The following are various extracts from various books written by
Tuesday Lobsang Rampa, covering the History of the Earth,
Alien life elsewhere in the Universe...
Although it is written somewhat like a Science Fiction story, it is
told earnestly as being true. The accounts given are dated sometime before
the Second World War, in Tibet. The Hermit is an illerate, blind Tibetan
Hermit, and the accounts are experienced via "Astral Travelling".
The practice whereby the spirit of one's body remains conscious and is able
to disassociate from one's body to go elsewhere. The following may read
like fantasy, but if it all makes sense, and is possible, the information
may be correct, then it may well be true?

THE HISTORY OF THE EARTH    Chronological Order from "THE HERMIT"

Formation of our Solar System - A vast comet collided with the cold dead
world which had been the centre of that galaxy.

The early Earth - miles of cloud, one immense land mass, vast volcanoes,
                  steaming sea.                          2nd Expedition.

Inspection of the development of the Earth - Volcanic eruptions less
intense than previously, shower of rock debris less profuse. Articles
dropped on land and into the sea.                        3rd Expedition.

Coarse vegetation flourished on the land and under the waters.
Vast ferns towered skywards with immense thick leaves absorbing the
poisonous gases and breathing out oxygen by day and nitrogen by night.

Huge creatures unloaded.                            1st Great Ark of Space
Incredible creatures lived and fought, bred and died. The atmosphere
changed. The foilage changed and the creatures evolved.

Earth was wobbling in its orbit - One land mass was insufficient to prevent
the seas from surging and unbalancing the world. The one land mass was
broken up by a beam of energy from a special ship. Violent earthquakes took
place. The land masses drifted apart.

The first humanoids introduced to the world - strange purple creatures, the
women having eight breasts, the head set square on the shoulders. They
lived in caves and in branches of mighty trees. They ate berries, grasses
and insects.
The purple race was exterminated because they could not fend for themselves
and showed no signs of evolving.

Different animals and very different humanoids introduced - different types
and different colour for different areas.
The seas were cooling. At the two poles waters were cold and the first ice
on Earth was beginning to form.

The atmosphere of the Earth changed. Giant fern like growths gave way to
orthodox trees. Life forms became stabilised.

A mighty civilisation flourished - By treachery certain of the preistly
caste manufactured atomic weapons, using the stolen one as a pattern. A war
between Garderners (the Space People who overlooked the development of the
Earth) and priests. In the battle the atomic pile of a grounded spacecraft
was exploded by a priest. The whole Earth shook. The great continent of
Atlantis sank beneath the waves. In far off lands tornadoes rent the
mountains and tore humans apart. Great waves stormed in from the seas. The
world became almost barren of human life save for a few who cowered
whimpering with terror in remote caves.

For years the Earth shook and shivered with the effects of the Atomic
blast. Radiation was strong, and the scared remnants of humanity brought
forth mutated progeny. Plant life was affected, and the atmosphere became
debased.

New Humans introduced - A great Ark of Humans, animals and plants was
unloaded over the world. Humans who were white, black, yellow, short, tall,
white haired, black haired.

Man was not able to light a fire or shape crude implements of stone. The
Gardners of the Earth introduced fresh virile specimens to improve the
human stock. Gradually man progressed from the flint chipping stage to the
fire lighting level. Gradually houses were built, towns formed.

Prince Satan invades the universe - War in space. A world struck another
world a glancing blow and threw it against the Earth. The Earth juddered
and shook and was pushed into another orbit which made the Earth day
longer. During the near collision giant electric discharges leaped from the
two worlds. Many of the Earth humans perished. Great floods swept the
surface of the world. Gardners hurried around in their arks trying to load
aboard humans and animals that they should be safely conveyed to higher
ground and safety.

The War in Space was won - Prince Satan captured. Satan pled for his life
and expressed himself anxious to co-operate in the rebuilding of the solar
system. On the Earth the natives were crazed by the experiences. Fresh
stock was brought from outlying planets where some humans had survived.
The lands were now different, the seas were different. Through the change
in orbit the climate altered. Now there was a hot equatorial belt and ice
formed very heavily on the polar areas. Icebergs broke away from the main
masses and floated in the seas. Huge animals died in the sudden cold.
Forests collapsed when their living conditions changed so drastically.

Very slowly conditions became stabilised. Once again Man started to build a
form of civilisation but man was now excessively warlike and persecuted all
those who were weaker. Routinely the Gardners introduced fresh specimens so
that the basic stock be improved. The evolution of man progressed and a
better type of creature slowly emerged. But the Gardners were not
satisfied. It was decided that more Gardners should live upon the Earth.

False legends were woven - Izanagi and Izanami (Japanese Gods), Zeus,
Apollo, Thesus, Aphrodite, Daughters of Cadmus and Mercury. Prince Satan
leads astray the young people given the Earth assignment.

Certain of the native priests, having stolen equipment from the Gardners,
could not control them, they loosed plagues upon the Earth. Vast numbers of
people died. Crops were affected. Sodom and Gomorrah established as a
capital of sin.

The Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were erased in flame and smoke.
Following this salutary warning it was decided to withdraw all the Gardners
from the face of the Earth and to have no more contact with the natives but
to treat them as specimens from afar.

Instead it was decided to have upon the Earth natives who have been
specially trained and who could be planted where suitable people could find
them - Moses, Gautama, Mahomet, Confucius.

The wise ones were very dissatisfied with progress - a new scheme was
propounded. The introduction of Jesus upon Earth.

In A.D. 60 There were those who subverted the new form of spiritual
discipline to their own ends. A book was written which did not teach the
real belief, facts were misinterpreted - The Bible.



Nursing a World for Life
Scientists studied the reports submitted by the crews. Assessments were
made of the probable number of centuries before the world was fit for
stocking with living creatures. Biologists and geneticists worked together
to formulate plans for the best type of creatures to be made. When a new
world is to be stocked, and when that world is the offspring of a Nova,
ponderous animals and heavy foilage is first required. All soil consists of
powdered rock, with lava dust and certain trace elements. Such soil will
support only coarse feeding plants. Then those plants decay, and the
animals die and decay and mix with the rock dust. In the course of
millenniums 'soil' is formed. As the soil becomes more and more remote from
the original rock, finer types of plants can be grown. In time, on any
planet, the soil is really the cells of decayed animals and plants and the
excreta of the former for aeons past.
The atmosphere of a new planet is not at all breathable by humans. The
effluvia from the belching volcanoes contains sulphur and many noxious and
lethal gases. Suitable vegetation will overcome this by absorbing the
toxins and returning them as harmless minerals to the soil. The vegetation
will take the poisonous fumes and convert them to the oxygen and nitrogen
which humanoids require. So, the scientists of many branches worked
together for centuries preparing the basic stock. These were then placed
upon a nearby world of similar conditions so that they could mature, so
that we could ensure that they were entirely satisfactory. If necessary
they could then be modified.

The Earth of Long Ago
Many many years ago when the Earth was young the atmosphere was very
different from what it is now. Human life as we know it at present could
not live under such conditions because there were sulphur vapours from
raging volcanoes, there were gaseous stenches from quaking bogs, where
methane and all the rest of it was ejected into the atmosphere. The
atmosphere too, was much heavier, much denser than it is at present. With
the passage of many many centuries the atmosphere changed and became purer.
As vegetation flourished on the Earth more and more oxygen was poured into
the skies, and human life developed in a manner which could make the best
use of that oxygen.


