The Stargate Conspiracy

by Lynn Picknett

  The most complex and thought-provoking connection between the Nine and religion on Earth is found in The Keys of Enoch. Between its quasi-Biblical covers, it simmers with a Hellfire-and-damnation Old Testament zeal, besides containing strong messianic and apocalyptic elements. For example:

  And I was told by my guides, Enoch and Metatron, that I was not to eat of the false powers of the earth, nor encourage my seed to marry with the fallen spiritual races of the earth.14

  This is rather worrying. The assumption that there are ‘fallen spiritual races’ with whom the righteous should not breed is insidious and, in such a seminal book, seems to us to be more than a little disquieting. The very concept of whole races being somehow genetically unworthy and of not measuring up to the standard of the ‘righteous’ is, surely, the thin end of a wedge with which recent history is only too familiar. The religious scheme of The Keys of Enoch is very interesting in that it is calculated to embrace all the major religions of the USA - or rather, of the white United States. It is a mixture of Old Testament Judaism and Christianity, and also speaks approvingly of Mormonism (which Hurtak regards as the direct heir of the Heliopolitan priesthood — an exceptionally unlikely scenario). Hurtak says very little directly about Islam, although it is one of the dominant religions among African-Americans. He refers to Muslims obliquely — perhaps not unexpectedly - as ‘the Children of Darkness’,15 which perhaps reveals what is, for him, the identity of the villains in the imminent battle for the Earth. (Tom is fairly evasive about the Muslims but conveys a negative attitude based on their treatment of women, and says that Islam has - unfortunately, of course — been influenced by the ‘Fallen One’.16)

  Also rather disturbing is the Nine’s attitude to the Holocaust. They uphold the Jews as the Chosen People, but remonstrate with them for not accepting Jesus — ‘the last one of us’ — as Messiah. Tom speaks of the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews were exterminated by Hitler, with huge sorrow, yet claims it was an act of self-sacrifice and salvation:

  The greatest portion of these six million came at that time to sacrifice self, to make your planet earth aware that there were those who would attempt to rule and control humanity.17

  Tom also explained that the atrocity of the Holocaust was necessary for the creation of the state of Israel, an important part of the plan for Earth. Essentially the victims chose to be incarnated at this time and place and to be victims of the Holocaust as a selfless act of sacrifice to make us all aware that evil people existed ... At this point the thought occurs that Tom may represent the gods of our solar system but in this case surely our own morality has the edge? Aren’t we already aware of the existence of evil? Did we really need the horrible deaths of 6 million people to bring it home to us? (And Tom shares with many the misconception that the Holocaust only involved Jews. Of course, many thousands of others were killed by the Nazis, including members of specific groups such as gypsies, homosexuals and Jehovah’s Witnesses.) In any case, are we alone in finding Tom’s sweeping pronouncement about the Holocaust deeply offensive?

  The Nine think in sweeping global terms that lend themselves to Hurtak’s quasi-Biblical prose and apocalyptic ideas. They have explained in detail their plans for the future of mankind to their faithful, the apostles of the new world order. As Sir John Whitmore wrote in his foreword to The Only Planet of Choice:

  This book along with other books on crop circles, the new genre of Sci Fi films, a few global crises, whistle blowers, paranormal events, controlled leaks and not so controlled ones, are all part of the essential awakening of Earth.18

  The Nine’s basic message, and the reason they have made contact with certain humans recently, is that something has gone wrong with mankind’s genetic programming. This is causing problems, not only for Earth, but also for other civilisations who have to pass through incarnations here, so the Nine have to step in to put things right.

  Unsurprisingly this matches Hurtak’s system: he claims that something has gone wrong with humanity’s ‘programming’ and that, over the thirty-year-period that will end in 2003, the intelligences that rule the universe are coming to repair it by upgrading human intelligence. We have failed the program and, through Hurtak and the others, the ‘White Brotherhood’ (to which the Nine are subordinate) are trying to rectify the situation.19

  We have seen how the Nine spoke of the imminent mass landings on Earth: that was in the 1970s, and the failure of this momentous event to materialise means that they are now claiming the need for it has diminished. When communicating with the Puharich-Whitmore-Schlemmer group in the mid-1970s, Tom also spoke of the Nine interfering with radio and television transmissions in order to communicate directly with the people of Earth and prepare them for the landings. This did not happen either because, Tom said, the landings were no longer necessary.

