Buzz
For the past few hundred years, numerous people have asserted that they journeyed to distant planets, either through astral projection or by means of mysterious, potentially extraterrestrial technology. While tales of small gray aliens abducting humans have dominated since the 1970s, these stories typically remain Earth-bound, which feels like a missed opportunity. Below are 10 accounts of individuals who claimed to venture beyond our world.
10. The Denton Family
William Denton, a 19th-century Englishman, believed that psychometry—the ability to glean information about an object or its history through touch—enabled his family to explore the planets in our solar system. His initial experiments involved using geological specimens to visualize Earth’s ancient past. His wife, Elizabeth, reportedly glimpsed a colossal prehistoric insect after handling a piece of quartz, while his sister, Anne Cridge, saw a volcanic eruption spilling into the ocean after touching volcanic lava. Later, the family directed their psychometric abilities toward the cosmos. Denton’s son, Sherman, allegedly visited Venus, describing towering mushroom-shaped trees filled with sweet jelly and encountering a creature that resembled a mix between a fish and a muskrat.
He traveled to Mars, encountering a civilization with four fingers, yellow hair, and wide blue eyes, who navigated the skies in aluminum aircraft. Mrs. Cridge and Mrs. Denton also journeyed to Mars, providing detailed accounts of its art, culture, and religious practices. Meanwhile, Jupiter was inhabited by blue-eyed blondes who could float effortlessly, with women adorned by braids reaching down to their waists.
9. Emanuel Swedenborg
Emanuel Swedenborg, the Swedish philosopher, believed the universe was teeming with human-inhabited planets, albeit populated by spiritual beings. He asserted that God and an angel guided him on spiritual expeditions through Heaven, Hell, and the cosmos. Through divine intervention, he communicated with spirits not only from Earth but also from other worlds. Swedenborg’s journey across the solar system was a spiritual odyssey, yet he returned with profound insights about our celestial neighbors. Lunar inhabitants were described as dwarf-like, roughly the size of a seven-year-old but more robust, with powerful voices. Mercurians resembled Earthlings, dressed in snug attire, and were insatiably curious, capable of reading memories from those they encountered, with Aristotle reportedly among their populace. Venusians were divided into two groups: one peaceful and gentle, the other aggressive and prone to theft.
Martians were described as human-like, with diverse skin tones and no facial hair, living in ideal communal societies where dissenters were banished. They wore garments crafted from tree bark and were considered the most virtuous beings in the cosmos. Jupiter’s inhabitants were described as upright, gentle, and family-focused, with a peculiar habit of frequently washing their faces and occasionally walking on their hands. Saturnians, on the other hand, were modest and reserved, with a tendency toward low self-esteem. They showed little interest in food or clothing and buried their deceased by covering them with leaves. Swedenborg never explored the remaining planets of the solar system via angels, possibly because they had yet to be discovered by Earth’s inhabitants.
8. Howard Menger
Howard Menger, a UFO contactee who claimed to be the reincarnated spirit of a Saturnian, alleged he was taken on interstellar trips aboard a flying saucer. His encounters with extraterrestrials began at age 10 when a mysterious woman in the woods informed him of his destined greatness. During his service in the Pacific War, he had sporadic contact with aliens, but after his military service, he dedicated much of his time assisting Venusian and Martian visitors in adapting to Earthly fashion—particularly helping women adjust to high heels and abandon bras. Later, he recalled being the reincarnated soul of a Saturnian named Sol du Naro, who had taken over the body of a deceased one-year-old named Howard Menger after a profound relationship with a Venusian woman. He asserted that beings from Venus and Saturn exist at a higher vibrational frequency, making their forms more ethereal and often invisible to humans.
