A NEW PROJECT FOR PLANETARY CO-REDEMPTION, LAUNCHED IN 2019 An initiative of the International Institute of Peace Studies and Global Philosophy (IIPSGP), in association with the World Intellectual Forum (WIF)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.What is the Council, called the World Messiahship, Avatars and Saoshyant Council ? 2. Why is it needed ? 3. What will it do ? 4. How can I help ? 5.Who can join this Council ? 6.Where is it based ? 7. What are its principles protocols for membership ? 8. To whom is it accountable ? 9. What about timing ? Shouldn’t we wait a bit longer before setting up such an ambitious and important Council ? 10. Who Is Likely To Oppose This Project ? Why would anyone ? 11. What authority has the Council got ? 12. How can we know if someone is genuine in their claims to be a Messiah ? 13.How can we develop skills to spot false messiahs ? 14.What about cults and new religious movements ? 15.What about Women and gender issues ? 16.What about Homosexuality ? 17. In some scriptures the Messiah will be a warlike or military leader and defeat the Anti-Messiah in battle – does the Council support this reading of future-history ? 18. What is the Council’s position on the so called Anti-Messaiah or Anti-Christ ? Is this a real danger ? 19. Islam, Judaism and Christianity all have a slightly different take on the Messiah, even though they all believe in the role – can they ever be reconciled and harmonised ? 20. How will messianic scholarship help with peacemaking and reconciliation on the ground, so to speak ? 21. Hinduism has an idea of Avatars – great sages and seers have been avatars of either Shiva or Vishnu at different times of history – can this teaching be reconciled with Christian, Jewish and Islamic ideas about the Messiah ? 22.Zoroastrianism teaches that the Saoshyant is the final and ultimate prophetic agent of God’s redemptive plan for humanity, when the forces of ignorance and evil (Angra Mainyu) will be finally defeated – what do Zoroastrians say about this advent ? How will it manifest ? 23.Can Zoroastrian ideas and expectations be harmonised and reintegrated back in with the collective and universal notions of a common messianic project (CMP) for humanity ? 24.The Messiah is supposed to manifest in history with all kinds of miraculous signs and wonders and portents – how will the Council ideal with reports of such phenomena ? How will we know if any or some or all of them are true ? 25.Does this mean you have to have active supernatural powers of some kind at your command to apply to join the Council ? 26.What if rival contenders for the title of Messiah or Saoshyant or Avatars fall out and start quarrelling and arguing among themselves ? Who will adjudicate between them ? How we can tell who is genuine or not ? 27.What if a religious or spiritual tradition doesn’t actually have any kind of messiah in its teachings or scriptures – can it nevertheless get involved with the work of this Council ? 28.What if people come forward who claim to be this or that Messiah but in fact, they merely incite people to warfare, violence and hatred ? 29.Many thinkers nowadays say the idea of a messiah coming to save everyone is outmoded, and that what we need are real concrete projects, science, engineering, technology, social development, peace and the ending of wars with concerted political, social and economic programmes – does the Council have place for such thinkers in its ranks ? 30.What is the role of the World Intellectual Forum in supporting the idea of this Council? 31.What are the Political Orientations of the Council ? 32.What Are The Philosophical Ideas Underpinning The Forming Of The Council ? 33. What is the role of the International Institute of Peace Studies and Global Philosophy in initiating this idea ? 34. What is the role of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of the Middle East in endorsing and supporting this Council ? 35. What other bodies are supporting or endorsing the work of the World Council ? 36. What about collaboration between the WMASC and the Interfaith Peace Treaty ? 37. How can real intellectuals possibly take an interest in Messiah claimants, avatars and Saoshyants and vice versa ? 38. Conclusions: 39. Contacts:
1.What is the Council, called the World Messiahship, Avatars and Saoshyant Council ? The idea that a Messiah is coming to save mankind is an ancient one. It goes back at least to the ancient Persian religions of Zoroastrianism, where such a Messiah was called the Saoshyant. Then it was transferred as an idea to the Jewish peoples who had been captured and taken to Babylon after they were conquered, where apparently it crept into the esoteric traditions of Jewish undercurrents of thought. This found evidence in the writings of the Book of Daniel and the Books of Enoch, where the idea of a Son of Man who was to be sent to help humanity direct from the heavenly throne room of the uppermost palace of the Kingdom of God, was set down in strikingly poetic words. These writings seem to have made a strong impression on the mind of Jesus, and at some point in his spiritual journey he decided that he was fated to play this role, which was set out for him in the scriptures, both exoteric and esoteric, which he was familiar with. But not all his compatriots welcomed him playing the role of the Messiah. Many opposed it virulently, and at last denounced him to the Jewish and Roman overlords of Judea at the time. He was crucified and suffered a fatal death, and that, it was thought, was an end of it. But his followers, and there were many of them, and influential and bright people they were, would not let the matter go. Jesus had arisen from death, they alleged and was now ascended to heaven where he was now the Judge all men’s souls in the present and future, at the right hand of the Father-God, until the end of time. In short, he had become the Osiris of the age, having been wrongfully dealt with, like Osiris had been by Horus. His followers continued to spread his teachings of love, compassion and wisdom, and soon this took form in the various strands and streams of what we know of as Christianity – including Catholic, Orthodox, Gnostic etc. Only much later did Protestant forms of Christianity evolve. One central feature of this faith was that they all accepted Jesus as the Messiah expected for the Jews as a whole, and they believed that he had come to offer salvation to all the tribes of Israel, if only they would believe in him. Later, however, and sometimes during Christ’s own life, it would seem that his salvific healing powers were offered also to non-Jews, that is to gentiles, and there is evidence that Jesus had many non-Jewish students, and even disciples, as well as friends. He travelled often to Phoenician territory in Tyre and Sidon, and as a younger child had been as far as Egypt. He might well have returned to Egypt for part of his higher education when a teenager. Long and hard have the debates raged ever since his death and apparent resurrection - was he indeed the Messiah, and if so, for whom? For all humanity? For the Jews only? For the Christians only? What about everyone else? Later, the Jewish community, who had not accepted Christ as their Messiah, tried to physically rise up against the Roman oppressors, whereas Jesus had taught a spiritual resistance to colonialism based on non-violence. The violent way of revolution didn’t work however and the Jewish people were exiled from the land of Israel to begin a long hard sojourn in other lands. For the next nearly two millennia they kept alive the idea that a Messiah would come and save them from their sufferings. The idea was included in Maimonides definition of the 13 points that constitute the Jewish faith (one is to expect the Messiah) and also in the Zohar and other Qabalistic books, the idea of the Messiah was embedded, mainly in the mystical sense of a supernatural being descended from the heavenly worlds, to effect the reconciliation of fallen mankind back to the heavenly worlds from which we originally tumbled down. This idea was continued by Isaac Luria and the Safed school of Qabalah, and in turn influenced the best and brightest aspects of early Zionism. Moses Hess, a Hegelian German Jewish communist (who introduced Marx and Engels to each other and converted them to Communism) believed that Zionism would itself bring back the return of the Jewish people who were called to act as the Messianic peoples on behalf of all humanity. Meanwhile, in the desert regions of Arabia, a prophet had arisen who accepted Jesus and the Messiah, and who proclaimed that both he and Jesus were prophets of a call to surrender to the Divine and Absolute God, and that only once we have surrendered to the creator of the entire universe, can we find peace. By that act of final surrender, the messianic victory will have been achieved, and mankind, all our tribes and nations together, will live in lasting peace, with knowledge of and proximity back to the divine Lord of Creation, which we lost through our arrogance and pride. Unfortunately Muhammad’s message was not accepted by everyone either, and many pagans fought him, and although they were defeated militarily, they only half-heartedly accepted the message of Islam. Instead they constructed a kind of messianic-racism in which Islam and Arabism became the new creed, and the Koran was sacred too by extension. As Islam grew, it tended to downplay the messianic mission of Jesus, which Muhammad himself had recognised, and instead boosted up the role of the Prophet Muhammad. Before long they were calling Muhammad the last ever of the prophets, and saying that unless you recognised this, and bowed down in Islamic worship, you could be killed or silenced as a heretic. And thus began a long series of wars of conquest against just about every other religion and culture on the planet, in which unless you acceded to Islamic demands, you got severely punished and colonised. Hindu temples, Buddhist temples, Christian churches, even some Jewish synagogues – were all destroyed, along with libraries and sacred writings. What a chaos! And sadly this is still the situation that largely holds today. Of course Islamic philosophers, sages and Sufis and even great rulers such as Akbar, had a much more tolerant view of Islam. In the 19th century, under the influence of scientific materialism, Marx and Engels ignored Moses Hess’ wise proposal that the true messianic age will not come unless it includes a spiritual component, and instead, trying to be clever, explained that only scientific materialism and the cast-iron laws of human evolutionary progress will lead to the advent of world communism and hence the collective messianic age for all mankind. Unfortunately, if one did not accept the messiahship of dialectical materialism, in the forms of Marx, Engels, Stalin, and Mao Tse Tung, you often wound up dead in many horrible and cruel ways, in the Gulags of Soviet Russia, in the Laogai of China or the killing fields of Cambodia. Other spiritual teachers came also, like Guru Nanakh, and the ten Gurus who succeeded him, and founded Sikhism, but his followers did not necessarily claim he was a Messiah, although they did assert he was an avatar. Meanwhile, Hinduism went on with a healthy clutch of Avatars, or divine saviour figures who are regarded as incarnations of various deities – male ones tend to be either incarnations of Shiva or Vishnu and female ones are often incarnations of Durga (the wife of Shiva). 