Johnny Burke: Welcome to Closer To Venus , I’m Johnny Burke. Today’s guest is Paul Nugent. He is the director of the Aetherius Society, a spiritual organization that’s dedicated to spreading teachings of advanced extraterrestrial intelligences. Today, we’ll be talking about the mission of the Aetherius Society, which is “change the world and open the door of enlightenment. Paul, welcome to the program
Paul Nugent: Yeah, thanks very much, John. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Johnny Burke: ” Change the world and open the door of enlightenment”. That’s a pretty ambitious statement. Tell us what does that mean?
Paul Nugent: The Aetherius Society, which has been in existence for over 60 years, 65 years, we’re connected with beings coming from other worlds. They communicated through the founder of the Aetherius Society, Dr. George King, initially in 1954 and over the following several decades anyway. And so by our very nature, we’re out to sort of bring something radically different to the world. This isn’t the common way of thinking on Earth at this time, although it’s getting that way over those sort of six decades, becoming aware of something much bigger that we’re a part of as the human race out there in the cosmos.
The point being that I think humanity needs some radically new understanding of our place in creation and in our relationship with each other, in our relationship with the planet. Part of that essential, fundamental redirection, a reorientation of thought, if you like, is understanding our purpose for being here. And ultimately that purpose is seeking and ultimately gaining a higher state of consciousness known traditionally in yoga terms as enlightenment. And that in a nutshell, I suppose, is what the Aetherius Society is essentially all about.
Johnny Burke: Right ,since you mentioned yoga, and you also mentioned Dr. King, the founder of the Aetherius Society, what is the spiritual path of king yoga? And how does that inform the people like us who know very little about it, but completely agree that consciousness does need some kind of a radical shift? No question about that.
Paul Nugent: Right. Coming back to Dr. George King, he was born in England in 1919. Went through the second world war as a conscientious objector, knowing that” thou shalt not kill “is a sort of divine law, something to be taken extremely seriously. He actually served in London’s fire brigade during the blitz and witnessed firsthand the sort of devastating actions of humanity at our worst. That drove him to sort of look for higher answers. He was very psychic as a child, but I think coming out of that experience of going through the blitz, witnessing the bombing of innocent civilians firsthand, it drove him into the study and practice of yoga. Yoga itself actually meaning union with everything or union with God ,you could say. So he practiced various forms of yoga, but primarily pranayama, which is yoga breathing exercises and mantra yoga eight hours a day over a 10-year period.
The consequence of that kind of discipline and intensity will cause a force that we all have in the base of the spine called the Kundalini to rise through a channel in the spine, known as the S so showing the channel?? Opening the chakras or the psychic centers and taking this force of Kundalini up into the. higher, the psychic centers, the Christ center in front of the forehead, and ultimately even the crown chakra above the top of the head. When one is able to do that, one literally has attained enlightenment is known again by a Sanskrit word of samadhi, and Dr. King was able to do this. With his ability to go into this elevated state of consciousness, Samadhi, or as we call it in the west, cosmic consciousness, which actually is a state even beyond enlightenment.
He was contacted, at first in 1954, and over the following decades by beings coming from a higher dimension of existence around the other planets within our own solar system who communicated through him whilst he was in this elevated state of samadhi, what we call positive yoga, samadhic trance. They communicated through him over 600 times almost all of which were obviously were recorded. And this forms the basis of the sort of spiritual metaphysical teachings of the society. In terms of king yoga, this is actually a fairly recent term that those of us in the Aetherius society have given to what constitutes the spiritual path of the Aetherius Society.
There are three main aspects. One is the cosmic teachings, that were given by beings from other planets within our own solar system, and also by Dr. George King himself, as a metaphysician master of yoga. The other ,second aspect of this path are metaphysical, spiritual yogic practices. I mentioned Pranayama, we teach and practice this mantra yoga, various different forms of yoga. the third one actually main aspect of king yoga is service. We also recognize the Earth is a living, being -an aspect of cosmic consciousness. The whole universe is actually alive and teeming with life, so there’s a sort of profound change is actually taking place within the planet herself as a living being. There’s a quickening that’s going on and there is a need for humanity to awaken to this change that’s bigger and beyond ourselves. So the process of service sending out spiritual energy to help uplift and transform the whole of human race or those that are open to receive this highest sort of spiritual influence. So those aspects that make up king yoga, cosmic teachings, yoga practices, karma yoga or service and named in honor of Dr. George King.