He painted vivid pictures of Venusian suburbs adorned with redwood trees, strange animals, and residents dressed in pastel attire. Menger also recounted a journey to the Moon, facilitated by a lunar potato gifted by a contact in Philadelphia, which contained over 15 percent protein. Preparing for the lunar trip required a week and a half of atomic processing to adapt to the Moon’s unique reality. Upon arrival, he described stunning pearl-like aerodromes, women in flowing gowns offering refreshments, levitating trains, and tour groups from Russia, Germany, and Japan. He even claimed to have seen a massive, bullet-shaped spacecraft, allegedly the wreckage of an exploratory vessel from another world.
Later in life, Menger retracted his extraordinary claims, attributing them to a CIA mind experiment, only to revert to his original story in the 1980s.
7. Captain Kaye
In 2014, a supposed whistleblower known as Captain Kaye revealed that he had spent 17 out of his 20 military years stationed on Mars, safeguarding five civilian settlements. He asserted that he was enlisted into the Mars Defense Force (MDF) from a secretive division of the US Marine Corps referred to as “Special Section,” though the MDF reportedly draws recruits from various military branches.
The primary human settlement on Mars, Aries Prime, is situated within a crater. According to Captain Kaye, Mars boasts a breathable atmosphere and occasionally mild weather. His role involved protecting the human colonies from two native species: a reptilian race and an insectoid race. While these species were defensive, they were not expansionist and generally avoided conflict with the MDF and the Mars Colony Corporation. However, his service took a dramatic turn when human forces were ordered to retrieve a sacred reptilian artifact from a cave. The resulting conflict claimed nearly 1,000 lives, with only 27 survivors.
Captain Kaye expressed hope that his revelations would expose the existence of a breakaway human civilization on Mars. His claims were supported by Michael Relfe, who also alleged spending 20 years in covert operations on the red planet. Laura Magdalene Eisenhower, who identifies as the great-granddaughter of the President, claimed she was approached to join the Mars colony.
In 2015, Captain Kaye’s true identity was disclosed as Randy Cramer. He provided additional details, including that the Moon landing served as a cover for extensive lunar operations in the 1950s and Martian operations in the 1960s. He also revealed that the US Marines’ “Special Section” was established by President Eisenhower as a counterbalance to Majestic-12.
6. Sackville G. Leyson
In 1906, Utah’s Emery County Progress featured an article detailing Sackville G. Leyson’s alleged psychic journey to Mars. Leyson, president of the Society for Psychical Research, depicted Mars as a massive fiery sphere enveloped in blood-red clouds interspersed with greenish hues. He described two Martian tribes, both fur-covered and unclothed. One tribe was so tall that he only reached their knees, while the other was so short that they barely reached his knees. The taller species had enormous ears, a lion-like nose, a single large eye on their forehead, and lungs that expanded horizontally rather than vertically. They resided in stone dwellings.
The smaller tribe was characterized as web-footed beings capable of gliding across moss and climbing walls. They had eyes on their temples and two cheek holes instead of a nose, living in underground burrows. Leyson also mentioned rubber trees, a snow-like substance that was soft to walk on but not cold, and men operating a machine that directed lights through transparent rocks, with rays reflecting into Earth’s atmosphere. Given the lack of evidence for Leyson’s existence, it’s likely the entire story was a satirical piece by the Emery County Progress, mocking astral projection and prevailing theories about extraterrestrial life.
5. Ingo Swann and Harold Sherman
Remote viewers Ingo Swann and Harold Sherman reportedly embarked on psychic expeditions to Mercury and Jupiter, just before the Pioneer 10 space probe’s mission. Mercury was described as a world adorned with rainbows, featuring a thin atmosphere and lichen-like organisms inhabiting aquatic environments on rocks. Jupiter, on the other hand, was said to have a frigid atmosphere filled with swirling colors and tornadoes, alongside a towering mountain range reaching 9,000 meters (30,000 ft). Assessments of their remote viewing accuracy were inconclusive. While researchers Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff found their descriptions aligned well with data from the Mariner 10 and Pioneer 10 missions, others were less convinced.
