Jan Erik Janhammar who came from a lodge in the Theosophical Society Adyar and the anthroposophist Gustaf Adolf Petersson had a revelation in 1950 where the Lord Jehovah appeared and they thought they would form an “antacarana”, which means spiritual bridge in Sanskrit words, and this resulted in that the Monday Group (Måndagsgruppen) was founded in 1951 after a breakaway from the Theosophical Society, and it became “a kind of bridge, or a forum for information about different views of life”. (Sökaren, 1993, no. 3)

“Janhammar easily remembers the flying object he observed for three or four minutes from a hundred meters away, and he can describe it: it was shimmering gray and looked like two upside down saucers facing each other, had circular windows, which were not illuminated, and was completely silent despite an amazing speed. Thirteen years earlier, Janhammar had founded the Ifological Society together with Gustaf Adolf Pettersson. “Ifo” stands for interplanetary flying object.” (Sökaren 1993, No. 3)

A large number of lecturers managed to be at the Monday Group over the years and the ones who gave the most lectures were the occultist Gösta Eklund and Gustaf Adolf Pettersson who were there from the very beginning. Gösta Eklund gave lectures on, among other things, “Blavatsky, the theosophist and mystic” and Gustaf Adolf Petersson on “human development opportunities in the Age of Aquarius”. Another speaker was Ivan Troeng who gave a talk on “magnetism – the healing of the future”.

Janhammar was also one of the founders of the Ifologiska Sällskapet and Ivan Troeng, who was one of the earliest ufologists, was one of the driving forces behind it, where he became chairman between the years 1961-1963. The first chairman of the Ifological Society was Baron Captain Liljencrantz between the years 1957-1961. Bertil Kuhleman became a temporary chairman during the 1963 annual meeting and Eric Nordquist who was a Rosicrucian (AMORC) took over after him, and finally Ernst Linder became chairman between 1964 and 1969.

Ernst Linder (1928-2020) belonged to the Finnish nobility ‘Linder’ and there we also find Ernst Linder (1868-1943) who was a military man who served on both the Finnish and Swedish sides during the two world wars. He participated in the White Army in the battles at Tampere in the Finnish Civil War and during the Finnish Winter War 1939-1940 he was the head of the Swedish Volunteer Corps. Linder was a Knight of the Prussian Order of Johanniter and later a Knight of the Order of Johanniter in Sweden (Johanniterorden) and was also a knight in several other orders such as the Order of the Sword and became a recipient of the Prussian Iron Cross.

1969 was the last year of Ifologiska Sällskapet. The society’s members were a mixture of spiritualists, occultists and theosophists and at the end new UFO organizations started up with the same message from the spiritual world.

“The Stockholm-based association Ifological Society operated in the years 1957-1969 and their members called themselves ifologists. The society’s task was to propagate for increased information on the subject of flying saucers. The society believed that we were visited by human-like beings from other planets in our solar system.” (Sökaren 1970, No. 8)

The psychotherapist Egil Rønne-Petersen (1904-1978) gave a lecture on Freud and Jung and the bishop Elis Wikström of the Free Catholic Church, who was formerly the parish priest of the Liberal Catholic Church, was a speaker, and also Sigfrid Fjellander and Ingrid Nyborg-Fjellander, also from the Liberal Catholic Church, gave talks at the Monday group.

Jan Erik Janhammar was the one who took the Dane Martinus (Martinus Thomsen, 1890-1981) to Sweden for the first time, and that was also because of a message from the spirit world, and the theosophically interested Mariana Westerlund was the one who assisted financially and Martinus’ first lecture which was held in 1954 gathered over 200 participants.

Janhammar was also the one who introduced Peter and Eileen Caddy, from the New Age center Findhorn located in Scotland, to a visit to Sweden in the mid-60s. A visit that set a record for the number of visitors to the Monday Group.

“For several years the little group lived in their caravan, without much contact with the outside world. Peter was on unemployment benefits, and somehow they pulled themselves together. They were all set to follow Eileen’s lead in meditation. Some member of the group experienced regular telepathic contact with aliens in a certain mothership and was told that the group would be evacuated from Earth if developments made it necessary.” (Sökaren 1972, No. 10)

In 1976 the Monday Group celebrated its 25th anniversary and Anthony Brooke (1912-2011) gave the evening’s talk called “Towards a Cosmic Consciousness and a New Interplanetary World Order” where he talked about the spiritual aspect of the flying saucers, and Jan Fjellander was acting as an interpreter during the lecture. Anthony founded The Universal Foundation in 1966 and was based at Findhorn between 1968 and 1972. Books written by Anthony included “Revelation for the new age” and “Towards human unity”.

