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Feature: Interview - Benjamin Creme Talks to Simon Wroe [http://www.camdennewjournal.com/sites/all/files/nj_camden/images/featur\ es/feature102711_01.jpg?1319720916] Published: 27 October, 2011 by SIMON WROE PROPHET, guru, latter-day John the Baptist, madman, antichrist: Benjamin Creme has been called many things since he announced his vision of how humanity would be saved. When the fog of opinion clears, Creme is a small, 88-year-old man with a pleasant face and large eyes that struggle in the light, the result of a long battle with glaucoma. At his most recent lecture at the Friends Meeting House in Euston (he gives one a month, health permitting), Creme initially appeared frail, but spoke for three hours. This is the story he told: An omnipotent force called Maitreya, The World Teacher, is living among us. Soon he will make his presence known and lead mankind to a better future, where the resources of the planet are shared and everyone is treated equally. Maitreya is helped by a cohort of UFOs ("space brothers") and "Masters", including Jesus Christ, who now lives in a suburb of Rome. He is hindered by the "Lords of Materiality", who are the necessary evils of our reality. Creme has been telling the same incredible story for 40 years, and he tells it in the manner of a tired parent reading a bedtime story to a child that keeps asking the same questions and never falls asleep. "Maitreya has been appearing more and more frequently," says Creme, who receives all his information from a spirit called "The Master". "Soon he may well decide to mentally overshadow every person's mind in the world and thousands of miracles will spontaneously occur." Creme has been saying "soon" for a long time and some, particularly the Press, have grown tired of waiting. This frustrates Creme, who believes Maitreya would reveal himself if the media were less cynical. He is also upset with Margaret Thatcher and the Queen, whom he says conspired with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the BBC to keep Maitreya secret. Despite the setbacks, Share International, the public arm of Creme's work, has an estimated 150,000 followers worldwide, many in America and Japan. A monthly magazine keeps subscribers abreast of Maitreya news, including articles by The Master, dictated to Creme telepathically. The headquarters of Share International is also Creme's home: a large terraced house in Dartmouth Park where he lives with his wife Phyllis, a former teacher, and "the most telepathic cat you've ever known". He has three adult children. When he is not "taking humanity by the scruff of the neck and wooing it back into a semblance of sanity", he likes to paint. Growing up in Glasgow, Creme left school at 16 to concentrate on painting but his businessman father never approved. Creme headed to London, where he was introduced to the alternative religion of Theosophy. The spirits first contacted him in 1959 as he was getting out of the bath, telling him to go to Blackfriars Bridge. He followed the instructions and had what he believes was a UFO experience. After that things went quiet until 1977 when Maitreya came down from the Himalayas, where he'd been for 95,000 years. The search for him since then has been circuitous. He moved to England, apparently arriving in London on July 19, 1977. Creme says Maitreya can travel around the Earth "in a matter of minutes". On this occasion, however, he flew British Airways. He then worked as a hospital porter near Brick Lane before moving to somewhere in south-west London. Creme will not give many details about Maitreya besides the fact he is six foot three tall. He says knowing who he is would cloud our judgment of his deeds and that Maitreya will make himself known when the time is right. The story "seems almost too fantastic to believe", he admits, but that does not deter people. "It gives them a sense they've looked for since they were children, a sense of belonging to everybody and everything, to a world at peace, a world that's one, that's fair, that's just that fulfils the dreams of everybody." Sitting in his studio, surrounded by his paintings, it is clear Creme has not forgotten his childhood dream of being a great artist, a soul touched by genius. "I'm a painter. I'm unknown," he says. "But through this story I've become known. Maybe disbelieved, but known." Benjamin Creme's next lecture is on November 3 at the Friends House, 173 Euston Road, NW1. 7pm. Admission free. 020 7482 1113
