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This is an extract from an interview carried in issue 4 of Alien Worlds Magazine.
Have you been victims of mockery?
I donīt use the word "victim" because I think it has all the wrong connotations but in the spirit of your question, the answer is undoubtedly yes. Weīve been abused and only this week I turned down an interview actually with Radio 4 because they were not willing to allow me to respond to any comments made about us live. In other words they wanted to do a pre recorded interview with me then edit it down and then put it before three so called experts to comment on.
So weīve learned not to do things like that. It doesnīt have to be a government inspired D Notice; it can just be a general conditioning. But having said that, I do want to qualify what I just said. Things have improved immensely. We very rarely do pre recorded interviews that can be edited for the reasons I have just explained but we are very happy to appear live. I wouldnīt mind appearing with anybody live. They are fully entitled to their opinions and can say whatever they like; thatīs fine by me if Iīve got a fair opportunity to respond.
And I donīt think this is just the Aetherius Society by the way. I think lots and lots of people would say they are in that boat with the media generally, particularly television and radio.
I want to add though we have seen a fantastic improvement. I do a lot of radio shows not only in this country. I do George Noory which Iīm sure you know which is excellent. Goes out to what, 11 or 12 million people and we get a fantastic response. Very fair. Iīve done TalkSport and had some great interviews there live too. Iīve done up to four hour phone-in shows, very good, very positive and on the whole I would say over 90% of the callers I get now are anything from sympathetic to reasonable. Whereas there was a time when it would be the other way round, almost, going back twenty years.
So Iīve seen a great change and I think people respect the fact that the Aetherius Society is still there and that we donīt pretend to be something that weīre not. We come right out and say what we believe and people can take it or leave it and weīve been going for over fifty years. According to a company called Inform who do work for the Home Office, we have the lowest turnover of any new religious movement. In other words, people who join us are less likely to leave us, having joined, then any other organisation because they really find it rewarding.
In the light of those comments, do you think you are benefiting from a cultural shift through an increase in interest in the New Age? I think these days there is a lot of frustration with the daily grind of life and the pressures and stress. The UK in 2008 is a very different place to the way it was in 1955, in some ways a safer place, but individually I feel people are under more stress.
Undoubtedly, we are benefiting from a cultural shift and people are much more open-minded now. For example during the recent Sun newspaper coverage of UFOs recently, I was doing a radio show about it and I noticed the way it was covered on the television by newspaper reviewers and they didnīt dismiss it. One reviewer was asked, "Do you believe in all this sort of thing?" and they said, "Of course."
Iīve mentioned the opinion polls and how the majority of people now know there is life on other planets whereas I remember Patrick Moore saying there was definitely no life anywhere, which he doesnīt say now.
Well, heīs still not very keen.
No, but the odds and percentages are such that there is life as we know it, never mind life not as we know it. I did one radio interview on LBC actually and the other guest was Sir Martin Rees the Astronomer Royal and he was talking about how we need to open our minds to life on Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn which is something the Aetherius Society has believed in since it was founded.
So I think the ridicule factor is much lower now than it used to be. Also, I think people are moving away from the traditional religions, other than perhaps fundamentalism, which apparently is on the growth. But people are more dissatisfied with the big, more traditional religions and they are looking for explanations that tie in with New Science, with invisible matter, speeds faster than light, space, time travel, again things that the Aetherius Society have been talking about since the 1950s. So yes, people are I think quite open to these kinds of concepts and thereīs been an enormous change in our direction I would say.
Is the Society secretive about any of its religious practices?
No, not about its religious practices. The only thing we are secretive about is the design of some of the apparatus we use. The reason for that is because we believe that in the wrong hands, this type of radionic equipment could be misused to do harm, and thatīs the only reason. There are seminars and events that are restricted in their attendance; in other words you would have to be of a certain degree of dedication within the Aetherius Society to attend them, but anybody could attain that if they wanted to.
Pardon my ignorance but is there one practice where you actually physically climb a series of mountains?
Absolutely, we go to holy mountains. In fact this year is the 50th anniversary of one of our missions. I donīt regard that as ignorant by the way Stuart at all. Quite understandably you donīt know everything we do. There are 19 mountains in the world that we believe are holy. They arenīt the only holy mountains by the way. There are mountains like the Himalayas to give an obvious example which are obviously holy and have been for centuries. But there are 19 mountains that we regard as New Age Power Centres in that they have been charged with energy in the last century in a mission called Operation Starlight which started 50 years ago this year. Weīll be celebrating that and weīll be climbing eleven mountains in Europe alone on one day this year, August 23rd, which is a very significant day for us.
What we refer to as pilgrimages are open to the public. They arenīt secret, they arenīt private, we gain permission where we need to from the National Trust or whoever is concerned with a particular mountain, and climb them quite openly and anybody can come. When we are on top of them we pray for world peace, we chant ancient mantras that are thousands of years old. We use New Age prayers in a practice called The Twelve Blessings which is our main religious practice which anybody can buy in written form or on tape. None of it is secret at all. In fact, the more the merrier.
For more information on Alien Worlds Magazine, please go here to our Website
If you are interested in purchasing a copy of the magazine, please visit our Subscriptions page.
