Alternate Perceptions Magazine, June 2023
RUDOLF STEINER, UFOs, and AHRIMAN
by: Robert Filocco
I find that much of Steiner’s occult cosmology meshes sensibly with the ongoing revelation of the UFO and alien influence in our world. Daniel Pinchbeck, The Occult Control System: UFOs, aliens, other dimensions, and future timelines, 2019
Since the end of the seventies of the last century, other beings-not of the human order-have been descending to the earth for the purposes of their further development. From the cosmic realms beyond the earth, they come down to the earth and enter into a definite relationship with human beings. Rudolf Steiner, “Evolution and Extraterrestrials,” May 13, 1921
Are we in danger of forgetting that the most beautiful things in nature, in the cosmos-such as the human form and consciousness-take the longest time to gestate and evolve? Mark Booth, The Secret History of the World, 2010
It is not so that all the experiences which surround us in the world stem from a unifying foundation, for in fact everything stems from spiritual individualities who differ from one another. Rudolf Steiner, Secret Brotherhoods and the Mystery of the Human Double, 1917
Keith Thompson in his book Angels and Aliens: UFOs and the Mythic Imagination (1993) usefully reframes the UFO phenomenon within the broader context of religious and spiritual experience. Such a framework is needed to comprehend the various aspects of the UFO phenomenon. I have believed for some time that UFO intelligences are part of what I have called an exo- or cosmic ecology to describe the larger environment that we share with a bewildering variety of beings.
Two crucial questions researchers have been asking for years are What is their purpose, and what is their interest in humans? Most Ufologists, however, are not steeped in esoteric spiritual traditions and thus seem to have a dim awareness of the intelligences involved. Most occultists, on the other hand, tend to dismiss UFOs as “will o’ the wisp” transient phenomena or conspiracy theories.
In my opinion, the work of Rudolf Steiner provides the framework that underpins the views expressed by Thompson. Like the perspective of the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, Steiner’s perspective reinforces the validity of the UFO phenomenon as spiritual in nature. Steiner’s writings also throw light on contemporary conspiracy theories connected to the interaction of secret societies and outside intelligences. An understanding of their agendas for modern humanity is crucial for the abduction phenomena, animal mutilations, and the more objective manifestations of advanced technologies. Such an understanding includes comprehending the sociopolitical aspects of the official international UFO cover-up, especially cooperation between dark human forces and the beings referred to as extraterrestrials (ETs), visitors, “ultraterrestrials,” etc.
One type of retrograde being Steiner called “Ahrimanic” comes to Earth from a non-spatial domain: clever, attracted to but lacking in human feeling and emotions (gemut), they “speed up” human thought and development to match their own vibratory level. According to some witnesses, their goal is to ultimately subjugate humanity and create a sphere (the Eighth Sphere) that will imprison the human soul in gross physicality.
According to Steiner, their agenda includes control over financial markets and propagation of a hyper-rationalist and materialist paradigm of knowledge. They utilize electronics to control mankind and negatively influence the neural development in children; encourage a fundamentalist perspective on Christ and the gospels to hinder spiritual development; destroy nature by destroying species like bees; develop weapons of mass destruction by harnessing the atom, developing bacilli, and advancing vaccines that Steiner foresaw would halt spiritual perception.
By incarnating into human bodies, Ahrimanic beings would merge the spiritual or non-spatial dimension from whence they came with the physical, human realm, disguising themselves in a variety of forms. Partnered with evil beings of Luciferic origin and the demonic retrograde beings he called the asuras, the overall goal of Ahrimanic beings is to trap humanity in matter, to limit our ability to evolve according to the supervision of the “good gods.” Instead, humanity would be entrapped in what occultists call the Eighth Sphere, preventing us from evolving into a new state of being divorced from matter.
There is a similarity between the UFO abduction phenomenon and the alleged machinations of Steiner’s Ahrimanic beings. The work of the late John Mack MD, formerly Dean of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, as well as Yvonne Smith, provide some startling indications of Ahrimanic-like activity in his case studies of self-proclaimed abductees.
Other researchers like Thompson, Jacques Vallee, and Gordon Creighton have asserted parallels between modern alien abductions and shamanic initiation, fairy lore, near-death experiences (NDEs) and other phenomena involving symbolic communication among autonomous beings. I believe the authentic UFO phenomenon is the most impactful and important phenomenon of our modern age. I reject the simplistic ET hypothesis that all UFOs are piloted by aliens from distant planets or that only benign beings are involved in UFO phenomena. The range of phenomena encountered is not reducible to either a material or psychological foundation, it is what Jung considered psychoid in quality, partaking of both the material and the psychic.
The complex UFO phenomenon takes place both materially and psychologically. It has what can be grouped into three main aspects:
The role of what Jung called the “psychoid” aspects of UFOs. Jung had walked and talked with his guide Philemon who manifested not only in his dreams but in a physical form. Regarding UFOs, Jung famously stated that “hallucinations do not show up on radar.” The meaning of UFOs was for him not just technological but a sign of spiritual change, a new “myth.” Steiner indicates a similar bridge between matter and mind in his description of Ahrimanic and Luciferic beings and their current efforts to hinder human evolution. Most pertinently, he describes this age as one of intense spiritual activity on Earth when the veil between the worlds is lifting, when a battle between good and evil is underway.
