The Proceedings of the College of Universal Wisdom was edited and published by George Van Tassel, one of the livelier contactees of the 1950s. He and his wife Eva settled in Yucca Valley, near a large boulder called Giant Rock; there they held meetings for the Ministry of Universal Wisdom (originally the Brotherhood of Cosmic Christ), hosted UFO conventions, and ran a cafe. They also built the Integratron, a large white domed building intended as a rejuvenation chamber and time travel portal. Van Tassel claimed to be in communication with “space people,” who passed along prophecies and scientific information.

The Proceedings was the “official outlet” for his activities. This issue, from 1957, is 16 pages long; it contains a couple of UFO photos, a statement about the College’s purpose (among other things, to research “the memory span of atoms, the polarity interchange of vortices, and the generation of a ‘time field'”), season’s greetings, an article on the National Investigation Committee for Aerial Phenomena and its attitude toward contactees, an editorial urging less foreign aid and more money for science, an article on fallout, and praise of Van Tassel from one of his followers. The Proceedings, if I’m not mistaken, continued until Van Tassel’s death in 1978.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)