Isaac Asimov concluded that approximately 46 percent of the remote viewers’ claims were inaccurate, with only one in 65 observations being neither obvious nor already documented in scientific literature. Swann later speculated that their astral viewing might have been so rapid that they inadvertently observed a gas giant in a completely different solar system. Carl Sagan was even more critical, mockingly referring to the pair as “two courageous American mystics” and dismissing their findings as “dreadful—vague recollections of sixth-grade science.”
4. Dana Howard
Dana Howard, a self-proclaimed contactee, authored several books detailing her encounters on Venus, including My Flight to Venus (1954), Diane: She Came From Venus (1956), Over the Threshold (1957), and Vesta, the Earthborn Venusian (1959). She claimed her first interaction with a Venusian occurred in 1936, meeting a 250-centimeter-tall (8′) woman named Diane.
“Her head was adorned with a fiery crown, her golden hair flowing softly over her stunning, olive-toned shoulders. The mystical glow in her dark, prophetic eyes added an enigmatic allure to her beauty. ‘Fear not, Child of Earth,’ she whispered. ‘Open the doors of your mind, and we, from distant planets, shall communicate through poetry and song.’ “
Howard then boarded a spacecraft crafted from translucent materials, embellished with gold accents and gemstones. The mysterious woman vanished, and Dana Howard was whisked away on a journey to Venus.
She later reunited with the Venusian Diane during a seance in Los Angeles in 1955. Diane promised to assist Howard in documenting her Venusian experiences and performed a graceful, undulating dance. In her writings, inspired by Diane, Howard described Venusian medicine as the manipulation of life essence, resembling a delicate, bluish-white spider’s web. She also detailed their advanced technology, including teleportation achieved by vibrating matter through thought. Later, she claimed to have married and raised a family on Venus.
3. Rael
In 1973, Claude Vorilhon, a French racing car journalist, reported a life-altering encounter with a humanoid alien named Yahweh at the Puy de Lassolas volcano park. Yahweh revealed the secrets of the Elohim, the extraterrestrial creators of humanity, and declared himself Rael’s true father, bestowing upon him the name Rael. In 1975, Rael claimed to have traveled to the Elohim’s planet—and a neighboring world inhabited by the Eternals, where humans live for 700 years before being cloned from a single cell—aboard a flying saucer. During the journey, he enjoyed a massage and aromatherapy session at the edge of our solar system. Upon arrival, he met his half-brothers Jesus, Muhammad, and Buddha. While there, he was tempted by an Eloah named Satan, who warned that Yahweh’s plan to enlighten humanity would fail and offered Rael billions in a Swiss bank account to incite global racial conflict.
Rael declined the offer, emphasizing that humanity’s salvation outweighed wealth and power—a wise decision, as it was later revealed to be a test by Yahweh to assess Rael’s integrity. Rael was then taken to facilities producing immortal biological robots, where replicas of his mother and several attractive young women were created. Afterward, they returned to Rael’s apartment for a celebration. Before sending him back to Earth, Yahweh used a helmet-like device to enhance Rael’s intellectual abilities—though this likely had no connection to the fact that he brought a cloned version of his mother to a party.
2. Orfeo Angelucci
Orfeo Angelucci, an aviation employee at Lockheed Corporation, believed mold to be a parasitic life form that mutated living matter. In 1952, he conducted an experiment by sending 18 samples of Aspergillus clavatus mold into the upper atmosphere to study changes in their growth. However, the balloons carrying the samples broke free prematurely, and the mold was lost. Coincidentally, his experiment caught the attention of a Neptunian spacecraft passing by. His father-in-law first spotted the circular craft, which followed the drifting balloons.
Six weeks later, Angelucci experienced another encounter. As he drove home from work, a glowing red oval object appeared before his car, emitting two green fireballs that communicated their friendly intentions and instructed him to exit his vehicle. Upon doing so, he was greeted by a man and woman of “perfect beauty,” who informed him that he held special significance for the extraterrestrials observing Earth. Later, he met a charismatic flying saucer pilot named Neptune, who shared cosmic secrets and cautioned him about the threats of Communism. He also encountered a handsome humanoid named Adam, who transformed Angelucci’s glass of water into a delightful space drink using a fizzy white tablet during a steak dinner.
