Briefing for the Landing on Planet Earth

Author Stuart Holroyd, a skeptical but well-informed, open-minded researcher of the paranormal, became observer to a remarkable group of U.S. psychics headed by a famous American scientist, Andrija Puharich, and an English aristocrat, Sir John Whitmore. The group, called "Lab Nine" or "The Council of Nine," claimed they had made contact with galactic intelligences circling the earth, called "The Nine." The group claimed that The Nine was "selecting" human minds and interacting with them, thus hastening our evolution, a claim that raises the following questions: Did three of the "selected" minds help to avert a world disaster? Was the group in constant communication with extraterrestrials? Was it possible for these alien intelligences to effect a landing on Earth? Had these intelligences, in fact, already visited Earth in previous centuries, spurring our legends of "ancient aliens?" The story of The Nine was accepted and believed by many influential people, and has become one of the enduring legends of the 20th century, still discussed today by ufologists, parapsychologists, and interested scientists. A Hollywood writer, Gene Roddenberry, became so much of a "believer" in The Nine that he wrote a TV series exploring the same issues: "Star Trek" - one of the most popular sci-fi franchises of all time. As a nod to The Nine, Roddenberry used the name "Deep Space Nine" in the series.