Editing Universe People (section)

== History ==
[[File:Astar na letne.jpg|thumb|A sympathizer of the ''Universe People'' in [[Prague]], [[Letná]], May 2002.]]
Ivo A. Benda began his public activities in the middle of the 1990s. He has organized more than 180 lectures, visited by more than 12,000 people (according to his own words). In 1997, he published the book ''Rozhovory s poučením od mých přátel z vesmíru'' (''Talks with Teachings from my Cosmic Friends'').<ref name=reflex1 /> At the beginning of the 2000s he appeared in the mass media, such as [[Nova (Czech TV)|TV Nova]] and in the [[Czech Television]] (Czech public television). Some of the visitors of his public lectures considered his speeches as a perfect mystification or joke, however, some psychiatrists labelled his performances as a bizarre psychotic [[delusion]].<ref name=reflex1 /> From 1998 to 2000, the ideology of the Universe People was close to [[sectarianism]], with a central idea of coming "chip totality" and an elaborate evacuation of people to a higher dimension of planet Earth. However, their later efforts moved to defence against the attacks of negative extraterrestrial beings, called ''[[Reptilian humanoid|saurians]]'' <!-- is it the correct translation? re: that's what the official website of the movement says --> or ''[[Reptilian humanoid|lizard people]]'' (in [[Czech language|Czech]]: ''ještírci'').<ref>Vojtíšek (2004), p. 280</ref>

In the second half of the 2000s, Ivo Benda and his group became more publicly known also in [[Slovakia]]. In 2007, the Slovak private television channel [[TV JOJ]] reported that the Universe People sent instructions on how to defend against attacks of evil extraterrestrial entities to the Slovak [[Government of Slovakia|Ministry of Defense]]. The envelopes also contained suspicious material, which alarmed the Slovak Military Police and security services. One of the buildings of the Ministry was evacuated. These envelopes contained instructional CDs and promotional materials of the group. Ivo Benda stated on TV: "If you were attacked by a lizard man from an outer world, the Ministry of Defense should defend the people, shouldn't it? Or do you consider those lizard people as friends?" The suspicion of a security threat was unproven.<ref>The information is based on a news report of the Slovak.</ref>