The Only Planet of Choice (1993), Chapter by Chapter

The Only Planet of Choice is a book of conversations with beings who say they are not physical. Phyllis Schlemmer was the channel. A channel is a person who lets another being speak through her. The voice that speaks calls itself Tom. Tom says he speaks for the Council of Nine.

The sessions ran for about twenty years. Many different people asked the questions. The answers form one of the strangest and most complete cosmologies I know. A cosmology is a picture of how the universe is built and why.

Atlantis has its own chapter, “The Altean Venture.” To understand it, you need the chapters before it. So I go through the book in order, chapter by chapter, from my own reading.

The book at a glance

• Title: The Only Planet of Choice: Essential Briefings from Deep Space.
• Channel: Phyllis V. Schlemmer.
• Compiler: Palden Jenkins, who shaped the first edition in 1991 to 1993.
• Publisher: Gateway Books, Bath, England, 1993.
• Length: 398 pages in the first edition.
• ISBN: 1858600049.
• Edition: a revised edition followed. It adds sessions from May 1994 and a new last chapter. I follow the revised edition’s chapters here.
• Copyright: the book is still in copyright. The quotations here are short excerpts.

The publisher called it the result of twenty years of contact.

This work is the result of 20 years of psychic communications with the Council of Nine, the Elohim or Aeons.

Publisher's synopsis, Gateway, 1993 (Blackwell's listing)

Elohim is a Hebrew word for God or the gods in Genesis. The Aeons are divine powers in the Gnostic texts. The Gnostics were early Christian groups who taught salvation through inner knowledge. Tom himself says the Nine are “in truth Aeons.”

The book has six parts. Part I is about the universe. Part II is about Earth. Part III is ancient history. Part IV follows the Hebrew line. Part V is about war and danger. Part VI is about daily life and the soul.

Who sat at the table

A 1993 review in Kindred Spirit magazine named the people who worked with Schlemmer. They included Andrija Puharich, Gene Roddenberry, Sir John Whitmore, David Hemery and Lyall Watson. Roddenberry created Star Trek. Whitmore was a British racing driver. Hemery was a British Olympic hurdler. Watson was a biologist and writer.

In the sessions the questioners appear by first name. The most frequent are Andrew and John. Other voices include Gene, Irene, Miki, Steve and many guests.

Chapter 1: Prelude

The book opens with Tom’s usual greeting. “We are here. This is Tom. We come in love and peace.”

The editor explains the approach. The editor kept the comments light and let the sessions speak. The editor warns that Tom often repeats a sentence with one or two words changed. The editor sees this as a way to feed large ideas in small steps.

The Prelude also stresses one point. The Nine speak only through Phyllis Schlemmer. Tom says so himself, and he warns about other channels who claim his name.

Chapter 2: The Council of Nine

This chapter asks the first question. Who is speaking?

Gene Roddenberry asks Tom his name in 1975. Tom says he is the spokesman for the Council of Nine. He says he is also Tehuti, Hamarkos, Herenkar, Thomas and Atum. Tehuti is the Egyptian name of Thoth, the god of wisdom. Atum is the Egyptian creator god of the setting sun.

Andrew asks how the Egyptians came to build the Sphinx and name it after Tom. Tom does not give the full answer. He gives a date instead.

But the original time that I was on the Planet Earth or identified with your Planet Earth was 34,000 of your years ago.

Phyllis Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, chapter 2, "The Council of Nine"

The editor adds a note. The Sphinx, the note says, was a representation of Atum.

Tom says the Nine are not physical. They are pure energy and they exist in what he calls “the zone of cold.” They are nine principles of the universe. Tom adds that the Nine are not God. All of us together, he says, make God.

Chapter 3: God and Creation

Here Tom answers the oldest question. What is God?

It is unified, infinite intelligence, supported with pure love.

Phyllis Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, chapter 3, "God and Creation"

Tom says structured religion was needed at the start. The error came when religious leaders used it to control others. He warns not to make gods of physical beings. Many religions, he says, came from physical civilisations, not from the Creator.

The chapter also covers the Big Bang, the origin of the negative, and the being the Bible calls Jehovah. Tom says the negative came from the Creator too, and then went into competition.

Chapter 4: The Universal Civilisations

This is where the cosmology takes shape. Below the Nine stand the Twenty-Four. These are physical civilisations in another dimension. Each one is a single collective mind.

Altea has a special role. It guards Schlemmer’s body during the sessions and supplies the technology for the contact. It also led Atlantis.

Altea was also the head of what you know as the physical civilisation that manifested upon Planet Earth as Atlantis.

Phyllis Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, chapter 4, "The Universal Civilisations"

Tom describes the Alteans for Roddenberry. They are as tall as us, with sky blue eyes. They have no hair. Their skin has an iridescent glow. Tom adds that the physical human seed on Earth came from Altea.

