Continuing...

More from Jacques Vallee: (a cross-post from another thread)

A Dreamworld Far Off

It is a common mistake to assume that contactees are always irresponsible crackpots or elderly mystics. A case in point is a young man named Gregory, whom I used to know as a systems programmer with one of our leading ‘think tanks’. He quit his job to form a psychic center. He is now publishing a newsletter devoted to his experiences with higher entities; he believes that, in so doing, he follows the telepathic instructions of a superior force. Some feel that he has found a new moral framework based on revelation. Others argue that he is the victim of a delusion that could spread like an epidemic.[11] In either case, the implications are serious. It is not because of their numbers or because of their leaders’ thirst for power that the followers of such sects will be especially influential. Our institutions are vulnerable to the spreading belief in the irrational. People like Gregory do offer us a new dream, but it is so far from reality that it could easily turn into a complete fantasy. Here is a sample of his writing, of his pseudo-historical ‘revelations’ received from wise beings who fly through outer space:

On the eastern shore of the Peaceful Sea, God brought forth the American Republic… For the purpose of assembling the high consciousness required to conceive and establish this new Union, God sent His son Melchizedek, one time Lord of Salem, unto Christopher Columbus…
[Note that the Ascended Master 'Melchizedek' is part & parcel to the teachings of Theosophy]

Other contactee groups have overt political purposes. The leader of one such group told me:

The Earth is the property of one group of saucers that controls this end of the universe, and they call themselves "The Brothers", and they are the ones who brought the Christ on Earth 2000 years ago… If we get a little out of control, and maybe Russia would start to throw some missiles at us, from Cuba… well, they might step in, if it got too bad, and help us out. They told us they would. [Again, note, that "The Brothers" are related to Theosophy]

This group of contactees is nationally organized as a political party.

Before we reject these views as examples of harmless lunacy, we should observe that people once had the same view of the Church of Scientology. Indeed, the inventor of Dianetics is said to have practiced ritual magic with a rocket expert named Jack Parsons, who met in the Mojave Desert in 1945 a ‘Spiritual Being’ whom he regarded as a Venusian.

Crowley - Parsons - Hubbard

[Almost needless to say, but will say it anyway - Crowley was very much into the Theosophical writings of Alice Bailey]

People also used to reject completely the beliefs of the Mormon Church, whose founder would today be [12] regarded as a contactee. But how many religious movements started in the same way?

For every individual who is openly identified as a contactee, how many more have received what they regard as a ‘secret illumination’? It is apparent that the transformation they undergo can strike at any place and at any age. Is it purely random, then, or do the UFOs sellect their “victims”? Does it spread like an epidemic, or does it develop like a psychosis? Although a group of contactees was studied in detail by sociologist Leon Festinger (in his book When Prophecy Fails), we do not really know the answers to these questions, because too few of the contactees have been carefully investigated. What we do know is that their transformation releases ideas that challenge established structures.

Dorothy Martin - a.k.a. Sister Thedra,
also the leader of the UFO Cult known as "The Truth Seekers"

SOURCE

[Note Once Again: Dorothy Martin received her channeled messages from Ascended Master 'Sananda' - once again, a figure very much a part of Theosophy Teachings. (See below.)

As another aside: Wikipedia allows us to see into this 'Sananda' a bit deeper:

[B]ased on the early 1980s revelations of Tuella, that the Master Jesus, under his galactic name "'Sananda'" (the name, Joshua David Stone stated, he adopted after his resurrection), works with Commander Ashtar, flying with Pallas Athena in their own flying saucer within the Ashtar Galactic Command flying saucer fleet as its Commander-in-Chief.[38][39] According to Stone, another name used by Commander Ashtar to denote his flying saucer fleet is "The Airborne Division of the Great White Brotherhood".[40] It is believed that Ashtar is originally from a planet called Ashtar, but he moved to Venus thousands of years ago. It is said that he formed the Ashtar Galactic Command Flying Saucer Fleet at the beginning of the Atomic Age in 1945 and that in the early 1980s, at the behest of Sanat Kumara, Sananda (the Master Jesus) and Pallas Athena took over command of the fleet. Stone continued to present these teachings after 1996 at the yearly Wesak Mount Shasta gatherings.

And, One more time from Wikipedia: In 1965 she [Dorothy Martin - aka "Sister Thedra"] founded a new UFO contact group, the Association of Sananda and Sanat Kumara, and soon thereafter moved the organization to Mount Shasta, California. In 1988, the group moved to Sedona, Arizona. Under the name "Sister Thedra," she continued "channeling" and participating in UFO contact groups until her death in 1992. As of 2008, the Association was still active and headquartered in Sedona.

