The Theosophical Society Adyar was during the 50s connected to the internationally spreading UFO movement and we can see its connection to the Ifologiska Sällskapet which was started in Stockholm in 1958. A group within the theosophical foundation Måndagsgruppen which was started in 1951 consisting of the bookseller Jan Erik Janhammar, the clairvoyant Gustaf Adolf Petersson and the theosophical lecturer Gösta Eklund, are said to have hired the theosophically interested Kerstin Bäfverstedt (1909-2000) as a lecturer on the UFO phenomenon and who was later a founding member of the Ifologiska sällskapet. A group within Måndagsgruppen called itself The International Space Investigators (IS) which was later called “The Nine” and it was led by Eric Nordquist (1907-1981) who is also said to have been a member of the Rosicrucian Order AMORC. (Source, Håkan Blomquist, blogs, books)

In 1960, Sten Lindgren (1940-2022) joined the Ifologiska sällskapet and in 1965 founded his own organization called the Intergalactic Federation where they took ideas from George Adamski, Howard Menger and George Hunt Williamson. Sten says that he himself had contacts with spacemen and wrote the books Dialogue with cosmic culture (1997, Regnbågsförlaget) and Manual for cosmic contact (2006). Sten also had occult activities in the form of courses during the 80s in theosophy, esotericism and parapsychology.

Kerstin Bäfverstedt had several connections to esoteric and parapsychological organizations such as Borderland Sciences Research Associates (BSRA) in California with its leader Riley Crabb and was a member of the Swedish section of The Rosicrucian Fellowship since 1956 which was founded by Max Heindel (1865-1919) in the year 1909.

One who became a member of the Ifologiska Sällskapet was Sven Magnusson (1930-2008) who in 1964 started the magazine Sökaren (The seeker) where he published articles on esotericism, occultism, yoga, UFOs and various spiritual and New Age movements. He wrote in his own magazine in 1996 where he describes his own sighting of a UFO when he was 16 years old.

Another UFO association that was started with connections to the Theosophical Society Adyar was the Malmö Interplanetary Society (MIS), which was formed in 1958 with the help of Edith Nicolaisen (1911-1986). Edith was a founder of the book publisher Parthenon, which was established in 1957 and where the board consisted of three members of the Theosophical Society Adyar who were connected to various lodges in the country such as Brita Rodosi (Götaland), Rut Lindberg (Stockholm), Sonja Lilienthal (Gothenburg Lodge) but Edith is said not to have been a member of the Theosophical Society herself. Partheon publishes literature connected to the UFO phenomenon and the New Age and a book she had translated was Flying Saucers Have Landed by Desmond Leslie and George Adamski.

Edith was interested in the teachings of Rudolf Steiner and studied Anthroposophy, Theosophy and Rosicrucian teachings and was introduced to literature about flying saucers during the 50s through her Danish friend Carl Vett (1871-1956). Carl who was an Anthroposophist was a pioneer in bio-dynamic agricultural methods and he organized the First International Congress on Psychic Research in Copenhagen in 1921. Edith is said to have also had UFO sightings and her friend Evgenia Reinfeld (born Olchorwsky, Russia) (1890-1969 ) had a telepathic contact with “Venusians”.

“The saucer observation made Edith even more convinced that she was under the protection and guidance of the space brothers. She saw the work with the Parthenon as a link in the Master’s plan for the earth. She also hoped to soon travel in the saucer and meet the wonderful, all-wise space people.” (Source, Håkan Blomquist, blogs)

After World War II, Edith worked as a translator under the United States Armed Forces in the European Theater and in the Civil Censorship Division (CCD) (control of newspapers, motion pictures, theaters, etc under the operating agency of the Civil Intelligence Section, SCAP).

Malmö Interplanetariska Sällskap had some members who started an occult group that started to publish a newspaper in the year 1963 to 1994 in a letter circle they called “Arcanum” where they wrote about esotericism, ufo’s and ancient mysteries. Behind Arcanum were Gert Carlsson, Yngve Freij (1941-2016) and Alve Holmqvist. Alve wrote in December 1978 in Arcanum about his personal friend “Henry” and his UFO experiences where he was taken aboard a craft and went underwater to an underground city and later to another planet.

The person who started Arcanum was Lennart Lind, an engineer in Bromma. He was one of the leading members of the Ifologiska Sällskapet, where they studied “flying saucers” (UFOs), and in 1962 he began publishing a stenciled members’ magazine called Tid och Rum. When the company took over the publication the following year, Lennart started his own magazine, which he called Brevcirkeln (Letter Circle). In 1965 this was handed over to Gert Carlsson, Alve Holmqvist and Yngve Freij in Malmö, with Gert as “chief editor”.