9 have come so far and the 10th is expected any day, to be called Kalki. The Bahai religion was founded and the follower of Bahu’allah more or less openly proclaimed he was indeed the returned Messiah. Meanwhile, in Buddhism there had long been a prophecy that Maitreya would next incarnate on planet earth in the form of the new Buddha, and he would teach mankind the way to love and altruism and enlightenment and bring about an end to suffering and pain and fear. Some theosophists and other neo-Buddhists argued that Krishnamurti was Maitreya, but he himself denied it. Alice Bailey, who founded the Arcane School, proclaimed that she was in touch with the hidden hierarchy of masters who were going soon to send the real Maitreya into incarnation on this planet, in order to save us from evil. Benjamin Crème, a theosophist in London has been proclaiming that his Maitreya has indeed taken birth and has been living in the East end of London for some years. I myself taught and worked in the East End of London for some years, and also met Benjamin Crème, but I never met anyone who came forward as the Maitreya figure he was talking about. Some extremist Jewish Zionists argued that Zionism in its more radical and less fluffy phase, following the holocaust, would necessitate the return of an avenging messiah, who would oversee the destruction of all the nations which had opposed Israel, and that one by one they would be taken down. Some would argue that 9/11 was an event that extreme Zionism befitted from, because it sowed confusion among the nations and this can only help Israel in the long run. Eventually, once many nations have been laid low and nearly destroyed, the true saviour of Israel, the actual Jewish messiah, will appear, and establish a divine theocracy in Israel, with its capital in Jerusalem, and everyone will be too exhausted to fight it anymore. So the God of Israel and his Messiah will have triumphed over all other peoples and nations, over Christians and Muslims (who have been following chimeras and illusions) and over the burning ruins of humanity, the real Messiah will have appeared, like a conquering warrior avatar, with the tribe of Israel as his holy army. It was precisely against such a crazy idea that Hitler arose and proposed his anti-Semitic solution to this idea, as a kind of counter-thesis – the Jews, he said, were worshipping not the real God all along, but Saturn i.e. the Devil, and had been fomenting rebellion against truth ever since they first appeared – their scriptures were distortions and lies and racist tractates which like a dangerous mass-narcissism had all of history revolving slyly around them and their own obsessive reverence for a patch of land no bigger than Wales. So to anti-Semites, Hitler seemed to be the very anti-Messiah they were looking for, only his mission was to save them FROM the Jews. However, his chosen remedy, mass killings, exterminations, and World War Two (some historians claim he was tricked into this conflict, just as the Kaiser was tricked into World War One) hardly advanced anybody’s peace and salvation and Germany collapsed in a heap of smoking ruins, Hitler killing himself and his unwitting wife Eva Braun in the ruins of Berlin, and the Jews had perished en masse to little avail, with no Messiah in sight, except perhaps some kind of Zionism. Since then, teachers have come and gone, their followers often proclaiming them some kind of Messiah or world guru – we have seen this with Osho, with Bubba Free John, with Ken Wilber, even with Carl Jung, with Benjamin Crème, with Aurobindo, with Alice Bailey, even Imam Khomeini, plus various Qabalists and Hassidic Jews etc. But still the quest goes on. Meanwhile the situation has become dire as many religious groups, notably the Jews, Christians and Muslims continue to fight it out in real time as to whose Messiah really is best, and this matter is fuelling endless wars in the Middle East, the endless cycle of military expenditures by the USA and the continual incremental increase of the Zionist occupation of Palestinian lands. The problem is that these protagonists have such diametrically opposed views of the Messiah that any lasting peace seems about as likely as humanity colonising the planets around Alpha Centauri anytime soon. As a solution therefore, the current author has suggested we create a WORLD COUNCIL OF MESSAIAHSHIP and that all genuine spiritual and religious thinkers, elders and leaders, who have exhibited any kind of genuine messianic tendencies, teachings or abilities, be allowed to join the council. They must however belong to a universalist and inclusive form of messianic tendency, not one that simply proposes its own guru or head figure of a racial or national group to be the real Messiah and everyone else an imposter. They must be willing to work with other “messianic” figures and join in a common work, in which they bury their egotism and instead put their intellectual and spiritual resources for the common good of the salvation of mankind as a whole. Above all, the WORLD COUNCIL OF MESSIAHSHIP will work closely with the World Intellectual Forum, and together they will devise common strategies to help alleviate the sufferings, fears, wants and shortages which humankind is currently experiencing. The Council will also work closely with the United Nations and other responsible international bodies that are seeking to promote the common welfare of humanity. One of the goals of the WORLD COUNCIL OF MESSIAHSHIP is to see a peace treaty signed sealed and delivered, between an independent state of Israel and an independent state of Palestine, in which both sides pledge to cease from firing, shooting, injuring or terrorising each other, in which both countries can have secure and recognised borders, and in which aid and development support can flow from both countries, not just for Israel, and in which the Golden Gate of the holy temple mountain of Jerusalem can be opened in a sacred ceremony, once the two states solution has been implemented and agreed, then all the leading representatives of the world’s spiritual leadership can come together into a new Peace Tent built on the Temple Mount for peace talks and a friendly cup of coffee or spiced tea, and prayers. This reopening of the Golden Gate in Jerusalem has been prophesied to occur after the re-advent of the messiah, but the World Council of Messiahship will instead have to satisfy the authorities in Jerusalem and Palestine and Israel, that they do indeed have sufficient spiritual authority to be in a position to represent the collective messiahship to humanity, and to reopen the gate, as a sign that peace is indeed possible during this generation. The full name of the council is the World Messiaship, Avatars and Saoshyant Council to make plain this is a genuinely interfaith initiative of truly global extent. But it can also be called the World Council of Messiaship for brevity.
2. Why is it needed ? Our proposal is to help mankind end and resolve the ongoing “messiah wars” bedevilling the planet. Our position philosophically worked out, is that the role of Messiah is now too complex for any one individual to perform, and that it has to be a shared group work, and for that we need a council of inspired, dedicated intellectual and spiritual workers. We have sat back long enough and watched as rival messianic groups work themselves up into a frenzy and somehow justify their killing sprees on the basis that this or that messiah is actually supporting them, their movement, or their cult. It is time to subject this whole phenomenon to scientific and rational analysis, discourse and criticism, in our opinion. Thus we are making this move in the interests of peace, reconciliation and harmony. Europe has suffered an influx of a million refugees or more which have put our public services under great strain, raised all kinds of xenophobic and racist voices that we had thought long dormant, and this was all largely because groups of thinkers in the middle east cannot decide among themselves who or what is the actual messianic movement best suited to this time in history. The group of extreme Wahhabi Sunni Muslims called Isil, have been going around in the name of their extremist Islamist messiah, beheading, killing, murdering and destroying everyone who doesn’t agree with them. In the Yemen groups, of Muslims are killing each other because they don’t agree on their own version of the messianic progression for history. MBS, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, thinks it is all very well to cut up journalists working for the Washington Post in their embassy in Turkey, because he dared to question whether their war policy is right or not. Meanwhile Christians in the Middle East, the few that have not been killed or massacred, continue to maintain that Jesus is the real messiah of history, and that he “is coming back to save them and the world soon” but meanwhile they go only getting slaughtered and attacked and denigrated by both Muslims and sadly, sometimes by Jews inside Israel and on the internet in the various cyber wars that are going on. Many Palestinians are Christians and the denial of their right to a country is part of this oppression. Simultaneously, Israeli politics is itself a complex mosaic of pressures, and one could say there are probably about 99 different ways of looking at the messiah in contemporary Jewish society. There are secularists who even resent the idea cropping up in polite conversation, there are extreme religious Zionists who expect the messiah to be a Jewish descendent of King David who will set up his throne in Jerusalem again and rule from there as a Kingly ruler, and so on. Then we have Persians and Zoroastrians who follow their original teachings that the true messiah of history is to be the Saoshyant, who will re-establish truth, justice, righteousness, dharma and peace in history, but only after defeating the devil and all his works (Angra Mainyu) in a cataclysmic struggle. And to add oil on the fire – the two most diametrically opposed polities in the Middle East are Iran and Israel, who follow entirely different narratives of what the messiah is to be, and both regard themselves as in some sense a kind of messiah nation. From the point of view of Europe, they are both like adolescents in the playground fighting over who is going to get to play Robin Hood at lunch time. Remember that way back when we were kids ? Other world regions have also suffered huge turbulence recently and mass movements of refugees. Civil wars are raging in several nations (Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Israel/Palestine) and the ongoing turbulence is apparently without ending…… This Initative is coming initially from Europe and Asia, and as two continents torn by conflict and strife ever since the Trojan War, we are calling for final peace between all the nations, religions and people of the world. It is a matter of vital and pressing concern that we form this Council of Messaiaship to try to understand what is going on here, really in this whole “messiah business”– from a psychological, intellectual and scientific perspective and that this mystery is hen put to good work to actualise its self-declared mission of world salvation and healing, not world destruction.
