The Unarius Academy: Stranger than Science Fiction
The Unarius Academy of Science preaches the good news about our intergalactic allies.
Story and photos by Heather Quinn

Interplanetary Confederation: Model depicting the 32 planets that make up the confederacy, plus the earth, which has yet to join.

For a few years of my life, the only philosophical beliefs I held came entirely from “Star Wars.” The Force was far more real to me than anything I ever read in the Bible, and one day I would become a Jedi and get teleported off this rock. It certainly seemed more fun than waiting around for some angry deity from outer space to show up and throw me into a fiery pit. Unfortunately, George Lucas never made any claims that his epic was anything more than myth, and growing up eventually meant abandoning all this heroic, fantastical idealism in favor of cold hard facts. That is, until I discovered the Unarius Academy of Science.

The Unarians are essentially a bunch of grown-ups that are as into flying saucers and space religion as I was as a kid, except they actually take it all seriously. So seriously, in fact, that they own a dusty plot of land out in Jamul for the sole purpose of giving their intergalactic allies a place to land when they decide to invite Earth into their interplanetary confederacy. They’re not kidding about any of this, but they’re still a whole lot of fun.

Now, a lot of people will enter the Unarians’ modest storefront in El Cajon (a.k.a. Star Center One) with a mocking attitude. The temptation is definitely there, and nothing defines my generation more universally than sarcasm. This is wrong. These are very nice people. Sure, they believe some nutty things, but doesn’t everyone? There are a lot of people out there who believe that Noah loaded baby dinosaurs onto the Ark. It’s not really a huge leap to take from that to space aliens and Atlantis.

Instead, approach the Unarians with an open mind, ready to get even more excited about the future than when you saw the latest “Star Trek” movie. According to the Unarians, there’s some pretty fantastic stuff in store for planet Earth, such as: membership in an intergalactic confederacy of planets and world peace, free energy for all thanks to the magical science of Nikola Tesla, and the creation of an interplanetary university located right on our humble planet, coincidentally on the same plot of land in Jamul owned by Unarius. Some smart real estate investing, if you ask me.

The Unarius Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by husband and wife Ernest and Ruth Norman. According to Unarius legend, the powerful couple – reincarnated descendents of Jesus of Nazareth and Mary Magdalene, along with other notable spiritual heavyweights – began receiving vital information telepathically from space brethren on other planets, knowledge crucial to the evolution of mankind. They felt compelled to share this information, so they formed the Unarius Academy in 1954.

In a series of 21 books, transmitted by clairvoyance to Ernest Norman by these extraterrestrial spiritual masters, the core beliefs of Unarius took shape. The main tenets of their philosophy are less than revolutionary – seemingly a hodge-podge of various major world religions – mixing the concept of reincarnation from eastern religions with bits and pieces of western religion, such as angels, Satan and Jesus. Where they start to get strange looks, however, is in their belief in life on Mars and other planets, and that these extraterrestrial beings will play a crucial role in the continued evolution of man.

Landing: Mural on the outside of the Unarius building depicting the landing of flying saucers from the Pleiades constellation.

Conclave of Light: Photo of one of the annual events celebrating the upcoming unio of earth with the other planets in the Confederation, on the outside of the Unarius building.

Ernest Norman passed on in 1971, and Ruth Norman took over leadership of the Unarians, continuing ghost writing books on behalf of interdimensional spiritual gurus. In 1975 she purchased 67 acres of property in Jamul, waiting for the day when 32 spaceships from planets in what the Unarians call the Interplanetary Confederation will land and usher in a new age of peace – on Earth and throughout the galaxy. Charles Spiegel, Unarius leader after Ruth Norman’s 1991 death until his own death in 1999, predicted that these intergalactic tourists would land sometime in 2001, locking their flying saucers together to form a permanent, intergalactic university.

That prediction went unfulfilled, but Unarians have an explanation. According to Unarius Board Member Tracey Kennedy, the events of Sept. 11 signaled to our space brothers that Earth was not yet ready to participate in their confederation, and the landing was postponed until some later date, Kennedy said.

