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Vril: The Power of the Coming Race, originally published as The Coming Race, is a novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, published anonymously in 1871.
Some readers have believed the account of a superior subterranean master race and the energy-form called "Vril", at least in part; some theosophists, notably Helena Blavatsky, William Scott-Elliot, and Rudolf Steiner, accepted the book as based on occult truth, in part. One 1960 book, The Morning of the Magicians by Jacques Bergier and Louis Pauwels, suggested that a Secret society Vril Society existed in Weimar Republic Berlin.
The name "Vril" may be based on the word .
The Narrator discovers that these beings, who call themselves Vril-ya, have great telepathic and other parapsychological abilities, such as being able to Telepathy, Analgesic, and Hypnosis The Narrator is offended by the idea that the Vril-ya are better adapted to learn about him than he is to learn about them. Nevertheless, the guide (who turns out to be a magistrate) and his son Taë behave kindly towards him.
The Narrator soon discovers that the Vril-ya are descendants of an antediluvian civilization called the Ana, who live in networks of caverns linked by tunnels. Originally surface dwellers, they fled underground thousands of years ago to escape a massive flood and gained greater power by facing and dominating the harsh conditions of the Earth. The place where the Narrator descended houses 12,000 families, one of the largest groups and at the upper limit of population size before a chunk of the population will be splintered off and sent to build a new city on un-inhabited land. Their society is a technologically supported Utopia, chief among their tools being an "all-permeating fluid" called "Vril", a latent source of energy that the spiritually elevated hosts are able to master through training of their will, to a degree that depends on their hereditary constitution. This mastery gives them access to an extraordinary force that can be controlled at will. It is this fluid that the Vril-ya employ to communicate with the Narrator. The powers of the Vril include the ability to heal, change, and destroy beings and things; the destructive powers in particular are immense, allowing a few young Vril-ya children to destroy entire cities if necessary.
Men (called An, pronounced "Arn") and women (called Gy, pronounced "Gee") have equal rights. The women are stronger, larger, and more sensitive to Vril than the men. The women are also the pursuing party in romantic relationships. They marry for three years, after which the men choose whether to remain married, or be single. The female may then pursue a new husband. However, they seldom make the choice to remarry.
Their religion posits the existence of a superior being but does not dwell on his nature. The Vril-ya believe in the permanence of life, which according to them is not destroyed but merely changes form.
The Narrator adopts the attire of his hosts and begins also to adopt their customs. The guide's daughter, Zee is a researcher and enjoys spending time with the Narrator in order to learn about the inferior "barbarian". Over time, Zee begins to feel affection for the Narrator and this affection develops into love. Zee becomes possessive and begins to openly court the Narrator. Instinctively understanding that he may be in danger, the Narrator asks Zee's father to intervene. Due to societal customs, Zee's father refuses the request; however, the guide informs the narrator unequivocally that if he succumbs to Zee's seduction, he will be killed in order to prevent the contamination of the genetics of the Vril-ya. To further complicate matters, a young Vril-ya princess also falls in love with the Narrator, and she too aggressively pursues the Narrator, creating a rivalry between the two Gy and deepening the Narrator's predicament. The princess eventually confesses her infatuation and intentions to her father creating an untenable threat to the common good of the Vril-ya society. Taë is instructed to take the Narrator back to the location where he had originally entered the realm and to kill him with his staff. The Narrator is able to plead for reprieve and eventually both Taë and Zee conspire against the murderous plan. Zee uses her powers of flight to carry the Narrator up through the same chasm which he first descended. As they part, Zee tells the Narrator to think of her once in a while and that she will search for him in the next life, then departs, leaving the Narrator to make his way out of the mine shaft alone. After safely returning to the surface, the Narrator resumes a normal life without disclosing the existence of the Vril-ya. After he has retired, he finds himself diagnosed with an undisclosed fatal disease. At that point he then decides to record his experiences and warns that in time the Vril-ya will run out of habitable space underground and will claim the surface of the Earth, destroying mankind in the process, if necessary.
A Vril staff is an object in the shape of a wand or a staff which is used as a channel for Vril. The narrator describes it as hollow with "stops", "keys", or "springs" in which Vril can be altered, modified, or directed to either destroy or heal. The staff is about the size of a walking stick but can be lengthened or shortened according to the user's preferences. The appearance and function of the Vril staff differs according to gender, age, etc. Some staves are more potent for destruction; others, for healing. The staves of children are said to be much simpler than those of sages; in those of wives and mothers, the destructive part is removed while the healing aspects are emphasised.