3. What will it do ? The precise job description of the Council will no doubt evolve over time, but for one thing, there are no doubt plenty of people going around claiming to be messiahs but they are many of them actually bogus. One of the jobs of the World Council of Messaiaship would be, so to speak, to examine the credentials of these types, to bring them into dialogue with one another, and in short, to raise their intellectual game. Another purpose is to function as a genuine academic forum and policy forum, exchanging ideas, papers, scientific approaches, and deconstructing/ reconstructing/ explaining the whole idea of “messiahship”- is it a useful concept ? Do we still need it as a planet ? Does even Israel still need it ? One Jewish scholar even wrote a great book called Judaism without the Messiah. Do Christians still need the concept – could Christianity even continue to exist without it ? What about Muslims ? Is it getting in the way of peace, or is it helping us advance peace ? We see the Council as a unique forum in which to advance these discussions among learned intellectuals from all corners of the earth and from every shade of opinion. Indeed, it is the only such forum in which such discussions could be held, as no one in any other interfaith forum is having discussions like these – they are ruled out of order as “too dangerous”. But in fact, our contention is that once they begin taking place, many of the other interfaith discussions will be strengthened and deepened. Of course, you might say that the role of any future messiah is just theatre, that it would be a kind of performance, like applied philosophy dressed up in romantic garb, for the substance of the teaching of whichever future messiah is surely in the main already known, as there can be hardly be extraordinarily new revelatory truths delivered outside the universal truths already worked out by mankind’s greatest thinkers over the ages. But nevertheless, since mankind if obviously addicted to spiritual theatre – Star Wars, Lord Of The Rings, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata.. and we are in a sense of the species homo theatricalus, would it not therefore make sense to for us as one humanity to come together and celebrate the theatre of redemption (as Augusto Boal wanted us to do) and put on the collective Messiah performances ? So why not put on a bit of Messaiah theatre for humanity, if it could only unite us all in unity and peace ? This could include reopening the golden gate in the Eastern wall of the temple mount and building there a peace tent for amicable dialogue on temple mount itself, and thus reclaiming the space for Peace thinkers Traditionalists might say that this can only happen when the Messiah returns or comes. But the Council’s response is: why delay ? If a man falls overboard and you can throw a lifebelt, do you say – no, I will wait till the captain gives the order ? Not if you have studied any basic ethics you don’t. So among our goals then, as a Council, is to get an agreed reopening of the Golden gate in Jerusalem. The proposal is simple – at present, the Eastern Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem is permanently closed – bricked up in fact. According to ancient legend this gate will only be reopened when the true Messiah comes to Jerusalem, and will usher in a time of peace and justice for all mankind. There will be celebrations and reconciliation and a time of universal happiness. The problem of course it that the three main monotheistic religions of the middle east, Judaism, Islam and Christianity all more or less disagree about the exact timing and implications of this messianic event. Judaism has teachings locked inside its mystical traditions that pertain to this event but the exact details of when and where remain unknown and perhaps unknowable. Some more secular Jews also disagree that the whole idea of a Messiah is any longer viable or useful. Christians believe that Jesus Christ was the Messiah and that he entered Jerusalem through this gate on several occasions. They believe that Christ will indeed return to “judge the living and the dead” and usher in the era of the messianic kingdom. Muslims also believe that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, and agree that he will return to earth, and come once more to Jerusalem, and enter through this gate, but this time he will be accompanied by Muhammad, and they will both return through this gate to “judge the living and the dead.” Many different groups of Christians, Jews and Muslims all interpret these events differently, and also disagree about when and how exactly they will take place. There is common consensus about only two things: 1) The Golden Gate will be opened when the Messianic era will be inaugurated 2) This will be a time of justice and peace for the region and for the whole world. The Golden Gate project can be summed up very simply: it is time for us as humanity as a whole to open this gate together, to clear away this blocked energy and to make a stand for holistic peace together, on behalf of all mankind, and for a group of representative religious and spiritual leaders from all mankind: Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Sufi, Buddhist, Hindu, Bahai, Zoroastrian, Sikh, Pagan and Primal religions, American Indian, Hopi, Mayan, Shamans, Yoga practitioners, Shinto, Druid, Jain, Humanist, Scientific, New Age etc. to enter this gate symbolically on behalf of all mankind, and in so doing to give a pledge that we are ready to take a new step forward as planetary leaders and to work for lasting peace together until it is finally achieved. The Council remains optimistic, but even if this symbolic reopening doesn’t happen overnight, then we believe that even to get this conversation going between advanced intellectuals representing, Judaism, Islamic, Protestant Christianity, Catholic Christianity, Gnostic Christianity, paganism, Druidry, Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Bahaism, Secularism, Marxism, Socialism etc. about who or what on earth the Messiah or Saviour is and whether we can at least agree on how we might identify him/her on arrival – and what kind of job we are expecting him/her to perform – then that would itself be a huge step forward. We believe that by working towards this common peace goal for all humanity we will have achieved great things for the planet that future generations will wish us thanks for.
Other projects and issues we will be working on together include:
Finding a way to redistribute ht global wealth of the planet in ways that ensures that every man woman and child has enough for their daily needs
Ensuring that no one on the planet need be homeless
Ensuring that wars and violence and conflicts cease and are replaced by diplomacy, mediation and intellectual debate
Ensuring that of the vast money that is now going on the military, some 1.7 trillion dollars per year, 95% of it is rescheduled for peace expenditure, worldwide, and that further military developments and new generations of weapons research are cancelled
Ensuring that politicians have to take an oath of veracity in every country worldwide before they can tackle office and that if they are found to lie in office, they lose their licence to serve the people as political leaders
Ensuring that animals are treated with love and respect worldwide and that farming acts compassionately and moves voluntarily towards sustainable and ethical practices
Ensuring that the media worldwide report also good news and do not focus on what brings disunity but also report on what brings unity and peace and that peace moves and initiatives are given as much priority as war reporting
Ensuring that the truth comes out about recent conspiracies such as the events of 9/11 and that all facts, reports, evidences and data are handed over to the work of the International 9/11 Historical Truth Commission and that the professional historians on this commission do their work responsibly and objectively
Ensuring that the USA department of Peace is built on top of the Pentagon roof space and is housed in a new 9 Sided building to be placed there and signed by a top firm of the world’s leading architects, with a peace garden on the very top of the building
Ensuring that peace departments worldwide be given sufficient budgeting powers to do their work and that money saved from cutting back on military expenditure are put into peace expenditure organised through Ministries of Peace worldwide
Ensuring that scientists swear an ethical oath of adherence to the highest medical and scientific and ethical standards in their practice, and do not investigate things that can be used to damage, harm or even destroy other life forms, and that science and spirituality walk hand in hand opening new frontiers of knowledge int he common interest of humanity, and not for its destruction and debasement
Ensuring that non-violence becomes the norm in social interactions and that rape, murder, killing, theft, currently, verbal violence, lies, hatred and fear be gradually removed from human interactions and that creativity, love, friendship, truthfulness, kindness, compassion and concern become the new way of communicating and sharing
Ensuring that sexual crimes such as rape, coercive and manipulative sexual practices, and forced marriage and marital imprisonment, and generally speaking the misuse of the sacred energies of Kama, be ended and instead, that proper sex education and sex awareness campaigns succeed in raising our game as humanity to realise the extraordinary potential that loving sexual brings to our lives, in a context of sacred relationship
Ensuring that the World’s Spiritual Academies come into harmonisation so that all the advanced esoteric curricula of the planet can be shared for the first time, and that students and advanced disciples can travel from ashram to ashram exploring and experiencing different perspectives on spiritual teachings worldwide.
4. How can I help ? If you are involved with someone with a Messianic lineage, or who has serious and verifiable claims to such a status, or to someone in the lineage of the Avatars succession of humanity, with verifiable claims to represent a certain body of spiritual teaching and gnosis, or if you are representing someone with genuine and verifiable claims to represent the Saoshyant, the redeeming saviour of mankind who can lead us in a non-violent and peaceful struggle towards the victory of good over evil in a way that all mankind can truly benefit and derive comfort from – then you are welcome to apply for membership of the Council. If you do not put forward such claims about your teacher, but nevertheless want to support the work of the Council as it evolves – that's great because then we need scholars, researchers, academics, social scientists, people skilled in social media, in marketing, in communication systems, in software development in publishing, in lobbying, and who are versed with linguistic skills, and webs site design, as well as people who are skilled in fundraising for a worthy cause. We also need people with interests in project management and who are willing to take on specific tasks at the direction of the council, on a voluntary basis. Even if you cannot contribute in any of the above ways, you can also help simply by praying for the success of our work, and by spreading news of our coming-into=-being among intelligent spiritual and intellectual circles you are in touch with. We aim to start small, and remain humble always. We are doing this work mainly on behalf of the poorest and least powerful people of the world, as Gandhi always said we; they are the ones who always suffer in wars and violence, not the rich and powerful.
5.Who can join this Council ? Let all those who have either an interest in Messiaship studies as scholars of religion and philosophy join this council, but also let those who consider their teachers, in some sense as some sort of messiah or avatar figure, apply to join the council. You cannot nominate yourself, but a trusted friend who knows you can do so on your behalf. Let their works shine forth, or not, as the case may be. In orthodox Judaism, one is enjoined to study the Talmud with another friend, a "study-buddy", recognising that learning is a group dynamic. So too with the work of the proposed World Messiaship, Avatars and Saoshyant Council - by studying together we become even more effective than by working individually. There may well be genuinely existing charismatic spiritual teachers out there whose followers regard them to be either fully awakened or enlightened, or close to it. They are also welcome to apply for membership on the Council on behalf of their teachers. We are inviting people to join from a variety of backgrounds and persuasions. Membership is by invitation only, but it is also possible to nominate another’s name for consideration. We will require your own full CV and testamentary approval and validation before being considered for approval.
