List of UFO religions

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UFO religions are groups that deal with alleged communication between humans and extraterrestrial beings. Proponents often argue that most major religions are already based on the concept of a supernatural being in heaven. Forms of communication include telepathy and astral projection. Groups often believe that humanity can be saved after being educated by the aliens as to how to improve society. Alien abduction belief can lead to formation of a UFO religion. "I AM" Activity, founded in 1930 by Guy Ballard, is seen, according to one author, as the first UFO Religion, though Aetherius Society founded by George King has also been given this distinction. Scholars identify the 1947 Roswell incident as a key event within the history of UFO spirituality. Melodie Campbell and Stephen A. Kent describe Heaven's Gate and Order of the Solar Temple as among the most controversial of the UFO belief groups. Scientology is seen by scholars as a UFO religion, due to its Xenu cosmogony and the presence of Space opera.

Contents

Background

J. Gordon Melton identifies the first UFO religion as the group "I AM" Activity, founded by Guy Ballard (at left). St. Germain is pictured above the mantle. Beloved Mensagers.jpg
J. Gordon Melton identifies the first UFO religion as the group "I AM" Activity, founded by Guy Ballard (at left). St. Germain is pictured above the mantle.

UFO religions generally deal with belief in communication with extraterrestrial beings. [2] [3] Stephen Hunt writes in Alternative Religions: A Sociological Introduction, "One form of quasi-religion that perhaps borders on a more orthodox form of religiosity is that of the flying saucer cults". [2] In these groups, individuals believe that communication between aliens and humans can take the form of physical contact, telepathy, and astral projection. [2] Typically the groups believe that humanity will be saved by these aliens when humans are educated as to a better way to live life. [2] Some of the groups believe that aliens will come to take those that believe to a more positive location. [2] Often the extraterrestrial beings are seen to plead with humanity to improve itself and to move away from a society of greed and violence. [2] UFO religions place an emphasis on spiritual growth and the evolution of humanity. [2] A UFO religion can be formed before or after an individual claims to have experienced an alien abduction and been taken aboard a spacecraft. [4]

Christopher Hugh Partridge writes in UFO Religions that J. Gordon Melton identifies the first UFO religion as the group "I AM" Activity, founded by Guy Ballard. [1] Partridge says it "can be seen as the obvious theosophical forerunner to UFO religions such as the Aetherius Society, and to the thought of UFO religionists such as George Adamski" but views it not as a UFO religion but as a theosophical religion. [5] Partridge notes that within UFO religions, there is a belief that the supreme being or "evolved entity" did not ascend from Earth, but instead came from another plane or another planet and descended to Earth. [6] Partridge describes the 1947 Roswell incident as a key point in time within UFO spirituality, commenting: "Roswell is now firmly established as what might be described as a key ufological 'spiritual site'"; [7] and James R. Lewis also calls attention to this event in his book The Gods Have Landed, noting that it is seen by Ufologists as the date of the "emergence of UFOs into the public consciousness". [8] Partridge places UFO religion within the context of theosophical esotericism, and asserts that it began to be associated as "UFO religion" after the 1947 incident at Roswell, New Mexico. [6] According to Partridge, most UFO religions still have many of the key points associated with Theosophy, such as belief in the same Spiritual Hierarchy, and he also draws parallels to New Age thought. [6] He notes that within the thought processes of UFO religions after 1947, many of these groups maintained beliefs that extraterrestrial beings were "heralds of a new era". [6]

Hunt describes the Aetherius Society founded by George King in 1955 as "probably the first and certainly the most enduring UFO cult". [9] He places the Aetherius Society and Raëlism among the "most renowned" of the "flying saucer cults". [2] Writing in the Encyclopedia of Religion and Society, contributors Melodie Campbell and Stephen A. Kent place the Aetherius Society and Unarius as among the "oldest and most studied" of the flying saucer cults. [10] They describe groups Heaven's Gate and Order of the Solar Temple as the "most controversial groups combining UFO belief with variations of contactee assertions". [10] Gregory L. Reece classes Scientology as a "UFO group" in his book UFO Religion: Inside Flying Saucer Cults and Culture, and discusses elements of the Xenu cosmogony and Space opera in Scientology doctrine. [11] He compares Scientology to the Aetherius Society and to Ashtar Command, writing: "While it bears strong similarities to the Ashtar Command or the Aetherius Society, its emphasis upon the Xenu event as the central message of the group seems to place them within the ancient astronaut tradition. Either way, Scientology is perhaps most different from other UFO groups in their attempt to keep all of the space opera stuff under wraps." [11] A similar comparison is made in New Religions: A Guide, which describes the Xenu mythology as "a basic ancient astronaut myth". [12] Author Victoria Nelson writes in The Secret Life of Puppets that "[t]he most prominent current UFO religion is probably the science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard's Church of Scientology". [13]

