The creme de la Creme

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.

• There will be no third world war. The destructive energies of war are going somewhere else. They are going into changed weather patterns, into earthquakes, and commercialisation based on greed.

• The easing of East/West tensions and the developments in Eastern Europe are due to the activities of the Spiritual Hierarchy.

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

• There has been a collapse in confidence in the economic system of communism...Communism or socialism hasn't failed—totalitarianism has.

• It was no accident that Christ (Jesus), the teacher for the Piscean age, was symbolised by a fish.

  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'.

• The Maitreya can be in several places at once, can suddenly appear solidly and then disappear. He is in no danger of assassination. Bullets dissolve in his body.

• The Kenyan Times of 11/6/88 reported the Maitreya appeared before a crowd in Nairobi dressed like an Arab and spoke in Swahili.

  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?

• The Maitreya has slowed down the rotation of the earth and moved it several kilometres nearer the sun—to provide more sunshine in order to grow more crops.
• There is no hole in the ozone layer. It will correct itself in 15 years time—at an informed guess.
• At the time of his crucifixion Jesus' body was one quarter atomic particles and three-quarters sub-atomic particles. After the resurrection he became entirely sub-atomic particles.

• The Turin Shroud is authentic. It will be authenticated and claimed by Jesus as his own...The image shows coins on the eyes with dates.

  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.