Written by John McNab   

Thirty-three years ago, on July 8, 1977, the one who is expected by the major religions but by different names, including that of Planetary Christ – the World Teacher Maitreya – left his retreat high in the Himalayas to enter the everyday world.

After spending several days on the plains of Pakistan to acclimatize his body, he left Karachi on an airplane for London. Upon arriving in London on July 19, he settled in the Brick Lane area of east London.

This information is known firsthand by many major figures in the traditional media today. That only around 38 million people have heard this information is a classic story highlighting the shortcomings of our media.

This is the story of why another Christmas has come and will go without most of humanity knowing that the central figure of this holiday is here and still awaiting the invitation to come forward and address the global public.

On May 14, 1982, a press conference was held in Los Angeles, California to present evidence that the Christ is physically present in the world. Over 90 journalists attended from news organizations including ABC, CNN, CBS, NBC, BBC, The Times, The New York Times and all the major US newspapers. The event was linked via satellite to the UK’s BBC news program Nationwide.
Making the claim that, indeed, the One whom all religions expect under various names is in the world was an obscure artist from London named Benjamin Creme. Prior to making this announcement, Mr. Creme states he had undergone extensive preparatory training by a Master of Wisdom, one of our planet’s spiritual custodians. A Master in the East would be considered a bodhisattva or enlightened being.

Share International, an organization formed in the US by individuals responding to Creme’s information, had piqued interest in the story in April of that year by placing full page ads in many of the major newspapers around the globe announcing that the Christ is in the world. After presenting information about Maitreya’s whereabouts and priorities, Mr. Creme indicated that Maitreya would come forward if invited to do so by the media. The condition was that at least one major media network assign a journalist to the task of looking for Maitreya in a symbolic ‘going through the motions’ search. The requirement was for a well-known journalist with sufficient professional standing to be believed by fellow journalists and whose story would actually be published.

The press conference in Los Angeles was intended not only to focus attention on London, but also to galvanize the press into action. It was their responsibility as representatives of the public to search for the Christ. It was hoped that, after the conference, a number of experienced journalists would immediately investigate Mr. Creme's story and that Maitreya would be very quickly found.

This hope, however, was not fulfilled. While the media did show an interest in Mr. Creme's story, it did not go so far as to send journalists of sufficient standing to search for Maitreya. The enthusiastic efforts of a group of Mr. Creme's supporters who had placed the ads were also fruitless. This was inevitable, for anyone revealed by Mr. Creme or his group would be suspect as simply fulfilling Mr. Creme's own prophecy. It would be much more convincing if Maitreya were discovered by unbiased outsiders, preferably representatives of the mass media, who would be more objective.

As for lack of interest on the part of the British media, it could be explained partly by the Falkland crisis, which at the time was commanding the almost exclusive attention of the British public. Only by the end of June did a few journalists, working independently, make any effort to find Maitreya.

The search by those journalists did not prove easy. The community Maitreya is living in did not welcome the inquiries of curious Americans and Europeans, especially after the original influx of enthusiastic groups of Creme's supporters following the press conference. Many people in the Brick Lane area of East London where it was indicated that Maitreya lived were heartily sick of the names 'Maitreya', 'Imam Mahdi', or 'the Christ'. What is more, for fundamentalist Muslims, the idea of the coming of the Mahdi in this way is as much a heresy as Creme's story is to fundamentalist Christians.

After the major media passed on the offer to bring this story to the public, a three year lull ensued. During this time various freelance journalists representing the media from both East and West came to London to attempt to locate Maitreya, with varying degrees of success. One, a reporter named P. Liefhebber, looked for Maitreya where he had been said to live — in the Asian community of London. He wrote in Share International magazine of the difficulty of the search:

To those who may find it hard to understand why, in a modern community in a city like London, Maitreya has not yet been found, let the answer come from someone who knows the community [a member of the Asian community]: “Outsiders are viewed with distrust. Even I, a Pakistani and a Muslim, am not really trusted because they want nothing to do with journalists. Besides, in our community one can hardly profess to believe that the Mahdi is in London.