List

ImageNameMembersFounderFoundedRef
The Seekers (aka Brotherhood of the Seven Rays)DefunctCharles Laughead (aka "Dr. Armstrong") or Dorothy Martin (aka "Marian Keech")1953 [14]
Aetherius Society Logo.png
Aetherius Society Several thousand George King 1955 [2] [3] [10] [15]
Ashtar Galactic Command Thelma B. Terrill ("Tuella")1977 [11] [12] [14]
Chen Tao 50,000Hon-ming Chen1993 [14] [16] [17]
Christ Brotherhood Wallace C. Halsey1956 [18]
Cosmic Circle of Fellowship William R. Ferguson1955 [19]
Fiat Lux 2,935Uriella1980 [12] [20]
Freie Interessengemeinschaft für Grenz- und Geisteswissenschaften und Ufologiestudien Billy Meier 1970s [21]
Ground Crew Project Sheldon Nidle1980s [14] [12]
Heaven's Gate Defunct Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles 1970s [10] [22] [23] [24] [25]
"I AM" Activity Guy Ballard 1930s [26] [1]
Industrial Church of the New World Comforter Allen Michael1973 [14]
Mark-Age Charles Boyd Gentzel and Pauline Sharpe1962 [27] [28]
Flag of the Nation of Islam Noi flag 2.svg
Flag of the Nation of Islam
 Nation of Islam 50,000 Wallace Fard Muhammad 1930 [29]
Néo-Phare DefunctArnaud Mussy2001 [30]
Nuwaubian Nation Defunct Dwight York 1970s [31] [32]
Order of the Solar Temple logo Order of the Solar Temple logo.svg
Order of the Solar Temple logo
 Order of the Solar Temple Defunct Joseph Di Mambro and Luc Jouret 1984 [10]
Raelian symbol Raelian symbol.svg
Raëlian symbol
 Raëlism 90,000 Raël 1974 [2] [3] [11]
Rational Culture Manoel Jacintho Coelho 1930s [33]
Sanctuary of Thought Truman Bethurum 1950s [34]
Siderella [a] Jean-Paul Appel-Guéry; wrote Timeless Voyage , which conveys similar beliefs to the group [35]
Scientology logo Scientology Logo.svg
Scientology logo
 Scientology 20,000 L. Ron Hubbard 1952 [3] [11] [12] [13] [36] [37]
Unarius Ernest Norman and Ruth Norman 1954 [15] [14] [38] [39]
Universe People Ivo A. Benda1997 [40]
Urantia movement Authorship of The Urantia Book unknown and disputed. The book alleges it was written by celestial beings.1924 at the earliest and 1955 at the latest [15] [41]
Vale do Amanhecer Neiva Chaves Zelaya1960s [42]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Also known as Isozen, Futura, Galacteus, Euro-Culture, Italia, Résonances nouvelles, Azur Mieux-Ëtre, and les Voyageurs intemporels.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ancient astronauts</span> Pseudoscientific claims of past alien contact

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roswell incident</span> UFO legend caused by 1947 balloon crash

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ufology</span> Study of UFOs

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billy Meier</span> Swiss author and founder of a UFO religion

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aetherius Society</span> New religious movement founded by George King in the 1950s

The Aetherius Society is a new religious movement founded by George King in the mid-1950s as the result of what King claimed were contacts with extraterrestrial intelligences, to whom he referred as "Cosmic Masters". The main goal of the believer is to cooperate with these Cosmic Masters to help humanity solve its current Earthly problems and advance into the New Age.

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The Aztec, New Mexico, UFO hoax was a flying saucer crash alleged to have happened in 1948 in Aztec, New Mexico. The story was first published in 1949 by author Frank Scully in his Variety magazine columns, and later in his 1950 book Behind the Flying Saucers. In the mid-1950s, the story was exposed as a hoax fabricated by two con men, Silas M. Newton and Leo A. Gebauer, as part of a fraudulent scheme to sell supposed alien technology. Beginning in the 1970s, some ufologists resurrected the story in books claiming the purported crash was real. In 2013, an FBI memo claimed by some ufologists to substantiate the crash story was dismissed by the bureau as "a second- or third-hand claim that we never investigated".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George King (religious leader)</span> British author, founder of the Aetherius Society (1919–1997)

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Partridge 2003, p. 7.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Hunt 2003, p. 226.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Partridge 2005, pp. 444–445.
  4. ↑ Hexham 2002, p. 11.
  5. ↑ Partridge 2003, p. 8.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Partridge 2003, p. 36.
  7. ↑ Partridge 2003, p. 6.
  8. ↑ Lewis 1995, p. xiii.
  9. ↑ Hunt 2003, p. 227.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 Swatos 1998, pp. 531–532.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 Reece 2007, pp. 182–186.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 Partridge 2004, p. 374.
  13. 1 2 Nelson 2002, pp. 178–179.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Tumminia 2005, p. 4.
  15. 1 2 3 Landes 2000, p. 411.
  16. ↑ Lewis 2003, pp. 301–303.
  17. ↑ Lewis 2001, pp. 371–372.
  18. ↑ Matthews 2009, p. 63.
  19. ↑ Bainbridge 1997, p. 380.
  20. ↑ Partridge 2003, p. 180.
  21. ↑ Zeller 2021, p. 514.
  22. ↑ Hunt 2003, pp. 27–28.
  23. ↑ Partridge 2003, p. 239.
  24. ↑ Lewis 1995, p. 137.
  25. ↑ Clarke 2006, p. 227.
  26. ↑ Lewis 2003, pp. 9–10.
  27. ↑ Bainbridge 1997, p. 180.
  28. ↑ Lewis 2001, p. 367.
  29. ↑ Partridge 2003, pp. 280–281.
  30. ↑ "Que sait-on de ? Néo-Phare" [What do we know about? Néo-Phare]. UNADFI (in French). 22 August 2014. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  31. ↑ Reece 2007, p. 196.
  32. ↑ Partridge 2003, pp. 281–282.
  33. ↑ Cavalcante Modesto da Silva 2013, p. 156.
  34. ↑ Reece 2007, p. 115.
  35. ↑ Abgrall 1999, p. 95.
  36. ↑ Partridge 2003, pp. 188, 263–265.
  37. ↑ Lewis 2003, p. 42.
  38. ↑ Lewis 1995, p. 85.
  39. ↑ Hexham 2002, p. 113.
  40. ↑ Saliba 2006.
  41. ↑ Clarke 2006, p. 153.
  42. ↑ Zeller 2021, p. 426.

Sources

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