      from "THE RAMPA STORY"
      Other Worlds
Details of a trip to the star Zhoro, an old, old planet, one of the oldest
in this particular system. Now it is approaching the end of its long
life-time.
As I looked ahead of me I saw a planet, huge and menacing and red. At last
we found ourselves floated above a red, desolate world, red rocks, red sand
in a tideless red sea. As we sank down towards the surface of this world we
saw strange creatures like huge crabs moving lethargically along the
water's edge. We stood upon that red rock shore and looked upon the water,
tideless, deadly, with red scum upon it, stinking scum. As we watched, the
turbid surface rippled unwilling, and rippled again, and a strange
unearthly creature emerged, a creature also red, heavily armoured, and with
remarkable joints. It groaned as if tired and dispirited, and reaching the
red sand, it flopped down by the side of the tideless sea. Above our heads
a red sun glowed dully casting fearful, blood red shadows, harsh and
garnish. About us there was no movement. No sign of life other than the
strange shelled creatures which lay half-dead on the ground. A red sea upon
which floated red scum, red rocks, red sand, red shelled creatures, and
above all a red sun like the dying embers of a fire, a fire which was about
to flicker into nothingless.
This is a dying world. There is no longer rotation here. This world floats
derelict in the sea of space, a satellite to a dying sun, which is soon to
collapse, and thus to become a dwarf star without life, without light, a
dwarf star which eventually will collide with another star, and from those
another world shall be born. I have brought you here because yet in this
world there is life of a high order, a life which is here for research and
investigation of phenomena of this sort. Look about you.
He turned and pointed with his right hand to the far distance, and we saw
three immense towers reaching up into the red, red sky and on the very top
of those towers three gleaming crystal balls glowed and pulsated with
clear, yellow light, as if they were alive.
As we stood there wondering one of the lights changed, one of the spheres
turned a vivid electric blue. Come, they are bidding us welcome. Let us
descend into the ground where they are living in an underground chamber.
Together we moved toward the base of that tower, and then, as we stood
beneath the framework we saw there was an entrance heavily secured with
some strange metal which glimmered and stood out like a scar upon that red
and barren land. We moved through and traversed long red corridors of dead
rock until at last we stood in a very large hall, a hall surrounded by
charts and maps, and strange machines and instruments. In the centre there
was a long table at which sat nine very aged men, all unlike each other.
One was tall and thin, and with a pointed head, a conical head. Yet
another was short and very solid looking. Each of these men was different.
It was clear to us that each man was of a different planet, of a different
race. Human? Well perhaps humanoid would be a better word with which to
describe them. They were all human, but some were more 
human than others.
We became aware that all nine were looking fixedly in our direction. "Ah"
said one telepathically, "we have visitors from afar. We saw you land upon
this, our research station, and we bid you welcome. We will do anything to
help as we have helped you with others previously."
The shorter man was looking at me, and smiled. He said in the universal
language of telepathy "I see young man, that you are greatly intrigued by
the difference in our appearances."
"Respected Father," I replied, somewhat overawed by the ease with which he
had divined my thoughts, thoughts which I had tried hard to conceal. "That
is indeed a fact I marvel at the disparity of sizes and shapes between you,
and it occurred to me that you could not be men of Earth."
"You have perceived correctly" said the short man "We are all human, but
due to environment we have altered our shapes and our stature somewhat, but
can you not see the same thing on your own planet, where upon the land of
Tibet there are some monks whom you employ as guards who are seven feet
tall. Yet upon another country of that world, you have people who are but
half that stature, and you call them pygmies. They are both human; they are
both able to reproduce each with the other, notwithstanding any difference
in size, for we are all humans of carbon molecules. Here in this particular
universe everything depends upon the basic molecules of carbon and hydrogen
for these two are the bricks composing the structure of your universe. We
who have travelled in other universes far beyond this particular branch of
our nebulae know that other universes use different bricks. Some use
Silicon, some use Gypsum, some use other things, but they are different
from people of this universe, and we find to our sorrow that our thoughts
are not always in affinity with them."
The Lama Mingyar Dondup said, "I have brought these two young lamas here so
that they can see the stages of death and decay in a planet which has
exhausted its atmosphere, and in which the oxygen of that atmosphere has
combined with metals to burn them and to reduce everything to an impalpable
dust."
"That is so," said the tall man. "We would like to point out to these young
men that everything that is born must die. Everything lives for its
allotted span, and that allotted span is a number of units of life. A unit
of life in any living creature is a heartbeat of that creature. The life of
a planet is 2,700,000,000 heartbeats, after which the planet dies, but from
the death of a planet others are born. A human, too, lives for
2,700,000,000 heartbeats, and so deos the lowliest insect. An insect which
lives for but twenty-four hours has, during that time, had 2,700,000,000
heartbeats. A planet - they vary, of course - but one planet may have one
heartbeat in 27,000 years, and after that there will be a convulsion upon
that world as it shakes itself ready for the next heartbeat. All life
then," he went on "has the same span, but some creatures live at different
rates than those of others. Creatures upon Earth, the elephant, the
tortoise, the ant and the dog, they all live for the same number of
heartbeats, but all have hearts beating at different speeds, and thus they
may appear to live longer or to live less."
The short man who seemed to look upon us with considerable approval, said,
"Yes, not only that, but many animals represent different functions of the
body. The cow, for instance, as anyone can see, is merely a walking mammary
gland, the giraffe is a neck, a dog - well, anyone knows what a dog is
always thinking of - sniffing the wind for news as his sight is so poor -
and so a dog can be regarded as a nose. Other animals have similar
affinities to different parts of one's anatomy. The ant-eater of South
America could be looked upon as a tongue." For some time we talked
telepathically, learning many strange things, learning with the speed of
thought as one does in the astral. Then at last the Lama Mingyar Dondup
stood up and said it was time to leave.


         from "THE HERMIT"
   'I loitered among those spires and dangled over the roadways. And I
discovered new marvels; certain high levels had stupendous hanging gardens.
Incredible playgrounds for what were obviously nobles. But the colours were
all wrong. The people were all wrong. Some were vast giants and others were
dwarfs. Some were definitely human and others very definitely were not.
Some, indeed, were a strange mixture of humanoid and avian, with the body
seemingly of human construction, yet possessing a definitely birdlike head.
Some were white, some were black. Some were red, while others were green.
There were all colours, not merely hues and tints, but definite, primary
colours. Some have four fingers and a thumb on each hand, yet others had
nine fingers and two thumbs on each hand and one group had three fingers,
horns extending from the temples and tail! My nerve broke at the latter
sight and I willed myself up - fast.
   'From my new altitude the city clearly covered an immense area, it
extended as far as I could see, but at one distant side there appeared a
clearing which was free of tall buildings. Here the air traffic was
intense. Shining dots, for so they appeared from this distance, soared with
eye-baffling velocity in a horizontal plane. I found myself drifting
towards that district. As I approached, I discovered that the whole area
seemed to be made of glass, and upon its surface there were strange metal
craft. Some were spherical in form and seemed from their direction of
travel to journey beyond the confines of this world. Others, like two metal
bowls stuck rim to rim also appeared to be for out of world travel. Yet
others were like the spear that is thrown, and I observed that these, after
rising to a predetermined height, then became horizontal and journeyed to
an unknown place upon the surface. There was stupendous movement and I
could scarce believe that all these people could be contained within one
city. All the inhabitants of a world were congregated here, I thought. But
where was I? I felt panic rise.
   'The Voice answered me saying, "You must understand that the Earth is a
small place, the Earth is one of the smallest grains of sand upon the banks
of the Happy River. The other worlds of this Universe in which your Earth
is located are as numerous and as diverse as the sand, the stones, and the
rocks which line the banks of the Happy River. But this is just one
Universe. There are universes beyond number just as there are blades of
grass beyond number. Time upon Earth is just a flickering in the
consciousness of cosmic time. Distances upon Earth are of no moment, they
are insignificant and do not exist compared to the greater distances in
space. Now you are upon a world in a far, far different Universe, a
Universe so remote from the Earth which you know that it would be beyond
your comprehension. The time will come when the greatest scientists of your
world will have to admit that there are other worlds inhabited, and that
the Earth is now, as they now believe, the centre of creation. You are now
upon the chief world of a group numbering more than a thousand. Each of
those worlds is inhabited, each of those worlds owe allegiance to the
Master of the world where you are now. Each world is entirely
self-governing although they all follow a common policy, a policy aimed at
removing the worst injustices under which people live. A policy devoted to
improving conditions of all who have life.
   '"Each world has a different sort of person upon it. Some are small as
you have seen, some are large as you have also seen. Some, by your
standards, are grotesque and fantastic, others are beautiful, angelic you
might say. One should never be deceived by outward appearances, for the
intention of all is good. These people owe allegiance to the Master of the
world upon which you now are. It would be useless and a strain to your
intelligence to try to give you names because the names would have no
meaning in your own tongue, in your own comprehension, and would merely
serve to confuse you. These people owe allegiance, as I have said, to the
Great Master of that world, One who has territorial desires whatever, One
whose main interest is in the preservation of peace, peace so that all Man
no matter his shape, his size or his colour may live out the days allotted
to him and devote himself to good instead of the destruction which will
ensue whenever a person has to defend himself. Here there are no great
armies, there are no battling hordes. There are scientists, traders, and of
course priests, and there are also explorers, those who go out to remote
worlds ever increasing the number of those who join this might fellowship.
But none are invited to join. Those who join this federation do so at their
own request and only when they have destroyed weapons.
   '"The world upon which you now are is the centre of this particular
Universe. It is the centre of culture, the centre of knowledge, and there
is none greater. A special form of travel has been discovered and
developed. Here again to explain such methods would be to overtax the
brains of the greatest scientists of the Earth, they have not yet reached
the stage of thinking in four or five dimensional concepts, and such a
discussion would be gibberish to them until they can rid their minds of all
those beliefs which have so long held them captive.
   '"The scenes you now see are the leading world as it is today. We want
you to travel its surface to see its mighty civilisation, a civilisation so
advanced, so glorious that you may not be able to comprehend. The colurs
you see here are different to those to which you are accustomed on Earth,
but Earth is not the centre of civilisation. Colours are different on each
world and depend upon the circumstances and requirements of each of those
worlds. You will look about this world, and my voice will accompany you,
and when you have seen enough of this world to make its greatness apparent
you will travel into the past and then you shall see how worlds are
discovered, how worlds are born, and how we try to help those who are
willing to help themselves. Remember this always; we of space are not
perfect for perfection cannot exist when one is in the material state of
being in any portion of any universe, but we try, we do the best we can.
There are some in the past, as you will agree, who have been very good, and
some who to our sorrow have been very bad. But we do not desire your world,
the Earth, we desire instead that you should develop it, that you should
live there, but we must ensure that the works of Man do not pollute space
and endanger the people of other worlds. But now you will see more of this,
the leading world."
   'The Voice broke in upon my disturbed thoughts saying, "Monk, your
thoughts are vocalized to us by our instruments, and your thoughts are not
correct thoughts, your thoughts, indeed, are the fallacies. We are the
Gardners and a gardner has to remove dead wood, he has to pluck unwanted
weeds. But when there is a better shoot then sometimes the gardner has to
take away the shoot from the parent plant and even graft elsewhere, that it
may develop as a new species, or even develop more greatly as its own
species. According to your own beliefs you have been rather roughly
treated. According to our beliefs you are being given a signal honour, an
honour reserved for very very few people of the world species, an honour
reserved." The Voice hesitated and then went on, "Our history goes back
billions of years of Earth time, billions and billions of years, but let us
suppose that the whole life of your planet which you call Earth was
represented by the height of the Potala, then the lifetime of Man upon the
Earth could be likened to the thickness of one coat of paint upon the
ceiling of one room. Thus it is, you see, Man is so new upon the Earth that
no human has the right to even attempt to judge what we do.
   '"Later your own scientists will discover that their own laws of
mathematical probabilities will indicate clearly that there is evidence of
the existence of extra-terrestials. It will also indicate that for real
evidence of extra-terrestials they must look beyond the far reaches of
their own island universe and out into other universes beyond that which
contains your world. But this is neither the time nor the place to indulge
in a discussion of this nature. Accept the assurance that you are doing
good work and that we know best in this. You wonder where you are, and I
will tell you that your disembodied spirit, only temporarily detached from
your body, has journeyed beyond the furthest reaches of your own universe
and has gone right to the centre of another universe, to the centre city of
the chief planet. We have much to show you and your journey, your
experiences, are just beginning. Be assured, however, that what are you
seeing is that world as it is now, as it is at this moment, because in the
spirit time and distance mean nothing.
   '"Now we want you to look about to familiarize yourself with that world
upon which you now dwell so that you may the more easily credit the
evidence of your senses when we come to much more important things because
soon we shall send you into the past, into the past through the Akashic
Record where you will see the birth of your own planet, Earth."

