Psychic Dictatorship in America: the I AM Movement

The following excerpt is provided here with permission of the publishers, Paolini International, LLC, P.O. Box 32, Pray, MT 59065, USA. The book may be ordered through bookstores or amazon.com. (ISBN: 0-9666213-1-X)

Here are excerpts (10 chapters) from Psychic Dictatorship in America. Gerald Bryan wrote it in the late 1930's and published this book in 1940. Hitler was marching across Europe. The world was in turmoil.

This book tells the fascinating story of The I AM movement. The I AM group claimed it had over one million members. Psychic Dictatorship in America traces the history of the I AM group, leaders, beliefs, legal problems, and their members.

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Contents

Chapter

1. America Turns To The "Mighty I Am"
2. Streamline Beginnings
3. The "Silver Shirt" Background of Ballardism.
4. The Ballard Show Goes On The Road
5. The Rise of A Dictator
6. Psychological Bugaboos
7. The War On "Entities"
8. Metaphysical Plums.
9. The Ballard "Ascension" Miracles
10. Cosmic Streamline Advertising
11. Voyages of A Modern Sindbad
12. The Comte De St. Germain--Historical And Otherwise
13. The Bard of Avon Goes "I AM"
14. Documentary Evidence Of Plagiarism
15. The "Master" Bookselling Racket
16. Where The Money Goes
17. Some Antecedent History
18. The Ballard Gold Mine Deals
19. Triumphant Entry Into Chicago
20. The Ballard Past Bobs Up Again
21. How The Ballards Answered The Chicago Suit
22. How "Saint Germain" Kept War Out of Europe
23. Those Bad Black Magicians
24. Harbingers of Disaster
25. Sex Teachings of Ballardism
26. Some Results of Ballardism
27. The Attack On Christianity
28. The Course of Political Dictatorships
29. "Peewee Hitlerism" in America
30. The Ballard "Inner Secret Service"
31. Decrees of Death!
32. The "Blue Lightning" Flashes At Cleveland
33. George Washington Ballard For President
34. Death-Blasts Over The White House
35. Death Enters The Ballard Household




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Please note the following abbreviations used in this book:

Unveiled Mysteries..................................U.M.
Ascended Master Discourses..................A.M.D.
The Magic Presence...............................M.P.
Ascended Master Light..........................A.M.L.
The "I AM" Discourses............................D.
Voices of the I AM..................................V.
Group Letter..........................................G.L.




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Chapter 3
The "Silver Shirt" Background Of Ballardism
Within a period of less than a decade, America has seen the rise and growth of two remarkable movements which bear an odd resemblance to each other.

William Dudley Pelley's "Silver Shirts of America," the first of the two movements, started originally simply as a metaphysical venture, the result of a personal psychic experience, which strangely enough, occurred while residing at a mountain cottage in California.

The Ballard "Mighty I AM" movement, as we have seen, started the same way, with its originator claiming his first contact with Comte de St. Germain on the side of a mountain in California.

The recent reports of the House Committee to Investigate Un-American Activities, under the chairmanship of Martin Dies of Texas, have given the Pelley Silver Shirt movement front-page headlines, revealing to the public that for years it has not been a "metaphysical" organization as in the beginning, but is a political body which the Dies Committee believes to be un-American in that it is included in the "Nazi-Fascist groups" engaged in "aping the methods of foreign dictators" and attempting "to bring about a radical change in the American form of government." (Associated Press Dispatch, August 31, 1939.)

This book will reveal that the Ballard cult, too, is really a political movement and that its metaphysics, among other things, is largely engaged in an effort to bring about a weird sort of government in the United States.

The Pelley organization, as a matter of fact, supplied the pattern for some of the Ballard work, and evidence supporting this will soon be given. The Ballards, however, kept out of their movement the Silver Shirts' well-known hatred of the Jew, and have denounced other "enemies" instead.

There is so much similarity between the two organizations, it is well from the standpoint of psychological study and history to bring this out.

Pelley was a writer, a most clever wielder of the pen. Back in 1917 he was in the Orient on what he states to have been Christian missionary work; and after varied experiences there, he returned in 1919 to the United States to resume his writings and newspaper career. Around this time he became interested, he says, in "Secret Service investigations," and claimed to have had "contacts with some of the biggest men in the Hoover administration."

Ballard in his later years became also a writer, claims to have spent a couple of years in the Orient, and his "Secret Service connections" and his "Government contacts" are most remarkable, as we shall find.

In 1929 Pelley wrote the article which publicized his name throughout the nation. It was the story of a personal psychic experience entitled "Seven Minutes in Eternity," in which he related how, while residing at a lonely bungalow in the Sierra Madre Mountains near Pasadena California, he suddenly one night left his physical body lying on the bed and consciously soared away into that undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler is supposed to return. But Pelley did return, and he told a graphic story of his sojourn there. Later he published messages purporting to come from "Masters," who began to direct and influence his new life work.