6.Where is it based ? The World Council of Messiaship is based wherever its members are present, but more than that, as a concept, an idea whose time has come, it exists int the spiritual places, in the noetic atmosphere of humanity. It exists as an ideal, a hope that is slowly manifesting. Other ages said there was a “Great White Brotherhood / Sisterhood” or a “Council of Mahatmas” that would meet in the etheric planes, also called “The Council of Shamballah” and which invisibly acted as a guardians and guides of the rest of humanity. Others have spoken of the need for the externalisation of the hierarchy in answer to the call of our urgent needs as a planet for wakening from spiritual slumber. Other shave talked about the need to bring together the World’s Spiritual Academies into harmonisation so that all the advanced esoteric curricula of the planet can be shared for the first time, and that students and advanced disciplines can travel from ashram to ashram exploring and experiencing different perspectives on spiritual teachings worldwide. This means that the Council can be found wherever advanced spiritual teaching is going on, in your neighbourhood, on your bloc, in your local church group, in your nearest ashram, or mosque, Synagogue or Gurdwara, and that the work of the Council reaches literally down to street level in every neighbourhood. Wherever good people are going about their normal lives with loving reverse and devotion towards one another, in full surrender and devotion to the Divine laws of the Absolute, as transmitted and revealed by all the collective messiahs, teachers, avatars, Tirthankaras and Saoshyants of history. Ours is a common work and it is called planetary education and planetary redemption. On a mundane plane, since the IIPSGP is the main holding body for this project, and that is based in the exact geographical centre of modern France, it can be said the headquarters of the World Council are physically based in central France. One of its supporting bodies worldwide is the World intellectual Forum and that is headquartered in India.
7. What are its principles protocols for membership ? As described above, the Council is open for membership applications or recommendations for all who have a proven track record of being involved int the work of planetary salvation and redemption, for all who are working not for ego purposes of self advancement, not for personal financial gain, power or prestige and not for military, or economic power enhancement, nor for nationalistic or racial advancement at the expense of others. The Council is open for membership to all those quite, humble, meek, generous, wise and kind souls in incarnation, who are marching in step with the true rhythms of the heart-beat of the creator and the redeemer and the saviours of mankind, whatever their outer names or identities. We welcome humble and visionary guides of all religions and outer faith paths.
8. To whom is it accountable ? As a project initiated by the IIPSGP, it is ultimately responsible to that body for its governance and manifestation. IIPSGP has a governing board of senior scholars and academics and spiritual savants, and is directed on a day to day basis by Dr Thomas Clough Daffern, and was founded at the University of London in 1991. As an affiliated project of the World Intellectual Forum, it is also accountable to the wise co-chairmanship of the well trained civil servant Dr Swaminadhan and the charismatic spiritual insight depth of Swami Chaturvedi, a recognised senior Hindu sage of the Sri Ramanuja lineage in Southern India. Ultimately however our work is accountable to the spiritual realities behind this temporal physical existence, whether you call them Gods, Elohim, YHWH, Tao, Vishnu, Shiva, Brahma, The Goddess, Zurvan, the Dharmakaya, or the Tao. We are all ultimately accountable to the laws of Karma and Dharma.
9. What about timing ? Shouldn’t we wait a bit longer before setting up such an ambitious and important Council ? As Rabbi Hillel said – If not us, who, If not now, when ? The real question to ask is: can we think rationally, honourably and truthfully about Messiaship issues without degenerating into rival factions shooting and shouting at each other ? Well, we can but try.
10. Who Is Likely To Oppose This Project ? Why would anyone ? There are influential people, some with thousands of followers, who preach variants of the following ideas: 1) There is only one unique messiah and we "all know who that is" (do we ?) 2) That messiah is coming (or is already here) and has a plan for the mass extermination of large numbers of mankind (the baddies) 3) This killer messiah has plans to destroy large parts of humanity in vengeance for our terrible sins and there is nothing we humans can do about except turn in faith to this messiah and his followers 4) Everyone else is to be destroyed and this will happen “soon” 5) Only the group of believers in “our” messiah will be saved 6) Before being successful this killer-Messiah is going to have to battle and destroy the followers of the anti-Messiah in which large parts of mankind will die - you (we) are all going to have to take sides and fight.
Here we have sketched above not only the ideology of the extremists such as Isil, but also extreme right wing American conservative Christians (found also outside of America) who also preach this kind of vengeful Messiah-Christ. What is dangerous about such thinking is that it is very difficult to reason with (holy scriptures are always interpreted literally and non-rational, science is not accepted etc.) , and also that is absolutely convinced that it alone is right. It is quite influential in the ideology behind Donald Trump, who was voted to power by those that subscribe to this thinking. Some extremist Jews also believe in this kind of absolute messiah, who will come at the end of time, and will destroy the non-Jewish parts of the world in blood and flames, partly as revenge for what was done to them during the holocaust in world war two. Sometimes people who belong to this “toxic messiah” ideology say to us – “Why on earth do you work so hard for peace, don’t you realise it is hopeless ? Mankind is already doomed and only those who turn to the “true Messiah x or y” are going to be saved ? Leave it to God and the Messiah to work out how to save mankind, you are simply wasting all your intellectual efforts” Or others have said: “”What you are attempting with this council is blasphemous. Why are you trying to save the world ? God and his real messiah want to destroy most of the world in judgment. How dare you try to interfere and prevent this destruction ?” Others say: “Peace is not what the true messiah wants, that is all the call of the Anti-Messiah. So too is world government, and since the World Intellectual Forum is involved with people advocating world federal government, it is obviously in league with the anti-Messiah. This Council is not a genuine project to assemble the true Messianic spirit of mankind, but a gathering of the forces of anti-Messiah. It will need to be destroyed and crushed when the true Messiah comes in glory. Only the Anti-Messiah wants peace. The actual Messiah wants war and vengeance, blood and fire and world destruction for all the sinful people – homosexuals, drug addicts, atheists, unbelievers, prostitutes, alcoholics all the riff-raff of humanity – they are to be wiped out by the real messiah – and you as a council likewise with all your fake messiahs” Sadly, we hear such criticisms, but cannot agree to them. In our view, if any messiah or so called saviour proclaims that world salivation is achieved through violence, militarism, war, conflict, suppression of human rights, torture, incarceration, cruelty, bombing, suicide missions, homophobia etc. and that supports huge military expenditure and weapons development, we allege, as a council that they are false teachers, and lesser prophets, living in fear and not in love. We are calling for mankind to grow up from these childish tales of blood and thunder, cowboys and Indians, goodies and baddies. There is only enlightenment, there is only truth, there is only love. “God is good and in him there is no darkness at all” said St John, in the Christian scriptures, and the equivalent sayings are found in every thought lineage. We concur. But we do not expect the inherent ignorance in humanity to put up without a fight, and we anticipate opposition, mockery, ridicule, abuse, and all the usual unintelligent behaviour that mankind so often exhibits in group behaviour. Just as the mob voted with their cries for Jesus of Nazareth to be executed, so we do not expect the crowds nowadays to be any more intelligently responding to the needed messianic work for this age and epoch. We have scientifically argued this is caused by a medical condition known as Sophiaphobia, a psychological fear of and resistance to wisdom, in the innermost heart of mankind, and we think we have discovered how to cure it. The WMASC is part of that cure programme.
11. What authority has the Council got ? The Council has only as much authority as the most intelligent, the most wise and the most learned councils of mankind that currently exist, or that will exist in future, choose to bestow upon us. We claim no supernatural authority trailing down from the clouds, we make no claims for divine guidance, except what rational spiritual and transpersonal wisdom can reveal to the advanced intellectual savants of mankind as a whole. We claim only the authority that comes from the collective project of enlightenment itself and the re-energisation of mankind's highest mind and heart energies working in synchronisation and intellectual and heart coherence. We claim simply the authority of love, that is achieved through service and demonstrated through compassion and manifested in justice and peace. Our authority to achieve the goals we have set ourselves derives simply from the manifest obvious common sense of our purposes, and our desire to transform this planet into a loving ordered, harmonious, peaceful, and enlightened part of the cosmic universe of souls, both those in incarnation now, and those to come into incarnation in the future. Our authority comes only from knowledge and from faith, and is only deriving from the autarchy of the enlightened soul, which governs itself in truth, and does not need external authority to buttress its powers.
12. How can we know if someone is genuine in their claims to be a Messiah ? This is a seriously difficult question, and one that has exercised the human mind for millennia. While many people accepted Jesus as the Messiah of his day, others rejected him as an imposter and a threat to the political and religious establishment, and arranged to have him executed. Likewise, Mani was accepted as the next in line of the great prophetic traditions by some, and for a while was accepted by the Emperor of Zoroastrian Persia as something like the Saoshyant, yet in a few years, he had been destroyed and was apparently skinned alive at the behest of the new Emperor. His followers scattered to the winds but continued to believe he was the genuine “Saoshyant” of his age. Buddha was recognised as an enlightened sage with omniscient powers by some, yet his own cousin sought to kill him on several occasions. Mahavira was recognised as the Tirthankara of his epoch, but since then – how many true self-realised Jain Saints have there been since him? Even among Jainism there are rival sects who do not always recognise each other’s lineages. Different Hindu sages and saints have come forward in recent times whose followers regard them as realised avatars of divine wisdom, yet none has achieved universal acclaim. Often it is only in death that souls are elevated to this platform, but even here, while many revere Gandhi as a Mahatma, others say he caused enormous trouble and strife and helped break up the once unified Indian subcontinent into warring factions. Most Muslims accept that Muhammad was the most important Prophet of modern times, but they disagree on who inherited his mantle – was it the line of Shiia and Ismaeli Imams ? Or was it the elected caliphs of Sunni Islam ? Sikhs say that their ten Gurus are the most important modern day revelations from the Absolute, and that this wisdom is now encoded in their Holy Book (The Adi Granth) while Bahais say their own founder, Bahu’allah, was the next great prophet in the world’s spiritual unfolding. More recently there have been countless New Age and theosophical masters and disciplines appearing, each with their own claims and counter-claims, such as Blavatsky, Annie Besant, Rudolf Steiner, Alice Bailey, Elizabeth Clare Prophet. Benjamin Creme et al. Among Buddhists, there has likewise been lively discussion as to who has reached or facilitated enlightenment in themselves and others to the greatest extent, and different lineages and schools of Buddhism advocate this or that method, and proclaim their own lineage Gurus as the root teacher of all humanity. Different claimants to the title of Maitreya surface from time to time among different Buddhist and Neo-Buddhist schools. Among indigenous and pagan wisdom traditions throughout the world, the idea of a single messiah figure for all humanity does not make much sense – each tribe, each spiritual lineage, has its own succession of wisdom-givers in their view – and so generally speaking they look on the world’s Messiah Wars with bemusement, and would love to help sort it all out. The Council is part of that “sorting out” as we develop our spiritual wisdom-powers as one humanity and come to a new place of spiritual discernment when we no longer need to rival and fight among ourselves for spiritual supremacy as to our own lineage, but rather, confirm and affirm the inner Messiahship or Saoshyant within us all, men and women alike, and recognise that each one of us can, as Enoch did, traverse the worlds in our own spiritual journeying.
