The Coming Race

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It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Vril. (Discuss)

The Coming Race (also known as Vril: The Power of the Coming Race, its original title) is a novel published in 1870 by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. The novel is an early example of science fiction, sometimes cited as the first of this genre. However, many early readers believed that its account of a superior subterranean master race was accurate, to the extent that some theosophists accepted the book as truth.

When the theosophist William Scott-Elliot describes life in Atlantis in The Story of Atlantis & The Lost Lemuria (first published 1896), the aircrafts of the Atlanteans are propelled by vril-force. ^[1] He obviously did not regard that description as fiction, and since his books are still published by the Theosophical Society, they seem to believe in the existence of vril.

On the other hand, Rosicrucian teachings (which are not directly related to Theosophy) state that like all other such stories this book should not be taken seriously, but regarded only as the fantastic imagination of a clever writer, in same way that Jules Verne's stories met with a like attitude of admiration for this vivid fancy upon the part of the public. Yet submarine navigation and 'bird-like flights' are facts today ^[2].

The plot of the novel centres on a mining engineer, who accidentally finds his way into a subterranean kingdom occupied by beings who seem to resemble angels. The hero soon discovers that they are descendants of the inhabitants of Atlantis. They have access to an extraordinary force called "Vril" that can be controlled at will. However their spiritually elevated hosts controlled the Vril.

The book is mentioned in the song by David Bowie "Oh! You Pretty Things":

"Look out at your children See their faces in golden rays Don't kid yourself they belong to you They're the start of the coming race"