucers. Drake was first into print
with a Contactee story; he presented the fully-formed lore of alien contact
that served as a foundation for beliefs still held today.
Drake said the earth has long been under
observation by spacecraft, and that he personally had “been in contact with
them since 1930,” first in a field in Santa Monica. Drake said the ships “are powered by a form of magnetic force…
heavily armed with powerful ray weapons.” Their technology allows them to fly
in any direction, suddenly reverse, hover, become invisible, change to a fluid
state, and beam it to “wherever they want.”
Drake didn’t use the term “downloads,” but
stated that the Elder Brothers were behind all our best ideas:
“Many of our scientists, musicians, poets, etc., have received much of their understanding from higher minds both carnate and discarnate who have been drawn close and impressed upon their consciousness ideas which they claim as their own. This intelligence originated in the higher spheres of consciousness and was given to them that humanity be benefited and civilizations lifted to more wonderful expression.”
Describing the various sizes and shapes of
spaceships, Drake said they range from giant cigars down to unmanned surveillance
discs to 2-feet across, which had been mistaken for “fire-balls or foo-balls.”
He said,” The mission of these craft is a helpful and peaceful one... the
unfolding of the New Age Plan... the building of a better civilization.”
Ancient Aliens – Drake said they’ve always been here: “Many
visitations... since (earth’s) formation and cooling by these Elder Brothers of
Space, and during periods of wars and great tribulations.” He didn’t reference
Charles Fort by name but seemed to acknowledge his work by referencing spaceship
sightings seen in the past, including “mysterious cigar-shaped airships” in the
1800s.
The visitors were building broadcasting
stations which would send out beams of thought waves of “peace, love, joy,
harmony and justice” to break up our native destructive thought patterns. Drake described the commander and crew of one
of the ships:
“...Aramia, is 5 feet 10 inches tall. Very
dignified. Solidly built, fairly broad through the shoulders. His hair is long
and golden. The cheeks are pink, eyes large and blue, his chin strong. He has a
very pleasing expression. He wears a tight fitting tunic of pearl shade pink,
with gold and blue trim... His command ship is from the planet Venus... The
crew is composed of the Venusians from 36 to 42 inches tall. They are well
proportioned. Their skin is a light cream color, covered with fuzz like hair,
like the down of a peach. Their eyes are large and blue, with hair blonde to
golden, brows fairly heavy, arched but little. …Venusians appear to be highly
advanced spiritually, mentally and physically. Being so pure in their thought
they seem almost angelic.”
That’s what we call a “Nordic” today. Other
alien races vary, Drake explained, from the little men of Venus to the giants
of Uranus and Neptune. Life was plentiful on other planets, and some of the
beings resemble earth people closely, but... “Some beings are part human and part
animal... in the lower phases of evolvement. They too fell from grace or a
higher status by mating with lower animalistic forms, even as some of the first
beings on earth, called the sons of Light, who married or mated with sub-human
people.”
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| Venus: Pretty men and prettier women. Aramia and Estralon |
Women were part of the crew, and he was
introduced to the second in command:
“This is Estralon, our second flight
Commander. She has a ship of her own.” Drake described her as being very
beautiful and trim, standing 5 ft. 4 inches tall. Unlike Aramia, she did not
speak English, and communicated with Drake by telepathy to give him a tour of
the ship. Estralon said they had a device that “demagnetizes whatever the beam
is directed on,” which allowed it to be used “to disintegrate any foreign
objects that might interfere with our flight,” but it could also be used as a
weapon against a hostile force. Another machine harnessed energy for propulsion
and navigation, which Drake said picks up “the white substance, vryil, which
they claim is more explosive than uranium... concentrated to some odd shaped
highly polished crystals.”
Estralon told him the secret of their
spaceships’ construction could not be shared with earth while we were so
“destructively minded.” She said, “Space craft have been making landings on the
earth for many hundreds of years. There are many references to them in your
ancient writings.” She cited the lost cities of Mu and Atlantis as places they
were used. She told him there were secret civilizations, survivors of Mu living
under the south pole, “the Rainbow People,” another colony living on the dark
side of the moon, and yet another living underground not far from Mexico City.
