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The Cult Dossier · No. 045 · Ufo / Extraterrestrial

Aetherius Society

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1955 – present · London; Los Angeles

V. THE POSTWAR ERA 1945–1969

Fully religious — UFO religion

Who led it

GEORGE KING (1919–1997), a London taxi driver and yoga practitioner who in May 1954 heard a voice announce: Prepare yourself, you are to become the voice of Interplanetary Parliament.

What it worshipped and taught

The COSMIC MASTERS — advanced beings from Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter, including the Master AETHERIUS (Venus), Mars Sector 6, and JESUS, who is held to live on Venus. Practices: Operation Starlight (1958–1961), in which King climbed 19 mountains worldwide to charge them with spiritual energy; Operation Prayer Power, in which prayer is stored in a physical Spiritual Energy Radiator battery and discharged at disaster zones; and defence of Earth by the satellite SATELLITE NO. 3, which orbits at set periods each year.

Who was in it

George King; the Master Aetherius; Mars Sector 6; Saint Goo-Ling; Richard Lawrence, the current UK head.

How it ended, or where it stands

SMALL, PEACEFUL AND UNUSUALLY TRANSPARENT, founded by GEORGE KING in the mid-1950s with headquarters in LONDON and LOS ANGELES. CHECKED 2026-09-07: NOTHING CONSULTED CONFIRMS ITS CURRENT LEVEL OF ACTIVITY, AND THIS FILE NO LONGER ASSERTS A BARE ACTIVE. Compare 046, where the present tense could be confirmed and is dated accordingly. The absence of news about a small, harmless group is not evidence that it has stopped.

The dead

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Of note

Included as the founding example of the contactee UFO religion — the template that Unarius, the Raëlians and Heaven's Gate all vary. Notably non-coercive: no isolation, no financial ruin, no violence.

Its timeline

  1. May 1954 King's initial contact experience in his London flat.
  2. 1955 Society founded in London.
  3. 1958–1961 Operation Starlight — 19 mountains charged, including Mount Baldy in California, Kilimanjaro, and Ben Hope and Ben Macdui in Scotland.
  4. 1959 King demonstrates trance mediumship on BBC television.
  5. 1974 Operation Prayer Power begins.
  6. 12 July 1997 King dies in Santa Barbara; the society continues under an executive council.

Its people

George King

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Founder, the Aetherius Society · 23 January 1919 – 12 July 1997 · active 1955–1997

A London taxi driver and yoga practitioner who in May 1954 heard a voice announce that he was to become the voice of Interplanetary Parliament. He taught contact with Cosmic Masters from Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter — including Jesus, who he said lives on Venus — and between 1958 and 1961 climbed 19 mountains worldwide to charge them with spiritual energy. His Operation Prayer Power stores prayer in a physical battery for discharge at disaster zones. The society is notable for being entirely non-coercive: no isolation, no financial ruin, no violence.

Before the law. None.

Where things stand. Deceased 1997. The society continues, small and peaceful.

  1. May 1954 Initial contact experience in his London flat.
  2. 1955 Founds the society.
  3. 1958–61 Operation Starlight — 19 mountains charged.
  4. 1959 Demonstrates trance mediumship on BBC television.
  5. 12 July 1997 Dies in Santa Barbara.

Checked

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