  In April 1976, James Hurtak told Jacques Vallée that he and Puharich, along with others who had access to ‘confidential and secret information’, were working to make the public aware that Earth was to be contacted by ‘highly evolved beings’ within the next eighteen months, that is, by the end of 1978.20 Right from the start, the Nine pushed the idea of preparing for an imminent global upheaval, a purging or final showdown between the forces of light and darkness, something close to fundamentalists’ hearts as the great battle of Armageddon. At first, this was the Nine’s mission statement (1974):

  It is important that it be stated in the chronicle of the three of you [Schlemmer, Whitmore and Puharich] that there will be physical civilizations that will come to raise the level of this planet Earth, to bring it out of its own contamination, to purify it and prepare the people to keep it in a pure state so that it does not become in a collapsed state for future generations. 21

  As usual, it is Hurtak who uses the most blood-curdling words to describe this future upheaval: there is a ‘galactic war and housecleaning that is being completed throughout the universe’,22 a war that will also be manifested on Earth, with the coming apocalypse, followed by a golden age, in which a new form of government will arise. The ‘lesser brotherhoods’ of light who work with the ‘younger spiritual teachers’ of Earth are now being ‘forced out of their positions of power’ so that the ’greater forces of Light will externalize on the earth plane’.23 (The use of force is interesting here: could these ‘younger spiritual teachers’ not be persuaded to surrender their positions of power for the greater good rather than having to be forced out of them? This seems a somewhat unspiritual, if not downright totalitarian, approach.) Hurtak goes on to warn that ‘materialists who seek to destroy the world ... will be as desiccated mud when the foundations of the earth are removed’.24 Hurtak is nothing if not patriotic, declaring that the centre of the new ‘Spiritual Administration’ will arise in America, the heir to Atlantis, which he refers to as Altea-America. 25 He also often indulges in a serious pun when mentioning the rise of the New JerUSAlem ...

  The scene is set for a final showdown between the forces of good and evil, one that will affect the entire galaxy. (Myers and Percy indicate that the countdown began in October 1991.26) No doubt the many thousands of the followers of the Nine are hanging on to every channelled word with bated breath, waiting to play their part in some supremely satisfying drama, in which they are, of course, on the side of the righteous. After all, the West has not really been totally involved in a good war for half a century - how exciting it will be when the great ‘housecleaning’ finally arrives! The Millennium, the Apocalypse, and Armageddon are all balm to the souls of unhappy, bored and frustrated people who see themselves as knights in shining armour on the side of the righteous in the coming battle. It would, of course, be a terrible thing if none of it ever happened, and life just went on as usual; that would be their truly nightmare scenario.

  The more this investigation proceeded, the more the full impact and influence of the Nine began to dawn on us. They have changed the way people think — ordinary people and not-so-ordinary people - including, as we will see, some of
the world’s most talented and daring scientists and thinkers. But one area in which their power is supreme is that of the New Age, that much derided — and seriously underestimated — international community of semi-mystical self-improvers. While it is easy to dismiss their fads and crazes as harmless, they are in their own way a serious force to be reckoned with.

  The New Age movement is not so much a ‘subculture’ as a rapidly growing alternative society that, despite its size, remains virtually invisible. Nobody knows how many people make up this global community, stretching from California to Glastonbury to the ashrams of India, but it must run into hundreds of thousands, if not millions. Few outside the community itself realise what a vast and thriving economy it has. New Age publishing is big business, as are the workshops that go on tour, attracting large audiences who pay stiff prices for the privilege of sitting at the feet of a big-name guru. However, this happy world of workshops, consultancies and specialist holidays is strangely fragmented, as each healing, meditation or channelling group operates very largely on its own, and often in intense rivalry. However, the economic and political potential of such a vast, untapped community — if it could be brought together and directed — is enormous.

