Revelations are never easy to deal with. In addition to upsetting society they can undermine one&Mac186;s sense of place and worth. These are the lesser reasons why the world keeps avoiding the revolutionary claims of an alien presence on earth. The main reason, however, is that the very idea threatens the power-grip of the religious-scientific- economic establishments. Subsequently most people feel it&Mac186;s safer not to delve too far into it.

Those of us more curious and willing to risk a look, however, are fortunate that the growing flood of literature on the matter - from gifted insights to the wildest misconceptions - is being sorted out by the Florida author and bookseller, Robert Girard.

His reviews are disseminated world-wide in the monthly ARCTURUS catalogue which supports the resolve to gain a new and more mature grasp of mankind&Mac186;s origins, purpose and destiny by researching UFOs and related phenomenon.

We usually think of oracles as speaking mysteriously and prophetically about hidden knowledge in archaic language . Robert Girard lets us know that it is nothing but Robert Girard speaking, and he is speaking American, and make no mistake, much of it is inspired. His views on the human condition provide us with a new sense of place - and a new sense of predicament.

He is impatient to the point of cynicism about the way we are pussyfooting with the consequences of overpopulation; with not facing the UFO reality squarely, and sentimentalising it when we do. If we don&Mac186;t make urgent, honest endeavours to cure these problems, he has said, then Something on higher octaves will do it for us.

In the catalogue he is most allergic to those childlike religious messages being conveyed to us through starry-eyed channellers and contactees. He has his reasons, of course. Some channellers certainly copy-cat the naivety sentiments unquestionably. Mostly he is tongue in cheek and friendly enough but, before we stress the sublime, we should start from the dark end of his playfulness. When asked if UFORUM could publish some of his reviews he laughed and said it would frighten our readers away, but he then switched to enthusiastic approval. To start with the harshest:

CRASH COLLUSION. A QUARTERLY GUIDE TO THE FRINGE General theme of this issue is _Altered States of Mind,÷ and contents bear it out: articles on _psycho-active÷ substances psychedelics and Shamanism, sex magic, crop circles and animal mutilation, language and meaning, MIB, and other tidbits. We hope this sudden enthusiasm for drugs as an aid to UFO-related research is some kind of fluke. We&Mac186;d sure hate to see drugs added to a stewpot already slobbing over the rim with psychotics, schizophrenics, crazies, zealots, reality-destitute and blockheads... $3.50 11. Sept 93

68. Thomas I.D.E. THE OMIGA CONSPIRACY: SATAN&Mac186;S LAST ASSAULT ON GOD&Mac186;S KINGDOM ...... The fundamentalists rise again, forcing That which They Do Not Understand into That Which They Believe Cuz It&Mac186;s In The Bible. In this version the apparent sexual fixation on the part of the aliens is equated with Satan, since _Satan uses orgasm for his nefarious purposes....÷ This book is for the lowest level of ufologist•the ones whose minds are paralyzed under the cruel tyranny of spiritual domination. $12.95

Jim Keith&Mac186;s CASEBOOK ON ALTERNATIVE 3 ...It is the author&Mac186;s thesis that...the book has a basis in bloodcurdling fact. which brings us back, of course to the insatiable American appetite - and market - for anything and everything that is low, sinister or violent. You want mind control? You got it here, with some cyborgs and drug zombies thrown in...

It rates as five star black comedy when you realise he is offering these books for sale. Ridicule can be a cruel weapon, particularly when belief is involved, or if you, or a friend, is the author. But perhaps we do need jolting to discriminate between the sick and healthy ends of research. His rationale is that sound research can help us adjust to new realities, and that sloppy belief, spread by the well-meaning, could lead into major disasters, and we are running out of time.

Many are highly amused by his negative reviews, and are no doubt endeared to him because he refuses to ingratiate himself, and they like an abrupt change after a page or two of straight reporting. Many like him better when he praises books, which he often does with brave and gifted authors like Linda Moulten- Howe, John Mack, Richard Thompson, David Jacobs, Jenny Randles. In spite of lapses of taste, the ARCTURUS catalogue, which reviews about a hundred items a month - books, journals, videos - is providing the world with a rare and important service.

Continuous access to the full range of this literature has moved him to write THE REVOLT OF THE FREE. (1990) As a bookseller and booklover (?)(he has a personal library of over 2000 books) he has increasingly studied UFOs and related material without being sucked into the whirlpool of gullibility and belief. His overview grants him a unique insight into the human condition, as well as into the crunch into which it is heading.

He introduces the idea that life on earth is made up of levels of awareness - of steps, or _octaves.÷ Life on each octave can see down the steps, but the life contained in each has no way of seeing up. The plant has some sense of sun, soil and moisture, but senses nothing about the sheep that eats it; the sheep knows and eats the plant but little about man&Mac186;s cunning to exploit and eat sheep; man is brilliant at seeing down the steps, and although religions teach of forces above or below, dominant scientific man believes there are no realities beyond his senses, or intelligences in the octave(s) above him.

It is easy to see how we exert enormous influence (and damage) on the life octaves below us, but the only physical or sensual signs of µoctaves&Mac186; above us are the intrusions of the paranormal or UFOs.

?
?
5 Man
Each step represents a separate 4 Animals
'Awareness-Energy Quantum' 3 Plants
2 Fungi
1 Bacteria
0 Earth

We may comprehend the stars as suns, and reason that they are enormous spheres of incandescent matter, but their reality and purpose probably majors in other dimensions and remain incomprehensible to us. Over a hundred years ago the Caucasian mystic Gurdjieff spent decades gathering the remnants of ancient teachings from esoteric schools scattered throughout Asia-Minor, and he then set up his System to teach about µoctaves&Mac186; above ordinary man and the spiritual consciousness-raising exercises necessary to gain access to them.

