On Top of Old Baldy, Prayers Go Out for the World

They crossed a jagged ridge of granite in the driving wind. They picked their way up the mountainside, slipping in the loose talus where only some gnarled jack pines hunched in the rarefied air. When they arrived at the wind-scoured peak above the clouds, they prayed.

Saturday’s trek was not a recreational expedition, it was a pilgrimage.

The 40 or so hikers, members of a religious group called the Aetherius Society, were traversing what they called a holy mountain.

Old Baldy.

The Aetherians believe advanced space beings stored extraordinary amounts of cosmic energy in the hazy old fixture of the San Gabriel Mountains.

On Aug. 9, 1959, the extraterrestrials “charged” Old Baldy like a spiritual battery, they say, and humanity must now channel it to do good around the world.

“The space people have shown it’s now time to concentrate on our brothers,” said Brian Keneitt, a minister at the group’s headquarters and temple in Hollywood.

Recently, at their first designated holy site in Britain, the Aetherians directed cosmic rays to the drought and famine in Sudan, where they say it miraculously rained a few days later.

On Saturday, they stood in a circle on the rugged mountain as their hats soared like flying saucers in the wind. Some wore pleated slacks and sports jackets, others sweatshirts and mountain gear. They held their hands in the air and, with resonating “om” chants, directed Old Baldy’s energy to help all mankind.

“When I come up here to pray, I feel overwhelming love for the whole world, a totally expansive love,” said Elaine Switzer, 48, who owns an electrolysis vocational school in Long Beach.

Switzer and her husband moved to Southern California from Toronto to be near the temple and Mt. Baldy.

The hikers Saturday were teachers, accountants, business owners--men and women of all ages and races. Many were involved in yoga and New Age practices before coming to the Aetherius Society. They were all looking for answers that the mainstream religions were not providing.

When Paul Nugent, now a minister at the church, turned to the society, he had recently flunked out of college and was working in the wine trade in London.

“It was becoming clear to me that there has to be something more to myself than this job, career and buying a house,” he said.

The Aetherius Society was founded in 1954 by a big blue-eyed Englishman named Sir George King, who practiced yoga eight hours every day after driving a taxi in London. Sometimes, according to his followers, King levitated while in his trances.

“His Brylcreem was all over the ceiling,” claimed one witness.

King received his wisdom through “cosmic transmissions” and was guided by the aliens to 19 holy mountains around the world, they said. Others in the United States include Mt. Tallac near Lake Tahoe, Mt. Adams in New Hampshire and Castle Peak in Colorado.

After founding a headquarters in London, King, who died of stomach cancer last year, brought his beliefs to Hollywood, where he bought the temple that the group still uses.

The Aetherians say they have more than 1,000 members worldwide.

Society members say human life is just an early stop on the path of evolution. A person can speed progress, they say, by helping the environment and mankind. They cite Mother Teresa as a particularly advanced human.

Other planets, including those in our own solar system, are populated by higher beings, some of whom had been humans, they believe. The most exalted of higher beings try to direct wisdom and prana--a yoga word for life force--to humans so that they can progress, the members said.

According to the Encyclopedia of American Religions: “The most important date of the calendar [for Aetherians] is July 8, commemorating the 1964 initiation of earth by a gigantic space ship and the ship’s manipulation of cosmic energies.”

The Aetherians deny comparisons to the Heaven’s Gate cult, in which 39 members committed suicide last year so that they could board a space ship. They say those followers were misguided to believe they could take a short cut to the next level.

“We specifically say you’ll never meet advanced intelligence by committing suicide,” said Bishop Alan Mosely. “In fact, that’s a sure way you’ll not.”

Mosely says the Aetherius Society is not a cult, because members live in their own houses, have their own friends and are not required to give money. Moreover, the Aetherians do not actively recruit members, they said.

They acknowledge that some of their beliefs might be difficult for many to accept. But they defend their sanity.

“You’ll find most of the members are here are quite balanced in their lives,” said one man. “We’re not kooks, we’re intelligent people.”