. . . Mrs. Marian Keech . . . awoke near dawn one morning in the early winter about a year before the events with which we are concerned.  "I felt a kind of tingling or numbness in my arm, and my whole arm felt warm right up to the shoulder," she once remarked later, in describing the incident.  "I had the feeling that someone was trying to get my attention.  Without knowing why, I picked up a pencil and a pad that were lying on the table near my bed.  My hand began to write in another handwriting.  I looked at the handwriting and it was strangely familiar, but I knew it was not my own.  I realized that somebody else was using my hand, and I said: 'Will you identify yourself?'  And they did.  I was much surprised to find that it was my father, who had passed away."

 

 

. . . she developed greater and greater facility at receiving messages, while the number of her communicators increased.  Besides the Elder Brother, she began to receive writings from other spiritual beings who dwelt on the planets Clarion and Cerus.  Toward mid-April she began to receive communications from Sananda, who was destined to become her most important source of information and instruction . . . 

 

 

On Easter morning . . . just after she awakened at 7 a.m., she received the following message . . . "I am always with you.  The cares of the day cannot touch you.  We will teach them that seek and are ready to follow in the light.  I will take care of the details.  Trust in us.

 

"Be patient and learn, for we are there preparing the work for you as a connoiter.  That is an earthly liaison duty before I come.  That will be soon.

 

"You were directed to tell your experiences of my coming to you, for it prepares the way in their hearts.  I will come again to teach each of you.  That they have told you that they do not believe shall see us when the time is right."

 

 

A few days after the Easter message Mrs. Keech received a communication from one of Sananda's assistants promising to teach Mrs. Keech "Many truths you do not understand."  The message continued: 

 

 

"What can you do for us?  Well, you can go tell the world that we have at last contacted the Earth planet with the waves of ether that have become tactable by the bombs your scientists have been exploding.  This works like an accordion.  When the condensation leaves the carceious level of the ether or atmosphere levels that support a large light layer of marine life, it causes a barrier to be set up.  Now that the bombs have broken that barrier we can break through.  That is what your scientists call the sonic barrier.  We have been trying to get through for many of your years, with alcetopes and the earling timer.

 

In order to help her learn and "tell the world," Mrs. Keech was  advised in another message later the same day:

 

"This is a new study for you and we will be lenient with you for the experience will be very shocking to you."  You will need  real level-thinking people around you.  Get a couple of learned  friends that can stabilize you.  Let them know what you are doing.  Let them watch with you to see that you are not misunderstood.  Share what you have with each other.  Share all — and be enlightened — to those who are ready."

 
Sometime during late April or early May the Armstrongs learned of Mrs. Keech from the expert on flying saucers.  The Armstrongs wrote to Mrs. Keech shortly thereafter, expressing an interest in her work and telling her something of their own explorations . . . Meanwhile, according to Mrs. Keech, she had received a message from Sananda to "Go to Collegeville.  There is a child there to whom I am trying to get through with light."  Since she knew no one in that town, she was extremely puzzled, and uncertain about what to do.  She seized upon the Armstrongs' letter with delight; it was too fitting to be a coincidence, she felt.  This contact with people who had only yesterday been strangers in a town populated by strangers must have great significance.  She subsequently decided that Daisy Armstrong was the "child" referred to in the instruction, a decision to which Mrs. Armstrong quickly assented since she felt that the Guardians had been trying to "get light through to her" for a long time and she felt that her own blindness and unreceptivity to these attempts had been the root of her "nervous collapse" in Egypt. 

 
Thus, for example, Sananda informed Mrs. Keech on July 8 that "The Guardians are beings of the UN [intelligence of the Creator; mind of the High Self] who have risen to the density seven or eight, who are UN as the Oneness with the Creator, who can and do create by the UN the casement or vehicle they chose to use in the seen."  Another Guardian, on May 14, speaking from "the Seventh Sector Density of Creton" (presumably a planet in the "constellation of Cerus") explained: "We are in the avagada [space ship] of light force propulsion.  We are like the human beings of Earth and have much in common; though there are millions of years difference in our culture, we are still brothers.  What we enjoy as natural everyday enjoyments, you of the world cannot yet imagine."  Sananda briefly commented on the planet Clarion, "It is a beautiful place to live.  We have weather — snow and rain.  We adjust our bodies to the temperature."  He described the diet of the Guardians as "the bread of increase, which is like a snowflake." 