   'Now,' continued the old man, 'I was telling you that I was in a state
of panic, yes indeed I was in a state of panic, and then as I dangled there
over this immensity I found myself dropping, I found myself passing various
levels or bridges between great towers, I found myself dropping down to
what appeared to be a very pleasant park raised on a platform or so it
seemed so supported to me. There was the red grass, and then to my
astonishment at one side I found green grass. There was a pond in the red
grass which had blue water and another pond in the patch of green grass
which had heliotrope water. About the two were congregated an amazing
assortment of peoples. By now I was beginning to distinguish somewhat which
were natives of this world and which were visitors from afar. There was
something subtle in the bearing and comportment of those who were native
here. They appeared the superior species, and fully aware of that status.
   'About the pools there were those who appeared possessed of great
masculine virility and those who were extremely feminine. A third group of
people who were obviously epicene. I was interested to observe that all the
people here were quite naked except that the females wore things in their
hair. I could not distinguiush what they were but they seemed to be some
type of metal ornament. I willed myself away from that spot because some of
the sport of these naked people was not at all to my liking having been
brought up from my very earliest days in a lamasery, and so in an entirely
male environment. I but dimly understood the purport of some of the
gestures which the females were indulging in. I willed myself up and away.
   'I sped across the remainder of the city and came to the outskirts where
the habitation was sparse. But all the fields and plantations were
marvellously cultivated and many large estates were, I perceived, devoted
to hydroponic farming. But that would be of little interest other than to
those studying agronomy.
   'I rose higher and cast about for some objective to which I might direct
myself, and I saw a marvellous saffron sea. There were vast rocks fringing
the coastline, rocks of yellow, rocks of purple, rocks of all hues and
tints, but the sea itself was saffron. This I could not understand.
Previously the water looked a different colour. Gazing upwards I perceived
the reason. One sun had set, and another was rising which made three suns!
And with the increasing ascension of the third sun and the descent of one
other the colours were changing, even the air appeared of a different tint.
My bemused gaze beheld the grass changing its colour, from red it turned to
purple, from purple it turned to a yellow and then the sea itself gradually
changed colour too. It reminded me of the manner in which at eventide when
the sun was setting low over the high ranging mountains of the Himalayas
colours would somtimes change, and how instead of the bright shining of day
in the valleys a purple twilight would form and even the high snows would
lose their pure white and appear to be blue or crimson. And so, as I
contemplated the matter, this was no great strain upon my comprehension. I
surmised that the colours were always changing on this planet.
   'But I did not want to go over water, never having seen much before. I
had an instinctive dread of it and a fear that some mishap might occur,
that I might fall in. So I directed my thoughts inwards, inland; at this my
disembodied spirit wheeled around and I sped for a few miles over rocky
coastline and small farm areas. And then to my ineffable delight I found
that I was over terrain which was somewhat familiar, it reminded me of
moorlands. I swooped low and saw the little plants nestling together on the
face of that world. Now with the difference in sunlight they appeared to be
little violet coloured flowers with brown stems, akin to heather. Further
along there was a bank of that which, under this lighting, resembled gorse,
yellow gorse, but here the plant had no thorns to it.
   'I rose a few hundred feet and gently drifted along over this the most
pleasant sight which I had seen on this strange world. To these people, no
doubt this would be a very desolate area. There was no sign of habitation,
no sign of roads. In a pleasantly wooden dell I found a small lake and a
little stream trickling over a high cliff tumbled into it and fed it. I
lingered awhile, watching the changing shadows, and their vari-hued fingers
of light permeating through the branches above my head. But there was this
continuous urging that I should keep on the move. I had the impression that
I was not here for my own amusement, my own pleasure, my recreation; I was
here that others could see through me. I was lifted again and flung high in
the air and prodded into extreme speed. Beneath me the land blurred by,
land, a broad river, a spit of land, and again the sea. Against my will I
was propelled over that sea until I came to what was no doubt another land,
another country. Here the cities were smaller but entirely vast.
Accustomed, as I was now, to size they were small but much, much later than
anything I would ever hope to see upon the Earth which I had now left.
   'My motion was checked rather abruptly and I went into a steep spiral
swirling around. And then I looked down. Below me was a most wonderful
estate, it appeared to be an ancient castle set in the midst of woods. The
castle was absolutely immaculate and I marvelled at the turrets and
battlements which surely had no place in a civilisation such as this. As I
was pondering upon the matter, the Voice broke in, "This is the home of the
Master. This is a very ancient place indeed, the most ancient building in
this ancient world. This is a shrine to which all peace lovers come that
they stand outside the walls and give their thanks in thought for the
peace that encompasses all who live under the light of this empire. A light
where there is never darkness, for here there are five suns and there is no
dark. Our metabolism is different from that of your world. We do not need
the hours of darkness to enjoy our sleep. We are arranged differently.
   'I was as a disembodied spirit spiralling down to the great castle which
housed the Master of this Supreme World,' commenced the old hermit. 'I was
longing to see what manner of man commanded the respect and love of some of
the most powerful worlds in existence. I was avid to determine what manner
of man - and woman - could endure throughout the centuries. The Master and
his Wife. But it was not to be. I was jerked as a small boy might jerk the
cord of his kite. I was jerked away backwards "This is sacred ground," said
the Voice very dourly, "this is not for ignorant natives, you are to see
other things." And so it came about that I was towed many miles and then
turned about and set upon a different path.
   'Beneath me the features of that world diminished and the cities became
even as the grains of sand upon a river bank. I rose into the air and out
of the air; I travelled where air was not. Eventually there came in range
of my vision a strange structure the like of which I had never seen. The
purpose of which I could not comprehend. Here, in the airless void, where I
could not exist save as a disembodied spirit, there floated a city of metal
kept aloft by some mysterious method quite beyond my power to discern. As I
approached, the details became clearer and I perceived that the city rested
upon a land of metal and covering its upper portions there was a material
which was clearer than glass yet was not glass. Beneath that transparent
sheen I could observe people in the streets of the city, a city larger than
the city of Lhasa.
   'There were strange protuberances on some of the buildings and it was to
one of the larger of the edifices that I found myself directed. "Here is a
great observatory," said the Voice within my brain. "An observatory from
whence the birth of your world was witnessed. Not by optical means, but by
special rays which are beyond your comprehension. Within a few years the
people of your world will discover the science of Radio. Radio, in its
highest development; will be as the brain power of a lowly worm compared to
the brain power of the most intelligent human. What we use here is far far
beyond even this. Here the secrets of universes are probed, the surface of
distant worlds watched even as you now watch the surface of this Satellite.
And no distance, no matter how great, is a bar. We can look into temples,
into places of play, and into homes."
   'I approached yet more closely and feared for my safety as that clear
barrier loomed large before me. I feared to crash into it and suffer
lacerations, but then, before panic set in, I recollected that I was now as
one of the spirits to whom even the most substantial walls were as shadows
to be crossed at will. Slowly I sank through this glass like substance and
came upon the surface of that world which the Voice had termed "Satellite."
For a time I drifted hither and thither, trying to settle the turbulent
thoughts within me. It was a shocking experience for "an ignorant native of
an undeveloped country in a backward world" to endure - and remain fairly
sane.
   'Slowly, like a cloud drifting over a mountain range, or a moonbeam
flitting silently over a lake, I began to drift sideways, away from the
idle movements in which I had previously indulged. I moved sideways and
filtered through strange walls of a material quite unknown to me. Even
though I was even then as a spirit, yet there was some slight opposition to
my passage for I endured a tingling of my whole being and - for a time - a
sensation that I was stuck in a tenacious bog. With a curious wrenching
which seemed to shred my whole being, I left the constraining wall. As I
did so I had the strong impression of the Voice saying, "Hes got through! I
thought for a time he wouldn't make it."
   'But now I was through the wall and into an immense covered space, it
was too large to be demeaned by the term "room." Quite fantastic machines
and apparatus stood about. Things completely beyond my understanding. Yet
the strangest things by far were the inhabitants of the enclosure. Very
very small humanoids busied themselves with things which I dimly understood
to be instruments, while giants moved heavy packages from place to place
and did the hard work for those who were too weak. "Here," said the Voice
in my brain, "we have a very great system. Small people make delicate
adjustments and build small items. Large people do things more in keeping
with their size and strength. Now, move on." That imponderable force
propelled me once again so that I encountered, and overcame, yet another
barrier to my progress. This was even harder to enter and leave.
   "That wall," murmered the Voice," is a Death Barrier. No one can enter
or leave while in the flesh. Here is a very secret place. Here we look at
all the worlds and we detect immediately any warlike preparations. Look!" I
looked around me. For moments that which was before me had no meaning. Then
I got a grip on my reeling senses and concentrated. The walls around me
were divided into rectangles about six feet long by about five feet high.
Each was a living picture beneath which were strange symbols which I took
to be writing. The pictures were amazing. Here was one in which a world was
depicted as though as seen from space. It was blue-green, with strange
white patches. With a great shock I perceived that this was my own world,
the world of my birth. A change in an adjacent picture drew my immediate
attention. There was a deplorable sensation of falling as I gazed and I saw
that I was watching a picture of My world as though I were falling on to
it.
   'The clouds cleared, and I saw the whole outline of India and Tibet. No
one told me that this was so, yet I knew it by instinct. The picture grew
larger and larger. I saw Lhasa. I saw the highlands, and then I saw the
volcanic crater - "But you are not here to see that!" exclaimed the Voice.
"Look elsewhere!" I looked about me and marvelled anew at that which I saw.
Here, on this picture, was the interior of a council chamber. Very
important-looking individuals were in animated discussion. Voices were
raised, and hands too. Papers were thrown about with a shocking disregard
for decorum. On a raised dais a man with a purple face was speaking
frantically. Applause and condemnation in about equal measure greeted his
remarks. It all reminded me of a meeting of Lord Abbots!
   'I turned about. Everywhere were these living pictures. Everywhere these
strange scenes, some in themost improbable colours. My body moved on, on
into yet another room. Here were pictures of strange metal objects moving
across the blackness of space. "Blackness" is the word to use, for space
where was speckled with points of light of many colours, many of those
colours previously quite unknown to me. "Space ships in transit," said the
Voice. "We keep careful track of our traffic." Amazingly a man's face
leaped into life on a portion of the wall. He spoke, but I did not
understand his words. He nodded his head and gestured as though he were
talking face to face with a person. With a smile and gesture of farewell
the face vanished and the wall frame was again a smooth grey sheet.
   'Immediately it was replaced by a view as seen by a high flying bird. A
view of the World I had just left, the World which was the centre of this
vast empire. I looked down upon the great city, seeing it in utter realism,
seeing the whole immense spread of it. The picture moved rapidly so that I
was again looking down on that district wherein was the residence of the
Master of this great civilisation. I saw the great walls, and the strange,
exotic gardens in which the building was set. Saw too a beautiful lake with
an island at its centre. But the picture moved, cast hither and thither,
sweeping the landscape as does a bird in search of prey. The picture
halted. Grew larger and focussed on a metal object which was describing
lazy circles and sinking towards the ground. The picture swelled so that
only the metal object was shown. A man's face appeared and he was speaking,
replying to unknown questions. A wave of greeting, and the picture grew
blank.
   'I moved not of my own volitioin. My directed mind left that strange
room and entered another stranger! Here, at nine of these picture screens
sat nine old men, for a moment I stared in stupefied amazement, then I
began to chuckle almost with hysteria. Here were nine old men, all bearded,
all very similar in appearance, all the gravest mien. In my poor brain the
angry Voice thundered: "Silence, sacrilegious one. Here are the Wise Ones
who control Your destiny. Silence, I say, and show respect." But the old
