I had just been thinking about my spiritual search and what context I had actually been in. And I had noted that it was not direct sects, but more things that could be described as disorganized, or possibly semi-organized, alternative spirituality.

But then I read a recent post on the author Håkan Blomqvist’s blog, about the history of the UFO movement in Sweden. And his meeting in the early 70’s with a certain Sten Lindgren, alleged “contact person” for extraterrestrial civilizations, as well as representative of the “InterGalactic Federation”, IGF. Or simply the “Space Brothers”

And then I know at least once (there are a few more) when I touched on – and felt the strong gravity from – what must be described as a “sect” with a clear leader.

“On November 21, 1970 Kjell Jonsson and I went by train to Stockholm where we were picked up by Sten Lindgren and his co-worker Bjarne Håkansson. We were taken to Sten Lindgren’s apartement at Lidingö. Arriving at our destination we were soon made aware of that this was no ordinary Swedish home…”

For me, it happened in the late 80’s, at least fifteen years after the meeting Håkan Blomqvist tells about. I was just over twenty and working in a kind of alternative bookstore at the time. A man who introduced himself as Sten Lindgren started talking to me over the counter, and soon invited me to a meeting at his home on Lidingö.

And I went there. It was a surreal, but of course also exciting, evening that sometimes came to mind. Like now. As I remember, most participants that evening were more familiar with and already sympathetic to Lindgren, his ideas and sensations.

The strongest memory of the evening was how he explained to us that the moment we sat there in his sofa group, “reconnaissance discs”, i.e. a kind of UFO drone, hovered outside the windows and watched us. And that we wouldn’t be surprised if they followed us from a distance when we left the house. Previous visitors had testified to this.

Here is a longer article, also by Håkan Blomqvist, about the phenomenon of Sten Lindgren.