New Religious UFO Movements
Extraterrestrial Salvation in Contemporary America

Stefan Isaksson

California State University, Fresno
Directed Reading Assignment, Spring Semester 2000

Acknowledgements

This paper could not have been completed without the help offered by the following people to whom I am very grateful:

For the Raelian Religion - Donna Grabow, Marc Letourneau, and Kevin McGowan.
For the Aetherius Society - Paul Nugent.
For the Unarius Academy of Science - Celeste Appel and David Reynolds.

Dr. Mary Ludwig, PhD, my professor and adviser.
Dr. Eddie Bullard, PhD, expert in folkloristic aspects of the UFO phenomena.
Dr. Diana Tumminia, PhD, for sending me material on Unarius.
Jerome Clark, editor of International UFO Reporter.
Clas Svahn, chairman of UFO Sweden and respected ufologist.

And for being the best of friends, always:

Peter Eriksson
Anders Tingsek
Jens Löwius

Introduction

Throughout the history of mankind, strange and sometimes frightening aerial phenomena have been observed all over the globe and interpreted in different ways, depending on during what time and within what culture the observations have taken place. The heavens have been the realm of the gods and the supernatural, and mythologies all over the world, both oral and written, contain stories of gods and deities that live in the heavenly realms and sometimes descend to earth and interfere with mankind.

On the 24th of June 1947, a new chapter in the continuing story of anomalous sightings in the skies was added, and man's view of the skies was forever changed. This was the day when Kenneth Arnold, a pilot out looking for a crashed plane, spotted nine unidentified flying objects flying in formation near Mount Rainier in the state of Washington. During an interview with reporter Bill Bequette of the Pendleton East Oregonian that took place shortly after his sighting, Arnold described the objects to have been moving "like a saucer if you skipped it across the water"⁽¹⁾. An anonymous headline writer then coined the world famous term flying saucer to describe what Arnold had seen, even if the object spotted had been crescent, not saucer, shaped.

Numerous sightings followed, many of them describing circular objects traveling the skies in incredible speeds. The notion that UFOs represented extraterrestrial spacecraft was still not the dominating idea, even if the so-called Extraterrestrial Hypothesis (ETH) in the years to come would be dominating the public opinion. Jerome Clark (1998a) defines ETH the following way:

"(1) Extraterrestrial Intelligences (ETI) have arisen elsewhere in the universe, probably many times in many places in our galaxy alone. (2) Some form of technological civilization has advanced to the point at which interstellar travel is possible (again, probably many times). (3) Such travelers, or at least their contrivances, have arrived here and are pursuing their mission in a somewhat covert fashion".⁽²⁾

Many writers, scholars and non-scholars alike, use the terms UFO, flying saucers, and extraterrestrials interchangeably when discussing the UFO phenomena, which unfortunately leads to confusion and/or misunderstanding. UFO is short for Unidentified Flying Object and was coined in the 1950's by the U.S. Air Force. The standard definition of UFO is the one formulated by the late Dr. Allen Hynek in his book The UFO Experience (1972):

"We can define UFO simply as the reported perception of an object or light seen in the sky or upon the land the appearance, trajectory, and general dynamic and luminescent behavior of which do not suggest a logical, conventional explanation and which is not only mystifying to the original percipients but remains unidentified after close scrutiny of all available evidence by persons who are technically capable of making a common sense identification, if one is possible".⁽³⁾

Clearly UFO and extraterrestrial spacecraft is not, and never has been, the same thing.

Just as it is important to differ between UFO and ETs/flying saucers, it is also important to separate between ufologists and saucerians. When discussing ufologists, J. Gordon Melton refers to a group of researchers who in the 1950s held a relatively conservative view towards the UFO phenomenon. Their interpretation was [and still is] that UFOs were unexplained occurrences that thus merited for conscientious study. They were convinced that scientific procedures and logical analysis of the evidence would sooner or later yield a solution, which probably would validate the ETH. The ufologists thought that communication with UFO intelligences might occur in the future, but they rejected that such contacts were already taking place.⁽⁴⁾ Many ufologists today approach the subject of UFOs from a scientific viewpoint, even if some are more positive to the ETH than others. Being an ufologist does not equal acceptance of the ETH; it is more the way one chooses to approach the subject that matters.

The second camp of the UFO interested consisted of individuals that Melton refers to as saucerians. Saucerians typically had a background in occultism and the paranormal. Many had been active Theosophists, Spiritualists, or followers of other esoteric doctrines. Even before the Arnold sighting in 1947 made flying saucers the number one topic for discussion, some of the later saucerians believed that contact with some sort of otherworldly beings not only was possible, but already accomplished. These beings, who lived on distant planets, dwelled in the spirit realm, or in the astral world (or in all three), were much more spiritually and technologically advanced than humans, and they were concerned about the future of humankind. These beings from time to time engaged in efforts to guide our spiritual evolution in the right directions, and furthermore, various evil space or spirit entities operated secretly with terrestrial allies with intentions to influence humankind the wrong way, the evil way.⁽⁵⁾ So ufologists can be defined as scientists that use a more secular and scientifically based approach based on empirical data, while the saucerians use a metaphysically based approach⁽⁶⁾, and are hence quite different from one another.

On July 8th 1947, the Roswell Daily Record's headline read: RAAF CAPTURES FLYING SAUCER ON RANCH IN ROSWELL REGION. NO DETAILS OF FLYING DISK IS REVEALED. This was what later came to be known as the Roswell Incident, a story of sinister cover-ups, crashed alien spacecrafts, and terrifying conspiracies. Although well-known within the UFO community, this (in)famous incident gained worldwide attention when it was immortalized in the movie Independence Day, where the crashed saucer, ironically, was used to defeat the evil extraterrestrials.

Then in the 1950s, even more complex chapters were added to the unfolding UFO saga. During this decade, a number of people came forward and claimed to have had contact with the occupants of the flying saucers, and these occupants were indeed extraterrestrial in nature. Some even claimed to have been taken on interstellar road-trips, visiting planets both known and unknown to the science of the day. The contactees, as these people came to be known, were regarded as new spiritual leaders by some bringing as they did new hopes of salvation by Space Brothers, or as kooks by others who tried to approach the UFO phenomena in general and the ETH in particular from a scientific perspective.

Some of the contactees managed to gather several followers, and some founded contactee organizations, such as the George Adamski Foundation, Daniel Fry's Understanding, and also those under study in this paper; the Raelian Religion, the Aetherius Society, and Unarius Academy of Science. Interesting to note is that some of these organizations that based their belief system on extraterrestrial visitations were founded as the result of a close encounter, while Unarius and Aetherius were founded after non-physical contacts. The latter technique, called channeling, has been used by psychics and mediums who mentally receive messages from spirits, angels, and various other entities, and in these cases extraterrestrials.

However, stories about contacts with beings and spirits from outer space did by no means start with the introduction of the flying saucer. It started much earlier.

Pre-1947 Contacts

J. Gordon Melton, famous scholar of new and alternative religions, has written an extensive summary of pre-1947 contacts in his paper "The Contactees: A Survey" from James R. Lewis' The Gods Have Landed (1995). Melton starts his survey by describing the life of Emanuel Swedenborg, the famous Swedish scientist and seer. In 1758, Swedenborg published his treatise Concerning Earths in the Solar World. In this work, he tells of how he traveled to various planets in our solar system and beyond. Swedenborg did not travel physically, but made so-called astral travels, used by individuals who sense their bodies and consciousnesses separately. While one's body remains in one place, one's consciousness is free to travel around.⁽⁷⁾

In 1997, Swedenborg's work was translated again, this time with the new title The Worlds in Space. In both versions he tells what Martian clothing looks like and that Venus' population consists of two groups of beings: one is made up of humble and humanoid beings, while the other consists of obnoxious giants. Judging from Swedenborg's stories, life on Mars seemed to be much happier than in every-day Sweden and the rest of 18th century Europe at the time of his travels. He tells that "Each individual there lives content with his own property, and with his own good name, a reputation for being fair and loving his neighbour [sic]"⁽⁸⁾. Swedenborg was, much like his 20th century successors, interested in the occult before he started his writings. His descriptions of spiritual truths learned from dreams, visions, and communications with spirits and extraterrestrials repudiate most beliefs of traditional Christianity. Behind his work lay a conviction that science and the growth of rational thought were responsible for a religious crisis, and Swedenborg sought to overcome this crisis through direct revelations from God.

On the 5th of December 1783, a meeting took place in London made up by a group of Swedenborg's followers. The New Church was born from this group, originally called the Theosophical Society, a term Helena Blavatsky (below) adopted a little more than one hundred years later. Others influenced by Swedenborg include Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism; Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science and the New Thought movement; and Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church. Furthermore, terms like New Age and theosophy, that were later to be used in different new religions, were popularized by Swedenborg and his followers.⁽⁹⁾

Returning now to Melton's contactee survey, another outstanding claim before Kenneth Arnold and George Adamski brought flying saucers and Space Brothers to the world, was made by French medium Helen Smith. She told psychologist Theodore Flournoy that she experienced astral travel to Mars in 1890. Upon returning to earth she was able to fully discuss the Martian language, Martians themselves, and different animal and plant life. Flournoy, however, discovered that the Martian language was merely "an infantile travesty of French"⁽¹⁰⁾. Both Swedenborg's and Smith's claims, and as will become apparent, even contactees' and saucer prophets' respectively, revolved around the troubled relationship that occult and New Age sciences have with traditional mainstream science, namely that they claim to offer objective and scientific theories in order to prove the validity of their metaphysical claims. Smith reported enthusiastically of the canals "discovered" by G.V. Schiaparelli in the late nineteenth century, and Swedenborg, while traveling to unknown realms in the universe, visited each planet known to science in the 1750s but failed to notice Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.⁽¹¹⁾

About two decades before Smith described her interactions with Martians, the Russian Helena Blavatsky founded the Theosophical Society together with Henry Olcot. Her first major work, Isis Unveiled, first published in 1877, a work she claimed to have been the result of spirit channeling, was based on the novels of Robert Bulwer-Lytton whose writing was clearly influenced by Swedenborg.

