Bethurum, Truman

Truman Bethurum (1898–1969) was an American contactee who claimed extraterrestrial encounters during the early 1950s, a period when UFO sightings and alien contact stories were becoming a cultural phenomenon in the United States.

His Claims

Bethurum claimed that beginning in 1952, while working as a road worker in the Nevada desert near Mormon Mesa, he was contacted multiple times by the crew of a flying saucer. The craft, he said, was a large disc about 300 feet in diameter. Its captain was a striking woman named Aura Rhanes, whom he described as petite, dark-haired, olive-skinned, and beautiful — and whom he called "tops in shapeliness and beauty."

He said the crew were from a planet called Clarion, which supposedly orbited our Sun but was perpetually hidden behind the Moon (or on the other side of the Sun), making it undetectable by Earth astronomers. He claimed to have had roughly eleven separate encounters with Aura Rhanes and her crew, during which they discussed philosophy, ethics, and the problems of humanity.

He published his account in 1954 in a book titled Aboard a Flying Saucer.

Reasons to Be Highly Skeptical

There are very strong grounds for dismissing his claims:

• Clarion is astronomically impossible. A planet perpetually hidden behind the Moon or mirroring Earth's orbit behind the Sun is not gravitationally stable over any meaningful timescale, and such a body would have been detectable through its gravitational effects on other planets long before the 1950s.
• No corroboration. Despite claiming eleven encounters, he produced no physical evidence, no photographs, and no credible witnesses.
• His descriptions were suspiciously tailored to popular appeal. A glamorous female space captain with movie-star looks reads more like pulp science fiction than a genuine encounter report.
• He reportedly became obsessed with "Aura Rhanes." His wife grew so concerned about his fixation on this supposed space woman that the situation contributed to serious marital problems — suggesting either delusion or an elaborate fantasy life.

The Broader Context

Bethurum is best understood as part of the contactee movement of the 1950s, a loosely connected group of individuals who claimed friendly, quasi-spiritual contact with benevolent Space Brothers. Unlike the more threatening "abductee" narratives that emerged later (e.g., Betty and Barney Hill), contactee stories tended to be uplifting and messianic, with aliens warning humanity about nuclear war and moral decay. They appealed to a postwar audience anxious about the atomic age.

Scholars of UFO culture like John Keel and Jacques Vallée treated figures like Bethurum with deep scepticism, noting that their stories served psychological and social functions rather than reflecting any genuine phenomenon.

In all likelihood, Bethurum was either a deliberate hoaxer who found a receptive audience and some financial reward, or a fantasist who genuinely blurred the line between imagination and reality — or some combination of both.