Van Tassel
Denzler observes that "in the long run, probably the most important person for the propagation and perpetuation of the contactee movement was George Van Tassel".Denzler, Brenda (2001) p43 In 1947 Van Tassel moved to Giant Rock, nearGiant Rock Space Conventions
Van Tassel held weekly channeling sessions at Giant Rock at which people could "ask questions" and "channel answers" from extraterrestrials. According to Jerome Clark, these gatherings coalesced the scattered contactee subculture into a recognisable movement in January 1952. This led to the annual Giant Rock Spacecraft Convention organized by Van Tassel, which began in the spring of 1953 and continued for at least another 24 years. It marked Van Tassel's most important role in UFO history In 1959 up to 11,000 people attended these conventions and heard channeled messages claiming to come from space.Helland, Christopher (2000) p38 Most of the well-known UFO contactees attended these conventions as speakers and channelers.Helland, Christopher (2003) pp 163-4 Melton states that almost all of the 1950s contactees became involved in the two ecumenical structures founded by either Van Tassel or Gabriel Green.Melton, J. Gordon (2002) p798 Most of the early messages Van Tassel claimed to have received from Ashtar were first presented to the public at these events. Van Tassel's early purported messages from Ashtar contained a great deal of apocalyptic material, which focused on concerns regarding the development of the soon-to-be-testedAshtar Command
As the weekly channeling sessions at Giant Rock continued through the early 1950s, the concept of an "Ashtar Command" was appropriated for use by a number of prominent early contactees and channelers, based on the figure of Ashtar, originally promoted by Van Tassel. Robert Short (AKA Bill Rose), editor of the 1950s UFO magazine "Interplanetary News Digest", was a member of Van Tassel's group. He began to popularise the messages, but as Van Tassel did not agree that other Ashtar messages were authentic, Short broke away and began his own group called "Ashtar Command". By the mid-1950s, the concept of Ashtar and a galactic law enforcement agency preparing an imminent rescue of humanity had become well-established, and included various well-known, esoteric channelers of the era. For instance, Elouise Moeller predicted that a space fleet would arrive in the near future; and Adelaide J Brown claimed that flourishing civilisations existed on the other planets in the solar system. However, as time and scientific knowledge progressed, the public failure of these predictions had an enormous negative impact on the expansion of the Ashtar Command movement due to the lack of a central authority that could undertake damage control. Although Robert Short had spent a lot of time promoting the Ashtar message, he was neither the leader nor the only interpreter, as by this time dozens of Ashtar channelers were presenting conflicting messages.Helland, Christopher (2003) p170Derivation of the Ashtar movement
With the advent of UFO religions, "Ascended Masters" from the esoteric teachings have been described as reappearing in space suits. The space concept was not entirely new however, as the more arcane teachings ofAshtar movement
The Ashtar Command evolved into a movement that had a central authority for several decades up to the mid-1990s, and has been described by Flaherty as "the common property of a diffuse New Age Spiritualist milieu." During this time the teachings claiming to be channeled from Ashtar varied immensely. Part of this movement metamorphosed when Tuella founded Guardian Action International.Tumminia, Diana (2007) p309 Guardian Action Publications was founded by Tuella when Ashtar approached her with a special mission to publish several books through the 1980s. Grunschloss, who refers to the Ashtar Command as a worldwide network of several loosely organised groups, describes much of the Ashtar channeling as akin toBroadcasts
In 1971, a British radio talk show devoted to UFOs received a strange call-in claiming to originate from outer space, which some of the guests believed to be genuine. This turned out to be the prelude for the 1977 Southern Television broadcast interruption, when a voice calling itself "Vrillon" of the Ashtar Galactic Command temporarily took over a television transmitter in southern England.Yvonne Cole
Yvonne Cole, who claimed to be channeling Ashtar messages from 1986, predicted the destruction of all Earth civilizations and the arrival on the planet of various alien cultures in 1994.Helland, Christopher (2003) p173 Cole claimed that governments were working with extraterrestrials to prepare for contact. According to Cole, the landing would be broadcast through the global media and include a message from the Ashtar Command. Due to 'sensitization', most of humanity would accept the UFOs as part of humanity's continuing evolution, while Ashtar followers would be needed as advisors, ambassadors and peacekeepers between the alien races and humankind. This would lead to a radical transformation of the world as humanity was initiated into a higher level of existence. These prophecies furthered the continued fracturing and disappointment within the movement when they failed to occur. Despite these failures, during the 1980s a number of individuals began to claim contact with the Ashtar Command through channeling, and various small groups were formed to receive and disseminate the messages.Helland, Christopher (Lewis 2003) p499Developments after the mid-1990s
By the mid-1990s (and continuing up to the present) several of these channeling groups began to utilize the Internet in order to promulgate their beliefs and to attempt to unify the movement by establishing a single 'authoritative' source for all Ashtar messages. This led to more prominence in the religious scene and significant membership. This cohesive response addressed the problem of conflicting, negative and failed prophecies which, after some effort, enabled the Ashtar Command to produce a single Ashtar world view. Individual channelers espousing messages which differed and continued to focus on themes such as the destruction of Earth, conspiracies, ET mass evacuations and general fear-mongering were declared invalid. It was claimed that these channelers had been deceived by negative space beings who had rebelled from the Ashtar Command, made alliances with similar others, and begun operating on the 'lower planes closest to Earth’. Most significantly of all, the new, more unified movement declared that in future no new channels would be accepted unless they operated on the ‘level of the soul’. As Helland points out, this was crucial to the formation of an orthodoxy. Channeled messages from Ashtar would be accepted as valid by the new orthodoxy if they complied with criteria consisting of a set of twelve guidelines which outlined what the movement stood for and how Ashtar would interact with society. This had never been attempted before in the 45 years of channeling Ashtar, who was also presented as a Divine figure similar to Jesus. The new framework claimed that the millions of spaceships believed to be constantly in the vicinity of Earth would never interfere on the planet's surface unless there was a serious problem such as a third world war or an ‘astrophysical catastrophe’. Helland observes that the emergent group was “noticeably more spiritually focussed and less concerned with extraterrestrial spaceships and visitors.”Helland, Christopher (2003) p175 He states that very little distinguished the new Ashtar Command from other theosophically influenced groups, except that in 1994 a distinctive component, the Pioneer Voyage, was incorporated into the Ashtar world viewThe Pioneer Voyage
