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For about seven or eight years, Spirit of Change has received news articles about positive social and political changes happening around the globe from an organization called Share International. I always appreciated receiving this information which checked out to be well-grounded and researched, and I published several articles over the years. Usually an article or a paragraph about a person called the World Teacher Maitreya (my-tray-a) was included in the offerings, but I never chose to publish those because I wanted to know more about who this teacher was before I published the information. It was unclear to me whether Maitreya was a physical person walking among us or a spiritual entity whose teachings were channeled or in some way transmitted by another person. The information did catch my eye, though, because its message always conveyed the qualities of sharing, equality, justice and hope, and inspired the same in me.

In the first few years of receiving the articles, I noticed that a tag line was included with the information about Maitreya which said something to this effect: Benjamin Creme is the only authorized spokesperson for Maitreya. The tag line bothered me because I liked what I was reading but not the fact that it appeared to be controlled by some English author who thought he was the sole spokesperson for someone on this planet close to being God. Still, I read the articles when they arrived and wondered when or if I would ever publish any of the information. Eventually I noticed that the tag line disappeared from the articles altogether.

In mid-December, I received an announcement about a new book called Extraordinary Times, Extraordinary Beings:  Experiences of an American Diplomat with Maitreya and the Masters of Wisdom, with an invitation to interview the author. The book, by retired foreign service diplomat Wayne Peterson, tells the story of how he first met Maitreya, (whom he and others refer to as the Christ,) and the group of highly evolved spiritual beings called the Masters, who surround Maitreya and oversee the evolution of our planet. The book follows Peterson's career in government service where he met many other highly-placed people who have had similar experiences of Maitreya and gives hope that the possibility of making our world a better place is more than just a dream. In fact, the book reports, many key leaders are already in place to enact change when the time is right. I strategically placed the letter within view to the side of my desk because I thought that maybe the time had arrived to give this teacher and his message a closer look.

Around the same time, I was having conversations with Walter Semkiw, M.D., author of the book Astrology for Regular People as well as the article "Return of the Revolutionaries," which appears in this issue of Spirit of Change. Walter and I delightedly noted several coincidences and synchronicities as our business together unfolded, and then he mentioned that I should talk with a man named Wayne Peterson (as I glanced at the letter to my right.) It was the last prompt that I needed.

I savored reading the exciting and fascinating accounts reported as fact by Mr. Peterson in Extraordinary Times, Extraordinary Beings because they confirmed my own ideas that if properly inspired, humanity could rise to the challenge of a radical transformation and be guided to live by spiritual principles. At the same time, I was plunged into debate with friends and colleagues who argued that Creme/Maitreya was just another power-tripping guru wannabe, fulfilling our longings for an easy way out of the mess we've made of the planet today. His ultimate goal, they say, is to exploit as many followers as possible for personal profit or grandeur (as demagogues have done for all of recorded history), while wasting everyone's time and efforts in the process as we "wait" for him to save us, rather than work to save ourselves. (See the web page for New Heaven, New Earth at www.nhne.com)

After much consideration, soul and web searching, I decided that I should print the information so readers could decide for themselves if Maitreya is indeed the World Teacher, here to inspire us and help us solve our most critical, perhaps fatal, global crises or if he's just another hoax. Since science has already declared that there won't be enough fresh water on the planet to provide for our needs in less than fifty years, is it possible that we are within reach of the wisdom and willingness to alter our course of destiny through spiritual awakening as proposed by Maitreya instead of simply waiting for our eventual destruction at the hands of our own wasteful consumerism? Maitreya does not claim he has come to fix our problems, but to show us how to do the work ourselves, beginning with the realization that all of humanity is one family and sharing is our way of life. In many ways, the details of his circumstances bear a striking resemblance to the emergence of Jesus Christ into the world when he brought the teachings of love to humanity two thousand years ago as reported in the New Testament of the Bible. Who believed John the Baptist when he said he was "preparing the way?" Jesus, we crucified. Was their spiritual mission for real? Perhaps the simple words of my good friend puts it well in perspective: If Maitreya is real, that's great and let's get on with the change. If he's a fake, then shame on them.

Carol Bedrosian: I must admit that I found Extraordinary Times, Extraordinary Beings an absorbing book, to say the least. I found its message impacting my thoughts and consciousness continuously throughout the time I was reading it and in the days following. Very provocative. How would you describe the core of this information?