13.How can we develop skills to spot false messiahs ? To many 19th and 20th century socialists and communists Marx and Engels were some sort of secular Messiahs who had made reality for the first time comprehensible, by exposing the devious and material workings of capital in dividing people from one another and preventing a true fraternity of love and community spreading over the earth. So for socialists and Communists Marx and Engels were some kind of messiah figures, and behind them lurked Moses Hess and other visionary socialist figures who dreamed of a new world. Then there are figures on the extreme right who appeal to nationalism and populism and portray themselves as fighting against the great enemy of the anti-Christ, embodied in republicanism, freemasonry, democracy etc. the Fascists of Spain, Rumania, Italy, Latin America etc. thought of themselves as fighting the good fight for the true Christ against these dangerous secular ideals, and helped found the World Anti Communist League to confront them. To many German nationalists, Hitler was for a brief time, a sort of “Messiah” and he certainly thought of himself as such. To British nationalists, they think of Brexit as a kind of messianic movement that will save the UK from the horrible clutches of Europe (yet most outward looking UK citizens feel this will turn into yet another false messiah).These political movements all seem to be some kind of false messiahs, because although political promises seem to offer the moon, while politicians themselves tell untruths, nothing they do seems to endure, apart from continual chaos, warfare, conflict and fighting. Then there are various spiritual. Teachers who appear from time to time and make great claims about themselves and their powers, but turn out often to have feet of clay. Historically, in Judaism the succession of false messiahs included famously Shabbetai Zevi (1626-1676), Simon Bar Kokhba, Moshe Hayyim Luzatto (1707-1747) and Rabbi Schneerson. Willi Zionism itself turn into a kind of false messianic movement that has led the children of Israel away from truth and into promoting themselves as a powerful militarised nation, armed to the teeth and hostile against her enemies, or can it yet be rewon for the peaceful pioneers who wanted the best for all humanity from a return to their Jewish homeland ? In retrospect, do all the actions of Muhammad accord with his being a supreme and fundamental Prophet, or do some of his actions seem to have stemmed from egotistical self-advantage dressed up as piety ? How can we know ? Do the claims of the Bahais have validity in cosmic law or are they simply another attempt to delude mankind into the wrong blind alley ? Amidst this hubbub of competing voices, the work of the Council is clear and difficult, no less than it was difficult for Moses to find a way across the turbulent waters of the red sea for his band of pilgrims searching for a new land. BY using reason, academic research, scientific evidence, scholarly analysis, intellectual debate and dialectic, persuasive arguments drawn from reason and evidence along, critical acceptance of the validity of divine revelation, but only when back ed by sound and rational supporting evidence – our Council has nothing less than the task of trying to work out some kind of harmony, some kind of melody, from amidst the hubbub of Messianic movements and voices, in order to clear a straight path for mankind across the turbulent seas and through the desert, to the promised land of peace, from which we will all ultimately benefit.
14.What about cults and new religious movements ? In recent times, many new religious movements have put forward this or that teacher as the messiah or world saviour. Some of these groups sheer off into strange and disquieting behaviour such as the Jonestown cult of Jim Jones, or the behaviours that led to the siege at Wacco. Our rule of thumb as a Council is that any messianic movement that claims for itself a privileged new position in the constellation of faith groups and yet which advocates violence or terrorist actions, loses all claims to be taken seriously as a beneficent force for mankind. But so long as such new religious movements advocate only the peaceful conquest of knowledge and the non-violent acquisition of enlightenment and wisdom, then their representatives can indeed sit as honoured members on our Council.
15.What about Women and gender issues ? In many faith paths, women have traditionally taken a back seat. One of the saddest consequences of this is that compassion and mercy and love have often likewise been absent from the messiah wars that have raged throughout history. Yet in many cultures, women teachers have been acknowledged as being the equivalent of men, and in ancient and modern philosophical schools, women philosophers are as important as their male counterparts. Likewise, in Indian spirituality, there have been many great modern female spiritual teachers whose followers elevate to near Avatar status. In Christian esotericism, Mary Magdalene is regarded as the female counterpart or co-messiah with Christ, from behind the scenes, and some Christian esoteric groups nowadays argue that the second coming will be for both of them together as one. Tantric Buddhists also argue that no one can achieve final realisation unless they have an equally advanced consort to work alongside with. Is the concept of a female Messiah or Avatar so strange ? The Council will not allow misogyny or gender bias to colour its work. Women are 50% of humanity and no messiah who allows women to go on being subjugated in society can be called a proper messiah or world teacher, in our opinion. On the other hand an angry “feminist” messiah who abuses, ridicules and humiliates all men just for being men, is also not welcome or appreciated as authentic. True loving respect has to be re-engendered between the sexes at all levels.
16.What about Homosexuality ? Different religious paths have different teachings on homosexuality. Science says that a small percentage of all human populations exhibit homosexual tendencies by nature – it’s part of the rich diversity of life’s evolutionary mechanisms of complexity. If homosexuality became the fashion de-rigeur however, humanity would die out of evolution, which is why nature has also limited this to a small minority of human beings. If reincarnation and soul survival are real, as seems to be the case, then we have all been male and female in different incarnations, and loved one another in different combinations and dialectical juxtapositions,. Different teachers on the Council will have different views no homosexuality, but legal discrimination and punishment homosexuality seems to belong to a more barbaric age than the Messianic era we anticipate. However, to discriminate against heterosexuality, as some sub-cultures do, would also seem wrong.
17. In some scriptures the Messiah will be a warlike or military leader and defeat the Anti-Messiah in battle – does the Council support this reading of future-history ? This idea seems to be a result from a longstanding misreading of very ancient texts, dating back to when mankind lived in times of great lawlessness and military necessity, and warrior skills were necessary for the protection of the tribe or village. Our hope as a Council is that those days are largely over, and that as soon as possible we need to outgrown the residual default conditions of enmity, and try to reach up to a state of universal love and enlightenment, which surely is the authentic messiah’s actual long term plan for humanity.
18. What is the Council’s position on the so called Anti-Messaiah or Anti-Christ ? Is this a real danger ? Every light casts a shadow, and ever shadow is caused by light – but only the light is actually causative and substantial – or as F.D. Roosevelt put it, the “only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. While some enthusiastic would be messianic figures whip up the dangers of an anti-Messiah figure, they usually argue that everyone who doesn’t agree with their own ideology qualifies for that role. Against such people it is unlikely that one can use reason or dialectic or highest education to persuade them otherwise. But it is nevertheless a dangerous phenomenon, this hatred of the “anti-Messiah” and can be used to justify all manner of atrocities, mental, verbal, emotional and physical. It needs healing therefore, if the planet is to have a possibility of survival. One strategy that can help with this, is to develop the science of “comparative Diabology” and to ask – what exactly is the devil ? Another way to examine this questions is to say that whatever power structures exist with militarily and intelligence superstructures that police and interfere with ordinary human freedoms and activates, for pleasure and enlightenment, and impose their own rules and punishments on normal free people, and which torture, imprison, interrogate, silence and oppress decent human beings going about their normal lives, then such a structure can be said to be of the “anti-Christ” and whoever is manning and supporting it accordingly. For example, the massive worldwide industry that promotes nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, can hardly be said to be “of the light” – yet hundreds of thousands of people are forced to work in this industry worldwide, which is also responsible for radioactive pollution and major health damages. Others would say that coercive capitalism itself, which puts profit and institutional gain before individual well being, is itself a system problem and represents the “anti-Christ structure” built into the very fabric of human social life, from which we also need liberating. In defence of this capitalist “profit before humans” ideology, millions of people suffer extreme poverty and are forced into homelessness, anxiety, depression and even suicide. Such a system of exploitation ahs to be said to be of the “anti-Christ”. The challenge is – how can it be redeemed, with its redeemers themselves using counter-violence ?
