Jo Ann Richards - First Interstellar Treaty Conferences; 1961 in Exeter & Second 1971 in Persepolis Iran of ET Species

Merrily Milmoe at Cosmicbrilliance podcasts interviews Jo Ann Richards

Merrily

Hey everyone, welcome to Super Soul solutions

For today's show where you will learn about the first human and extraterrestrial interstellar treaty conference that took place in Exeter, England back in 1961. In this convention and following conventions you will also hear about in future shows, human beings along with at least 100 extraterrestrial species had to scientifically prove that they were indigenous to Earth in order to maintain the right to earth as their home planet, a pretty big deal. My guest today is Jo Ann Richards, a journalist and executive director of the educational nonprofit Earth Defense Headquarters.

Jo Ann's husband, Captain Mark Richards, US Navy and Mark's father Ellis Lloyd Richards Jr's US Air Force Major were soldiers in top level military performed intelligence operations since World War Two. Many special operations included on-world and off-world contacts with various humanoid and non-humanoid species.

So in this show, Jo Ann will share fascinating and eye-opening stories of meetings and engagements with different species, starting with a raptor Prince Naga, Draconis of the Imperial fleet, and Captain Lloyd Richards, Jr. who conspired together to bring both their indigenous species together with a goal to work in alliance and no longer be enemies.

And for the picture of these Raptors, folks, think the velociraptors that you saw in the Jurassic World movie, which by the way, the Raptors themselves financed to begin to get humans used to more friendly dragons.

At that convention, at least 100 species were in attendance along with the Whos Who list of the world. The logistics, secrecy and safety were a huge deal. Imagine each species having different needs, food requirements, and many needing unique self-contained environment, especially our five sentient ocean species. Well known architect, who created the concept of geodesic dome, Buckminster Fuller, designed many of these unique environments for the convention. Richards oversaw the security for this entire conference. Gosh, talk about herding cats literally. Wait until you hear about the upright walking feline friendly and Canine species.

So the list of attendees included royalty, top officials and many well-known scientists in all areas of academic experts. So with that introduction, I welcome you, Jo Ann.

Jo Ann

Hi, there. How are you doing?

I'm good. How are you?

I'm awesome.

You always are. I know.

Merrily

So we're going to start off today by me asking you this question. So can you describe the purpose of the first interstellar treaty convention that took place in Exeter in 1961 and some of the famous people invited from around the world? In other words, the purpose of it more or less.

Jo Ann

Sure. Well, first of all, I learned that it was suggested by aliens because of the Cuban Missile Crisis and they were quite worried about us humans setting off nuclear devices in the atmosphere. And they wanted us to learn and understand that there is a broader community beyond just us humans on Earth. They warned us if we kept using nuclear devices to settle our disputes, we would destroy our own planet.

They let us know, they'd been studying us for thousands of years, and they wanted to see if we could relate to each other, humans and nonhumans, as sentient beings, because most nonhumans do not see us as sentient beings, because their civilizations are so advanced. So part of the reason for that, yes, we think we're all that. I know.

Merrily

Were so arrogant, right?

Jo Ann

I know. Well, it was it was a social experiment to see how humans would interact with the aliens because a lot of the humans that attended the conference, maybe knew about aliens, but they'd never seen them themselves. And then Mark and his English girlfriend they were seven and eight, something like that. They were two human children that were allowed to hang out with alien children who had with their parents, who were ambassadors.

And so the other part of this social experiment was like, we'll see if the kids can get along with the aliens. And they had lots of committee meetings about would they let us go out in space? Would they sell us their used spacecraft? Would they be allowed to kidnap humans? Would we be allowed to maybe see how far we could go out into space? Would we be allowed to defend the Earth? So lots going on. There had been many treaties since probably the 30s and a lot of them had already been broken. So they were trying to establish one big treaty to see if everybody could get along, basically.

The attendees, there were heads of state, so you had political leaders, you had I don't know how many royal people, but heads of state, whether they were military and political. You had UN leaders, you had lots of scientists there. I know. Carl Sagan was there, Buckminster Fuller was there. And the whole conference was authorized by President Kennedy and the British prime minister. And as you said, Marks dad, was asked to help organize it and he was in charge of security.

So there was lots going on and it was a fascinating time apparently. Mark loved being there.

Merrily

That's so cool. I just love this there. And Vice President Johnson also wasn't he there?

Jo Ann

Oh, that's right. Yes. President Kennedy did not attend but Vice President Johnson for President Kennedy, right. Yes.

Merrily

So cool. This is so cool. And of course, the kids get along great.

Jo Ann

It was just playing with kids. He didn't think of it as, Oh, they're aliens who don't look like me. Oh, he just had fun playing with the alien children. It's like this, Ive just seen a boy.

Merrily

Right, which in this case, folks, there's a picture on the shout out and we'll be in the future YouTube, you'll see pictures of the species that Mark was so kind to hand draw and gave he and Jo Ann gave us permission to use the these pictures. So you'll get a sense of this show. Now, how many species attended this first convention? And where were all these species housed because they had to be hidden from the masses. Right?

Jo Ann

Right, the RAF was very good at keeping the civilians away from the places that they were staying. So what's interesting is there were like about 100 species that attended that first one. And the opening, closing ceremonies were held at Buckfast Abbey in a little village of Buckfast, I think it's called. I've been there. And it's like, right in the middle of town. So and I don't know how small it was back in 1961.

And again, back in 1961, England wasn't as crowded as it is now. So you could get around and they could just make it so that you didn't see stuff, and they could just close off an area and keep people out. But the Raptors that we'll talk about, they stayed at a place called Castle Drogo. So a lot of these committee meetings, lots and a lot of different meetings were held. It's all in the southern part of England. So they made use of airfields and places that were close to the ocean for the ocean going species that were going to come and for like things that were going to land in a spaceship.