“It will only happen if the people on planet Earth are ready for it,” Kennedy said.

The Unarius Academy isn’t making any new predictions these days. They focus instead on education. The Academy operates its own printing press and is able to print Unarius literature on demand, and they hold teaching classes which students can attend on site or over the web for a small fee. The Academy is also open throughout the week, and visitors can view colorful displays and peruse the library of Unarius materials at their leisure.

“It’s a spiritual school and it’s a non-profit educational foundation,” Kennedy said. “It’s not a church, and it’s not a religion.”

While the landing and the extraterrestrial claims of Unarians are still very visible and central beliefs, Kennedy said that the organization focuses more on its supposed “new life science,” specifically dealing with what they call past life therapy. Through weekly classes, Unarius members help each other discover the patterns of their past lives. Part of the process involves what Kennedy called psychodrama, acting out the feelings and dim recollections of past lives, role-playing to unlock subconscious memories. Kennedy attested to the effectiveness of the method.

“You start to recognize patterns in your life, and write down the emotions that cause problems in your life, fears that you have,” she said. “As you’re working with us, and literally learning how to train your mind to be more aware of your thoughts and reactions, you start to get more insights about the past life problems and what has happened. You might have a dream. There’s a change in your life for the better.”

This aspect of Unarius teaching is reminiscent of eastern religions in that they believe that the actions in one lifetime, the good and bad choices, follow the soul in their future lives until they are eventually understood and, if necessary, overcome.

Kennedy shared with me a personal experience in which her recognition of past life transgressions improved her current life situation. Kennedy’s small graphic designbusiness in El Cajon had a problem collecting payment for one of their products, a large inflatable sign, to the tune of $10,000. As she took the matter to small claims court, she said she began to look into herself to see if her past lives might be the real source of the problem. Through meditation, she found her answer.

In her current life, Kennedy exudes a warm, friendly manner, but in one of her past lives, she was a con artist. After some soul-searching, she realized that she had once been a crooked merchant on a trade route in ancient China, inflating her prices for desperate travelers and giving them less than they paid for.

“I was ripping people off all the time,” she said.

Once she took responsibility for her past transgressions, Kennedy said she won her case and her business prospered once again.

Uriel: Portrait of Ruth Norman, dressed in her signiture tiara and jewels, on display at the Star Center.

This kind of experience, it seems, is not uncommon to Unarius members. On a recent visit to the Star Center, a Unarian told my fiancé and me about the troubled lives of Napoleon Bonaparte. Before becoming the 19th century military leader, Napoleon had lived many other lives as violent leaders, including Genghis Khan. The negative, violent choices of all these lives eventually clouded his soul’s psychic and mental faculties. Luckily for him, Ruth Norman was able to wake him up in his most recent lifetime as Charles Spiegel.

There seems to be a trend among Unarius past life regressions favoring famous historical figures over regular, average people. Along with Napoleon, Unarius members range from reincarnations of Leonardo da Vinci to Jesus of Nazareth.

But none of the Unarius members surpass Ruth Norman in the grandeur of her past lives. In addition to claiming to be the reincarnated Mary of Bethany, the betrothed partner of Jesus, she also went by the name of Uriel, the incarnation of an archangel of seemingly god-like proportions. For a group that claims to be strictly non-religious and scientific, the apparent deification of Ruth Norman as Uriel seems too worshipful to be secular.

Art and photos throughout the academy headquarters reinforce this cult of personality, such as a painting of Uriel defeating Satan, which we were told would one day be considered a greater work of art than the Mona Lisa, busts and statues of Uriel in full angelic regalia, complete with the tiaras and scepters she favored in real life, and those same tiaras displayed in a glass case.

I wasn’t raised in San Diego, but there seems to be an almost nostalgic feeling for this old queen who would appear on public access regularly in her Glenda the Good Witch getup. I feel cheated that I couldn’t see it live for myself, but luckily YouTube has a good selection of classics. Uriel’s flamboyant style drew a lot of criticism, but I say, why not? If you’re a reincarnated archangel charged with the task of saving humanity from itself, why not do it with some glitter, and a fantastic up-do?

