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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". Categories: Possible copyright violations ...
1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...
1997 (MCMXCVII in Roman) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Yoga is a family of ancient spiritual practices that originated in India, where it remains a vibrant living tradition and is seen as a means to enlightenment. ...
Seal of the Theosophical Society Theosophy is a body of ideas which holds that all religions are attempts by man to ascertain the Divine, and as such each religion has a portion of the truth. ...
Spiritualism is a religious movement, prominent from the 1840s to the 1920s, found primarily in English-speaking countries. ...
Channeling can refer to Channeling (physics) Channeling (mediumistic), a term used in reference to the process of receiving messages or inspiration from invisible beings or spirits This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...
The existence of extraterrestrial life remains hypothetical though human beings continue to search Extraterrestrial life is life that may exist and originate outside the planet Earth. ...
The Message Given To Me By Extra-Terrestrials, the book that forms the basis of the Raëlian movement A UFO religion, popularly called UFO cult, is a faith community that involves a belief in the existence of aliens and UFOs. ...
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. Greetings from Hollywood Hollywood is a district of the city of Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., that extends from Vermont Avenue on the east to just beyond Laurel Canyon Boulevard above Sunset and Crescent Heights Boulevards on the west; the north to south boundary east of La Brea Avenue...
History According to members of the Aetherius Society, the history of the Society is as follows: Image File history File links Gkyoga1. ...
Image File history File links Gkyoga1. ...
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." 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Categories: Possible copyright violations ...
The Houses of Parliament and the clock tower containing Big Ben Part of the London skyline viewed from the South Bank London (see Wiktionary:London for the name in other languages) is the capital of the United Kingdom and England. ...
Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location within the British Isles Languages English (de facto) Capital London de facto Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population – Total (mid-2004) – Total (2001 Census) – Density Ranked 1st UK 50. ...
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. A new religious movement or NRM is a religious, ethical, or spiritual grouping of fairly recent origin which is not part of an established religion and has not yet become recognised as a standard denomination, church, or religious body. ...
PhD usually refers to the academic title Doctor of Philosophy PhD can also refer to the manga Phantasy Degree This is a disambiguation page — a list of pages that otherwise might share the same title. ...
This page is Yogi as advanced practitioners of Yoga. ...
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. 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ...
Official Scientology Cross Symbol The Church of Scientology was founded in 1954 by the late author L. Ron Hubbard. ...
Raels first published book, the basis of the Raelian movement Raëlism is the belief system promoted by the Raëlian Movement, a religious organization which believes that scientifically advanced extraterrestrials known as the Elohim (one of the words used to refer to God in the Torah) created life...
Unarians believe that through the use of fourth dimensional physics theyre able to communicate with advanced intelligent beings that exist on higher frequency planes. ...
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. Seal of the Theosophical Society Theosophy is a body of ideas which holds that all religions are attempts by man to ascertain the Divine, and as such each religion has a portion of the truth. ...
- 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. Karma (Sanskrit: करà¥à¤® from the root kri, to do, meaning deed) or Kamma (Pali: meaning action, effect, destiny) is a term in several eastern religions that comprises the entire cycle of cause and effect. ...
Yoga is a family of ancient spiritual practices that originated in India, where it remains a vibrant living tradition and is seen as a means to enlightenment. ...
In Tibet, many Buddhists carve mantras into rocks as a form of devotion. ...
Earth is the third planet from the Sun. ...
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. C.S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963), commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis was an Northern Irish author and scholar, of mixed Northern Irish, English and Welsh ancestry. ...
Out of the Silent Planet is the first novel of a science fiction trilogy written by C. S. Lewis, sometimes referred to as the Space Trilogy or Ransom Trilogy. ...
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 New Age describes a broad movement characterized by alternative approaches to traditional Western culture. ...
Seal of the Theosophical Society Theosophy is a body of ideas which holds that all religions are attempts by man to ascertain the Divine, and as such each religion has a portion of the truth. ...
Unarians believe that through the use of fourth dimensional physics theyre able to communicate with advanced intelligent beings that exist on higher frequency planes. ...
Billy Eduard Albert Meier (born February 3, 1937), a citizen of Switzerland, is the source of probably the most extensive, detailed, and widely recognized photographs of UFOs currently in existence, numbering over a thousand. ...
Shirley MacLaine, (born Shirley MacLean Beaty on April 24, 1934 in Richmond, Virginia), is an American actress well-known not only for her acting, but for her devotion to her belief in reincarnation. ...
Heavens Gate was the name of a UFO cult co-led by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles until Nettles death. ...
External links
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
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