There can be no doubt that Ben
Goldman believed he had been contacted
by aliens, though he was inconsistent
about where they came from and
what their motivations were.
The photo on this page, the director says,
was snapped just after one such
visitation in 1974. It is entirely possible
that he believed he was in contact
with a number of different species from
several planets, though he never
claimed in any single interview to have
been in contact with more than
one group of unearthly visitors. His beliefs
about these alien visitations
formed the basis of the film "Gill Women of
the Prehistoric Planet" (1967).
What follows is a quick run-down of his
often contradictory claims organized
according to planet of origin.
PLANET X
"I've talked to real aliens,
you know," Goldman said to a reporter from
Cleveland's Scene magazine in
a March, 1967 interview. "The planet
they're from is called Planet
X. That's its real name. According to scientific
theories there is a planet called
Planet X which orbits outside the orbit of
Pluto. That's where they're
from. It's very cold there. The Soviets
discovered the planet back around
1958 and sent their scout craft to
investigate. By the way, please
don't print any of this." The magazine
printed it anyway.
ZETA RETICULI
Later in 1967, Goldman talked
to a writer from Cinema Sci Fi, a small press
fanzine out of Pittsburgh. In
this interview he claimed that he was in
telepathic communication with
the inhabitants of "a planet in the Zeta Reticuli
system." The director said they
gave him ideas for special effects shots, a
claim which, if substantiated,
would prove that alien civilizations lag far
behind Earth in terms of cinematic
technology.
ORION
An interview published just before
the release of Jesus vs Mecha Jesus in
early 1982 finds Goldman naming
Orion 5 as the planet with whose citizens
he was in contact. The Orionians
were spiritually advanced people and it
was they who converted the director
to Christianity and inspired him to make
his religious epic, "Jesus vs.
Mecha Jesus" (1982). Goldman went on to
explain that the Orionians held
the view that all of Earth's religions were
valid and advised Goldman to
follow a Christian path since it was "the one
best suited to his environment."