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The "I AM" Activity is a religious movement founded in the early 1930s by Guy Ballard and his wife Edna in Southern California. It is an offshoot of theosophy and a major predecessor of New Age religions, especially the Church Universal and Triumphant.

The movement believes in the existence of a group called the Ascended Masters, a hierarchy of supernatural beings that includes Comte de Saint Germain, Jesus, El Morya, Gautama Buddha, Maitreya, and thousands more. These are believed to be humans who have lived in physical bodies, became immortal and left the cycles of "re-embodiment" and karma, and attained their "Ascension". The Ascended Masters are believed to communicate to humanity through certain humans, including Guy and Edna Ballard. The movement has been called a cult by the Los Angeles Times.

Ballard, who said that he was the reincarnation of George Washington, an Egyptian priest, and a noted French musician, died in 1939. In 1942 his wife and son were convicted of fraud after a government audit found that they had stored up over $3,000,000 from donations and a retail racket "by false statements of their religious experiences which had not in fact occurred," based on their claims of "miraculous communication with the spirit world and supernatural power to heal the sick." A landmark Supreme Court decision overturned the conviction, ruling that the question of whether the Ballards believed their religious claims should not have been submitted to a jury. Subsequent legal battles over the fraud charges and tax-exempt status followed.

History

Founding, popularity, Ballard's death

The "I AM" Activity was founded by Guy Ballard (pseudonym Godfre Ray King) in the early 1930s. Ballard was well-read in theosophy and its offshoots, and while hiking on Mt. Shasta looking for a supposed Esoteric Brotherhood, he said that he had encountered a man who introduced himself as Comte de Saint-Germain, a historical 18th century alchemist and a regular component of theosophical religions. Saint Germain told Ballard that he belonged to a supernatural hierarchy called the Ascended Masters, and that he had been searching Europe for centuries looking for someone worthy of being told the "Great Laws of Life". Finding no one, Saint Germain looked in the United States, and found Ballard.

The Ballards said they began talking to the Ascended Masters regularly. They founded a publishing house to publish their books and began training people to spread their messages across the United States. These training sessions were limited to members only after hecklers began disrupting their open meetings. Over their lifetimes, the Ballards recorded over 3,000 messages which they said were from the Ascended Masters. Guy Ballard, his wife Edna, and later his son Donald became the sole "Accredited Messengers" of the Ascended Masters.

The Ballards' popularity spread, including up to a million followers in 1938. They began collecting donations (called "love offerings") from their followers across the country. These donations left many followers deeply in debt. The Ballards became wealthy.

On a blistering evening in August 1935, a bizarre rite took place at the Shrine Auditorium. A crowd of nearly 6,000 gazed upon a brightly lit stage flanked by large paintings of Jesus and St. Germain. On the stage, a man who called himself Godfre Ray King read messages he said had been passed down from divine entities. Written in "living letters of Light" only King and his wife, "Lotus," could see, the words expressed love for the devoted audience members and hatred for their numerous enemies. Then Godfre and Lotus led their disciples in the chanting of decrees, sometimes beseeching their gods for "ONE MILLIONDOLLARS IN CASH! TAX-FREE!"

In December 1939 and at the height of his popularity, Guy Ballard died of heart failure in his Los Angeles mansion. "Edna had the body cremated immediately and assured I Am-ers that Guy had 'ascended' – perhaps in the "Atomic Accelerator," a golden chair one could supposedly ride to the heavens." His death was a blow to the movement; Ballard previously said he had mastery over death, leaving many members feeling cheated.

Fraud trials

After Guy Ballard's death, his wife and son were indicted for 18 counts of fraud. The indictment charged that the Ballards fraudulently collected over $3 million from their followers on the basis of religious claims the Ballards knew were false. Their followers protested outside the courthouse, while inside their attorneys argued that the safety of the nation depended on the Ballards' religious inspiration: "Before his death, the attorneys argued, an invisible force called K-17 had come to Ballard's aid and miraculously sunk a flotilla of undetected Japanese submarines ready to attack the United States." According to a witness at the fraud trial, Edna Ballard's son said, "Whatever my mother wants, that's what St. Germain says."

The jury was instructed to convict if they found that the Ballards did not have a good faith belief in their religious claims. The Ballards were convicted.

First Supreme Court case (1940 to 1944)

The Ninth Circuit overturned the conviction and the state appealed to the Supreme Court. In United States v. Ballard, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 landmark decision, vacated the fraud conviction, ruling that the question of whether the Ballards believed their religious claims should not have been submitted to the jury. In his majority opinion, Justice Douglas wrote:

The religious views espoused by respondents might seem incredible, if not preposterous, to most people. But if those doctrines are subject to trial before a jury charged with finding their truth or falsity, then the same can be done with the religious beliefs of any sect. When the triers of fact undertake that task, they enter a forbidden domain. The First Amendment does not select any one group or any one type of religiion for preferred treatment. It puts them all in that position.

