Aetherius Society members at the foot of the Old Man of Coniston

Followers of a society which believes its founder was visited by alien beings will next week make the journey to the top of three of his ‘holy mountains’ in Britain.

Pen y Fan in the Brecon Beacons, Carnedd Llewelyn in Snowdonia and the Old Man of Coniston in the Lake District will all be visited by pilgrims from the Aetherius Society. Devotees of the late Dr George King will conduct services at the spots where they believe the movement’s founder ‘charged’ the hills with cosmic energy from extraterrestrials from Venus and Mars.

The day’s events mark the time spent by Dr King visiting 19 hills and mountains throughout the world, a quest which took him just over three years, ending in 1961. Other British peaks held as holy by the Aetherius Society are Brown Willy, Cornwall; Ben Hope in the far North of Scotland; Creag an Leth-choin overlooking the Lairig Ghru; Kinder Scout in the Peak District, and Yes Tor in Devon. Each of these, according to society members, was visited and ‘charged’ by cosmic energy from the visitors from our neighbouring planets.

Dr George King

Dr King, who was born in Shropshire, began his mission after an incident in his London apartment. He heard, according to the society, a loud voice that told him: “Prepare yourself. You are to become the voice of interplanetary parliament.”

The movement mixes yoga and spiritual action in its aim to help heal and uplift humanity. The Aetherius Society says: “Our world is desperately out of balance. A relative handful of wealthy westerners have control of an unprecedented share of the world’s resources, while millions if not billions suffer starvation or lack of decent living standards.”

“The Cosmic Masters, our spiritual elders from other worlds, have come again to help us in our time of need. They have delivered their messages to the political and religious leaders and they have been ignored.”

The marked stone on Kinder Scout, bearing George King's initials

Other ‘holy mountains’ are in America, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, France and include Africa’s highest peak, Kilimanjaro. The most frequented British holy mountain is Holdstone Down, north Devon, which was, according to advocates ‘charged by the Master Jesus’.

Spokesman Mark Bennett said: “We had a meeting in July on Holdstone Down and 146 people attended, but the pilgrimages are usually smaller. We are expecting about 30 in the Lake District will probably have about a dozen in the one in south Wales with the Carnedd Llewellyn one even smaller.

“The main thing we do is during the pilgrimage is raise our hands. We visualise light going out through hands and we chant the mantra. We say prayers in a certain way. We say things with as much feeling as a performer would. The more sincere the prayer, the more effective it will be.”

Marks on mountains denote the place where Dr King stood on his original journey. Mr Bennett said: “That is a symbol of where the mountain was charged. It is where our founder Dr King was when the charge went through him. This is the holiest part of the mountain.”

Dr George King standing beside a Spiritual Energy Battery during an Operation Prayer power pilgrimage on Holdstone Down

Mr Bennett admits the society often gets a bad press but says it gets a bit boring. Society’s thinking, he says, is ahead of that of the media.

Mervyn Smith will lead the pilgrimage on the 803m (2,635ft) Old Man of Coniston, while the Pen y Fan event will include participant Dr Dee Bhakta, described as a deep spiritual thinker.

The society says that, following last year’s pilgrimage, there were a reported 200 UFO sightings throughout Britain.

Dr King died in July 1997, aged 78.