Johnny Burke: You mentioned a couple of things. You mentioned Samadhi , Kundalini awakenings and cosmic consciousness. I’ve heard people basically use the terms, cosmic consciousness and Christ consciousness, almost interchangeably. In your view is a samadhi state the same thing as cosmic consciousness? And if so, how is it different than the Kundalini awakening?
Paul Nugent: I would say that The Christ consciousness, cosmic consciousness, and Samadhi are all alluding to this to the same degree of cosmic awakening. In terms of Kundalini force, that’s the force that actually drives everything. Without Kundalini, we would basically, I suppose, be dead. it’s something to be, recognized and controlled through yoga discipline through this higher intuitive consciousness that becomes aware that there is something sacred, and directing this force, you can quicken it through yoga practice. It will naturally rise through right thought and right action and natural karmic law.
Johnny Burke: The way it was described to me, and this is actually one of your associates, Wajid Hassan, who was on the show a while back, he mentioned that one of the goals of Kundalini is to raise consciousness to such a level that would allow us to bypass the birth/ death/ reincarnation cycle.
As far as that’s concerned, this show is aimed at the every man who really wants to learn about spirituality, and they would ask questions like,” what’s the difference between the metaphysical and the spiritual ? “What do we really need to know about that, in order to begin some kind of a path, which is unlike traditional worship practices?
Paul Nugent: In terms of, raising the Kundalini to a point of cosmic consciousness, whereby one actually overcomes life and death, that Is very much our understanding when one is able to bring about the state of cosmic consciousness at will, one literally becomes, you might say, a knower. That’s not NOA H, although he might’ve been a K NOWER. In other words, you’ve once mastered this terrestrial experience, beyond this terrestrial experience, because, this is the whole point; life does not end in death, whatever we think or believe, though I can make a guess, we reincarnate. Our purpose for reincarnating is to literally attain this highest state of consciousness. That’s the journey, and being a Brit, I’d like to paraphrase Winston Churchill- coming back to world war two. At the end of the battle of Britain, in which this small, but extremely brave, British air force was able to get the Luftwaffe to back off. Churchill said, “this is not the end of the war, nor is it the beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning.” The reason I like to paraphrase that is with regard to the raising of cosmic consciousness, because the attainment of cosmic consciousness, Nirvana, I think the Buddhists call it, has generally been seen as the ultimate state. What we would say in the Aetherius Society, is that cosmic consciousness is not the end, nor is it even the beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning. We as humans haven’t really begun to sort of realize our divine potential.
It’s curious to see your title of your show is Closer To Venus. Because we understand that or upon the attainment of cosmic consciousness at will, one is no longer confined to this earth. And one will bring about an Ascension, something which Christ himself demonstrated, he came off the cross. We recognize this wasn’t unique to Christ. Once that’s been attained, we either join a community known as the ascended masters, or the spiritual hierarchy, you could say holding a spiritual light for all humanity. Or, we can go on and we go on to other planets within our own solar system to have greater experience of this incredible ultimate defined journey that we’re all on. And one of those planets is Venus. Speaking of Venus, and since we’re just recording this a few days before Christmas, in fact, the real date of Christmas is the winter solstice. But we actually believe that Jesus came from Venus.
Johnny Burke: And I didn’t plan that by the way, it just kind of happened . Nice coincidence. But then again, there are no such things as coincidences.
Paul Nugent: We certainly believe that Jesus came from Venus and also actually the Lord Buddha came from Venus. And he says in revelations, ” the lineage of the bright morning star was that effect,” which is Venus. How people still think that the star of Bethlehem, which led the wise men to that stable was a star, and the stars are suns- they don’t hover over stables. Of course flying sources can do that.
Johnny Burke: Why do you suppose that the Christians never ever talk about reincarnation?
Paul Nugent: I think some do, certainly the mystical Christians. Orthodox Christianity of course doesn’t, which I do find strange. I came out of the Christian Church, and I was introduced to Eastern philosophy. While I never sort of abandoned my belief in love of Jesus Christ as a being, at the same time I could very naturally embrace the concepts of karma and reincarnation. The understanding is that actually it was taken out of the New Testament. And again, it’s kind of strange because somewhere in the gospels, Jesus says,( or was it John The Baptist?) “Who did they say I am or who I was?” And I think the answer is Elijah, which sort of demonstrates a recognition of past life experience. I think it’s a hard one logically to explain and it, and even more difficult if you believe in Jesus Christ, and you go to heaven, don’t believe in Jesus Christ and you’re confined to an eternal hell. And it would be very hard to find anybody who was deserving of either of those two states. From what I can understand, there is a growing movement to rethinking Christianity or rebooting. Christianity literally needs to be rebooted. For me, it was something that was rebooted in my life when I came across actual teachings, we believe in the Aetherius Society that were given through Dr. King. Particularly in 1958, for 12 consecutive Sundays while he was in this elevated, samadhic state. And it gives a profound cosmic appreciation of all life.