Hoova first seeded Earth with others, and then re-seeded it three times. The Hebrews descend from Hoova. Tom says plainly that “Hoova is Jehovah.” Hoova also brought the Nazarene.

Tom names four civilisations as most involved with Earth. Hoova works with the physical. Ashan works with art, music and emotion. Altea works with the mind. Aragon works on healing. Smaller civilisations work under them, such as Ancore under Aragon and Spectra for Hoova.

Chapter 5: Visitations

This chapter is about UFOs and visitors. Tom says many craft come from the Twenty-Four. Some are physical. Many are not, and he compares them to a movie screen.

Tom says humans did not evolve from Earth’s animals. One group emerged from Earth itself. The others were colonised and merged. He also talks about the Pleiades, about Reticulum and about government agencies in contact with lesser civilisations. A mass landing, he says, is on hold because it would cause chaos.

Chapter 6: The Others

The Others are the rule-breakers of the universe. The first edition called them “the Opposition.” Tom asked for the softer name in 1994, so it carries less energy.

They ignore natural law. Tom calls natural law a “gentleman’s agreement” that keeps the universe in order. The Others work through tiredness, imbalance and fear in the body. Fanaticism is one of their tools. Tom’s advice is to be aware of them but not to dwell on them.

Chapter 7: Life on Earth

This chapter gives the book its title.

Earth is the only one of its kind, the only planet of free choice in the entire Universe, the only planet created for the balancing of the spiritual with the physical, in other words, the creating of paradise.

Phyllis Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, chapter 7, "Life on Earth"

Tom says Earth is the most beautiful planet in the universe. It holds a piece of every other planet. Its gravity and density make souls forget their freedom. They come back again and again. Tom calls Earth a bottleneck in the universe because of this.

Chapter 8: Accelerating Earth’s Evolution

Each person, Tom says, holds the whole universe inside. So each person holds a key to its evolution. He asks people to check their motives and to love themselves. The only way to love yourself, he says, is never to do what you will dislike yourself for.

Tom says the group meditations are already speeding change. Irene then takes the talk into philosophy, about game rules, free will and obedience.

Chapter 9: Crossroads

This chapter is about our choices. It covers money, ecology and population. Tom returns to the bottleneck. Souls become so physical that they do not want to leave. They are reborn again and again, and this “recycling” fills the planet.

Asked about hunger, Tom says balance comes through service, not through counting heads.

Chapter 10: The Seeding of Humanity and the Akesu Culture

This is the first chapter of Part III, on ancient history. It opens with the Dropa stone disks, a much-debated find from China.

Tom says beings with soul were on Earth about 20 million years ago. They prepared its etheric body, its chakras and its ley lines. Ley lines are energy lines across the land. The Others tried to cut them.

The first race of Earth, Tom says, was black. Seeds were placed before 32,000 BC. Then, in 32,400 BC, colonists came with a leader called the Hawk. They came to interbreed with the people already here.

They settled at Akesu, near the Tarim Basin in today’s Xinjiang, western China. Tom pronounces it “Akisu.” The editor gives its place as 41.01 N, 80.20 E. Its remains are under the ground.

It was too soon. The minds and the souls of the spirits were too dense. It was a high civilization, not properly adapted to Earth.

Phyllis Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, chapter 10, "The Seeding of Humanity and the Akesu Culture"

Here is the Akesu culture as I read it:

• Teachers. The Hawk taught language, building, farming and healing. People saw him as a god. He stayed 1,600 years.
• Succession. His son followed and stayed 2,020 years. The culture then lasted about 600 years more.
• Life span. Under the colonists, life span rose from about 20 years to 120 or 150.
• The end. Akesu ended naturally, through a shift of the poles.
• The split. Its people divided along three lines, Ashan, Altea and Hoova. The Tarim Basin group was purely Hoovid.
• Cro-Magnon. Tom says Cro-Magnon man first appeared in Akesu. The Neanderthals were not the start of humankind.

Tom ties Akesu to Genesis. Akesu was the paradise of the Adam and Eve story. Tom admits the Nine made an error there. They gave it too much of the positive. He links the three seedings to the Bible’s “sons of God” who came to the “daughters of men.”

The Hawk also matters for Egypt. Tom says the Egyptians later called him the Hawk “because he came from us.” Both the Hawk and his son returned around 6,000 to 5,000 BC.

Chapter 11: The Altean Venture: Atlantis

This is the heart of the book for this site. Tom says the Nine “were waiting for when you would ask.”

The dates. Atlantis began 32,000 years ago and ended 11,000 years ago. Other civilisations made the contact, not the Nine. Later Tom adds that Altea seeded Atlantis over time. It existed in phases for about 12,000 to 17,000 years. The trouble came in its last thousand years.