Similarly, Messenger Ballard, shortly after the appearance of the Pelley article, wrote up his own psychic experiences, which came to him in 1930, he said, while living at a lodge at the foot of a California mountain. He, too, left his body, and great and mighty "Ascended" Masters dictated marvelous discourses to him.

The American Magazine, which had published the Pelley story, was almost swamped, we understand, with mail in regard to it. It appears that the whole country at that time was having psychic experiences, and overnight almost Pelley had a tremendous following. All the letter-writing psychics in the land, it seems, wrote in giving their own personal experiences--and called for more from the fluent and graphic Pelley.

Obligingly, the new metaphysical leader gave his readers plenty of them, as indeed has the leader of the Mighty I AM cult which followed so soon after the start of Pelleyism.

Pelley's magazine, then named "The New Liberator," was started--an artistic but rather lurid creation--and he filled it with occult articles by himself and psychic messages from great "Masters." But never were they as numerous and as notorious as the Ballard "Ascended Masters."

Gradually, Pelley's psychism took on a political coloring and flavor, and it wasn't long before he was publishing stirring ideas and plans about a "New Government" in America--as did Ballard shortly afterwards.

Political headquarters were established at Asheville, N.C. in 1932, and his "Foundation for Christian Economics" was started at about the time Ballard was assertedly receiving his religio-patriotic messages over the marvelous "Light and Sound Ray" at his home in Chicago.

At the beginning of 1933, Pelley started his now famous Silver Legion, and felt the egoic thrill of fascist rule over his legionnaires or "storm troops" organized in many parts of the country. In much the same way have the fascistic-minded leaders of the Mighty I AM cult organized their patriotic bands of Minute Men --the "storm troops" of the movement.

In the fall of 1936, after Pelley had recovered from certain adverse court decisions and indictments at Asheville, N.C., he organized his "Christian Party" and announced his candidacy for the President of the United States--an office to which it will be seen Ballard himself has felt himself peculiarly fitted!

Three and a half years later, after many vicissitudes of fortune and after some months of search for him by the Dies committee, Pelley in the early part of 1940 appeared before that committee to answer certain charges allegedly to the effect that "he is a racketeer engaged in mulcting thousands of dollars annually from his fanatical and misled followers and credulous people all over the United States and Canada and certain foreign countries." (Associated Press Dispatch , Jan. 3, 1940.)

It is not within the scope of this book to consider whether the Dies committee was or was not justified in making the above allegations concerning Pelley. We desire merely to point out the startling parallel between these two movements and to show by actual evidence that so far as the Ballard movement is concerned the Dies committee, if it had gone into the matter, could have brought out justifiably, we believe, similar charges against Saint Germain's "Mighty I AM" movement.

We shall complete the parallel between the two movements by quoting Associated Press Dispatch of February 8, 1940, giving an account of Pelley's appearance before the Dies committee:

"With a trace of wistfulness, William Dudley Pelley, leader of the Silver Shirts, told the Dies committee today that if his organization had succeeded in its purposes, he 'probably' would be in charge of the government now.

"And in that case, he continued, he 'probably' would have put into effect something resembling Adolf Hitler's policies with respect to the Jews, although he said he does not endorse Hitler's exact methods."

It is this Pelley Silver Shirt movement which Guy and Edna Ballard were particularly interested in previous to the publication of Unveiled Mysteries, and, as will be shown, they tried to build a foundation upon Pelley's organization in an effort to launch their own Mighty I AM movement.

In order to show this Silver Shirt background of the Ballard movement we shall now have to refer to a certain meeting which was held in the summer of 1934 at the Ballard home on 84th Place, Chicago.

To this meeting was invited the treasurer of the Pelley organization, some additional Pelleyites, and others interested in metaphysical and patriotic movements. It was the first regular ten-day class ever held by the Ballards, and it is important because what transpired there indicates clearly the early efforts of their invisible "Saint Germain" to lay plans for a "New Government" in America which was to be formed more of less along the line previously described by Pelley in his writings.

During this ten-day class, messages from "Saint Germain" were read by Mrs. Ballard to those present, a little group of ten, who were pledged to secrecy.

One of those messages is especially significant. It is dated August 3, 1934, and we shall quote freely from it in this chapter.

In it, this so-called Saint Germain shows rather excellent understanding of human nature by the fact that he first flatters those whom he was about to use. To aid him in this, he drew on his long memory of the past, going back some seventy thousand years!

He told those flattered students of their past incarnations! He recited their marvelous achievements! They had all done great and stirring things! All of them had been associated with him before! They would even be closer to him now! They would now have a part to play in bringing the new civilization into America!

"These beloved students," it begins, "are all far advanced souls with whom we have been closely associated before wherein very great Light has reigned. All of this group that are here were in association in the civilization of 70,000 years ago where the Sahara Desert now is."

Saint Germain then went on in this first message to his "Beloved Friends of Long Ago," to tell them about the marvelous work they did in that earlier government. He told them of their wonderful genius in the past so convincingly that the disparity of this genius with their present abilities did not at that time seem to occur to these flattered students. It is only fair to state, however, that most of these early disciples turned apostates to the faith and were not parties to the cult's later political designs.

