Aurobindo in Siberia

"The Mysterious Story of X7" is a curious book published by Findhorn Press. It contains channeled messages received by Anne Edwards (Naomi), an American psychic, from 1953 to 1957. Edwards was a friend of Peter Caddy. Both of them were involved in the creation of Findhorn, a group that eventually became well-known within the New Age movement. Edwards seems to have been a follower of Alice Bailey, or at least inspired by her, since she claimed guidance from Master DK. The channeled material has been published several times under different titles, and has apparently been regarded as highly controversial.

Most channeled transmissions are supposedly from discarnate beings, sometimes aliens from other planets. The messages from X7 are unusual, since they claim to have a wholly earthly origin. X7 was supposedly a group of Russian political prisoners, imprisoned in a salt mine and forced to live underground almost constantly. Despite this, X7 were able to communicate telepathically with the Network of Light, to which Edwards belonged. Or so Findhorn Press believes.

The members of X7 claim to have been visited by Master Jesus Christ in the underground caves where they were forced to live and labor. Under his guidance, X7 gradually acquired miraculous powers. The messages are an attempt to explain the teachings of Jesus (or X7). They are broadly similar to those of Theosophy and Anthroposophy, but also contain some novel emphases. X7 don't believe that humans have a purely spiritual destiny. Rather, matter must be transformed and glorified. So must the planet Earth itself. X7 believes in the existence of a "solar substance", which can be manipulated at will by those who have developed suitable powers. They also mention "the Auric Being", which seems to be a kind of etheric or astral body. Humans must learn how to make the Auric Being project a perfect physical body. Interestingly, the members of X7 claims to have completed the transformation, yet their physical bodies are said to be outwardly identical to normal, pre-transformation physical bodies. They also claim to have the ability to mould matter into any form they wish. The messages contain somewhat "esoteric" expositions on various tones and colors, said to be cosmic energies. A few references to UFOs, Atlantis and advanced underground civilizations have been included. The story ends with X7 being abandoned by the prison guards, who apparently assume they are starving to death. In reality, the mysterious group has formed a school in the bowels of the Earth in which they secretly teach the other prisoners...

I think it's obvious that X7 never really existed, and that the whole story is allegorical. The salt mine in which the prisoners are virtually entombed I take to be a symbol of the material world, in which the souls of men are imprisoned. Jesus appears in the mine as he once appeared in our material world, imparting gnosis on the believing few. However, the gnosis turns out to be geared towards transforming the material world, rather than escaping from it. This is symbolically expressed by X7 staying in the mines, even digging deeper and deeper, eventually finding a kind of "paradise" in the depths of the Earth. I think the allegory is glaringly obvious. Plato's cave, anyone? True to form, New Age teachers simply *must* claim that their ideas come from supernatural intelligences somewhere out there...

The mysterious message of X7 made me associate to Aurobindo's and Alfassa's ideas about bringing down a kind of super-consciousness that would transform the material world, rather than destroy it. It's also similar to Steiner's ideas about the Earth being a living organism in evolution, although my impression of Steiner is that the final Vulcan incarnation of Earth (and Man) is more spiritual than material. The recent craze about "ascension" also comes to mind, although X7 sound far less narcissistic - they emphasize the necessity to serve both Jesus and the greater cosmic context. Of course, Christian ideas about the millennium lurk uneasily in the background, too. X7 are unclear on the role of the Second Coming. On the one hand, the messages do contain references to Jesus soon returning in force, and also to UFOs landings. On the other hand, X7 seems to suggest that humans must learn to transform themselves.

To be honest, X7 (or was it Naomi) weren't the best of writers. Like most other channeled messages, "The Mysterious Story of X7" gets extremely tedious to read very quickly. From a purely literary angel, this work only deserves two stars, or maybe three. However, since it has a certain intrinsic interest on a philosophical level, I nevertheless award it four stars.

End of transmission.