After a visit to India where Blavatsky and her colleague were heavily influenced by Hindu religion, she returned to publish The Secret Doctrine (1888) which includes stories of telepathic contact with ancient spiritual teachers.⁽¹²⁾ Blavatsky, an ex-spiritualist, created a new occult system that included a hierarchy of "ascended masters" who formed a structure between humanity and the Divine. The core belief of spiritualism is that certain people; mediums, are able to make contact with entities from the spirit world. Spiritualists believe that they frequently contact other entities along with the spirits of the dead, and these highly evolved spirits could teach the medium the true nature of life, and also of the life to come.⁽¹³⁾

Among Blavatsky's hierarchy were masters dwelling on Venus and with whom she claimed to be in contact with. However, the first to actually build a religion on contact with extraterrestrial beings (as opposed to incorporating extraterrestrial data into another already existing religion as Blavatsky did) was Guy Ballard after he was able to make contact with the extraterrestrial masters, including the Venusian Lords of the Flame. Bullard's own version of occult religion was emphasized upon frequent contact with the masters from whom he received regular messages.⁽¹⁴⁾ But, "the Theosophical movement of the nineteenth century was instrumental in the development of a cosmology that included the notion that benevolent beings from other planets were highly evolved adepts who periodically visit the Earth and who continue to be interested in human welfare"⁽¹⁵⁾.

The 1950s is generally regarded as the era of the contactees, but before that Ballard apparently encountered 12 Venusians inside a vast cavern in northern California and Williard M. Magoon was taken to Mars by some "unseen force" where he saw highly developed technology together with forests, parks, and gardens. The Marsians themselves were invisible, but he could anyhow "sense" their presence.⁽¹⁶⁾

Then in early 1952 George van Tassel started to channel messages from an extraterrestrial named Ashtar, and on November 20th the same year the most famous contactee of them all, George Adamski, reported a face-to-face encounter with the Venusian Orthon in the Californian desert.⁽¹⁷⁾

The years that followed would bring several other contactees, some more successful in spreading their messages than others. Unarius Academy of Science and the Aetherius Society, both founded in the 1950s, and the Raelian Religion, which came into existence two decades later, are three of the most long-lived so-called flying saucer cults that started as a result of the contactee movement. These new religions can be considered the result of a spiritual and occult ideology that emerged more than 200 years ago.

New Religious UFO Movements and Problems with Definitions

Religious groups that differ from the contemporary religious culture, be that Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism etc., are defined in various ways, some more accurate than others. This paper deals exclusively with New Religious Movements (NRMs) that originated in the 20th century, and it is therefore appropriate to give a short overview of the history behind the NRMs. NRMs have, according to Hexham and Poewe, been used many times to describe religious movements, cults, and sects that developed in the past 200 years as a reaction to modernity. Even though these groups choose to embrace the new while they at the same time reject a single ongoing tradition, they do tend to borrow their ideas, doctrines, and practices from religious traditions that existed before them.⁽¹⁸⁾

All movements in this paper originated after World War II, and the definition offered by Eileen Baker is therefore appropriate since she says that a NRM "is new in so far as it has become visible in its present form since the Second World War, and that it is religious in so far as it offers not merely narrow theological statements about the existence and nature of supernatural beings, but that it proposes answers to at least some of the ultimate questions that have traditionally been addressed by mainstream religions"⁽¹⁹⁾.

As described above, Swedenborg managed to influence several people that eventually founded new religions. However, Europe has a long history of so-called revitalization movements stretching all the way back to Roman times. A revitalization movement is "a deliberate, organized, conscious effort by members of society to construct a more satisfying culture"⁽²⁰⁾. The Protestant Reformation is one example. It started out as a cult movement proclaiming a novel interpretation of Scripture, developed into a sect, only to become a church throughout most of northern Europe.⁽²¹⁾

Before proceeding further, cult, sect, and church need to be defined. This is not an easy task, though. They have all been used in anthropology and the sociology of religion to describe particular types of religious organizations. But what do they actually mean? Sect and church are generally more easily defined. The latter refers to the larger community's view of the acceptable type of religious organization, whereas sect often is used to refer to some sort of protest group. Usually sect members are strict believers and experience some sort of conversion before becoming members.⁽²²⁾ However, different types of sects have different names.

One type of sect that is discussed in this paper is the other-worldly sect, "a utopian communal group which subscribes to a set of beliefs based on an apocalyptic interpretation of current history"⁽²³⁾. Sects like these can be seen as a new religions since they believe that society at large is nothing but evil, and that in the last days, i.e. end of our history, society will be replaced by a community of the elect - the chosen ones that have swallowed the prophet's messages hook, line, and sinker. New members must abandon any previous understandings of the meaning of life and openheartedly embrace the new worldview, a worldview that will explain the individual's earlier life, actions of the sect's opponents, and the harsh and sometimes dehumanizing demands by the leader. Typical for this sect is a withdrawal from society into a timeless paradise on earth, where the ones closest to God; the members of the sect, will come to rule. A prophet or Messiah, legitimated by great charisma, usually rules the sect.⁽²⁴⁾

The definition of cult is a rather tricky business, though. My purpose for this paper, described in more detail below, is to argue that flying saucer cult is not an appropriate term for all religious movements influenced by the ETH. Cults are "groups that follow an unorthodox religion, or are centered on a single person or principle, often associated with curing or salvation"⁽²⁵⁾. This is the anthropological definition referred to when the concept of cults is discussed in this paper. The sociological definition, that "a cult is a deviant religious organization with novel beliefs and practices"⁽²⁶⁾, is also very useful to this study. The advantage of this definition is that it allows for change over time so that what may be a novelty today can become a tradition tomorrow.⁽²⁷⁾

The movements that originated in the late eighteenth century no longer sought to revive the Christian tradition, but rather to create new traditions by blending old Christian themes with new and exotic elements. It is in these movements, argues Hexham and Poewe, that the origins of today's new religions can be found. Swedenborg's writings influenced what later became a well-established tradition of occult writing, which in turn gave birth to new religions.⁽²⁸⁾

So what, then, does occult and occultism mean? Sociologist Edward A. Tiryakian (1972) understands it to be:

"…intentional practices, techniques, or procedures which (a) draw upon hidden and concealed forces in nature or the cosmos than cannot be measured or recognized by the instruments of modern science, and (b) which have as their desired or intended consequences empirical results, such as obtaining knowledge of the empirical course of events or altering them from what they would have been without this intervention".⁽²⁹⁾

Derived from the Latin occulere which means to conceal, the term(s) are generally used for magical and mystical knowledge and practices; a sort of esoteric knowledge available only for those within the circle of accepted believers. Lehman and Myers use the work of Marcello Truzzi in their introduction to their chapter "The Occult: Paths to the Unknown" (1997, 376). Truzzi divides practicing occultists into three categories:

The first category consists of people whose involvement in the occult is minimal. They do not regard themselves as occultists per se, but are concerned and intrigued in explaining phenomena such as flying saucers, land and sea monsters, and parapsychological phenomena. This category lacks mysticism and anti-scientific thoughts.

The second category consists of people who seek to understand mysterious relationships between paranormal events, and they show interest, for instance, in numerology, sun-sign astrology, and palmistry.

Truzzi's third category consists of people concerned with complex belief systems, such as witchcraft, Satanism, ritual magic, and other mystical traditions - that manage to combine elements from categories one and two. They often question or even contradict scientific validation, and thus see themselves as competitors to science. Truzzi's conclusion is that most occult believers are a combination of the three categories, though some obviously belong to only one or two.

Another term in need of a definition, dealing as I am with alternative religious groups, is New Age. It is hard, if not impossible, to study NRMs without ever stumbling upon the concept of New Age. There have been literally hundreds of books written about the different aspects of New Age, and it is well beyond the scope of this paper to thoroughly discuss all the elements within it. However, the definition that suits the purpose of this paper the best is the one offered in New Age Almanac (1991) by J. Gordon Melton, Jerome Clark, and Aidan A. Kelly:

"The New Age Movement can be defined by its primal experience of transformation. New Agers have either experienced or are diligently seeking a profound personal transformation from an old, unacceptable life to a new, exciting future".⁽³⁰⁾

The movement, though it is definitely not a movement or cult-like organization to which one subscribes or adheres, started out in the early 1970s. At that time, a new generation of psychic/occult/spiritual seekers started rejecting the spiritualistic emphasis upon spirits and mediums while refusing the rather negative title of occult. Simultaneously, these seekers strongly identified with the new wave of Eastern teachers who started to emerge in the late 1960s. They saw themselves as the harbingers of a new age of peace and spirituality⁽³¹⁾, and today the movement includes numerous more or less occult sciences such as astrology, divination, Wicca and witchcraft, tarot reading, channeling, walk-ins (departed souls, extraterrestrial or not, that have entered an earthly body), and reincarnation, to name just a few.

Earlier Studies of UFO and Extraterrestrial Phenomena

I want to point out that this is not the first scholarly analysis of the UFO phenomena in general and the ETH in particular. Several dissertations on different aspects of UFO phenomena have been produced during the last decades. Ed Bullard's PhD dissertation Mysteries in the Eye of the Beholder for Indiana University, which discusses folkloric elements within the alien abduction phenomenon (1982), is an outstanding piece of scholarly work. The Journal for UFO Studies and International UFO Reporter, published by the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies in Chicago, investigates the phenomena through academic methodology. Numerous articles and papers about the phenomena in disciplines such as folklore, anthropology, and psychology have been written and debated.

Anthropologists Benson Saler, Charles B. Ziegler, and Charles B. Moore (1997) analyzed the (in)famous Roswell Incident as a contemporary myth involving sinister government cover-ups of extraterrestrial visitations, and Curtis Peebles also wrote about the mythic themes in his Watch the Skies (1994). Another important book was written by psychoanalyst Carl Jung; his classic 1959 book Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky.

Religious elements of UFOs were described as early as 1956 by Leon Festinger, Henry W. Riecken, and Stanley Schachter in When Prophecy Fails. Roy Wallis did an extensive sociological study of Aetherius in 1975 where he among other things distinguished between a prophet and a mystagogue. The 1995 anthology The Gods Have Landed edited by James R. Lewis is a collection of papers that mostly deal with the contactee movement. In it, Diana Tumminia and R. George Kirkpatrick thoroughly describe Unarius, and Robert W. Balch describes his fieldwork with The Two (later Heaven's Gate). Ted Peters, in his paper "Exo-Theology" argues that the concept of intelligent extraterrestrial life is compatible with traditional Christian doctrine. Finally, Jerome Clark's massive UFO-encyclopedia (1998a, 1998b) is by far the best encyclopedia on the subject to date.

My discussion on the Raelian Religion is mostly based on my own fieldwork. Both the Unarian and Aetherian mythology is extremely complicated, and I have chosen to not go into too great detail when describing their belief systems. The section on Unarius is almost exclusively based on Dr. Tumminia's and Dr. Kirkpatrick's studies, since they are the most prominent scholars on this group. I have not been able to collect all of Aetherius literature, simply because they have published an immense amount, but I do have some literature that has proven to be very useful.

Flying Saucer Cults, No.  New Religious UFO Movements, Yes.

My intent with this paper is to show that labeling all religious movements that use the ETH as a basis for their ideology, mixed with both traditional and non-traditional religious elements, is both invalid and unjust. As the comparative analysis show, many flying saucer "cults" differ from each other, even though they up until now have all been labeled the same. For instance, in her brilliant paper about women in the Raelian Religion, Susan J. Palmer (1995) refers to the Raelians as members of a NRM. If we are to accept some scholars' opinion that it actually is a cult, and not a NRM, then Palmer's labeling is incorrect. Many scholars do not bother to separate NRM and cult, and when they do they often have different definitions. Furthermore, cults grow out of established traditions to which they remain attached, while new religions, on the contrary, break with existing traditions in order to create something that did not previously exist.⁽³²⁾ Therefore, New Religious UFO Movement (NRUM), is a more suitable term.

But how do I justify my intent to place all so-called flying-saucer cults in one category, while I at the same time oppose the notion to place all under the category of cults? And are all the people that join theses groups nothing but disillusioned seekers who accept all sorts of teachings without bothering to think twice about what they are doing? Or are they just like anyone else, with the exception that their version of Heaven is outer space and their God is piloting an interstellar spaceship instead of a Chariot of Fire?

The main reason for introducing this new term is that one NRUM may, for instance, show signs of a traditional revitalization movement. Some groups may display elements found in many different categorizations, and not exclusively cult-like tendencies. Melton calls the NRUMs "Flying Saucer Groups", and places them in the spiritualist, psychic, and New Age family in his Encyclopedia of American Religions.⁽³³⁾ Yet groups is not suitable either since I believe that it is important to show that there are religious elements within them, something that I believe NRUMs expresses more accurately than groups. There are elements that the NRUMs have in common, but they also differ in important aspects, and thus using the term flying saucer cults will not do them justice. Furthermore, individuals who seek out NRUMs may do so for different reasons. Anthropologist Benson Saler, when discussing people who join flying-saucer cults, explains how studies show that individuals who choose to join usually do not experience sudden, dramatic conversions. On the contrary, they are often on some sort of spiritual or life-fulfilling quest and sometimes they only stay with the group for a limited time, only to drift to another group where they gradually pick up vocabulary and beliefs.⁽³⁴⁾

In an article discussing various occult beliefs, Barry Singer and Victor A. Benassi use an article by Bainbridge and Stark (1980) to argue that occultisms such as "Scientology, Theosophy, Satanism, and UFO cults"⁽³⁵⁾ more closely resemble religion rather than every-day superstition. So far so good. But then they go on to say that belief systems like these "often demand total commitment, monetary and otherwise, from their members"⁽³⁶⁾. This is, I will argue, not accurate, and it becomes apparent after the comparative analysis. "Total commitment" is only one of many terms that have made cult a negative word which have resulted in numerous attacks by media and self-acclaimed cult "experts" against harmless groups that differ from the mainstream and accepted religion.

The anti-cult movement has tried its best to fight the NRUMs and other so-called New Age movements. Hexham and Poewe (1997a, 7) quite humorously liken modern-day anti-cult crusaders, who are mostly Christians, to medieval crusaders. Like their counterparts in the Crusades, they began by defending what they believed to be the "true" Christianity against any external threat of loss of membership to any rival religious movement. But they soon wanted to feel the adrenaline rush through their veins again as they went to battle, and so they took the offensive and started to criticize any religious movement they deemed heretical. Later, like the knights attacking Jerusalem, these attacks turned into orgies of destruction. But then as public interests in cults started to decrease, their targets changed, and just as the Christian warriors in the Fourth Crusade in 1204 favored a sacking of Constantinople instead of engaging a powerful enemy in the Holy Land, the Christian anti-cult fighters began attacking fellow Christians with different belief systems. "The New Age movement", Christian freedom fighters Hunt and McMahon (1985) informs us, "is the 'great delusion' that the Bible warns will sweep the world in the 'last days' and cause humanity to worship the Antichrist"⁽³⁷⁾.

The ETH has on numerous occasions been connected to the works by demons, evil spirits, and Satan himself. Steven Hassan, who claims to be America's leading "exit-counselor", another word for "deprogrammer", says that channelers who contact Space Brothers are just as "suspect" as more conventional channelers, and have the potential for developing into new UFO activities (whatever that is). So, Hassan reminds us, "A word of warning is in order"⁽³⁸⁾ when dealing with "UFO cults".

This paper is, to my knowledge, the first to, by a comparative analysis of the Raelian Religion, the Aetherius Society, and Unarius Academy of Science replace flying-saucer cult with NRUM by showing that all groups display elements found within other religious groups that have been labeled differently, thus showing that the single label cult is not sufficient to cover all the religious elements that one can find within them.

Still, the three NRUMs under study in this paper are not the only ones in America today. In the Encyclopedia of American Religions, Melton includes the following groups under the heading Flying Saucer Groups: George Adamski Foundation, Aetherius Society, Association of Sananda and Sonat Kumara, Brotherhood of the Seven Rays, Cosmic Circle of Fellowship, Cosmic Star Temple, Delval UFO Inc., Last Day Messengers, Mark-Age Inc., Semjase Silver Star Center, Solar Light Retreat, Star Light Fellowship, Unarius-Science of Life (Unarius Academy of Science), United States Raelian Movement (Raelian Religion), Universariun Foundation, Universe Society Church, White Star, and World Understanding.⁽³⁹⁾ I have chosen the three NRUMs because they are the most influential and long-lived, though a similar analysis of the other groups may be an interesting research topic for the future.

Sociologist Emile Durkheim, in his classic Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1995), defines religion in the following way:

"A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden - beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them".⁽⁴⁰⁾

It is very important to point out that even if some UFO witnesses, alien abductees, contactees, and hard-core believers in the ETH choose to interpret what they have experienced from a religious point of view, this does not mean that people in general choose religious interpretations. (But for the purpose of this paper, it sure is fortunate that at least some do!).

However, "The UFO faith", Bullard points out in an unpublished paper, "has established a church, in Durkheim's sense of a moral community, only here and there, and for small groups at the time"⁽⁴¹⁾. He continues his discussion by adding that "UFO religious movements amount a colorful but marginal [my emphasis] effort to full the modern spiritual vacuum, and occupy a mere corner of the extensive UFO presence in popular imagination"⁽⁴²⁾.

I use these two quotes from Bullard because, again, I do not claim that all UFOs and extraterrestrials represent religious phenomena, but rather that some aspects of them can be analyzed this way. The ETH is too important a topic in the contemporary culture to be ignored and/or misunderstood, and people who have chosen to interpret them as religious phenomena are a minority and "only here and there" have made their voices heard. But, as anthropologist Philip Salzman so strikingly has pointed out: "Nothing human is alien in anthropology"⁽⁴³⁾.

It is safe to say that the word cult makes most people think of religious fanatics and sinister leaders who do whatever they can to exploit their poor followers, and it is my intention to light a candle of reason and understanding in this darkness that ignorance and misunderstandings have brought along.

Unfortunately, I have only had the opportunity to do fieldwork through participant observation among one of the NRUMs under study. Though I was doing it for a limited time, only 4 days, I did manage to gain some good insights in what their religion is like.

And, by using the works of other scholars and data that I have been able to gather through correspondence with each NRUM I am still able to present each of them in a fair and objective way, though I only visited one of them in person. The conclusions at the end of this paper will hopefully be more complete through additional fieldwork that, I hope, will take place in a not too distant future.

The Raelian Religion

Day One

After much confusion and wrong turns I finally managed to park my rental car outside the house in western Las Vegas where I had been told the Raelian seminar was taking place. I arrived late in the afternoon on the 1st of April 1999, and I knew that the seminar had been going on for a while already. A Raelian named Kevin McGowan had invited me to the seminar, and I was very fortunate that the seminar was taking place during Spring Break, because before I started writing about the Raelian Religion I was determined to try to visit some members in order to experience the religion myself. Participant observation is a prerequisite for doing fieldwork, and I knew that this would enable me to get a unique perspective on what the religion really was all about.⁽⁴⁴⁾

Little less than a month before the seminar was to take place I received a letter of invitation from Kevin. The letter with the heading "The Las Vegas Seminar", started out by telling me that:

"Through the Elohim's messages and their Messenger, we learn more and more how to find pleasure in everything we do. To let our genetic code sing and resonate unfettered by being happy in our endless search for pleasure is one of the best ways to respect our creators. After all they created us to be happy, and the purpose of life is so simple - to be happy. Being conscious of this fact, when we are not happy, we betray our Creators".⁽⁴⁵⁾

The "Messenger" mentioned in above quotation is also known as Claude Vorilhon, or Rael, the name given to him by the extraterrestrials; the Elohim. He is the founder of the Raelian Religion, a NRUM that was started after he had had a close encounter with an extraterrestrial during a walking tour of the volcanic mountains of Clermont-Ferrand in central southern France on the 13th December 1973. While standing in the old volcano, Rael saw a light approaching, and soon realized that it was a extraterrestrial spaceship, a discovery that filled him with both excitement and joy because he "had always believed in their existence, but [he] had never dreamed [he] would actually see one"⁽⁴⁶⁾.

Rael then saw a humanoid approaching him from inside the ship. He was about four feet tall, had slightly almond shaped eyes, long, black hair, and a small, black beard. The creature was wearing a green one-piece suit, covering his entire body. Around his head, Rael could see some sort of halo; not really a halo but as if the air around his face was shining slightly and shimmered. The two then started talking to each other, and the extraterrestrial eventually said:

'Do you come here often?'
'In the summer yes, but almost never in this season.'
'So why did you come today? Had you planned this walk for a long time?'
'No. I don't really know. When I woke up this morning I suddenly had an urge to come her.'
'You came because I wanted to see you. Do you believe in telepathy?'
'Yes, of course, it's something I've always been interested in - as well as the subject of "flying saucers". But I never thought I'd see one myself.'
'Well, I used telepathy to get you to come here because I have many things to tell you. Have you read the Bible?'
'Yes, but why do you ask?'
'Have you been reading it for a long time?'
'No, as a matter of fact, I bought it only a few days ago.'
'Why?'
'I really don't know. Suddenly I had an urge to read it…'
'Again I used telepathy to make you decide to buy it. I have chosen you for a very difficult mission, and I have many things to tell you. So come into my craft where we can talk more comfortably.'⁽⁴⁷⁾

The message that the Elohim entrusted Rael concerns our true identity. The human species is not the result of Darwinian evolution, but rather an experiment. We were implanted on earth by extraterrestrial scientists, the Elohim, who successfully created humankind from their own DNA. When The Bible speaks of man being created in God's image, it actually refers to these experiments. Rael's mission, being as he is the last of the forty prophets (other prophets include Jesus, Mohammad, and Buddha, and are all, including Rael, results from sexual intercourse between Elohim and women on earth), is to warn humankind that since 1945 and the nuclear attack against Hiroshima, humans have entered the Age of Apocalypse. This is an age where we can choose either to destroy ourselves in the ultimate nuclear war, or make the leap into planetary consciousness. We are, however, not yet ready for the latter, and the Raelians' mission in life is to make humans qualified to inherit the scientific knowledge of our founders from outer space.⁽⁴⁸⁾

The second encounter with Elohim took place on October 7th 1975. This time Rael was taken (physically) to a planet "relatively close to the Earth"⁽⁴⁹⁾. On this planet he had the opportunity to meet Jesus, Moses, Elijah, Buddha, and Mohammad; all extraterrestrials. He was also taught that the Elohim were served by robots, perfectly human looking, that are incapable of feelings or suffering. The only thing these robots know is to obey people from earth and the Elohim, and they are also incapable of violence.⁽⁵⁰⁾ The machine creating these servants also created an exact replica of Rael and his mother, and before the night was over Rael had been awarded six beautiful young women for his own pleasure, and finally he "went to bed and spent the most extravagant night of [his] life with [his] marvelous female companions"⁽⁵¹⁾.

At first I was not sure that I was at the right address, but after a close inspection of some of the cars in the parking lot I knew this was the place. Some of the cars had plates and bumperstickers saying "UFOs - The TRUTH At LAST", "UFO's ARE REAL - ASK ME", "Rael1", "Raelian", etc. I walked up to the Clubhouse, the name of the building where the seminar was supposed to take place. On the front door I spotted a sign saying "Private Meeting", and from inside I could hear laughter and applause. It was late in the afternoon, and the air was a little chilly, not at all like the desert I had experienced that same morning when I paid a visit to the notorious Area 51 (Well, I never actually visited the base but rather drove through the desert as far as I could until the signs that said "Use of Deadly Force Authorized" stopped me). For a moment I hesitated to go in, but then I remembered a paragraph from the invitation Kevin had sent me:

"Our mighty Creators have reminded us TWICE within the 13 months that their return is near. We all need the seminars' tools so as to prepare ourselves for their return. The Embassy must first be built in our hearts before we lay 1 single brick. The seminars warm our hearts, making them a strong foundation for this. Very soon, all Raelians will be Guides for humanity when the Elohim return, and the techniques we learn at the seminars will prove to be as necessary as the oxygen we breathe for guiding humanity into the most religious millennium it has ever experienced".

"There's no way I'm gonna miss out on an opportunity like this" I thought for myself. Without further a due I opened the door and stepped inside.

A group of about twenty people, most of them dressed in long, white robes, all turned silent and looked at me as if I was an unwanted outsider entering a sacred realm. They were all dead silent. I felt somewhat embarrassed and said nervously "Excuse me for interrupting, but I'm looking for Mr. McGowan". A young man in his mid-twenties came up to me and took me to the back of the room while the long-haired speaker continued his speech. I introduced myself to Kevin and apologized for interrupting the speech. Smilingly he told me not to worry about it, and he seated me next to an attractive woman with long black hair. She gave me a big smile and continued listening to the speech. Since I had arrived late in the afternoon, the day was nearly over. But before the last lecture was finished I had been told that in the Raelian Religion, every individual is "special and unique" in his or her own way, and even if one has a special way of handling things, they still need to do things together. A human cell has all the necessary information that is needed to make up a person (i.e. every human cell has a nucleus containing the entire genetic make-up), but at the same time, one single cell is "not enough to make a whole person".

While listening and at the same time taking notes, I could not help but to reflect over the strangeness of the situation. Here I was, in a room filled with strangers dressed in white robes while I was wearing a pair of dust-covered jeans and t-shirt. However, no one seemed to be bothered about me being there, so I decided not to worry about not being welcome; at least not for now. I was not sure whether I was allowed to tape the speech or not, so I continued taking notes like a madman in order not to miss any data.

The speech now turned to the issue of fasting. Fasting is an important part of the Raelian Religion. It helps to clear out various toxins present in the human body. When fasting is successful, Raelians are able to "take the energy that is normally used for digestion" and use it for healing. The longer they are fasting, the more the poisonous level in the body will sink and thus resulting in greater probability that the healing will work. Besides the healing of the body, fasting also works as some sort of spiritual healing; a way to learn more about one's inner strength. It is not dangerous to go through a period of fasting. However, it might be harmful when the fasting ends. But fasting and medicine is not the same, and the former does not mean stop taking the latter. Fasting is nonetheless a very important part of the Raelian philosophy. It is every Raelian's responsibility to be as healthy as possible, because if they get sick they "waste too much time" being so, time that they could have spent finding new Raelians and/or spreading the message of the Elohim.

The last event of the day was the, among the members, much appreciated singing of the song "Elohim". They all stood up and held hands while singing along to the chorus "Elohim Elohim Elohim Elohim". Not many of them knew the lyrics for the verses, but during the chorus they all sang along and got very excited. It did not differ very much from what I have seen in Christian churches, though.

When the seminar ended for the day, several members approached me and asked in a friendly manner what had brought me to them. I told them that I had been invited by Kevin to do research. Apparently, they all had thought that I was a future member, and I made it clear that I was there as an observer. This had worried me: what if they rejected me being there just as a observer and not a member? After all, it was a members-only seminar, and I was not sure whether Kevin had told the other Raelians that I was going to join them. I was therefore relieved to hear that they were all very excited about me writing and doing research about their religion. From the start I felt welcome and realized that I had some interesting days ahead.

One problem remained, though. Where was I going to spend the night? My budget did not allow me to get a hotel room, and besides, Kevin had promised me that he would take care of it. I brought this to his attention, and he told me he would get right on it. After a while he came back and said that he had arranged for me to stay with an older Raelian couple, Mr. and Mrs. Philips, together with some other members. While driving over to the Philips' house, I got a chance to discuss human evolution with a young Raelian who was a PhD student in biology. This struck me as odd, considering the fact that the Raelian Religion believe that the Elohim created humans, and that there is no such a thing as Darwinian evolution. I asked him about what he thought of all the fossils that have been found, and he said that the methods used today for dating archaeological finds, such as C-14, is not accurate enough. The reason that he will not believe in human evolution is that if that was accurate, then we should be able to find fossils and skeletons from all different phases. And we do not, he said. As it turns out, he believed in microevolution; short-term evolutionary change, or changes in allele frequencies from one generation to the next. He did not, however, believe in macroevolution; long-term evolutionary change, or theories focusing on evolution over many generations and on the origin of higher taxonomic categories. Unfortunately, talking about biology and similar is sort of like talking about politics: if you do not have lots of knowledge a discussion is pointless. Since this was the case for me at the moment, the discussion died out quite quickly.

When we arrived at the Philips' house, I had some of the best hot chocolate I had had in a long time. I certainly felt like a beer or a cup of strong coffee, but acting according to their religious beliefs they only had decaffeinated coffee and non-alcoholic beer to offer, so chocolate would have to do. They all went to bed early, but I stayed up for a long time going over my notes and making plans for the next day. I was very excited about what I was doing, being as it was my first real fieldwork, and I tried my best to stay awake, but after I while I fell asleep on a couch in the living-room. It had been a long day.

The Raelian Religion divides its members into two levels of commitment: ordinary Raelians and members of the Structure. Only members who have attended a guide seminar can become a part of the Raelian structure and have a level assigned. There are seven levels, all levels of different responsibilities⁽⁵²⁾:

Level 0 - Trainees
Level 1 - Assistant Animator
Level 2 - Animator
Level 3 - Assistant Guide
Level 4 - Guide
Level 5 - Bishop Guide
Level 6 - Guide of Guides, elected every seven years, and so far Rael has always had this position.

Rael denies the existence of God or soul, and the only hope of immortality is regeneration through science. Therefore, members participate in initiation rituals, the so-called "transmission of the cellular plan", during which the Elohim are said to fly overhead in their spaceships and register the Raelians' DNA codes on their machines. The participation promises immortality through cloning, because new initiates, besides sending a letter of apostasy to the church where they were once baptized in, also sign a contract which will permit a mortician to cut out a piece of bone in their forehead. This "third eye" is then stored in ice until the descent of the Elohim.⁽⁵³⁾

The Raelian Religion in itself is divided into two structures, National Raelian Religion and the International Raelian Religion. Less devoted members join the former which is open to anyone, regardless of beliefs or lifestyle. Upon joining one is entitled to attend all the courses of awakening for free, and every member is also entitled a copy of Apocalypse, which is a quarterly magazine containing articles written by Raelians from all over the world.

The International Raelian Religion, on the other hand, in only open to those who wish to actively represent the Raelian Religion. Being a non-profit organization, all work is done on a voluntary basis. These members are entitled to join the more in-depth seminars called Course for Guides (which I did). The members work more actively to accomplish the movement's goals, and:

"When the embassy is built and our parents from space land, the International Raleian,s [sic] role will be to represent the Elohim to humanity, help diffuse their science, teach their wisdom and act as spiritual guides for humanity. Thus we need to start preparing our organization right now to be able to handle the huge demands it will have soon".⁽⁵⁴⁾

Originally the symbol of the Raelian Religion was a swastika inside the Star of David. This Symbol of Infinity representing infinity in time was changed by Rael in 1991 as a result of the Elohims' feelings towards the people of Israel. The central swastika was replaced with a galaxy-shaped swirl, also representing infinity in time. The change came about "as an effort to help the negotiations for building the embassy of the Elohim in Israel and also out of respect for the sensitivities of the victims who suffered and died under the Nazi swastika during the Second World War"⁽⁵⁵⁾. Interesting to note is that the original symbol only was changed in the West while remaining the same in Asia, where the swastika often can be found in Buddhist temples and thus does not cause any problems.⁽⁵⁶⁾ The Raelians have, unjustly, been portrayed as racists, Satanists, child sex abusers, and anti-semites (as pointed out by Melton 1993, 1125 and Palmer 1998, 398), and it is probably safe to say that the effort to change the original symbol was a welcome change for many of the Raelians.

Day Two

I woke up early my second day with the Raelians from hearing Mrs. Philips cheerfully singing that we had to get up. The seminar was about to start and we could not be late. Various thoughts, some definitely not suitable for print, that you have early in the morning when the only thing you want to do is go back to sleep went through my head. But after a cold shower I felt somewhat better, and I took off with the others to the Clubhouse.

The first thing of the day was meditation. They all lay down on the floor and started the meditation while I sat in a chair observing and taking notes. In the background a stereo played a CD with sounds from the ocean, and a female guide with a very soft and pleasant voice used a microphone to lead the meditation. The members were told to breathe "very deep and relaxed at the same time". The purpose of the meditation was to feel every part of one's body, starting with the toes and gradually advancing up to the head. They were told to light up the cells in their genitals like "the lights in a Christmas tree". The guide talked about how the earth has a pulse; that it is alive, and how important it is to remember that. They were asked to send all their love to all the people on earth, and also to other life in the universe and especially the Elohim.

The early hour combined with the pleasant female voice and the calming sounds from the stereo made everyone very relaxed, yours truly included. I had not gotten many hours of sleep the night before, and I repeatedly caught myself nodding off in the chair. I realized that it would be quite embarrassing if I fell asleep, so I decided to observe the interior of the room in greater detail while the others meditated.

The walls were covered with various pictures of a smiling Rael, either alone or with followers. Candles and plants were to be seen everywhere, and incense helped spreading a pleasant smell in the room. In a corner I spotted a model of the embassy that is to be built in Israel for the Elohim. The curtains were drawn, and the candles, plants, and incense helped creating a warm and relaxed atmosphere. The robes that most members wore functioned, I was told, to bring out the inner beauty in people and the robes are only worn at seminars such as this one.

The first speech of the day was by Jean Gary, the man who I so unfortunately had interrupted the day before. He is a guide at level 5 and he was the first person with whom Rael shared his wilderness encounter in 1976. It was quite obvious that the attending members had a lot of respect for him.⁽⁵⁷⁾ The focus of Jean Gary's speech was the important factor that Raelian's must not have a "vision that's too narrow". The body is linked with the mind, and through the use of meditation one's consciousness will open up to new dimensions. There seemed to be no limit to how positive Jean Gary was about his role in the Raelian Religion and of the importance of the religion itself, saying that "the vibration [between the members] is so strong and positive". He pointed out that the vibration can be very bad if a Raelian is together with a non-Raelian (i.e. negative) individual, but when they come together then there is nothing that they cannot do since the bonds between them are as strong as they are. I found this statement somewhat confusing, mostly due to the open-minded and friendly attitude I had experienced so far. I remember thinking that if I did not knew better, then I would have been offended by this statement. However, I later realized that the way to interpret it was that the Raelians somehow are "better" in feelings and love when it comes to one's relationship with other people.

Next speech was by a guide named Felix. He talked about religiosity and Sensual Meditation. It is only by mastering the latter that the Raelian Religion, in Felix' own words, "can be the teachers of the Third Millenium". The Raelians look upon themselves as the saviors of a world that has lost the capacity to love and understand other people and they are determined that their religion and their philosophy are the tools necessary to save the creation of the Elohim, e.g. the human race. As all the other people at the seminar, Felix spoke with a soft and tender voice and there was constantly a smile on his face. After he had quoted Rael saying "the more you refine your actions, the more refined your mind becomes", his speech was over and there was a short break during which the members walked around and talked and laughed, and I managed to make some small-talk with some of them.

Next there was an exercise of sensuality where participating members were blindfolded; the purpose being to explore by touch. Since I was a non-member I was not allowed to observe it, and I had to step outside during the exercise. It would have been most interesting to observe the exercise, but I had no choice but to respect their wishes. After all, this was a members-only meeting, and I was fortunate to be here in the first place. Even if the Nevada desert was around the corner it was still quite cold and it was therefore a great relief to be let back in again.

The exercise seemed to have been a very pleasant experience for the participants. This exercise, and even the whole 4-day seminar, were all part of the preparation for the arrival of the Elohim, and by learning how to rely on touch and smell their consciousness will evolve even further and they will eventually be ready to receive the masters from outer space. The Raelians constantly emphasize that they are "the Chosen Ones"; the group of people that will be among the first to greet the coming masters. Their ambition during the exercise was to "set mind, brain, and powers free". All human senses rely in one way or another on touch, so it is extremely important to develop great skills in recognizing one's ability to touch others.

During lunch break I drove off to the local sub-store for some food and then headed to a nearby Starbucks. It was nice to spend some time by myself going over my notes and thinking about what to do next. I still remembered the hard time I had to find the way to the seminar, so I left for the Clubhouse early since I was certain I would get lost. I was therefore surprised that I did not have any problems on the way back, and this gave me an opportunity to talk to some of the Raelians before the seminar continued.

Chris, the French guide who also had spent the night at the Philips' residence, was the next speaker. He described himself as somewhat of a world traveler; always on the move to spread the word of the Elohim. He had arrived in the U.S. only two days before and seemed to be more than ready to spread his teachings. He read a passage from The True face of God written by Rael, describing his first encounter with the Elohim. When he was finished, all the Raelians sat for a long period of time with their eyes closed and tried to visualize Rael's close encounter.

Jean Gary was next, and he was greeted the same way as before, with laughter and applause. He said that even though Rael was not present physically, his thought and spirit was present. He then took out a taped interview with Rael made by the Raelian Religion where he talked about his first close encounter. Apparently it had all started with him being "dragged" out in the wilderness by some, at least at the moment, unknown force. After a while he found himself in a deserted volcano and after observing a bright flash in the sky he had his first meeting with the Elohim. He had at first gotten very scared, but soon his curiosity had taken overhand. The message from the Elohim was to bring people hope, much like Christianity works for Christians. The extraterrestrial message is, according to Rael, to prefer instead of traditional, scientific teachings of evolution. Rael furthermore referred to Darwin as "one of the false prophets". Teaching Darwinian evolution is among the worst of crimes, simply because evolution as we think of it today is completely and utterly incorrect. Darwinism and evolution does not give people hope, which ultimately results in drug-abuse and suicide. The young generation of today is reluctant to believing in religious beliefs dating from the Middle Ages or that the human race are descendants "from a monkey", so instead they choose the Raelian Religion. The extraterrestrial religion gives people a reason to be happy to be alive. Sensual Meditation is, says Rael, comparable to a "universal Internet working as a way of communicating with every sort of life; humans, animals, plants, and extraterrestrials". The message is love, real love, meaning loving somebody else but oneself.

When the interview was over, Jean Gary talked about religiosity. He said that a Pope's prayer is not as real as a prayer that a child does when looking for flowers. So a healthy, curious child has more religiosity than the Pope. (This did not really make sense to me but I never addressed the issue with any of the Raelians). Once again, I was told that religiosity is "feeling everything through our senses". All humans are part of the same species and therefore should love and respect one another since we are all brothers and sisters.

Next up was Marc Letourneau, a guide and another guest with the Philips'. He talked about the various risks that that Raelians have to face in their everyday life from being Raelians. He said that for the active members (the Structure), there was always a risk of being classified as a crazy person. Raelians have to ask themselves whether or not they would wear a Raelian medallion at work, and also worry about how their parents would react upon hearing that their child was a member of a NRUM. But no pain, no gain, and the members have no choice but to face embarrassment and/or harassment in order to accomplish something worthwhile. Spreading the message is risky but it is worth it since it is the only way to "become heroes of the next millennium". Raelians need to stand up for what they believe in, but if they choose not to, then that is OK too. Individuality is, as I was told over and over again all throughout the seminar, one of the most important elements in the Raelian Religion.

Jean Gary continued where Marc had stopped and talked about the importance of being prepared to take professional, sentimental, and philosophical risks to spread the message. A person can learn to love something (or someone) that he or she is not used to loving, if one only has the courage to love it. The Raelians were instructed to "dedicate each word and thought to Elohim" in the morning because prayers like that will help increase the love on earth. The human race is from a scientific point of view ready to welcome the masters from space, but there is still a lack of love and spirituality on earth. Prayers will not work if they are selfish; only universal understanding and friendship will do.

Then it was time for another exercise. This time I was not asked to leave the room, but still I have chosen not to describe it in order not to offend anyone. However, the purpose of the exercise was to "be able to see Elohim in all the creation", which they did in their own special way.

The second day ended just as the day before had, with a relaxation/meditation exercise. And repeatedly, the purpose was to become part of the universe. The song "Elohim" ended my second day with the Raelians.

Later in the evening I went out for some Asian food with Chris and the PhD student at a restaurant located in one of Las Vegas' many malls. Back at the Philips' house the others went to bed while I spent a couple of hours going over my notes. But before I fell asleep on the couch I managed to get an interesting interview with Marc Letourneau. The tape recorder that I used for this interview turned out to be of a not so good quality, and there are parts of the interview where Marc's voice could not be heard on tape. The following is therefore a short version of what he said:

Stefan: So how come you decided to join the Raelian Religion?
Marc: I first realized that the UFO phenomenon was a real one. It was logical for me. It explained a lot of things. Why not choose [the ETH] instead of all the other that does not explain everything? Why would primitive people believe that people would come from the sky? That would be crazy! The one who'd invent would be laughed at.
Stefan: So you mean that there has to be some kind of extraterrestrial activity behind ancient sightings of God?
Marc: Yeah, they would have to had seen that themselves to make them believe in it, because it's too incredible. It's not natural, you know? When you read The Bible and stuff like that, the descriptions [of the spaceships] are so close.
Stefan: Right…
Marc: And they're so united, all the description in the different religions. A new theory will emerge, and because it makes sense, more and more people will go with it, and the finest [of the believers] are the one's that's gonna make it interesting. And I want to be around them. I found out that the UFO phenomenon was a real thing and that it was linked with religion. So then I asked myself: Why don't they come here?
Stefan: And you never doubted Rael's words?
Marc: The thing with Rael is that he was bringing a theory with him. We don't believe in Rael. People think we do. People think we kinda blindly believe. It has nothing to do with that. But people don't know, they say their things, you know? I used to believe in God when I was young, and I went to school and I still believed in traditional religion. But when I read Rael's book I started to question my belief in evolution. I said "Why am I so sure of that?" "Why do I believe in that?" "What is the certainty?" and then when I started digging I didn't find anything. It was empty!

Marc then had a long discussion where he questioned the theory of natural selection, how improbable it is that nature alone could be able to create such diversity and beauty in nature.

Marc: I mean, when you know what's going on in a cell…
Stefan: I do, I just had an anthropology test about that a couple of weeks ago.
Marc: Think about it. I mean, the probability that the first cell, that first organism, would appear by chance. I mean, it's more complex than the most complicated computer here.

Marc continued by explaining that he worked as a statistician and that he had done an experiment where he calculated the probability that evolution could produce life. The result was, he claimed, "one in one followed by forty thousand zeros".