A spiritual perspective is therefore needed, one that explains the nature of the entities / intelligences involved, including why their cosmic ecology includes an interest in humans and their agendas. Such a perspective will also help us to better understand the experience of humans who encounter such entities. Abductees, NDE experiencers and persons who have shamanic experiences have much in common. Steiner’s work and that of the Irish mystic and writer Lorna Bryne, are very useful in our understanding. The role of the hybridization, and the relationship of the phenomena to death and rebirth are also crucial aspects to understand.
In the technological aspects of the UFO phenomenon, we encounter advanced propulsion technologies and new theories of physics, including the ether physics of Wilhelm Reich and Steiner, along with the dark technologies of mind control. It is the physics of the ethers that explain aspects of our interaction with the paranormal, such as the shutting down of car engines and missile sites as well as the communication through and manipulation of electronic instruments. The latter technologies involve implants, torture, and what Elana Freeland calls the “Space Fence” in her 2018 book Under An Ionized Sky, a chemical / electromagnetic barrier around the planet to block positive spiritual influences from the starry realm.
Steiner’s “esoteric ecology” considers both the material and the psychological. Who is Ahriman? What role do Ahrimanic beings play? What is their agenda? From Steiner (EVIL, p. 89):
... it is a Luciferic deception to imagine that the mirror of matter causes a spiritual emanation to arise, [and] it is Ahrimanic to think that the things of the sense-world could have some influence on the human being’s soul.
In other words, Luciferic beings attempt to hinder human development by ignoring the earthly element, superseding this development by containing our thoughts in ungrounded emotion, ego inflation and grandiosity, whereas Ahriman in the opposite extreme attempts to induce an inflexible, overly analytic, sclerotic way of experiencing and thinking that is rigid, materialistic and without emotional warmth, a way of being that is temporal in nature, trapped by time versus in touch with the timeless, or what Steiner referred to as the “enduring realm.” Luciferic and Asuric forces are involved in possession states, sexual and other forms of ritual abuse, whereas Ahriman is involved in abusing technology, controlling finances, power, and materialist thinking.
Both Ahriman and Lucifer are committed to speeding up the development of human consciousness beyond our capacity to harness it properly, from uncontrolled technologies to psychic gifts wielded by the immature so as to hinder or distort natural spiritual development. From Evil (page 84): All that expresses a lust for power, for ruling over others, all that opposes healthy human social impulses, is of an Ahrimanic nature. A person who loses interest in his fellow human beings can be said, not in a vaguely mystical way but in a precise sense, to be possessed by Lucifer; a person possessed by Ahriman…wishes to have as many people as possible under his thumb, and to rule over them…by manipulating their weaknesses. It is Ahrimanic to delve into the sub-earthly, in the subconscious, to seek out human weakness in order to rule over people.
The entity Ahriman is interested in power, control, deceit, and manipulation. Ahrimanic beings reside in our nervous systems and operate via electricity, from birth, we have an Ahrimanic Doppelganger that co-occupies our body and brain, This electric shadow infuses the soul and mental process with depressing and degrading contents and impulses that can lead to a variety of illnesses. These beings are connected to the human death process and have been attempting to “crossover” with humans for some time. I speculate that this latter effort is connected to the presence of the dead within the history of encounters, as well as the hybridization “programs” and appearance of dead relatives, one of the strangest elements of the encounter narratives. Ahriman and Lucifer can also heavily influence our dream world by representing impulses and thoughts in symbolic forms. From Evil:
If we were to take the whole of human neurological life as a place, and the whole of the blood life as another place, and add what belongs to these when we are in the worlds between death and rebirth, we would have the realms of the Archangels and Angels…. The enormous complexity of human beings becomes apparent when you consider that now…Archangels and Angels are active in them via the nervous system and the blood, but so are abnormal spirits which oppose them. This is where the forces are anchored which act with each other, against each other, and so on.
A battle for control of our minds, therefore, is not just fought via external means but also via control of thought, astral states of sleep as well the transitions of the soul after death.
Ahriman is further interested in propagating a view of nature as “dead,” a trapping of the spirit in the machine, figuratively and eventually literally, via the creation of human-machine (transhuman / metaverse) beings. Ahriman is at home in the coldness of electric impulses, the main driver behind modern electronics and artificial intelligence. Over a hundred years ago, Steiner warned of the negative effects of electricity and over-exposure to electromagnetic fields (Spiritual Ecology, pp. 207-209), and now recent works like The Invisible Rainbow by Arthur Firstenberg offer the history and science behind the destructive effects.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and transhumanism should be thought of as byproducts of human-Ahrimanic collaboration. The goal of the transhumanists is a worldwide control system emerging from the Space Fence environment—what Freeland calls Ahriman’s nervous system—right down into synthetic biology. AI and genetic manipulation combine to create alien/human hybrids, synthetically “enhanced” transhumans, utilizing biogenetically engineered Morgellons filaments, nanotechnology, and documented “alien implants.”
