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Is Another World Watching? The Riddle of the Flying Saucers
Mr. Heard’s theories are based in historical records of mysterious emanations since 1877, suggesting they are peaceful observation spaceships piloted by intelligent Greys from our sister planet, Mars. The reason for their coming is concern over the cataclysms on Earth, wars, atomic bomb explosions, etc., which create spots on the Sun. While the factual content can be taken with many grains of salt, the presumption of the moral issues of war and atomic weapons is the evident intention of the book. A must have volume from the Golden Era of Flying Saucers. A splendid collector copy of this classic UFO work.
182 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1950
27 people want to read
About the author
Gerald Heard
61 books11 followersGerald Heard, born in London on October 6, 1889, of Irish ancestry, was educated in England, taking honors in history and studying theology at the University of Cambridge. Following Cambridge, he worked for Lord Robson of Jesmond and later for Sir Horace Plunkett, founder of the Irish Agriculture Cooperative movement. Heard began lecturing from 1926 to 1929 at Oxford University's Board of Extra Mural Studies. In 1927 he began lecturing for South Place Ethical Society. From 1929 to 1930 he edited "The Realist," a monthly journal of scientific humanism whose sponsors included H.G. Wells, Julian Huxley, and Aldous Huxley. In 1929 he published The Ascent of Humanity, an essay on the philosophy of history that received the prestigious Hertz Prize by the British Academy. From 1930 to 1934 he served as the BBC's first science commentator, and from 1932 to 1942 he was a council member of the Society for Psychical Research.
In 1937 Gerald Heard came to the United States, accompanied by Aldous Huxley, after having been offered the chair of historical anthropology at Duke University. After delivering some lectures at Duke, Heard gave up the post and soon settled in California where from 1941 to 1942 he founded and oversaw the building of Trabuco College, a large facility where comparative-religion studies and practices flourished under Heard's visionary direction. Trabuco College, 30 years ahead of its time, was discontinued in 1947, and the vast properties were subsequently donated to the Vedanta Society of Southern California.
During the 1950s, Heard's main activities were writing and lecturing, along with an occasional television and radio appearance. His broad philosophical themes and scintillating oratorical style influenced many people and attracted a legion of interested persons. But chiefly he maintained a regular discipline of meditation for many years, as the core of his mature beliefs centered around the intentional evolution of consciousness.
A prolific writer, Heard penned some thirty-eight books, the most important of which are his pioneering academic works documenting the evolution of consciousness, including The Ascent of Humanity (1929), The Social Substance of Religion (1931), The Source of Civilization (1935), Pain, Sex and Time (1939), and his last book, The Five Ages of Man (1964). He also wrote several popular devotional books, including The Creed of Christ (1940) and Training for the Life of the Spirit (1941-42). Under the name H. F. Heard (H. F. for Henry FitzGerald, his given name), he wrote a number of mysteries and fantasies, including A Taste for Honey (1941) and The Great Fog and Other Weird Tales (1944). Following five years of illness, Gerald Heard peacefully passed away at his home in Santa Monica, California, on August 14, 1971.
In 1937 Gerald Heard came to the United States, accompanied by Aldous Huxley, after having been offered the chair of historical anthropology at Duke University. After delivering some lectures at Duke, Heard gave up the post and soon settled in California where from 1941 to 1942 he founded and oversaw the building of Trabuco College, a large facility where comparative-religion studies and practices flourished under Heard's visionary direction. Trabuco College, 30 years ahead of its time, was discontinued in 1947, and the vast properties were subsequently donated to the Vedanta Society of Southern California.
During the 1950s, Heard's main activities were writing and lecturing, along with an occasional television and radio appearance. His broad philosophical themes and scintillating oratorical style influenced many people and attracted a legion of interested persons. But chiefly he maintained a regular discipline of meditation for many years, as the core of his mature beliefs centered around the intentional evolution of consciousness.
A prolific writer, Heard penned some thirty-eight books, the most important of which are his pioneering academic works documenting the evolution of consciousness, including The Ascent of Humanity (1929), The Social Substance of Religion (1931), The Source of Civilization (1935), Pain, Sex and Time (1939), and his last book, The Five Ages of Man (1964). He also wrote several popular devotional books, including The Creed of Christ (1940) and Training for the Life of the Spirit (1941-42). Under the name H. F. Heard (H. F. for Henry FitzGerald, his given name), he wrote a number of mysteries and fantasies, including A Taste for Honey (1941) and The Great Fog and Other Weird Tales (1944). Following five years of illness, Gerald Heard peacefully passed away at his home in Santa Monica, California, on August 14, 1971.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 31, 2017
An, uh, interesting book if you can get over the fact that it was written in 1950. The author starts out with relating some "flying saucer" sightings that will be mostly well-known to modern aficionados of the subject for a few chapters, then he launches into his own theories about it. At first, it seems like he's going into something fairly plausible territory for the time in his musings, but then he goes into his theory that the unknown aerial craft are piloted by bees from Mars. Yes, bees. Or at least some kind of insect not more than a 2-3 inches in size. The final couple chapters are a little more socio-scientific, speculating on why the Martian insects are coming here now (then), mostly that it's because of their concern over the atomic bomb and the human proclivity towards violence.