In the early 1970s, Anthony Brooke visited for the first time the couple Douglas and Gita Keiller’s home Gövik, located in Särö outside Gothenburg, and there they founded the foundation ‘Peace Through Unity’ in 1975. Their home Gövik served as a center for spiritual gatherings and visitors there included in the mid-60s Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who spread his teachings on Transcendental Meditation and Peter Caddy from Scottland visited and talked about “how people around our world today are participating as ‘agents’ in the work of change”. (Sökaren 1977, No. 9)

Gita Keiller (1931-2020) was born in Denmark and was the daughter of a missionary priest (Reverend Paul H. Lange) and spent some of her youth in India. After separating from Douglas, she later married Anthont Brooke and they moved to New Zealand in 1986.

Douglas Keiller (1906-1986) was the son of James Keiller (1867-1962) and Alice Lyon (1869-1968). James was a well-known Swedish industrialist, Italian consul from 1910 and cabinet chamberlain at the Royal Court States from 1922 and a good friend of Gustaf V (1858-1950) who was Swedish king between 1907 and 1950. The king and James spent the summers together at Gövik in Särö, and rumors about the king were that James was his half-brother from an extramarital affair that Oscar II Fredrik Bernadotte (1829-1907) is said to have had with Hilda Falck (1839-1927).

Alexander Markus gave a lecture at the Monday Group in 1977 on “How man can live 150-200 years old and be in full vigor, here and now.” At this talk he claimed to have achieved full cosmic consciousness and he told how at the age of 14 he experienced a figure of light that enveloped him in its light so that his consciousness was raised and he looked into “the cosmic chronicle” where the past, present and future are inextricably intertwined. In his book ‘My Incarnations and Teachings’ (2015) he tells how he was invited to a meeting with Douglas Keiller in Särö and how a man there gave him a directory of addresses where he saw Johnny Lovewisdom’s address down in Ecuador, and how this prompted his journey down to Johnny (whom he recognized through his incarnations).

Another lecturer at the Monday group was Olle Hjern (1926-2016) who spoke about ‘Swedenborg as a scientist and mystic’ and ‘Swedenborg and parapsychology’ and he also wrote for the magazine Sökaren (The Seeker) about, among other things, ‘The cult of Mithras in Antiquity’ and about ‘Psychology and Meditation ‘ and book reviews about Frithjof Schuon’s work and the authors Tage Lindbom (Traditionalist) and Björn Sjövall. He also told about his own church where he was a pastor and this was the Swedish Swedenborg church. In Stockholm there were three different Swedenborg churches with slightly different orientations, but they still had a collaboration between them with meetings and a Swedenborg forum. Olle wrote the book ‘Swedenborg and his friends in Gothenburg’ (1991) and was also behind the magazine ‘Gnosis – magazine for a spiritual culture’ which had Björn Sahlin as editor and Willy Pfändtner as responsible publisher. He was also chairman of the Religious History Association at Stockholm University.

The Swedenborgian ‘New Church’s Swedish Congregation’ had Jack Hårdstedt (1895-1973) as pastor and who had previously been in the Pentecostal movement (Pingströrelsen). Jack belonged to “Swedenborgs Minneskyrka” at Tegnerlunden in Stockholm, which was built in the 1920s and had about seventy members. ‘New Church’s Congregation’ had Kurt Nemitz as pastor and was in Bromma, Stockholm and Jönköping with around a hundred members. ‘The Lord’s New Church which is Nova Hierosolyma’ was located on Ölandsgatan in Stockholm where pastor Olle Hjern was a leader and with about thirty members and they also had a society called “New Church’s Confessors” with fifty members. Olle’s wife was the writer Susanna Åkerman, who is the secretary of the Swedenborg Forum and who published the book ‘Fenixelden: drottning Kristina som alchemist’ and other writings about the Rosicrucians.

