It
caused quite a stir across the world on
THE
CHRIST IS HERE.
The message went on to say that “Throughout
history, humanity’s evolution has been guided by a group of enlightened men,
the Masters of Wisdom. . . . At the centre of this “Spiritual Hierarchy” stands
the World Teacher, Lord Maitreya, known by Christians as the Christ. And
as Christians await the Second Coming, so the Jews await the Messiah, the
Buddhists the fifth Buddha, the Moslems the Imam Mahdi, and the
Hindus await
There
was a flurry of editorial comment in the Media, together with an attempt to
obtain further information from the man who seemed to be the co-ordinator of
this activity, and who operated from various “Tara Centres” in the world. It
emerged from these investigations that the man was Benjamin Crème, and the
funding for this advertising extravaganza came mainly from well-off Americans
in
Benjamin
Crème appeared on British T.V. at
He
said that “the Christ” had been emerging since July 1977, and is one of the 63
Masters of wisdom, though central to them all, and he is known as The Lord
Maitreya. His true status had thus far not been declared, and only a very few
disciples knew who he was, and where he lives. But “within two months he will
speak to all mankind on T.V. No one will hear his voice, but all will “hear”
his message telepathically in their own language. . . . On Friday 14th
May I will reveal the identity of the Christ.” And so we waited.
On
that Friday Crème appeared on American T.V. at a press conference in
Nothing
of interest transpired by the Summer Solstice, though from another angle the
arrival, on May 28th, of the Pope on English soil for the first time
since the Reformation caused ripples throughout churches, both positive and
negative.
When
people are unable to “deliver the goods” interest wanes. However, Crème has always
maintained his belief in the Maitreya, and the following extracts from a long
interview in 1997 revealed the deeper teaching of the movement.
“Well,
the fact is that my job is to create the climate of hope, of expectancy, for
the coming of the World Teacher, Maitreya, embodying the Christ Principle into
the world with His group of His disciples, from our point of view, the Masters
of Wisdom, who are a group of extraordinarily advanced men, men without fault,
men who have gone ahead of us in evolution, who need no further incarnation on
this planet but who nevertheless stay on the planet - to oversee the evolution
of the rest of us. They have lived for thousands of years in the
Now the Masters have a plan to return to the world and it’s in connection with
that plan of their returning that I was contacted by one of the Masters in
1959, although He attempted in 1958, but He achieved it in 1959.”
“I knew about
the Masters. I had read the Theosophical teachings, some of the Alice Bailey
teachings, the Agni Yoga teachings and so on. So I knew theoretically about the
Masters and I believed in their existence. But, I confess, I didn’t expect any
contact. . . . Then I had the most extraordinary experience of my life (and I
have had some really strange experiences which I have not talked about to
anybody). So I knelt down, I’m not good at kneeling, my knees don’t like it, I
was very uncomfortable. Suddenly I was overshadowed, as it’s called, by
Maitreya.
Maitreya the Master of all the Masters. The one awaited by Christians as the
Christ, because He embodies the Christ principle. They await the Christ as
Jesus, but in fact, He overshadowed Jesus. His consciousness entered into that
of Jesus at the baptism and from the baptism to the crucifixion He worked
through Jesus. Jesus, who was a disciple of Maitreya became, from being the
disciple Jesus, He became Jesus the Messiah, or The Christ, for those three
years. While that overshadowing was going on Jesus was, to all intents and
purposes, the vehicle through which Maitreya, who embodies the Christ
principle, could demonstrate that to the world. So when Jesus talked it was
Maitreya talking.”
“It’s like this.
The events of the appearance of the Christ have already taken place. The events
that Maitreya forecast, like the end of the Cold War, the break up of the
Soviet Union, the release of Nelson Mandela, the transformation of South
Africa, the demise of Mr. Gorbachov, the retirement of Mrs Thatcher, the
release of the hostages such as Terry Waite. All of those extraordinary
predictions which Maitreya made, years ahead of the events, which we published
in our magazine, years ahead of the events, there has never been a body of
predictions of such a quality in the history of the world. How does Maitreya
know they are going to happen? Because He sees them, they are already
happening. They happen on the subtle level and then they precipitate on to the
physical plane. When we as humanity take certain actions the precipitation
takes place. Now as far as Maitreya is concerned, and as far as my experience on
that March 1959 is concerned, the appearance of Maitreya had already taken
place. I could see it. He was showing me that event and its results. The
thousands of people in the street, the people calling for Maitreya, for the
Masters. They were real events which I saw.”
“If the Masters see events, they can
predict the events because they know it’s going to happen. But there are
sequences of events and variety of events and they won’t all precipitate.
Depending on our actions, that or that, or that, will precipitate. So there are
potential events but not all these potential events will take place on the
physical plane. That depends on the action of humanity. Because we have free
will. We set in motion those events or they are set in motion as a kind of destiny.
But the actual precipitation, yes or no, of which event and the timing of
these, depends on us and our free will. We have the free will which determines
that event, already happening on the inner plane, will precipitate on to the
physical plane. Then we call it "such and such" event. But the event
began much earlier on the higher plane. Now the appearance of Maitreya, on the
higher level, has already taken place. But the actual timing of it has not been
fixed on the physical plane and become an event because of our inaction for one
thing. Because of the action of the media for another reason.”
