In the early 1950s, Dag Hammarskjöld, second Secretary-General of the United Nations, was appalled by the small room provided for prayer and meditation in the New York UN Headquarters. He spearheaded a campaign, supported by the multifaith "Friends of the UN Meditation Room" group, to revamp the room.ⁱ

"Mr. Hammarskjöld personally planned and supervised in every detail the creation of the 'Meditation Room,'" which reopened in 1957.ⁱⁱ

Journalist Pauline Frederick tell us that Hammarskjöld "had a very close feeling about the spiritual. And he felt that it should be the center of the United Nations."ⁱⁱⁱ What kind of spirituality did he have in mind?

One God, Many Forms?

In his note to visitors of the Meditation Room, Hammarskjöld said this:

But the stone in the middle of the room has more to tell us. We may see it as an altar, empty not because there is no God, not because it is an altar to an unknown god, but because it is dedicated to the God whom man worships under many names and in many forms.^iv

The spirituality promoted in the United Nations Meditation Room is the same as that promoted by many of the UN's influences: the coming of a Universal Christ to satisfy all religions. Teilhard and Robert Muller, as well as Muller's inspiration Alice Bailey, all spoke of this "God whom man worships under many names."

Hints of the Occult

The main features of the Meditation Room are its trapezoidal shape, its lighting, and its decoration: a mural and a large block of iron. Texe Marrs explains the occult nature of these features:

Perhaps the best way to comprehend what the all-seeing eye represents is to examine the architecture of the Meditation Room of the United Nations Building in New York City. The Meditation Room is...shaped as a pyramid without the capstone. Inside, the room is dimly lit, but coming from the ceiling is a narrow but concentrated pinpoint beam of light which radiates down to a bleak stone altar.

On the wall straight ahead is a breathtaking, modernistic mural that is dynamically endowed with occult symbolism, containing twenty-seven triangles in various configurations, a mixture of black and white and colored background, and a snakelike vertical line. At the center is the all-seeing eye, which grips the millions of annual U.N. visitors with its stark, beckoning image of suspicion and omnipresence.^v

The trapezoid is of interest because of its dark spiritual connections. Authors Schnoebelen and Spencer tell us that, "Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan, refers to an occult principle known as the 'law of the Trapezoid'" and that, "the middle order of the satanic brotherhood is called 'The Order of the Trapezoid.'"^vi

This occult and New Age symbolism is not surprising considering "Father of the New Age" Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's influence on the UN

This article is adapted from Professor Veith's Total Onslaught DVD The UN and the Occult Agenda.