  The New Age has already fallen in love with the Nine, largely thanks to their hugely successful The Only Planet of Choice, which has sold at least 50,000 copies in Britain alone, and which continues to sell steadily. Our friend Theo Paijmans, who hosts a three-hour weekly radio show from Amsterdam on the subject of UFOs and the unexplained, tells us that every week without fail callers ask questions based on The Only Planet of Choice. And in the United States, Carla Rueckert’s The Ra Material, based on her channelling of the Nine, is extremely influential. According to Palden Jenkins, who edited the first edition of The Only Planet of Choice, more and more channelling, meditation and healing groups are beginning to ‘realise’ that the source of their inspiration is none other than the Nine.27 There seems to be a covert campaign — on a massive scale — of spiritual takeover and unification.

  The Keys of Enoch has been a very influential book for over twenty years, and Hurtak himself tours the world giving courses and workshops on its teachings to eager audiences. Yet once again, amazingly, he cleverly manages to keep this side of his life completely separate from his more academic activities. His latest venture, as scientific consultant to Boris Said’s Magical Eye film production company, is to work on a ‘monumental series of upcoming documentaries’28 based on his work.

  Hurtak has referred to the opening of a ‘gateway’ between the world of the gods - or rather, the Nine Principles of God - and this world. Clearly the thousands who follow the Nine believe that this ‘stargate’ has been open for some time, and that we have been prepared for the return of the old Egyptian gods. This is a truly momentous scenario, and the implications are profoundly disturbing. But the question is: are the Nine who they claim to be?

  The cracks appear

  Undoubtedly, the Nine have already failed on several major counts. For a start, what happened to the promised ‘mass landings’ of the late 1970s? As with many other channelling cults, major events failed to materialise as prophesied, but the Nine’s glib excuses, hastily given to paper over the cracks, were lapped up by devotees who simply could not bear their belief to be undermined by anything, especially the truth. This is a well-known psychological syndrome among cult followers, whether in the shape of the imminent return of a god or the coming of the Space Brothers. Time and time again the cultists have taken up their required positions, often after having sold all their belongings, and waited for the great event. And waited, and waited and waited ... And, when nothing happens, tired, cold and virtually destitute, they piece their lives back together by accepting the flimsiest excuse. Although the followers of the Nine were not required to sell up, they did have to chase around the world, and Whitmore was persuaded to part with a large proportion of his wealth. Tom announced that the landings are no longer necessary and that conditions have changed. But why? What, exactly, has changed?

  The Nine are also, as we have seen, exceptionally poor at forward planning, having failed with both Uri Geller and Bobby Home. Why didn’t they simply appoint Phyllis Schlemmer as ‘transceiver’ in the first place? And they enticed Lyall Watson, and others, into the circle, only to see them either flee or ask, unacceptably, too many awkward questions.

  The Nine’s message of ‘peace and love’ often seems contradicted by the way in which they treat their human followers, and by the sheer unpleasantness that seems to have surrounded, in particular, the Schlemmer circle. Bobby Horne was pushed to the brink of suicide by the endless pressure to channel the Nine, and Don Elkins, the leader of L/L Research, did commit suicide, while the balance of his mind was disturbed, in 1984. This is nothing, of course, compared to the other great unpleasantness in the Nine’s alleged history: their destruction of Atlantis because they were ‘angry.29 They also claim that certain people have been ‘implanted’ at birth in order to carry out missions on their behalf, which, if nothing else, goes against their fine words about free will. Tom was challenged on this point by Whitmore, but answered that these people had chosen to be implanted before they were born, so they had no memory of doing such a deal.30

  The Nine’s version of Earth’s (and galactic) history, is simply unprovable. Much rests on the credence given to such matters as Atlantis, the monuments of Mars and the vast antiquity of the Sphinx, all of which are arguable, but none of which are facts. The Nine often rely on the notorious, and convenient, impossibility of proving a negative, such as the non-existence of Atlantis. Where they do venture into recorded history - or even the myths and traditions of religion — the Nine often make demonstrable blunders. For example, Tom said that Hoova had descended to Earth and was encountered by Abraham, giving rise to the Biblical tale of the ladder joining Heaven and Earth. In fact this vision was seen by Jacob, not Abraham.31

  Another term used by the Nine is, commonly - and erroneously — used by millions: ‘Jesus the Nazarene’, meaning Jesus who came from the town of Nazareth. Unfortunately, this comes from the Bible’s mistranslation of the source: the word should be Nasorean, meaning a member of a particular sect.32 While it is understandable that ordinary people might get such facts wrong - after all, the mistake occurs in the Bible - it is surely less likely that gods would err similarly.

