NZ Skeptics Articles

The creme de la Creme

Philip Bradley - 1 November 1990

When Benjamin Creme first visited New Zealand in January 1989, I was overseas. Fortunately, the prophet of the returned Christ decided to pay a return visit.

I arrived for the meeting (Quality Inn, Willis Street 16/2/90) 15 minutes late. A short white-haired man, dressed in light coloured clothes was sitting quite still on a chair on the darkened stage. It had to be Creme, but was he waiting for me to be seated? “Benjamin is being overshadowed by the Maitreya. You can join the meditation if you wish”, a man explained. I chose to pass the time planning my weekend. However, I noticed the large crowd, some of whom were participating in the meditation, mostly looked normal and there were roughly equal numbers of men and women. This surprised me.

20 minutes later, without announcement, we heard spoken the thoughts of the returned Christ, a.k.a. the Maitreya. (They were recognisable from texts in advertisements which some years ago appeared in the national press.) The slow speech with frequent pregnant pauses may have been intended to make the thoughts sound significant but only emphasised how nebulous they were. Being near the back of the hall and with less than perfect vision, I couldn’t see whether Creme’s lips were moving. The accent was certainly not that of a Scot, such as I knew Creme to be. Was the Maitreya being channelled? If so, I was impressed. Later in the proceedings Creme, to my relief, referred to the tape we had heard.

If we can hear a tape of the Maitreya why can’t we see a photograph of him? Creme said there were photographs and that he would circulate them amongst us. If he did, none got to me. The photograph opposite I later found in New Truth,

The long evening presumably began at the advertised time of 7.30. Creme started speaking at 8.27. There was an interval during which we were invited to submit written questions. I stayed until 11.43, the latest I could and still catch my last train, but did not hear my question answered. In my notes I recorded at 11.07 intuiting that my somewhat technical question would be ignored.

By not having questions from the floor, Creme avoided being put on the spot. Answering only written questions enabled him to be selective and if necessary he could stall for time. Questions could be “planted”, even apparently hostile ones. (Creme, however, is clearly used to hostility, mostly from Christian fundamentalists, and in fairness, I should observe that some of the hostile questions appeared to be quite genuine.)

Creme says he is not preaching; what he is doing is providing information which we can either accept or reject. Some of this ‘information’ is set out below.

Comment: The Economist of 6/1/90 had a full page advertisement attributing the recent “rise of freedom” to the Maharishi effect.

Comment: The name Pisces refers to fishes. A fish was a symbol for Jesus because the initials of ‘Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour’ in Greek spell out ‘icthus’, the Greek word meaning ‘fish’.

Comment: While it makes sense for the Maitreya to speak Swahili in Kenya, why should he, a Pakistani living in London, be dressed like an Arab? Could the beard, robe and headdress have been hiding something?

Comment: Some shroudists believe they can not only discern coins over the eyes of the shroud image but also part of an inscription on them, enabling the coins to be dated. Ian Wilson, pro-shroud though he is, is very cautious about this putative evidence (The Evidence of the Shroud, p129-133).

At the beginning of question-time, Creme explained he would answer with the help of the Maitreya or the answers would be by the Maitreya with the help of Creme. If He had a part in all Creme’s pronouncements that evening, I can’t help feeling this Messiah leaves something to be desired.

A plain person’s guide to Cremism

Cremism, a mixture of esotericism and socialism, is an offshoot from the Alice Bailey offshoot from Theosophy.

Its beliefs may be summarised thus:

  1. There are spiritual beings who collectively influence the evolution of humanity:

  2. They “blend and program” in a “highly scientific” way the energies streaming to earth from the sun and the planets to bring about change for the benefit of humanity;

  3. They are, individually, occasionally in incarnation and so teach the rest of humanity directly.

  4. This so-called Spiritual Hierarchy includes many famous names. Among them is Jesus of Nazareth, a human being who was “overshadowed” by a spiritual being called the Christ or the Maitreya. Jesus, however, seems to have acquired spirituality in his own right and after being incarnated as, among others, Apollonius (first century), a teacher of American Indians (sixth century), and a teacher of Polynesians (seventh century), he is now present in a 200 year-old Assyrian body and has been living in Rome for the last three years.

  5. All world religions posit a further revelation by a great teacher. For Christianity it involves the return of Christ, while Judaism awaits the Messiah, Islam the Iman Mahdi, Buddhism the Maitreya, and Hinduism a reincarnated Krishna.

  6. The Maitreya is the World Teacher these religions have been waiting for. (“He appears to Jews as their idea of the Messiah, to Mohemmedans as the Mahdi, to Christians as the Christ” Creme, hopefully, claims.) He had been living in the mountains of Pakistan before traveling by jet aircraft to London in 1977. He has built up a following within the Asian community in the East End.

  7. The Maitreya’s message is “share and save the world”, Each country is to make an inventory of its needs and assets, and make over any excess in trust to a UN agency. The entrusted assets will be transferred to countries with a deficit. Creme did not enlarge upon this idea, but it was clear the U.S. (which he seems to particularly dislike) “will have to make sacrifices—-it wastes most of the food of the world”. The Maitreya believes consensus is the way of the future, and of the Aquarian age. (It would certainly appear to be essential for this UN scheme.)

  8. The Maitreya has to be accepted as the World Teacher if his message is to be realised. At the same time this acceptance has to be freely given. This is the reason why he currently prefers obscurity. Eventually, the Day of Declaration will come when the Maitreya will communicate with (i.e. “overshadow”) all of humanity telepathically at the same time as he makes a worldwide non-speaking television appearance. (The development of TV satellite links has been going on so to make this possible.) The television appearance is only a control so that people can see the feeling they get is connected with the Maitreya’s person. (People, like myself, who eschew TV will presumably be left in the dark.) Whether this overshadowing is a violation of the individual’s free will was not discussed.

  9. By joining a transmission group you can, through “a very potent form of meditation”, help the process of breaking down the extraterrestrial energies for the benefit of humanity. The groups function somewhat like electrical substations. Joining one enables you to help yourself and the world. Their real significance appears to be that they provide a means of active participation in Cremism.

It would be nice to think Cremism is a reaction to the meism of much of the New Age. Yet, if the material welfare of the world’s poor is a genuine concern Cremists seem to be doing nothing practical or tangible about it right now. Cremism is such a monstrous hodge-podge of occultism (the astrological and reincarnation components are much greater than indicated in the above summary) the humanitarian message seems like an afterthought. One wonders why Christians should follow a, if I remember rightly, 400-year old Pakistani rather than a 200-year old Assyrian, and why indeed they should follow either when their scriptures warn them not to. Despite all the learned references, Cremism, as presented at the meeting, seems to be on the same intellectual level as the Aetherius Society’s UFO cult. However, I could listen to any amount of nonsense delivered in a Scottish accent. May Creme come yet again.

This is your messiah speaking

I am amongst you once more my dear friends. You will see me very soon - each in his own way. Those who look for me in terms of my beloved disciple, the Master Jesus, will find his qualities in me.

Those who search for signs will find them, but. my method of manifesting is more simple. Nothing separates you from me and soon many will realise this…

I am all-in-all

Allow me to manifest through you.

My dear friends, I am hoping to be with you once more…

When mankind is somewhat prepared my voice shall be heard.

The success of my mission depends on you. You must make the choice - whether you choose to live peacefully as true men or perish utterly.