Benjamin Creme

Benjamin Creme was a New Age lecturer, writer, and artist who claimed the Second Coming of "The Christ" happened in 1977 in the Himalayas, in the form of Maitreya this time instead of Jesus, and that Maitreya is now secretly living in London, England and awaiting the right time to reveal himself to mankind. His beliefs were drawn from theosophy and the writings of Alice Bailey, among others. He started a group called Share International to promote his beliefs.

In 1982, he placed full-page ads in newspapers around the world claiming "THE CHRIST IS NOW HERE," which was enough impetus to scare evangelical Christian writer Constance Cumbey into believing this "Christ" was possibly the Antichrist and writing a book to warn people.

Benjamin Creme also believed that crop circles are the work of UFOs and are linked to the Second Coming of The Christ, and cited as "proof" that crop circles started appearing around 1975, just as Creme started publicly teaching his woo about Maitreya, and many of them appear around London, where Maitreya allegedly now lives.

In 2010, some of Creme's followers identified the Maitreya as the British-born American economist after Patel's appearance on The Colbert Report.