The saucers had appeared due to our atomic
explosions which, “disturbed the etheric atmosphere... penetrated lines of
magnetic force and spiraled up to the other planets in our solar system.” The
Etherians (Elder Brothers) would not allow “civilization to be destroyed as it
almost was during the struggle between the Titans and the Atlans, LaMurians
prior to the sinking of Lemuria and Atlantis.” The booklet concluded with
Estralon and Aramia telling Drake:
“We Space Beings, your elder Brothers, shall
if necessary, use powers beyond your knowledge to preserve the earth... Mark it
well, you leaders of destruction... we shall move swiftly to purify the earth
of your kind when the Supreme Commander gives us the command.”
If that seems familiar, in 1951, Klaatu said much
the same thing in The Day the Earth Stood Still.
"(We) patrol the planets -- in space ships
like this one -- and preserve the peace... if you threaten to extend your
violence, this Earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder... live in
peace, or pursue your present course and face obliteration.”
The first booklet was vague about just how
Drake met Aramia and boarded his ship, but the implication is that it a
physical, not a psychic experience. Drake mentioned Aramia spoke verbally, but Estralon
only spoke to him telepathically, and that would seem to indicate he was
describing physical sensations and events.
Second Contact: Touring Another Planet
Drake’s story continued in the 34-page Life On the Planets - A Visit to Venus in 1950. In the acknowledgments, Drake thanked his alien friends, including Sunat Kumara among them.
Life
On the Planets: A Visit to Venus in 1950. In the second booklet, Drake
emphasized that experience related within was “a journey in the etheric
body, not a physical, or a third dimensional trip.” (Apparently the trip
was taken in an astral body, not his flesh.) He was reclining on his couch when
Estralon entered and led him outside the huge spaceship she commanded. He told of
his visit to the planet Venus and interactions with the people, all of whom are
kind and beautiful. The cities and the homes contained furniture material made from
a wood light as plastic, with knobs made out of gold. They drive aero-cars, and
Drake visited their government, the Council of Elders. In the Temple of Music,
he met the etheric forms of long-dead musicians such as Liszt, Bach and Beethoven,
some of whom would return to earth to help the younger generation channel
music.
It was in their Temple of Wisdom where Drake
came to understand his role. The Instructor told him about their mission to set
earth people on the right path. “Being here on the planet you can be given
information that will correct some of this misunderstanding... As John was
selected for preparing the way for your Teacher Jesus…” Drake doesn’t
explicitly state it, but by telling the story it shows he has taken on the job
to prepare earth for the arrival of the Elder Brothers from space.
Of Alien Abductions and Atlantean Free Energy
Drake published a newsletter, Golden Light,
for his Fellowship of Golden Illumination, and there he published a sequel of
sorts to his booklets, a statement from Aramia himself that Venusians and their
friends were not abducting earthlings. It was reprinted on page 21 of Interplanetary
News Digest no. 2, 1954 as:
Aramia, the Venusian Commander of a Space Fleet
"Greetings, O people of earth from the
Planet Venus.
We of outer space wish to correct some of the
statements being made by earth men. No earth people are being picked up by our
craft in their physical bodies, nor using your terms 'being kidnaped.' We are
only picking up our own people whom we have landed in certain areas. We operate
from a higher dimension. In that density our bodies are more solid than yours,
but they vibrate at a considerably higher frequency.
“We have taken earth people in their more
refined bodies, the etheric, that they might be acquainted with our mission,
but none in their physical bodies. Such would have to be placed in a state of
deep trance or suspended animation in order to withstand the terrific light and
power which our craft generate. We are masters of the elements and use our
minds and telepathic powers in a manner which earth people cannot
comprehend.
