I was still musing on the possible sources of power when a very strange document 23 came into my hands—a book written nearly ten years before the Wright brothers had made their first flight. It described in some detail a type of flying disk or aerial boat used by the race whose descendants left behind them the mighty pyramids of Mexico and Egypt, the vast stones of Tiahuanaco and Sacsahauman, the 1,800-ton blocks at Balbac, the sacred tablets of Nacaal and the sublime Secret Stanzas of Asia. In this book were terms and expressions I had never heard of before, terms like ‘etheric force’ and ‘akkasha’. It was an intriguing book, and while reading it I sensed something familiar. Certain characteristics were described there which tallied almost identically with the United States Army’s flying saucer reports today. I began to think—and wonder. Here is the significant passage. The author, Scott Elliott, says: ‘Atlantean‘ 24 methods of locomotion must be recognised as still more marvellous for the airship or flying machine which Keely in America and Maxim in this country are now trying to produce [1895] was then an accomplished fact.... It was not at any time a common means of transport. The slaves, the servants, and the masses who laboured with their hands had to trudge along the country tracts, or travel in rude carts with solid wheels drawn by uncouth animals. The air-boats may be considered as the private carriage of those days, or rather the private yachts, if we regard the relative number of those who possessed them, for they must have been at all times difficult and costly to produce. They were not as a rule built to accommodate many persons. Numbers were constructed for only two, some allowed for six or eight passengers. In the later days when war and strife had brought the Golden Age to an end, battleships that could navigate the air had to a great extent replaced the battleships at sea—having naturally proved far more powerful engines of destruction. These were constructed to carry as many as fifty, and in some cases even up to a hundred fighting men.
23/ W. Scott Elliott, The Story of Atlantis.
24/ Too much already has been written concerning the famous lost continent to argue here the ‘pros and cons’ of its existence. As geology knows Atlantis is merely the name given of one of a long series of former land masses—in this case the one directly preceding our own. It seems reasonable to suppose that what is now the floor of the Pacific Ocean will in millenia hence be the home of future races who will have many tales to tell concerning the lost Arya (or Eur-asia). Certainly the Earth’s strata show that the land on which we live has been ocean bed, not once, but many times. Anyone interested in Atlantis for its own sake should read works of that title by Donnelly, Lewis Spence, Scott Elliott, and its history in the esoteric works of ancient India, South America, and Egypt; also ; Secret Cities of South America, by Wilkins, Built Before the Flood, and particularly ‘Letter No. XXIIIb’ in The Mahatma Letters to A-P. Sinnett, to name but a few.
‘The material of which the vimanas 25 (air-boats) were constructed was either wood or metal. The earlier ones were built of wood, the boards used being exceedingly thin, but the injection of some substance which did not add materially to the weight, while it gave leather-like toughness, provided the necessary combination of lightness and strength. When metal was used it was generally an alloy—two white-coloured metals and one red one entering into its composition. 26 The resultant was white-coloured like aluminium and even lighter in weight. Over the rough framework of the air-boat was extended a large sheet of this metal which was then beaten into shape and electrically welded when necessary. But whether built of metal or wood their outside surface was apparently seamless and perfectly smooth, and they shone in the dark as if coated with luminous paint.
25/ Vimana (Sanskrit) Vimanam (Pali). Lit.: to measure out or traverse a course; a Car Celestial; a flying chariot, self-propelled and self-moving; a flying palace.
26/ Probably copper, magnesium, aluminium, according to some alloys discovered and analysed from ancient Atlantean city sites.
‘In shape they were boatlike but they were invariably decked over, for when at full speed it could not have been convenient, even if safe, for any on board to remain on the upper deck. Their propelling and steering gear could be brought into use at either end.
‘But the all interesting question is that relating to the power by which they were propelled. In the earlier times it seems to have been personal ‘vril’ 27 that supplied the motive power—whether used in conjunction with any mechanical contrivance matters not much—but in the later days this was replaced by a force which, though generated by in what is to us an unknown manner, operated nevertheless through definite mechanical arrangements. This force, though not yet discovered by science, more nearly approached that which Keely in America used to handle than the electric power used by Maxim. It was in fact of an etheric nature. But though we are no nearer to the solution of the problem, its method of operation can be described. The mechanical arrangements no doubt differed somewhat in different vessels.
27/ ‘Vril’ or the raising of the personal vibrations sufficiently to overcome the Earth’s magnetic attraction, the principle of levitation.