Then in this private, secret document Saint Germain launched into a consideration of political and governmental matters, showing clearly the early desire of this "Ascended Master" for some sort of rulership over the kingdoms of earth, particularly that of America. We quote:

"All have come into this life with the desire to assist in perfecting or bringing into perfection that government of long ago into America at this time."

Some of these students, as stated, were or had been members of William Dudley Pelley's Silver Shirts of America. They were interested, therefore, in Saint Germain's statement that they would have a part in bringing the New Government into America--for had not Pelley himself been preaching the same thing to his disciples?

However, at the time that "Saint Germain" allegedly dictated this message, summer of 1934, Pelley was in difficulty with the courts of North Carolina. For months, his publications were suppressed and the radio denied him. It appeared for a time that his strong nationally organized political movement might disintegrate.

Therefore, Saint Germain, astute politician that he was, addressed his remarks mainly to Pelley's sympathizers or dissenters in the group, with the intent no doubt of taking over the followers of this other movement.

"The first and essential thing to the perfection of that plan," he said, meaning the plan of his "New Government," "is being given." Then referring to Pelley's political order, he said:

"In Christian Democracy are splendid ideals possible of achievement." Later, referring to Pelley's economic textbook, he said:

"The Plan of No More Hunger is not entirely correct, but the full plan of it will be revealed as you move forward."

Having stated that Pelley's political order had "splendid ideals possible of achievement," he hints that there is a more "correct" plan--his own of course.

In this document, Saint Germain refers also to other economic orders which followed the depression of 1929, mentioning the Utopian Society of America, Plenocracy, the Paul Revere activity, and suggests that some of these other movements could also be brought into "harmonious concord" with his own activity.

In fact, this adept at building upon the work of others, was astute enough to make the originator of Plenocracy his own personal "Messenger," subject, of course, to the orders of the Ballards!

"In Plenocracy," he says, "are splendid ideals." Then he goes on to indicate how "other ideas"--his own of course--could be blended into it. Artfully, he tells his "Friends of Long Ago":

"Neither Christian Democracy nor Plenocracy are perfect within themselves, but each has within it that upon which a foundation can be built.

"I think it would be much wiser for those knowing Mr. Pelley to work from the standpoint of Christian Democracy, and then as it can be done, other ideas be blended into it until the harmonious way of life can be presented to them...

"Mr. Pelley was unprepared when the awakening came. Hence, it has made the activity very difficult, but if in all, or as rapidly as possible, the attention can be drawn to the constructive activity, I feel that very great good can come from it...

"Unveiled Mysteries and The Magic Presence (the Ballard textbooks), with Mr. ________'s (naming Pelley's treasurer) activity in the knowledge of the Mighty I AM Presence, will harmonize and prepare the Pelley group...

"It would not be wise for Mr. Pelley to have the discourses verbatim, unless sometime he wishes to come and receive them as the other students have done."

Thus did "Saint Germain" endeavor at that time to take over the followers of another movement. The plan, too, was to interest the Chief of the Silver shirts in their "Saint Germain" and in their newly published book, and they wanted him to come to Chicago to get the instruction directly.

Indeed, Pelley's interest went so far that while in Chicago he had a visit with the Ballards.

But why should the Chief of the Silver Legionnaires, so accustomed to giving his own orders and contacting his own "Masters," play second fiddle and take orders from Saint Germain's three and only "Accredited Messengers," the two Ballards and their 16-year-old son Donald?

So Pelley declined Saint Germain's kind thought of having him study under the Ballards, and the Chief of the Silver Shirts has been without the questionable protection of the "Ascended Master" ever since.

However, even though the Ballards were unsuccessful in winning over the Chief himself, they won over Pelley's treasurer and right-hand man. They played for him as an angler does a prized catch, and when he went to Chicago, they clinched the matter by having Saint Germain make him nothing less than "The Associate Director of the Saint Germain Activities!"

Additionally showing the Silver Shirt background of the Ballard cult, we quote the following unsolicited letter from the Pelley Publishers, Asheville, N.C. It is dated January 10, 1938.

"It might interest you to know that Mrs. Ballard was a student of Mr. Pelley's spiritual philosophy before she launched upon her purported mission to "save" Christian America. All her writings and teachings are full of material which she appropriated from Mr. Pelley's writings."

Edna Ballard's interest in the Pelley movement extended over a period of years. At certain secret classed in Chicago, which she started in 1930, she read from Pelley's scripts and other "New Liberation" literature. During 1930-1932 she was laying the foundation for her own movement, with her husband then only taking a secondary part. In 1932, the two of them blossomed forth with the "Light and Sound Ray" idea; and in 1934, shortly after this secret ten-day class, they left Chicago to launch their national movement, gathering recruits for their "Save America" program largely among disillusioned Pelleyites.