19. Islam, Judaism and Christianity all have a slightly different take on the Messiah, even though they all believe in the role – can they ever be reconciled and harmonised ? Muslims accept that Jesus was the Messiah, but disagree on other theological matters from both Jews and Christians. Hindus might accept that Jesus was an important avatar, but traditionally, he is not listed in the 10 expected avatars of Vishnu, or the avatars of Shiva. Buddhists likewise accept no one in spiritual authority apart from their own last Buddha, Gautama and the coming Buddha (Maitreya). Some extreme Jewish Zionists likewise accept no authority beyond their own expected messiah, who they say will be of the house of David and who will rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem by force (just for Jews), and who will convert or destroy anyone who is not Jewish or who opposes them. Most mainstream and Orthodox conservative and reformed Jews however do not follow such extremist teachings. They would rather look forward to a Messiah who will be a redemptive force for Israel but also for mankind as a whole, and who will bring peace to humanity at last not war and further suffering. IT is hard to reconcile the former teachings with Islam or Christian teachings, but more moderate forms of Judaism, Christianity and Islam can easily be reconciled if enough academic, scholarly and hermetic work is done
20. How will messianic scholarship help with peacemaking and reconciliation on the ground, so to speak ? If ordinary followers of the world’s different religions at grass roots level, realise there is an international Council of leading advanced scholars and religious intellectuals, working on reconciling and calibrating their respective ultimate truth claims and find some way to harmonise, reconcile and peaceful inter-lock their respective messianic and prophetic eschatologies, then it is to be hoped that at grass roots level, such followers will no longer feel the need to battle and contest physically for power and land, status and wealth, but can rather afford to be generous and tolerant of one another’s being int he universe. Once pluralism is recognised as part of the ultimate plan for humanity, and love replaces hatred as the preferred modality of our encounter with the “other” then hopefully our council can help play its part in humanity’s-coming-of-age.
21. Hinduism has an idea of Avatars – great sages and seers have been avatars of either Shiva or Vishnu at different times of history – can this teaching be reconciled with Christian, Jewish and Islamic ideas about the Messiah ? There are millions of Hindus who follow this or that Guru, and who expect Kalki, the 10th incarnation of Vishnu to manifest on earth and save us from the chaos of Kali Yuga, but no Hindu sages asked seem to agree on when this Kalki will appear. The trouble is also that many Hindus, even spiritual elders, believe that this Kalki’s role is going to be somehow military, and will involve the defeat, physically in battle, of the enemies of Rita, truth and Dharma and the enemies of India. This is partly because the great sacred epics of Hinduism, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, have several previous incarnations of Vishnu being extremely warlike, and simply being the best, strongest and most powerful of all warriors, and as Rama for example, being able to defeat myriads of demon fighters with one flick of his sword etc. Gandhi disagreed with this idea, and argued instead that the true Kalki will be a teacher of love and non-violence, but the even Gandhi died with the name of Rama on his lips, the great warrior Avatar of Hinduism. So there is confusion among Hindus as to what the Kalki will do, and how. This also is part of the task of the World Messiahship Council to help figure out. Perhaps theologically speaking, Jesus of Nazarth might be thought of as an Avatar of Brahma, who otherwise has no known Avatars.
22.Zoroastrianism teaches that the Saoshyant is the final and ultimate prophetic agent of God’s redemptive plan for humanity, when the forces of ignorance and evil (Angra Mainyu) will be finally defeated – what do Zoroastrians say about this advent ? How will it manifest ? Many modern Zoroastrian thinkers nowadays say that Zoroaster’s original insight into the eternal struggle of Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu, are to be understood psychologically and interpreted psychologically. There are not literally two external deities fighting for the sovereignty of humanity, but rather a variety of spiritual principles at work inside the human mind and soul itself, working away to either advance our wisdom and capacity for love and compassion, or to diminish and restrict our achievement of self-understanding. Advanced teachers of Zoroastrian spirituality have emerged through different times in history and keep alive the hope that one day the Saoshyantic age will indeed be restored to humanity, when we finally. Lear top value truth above lies, honesty and wisdom above dishonesty and ignorance. This flame has been kept alive within the Zoroastrian community worldwide much as the sacred flames in Zoroastrian temples are kept burning for century after century. Likewise, most Zoroastrians nowadays would accept that the Saoshyant's job is not to destroy all non-Zoroastrian teachings and to cover the world with a sort of Neo-Persian Empire, but instead, to calibrate and harmonise the spiritual wisdom teachings of all cultures so as to find their own Saoshyantic peaks within each of them.
23.Can Zoroastrian ideas and expectations be harmonised and reintegrated back in with the collective and universal notions of a common messianic project (CMP) for humanity ?
This is assuredly part of the goal of the work of the Council – and given the difficulty that Zoroastrians sometimes have in being accepted alongside other religious paths, it would seem that it is vital to try and find a formula whereby the wisdom elements of this ancient faith and that of others can be reharmonised.
24.The Messiah is supposed to manifest in history with all kinds of miraculous signs and wonders and portents – how will the Council ideal with reports of such phenomena ? How will we know if any or some or all of them are true ? Buddha himself wisely once said that the greatest of all miracles was that of the capacity to educate others. We do not see the work of the council as either endorsing or supporting the manifestation of miraculous signs, but on the other hand, we do hope auspicious portents and what might seem like miraculous signs, as the world’s heavy miasma of conflict and hatred slowly lifts and the rivality and conflict between different faith systems, are replaced by concord and harmony. As news of this spreads in theory and practice, we anticipate a range of happy accompanying phenomena, as always accompany the enlightenment process, whether in individuals or in collectives. Since our final goal is nothing less that the ultimate and complete enlightenment of mankind, to a place of wisdom , love and compassion, from a place of fear and hatred and anger, we certainly anticipate such positive signs to be accompanying and blessing our work as a Council if we succeed.
25.Does this mean you have to have active supernatural powers of some kind at your command to apply to join the Council ? Not all all – we follow instead the wise advice of Buddha – and would regard our work for the council as primarily educational. If we can help advance this conversation in a peaceful direction, aimed at reconciliation, and if the religious wars raging on the planet can cease, then we will regard this as sufficient proof of our miraculous powers. From peace, so many other blessings flow... If people want to develop their Siddhis and supernatural powers, that is all well and good – let them, but only as long as they non-harmful to others, and are focused on world peace and the achievement of true spiritual brotherhood, sisterhood and the ending of war and poverty and the education and enlightenment of humanity. The mere demonstration of magical powers does not in itself qualify for membership of the Council. Likewise, those who claim they are in touch with or guided by super-intelligent UFO beings, or advanced inter-dimensional extra-planetary entities etc. What degree of wisdom is being shown here ? What are its sources ? These are our questions concerning admission to the Council. We also have the highest possible standards of proof, veracity and verification. People making unverifiable claims are, in Popper’s immortal words, likely to be operating in a pre-scientific modality. What about people who claim to channel advanced beings or cosmic intelligences from other ages, or other spheres of being ? We have nothing against people who channel apparently telepathically beings of great wisdom, and indeed much of what is transmitted in this way to humanity is of great benefit. It is often difficult to reconcile the respective truth claims of the beings they purport to channel, and this whole phenomenon needs looking at rationally and scientifically, but also sympathetically.
26.What if rival contenders for the title of Messiah or Saoshyant or Avatars fall out and start quarrelling and arguing among themselves ? Who will adjudicate between them ? How we can tell who is genuine or not ? Such contentions and arguments and quarrels hardly qualify one for any kind of spiritual or advanced degree of wisdom. Such people will naturally disqualify themselves from membership of the council. Our work cannot succeed unless it is accompanied by mutual respect, tolerance, forbearance, truth telling, as well as critical scholarship and rational evidence gathering and analysis. We expect the usual rules of academic courtesy and politeness to apply at all times to the work of those who join our effort.
27.What if a religious or spiritual tradition doesn’t actually have any kind of messiah in its teachings or scriptures – can it nevertheless get involved with the work of this Council ? Certainly, the Council is intended to try and clear up and resolve the whole complex issue of what or who a messiah is, or what an Avatar is, and what the Saoshyant is – and their equivalents in other traditions. What a Buddha is (an enlightened or awakened one) and what exactly a Tirthankara is (a Jain sage or enlightened wisdom teacher) as well as their equivalents in all other cultures. We do not expect necessarily to all agree to begin with, and it may take many years of work to establish elements of common ground in this huge task before us. But the ultimate aim is to get all the world’s faith traditions and philosophical lineages to sign up to the Interfaith Peace Treaty and to co-participate in a symbolic peace presence on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, that all faiths can freely particulate in, as well as a similar peace centre in Medina as a home for peace programs from all faiths, as well as elsewhere. We also hope that spiritual buildings and sanctuaries and sacred sites all over the world will be honoured and safeguarded and free from damage and war in future. Native and indigenous peoples all over the world often regard their sanctuaries and sacred sites as being those that occur naturally in nature, in special hills, caves or mountains or forests and their contribution is also highly valued to our work, since any authentic messiah who just “saves humanity” but at the same time allows nature to be destroyed and damaged, is hardly an authentic saviour or redeemer figure worth having manifest on the planet. So the voice of such pagan and indigenous and pre-messianic peoples is also going to be vital to the successful work of the Council.
28.What if people come forward who claim to be this or that Messiah but in fact, they merely incite people to warfare, violence and hatred ? Intellectually this whole situation is a mess. No one knows who to look to for authoritative intellectual or spiritual judgments. Rival groups kill and rampage in the Middle East and Africa because “our messiah is better than yours”. Young girls in Nigeria are captured and held as sex slaves in the name of someone’s “Messaiah” (i.e. ISIL extremists). It is a known fact that ISIL were executing and murdering Shias and other non extremist Sunni Muslims in the name of their own expected Mahdi. Some people expect a very angry judgmental and violent messiah, i.e. the Mahdi of Isil, who will conquer and convert everyone in their way. Some people go even further and say the end of the world is coming and everyone will be destroyed except their own chosen few. Steve Bannon, Trump and their Brexit following extremists in the UK, seem to be some kind of apocalypticians believing in this theory of imminent world destruction. They almost seem to want to bring on the violence in God’s name. Netanyahu seems to believe in his as well. These people seem to look to violence instead of nonviolence as the chosen modality of the messiah’s coming. They also seem to think this gives them a carte blanche to interfere in other people’s politics and countries and use violence to change regimes they do not like, either in covert or overt warfare (Iraq, Libya, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen, Vietnam etc). But to us, this is all premised on a false theology dressed up in layers of misunderstandings, centuries deep. However, it is not our intention that the World Messiaship Council should adjudicate on which of any given contenders for the status of Messiah should be declared ultimately and finally “authentic”, although membership of the council cannot be made available for anyone outside universal common moral limits. Our final benchmark is: does this or that messiah lineage result in violence and warfare, killing, enslavement, and militarism ? As the Christian gospels say, “by your fruits you shall be judged”.