Olle Hjern had a background in Nazi circles and during the war he was part of the Lindholm party and from the 50s the New Sweden movement and during the 60s he was part of the Catholic ‘Order of St. Michael’ (S:t Michaelsorden) and he wrote for Sweden’s national association’s newspaper Fria Ord. (source, Tobias Hübinette)

Leif Zeilich-Jensen (1938-1992) was a speaker at the Monday Group several times where he talked about ‘Eskimo shamanism’ and ‘Agrippa von Nettesheim as mystic, physician and alchemist’ and he published two books in 1963, one on Hatah Yoga and one on Astrology. He wrote the foreword to the book ‘World of Magic: sorcery or science’ (1978) which also featured Robert Amadou (1924-2006). He also gave a talk at club ‘Kamelen’ where he talked about Carlos Castaneda with the title “Meeting with another reality”. Leif was also active in the Swedenborg church and was friends with Olle Hjern, Bo Ragnar Ståhl, Andrey Edelfeldt and Anders Larssson who were also active within the church.

Leif was interviewed in the magazine Sökaren (1978, no. 5) where he told about his paranormal experiences where at the age of 7-8 he was able to leave his body and when he got older he was able to learn to travel when he wanted and communicate with spirits outside the body. He talks about reincarnation:

“But Leif also has memories of past lives. In the most recent incarnation he was an engineer in Germany, drafted as an aviator during World War I. He has dreamed about this very clearly. Leif also believes that he has some support for having previously lived as the famous magician Agrippa von Nettesheim, because he has memories of Agrippa’s life.” (Sökaren 1978, No. 5)

The Swedenborg Church became famous when several members were linked to the murder of the Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme (1927-1986), and where several within the church were interrogated by the Swedish security police. This was because several members of the church were also active in extreme right-wing (Nazi) political movements and were in statements hostile to Palme and where members of the church also warned that he might be shot. Members of the church were also connected to the Catholic Order of St. Michael, which was founded by Ulf Hamacher in 1959 and which had its foundation in Sweden’s national confederation (Sveriges nationella förbund). According to papers from Säpo (the security police), 13 members of the church were also members of the Order of St. Michael.

Ulf Hamacher (1920-1993) was a leader within Sweden’s National Federation during the 1970s and 1980s and was club master of the Ungsvenska klubben, which was a men’s club for conservatives with a royalist touch founded in 1908. He was also active in the World Anti-Communist League and The Swedish-Chilean Society that gave a positive image of Augusto Pinochet (1915-2006) (wiki).

Other members of the Church of Swedenborg were the esotericist Andrey Edelfeldt who also gave a lecture at club ‘Kamelen’ in 1972 on ‘Astrology from the heights of the Himalayas, On the tantric astrology in Tibet’s lamaism’. The aristocrat and Baron Eric von Born (1897-1975) was a pastor within the church and connected to the political extreme right and during the 1930s wrote openly anti-Semitic writings, and he also wrote about Swedenborg, and was a member of the Order of St. Michael. Werner Öhrn was a chairman of Sweden’s National Federation and member of the Order of St. Michael and was with Åke J. Ek (who led Swedish WACL for a time) leader of the Klara-Lidingö FBU association (officer training). Mita Marinkovic is said to have been connected to the church and also the Klara-Lidingö FBU association and he had rumors of being connected to the Stay-behind movement in Croatia. Anders Larsson was connected to the church and he was for a time in WACL, Democratic Alliance and had friends within Contra. He also warned the Government Office that Olof Palme’s life was in danger before the murder.

Werner Öhrn is said to have been a leader within the Order of St. Michael and to have been part of the foundation of Christian Democratic Gathering (Kristen demokratisk samling, KDS) which was formed in 1964, where he and several other members tried to infiltrated the party, but were excluded when their membership in Sweden’s National Federation (SNF) became known. Per Lennart Aae, Harald Ljungström (1912-2010), John Carman, Georg Wiesholler, Folke Rosenqvist and church adjunct Erik Grönlund (former parliamentary candidate for Christian Democratic Gathering in 1964) had connections to the Order of St. Michael and Christian Democratic Gathering.