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Chapter 7
The War On "Entities"
A week or so hobnobbing among the Ballard followers at their "I AM Temples" is usually enough to convince the visitor that a gigantic warfare is being waged between the decreeing I AM-er and his "entities."

We must here explain that by "entities" is meant the teeming horde of "psychic" creations that are supposed to populate the world around us, of which, most fortunately, the average person is unaware until certain teachings and practices begin to make such people "entity conscious." The Ballard cult has done much to bring on well-developed cases of psychophobia in otherwise normal people.

Everywhere, it seems, there are entities. They peep out at I AM-ers from every antique. They nestle in the auras of people who oppose their movement. They bump their heads against protective "walls of Light" thrown around the faithful students. They are as numerous as a plague of locusts, and highly suggestible students are constantly doing battle against them.

Thousands of dollars worth of valuable antiques have been burned or otherwise destroyed by fanatical students because they were told by the Ballards that such things always swarm with entities.

Until the Ballards came along, these possessions were most harmless. But with the advent of the Accredited Messengers of Saint Germain, they suddenly became alive with haunting spirits of the dead.

The Ballards have a "decree," supposed to take care of the matter, and the students go around shouting it at any suspicious thing or person that appears to harbor an entity.
But these "entities" are persistent little imps. They scurry for cover when an irate I AM-er gets after them, and appear to sneak right back again when the coast is clear.

And so despite their decrees and other safeguards, the undeclared war on entities in

America still continues, and the outcome of the matter is as yet quite uncertain. So much so that the primordial battle between the dog and his fleas has nothing on the battle which rages between the average I AM-er and his latest crop of entities.

The technique of giving an "Entity Decree" for a well-directed blitzkrieg against the enemy seems to be about as follows:

First, the student calls on the "Mighty I AM Presence," and, usually, some one or more of the "Ascended Masters." Most of them always manage to include the "Blessed Saint Germain," as, under all circumstances, he is a most potent protection. But for absolute safety, they include some of the others, at least a "Goddess" or two, or one of the "Lords of the Flame" from Venus.

"Oromasis" is a favorite with some of the students, but latterly it appears that "Mighty Astrea" is a close runner-up for favor among really discriminating I AM-ers.

After selection of suitable gods and goddesses has been duly accomplished, the student raises his or her hands heavenward and vehemently commands these "Mighty Beings" from the "Seventh Octave of Light" to--

"Send Legions of Thy Angel Devas of the Blue Lightning of Divine Love to seize, bind, and remove from within and around me and my world all entities--carnate and discarnate--forever! If they be of human creation, annihilate them, their cause and effect this instant. If they be discarnate, take them out of the atmosphere of earth..." etc.

I AM-ers, when they want quick action over some entity or other evil, frequently use the words "Blast! Blast! Blast!"

For instance, one stopped with her companion in front of a downtown shop window. On display was a black gown with red trimmings! These are hated colors among the I AM-ers--the color of the black magician and the communist! All she did was to stop at the window for a second, looked at the gown; then, the the amazement of her companion, uttered very vehemently the words "Blast! Blast! Blast!" in an aspirate voice, and passed on, evidently feeling a duty had been performed.

The ancient Babylonians, it seems, had similar methods of dealing with the "entity" situation in those dark days.

Compare the following Babylonian decree with the Ballard one. It is a translation from cuneiform writing on ancient Babylonian clay tablets, copied from a book at the Los Angeles Public Library, and is addressed to the Babylonian god "Gilgamesh"--almost as odd a name as the Ballard god "Oromasis." We quote:

"Gilgamesh , thou Mighty of the Mighty! Lord of the Red Flames, Lord of the Blue Flames, of the clouds and darkness.

"Hear, O Mighty One, Let they Thunder descend and Blast the Spirits that haunt my pathway!

"Amen, Lord of the Golden Light, King beyond all Kings.

"Command thy Messengers of the Yellow Flame to consume and destroy all obstacles that mock me!

"Hear, I command!"

We find ourselves wondering what it was that destroyed Babylon, and wonder at the forces of evil playing through the modern Babylon of today.

But out of all this warfare upon entities has emerged a Cosmic hero, a generalissimo, who has been assigned to clean up the entity slums of the nation--and right royally has he done it!

His name is "Mighty Astrea," and he comes from far away regions of the Cosmic deep to help rid our cities of the entities that torment us.

Indeed, he is a veritable Pied Piper of Hamelin, who with magic flute lures away the evil psychic hordes infesting out townships, with or without sanction of the Lord Mayors, and with the Ballard "Children of Light" trailing joyfully in his wake.

According to Messenger Ballard, he came forth November 1st, 1937, on the stage of the auditorium in Philadelphia, where he announced his heroic mission.

"You will be interested to know," said he, "that they (the Ballard staff) have been calling for all black magicians and their emissaries to be sought out, seized and taken from the earth.

"Tonight, I have come forth to fulfill this call...That is why the Messenger saw entities going in every direction." (p.141, A.M.L.)