  Furthermore, when Puharich seized on the name ‘Harmarchis’ as one of those used by Tom-Atum, Tom delightedly treated this as a breakthrough, saying: ‘You have found the secret.’ It may be a historical fact that Harmarchis was one of the names of the Sphinx, and that it was a representation of Atum (although Egyptologists had known this for years), but Tom then goes on to elaborate: ‘I will say briefly to you concerning the Sphinx: I am the beginning. I am the end.’33

  This appears to be related to that by now familiar mistake - the idea that one of the ancient Egyptian names for the Sphinx was arq ur. This has become a favourite line among the followers of the Nine, who always quote it as if it were a fact. For example, Richard Hoagland, in his 1992 ‘briefing’ of the United Nations, gave this definition:

  In the ... Egyptian language it [the Sphinx] was called the arq ur, and that is really interesting because as we’ve probed into the etymology, arq ur meant: ‘the end of the beginning connected to the beginning of the end’. Almost like a cycle, like an end-point, like a constant process, as if it represents the end of something and the beginning of something else.34

  In fact, arq means ‘end’ or ‘completion’ and ur means ‘great’. There is nothing in either arq or ur to signify ‘beginning’, though the Nine claim that there is, which is good enough for their followers, including Hoagland. But David Myers, in Two-Thirds, goes further and traces the name back to the ancient Altean language : ‘Ark Hur’, which, according to his information, means ‘shining beginning-ending’ - again, echoing Tom’s words to the Schlemmer group.35

  A major obstacle lies in the way of these interpr
etations — of course, arq ur does not mean ‘Sphinx’ at all. As we saw earlier, this error was made by Robert Temple in The Sirius Mystery, resulting from a simple misreading of Sir E.A. Wallis Budge’s An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary. As we have seen, it is true that the word ‘Sphinx’ does appear against the definition of arq ur, though not as the name of the monument, but as the abbreviation of the title of Budge’s source, the French journal Sphinx. There, in volume 2, on page 8 (as clearly indicated in Budge’s book), in an article by Professor Karl Piehl, is Budge’s source for the arq ur hieroglyphs, which, taken together, in fact mean ‘silver’. The word is not even ancient Egyptian, since it was borrowed from the Greeks in a later period; it is an Egyptian phonetic rendering of argyros (a fact that renders any attempt to analyse the meaning of the Egyptian syllables completely futile). Temple’s mistake had no bearing on his own work, as he mentioned the ‘Sphinx’ definition only in passing and drew no conclusions from it, but the same error has appeared in communications from the Nine, leading us to speculate about whether or not they have been reading Temple’s book. Interestingly, Hoagland claims that Temple is the source for his arq ur definition, so it is possible that he was simply passing on the error through sloppy research, though his particular interpretation of arq ur — ‘beginning and ending’ - is not Temple’s, but comes directly from the Nine.

  So could the Nine be readers of Robert Temple - or, more charitably — could Phyllis Schlemmer or one of the sitters have read it and unconsciously contaminated the incoming communications from the Nine? Tom could then have picked their brains; after all, he claims he is limited to the words and concepts already in place in his transceiver’s mind. Unfortunately, the relevant exchange between Tom and Puharich took place two years before Temple’s book came out (although it did exist in manuscript at the time,36 so it is possible that a copy could have been circulating among those connected with Lab Nine - although if Temple did show his manuscript to anybody it was most likely to be his mentor Arthur M. Young). Perhaps Tom, like Temple in his later book, simply misread Budge’s dictionary.