Andrija Puharich
Andrija Puharich (1918-1995), born Henry Karl Puharich, was a physician, inventor, and parapsychologist who conducted pioneering research into psychic phenomena, brought Uri Geller to international attention, and organized a series of channeling sessions with an entity group calling itself The Nine — transmissions that drew in figures from CIA research circles, Gene Roddenberry, and a roster of blue-blooded American families. Puharich's work occupies a contested boundary between genuine parapsychological research and intelligence-agency manipulation of psychic subjects — a tension that later researchers have never fully resolved.
Early research and medical inventions
Puharich began his career as a physician with a particular interest in vital life force phenomena and borderline psychic abilities. He developed technology for enabling deaf people to hear using piezoelectric bone-conduction transducers — direct bone coupling of vibratory signals that bypassed the middle ear — an invention that directly anticipated modern bone-conduction hearing devices and headphones. His work with Faraday cage shielding in parapsychology research was based on the hypothesis that electromagnetic shielding enhanced genuine psychic signal by filtering out low-astral interference — what he termed psychic hygiene.
The Council of Nine — first contact (1952-1953)
On New Year's Eve 1952-1953, Puharich organized a seance at a location in Maine that produced the first transmissions attributed to an entity group later called The Nine (also known as the Council of Nine or Spectra). The attendees were not ordinary spiritualists but represented some of the wealthiest old-money families in the United States — a DuPont, an Astor, a Forbes — gathered for what Puharich would later describe as first contact with an extraplanetary intelligence. The transmissions identified The Nine as beings aboard a spacecraft in near-Earth orbit operating through select human channels to inspire radical change on Earth.
Uri Geller and intelligence connections
In 1971, Puharich traveled to Israel and discovered Uri Geller, the Israeli psychic whose ability to bend metal objects through mental focus and to reproduce drawings sealed in envelopes had attracted widespread attention. Puharich brought Geller to the United States and arranged testing at the Stanford Research Institute under Russell Targ and Hal Puthoff, the same research program that later evolved into the government's remote viewing effort. During the Geller period, the entity Spectra resumed transmissions, now identifying itself explicitly as the source of Geller's abilities.
Reports later emerged that Puharich had given Geller psychoactive substances without his knowledge — a claim that colored subsequent assessments of the entire collaboration and raised questions about whether Geller's experiences under Puharich's supervision were genuine parapsychological events or chemically induced states exploited by an intelligence-adjacent operator.
Lab Nine and the Space Kids
Puharich established a research facility in upstate New York — his Round Table Institute — where he conducted psychic experiments with a group of children he called the "Space Kids," whom he believed possessed enhanced paranormal abilities that could serve as channels for The Nine. The primary adult channel for the Council of Nine transmissions at this stage was Phyllis Schlemmer, who continued to relay communications from the Nine with Puharich and Sir John Whitmore as primary interlocutors.
Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek
In 1975, Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, attended Council of Nine channeling sessions organized by Puharich and Phyllis Schlemmer at Sir John Whitmore's estate. Roddenberry asked detailed questions about the structure of the 24 extraterrestrial civilizations described by The Nine, the nature of contact, and the cosmic governance structure. Researchers have noted thematic parallels between the cosmological structure described in the Nine transmissions and the United Federation of Planets presented in Star Trek.
Legacy and assessment
Puharich died in 1995. His legacy remains deeply contested: supporters regard him as the most important American parapsychologist of the 20th century and the first systematic bridge between psychic research and extraterrestrial contact; critics argue he was an intelligence asset who weaponized altered states to manipulate test subjects and channel fabricated transmissions. The "Space Kids" program and the dosing of Uri Geller have been cited as evidence of the latter. The Nine transmissions he inaugurated have continued to circulate in alternative research, UFO disclosure communities, and esoteric circles as one of the most documented alleged human-to-ET communication series in the modern era.