On Monday 9 October 1995, Falkirk Town Hall hosted around 700 people who had paid £2 each to hear an explanation of the rash of UFO sightings that occurred over the previous few years.
The event, organised by local councillor Billy Buchanan, had received substantial press coverage in the preceding months. Much of this was due to mistaken press reports that an alien called Zal-us would address the audience in order to explain the role of the Council of Nine, an alien organisation that kept watch over the planet.
Zal-us, though, was an accidental if unwittingly brilliant creation: the press had picked up an erroneous report in the locally-run paranormal magazine, Enigmas, which had mistakenly attributed the name Zal-us to a man who claimed knowledge of the Council of Nine, and who had been in contact with Councillor Buchanan. The press then embellished the name Zal-us with an alien provenance. The person in question was in fact one Geri Rogers from Edinburgh, who would join the roster at the Cosmic Agenda Lecture, along with the US psychic Phyliss Schlemmer (the Nine’s primary Earthly representative), and UFO researcher Ken McFarlane.
Perhaps no event could have lived up to the hype. The Cosmic Agenda Lecture certainly didn’t. Schlemmer, who apparently referred to Bonnybridge as ‘Bonnybrook’, seems to have bored and alienated her audience with her account of the Council’s role as planetary guardians. A TV item preserved by local UFO researcher Malcolm Robinson gives a flavour of the Cosmic Agenda Lecture. Keep an eye open for the walkouts, and for the gentleman asking ‘Why’s everybody so bored? People have left because they’re bored’.