wise men took no notice - yet they were aware of my presence, for upon one
screen there was a picture of me on Earth, a picture of me surrounded by
wires and tubes. Yet another picture showed me Here! A most un-nerving
experience indeed.
   "Here continued the Voice in a most equable tone," are the Wise Ones who
have called for your presence. They are our wisest men who for centuries
have devoted themselves to the good of others. They work under the
direction of the Master Himself, who has lived even longer. Our purpose is
to save your world. To save it from what threatens to be suicide. To save
it from the utter pollution which follows a nuc - but no matter, these are
terms which have no meaning for you; terms which as yet have not been
invented on your world. Your world is about to have a fairly intense
change. New things will be discovered, new weapons will be invented. Man
will enter space within the next hundred years. Thus it is that we are
interested."
   'One of the Wise Ones did things with his hands, and the pictures
changed, world after world flitted across the screens. People after people
made their brief debut and vanished to be replaced by others. Strange glass
bottles became luminous and wriggling lines undulated across their exposed
bottoms. Machines clattered and ejected long paper tapes which curled into
baskets placed near. Paper tapes covered with remarkable symbols. The whole
affair was so far beyond my understanding that even now, after all these
years of thinking about it, I still cannot discern the meaning of all I
saw. And ever the Wise Ones made notes on strips of paper or spoke into
disks held near their mouths. And in response there would come a
disembodied voice which spoke even as a man speaks, but the source of which
I could not detect.
   'At last, when my senses were reeling under the impact of such strange
events, the Voice in my brain said, "Of this you have seen sufficient. Now
we will show you the past. To prepare you, I will tell you what you will
experience, then you will not be frightened." Frightened? I thought to
myself; if he but knew I am Absolutely Terrified! "First, resumed the
Voice, "you will experience blackness and some spinning. Then you will see
what you think is this room. Actually it will be as this room was millions
of years ago by Your time, but which is not so long by ours. Then you will
see how, first, your universe was created, and then, later, how your world
was born, how it was stocked with creatures among them those we call Man."
The Voice faded, and my consciousness with it.
   'It is a disturbing sensation to be so summarily deprived of one's
consciousness, to be robbed of a portion of one's life-span and not even
know for how long one has been unconscious. I became aware of swirling grey
fog which sent tendrils right into my brain. Intermittent glimpses of
Something tantalized me and added to my general frustration. Gradually,
like a morning mist dissipating before the rays of the rising sun, my
awareness, my lucidity, returned. Before me the world became light, no, it
was not the world, but the room in which I floated betwixt floor and
ceiling like a lazy puff-ball rising and falling in tranquil air. Like the
incense clouds billowing in a temple. I lingered aloft and contemplated
that which was before me.
   'Nine old men. Bearded. Grave. Intent upon their tasks. Were they the
same? No, they were not, the room was different. The screens and
instruments were different. And the pictures were different. For a time
there was no word spoken, no explanation of what all this portended. At
last one old man reached out and turned a knob. A screen lit up and showed
stars the pattern of which I had not seen before. The screen expanded until
it filled the whole of my vision, until it appeared that I had a window in
space. The illusion was so great that I had the feeling I was in space
without even a window. I stared at the cold, motionless stars shining with
such an unfriendly, hard glare.
   '"We will speed it up a millionfold," said the Voice, "or you will not
perceive anything in your lifetime." The stars began a rhythmic swinging,
about each other, about some unseen centre. From an outer edge of the
picture there came speeding a vast comet with its flaming tail pointing
toward that unseen, dark centre. Across the picture the comet flew, drawing
together behind it other worlds. At last the comet collided with the cold,
dead world which had been the centre of that galaxy. Other worlds, drawn
out of their predestined orbits by the increased gravity, raced on a
collision course. On the instant when comet and dead world collided the
whole universe seemed to burst into flame. Whirling vortices of
incandescent matter were flung across space. Flaming gases engulfed nearby
worlds. The whole universe, as seen in the screen before me, became a mass
of brilliant, violet flaming gas.
   'Slowly the intense brightness prevading the whole of space subsided. At
last there was a central flaming mass surrounded by smaller flaming masses.
Gobbets of incandescent material were flung out as the great central mass
vibrated and convulsed in the agony of the new conflagration. The Voice
broke into my chaotic thought, "You are seeing in minutes that which took
millions of years to evolve. We will change the picture." My whole vision
was limited to the extent of the screen and that which I now perceived was
of the star system receding so that I appeared to gaze from afar. The
brightness of the central sun dimmed, yet it was still exceedingly bright.
Worlds nearby still glowed red as they twisted and spun on their new
orbits. At the speeded-up rate at which I was being shown, the whole
universe seemed to be in whirling motion so that my very senses became
bedazed.
   'Now the picture changed. Before me lay a great plain speckled with
immense buildings some of which had strange projections sprouting forth
from their tops. Projections which seemed to me to be made of metal bent
into curious shapes - the reason for this was quite beyond my intellect to
understand. Swarms of people of widely diverging shapes and sizes converged
upon a truly remarkable object located at the centre of the plain. It
appeared to be a metallic tube of unimaginable size. The ends of the tube
were less than the main girth and tapered rather to a point at one end and
terminated in a rounded blob at the other. Protuberances extended at
intervals from the main body and as I stared intently I could discern that
these were transparent. Moving dots were inside and my observation led me
to believe that they were people. I judged that the whole building was
about a mile in length, or rather more. Its purpose was quite unknown to
me. I could not understand why a building should have such a remarkable
shape.
   'As I watched intent on missing nothing, there swam into the picture a
most remarkable vehicle drawing behind it many platforms laden with boxes
and bales sufficient, was my idle thought, to stock all the market places
of India. Yet - how could this be? - all were floating in the air as fish
float and propel themselves in water. The strange device drew alongside the
great tube which was a building and one after another all the bales and
boxes were drawn inside so that the strange machine pulled away again with
empty platforms following. The stream of people entering the tube
diminished to a trickle and then ceased. Sliding doors slid, and the tube
closed. Ah! I thought, it is a temple, they are showing me that they have a
religion and temples. Satisfied with my own explanation I let my attention
lag.
   'No words could describe my emotion as my gaze was jerked back to the
picture. This great tubular building, about a mile long and about a sixth
of a mile thick, suddenly Rose Into The Air! It rose to about the height of
our highest mountain, lingered there for a few seconds and then - vanished.
One instant it was there, a sliver of silver hanging in the sky with
coloured lights of two or three suns playing upon it. Then, without even a
flash it was not there. I looked about me, looked at adjacent screens and
then I saw it. Here, upon a very long screen perhaps twenty five feet long,
stars were whirling by so that they appeared merely as streaks of coloured
light. Apparently stationary in the centre of the screen was the building
which had just left this strange world. The speed of the passing stars
increased until they formed an almost hypnotic blur. I turned away.
   'A glare of light attracted my attention and I looked again at the long
screen. At the far edge a light was appearing forecasting the advent of a
greater light just as the sun sent rays over the mountain edge to foretell
its approach. Quickly the light grew until it was intolerably bright. A
hand stretched out and twisted a knob. The light was reduced while leaving
the picture clear. The great tube, a mere insignificant speck in the
immensity of space, drew near the bright orb. It circled round and then I
was moved to another screen. For a moment I lost my orientation. I stared
blankly at the picture before me. A picture of a large room whrein men and
women dressed in what I now knew to be uniforms had their being. Some were
sitting with hands on levers and knobs, others were watching screens even
as I watched.
   'One who was more gorgeously attired than the others paced around with
his hands clasped behind his back. Frequently he would stop his pacing and
peer over another person's shoulder while he looked at some written notes,
or studied the wriggling lines which were manifested behind circles of
glass. Then, with a nod, he would resume his pacing. At last I chanced to
do likewise. I stared at a screen as the Gorgeous One did. Here were
flaming worlds, how many I could not count because the light dazzled me and
the unaccustomed motion bewildered me. So far as I could guess, and guess
alone, it was, there were about fifteen flaming gobbets encircling the
great central mass which had given them birth.
   'The tube building, which I now knew to be a spaceship, stopped, and
much activity took place. Then from the bottom of the ship there appeared a
great number of small ships circular in shape. They scattered hither and
thither, and with their departure life aboard the great vessel resumed the
even tenor of a well-ordered existence. Time passed, and eventually all the
small discs returned to their parent ship and were taken aboard. Slowly the
massive tube turned and sped like an affrightened animal through the
reeling heavens.
   'In the fullness of time, how long I could not say as all the travel was
speeded up, the metal tube returned to its base. Men and women left it and
entered buildings on the perimeter. Before me the screen went grey.
   'The shadowed room with the ever moving screens upon the wall fascinated
me beyond measure. Previously I had been too intent upon one or two
screens, now, with those lying dead, inert before me I had time to look
about. Here were men of approximately my own size, the size that I should
imply when I used the word "human." They were of all colours, white, black,
green, red and yellow and brown. Perhaps a hundred sat in strange
form-fitting seats which swayed and tipped with every movement. In rows
they sat at instruments ranged along the far wall. The Nine Wise Ones sat
at a special table in the centre of the room. Curiously I looked about me,
but the instruments and other appliances were so far removed from anything
previous in my experience that I have no way in which they could be
described. Flickering tubes containing a ghastly green light, pulsing tubes
of amber light, walls which were walls, although they radiated the same
colour light as that out in the open. Glass circles behind which points
fluttered wildly or held rock-steady at one point - would That convey
anything to you?
   'One section of wall swung out suddenly to reveal a stupendous mass of
wires and tubes. Climbing up and down those wires were small people about
eighteen inches high, small people festooned with belts containing shiny
implements which were tools of some kind. A giant came in carrying a heavy
box. He held it in place for moments while the small ones fastened the box
at the back of the wall. Then the wall swung shut and the small ones went
out with the giant. Here there was silence. Silence save for a routine
clicking and the shussh-shussh as the tape moved endlessly from a machine
orifice to a special receptable.
   'Here, upon this screen, a strange strange thing was depicted. At first
I thought to gaze upon a rock rough-hewed into human shape. Then, to my
intense horror, I saw the Thing move. A crude arm-shape lifted and I saw it
held a large sheet of some unknown material upon which was inscribed
writing shapes. Once could not say "writing" and let it go at that. It was
so obviously alien that a special form of speech would have to be invented
that it could be described. My gaze passed on; this was so far above me
that it held no appeal or interest for me. I experienced only horror as I
looked upon the travesty of humanity.
   'But my wandering gaze stopped abruptly. Here Were Spirits, winged
Spirits! I became so fascinated that I almost crashed into the screen as I
moved closer with the hope of seeing more. It was a picture of a wonderful
garden in which winged creatures disported. Human in shape, both male and
female, they wove an intricate aerial pattern in the golden sky above their
garden. The Voice broke in on my thoughts. "Ah! So you are fascinated, eh?
These are the --- (an unwriteable name) and they are able to fly only
because they live in a world where the pull of gravity is very very low.
They cannot leave their own planet for they are too fragile. Yet they have
might and unsurpassed intelligence. But look about you at other screens.
Soon you will see more of your worlds history."
   'The scene changed before me. Changed deliberately I suspected so that I
should see that which it was desired for me to see. First there was the
deep purple of space and then an entirely blue world moved across from one
edge until it occupied the centre of the screen. The image grew larger
until it filled the view completely. It grew larger still and again I had
the horrid impression of falling head first out of space. A most
distressing experience. Beneath me blue waves leaped and rolled. The world
turned. Water, water, everywhere water. But one speck projected above the
eternal waves. On the whole there was a plateau about the size of the
Valley of Lhasa. On it strange buildings loomed on the shore. Human figures
flopped on the shore with their legs in the water. Other figures sat on
rocks nearby. It was all mysterious and none of it made sense tome. "Our
forcing shed," said the Voice, "where we raise the seed of a new race."