“Lawyer Hamacher: It was Councilor Harald Ljungström who mainly wrote the Christian Democratic Union’s party program, but I have helped to some extent. It so happened that I received the program on referral from Ljungström. I went through it and crossed it out and added what was appropriate. Three groups with which the order are closely associated are the 140 doctors who last year sent out their moral appeal, the MRA and the Church Assembly.” (The High Church order was behind KDS, Dagens Nyheter, 1964)

The spiritual movement MRA, which is called Moral Re-Armament, was founded in 1938 by Frank Buchman (1878-1961), who was previously behind the Oxford movement. An early supporter of Buchman in the 30s was James Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of Salisbury (1861-1947) and the next generation, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury (1893-1972) was the first president of the Conservative Monday Club in 1962 until his death in 1972. The next generation again, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 6th Marquess of Salisbury (1916-2003) took over the presidency from his father and held it until 1981, and he was also a participant in the private intelligence network “Le Cercle” (Rogue Agents, David Teacher). Moral Re-Armament was used as a network against communism through psychological operations during the Cold War to combat its propaganda. At the Monday Club we find many members of the International Monarchist League with its many connections to esoteric orders and churches.

The Order of St. Michael is supposed to be a Catholic and Christian order but its connection to Nazis and Swedenborg Church shows that there were also occult, esoteric, theosophical and New Age (ufo) movements that tried to infiltrate the “Christian” party.

Erik Reuterswärd (1917-2002) was connected to the church and he was a judge at the Supreme Administrative Court and a friend of Reinhold Geijer (1917-2009) who was a Swedish officer and a regional leader of Stay Behind in Sweden. The Reuterswärd family has several members in military orders and the cabinet chamberlain Johan Axel Nordenfalk (1866-1958) (married into the Reuterswärd family) was in the Johanneniterorden and so were Anders Wilhelm Reuterswärd (1872-1952) and Knut Axel Hakon Reuterswärd (1873-1943). Gustaf Wilhelm Reuterswärd (1907-1999) was in the Johanneniterorden and his brother Carl Albert Edward Reuterswärd (1909-1997) was in the military and captain in the general staff in 1941 and they were both members of the Order of the Sword (Svärdsorden).

Reinhold Geijer married Agneta von Stedingk (1922-1991) who belonged to the von Stedingk nobility where we also find members of the Johanneniterorden such as Måns Christer von Stedingk (1868-1955) and Lars Ritter von Stedingk (1869-1938).

Another within the church was Lars Rutger Solstråhle who had an interest in astrology and Pythagorean mysticism. The UFO-interested Arne Groth (1926-2006) is said to have been connected to the church and he was also employed at the defense research institute where he dealt with survival techniques “in war-torn and occupied urban areas as well as new plans for civil defense and self-protection”. He was active in various UFO associations, held lectures on the dowsing rod (Monday Group) and on the “Form forces in nature” at club ‘Kamelen’.

Eddie Grahn (1938-2023) was connected to the Swedenborg Church and he was a prominent figure in the New Age movement in Stockholm. Just like the Monday Group, Eddie started an “underground” club in 1966 called ‘Kamelen’ (Sowing and Reaping Club) where the same group of lecturers were affiliated and who spoke to a small group of people on astrology, Tibetan mysticism, flying saucers, Hinduism, graphology, psychometrics, African magic, macrobiotics etc. He also published a magazine called ”Blue Dragon” with content such as gall art, runic magic and water that heals.

Bo Ragnar Ståhl (1946-1989) was in the Swedenborg church and knew several people there such as Anders Larsson, Andrey Edelfeldt, Leif Zeilich-Jensen and Olle Hjern. Ståhl was also warning together with Leif that Olof Palme’s life was in danger before the murder in 1986.

As a 22-year-old, Bo belonged to the Swedish part of the Moravian Church (Sv. Evangeliska Brödraförsamlingen, Herrnhutismen) which was founded by Nicolaus Zinzendorf (1700-1760) and where Bertil Persson was also a pastor. Bo and Bertil wrote together the book ‘Cults, sects, communities: a study of religious minorities in Sweden’ (1970) in which Lennart Ejerfeldt and Berndt Gustafsson also participated. The book, which was about lesser-known religious movements in Sweden, received a report in the magazine Sökaren where Bo told about the work on the book and about different communities that he has visited such as the Liberal Catholic Church, Vännernas Samfund (Quakers), Theosophists, Sufis and Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc. Bo tells about his visit to the Grail Guardians Society (Gralsväktarnas Samfund):

“At the small exclusive group Gralsväktarnas Samfund on Möregatan in Stockholm, it happened that three people – two women and a man – entered the worship room, while serious music was being played on a gramophone. The lighting was dimmed and the smell of incense stuck in the nose. The three were dressed in white robes with yellow wing-like mantles on their backs, and they walked up to a table, where there was a crystal bowl, filled with water, which was the symbol of the grail chalice. This bowl was raised during the grail ceremony. The leader Elisabeth Ståhlgren pointed out during the ceremony that those who were open to the cosmic message, would experience the power pouring out of the bowl.
– She also declared, for example, that she never reads books written by “earthly authors” but only by “the masters”.” (Sökaren 1971, no. 7)

Bo Ragnar Ståhl ran for a long time the book antique shop “Lyktan” in Stockholm which was a special antique variety for theology, religious history, mysticism, Judaica, Tibetology, freemasonry and homeopathy and which was founded in 1973. He died in 1989 when he was only 43 years old.