November 19, 2017
Started reading it a second time as the first time was very long ago (1953). Quit about half way through as the author seems more intent with talking of his own faulty (my opinion) ideas and not telling much about older sightings. If you are going to read period literature about UFO's there are much better books than this one.
May 29, 2014
This is an early UFO book, and along with Behind the Flying Saucers I believe it's one of the first two to argue in detail that flying saucers are alien spacecraft.
The first section is a recap of all the major flying saucers sightings up to 1950, presented in a highly idiosyncratic style. Heard seems to love non-sequitur literary and mythological references. He also leaves out much of what witnesses actually claimed to see in order to make all the known sightings fit the theory he pitches later in the book.
The second section deals with how the press and military reacted to the flying saucer phenomenon, and disposes of the idea that flying saucers are secret weapons.
The third section is the good stuff. Heard, using unimpeachable logic, determines the following about flying saucers and their pilots:
- They are very interested in Fort Knox, because of all the gold there. They think we use it create energy somehow, because their advanced brains can't understand any other reason we would value it.
- Venus has clouds, so aliens living there would never explore space because they can't see it. Aliens in other solar systems would be too busy exploring their own solar systems, Therefore the flying saucers are from Mars.
- The aliens must be small and hard to pilot such small craft and survive the enormous acceleration, therefore they are bees.
- The aliens are concerned about our use of atomic weapons, because undersea tests could tip the planet over. Also, our sun is a cepheid star, which can explode at any time, and sunspots are caused by atomic bombs so the aliens want us to stop detonating them before the sun explodes.
As should be obvious, there is just about no field of science Heard doesn't have bizarre ideas about.
One thing I continue to find interesting is the idea that Mars is far older than the earth. This seems to have been a central conceit in thinking about Mars well back into the 19th century, and is certainly in evidence in this book even though by the 1950s I'm pretty sure no astronomer would have supported the idea. I'm planning on reading a book called "Imagining Mars" that may shed some light on where the idea of "ancient Mars" came from and why it had such a hold on the popular imagination.
The first section is a recap of all the major flying saucers sightings up to 1950, presented in a highly idiosyncratic style. Heard seems to love non-sequitur literary and mythological references. He also leaves out much of what witnesses actually claimed to see in order to make all the known sightings fit the theory he pitches later in the book.
The second section deals with how the press and military reacted to the flying saucer phenomenon, and disposes of the idea that flying saucers are secret weapons.
The third section is the good stuff. Heard, using unimpeachable logic, determines the following about flying saucers and their pilots:
- They are very interested in Fort Knox, because of all the gold there. They think we use it create energy somehow, because their advanced brains can't understand any other reason we would value it.
- Venus has clouds, so aliens living there would never explore space because they can't see it. Aliens in other solar systems would be too busy exploring their own solar systems, Therefore the flying saucers are from Mars.
- The aliens must be small and hard to pilot such small craft and survive the enormous acceleration, therefore they are bees.
- The aliens are concerned about our use of atomic weapons, because undersea tests could tip the planet over. Also, our sun is a cepheid star, which can explode at any time, and sunspots are caused by atomic bombs so the aliens want us to stop detonating them before the sun explodes.
As should be obvious, there is just about no field of science Heard doesn't have bizarre ideas about.
One thing I continue to find interesting is the idea that Mars is far older than the earth. This seems to have been a central conceit in thinking about Mars well back into the 19th century, and is certainly in evidence in this book even though by the 1950s I'm pretty sure no astronomer would have supported the idea. I'm planning on reading a book called "Imagining Mars" that may shed some light on where the idea of "ancient Mars" came from and why it had such a hold on the popular imagination.
Want to read
June 10, 2009A very early UFO book; one of the first. I picked this up at a library sale a couple of years ago. It's a pulpy pocket sized paperback; a 1953 "update" of Heard's original 1950 book. I've read only a few passage from it and it looks quite promising. More soon.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews