Aetherius Society
From The Black Vault Encyclopedia Project
The Aetherius Society is an organization founded by Dr. George King (1919-1997) in 1955. It mixes yoga, Theosophy and a form of spiritualism which involves yogic mediumship in the channeling of advanced extraterrestrial beings. It has been characterised by some observers as a type of "UFO religion".
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Structure
The group is international, but not very large. It has somewhere between 2,000-10,000 members. Membership further has three levels from "friend" to "full member." They have one of their more major centers in Hollywood, California.
History
According to members of the Aetherius Society, the history of the Society is as follows:
For them the story of their history begins in 1954 when Dr. George King, then in London, England, was contacted telepathically by an alien intelligence. The religion's story continues indicating that the alien used the pseudonym Aetherius and represented a Cosmic and Solar Hierarchy they call "Interplanetary Parliament."
The new religious movement's story proceeds to say that George King (who did not hold a PhD degree) was contacted by a well known Indian Yogi a week later. The story then has this Yogi proceed to give further instructions to Dr. George King concerning his mission. Also they say the Yogi gave instructions to George King in order to develop his purported yogic abilities. They deemed this necessary in order for him to telepathically receive the kind of communications they call "Cosmic Transmissions." These are said to occur with the aforementioned Aetherius as well as other advanced extraterrestrial intellegences.
In the realm of more widely recorded events George King was a taxi driver in London who founded the Aetherius Society in 1955. He believed it acted as a vehicle through which Cosmic Transmissions could be disseminated to the rest of humanity. The group's tax exempt status was recognized by the US in 1963. This was three decades before the recognition of the Church of Scientology and a decade before Raelism existed. Hence the Aetherians might be the oldest "extraterrestrial" based religion to be recognized in the US. Potentially older groups, like the Unarius Academy of Science, generally do not claim to be religions.
Beliefs
Their beliefs are often deemed to be similar to Theosophy, but mixed with the already mentioned extraterrestrial concerns. Before listing their core beliefs it should be noted this list derived from statements from them so any remaining bias is primarily theirs.
- They believe that service to mankind is the most essential yoga or religion in these days.
- They believe that Jesus, Buddha, Krishna and other religious leaders were of extraterrestrial origin and came to Earth to help mankind.
- They believe that the essential teachings of all major religions are similar in nature and that all religious people should cooperate with each other.
- Among them Karma and reincarnation are considered two natural, all pervasive laws of God.
- That there is advanced, intelligent life on other planets.
- A belief that some Unidentified Flying Objects really are intelligently controlled extraterrestrial spacecraft visiting this Earth. Unlike some UFO groups their belief is that extraterrestrials are friendly and are here to help mankind in its development.
- A belief that man, as with all life, is a divine spark of the Creator, our God, and that Earth is a classroom on the evolutionary ladder of life back to the source from which all came.
- They view Mother Earth as a living breathing entity which is thousands of lives more evolved than us.
- They deem Yoga and meditation as very important. (cf. King 1955). The faith deems George King to be a "Master of Yoga", a well-advanced stage that he is said to have achieved at an early age. At a later point they deem this was enhanced by practices given by a "Master" who resides on Earth. Aetherians deem meditation or Samadhi to be an experiential state of Adeptship "when the soul is bathed in the Light of pure Spirit and one becomes a knower of truth." Mantras are also frequently repeated during services of the group.
Another belief they hold is that they do "Cosmic Missions" for the sake of humanity and the planet Earth. One aspect of these missions is a device they call a 'Prayer Battery'. They believe that with these batteries they can store up to 1,250 hours of "prayer energy." They consider a prayer hour to be somewhat analogous to a kilowatt hour. Essentially to their view it's the amount of prayer energy which one person can invoke during one hour of concentrated and directed dynamic prayer. They believe in times of crisis, the energy within the battery can be released in about 100 minutes. Furthermore their belief says this can be directed to anywhere on the planet. They see that as a healing prayer energy that alleviates suffering and hardship in stricken areas. The Aetherius Society believes such "missions" averted and helped to bring relief to many disasters.
Criticism
Their beliefs face criticism on two main fronts, the skeptics and the conservative Christians.
Many noted Skeptics deem the society's ideas to be peculiar and even more implausible than they would deem normal for new religions. It follows what most scientists would deem an irrationalist belief in UFOs. Historically this has led them to encourage governments to "open up" information they feel they are hiding on UFOs. Added to that the group claims many of its religious concepts are in fact scientific inventions. Finally the group claims that Venus and Mars are, or at least were, inhabited by intelligent beings. There is no accepted scientific evidence for this.
Likewise conservative Christians are at times offended by its view of Jesus. The Aetherians stated Jesus is living on Venus. George King first announced this in the British press in the late 1950s. This caused the largest controversy in their history as Britain was still Christian enough at that time the group was accused of blasphemy or being in service to Communists. Most Christians would have found the idea offensive at that time, especially as Dr. George King claimed to channel the voice of Jesus. Added to that some of the Aetherians statements on life on Mars or Venus are suspiciously like that found in C. S. Lewis's Out of the Silent Planet trilogy. For example Jesus being on another planet and the beings on other worlds being invisible due to "living on higher vibratory planes."[1] Another issue is that the group deems "orthodox Christianity" to be unsatisfactory. The biography they give of their founder notes approvingly that he received an award from a Christian chivalry organization.
There are a few criticisms that conservative Christians and skeptics seem to share concerning them. One is that George King made elaborate claims, like having a doctorate or being a prince, which seem completely unsupportable. The other would likely be that group's values are comically out of touch with reality.
The group has lasted fifty years without the controversies that often trouble new religious movements. Thus far the main controversies have been their view that governments keep UFOs secret and their belief Jesus is on Venus. At present most objective analyses of new religions indicates that, although these ideas are intensely eccentric to the point of arguably being bizarre, the Aetherians are an apparently harmless new religious movement. There is currently no evidence that this is likely to change. Although there might be some dishonesty in the recruiting methods as mentioned below.
Mission and recruitment
They recognize that their concept of George King having near divine status would likely be treated with skepticism by prospective converts. Therefore Mikael Rothstein (see references) wrote that the society's mission strategy is such that it does not mention it at first.
See also
External links
- The Aetherius Society - official website of the movement
- Page about the Aetherius Society at Religious Movements site
- A scholarly article by John A. Saliba of the Marburg Journal of Religious
- A more critical National Review article on UFO groups that mentions them
- Relatively harsh evaluation
References
- Baker, Alan, (1999) The Encyclopedia of Alien Encounters, United Kingdom, Virgin.
- King, George, (1996) Contacts With The Gods From Space, United States, The Aetherius Society.
- Rothstein, Mikael, (associate professor in the department of history of religions at the University of Copenhagen) Hagiography and Text in the Aetherius Society: Aspects of the Social Construction of a Religious Leader, article that appeared in the book New Religions in a Postmodern World edited by Mikael Rothstein and Reender Kranenborg RENNER Studies in New religions Aarhus University press, ISBN 8772887486
Copyright
"Original data received from Wikipedia on April 01, 2006. Credit given to original authors can be seen Here."