Steiner’s descriptions of gnome elementals sound remarkably like contemporary accounts of greys’ physical appearance and cold, objective intelligence: “They consist entirely of active clever awareness, active intellect, active craftiness, active logic… With their steel gray figures, quite small compared to humans, almost entirely head….” (Tompkins, p. 114). Witnessed repeatedly in abductee literature is how greys are physical but shapeshift and move through matter. Others have noted this similarity between faery lore and beings encountered by experiencers. Strieber for instance encountered blue beings akin to German kobolds of faery literature.
According to Steiner, elementals were created by higher beings to perform the basic functions of maintaining organic life. I suspect that some of these beings have also been allied or forced into service by higher intelligences to serve unfolding UFO agendas. I further suspect, as do other researchers, that some of these beings are artificial in nature, “robotic elementals,” if you will. The variety of beings in UFO literature aligns well with those described in occult literature.
Steiner warns of the dangers that follow from elemental cooperation with evil intelligences:
If humanity does not open itself to the spiritual current’s influx from the realm of spirit, human stupor towards this influx will give rise to something that is indeed already clearly discernible: these elemental beings will conclude a kind of confederacy which hearkens to the leadership of the primarily intellectualizing power of Ahriman. And if this happens, if these elemental beings place themselves under Ahriman’s dominion with the clear aim of opposing human evolution, humanity could not progress further. In this case it would be possible for Ahrimanic powers in union with the beings of earth’s elements to undertake something quite different from what they were originally intended to do.
Life of the Human Soul and Its Relation to World Evolution, 1922, pp. 122-23
In his lecture in Dornach on May 12, 1921, Steiner predicted that humankind might be forced to live with “ant people,”. If evolution goes awry: “From the earth there will spring forth a terrible brood of beings, a brood of automata of an order of existence lying between the mineral and the plant kingdoms and possessed of an overwhelming power of intellect.” Elsewhere, Steiner contrasts such “automaticity” with the spirit-infused thinking and feeling associated with ideal natural human development.
Native Americans too have discussed “ant people,” and a time when such beings lived underground with humans. Hopi, Navajo, and Maya traditions speak of four periods of planetary cataclysms, each resulting in the intervention of outside beings to shelter and save a part of humanity. Are these the same beings Steiner is referring too, or a different manifestation?
A darkened future of a man-machine merger (today known as brain-computer interface), combined with a human / alien hybrid world, is described by writers such as Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs. In The Orion Zone, Gary David speculates about how the layout of Native American cities reflects star patterns, and how the round kiva structure is a symbolic memory of the Hopis’ underground existence with alien ant beings. These beings are described as gray and mechanical, associated with metals, warfare and— interestingly epidemics. (See above for Ahrimanic beings and bacillus.)
David believes these beings sharing chthonic and physical aspects of gnomes may be from various star systems. Are they a universal kind of being, one in the servitude of various higher beings? Is the sacred nature of DNA relevant? David connects Native American traditions with the Middle East and traditions of “fallen angels” and hybrid beings created by mating and merging with humans. David goes to some lengths to illustrate the similarities between Hopi myths, language, and religious concepts with Middle Eastern traditions.
If humanity does not on the one hand deal with the risk of Ahrimanic powers uniting with beings living in the lower elements and on the other, that of Luciferic powers uniting with the etheric elements quest for unity, it would be possible for the earth to become quite different in future from what it should have been in accordance with originating intentions.
Life of the Human Soul, 1922, p. 125
An interesting corollary of this situation is the identification of Ahrimanic beings with humans, echoing the claim encountered in abduction lore that the alien collective “we” and humans are connected, are “one.” “Scott,” one of John Mack’s clients, writes of this in the voice of the alien-human hybrid: “I must say the human being has very heightened emotions, too much for me to process at times. Your emotions are recreation in a sense. Our fascination with humans revolves around this.”
That passage is important in that it expresses one of the apparent goals of Ahrimanic beings: to merge with humans in order to experience greater feeling. But it is well known that dark beings “feed” upon negative human emotions (like pain and fear) as a known aspect of black magic, not to mention that the feelings of humans ensnared in electromagnetic shells are seriously compromised.
“Isabel,” another experiencer who worked with Mack, related a similar impression. “The beings seem to be love-deprived and seek our love and our experience,” she said. Perhaps by creating “half-and-half babies,” they might be able to “get enough human qualities” (Passport to the Cosmos, p. 250). On page 204, “Sara” also speaks of this process: “The larger purpose of bringing these species together was to bring about ‘personal evolution’ in order to achieve ‘universal understanding. The intense pain was used to penetrate the density of human denial, to reach us when we are ‘asleep.’ Each species brings something to the merger. Pain is the extreme of physical tangibility.”