“ Before the overshadowing, my
Master said "Our Master, Maitreya Himself, has something important to tell
you." So, as I have said, I knelt down, I was filled with love, I was in
this sphere of light, I saw the past and the future happening, and then
Maitreya's voice came into my head, just like my Master's voice had done, and
then again completely clearly, but very different from my Master's. He said
very simply, "I, Myself am coming." Now I had a completely different view of the
coming myself. I didn't think the Christ would come again. He had done it once,
He wouldn't do it again, even though I know that Christians expect the return
of Christ. I thought He would come, probably in a flying saucer from Venus.
That was my generalised expectation. When this would happen I had no idea. But
He said, "I, Myself, am coming. Sooner than anyone thinks possible. It
will be in about twenty years."
(In the event it was about eighteen years) He continued, "You will have a role to play, in my
coming, if you accept it."”
“How many
journalists do you think have ever opened one page of the esoteric teachings,
which have been given openly since 1875, by H. P. Blavatsky and Alice A.
Bailey? They are totally unprepared to look at these events, and those taking
part in those events, as "events" in themselves. It is like the blind
speaking and leading the blind. As far as the events themselves are concerned,
and the underlying purpose and meaning of them for humanity, the media of the
world are as ignorant as any peasant. They are intellectually more
sophisticated but they do believe they can judge these events. The only people
today that the media really respect and are humble enough to listen to are the
so called scientists who are called on to illuminate, or give a scientific
explanation for, the myriad of miracles which are taking place all over the
world and have been doing so for years. They are called to show that these
miracles are normal; that they are not really miracles; that we don't have to
take them seriously as miracles; that the miracles are obviously events but the
meaning and purpose of them we don't need to know. The media think that we have
to know the mechanism of the miracles and so they bring in those
pseudo-scientists who explain them away.
If there is a Madonna weeping tears, real tears, real blood then there is
something fishy going on, there is somebody with the heart of a pig who has
deposited the blood on the Madonna.
If the Madonna moves then it is just a fiction, just an hallucination on the
part of 2000 people who saw this Madonna move.
They see a huge Madonna, in brilliant colours, 35 ft high, on the windows of a
bank in
Recently some vandals threw some chemicals on to it to get rid of it. They
stained the image but it has now begun to clarify itself and is back now to its
original state.
What about Crosses of light! In 1988 April my Master said that very soon
Maitreya will create crosses of light all over the world, so many that people
will not be able to ignore them but nobody will know where they come from and
what makes them.
The first was seen a few weeks later in May at a place called
That repeated throughout the community until there were about thirty crosses in
the community.
It was a very run down, tough area. There was a lot of drug dealing and hard
people but gradually it began to be transformed.
Families were brought together, people who were suicidal became the opposite
they began to serve the community. There was less crime. The "hard
eggs" disappeared or reformed. Extraordinary events. These crosses then
spread all over the world.
I know a doctor in the
Wherever those crosses are, and they are now all over the world, there is this
healing energy.
Now when the first cross appeared thousands of people came to see it and the
police had to manage the traffic. The local Catholic priest told the family
that it would be better if they cut out the pane of glass and put it in the
church, people would be able to see it at the church and the family wouldn't be
disturbed. They were a nice family, agreed with the priest and put the cross in
the church. But when the window was displayed in the church the cross
disappeared and nothing they could do in that church would bring the cross back
into the glass. So they had to give up, take the cross back to the house and
the cross promptly returned.”
“And these are the signs. The crosses are the
signs, as well as the weeping Madonnas; the icons of Jesus that weep tears and
blood; the wooden icons such as in
“Generally people will experience
love. Maitreya is the Lord of Love, and that energy of love will throw out in
enormous potency, so they will feel that love. Some powerfully and some not so;
a few will dismiss it. People are on different levels and they are conditioned
for or against this. Mainly against.
All the fundamentalist religious groups are already conditioned to reject this
event. All the teaching, all the scriptures, which they don't actually
understand themselves, they misinterpret. Their interpretation of their own
scriptures is telling them something different from the reality that is
actually happening on that Day of Declaration. And so there will be very mixed
reaction.
The simpler, more heart orientated people will probably find it not too difficult.
They will have such a heart experience, such a love experience, they’ll say
"You can say what you like but I've never felt so good in all my life
while that was happening". And if they are honest they will go along with
that experience. That will be the touchstone of their accounting of this event.
There will be some who will think they have seen The Christ but they will look
to the Bible to see what it says and it will not be the same and that will
automatically turn them against accepting it. So there will be a whole range of
reactions.”
“ For the
fundamentalists, Maitreya will be the anti-Christ. They cannot see Him as the
Christ because He has not come down on a cloud into
If Maitreya says, "I am the anti-Christ, follow me because I am the Devil,"
or something like that, then of course that's what they expect. But if He says
"I am the Lord of Love" or "Through me you can experience the
love of God" they are not going to believe that, they are not going to
accept that because, they will say, "That's what the anti-Christ would
say." With them you cannot win. They are going to have to make up their
own minds over a long period of time.
“When they see the transformation
of the world, so many people responding to Maitreya, so many people setting
into motion the political, social and economic transformations which Maitreya
will advocate, which are so commonsensical, that the majority of people in the
end will see it's the only possible way forward and then even the
fundamentalists will come round and say "Well, it looks like He's an OK
guy." The tree is known by its fruit and when people see the fruit of
Maitreya, when they see His love, hear His wisdom, insight, His extraordinary
simplicity, that He is so humble, never putting Himself above them…. He will
say "Don't worship Me, I don't want you to worship me." As He has
said in His own teachings, "If you worship Me you put Me above you. I am
not above you. I am at exactly the same point. There is only one divinity and
we each share that divinity."
And so we end
these extracts from a very long interview which Crème gave on
In the next
chapter we shall have more to say about these developments.