JACQUES VALLEE SOURCE

Images by moi

I could go on, here, but I am certain you have gotten my drift.
turiya

But still will continue with more (as to drive the nail a bit deeper), while I am on a roll here:

George Adamski

George Adamski was the first contactee, by far the most successful, and undoubtedly the inspiration for all those that followed, including Swiss cult leader Billy Meier, who has modeled himself and his revelations from space brothers closely on Adamski. In the late 1940s Adamski was the leader of a very small religious cult (about 20 members) strongly influenced by Theosophy. His day job involved dishwashing and cleanup at a hamburger stand run by the commune. In 1949, he wrote and self-published a science fiction novel, Pioneers of Space, about human-appearing wise men who lived on the moon, Mars and Venus. He also began to circulate close-up photos of flying saucers, which eventually looked exactly like light fixtures, complete with light-bulbs; he said the shots were taken with his 6-inch reflecting astronomical telescope.

Adamski made headlines in the winter of 1953, when he reported that the year before, he had met and talked with a man from Venus (a common home base of Theosophy's spiritual adepts) . His followup book, Flying Saucers Have Landed, was mainly a summary of Theosophical teachings about space travellers, written by British Theosophist Desmond Leslie. At the time of his death in 1965, Adamski had according to some reports become quite wealthy, mainly from lecture fees as he crossed and crisscrossed the US and Europe giving first-hand accounts of his amazing experiences— including trips to a giant Mother Ship in earth orbit, and on to other planets— and the exciting cosmic and spiritual revelations given to him by the friendly, profoundly wise Space Brothers from Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn... all of whom were physically indistinguishable from earth humans.

Benjamin Crème

In recent years Adamski and his teachings seem to have been incorporated into the strange esoteric cult led by 90-year-old British guru Benjamin Crème (also a Theosophist), who apparently met Adamski in the late 1950s, perhaps on one of Adamski's worldwide lecture tours.

A note on EDUARD (Billy) MEIER:

Billy Meier

According to his own autobiography, dropped out of school in the 6th grade, was confined to mental hospitals for 5 years until he escaped, and became fascinated with Theosophy, somewhat in that order. After reading a translation of Adamski's first two books, Meier started making similar claims and showing similar photos. His saucer-riding claims date from about 1965 and are closely based on Adamski's, including trips to the mother ship in earth orbit, on to Venus (a typical characteristic relevant to Theosophy at that time), etc. His main innovation was to have the Space Brothers come from another solar system. About 10 years later Meier shot some color photos and super-8 movies of several different hubcap-like flying saucers. In his office in the headquarters building of the cult community he founded in Switzerland in the 1960s, Meier boldly still has all these saucers on display on a shelf. After a divorce, Meier's ex-wife revealed how she had helped him make the models and take the photos. Meier's standing among members of his cult, and among “contactee” buffs, has not been affected by such revelations.

"A Space Brother (or Sister) as described by Billy Meier."

Next, and not to leave out the UFO religious cult most noted for the largest mass suicide in American history, founded by "the Two"; "Bo & Peep", also called "Ti & Do". Below is the cover of TIME Magazine that hit the news stands when members of the Heaven’s Gate cult committed mass suicide.

Marshall Applewhite

There were a total of 39 people who killed themselves. Without getting into all of events leading up to this horrific end, the final act of suicide should, to any reasonable person, send up a barrage of warning flares for any one who might consider the so-called teaching of the groups founders, Applewhite & Nettles, as anything other than demonic deception.

The groups founders were Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Lou Nettles. Nettles practiced channeling – which is contact with the demonic entities from the second Heaven – and was a member of the Theosophical Society. This goes back to Madame Helena Blavatsky, who some consider the “mother” of the New Age movement.

GEORGE KING:

George King

A British taxi driver and yoga enthusiast, came a bit late to the Contactee Circus, making his first claims in 1956, but he quickly founded a fairly successful religion, which continues to the present day - The Aetherius Society. the principles of his cult as laid down by King are the usual mix of Theosophy [which seems to be at the basic core of all the 1950s contactee messages] and pantheism, but it also incorporates a variety of other New Age beliefs, plus a few quirks unique to King himself. Alice A. Bailey has a lot to answer for, since her fingerprints are all over the typical spectrum of beliefs of most of the UFO religious cults, including King's.

And, finally on the hit parade we have George Van Tassel:

George Van Tassel

Early flying saucer contactee and author of the pioneering flying saucer volume, "I Rode in a Flying Saucer" (1952). As people responded to his claims of extraterrestrial contact and other contactees emerged, Van Tassel organized the Giant Rock Space Convention, held annually at Giant Rock Airport, near Yucca Valley, California. Van Tassel was proprietor of the airport and had some background in aeronautics.

Van Tassel was born on March 11, 1910, in Jefferson, Ohio. He went into aviation as a young man and worked for both Howard Hughes and Lockheed. He moved to the desert in 1947 where he opened a restaurant, an airport, and a dude ranch. In 1952 he began to receive psychic messages from extraterrestrials, primarily from a group of people who made up what was called the Ashtar Command. The Ashtar Command operated very much like the Masters of theosophical traditions, but were seen as authorities in this solar system.

Over the years Van Tassel claimed to have continued contact with the Ashtar Command telepathically. He often went into a trance in his circle of friends and communicated messages allegedly from UFO entities. Such communications were published in his journal, "Proceedings of the College of Universal Wisdom", and became the basis for future books.


turiya