were claiming contact with Ashtar and presenting conflicting messages. Helland notes that the Ashtar belief system is based on faith in an extraterrestrial celebrity, the concept of which has fared better than the individual messages. The main shifts in content seem due to failed prophecy, which has moved the emphasis from a physical space fleet averting doom, to the more theosophical concept of an Ascended Master aiding spiritual advancement. He maintains that the Ashtar beliefs are best seen as a syncretism between the I AM movements and the UFO experience, a belief system which regards UFO experiences and sightings as the natural progression of the spiritual development of humanity. Though followers of Ashtar believe in his divine right and knowledge spread across the human race, he and others of his kind have yet to provide any physical evidence of their existence. See also Ashtar (god) Ashtar Command (band) Joshua David Stone Footnotes References Clark, Jerome "The Odyssey of Sister Thedra" in Tumminia, Diana G. (ed.) Alien Worlds: social and religious dimensions of extraterrestrial contact (2007), Syracuse University Press, , Chapter 2, pp 25–41 Ellwood, Robert S., "UFO Religious Movements", in Miller, Timothy (ed.)(1995) America’s Alternative Religions, State University of New York Press, , Chapter 41, pp 393–40. Flaherty, Robert Pearson, "UFOs, ETs and the millennial imagination" in Catherine Wessinger (ed.), The Oxford handbook of millennialism (2011), , Oxford University Press, Chapter 30, pp568–587 Grünschloss, Andreas, "Waiting for the 'big beam': UFO religions and 'ufological' themes" in Grünschloss, Andreas, “Ufology and UFO-related movements” in Partridge, Christopher, (2004), Encyclopedia of new religions: new religious movements, sects and alternative spiritualities, Oxford University Press, , p372-376 Helland, Christopher, "From Extraterrestrials To Ultraterrestrials: The Evolution of the Concept of Ashtar" in Helland, Christopher, “Ashtar Command” in Lewis, James R. (ed.) (2000), UFOs and popular culture: an encyclopedia of contemporary myth, ABC-CLIO Inc, , pp. 37–40. Helland, Christopher “The Ashtar Command” in Lewis, James R. (ed.) (2003) Encyclopedic sourcebook of UFO religions, Prometheus Books, , "Appendix 5" pp497–518 Lewis, James R. (2003) Legitimating new religions, Rutgers University Press, Melton, J Gordon, (ed.) Encyclopedia of American Religion 7th edition (2002) Partridge, Christopher, "Understanding UFO religions and abduction spiritualities" in Partridge, Christopher (2005), The re-enchantment of the West, volume 2: alternative spiritualities, sacralization, popular culture and occulture, Tumminia, Diana G. (ed.) Alien Worlds: social and religious dimensions of extraterrestrial contact (2007), Syracuse University Press, Further reading 20th-century apocalypticists