Poor man! Rather disconcerting to see scampering armies of mischievous "entities," some perhaps more than mischievous, "going in every direction!" And this, despite the fact that Guy Ballard has so frequently insisted to his students that he is not a spiritualist, and sees only "Ascended Masters"!

Could the Mighty Astrea have slipped up in making this statement, or did the Messenger actually see Mighty Astea routing "entities" out of Philadelphia?

However that may be, it was reported that "over four hundred thousand discarnate entities" were removed from the city of Philadelphia! And quite rightly, at so great a victory, the audience arose to its feet and applauded lustily! (p.9, Jan., 1939, V.)

But this was only the start of the generalissimo's work. At the head of his grand army of many divisions, he has not let up one iota in his intentions to clean the "entities" out of our cities. And from that time on, wherever the Ballards went, Mighty Astrea and his entity-cleaning squad was sure to go.

Not to be left out of it, Saint Germain reported at the Washington class:

"Since yesterday three hundred thirty-two thousand discarnates were removed from the environs of New York City. (applause--audience standing)" (p.8, Dec., 1938, V.)

A month later he adds up the net total for a single day, and reports to the applauding I AM-ers:

"In exactly twenty-three hours, one million discarnates have been taken from America. (applause)" And then he wisely adds: "It is necessary for you to take Our Word for these things for a short time." (pp. 26-
27, Jan., 1939, V.)

We might here ask the question: "Why, with all this 'entity' clean-up, conditions in our cities and in the world continue as they do?" But, as usual, no explanation worthy of intelligence is ever given.

Nevertheless, Mighty Astrea's clean-up squad continues to mop-up the entity situation in our cities. He follows the Messengers around on their lecture tours and does what he can to have an entity-free city--even though the Lord Mayors of those cities pay him no tribute or acknowledge in any way his heroic services as a modern Pied Piper of Hamelin.



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Chapter 14
Documentary Evidence Of Plagiarism
Whence have come all of Guy Ballard's fantastic voyages to foreign lands, his hobnobbing with mighty "Masters" in caves and retreats? Did he get them out of his own fertile imagination as legitimate story writers do, or did he, perforce, get them from the literary creations of others? Or did somebody else write them for him?

To begin with, it may be said there is always a certain amount of unconscious appropriating. Authors are amazed and chagrined sometimes to discover that they have unintentionally used words, expressions, and even incidents which they thought were original with them but which came from the works of other authors. If any author does that, the other may charitably forgive, for he knows not when he himself may fall into such a ditch.

Then there is the legitimate making use of another's work, by giving due credit to the one from whom the author borrows. And here again most authors are usually generous, providing too much is not taken so as to devalue their own work.

Lastly, there is the direct steal from a book, putting it out as the author's own. That is dyed-in-the-wool plagiarism, a literary crime of the first water.

In the first division Ballard or his collaborator may have unconsciously used some ideas from others, and for this they may be forgiven. In the second division, they are manifestly not the type of authors who would acknowledge using the works of another.

Are they then guilty of this last and most flagrant literary crime--the consciously planned, premeditated steal from somebody else? In other words, have they plagiarized?

We submit the following evidence to literary critics, to copyright attorneys, and to Ballard students who believe that Godfre Ray King's experiences are really his own and his teachings from "Ascended Masters."

In a book entitled A Dweller on Two Planets, published by the Poseid Publishing Co., Los Angeles, there is an account of an experience almost identical with that which has been later recorded by Godfre Ray King in his book Unveiled Mysteries.

Phylos, the hero of the first book, meets his "Master" on a mountain in California, just as Godfre does. And Phylos and his Master visit together a marvelous retreat, as do Godfre and his Master, Both retreats are hollowed out of the solid rock of a mountain, Quong is the name of Phylos' teacher, and his retreat is at Mt. Shasta, California. Saint Germain's retreat is at Grand Teton mountain in Wyoming.

Now, note the deadly parallelism in the two columns given below:

COMPARE THE TWO ACCOUNTS


Phylos, The Thibetan
Time: 1894
Place: A cave in a mountain,
Mt.Shasta, Calif.
Incident: Phylos, neophyte in
the Mysteries, visits
an occult retreat with
his "Master."
...We halted in front of a
HUGE ledge of basaltic
rocks...(p. 270)

he ledge was broken and
twisted AS IF
by some rending
convulsion. (p. 270)


Against the cliff rested a
GIANT block...
(p. 270)
...He [Quong] TOUCHED
the enormous quadrangular
block. (p. 271)


Immediately it
TIPPED on edge...(p. 271)


He SWUNG back the
door-stone...(p. 272)


He...STEPPED within the
tunnel...I followed. (p. 272)


...The passage
LED into the mountain.
(p. 273)


After going about
TWO HUNDRED FEET...
(p. 273)


...We came to a DOOR made
apparently of BRONZE...
(p. 273)


This door gave entrance to a
large CIRCULAR CHAMBER...
(p. 273)


With DOMELIKE CEILING
ten or a dozen feet high at
its junction with the wall
(p. 273)