Sara’s explanation sounds like a cover story. The involuntary nature of alien abductions, the infringement upon free will, the often-painful experiences of medical probing and forced intercourse, are malevolent acts. UFO phenomena often point to the blurring of esoteric occult practices and modern technology, moving far beyond the traditional ET paradigm or a spiritual interaction with the supposedly benign, or neutral, daemonic realm. Another passage in Mack’s Passport to the Cosmos (p. 248) brings up the question of “using Eva’s body” and free will: “Writing in the voice of her cosmic we/she, Eva described the need of the beings to adjust our communication from higher vibratory levels to those of earthly vibration, to slow down in this way and vibrate at more subtle levels … this takes training …. We are using Eva’s body with her consent fulltime now. Earthly Eva has not left but has diffused with us so that her earthly powers have been greatly enhanced.”
Is this the Ahrimanic tendency to “speed up” human development? Enhanced psychic abilities often occur among experiencers and are a common thread connecting shamanic experience, NDEs, and the hypertrophied functioning of multiple personalities (MPD) or dissociative identity disorder (DID). The categorization of young children as “crystal” and “star” children is also of concern: their cognition and abilities as sensitives are being “sped up.” Steiner predicted the birth of sensitives from the 1930s and on but emphasized that not all of the developments would be positive for humanity. Ufologist Richard M. Dolan and psychic Ingo Swann have documented a number of cases of what they believe to be telepathic human-looking aliens, but were they? Dolan in UFOs For The 21st Century Mind (p. 388) speculates: “Are they exactly like us biologically? It would seem logical to think they came from earth. If so, how did they become so different?”
Are demonic beings incarnating, or are humans being cloned? Or are they a type of MKULTRA engineering? Or some combination?
In her 2010 book Stairways to Heaven (pp. 228-230), Lorna Bryne described a vision provided by the Archangel Michael of a future human she called a throwback:
There seemed to be implants in his head, like clamps separating parts of his brain. I could also see that parts of his brain were missing. His skull was not wholly made of bone, and he was no longer flesh and blood … it was as if there was something invisible inside his arms and legs which made him unbreakable.” Michael explained to Lorna that it will be because of family strengths and characteristics that his family could be chosen in the future. She quotes him as saying: “In his exploration of science and technology man can make life better, but he can also use science in the wrong way. Humankind must learn to do things for the right reason, and not for the sake of power or control of others … if in the future human leaders choose to go down that path, they will select families to become less free. More like slaves.” She continues: “The shock of what I saw took my breath away. It was as if that tiny spark of light was his conscious mind, but the shocking thing was that it was surrounded by a total void-darkness. As if a part of him had been locked away in a room where he could never access it … he seemed to be screaming in his mind as he searched the emptiness that filled it.
Both Steiner and Bryne allude to the potential control of mankind via a new, more dangerous form of eugenics. The “killer alters” Elisa E mentions in her autobiography Our Life Beyond MKULTRA bear a resemblance to the creatures Byrne describes. Steiner predicted such developments in a 1917 lecture:
Esoteric truths must be revealed during the fifth post-Atlantean era, and if they are added to Darwinian views, an incredible power will be gained over human beings through the selection of the fittest. In addition, there will be efforts toward an esoteric invention to adapt the fit to be even more fit, which will lead to a tremendous exploitation of power that will oppose the good tendencies of the fifth post-Atlantean period. The Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric, p. 188
In the Peter Koury case, Dolan describes a sexual encounter with two females and DNA testing of a hair from one of the females. Not surprisingly the results were anomalous. Dolan wrote that the case suggested the “existence of a clandestine human group, long distinct from the mainstream of humanity, as being part of or most or all of the UFO phenomenon” (p. 264). Like the infamous Men in Black, a coercive, threatening, “bigger picture” element seems to be at work in the UFO abductee community.
Besides a seeming effort to preserve human reproductive capacities, could the sexual encounters have to do with human biological reproduction coming to an end, which Steiner maintains will occur? Are Ahrimanic and Luciferic forces attempting to preserve this capacity of sexual reproduction by creating “gene banks”? Are they “hijacking” human evolution to imprison humankind in matter? In a 1917 lecture, Steiner alludes to this effort:
One important fact … is that not later than the seventh millennium in earth evolution women will grow infertile, and reproduction will no longer be possible. If matters went entirely according to the normal Angelic spirits … human reproduction would not even continue for as long as this; it would only continue until the sixth millennium … however it will go beyond this, into the seventh and possibly a little beyond. The reason will be that those cast-down Angels will be in charge and will give the impulses for reproduction … the powers of darkness will have to intervene so that the affair may continue for a time.
The Fall of the Spirits of Darkness, 1917, p. 212
Writers in the human potential movement of the Sixties (Terence McKenna, Timothy Leary, etc.) encouraged taking psychedelic drugs in order to prematurely develop human psychic abilities. For them, the evolution of man into a god was a main theological tenet. Many figures involved in this movement were connected to darker sources, both in the occult and intelligence communities—figures no doubt also involved in the UFO abductee community. Certainly, Steiner agrees that the ultimate destiny of man is to become an advanced being, but how human beings take that journey is crucial to the outcome of true individuality. Canadian media commentator Marshall McLuhan pointed to such dangers:
Electric information environments being utterly ethereal foster the illusion of the world as spiritual substance. It is now a reasonable facsimile of the mystical body [of Christ], a blatant manifestation of the Anti-Christ. After all, the Prince of This World is a very great electric engineer.