   'I drifted awhile," said the hermit, 'like the thoughts of an idle man,
without direction, without purpose. Vacillating, flitting from screen to
screen as the fancy too me. Then the Voice intruded upon me, saying "We
must tell you more." As the Voice spoke I found that I was being turned and
directed to the screens which I had first studied. Now again they were
active. Upon one screen was depicted the universe containing what we now
know to be the Solar System.
   'The Voice returned, "For centuries most careful watch was kept in case
there should be any radiation hazard from the new System now in formation.
Millions of years went by, but in the life of a universe a million years is
as minutes in the lifetime of a human. At last another expedition set out
from this, the heart of our empire. An expedition equipped with the most
modern apparatus with which to determine the planning of new worlds which
we should seed." The Voice ceased, and I looked again at the screens.
   'The stars glittered cold and remote in the stupendous distances of
space. Hard and brittle they shone with more colours than that of the
rainbow. The picture grew larger and larger until a world was shown which
seemed to be just a ball of cloud. Turbulent clouds slashed through and
through with the most fearsome lightning. "It is not possible," said the
Voice, "to make a True analysis of a distant world by remote probes. At one
time we believed otherwise, but experience has taught us our error. Now,
for millions of years, we have sent expeditions. Look!"
   'The universe was swept aside as one draws a curtain. Again I saw a
plain stretching out to what seemed to be infinity. The buildings were
different, now they long and low. The great vessel which stood there ready
was different too. Something like two platters was this vessel, the lower
half a platter standing as a platter should stand, while the upper rested
upon the lower but inverted. It shone bright even as the full moon.
Hundreds of round holes with glass behind them encircled the circumference.
Upon the utmost elevation there rested a dome-shaped transparent room
possibly some fifty feet across. The gigantic girth of the vessel entirely
dwarfed the toiling machines which laboured at its base to supply it.
   'In groups there loitered men and women, all in strange uniform dress,
all with a number of boxes reposing at their feet upon the ground. The talk
seemed to be merry, the humor good. More ornately attired individuals
strutted unapproachably backwards and forwards as though deliberating upon
the fate of a world - as indeed they may have been. A sudden signal made
them all bend quickly, seize their packages, and scurry to the waiting
vessel. Metallic doors like the iris of an eye closed tightly behind them.
   'Slowly the immense metal creation rose some hundred feet in the air. It
hovered for a moment of time - and then just vanished leaving no trail of
any kind to mark that it had ever existed. The Voice said, "It travels at a
speed unthinkable faster than the speed of light. It is a self-contained
world and when one is in these ships is Quite unaffected by any outside
influences. There is no sensation of speed, no feeling of falling, not even
on the sharpest turns. Space," continued the Voice, "is not the empty void
that your own worldians believe. Space is an area of reduced density. There
is an atmosphere of hydrogen molecules. The separate molecules may be
hundreds of miles apart admittedly, but at the speed generated by our
vessels that atmosphere seems almost as dense as the sea. One hears the
molecules rushing against the side of the ship and we had to take special
measures to overcome the problem of heating through molecular friction. But
look - !"
   'On an adjacent screen the disc-shaped vessel was tearing along leaving
an almost intangible trail of faint blue light behind it. The speed was so
great that as the picture moved to keep the ship centred, the stars
appeared as solid lines of light. The Voice murmered, "we will omit the
needless travel sequences and keep to the items which matter. Look at the
other screen." I did so, and witnessed the vessel, now travelling very much
more slowly, circling around thesun, our sun. But a sun very very different
from what it is now. It was larger, brighter, and vast streamers of flame
rached out far beyond its girth. The ship circled round, orbiting first one
world and then another.
   'At last it drew close to the world which somehow I knew to be Earth.
Completely enshrouded in clouds it rolled beneath the ship. Several orbits
were made and then the vessel slowed even more. The picture changed and I
was shown inside. A small group of men and women were walking down a long
metal corridor. At the end they debouched into an enclosure wherein there
were small replicas of the large vessel. Men and women walked up a ramp and
entered one of these smaller ships. All other people left that area. Behind
a transparent wall a man watched, his hands upon strange coloured buttons,
with flashing lights before him. A light glowed green, and the man pressed
several buttons simultaneously.
   'A section of the floor retreated equally from the small ship, and
opened as the iris of an eye opens. The ship fell through and entered into
space. Lower and lower it glided until it was lost to our view in the
clouds which encompassed the Earth. Then the picture before me changed
again and I saw as from the small craft itself. Here were the swirling,
billowing clouds, appearing first as impenetrable barriers, but melting
away at the touch of the spaceship. Down down we went through miles of
cloud until at last we merged in to a dull, sullen day. Grey sea rolled and
surged and in the distance seemed to merge with the grey clouds, clouds
upon which were reflected ruddy glares from some unknown source.
   'The spaceship levelled off and flew between cloud and sea. The miles
passed, miles of endless, surging sea. Upon the skyline a dark mass
appeared, a dark mass shot through by intermittent gouts of flame. The ship
moved on. Soon below us there loomed a great mass of mountainous land. Vast
volcanoes reared their ugly heads high towards the clouds. Tremendous
flames shot forth and molten lava came tumbling down the mountain sides to
plunge into the sea with a hissing roar. Although it had been a grey blur
in the distance, close to the land appeared as a very dull red.
   'The ship moved on and circumnavigated the world for a number of times.
There was but one immense land mass surrounded by the tossing sea which,
from the lower altitude, seemed to be steaming. At last it rose, entered
space, and returned to the parent ship. The screen faded as that vessel
sped again back to the Empire world.

