Meade Layne

Layne was born in Viroqua, Wisconsin and raised in San Diego.{{Cite web|last=Congress|first=The Library of|title=LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies (Library of Congress)|url=https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2016072248.html|access-date=2020-11-10|website=id.loc.gov}} Layne sold office supplies, worked as a real estate agent, managed an oil and gas company, and wrote poetry. He claimed to have earned a PhD in English literature.{{Cite web|title=Newton Meade Layne as Fortean|url=http://www.joshuablubuhs.com/1/post/2014/03/newton-meade-layne-as-fortean.html|access-date=2020-11-10|website=From an Oblique Angle|language=en}} In 1934, one of Layne's poems inspired a piece of music.{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/imperial-valley-press-barbara-sterling-d/150613774/ | title=Barbara Sterling Delights Ten Thousand Club in Program Thursday | newspaper=Imperial Valley Press | date=16 February 1934 | page=2 }}

Layne was the founder and first director of Borderland Sciences Research Associates.{{cite web |title=History of the Borderland Sciences Research Associates |url=https://borderlandsciences.org/history/BSRA.html |website=borderlandsciences.org |access-date=28 August 2023}}{{cite web |title=Borderland Sciences Research Foundation |url=https://hatch.kookscience.com/wiki/Borderland_Sciences |website=hatch.kookscience.com |publisher=Kook Science |access-date=28 August 2023}}{{cite book|last=Constable|first=Trevor James|title=Other Worlds, Other Universes|publisher=Health Research Books|isbn=9780787312916|editor1-last=Steiger|editor1-first=Brad|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=vgQj5D524PYC&pg=PA71&lpg=PA70 70–2]|chapter=The Case for the 'Critters'|date=February 1986|editor2-last=White|editor2-first=John}} Prior to his public work studying ufos, Layne was professor at the University of Southern California, and English department head at Illinois Wesleyan University and Florida Southern College.

In February 1945, Meade began publishing a mimeographed newsletter titled "Round Robin".{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/round_robin_v1_n1_feb_1945 | title=Round Robin v1 n1, Feb. 1945 - First issue | date=February 1945 }}

On October 14, 1946, nearly a year before Kenneth Arnold's first sighting of "flying saucers", Layne achieved national notoriety when the wire service carried a story of Layne's claims of a medium who was in telepathic communication with people in a space ship.{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-whittier-news-meade-layne-ship-fro/107694072/ | title=Meade Layne - Ship from another planet | newspaper=The Whittier News | date=14 October 1946 | page=1 }}

The following year, during the 1947 flying disc craze, media again quoted Layne on his ethership theories. Layne speculated that, rather than representing advanced military or extraterrestrial technology, flying saucers were piloted by beings from a parallel dimension, which he called Etheria, and their "ether ships" were usually invisible but could be seen when their atomic motion became slow enough.{{sfn|Reece|2007|p=16}}{{cite book |last= Davis |first= Erik |title= The Visionary State: A Journey Through California's Spiritual Landscape |chapter= Space Brothers |year= 2006 |publisher= Chronicle Books |isbn= 9780811848350 |page= [https://books.google.com/books?id=EQzj3rAWWtEC&pg=PA192 192]}} He further claimed that Etherians could become stranded on the terrestrial plane when their ether ships malfunctioned,{{sfn|Reece|2007|p=17}} and that various governments were aware of these incidents and had investigated them.{{sfn|Reece|2007|p=17}}

In 1948, Layne was featured in media for his proposal to use "underwater radar" to search for the mythical lost continent of Atlantis.{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/spokane-chronicle-meade-layne/107694207/ | title=Meade Layne | newspaper=Spokane Chronicle | date=28 September 1948 | page=13 }} In 1950, press covered Layne's publication of "Flying Discs: The Ethership Mystery and its Solution". Layne also publicized earlier stories of a crashed saucer with 30 inch-tall bodies found inside.{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-meade-layne-crashe/101889647/ | title=Meade Layne crashed saucers | newspaper=The Los Angeles Times | date=2 April 1950 | page=31 }} In 1951, Layne promoted Paxson Hayes's claims ancient giants in Mexico.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YqXh-xTvJLoC|title=Behind the Flying Saucers|first=Frank|last=Scully|date=July 4, 1950|publisher=Holt|via=Google Books}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-southwest-citizen-interplanetary-tra/140770996/|title=Interplanetary Travel Theories|newspaper=The Southwest Citizen |date=January 31, 1951|pages=3|via=newspapers.com}}

Furthermore, Layne argued that Etherians and their ether ships inspired much of earth's mythology and religion,{{sfn|Reece|2007|p=16}} but that they were truly mortal beings despite having a high level of technological and spiritual advancement.{{sfn|Reece|2007|p=16}} He claimed that their motive in coming to the terrestrial plane of existence was to reveal their accumulated wisdom to humanity.{{sfn|Reece|2007|pp=16-7}} These revelations would be relayed through individuals with sufficiently developed psychic abilities, allowing them to contact the Etherians and communicate with them directly;{{sfn|Reece|2007|p=17}} in particular, he relied extensively on the mediumship of Mark Probert as confirmation of his theories.{{cite book |last= Probert |first= Mark |url={{Google books|9urAoGP4X10C|page= xv |plainurl=yes}} |title=The Magic Bag |year= 1963 |publisher= Kethra E'Da Foundation|location=San Diego|isbn= 9781585092581|at= Foreword pp. xv-xviii |contribution= Note Concerning the Mark Probert Mediumship |contributor-last= Layne|contributor-first= Meade}}

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Layne died in San Diego in 1961.

• Layne, Meade, The Ether Ship Mystery And Its Solution, San Diego, Calif., 1950.
• Layne, Meade, The Coming of The Guardians, San Diego, Calif., 1954.

• Jacques Vallée

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last= Reece |first= Gregory L. |title= UFO Religion: Inside Flying Saucer Cults and Culture |publisher= I. B. Tauris |year= 2007 |isbn= 978-1845114510 }}

• https://obscurantist.com/oma/layne-meade/
• https://web.archive.org/web/20060409105450/http://www.internationalnewsagency.org/us_astronauts_and_the_ufo_encoun.htm

{{UFOs}}

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Category:1882 births

Category:1961 deaths

Category:American parapsychologists

Category:Ufologists