Letter to French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain, 1969
It is easy to see how McLuhan’s insight aligns with Steiner’s description of Ahriman.
Thanks to numerous researchers, we also now have a wealth of facts linking black magic and occult practices with the military-industrial-intelligence community, especially the electronic mind control technologies and UFO phenomena. Aspects of scientific research have obviously been perverted by Ahrimanic and Luciferic agendas.
Mack identifies “Ed” as an experiencer of the illusory electronic aspect of abduction in relation to human consciousness: “The closest analogy I can give is like changing some of the software architecture and some of the hardware in the computer. At first when you sit down to work with it, you may not see it, but then you say, wait a minute now, the software works differently, faster. It’s got more capability” (Abduction, p 40). This aspect of “speeding up the software” sounds very much like the programming process Elisa E and others underwent during MKULTRA.
Steiner asserted that one of the ways that Ahrimanic forces prematurely speed up human development is via “gifting” enhanced psychic abilities and sensitivities. Steiner also predicted that part of Ahriman’s legacy when he incarnates in a human body would be to create a school to enhance occult/psychic abilities with “minimal effort or preparation.” All psychic experience and spiritual feeling would thereby be reduced to material (electromagnetic?) processes.
For “Ed” and other experiencers, this “transformation” appears to be dressed up in ecological concerns for the earth, a common theme in decades of UFO literature. There is no such pretense, however, in the world of programming and torture victims. Another related aspect is the emotional connection of experiencers to the aliens/entities. Both MKULTRA subjects and abductees express at times a deep “loving” connection to the beings encountered. I suspect this too to be Stockholm syndrome programming. The confusion between reality and unreality—"encounters,” involuntary sexual activity, “possession” or medium states—all create confusion, whether during and after abduction.
Bryne touches on this as well in the context of a coming Antichrist / Satanic incarnation:
Man’s intended evolution is for the body and soul to become one and for humans to become perfect spiritual beings who will no longer suffer physical illness or die. The Antichrist will try to stop this evolution. He will appear to give us everything … if we let Satan get more control of us, he will blind us to the fact that we are much, much more than our bodies and minds. He will wipe out our consciousness that we also have a soul.
Stairways to Heaven, p. 284
I suggest that in exchange for the slower plan of human evolution attained by individual effort we are given an ersatz (substitute) “spirituality” that leads to a complete deadening and enslavement in the Eighth or Moon Sphere as well as increased human slave suffering on Earth—the darkened slag world denuded of life that Tolkien’s Mordor represented—a world dominated by evil and entrapment of souls. Although Tolkien denied any influence from Steiner, his Sauron greatly resembles Steiner’s Ahriman. In his biography of Tolkien, Tom Shippey provides a useful description of the formerly human Ringwraiths, central characters in the story and prescient as to leaders of our times:
They accept the gifts of Sauron, quite likely with the intention of using them for some purpose they identify as good. But then they cut corners, eliminate opponents, believe in some cause which justifies everything they do. In the end, the cause destroys any moral sense and even any remaining humanity. The spectacle of the person ‘eaten up inside’ by devotion to some abstraction has been so familiar throughout the twentieth century as to make the idea of a wraith, and the wraithing process, horribly recognizable, in a way non-fantastic.
Tolkien it can be noted, believed he was guided in his work, a “chosen instrument”. In Caldecott’s work, he mentions a fascinating encounter with a real man upon whom Tolkien patterned Gandalf. (p.13). He writes” This sense of mystery is deepened by an encounter in real life with a figure he identifies as Gandalf, in the person of a man who visited him to discuss certain old pictures that seemed almost designed to illustrate The Lord Of The Rings, but which Tolkien had never seen before. The man remarks after a silence; “Of course you don’t suppose, do you, that you wrote all that book yourself”. Anthroposophic Executive Council leader and prolific writer Sergei O. Prokofieff (1954-2014) claimed that Steiner in the 1920s cited the Eighth Sphere as the origin of UFOs (Prokofieff, East in the Light of the West, Part 1, 1993). According to Steiner, the Eighth Sphere is a spectral realm, split off from true evolutionary paths, inhabited by both divine creative beings and Ahrimanic and Luciferic beings as well as lost beings akin to the ghost realms of Buddhist cosmology. Ahriman and his hosts seek to entrap us in matter and delude us into rejecting belief in a spiritual world. Luciferic forces seek to ensnare us in a false phantasm, a pseudo-spirituality based on ego and separation versus union of all beings. The result of such entrapment is to stop human evolution toward pure spirit and spirit-infused matter, thus inhabiting the Eighth Sphere with spiritually crippled human beings.
Mack cites experiencers who alluded to the existence of a “bigger plan” for humanity. “Catherine” wrote: “All the genetic experimentation is a big part of it, but it’s not the entire story … it’s hard to describe, but it’s a much bigger plan than just that. But if they do not continue the reproductive/genetic activity, then they can’t proceed. But this is just one step.”