‘The following description is taken from an air-boat in which on one occasion three ambassadors from the King who ruled over the northern part of Poseidonis made the journey to the court of the Southern Kingdom. A strong heavy metal chest which lay in the centre of the boat was the generator. Thence the force flowed through two large flexible tubes to either end of the vessel, as well as through eight subsidiary tubes fixed fore and aft to the bulwarks. These had double openings pointing vertically both up and down. 28 When the journey was about to begin the valves of the eight bulwark tubes which pointed downwards were opened—all the other valves being closed. The current rushing through these impinged on the earth with such force as to drive the boat upwards while the air itself continued to supply the necessary fulcrum. When a sufficient elevation was reached the flexible tube at that end of the vessel which pointed away from the desired destination was brought into action, while by the partial closing of the valves the current rushing through the eight vertical tubes was reduced to the small amount required to maintain the elevation reached. The great volume of current, being now directed through the large tube pointing downwards from the stern at an angle of about forty-five degrees, while helping to maintain the elevation, provided also the great motive power to propel the vessel through the air. The steering was accomplished by the discharge of current through this tube, for the slightest change in its direction at once caused an alteration in the vessel’s course. 29
28/ The torpedo or flying submarine on page 15 had double rows of strange blue lights. The vessel described as landing in Germany on page 142 also had a double row of exhaust jets.
29/ In other words, a ‘jet’ on a universal mounting.
‘But constant supervision was not required. When a long journey had to be taken the tube could be fixed so as to need no handling till the destination was almost reached. The maximum speed attained was about 100 m.p.h., the course of flight never being in a straight line, but always in the form of long waves, now approaching, and now receding from the Earth, The means by which the vessel was brought to a stop on reaching its destination—and this could be done equally well in midair—was to give escape to some of the current force in the tube at that end of the boat which pointed toward its destination, while propelling force behind was gradually reduced by the closing of the valves. The reason has still to be given for the eight tubes pointing upwards from the bulwarks. This more especially concerns the aerial warfare having so powerful a force at their disposal, the warships naturally directed the current against each other. Now this was apt to destroy the equilibrium of the ship so struck and to turn it upside down. This situation was sure to be taken advantage of by the enemy vessel to make an attack with her ram. There was also the danger of being precipitated to the ground, unless the shutting and opening of the necessary valves were quickly attended to. In whatever position the vessel might be, the tubes pointing towards the Earth were naturally those through which the current should be rushing, while the tubes pointing upwards should be closed.’
Donald Keyhoe in his book The Flying Saucers are Real, (Hutchinson, 1950) talks to one of ‘the top engineers in N.A.CA.’, who tells him almost word for word what Scott Elliott said about the vimanas:
‘It (the saucer) could be built with variable direction jet or rocket nozzles. The nozzles would be’ placed around the rim and by changing their direction the disk could be made to rise and descend vertically. It could, however, fly straight ahead and make sharp turns. Its direction and velocity would be governed by the number of nozzles operating, the power applied, and the angle at which they were tilted. They could be pointed towards the ground, rearwards, or in a lateral direction, or in various combinations. A disk flying level, straight ahead, could be turned swiftly to left or right by shifting the angles of the nozzles or cutting off power from part of the group. This... would operate in the Earth’s atmosphere... also... in free space.’
This is exactly the principle on which the Atlantean vimanas were said to operate. Thus the flying saucers seem to be an improvement upon the vimanas rather than an extension of the principle adopted by the Wright brothers and used by us today with incredibly powerful, noisy, and relatively inefficient combustion engines.
Certain other characteristics make the saucer seem to be only an interplanetary, more advanced, model of the ancient vimana, so that a positively terrifying inference comes to the mind— terrifying not because of any physical harm that might come to us as a result—but terrifying because of the shattering blow (if it were true) it would give to our pride. For it would be admitting that tens of thousands of years ago there existed on Earth a nation more advanced, technically, than ourselves. Capable, even, of travelling to another planet.
Scott Elliott may appear to have described a kind of flying saucer, but from where did he get his information ? No one seemed to know. The book was rare and long out of print. Elliott was dead. Someone who had known him told me he had found his material in the ancient records of India and Asia and that I should try the museums and oriental libraries.
Very well then—off to the museums.
But as is the way with these strange things, research is like a snowball; set it in motion and it picks up first one thing then another until, before you know where you are, it has gained unexpected proportions. Before I had even reached the British Museum (I was a hundred yards short of it) my attention was attracted by a little bookshop in Museum Street that specialises in rare and unusual books. On sudden impulse I went inside and began to browse. Soon the proprietor came up to me and said: ‘I have a book I think would interest you.’
He was a strange man, with the most penetrating eyes I have ever seen; eyes that seemed to reach in and examine one’s innermost thoughts and to smile at what they saw. I did not recall telling him what I was looking for; I hardly knew myself. However, I took the book he offered and went my way.