Wayne Peterson: I see it as changing the consciousness of humanity worldwide. We need to begin to look at ourselves in a different way and ask "who are we?" and "where are we going?" There is such a disconnection between our spiritual life and our everyday life because we have become so accustomed to attending church on Sundays - if we call that our spiritual life - then going back to our business life which may be in total conflict with what we had just been talking about on Sunday. We don't see life as a whole, we don't live life as a whole and that is the biggest message that is coming from Maitreya. He says, "I am going to teach you the art of living. You don't know how to live. You don't know how to enjoy yourself." He keeps telling us that we are far too serious and I think that we are in many ways. We need to have time for ourselves because we've gotten on this treadmill and everybody knows how life has just speeded up and we have very little time. We don't have time to sit back and contemplate about who we are as souls and where we are going and how life could be different or better. We're simply too busy. We're overwhelmed and tired. And that is what is going to change in the future - we will focus on ourselves and trying to learn who we are.

Carol: Your words seem to point towards greater self-absorption. I feel that today's population, especially Americans, are already very self-absorbed and only interested in what makes them most comfortable. You mentioned in your book that there is a lack of awareness in this country about the rest of the world and whole nations of people who are not as comfortable as we are, yet what you are talking about here seems to reinforce that.

Wayne: There is a total lack of awareness, as you mention, and that is an example of not knowing who we are. If we knew that we were not isolated beings as we tend to believe we are, I think we would lose a lot of that self-absorption and come to greater understanding that we are in this together, that every soul on this planet has a special relationship to every other soul. If even one member of humanity is left behind, he is sort of that anchor dragging and holding back the rest of us, so there is a need for all of us to move forward as a group. That is simply part of the recognition of who we are, as well: we are humanity, a group that must rely on one another. The first step in achieving all of our goals is a recognition that there is a brotherhood of man. Without that, you will never have sharing because you don't want to share if you don't think the other guy counts. Without sharing you can never have justice in the world and without justice you can never have world peace. It all starts with this idea that there is a brotherhood of man.

Carol: So the contemplation that you are talking about - people having the time and the space to contemplate - you feel this would lead to the recognition of that brotherhood?

Wayne: I think it would because that is what's missing in our lives today. All the great teachers tell us that we have to share and recognize each other as brothers and sisters. We are here to serve everyone. This is what Maitreya is putting forward when He says we have gotten off the path somewhere.

Carol: Do you feel that the increase of materialism is what has gotten us off the path?

Wayne: That has probably pushed us more towards the idea of competition rather than cooperation. Business today is of a competitive nature. We don't hear people talking much about cooperation; we always hear about the competitive nature. Competition has set individual against individual, group against group, and nation against nation. So yes, that probably has something to do with it.

Carol: I would characterize Spirit of Change readers as people who are concerned about the direction the world is taking, the growing disparity between the have's and have not's, the environmental and moral pollution all around us. Sometimes we just throw our hands up in despair and say "it's useless - the problems are too big." Your book refers to Maitreya as a being or a consciousness or an entity who could possibly offer solutions to some of humanity's problems and offer inspirations as to how we should proceed.

Wayne: That statement was perfect because when you say that people throw up their hands in despair, that is exactly it. At this point, the only reason Maitreya and the Masters want to show themselves publicly and live out in the open and work with us is that they feel that we have lost control and have gotten to the point where we are now incapable of putting ourselves back on the path. We have gotten ourselves in so deep over our heads that no nation, no group of people can do enough to pull us back out of this. Maitreya's message is that humanity can be guided back onto the right path and through working with the Masters, bring new technology into our lives to bring these changes about.

Carol: What kind of technology?

Wayne: What we need more than anything else right now is a new source of energy. That is something that Maitreya has promised, we are told. I understand that there are scientists working on new types of energy right now that will free us from our use of fossil fuel. All of our nuclear power plants can be shut down and we'll have abundant energy for every village in the world.

Carol: What type of energy would this be?

Wayne: My own feeling is that probably in the beginning there will be several forms, but ultimately, it has been reported that we will have an energy form stemming from a chemical reaction that is based on water. Whether that is the first solution or not I don't know because I don't have that sort of a background. I do know that we are going to be freed of our attachments to fossil fuel.

Carol: What about the larger problem of greed? We always want more and more and more. Even myself, a person who is fairly aware and has all the basic necessities of life, has to think twice about how to use an extra thousand dollars. Do I spend it on myself to make my life more comfortable, pay bills, or whatever, or do I share it with someone who doesn't have any food? I mean, there's always something more I can acquire; it never ends. Is a new, clean source of energy just going to fuel our greed even more?

Wayne: I think the major point on greed stems from fear and, of course, humans have always lived in fear. That is one of the great problems humanity has - a fear that somehow there isn't enough to go around and if we give something to someone else, we ourselves are going to go without at some point. You can never collect enough money to dispel all the fear, to buy yourself a safe position.

