Gloria Lee (March 22, 1926 – December 3, 1962) was an American airline flight attendant and a follower of

Oahspe ''Oahspe: A New Bible'' is a book published in 1882, purporting to contain "new revelations" from "...the Embassadors of the angel hosts of heaven prepared and revealed unto man in the name of Jehovih..." It was produced by an American dentist, J ...

who became part of the 1950s

contactee Contactees are persons who claim to have experienced contact with extraterrestrials. Some claimed ongoing encounters, while others claimed to have had as few as a single encounter. Evidence is anecdotal in all cases. As a cultural phenomenon, c ...

movement in 1953. Lee, a native of Los Angeles, claimed to be in telepathic communication with an entity known as JW, who lived on the planet

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...

, and began to assemble a book of his spiritual teachings as dictated to her. At his direction she founded the ''Cosmon Research Foundation'' for the purpose of publication and study of JW's superhuman wisdom, much of which bore some resemblance to the 1882 teachings of

. Membership in Lee's organization rose sharply after advertisements were regularly carried in Ray Palmer's monthly occult magazine ''

Fate Destiny, sometimes referred to as fate (from Latin ''fatum'' "decree, prediction, destiny, fate"), is a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual. Fate Although often ...

''. She hit the

lecture circuit and attracted considerable public attention. During her lectures, Lee sold copies of her book of revelations, ''Why We Are Here!'' (1959). The year of her death, a second "JW" book was published, ''The Changing Conditions of Your World!'' (1962). She developed a plan for world peace and a space station design and took them to

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

in late 1962 in an attempt to bring them to the attention of officials. However, after being rebuffed, she launched a

hunger strike A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...

or protest fast, telling others in the UFO

community that she expected to enter a coma resembling death, then "return" with renewed spiritual energy to carry on her "great work". However, the press were not notified of Lee's hunger strike until some time after it had begun, and she attracted no publicity. After approximately 66 days without eating, she was taken to George Washington University Hospital. She died there on December 3, 1962 at the age of 36.

Mark-Age

After her death, Charles Boyd Gentzel, the founder of Mark-Age, Inc., and his partner Pauline Sharpe (also known as Nada-Yolanda), claimed to be channelling spirit messages from Lee on behalf of their own UFO-contact cult. Lee is not the only contactee or would-be contactee to starve herself to death. In November 1982, LaVerne Landis, a member of the UFO cult Search and Prove, died of starvation while waiting in her car in the northern Minnesota woods for over 40 days for a flying saucer to land, after reportedly being told to wait there during

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws ...

contact with a Space Brother.

References

External links

Survey of 1950s contactees, including Lee

1963 newsletter from contactee Daniel Fry announcing Lee's death

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Gloria 1926 births 1962 deaths People from Los Angeles UFO religions Contactees People who died on hunger strike UFO writers