Gene Roddenberry was attending channeling circles from extraterrestrials, called The Nine and asking questions about different alien races and landings, even me

Gene Roddenberry was attending channeling circles from extraterrestrials, called The Nine and asking questions about different alien races and landings, even mentioning other channeling sources. (He appears in a book called The Only Planet of Choice.) I'm sure that type of thinking inspired some of his vision for Star Trek, and there are many other groups of channellers that communicate with Extraterrestrials... which seems like a much more elegant and realistic version than sending computers or AI to visit other planets.