The Magnificent Mitchell Sisters!

In May 1957, Helen and Betty Mitchell of St. Louis, Missouri, were approached at a coffee shop by two men named Elen and Zelas who said they were from Mars. The manly Martian duo further informed the Mitchell sisters that they’d been monitoring them since birth (for a special mission on Earth!) 1

At first, the Mitchell sisters were a tad suspicious, but when the two purported men from Mars recounted several childhood incidents that had occurred to the Mitchell sisters—that no one could have possibly known about outside of immediate family members—Betty and Helen became suddenly convinced that the mystery men were on the level and most assuredly from the red planet!

Shortly after their initial encounter, Helen and Betty returned to the coffee shop to meet again with Elen and Zelas and at that time were given instructions on how to build an advanced communication device to remain in constant contact with a Martian mothership piloted by Commander Alna.

In November, Helen was taken aboard said mothership and “told the magnetism of the craft would not affect my watch since it would be balanced by the magnetism of my own body. However, while in the mother craft the magnetism of it caused my watch to stop, and it was de-magnetized in a small machine before I left.” It’s the little details that matter. After Helen got the whole magnetism thing figured out, the Martians shared with her advanced scientific information and then demonstrated a space-age version of shuffleboard controlled by psychokinetic powers.

In the aftermath of Helen’s excellent mothership adventure, the Mitchell sisters maintained communications with their Martian friends, which included information on a wide variety of stuff they were instructed to pass on to the people of Earth. Martians—like their Venusian counterparts—apparently spent a lot of time obsessing over atomic bombs and how the people of Earth might end up doing to our current civilization what the Lemurians did to theirs. (Or to quote George Adamski’s friend Orthon: “Boom Boom!”)

The Marvelous Mitchell Sisters (with sister Mary in the middle). From “The Ballowe Family” collection. H/T John E.L. Tenney

Beaming with the space brother’s message, the Mitchell sisters made the scene at saucer clubs and UFO conventions, where they preached to the contactee choir about atom bombs and Atlantis and the dawning of a new age where mankind needed to get its act together and transcend our war-like ways.

At a meeting of the Kansas City Saucer Club, Helen Mitchell shared her knowledge of interplanetary languages by presenting this example: “Me! Bez de Son. Ras, de ta ol de leon qua sone twila urn bon-ta-bon Zabat dar um ta daga de tra-ce-te de tai o um bont. Zabat rma zabat ott tar ma qua zabat gavon-ta-bon um-quat que. Ban gav ban um ta ban ta zabat, nas qua pa qua zabat ta ol dat urn ta rama. Mel Bez de son.”

According to Helen, the above translated to: “Peace be with you. Beloved, in the light of mind evolveness one chooses to serve, and so doing turns the forces of Love in this attraction toward him. When searching is difficult it proves advancement, for adversaries must work strongly to prevent involvement. Let darkness fade to the nothingness that it is, not potential or manifesting as is the light which takes its place. Peace be with you.” Unfortunately the translated message seemed almost as incomprehensible as the un-translated version.

In 1965, the Mitchell sisters turned up missing, which suggested to some they’d been taken on an extended trip to Mars. 2

For more fun stuff like this check out “A” is for Adamski: The Golden Age of the UFO Contactees.

1 Mitchell, Helen & Betty. 1959. The Space People We Met: The Story of the Mitchell Sisters. Clarksburg,WV: Saucerian Books

2 Beckley, Timothy Green. On The Trail Of The Flying Saucers, June 1969 issue.