Yvonne Smith’s work with experiencers has produced similar statements. “Mary”: “They are trying to create a body into which both species can incarnate and express their own styles of consciousness” (Smith, p. 54). This description that the beings “do not seem to have the capability of our emotions even with the fact that they are more technologically advanced than we are, they still need us for development” (Smith, p. 87) is a perfect description of Steiner’s Ahrimanic beings.
It is precisely at this juncture that a “stretching” of one’s frame of reference is needed. Neither traditional theological metaphysics, nor a purely materialistic conception will capture this phenomenon which is psychoid in nature and yet partakes of dark technologies and spirit/soul occultism. Are “they” trans-dimensional beings with a specific agenda?
Mack experiencer “Sara” alludes to a war for control of human minds: “Sara returned to the present and went on to describe a huge, ominous dark cloud covering the sky that seemed to exert a magnetic pull upon her, ‘like throwing dark, black tar over my head.’ The cloud seemed to Sara to embody the projected negative consciousness and vibrations of human beings. ‘Its impact was debilitating and made me feel victimized. The cloud functions as a kind of mask or shield to hide some sort of craft … this craft was the source of negative vibration and was piloted by a human being. The aircraft’s “purpose” was ostensibly war, but not to kill people. The war was with people’s heads … war to control people.’”
Was Sara envisioning the technology already at work within a “Space Fence” control system?
What should we make of the more positive aspects of the abduction phenomenon? Heightened perception, empathy, increased ecological awareness, physical and psychological healing, and increased mental capacities have all been noted in abduction literature. Such reports mirror those who survive NDEs and individuals who apply themselves to the practices of longstanding traditions of spiritual growth. The expansion of consciousness, worldview and personal growth are definitive aspects. How do we differentiate between what Steiner would call forces of hindrance and those that end up as benign intervention? Part of the answer lies in the question of voluntary versus coercive aspects of the operators. Another factor is the role technology plays. Then there is the role of the spiritual will of the abductee.
Mack’s subjects span “Arthur,” a “voluntary abductee,” to more ambiguous reports. The artist “Carlos” experienced intense physical pain, fear, and nausea when he encountered large, robotlike creatures with large, black eyes that appeared to be reptilian / insectoid: “I don’t have any problem facing the little ones that are so blissful, but the ugly ones scare and repulse me” (Abduction, p.346). “Carlos” attributes positive effects to his abduction experiences, including inspiration for his art, increased emotional empathy, and even a cure from cancer. Alongside such benefits, though, are harrowing experiences, including the use of his body for sex, and intense physical and mental anguish. Besides the usual hierarchy of beings, he describes a variety of technological instruments.
Such coercive elements are almost completely absent from “Arthur’s” history of encounters. Mack described “Arthur” as a kind of modern St. Francis with an ability to communicate with animals and a deep devotion to saving our ecology, leading to success as a green entrepreneur. He and his family, who are open to his experiences, attribute his motivation to aid the Earth to his encounters with various, mostly benign, beings.
Some authors, such as Mary Rodwell, build a case for a more benign intent on the part of these beings. In the anthology The New Human, Rodwell presents a variety of young experiencers, many diagnosed with ADHD or autism, who have a variety of supersensory abilities including telepathic and psychic, healing abilities, sped-up cognition, advanced knowledge, and developed empathy. By connecting such observations to the hybrid hypothesis, she articulates a positive narrative of sped-up evolution directed by aliens. Her experiencers, however, also frequently mention malignant influences and manipulation echoing Steiner’s views regarding an ongoing battle between forces of hindrance and those seeking a spiritually developed humanity. From an anthroposophical perspective, one might view the new humans as a counterweight to incarnating malevolent forces and the humans aligned with them—a new chapter in the chess game between “good and evil”. The future role of such “new humans” may be of great consequence, both individually and collectively.
Related to this theme is Steiner’s mention of “Vulcan” beings aiding in human evolution. Douglas Gabriel treats this subject in his piece “Superhuman Beings of Vulcan, Venus and Mercury”, Our Spirit journal, October 3, 2021. He discusses a debate amongst anthroposophist’s regarding the nature of these helper beings, with some arguing that they are our higher human selves from the future, others that they are, as Steiner indicate, “other beings -not of the human order”. Gabriel believes they are higher hierarchical beings, old teachers and guides of mankind. Further confounding is Steiner’s mention of our “older brothers and sisters from the Pleiades”, who also are described as aids in human spiritual development. Gabriel’s fascinating discussion echoes the confusion of the Ufologist in attempting to discern the origin of the bewildering variety of beings encountered. Mirroring in an exact way ufological speculation about humans from the future, physical aliens, and interdimensional beings all taking part in the history of encounters. The Pleiades, has in particular, been cited as the origin of one type of benign alien that plays a major role in contactee and abductee literature. There are unmistakable similarities between abduction experiences and initiation processes, whether traditional shamanic forms or those of mystical and healing traditions. Here again I feel that the experiences of coercion, use of technology as well as the retrograde emphasis on reproduction and hybridization, differentiate what Steiner might have called Ahrimanic intelligences from more benign beings.