It turned out to be one of James Churchward’s works on the Lost Continent, called The Children of Mu. On page 188 I found the following passage which made me feel I was on the right track. The author tells how, on his travels in India towards the close of the last century, he was shown some ancient Hindu manuscripts which the priests told him were copies of the ancient temple records of a mother civilisation that preceded even that of India. Among them he saw:
‘A drawing and instructions for the construction of the airship and her machinery, power, engines, etc. The power is taken from the atmosphere in a very simple, inexpensive manner. The engine is something like our present-day turbine in that it works from one chamber into another until finally exhausted. When the engine is once started it never stops until turned off. It will continue on if allowed to do so until the bearings are worn out.... These ships could keep circling around the earth for ever without once coming down until the machinery wore out. The power is unlimited, or rather limited only by what metals will stand. I find flights spoken of which, according to our maps, would run from one thousand to three thousand miles.
‘All records relating to these airships distinctly state that they were self-moving, they propelled themselves; in other words, they generated their own power as they flew along... independent of fuel. It seems to me... we are about 15,000 to 20,000 years behind the times.’
Almost word for word that seems to tally with Scott Elliott’s description of the vimanas. The engine sounds like some simple form of perpetual motion.
Churchward says air was used as a propellant, in something resembling a jet engine. Elliott says it was ‘etheric force’; but the ancient words for air connote its etheric and hidden attributes rather than the ordinary gases which we know compose the atmosphere, so there need to be no haggle over terminology.
Encouraged by this I began to search the ancient records in an attempt to prove or disprove my hunch that flying saucers are nothing new. I was rewarded beyond all expectations. The Ramayana and Maha Bharata are full of accounts of immense prehistoric aircraft of all shapes and sizes—some large, some small, some jet-propelled, others powered by a source beyond our ken, a power that, at face value, looks very like the human will itself as mentioned in the previous chapter.
In the Ramayana there is a fine description of a large vimana taking off:
‘When morning dawned, Rama, taking the Celestial Car (vimana) Puspaka had sent him by Vivpishand, stood ready to depart. Self-propelled was that car. It was large and finely painted. It had two stories and many chambers with windows, and was draped with flags and banners. It gave forth a melodious sound as it coursed along its airy way.’ 30 In another translation I found:
30/ As translated in ‘The Children of Mu’.
‘The Puspaka Car, that resembles the sun and belongs to my brother, was brought by the powerful Ravan; that aerial and excellent car, going everywhere at will, is ready for thee. That car, resembling a bright cloud in the sky, is in the city of Lanka.’ 31 And the hero Rama answers:
31/ In the Ramayana, translated by Manatha Nath Dutt m.a., in 1891, the poet ‘Valmiki’ is held to have completed the ‘Ramayana’ more than three thousand years ago, but the old records on which he based this great historical saga must be many times older
‘"Do thou speedily bring the aerial car for me." Thereupon arrived the car, adorned all over with gold, having fine upper rooms, banners, jewelled windows, and giving forth a melodious sound, having huge apartments, and excellent seats.’
‘Beholding the car coming by force of will Rama attained to an excess of astonishment. And the king (Rama) got in, and the excellent car, at the command of Raghira, rose up into the higher atmosphere. And in that car, coursing at will, Rama greatly delighted.’
After a long flight, we are told that the machine landed, then Rama himself took over control.
‘Being then commanded by Rama, that excellent car, with a huge noise, rose up in the Welkin. And looking down on all sides, Rama spoke to Sita.’ (Ibid.)
From here on Rama points out all the beauty spots and places of interest both on land and on sea all the way to Ceylon. When they arrive over the city there is great excitement and all the passengers stand up in the seats to obtain a better view.
Earlier in the great epic, Ravan comes across Rama’s beautiful wife, ‘the slender-waisted Sita’, in a forest, and by guile and intrigue lures her away to where his airship is parked. Then comes a vivid description of the tragedy. Ravan seizes Sita, carries her into his vimana and sets off as fast as he can. Romesh Dutt’s translation says: 32
32/ Romesh Dutt, Ramayana.
‘... Lift the poor and helpless dame. Seat her in his car celestial, yoked with power winged with speed. Golden its shape and radiance, fleet as Indra’s heavenly steed.... Then arose the Car Celestial o’er the hill and wooded vale.’
Poor Sita weeps piteously and begs Ravan to let her go. He ignores her cries and gloats over her plight, so as she rises in the air, the poor girl cries out to Nature for aid:
‘Dim and dizzy, faint and faltering, still she sent her piercing cry. Echoing through the boundless woodlands, pealing to the upper sky.
As she ascends over the forests she calls out to them for help:
‘Darksome woods of Panchavati, Janasthana’s smiling vale, Lowering trees and winding creepers, murmur to my lord this tale. Speak to Rama that his Sita, ruthless Ravan bears away.’
