SECT'S CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE ABSURD KIND; ALIEN POWER CONCENTRATED ON WELSH PEAK.

Byline: JAMES McCARTHY

ODDBALL alien worshippers the Aetherius Society are to climb a Welsh mountain because they believe the rock is packed with Martian power.

The wacky sect believe Brecon Beacons peak Pen-y-Fan - the highest in South Wales - has been sacred since it was charged by a "cosmic being" dubbed "The Full Aspect of Nixies Zero Zero Two."

"It is an unusual name," said Mark Bennett, an "international director" at the organisation.

He believes the 886m ridge is one of two Welsh peaks jammed with UFO energy. The other is Carnedd Llywelyn in Snowdonia.

The 31-year-old said: "A group of us will going up Pen-y-Fan and when we get to the top, we'll be chanting mantras which originate from the east.

"The reason we do this up Pen-y-Fan and other mountains is because we believe these mountains are holy places."

In sci-fi movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, character Roy Neary becomes obsessed with a mystical mountain after a brush with little grey men.

"When we go up there, we are accessing the energy in these places and sending the energy out to the world to help inspire people to bring about general world upliftment," Mark said.

He called this "praying with a difference."

"We do this in places that are not holy as well," said Mark, who claimed the group had thousands of sympathisers worldwide.

"I live in London and we do it here several times a week. You can evoke spiritual energy wherever you are."

In 2008, the society, which has a branch in Llandudno, visited Holdstone Down in Devon - another of the holy mountains. This trip was "dedicated to the praise and appreciation of advanced extraterrestrial beings in this solar system who are currently helping earth."

Mark, from Tunbridge Wells in Kent, last visited Pen-y-Fan in 2005.

"I remember being up there and as I was praying, I felt a sensation I had never felt before," he said.

"It felt like my arms were turning to stone with the intensity of the power I felt flowing through me. It wasn't like pins and needles."

The Aetherius Society was founded in the 1950s by London cabbie George King, who the group call "Dr King".

The yoga enthusiast started the religion after a voice told him while he cleaned the dishes: "Prepare yourself! You are to become the voice of interplanetary parliament."

"We're completely drug-free," Mark said. "We don't believe in taking drugs to raise consciousness."

George also claimed to be psychic. "He became a skilled medium," said Mark.

"In 1954, he was contacted by beings from other planets and he became a medium not just for people who have passed on, like mediums normally are, but for beings from other worlds.

"They directed him to perform a mission called Operation Starlight which required him to climb, with a small number of people, various mountains around the world.

"There were 18 of them, of which a lot were in the British Isles," said Mark.

Others were in Europe, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. On each of these, George was zapped by ETs.

"The spiritual energy went through him to the mountain making it a holy place containing this energy.

"It can be accessed by anyone climbing the mountain with a pure motive. If you are a born-again Christian who has never heard of us it is still accessible.

If you disbelieve in the Aetherius Society you could still access it.

"Even someone bad on a good day - if you had someone who was not a nice person, on that day, if they felt inspired, they could do something." * The Aetherius Society will be on Pen-y-Fan on August 25

CAPTION(S):

An alien called The Full Aspect of Nixies Zero Zero Two made Pen-y-Fan, below, sacred