Johnny Burke: So the difference between the cosmic masters and alien, or star beings; what are the differences and what are the core principles that they want to teach the people here on Earth?
Paul Nugent: Hmm. That’s a very good question. The galaxy is vast and, when you take cosmic consciousness, you realize that the whole thing is teeming with life, but it’s only one of literally billions of galaxies. Not every creature is going to be humanoid. Our understanding in the solar system, our solar system, which is literally sort of closer than the other planets next door in that sense.
You can’t divorce the sort of material, physical manifestation of the universe from spirituality. Ultimately, it’s all a divine oneness. It’s all the divine, spiritual oneness of increasing levels. You could say of consciousness, the journey, as far as I understand it, just gets more and more and more and more ecstatic. That is the evolutionary process, or an understanding of what this being is that has created all of creation, AKA God. So I think, within our own solar system, they are like a guardian or a parent that is helping us to understand our own divine heritage. In terms of other alien beings, who don’t look like us, they’re on their own similar evolutionary journey. Within our own solar system, the likes of the Buddha, Shri Krishna, Lord Babaji, all of them we recognize or believe, came from other worlds within our own solar system are similar to us, certainly physically and helping us to attain our own higher states of consciousness.
Johnny Burke: Right. And from what I’ve heard from, people that talk about experiences with extra-terrestrials or star beings, most of them do want to help us become more loving beings. But I’ve also heard that there are some that do not have our best intentions in mind, and that there are those type of star beings that are protecting from that lot. What are your thoughts on that?
Paul Nugent: A hundred percent concur. In fact, it’s funny you bring that up because a week or so ago that I gave a presentation on that” UFO’s and Aliens friends or foes?” and the answer is from our perspective in the Aetherius Society , is both. We live in a very benevolent solar system and essentially benevolent galaxy, but not all galaxies are. Some of the transmissions that came through Dr. George King described the actions cosmic masters, the spiritual masters, protecting humanity from a very aggressive alien force. That certainly has been our experience.
Johnny Burke: Do we know who those aggressive alien forces are?
Paul Nugent: There are different forms, but from beyond our own. Galaxy. In one sense, they’ve infiltrated, I suppose, you’re putting me on sort of interesting ground here. They’ve infiltrated humanity. We do have a history with a culture going back actually millions of years, in which we’ve had two previous civilizations, one known as Lemuria , which we destroyed ,another known as Atlantis, which we destroyed. The reason that flying sources again, became very commonly seen at the time of Dr. George King in the fifties and early sixties, which was a tremendous UFO activity. When the term flying saucer was actually first coined, we’d learned how to split the atom, and destroy our civilization, which is what happened in Atlantis, which is what happened in Lemuria. And since those times we have had a history on earth of war. We’ve allowed ourselves to be influenced by negative thought. And it’s resulted in the exact kind of world that we have. Perhaps using the myth of a garden of Eden, we’ve been tempted out of our sort of divine realization.
So you’ve got the good aliens, what we refer to as cosmic masters. who are there to remind us of our divine heritage and the true spiritual evolutionary journey that we’re on. But there are other influences, and we have a tendency to have been quite weak as human beings. So we’ve fallen into that negative way of thinking. That’s the challenge we all have to face. do we want to sort of, become more conscious of our true purpose for being here, or are we seduced into all the sort of material things that allure us, but actually don’t give us not ultimate satisfaction, maybe temporary satisfaction. But it’s temporary as opposed to a attaining that higher eternal state of Samadhi. So I’d say that these influences are from alien galaxies, but also have infiltrated Earth and beyond within our own galaxy, I know this is incredibly far out, but there you go.
Johnny Burke: Those are the kinds of things that we talk about on the show. We don’t talk about average stuff- no one would really want to listen. When we talk about aliens and UFO’s and Christ Consciousness, and so on, it can get a little confusing. What is the difference between spirituality and the metaphysical world?