In 1994, a small group of Ashtar Command members claimed that an extraordinary event had taken place: "the lift-off experience". They communicated via the Ashtar Network that they had been placed aboard the 'ships of Light' that were circling the planet. "The Galactic Fifth Fleet" had used 'physical vibrational transfer' which involved the human consciousness (or, sometimes, the 'etheric body') being raised from the physical dimension and transferred to the "Light ships". A second event was predicted for December 1994 in which over 250 people participated and which was declared by the leadership to have "opened a portal to the AC (Ashtar Command) ships for ever." It was claimed that in order to participate, a person's vibrations were raised through an eight step contemplative procedure; and that the Pioneer Voyage would occur during the period of a devotee's meditative state and would later be revealed to the individual in some form of conscious recall. This eventually evoked 'memory recall' from a core group of Ashtar Command members meeting in Australia who began providing accounts of their 'time aboard the ships'. Others followed suit. The time on the ships was claimed to be extensive even though the member's meditation period was short. Helland notes that, despite an increase in complexity, the general themes have remained in accordance with the Australian reports. The claim is that the events are occurring on a spiritual or etheric dimension and not a physical one. The group claims that the purpose of the lift-off is for the ascension of the human race as a whole, to which individual ascension is a precursor and an aid. It also claims that the collective ascension is being aided by large electronic grids deployed around the planet by the guardian ships.Helland, Christopher (2000) p40Credibility
Helland points out the failure of the July 1952 prediction channeled through Van Tassel that life on Earth will be destroyed "when they explode the hydrogen atom" because in November 1952 the first H-bomb was detonated with no such effect. However, the same message also stated that Ashtar was intervening to stop the destruction of the planet. After the explosion, ensuing messages claimed that various actions were taken by the space fleet to repair damage.Reece, Gregory L. (2007) p. 137 After the introduction of Ashtar by Van Tassel, other mediums began to claim contact. The most widely publicised of these messages were met with failure when they predicted civilisations flourishing on the other planets and an imminent landing of space ships on Earth. At one point, according to Helland, dozens of people were claiming contact with Ashtar and presenting conflicting messages. Helland notes that the Ashtar belief system is based on faith in an extraterrestrial celebrity, the concept of which has fared better than the individual messages. The main shifts in content seem due to failed prophecy, which has moved the emphasis from a physical space fleet averting doom, to the more theosophical concept of an Ascended Master aiding spiritual advancement. He maintains that the Ashtar beliefs are best seen as a syncretism between the I AM movements and the UFO experience, a belief system which regards UFO experiences and sightings as the natural progression of the spiritual development of humanity. Though followers of Ashtar believe in his divine right and knowledge spread across the human race, he and others of his kind have yet to provide any physical evidence of their existence.Helland, Christopher (2003)See also
* Ashtar (god) * Ashtar Command (band) * Joshua David StoneFootnotes
References
* Clark, Jerome "The Odyssey of Sister Thedra" in Tumminia, Diana G. (ed.) ''Alien Worlds: social and religious dimensions of extraterrestrial contact'' (2007), Syracuse University Press, , Chapter 2, pp 25–41 * * Ellwood, Robert S., "UFO Religious Movements", in Miller, Timothy (ed.)(1995) ''America’s Alternative Religions'', State University of New York Press, , Chapter 41, pp 393–40. * Flaherty, Robert Pearson, "UFOs, ETs and the millennial imagination" in Catherine Wessinger (ed.), ''The Oxford handbook of millennialism'' (2011), , Oxford University Press, Chapter 30, pp568–587 * Grünschloss, Andreas, "Waiting for the 'big beam': UFO religions and 'ufological' themes" in * Grünschloss, Andreas, “Ufology and UFO-related movements” in Partridge, Christopher, (2004), ''Encyclopedia of new religions: new religious movements, sects and alternative spiritualities'', Oxford University Press, , p372-376 * Helland, Christopher, "From Extraterrestrials To Ultraterrestrials: The Evolution of the Concept of Ashtar" in * Helland, Christopher, “Ashtar Command” in Lewis, James R. (ed.) (2000), ''UFOs and popular culture: an encyclopedia of contemporary myth'', ABC-CLIO Inc, , pp. 37–40. * Helland, Christopher “The Ashtar Command” in Lewis, James R. (ed.) (2003) ''Encyclopedic sourcebook of UFO religions'', Prometheus Books, , "Appendix 5" pp497–518 * Lewis, James R. (2003) ''Legitimating new religions'', Rutgers University Press, * Melton, J Gordon, (ed.) ''Encyclopedia of American Religion'' 7th edition (2002) * Partridge, Christopher, "Understanding UFO religions and abduction spiritualities" in * Partridge, Christopher (2005), ''The re-enchantment of the West, volume 2: alternative spiritualities, sacralization, popular culture and occulture'', * * Tumminia, Diana G. (ed.) ''Alien Worlds: social and religious dimensions of extraterrestrial contact'' (2007), Syracuse University Press, *Further reading
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ashtar (Extraterrestrial Being) 20th-century apocalypticists Alleged UFO-related entities Channelled entities New Age Religious belief systems founded in the United States