A few years ago, the Letter Circle was renamed Arcanum, which according to encyclopedias can mean “secret remedy” or “Arcanum… especially in alchemy, the designation for the philosopher’s stone, the great elixir”. (Sökaren 1980, nr 4)

The Arcanum mailing list also published 26 articles by Elisabeth Ståhlgren, who was the leader of the Gralsväktarnas Samfund, which was founded in 1964, where they also published the journal Gralsväktarnas Budskap between 1969-1974. In these mail letters we find translations and articles by Gulli Bergvall who was a colleague of Edith Nicolaisen at Parthenon publishing house. Some translations we can find are from texts by George Trevelyan, 4th Baronet (1906-1996) and Baird Thomas Spalding (1872–1953). Spalding was during the 1920s in personal contact with Guy Ballard (1878-1939), who was a founder of the “I AM” movement, through their jobs as mining engineers. We also find an article series called “Flying Saucers” written by Sander Markus (Alexander Markus).

Gralsväktarnas Samfund had 30 members and consisted of three degrees with the first being called the “Guardians of the Flaming Sword” and they taught cosmology and had a Grail devotion and they read out messages from “spiritual masters” who communicated through automatic writing. They also worked for the establishment of the Universal Religion. Gralsväktarnas Samfund had a lodge in Stockholm and one in Gothenburg and Elisabeth published the books Gralen, nattvardskalken, människan (1975), Evighet – oändlighet : Läran om 10 dimensioner (1968), Agni yoga eller eldens yoga (1966) och Tolkning av Johannes’ uppenbarelse (1968) (swedish titles).

“Man must also be open to contacts with people from alien planets, who come to us in spacecraft, “flying saucers”, to teach us about life in the worlds that stand on a higher plane of development than our world and where the Universal Religion prevails”
(Elisabeth Ståhlgren, Sökaren nr 4, 1969, Swedish Magazine)

“When the organic life here on earth had developed, so that the brain of the ape-man could begin to mentalize, and thus the intensification of the development of consciousness could begin, the Supreme Being of our solar system considered that the time had come to let a so-called planetary government take over the care of our earth. Then the so-called Lords of the Flame from Venus were sent down by Spaceship to our Earth. These constitute our planetary government, which we call “The Great White Brotherhood” or “Hierarchy”. This happened in the time of Lemuria”. (Alexander Markus, Gralsvsktarnas budskap – 1970 No 10)

Edith Nicolaisen had several friends who were theosophists and one of them was the Danish bishop Otto Viking (1885-1966) who also belonged to the Nordic Liberal Catholic Church founded by the theosophist James Ingall Wedgwood (1883-1951). Otto was also interested in the UFO question and wrote articles such as “Flying Saucers and Religion” (Flying Saucer Review) which were also translated into Swedish in the Theosophical magazine Graal. Otto also traveled around the world which took him to South Africa where he met Elizabeth Klarer (1910-1994) who was known for her contacts with space people.

Edith had a correspondence with Liebie Pugh in 1966 which resulted in a Swedish translation of the book Nothing Else Matters. The Universal Link was founded by Liebie and Richard Grave in the 60s and one who helped spread their message was Anthony Brooke (1912-2011) who also founded the New Age group The Universal Foundation in 1966. Anthony had met Peter Caddy in 1965, at a Sir George Trevelyan’s Attingham Park Conference, and Universal Foundation was based at Findhorn between 1968 and 1972.

Adriaan Mazel (1869-1928) was the one who visited Sweden in 1925 and baptized a group of theosophists and in the same year the Liberal Catholic Church was started where Sigfrid Fjellander (1899-1975) and Sven Serrander became the first ordained priests.

Sigfrid’s father Ragnar was a priest who read the writings of the Rosencreutzars and that must have had an impact on Sigfrid who became interested in Theosophy early on when he joined the Stocksund Colony which was a theosophical villa in Stocksund (Stockholm) in 1920. Included in this colony was Hugo Fahlcrantz who later became general secretary of the Theosophists in the years 1923 to 1928. Sigfrid also joined the International Order of the Round Table where he was named Galahad and where he worked with children and staged plays. The Order was active until 1935 but was resurrected again in 1948 with a slightly different name as “Den heliga Graalens Bord” with Sigfrid, Ingrid and the Hjort family as leaders. Sigfrid also became a Co-Mason in 1923.