Marc: So I prefer to believe that engineers made life here. It was a logical choice for me. That was it.
Stefan: That was it?
Marc: That was it. At the same time, this explained God, UFOs, and evolution.

By now it was getting late, and when Mrs. Philips walked by and said "good night fellas" I knew it was time to wrap it up. But before we said good night Marc explained that when he realized that Rael was telling the truth he decided to join the organization to try to help preparing for the arrival of the Elohim, and he had been doing that for the last twenty-two years. Rael is, to Marc, not a prophet or a god but simply a guide who helps people make the right choices. A Raelian is not forced to believe in him, but he is "beyond a normal teacher". One can be a Raelian and still not agree with all the teachings, but if you are part of the Structure you have to follow directions.

Marc: We trust his judgment. It doesn't mean we're blind, but it works better that way. In companies you have a boss, and you follow the boss. He has been put there because he has the best judgment. It doesn't mean he's perfect, he's gonna make mistakes, but we better follow him and do what he does, and if he turns, turn with him. Don't try any other way, because that's not gonna go very well. But if Rael would say something that would go against your consciousness, then don't do it. No other organization would say something like that.
Stefan: It's interesting that you have a choice in what you wanna believe.
Marc: Yes.

I was now running out of tape, so I had no choice but to end the interview.

So what are the aims of the Raelian Religion? What are they trying to accomplish? On their website one can read that their aims are:

Once man has adopted the Raelian values, become tolerant to new ideas and thus to new people (and the Elohim), less dependent on weapons, and more rational and friendly, "then our parents from space can come down openly in the embassy built for them by the Raelian religion, without danger of provoking fear, hostility, or renewed religious fanaticism"⁽⁵⁹⁾.

Day Three

The third day started with the now-so-familiar meditation, and its purpose of the day was "to feel the message of the Elohim in every cell of the body".

Jean Gary then grabbed the microphone. He talked about how every moment of the seminar was programmed to "perform magic", meaning that it was important to be present every day of the seminar, The first day of the seminar, April 1st, was the date when the first humans were created, a result from science and art, a copy of the Elohim themselves. Then he showed some scenes from the motion picture Dead Poets' Society, among one was the scene where some of the students stand on their desks to show their sympathy for their controversial professor, brilliantly played by Robin Williams. Jean Gary explained that the Raelians are just like the Robin Williams character in the movie, and one day the people on earth will stand up in the same manner as the students do. The members are in the beginning of the movie, meaning that they are provocative and humankind has not yet realized and understood the message. (However, I could not help but reflect over the tragic results; the teacher being fired and one of the students committing suicide as a result of his awakening. Unfortunately, I never addressed the issue to any of the Raelians, though).

Then one of the female guides held a short speech about the importance of serving one's fellow humans. Serving others, she claimed, means that one is intelligent enough to understand and recognize other people's abilities.

During the five-minute break that followed I talked to some members before Felix took some time to talk about Rael, him being the last and most important prophet and how his and his follower's goal is to save the world.

The last speech of the day was by a female guide who talked about how the spiritual level is the most important thing of being a Raelian. Every human is born to be a Raelian. Raelian's purpose of life is to help welcoming Elohim and showing everyone not being Raelians that they deep inside actually are Raelians. If one can follow the 13 sentences in the Raelian prayer the message will be clear. Raelians are the most important people on earth, since they are the chosen ones in that they have realized that they actually are Raelians and therefore are the ones with the ability to save the world.

The Raelian prayer is outlined in The True Face of God, but in the book it is not referred to as a prayer, but rather a "Technique for Attempting Telepathic Contact with the Elohim":

In the afternoon, most of the members went out on the streets of Las Vegas trying to hand out flyers informing about the public seminar that was to take place later in the evening. Since the seminar was not supposed to start until later, I took the opportunity to drive over to Glenn Campbell, Webmaster of UFOMind. Also known as the Desert Rat, Glenn is one of the world's leading experts in the secret base known as Area 51 (featured in Independence Day and X-Files) where crashed spaceships and captured extraterrestrials, according to modern UFOlore, are supposedly hidden. But before I drove off I made a short interview with Chris in a nearby burger joint where he basically told me the same things that Marc had; that Rael was merely a guide and teacher rather than a god and that consciousness was the key to right living.

The public seminar was quite well attended, but I was not told anything I had not heard before. I once again spent the night at the Phillip's house, and for a long time I lay awake thinking of how much work I had to do when I got back to Fresno.

Day Four

On the last day of the seminar a big lunch had been arranged for all the Raelians. I did not participate even though I was starved. I felt it was a private get-together, and I also could not afford it, so I took off to Starbucks for coffee instead. I spent a couple of hours drinking (too much) coffee and reading a book I had bought from Glenn Campbell.

Then I went back to the seminar. The dinner was over, and I tried my best to thank them all. They were just as friendly as they had been all through the seminar, and all over the place people were kissing and hugging. Kevin handed me a free copy of The True Face of God, and I took some extra time thanking Mr. and Mrs. Philips for their hospitality. Then I started the long drive home. Spring Break was almost over and I had to get back to school.

It had been an interesting visit in Las Vegas. I had learned much more than I would have done had I only read, and not experienced, the Raelian Religion. When I finally got home I went straight to bed and fell asleep almost instantly. Tomorrow was another day in school.

The Aetherius Society

The year 1954 was not like any other year in the life of George King, a 35 year old London taxidriver. This was the year that he founded the Aetherius Society, today the most long-lived of the NRUMs, and became the Primary Terrestrial Mental Channel for the Cosmic Masters. From starting out as an obscure fan club for King and his channeled messages, Aetherius is today a large and well-organized organization with thousands of members, owner of an exclusive website, and publisher of numerous publications.

Born in 1919 in England, King came from a family with strong occult interests. His mother was a self-acclaimed psychic, clairvoyant, and healer, and encouraged King to develop these skills also. Before founding the Aetherius Society, King had been interested in practicing yoga and exploring various metaphysical matters. Following the typical seeker profile as outlined by Saler (1997), King went through numerous metaphysical and alternative religious groups in London, exploring and writing about Theosophy and similar groups. In 1954, King started to give public speeches, at a time when two concerns, according to Wallis, were on the public's mind: Sightings of alleged spacecraft and possible interaction with their extraterrestrial crew, and the frequent testing of nuclear weapon.⁽⁶¹⁾

Different sources tell of different dates for the founding of the Aetherius Society. Wallis (1975b, 20), Story (1980a, 5), and Pope (1997, 80), all say that it was founded in 1976. Saliba (1995b, 222) plainly states it to have happened in "the mid-1950s", only to (1998, 29) say that it started 1954. This is the year when Ellwood (1988, 717) and Melton (1993, 728) believe it was founded, and perhaps most importantly, the Aetherius Society itself.⁽⁶²⁾

However, the publication Contacts With the Gods From Space (1996, 12), published by Aetherius, say that the group was formed in 1955. The disagreement is probably due to different interpretations of the Aetherian history. Wallis says that King founded it in August 1956 after he had "…made contact with other space notables - Saint Goo-Ling, a member of the Great White Brotherhood living on Earth [and when King] began to receive invitations to lecture to other groups"⁽⁶³⁾. However, King had been chosen to found Aetherius two years earlier by the Cosmic Masters. He had previously dedicated himself completely to practicing yoga; ten years of eight to twelve hours every day.

It is not a very easy task to give a complete description of the religious structure of the Aetherius, something that Ellwood (1973) pointed out when he discovered that the "writings are oceanic and its concepts and undertakings elaborate"⁽⁶⁴⁾. This description therefore focuses on the group's history, its concept of extraterrestrials, two of its major religious and philosophical works, and various rituals and practices. The Aetherius Society has moved away from simply being an explanatory tool for the flying saucers and become a complex religious belief system that includes an extraterrestrial hierarchy of various spiritual masters and such concepts as universal karma and religious healing.

Ancient Extraterrestrials

According to the ideology of Aetherius, ancient religious scriptures that mention Chariots of Fire and flying Vimanas, are in fact describing interstellar spacecraft. The people who once wrote down these stories were unable to give an accurate description of what they were in fact witnessing, and the extraterrestrial technology was so overwhelming that it could only be the work of the divine. So religious myths about aerial phenomena are actually telling the truth, although the language is inaccurate.

From time to time there are, they say, archaeological finds that completely contradict what mainstream science is saying about human evolution. Aetherius recognizes the great contribution that Charles Darwin made to popular scientific theories, but they also say that there are still many unresolved questions, such as the controversial "missing link". The only true information on the issue is what King teaches. The messages that he has channeled from space tell the one true story of our origin. Earth has been populated for many millions of years, and if we do not change our ways and live according to the Aetherian teachings we are sure to end up like the civilizations that were here before us: we will face death and annihilation through devastating atomic wars.

The Fire of God that rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah as described in The Bible was nothing less than a nuclear attack, and the following excerpt from the Indian Mahabharata describes, according to King, the so-called Agneya weapon, which was a nuclear weapon:

"A blazing missile possessed of the radiance of smokeless fire was discharged. A thick gloom suddenly encompassed the hosts. All points of the compass were suddenly enveloped in darkness. Evil bearing winds began to blow. Clouds reared into the higher air, showering blood. The very elements seemed confused. The Sun appeared to spin around. The world, scorched by the heat of that weapon, seemed to be in a fever".⁽⁶⁵⁾

This is reminiscent of what happened at Nagasaki and Hiroshima at the end of the Second World War, and Aetherius argue that this is good evidence of pre-historic nuclear warfare. The following quote is from an eyewitness account by Akira Kohchi, who survived the American attack on Hiroshima on the 6th of August 1945. After having wandered around the destroyed city all day, he finally comes to a stop where his old house used to be and is surprised to find another survivor who also is in shock of what has happened. It is not an exact duplication of the story from the Mahabharata, but the eerie and gloomy atmosphere that the story creates is very reminiscent:

"The long summer day was finally waning. Though the sun never emerged from the turbulent smoky fog true darkness came. Neither of us had anything urgent to do now. We had come from different places to locate specific persons, but our search was clearly fruitless in that vast hot wasteland. With nothing more to say, he and I stood in the dusk, midst that hot fire-swept human habitat where no one remained alive. Life, shelter, property, food, the very need to eat: all were burned and buried beneath the ashes and cinders. I had seen local fires, but till then I had never truly realized how complete and final the destruction by conflagration could be. Destruction by fire is ultimate; it leaves no room for living things".⁽⁶⁶⁾

The 19th century teachings of Blavatsky that mention Atlantis and Lemuria, two ancient civilizations popular in occult and New Age groups, are confirmed by King in his role as the Primary Terrestrial Mental Channel. "The Cosmic Transmissions delivered through Sir George King", which are the only way to get to know the real truth, "have gone further than any other writings on Earth to explain the true history of mankind"⁽⁶⁷⁾.