     from "THE CAVE OF THE ANCIENTS"
   We moved to the panel which the Lama Mingyar Dondup had told me
previously, and at our approach it opened with a grating creak, so loud in
the silence of the place that I think we all jumped with alarm. Inside was
the darkness, profound, almost as if we had clouds of blackness swirling
about us. Our feet were guided by shallow channels in the floor. We
shuffled along, and when the channels ended we sat. As we did so, there
came a series of clicks, like metal scraping against metal, and almost
imperceptibly light stole across the darkness and pushed it aside. We
looked about us and saw more machines, strange machines. There were statues
here, and pictures carved in metal. Before we had time to more than glance,
the light drew in upon itself and formed a glowing globe in the centre of
the Hall. Colours flickered aimlessly, and bands of light without apparent
meaning swirled round the globe. Pictures formed, at first blurred and
indistinct, then growing vivid and real and with three-dimensional effect.
We watched intently...
   This was the world of Long Long Ago. When the world was very young.
Mountains stood where now there are seas, and the pleasant seaside resorts
are now mountain tops. The weather was warmer and strange creatures roamed
afield. This was a world of scientific progress. Strange machines rolled
along, flew inches from the surface of the Earth, or flew miles up in the
air. Great temples reared their pinnacles skywards, as if in challenge to
the clouds. Animals and Man talked telepathically together. But all was not
bliss; politicians fought against politicians. The world was a divided camp
in which each side coverted the lands of the other. Suspicion and fear were
the clouds under which the ordinary man lived. Priests of both sides
proclaimed that they alone were the favoured of the gods. In the pictures
before us we saw ranting priests - as now - purveying their own brand of
salvation. At a price! Priests of each sect taught that it was a "holy
duty" to kill the enemy. Almost in the same breath they preached that
Mankind throughout the world were brothers. The illogicality of brother
killing brother did not occur to them.
   We saw great wars fought, with most of the casualities being civilians.
The armed forces, safe behind their armour, were mostly safe. The aged,
women and children, those who did not fight, were the ones to suffer. We
saw glimpses of scientists working in laboratories, working to produce even
deadlier weapons, working to produce bigger and better bugs to drop on the
enemy. One sequence of pictures showed a group of thoughtful men planning
what they termed a "Time Capsule" (what we call "The Cave of the
Ancients"), where they could store for later generations working models of
their machines and a complete pictorial record of their culture and lack of
it. Immense machines excavated the living rock. Hordes of men installed the
models and the machines. We saw the cold-light spheres hoisted in place,
inert radio-active substances giving off light for millions of years. Inert
in that it could not harm humans, active in that the light would continue
almost until the end of Time itself.
   We found that we could understand the language, then the explanation was
shown, that we were obtaining the "speech" telepathically. Chambers such as
this, or "Time Capsules", were concealed beneath the sands of Egypt,
beneath a pyramid in South America, and at a certain spot in Siberia. Each
place was marked by the symbol of the times; the Sphinx. We saw the great
statues of the Sphinx, which did not originate in Egypt, and we received an
explanation of its form. Man and animals talked and worked together in
those far-off days. The cat was the most perfect animal for power and
intelligence. Man himself is an animal, so the Ancients made a figure of a
large cat body to indicate power and endurance, and upon the body they put
the breasts and head of a woman. The head was to indicate human
intelligence and reason, while the breasts indicated that Man and Animal
could draw spiritual and mental nourishment each from the other. That
symbol was then as common as is Statues of Buddha, or the Star of David, or
the Crucifix at the present day.
   We saw oceans with great floating cities which moved from land to land.
In the sky floated equally large craft which moved without sound. Which
could hover, and almost instantly flash into stupendous speed. On the
surface vehicles moved some inches above the ground itself, supported in
the air by some method which we could not determine. Bridges stretched
across the cities carrying on slender cables what appeared to be roadways.
As we watched we saw a vivid flash in the sky and one of the largest
bridges collapsed into a tangle of girders and cables. Another flash, and
most of the city itself vanished into incandescent gas. Above the ruins
towered a strangely evil-looking red cloud, roughly in the shape of a
mushroom miles high.
   Our pictures faded, and we saw again the group of men who had planned
the "Time Capsules". They had decided that now was the time to seal them.
We saw the ceremonies, we saw the "stored memories" being fitted into the
machine. We heard the speech of farewell which told us - "The People of the
Future, if there be any!" - that Mankind was about to destroy itself, or
such seemed probable" and within these vaults are stored such records of
our achievements and follies as may benefit those of a future race who have
the intelligence to discover it, and having discovered it, be able to
understand it." The telepathic voice faded out, the picture screen turned
to black. We sat in silence, stupefied by what we had seen. Later, as we
sat, the light grew again and we saw that it was actually coming from the
walls of that room.

