Onec, Omnec

Sheila Schultz claims she was born on Venus, that her name is Omnec Onec, and came to Earth when she was seven.

Summary

Omnec Onec, who lived under the Earth name Sheila Gipson and was also known as Sheila Schultz, is an unusual figure in the contactee tradition. She claimed that she was born on an astral level of Venus, in a city called Teutonia, and that she lived there for roughly two centuries before agreeing to come to Earth in 1955. According to her account, she manifested a seven-year-old physical body and was brought to Tennessee in a spacecraft by her uncle Odin, where she replaced a girl named Sheila Gipson who had died in a bus accident. She subsequently lived as Sheila, married, raised a family, and eventually revealed her alleged Venusian identity. Her story combines classic 1950s contactee themes with ideas drawn from reincarnation, karma, astral planes and spiritual evolution. It became widely known through her autobiography From Venus I Came, first published in the United States by UFO investigator Wendelle Stevens. There is good evidence that a woman named Sheila Gipson/Schultz publicly maintained these claims for many decades, but there is no convincing independent evidence that she was extraterrestrial or that the alleged substitution of one child for another actually occurred.

Biographical data

Omnec Onec's Earth identity was Sheila Gipson. Some sources also refer to her as Sheila Schultz, reflecting her marriage to Stanley Schultz. Her own published material maintains that "Sheila" was the identity she assumed after coming to Earth. Her passport and ordinary Earth documentation were therefore in the name of Sheila Gipson, according to biographical material associated with her later public appearances.

Precise conventional birth information is difficult to establish from reliable independent sources. This is partly because her claimed identity deliberately separates her Earth biography from her alleged extraterrestrial biography. According to her own account, she was already approximately 210 Earth years old when she arrived on Earth in 1955, although she appeared physically to be seven years old. She said that she had been born on the astral level of Venus and had lived in the Venusian city of Teutonia.

She claimed to have been married twice and to have had four children and three grandchildren. Her former husband Stanley Schultz publicly discussed his relationship with her and their children, providing at least some independent confirmation of the ordinary biographical aspects of her Earth life.

Her public career developed gradually. According to her own account, she met Paul Twitchell, founder of Eckankar, in the 1960s. Twitchell encouraged her to write down her experiences and to make her story public. The manuscript of From Venus I Came was reportedly written in the late 1960s, although it was not published in the United States until much later. Wendelle C. Stevens eventually published the book, with the first English edition appearing in 1991 according to Omnec's own later biographical material.

Omnec subsequently became particularly well known in German-speaking countries, where she gave lectures and workshops on spirituality, extraterrestrial life and the transformation of human consciousness. In 2009 she suffered a stroke, after which her public activities were greatly reduced. Later accounts place her in Missouri, where her daughter Tobi became involved in caring for her.

The Case

The central claim is that Omnec Onec was not born on Earth. She said that she originated on the astral level of Venus, a realm that is not the physical Venus observed by modern astronomy. According to her description, Venus had once supported a physical civilization, but its inhabitants had evolved into a higher state of existence. They continued to live on subtler vibrational or astral levels after physical conditions on Venus became unsuitable for ordinary life.

She gave the name Tythania to the Venusian world and Teutonia to the city in which she had lived. She described the Venusians as highly advanced beings with strong spiritual and psychic abilities. Their society was said to be free of war, disease and poverty. They supposedly possessed technologies that allowed interplanetary travel and could manipulate matter and energy through advanced consciousness. These ideas place her firmly within the broader contactee tradition, but with a particularly strong spiritual component.

The most distinctive element of the case is her alleged arrival on Earth. Omnec said that she volunteered for a mission to Earth because of a karmic relationship with a girl named Sheila. In a previous incarnation during the French Revolution, according to her story, Sheila had sacrificed herself so that Omnec could survive. The two therefore had an unresolved karmic connection.

Omnec claimed that, in preparation for the mission, she transformed or "manifested" a physical body corresponding to that of a seven-year-old human child. She travelled from Venus with her uncle Odin in a spacecraft. Before reaching the United States, she said that she spent time in Tibet, where she was acclimatized to Earth's physical conditions and gravity. Tibet supposedly contained an ancient extraterrestrial transfer station used to prepare visitors for life on Earth.

