Registration-Inscripción by Jim Nichols from JimNicholsUFO Website Dr. Hermann Oberth, who pioneered rocket design for the German Reich during World War II and later advanced rocket technology for the American manned space launches, cryptically stated, "We cannot take the credit for our record advancement in certain scientific fields alone; we have been helped." When asked by whom, he replied: "The people of other worlds." Oberth's fellow associate space pioneer, who also served the Third Reich, Werhner Von Braun, echoed similar knowledge of the extra-terrestrial reality when he stated in 1959, "We find ourselves faced by powers which are far stronger than hitherto assumed, and whose base is at present unknown to us. More I cannot say at present. We are now engaged in entering into closer contact with those powers, and within six or nine months time it may be possible to speak with more precision on the matter." "Above Top Secret" by Timothy Good, William Morrow and Company, Inc. 1988. Just who were "the people of other worlds" that Dr. Oberth spoke of so blithely? And were both of these esteemed German scientists making oblique reference to one of UFOlogy's most pervasive and tantalizing 'myths' - the alleged link between the Third Reich of pre-World War II Germany and… EXTRATERRESTRIALS? Following military defeat of the First World War, certain occult secret societies emerged in Germany intent upon discovering clues to the existence of ancient lost civilizations that once flourished on this planet; civilizations that reportedly possessed remarkable, almost magical technologies that allowed them mastery of the seas and the skies and even inter-stellar space travel. Inspiration to rediscover such technologies were found in a novel published in 1871 by Rosicrucian author Edward Bulwer-Lytton, entitled, "THE COMING RACE". Lytton tells the tale of an intrepid explorer who discovers an advanced race of humans living within a vast subterranean world who call themselves "Vril-ya". These beings had formerly been surface dwellers until a global catastrophe not unlike the Old Testament flood, forced them to take refuge deep in the Earth. The survival of this marvelous society was facilitated by their application of a force they referred to as "Vril". "…An explanation of which I understood very little, for there is no word in any language I know which is an exact synonym for Vril. I should call it electricity, except that it comprehends in its manifold branches other forces of nature, to which in our scientific nomenclature, differing names are assigned, such as magnetism, galvanism, etc. These people consider that in 'vril' they have arrived at the unity in natural energetic agencies, which has been conjectured by many philosophers above ground…" It was supposed by some that Lytton's book was not altogether a work of fiction, and in fact, he was privy to secrets that lost Lemurian and Atlantean artifacts still existed in clandestine caches hidden in the Gobi Desert and Tibet. And indeed, ancient Sanskrit texts from India describe civilizations that flourished before the great flood that possessed technologies beyond the understanding of modern science. The epic poem 'Saramangana Sutradhara', makes reference to the construction of amazing flying machines… "Strong and durable must the body of the Vimana be made, like a great flying bird of light material. Inside one must put the mercury engine with its iron heating apparatus underneath. By means of the power latent in the mercury, which sets the driving whirlwind in motion, a man sitting inside may travel a great distance in the sky. The movements of a Vimana are such that it can vertically ascend, vertically descend, or move slanting forwards and backwards. With the help of machines, human beings can fly through the air and heavenly beings can come down to Earth." German oriental scholars and occultists regarded such ancient myths with complete seriousness and during the lull between the First and Second World War, diligent efforts were put forth by both the 'Thule' and the 'Vril' secret societies to transform these myths into a viable technological reality. Mastery of an occult force such as 'Vril' would not only assure German technical dominance–it would ultimately liberate Germany from any crippling co-dependence upon the international petroleum cartels dominated by Germany's conquerors–the United States and Britain. Initiates of both the Thule and Vril societies were determined to develop an 'alternative science' and 'alternative technologies' based on principles possessed by the great 'lost' civilization of Atlantis: "a spiritual 'dynamo-technology' superior to the mechanistic notions of modern science". Thus to rediscover this source of universal free-energy and make it readily available as a benefit to the modern world became their goal. Thule member, Dr. W.O. Schumann of the Technical University in Munich, declared, "In everything we recognize two principles ...