   With our training it was easy indeed to select the point at which the
machine had faded out its pictures. We saw the procession of men and women,
notables of that time no doubt, file out of the Cave. Machines with vast
arms slid what appeared to be half a mountain over the entrance. The cracks
and crevices where surfaces met were carefully sealed, and the group of
people and the workmen went away. Machines rolled into the distance and for
a time, some months, the scene was quiet. We saw a high priest standing on
the steps of an immense Pyramid, exhorting his listners to war. The
pictures impressed upon the Scrolls of Time rolled on, changed, and we saw
the opposing camp. Saw the leaders ranting and raving. Time moved on. We
saw streaks of white vapour in the blue of the skies, and then those skies
turned red. The whole world trembled and shook. We, watching, experienced
vertigo. The darkness of the night fell over the world. Black clouds, shot
with vivid flames, rolled around the whole globe. Cities flamed briefly and
were gone.
   Across the land surged the raging seas. Sweeping all before it, a giant
wave, taller than the tallest building had been, roared across the land,
its crest bearing aloft the flotsam of a dying civilization. The Earth
shook and thundered in agony, great chasms appeared and closed again like
the gaping maws of a giant. The mountains waved like willow twigs in a
storm, waved, and sank beneath the seas. Land masses rose from the waters
and became mountains. The whole surface of the world was in a state of
change, of continuous motion. A few scattered survivors, out of millions,
fled shrieking to the newly risen mountains. Others, afloat in ships that
somehow survived the upheaval, reached the high ground and fled into any
hiding place they could find. The Earth itself stood still, stopped its
direction of rotation, and then turned in the opposite direction. Forest
flashed from trees to scattered ash in the twinkling of an eye. The surface
of the Earth was desolate, ruined, charred to a black crisp. Deep in holes,
or in the lava tunnels of extinct volcanoes, a scattered handful of Earth's
population, driven insane by the catastrophe, cowered and gibbered in their
terror. From the black skies fell a whitish substance, sweet to the taste,
substaining of life.
   In the course of centuries the Earth changed again, the seas were now
land, and the lands that had been were now seas. A low-lying plain had its
rocky walls cracked and sundered, and the waters rushed in to form the Sea
now known as the Mediterranean. Another sea nearby sank through a gap in
the seabed, and as the waters left and the bed dried, the Sahara Desert was
formed. Over the face of the Earth wandered wild tribes who, by the light
of their camp fires, told of the old legends, told of the Flood, of
Lemuria, and Atlantis. They told, too, of the day the Sun Stood Still.
   The Cave of the Ancients lay buried in the silt of a half drowned world.
Safe from intruders, it rested far beneath the surface of the land. In the
course of time, fast-running streams would wash away the silt, the debris,
and allow the rocks to stand forth in the sunlight once more. At last,
heated by the sun and cooled by a sudden icy shower, the rock face would
split with thunderous noise and we would be able to enter.


