The people before whom he appears are in every case fundamentalist Christians of one persuasion or another; denominationally they vary tremendously, but the consistent factor is that they are all extremely dogmatic in their beliefs. Maitreya appears to them to ‘soften them up.’ These are the groups from whom, throughout the world, he expects the major opposition and rejection. If he appears as the World Teacher and they are expecting the Teacher in their own terms ― as the Christ, Maitreya Buddha, Krishna, the Imam Mahdi, the Messiah ― with their very fixed views they would be inclined to reject him.
The most important thing is the creation of the healing waters, which is done first. When Maitreya has magnetized the waters, in due course ― it might take a few weeks ― he finds a group of fundamentalists in a town nearby and appears before them. He speaks to them in their own language and many healings take place during the process. He does not say: “I am Maitreya”; “I am the Christ”; or “I am the Imam Mahdi,” he just appears, out of the blue but in a form which they will recognize ― as he did in Nairobi in Kenya, on 11 June 1988, an appearance of which we have photographs.
Maitreya leaves it to the groups, in the thoughtform in which he has appeared to them, to recognize him or not. Some of them will say: “Beware, it could be the anti-christ: before the Christ comes, the anti-christ is coming.” That is why they do not speak out, and if they do not speak the media does not speak. Occasionally at these meetings there have been representatives of religious newspapers who do not write about it. Why not? I think they do not know what to do with this information: it is too ‘hot’.
Either they believe it is the Christ or they believe it is the anti-christ; or they are mystified because he has not said who he is. Perhaps 80 per cent of the people believe they had an experience of the Christ, or the Mahdi, or the Messiah ― whomever it happened to be ― and they are perfectly content to accept that and just wait for something more to happen in connection with it. That must do something to their awareness, even if they do not talk about it except among themselves. When eventually they see Maitreya on television they will say: “That’s the one who appeared to us ― perhaps he is all right after all; perhaps he is not the anti-christ.”
The appearance in Nairobi was reported and photographed because the editor of the Swahili edition of the Kenya Times was present and wrote it up. It was picked up by various media and was a two-day wonder around the world. The media in general, as ordinary men and women, are deeply, profoundly sceptical, and professionally, not only sceptical, but cynical in the extreme.
