Ashtar (sometimes called Ashtar Sheran) is the name given to an extraterrestrial being or group of beings that a number of people claim to have channeled. UFO contactee George Van Tassel was the first to claim to receive an Ashtar message in 1952.[1][2][3][4] Since then, experiences involving Ashtar have been claimed to occur in many contexts. The Ashtar movement is studied by academics as a prominent form of UFO religion.
Brenda Denzler observes that "in the long run, probably the most important person for the propagation and perpetuation of the contactee movement was George Van Tassel".[5] In 1947 Van Tassel moved to Giant Rock, near Landers in the Mojave Desert, California, where he established a large UFO Center. This became the most successful and well-known UFO meeting center of the time.[6][7][8]
As one of the founding "fathers" of the modern religious ufologies,[9] Van Tassel also created arguably the most prominent UFO group established in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, although not as influential or well-known today. This was the "Ministry of Universal Wisdom" begun in 1953, which evolved out of two previous groups he had organized at Giant Rock in the late 1940s. The organization investigated and encouraged the healing arts, but its prime focus was to collect and analyze UFO phenomena and interview contactees. Due to radio and television interest, Van Tassel became the most well-known promoter of contactee experiences and something of a celebrity in the 1950s.[10]
In 1952, Van Tassel claimed to receive messages via telepathic communication from an extraterrestrial and interdimensional being named "Ashtar".[1][2][3][5] This source became the "first metaphysical superstar of the flying saucer age".[3] Van Tassel also interpreted the Christian Bible in terms of extraterrestrial intervention in the evolution of the human race, and claimed that Jesus was a being from space. The Ministry of Universal Wisdom taught that all humans have the power to tap into the "Universal Mind of God", which facilitates evolutionary progress such as that exemplified by Jesus and Ashtar. Van Tassel also claimed that by accessing the Universal Mind he could receive messages not only from Ashtar but from humans who had died, such as Nikola Tesla. From Tesla he claimed to receive instructions to build the "Integratron" machine, which could extend lifespan and access knowledge from the past and future.[11][12]
Although his purported method of communication with extraterrestrial intelligences resembled what is commonly referred to as "channeling", Van Tassel claimed to have established a new form of telepathic communication with these "sources", utilizing a method which included both natural human abilities and the use of an allegedly advanced form of alien technology, rather than the more traditionally religious, non-technological, spiritual medium-based approach taken by many other early channelers of the era. Van Tassel maintained that the method he utilized was not a paranormal or metaphysical activity, but required being "in resonance" with the messages being sent. It was an example of the application of an allegedly advanced extraterrestrial science, that anyone could implement with the proper training in meditation techniques.[1][2]