Olle Hjern (1926-2016), who was a pastor in the Swedenborg church, was also on the editorial staff of the magazine ‘Gnosis – magazine for a spiritual culture’ which was published between 1984 and 1992. The founder of the magazine was Björn Sahlin (1947-) and collaborators were Willy Pfändtner (responsible publisher and editorial secretary), Robert Carleson and Jörgen Sundvall. The newspaper would act as a stimulus to spiritual and cultural renewal in the contact between religion and society.

Björn Sahlin was also interested in Emanuel Swedenborg and wrote about him in article and book form and he has also written about Harry Martinson, Amelie Posse and he wrote the foreword to Poul Bjerre’s book ‘The role of sleep and dreams in the healing process’. He tells in an interview in the magazine The Seeker (Sökaren 1982, no. 5) that he was one of the leading forces behind the so-called new spirituality in Sweden and was one of the initiators and also long-term chairman of the Religious Forum that started in the 70s. The forum was a gathering place for a variety of religious communities and sects and he was given a central place and from the inside he could follow the development, successes and setbacks of the new communities.

“My own task was to try to coordinate the interests of the smaller and new communities and to build a cooperative organization, to try to take advantage of the interests of the new communities in society and vis-à-vis the older communities, who felt their positions were threatened. It was stimulating and instructive work – but not particularly successfully. It was like taking the pulse of our democratic society, testing whether the constitutional freedom of religion worked in practice. No, the already established did not want to give way to anything new. It was an enthusiastic crowd of people, right from the start a group of 30 people from the most diverse denominations, which for a few years from the middle of the 70s onwards gathered in the Religious Forum.” (Sökaren 1982, no. 5)

Robert Carleson who was also on the editorial staff of ‘Gnosis’ was born into a spiritualist home and that made him to later be interested in parapsychology and theosophy. He was later brought into Christianity (gnosis) and Philosophia perennis where he has realized the unity of the different religions. He is the author of a chapter in the book ‘Western Esotericism in Scandinavia’ entitled ‘Traditionalism in Sweden’.

Willy Pfändtner, (b. 1947) is currently lecturer in philosophy of religion and deals with religious diversity and interreligious dialogue. He and Jörgen Sundvall were the leading figures behind the Hare Krishna movement coming to Sweden in the 70s and they were both leaders within the movement for a few years. During the 80s, Jörgen Sundvall became a student of hypnosis and hypnoanalysis and studied under Neil French in England. He started the Swedish School for Ethical and Analytical Hypnotherapy (SSEAH) in 1997. He tells us that he uses hypnosis to make people remember their past lives.

The magazine Gnosis had a number of writers in its 13 published issues between 1984-92 such as the priest and Zen meditator Hans Hof (1922-2011) who treated Master Eckhart (1260-1328). Peder Thalén (1957-) wrote about Mysticism and reality, Catharina Stenqvist (1950-2014) wrote about mysticism and published her own book ‘Wonder and change: mystikens teori og livssyn (1994)’. The religious historian Åke Hultkrantz (1920-2006) was an expert on Native American religions and shamanism. Jan Olof Bengtsson was interested in Hinduism and interfaith dialogue. The author, psychotherapist and priest Owe Wikström writes about mysticism, hypnosis and symbolic drama and these are just some of the authors in this magazine. Björn Sahlins also published the anthology “Religious freedom – for whom? New religions meet society” in 1979.

Kurt Almqvist (1912-2001) who wrote in Gnosis was one of the early Traditionalists in Sweden together with Tage Lindbom (1909-2001). Lindbom converted to Islam and became a Sufi in the Shadhiliyya order and he later came into contact with Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998). Later supporters of Traditionalism in Sweden include Jonas de Geer who, who we find at Motpol.nu, together with Daniel Friberg, who founded Arktos Media.