The final stage of the story is particularly extraordinary. Omnec claimed that the spacecraft brought her to Tennessee in 1955. A seven-year-old girl named Sheila Gipson had died in a bus accident. Omnec allegedly assumed the girl's physical identity and was accepted by the family as Sheila. In some versions of the story, the girl's grandmother had only limited contact with her and therefore did not recognize that the child had been replaced. Omnec then lived the girl's life while concealing her true identity.

This makes the case superficially similar to a "walk-in" account, although Omnec herself rejected that terminology. She maintained that she had not entered an existing adult body. Rather, she claimed to have arrived in her own newly manifested physical body and assumed the identity of a child who had just died. Her story is therefore closer to an extraterrestrial incarnation or substitution narrative than to the classical walk-in phenomenon.

There is an interesting historical connection with the development of modern spiritual contacteeism. Omnec said that Paul Twitchell recognized her from the astral level of Venus and that the two established a spiritual connection. She subsequently became associated with the Eckankar milieu. Her teachings consequently moved well beyond UFOs and extraterrestrial visitation and increasingly concerned the nature of the soul, reincarnation, karma, spiritual evolution and humanity's relationship with a universal Creator. (omnec-onec.com)

Her account was eventually published as From Venus I Came. The book describes not only her alleged journey to Earth but also the civilization of Venus, its spiritual teachings and what she regarded as the history of humanity and the solar system. It later became part of The Venusian Trilogy, together with Angels Don't Cry and My Message. (omnec-onec.com)

The case also received unusual public exposure. Omnec appeared on television programs and later participated in radio interviews and conferences. Members of her family were also involved in some of these appearances. Her former husband Stanley Schultz publicly discussed their relationship, and her children appeared with her on television. This provides useful evidence that the story was not simply the creation of an anonymous author or a later literary persona.

At the same time, the evidential problem is substantial. The central claims depend almost entirely on Omnec's testimony and on material produced by people sympathetic to her account. There is no independently verified spacecraft, physical evidence, biological anomaly, documentary record or other evidence demonstrating that she arrived from Venus. The claimed substitution of Sheila Gipson has likewise not been independently established.

The astronomical problem is also important, although Omnec's use of an "astral" Venus changes the nature of the claim. The physical planet Venus is extremely hostile to terrestrial life, with surface temperatures and atmospheric pressures incompatible with the type of civilization described in the conventional contactee literature. Omnec's answer was that the civilization she described no longer existed on the physical plane and instead occupied another level of reality. This makes the claim difficult to test scientifically: observations of physical Venus cannot directly disprove an alleged civilization existing on an unobservable astral plane.

There is also a revealing historical context. The story appeared during a period in which UFO contactee narratives frequently combined extraterrestrials with spiritual evolution, reincarnation and cosmic brotherhood. Omnec's account shares many of these themes, while also incorporating ideas characteristic of Eckankar and other esoteric traditions. This does not by itself demonstrate fabrication, but it is relevant when assessing whether the narrative represents an independent extraterrestrial encounter or a spiritual worldview expressed through extraterrestrial symbolism.

Evaluation

As a biographical fact, the case is reasonably well documented. There is substantial evidence that a woman using the name Sheila Gipson/Schultz publicly claimed to be Omnec Onec, that she maintained this identity over many decades, wrote or authorized autobiographical material, married and had children, and appeared publicly to discuss her experiences. Her former husband and children provide additional evidence for the reality of the person behind the story.

The extraterrestrial interpretation is much less secure. No independent evidence has been found that establishes her alleged origin on Venus, her journey to Earth in 1955, the existence of Odin, the alleged Tibetan transfer station, or the replacement of Sheila Gipson. The strongest published source for the story is ultimately Omnec's own autobiography, supported by people who accepted or promoted her claims. Wendelle C. Stevens, who published the book, was himself a prominent UFO investigator and promoter of contactee material.

The case should therefore be classified as a well-documented contactee claim but an unverified extraterrestrial case.

Sources: