 
|
||
continued from previous page Group members converge on the SPLAASH site and, joining hands, form as large a circle as possible. Two main convergences are held each day of the convention, at early afternoon and the stroke of midnight. The more devout often maintain a vigil throughout the night, leaning against logs placed around the site and gazing into the firmament. The ritual beings with a prayer, usually led by Harold Price, a fire-and-damnation lay preacher proclaimed Spaceport Mayor for the occasion. With eyes closed and the circle of energy completed through their clasped hands, members begin to concentrate their thoughts. Focusing their brain waves, they create a “cosmic brain battery” to summon UFOs to land. Spontaneously, one member breaks into a low incantation: “Omm, Ommmmm...” rises slowly from the back of his throat, the consonant lengthening with each contraction of his diaphragm. One by one, people on either side pick up the mantra until the clearing is filled with deeply resonating m’s. Silence. Heads are slowly lifted, necks arch back until all eyes stare directly upward. No one speaks for several moments. All wait in hushed expectation for the cosmic connection or the whoosh of a saucer’s drive system. Aho or Price breaks out in song. One of the favorites, the rhythm led by an autoharp, is sung to the tune of the old camp spiritual, “Kum-Ba-Ya”: Flying saucer, Lord, kum-ba-ya Flying saucer, Lord, kum-ba-ya Flying saucer, Lord, kum-ba-ya Oohhhh, Lord, kum-ba-ya An innovation at the 1980 gathering was the inclusion of a “booster” to help harness energy. An open six-foot cube framework made from two-by-twos stood at the heart of the SPLAASH site, capped by a pyramid whose proportions duplicated those of the great pyramid of Cheops. Brushed with copper paint to increase its conductivity, the cube served as a vessel to contain the power funneled into it by the pyramid. Group members pointed out that flowers in a vase on a pedestal below the apex remained open all night and had not wilted after several days. After the invocation, several people, in a delicate mime with fingers outstretched, ran their hands over the invisible facets of the cube, by then filled with energy. The New Age Foundation is amorphous, flexible enough in its tenets to allow believers from a broad range of other groups to attend and enjoy its functions. During the proceedings, I talked with people ranging from a successful middle-aged Seattle lawyer and his wife to Gore-Tex-clad back-to-the-landers to a group of upbeat singles in a Mercedes coupe. Participants at the convention often present lectures or lead seminars in their field of interest. Doc Johnson practices psychic chiropractic: using neural pressure points, he locate areas of weakness or ill health caused by psychic inhibitions. With his “corrections” he can multiply or reduce the power in all parts of the patient’s body. Following the chiropractic workshop, he makes a pitch for a line of motor oil additives he carries as a sideline. Jon Beckjord is well known in UFOlogy circles for his work as a Bigfoot investigator. A big blond Swede with a Dutch-boy haircut, he walks around wearing a crumpled leather hat and L. L. Bean duckboots, indoors and out; a 16mm Bolex, held in the “present arms” position, is lashed to his left hand. He shows some films of Bigfoot, whom he holds to be a three-and-one-half dimensional creature. Dolly, a pleasant and chubby psychic, gives demonstrations of how to sense the color and depth configurations of the human aura, while a balding fellow who lives out of his Rambler sells health pills. There are lectures and slides on Kirlian photography, displays of martial arts, people selling massage benches, health foods, Amway products, special air cleaners for automobiles, and, of course, books. Late into the night, Aho himself gives a talk to the general assembly, sitting cross-legged in the tiered bunks around the walls of the ski house. New Agers believe that Earth is undergoing a major cyclical change, for which mankind is at present profoundly unprepared. A letter to the president of the United States urges that a summit conference of “aware individuals” be called to help “identify and make recommendations for new direction.” The projected disasters include the eruption of Mount St. Helens (which did happen) and the collapse of the West Coast into the sea along the San Andreas Fault and subsequent tidal wave inundating Japan and Washington State up to Mount Rainier (which hasn’t happened yet). Fossil fuels and internal combustion engines represent wrong thinking. Holistic healing and the use of free energy by flying saucers represent right thinking. “All the psychiatrists and counselors in the world cannot solve all the anxiety problems. Could it be that man is being forced into new directions?” asks Aho. “With the threatened oil economy and inflation, perhaps the plug holding back human progress can be withdrawn. Because of a number of wrong choices, mankind is now faced with the threat of bare survival as the planet enters a recurring change... a ‘major cycle’ as described by UFO occupants.” The first time I met Wayne Aho, I had driven up the coast from California in late November and arrived at his door on a dark and snowy night. He invited me in: “Come in and be at peace. Know that you’ve been examined before you came and you must be okay or you would not have been allowed to come. The Space Brothers are watching out for us, seeing that none of us comes to harm and that only the right people come here.” I left early the next morning with a copy of Mojave Desert Experience that Aho had given me. It was inscribed, “Best wishes for the New Age.” |
|
By Douglas CurranForeword by Tom Wolfe 62 illustrations, 28 in full color 144 pages • 10 x 9" • Cloth ISBN 0-7892-0708-7 • $35.00 Buy Now at Abbeville.com 
• UFO Landing Port • Space Age Lodge • UFO House • New Age Foundation Convention • EP7 • Highway 1 Flying Saucer   
|