...All about me shone a
marvelous WHITE LIGHT...
The same wonderful illumination
was omnipresent...
(p. 273)

Ballard, The Messenger
Time: 1930
Place: A cave in a mountain,
Grand Teton, Wyoming. .
Incident: Ballard, neophyte in
the Mysteries, visits
an occult retreat with
his "Ascended Master."
Going to a point where
HUGE masses of
stone...(p. 76)

...Masses of stone lay in
confusion, AS IF
giants had hurled them in a
war upon each other. (p. 76)


...As if
GIANTS had hurled them...
(p. 76)
...Saint Germain TOUCHED
a great boulder.
(p. 76)


Instantly, the enormous mass
TIPPED OUT...(p. 76)


The great mass of bronze...
SWUNG slowly open...(p. 76)


He STEPPED forward...
admitted us. (p. 76)


...A stairway cut in the
solid rock LED downward.
(p. 76)


We descended some
TWO HUNDRED FEET...
(p. 76)


...We...stood before a
large BRONZE DOOR.
(p. 76)


We...entered another
SPACE CIRCULAR in shape.
(p. 76)


The ARCHED CEILING rising
some ten feet higher than
the side-walls...
(p.82)


A soft WHITE LIGHT, which
Saint Germain explained
was an omnipresent force...
flooded the entire place.
(p. 81)



Compare the italics, capitals, and bold-face type in one column with those in the other. Can anything be more revealing than the real source of Ballard's alleged "true" experiences with Saint Germain at the retreat in the Grand Teton mountains?

Forty-six years apart in time, a thousand miles apart in space--yet the same incident told virtually in the same words and phraseology, or with synonyms that mean practically the same thing!

Literary critics, copyright experts, and even their poor duped followers must agree that if this be coincidence, then Ballard is the most coincidental person on the face of the earth. The fact-finding Ripley ought to put it in his "Believe-It-or-Not" column.

What is one to think of a man who swears on the platform by all that is holy, that every word in "those blessed books" is true? A man who says over and over again that his books represent actually his own
personal experiences?

The parallelism given here is no rare and isolated evidence of Ballard plagiarism. Such a thing occurs frequently in their first two books. We have space only for a few additional examples.

Does not the one given below show even the possible source of the Ballard "Saint Germain"?

Back in 1894 Will L. Garver's book, entitled The Brother of the Third Degree, came forth as one of the popular occult novels of the day. In it the mysterious Comte de St. Germain was featured, just as he was later featured in the Ballard books.

In the Garver book the Comte de St. Germain is represented as having powerful political influence, secretly working with Napoleon I., Emperor of France, to bring about a United States of Europe. The hero of the story, Alphonso, is a "government agent."

In the Ballard book, of course, the Comte de St. Germain is likewise pictured as having powerful political influence, but is working mainly with the Unites States of America instead of Europe. The hero, Godfre Ray King (Guy Ballard), is represented as being on "government business."

Compare now how the heroes of both stories describe their contacts with the same Comte de St. Germain. Note how both travel astrally with him:





The Garver Book
He [St. Germain] was tall
and sparely built, with
long GOLDEN HAIR and a
light curly, chestnut beard.
(p. 290)
His eyes were BLUE and shone
with a fiery luster...
Face not marked by a
single wrinkle...
(p. 290)
Suddenly a VOICE commanded
me to COME with him...
(p. 353)
Without question or even
surprise, I OBEYED, and
felt myself going through
SPACE with the rapidity of
thought. (p. 353)
The Ballard Book
...Saint Germain stood
before us...His beautiful
GOLDEN HAIR hung to his
shoulders.
(p.151)
The piercing, sparkling VIOLET
of his eyes...
His features were very
regular...
(p. 151)
...I heard his VOICE say
distinctly: "COME!"
(p. 128)
I had learned to
OBEY that call, and...
passed quickly through
SPACE...(p. 128)



In the Garver book there are many other parallels which could have been given, but we must pass on very briefly to quotations from other books.

The Prince of Atlantis by Lillian Elizabeth Roy, published by The Educational Press, New York, in 1929, contains many similar scenes and incidents which later were recorded in Ballard's Unveiled Mysteries.

In both books there is the same "Great Luminous Being," who comes to warn the people of an impending cataclysm which would strike unless the people heeded the warning, obeyed the "Law of the One," and recognized their "Source." There is the same great conclave of people, a great "banquet," the wise and good "Emperor" and his "golden-haired children," the same division into two classes of people, and the "Voice" of the great "Cosmic Being" which sounds out a warning to the disobedient people telling them of the coming cataclysm.

In both books the people are given a certain time limit in which to heed the warning--"Seven weeks" in one book, "Seven days" in the other. But all to no avail.

The cataclysm comes, and the "wicked" perish in the ensuing deluge. In both books the "Emperor's children" and the "Children of Light" miraculously escape.

The three current Ballards, as might be expected, were the Emperor's "golden-haired children" of that ancient civilization of seventy thousand years ago. A great "Cosmic Master" came, just in time, and withdrew them into the "Golden Etheric City of Light."