“According to orthodox Muslim tradition the Mahdi will reappear in Damascus, during the morning prayers in the great mosque in the centre of the city. He will then say: ‘I have come, give me clothes.’ No other version is accepted. That is why everyone keeps quiet, even those who might know something. I believe that I have met several people who know who He is. They have told me that they know the Mahdi — I believe them — but they refuse to confide in me any further. Others say nothing and are simply waiting to see what will happen. It is also not the first time that a so-called Mahdi has been announced, there have already been so many false Mahdis, especially in recent years. The reason for this is that, according to our tradition, He is expected at this time.”

In 1985, another opportunity for the media arose. Benjamin Creme wrote of this event and its disappointing outcome in September 1985:

“As many readers will know, at a press conference in Los Angeles on 14 May 1982 I revealed for the first time (what I had known for five years previously) that Maitreya the Christ was living as an ordinary member of the Asian community of London. I appealed to the world's media to investigate — to go through the motions of searching for Him — and He would allow Himself to be discovered. For three years, my colleagues and I have sought to inspire the media to take this information sufficiently seriously to become involved, thus enabling Him to emerge into public life without the infringement of our freewill — a major law governing His emergence. An invitation to Him from the world's media networks, representing humanity, to come forward and prove His true status is not only necessary, but a sign that humanity is ready for His guidance.

“At long last, mainly through the persistent efforts of one free-lance journalist who had actually seen Maitreya in His local area in London's East End last year, an internationally representative group of influential journalists, 22 in all, gathered together in a London restaurant at 8 pm on 31 July. They met in the hope of being contacted by an envoy of Maitreya or even Maitreya Himself. The date of the meeting was chosen by the journalists on purely practical considerations: the availability at the venue of a long-awaited American network owner assigned by NBC, and of various British journalists returning from, or about to go on, holiday.

“Despite the lack of media involvement in 1982, the passing of time has allowed Maitreya to take steps towards discovery. The equation — Law (of free-will): energy expended — is gradually fulfilled by the lapse of time and the simple presence of media representatives at a rendezvous point. For several months last year, the above-mentioned free-lance journalist organized such gatherings of media representatives who still, as a group, had not sufficient influence. In this way, the needed expenditure of energy in ‘searching’ was gradually made. The recent large gathering of really influential and representative members of the media led to high hopes that a contact with an envoy of Maitreya (or even Maitreya Himself) would be made. The contact was planned but in the event had to be postponed. The following explanation was given by my Master:

The advent of a Being of the stature of the Christ is an event of planetary and even cosmic importance and is governed by certain laws. Inevitably it also inspires the opposition of those materialistic forces, seen and unseen, planetary and cosmic, who stand to lose the power which has kept humanity in thrall for untold ages. On that day, beginning about 12 noon, an initiative was launched by these forces which took the total attention of Maitreya and His Brotherhood of Light to contain. This was not achieved until about 3 am.

The unanimous advice of the Masters was to postpone the contact. This decision was finally made about 9 pm. It was decided that the reception through the news media channels would not be of the best, evoking more disbelief, opposition and fear than was desirable.

“In relation to Maitreya's advent all influences and energies have to be at their most beneficial, and according to my Master the timing was not right. Even the fact that the 31st July was full-moon (which we had thought auspicious) was, in the event, counter-productive.

“Of course, all of us who have worked so hard to bring this gathering of journalists about were disappointed. From the viewpoint of the Christ, however, the evening was a great success. For the first time, a truly representative group of the world's media, East and West, made themselves available to be contacted. This represents a symbolic invitation from humanity to come forward and immeasurably frees Maitreya's hand to act directly Himself. In the long run, the media have still to make Maitreya known to the world, but the work of getting them involved is done. We can now await Maitreya's direct action with added confidence and faith.”

This meeting did have the effect of increasing the interest of the British Broadcasting Corporation sufficiently that Maitreya was interviewed and filmed by the BBC over several months in 1986. Mr. Creme commented in January 1998 that “I know that the BBC knows this story, as do all the world’s media — the BBC rather better than most because they have already interviewed Him, in January, February and March of 1986, and even agreed to put on a press conference at which He could appear and present His credentials to the world. The fact that they reneged on this promise has meant that He (Maitreya) has had to go through a long, slow process of doing it the hard way, without the backing of major media.”