Sigfrid visited lodges outside Sweden such as the Round Table lodge in Berlin and he was with a group of Theosophists in Holland at Ommen with the Order of the Easter Star and at the Huizen center where we can find names such as Marijn Brandt, Karl Riedl (Vienna, Round Table knight), Karl Riedl (president of the Vienna Lodge) and Heinz Nagel (Germany).

Mary van Eeghen-Boissevain (1869-1959) is said to have started a chapel for the Liberal Catholic Church in Holland in 1924 with James Ingall Wedgwood after donating a building there to Theosophy, Co-masonry and the Round Table and more. Mary’s daughter Emily married Johan Bonjer who became a regional priest in the Liberal Catholic Church in Sweden in 1935.

Otto Viking from Denmark became the first Nordic bishop in 1946 and Sigfrid became bishop in 1957 in Sweden and took over as head bishop in the Nordic Countries after Viking’s death in 1967.

Ingrid Nyborg-Fjellander (1915-1992), who was the wife of Sigfrid Fjellander, joined the Liberal Catholic Church in 1934 and was in charge of the Theosophical journal Graal (Graal : de sökande människornas tidskrift : kvartalstidskrift för sökande människor) and Sigfrid Fjellander was the magazine’s editor and publisher. Ingrid was also the leader of a lodge within the Adyar Theosophical Society called “The Grail Seekers” which was active in the 40s and 50s and she was also a leader in Sweden for the International Order of the Round Table and was world secretary in the years 1957-1975 for Rukmini Devi Arundale (1904-1986).

In 1919, the International Order of the Round Table was founded in Sweden and it is a joint branch between the Theosophical Society and the Liberal Catholic Church. It was founded in 1908 in England under George Herbert Whyte (1879-1917) and is inspired by the legends of King Arthur and the Holy Grail and is aimed at younger boys and girls of which The Golden Chain and Lotus Circle Groups were part of the foundation. The Lotus Circle was founded in 1892 in New York and aimed at teaching the children of members of the Theosophical Society. In 1894 it was founded in London and had Charles Webster Leadbeater (1854-1934) as its leader and when he left England he put George Herbert Whyte in charge of the organization which then developed into the Order of the Round Table. The “Golden Chain” was founded in the USA in 1899 and was a similar group to The Lotus Circle.

Annie Besant became the first Protector of the Order and Charles Leadbeater took over the leadership when George Herbert Whyte passed away in 1917 and later leadership went to George S. Arundale (England), Rukmini Devi Arundale (India), Ingrid Nyborg-Fjellander (Sweden), Philippa Hartley (England) and Margaret Stagg (England). A representative in the United States was Mr. Michael Warnon who is the son of Rev. Maurice H. Warnon who is a priest within the Liberal Catholic Church.

Ingrid and Sigfrid visited Queen Juliana of Holland during the 1950s and in the book “Leende biskopen en modern sökares andliga äventyr” written by Inger in 1975, a chapter is devoted to these visits:

In 1955 and 1956, Sigfrid and I were invited to these gatherings, the last two as far as I know. I shall never ever forget how, after being installed in the hotel ‘De Keizers kroon’ and provided with the Royal Palace’s identification card, in the cold, snow-white January evening, we first set off on foot to the castle. As soon as we got inside the gates we were guided on winding paths by living torches in the snow. After quite a long walk, the castle was suddenly in front of us… like a hidden Holy Grail inside the park, in the middle of a small lake – with towers and pinnacles and a drawbridge! Candles burned in every window. Once inside, each one was welcomed personally by Queen Juliana, who carefully found out who they were and where they came from.

In his fiery speech of welcome, J.W. Kaiser, who was close to the queen in this work, including the following:

– Het oude Loo organizes these meetings for people who want to put aside their opinions and beliefs in order to make a new orientation in their interior, regarding their individual relationship with God and the opportunity to share their experience of this relationship with others. The renewed awareness of the special nature of our relationship to God makes us understand and grasp the divine purpose both with Life and with the special staging, which every minute takes place in everyone’s life. The sum of all immeasurable values expresses itself in the events and circumstances of our life and provides us with ‘our daily bread’ – that which is the very inner substance of Life, by which we are nourished. The ‘burning bush’ is in our vicinity day and night. But you and I pass by without seeing this and that angel of the Lord who appears in the flame. We are so bloated with our self-chosen tasks that hide real life and God. but when this mysterious flame which both consumes and preserves body and soul, is one day recognized by us as God’s own fire within us, then the warmth of our body and the warmth of our heart suddenly become revelations of the real Mystery…

Johan Willem Kaiser (1897-1960) was a Dutch writer who wrote about spirituality and symbolism and together with Margaretha (Greet) Hofmans (1894-1968) they organized a series of conferences called “Oude Loo” meetings (at the Het oude Loo castle ) and later after their time at the castle they were called “Open Field” meetings. Kaiser wrote books on an esoteric interpretation of the Bible with titles such as Birth Pains of the New Man (1958) and The Zodiacal Symbolism of the Gospel of Mark (1962). Greet Hofmans joined the Theosophical Society in the late 1920s and is said to have attended their Ommen camps. She later met Kaiser during World War II who introduced her to the occult and paranormal and she later discovered she had healing powers where she began traveling around and doing healing on different people. Greet lived with Adolphine Agneta Baroness Van Heeckeren (1885-1967) who had a connection with Queen Juliana.