In the occult novel, Myriam and the Mystic Brotherhood, by Maude Lesseuer Howard, published nearly two decades ago, there are many incidents and characters which Ballard similarly tells about, including mystic caves which had been "hollowed out of solid rock" of the mountain. There are "Initiations," golden-robed "Masters," various "Ascensions," and some very young "Children of the Light" who take part in all these mysteries.

In Baird T. Spalding's series of books, Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East --we likewise find many similarities. There is much about the "I AM," the "Ascension," messages from great "Masters," dazzling "Light Rays," precipitated meals--and even gold coins snapped right out of the atmosphere!

Edna Ballard, at some of her very early private classes in Chicago--a few years before the publication of Unveiled Mysteries --read frequently from Spalding books. Spalding himself spent some weeks as a guest at the Ballard home. She also read other occult literature to this class, including, as stated before, the Pelley magazines. Mr. Ballard who had secretly returned to Chicago after his alleged experience with "Saint Germain" on Mt. Shasta was only occasionally at these early classes and was spoken of very mysteriously. He kept himself very much in the background--for reasons which will in a couple of chapters be clear.

Then after some months of reading from Pelley, Spalding, and other literature, Edna Ballard began to read from a series of so-called "Discourses." She was very mysterious about them, and said she could not tell where they came from, as she had no "permission."

Later, however, she stated these discourses had come direct to her and Mr. Ballard over a "Light and Sound Ray" at their home on 84th Place. They were at that time written on thin paper and were full of corrections and interpolations, showing that whoever was responsible for them had changed his or her mind frequently.

These "Discourses" were the originals which later formed the basis for the Ballard publication, The "I AM" Discourses. There is no doubt but that Edna Ballard took the utmost liberty in freely "editing" these discourses which were supposed to have been given by great "Perfect Beings" over the marvelous "Light and Sound Ray"--allegedly something new in the history of the world.

But, alas! this "Light and Sound Ray" is found in all its marvelousness in Marie Corelli's occult novel, The Secret Power, published in 1921. Which proves again there is nothing new under the sun--not even the Ballard "Light and Sound Ray"!

It would perhaps be boring to some readers to quote in detail all the various selections from books which undoubtedly formed the basis for much of the Ballard work. Those who want to investigate further along this line are referred to the author's series of five brochures, particularly numbers 4 and 5, entitled The Source of the Ballard Writings and The Ballard Saint Germain. (Truth Research Publications, Los Angeles.)

It is interesting and surprising to note one odd thing. The first Ballard book, Unveiled Mysteries, is supposed to be the first of a series of instructions on the "Mighty I AM." Yet in this book--which tells all about Ballard's contact with Saint Germain--there is no mention whatever of the "Mighty I AM."

The "Magic Presence," however, which was their second book, abounds in this expression of the "Mighty I AM."

Now, why didn't Saint Germain mention these "magic words" to Ballard on Mt. Shasta in 1930 instead of waiting two years to speak them over the marvelous "Light and Sound Ray" in his home in Chicago?

The evidence points to the fact that Edna Ballard had a good deal to do with injecting into the work the name of "Mighty I AM," as well as being responsible for much else in "those blessed books."

It is reliably stated by a party who was staying at the Ballard home that while Edna Ballard worked on the MSS. of those marvelous "Ascended Master" books, Guy Ballard washed and hung up clothes!

Their former Associate Director, who traveled with them during part of the time that the MS. for The Magic Presence was in preparation, writes:

"I think Mrs. Ballard did most of the work. In fact, so far as I could see while I was with them, she was the boss, and he did just what she told him to do. She also was in full charge of The Magic Presence, which was in preparation while I was with them...She spent much time working on this MS. the whole time I was with them."

Indeed, in the early days in Chicago it is stated that Mrs. Ballard seemed sometimes to be more conversant with those marvelous experiences of Godfre Ray King than Guy Ballard himself! People who attended those early classes say that it was she who generally answered questions in regard to those experiences. Later, however, it seems, that he became more familiar with his own experiences and would swear to their truth with the greatest of intensity.

We are also told by those who were in close association with the Ballards that when they first came to Los Angeles in the Spring of 1935--shortly after they had gotten off the MS. of The Magic Presence to the commercial printers in Chicago--Mrs. Ballard had something like a "trunk-load of books with her."
Just why was the need for Mrs. Ballard to cart those old books around with her? Books that had been outdated and outmoded by the marvelous new teachings of the Ascended Masters! Books they later advised their people not to read!

We pass now to another little irregularity in literary acknowledgment.

When the two Accredited Messengers of Saint Germain arrived in Los Angeles on their first sweep of the country--she with her books and he with his Arabian Nights' tales--they told the story of how Godfre Ray King had visited the Ascended Masters in their secret retreats, had dined and talked with them, had slept in their households, had bathed in their "circular Roman baths," all perfumed divinely with "scent of roses." (p. 70, M.P.)