The Aetherian Creation Story

So here, then, is a shortened version of mankind's history as outlined by King (1996, 69-74):

Many millions of years ago, another planet the size of earth called Maldek was present in our solar system, orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. The people who lived there had reached a higher level of technology than present-day man has achieved, and they were thus free to study philosophy and science while robots were in charge of all work-demanding tasks. By controlling the weather, drought and famine were no longer problems. They also had discovered space travel, although their rather crude technology (compared to other, more highly evolved beings in the universe) would not allow them to make longer journeys into deep space. The lack of work eventually turned the happy people into lazy and selfish people, who just like "the majority of terrestrials" only sought after their own pleasure without caring about others.

Then one day a few evil scientists started to crave power and material goods, and this "mental disease" manifested itself as a lust for greater power, and by detonating a hydrogen bomb they completely destroyed Maldek and murdered all the people living there. This weapon was ten thousand times stronger than the one we have today, and the detonation turned the planet into the asteroid belt that astronomers today are able to observe.

Even if only a few inhabitants had been sick with this "mental disease" which made them materialistic and hungry for power, all the inhabitants were in fact guilty of this "horrible Cosmic crime", because in their laziness and lack of responsibility they had allowed this to happen.

According to the perfect Law of Karma that governs the entire universe, the millions of lives that had been annihilated on Maldek had to be reincarnated on a new planet in the solar system. But they could not choose Jupiter, because already back then this planet was inhabited by highly evolved spiritual beings who used it as a "reception center for the Interplanetary Confederation". The massive size of Jupiter could well accommodate the thousands of representatives coming from worlds both within and outside our solar system to the seat of learning - Saturn. Uranus and Venus could not be chosen either because the inhabitants of these worlds had evolved so much that the lifeforms from Maldek would have been unable to learn the lessons essential to their further progress, and Mercury was already functioning as "the major communications center for the Solar System", while Mars was inhabited by a "race who were the engineers and builders in the Solar System". So they had to choose earth.

The Cosmic Hierarchy decided to first make an appeal to the earth as an Intelligence, and "being a great Interplanetary Lord", she allowed the people of Maldek to be reincarnated. The Hierarchy then approached the inhabitants of earth, a race known as Adamic man. He also agreed to let "those too lazy to stop the shocking Cosmic crime of the destruction of Maldek and those who had actually brought it about" to be reincarnated. After humankind had started over again, Adamic man left the planet to man's own devices.

Soon the civilization of Lemuria rose. During its peak it was a much greater culture than that of our present one, and its people frequently communicated with Venus and Mars. Eventually this civilization split into two camps, the White Magicians who learned from extraterrestrials and advanced in metaphysical sciences, and the Black Magicians who for the second time detonated a hydrogen bomb which destroyed Lemuria in a devastating attack. Before detonation, however, spaceships landed and evacuated "the people who were ready". The evil forces, despite repeated warnings, chose to stay and thus perished.

Thousands of years passed, and eventually the civilization of Atlantis rose. Again high technology was developed, and again the population was split, this time into three camps; the few who worked to conquer the universe, representing the evil forces; the majority, representing the greater masses who did not care much about anything and were content with their lives; and the other few (who today are being represented by Aetherius) who knew the right spiritual paths. Again the "evil practioners of the black arts" invented atomic weapons. But now the Martians, who had been in contact with the White Magicians, landed five spacecrafts and evacuated them while the two remaining groups, both evil in their lust for materialistic power and conquest, destroyed each other and also the civilization of Atlantis.

And today the cycle is repeated. The situation is now similar to those before the destructions of Maldek, Lemuria, and Atlantis. We have the choice to destroy ourselves or accept the teachings of the Great Ones, and if we are not doing the latter the cycle of death and destruction will continue. We still have hope, because "Mankind, even in his darkest hour, has never been left alone"⁽⁶⁸⁾.

The World According to Aetherius

The Aetherius Society has several aims and object that the members try to accomplish, but the main goals are as follows:

1. To spread the teachings of the Cosmic Masters.
2. To create favorable conditions for closer contact with and ultimately meeting with extraterrestrials.
3. To perform advanced metaphysical missions in cooperation with the Cosmic Masters in order to benefit the Mother Earth as an entity as well as mankind as a whole.
4. To help New Age aspirants develop themselves spiritually through yoga techniques, prayer, healing etc.⁽⁶⁹⁾

Aetherius have different degrees of membership: Associate, Full, and Member Initiates. Any full member of three years standing who has been awarded at least two certificates of merit (for good attendance, financial support, time volunteered to help out) can apply to become a Member Initiate. They need to pass a Temple Degree study course examining them on metaphysical matters in order to qualify. Their leadership structure, however, is divided into both full-time and volunteer employees:

"The management of the organization is carried out by a full-time and volunteer staff, and it is these people who hold the main positions of responsibility within the church. People are elected based upon their longevity within the church and their suitability for the position, either as a minister or a director, or an administrator".⁽⁷⁰⁾

One of the central beliefs of the Aetherius Society is the existence of a pantheon of beings from other planets in the solar system and beyond. Theses beings are, scientifically as well as spiritually, millions of years ahead of the human race.⁽⁷¹⁾ According to King, the initial voice of Aetherius that he received in 1954 left him "in a state of turmoil and bewilderment"⁽⁷²⁾, and it was only by mastering yoga that he was able to remain sane. Eight days after he first had heard the extraterrestrial voice, King was once again "shaken to the core by an amazing happening"⁽⁷³⁾. While meditating, King witnessed how an Eastern guru walked straight through his closed front door and sat down in front of him. King's "unworthiness for what was obviously a great task had troubled [him] all the week"⁽⁷⁴⁾, but as if the guru could sense King's troubled mind, the guru started to speak:

"The real necessities of the Age - brought about by the unfeeling march of science into the realms of the atom, and the wrong thought and action of the masses - can be met only by those few who are ready to tune in to those emanations now being sent to this Earth, and become the servants of the Cosmic Masters. You are one of the many called upon to prepare yourself for the coming conflict between the materialistic scientist - who has arrived at his conclusions by the cold application of mathematics - and the occult 'scientist,' who has arrived at his conclusions through the recognition that God is All. Pray, be still, meditate, and open the door of your heart and mind to the precious waters of Truth".⁽⁷⁵⁾

The guru then instructed King in certain practices, said that the people that could help him (King) the best would be brought into his "orbit", stood up and gently bowed his head, and then left the room the same way that he had entered it.⁽⁷⁶⁾ After he eventually became a master of yoga, King was taught the technique to obtain telepathic rapport with the Cosmic Masters, the highly evolved extraterrestrials who direct the Great White Brotherhood, also known as The Spiritual Hierarchy of Earth.⁽⁷⁷⁾

Only later did it become clear to King that the voice he had heard while washing the dishes the day of the first contact had been that of a being called Aetherius who dwelled on Venus in a non-physical existence. When King was later "overshadowed" by Master Aetherius shortly after the visit of the guru he was told that the Interplanetary Parliament, of which Master Aetherius was a spokesman, had agreed on allowing King to be their channel. From time to time King would have to surrender his brain and body in order to act as the link between the ignorant people on earth and the spiritually advanced beings elsewhere in the universe. The words that he was to give to man would be the words of the Cosmic Masters, and by realizing that he was not alone in the universe man could avoid extinction.⁽⁷⁸⁾

In January 1955, King gave his first public performance at Caxton Hall in London when he went into a trance and relayed a message from the Master Aetherius. In the beginning he did not have very much success, but as the messages grew longer and more regular he developed a small following. Soon a small newsletter started to circulate, and in 1956 he, according to Wallis, officially founded the Aetherius Society, but this date is, as I have shown, open to different interpretations. By now he had managed to make contact with other beings as well, including Saint Goo-Ling who apparently was a member of the Great White Brotherhood, and the extraterrestrials mars Sector 6, Mars Sector 8, and Jupiter Sector 92. As Kings' fame grew he started to receive invitations to more lectures, and around this time he began to devote himself full-time to his mission.⁽⁷⁹⁾

The teachings have remained the same until this day. Throughout history, interplanetary beings have come to earth in order to teach mankind the right way of living. Krishna, the Lord Buddha, the Master Jesus, and Lao-tzu were all from outer space, but their teachings on earth got misinterpreted and evolved into Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Taoism respectively. The Great White Brotherhood (also known as "the Spiritual Hierarchy of Earth"⁽⁸⁰⁾) as introduced by Blavatsky and her Theosophical Society, is made up of Masters from all races and function to preserve and develop spirituality upon this planet.⁽⁸¹⁾ These Masters have mastered Ascension, which is the state of freedom from rebirth, and they have chosen to remain on earth and hide inside certain mountains from where they help to guarantee the right evolution of mankind. Many locations are secret, but some of the ones that are known include the Himalayas, the Andes, Mount Shasta, Ben MacDhui in Scotland, and Mt. Kilimanjaro.⁽⁸²⁾

However, the teachings of the Aetherius Society are not a complete copy of the views held by the Theosophical Society. Some of the Cosmic Masters have chosen to travel to earth in different spacecrafts. The reason why mainstream science has been unable to detect these life forms is due to their capability of maintaining on a spiritual level or at a higher "vibratory rate". Spiritualism taught that there were other forms of life in existence besides the physical form, and this is similar to the view of the many astral planes. King lectured that when a human being dies she leaves her physical body and continue to exist in her astral body. Her existence on the astral planes will continue until the time comes to reincarnate into a new physical body. People who report near-death experiences have for a short period of time managed to get a glimpse of the astral planes. The Cosmic Masters have chosen to exist on the "higher vibratory realms" permanently. However, there are still evidence to be found by mainstream science of their earlier physical existence. The notorious Face on Mars in the Cydonia region on the planet Mars, which is a rock formation that was photographed by Nasa in the 1970s and which according to pro-extraterrestrial views resembles a human face, is seen as evidence by Aetherians of the Masters' previous habitat.⁽⁸³⁾

Aetherian Rituals

Members of Aetherius perform different rituals in order to help themselves and their fellow man. A very common theme that one regularly encounters while reading their literature is Spiritual Service. The ritual of the Aetherius Society is carried out weekly and on special commemorative occasions. The room where the service is held is usually decorated with images of King and the Master Jesus. The following services are held every week: (1) a prayer meeting that besides the recitation of The Twelve Blessings also includes meditation and distance healing for anyone who has requested to be included on the healing list; (2) a service that is dedicated to Operation Prayer Power; (3) private healing sessions; and (4) a regular Sunday service which includes taped messages from King and/or various extraterrestrials. Members also commemorate the start or completion, or both, of several missions or operations that the most devoted members carry out by their repeated pilgrimages to sacred mountains.