Once Maitreya has made Himself known worldwide, I think we'll see how silly it is to fear life because He will make it known that there is nothing to fear from sharing. When you talk to people about sharing I don't really think they understand what that is all about because they think about it like a taxation. The government is going to take more from me and give to those who don't have anything and I don't want to give anymore. We do sharing in a very sensible way in this country already. We have fifty states that sort of have a pact to share with each other. We don't allow one state to go into misery like some nation in Africa. If there is a tragedy in Arizona the federal government steps in and takes care of it so that the fifty states in our country are constantly sharing. We don't have this on a worldwide basis. We still have barriers of trade and exchanges and other things commercially across international borders. The whole continent of Africa is almost ostracized so that very little trade goes on and we have this huge poverty problem.

Carol: I understand that Maitreya appeared in quite a spectacular way in Africa.

Wayne: Yes, in Nairobi, Kenya in East Africa in 1988. It was carried on CNN and covered extremely well in this country with the headlines "Could this be Jesus Christ returned?" Certainly the 7,000 people in Nairobi that saw him believed it was. There could be a number of reasons why he appeared so publicly in Africa - of course Africa being the poorest continent. I think that was a sign that he was reaching out to the people that were probably suffering the most, not only from lack of trade, but lack of food as well. A lot of people starve in Africa, and then there is a huge refugee problem with the small tribal wars that have been going on in Africa. Maitreya said that it is Africans that would be the first people to come and support Him.

Carol: Why has Maitreya not made public appearances in the United States to garner the support and wealth that this nation has in order to move this message forward more quickly?

Wayne: I do think that He has made public appearances, but people have not recognized Him. He makes public appearances around the world, but He doesn't announce who He is or where He is going to appear ahead of time. He is out in the public, we are told by those who work with Him, and He is known in various circles, but not by the name Maitreya.

Carol: Your book describes a Day of Declaration. Could you give a recount of that here?

Wayne: The Day of Declaration, as far as I understand it, is simply an opportunity for Maitreya to finally say who He is and present himself to humanity, saying that He wants humanity's cooperation to move us into a new world and a new way of living. At this time He will also introduce us to some of those who are working with Him. It probably won't be a long event, but it is to be telepathic I am told, so that when He speaks to the world everyone will think that they have heard Him in their own native language because they will have heard it telepathically. I know that when people hear a telepathic message for the first time they could swear that they heard a voice.

Carol: You describe those encounters in your book. On several occasions you write that you met Maitreya or He crossed your path, but He never looked the same when you saw Him at these different times. In fact you weren't even sure that it was Him until well after the experience was unfolding or even afterwards, when looking back in retrospect, you realized that it was Maitreya that you were encountering.

Wayne: That is the experience of most people. Many people have met Him and do not recognize Him and that is understandable because we have sort of a preconceived idea of what He would look like and how He would appear and what He would be wearing. When He doesn't fit that description, it is easy to dismiss the experience. But then there is always something in the back of your mind that just won't let go and you go for days, weeks, months - some people have even gone years thinking about that face and wondering why they can't get it out of their mind - until they read something about Maitreya and then they know that was Him. They just know it.

Carol: There are very many stories in the Bible of Jesus Christ appearing to people and them not recognizing that it was Jesus Christ.

Wayne: Yes, and I think there is a great lesson in that He is trying to teach us that there is the God imminent in all human beings, even those that we despise. Usually we have some prejudice about some group of people in our own mind, even though we may not recognize the prejudice in an outward sort of way, and very often He will appear to people in the way of someone that they would least want to sit down and have a discussion with. Very often He will appear as a beggar to people because most people don't want to be bothered by beggars. They just turn their gaze away and walk by as quickly as they can. But very often He appears as a beggar to people, basically saying, "are you prepared to share? Why does this make you uncomfortable that there are poor around you?" At other times He appears as a person from a different racial group and people will say, "well, this isn't the way I expect the Christ to reappear, yet here He is."

Carol: Do you think that the heating up of the situation in the Middle East is an indication that the crises of humanity are about to come to a head? Is it your belief that this situation in the Middle East could erupt into Word War III?

Wayne: I don't think so. I think that with Maitreya and the Masters working in the world, I don't think that there is any possibility whatsoever that we will have a World War III. To me, that is just not conceivable at all.

Carol: What about the prophesies throughout history in many of the world's cultures that point to the time around the year 2025 as a turning point wherein a new world order will have been established which will be peaceful and loving?

Wayne: I think that's exactly it. I think that the next twenty years are years of rapid change and I hope that most of humanity is ready for the changes.

Carol: What type of changes will these be?

