Maitreya Appears to Creme Followers…on Colbert

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Maitreya Appears to Creme Followers…on Colbert

Postby Gouda » Sat Mar 20, 2010 4:27 am

I'm not the messiah, says food activist – but his many worshippers do not believe him

Image

The trouble started when Raj Patel appeared on American TV to plug his latest book, an analysis of the financial crisis called The Value of Nothing.

The London-born author, 37, thought his slot on comedy talkshow The Colbert Report went well enough: the host made a few jokes, Patel talked a little about his work and then, job done, he went back to his home in San Francisco.

Shortly afterwards, however, things took a strange turn. Over the course of a couple of days, cryptic messages started filling his inbox.

"I started getting emails saying 'have you heard of Benjamin Creme?' and 'are you the world teacher?'" he said. "Then all of a sudden it wasn't just random internet folk, but also friends saying, 'Have you seen this?'"

What he had written off as gobbledygook suddenly turned into something altogether more bizarre: he was being lauded by members of an obscure religious group who had decided that Patel – a food activist who grew up in a corner shop in Golders Green in north-west London – was, in fact, the messiah.

Their reasoning? Patel's background and work coincidentally matched a series of prophecies made by an 87-year-old Scottish mystic called Benjamin Creme, the leader of a little-known religious group known as Share International. Because he matched the profile, hundreds of people around the world believed that Patel was the living embodiment of a figure they called Maitreya, the Christ or "the world teacher".

His job? To save the world, and everyone on it.

"It was just really weird," he said. "Clearly a case of mistaken identity and clearly a case of people on the internet getting things wrong."

What started as an oddity kept snowballing until suddenly, in the middle of his book tour and awaiting the arrival of his first child, Patel was inundated by questions, messages of support and even threats. The influx was so heavy, in fact, that he put up a statement on his website referencing Monty Python's Life of Brian and categorically stating that he was not Maitreya.

Instead of settling the issue, however, his denial merely fanned the flames for some believers. In a twist ripped straight from the script of the comedy classic, they said that this disavowal, too, had been prophesied. It seemed like there was nothing to convince them.

"It's the kind of paradox that's inescapable," he said, with a grim humour. "There's very little chance or point trying to dig out of it."

There are many elements of his life that tick the prophetic checklist of his worshippers: a flight from India to the UK as a child, growing up in London, a slight stutter, and appearances on TV. But it is his work that puts him most directly in the frame and causes him the most anguish – the very things the followers of Share believe will indicate that their new messiah has arrived.

Patel's career – spent at Oxford, LSE, the World Bank and with thinktank Food First – has been spent trying to understand the inequalities and problems caused by free market economics, particularly as it relates to the developing world.

His first book, Stuffed and Starved, rips through the problems in global food production and examines how the free market has worked to keep millions hungry (Naomi Klein called it dazzling, while the Guardian's Felicity Lawrence said it was "an impassioned call to action"). The Value of Nothing, meanwhile, draws on the economic collapse to look at how we might fix the system and improve life for billions of people around the globe.

While his goal appears to match Share's vision of worldwide harmony, he says the underlying assumptions it makes are wrong – and possibly even dangerous.

"What I'm arguing in the book is precisely the opposite of the Maitreya: what we need is various kinds of rebellion and transformations about how private property works," he said.

"I don't think a messiah figure is going to be a terribly good launching point for the kinds of politics I'm talking about – for someone who has very strong anarchist sympathies, this has some fairly deep contradictions in it."
:clapping:

To say Patel – with his academic air, stammer and grey-flecked hair – is a reluctant saviour is an understatement. In fact, he rejects the entire notion of saviours. If there is one thing he has learned from his work as an activist in countries such as Zimbabwe and South Africa, it is that there are no easy answers.

"People are very ready to abdicate responsibility and have it shovelled on to someone else's shoulders," he said. "You saw that with Obama most spectacularly, but whenever there's going to be someone who's just going to fix it for you, it's a very attractive story. It's in every mythological structure." :clapping:

Unravelling exactly what it is that Share International's followers believe, however, is tricky.

The group is an offshoot of the Victorian Theosophy movement founded by Madame Blavatsky that developed a belief system out of an amalgam of various religions, spiritualism and metaphysics.

Creme – who joined a UFO cult in the 1950s before starting Share – has added a cosmic take to the whole concept: he says that Maitreya represents a group of beings from Venus called the Space Brothers.

This 18m-year-old saviour, he says, has been resting somewhere in the Himalayas for 2,000 years and – as a figure who combines messianism for Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews and Muslims alike – is due to return any time now, uniting humanity and making life better for everybody on earth.

Adding to the confusion is the fact that Creme refuses to categorically state whether or not he believes that Patel and Maitreya are one and the same. He suggests that it is not up to him to rule either way, instead blaming media coverage, rather than his own mystical predictions, for making people "hysterical".