It also had a strong influence on other contemporary authors. When H. G. Wells' novella The Time Machine was published in 1895, The Guardian wrote in its review: "The influence of the author of The Coming Race is still powerful, and no year passes without the appearance of stories which describe the manners and customs of peoples in imaginary worlds, sometimes in the stars above, sometimes in the heart of unknown continents in Australia or at the Pole, and sometimes below the waters under the earth. The latest effort in this class of fiction is The Time Machine, by H. G. Wells." H. G. Wells' The Time Machine reviewed - archive, 1895 H. G. Wells | Books | The Guardian
It has been suggested that Bulwer-Lytton developed his ideas about "Vril" against the background of his long preoccupation with occult natural forces, which were widely discussed at that time, especially in relation to animal magnetism, or later, spiritualism.Strube (2013), 13–44. In his earlier novels Zanoni (1842) and A Strange Story (1862), Bulwer-Lytton had discussed electricity and other "material agents" as the possible natural causes for occult phenomena. In The Coming Race, those ideas are continued in the context of a satirical critique of contemporary philosophical, scientific, and political currents. In a letter to his friend John Forster, Bulwer-Lytton explained his motives:
Bulwer-Lytton has been regarded as an "initiate" or "adept" by esotericists, especially because of his Rosicrucian novel Zanoni (1842). However, there is no historical evidence that suggests that Bulwer-Lytton can be seen as an occultist, or that he was a member of any kind of esoteric association. Instead, it has been shown that Bulwer-Lytton has been "esotericized" since the 1870s. In 1870, the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia appointed Bulwer-Lytton as its "Grand Patron". Although Bulwer-Lytton complained about this by letter in 1872, the claim was never revoked. Other claims, such as his supposed membership in the German Freemasonry lodge Zur aufgehenden Morgenröthe, have been proven wrong.Strube (2013), 55–74.
Those claims, as well as the recurrent esoteric topics in Bulwer-Lytton's works, convinced some commentators that the fictionalised Vril was based on a real magical force. Helena Blavatsky, the founder of theosophy, endorsed this view in her book Isis Unveiled (1877) and again in The Secret Doctrine (1888). In Blavatsky's writing, the Vril power and its attainment by a superhuman elite are worked into a mystical doctrine of race. However, the character of the subterranean people was transformed. Instead of potential conquerors, they were benevolent (if mysterious) spiritual guides. Blavatsky's recurrent homage to Bulwer-Lytton and the Vril force has exerted a lasting influence on other esoteric authors.Strube (2013), 69ff., 77ff.
When the theosophist William Scott-Elliot described life in Atlantis in , he mentioned Atlantean aircraft propelled by Vril-force.. His books are still published by the Theosophical Society. Scott-Elliot's description of Atlantean aircraft has been identified as an early inspiration for authors who have related the Vril force to after World War II.
George Bernard Shaw read the book and was attracted to the idea of Vril, according to Michael Holroyd's biography of him.
French writer Jules Lermina included a Vril-powered flying machine in his 1910 novel L'Effrayante Aventure (Panic in Paris).
David Bowie's 1971 song "Oh! You Pretty Things" makes reference to the novel.
In his book Monsieur Gurdjieff, Louis Pauwels. claimed that a Vril Society had been founded by General Karl Haushofer, a student of magician and metaphysician George Gurdjieff.
In his book Black Sun, Professor Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke refers to the research of the German author Peter Bahn. Bahn writes in his 1996 essay, "Das Geheimnis der Vril-Energie" ("The Secret of Vril Energy"),. of his discovery of an obscure esoteric group calling itself the "Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft", which revealed itself in a rare 1930 publication Vril. Die Kosmische Urkraft (Vril, the cosmic elementary power) written by a member of this Berlin-based group, under the pseudonym "Johannes Täufer" (German: "John the Baptist"). Published by the influential astrological publisher, Otto Wilhelm Barth (whom Bahn believes was "Täufer"), the 60-page pamphlet says little of the group other than that it was founded in 1925 to study the uses of Vril energy. The German historian Julian Strube has argued that the historical existence of the "Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft" can be regarded as irrelevant to the post-war invention of the Vril Society, as Pauwels and Bergier have developed their ideas without any knowledge of that actual association.Strube (2013), 126–140. Strube has also shown that the Vril force has been irrelevant to the other members of the "Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft," who were supporters of the theories of the Austrian inventor Karl Schappeller (1875–1947).Strube (2013), 98–123.
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