For centuries, many claimed to visit other planets via astral projection or secret tech. Post-1970s, alien lore shifted to gray abductions on Earth. Here are 10 who claimed to explore other worlds.
10. The Denton Family
In the 19th century, Englishman William Denton claimed his family could psychometrically visit planets by touching related objects. Initially, they used geological samples to see Earth's past: his wife envisioned a giant insect from quartz, and his sister saw a volcanic eruption from lava. Later, they turned their focus to the solar system.
Denton's son Sherman reportedly visited Venus, describing jelly-filled mushroom trees and a fish-muskrat creature. On Mars, he encountered blue-eyed, blond humanoids with four fingers, using aluminum flying machines. Other family members detailed Martian art and culture. Jupiter was also inhabited by blond, blue-eyed beings who could float, with women wearing long waist-length braids.
9. Emanuel Swedenborg
Swedish philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg claimed divine guidance on spiritual journeys through the cosmos, communing with beings from other worlds. He described lunar inhabitants as dwarf-like with powerful voices, Mercurians as knowledge-hungry and telepathic, and Venusians as split between peace and savagery.
Martians, he reported, were hairless humans living in communes, while Jovians were gentle, family-oriented, and peculiar in habit. Saturnians were humble and austere, with simple burial rites. Swedenborg did not describe all planets—possibly because some remained undiscovered in his time.
8. Howard Menger
Howard Menger, a UFO contactee, claimed extensive extraterrestrial interactions beginning in childhood. A mysterious woman informed the ten-year-old he was chosen for a great destiny. After service in the Pacific War, he assisted visitors from Venus and Mars in adapting to Earth, noting their distaste for bras and high heels. He later recalled being the reincarnated Saturnian spirit Sol du Naro, inhabiting a deceased child's body. Menger asserted that Venusian and Saturnian civilizations exist at a higher vibrational frequency, making them often invisible to humans.
He described Venusian suburbs with redwood trees and pastel-clad people. After acquiring a protein-rich lunar potato, he underwent atomic processing for a moon trip. There, he reported pearl-shaped aerodromes, floating trains, and international tourist groups, plus a crashed bullet-shaped vessel from another world.
7. Captain Kaye
In 2014, an alleged whistleblower, Captain Kaye (later identified as Randy Cramer in 2015), claimed he spent 17 years on Mars with a covert Mars Defense Force. Recruited from a US Marine "Special Section"—reportedly established by President Eisenhower—his mission was to protect colonies like Aries Prime from indigenous reptilian and insectoid races. His service ended violently when a mission to retrieve a sacred artifact caused nearly 1,000 casualties.
Kaye states Mars has a breathable atmosphere and a breakaway human civilization there. He hopes his testimony, corroborated by figures like Michael Relfe and Laura Magdalene Eisenhower (who claims recruitment attempts), will expose this. He also alleges the 1969 Moon landing served as cover for earlier lunar and Martian operations.
6. Sackville G. Leyson
In 1906, Utah's Emery County Progress published an article detailing a psychic trip to Mars by one Sackville G. Leyson. He described the planet as a molten globe with red and green clouds, inhabited by two tribes. The larger, knee-high to the narrator, had huge ears, a forehead eye, and crosswise-expanding lungs, living in rock houses. The smaller, web-footed tribe had temple eyes and cheek holes instead of a nose, residing in underground holes.
Leyson also reported rubber trees, a coldless snow-like substance, and men operating machines guiding lights through transparent rocks toward Earth. Given the lack of evidence that Leyson ever existed, this account was likely fabricated by the newspaper as a satire of astral projection and contemporary theories about extraterrestrial life.
5. Ingo Swann And Harold Sherman
Psychic viewers Ingo Swann and Harold Sherman reportedly conducted remote viewings of Mercury and Jupiter ahead of Pioneer 10's mission. Their descriptions included Mercury having a thin atmosphere, rainbows, and lichen-like life in water, while Jupiter was described as bitterly cold with swirling colors, tornadoes, and a 9,000-meter mountain range.
Assessments of their accuracy varied greatly. Researchers Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff found favorable comparisons with data from Mariner 10 and Pioneer 10. However, Isaac Asimov concluded nearly half their observations were incorrect, and Carl Sagan dismissed the results as vague and unscientific. Swann later speculated they may have inadvertently viewed a gas giant in another solar system.
4. Dana Howard
Contacte Dana Howard detailed her encounters with a Venusian woman named Diane across multiple books in the 1950s. She first met the 8-foot-tall Diane in 1936, who reassured her before inviting her onto a translucent, gem-studded spacecraft for a journey to Venus. Howard later reconnected with Diane during a 1955 séance in Los Angeles, where Diane promised to assist her in writing about her extraterrestrial experiences.
In her works, Howard described Venusian life and technology as guided by Diane. She wrote of their medicine as manipulating a bluish-white web of life essence and of teleportation achieved by vibrating matter through thought. Howard ultimately claimed to have married and raised a family on Venus, documenting these experiences in books such as My Flight to Venus and Vesta, the Earthborn Venusian.
3. George Adamski
In 1952, Polish immigrant George Adamski claimed he encountered a human-like extraterrestrial in the Mojave Desert. After spotting a giant cigar-shaped craft, he reported meeting a blond, sandal-wearing being named Orthon, who telepathically warned of nuclear dangers and identified himself as from Venus.
Adamski later gained fame as a "contactee," claiming travels to the Moon, Venus, and Mars aboard bell-shaped saucers piloted by Nordic aliens. He described lunar cities and Martian banquets, supporting his stories with photographs. However, skeptics allege his accounts were largely plagiarized from an earlier sci-fi novel, and much of his evidence was fabricated.
2. Orfeo Angelucci
1. Rael
In 1973, French journalist Claude Vorilhon claimed a humanoid alien named Yahweh contacted him at Puy de Lassolas volcano, revealing that aliens called the Elohim created humanity. Yahweh named him Rael and, in 1975, took him via spacecraft to the Elohim’s planet. En route, he received a massage and aromatherapy. There, he met figures like Jesus and Buddha and resisted a bribe from an entity named Satan, who offered wealth to provoke global racial war.
Rael refused, passing Yahweh's test of integrity. He then toured facilities producing immortal biological robots, including a copy of his mother, and attended a party with them. Before returning to Earth, Yahweh enhanced Rael’s intellect with a special helmet, concluding his extraordinary encounter.
+Truman Bethurum
Truman Bethurum might not have visited another planet, but his 1952 encounter made him a notable UFO contactee. After falling asleep in his truck, he was awakened by short, olive-skinned men in uniform near a hovering saucer. Taken aboard, he met Captain Aura Rhanes from the hidden planet Clarion. Their world, free of war and disease, used advanced Martian steel ships. They warned humanity must end strife to reach space.
Bethurum's story brought fame through TV interviews and lectures, leading him to found the Sanctuary of Thought. However, his obsession cost him his marriage, and he never reached Clarion or progressed his relationship with Aura. After repeated onboard visits, contact ceased. His final sighting of Aura was in a Los Angeles restaurant, where she ignored him. Whether his fame caused his abandonment remains a mystery.
Comments