Aetherius Society
religious movement founded by George King
The Aetherius Society is a new religious movement founded by George King in the mid-1950s, being the result of what King claimed were contacts with extraterrestrial intelligences whom he referred to as "Cosmic Masters". The main goal of group's adherents is to cooperate with these Cosmic Masters to help humanity solve its problems and advance into the New Age.
Mikael Rothstein describes it as a form of religious syncretism based primarily on theosophy and incorporating millenarian, New Age, and UFO religion aspects. Emphases of the religion include altruism, community service, nature worship, spiritual healing and physical exercise.
Members meet in congregations like those of churches. John A. Saliba states that, unlike many other New Age or UFO religions, the Aetherius Society is for the most part considered uncontroversial, although its esoteric and millenarian aspects are sometimes questioned. The religion may be considered to have a relatively conventional praxis, attracting members from mainstream society. The society's membership, although international, is relatively small. David V. Barrett suggested in 2011 that the worldwide membership numbered in the thousands, with the largest numbers in the United Kingdom, the United States (particularly Southern California), and New Zealand.
Overview
The theology of the Aetherius Society is regarded as firmly based in theosophy, the Aetherius Society combines UFO claims, yoga, and ideas from various world religions, notably Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity.
The public source identifies “Aetherius Society” as religious movement founded by George King. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Aetherius, Society and religious.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q164594. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2011.
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This entry incorporates text from “Aetherius Society” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.