Freie Interessengemeinschaft für Grenzund Geisteswissenschaften und Ufologie-Studien

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Freie Interessengemeinschaft für Grenzund Geisteswissenschaften und Ufologie-Studien

The Freie Interessengemeinschaft für Grenz-und Geisteswissenschaften und Ufologie-Studien (Free Community of Interests in the Border and Spiritual Sciences and UFO Studies) grew out of a metaphysical study group founded by UFO contactee William Eduard "Billy" Meier (b. 1937) at his home in the German-speaking section of western Switzerland. It was to that study group in 1975 that Meier began to reveal his lifetime of contacts with space beings and to whom he first showed the photographs of flying saucers he had taken.

Through 1976, the European, especially in the German-speaking countries, gave extensive coverage to Meiers' claims and many people interested in UFOs visited Meier. Toward the end of the year, writers Lou Zinstaag and Timothy Good, took copies of the Meier pictures to the United States where they were researching a book, and gave then to contactee enthusiast Wendelle Stevens. Impressed, he visited Switzerland in 1977 and began an investigation of Meier and his claims. His first impressions confirmed, Stevens led in the formation of a publishing company, Genesis III Productions, and began issuing volumes drawn from Meier's materials. Separating Meier from other contactees were the many pictures that had so impressed Stevens, and thus it was natural that the first book from Genesis III was a large picture book featuring Meier's pictures of the"beamships" that Meier claimed frequently visited near his home. A second picture book followed and during the 1980s some dozen books appeared from Genesis III.

The circulation of the Meier material led to the growth of the Free Community in Europe and the emergence of an American affiliate, the Semjase Silver Star Center, named for Meier's primary contact, Semjase, a beautiful space commander from the Pleiades star system. The Free Community tries to exist in that area where science and religion converge. Meier makes claims concerning the objective reality of his flying saucer contacts that include travels to outer space in a beamship and numerous face-to-face meetings with various extraterrestrials. On the other hand, most of the contacts have been in traditional contactee fashion, via telepathy. The material conveyed by Semjase and her colleagues also have a distinctly religious message. Traditional religion is denounced for its detrimental effect on humanity, but in its place the Pleiadians advocate the following of the "Ten Bids," the things which nature bids us follow.

The universe is entering the Aquarian Age during which humanity will experience a massive spiritual upheaval. Meier is the herald of Truth, the one designated to spread Creation's Universal Laws. Creation is seen as the mass of Spiritual Energy through the universe. The combination of pictures and spiritual message has had a marked influence on the continuing New Age movement with its emphasis on spiritual emergence. As early as 1989, channelers in North America also began to claim contact with the Pleiadians, most notably Barbara Marciniak. At the same time, ufologists denounced Meier as a hoaxer, though the several volumes demonstrating that fact have been lost among the many books and videos supportive of his claims.