"During the coming months a great deal of
mischievous activity shall effect the psyche of earth people, emanating from
dark magicians, former Atlantians and Murians, who went underground during the
struggle between those two races during the last atomic age. As stated before
these are the ones who surround themselves with such noxious odors, who would
confuse and deceive man into thinking they come from outer space. They are very
cunning, they have considerable scientific knowledge, and are able to use free
energy to construct ships of this substance.
"We caution you to be on your guard.
Protect yourself by thoroughly checking all statements, all disc activity, in
the Light of your Creator.
"Keep up your prayers for Peace and
impress your leaders that only through peace can you survive."
Here’s another taste of Golden Light from
1958 with an article on the underground UFO base in Antarctica.
Influence and Imitators
It’s hard to determine how much impact Drake
had in 1950, but he was connected with the occult network of Southern California
New Age cults and organizations, which had a heavy overlap with saucer circles.
Drake lived in Los Angeles, and Dan Fry, founder of Understanding Inc., was
based in El Monte.
Did the legendary George Adamski try to top
Drake? The “Professor” created a bigger and better story of contact with a
beautiful angelic Venusian, but his was supported by witnesses, physical
evidence, and later, photographs. It was too good to be true. In the fall of
1953, Truman Bethurum entered the Contactee scene and developed a significant
following within the saucer world, second only to George Adamski. Adamski’s Orthon
was based on Aramia, and Bethurum stole his female counterpart, Estralon for
the star of his story, rechristened as Aura Rhanes, the beautiful female saucer
captain from planet Clarion. In 1954, Bethurum’s book, Aboard A Flying
Saucer was released, and he sold it and other pamphlets at lectures
and conventions.
By the mid-50s Drake’s booklets were carried
across the USA by many saucer clubs and magazines such as Gray Barker’s Saucerian
Bulletin, the Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs of America, and Dan Fry’s
Understanding, Inc. Drake’s Visitors From Space and A
Visit to Venus were listed as the top two in the “Best Sellers in the
New York Area” from the Sept. 1955 Flying Saucer News, which said,
“Let me tell you that his two books sell GOOD... A few good distributors is all
you need plus a good story and have a picture or two in the book.”
Further Illumination
Jan. 1956, as reported in Flying Saucer News, “According to Eugene H. Drake [the Fellowship]
took pictures on Mount Shasta and also the desert last month, which show
several space craft.”
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| Believed to be one of Drake’s UFO-related photographs, date unknown. |
Drake was mentioned in The Saturday
Evening Post, March 10, 1956, article, “He Runs Flying-Saucer
Headquarters” by John Kobler:
“In Los Angeles, Eugene H. Drake, director of
the Fellowship of Golden Illumination, photographs space creatures by
infrared light and tape-records their conversations. Drake claims to have
toured Venus on a ‘gravitonic sled.’”
In the July 1956 Golden Light, Drake
said that a building of worship “has already been erected on the Upper Joshua
Desert. ...We have had several contacts
with beings from space here. …One room will be devoted to the healing arts...
light, music, water therapies, rejuvenation methods such as used on the Planet
Venus.” He called it the Star Temple of Healing.
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| Illustration from the May 1962 Golden Light |
The Pomona Progress Bulletin, September 11, 1956, advertised his lecture,
“The Great World Drama and Advent of Spacecraft” for the local chapter of Dan
Fry’s Understanding Inc. group. Drake was a frequent speaker for them and a guest
for at least one UFO convention.
“The first Spacecraft Picnic sponsored by Understanding in Alhambra on
September 8th (1957) has been acclaimed a success... about 300 friends and
members in attendance... Among the guests were Dana Howard, Calvin Girvin,
Eugene Drake and Eloise Mellor and many other leaders in the New Age Movement.”
(Understanding, Sept. 1957.)
Drake was quoted in Secret of the Andes
by George Hunt Williamson (as Brother Philip), 1961:
“In March 1957 the Fellowship of Golden
Illumination in Los Angeles, California, said: ‘The call is going out continually to all on
the Path of Light to come out from them... the dark forces... and unite for the establishment of
the Kingdom of Love and Peace.’”
