Book Review: "Towards the Moon with Fellini" Book by Christina Englehardt (with Jim Martyka)
Book Review by Nick Blake
Across the USA in the 1950s, there were numerous reports of strange phone calls, radio interruptions and mechanical recordings from discarnate voices, often metallic-sounding. Contactee Richard Miller publicized a number of recordings he had that were allegedly spontaneously imprinted on tape within sealed canisters. I learned one of my favorite UFO-related phrases from these events: Odunay Vasu Baragas (sometimes spelled Adonai Vasu Barragas). Even into the 1990s, similar events occurred, like the case of Gary Sudbrink.
Before I met Christina Engelhardt, I was unaware that similar events happened to one of my favorite film directors, Federico Fellini. At a recent HDA event, Christina gave me a copy of her book, “Towards the Moon with Fellini,” a memoir of her adventures with the famous Italian film director, the phone calls they both received urging them to make a film together, and their lifelong quest to understand what the Voice was and how to fulfill the mission the Voice had for them.
The adventure begins with Fellini’s fascination with rogue anthropologist and shaman Carlos Castaneda. After meeting in Rome, Fellini flies to Los Angeles for a preproduction quest to make a film about the spiritual leader. Just before this, Christina was in New York pursuing a modeling career but one day her psychic friend insisted she leave New York and move to LA for an important encounter she was supposed to have on October 20th. Lacking details, but trusting her friend, Christina packs up and drives across country. When October 20th rolled around, Christina received a random invite to a party and connected with Fellini, who had already been receiving strange phone calls.
So began an adventure that lasted a lifetime. Through a series of serendipitous encounters and phone calls that she also received her connection with Fellini grew, and she travelled to Tulum in Mexico to join Fellini’s pre-production crew.
The meeting with Castaneda was disappointing. The Voice kept calling Fellini to tell him he was on the wrong track, and Castaneda panicked when the Voice was mentioned during their meeting. The film fell apart, and Fellini returned to Los Angeles, then back to Rome.
Christina eventually joined him in Italy where she became part of his inner circle and a close confidant, doing tarot readings and throwing I Ching coins regularly. She married and settled in Italy, building her own creative career there.
For many years, Fellini refused to film the movie that the Voice wanted him to make, but he eventually changed his mind and began work on what would be his last film, “The Voice of the Moon.” Christina and her husband filmed a documentary of the production, called “Towards the Moon with Fellini,” which is free to stream online. The documentary is delightful to watch and is where her memoir gets its title.
After the film was made, Castaneda’s people made another appearance. Castaneda himself is dying, and they are looking for a new spiritual leader. They want a man and woman pair, and choose Christina and Federico to be their new leaders. Fortunately, Federico turns them down flat and forces them to leave his office. Though the followers stalk them for some time in Italy, they eventually abandon their mission and return to Mexico.
I don’t usually read memoirs, but I found this one to be compelling and honest. We journey with Christina as she tries to make sense of the unexplainable — a common predicament among experiencers of UFOs and other strange phenomena. We don’t get many answers, just lots of hints and bizarre experiences that leave us shaken, confused and frequently doubting our own sanity.
Something I particularly enjoyed about her memoir is that it combined several things that have been important to me over the years: spirituality and the enigma of Castaneda, a great (if temperamental) film director, and contact with non-human intelligences. Any one of those subjects alone is highly interesting to me; to find all of them mashed up into one story was a treat.
Another thing I particularly enjoyed was that the book doesn’t have any real answers, it just presents the facts of the strange experiences and Christina’s own struggle to understand what the crap was happening. Like a good Fellini movie, this is a story with lots of vivid moments and human experiences that leaves us wondering and re-evaluating our lives.
After finishing the book, I immediately found the “Towards the Moon” documentary on YouTube and watched it. I then wrote to Christina to tell her how much I enjoyed and appreciated her memoir. I hope you, dear reader, get a chance to read and enjoy this story as well.
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ABOUT NICK BLAKE:
A Founding Member of The Hollywood Disclosure Alliance, Nick Blake is also a writer, musician, and producer whose first indie video game, Dragon Battle, continues to sell and attract new audiences, years after its release. Additionally, Nick’s research project into the Bigfoot phenomenon has resulted in a 400-page manuscript with a 20+ page bibliography that includes chapters on high strangeness phenomenon and possible extraterrestrial connections.
CONTACT:
Nick Blake