 

On April 24 several messages provided this information: "We are coming through your atmosphere and being seen by your astronomers.  They say it is large sun spots.  The various methods of communication with the people of Earth can be explained by the various frequencies that we operate on.  Our systems are very complicated to you; in reality they are very simple. . . . I am coming via inter-conscious-perception, which you call telepathy . . . It is our common means of communication and is used between our own planet and all the others we have communication with.  How many you ask?  We cannot number them for you have not enough paper to write the 000s on.  This is staggering to you, for we have been learning for millions of years. . . . We know no death, as you do.  It is as a cocoon turns into a moth — very consciously and voluntarily — when we need or desire the change.  We never go back to the former lear [our Earth body]."  Sananda further described the communication technique in these words: "The thermin ["that which records our thoughts, actions etc. in the Losolo"] you heard was really from Cerus.  It is the engine-like affair that we use for timing the vibratory impulses that come from your Earth.  This communication is being recorded by your thermin.  It looks much like a large looking glass and your thoughts are recorded on it as quickly as you think.  And we beam back our impulses in the form of magnetic energy.  It is done with a celecoblet, something your scientists have not yet imaged." 

 

. . . Mrs. Keech was told that "It is ignorance of the Universal Laws that makes all the misery of the Earth"; and that "We see and know that you struggle in darkness and want to bring real light, for yours is the only planet that has war and hatred. . . . We feel no sadness but are interested in the progress of the people of your Earth.  Why?  We are all brothers.  Need I tell you more?" 

 

Elder Brother encouraged Mrs. Keech with a report of progress: "Since we have been in contact with your planet, your people have been responding to our forces of light for the advancement of the human race on your Earth."  "Surely," remarked Sananda on a later occasion, "there is light and it shall be revealed to you.  You are coming to the end of the age of darkness.  The light of the world shall be made manifest by the coming of the earlings.  The earlings are the beings who are inhabiting the regions you call the atmosphere.  The atmosphere is alive with beings of such a vibratory rate that the dense people of Earth cannot see them." 

 

A number of messages promised visitation from outer space and gave some hint of the visitors' interest in earth.  Early in April Sananda said: "The saucers are over West Virginia taking listings of the world's industrial people that make war material and profit from war assets.  They are going to land and make contact with you people of Earth in May. . . . It may be June when they land in West Virginia."  In mid-May Elder Brother mentioned that "we are coming into your Earth vision in numbers and will be seen by many over the city of New York, Washington, D.C., Seattle, and Chicago.  We will land in various places, including West Virginia, the Carolinas, and Vermont.  We have contacts there."  Elder Brother also promised an even more interesting project — visits to other planets: "We are planning to take some people for a trip to our plane — that is, planet.  We are trying to make arrangements for a party of six from Westinghouse to visit our territory.  Is that a surprise to you?  We have had people from your world with us.  There is one in Syracuse, New York, one in Schenectady, New York, one in Rockford, Illinois, one in California — there are more than one in California and Arizona and Oregon.  Two of them are now on our planet Union.  They were there on Earth for a special mission." 

 
 
On May 23 . . . Sananda came right out and said: "We are planning to come in great numbers in the weeks ahead, as the war preparations are being formulated . . . [certain earth dwellers] will be gathered up and relieved of the experiences of the holocaust of the coming events."  The theme of war is adumbrated in a number of other messages during the late spring and early summer, and there are many references to the blessedness of harmony and peace, to the misery, futility, and madness of conflict.  In several places, the Guardians promise Mrs. Keech that those who "instruct the people of Earth in slaughter" will meet a dark and awful justice soon, and warn: "the people of Earth are rushing, rushing toward the suicide of themselves. . . . To this we are answering with signs and wonders in the sky.

