‘Returning to religion: I said earlier that both races believed in reincarnation, but there were variations on their beliefs that, at times, divided them. Certain priests diverted masses of people to group them, under their leadership, in these variant religions. The divisions that resulted among the blacks had disastrous repercussions.
‘Eventually, about 500 000 blacks emigrated in the wake of their priests, to Africa - to the area where the Red Sea is now. At that time, the Red Sea did not exist and the land was African. They began to construct villages and towns, but the political system as I described to you, which was fair and effective in all respects, was abandoned.
The priests themselves elected the heads of government, so that these leaders became, more or less, puppets manipulated by the priests. From that time on, the people had to face many of the problems that are so familiar to you on Earth at the present time: corruption, prostitution, drugs and all manner of injustices.
‘As for the yellow people they were very well structured and, in spite of some slight religious distortions, their priests had no say in the affairs of state.
‘It was quite simple and, as simplicity is often superior to complexity, it worked wonderfully well. Both races brought with them what we could call ‘laser weapons’. These weapons were under the control of a special group which, in turn, was under the direction of the leaders of each country.
By common accord, each race had exchanged 100 ‘observers’ whose presence was permanent in each foreign country. These observers were ambassadors and diplomats for their own countries, at the same time, ensuring that an arms excess did not occur. This system worked perfectly and peace was maintained for 3550 years.
‘The blacks who emigrated to Africa however, had not been allowed to take these weapons with them, being, as they were, a secessionist group. Little by little they spread further, settling the area that is now the Sahara desert. In those times, it was a rich land with a temperate climate, providing a well-vegetated habitat for many animals.
‘Among a people who had never before known poverty, there now formed two distinct classes: the very rich and the very poor. The priests of course, belonged to the former, as did those who helped them to exploit the poor.
‘Religion became idolatry and the people worshiped stone or wooden gods, offering sacrifices to them. It was not long before the priests insisted that the sacrifices must be human.
‘From the beginning of the secession, the priests took pains to ensure that the people were kept in ignorance to the greatest extent possible. By lowering their intellectual and physical level of development over the course of years, the priests were better able to maintain domination over them. The religion which had ‘developed’ had absolutely nothing in common with the ‘cult’ that had originally inspired the secession; so control of the masses was essential.
‘Universal Law decrees that man’s principal obligation, regardless of which planet he happens to inhabit, is to develop his spirituality. These priests, by degrading an entire ‘nation’ through keeping them in ignorance and leading them with lies, infringed this fundamental Law.
‘We decided at this point, to intervene, but, before doing so, offered the priests a last chance. Using telepathy, as well as a dream, we contacted the Great Priest: ‘Human sacrifices must cease and these people must be led back to the Right Path. Man exists physically for the sole purpose of developing spiritually. What you are doing contravenes Universal Law.’
‘The Great Priest was terribly shaken and, the next day, called a meeting of his priests, telling them of his dream. A few among them accused him of betrayal; others suggested senility; and some suspected hallucinations.
Eventually, following several hours of discussion, 12 of the 15 priests who formed this council, remained determined to preserve the religion as it was, claiming that the ideal was to maintain control and to promote the belief in, and fear of, ‘vengeful gods’ whose representatives they were on Earth. They didn’t believe a word of what the Great Priest had told them regarding his ‘dream’.
‘Sometimes our position is very delicate, Michel. We could have appeared with our spacecraft and spoken directly to the priests, but they were able to identify vessels from space, having had them too, before the secession.
‘They would have attacked us immediately - no questions asked - for they were very suspicious and fearful of losing their pre-eminence within their ‘nation’. They had formed an army and possessed quite powerful weapons, to be used to counter possible revolutions.
We could also have destroyed them and spoken directly to the people in order to lead them back to the Right Path but, psychologically, this would have been a mistake. These people were accustomed to obeying their priests and would not have understood why we interfered in the affairs of their country - thus all would have been spoiled.
‘So it was that one night we flew above the country at an altitude of 10 000 metres in one of our ‘tool spheres’. The temple and the Holy City were situated about one kilometre from the town. We woke, by telepathy, the Great Priest and the two acolytes who had followed his advice, making them go, on foot, to a beautiful park, one-and-a-half kilometres from the Holy City.
Then, by collective hallucination, we had the guards open the gaols and release the prisoners. Servants, soldiers - in fact, all the inhabitants of the Holy City, with the exception of the 12 evil priests, were evacuated. Inspired by strange ‘visions’ in the sky, everyone ran for the other end of the town.
‘Collective illusion, Michel. Thus, in a very short time, it was arranged that only the 12 evil priests remained in the Holy City. When all was ready, the ‘tool sphere’ destroyed it all, including the Temple, by means of the same weapon that you have already seen in action. Rocks were shattered and walls crumbled to a height of one metre, that their ruins might bear witness to the consequence of this ‘sin’.
‘Further, and for the edification of the people, a voice issuing from the incandescent cloud, warned that the anger of God could be terrible - much worse than they had seen - and that they must obey the Great Priest and follow the new way which he would show them.
‘When it was all over, the Great Priest stood before the people and spoke to them. He explained to the poor wretches that he had been wrong, and that it was now, important that everyone strive together to follow the new way.
‘He was assisted in his work by the two priests. Of course, times were often hard, but they were aided by the memory and the fear of the event that had destroyed, in a matter of minutes, the Holy City and killed the evil priests. Needless to say, this ‘event’ was considered by all to be a miracle of the Gods, for it also involved the liberation of more than 200 prisoners who were to face human sacrifice the next day.
‘All the details of the incident were noted by the scribes, but they were also distorted in the legends and tales passed on through the centuries. Nevertheless, the immediate consequence was that everything changed.
The rich who had previously had a hand in the exploitation of the people, now, in view of what had happened to the evil priests and the Holy City, were fearful of meeting a similar fate. They were considerably humbled and assisted the new leaders in instigating the changes required.
‘Inclined towards pastoral rather than industrial or urban pursuits, they spread throughout Africa during the course of the centuries that followed and numbered, eventually, several million. Nevertheless, towns were only established in the area where the Red Sea is now, and along the banks of a large river that flowed through the centre of Africa.
‘The people managed to develop their psychic abilities enormously. Many were able to travel short distances by means of levitation, and telepathy resumed its significance in their lives, becoming commonplace. There were also frequent instances of physical ailments being cured by the laying on of hands.
‘Amicable relations were re-established with the black people in Australia and New Guinea who came to visit them regularly on ‘chariots of fire’ as they sometimes called the spaceships still being used by their Australian brothers.
‘The yellow race, being closer neighbours, began to immigrate, in small numbers, to northern Africa, and were fascinated by the tales of ‘The arrival of God on a Chariot of Fire’. This is how the legends subsequently referred to our intervention.