Former followers of cult leader who claimed he was an alien reveal what they were told to escape 'apocalypse'
A cult leader who claimed to be an extraterrestrial convinced his followers to relocate to North Carolina to survive an impending apocalypse, and wait to be rescued by an alien spaceship.
Frederick von Mierers, the 'alien' cult-leader of Eternal Values is the subject of a new HBO docuseries, Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult.
Von Mierers' transformation began after a near-death experience led him to the 1967 book A Search for the Truth by former journalist-turned-psychic Ruth Montgomery.
In the book, he discovered the concept of "Alien-walk-ins", or souls from other planets who inhabit human bodies, and became convinced he was one of them.
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"This is when the new Frederick walked into the body of the old Frederick," former member Kim Wong told People.
"So he would technically have memories of the old Frederick but was a whole new being."
Von Mierers claimed to have originated from the star Arcturus, and said he had been sent to Earth to find fellow Arcturians.
His approach to recruiting members was potent. "He would say, 'You're one of the people I've been looking for. You all are the leaders of the new age,'" Wong recalls.
How von Mierers built his 'New Age superstardom'
His claims received a significant boost when he met Montgomery herself, who went on to include him in her 1985 book, Aliens Among Us.
According to Wong, this "Caputled him into this New Age superstardom."
Eternal Values was based out of von Mierers' New York City apartment, and attracted followers, including some from the world of high fashion, through a blend of spirituality and materialism that felt distinctive for the era.
Among them was Hoyt Richards, one of the most successful male models of the 80s and 90s.
"There was so much materialism going on in New York at the time, but Frederick and his friends found a way to balance it somehow," he said.
He describes von Mierers as unlike the other gurus of the period, 'the Brooks Brothers' version.
Von Mierers also hosted a television show, though Richards now views it very differently. "It was so obvious to me that he was just being improvisational and just kind of bulls---ing," he tells People.
"I just had this new lens of going, 'Wow. That's not what I remember experiencing.'"
Central to Von Mierers belief system was a doomsday prophecy: before the turn of the century, the planet would be 'wiped out'.
Certain areas of the US, including the Smoky Mountains, would survive, and the Eternal Values needed to be there.
The group eventually purchased a property on Lake Lure in North Carolina.
Von Mierers reportedly identified a "perfect spot to build the platforms where the spaceships will land."
His vision for what came next was elaborate. Aliens would arrive, collect the group, place them in "rejuvenation chambers," and hold them there until the earth was safe again.
"They would drop us back down, and we would lead in the new age," former member Dar Dixon recalls.
Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult is streaming now on HBO.
Topics: True crime, Documentaries, Aliens, HBO
Thomas Bamford