I have included this quote, partly because it indicates the unheard of fine quality and the rare tone that characterizes the lectures and gatherings at the gathering, partly because it depicts what actually happened in many of us. These days were a meeting outside of time and space between people from all over the world.

There was the young Persian scholar N. Bammate, Unesco adviser in Paris, who one day incomparably gave us the Mohammedan version of ‘The Fall of Lucifer’ and thus illuminated the problem of evil. I remember his depiction of how Lucifer is always around and listens when a man is tempted, cries when he falls but still has to teach him the hard lesson! I remember his picture of the workings of evil in the world – ‘how could the wheels roll on the rails without friction?’

Najm Oud-din Bamate’s (1922-1985) writings show that he was influenced by Sufi teachings and Jadidism but he was also influenced by René Guénon after his father had given him the book Symbolism of the Cross (1931). Bamate’s work was at the UN and UNESCO and he was a promoter of inter-religious dialogues.

There was the founder of Big Ben silent minutes, Major W. Tudor Pole, who gave a visionary speech in which he, among other things, mentioned the ethereal protective net that surrounds the earth, and which through man’s technological experimentation was in the danger zone, something that must bring about great geological and climatological changes. How true he was! We had intended to contact him because of the special and familiar tone that sounded in his speech – but held back. But when on the last day in a question just to the Persian he revealed his interest in the non-Christian traditions of the Grail legends, then we have to talk to him. It was a fascinating meeting between ‘Grail seekers’. It turned out that the Grail symbols played as much a role in his life as in ours. He himself was included in the tradition, among other things, as the owner of an ancient Grail cup and cared for by the Holy Grail source in England. The Tudors belonged to King Arthur’s court! We corresponded until his death and I received much valuable material. he is known as the author, among other things, of the wonderful, mysterious book ‘The silent Road’.

Wellesley Tudor Pole (1884-1968) was initiated into the Order of the Table Round (Ordo Tabulae Rotundae) in 1910 where Neville Meakin (1976-1912) was Grand Master. Meakin was a Freemason in Mary Chapel Lodge in Edinburgh and a member of the Theosophical Society and later he also joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in the Amen-Ra Temple and the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (SRIA) in Metropolitan College.

Sigfrid was particularly fascinated by a group of doctors present who concentrated on ‘prayer and healing’. They told how they used the power of prayer daily at their receptions, and Sigfrid told them about the Liberal Catholic Church’s healing services. They found common ground in the importance they attached to the elimination of what caused the disease. Some of these doctors believed that even minor ailments have psychological causes which the doctor should find out in order to help. Another extremely interesting acquaintance was the healing medium Grete Hoffmans, who incidentally indirectly became the reason why the Dutch government banned the conferences. Queen Juliana had engaged her for her blind daughter, and it was thought that Miss Hoffman’s influence was too great.

Sigfrid and I stood in the queue looking for Miss Hoffmanns at a reception. Most wanted a cure – we wanted to meet her. When it was our turn, Sigfrid asked the natural, but otherwise unusual question for him:

– Do you always dare to cure people?

She glanced at him and seemed to understand that this visitor understood a bit of the context and replied:

– When I see what a patient is suffering from, I kind of get in touch with the pattern behind him and try to see what function the suffering has in his life and what it means if it is taken away from him. Care must be taken to remove a person’s karma. ‘Karma’ is the Eastern expression for this law, which Jesus expressed with the words: ‘What a man sows that shall he also reap’. In the East, against the background of reincarnation, it is believed that karma from previous lives shapes a person’s external circumstances and what meets them, both good and bad.

We were filled with deep respect for her and her attitude. But we also noticed that she had an almost hypnotic influence over most people.