The following year, on February 27, 1987, CNN interviewed Maitreya. Like the BBC footage, it was never broadcast.
February 1987 also marked the start of a time when Maitreya met at his invitation with journalists, dignitaries, politicians, diplomats and others of prominence. This approach culminated in a historic London conference presided over by Maitreya, which over 200 invited dignitaries including royalty, ambassadors, diplomats, scientists, politicians and religious representatives, along with 40 invited journalists, attended on the weekend of April 21 and 22, 1990. Share International reported that among the guests present were the late President of the Palestinian Authority Yasser Arafat and King Hussein of Jordan. It was at this conference that Maitreya asked King Hussein if he would relinquish sovereignty of the West Bank to provide a homeland for the Palestinian people — which he did.

Also during this time Maitreya began making appearances ‘out of the blue’ at fundamentalist religious gatherings around the world. At one of the first gatherings, the editor of the Swahili edition of the Kenya Times, Job Mutungi, witnessed the event and wrote an article describing what happened that June 11, 1988. He wrote:

“About 6,000 worshippers at Muslim Village, Kawangware, Nairobi, believe they saw Jesus Christ in broad daylight last week. It may be hard to believe, but nothing will move them, because ‘Jesus’ addressed them and assured them of a come-back, very soon.

“The scene was at the Church of Bethlehem, where Mary Sinaida Akatsa conducts miracle prayers, praying for the sick, the blind, cripples, mad people, the barren and others facing all sorts of personal problems. . .

“The tall figure of a barefooted white-robed and bearded man appeared from nowhere and stood in the middle of the crowd. He was walking slowly towards the new church building away from the tent. Mary walked with him, side by side. . . I looked at my watch. It was 4.15 pm. Her voice was drowned by cries and loud moans of ‘Jesus! Jesu. Yeeesu! You have come. Welcome Jeesus! Wash our sins. Help us Jeesus!’ For many, it was the last prayer. It appeared to them the ‘Son of Man’ had at last fulfilled His promise of coming back to earth. They knelt down in emotional prayers in a frantic effort to save their souls at the 11th hour. A man lying near to me urinated in his trousers. But I stared back at the stranger in the meeting without blinking. Strange, sporadic light wafted on top of his turbaned head, his feet and his entire body. . . Mama Akatsa appealed for calm. But it was difficult. The ‘Holy Spirit’ had descended. Yes, the vice and crime-infested slums of Kawangware had been transformed into ‘a holy ground’ . . . In clear Swahili, which had no traces of accent, the strange man announced that the people of Kenya were blessed, especially those who had gathered at the venue that afternoon. . . . It took the crowd nearly 20 minutes to recover after the man left the meeting in a car belonging to a Mr. Gurnam Singh, who offered to give him a lift. But it will probably take Mr. Singh his lifetime to recover from the shock he got two minutes later. On reaching the bus terminus for KBS Route No 56, the man informed Mr. Singh to stop the car as he wanted to alight and head for heaven. On getting out, he did not ascend. He walked a few paces beside the road and simply vanished into thin air. Several people who witnessed this were astonished by his mysterious disappearance. . .”

Photographs and reports of this event were carried by CNN and international media. While Maitreya subsequently visited hundreds of these types of groups, this is the only instance that received media coverage.

Maitreya also began giving monthly talks during this time in London’s Asian community. Two reporters received accounts of these meetings where Maitreya gave teachings, analysis into how certain spiritual laws work, and predictions of future events. This information, particularly regarding predictions, was released to the media. The media have also been updated as these predictions, one by one, were reported as occurring. On the media’s response, an editorial in Share International commented:

“On the face of it, the media’s reticence doesn’t seem to make much sense. After all, journalists are continually kept up to date with the newest information; they have had a chance, for example, to learn about the expectations and predictions from Maitreya published in recent months in Share International. Thus the media knew the forecast — through a press release sent directly to them — that, despite all signs to the contrary, a truce between Iran and Iraq would come to pass.

“Whenever such a prediction turns out to be correct, as was the case here, an interest in the source of such information would seem logical. To some extent, this is indeed the case, for, according to Benjamin Creme’s Master, a number of journalists have read the various press releases with the greatest attention. Moreover, they have put them in a desk drawer, and in fascination read them again as soon as they are reminded by events in the world that the releases are, indeed, accurate.

“All the more relevant, therefore, is the question of why these journalists do nothing in response. The answer is that the psychological climate within the media which surrounds this sort of subject does not leave much room for other than ironic or cynical reactions. Many journalists have developed the habit of always expecting the worst. This attitude is considered ‘realistic’ and ‘critical’, and demonstrates itself in almost every commentary in which world developments are analyzed.