"It is not my place," Creme told the writer Scott James, a friend of Patel, recently. "People are looking to Mr Patel because they are looking for the fulfilment of a story which I've been making around the world for the last 35 years."

It is not the first time that Creme, an inscrutable guru with a mop of curly white hair, has courted publicity with his wild pronouncements of a messiah. In 1985 he made another prophecy: that Maitreya would reveal himself to the press in London.

A gaggle of journalists gathered in a Brick Lane curry house for the main event. In the end, the promised saviour failed to materialise. (One candidate, "a man in old robes and a faraway look in his eye", turned out to be a tramp begging for cigarettes, our correspondent wrote at the time).

Patel's rejection of his status as a deity does not seem to have killed off interest from Share's members. Indeed, the situation has invaded his everyday life, such as when two devotees travelled from Detroit – some 2,400 miles away – just to hear him give a short public talk.

"They were really nice people, not in your face, really straightforward – these people do not look like fanatics," he says. "I gave the talk, and they hung around at the end and we had a chat."

It was only then that the pair revealed that they were followers of Creme's teachings.

Patel said: "They said they thought I was the Maitreya … they also said I had appeared in their dreams. I said: 'I'm really flattered that you came all the way here, but it breaks my heart that you came all this way and spent all this money to meet someone who isn't who you think he is.'

"It made me really depressed, actually. That evening I was really down."

While he struggles to cope with this unwanted anointment, his friends and family are more tickled by the situation.

"They think it's hilarious," he said. "My parents came to visit recently, and they brought clothes that said 'he's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy'. To them, it's just amusing."

There have been similar cases in the past, including Steve Cooper, an unemployed man from Tooting, south London, who was identified by a Hindu sect as the reincarnation of a goddess and now lives in a temple in Gujurat with scores of followers.

Unlike some who have the greatness thrust upon them, though, Patel's greatest hope is that Share will leave him alone so that he can get back to normal life.
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Re: Maitreya Appears to Creme Followers…on Colbert

Postby Gouda » Sat Mar 20, 2010 4:54 am

Patel "stepped forward" on the Colbert Report on Jan. 12, 2010.

Here is Creme's Jan 14, 2010 announcement:

Maitreya steps forward

The way prepared by His Herald the ‘star’, Maitreya, the World Teacher, has given His first interview on American television. Millions have heard Him speak both on TV and the internet.

His open mission has begun.

He was introduced not as Maitreya, the World Teacher and Head of our Spiritual Hierarchy, but simply as a man, one of us. In this way He “ensures that men follow and support Him for the truth and sanity of His ideas rather than for His status”.

He spoke earnestly of the need for peace, achievable only through the creation of justice and the sharing of the world’s resources.

This is the first of many such interviews which will be given in the USA, Japan, Europe and elsewhere, bringing His message of hope to the world.

| Benjamin Creme, 14 January 2010 |


and Creme's video announcement:

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Re: Maitreya Appears to Creme Followers…on Colbert

Postby Gouda » Sat Mar 20, 2010 5:07 am

Patel's response: Stephen and me

I’ve always thought that Stephen Colbert was a bit of a god, and it’s lovely that the feeling’s mutual. A couple of nights ago, I got to have a conversation with him about being mistaken for divinity.

I suspect the reason I stutter quite so much is because I’m talking to Stephen Colbert. I knew I’d be nervous, and the people at the Report were kind enough to give me a heads up as to the kind of questions that he’d be asking. I thought it’d be good to be prepared, and have a few off-the-cuff remarks carefully written on my cuff. But I had no idea what to say...
Hilarious clip of the Colbert program at the link...
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Re: Maitreya Appears to Creme Followers…on Colbert

Postby Gouda » Sat Mar 20, 2010 5:47 am

Not to distract from this odd promotion of Patel's excellent work:

The Value of Nothing

Stuffed and Starved

Patel's Blog
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Re: Maitreya Appears to Creme Followers…on Colbert

Postby cptmarginal » Sat Mar 20, 2010 10:57 am

Whoa! Thanks for the heads-up

I thought it was weird that Philip K Dick got into Creme's prophecies (just before he died)
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Re: Maitreya Appears to Creme Followers…on Colbert

Postby elfismiles » Sat Mar 20, 2010 11:15 am

My friend Robert Larson interviewed Patel a while back...


Stuffed & Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System
May 23, 2008 8:00 PM

Hear an interview with Raj Patel, author of the new book "Stuffed & Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System." This is a shocking expose' of all the political machinations, social upheavals and murderous horrors involved in the process of how and what food gets from the field to your table. Naomi Klein has referred to this as "one of the most dazzling books I have read in a very long time. The product of a brilliant mind and a gift to a world hungering for justice."

http://www.kuci.org/podcastfiles/668/Patel.mp3
http://www.outtherabbithole.com/2008/05 ... od-system/

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Re: Maitreya Appears to Creme Followers…on Colbert

Postby 17breezes » Sat Mar 20, 2010 11:19 am

Not sure Creme would be very well received by some people.

