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Wayne Sulo Aho (August 24 1916 – January 16 2006) was one of the more obscure members of the 1950s wave of contactees who claimed to have contact with
extraterrestrial beings Extraterrestrial life, or alien life (colloquially, aliens), is life that originates from another world rather than on Earth. No extraterrestrial life has yet been scientifically conclusively detected. Such life might range from simple forms ...
. He was one of several contactees of this period who appeared following
George Adamski George Adamski (17 April 1891 – 23 April 1965) was a Polish people, Polish-Americans, American author who became widely known in ufology circles, and to some degree in popular culture, after he displayed numerous photographs in the 1940s and ...
and Truman Bethurum.


Early life

Born in the state of
Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...
, Aho was one of seven children of Finnish homesteaders and worked for most of his life as a logger. He was a captain in the
United States Army Coast Artillery Corps The U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps (CAC) was an administrative corps responsible for coastal, harbor, and anti-aircraft defense of the United States and its possessions between 1901 and 1950. The CAC also operated heavy and railway artiller ...
in the 1940s. Like
Howard Menger Howard Menger (February 17, 1922 – February 25, 2009) was an American contactee who claimed to have met extraterrestrials throughout the course of his life, meetings which were the subject of books he wrote, such as ''From Outer Space To You'' ...
, Aho claimed to have been in contact with humanoid space aliens since childhood, in his case the age of 12. He mainly spoke about a contact occurring in 1957, the year he claimed to have been initiated as a "Cosmic Master of Wisdom" after attending contactee
George Van Tassel George Wellington Van Tassel (March 12, 1910 – February 9, 1978) was an American contactee, ufologist and author. Early life Van Tassel was born in Jefferson, Ohio in 1910, and grew up in a fairly prosperous middle-class family. He finished ...
's ''Giant Rock Interplanetary Space Craft Convention.'' Aho said a telepathic summons led him into the desert where a saucer appeared and a voice ordered him to go forth and create his own yearly convention in his home state of Washington.


Contactee career

Aho and fellow contactee Reinhold O. Schmidt went on the lecture circuit together in California, and their double-header lectures continued until Schmidt was arrested for and convicted of grand theft. Aho's presentations tended to emphasize his military service in World War II, and spent very little time on "spiritual revelations" he had received from the Space Brothers, either directly or through later sessions with a spirit medium. Aho tended to refer to himself as "Major W. S. Aho," inviting confusion with Major
Donald E. Keyhoe Donald Edward Keyhoe (June 20, 1897 – November 29, 1988) was an American Marine Corps naval aviator, Donald E(dward) Keyhoe. (April 30, 1998) Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2002. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, M ...
, a UFO researcher and writer who thought UFOs were real but held contactees in low regard. In September 1957, Aho was a speaker at the second annual "Interplanetary Space Conference" held by the
Cosmic Circle of Fellowship The Cosmic Circle of Fellowship (CCF) was an American UFO religion. The Circle was founded in Chicago in 1954 by postman and UFO contactee William R. Ferguson, in addition to Edward A. Surine and Edna I. Valverde. Ferguson had previously spen ...
UFO religion in
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
During the conference, he played audio which he claimed was "conversations of Venutians", who "described life on their planet and told of inter-planetary experiences"; this audience included some people from
the Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense, in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The building was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As ...
, who the
Allentown, Pennsylvania Allentown (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Allenschteddel'', ''Allenschtadt'', or ''Ellsdaun'') is a city in eastern Pennsylvania, United States. The county seat of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh County, it is the List o ...
-based '' Sunday Call-Chronicle'' noted as "seem ngskeptical of the whole thing". Aho soon fell under the spell of another one-time Adamski follower, Otis T. Carr. Carr claimed to have built a functioning full-size flying saucer which operated on authentic Adamskian or Teslarian "magnetic" principles. After a suitable amount of money had been fleeced from gullible elderly attendees at Aho and Carr's lectures, they announced the Carr saucer, piloted by the two men, would take off from a fairground in front of thousands of witnesses and fly to the moon and back in a few hours, returning with incontrovertible proof of the trip. Criminal charges against both Aho and Carr resulted from the inevitable public fiasco, but Aho was later judged to be innocent, himself duped by Carr's improbable claims.


Cult established and later life

Like several of the other 1950s contactees, including
George Adamski George Adamski (17 April 1891 – 23 April 1965) was a Polish people, Polish-Americans, American author who became widely known in ufology circles, and to some degree in popular culture, after he displayed numerous photographs in the 1940s and ...
, Truman Bethurum,
Daniel Fry Daniel William Fry (July 19, 1908 – December 20, 1992) was an American contactee of the 1950s who claimed he had multiple contacts with an Nordic aliens, alien and took a ride in a remotely piloted alien UFO, spacecraft. Fry was born in Verdon T ...
and
George King George King may refer to: Politics * George King (Australian politician) (1814–1894), New South Wales and Queensland politician * George King, 3rd Earl of Kingston (1771–1839), Irish nobleman and MP for County Roscommon * George Clift King (184 ...
, Aho founded his own religious cult based on the teachings of the Space Brothers: the ''Church of the New Age'' in
Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
,
Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...
. Following the instructions of the Space Brothers, Aho's yearly convention held near the entrance to
Mount Rainier National Park Mount Rainier National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located in southeast Pierce County, Washington, Pierce County and northeast Lewis County, Washington, Lewis County in Washington (sta ...
, in the so-called ''Spacecraft Protective Landing Area for Advancement of Science and Humanities'' (SPLAASH), created in honor of
Kenneth Arnold Kenneth Albert Arnold (March 29, 1915 – January 16, 1984) was an American aviator, businessman, and politician. Arnold is known best for reporting what is generally considered the first widely publicized modern sighting of an unidentified fl ...
, tended to emphasize
New Age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...
theories of various kinds rather than being strictly a meeting-place for flying saucer fans. Aho spent the last decade of his life in
Gardnerville Gardnerville is an unincorporated town in Douglas County, Nevada, United States, adjacent to the county seat of Minden. The population was 6,211 at the 2020 census. U.S. Route 395 runs through the center of Gardnerville. State Route 207, kno ...
,
Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...
. He died on January 16, 2006, in
Carson City, Nevada Carson City, officially the Carson City Consolidated Municipality, is an Independent city (United States), independent city and the capital of the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 58,63 ...
.


References

* Lewis, James R., editor, ''UFOs and Popular Culture'', Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc., 2000. . * Curran, Douglas. ''In Advance of the Landing'', NY, NY: Abbeville Press, 1985. .


External links


About Aho's "New Dawn" conferences










{{DEFAULTSORT:Aho, Wayne Sulo Contactees American people of Finnish descent People from Seattle 1916 births 2006 deaths People from Gardnerville, Nevada