Uriel’s flamboyant style seems to be the inspiration for the overall decorating scheme of the Star Center. The whole place is done up in a Grecian style, with busts and statues everywhere strewn with garlands of silk flowers. It’s quite the effect, and done to such proportions that it almost doesn’t seem tacky and garish anymore. Almost.

Then there are the educational displays, many of which light up, like the model of the Interplanetary Confederation in its spiral formation, with many colored, light-up balls representing the planets we will some day join with.

Even better is the model of a future city on Earth. You see, one day the earth will use one of Tesla’s inventions to harvest fourth dimensional energy via a huge rod stuck into the planet’s core. Don’t ask for a detailed description of how this will work, let alone how we know there even is a fourth dimension with a convenient supply of energy for the taking. Just have faith in the Space Brothers, and in the meantime, enjoy the colorful depiction of what this will mean for Earth cities.

Each city will have its own power antennae providing free energy to the residents, who will enjoy a life of leisure in a metropolis designed for beauty and harmony. This takes the form of a large, light-up model constructed of plastic, multi-colored crystals, mirrors representing pools, and thousands of beads glued in place. It’s basically a “Logan’s Run” vision of the future. We were told, in fact, that the model had indeed been built in the 1970s.

I’m usually on the lookout for a sleeker, modern art inspired future aesthetic, so I wasn’t too keen, until we were told that the whole city was equipped with moving walkways. You can even take a chair with you to sit until you reach your destination. Well, I can never get enough sitting, so I was sold.

Uriel was also quite a prolific writer. After the death of Ernest Norman, Uriel took his place as the telepathic link to the Space Brothers, authoring more than 80 books of her own, according to the Unarius.org, the Web site for the academy. Between the two

Future Metropolis : Highlights of future cities on earth, besides the obvious beauty, include free energy for all and the elimination of all walking.

Normans and their successor Spiegel, who reportedly authored 43 books to add to the curriculum, the writings seem to be an impressive feat, surpassing even Stephen King, until you look a little more closely at these “books.”

The Academy operates its own bindery, and though many of these books are out of print, there’s a fair number available in the academy bookstore to peruse. They look like books – they’re either hard covered or paperback and bound in the traditional way – and you might almost mistake them for legitimate school textbooks, but just one look at the comic-sans font and the endless streams of gibberish inside will dispel any illusions.

Consider some of the titles: “The True Life of Jesus of Nazareth,” an autobiography channeled through Ernest Norman; “Rainbow Bridge to the Inner Worlds,” an encouraging reflection of life on Earth by Regalia, “a spiritual teacher on the astral plane of Lexanna;” “The History of the Universe Vol. 1 - 3: And You – a Star Traveler;” “Exploring the Universe With Starship Voyager,” apparently not related to the Roddenberry series of similar name; and my personal favorite, “The Truth About Mars” by Ernest Norman. In the last book Norman takes us deep into the underground cities hiding beneath the surface of Mars.

Norman’s psychic journey to Mars is held up to the Unarians as undeniable proof of life on the planet. He said he was there, so it must be true. Which brings me to the only real problem I have with the Unarians – their cheap attempt to masquerade fantasy as science. The fantasy is fun, and it strangely makes more sense to me to believe in UFOs and Tesla-powered planets than in a 6,000-year-old Earth. I did grow up with “Star Wars” and “Star Trek,” after all.

All I ask is that they update their pseudo-science to the 21st century. Life on Mars is so mid-century, so Ray Bradbury. Nowadays, people are just hoping they’ll find microbes up there, forget about complex humanoids, let alone complete civilizations. Not only that, but there’s so much going on in real science, such fertile material for updated science-based fantasy. You start talking about the CERN supercollider, the possibilities for the creations of wormholes and black holes and a real discovery of multiple dimensions beneath our own, and I might start to take it a little more seriously.

And hell, if you switch to a nice Bodoni or Helvetica type-face for your publications, I might even consider joining your cult.