The name. In early sessions Altea was called “Altima.” Tom says the Atlanteans “were in truth Alteans.”

The places. Atlantis was not one island. It reached “from Greece to what you now call United States.” It had many cities. One leader lived near today’s Florida and the Bahamas, on land that is now gone. Another lived off the coast of South America, on a large land mass with seas between. The Hawk lived on Crete.

Mu. Mu was a sister colony in the Pacific, founded from Ashan. It began around the same time. The peoples of the Philippines and Polynesia descend from it. The Maya were a colony that lost contact and fell back.

How they lived. The Atlanteans had aircraft. They could also travel in their bodies by the mind. Their leaders were not born. Tom says birth is for souls who come to learn, and these leaders came to serve.

Medicine. Atlantean doctors could replace every vital organ. Tom says the lost knowledge is now “within the mind of the dolphin.”

In Atlantean medicine it was possible to replace even the true heart and the true brain.

Phyllis Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, chapter 11, "The Altean Venture: Atlantis"

The “true heart” is the vital spark. It is the life in an organ, not only the tissue. With such care, Tom says, a life could last “a few thousands of your years.”

The fall. The Alteans grew absorbed in the body. They used their medicine to enlarge their sex organs rather than their minds. They also put souls into animal bodies. Tom’s image is to place “your head on a cow.” This went beyond what they had agreed. In the end they experimented with hydrogen and “heavy water,” and a chain reaction became possible.

The end. Tom says the end “happened overnight.” He also admits the Nine played a part. In their distress with Altea, they caused the destruction, and the ice age ended because of their disturbance. He calls it more despair than anger. Elsewhere he calls it a natural event, of oceans and earthquakes. The book leaves both views standing.

After. Many Atlanteans chose to return as dolphins, porpoises and humpback whales. In those bodies they could not repeat the experiments. The three leaders met in grief. Then, with the Nine, they went out to found new centres. Survivors spread to Egypt, Ur, Crete, China, India, Tibet and the Americas.

I follow the medical thread on Atlantis: Technology. The hybrids are on Atlantean medical technology.

The name Altea also turns up in other Atlantis material. On this site the Altea Region is the part of Atlantis around the Caribbean and the Yucatan. See the Altea Region. For Edgar Cayce’s view of early Atlantis, see Edgar Cayce: First cycle of Atlantis.

Chapter 12: Ancient Egypt

Egypt, in this book, is born from the end of Atlantis. Horus, Tehuti and Isis came to teach. They arrived in craft, Tom says, and could be in several places at once. Horus went to Egypt. Isis went to Ur. A third leader went to China. Tom says advanced culture spread from these three centres.

Tom says the Hawk became Horus. He also says Pharaoh Khufu was the Hawk reborn.

It was the Sphinx that had more to do with the beginning of Egypt.

Phyllis Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, chapter 12, "Ancient Egypt"

On the Great Pyramid, Tom gives these points:

• Builders. Four of the Twenty-Four planned it: Hoova, Ashan, Altea and Myrex. Humans did much of the work.
• Dates. It was begun about 150 years before the destruction of Altea, which Tom puts 13,000 years ago. Additions came about 7,000 years ago. It took 6,000 years to finish.
• Purpose. It channels energy from the civilisations into Earth. Its chambers preserve and renew cells.
• Method. The stones were lifted with crystal and the sound “OM,” sung by many voices.
• The lost crystal. A crystal once sat on top. People removed it, and the pyramid lost part of its function.

Tom ties Stonehenge to the same civilisations. He also speaks of the Egyptian goddesses, Hathor, Sekhmet and Nephthys.

Chapter 13: Hoovid Branchings, Hebrew Roots and the Crescent

This chapter follows the Hoovid line into the Middle East. The “sons of the gods” were beings from Hoova and other civilisations. They merged with human women. That, Tom says, is why humankind looks to the heavens for its origin.

The Hoovids were chosen to carry individuality, determination and tenacity. Over time those traits grew too strong. The Nazarene, head of Hoova, came to soften them. The editor quotes Tom’s warning before you judge: you might have Hoovid genes yourself.

Chapter 14: The Covenant

The Covenant is God’s offer of friendship to humankind. Tom traces the souls of the biblical figures. Moses, he says, came from Ashan, mixed with Altea. The Bedouin get special weight. Moses’ wife was a Bedouin, and Tom says the Bedouin understand natural law.

Chapter 15: The Nazarene

The Nine call Jesus “the Nazarene.” Tom says he was not one of the Nine. He carried the best of each of them. He was the last of them to visit Earth. He lived a normal human life, with discretion.

Tom also says Joseph of Arimathea came from Altea.

Chapter 16: War and Peace in the 1990s

These sessions began in 1981, during the nuclear arms race. Tom says the Nine will not allow Earth to be destroyed “in stupidity.” He stresses the power of thought and fear. Meditation, he says, matters because it calms scattered energies.