“Recently, there have been frequent analyses of this kind contemplating the many positive happenings occurring in every part of the world. True to form, they tend to conclude with the warning that things will doubtless soon take a turn for the worse, that discussions now continuing successfully will none the less go awry; that the peace which seems to be within reach is really not very probable. If, later, such an assertion is belied by events, no one takes the author to task. On the other hand, a prematurely optimistic prediction leads inevitably to loss of face for the author concerned. In the eyes of his colleagues, he has to own up to being insufficiently ‘realistic’ or ‘critical’.

“Given the fact that this mentality prevails even in the political and economic realm of facts and data, how dire must be the consequences for stories considered by the media to be ‘half-baked’ — and the reappearance of the Christ is, for many, just that. As a result, journalists who are inclined to take the story seriously — and there are some — often do not dare admit it openly, for they would certainly lose their reputations and acceptance by their colleagues. Thus they prefer to keep silent and to await events.

“Journalists are, of course, well aware of what subjects are and are not to the liking of their editors-in-chief. These editors, in their turn, know precisely which subjects are unpopular with the owners of their papers — as is very often the case with reports of plans for economic, political and social reform.

“Imagine, then, the diffidence journalists would have to conquer if they were inclined to give the information regarding Maitreya a serious chance.

“How difficult it is to break these unwritten rules is apparent from the experiences of one journalist (several years ago), working for a weekly with a fairly strong interest in sensational stories. He proposed at an editorial meeting to ‘put the club around Creme under the magnifying glass to find out where the abnormalities are, and, above all, to find out where the money is’.

“He himself expected to find ‘commercialism, money-making, a group of idiots’. To his own astonishment, his meeting with Creme resulted in positive experiences and a positive story — and he had the courage to put it before the editors. Predictably, the reactions were negative. Yet his article was published, after all, accompanied by the following disclaimer: ‘The editorial board would like to announce that they find both the subject and the story entirely ridiculous. We have decided to publish it, though: this as a warning that in these dark times even the most intelligent people fall prey to religious mania.’

“This true story may make it clearer what resistance journalists have to overcome, and why the media up to now have reacted as they have. It explains why the media manifest so little interest in so interesting a phenomenon as a man whom thousands instantly recognize as ‘Jesus Christ’ turning up in broad daylight in Nairobi.”

For more than two decades, clues to this story have reached the public through miracles such as the weeping Madonna statues and the Hindu milk-drinking statues covered by the media; by miraculous crosses of light in windows and on the shady sides of buildings; through crop circles, which for a reason primarily happen in Southern England where Maitreya resides; and through the ‘star’ phenomenon that now regularly appears around the world.

This ‘star’ began being reported after Share International sent out a media release in December 2008 stating it would soon appear as a sign of Maitreya’s imminent public appearance.

In 1994, Maitreya had been offered and accepted an invitation to appear live on a major United States television network at a time of his choosing. In December 2009, the conditions became right for this to occur – which it did, according to Share International – and several additional interviews are reported to have taken place in 2010 as well.

Instead of being presented by the media with a comprehensive analysis of these events, individuals have been left to carefully, meticulously and with an open mind research the multitude of clues themselves to establish the validity of an event with far-reaching ramifications. Or they can to wait for the final fulfillment of one of Maitreya’s more controversial predictions in 1989 — that of a global stock market crash that would start in Japan and spread around the world. Of this, it was reported to the media:

“The impending stock market crash is an outcome of commercialization. In Maitreya’s view, commercialization means making money while others starve. The moment you are taught ‘the art of selfishness’ you cease to follow your destiny, which is to be aware of yourself. Those who cultivate rules and regulations that lead to nothing but selfishness eventually create a bad smell. This cannot be hidden for ever. When corruption takes place, people become aware of the smell, hence the process of disintegration taking place in Japan now. The press is no longer quiescent. The people are no longer complacent. This type of culture (that created this state of affairs) will disappear. The end of commercialization is now at hand.”

The deteriorating economy was seen as the opportunity, if the media failed to do its duty to the public, of creating the conditions where Maitreya’s public emergence and message — that of the need for all to share the world’s resources — would find a receptive audience. As the corrupt financial system crumbles, look increasingly for the global public to bypass the media and begin the open debate on his ideas and stature on their own.

Article by John McNab
www.share-international.org