   from "Doctor from Lhasa"

   "Lobsang, pay attention to me. You will know about that later. I want to
tell you a little of the origin of Tibet, an origin which in later years
you will be able to verify for yourself when you go upon an expedition
which I am even now planning," he said, "When you go away from our land you
will find those who know us not who will say that Tibetans are illerate
savages who worship devils and indulge in unmentionable rites. But Lobsang,
we have a culture far older than any in the West, we have records carefully
hidden and preserved going back through the ages..."
   He went across to the inscriptions and pointed out various figures,
various symbols. I saw drawings of people, of animals - animals such as we
know not now - and then he pointed out a map of the sky, but a map which
even I knew was not of the present day because the stars it showed were
different and in the wrong places. The lama paused, and turned to me. "I
understand this, Lobsang, I was taught this language. Now I will read it to
you, read this age old story, and then in the days to come I and others
will teach you this secret language so that you can come here and make your
own notes, keep your own records, and draw your own conclusions. It will
mean study, study, study. You will have to come and explore these caverns
for there are many of them and they extend miles beneath us."
   For a moment he stood looking at the inscriptions. Then he read to me
part of the past. Much of what he said then, and very much more of what I
studied later, simply cannot be given in a book such as this. The average
reader would not believe, and if he did and he knew some of the secrets,
then he might do as others have done in the past; use the devices which I
had seen for self-gain, to obtain mastery over others, and to destroy
others as nations are now threatening to destroy each other with the atom
bomb. The atom bomb is not a new discovery. It was discovered thousands of
years ago, and it brought disaster to the earth then as it will do now if
man is not stopped in his folly.
   In every religion of the world, in every history of every tribe and
nation, there is the story of the Flood, of a catastrophe in which peoples
were drowned, in which lands sank and land rose, and the earth was in
turmoil. That is in the history of the Incas, the Egyptians, the Christians
- everyone. That, so we know, was caused by a bomb, but let me tell you how
it happened, according to the inscriptions.
   My Guide seated himself in the lotus position, facing the inscriptions
on the rock, with the brilliant light at his back shining at his back with
a golden glare upon those age-old engravings. He motioned for me to be
seated also. I took my place by his side, so that I could see the features
to which he pointed. When I had settled myself he started to talk, and this
is what he told me.
   "In the days of long, long ago earth was a very different place. It
revolved much near the sun, and in the opposite direction, and there was
another planet nearby, a twin of the earth. Days were shorter, and so man
seemed to have a longer life. Man seemed to live for hundreds of years. 
The climate was hotter, and flora was both tropical and luxurious. Fauna
grew to huge size and in many diverse forms. The force of gravity was much
less than it is at present because of the different rate of rotation of the
Earth, and man was perhaps twice as large as he is now, but even so he was
pigmy compared to another race who lived with him. For upon the earth,
lived those of a different system who were super-intellectuals. They
supervised the earth, and taught men much. Man then was as a colony, as a
class that is being taught by a kindly teacher. These huge giants taught
him much. Often they would get in strange craft of gleaming metal and would
sweep across the sky. Man, poor ignorant man, still upon the threshold of
dawning reason, could not understand it at all, for his intellect was
hardly greaster than that of the apes.
   "For countless ages life on earth followed a placid path. There was
peace and harmony between all creatures. Men could converse without speech,
by telepathy. They used speech only for local conversations. Then the
superintellectuals who were so much larger than man, quarrelled.
Dissentient forces rose up among them. They could not agree on certain
issues just as races now cannot agree. One group went off to another part
of the world, and tried to rule. There was strife. Some of the super-men
killed each other, and they waged fierce wars, and brought much destruction
to each other. Man, eager to learn, learned the arts of war; man learned to
kill. So the earth which before had been a peaceful place became a troubled
spot. For some time, for some years, the super-men worked in secret, one
half of them against the other half. One day there was a tremendous
explosion, and the whole earth seemed to shake and veer in its course.
Lurid flames shot across the sky, and the earth was wreathed insmoke.
Eventually the uproar died down, but after many months strange signs were
seen in the sky, sings that filled the people of earth with terror. A
planet was approaching, and rapidly growing bigger and bigger. It was
obvious that it was going to strike the earth. Great tides arose, and the
winds with it, and the days and nights were filled with a howling
tempestuous fury. A planet appeared to fill the whole sky until at last it
seemed that it must crash straight onto the earth. As the planet got
closer, and closer, immense tidal waves aros, and drowned whole tracts of
land. Earthquakes shivered the surface of the globe, and continents were
swallowed in the twinkling of an eye. The race of supermen forgot their
quarrels; they hastened to their gleaming machines, and rose up into the
sky, and sped away from the trouble besetting the earth. But on the earth
itself earthquakes continued; mountains rose up, and the sea bed rose with
them; lands sank and were inundated with water; people of that time fled in
terror, crazed with fear at what they thought was the end of the world, and
all the time the winds grew fiercer, and the uproar and the clamour harder
to bear, uproar and clamour which seemed to shatter the nerves and drive
men to frenzy.
   'The invading planet grew closer and larger, until at last it approached
to within a certain distance and there was a tremendous crash, and a vivid
electric spark shot from it. The skies flamed with continuous discharges,
and soot black clouds formed and turned the days into a continous night of
fearful terror. It seemed that the sun itself stood still with horror at
the calamity, for, according to the records, for many, many days the red
ball of the sun stood still, blood red with great tongues of flame shooting
from it. Then eventually the black clouds closed, and all was night. The
winds grew cold, then hot; thousands died with the change of temperature,
and the change again. Food of the Gods, which some called manna, fell from
the sky. Without it the people of the earth, and the animals of the world,
would have starved through the destruction of the crops, through the
deprivation of all other food.
   'Men and women wandered from place to place looking for shelter, looking
for anywhere they could rest their weary bodies wracked by the storm,
tortured by the turmoil, praying for quiet, hoping to be saved. But the
earth shook and shivered, the rains poured down, and all the time from the
outer space came the splashes and discharges of electricity. With the
passage of time, as the heavy black clouds rolled away, the sun was seen to
be coming smaller, and smaller. It seemed to be receding, and the people of
the world cried out in fear. They thought the Sun God, the Giver of Life,
was running away from them. But stranger still the sun now moved across the
sky from east to west, instead of from west to east as before.
   "Man had lost all track of time. With the obscuring of the sun there was
no method which which they could tell its passage; not even the wisest men
knew how long these events had taken place. Another strange thing was seen
in the sky; a world, quite a large world, yellow, gibbous, which seemed as
if it too was going to fall upon the earth. This which we now know as the
moon appeared at this time as a relic from the collision of the two
planets. Later races were to find a great depression in the earth, in
Siberia, where perhaps the surface of the earth had been damaged by the
close proximity of another world, or even a spot from whence the moon had
been wrenched.
   "Before the collision there had been cities and tall buildings housing
much knowledge of the Greater Race. They had been toppled in the turmoil,
and they were just mounds of rubble, concealing all that hidden knowledge.
The wise men of the tribes knew that within those mounds were canisters
containing specimens and books of engraved metal. They knew that all of the
knowledge in the world reposed within those piles of rubbish, and so they
set to work to dig, and dig, to see what could be saved in the records, so
that they could increase their own power by making use of the knowledge of
the Greater Race.
   "Throughout the years to come the days became longer, and longer, until
they were almost twice as long as before the calamity, and then the earth
settled in its new orbit, accompanied by its moon, the moon, a product of a
collision. But still the earth shook and rumbled, and mountains rose and
spewed out flames and rocks, and destruction. Great rivers of lava rushed
down the mountain sides without warning, destroying all that lay in their
path, but often enclosing monuments and sources of knowledge, for the hard
metal upon which many of the records had been written was not melted by the
lava, but merely protected by it, preserved in a casing of stone, porous
stone which in the course of time eroded away, so that the records
contained within would be revealed and would fall into the hands of those
who would make use of them. But that was not for a long time yet.
Gradually, as the earth became more settled in its new orbit, cold crept
upon the world, and animals died or moved to the warmer areas. The mammoth
and the brontosauras died for they could not adapt to the new ways of life.
Ice fell from the sky, and the winds grew bitter. Now there were many
clouds, whereas before there had been almost none. The world was a very
different place; the sea had tides; before they had been placid lakes,
unruffled except by the passing breeze. Now great waves lashed up at the
sky, and for years the tides were immense and threatened to engulf the land
and drown the people. The heavens looked different too. At night strange
stars were seen in place of the familiar ones, and the moon was very close.
New religions sprouted as the priests of that time tried to maintain their
power and account for the happenings. They forgot much about the Greater
Race, they thought only of their own power, of their own importance. But -
they could not say how this occurred, or how that happened. They put it
down to the Wrath of God, and taught that all man was born insin.
   "With the passage of time, with the earth settled in its new orbit, and
as the weather became more tranquil, people grew smaller and shorter. The
centuries rolled by, and lands became more stable. Many races appeared as
if experimentally, struggled, failed, and disappeared, to be replaced by
others. At last a stronger type evolved, and civilization began anew,
civilization which carried from its earliest days a racial memory of some
dire calamity, and some of the stronger intellects made search to find out
what had really happened. By now the wind and the rain had done their work.
The old records were beginning to appear from the crumbling lava stone, and
the high intellect of humans now upon the earth were able to gather these
and place them before their wise men, who at long alast, with much
struggle, were able to decipher some of the writings. As a little of the
records became legible, and as the scientists of the day began to
understand them, they set about on frantic searches for other records with
which to piece together the complete instructions, and to bridge the gaps.
Great excavations were undertaken, and much of interest came to light. Then
indeed the new civilization sprouted. Towns and cities were built, and
science started its rush to destroy. The emphasis always on destruction,
upon gaining power for little groups. It was completely overlooked that man
could live in peace, and that the lack of peace had caused the calamity
before.
   "For many centuries science held sway. The priests set up as scientists,
and they outlawed all those scientists who were not also priests. They
increased their power; they worshipped science, they did all they could to
keep power in their own hands, and to crush the ordinary man and to stop
him from thinking. They set themselves up as Gods; no work could be done
without the sanction of the priests. What the priests wanted they took;
without hinderance, without opposition, and all the time they were
increasing their power until upon earth they were absolutely omnipotent,
forgetting that for humans absolute power corrupts.
   "Great craft sailed through the air without wings, without sound, sailed
through the air, or hovered motionless as not even the birds could hover.
The scientists had discovered the secret of mastering gravity, and
anti-gravity, and harnessing it to their power. Immense blocks of stone
were manoeuvred into position where wanted by one man and a very small
device which could be held in the palm of one hand. No work was too hard,
because man merely manipulated his machines without effort to himself. Huge
engines clattered across the surface of the earth, but nothing moved upon
the surface of the sea except for pleasure, because travel by sea was too
slow except for those who wanted the enjoyment of the combination of wind
and the waves. Everything travelled by air, or for shorter journeys across
the earth. People moved out to different lands, and set up colonies. But
now they had lost their telepathic power through the calamity of the
collision. Now they no longer spoke a common language; the dialects became
more and more acute, until in the end they were completely different, and
to each other incomprehensible languages.
   "With the lack of communication, and the failure to understand each
other, and each others viewpoints, races quarrelled, and began wars.
Fearsome weapons were invented. Battles raged everywhere. Men and women
were becoming maimed, and the terrible rays which were being produced were
making many mutations in the human race. Years rolled by, and the struggle
became more intense, and the carnage more terrible. Inventors everywhere,
spurred on by their rulers, strove to produce more deadly weapons.
Scientists worked to devise even more ghastly devices of offense. Disease
germs were bred, and dropped upon the enemy from high-flying aircraft.
Bombs wrecked the sewage systems, so that disease and plagues raged through
the earth blighting people, animals and plants. The earth was set on
destruction.
   "In a remote district far from all the strife a group of far-seeing
priests who had not been contaminated by the search for power, took thin
plates of gold, and engraved upon them the history of their times, engraved
upon them maps of the heavens and of the lands. Upon them they revealed the
innermost secrets of their science, and gave grave warnings of the dangers
which would befall those who misused this knowledge. Years passed during
which time these plates were prepared, and then, with specimens of the
actual weapons, tools, books, and all useful things, they were concealed in
stone and were hidden in various places so that those who came after them
would know of the past, and would, it was hoped, profit from it. For these
priests knew the course of humanity; they knew what was to happen, and as
predicted the expected did happen. A fresh weapon was made, and tried. A
fantastic cloud swirled up into the stratosphere, and the earth shook, and
reeled again, and seemed to rock on its axis. Immense walls of water surged
over the land, and swept away many races of man. Once again mountains sank
beneath the seas, and others rose up to take their place. Some men, women,
and animals, who had been warned by these priests, were saved by being
afloat in ships, afloat and sealed against the poisonous gases and germs
which ravaged the earth. Other men and women were carried high into the air
as the lands upon they dwelt rose up; others, not so fortunate, were
carried down, perhaps beneath the water, or perhaps down as the mountains
closed over their heads.
   "Flood and flames and lethal rays killed people in millions, and very
few people only were left on earth now, isolated from each other by
vagaries of the castastrophe. These were half-crazed by the disaster,
shaken out of their senses by the tremendous nose and commotion. For many
years they hid in caves and in thick forests. They forgot all the culture,
and they went back to the wild stages, as in the earliest days of mankind,
covering themselves with skin and the juice of berries, and carrying clubs
studded with flint in their hands.
   "Eventually new tribes were formed, and they wandered over the new face
of the world. Some settled in what is now Egypt, others in China, but those
of the pleasant low lying resort, which had been much favoured by the
super-race, suddenly found themselves many thousands of feet above the sea,
ringed by the eternal mountains, and with the land fast cooling. Thousands
died in the bitter, rarefied air. Others who survived became the founders
of the modern, hardy Tibetan of the land which is now Tibet. That had been
the place in which the group of far-seeing priests had taken their thin
plates of gold, and engraved upon them all their secrets. Those plates, and
all the specimens of their arts and crafts, had been hidden deep in a
cavern in a mountain to become accessible to a later race of priests.
Others were hidden in a great city which is now in the Chang Tang Highlands
of Tibet.
   "All culture was not quite extinct, however although mankind was back in
the savage state, in the Black Ages. But there were isolated spots
throughout the earth's surface where little groups of men and women
struggled to keep knowledge alive, to keep alight the flickering flame of
human intellect, a little group struggling on blindly in the stygian
darkness of savagery. Throughout the centuries which followed there were
many states of religion, many attempts to find the truth of what had
happened, and all the time hidden away in Tibet in deep caves was
knowledge. Engraved upon plates of imperishable gold, permanent,
uncorruptible, waiting for those who could find them, and decipher them.
   "Gradually man developed once again. The gloom of ignorance began to
dissipate. Savagery turned to semi-civilization. There was actually
progress of a sort. Again cities were built, and machines flew in the sky.
Once more the mountains were no bar, man travelled throughout the world,
across the seas, and over the land. As before, with the increase of
knowledge and power, they became arrogant, and oppressed weaker peoples.
There was unrest, hatred, persecution, and secret research. The stronger
people oppressed the weak. The weaker peoples developed machines, and there
were wars, wars again lasting years. Ever there were fresh and more
terrible weapons being produced. Each side sought to find the most terrible
weapon of all, and all the time in caves in Tibet knowledge was lying. All
the time in the Chang Tang Highlands a great city lay desolate, unguarded,
containing the most precious knowledge in the world, waiting for those
would enter, and see, just waiting..."