The Oude Loo conferences are said to have taken place between 1951 to 1957 with 17 conferences and came to an end when Hofman and the Queen’s private secretary Walraven van Heeckeren received threats against them. (Juliana & Bernhard: The story of a marriage, 1935-1956, Cees Fasseur)

The sense of community in this diverse group of seekers was unheard of. I believe that Sigfrid saw these collections to the greatest extent as an expression of the Great Work. They remained one of our greatest shared spiritual experiences and we spoke of them often – almost as if we had once been in the Holy Grail and seen the chalice shine…” (Leende biskopen en modern sökares andliga äventyr (1975) av Ingrid Nyborg-Fjellander)

The Theosophical Society Adyar also had a youth group called Teosofiska Ungdomsgruppen (TUG) which is said to have been active between 1953 to 1973. This group was part of a baptized group within the Liberal Catholic Church but the connection with the church was later ended but individual members could have been in either Theosophy or the Church. The topics to be discussed were pacifism, the environment, hypnotism, parapsychology and anthroposophy. They also had as lecturer the founder of the National Association for Sexual Education (RFSU), who was Elise Ottesen-Jensen (1886-1973) (wiki).

Members of the Theosophical Youth Group were active in various peace movements, anti-apartheid movements and anti-atomic bomb movements and the world citizen movement and at the start of this youth group we find Gudrun Fjellander, Jan Fjellander (siblings and children of Ingrid and Sigfrid), Roland von Malmborg and Christer von Malmborg, Margareta Homstedt and Jan Rosenblom.

Margit Elsa von Malmborg (1918-2006) was Ingrid’s sister, so Roland and Christer were cousins of Jan and Gudrun. Margit was a doctor and in the 1960s became acting first assistant doctor at Beckomberga Hospital, which was one of Europe’s largest mental hospitals. The mental hospital was founded in 1932 and closed in 1995.

“Beckomberga Hospital used a variety of methods to treat the hospital’s patients such as lobotomy, insulin coma treatment and ECT treatment. Beckomberga Hospital started performing lobotomy in October 1944, the same year that lobotomy was introduced in Sweden.” (wikipedia)

She was also an Anthroposophist and later became a doctor at a medical-pedagogical anthroposophical treatment home and gave lectures at the Rudolf Steiner seminar in Järna, and in 1964 she was one of the initiators of the Kristen demokratisk samling (Christian Democratic Party). Her home at Saltsjöbaden functioned during the 1960s as a gathering place for young people active in various peace, solidarity and environmental groups, and her son Roland was one of several founders of the Green Party in 1981, where he later became an active politician (wiki).

The Christian Democrats were founded in 1964 on the initiative of Lewi Pethrus (1884-1974) who was a leader in Pingströrelsen (Pentecostalism). A blogger writes that it is necessary to have the support of the Livets Ord-församling (an evangelical-charismatic church) in order to reach higher positions within the Christian Democratic Party.

Jan Fjellander was active in groups such as Look In, Search Out, Try Out Camp (LASITOC) which was a theosophical group within the environment, Nobel Foundation, PowWow (meaning a gathering of people), Hamilton conference (Canada 1971), Oi committee, Environmental Forum and Peoples Forum and several of these groups organized meetings in connection with the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in the early 70s, which was led by Maurice Strong (1001 Club).

Jan Fjellander was also working as a coordinator for the Environmental Forum, where we find groups such as the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the World Wildlife Fund, the National Audoban Society, the Scientist’s Institute for Public Information, the Sierra Club, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Friends of the Earth (founder David Brower of the 1001 Club), The United FNL groups and Oi-committee. (source: Peter Nilsson, Linköping University, NGO involvement in the UN Conference)

Jan Fjellander tells in an interview how he became interested in the UFO question early on and that at a young age he personally knew Edith Nicolaisen (1911-1986) who ran the book publishing company Parthenon which published George Adamskis (1891-1965) first book Flying Saucers Have Landed which was a book that he became very fascinated by. Edith sent Adamski’s second book to Jan in advance, suggesting that he write a review of it before it was published.

His interest in paranormal phenomena grew and later in 1974 he started the Föreningen för Psykobiofysik (Psycho-Bio-Physics) and was a lecturer within the national organization UFO-Sweden. He is a board member of the Society for Parapsychological Research (founded in Sweden in 1948) and of the John Björkhem Memorial Fund. He was one of the initiators of Project Hessdalen, which was a series of field investigations in a valley outside Röros in Norway where they investigated light phenomena between the years 1981 and 1985. Behind the investigation were UFO-Sweden, UFO-Norway, Finnish UFO groups and the Association for Psychobiophysics.


“For Sigfrid Fjellander, it was ultimately the question of the Great Work. His eyes were constantly on the lookout, his ears were always listening for signs that God’s plan was coming to fruition.” (Leende biskopen en modern sökares andliga äventyr (1975) av Ingrid Nyborg-Fjellander)