Girard&Mac186;s reasoning, aided by ufology, is impressive and electrifying, and to many offensive. He sees narrowness and apathy dragging humanity into an abyss, along with other earth octaves. After such a barrage of his insights, all unpalatable, one expects there must be solutions. But alas, they are impracticable. They would cause dangerous reactions. Besides being blunt and brutal in his analysis of the human condition he is frighteningly accurate. He is ruthless in exposing the µpriest-kings&Mac186; who used the µpolitical materialists&Mac186; to maintain power over the gullible; and he gives us glimpses of alien workings in the octave above ours. Samples:

• Before you finish this book you will be given two things. First a clear and inescapable picture of who you are (and aren&Mac186;t) and where you fit (and don&Mac186;t fit) in the human species...
  
• Arrogantly secure in the fantasy that our technology will make us masters of the earth and of our destinies, we are about to discover disastrously that nothing could be further from the truth....
  
• Modern man&Mac186;s ignorance of the natural world around him is truly incredible, to be sure, as well as truly ubiquitous and truly heartbreaking, a disgusting confirmation that man is diving headlong into the Darkest Age imaginable while inhabiting the world&Mac186;s most highly advanced technological Paradise...
  
• They may not have or need physical bodies, but through the use of energy fields and their exponentially greater abilities they may be able to travel at will through earth&Mac186;s octaves, and may assume whatever physical imagery they wish when traversing any particular octave....
  
• There is a logical suggestion that higher octave life must _feed÷ itself in ways that are exponentially more complex than are our six-sense needs....a guess with disturbing implications for humanity is _energy-plus÷: perhaps the energy-with-feeling of human emotion....
  
• In a way, they feed on the sum total of our emotions, from our darkest, most malevolent hatreds, to our most ecstatic radiations of love, and from our bitterest sorrow to our richest, deepest laughter....
  
• So who are these aliens? I submit that they are the sixth octave of EARTHLY life....
  

His extended vision gives us a devastating picture of the bad news, and if it is deserving of an ovation it is because as literature, as revelation, it comes close to being a masterpiece.

Obviously THE REVOLT OF THE FREE caused strong reactions. In his second book, FUTUREMAN (1994) he attempts to clarify his view. He admits to errors in the former, its shortsightedness, and lack of hope, but again he is as hard as nails in assessing our position. FUTUREMAN gives hope until you realise he is saying there is only slight hope. With six billion getting geared for consumerism it is already too late to suffer the solution he had devised for us: a generation or two of the misery of living in a largely sterilised world which would allow only a select few to have any children. Realise though that this extreme solution is to enable us to survive as a species, along with the maximum diversity of other species. (It will be interesting when the Green Parties discover him) It is the right book, however, to give to those scientists and leaders who show signs of waking up to face the degree of validity in this disturbing new cosmic scenario.

He asserts that aliens have tampered with our genetics aeons ago and that is why the missing link remains between Neanderthal and Cro Magnon man - we have by-passed Darwinian evolution. The current UFO abduction campaign - increasingly tampering with our octave with engineerings beyond our comprehension - indicates that the creation of Futureman - a man-god hybrid - is underway.

Some of his political insights find alignment with Noam Chomsky&Mac186;s dictum that most of us don&Mac186;t bother to see through deception. Girard asserts that the aware need to know about unpalatable truths, and those who don&Mac186;t want to know endanger all. The latter comprise the µunwanted&Mac186; which he wants cut down to size by our doing, rather than by the aliens&Mac186; doing.

It&Mac186;s been said that his µdeep South&Mac186;, Georgian origins, give him a racial bias that could be an attraction to fascists who could misuse his ideas. He may favour white intelligence in some areas but he states intelligence is not the criterion, it is attitude. He writes with the certainty that the gods are angered by us and will get rid of us because they, like he, see us as 6 billion µunwanted, unfit, unjustified and unawakened lives ... a biological infestation overrunning the planet.&Mac186; He does not consider that there could be µconservationists&Mac186; among the gods, who, as much channelling indicates, have our spiritual development and survival at heart. It is imperative, however, that we should heed his warnings. After all, our numbers and activities do endanger all life on earth.
By contrast consider the paradise of everyday life in Perth. The norm is that there is little to worry about except interest rates, the safety of our home or car, the crimes that happen to others, and nothing much to watch on telly. The really big problems remain overseas, and whatever happens here can be sorted out by politicians. The talk of millions being spent on searches for signs of intelligence light years away confirms that we are unique and safely alone, forever insulated from any unease we may suffer from wondering about the validity of UFOs and paranormal.

Against this we have Robert Girard as a modern oracle, telling us what our scientists and politicians have failed to tell us. His view is unsettling, to put it mildly, and quite alien and ridiculous to those who think no further than the shallow end of the media&Mac186;s coverage of science, politics and religion.

We can only read and enjoy his rhetoric, withstand his excesses, and wonder to what degree his view is accurate, and if we have got any time, what we are going to do about it.
We may need a little black comedy to lighten our load.

In answering a request to quote from his books he wrote: 'Quote anything you like. I'm glad I wrote those books, though I feel very sad inside for what the human species will go through before such concepts as 'brotherhood,' 'equality,' 'freedom' and 'individuality' take on their old relevance. Futureman is a book that&Mac186;s hard on its readers, but somebody has to say such things out loud.'

Catalogue Requests: Write to ARCTURUS BOOKS 1443 S.E. Port St. Lucie Blvd. Port St. Lucie, Florida 34952 or phone from WA after 11pm weekdays: (407) 398-0796 New applicants are sent one current Arcturus catalogue and backlist (free). Read the inside cover on receipt. Futureman costs $12.00 (US) postage extra.