29.Many thinkers nowadays say the idea of a messiah coming to save everyone is outmoded, and that what we need are real concrete projects, science, engineering, technology, social development, peace and the ending of wars with concerted political, social and economic programmes – does the Council have place for such thinkers in its ranks ? We do indeed have many secular thinkers, who reject the whole idea of a messiah, and say that the problems of the world need only a secular solution, some kind of world government, a world parliament, or a world aristocratic council, or even a gathering for all world monarchs. Others look to existing governments and the United Nations structure to solve the problems of the world. Others look to science and say that knowledge itself is to the be the Messiah. But there is then the question of who defines knowledge, who controls it, who funds it. This was the problem that Communism has run into. It was a brilliant idea - but nobody could agree on what was actually valid and verifiable knowledge, or truth. So it turned out, as usual, that force and violence decided what is truth and the Communist party of the day enforced it. However, obviously the questions before the World Council of Messiaship are not only to involve religious studies, but also secular and political philosophy, as well as history and the history of ideas. The questions of Messiaship spills over the edges of religious studies per se and impacts on different areas of our life and world. Many people for example think the world is facing its biggest challenge in enviroenmtnal policies – so any messiah is somehow also going to have to save nature from human greed and destruction. In fact, if you think about it – if a real messiah were to turn up in history on this planet now, there is probably no area of so called normal reality that would be left unchanged for the better.
30.What is the role of the World Intellectual Forum in supporting the idea of this Council ? Where do we as WIF come in ? What can we do ? We have on our WIF governing board thinkers representing all different intellectual trends and traditions – all sorts of different spiritual outlooks, and also different secular outlooks. This is our strength. We are attempting something truly wonderful and difficult. Most of those on the Advisory Council do not have much time to devote to WIF activities, as we are all busy with other jobs and duties. So our voice is very small, and almost unheeded as yet among the bigger players in interfaith and global philosophical discourse. But perhaps this might be our own special avenue of approach ? We are a quiet but a small and persistent voice, dedicated to the cause of peace in the most holistic sense. In the Bible it says that when Elijah finally heard the voice of God, he heard Him not as a huge thundering noise, but a small still voice within. The WIF can be that small still voice and try to represent the work of sceptical intellectuals to the Council, so that it does not become too high-flying. We have to take care our feet are firmly on the ground, and are helping ordinary humanity in the midst of our daily struggles –t the search for food, work, shelter, family, love.. The initiator of the WMASC is also the European Coordinator for the World Intellectual Forum, so there is an obvious overlap.
31.What are the Political Orientations of the Council ? It is inevitable there are political considerations. For many Latin American liberation theologians, who back the left wing and communist movements in recent Latin American history, Christianity has to have an inbuilt bias for the poor, and in the thought of thinkers such Clodovis and Leonardo Boff of Brazil, Jose Bonino, Gustavo Gutiérrez of Peru, Juan Luis Segundo of Uruguay, and Jon Sobrino, they have supported left wing movements in recent history such as in Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela and elsewhere. The supporters of Chavez and Madura think of them as some kind of socialist messiahs and many Catholic Christians have supported them. But protestants like Trump, who are anti-Catholic, hate this kind of left wing Christian active socialist-messianism, and argue that such people should be killed and destroyed, as Pinochet did in Chile. They seek to undermine and destroy the Venezuelan socialist state because as protestant individualists who follow the “gospel” of Ayn Rand, community is a blasphemous idea, socialism is a heresy, and communism is little short of devil worship. Protestant pastors thus justify USA republican intervention as they are killing the anti-Christ (communist Catholicism inspired by liberation theology) – eg. pastor Carl Gallups et al. Some Islamic groups think on the contrary that anti Communism is a religious duty and the ferocity of the Mujahedeen in fighting the soviets in Afghanistan was triggered by this theological faith, along with support from right wing American and British covert forces. Extreme right wing Nazis felt their invasion of the USSR was a holy crusade, while the Soviets who invaded Germany and liberated the concentration camps thought they were fighting an evil and satanic and irrational force, and that only reason and education could ultimately replace racist ideology. Both extremist right wing and extremist left wing groups in history have endorsed violence as the means to advance their world views. The Council is opposed to extreme political actors that use violence in this way, and instead endorse groups and political individuals who a) swear an oath of veracity on taking office and b) refuse to accept violence (either covert or overt as a way of bolstering their own power). Thus the council supports the enshrinement of human rights, the right to fair trails, the right to not be tortured, the right to employment, and the right to freedom of thought, and the right to social support and help in times of illness and poverty and unemployment, in legislation, and hopes that once militarism can be de-scaled back from its current levels, there will be enough shared wealth to go around for us all as human beings. In short, the politics of the council are founded upon the twin principles of love and wisdom. Many thinkers associated with the work of the World Intellectual Forum believe that some kind of world federal government is a sine qua non for world peace and harmony. Others think that a world government is needed, but cannot happen without genuine civil education being mandatory in the world’s educational systems. Others think that world governance should include elements of democracy, elements of aristocracy, but also elements of Monarchy, as Aristotle said. Historically, messianic movements have sometimes regarded the world messiah as being more of a sovereign than a democrat. Our key political, ideal would be that of autarchy, i.e. that everyone on earth manifests their highest virtues and thus the need for external laws, punishments, fines, regulations, taxes, police, judges and militarily simply fall away. Autarchy however is not the same as anarchy (no one is in charge) but implies self-realisation and enlightened virtue (everyone’s higher nature is in charge). Our motto could be stated as: “Revelation not Revolution”.
32.What Are The Philosophical Ideas Underpinning The Forming Of The Council ? We follow the wise saying of novelist Kafka who wrote “The Messiah will only come when he is no longer necessary”. We also appreciate very much and follow in the footsteps of the intellectual historian Gershom Scholem who first made the academic study of the Qabalah possible, and who wrote several important treatises on the nature of messianic thought inside Judaism. He also tackled, among other important topics the whole questions of “false messiahs” who periodically appear and then disappear on the pages of history. We also appreciate the insights of the psychologist Bion who argued that the Messiah is the name for a kind of psychological complex that seeks to overturn and transform situations, but is usually resisted for contrary psychological reasons. We appreciate the work of modern day transpersonal and integral thinkers who have tried to explore and study the whole rainbow of human potential, and believe that the Messianic consciousness is that which arises naturally when the wholeness of our being is finally accepted, explored and energised. The work of common and mutual Enlightenment is the active verb that underpins the work of the council.
33. What is the role of the International Institute of Peace Studies and Global Philosophy in initiating this idea ? Taking this important Initiative, in association with other bodies, is the International Institute of Peace Studies and Global Philosophy. The Institute is unique among research centres throughout the world in that it combines training and practical work in conflict resolution with studying the entire range of global philosophical and spiritual traditions, together with the proactive search for global responsibility, peace and justice in our time. Founded in 1990, arising out of a feasibility study investigating the possibility of creating a Peace Studies Institute in the University of London, and subsequent years of active educational research, networking and consultancy, everyone interested in advancing peace research in London, the UK, and internationally is invited to join us. The Institute has also built on the work of Philosophers and Historians for Peace, an international networking organisation founded in 1985. IIPSGP Members are a scattered international network of scholars and visionaries involved in a wide range of educational and research activities in both professional and voluntary capacities in all aspects of peace research, environmental education, comparative spirituality and philosophy. The Institute also runs the pioneering Multifaith and Multicultural Education and Mediation Service serving in situations of conflict or violence involving a religious or cultural dimension. The MMMS is run as both a consultancy and voluntary effort and is available for situations needing outside intervention to resolve, and tackles disputes ranging from the small to the very large. We have recently inaugurated Just Justice as an advocacy project for conflicts in which mediation is inappropriate and there is rather need for legal help and advice. We also founded the Commonwealth Interfaith Network linking together educators, peace activists, environmentalists, human rights and social development specialists from British Commonwealth member countries helping to transform the Commonwealth into a vibrant community of nations bearing witness to a wider world order based on peace and a love for common values and spirituality. The IIPSGP Director is a British-Canadian dual citizen. It is as a result of all this work, over 40 years in total, that the obvious need for some such Council as the World Council of Messiahship has become apparent and IIPSGP is therefore delighted to be playing it s part in facilitating its birth.
