A STATE OF MIND - Fact or Fiction?
Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 4:03 pm
I was asked a question this week by my therapist when discussing JZR. I mentioned the book, A State of Mind, and asked if she would be interested in reading the book. In reply, she asked me if the book was "fiction" or "non-fiction." It hadn't occurred to me that the book itself and JZR's story might be fabricated. I had always assumed it was a true autobiography.
So, I pulled out my copy of the book and began flipping through it. I had the realization that the book might very well be merely a product of JZR's imagination, much along her current theme of "for as long as I can remember, I have always:
? been the founder two cable TV corporations
? been extremely humble and down-to-earth, a mere country bumpkin
? been a tea-totaler
? had miraculous (undocumented) healings
? received comments on my fabulous physical beauty (in fact, I am so beautiful I was approached to be in a movie, because with my good looks surely I should be in movies)
? etc.
I realize the above list is just her superficial claims, but I read the book 20 years ago and I don't remember all of the Ramtha stuff. However, flipping through the book, on just about every page there is some kind of reference that makes my skin crawl. She writes about herself as if she is truly in love with herself, about how Ramtha chose her to be his channel because she is such a "simple" person. Ramtha's story unfold in the book, as if it is gospel.
She very well might have fabricated her entire life (after high school) in this book. Her story might be one big lie. Can ANYONE from her past be reached for comment.?? Maybe she got the idea of channeling Ramtha after learning about Edgar Cayce (although she claims never to have heard his name before Ramtha entered her life).
Here is an 2006 quote from David McCarthy on Factnet, discussing The Life and Teachings of the Masters of the Far East :
"I remember JZ Knight touting these books as an example of 'The Great Work' and made these books required reading. She started calling the locals 'The Villagers' and RSE students 'The Masters'. JZ Knight is now presenting herself as a 'spiritual leader' and billing her self alongside 'Ramtha' but it has fallen flat. I suspect she realizes that the 'Ramtha gig' will eventually collapse under its own deceptions, She wants so much to be the star in her own show. "
Also from the same Factnet thread:
The following is an excerpt from a paper written by cult expert Joseph Szimhart. The paper was titled: "Denouncement of the Prophet's Cult."
CUT stands for Church Universal Triumphant and the Ballards are founders of the I AM Activity.
CUT's formation, however, depended primarily on two mediums and their teachings: Guy and Edna Ballard, who founded the I AM Activity in 1934. CUT reveres Guy Ballard, a.k.a. Godfre Ray King who died in 1939, as an 'Ascended Master'. The Ballards were an eccentric couple who dabbled extensively in occultism, New Thought, Christian Science and Theosophy for some years before appointing themselves as Messengers of the Ascended Masters, a.k.a. the Great White Brotherhood.
It would seem that "The Life and Teachings of the Masters of the Far East" are a work of fiction............
Baird T. Spalding is the attributed author.
Beyond Theosophy, New Thought, and the Silver Shirts a fourth significant influence came from Guy Ballard?s personal contact with Baird T. Spalding, who wrote Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East. This was a series of six volumes, the first published in 1924. Spalding lived with the Ballards briefly in 1929. (22) In his series he recounts his claimed adventures from 1894-98 in India and the Tibetan region where he and his party of eleven met superhuman "masters" with magical powers who initiated them into mysteries of the great I AM. Despite his claim to the contrary in volume one, Spalding had not been to the Far East until after his third volume was published in 1935. Both Spalding and Ballard wrote their adventures in the magical autobiography genre, a euphemism for writing from the imagination. CUT promoted the Spalding series in their bookstore at conferences I (Dr. Joseph Szimhart) attended in 1979-80 and members I knew believed the stories literally.
What I'm getting at is that JZR's fraud might have been born in her head many many years ago, back when she was visiting metaphysical bookstores and discovered pyramid power. Perhaps a bell went off in her head and she developed her get rich scheme.
There is no co-author on her book, and no one to verify any of her claims.
I also wonder if the white book, Ramtha, also a crock. Has anyone ever interviewed Steven Weinberg?
So, I pulled out my copy of the book and began flipping through it. I had the realization that the book might very well be merely a product of JZR's imagination, much along her current theme of "for as long as I can remember, I have always:
? been the founder two cable TV corporations
? been extremely humble and down-to-earth, a mere country bumpkin
? been a tea-totaler
? had miraculous (undocumented) healings
? received comments on my fabulous physical beauty (in fact, I am so beautiful I was approached to be in a movie, because with my good looks surely I should be in movies)
? etc.
I realize the above list is just her superficial claims, but I read the book 20 years ago and I don't remember all of the Ramtha stuff. However, flipping through the book, on just about every page there is some kind of reference that makes my skin crawl. She writes about herself as if she is truly in love with herself, about how Ramtha chose her to be his channel because she is such a "simple" person. Ramtha's story unfold in the book, as if it is gospel.
She very well might have fabricated her entire life (after high school) in this book. Her story might be one big lie. Can ANYONE from her past be reached for comment.?? Maybe she got the idea of channeling Ramtha after learning about Edgar Cayce (although she claims never to have heard his name before Ramtha entered her life).
Here is an 2006 quote from David McCarthy on Factnet, discussing The Life and Teachings of the Masters of the Far East :
"I remember JZ Knight touting these books as an example of 'The Great Work' and made these books required reading. She started calling the locals 'The Villagers' and RSE students 'The Masters'. JZ Knight is now presenting herself as a 'spiritual leader' and billing her self alongside 'Ramtha' but it has fallen flat. I suspect she realizes that the 'Ramtha gig' will eventually collapse under its own deceptions, She wants so much to be the star in her own show. "
Also from the same Factnet thread:
The following is an excerpt from a paper written by cult expert Joseph Szimhart. The paper was titled: "Denouncement of the Prophet's Cult."
CUT stands for Church Universal Triumphant and the Ballards are founders of the I AM Activity.
CUT's formation, however, depended primarily on two mediums and their teachings: Guy and Edna Ballard, who founded the I AM Activity in 1934. CUT reveres Guy Ballard, a.k.a. Godfre Ray King who died in 1939, as an 'Ascended Master'. The Ballards were an eccentric couple who dabbled extensively in occultism, New Thought, Christian Science and Theosophy for some years before appointing themselves as Messengers of the Ascended Masters, a.k.a. the Great White Brotherhood.
It would seem that "The Life and Teachings of the Masters of the Far East" are a work of fiction............
Baird T. Spalding is the attributed author.
Beyond Theosophy, New Thought, and the Silver Shirts a fourth significant influence came from Guy Ballard?s personal contact with Baird T. Spalding, who wrote Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East. This was a series of six volumes, the first published in 1924. Spalding lived with the Ballards briefly in 1929. (22) In his series he recounts his claimed adventures from 1894-98 in India and the Tibetan region where he and his party of eleven met superhuman "masters" with magical powers who initiated them into mysteries of the great I AM. Despite his claim to the contrary in volume one, Spalding had not been to the Far East until after his third volume was published in 1935. Both Spalding and Ballard wrote their adventures in the magical autobiography genre, a euphemism for writing from the imagination. CUT promoted the Spalding series in their bookstore at conferences I (Dr. Joseph Szimhart) attended in 1979-80 and members I knew believed the stories literally.
What I'm getting at is that JZR's fraud might have been born in her head many many years ago, back when she was visiting metaphysical bookstores and discovered pyramid power. Perhaps a bell went off in her head and she developed her get rich scheme.
There is no co-author on her book, and no one to verify any of her claims.
I also wonder if the white book, Ramtha, also a crock. Has anyone ever interviewed Steven Weinberg?