Wayne: I think that they will just be overwhelming. We will be living in a world that is not only peaceful, but a world that takes care of everyone's needs.

Carol: How is that going to happen? How will those who own the money and power now voluntarily begin sharing with those who are in need?

Wayne: Well, first of all, simply by understanding that the system is broke. The global capitalist economy has basically created a global economic system so that nations that want to trade with the U.S. have to follow certain rules and regulations. The International Monetary Fund is tied in there and most of the world except Africa is pretty much tied into this. That system is broken, which was proven with the Asian currency crisis several years ago. But the major changes really won't take effect until the money managers see that our stock market has a big down turn. Maitreya has said that he will appear shortly after there is a crash on the U.S. stock market. Who is going to listen to his ideas on a new economic plan for the world if people feel that the current system is fine? And people in this country certainly feel that everything is okay.

Carol: Is there any prediction as to when that crash might occur?

Wayne: Well, I just picked up my most recent issue of Time magazine and the cover of it says "How to Survive the Slump." There has been a lot of talk in the last week or two about recession in this country and how the stock market has not been responding even after the Federal Reserve has dropped the interest rate. I think that we are moving into it right now. Maitreya has let people know about this for a while. He talked about Japan first. Well, that happened maybe six or seven years ago where the bubble burst and the stock market went down and real estate prices fell in Japan. Then He said the rest of Asia would follow. Well, that happened two years ago. Then He said it would go to Russia and that happened two years ago. Now the only countries left are a few European nations and the United States that are still having the economic boom. The rest of the world has already had their recession, loss of currency or whatever, so this might be the time for us right now.

Carol: You have had personal encounters with Maitreya and the Masters of Wisdom. How do people who have not had these encounters recognize them or participate in this awakening?

Wayne: I think it is very important that people simply be aware. Maitreya feels that there should be no effort on trying to literally prove to people He is here; it's not what this is about. But He does want people to be aware that there is a possibility that He is around. As long as people are aware, it allows Him to come forward, closer to us. What people can do is simply invite Him mentally into the world and that is not happening enough. People often say to me, "What can I do to speed up this process?" I say "Have you invited Maitreya and the Masters to come openly into the world?" And they say "No, He can do that when He wants." I tell them, "No, He can't. He lives by certain rules also, and one of those is not to infringe upon humanity's free will." Unless we invite Him in, He has to be very cautious on how He extends His image to humanity. I would certainly invite the Christ back into the world. By just doing that everyday is going to help this effort tremendously.

Carol: What are the transmission meditations you talk about in your book?

Wayne: Benjamin Creme said that Maitreya had asked people to do this type of meditation which would help Him and the Masters come into the world faster. I joined a meditation group and it was right after that when I began to have my contacts with Maitreya and the Masters. It is a group meditation that speeds His entry into the world by making it possible for Him to contact important world leaders to work for the changes that we need to take place in all of our institutions. This is not a spiritual happening as much as it is a change in the way we do business on the planet - and that means our politics, our economic system and all of our social institutions.

Carol: You mentioned some high ranking public figures in the book. Can you name some of those people?

Wayne: There are a few people who have spoken out. I heard Nelson Mandela, myself, in Washington, DC talk about the Christ visiting him in his prison cell. When we look at the Soviet Union during the Cold War and wonder how that broke down, I think we have to look toward Mikhail Gorbachev who was the leader at that time. There is a certain friend of mine, who is also an important figure in Washington, that I gave a book to about Maitreya's mission. Unfortunately, I can't mention his name because that is one of the things that I promised I wouldn't do. This man was invited to attend a meeting in Europe with a group of world leaders who got together to talk about Maitreya and our changing times because he had given a speech and included so much of Maitreya's material out of the book that I had given him. The other world leaders recognized what he was saying and asked, "how did you get this information?" He said, "my friend Wayne insisted that I read this book" and they said, "ah-ha, you know about Maitreya." They made it known to him that everyone around that table knew of Maitreya, even though they could not come out and use their names for fear of losing contact with the people that they represented. There was one man in the room, though, that stood up and said, "I don't care if you use my name," and that was Mikhail Gorbachev.

Carol: Do you know of any former US presidents that are aware of Maitreya and the work?

Wayne: When I did transmission meditation in Washington DC, we used the house of one of President George Bush's advisors. The man himself was not a member of the group but allowed his housekeeper to host our meetings. One evening, while Mr. Bush was having dinner with his associate, he jokingly asked our group hostess, "Am I going to win this election against Bill Clinton?" and she said "No, Mr. President, Lord Maitreya has already said that you are going to loose." At least he heard it from that one point, but I'm sure he has probably had other contacts with Maitreya as well.