 
 
On the morning of July 23, Mrs. Keech's pencil wrote this momentous message: "The cast of light you see in the southern sky is of our direction and is pulsating with a turning, spinning motion of the craft of the 'tola' [space ship] which is to land upon the planet in the cast of the day of August first — at the Lyons field.  It will be as if the world was coming to an end at the field when the landing occurs.  The operators will not believe their senses when they see the craft of outer space in the midst of the field."  This message concluded: "It is a very accurate cast that we give." 

 

 
Early on the morning of August 2 her pencil traced these words: "It was I, Sananda, who appeared on the roadside in the guise of the sice."  Although this word may be unfamiliar to the reader, Mrs. Keech recognized it at once.  She had first encountered it in a curious story, transmitted to her on July 28, whose significance was not immediately apparent to her.*

 

*As it will probably not be to the average reader, either, for whose edification the account is reproduced here, verbatim, from the mimeographed lessons: "Sara and Justine were cast as the boy and the girl; to each a love of the Creator.  As they came to the great city of the center of the Earth, which is called the CITY of the self — the child, Sara, asks Justine: 'Which way to the Father's house?'  To Sara, Justine said: 'To be a Carter, or one who finds his way, is the great cast for which he was created.'  As they journeyed to the city of the Self, in the center of the Earth, they were overtaken by the coy little scice [variant spelling for sice], which was a mink.  He was in disguise of the rabbit, which was a cousin to the grouse.

 

"'What a coy little sice is the rabbit,' was the girl Sara's cry which, as the sice had said, 'a cousin of the grouse — the GROUSE — the RABBIT — the SCICE.'  'WHAT WAS WHAT?' cried Sara.  The boy Justine cried, 'We have arrived in the land of thinking!  The sice thinks he will cast a spell of thinking upon us in the darkness of night while we are lost.' 

 

"To them the gates of the treasure of the kingdom swung open, where the greatest of all treasures were found — the scice in the garden of increase, where he was only the scice — NO COUSINS — NO ANCESTRY.  He was just Mr. Scice, WHO was himself, as the girl and boy, to the great Creator of the City of Self.  Each to his own, as a silent witness of the CITY in the Middle of the Earth . . . Scice and Child alike in the Creator's City.  Each found his way to the GARDEN OF SELF, each in his Creator's Garden."

 

On August 3, Sananda prepared her for possible future visits when he said: "While the guest of Earth is in the seen, he has many guises — as the sice he comes — as the giver of love he comes — as the one who calls by telephone — the glad in heart for the proferred bread and drink." 

 

 
An account of the origin of the earth's population also begins to emerge.  It seems that eons ago, on the planet Car, the population divided into two factions: "the scientists," led by Lucifer, and "the people who followed the Light," under the banner of God and in the command of Christ.  The "scientists," having invented something analogous to atom bombs — in those days, the name was "alcetopes" — threatened to destroy the hosts of Light and, through their fumbling cleverness, succeeded in blowing to pieces the planet Car.  The disappearance of Car, as an integrated mass, produced enormous disturbances in the balance of the omniverse ("all universes") and nearly caused complete chaos.  Meanwhile, the forces of Light had retreated to other planets, such as Clarion, Uranus, and Cerus, where they regrouped and considered their next strategy.  Lucifer led his troops, their minds now obliterated of cosmic knowledge, to earth. 

 

Since that prehistoric day, "the cycle" has begun anew, and threatens to repeat itself.  Lucifer is abroad today, in disguise, and has been leading our contemporary scientists in their construction of ever greater weapons of destruction.  If the headlong plunge into fission is allowed to continue, the tragedy of the destruction of Car may be repeated: Earth will be fragmented and the whole solar system disrupted.  The forces of Light have not been idle; Christ's visit to earth, as Jesus, was the initial attempt to reclaim mankind, to persuade them to desert the Prince of Darkness, and it was partially successful.  There is a portion of the population of the earth who are open and receptive to "the Light," who can hear the still voice of the Creator, or God, and act rightly in His service.  But the forces of evil (and science) are extremely powerful, and the followers of Light may not be able to conquer in time to escape another explosion. 