One of the more articulate abductees, Credo Mutwa, speaks of a variety of alien creatures having interacted with his Zulu tribe over the centuries: a combination of teachers and culture bearers, some are malevolent and have manufactured illnesses to kill humans, sexually molested and abducted individuals, while interfering with human destiny in many ways. He emphasizes that these beings “need us and use us, they harvest things from us,” although he is not sure why.
This Promethean element with a dark side is a common thread throughout the literature on aliens, and again speaks to a bigger, more complex plan in which humans play an important role. In his writings and lectures, Steiner is careful to articulate the ambiguities in our relationship with Ahriman and Lucifer and does not deny the gifts they provide. It is up to humans to utilize such gifts in a life-affirming way. It is also inevitable that man will create machines and merge with them, but the struggle, Steiner insists, will be to put these artificial creatures in line with divine creation instead of working against them. Far from being a Luddite, Steiner acknowledges the value of technology, and its inevitability. It is technology that aids humanity to develop a capacity to understand our universe in a fuller way; otherwise, we would remain spiritually immature and childlike. He writes of redeeming, not destroying, evil. A great deal depends on the choices humankind makes with its free will.
An important distinction between the UFO phenomenon and other daemonic / demonic manifestations such as ghosts or fairy folk, is its crucial importance in modern history. UFOs and aliens are not just a modern myth in formation, but in a more direct and materially profound way they seem to be engaged in shaping human evolution, for better or worse. A paradigm that integrates the symbolic, daemonic and material, political and technological domains is needed to grasp the importance of what this phenomenon means for humans.
Viewing UFO activity through a Steiner lens presses us to make sense of the psychoid element in its manifestation as we conceptually bridge matter, soul, and spirit. The process may entail grappling with hybrid development and the creation of controlled beings molded materially for a specific, yet unseen purpose. Ahrimanic goals are also achieved through creating a human/machine bridge via the burgeoning capacities of microelectronics. It is evident from even the most popularly directed AI literature that a machine that is “possessed” by human consciousness and memory is in the works. The possession of artificial intelligence by malevolent beings, therefore, may already be underway. Ahrimanic plans are also furthered, I suggest, via more subtle psychic processes, symbolic in nature. Such plans are in evidence in abduction phenomenon as are the material aspects of collecting blood and reproductive materials.
If abduction phenomena do cry out for a symbolic interpretation as some UFO researchers contend, they also cry out for a material explanation, one not as simplistic as the ET hypothesis or the reduction of all contact to “flesh and blood aliens” in the typical ancient alien framework. Furthermore, to grasp the complexity of what is going on, we must keep in mind that a variety of beings, from a variety of places, are involved. If there are indeed “hosts” that battle on the spiritual level, “flesh and blood” aliens are likely involved, in the same way that humans are involved, for we are both spiritual and material beings as well.
Writers and contactees /abductees often speak of the robotic quality of most alien greys, then comment on the hierarchy of beings that manifest, beings that may be “yoked” to Ahrimanic powers that originate on our physical plane, as well as a variety of elemental beings controlled by dark powers. This perspective reflects a universal hierarchy of beings, a concept at one time crucial to theologists and occult practitioners. Part of developing a “modern” esoteric ecology is understanding that such a hierarchy exists in a spiritual ecology as it does in our earthly ecology. Steiner’s cosmology of spiritual realms, his views on the nature of evil, and his cosmic ecology are complex. He viewed Ahriman and Lucifer as two extremes, with the Christ being (not just the historical Christ) balancing the two. Gurdjieff described Christ in a similar fashion as the “holy reconciling force.” Between Ahriman’s cold objectivity and analysis and Lucifer’s passion and individual freedom, our struggle revolves around their attempts to exercise their will beyond what they were intended for and becoming forces of evil, thus hindering planned human development. This constitutes the nature of their “fall.” There is also a third force, the Sun demon Sorat who seeks the total destruction of Earth rather than mere subjugation. “Asuric” forces—retrograde beings left behind in cosmic evolution—engage in the darker, more satanic side of human behavior: abuse and control, sexual deviance, crime, extremes of aggression and hate, rituals, behaviors that most resemble the classic archetype of demonic forces at work.
Then there are the “good gods” committed to seeing through the original plans of human evolution. Steiner describes the work of Archangelic forces—in particular, Michael and Gabriel—as being instrumental in guiding recent human development. One example is Gabriel’s guidance of the development of higher forebrain structures that allow for a greater sense of self analytic abilities, and ultimately supersensory abilities. The work of scientist Gary Nolan on changes in the basal ganglia found in abductees and contactees, changes that allow for more efficient problem solving, may be indicative of external forces working upon our neurology. In anticipation of the “paleontology of consciousness” theories set forth by Julian Jaynes and others, Steiner stressed the need to understand the differing states of consciousness throughout human history. The benign character of some of the intelligences encountered in UFO phenomena fit the description of such “helper” forces; it is naïve, however, to assume benign intentions of all the various beings.