You have to remember that often when Maitreya meets with these people, He represents himself as a regular human being. He will wear a business suit and a tie and they will be very impressed with His deep knowledge of the subject but that doesn't necessarily they see Him as the Christ. It means that they are just as bewildered as anyone else. There are some world leaders who immediately recognize who He is and become very devoted to Him, but there are others who remain skeptical. They keep asking for His advice, but then they don't necessarily take that advice .

Carol: I understand that the teachings of Maitreya are disseminated in the United States through an organization called the Tara Center. How is this funded?

Wayne: You know it is barely an organization. Maitreya doesn't want any organization to exist that represents Him in any way and I can understand why, because He doesn't want to give any group the sense that they are ahead of any others in representing Him or His views. He wants to do that Himself. Tara Center exists in name because in this country you can't do business unless you have a name and an organization. In fact, there is no leadership to it. It is a loose group of volunteers who work to get information out about Maitreya through newsletters, books and through Share International magazine, which is printed up in the Netherlands and goes out in a number of foreign languages. They don't have a lot money and there are not a lot of volunteers within the organization.

Carol: What is your personal outlook for the future?

Wayne: For my future, I simply have to stay focused on the Day of Declaration because at that point everything is going to break loose all of the sudden and I think there will be enormous trauma on this planet.

Carol: Why?

Wayne: Because it is going to be so overwhelming for the many people who have yet not heard about this. I think what will be overwhelming is the fact that there exists a fifth kingdom on this planet - meaning Maitreya and The Masters of Wisdom - who have been guiding this planet since humanity began.

Carol: But still within the confines of human free will.

Wayne: Exactly. They know us intimately and they also know so much about the science of how this planet lives. What will be difficult, I think, is that when Maitreya comes forward, he will basically explain to us there are no miracles as we think of them. These are all scientific happenings that we do not fully understand. He and the Masters of Wisdom are not some fantastic beings we won't understand - we will understand them. We will become like them at some point. This whole change of consciousness and living depends on a technology far superior to what we use today and that must be implemented within the next twenty years. You can see that if we suddenly no longer use fossil fuels, if our cars no longer run on the old energy, if we have a new type of transportation by air that is so cheap that the average person anywhere in the world can travel to another culture, we are going to see a world transformed in ways that we can't even begin to imagine. It is overwhelming.

Carol: So the predictions that say that great change will come about through destructive world cataclysms may not be the only scenario?

Wayne: That's right. The world changes will simply come through our understanding of how this planet functions and putting that to work for us.

Carol: And then we would no longer be degrading the environment, we would no longer be ignoring our brothers and sisters who are in poverty.

Wayne: Exactly. The first priority is to feed the hungry of the world so that no one dies of starvation since there are still 25,000 people a day starving to death. That is the first priority of Maitreya and the Masters. The second is taking care of the environment. That is huge. It is huge because we don't feel we can do much about it with the chemicals and the power plants and everything else that we use today. So that has to be gotten rid of immediately. I know that the first thing that will probably happen is to close all of the nuclear power stations around the world that are so dangerous to our health.

Of course there will be the health issue as well. We are told that diseases as we know them today simply will no longer exist because of this new technology. We already see it in the new DNA cures that we're beginning to come out with. All you have to read is the medical journals and you know we're on the doorstep of a totally new world of medicine. I think Maitreya sort of holds the key to the last secrets of this and He is doing that because He wants to make an impact when He comes out on the Day of Declaration. Then we will see scientists getting the very last bits of information they need to make this practical for human use.

Carol: Is there anything else that you would like to wrap this up with?

Wayne: I think that your questions have been excellent in a sense that this is really about simply making people aware that a being like Maitreya exists and to watch the newspapers. Don't believe it just because someone tells you. That is the wrong way to go about this, but remember that if there is such a being in the world, then you would want to watch and see what changes are taking place. I think watching what happens in our stock market is important and then look to see if a guest appears on a major talk show that will so rivet people's attention that they will demand to know more about who this man is and that will lead to the Day of Declaration.

For more information about Maitreya, contact the Tara Center at 888-242-8272 or visit shareintl.org. For more information about Wayne Peterson's book Extraordinary Times, Extraordinary Beings please visit waynepeterson.com. To locate a transmission meditation group near you in New England, please call the Tara Center or write to Transmission Group, PO Box 16083, Rumford, RI 02916.

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Carol Bedrosian is the Publisher and Editor of Spirit of Change Magazine which is located in Grafton, MA. To contact Carol call 508-839-2228, fax 508-839-1173 or email her at SpiritPub@aol.com.