In July 1959 Drake spoke at Gabriel Green’s the
Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs of America “First National Convention,” giving the
lecture, "The Pending Golden Age." The 1960 book Faiths, Cults,
and Sects of America, by Richard R. Mathison mentions Drake’s organization:
“…some two
thousand saucer fans gathered to hear the talks by ‘contactees.’ There were
tape recordings of messages from outer space. The religious flavor of the clubs
represented is obvious by their names — Celestial Vehicle Investigation Committee,
Christ Brotherhood, Inc., Cosmic Circle of Friendship, First Christian Spiritualist
Church, Fellowship of Golden Illumination…”
Drake was mentioned in the story co-written by Cleve Twitchell (Dan Fry’s Understanding Inc.), “Mt. Shasta’s Mystic Quality” from
the March 3, 1963, Medford, Oregon, Mail Tribune:
“Still another Mt. Shasta legend concerns the ‘Little People.’ An article by Eugene H. Drake of Los Angeles, for instance, reports that the writer encountered during 1951 and 1952 large numbers of tiny beings who had the ability to appear and disappear at will.”
Like many occultists, Drake subscribed to the
belief that the space people were made from ghostlike etheric matter but could
become physical if they wished. Håkan Blomqvist published the translation of a
portion of Drake’s Sept.19, 1961, letter to Karl and Amy Veit, published in Besucher
aus dem Weltraum:
"There are very few people who have had
real physical contact with space ships or space people, like ourselves. I have
on various occasions experienced how space people appear in condensed form and
I could shake their hands. After the contact they disappeared into a higher frequency."
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| Golden Light May 1962 |
We were unable to find what became of the Fellowship
of Golden Illumination. The last known issue of the Golden Light "was
published in May 1962. Eugene Harry Drake died February 21, 1973, in Los
Angeles at the age of 82. Few people remember his name, but almost everyone
knows an imitation of his story.
. . .
Some Notes on Drake’s Influences
Theosophy and the Vril
Drake
said the Vensuians’ otherworldly technology was powered by “vryil.” Vril was
the magical energy source from the 1871 novel, The Coming Race, by
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, a huge influence on science fiction and Theosophy. In 1947, Ole J. Sneide claimed contact with a celestial being who gave him information on flying saucers and their ancient and mystic extraterrestrial origins.
Drake cited the White Brotherhood and described
the Venusians’ benevolence and guidance of earth, all concepts of Theosophy
lore, not to mention Atlantis. While he didn’t use the term, “ascended,” the
more highly evolved beings were of a higher spiritual nature. He describes the
mating of Elders with creatures on earth in similar terms to that of William
Pelley and his disciple, George Hunt Williamson.
Frank Scully
Behind the Flying Saucers was published Sept. 1950. Drake was apparently
familiar with Frank Scully’s book and imitated much from it. Drake’s saucers
with magnetic propulsion from Venus and the exact measurements of the little
men inside must have been derived from the Silas Newton hoax packaged by
Scully. According to Scully, the government scientist Dr. Gee said, “we were
able to count sixteen bodies, that ranged in height from about 36 to 42 inches.”
Drake mimicked nothing about Scully’s notions of a cover-up or government suppression,
he just harped on the need to avoid war and the A-bomb. Incidentally, Scully lived
in California and was a Holly wood gossip columnist. He was interested in the wild
side of flying saucers and read Meade Layne’s publications from the Borderland
Sciences Research Associates Foundation. He also and rubbed shoulders with
George Adamski.
Richard Shaver/Ray Palmer
Drake talked about core concepts of the Shaver
Mystery, the underground beings and ancient Atlan and Mu. Aramia warned about
“mischievous activity shall effect the psyche of earth people, emanating from
dark magicians, former Atlantians and Murians, who went underground during the
struggle between those two races during the last atomic age.” That sounds a lot
like Shaver’s Deros.
For Further Study
For more on the influence of Theosophy and the Occult
on ufology, see these articles by Curt Collins:
The UFO Prophecy of Frederick G. Hehr
UFO History: The Saucers from
Atlantis
1946, Before Saucers, Kareeta: UFO Contact in California