After being transported to an alien world via flying saucer, Angelucci recalled a past life there, where he was also known as Neptune. This world was said to be a fragment of the destroyed planet Lucifer, once the brightest planet in the universe, which had rebelled against the etheric beings of the “Father” or “Source.” During his journey, he met Jesus Christ, described as an infinite entity from the Sun, and witnessed a vision of the world’s end, predicted for 1986 unless humanity changed its ways. Fortunately, we managed to avoid that fate.
1. George Adamski
In 1952, George Adamski, a Polish immigrant, and his friends ventured into the Mojave Desert in search of UFOs. They spotted a massive, cigar-shaped craft and pursued it until it soared into space. Left alone, Adamski encountered another, smaller craft, and a man emerged approximately 40 meters (130 ft) away, signaling him to approach. The man, standing 160 centimeters (5’3”) tall, had long blonde hair, tanned skin, and wore a brown one-piece suit with a wide belt and red shoes. After shaking hands, the man established telepathic communication, introducing himself as Orthon from Venus and warning Adamski about the dangers of nuclear energy.
This marked only the beginning of Adamski’s encounters. He later claimed to have visited the Moon, describing it as teeming with “billions of fireflies” and featuring cities, forests, and snow-covered mountains. He also recounted journeys to Mars and Venus, where he dined with locals aboard bell-shaped flying saucers piloted by Nordic extraterrestrials. Adamski took numerous photographs of these crafts, gaining fame as the first prominent contactee. However, skeptics argue that his bestselling accounts of interplanetary travel were largely recycled from Pioneers of Space, a science fiction novel he co-wrote, and that much of his evidence was fabricated.
+ Truman Bethurum
Truman Bethurum nearly doesn’t belong on this list since he never actually visited another planet, but his story is compelling nonetheless. In 1952, after finishing his night shift as a maintenance mechanic at 3:30 AM, he drove to a hillside called Mormon Mesa to search for ancient seashells from a prehistoric sea. After his search, he fell asleep in his truck, only to be awakened by “a low, mumbling conversation in an unfamiliar language.” His truck was surrounded by 8 to 10 short men with olive skin, clean-shaven faces, and black hair, appearing to be of Latin descent. They wore leather jackets and outfits resembling Greyhound bus driver uniforms.
Bethurum stepped out of his truck to greet them and immediately noticed a flying saucer hovering nearby. After shaking hands with the crew, who spoke English, he was invited aboard and introduced to their captain, the captivating Aura Rhanes. She had a complexion of “olive and roses,” wore a black beret over her short hair, and communicated with Bethurum in rhyming verses. Upon returning to his hotel, Bethurum wrote a note: “If I am found dead in my bed, it will be because my heart gave out from the overwhelming excitement of seeing and boarding a flying saucer!”
As it turned out, Bethurum would board the flying saucer 11 more times. He learned that the visitors came from the planet Clarion, hidden on the far side of the Moon, and their saucer was constructed from the finest Martian steel. On their planet, there was no disease, divorce, war, or social unrest, and inhabitants lived up to 1,000 years. Alcohol and tobacco were nonexistent. He was told humanity would never reach space until they ended conflict and war.
Back on Earth, Bethurum gained popularity among UFO enthusiasts, securing speaking engagements and appearing on television shows like NBC’s Betty White Show. He eventually founded a religious group called the Sanctuary of Thought. His wife divorced him, reportedly out of jealousy toward Aura Rhanes, though Bethurum never pursued a deeper relationship with the alien captain, nor did he ever visit the planet Clarion. His final attempts to contact the flying saucer went unanswered, and his last sighting of Aura Rhanes was in a Los Angeles restaurant, where she was sipping orange juice and ignoring him. He never reconnected with his extraterrestrial companions. Perhaps his newfound fame alienated them, or maybe they simply moved on. The truth remains a mystery.
