FOLLOWING the controversy over The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, ALAN ATKINSON discusses a book and spoke with its author, Benjamin Crème, whose statements are even more astonishing — and are being given a surprising amount of attention by the media overseas. Mr. Crème says that Christ is now in the world and will reappear as a "world teacher" this year...

Anyone who dared to predict the return of Christ today would normally be regarded as mad — or at least deluded.

There have been many such false prophets and so far none has delivered the goods.

In Europe and the US today, however, there is a man who is calmly braving the scorn of the churches — which say we cannot know when the Second Coming will be — and the derision of the cynics, and is gaining a considerable amount of respectable media attention for his views.

His name is Benjamin Crème, and he is quietly touring the US and Europe, speaking to wider and wider audiences on TV and radio, explaining how he came to write what many consider an extraordinary book, The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom.

In it, and in his lecture tours, Mr. Crème makes several astonishing assertions, and gives quite specific dates. The substance of his "message" is that Christ is now in the world in person, that he entered a "well-known modern country by aircraft" on July 19, 1977, after living in the Himalayas where he "perfected his body of manifestation," adjusting to the "lower vibrations" of the physical world; and that he is slowly emerging into public life as a revolutionary visionary in the fields of economics and politics.

That is not all. With the Christ now in the world, Mr. Crème says, are 12 "enlightened masters" — five of whom are now based in London, New York, Geneva, Darjeeling and Tokyo.

These "Masters" have been living hidden in the remote places of the world — in the Himalayas, the Atlas and Rocky Mountains, the Urals, and in the Gobi and other deserts of the world, and have known that at some point they, too, would return to public life.

More astonishing still, he asserts that the Christ, who is now teaching his radical ideas weekly to groups of 500-700 people in the country where he is, will this year emerge first as a national figure in that country (unnamed because it is for the Christ to reveal himself), and then as an international figure. And, before June 21, the end of the northern spring, he will reveal who he is on the "day of declaration" on which he will speak on television to all nations, and every nation will hear him in its own language.

The nature of the Christ's reappearance, Mr. Crème says, is as a "world teacher" and he is here to present the world with two choices: either go on as we are and face the prospect of devastation from the present growing imbalance in the world's economic system, which will lead inexorably to annihilating world war, or we can choose to accept the only alternative, a redistribution of the world's resources, and a greater sense of sharing, of brotherhood of mankind.

Mr. Crème points out that in a world of actual food sufficiency for all, 28 people are dying of starvation every minute — the equivalent of a Hiroshima death toll every three days. And, he says, that if some madman were letting off an atomic bomb every three days, we would try to stop him. Yet the West mostly does nothing, mainly with full stomachs, turning a blind eye to this "holocaust of starvation."

While the assertions about the Christ sound almost beyond belief, the latter statements, at least, have a ring of common sense, even to the most skeptical.

We all know that many people, many world leaders, have been saying for years that there is the most urgent need to solve the problems of poverty and starvation, especially in the Third World. Only last year the summit of world leaders in Cancun, Mexico, addressed itself to the problem — albeit with its inconclusive results, with the "North" remaining firmly entrenched in its faith in "economic growth."

Mr. Crème says that, for all the talk, the world has to accept the principle of sharing now, before it is too late, and it is only the Christ who will wake us up to this fact — hence his return. And when the world sees the wisdom of his teaching it will follow as he leads us, with his Master disciples, into the "new age."

All this may sound like pie-in-the-sky to the cynical mind. And, of course, all we have to do is wait for June for Mr. Crème to be proved wrong.

But there is something intriguing about his fantastic assertions — not least in the lucidity of his exposition in The Reappearance of the Christ, in the fact that he is quite the opposite of a tub-thumping evangelist, in the fact that he is specific about the date of the scheduled reappearance of Christ — and mainly in the fact that he is being listened to at all.

Many people in Holland — a country particularly receptive to "new age" ideas — are said to be well aware of Mr. Crème's "message." Mr. Crème was to have toured Australia this month but instead has embarked on a series of television appearances in the US. The Press in the US is beginning to take notice. And when I spoke to him by telephone in London, before he left for Los Angeles, he had just been talking on Capital Radio, the London commercial station, and on Radio Sheffield.

What is the appeal of this unusual Scot, born in 1922 and an artist by profession?

He speaks with the gentle, erudite conservatism reminiscent of a Scottish professor. He asks not to be believed but that his statements be listened to with an open mind. And his book, The Reappearance of the Christ, which has quietly been going the rounds since 1980 with no great fuss, no advertising ballyhoo, is now printed in five languages.

I must say that if it is a fabrication it is a very clever one. It has all the elements of mystery, intrigue, suspense and broad historical perspective that — as fiction— should have made it a best-seller.

But it was not written as fiction. And it has received critical acclaim. The noted British author and critic Colin Wilson wrote: "His (Mr. Crème's) honesty comes through on every page  ... Crème seems to belong to that same group as Blake, Russell, Madame Blavatsky and Alice Bailey: a man who sees things that other people don't see ... It is a very remarkable book indeed and ought to have the widest possible audience."

