"For Creme, the Maitreya reappeared, albeit incognito, in 1977, when New Age spiritual seekers were promoting the love, peace and brotherhood Bailey had considered a prerequisite for the reappearance of the Christ. Creme’s emphasis on sharing and equality was an apt response to the rise of global capitalism under Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. Creme maintained that the Maitreya had predicted the global financial crisis in 1988, and in December 2008, three months after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Creme claimed to work closely with the space brothers but regarded them in a Theosophical light as part of the Great White Brotherhood, and rejected the disturbing accounts of abductees as being a product of astral imagination. While Creme embraced the work of previous Theosophists, particularly that of Blavatsky and Bailey, he maintained his charismatic authority by dismissing contemporary channellers and attributing their communications with Maitreya and the hierarchy to the glamour of the astral plane."