EXCERPTS FROM THE LAST GOSPEL OF JESUS THE CHRIST
Long Beach, California: Millennium, circa 1960. Among the author's earliest published work, this collection of 24 short commentaries warns of the imminent collapse of international capitalism and calls for a "New Age Movement" rooted in cosmic consciousness: "We shall not be concerned about invaders from other planets for our Space brothers of the United Planets shall be helping us to realize our great new dream. No person can leave this planet except in our ships, until they have built an energy body by purifying their aura of negation and cleansing their body of organic matter by eating only natural organic foods.”
Noonan was working as a sign painter in Long Beach, California in 1947 when he claimed to have an encounter with alien beings. He described being enveloped by "ultraviolet light entwined with gold threads" and pulled into a spaceship, where he had a transcendental experience of being shown his entire life and made aware of spirits guiding humanity and of his own future role in that process. Later, Noonan claimed that his first personal contact with alien beings happened in 1954 near Giant Rock in the Mojave Desert, when he had an ecstatic experience interacting with three beings that exited a landed spaceship.
Soon thereafter, Noonan opened a cafe-art studio in Long Beach called the House of Meditation, which reformed in San Francisco during the Summer of Love as the One World Family Commune (OWFC). Like other New Age and hippie communities, it was largely composed of young people, motivated by rejection of capitalism, western religion, searching for closer connection to nature, and acceptance of communal living and non-monogamous relationships. It was during this time that Noonan opened Here and Now, the first vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco, completely operated by the commune's members.
In 1973, Noonan - who also used the alias Allen Michael - founded The Universal Industrial Church of the New World Comforter and published the first volume of his channeled revelations, The Everlasting Gospel, which combined UFO beliefs and Christian-based themes of good and evil with New Age concepts of spirituality and higher states of being. By 1975, the commune began decreasing in size, and relocated to Stockton, California. Noonan, as Allen Michael, ran for President of the United States in 1980 and 1984 on a Synthesis Party platform advocating for nuclear disarmament. Prior to his death, he was living with a handful of aging members and maintaining the Galactic Messenger Network, a website for the Everlasting Gospel.
Quarto: 41 pp. Mimeographed on standard 8 1/2" x 11" white stock and bound with staples below a light brown paper title sheet. Some minor toning and wear along the extremities; otherwise very good. Scarce, OCLC locates only two holdings: Hamilton College Library (New York) and at the University of Utah. Item #77798
Price: $350.00