34. What is the role of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of the Middle East in endorsing and supporting this Council ? Another important project of the International Institute of Peace Studies and Global Philosophy, is THE TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION FOR THE MIDDLE EAST which is a project launched to establish common ground and dialogue between the parties involved in Middle Eastern countries, and calls for reconciliation between Israel and Palestine (based on a lasting just two state solution and total mutual nonviolence) and the demilitarisation of the entire region, plus the withdrawal of Western troops from Syria, Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern countries and their replacement by a UN peacekeeping force (made up from mostly Islamic countries) as well as the immediate total cessation of all acts of terrorism as non-Islamic (suicide is illegal in Islamic spiritual law). The TRCME first met in Israel/Palestine in August 2008, and has subsequently held meetings in Turkey, Israel, Palestine and other relevant countries. The TRCME is working on long-term and short term healing for Gaza, and a thorough solution to the crises of relations Palestine, Israel, Syria, Iraq and the wider Middle East, and North Africa, including Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt, Yemen. In relation to Islamic traditions, the Council works with advanced Sufi traditions, who speak of a Qutub, or Pir, around whom the various Sufi sheikhs are constellated, as in planetary orbits. Shiia Islam speaks of the last Imam as being in Hidden Imam being in occultation, and approachable through the Imams of higher Shiia gnosis. Sunni Islam on the whole believes int he return of the Prophet Muhammad and Jesus to this human level of existence for a final judgment, but does not much concern itself with the ways, means and wherefores of that return. Some radical modern day Sunni sects such as Isil and Al Qaeda have argued that the return will be accompanied with much violence, warfare and attacks on non-Sunni Muslims, which explains the ferocity of ISIL’s treatment of even Shiia prisoners, let alone Yezidis, Christians and others in the Middle East. The Council is calling for all this woeful behaviour to cease, and for there to be an immediate ceasefire and truce int the long battles between Shiia and Sunni forms of Islam, and between them and also Judaism and Christianity and all other religions at large. We are calling for peace throughout the Middle Wars and an end to warfare and violence, starting first with intellectual disarmament and reconciliation. True Muslims, Jews and Christians are all supposed by their own scriptures ot be lovers of peace – so let us prove it by healing these wounds, and finding ways to live together, by solving the Israel-Palestine conflict with justice and dignity for all people, and by drawing on the transpersonal common source of all Being to make a lasting peace settlement possible, including the building of a peace tent on the Dome of the Rock open to all the faithful from all the faiths and nations of the world. Details on the work of the TRCME are carried at: http://trcme.wordpress.com
35. What other bodies are supporting or endorsing the work of the World Council ? The World Parliament Association, although not formally endorsing the work of the WMC, sits on the same World intellectual Forum as the initiator of the WMASC project, and is thus kept in touch with our progress. Similarly, Dr Igor Kondrashin, who continues to advance the work of the World Philosophical Forum and the Universal State of the Earth, and the Supreme Council of Humanity, and its many projects, also sits on the board of the World Intellectual Forum. But both these bodies’ attempts to get some kind of world government going, are unlikely to bear fruit unless we also attend to the moral, spiritual and ethical transformation of humanity, and that is perhaps the main function that the World Messiaship Council, to advance such transformational education for peace through interfaith spiritual education and advanced comparative studies of the notion of Messiahship and related ideals. Other bodies such as the World Parliament of Religions, the World Conference on Religions for Peace, the Interfaith association for Religious Freedom, and all other interfaith bodies worldwide, are being invited to collaborate with and support this work, each according to their own capacity and intellectual specialisms. Likewise with the individual faith groups of the planet and their academic and research elements, we anticipate close cooperation with certain advanced forums and seminaries in each of their respective fields of intellectual activity. Similarly for academic institions and the university sector – we anticipate working in close collaboration with certain selected academics working in relevant academic research fields. World Interfaith Harmony Week, a Common Word, the UN Dialogue of Civilisations, The Jaipur International Conferences on Peace and Nonviolence, the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions and the Commonwealth Interfaith Council etc. Philosopher and Historians for Peace (Europe) as well as International Philosophers for Peace and The Prevention of Nuclear Omnicide (IIPPNO) are also endorsing WMASC since both the International President of IIPPNO (Dr Glen Martin) and Vice President (Dr Thomas Daffern) sit on the board of the World intellectual Forum. Colleagues involved with the work of the Russian Philosophical Society are also collaborating with the advanced scholarship of WMASC since many academics in Russia have long been grappling with the complex issue of how one can reconcile a purely secular or Marxist version of redemption, with a scientific, spiritual or religious approach. The World Congress of Philosophy is another body which, although not formally endorsing the work of WMASC also has considerable overlap in its membership ranks and scholars active in the work of WMASC.
36. What about collaboration between the WMASC and the Interfaith Peace Treaty ? Both are projects of the International Institute of Peace Studies and Global Philosophy so naturally there is a degree of overlap between the two initiatives. The Interfaith Peace Treaty is a unique and comprehensive attempt to create a lasting solution to the ongoing religious and ideological conflicts raging on planet earth. Different tribes, factions, elements and parties are jostling each other for supremacy, and the vast array of modern weaponry means that it is all too easy to inflict major casualties on rival armies and armed gangs. Whole countries are racked with civil wars and chaotic ongoing conflicts, either in the whole country or in substantial parts of them. These include Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Ukraine, Nigeria, Kenya, Thailand, Burma, Palestine/Israel etc. Other once hot wars have been cooled down for now, as in Ireland, Bosnia, Sierra Leone, Azerbaijan / Ngorno Karabakh, Kosovo. Often these conflicts have an element of religious identity as one faction fights another for hegemony. Various interfaith groups are active in doing their best on an ad hoc basis to resolve these situations, but mostly secular political peace-making processes of diplomacy involving agencies such as the United Nations and the European Union, marginalise the role of religious beliefs and religious actors, even though in many conflicts underway they are absolutely central to the overall conflict dynamics. The Multifaith and Multicultural Mediation Service remains the only active peace-making agency dedicated to mediating faith based conflicts through supported non-violent communication. It is available for active mediation in bilateral faith based conflict situations. However, there are simply too many such faith based conflicts going to mediate each one. Also, many of the ideologies and belief systems involved are the same, turning up over and over in different geographical locations. The proposal for this INTERFAITH PEACE TREATY therefore is that the world’s various religious and philosophical traditions can and should sign up to a lasting peace treaty, whereby they pledge to sublimate their ideological wars for hegemony into academic and scientific debate, dialogue, research and intellectual discourse, and cease endangering lives and ruining countries. For the sake of long suffering humanity, especially the lives of women and children, and the countless young men’s lives which are being sacrificed, we are urging all existing religious and philosophical leadership cadres to sign this INTERFAITH PEACE TREATY so as to suspend actual physical fighting and replace it with cooperative intellectual struggles towards truth. Signing the Treaty does not mean that side “a” has “won”, or that “b” has lost, but rather than all sides simultaneously surrender to peace as the preferred condition for ongoing human life experiences, so that together we can build a common universal humanity based on peace. The faith and premise behind this Interfaith peace treaty is that it is precisely this surrender to peace that all the great Teachers, Prophets, Sages, Shamans, Seers, Mahatmas, Tirthankaras, Buddhas, Druids, Rabbis, Gurus and Philosophers, and Scientists of all ages, cultures and religions, have perpetually been calling mankind. By putting our voices into a common INTERFAITH PEACE TREATY we are signalling to mankind as a whole that it is truly time to make peace on this beautiful planet, before we destroy it irrevocably. By signing this document, you are pledging, as a far as humanly possible, to live up to the ideals and principles embodied in its 56 clauses. Every rational and intelligent human being on planet earth is invited to sign up to this treaty, both as an individual in your own name, but also on behalf of any spiritual, religious, intellectual, political or social organisations and groups you may be empowered to speak for. The Interfaith Peace treaty is intended for the big people but also for the little people, since bitter experience has taught mankind that not always the official outer religious leaders of different faith groups are actually not necessarily the wisest, most compassionate or the nearest and dearest to the Absolute. We are concerned to sign up the true living Saints and Sages of the planet, who may not necessarily be in positions of outer authority.
37. How can real intellectuals take an interest in Messiah claimants, Avatars and Saoshyants and vice versa ? There has arisen a gulf in certain circles, whereby some intellectuals disdain all spiritual matters and look down on religious claimants to Messiaship as “enthusiasts”. Likewise, in some religious, new age or spiritual circles, there is a disdain towards mere “intellectuals” as if such thinkers have not arisen out of their kindergarten level of being. To bridge this dangerous gap the WMASC has come into being. Rival Messiahs and their supporters are far too dangerous to be neglected by intellectuals, and therefore their respective truth claims need fine tooth-combing. Likewise, Messiah claimants and potential Avatars and Saoshyants need to sharpen their own wits and develop their own intellectual skills – simply expecting adoration and worship for “being here” is outmoded, since we have experienced a scientific revolution as a planet and now people demand serious proof before we assent to spiritual truth-claims. The matter is urgent however, since rival Messianic claimants and their followers continue to devastate large parts of the world, and do not adhere to or respect merely “secular” political authorities with their purely scientific knowledge paradigms being used to buttress their powers, mainly through military technology. What we need therefore is a serious planetary conversation about exactly how we can bridge between secular political institutional authority and spiritual authority such as messianic and spiritual movements arouse in people. The Council will thus facilitate and assist this complex docking-process and try to get both advanced intellectuals and advanced spiritual practioners into meaningful and peace-oriented dialogue. It is likely humanity will have progress beyond the “onlys” to the “everys” in order to achieve this.
38. Conclusions: As you can see from our work as sketched out in this leaflet, the work we are facing is immense, but it is our fervent hope that we can gradually contribute towards creating a more intelligent conversation on the planet regarding these vital philosophical, metaphysical and spiritual matters. Instead of Messiah wars raging in all quarters, we hope that after a few years of progress, we will have outbreaks of a Common Messianic Peace within our grasp as a planet, and all that without having to invoke the supporting power of beneficent Aliens from advanced civilisations to come and save us !
39. Contacts: To contact us and to request an invitation to join the council, or to help our work in any way you are able to do so, please send your CV and a letter of application by post to: WAMASC, International Institute of Peace Studies and Global Philosophy, 13 Grande Rue, Betete, Near Gueret, La Creuse, France, 23270, Europe. You can also contact us via email at [email protected] or [email protected] or through the main website of the International Institute of Peace Studies and Global Philosophy, at www.educationaid.net as well as via the website of the World Intellectual Forum at http://www.wiforg.in/ - or via this website https://worldintellectualforumeurope.weebly.com