Chapter 17: Preventing Disaster

This chapter covers the Gulf War years. Tom asks each of us to take full responsibility for the outcome. If the awakening comes slowly, he says, there is destruction. If it comes quickly, the world can be saved. Fanaticism must be released, not suppressed, or it grows more violent.

Chapter 18: Making a Difference

This is the practical chapter. The Nine ask for a shared meditation of eighteen minutes, timed to 21:00 in Israel. Its aim is unity on Earth and the right of each country to exist.

Tom also warns against being too intense. Rest, music, walks and friends keep the balance.

Chapter 19: Adventures in Consciousness

This chapter is about self-worth. Tom says the most neglected task is teaching people their own value. He blames religion for much of humankind’s sense of inferiority. The chapter gives tips on meditation and changing habits of mind.

Chapter 20: Soul Matters

The chapter opens with a vision. In trance, Schlemmer saw the Nine as old men. When she asked to see them as they are, they became balls of light, pure energy with a soul.

The sessions cover the difference between soul and spirit, the chakras, birth, death, reincarnation and healing. Tom says we do not remember past lives because of the atmosphere of the planet.

Chapter 21: The Next Millennium

This chapter is new in the revised edition, from May 1994. Tom asks humankind to let go of three decades of “decadence.” His focus moves to Britain. He says the rift between the Celts and the English must heal before the world can move on. Then, he says, the brothers of Abraham can be brought together.

Briefing: How It Came to Be

The book ends with Schlemmer’s own story. She grew up in Pennsylvania with her grandparents. As a child she saw angels, spirits and native American children. Her grandmother, a midwife, taught her about nature spirits.

A background section explains how the group formed. Puharich came across the Council of Nine in the early 1950s. In 1974 he, Whitmore and Schlemmer met to test a healer. When the healer grew unstable, they asked one of Schlemmer’s guides for advice. The guide said he was no spirit. He was the spokesman for the Nine.

What holds up

Some answers are dated. The warnings about the year 2000 have passed.

The dates do not always agree. Atlantis ends 11,000 years ago in one session. Altea is destroyed 13,000 years ago in another. Atlantis begins 32,000 years ago, yet also lasts 12,000 to 17,000 years in phases. I read these as answers given to different people over many years.

What stays strong for me is the structure. The Nine, the Twenty-Four, Altea and Hoova form one consistent picture. The same voice answered many people over twenty years. The line from Akesu to Atlantis to Egypt holds together. The picture of Atlantis as an Altean colony also connects with what Salla prints decades later. See Michael E. Salla’s findings.

Where to read it

The 1993 edition is out of print. The Internet Archive has a borrowable copy. You can read it for free with an archive.org account.

FAQ

Who is Tom in The Only Planet of Choice?

Tom is the spokesman of the Council of Nine. He says he is also Tehuti and Atum. He links himself to the Sphinx and says he was first on Earth 34,000 years ago.

What does the book say about Atlantis?

Atlantis was a physical civilisation seeded and led by Altea. It reached from Greece to America. It ended overnight about 11,000 years ago, after experiments went too far. Its survivors founded Egypt and Ur.

What was the Akesu culture?

Akesu was a colony near the Tarim Basin in western China, founded in 32,400 BC. Its teacher was the Hawk. Tom calls it the paradise of Genesis.

Why is Earth “the only planet of choice”?

Tom says Earth is the only planet of free choice. It was made to balance the spiritual with the physical.

Who are Altea and Hoova?

They are two of the Twenty-Four physical civilisations. Altea gave the physical human seed and led Atlantis. Hoova re-seeded Earth three times, and the Hebrews derive from it.

Related on this site

1. The Altea Region: the Caribbean and Yucatan part of Atlantis.
2. Atlantis: Technology: the Atlantean medicine passage in context.
3. Atlantean medical technology: from organ transplants to hybrids.
4. Michael E. Salla’s findings: Altea, Hoova and the Atlantis colony.
5. Edgar Cayce: First cycle of Atlantis: another channeled history of Atlantis.
6. Channeling: how this kind of contact works.

Sources

The book

• Phyllis V. Schlemmer, compiled with Palden Jenkins, The Only Planet of Choice: Essential Briefings from Deep Space. Gateway Books, Bath, 1993. 398 pages. ISBN 1858600049. A revised Gateway edition adds sessions from May 1994. Chapter numbers above follow the revised edition. The quotations are short excerpts.

About the book

• Publisher’s synopsis on Blackwell’s.
• Google Books record.
• Palden Jenkins, Meet the Council of Nine, with the 1993 Kindred Spirit review.
• Michael E. Salla, Galactic Federations, Councils & Secret Space Programs, Exopolitics Consultants, 2022.