Prayer is everywhere in the Aetherius Society. "Dynamic prayer is a wonderful expression". King explains, since "it is a song of the soul and the soul wants to sing" (Aetherius Newsletter June 1999, p. 3). The Aetherius Society has developed quite an elaborate explanation to why prayer indeed works. The world we live in is made up of energy vibrations that are inter-related, one with another. The Law of Karma governs this inter-relationship, and this law can also be seen as the law that makes all action and reaction opposite and equal. Thoughts and actions by man take place within the frame of this law, and what we send out (in actions, thought, speech and so on) eventually comes back to us. So, if we choose to transmit highly elevating Spiritual Energies, then we will receive inspirational energies back from the never-ending universal supply. Dynamic prayer is one of the simplest ways to receive such powerful forces.

On a part of the Aetherian website called "Dynamic Prayer as taught by the Aetherius Society"⁽⁸⁴⁾, one can learn that it is crucial to the Aetherian prayer (and one can assume that they refer to other religious prayers also) that one does not simply repeat the same old words without actually reflecting over what is done.

"Prayer, to be effective, should be said with real feeling (…) Every vestige of our love and feeling should be transmitted into each prayer [and] after our prayer, we should have such faith that we will be able to detach ourselves completely from what we have just said and let the results come. That is the secret of dynamic prayer".⁽⁸⁵⁾

Pray Like an Aetherian

The Aetherius Society teaches that in the palm of each hand there is a psychic center, or "floodgate", through which prana (a lifeforce radiated from the sun) flows. This is an ancient secret that helped develop the different mudras, or hand-signs, that one can see in for instance Buddhist sculpture and painting.

The Christian church also uses a mudra, but the Christian way is incorrect for obtaining the best possible result. Christian prayer includes placing the hands together, an act that, according to the Aetherius Society, originally was devised as the correct mudra for greeting people. It was not designed for transmission of energy over distance, and with the psychic centers of the hands sealed together the spiritual energy that comes from prayers will merely flow around the individual's aura with no means of escape.

The Aetherian way of prayer is therefore the only way to pray, since they leave the psychic centers uninhibited. They stand with their feet slightly apart, hands raised with palms facing outward, fingers closed together, and mentally or orally repeating any of the Aetherian prayers. They visualize the spiritual energy as a radiant white light streaming from the heart center and palms of the hands as the prayer is said. "Some of the most beautiful and holy prayers [that] everyone on Earth can use"⁽⁸⁶⁾ are contained in The Twelve Blessings.

The Twelve Blessings

The Twelve Blessings (1995) is the major religious work of Aetherius. Like The Nine Freedoms it is designed to introduce a "cosmic concept" for the New Age. The book was delivered by Master Jesus through King between July 27th and October 12th 1958. Rather than being a work designed for study alone, The Twelve Blessings functions as a guide for rituals performed by members all over the world. This is not to say that a prayer ritual cannot be performed individually, but Aetherians seem to prefer the company of others when sending their spiritual energy to their Masters and fellow man. By following the prayers outlined in the book, members improve their individual karma and thus help in changing the world for the better.

The Twelve Blessings was originally planned to be delivered to earth in 2010, but it was decided by the Cosmic Masters that it had to be delivered earlier due to the dangerous times that humankind live in. If performed correctly and sufficiently, the prayers outlined in the book will manipulate the universal karma enough to bring about the spiritual change that we humans so desperately need in order not to repeat our ancestors' mistake of destroying ourselves.

A few months after King had successfully channeled the words of Master Jesus, Mary King, George's mother, was picked up by a spacecraft commanded by an extraterrestrial named Mars Sector 8. After entering a so-called mothership, Master Jesus himself approached Ms. King and blessed her copy of the book while saying:

"Blessed is he, who reading this Book doth understand. But exalted is he, even among the Angels, Who, reading this Book, doth take it to his heart And follow its precepts. Tell my Son, that this Book is now and forever - Holy".⁽⁸⁷⁾

The book, which among members also is known as a New Age Bible, contains, besides instructions of how to use it correctly, twelve blessings to the following sources: They who work for peace, the Wise Ones, they who love, the Planetary Ones, the Thanksgivers, they Who heal, the Mother Earth, the mighty Sun, the Supreme Lords of Karma, the Great Being known as the Galaxy, the Supreme Lords of Creation, and the Absolute. According to Aetherian teachings, the religion that Christianity developed from Jesus' time on this earth is incorrect; it is a misinterpretation of the one true message. The being known as Mars Sector 6 delivered on October 18th 1958 a message where he (it) confirmed this, and thus inspired the followers of Aetherius to put right the true teachings of Jesus⁽⁸⁸⁾. The members continue to do so until this day by using the wisdom of The Twelve Blessings to heal the world.

The Nine Freedoms

One of the most important Masters that aids our spiritual evolution is undoubtedly the being known as Mars Sector 6, the pilot of the interstellar spacecraft known as Satellite No. 3. Different quotes from this being can be found everywhere in Aetherian literature, and Mars Sector 6 also has delivered the motto of the Aetherius Society. Taken form the Third Freedom, delivered on February 22nd 1961, it consists of the following nine words: Service is the Jewel in the Rock of Attainment.⁽⁸⁹⁾

The Nine Freedoms is considered to be Aetherius major philosophical work. Mars Sector 6 delivered this "treatise of New Age philosophy"⁽⁹⁰⁾ through King between February 12th and March 15th 1961. The work consists of nine different texts, and each text marks a phase in man's evolutionary process, the steps necessary to take in order to experience enlightenment. What was so revolutionary about this treatise, according to the Aetherius Society, was that it produced a concept that was beyond the Eastern Nirvana and Western Heaven. The Aetherius Society claim not to replace any of the existing world religions, but rather "to enhance them all by introducing a Cosmic Concept for the New Age"⁽⁹¹⁾.

Mountains and Operations

The different Operations that started in 1958 with Operation Starlight and have been performed up to this day, are ways for the members to try to restore karma and give something back to the goddess Mother Earth that most people (read: non-Aetherians) have chosen to fight, instead of co-operate, with.

Different mountains have a very special importance in the Aetherian worldview. However, not only specific mountains per se are sacred, but also the entire earth itself, referred to as Terra, Goddess, or Mother Earth. When man explodes nuclear devices or exploit earth's resources, not only does he threaten his own existence, but he also endangers the many beings that live elsewhere in the universe.

So not only cannot he be allowed to upset his own Karma as an earthling, but also the many other planetary karmas. We must learn to "manipulate Karma" in order to avoid destruction. Traditional ecology is concerned about the preservation of the human race and its successors, but the ecology as carried out by Aetherians goes further than that. They refer to earth as a Living Being, and ecology in their view has to be practiced not only for the sake of the human race, but also for the sake of the planet herself. "Spiritual ecology is not primarily a concern for the continuance of the human race (…) it is more a concern for the Planet Herself Who is more important even than the race which inhabits Her"⁽⁹²⁾.

The Seventh Blessing in The Twelve Blessings is called "Blessed is The Mother Earth", and a part of it goes as follows:

"Blessed is She, Who, in sacrifice, has made a Space Refuge for you all. Blessed is She, Who, instead of taking the unlimited gowns allowed to this Goddess, did accept material limitation, so that you - the lower Aspects of God - could walk through experience back to God again."⁽⁹³⁾

What this means is that earth has chosen to preserve her material existence for the benefit of mankind. She does not have to exist this way, but out of goodwill to man does so anyway. If she chose to be a "more radiant Being" the atmospheric belt around the earth would change on a physical level, and man would not be able to inhabit it. Earth has to withhold her true spiritual stature so that man will be able to exist, something that planets like Venus and Mars do not have to go through since the Masters who dwell there deliberately have left their physical existence.

Thus, Mother Earth is a much more advanced entity than "those great Avatars" who in earlier times visited earth and went through great suffering in order to help mankind. King is one of the very few people who has realized the true stature of Mother Earth, and since the great majority of mankind "are not cooperating with Her, Who has made our material existence possible at great cost of herself"⁽⁹⁴⁾, spiritual ecology is a crucial part of the Aetherius Society.

Operation Prayer Power

The most devoted members of the Aetherius Society gather every week to undertake Operation Prayer Power charging sessions. They join together for two hours during which they use Dynamic Prayer, Eastern mantras, and various mudras in order to store invoked energy in a so-called Radionic Battery.⁽⁹⁵⁾

This battery, designed by King, is similar in size to an ordinary car battery. It is made of "radionic" materials, which are materials that conduct Spiritual Energies, namely high quality gold and quartz crystals. Thousands of prayer energy hours are stored in these batteries, and by the time of crisis such as hurricanes, earthquakes, or wars, a Spiritual Energy Radiator is used to send out the energy. Thus the desired motive is mass - instead of individual - healing. The prayers used are taken from The Twelve Blessings, and the mantras are ancient Sanskrit sound systems.⁽⁹⁶⁾

The storage of the energy enables the Aetherians to, at any time, release thousands of Prayer Hours exactly when it is needed. They take credit, among many other things, for stopping the Soviet Union from invading Poland in 1981 and saving numerous lives in Turkey from the great earthquakes in 1983.⁽⁹⁷⁾ Lately they have been working to aid the human suffering in former Yugoslavia. The unexpected peace talks of the war in Kosovo after 72 days were probably a result of Aetherian members in England, America, New Zealand, and Africa coming together "several times a week for this great humanitarian purpose", as the cover of the Aetherius Newsletter informs us in its June 1999 issue. At the end of the article, one can read that:

"We will possibly never find out how, but this series of 'prayer strikes' in conjunction with power radiated through (…) Operation Prayer Power (…) undoubtedly had a definite and, who knows, even decisive influence. Prayer works."

Operation Sunbeam

This mission is considered to be one of the most important missions that Aetherians are currently undertaking. In this, the "Worlds greatest ecological Mission"⁽⁹⁸⁾, high frequency Spiritual Energies are radiated by members into psychic centers of the earth. In order to perform Operation Sunbeam, two essential attributes are required; a) advanced occult knowledge to identify the location of the psychic centers, and b) a source of the energy to be compatible and acceptable for the Mother Earth.⁽⁹⁹⁾ The energy that the Cosmic Masters placed in the 19 Holy Mountains in Operation Starlight (below) was put there for humanity, and thus it is available for us to use. Mother Earth, however, is unable to reach it.

On the 24th of September 1966 the first units were given to Mother Earth, and since the initial rit