Regardless of your opinion of Steiner, I think it worth noting that passages from over a hundred years ago point to developments and concepts that are quite modern, including morphic fields, the GAIA hypothesis, the role of the enteric brain, the Eighth Sphere / “metaverse,” etc. His predictive ability about modern society and historical trends is remarkable, all growing out of his personal ability to see into the supersensory world as well as the creation of a frame of reference to understanding the makeup and processes of a broader ecology, one not limited to the physical sphere. The latter ability he seems to have viewed as more important than his own fallible abilities.
Such conclusions accord with the works of John Keel and Jacques Vallee, both of whom came to reject the ET hypothesis while providing a spiritual/ecological perspective beyond vague use of terms like “ultraterrestrial” or “elemental” used to describe the intelligences behind the UFO. Steiner provides an ecological framework for beginning to understand the complexities and varied agendas of beings that could have come from a Tolkien or Harry Potter bestiary, with perhaps a more complicated perspective on good and evil.
Steiner believed very much in the existence of Ahriman and tasked his followers with watching for manifestations of his influence and those of other malignant forces, due to Archangel Michael’s victory in the spirit world which forced him to cast down evil forces to Earth. Steiner foresaw that dark societies would first capture the financial markets of modern societies. From a 1917 lecture, The Fall of the Spirits of Darkness (p.197):
If they had won, we would live in a world of indescribable acumen which would apply to all kinds of different spheres in life. Speculations on the stock exchange which are sometimes dimwitted nowadays would have been made with incredible acumen.
If he were alive today, Steiner would no doubt see the vast and complex trading systems increasingly controlled by super-computers as clear evidence of Ahrimanic intent. This outcome would have occurred sooner if the demonic forces had prevailed. According to Steiner, this is just the most recent of several Ahrimanic efforts to speed up human evolution and further outstrip the spiritual and moral development of humankind. Spiritual materialism, technological innovation, and destruction of nature are nevertheless ensuing.
Positive streams of influence are also at work to initiate greater love for the Earth, spiritual experience, and other countervailing healing energies. Steiner struck a reassuring note as to the ultimate outcome of this struggle. In “The Influence of Spiritual Beings on Man” (p. 54), he wrote: “When something apparently destructive, retarding and evil exists anywhere, then evolution in its whole course will be so wisely guided that even this evil, this destruction and hindrance will be reversed and changed into good.”
Bryne’s work resonates with Steiner in this regard. In Stairways to Heaven (p. 230), she quotes Michael: “A human being’s soul is the one thing no scientist or technological progress can ever take away. The human soul belongs to God. God will not allow anyone to take away a human’s soul, no matter what poor choices humankind may make.”
Tolkien echoes this faith via the voice of his creator god Ilúvatar: “. . . no theme may be played that hath not his uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined” (The Power of the Ring, Stratford Caldecott, p. 104).
Within the so-called UFO phenomenon, therefore, we can see evidence of Ahrimanic and Luciferic activity manifesting in many forms alongside the development of transhumanism, geoengineering, ecological destruction, and other dangers. Steiner’s lectures and writings a century ago help us to see these developments and phenomena in a more complete light. His work provides a good foundation for the critical awareness we need to make better decisions about our future and move toward our desired human evolution.
In summary, I suggest that only a perspective comparable to Steiner’s comprehensive view of cosmic ecology can grasp and describe the complexities that we are witnessing in the UFO phenomenon today—a perspective that gives us a working model for our own thinking about integrating physical and spiritual within a broader ecological context.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens - John Mack, 1994; Passport to the Cosmos: Human Transformation and Alien Encounters, 1999
The East in the Light of the West - Sergei Prokofieff, 1993
J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century - Tom Shippey, 2001
The Orion Zone: Ancient Star Cities of the American Southwest - Gary L. David, 2007
Stairways to Heaven – Lorna Bryne, 2011
The Power of the Ring: The Spiritual Vision Behind the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit - Stratford Caldecott, 2012
Our Life Beyond MKULTRA, Books 1 and 2 - Elisa E, 2013
UFOs for the 21st Century Mind: A Fresh Guide to an Ancient Mystery - Richard M. Dolan, 2014
Chemtrails, HAARP, and the Full Spectrum Dominance of Planet Earth - Elana Freeland, 2014
Transhumanism: The History of a Dangerous Idea - David Livingstone, 2015
The Secret Life of Nature- Peter Tompkins-1997.
Works by Rudolf Steiner
The Influence of Spiritual Beings Upon Man, 1961 Lectures, 1908
The Fall of the Spirits of Darkness, 1993 Lectures, 1917
Evil, 1997
The Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric, 2003 Lectures, 1910
The Spiritual Hierarchies and the Physical
World, 2008 Lectures, 1909
Spiritual Ecology: Reading the Book of Nature and Reconnecting with the World, 2008
Life of the Human Soul and Its Relation to World Evolution, 2016 Lectures, 1922
The Electronic Doppleganger: The Mystery of the Double in the Age of the Internet, 2016 Lectures, 1917