Higher and higher they go; the great mountain ranges begin to unfurl beneath her. In vain she cries to them:
‘Towering peaks and lofty mountains, wooded hills sublime and high Far extending gloomy ranges heaving to the azure sky.’
Help comes from a loyal old friend called Jatayu who flies up, in the form of a great bird (or in something shaped like a great bird) and an aerial combat takes place. Jatayu is no match for the mighty vimana. After a few gallant head-on attacks, he falls to the ground bleeding and defeated.
Apparently there is no limit to the dastardly behaviour of Ravan. Unable to wait until they land at Lanka, he drags poor Sita on to his lap and ravishes her in the pilot’s seat en route. This rather suggests that the vimana was exceptionally well trimmed or that it possessed some kind of automatic pilot. ‘He directed its course towards the city of Lanka, taking Sita along with him. Experiencing the heights of delight, Ravan ravished her, taking her on his lap upon a serpent of virulent poison.’ 32
32/ Romesh Dutt, Ramayana.
Feeling better after this, he puts on a burst of speed. ‘Like an arrow shot from a bow he, coursing the Welkin, left behind the woods and trees and places of water, and coming to the boundless ocean crossed over it to Lanka.’ 32
32/ Romesh Dutt, Ramayana.
All ends well. Rama eventually catches up with the villain and an aerial battle takes place. Ravan is shot down and Sita restored to her husband. An interesting weapon called ‘Indra’s Dart’ is responsible for this.
Wrapped in smoke and flaming flashes, speeding from the Circled Bow Pierced the iron heart of Ravan, laid the lifeless hero low. 32
32/ Romesh Dutt, Ramayana.
The ancient books contain many significant descriptions of vimanas in flight. ‘Flaming like a crimson fire, Ravan’s winged courses flee.’ And later, when Rama attacks Ravan he describes: ‘The mighty vimana of Ravan coming at me, flaming like fire.’ 32
32/ Romesh Dutt, Ramayana.
In other accounts their beauty and luminescence is frequently mentioned:
‘The radiant vimana gave forth a fierce glow.’ ‘The fully-equipped vimana shone brilliantly.’ ‘When it set out, its roar filled all four points of the compass.’ ‘The beautiful car-celestial possessed the radiance of fire.’ ‘Bhima riding in his vimana of solar effulgence, whose noise was like the roaring of thunderclouds.’ ‘It seemed there were two suns in the firmament. The whole sky was ablaze when he ascended into it.’ ‘Blazing with a mighty radiance, like a flame on summer night.’ ‘Like a comet in the sky.’ ‘Like a meteor encircled by a mighty cloud.’ ‘It was drawn by steeds of solar ray.’ ‘Propelled by winged lightning.’ 33
33/ Protap Chandra Roy, Maha-Bharata (1889).
Crimson fire, brilliant fire, solar effulgence, like a second sun, like a comet, like a meteor encircled by a mighty cloud or corona -if you have read the flying saucer reports, do not these sound rather familiar.
Poetic though their description may seem to this mundane age, there is nothing allegorical or symbolic about the ancient vimanas. The writers invariably make a strict distinction between travel on land and travel in the air, viz: ‘Cukra proceeded to Militha on foot, although he was able to fly through the skies of the whole Earth and over the seas.’ 34
34/ P. Chandra Roy. Samsaptakabadha.
Later this hero takes an amazing aerial flight.
‘Ascending from the breast of the Kailasa Mountains he soared up into the sky. Capable of traversing the higher atmosphere, he identified himself with (became) the wind. As he was traversing through the skies with the speed of the wind or thought, all creatures cast up their eyes at him. As he proceeded he seemed to fill the entire higher atmosphere with an all-pervading sound. Beholding his coming in that manner, all the tribes below became filled with amazement, their eyes wide with wonder. Cukra then proceded to the Malaya Mountains. (A long flight) He proceeded through that region of the sky firmament which is above the region of the winds’ 34 (the higher stratosphere if we are to take it literally).
34/ P. Chandra Roy. Samsaptakabadha.
Nor are the car celestials, or vimanas, to be confused with the ordinary battle chariots or cars drawn by horses. The distinction between them in the Sanskrit is every bit as great as that made between carts and aeroplanes in our own literature. A good example appears in the ‘Samsaptakabadha’, in which a battle chariot and a vimana are mentioned, and their common beauty compared:
‘When drawn into battle by those white horses, that chariot looked exceedingly resplendent, like a car celestial that is borne along the sky. And like Cukra’s car celestial this chariot could move in a circular course, or move forwards, backwards, and divers kinds of movement.’ 34
34/ P. Chandra Roy. Samsaptakabadha.
There is no mistaking the meaning of this passage. The writer knew the difference between vimanas and chariots as well as we know the difference between planes and tanks.