Although the ruling was 5-4, one of the Justices, Jackson, dissented because he wanted the Court to go further and dismiss the entire case for being too close to an investigation into the truth of a religious conviction:

I should say the defendants have done just that for which they are indicted. If I might agree to their conviction without creating a precedent, I cheerfully would do so. I can see in their teachings nothing but humbug, untained by any trace of truth. But that does not dispose of the constitutional question whether misrepresentation of religious experience or belief is prosecutable; it rather emphasizes the danger of such prosecutions.

Chief Justice Stone, dissenting, argued that the question was appropriate for the jury:

I am not prepared to say that the constitutional guaranty of freedom of religion affords immunity from criminal prosecution for the fraudulent procurement of money by false statements as to one's religious experiences, more than it renders polygamy or libel immune from criminal prosecution... I cannot say that freedom of thought and worship includes freedom to procure money by making knowingly false statements about one's religious experiences.

Interpreting this decision, the Ninth Circuit later found that the Court did not go so far as to hold that "the validity or veracity of a religious doctrine cannot be inquired into by a Federal Court."

Second conviction and Supreme Court appeal (1946)

The Ballards were subsequently convicted of fraud in a new trial that withheld from the jury all questions as to whether the Ballards believed their religious claims. The Supreme Court vacated the judgment on the grounds that women were improperly excluded from the jury panel.

Subsequent history

In March 1942, Edna Ballard moved the western branch of the Saint Germain Press and her residence to Santa Fe, where she recorded thousands more messages that she said were from the Ascended Masters.

Other legal battles continued: the IRS did not recognize the movement as "a religion", thereby giving it tax-exempt status, until a court ruling in 1957.

As years past, the popularity of the movement dwindled. Daniel Ballard, Guy's son, left the movement. In 1971, Edna Ballard died, and a board of directors took over the leadership. As of 1998, "a tiny remnant of the sect lingers in the shadow of Shasta, their own holy mountain."

Beliefs

The doctrine of the "I AM" movement has its roots in theosophy. It's teachings were not new, but the publicity the Ballards achieved spread their teachings into the developing New Age movements in the United States. Many New Age movements now involve the Ascended Masters in their teachings.

The Ascended Masters are religious figures who have left the cycle of reincarnation and now benevolently guide mankind through their human spokespeople, of whom Guy, Edna, and Donald Ballard are the only Accredited Messengers. The "I AM" movement calls itself Christian, because Jesus is one of the Ascended Masters.

The movement teaches that the omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent creator God ('I AM' – Exodus 3:14) is in all of us as a spark from the Divine Flame, and that we can experience this presence, love, power and light – the power of teh Violent Consuming Flame of Divine Love – through quiet contemplation and by repeating 'affirmations' and 'decrees'. By 'affirming' something one desires, one can cause it to happen.

These "positive thinking" beliefs overlap with several other New Age movements, such as the Human Potential Movement.

References

1. ^ Partride, Christopher, ed. (2004). New Religions: A Guide: New Religious Movements, Sects and Alternative Spiritualities. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. pp. 330–332. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
2. ^ Saint Germain Foundation. The History of the "I AM" Activity and Saint Germain Foundation. Saint Germain Press 2003 ISBN 1-878891-99-5
3. ^ Rasmussen, Cecilia (1998-01-25). "L.A. Then and Now". Los Angeles Times. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
4. ^ Thompkins, Joshua (1997-04-01). "The mighty I Am: Cult led by Guy Ballard". Los Angeles Magazine. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
5. ^ United States v. Ballard, 322 U.S. 78 (1944)
6. ^ Barrett, David (1996). Sects, 'Cults', and Alternative Religions: A World Survey and Sourcebook. London: Blandford. ISBN 0-7137-2567-2.
7. Cohen v. United States, 297 F.2d 760 (1962)
8. Ballard v. United States, 329 U.S. 187 (1946)

• Saint Germain Foundation. The History of the "I AM" Activity and Saint Germain Foundation. Saint Germain Press 2003 ISBN 1-878891-99-5
• King, Godfre Ray. Unveiled Mysteries. Saint Germain Press. ISBN 1-878891-00-6
• King, Godfre Ray. The Magic Presence. Saint Germain Press. ISBN 1-878891-06-5
• Saint Germain. I AM Discourses. Saint Germain Press. ISBN 1-878891-48-0
• J. Gordon Melton, An Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America (1992)
• Charles S. Braden, These Also Believe (1949)
• Robert S. Ellwood, "Making New Religions: The Story of the Mighty 'I AM,' " History Today 38 (June, 1988)

External links

• The Saint Germain Foundation , Original publisher of Ascended Master Teachings beginning in 1934.
• Unveiled Mysteries, Guy Ballard's first book

• Ascended Master Teachings