Paul Nugent: Okay. Yeah. I think metaphysics is an intuitive understanding of natural or cosmic law. For example, the law of karma; action and reaction are opposite and equal; ” as you sow, so shall you reap .”That is a metaphysical law, and the same goes for reincarnation and psychic abilities. Whereas spiritual is something that applies more to action. It’s something that is more heart-centered. I don’t want to get to new age you on you Johnny, but I mean, something that is a way of being in a way of doing ,as opposed to a way of thinking.
Johnny Burke: Now, some of teachings ,Nine Freedoms and the Twelve Blessings seem to be cornerstone content in the Aetherius Society philosophies. People that really want to learn about this, what are the main takeaways that they have to get from this?
Paul Nugent: Thanks. You’ve nailed it. The Twelve Blessings and The Nine Freedoms, which are both books,although they’re also available on audio. are the cornerstone or core teachings um, that that were, communicated or channeled through Dr. George King . The 12 blessings, they were channeled on 12 consecutive Sundays in 1958, we believe by Jesus, who we referred to as the master Jesus. And they literally sort of give this cosmic extension to his sermon on the Mount. The first one begins” blessed are they who worked peace”. And it progresses, that seventh blessing is a blessing to the mother earth. You’ve got a blessing to the son, to the Supreme Lords of karma, the galaxy, and the 11th blessing to the Supreme laws of creation.
Prayer is something we use a lot of in The Aetherius Society as a way of invoking and sending out this stream of spiritual energy to uplift the world. There was an interesting, incredible purity and a profundity, both to the text of the blessings and in the practice of radiating this energy through prayer. So that is the 12 blessings, I suppose, in a tiny nutshell..And you could say that, that sort of more of a spiritual teaching, whereas the nine freedoms is more of a metaphysical teaching, which were given three years later in 1961 by an intelligence we refer to as Mars Sector 6 , who presumably is a Martian intelligence. Highly elevated. And coming back to this path of cosmic consciousness and Ascension, what the nine freedoms gives in nine separate transmissions is the sort of evolutionary journey that we’re all on within our own solar system. Beginning with bravery that is the challenge that we each face. The second freedom what’s behind that is love . So, those two combined, lead to service, and that will lead to enlightenment. Beyond enlightenment, cosmic consciousness. Six, freedom is essential. That’s the journey and beyond Ascension, then we get into interplanetary existence, colonizing even in solar existence is the ninth freedom.
That’s the evolutionary journey that we’re on. And it’s just an incredible sort of metaphysical treatise of this journey that goes beyond Nirvana, beyond enlightenment, beyond cosmic consciousness, even beyond Ascension and indeed getting Closer to Venus.
Johnny Burke: I should probably stop there, but I’m not going to do that. That was really an incredible explanation because I was just about to ask. Since we’re talking about UFOs and aliens and cosmic consciousness and cosmic masters, is it on the roadmap where eventually we will have, tangible communication with other worldly beings? Is that in our future, and is it part of Ascension? I believe that might be connected to the explosion of mediums. The explosion of empaths. I actually heard the term recently,” the empathic big bang .” I’m beginning to wonder if all of these things are connected or related.
Paul Nugent: Yeah, it makes complete sense and Johnny, not a question of if, it’s a question of when. I think a lot of that depends on us as a human race for better and for worse. I think that if we become a world that spirals even more out of control, we’re already sort of seeming to be going . I think that could incite extraterrestrial intelligence. But on the other hand, and if we’re able to sort of go in the right direction and I won’t use expletives on your show, but I mean, get ourselves together, in the right way, then I think also we will induce it.
One thing that was communicated through Dr. King by the master, from whom we actually take. our name of a Venusian master, we know refer to as Aetherius. This is back in the late fifties or perhaps early sixties, but he said, you look to us for a sign, you’ll believe us when you see a sign, but he said, “we look to you to give us a sign that you’re ready.” If we were to have unequivocal sightings that cannot be disputed, I think unfortunately we would have looting and chaos because there’s this tremendous friction already beneath the surface. That’s what it would trigger, which is not what they want at all. But I think that when we can sort of demonstrate that actually we are well, that is coming together peacefully and in cooperation. Then I think that, yes, we will also get that as an incentive, that’s not only inspirational, but I would say transformational
Johnny Burke: Going back to the Aetherius Society, would you consider this a religious movement or is it just a different philosophy?
Paul Nugent: Well, it’s both. We are in a nonprofit status, we are a religion, we are a church. We have services, we have temples and services several times a week in which we come together doing services of the 12 blessings and other things, sending out energy spiritually. But at the same time yeah, it’s a philosophy. I think it’s the philosophy of the future because, because coming back to rebooting Christianity, I’d say in certain ways of not embracing karma and reincarnation, which really, I would argue illogical.
