Excerpt from chapter three in: A Catholic Response to the New Age Phenomenon by the Irish Theological Commission in 1994. To see the contents of the whole chapter, click here.
"New Age Movement" is abbreviated as NAM.
Lord Maitreya is the name given to the expected New Age Messiah announced by Benjamin Creme, who appears to be his prophet.88 This 'messiah' has nothing to do with the Second Coming of Jesus in glory, but the language used by the NAM leaders is confusing, as they use Christian terms to get across their own occult teachings. Creme publicly proclaimed in 1976 that Maitreya was manifesting himself on the higher planes of consciousness first, and only when the time was ripe would he manifest materially. In the meantime he is transmitting messages through Creme and his group.89
Who is this coming New Age Messiah? Creme says that 'all the great religions hold before humanity the idea of a further revelation which will be given by a future Teacher or Avatar. Christians hope for Christ's return, the Buddhists look for the coming of another Buddha, the Lord Maitreya, while the Muslims await the coming of the Imam Mahdi, the Hindus, the Bodhisattva or Krishna, and the Jews the Messiah. Each of them expects a Coming One, a Revealer of new truths and a Guide into the future. Esotericists know them all as one Being, the World Teacher, the supreme Head of the Spiritual Hierarchy of Masters, and look for his imminent return now as we enter the Aquarian Age'.90 Creme explains later that this 'Christ is an agent. The Christ is not God. When I say, "the coming of Christ", I don't mean the coming of God'.91 'On the subject of the Return of Christ Alice Bailey states that there is a growing belief 'that the Christ is in us, as He was in the Master Jesus, and this belief will alter world affairs and mankind's entire attitude to life'.92 Jesus of Nazareth is 'the Master Jesus' who was 'Christed' during his lifetime - just as we are! He is just an ordinary human being who needed to work through his own karmic cycle in endless incarnations. Since Creme claims to be 'overshadowed' by the Returning Christ, he is on the same level as 'the Master Jesus.' Bailey points out that Jesus will not be returning to the Earth. Neither will The Christ for that matter, for 'he cannot return because he has always been here upon the Earth watching over the destiny of humanity.' He can only reappear.93
This coming NAM 'Christ' is also called 'The Cosmic Christ', who will be manifested to and in people worldwide. In a discussion paper on the subject Spangler and Thompson admit that they are speaking in a Buddhist cosmology, and that it is not necessary to keep 'all this composting heap of Christianity' to explain their ideas.94 They relegate the story of Jesus of Nazareth to myth, specifically the myth of the sacred child who saves US.95 Spangler and other NAM writers dismiss Jesus as having no good authority for today. He is merely one of the more enlightened ones.96
Spangler explains the nature of this Cosmic Christ as 'the essence of all evolving life; he lives within all. From the Christ Life of the Logos down to the Christ Life of the simplest pebble or organism, he was present in the foundations of the Earth.' He says that there is 'Christ potential' in everything, 'the Christ energies' that call us forth in evolution. Like all other NAM teachers he claims that the Buddha, the Enlightened or Awakened One, was the first to embody the Christ, and radiate its energy to the Earth. The Buddha led humanity forward until Jesus of Nazareth, who was the next to embody the Christ energies for the human race. We are now expecting a third individual to do the same ... the new messiah that NAM is expecting will materialise soon.97
Creme says that in the esoteric tradition 'the Christ is not the name of an individual but of an Office in the Hierarchy. The present holder of the office, the Lord Maitreya, has held it for 2,600 years, and manifested in Palestine through his Disciple, Jesus, by the occult method of overshadowing ' 98 He further states that the Masters of the Hierarchy are now ready to return. They will come with Maitreya, and will 'walk openly among us ... and their presence in the world will be an established fact' (ibid.). One of the reasons for their coming is that their own evolutionary development demands it! They must emerge as a group and demonstrate how they can function simultaneously on all planes of reality .... then presumably we, humans, will follow suit!99
The Church is wrong, Creme says, in attributing some absolute form of divinity to Jesus. 100 'Jesus is divine but in the way that you and I are divine." He goes on to say that Jesus is an evolving being just like everybody else (ibid.). He is 'not the one and only Son of God, but the friend and Elder Brother of Humanity' (ibid.). Creme explains Jesus as a fifth stage Initiate, hence a Master, and illustrates this with a reinterpretation of Gospel passages. 101 He says that Jesus 'was, and still is, a Disciple of the Christ ... By the occult process of overshadowing, the Christ, Maitreya, took over and worked through the body of Jesus from the Baptism onwards'.102 Hence one must not look for the biblical Christ in this new event. 103
In answering the question: 'What happened the consciousness of Jesus when he was overshadowed by the Christ?' Creme said that 'the body was that of Jesus. From the Baptism onwards, sometimes Jesus himself was in it; sometimes Jesus and the Christ used it simultaneously; while at still other times the Christ alone manifested through it. The consciousness of Jesus became the observer of all that took place'.104 This not only explains why they separate Jesus from 'The Christ' but also explains Creme's own assertion that he, too, is overshadowed by this 'Christ'! His description of it demands possession or oneness of some kind.105
NOTES
(Full details of the publications referred to in these notes can be found in the Select Bibliography).
88. See The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, Alice Bailey, p. 86 for material on Lord Maitreya. See also Straight Answers on the New Age, Bob Larson, pp. 198-200; Inside the New Age Nightmare, Randall N. Baer p.43.
89. Reappearance of Christ and the Masters of Wisdom, B. Creme, pp. 227-248.
90. Ibid., p.28
91. Ibid., p.115.
92. Externalisation of the Hierarchy, Alice Bailey, pp. 591-612.
93. Ibid., p. 597.
94. Reimagination of the World, David Spangler, p. 137.
95. Ibid., p. 141.
96. Ibid., p. 148.
97. Revelation: The Birtb of a New Age, David Spangler, pp. 102-109.
98. Reappearance of Cbrist and the Masters of Wisdom, Benjamin Creme, p. 30.
99. Ibid., p. 31.
100. Ibid., p. 47.
101. Ibid., pp. 137-139.
102. Ibid., p. 46.
103. Ibid., p. 64.
104. Ibid., p. 54.
105. Ibid., p. 108.
