Aetherius Society

The Aetherius Society is a millenarian, New Age, UFO religion. It was founded by George King in the mid-1950s as the result of what King claimed were contacts with extraterrestrial intelligences, whom he referred to as “Cosmic Masters”. Regarded as firmly based in Theosophy, the Aetherius Society combines UFO claims, yoga, and ideas from various world religions, notably Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity. Stefan Isaksson notes that it has “become a complex religious belief system that includes an extraterrestrial hierarchy of various spiritual masters and such concepts as universal karma and religious healing.” The religion's goal is to prevent worldly destruction by improving cooperation between humanity and various alien 'masters', and by using 'spiritual energy' to improve the spiritual calibre of the world. The society has claimed that various disasters may be prevented or relieved by prayer, often aided by "Spiritual Energy Batteries" meant to store healing psychic energy The society also believes that it is to make the way for the "Next Master," a messianic figure who will descend upon Earth in a flying saucer, possessing 'magic' more powerful than all the world's armies. The society is named after Aetherius, a being King claims to have telepathically contacted and channeled. Aetherius is believed to be a Cosmic Master from Venus, as are Buddha and Jesus. The society's membership, although international in composition, is not very large. David V. Barrett suggested in 2011 that the worldwide membership was now into the thousands, with the largest number of members being in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand.

George King was born on 23 January 1919, in Wellington, Shropshire, England and brought up in a Christian family with strong occult interests. Before founding the Aetherius Society, King had been deeply involved in spiritual healing and had joined various theosophically-based metaphysical groups in London that were a marginal part of the religious scene. In 1944 he took up yoga, allegedly mastering bhakti, gnani (see jnana) and kundalini yogas and attaining the state of "Samadhi" and, according to the Aetherius Society, developed psychic powers that allowed him to learn many of the secrets of the universe.