"Q. There seem to be indications that the alleged attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane at Detroit on 25 December 2009 was not all that we have been led to believe, and that it was ‘staged’.

(1) Was this part of a plan to give the US an excuse to increase its influence in the Gulf region (by pointing the finger at Yemen), either to secure oil supplies, or for other geo-political reasons? (2) Was it to create an excuse to install full-body scanners at airports throughout the world, generating huge profits for the manufacturers of the scanners? (3) Was it an attempt by Republican and/or corporate interests to embarrass President Obama, or to force him to show himself as ‘strong’ in the so-called ‘war on terror’?

A. (1) No. (2) No. (3) No. This is another illustration of the ‘conspiracy theory’ that seems to dog especially American responses. What are the ‘indications’ that these questions are pertinent? Why don’t people realize that these events can simply be a matter of fact? People generally, but especially in America, seem to have completely lost faith in the utterances of politicians, understandably. But one has to use common sense and rid oneself of paranoia.

Q. (1) To what extent was the terrorist incident on 25 December 2009 on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit an attempt by the ‘dark forces’ of the planet to delay Maitreya’s public emergence? (2) To what extent has Maitreya’s emergence been delayed because of it? (3) To what extent were the Masters involved in making sure that the bomb did not actually go off on the airplane?

A. (1) Not at all. (2) Maitreya’s emergence has not been delayed. (3) Not at all.
"

http://www.share-international.org/maga ... epsforward
"Go back to Auschwitz" Humanitarian peace activists, 2010.
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Re: Maitreya Appears to Creme Followers…on Colbert

Postby battleshipkropotkin » Sat Mar 20, 2010 5:30 pm

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Re: Maitreya Appears to Creme Followers…on Colbert

Postby Wombaticus Rex » Sat Mar 20, 2010 9:13 pm

Perfect nutshell example of Post-Reality. Welcome to the meat grinder!
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Re: Maitreya Appears to Creme Followers…on Colbert

Postby 82_28 » Sun Mar 21, 2010 12:03 am

cptmarginal wrote:Whoa! Thanks for the heads-up

I thought it was weird that Philip K Dick got into Creme's prophecies (just before he died)


Yeah, whoa! Do you have a link to more on that cap'n?
There is no me. There is no you. There is all. There is no you. There is no me. And that is all. A profound acceptance of an enormous pageantry. A haunting certainty that the unifying principle of this universe is love. -- Propagandhi
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Re: Maitreya Appears to Creme Followers…on Colbert

Postby Simulist » Sun Mar 21, 2010 2:02 am

82_28 wrote:
cptmarginal wrote:Whoa! Thanks for the heads-up

I thought it was weird that Philip K Dick got into Creme's prophecies (just before he died)


Yeah, whoa! Do you have a link to more on that cap'n?

I'll second that. I want to know more.
"The most strongly enforced of all known taboos is the taboo against knowing who or what you really are behind the mask of your apparently separate, independent, and isolated ego."
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Re: Maitreya Appears to Creme Followers…on Colbert

Postby Nordic » Sun Mar 21, 2010 2:19 am

Why do I get the feeling that this entire thing is just another viral marketing attempt?
"He who wounds the ecosphere literally wounds God" -- Philip K. Dick
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Re: Maitreya Appears to Creme Followers…on Colbert

Postby §ê¢rꆧ » Sun Mar 21, 2010 11:18 am

I immediately think more likely psyop, to discredit him. I know a lot of you love Colbert... but he doesn't do much for me, at least on repeat viewings. So this insane cult associates a religious figure with someone who has a message like How the World Bank Makes Everything Worse ... will that do anything good for him? Some of the christian sects have been warning about this Maitreya character as the antichrist for some time (before the label was pinned on Patel).

This guy is on fire! Definitely worth reading and listening to.

The opposite of consumption isn't thrift. It's generosity.
—Raj Patel, The Value of Nothing



Generosity makes us happiest. We'll be happier people when we share, not when we impose, but when we learn from one another. Because when I'm connected to everyone I disappear ... in being excellent you lose yourself. And when you're connected to everyone, that's the best thing that can happen.
—Raj Patel, About generosity
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Re: Maitreya Appears to Creme Followers…on Colbert

Postby Sounder » Sun Mar 21, 2010 12:56 pm

I'm with you §ê¢rꆧ, the work of Raj Patel is worthy of more attention and some of it is bound to be negative.
All these things will continue as long as coercion remains a central element of our mentality.
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Re: Maitreya Appears to Creme Followers…on Colbert

Postby norton ash » Sun Mar 21, 2010 1:11 pm

Colbert is surprisingly subversive and a considerable force for good, because he really is a good person by all reports. That's why he likes to highlight thinkers like Patel who could change mainstream minds.
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