 
That [August 2] message read: "the Earthling will awaken to the great casting [conditions to be fulfilled] of the lake seething and the great destruction of the tall buildings of the local city — the cast that the lake bed is sinking to the degree that it will be as a great scoop of wind from the bottom of the lake throughout the countryside.  You shall tell the world that this is to be, for such it is given.  To you the date only is secret, for the panic of men knows no bounds." 

 
This startling information was considerably expanded in a long communique from Sananda on August 15, which read in part: 

 

"And the scenes of the day will be as mad.  The grosser ones will be as mad.  And the ones of the light will be as the sibets [students] of teachers who have drilled them for this day. . . . In the carting [plan] it is cast [conditions to be fulfilled] that the event will begin at dawn and end swiftly as a passing cloud — in the seen. 

 

"When the resurrected have been resurrected or taken up — it will be as a great burst of light . . . the ground in the earth to a depth of thirty feet will be bright . . . for the earth will be purified. "

 

In the midst of this it is to be recorded that a great wave rushes into the rocky mountains — the ones of the covered area will be as the com [group] of the newly dead.  The slopes of the side to the east will be the beginning of a new civilization upon which will be the new order, in the light.  As it is recorded the three mountain ranges to stand at the cast of the guards, are the Alleghenies, the Catskills, the Rocky Mts. 

 

"Yet the land will be as yet not submerged, but as a washing of the top to the sea, for the purpose of purifying it of the earthling, and the creating the new order.  Yet will it be of the LIGHT, for all things must first be likened unto the housecleaning, in which the chaos reigns first, second the ORDER. 

 

"THIS IS DATED NOT IN SYMBOLOGY . . . THE REAL! — REALITY YET." 

 

Ten days later came the third great message which made explicit the further ramifications of the great events: 

 

"This is not limited to the local area, for the cast of the country of the U.S.A. is that it is to break in twain.  In the area of the Mississippi, in the region of the Canada, Great Lakes and the Mississippi, to the Gulf of Mexico, into the Central America will be as changed.  The great tilting of the land of the U.S. to the East will throw up mountains along the Central States, along the Great New Sea, along North and South — to the South.  The new mountain range shall be called The Argone Range, which will signify the ones who have been there are gone — the old has gone past — the new is.  This will be as a monument to the old races; to the new will be the Altar of the Rockies and the Alleghenies." 

 

On August 27, Sananda filled out the picture of world-wide upheaval and change in a long, elaborate message that specifically forecast that Egypt would be remade and the desert would become a fertile valley; Mu would rise from the Pacific; the "uprising of the Atlantic bottom" would "submerge the land of the Atlantic seaboard"; France would sink to the bottom of the Atlantic, as would England; and Russia would become one great sea.

On August 30, he [Dr. Armstrong] dispatched more than fifty copies of a seven-page mimeographed "Open Letter to American Editors and Publishers."  In it he proclaimed the coming catastrophe, cited precedents from the submersion of Mu, and Christian parallels from chapters of Luke, and gave an account, with examples, of Mrs. Keech's "ESP lessons."  The body of the letter did not mention the specific date predicted but stated in several places that the cataclysm was "very, very near."  Copies of the release that we saw in October carried a handwritten addendum: "latest release — Date of evacuation Dec. 20."  Some of the releases actually sent to the press may have also borne this legend. 

 

The mailing of this press release marks the end of the first phase of Mrs. Keech's and the Armstrongs' activities.  Up till now, the "lessons" had been virtually a private matter among Mrs. Keech and her friends.  Dr. Armstrong's action changed things.  In one gesture, he made the news of the flood public property, he committed himself and his reputation to a specific prediction of world-wide cataclysm, and he took the first step toward the organization of a movement.