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.
[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.)
[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.
