One of the most  intriguing aspects of Gene Roddenberry’s creation of the Star Trek  franchise was his relationship with a mysterious extraterrestrial group  calling itself the Council of Nine that were being channeled by the  psychic Phyllis Schlemmer in the 1970s. Roddenberry sat in on channeling  sessions from 1974 to 1975, and participated in Q & A’s that were  recorded in Schlemmer’s 1993 book, the Only Planet of Choice.