Have you been victims of mockery?
I donīt use the word "victim" because I think it has all the wrong connotations but in the spirit of your question, the answer is undoubtedly yes. Weīve been abused and only this week I turned down an interview actually with Radio 4 because they were not willing to allow me to respond to any comments made about us live. In other words they wanted to do a pre recorded interview with me then edit it down and then put it before three so called experts to comment on.
So weīve learned not to do things like that. It doesnīt have to be a government inspired D Notice; it can just be a general conditioning. But having said that, I do want to qualify what I just said. Things have improved immensely. We very rarely do pre recorded interviews that can be edited for the reasons I have just explained but we are very happy to appear live. I wouldnīt mind appearing with anybody live. They are fully entitled to their opinions and can say whatever they like; thatīs fine by me if Iīve got a fair opportunity to respond.
And I donīt think this is just the Aetherius Society by the way. I think lots and lots of people would say they are in that boat with the media generally, particularly television and radio.
I want to add though we have seen a fantastic improvement. I do a lot of radio shows not only in this country. I do George Noory which Iīm sure you know which is excellent. Goes out to what, 11 or 12 million people and we get a fantastic response. Very fair. Iīve done TalkSport and had some great interviews there live too. Iīve done up to four hour phone-in shows, very good, very positive and on the whole I would say over 90% of the callers I get now are anything from sympathetic to reasonable. Whereas there was a time when it would be the other way round, almost, going back twenty years.
So Iīve seen a great change and I think people respect the fact that the Aetherius Society is still there and that we donīt pretend to be something that weīre not. We come right out and say what we believe and people can take it or leave it and weīve been going for over fifty years. According to a company called Inform who do work for the Home Office, we have the lowest turnover of any new religious movement. In other words, people who join us are less likely to leave us, having joined, then any other organisation because they really find it rewarding.
In the light of those comments, do you think you are benefiting from a cultural shift through an increase in interest in the New Age? I think these days there is a lot of frustration with the daily grind of life and the pressures and stress. The UK in 2008 is a very different place to the way it was in 1955, in some ways a safer place, but individually I feel people are under more stress.
Undoubtedly, we are benefiting from a cultural shift and people are much more open-minded now. For example during the recent Sun newspaper coverage of UFOs recently, I was doing a radio show about it and I noticed the way it was covered on the television by newspaper reviewers and they didnīt dismiss it. One reviewer was asked, "Do you believe in all this sort of thing?" and they said, "Of course."
Iīve mentioned the opinion polls and how the majority of people now know there is life on other planets whereas I remember Patrick Moore saying there was definitely no life anywhere, which he doesnīt say now.
Well, heīs still not very keen.
No, but the odds and percentages are such that there is life as we know it, never mind life not as we know it. I did one radio interview on LBC actually and the other guest was Sir Martin Rees the Astronomer Royal and he was talking about how we need to open our minds to life on Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn which is something the Aetherius Society has believed in since it was founded.
So I think the ridicule factor is much lower now than it used to be. Also, I think people are moving away from the traditional religions, other than perhaps fundamentalism, which apparently is on the growth. But people are more dissatisfied with the big, more traditional religions and they are looking for explanations that tie in with New Science, with invisible matter, speeds faster than light, space, time travel, again things that the Aetherius Society have been talking about since the 1950s. So yes, people are I think quite open to these kinds of concepts and thereīs been an enormous change in our direction I would say.
Is the Society secretive about any of its religious practices?
No, not about its religious practices. The only thing we are secretive about is the design of some of the apparatus we use. The reason for that is because we believe that in the wrong hands, this type of radionic equipment could be misused to do harm, and thatīs the only reason. There are seminars and events that are restricted in their attendance; in other words you would have to be of a certain degree of dedication within the Aetherius Society to attend them, but anybody could attain that if they wanted to.
Pardon my ignorance but is there one practice where you actually physically climb a series of mountains?
Absolutely, we go to holy mountains. In fact this year is the 50th anniversary of one of our missions. I donīt regard that as ignorant by the way Stuart at all. Quite understandably you donīt know everything we do. There are 19 mountains in the world that we believe are holy. They arenīt the only holy mountains by the way. There are mountains like the Himalayas to give an obvious example which are obviously holy and have been for centuries. But there are 19 mountains that we regard as New Age Power Centres in that they have been charged with energy in the last century in a mission called Operation Starlight which started 50 years ago this year. Weīll be celebrating that and weīll be climbing eleven mountains in Europe alone on one day this year, August 23rd, which is a very significant day for us.
What we refer to as pilgrimages are open to the public. They arenīt secret, they arenīt private, we gain permission where we need to from the National Trust or whoever is concerned with a particular mountain, and climb them quite openly and anybody can come. When we are on top of them we pray for world peace, we chant ancient mantras that are thousands of years old. We use New Age prayers in a practice called The Twelve Blessings which is our main religious practice which anybody can buy in written form or on tape. None of it is secret at all. In fact, the more the merrier.
For more information on Alien Worlds Magazine, please go here to our Website
If you are interested in purchasing a copy of the magazine, please visit our Subscriptions page.
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