When I spoke to him, Mr. Crème readily agreed that there was no way his prophecy could be "proved" beforehand. "That's the nature of prophecy," he said in a quiet, unassuming manner. "People may believe that it is only 1 p.c. possible or 100 p.c. true. If what I say is listened to with an open mind, then that is all I ask."

Disarming. I asked him how he expected the established churches would react if what he was saying turned out to be true. Ï expect that most of them will be absolutely dumbfounded," he said quietly. I asked him how he regarded the position of present world leaders, for example, the British Prime Minister, Mrs. Thatcher. He Said: "I see her as a member of the old guard, as part of the last-ditch stand of the old institutions that are now crumbling because they no longer answer our needs. Unless she undergoes a tremendous inner transformation I do not expect her to last long in her position.

"All I ask is that people accept the possibility of what I am saying." But was he not convinced himself, or did he regard it only as a possibility? He laughed and reassure me that he was "totally convinced".

The reasons for his conviction lie in his book. While his story may sound totally implausible to some, I found it at least compelling reading.

It is written in the form of questions and answers — answers that Mr. Crème says are based on "messages" he has received from an "enlightened Master" after being trained in "telepathic communication" with this Master over 20 years.

Mr Crème describes himself as an "esotericist" — esotericism being the "science of the philosophy of wisdom of all the ages, and understanding of the laws governing the universe and Man's relation to that universe and the process whereby Man gains the ability to govern and control the energies of that universe.

After much study of esoteric teachings (H.P. Blavatsky, Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, Alice Bailey), and experimentation with theories of energy, notably the work of Wilhelm Reich, in 1958 he was told by a friend that he was receiving "messages." Some of these messages contained advice, guidance, spiritual instruction. He was not told the identity of the "Master" who was giving the instruction. Then, in 1959, he was given a specific message about the return of Christ. He continued studying for 13 years, and then in 1972 he began an "intensive period of deglamorising, disillusioning, training and preparation." For months, he says, he worked with the "Master", sometimes for 20 hours a day, deepening and strengthening the "telepathic link" between them, "without the slightest infringement of my free will." He also found that he could heal mentally. In June, 1974, there began a series of messages about the reappearance of the Christ and in 1975 he was "given a push" to go out and make his information public.

His book and talks are the result of the "push".

His esoteric view of history that is the background to his statements about the Christ makes fascinating reading.

The Christ's reappearance, he says, is as the "avatar" — or world teacher — for the "new age" dawning, the age of Aquarius. Esotericists see the return of Christ not so much as a new "savior" — although there is an element of that, as outlined above, in the face of the world's seeming readiness to blow itself up. More, it is seen as an "evolutionary" event, the inevitable beginning of a new cycle.

In terms of world history, Mr. Crème says, we are in a transitional stage between two great cycles, that of Pisces of the past 2000 years and the new one of Aquarius, in which the solar system comes into alignment with the constellations of Aquarius and we are subjected to a great stream of energies from that constellation.

"What we are witnessing is the imbalance created by the action of these energies on our existing structures and organizations." While the age of Pisces has brought great discoveries, particularly in science, it has also brought economic and political structures that no longer fit us any more, and are now in a state of total imbalance — hence their gradual destruction.

To inaugurate the new age of Aquarius, to show us the way forward into greater brotherhood and sharing, the Christ is returning.

Two other assertions in the wide-ranging book are intriguing — ones that may stir frenzy in some pulpits. One is that behind humanity there have always stood divine men, "the enlightened Masters" living in remote places who have attained their perfection "through the evolutionary process" (which implies that we are all going through it, too). Their existence, he says, was revealed more than 100 years ago by the famous mystic, Madame Blavatsky. "They have been the guardians, guides, the mentors of Mankind" who, through their love of humanity, have overseen our evolution as the "inner government" of the planet.

"At their head is the one we in the West call Christ ... and as Christians await the return of Christ, so Buddhists await the return of another Buddha. The Jews await the Messiah, the Moslems the Imam Mahdi, the Hindus the return of Krishna.

"Esotericists know them all as one being, the world teacher, the supreme head of the spiritual hierarchy of Masters."

His second assertion, in relation to the above, concerns Jesus. Jesus was not, according to the esoteric point of view, the one and only Son of God. But through him, by taking over his body, the Christ revealed to the world the nature of God, as never revealed before, at the dawning of Pisces 2000 years ago. And when the Christ and the Masters reappear, this relationship will be understood and the controversy, now raging in some sections of the Christian Church, about just who Jesus was — God or man, divine or human, or both — will be resolved. Because this time the Christ is coming himself.

"They will be seen standing side by side, the Christ himself and the Master Jesus."

Well. If Mr. Crème is correct it will make the current controversy over The Blood and the Holy Grail seem like a storm in a church chalice — and no doubt elucidate that book's similarly extraordinary hypotheses (about the person of Jesus and the possibility of a new religious leader secretly emerging in Europe).

What if he's right? And if it's not Christ, who is this man who is allegedly emerging now as a public figure?

We should know by June.