Spaced Outing

The Unarius Academy of Science’s 1970 “Space Cadillac” appears at parades across the country. Unarius cofounder Ruth Norman added the saucer in 1978 to promote the Academy’s film, “The Arrival.”

By David Moye

While Halloween is this month’s big shindig for Earthlings, other extraterrestrial life forms will be celebrating the Interplanetary Conclave of Light, a two-day event held around the universe on as-yet undiscovered planets like Vixall, Deva and Myton.

Oh, and also here in El Cajon.

Earth’s version of the occurrence, observed by East County’s space alien-loving Unarians, supposedly denotes this planet’s induction into the Interplanetary Conclave, a sort of United Nations of the cosmos.

The event, to be held October 15 and 16 at the Unarius Academy of Science (the Unarians’ cosmic compound) includes trumpeters (or “choraleers”) in Mad Men-era space uniforms, a dove release, a “parade of planets” and the kind of celestially-attuned peeps your grandma’s hairdresser would have on speed dial.

Depending on your beliefs, the Unarius Academy in El Cajon could be the epicenter of human-E.T. contact, or just a storefront filled with DayGlo spaceship paintings, plastic Venus de Milo’s and Astroturf carpet.
The group was most active in the 1970s and ‘80s when one of its cofounders, Dr. Ruth Norman (think river boat queen loses fight with crate of magic markers) made a splash on national TV, spouting the benefits of past-life role-playing.

Norman died-oops-”transitioned” in 1994, yet the Unarians trudge along, still waiting for the arrival of 33 spaceships in Jamul, east of El Cajon.

Previous Conclaves have been held in Balboa Park.

“We won’t get as many tourists,” Unarius spokeswoman Tracey Kennedy laments.

Interplanetary Conclave of Light
WHEN: Oct. 15-16 (Oct. 15 open house, 1 to 5 p.m. includes parade, dove release and performance by the Unarius Choraleers)
WHERE: 145 S. Magnolia, El Cajon
WHY: Hard to say for sure
INFO: unarius.org

Birds of a Feather
Other locals that enjoy being alienated

The Unarius are the region’s longest-surviving UFO-subscribing group-but they are not alone.

La Jolla resident Nadine Gary is a priestess in the Raelian Movement, an atheistic religion that believes life on Earth was created scientifically, thanks to DNA synthesis and genetic engineering by an advanced Extra Terrestrial human civilization called the “Elohim,” a Hebrew word used in the Bible that some believe means, “Those who came from the sky.”

“The Elohim would like us to understand that they are not gods, just human beings from space,” Gary says. “They would like us to comprehend that there is no god in the infinity of the universe.”

These days, much of Gary’s time is spent working on an offshoot group, gotopless.org, which is trying to overturn laws that prevent women from going topless on the beach (because, if women’s bodies were created by space geniuses, then covering them up would be an affront to their work).

La Jolla-based artist Eve Featherstone says she’s been channeling E.T.s for the past two years, including a reptilian alien who also communicates with Lady Gaga.

“I had to get rid of him,” she says. “Too intense.”

In the process of chanelling aliens’ messages into her art, Featherstone says she’s learned plenty.

“I learned that my breasts are a portal of universal unconditional love and should be available to whoever, whenever,” she says.
rael.org