Fortunately in certain ways the world is discovering that sort of having bigger diamonds around your finger and flashy cars and all the rest of it actually doesn’t bring the kind of true satisfaction that we seek. What does bring satisfaction is spiritual realization. People beginning to realize this in greater and greater numbers. And so the Aetherius Society does provide certainly a very interesting alternative philosophy for not only for our purpose being here, but our journey beyond here and people who do study it, it starts to make rather good, rational sense.
Johnny Burke: I think it does. When you mentioned the reboot of Christianity, it’s really no secret that the Bible has been edited. And we’re talking about destructive editing, you can’t just hit the undo button and fix it. They removed complete books from the Bible back in the fifth or sixth century that really can’t be undone. But I think what you’re trying to do with the Aetherius Society is, sympathetic to the idea of a reboot of Christianity. I don’t think it’s really a renunciation of Christ, but it’s more like a redefinition, isn’t it?
Paul Nugent: Absolutely. Yeah. Very well said. It is indeed. Embracing, the avatar Jesus Christ, who was born in very unusual circumstances, who left this earth in very unusual circumstances, which have been either misinterpreted or misunderstood over the centuries. But yes, it’s coming back to sort of appreciate that yes, this was an intelligence, and it’s not so far out who actually came from another world at least the consciousness of the individual
Johnny Burke: The concept of ascended masters, like Buddha, you mentioned several of them-
Paul Nugent: Buddha we would say was a cosmic master. The difference between a cosmic master and an ascended master, is a cosmic master is not from or of this earth. Sri Krishna. I mentioned Lord Babaji, both of them, we believe were Saturnian masters, which is the most evolved planetary system in the solar system. Lord Buddha and the master Jesus, both of whom we believe came from Venus. So they are what we would term cosmic masters, whereas an ascended master, is a master who has gone through this terrestrial experience, and sufficiently awakened themselves to gain enlightenment, go beyond that, and attain cosmic consciousness.
There’s a wonderful book, it’s a classic. It’s literally called Cosmic Consciousness by Richard Morris Bucke written in the late 18 hundreds. He actually was a disciple of Walt Whitman. He believed what Whitman, wonderful New Yorker who had attained cosmic consciousness. In this book , he outlines numerous people throughout the ages who he believes have had that experience. Those who’ve literally were born on earth who’ve developed themselves towards attaining cosmic consciousness, many of them in native or indigenous peoples from places like Tibet and Egypt and the Andes, much more than Western folk, such as myself. They make up the so-called spiritual hierarchy of this Earth, who could have gone on to interplanetary experience, but remained here holding a tremendous karmic balance and light.
Johnny Burke: If you can imagine, we’re in a classroom or we’re in a concert hall somewhere, and there’s some people in the back that normally go to the traditional church. They’re raising their hand right now. They’re saying. ” I get it; Christ consciousness, cosmic consciousness, it’s all the same thing. How do I get there and how do I reconcile that with the teachings that I was brought up with?
Paul Nugent: Another great question, Johnny. I think, hold it in your heart. Hold the mind open. Because these are the essential questions, questions we all should be learning in school, mulling over in school, challenging, questioning, and hold it in your heart, because how does it feel?
Does it make sense? We have to sort of move beyond mainstream media and start to question the conditioning that we’ve all been sort of led to just follow without questioning. So I’d say, does it make sense? to you? How does it feel? It is literally, you could say a butterfly having to sort of work its way out of the Chrysalis. Free yourself and your heart will know- your intuition will know. The energy behind it is love in a very, very incredible, beautiful, unlimited cosmic way. It’s the energy of creation, it’s love. And that’s the awakening.
Johnny Burke: Wasn’t it John Lennon that said” love is the answer “many years ago? He did. Paul, thanks for joining us today on the show. How can our listeners learn more about you and the Aetherius Society?
Paul Nugent: It’s www.aetherius.org, we have a companion website, www.12 blessings.org , which is about the 12th blessings. There are two books besides cosmic consciousness ,The 12 blessings and The Nine Freedoms, if one is curious to sort of find out more.
Johnny Burke: I will put that in the show notes and the transcripts, which we are starting to add to the episodes here. You’ve been listening to closer to Venus on Johnny Burke. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please consider subscribing. You can also leave us a review on iTunes as well. For more info, please go to www.closertovenus.com. Thanks again for tuning in and we’ll see you next time.