Through Geller, The Nine alerted Puharich to his life's mission, which was to use Geller's talents
to alert the world to an imminent mass landing of spaceships that would bring representatives of
The Nine. However, Geller - by now an international psychic superstar - bowed out in 1973 and
has resolutely turned his back on The Nine ever since. Puharich had to find other channels. He
joined up with aristocratic former racing driver Sir John Whitmore and Florida-based psychic and
healer Phyllis Schlemmer. They found a new channeller - a Daytona cook known to history only
by the pseudonym 'Bobby Horne' - who lived to regret his dealings with The Nine. Driven to the
brink of suicide by their constant demands, he too dropped out of the scene - his despair being
dismissed by Whitmore as "signs of instability". After this, Phyllis Schlemmer was appointed the
authorised spokesperson for the entity - known simply as 'Tom' - who represented The Nine.
Puharich, Whitmore and Schlemmer then set up Lab Nine at Puharich's estate in Ossining, New
York. The Nine's disciples included multi-millionaire businessmen (many hiding behind
pseudonyms and including members of Canada's richest family, the Bronfmans), European
nobility, scientists from the Stanford Research Institute and at least one prominent political figure
who was a personal friend of President Gerald Ford.
We also know that Lyall Watson (then the darling of the alternative scene because of his seminal
1973 book Supernature) was involved, as was the influential counter-culture guru Ira Einhorn -
and Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek.
The key to predicting eclipses is noticing that they occur in cycles, or at more or less regular
intervals. The Sun goes round the sky once a year; the Moon once a month. This means that,
every month, the Moon 'overtakes' the sun. This happens at the New Moon, and this is when solar
eclipses occur. But, of course, we don't get an eclipse every New Moon. This is because the Moon
has an elliptical orbit: sometimes it passes above the Sun when it overtakes it, sometimes below.
But the Moon's elliptical orbit has its own cycle: it returns to the same place it started from every 18
years or so. Thus - if seen from the same place on Earth - an eclipse will be followed by another
one just over 18 years later.
Roddenberry was part of that circle in 1974 and 1975, and even produced the screenplay for a
movie about The Nine. How much he was influenced by them is unknown, although it is said that
some of their concepts found their way into the early Star Trek movies, and The Next Generation
and Deep Space Nine (what a giveaway!) series.
(There is a character named 'Vinod' in one Deep Space Nine episode.) Another key player in Lab
Nine was Dr James J Hurtak, who was appointed Puharich's second-in-command by The Nine.
In fact, Hurtak had been independently channelling The Nine since 1973. Puharich and Whitmore
commissioned British writer Stuart Holroyd to write an account of their adventures, which
appeared in 1977 as Prelude to the Landing on Planet Earth (retitled Briefings for the Landing on
Planet Earth in paperback)
In this extraordinary book the true identity of the Nine - and of Tom - was finally revealed. Far from
being the chummy character that his rather avuncular name suggests, Tom is actually Atum, the
creator-god of the ancient Egyptian religion of Heliopolis, and Uncle Tom with his eight mates are
none other than the Great Ennead of Heliopolis,
But even with such impressive contacts, all was not well with Puharich. Lab Nine broke up in 1978
after a series of mysterious events that culminated in an arson attack on the Ossining estate, and
he fled to Mexico, claiming that he was being persecuted by the CIA. He returned to the USA two
years later, and appears to have played no further part in The Nine story. He died in 1995 after
falling down the stairs in his South Carolina home. However, The Nine continued. Not only did
Schlemmer and Whitmore continue their mission, but Dr Hurtak has also moved on. He has
become a major player in the unfolding millennial drama currently being played out at Giza, but
perhaps more importantly he has established himself as a New Age guru par excellence, travelling
the world giving workshops on his book of channelled revelations from The Nine, The Keys of
Enoch. Written and laid out in classic Biblical style, its darkly apocalyptic vision has huge numbers
of influential devotees.This we find very worrying.
Another Nine channel - an Englishwoman named Jenny O'Connor - was introduced to the avant
garde Esalen Institute in San Francisco by Sir John Whitmore. She and The Nine became so
influential there that they held seminars and - unbelievably - were actually listed on the Institute's
staff, even successfully ordering the sacking of its chief finance officer and the reorganisation of its
entire management structure..