Then one happy day Mrs. Ballard announced to a thrilled and expectant Los Angeles audience that on a certain afternoon and evening they would show actual pictures of these magnificent Beings.

The day at last arrived, and the writer was on hand to see those marvelous pictures.

He had never seen a picture of an "Ascended" Master. He had, however, seen pictures of regular Masters--at least he was informed they were Masters through his reading of theosophical and other occult literature, and he was just a bit curious to see how an "Ascended" Master differed from those of the regular kind.
Well, imagine his surprise when he saw staring back at him from the stereopticon screen those same "un -Ascended" Masters he had seen years before in theosophical books--but now all tinted up with dashes of water color here and there!

He naturally listened for an acknowledgment of debt to the Theosophical Society for the privilege of showing these pictures; but, none came!

These great and magnificent "Ascended-Master" pictures were shown time and again as their own, with no acknowledgment whatsoever as to their real source; and balls of "Blue Lightning" were thrown at any "vicious" individual or organization that dared call attention to this and other little irregularities.

In that early day, the Mighty I AM movement sprouted so rapidly that its Accredited Messengers had to present much that was secondhand, and this included not only water-colored pictures of Theosophical Masters but even a couple of the Masters themselves! They reported that the two Theosophical Masters who has started that Society (the Master M. and K. H.) had come over to the Mighty I AM banner and were now "Ascended Masters"!

For the good Ballard student who might feel inclined to doubt that the Accredited Messengers of the Ascended Masters would pawn off on him, as it were, pictures of un- Ascended beings, when he has been trained for years to worship "Ascended" ones, we refer him to the Theosophical book, Through the Eyes of the Masters, by David Anrias, published in 1932 by George Routledge & Sons, Ltd. London, where he will see what undoubtedly are the self-same "Ascended Masters" which were shown many times on the Ballard stereopticon screen.

Furthermore, Mrs. Ballard in giving her verbal descriptions of these Masters repeated almost verbatim what Anrias had said about them--and for variety added some of the descriptions of Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater, well-known Theosophical writers on such subjects.

The "Ascended Masters" having come to life on the screen instead of in person as promised, the divinely-appointed Messengers proceeded to show weird-looking "Thought Forms" of persons in love, in hate, and afflicted with green-eyed jealousy.

These pictures bore every indication of having been taken from a Theosophical book by Besant and Leadbeater entitled Thought Forms, first published in 1905; but so far as the uninformed in the audience knew, they were fresh from the Ballard astral gallery!

Then the Accredited Messengers of the Ascended Masters showed gorgeously-colored plates of great "Cosmic Forces and Beings."

But once again the heavenly exhibit had its earthly counterpart. In a book, entitled Watchers of the Seven Spheres, by H. K. Challoner, published by E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., New York, in 1935, we find these self-same gorgeously-colored plates of great Cosmic Forces and Beings. Furthermore, Mrs. Ballard utilized the descriptive material in this book in explaining the status and function of those Cosmic Beings--but of course without acknowledgment.

When the dust of illusion which has thrown itself over this movement has sufficiently settled, we wonder whether this cult of "Saint Germain" will not go down in metaphysical history as the greatest "occult steal" of many centuries--if not of all time.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 17
Some Antecedent History

Seventy Thousand years ago, according to that modern Arabian Nights' Entertainment, Unveiled Mysteries , a certain king of the Sahara Desert had three beautiful children. This king was a good king, not wicked as kings of fairy tales are wont to be. He ruled wisely and well, and was looked upon almost as a God by his adoring subjects. His children were adorable, two manly boys and a lovely girl, and they had golden hair and violet eyes. The sons wore form-fitting garments made of metallic gold, with breast-plates like a great sun of jewels. They wore sandals set with precious stones. The daughter, a vision of loveliness, appeared among the courtiers and gallants of that day attired in golden garments covered with diamonds which glittered with every movement of her body. Her hair was like spun gold, and it hung almost to the floor. There was no wicked stepmother to mar the peace and tranquility of this happy royal family.

In this picture of the ancient civilization of the Sahara Desert we secure our first introduction to the "Ascended Master Saint Germain," who was a mighty king in those days.

And his three lovely children are none other than the three current Ballards--Lotus, Godfre , and Donald! In a later civilization Ballard and son Donald become priests of an ancient temple in Egypt, and Lotus its fair vestal virgin.

Still later, the golden-haired, blue-eyed Donald is crowned king over the red-skinned, dark-eyed Incas in an ancient civilization of fourteen thousand years ago, and all was happy, too, in this forgotten kingdom of so long ago.

But alas! the scene changes, the years move on, and in present days of worldly strife, kings do not rule so wisely and well, nor do vestal virgins tend so faithfully the glowing altar fires.

And so as the curtain rises on this latest scene of all, we discover the former Emperor's golden-haired children, the three Ballards, in the not-so-exotic, bustling city of Chicago bearing no imprint on badge of royalty.

Just like other mortals who have outlived somehow the fairy tales of childhood, they have their disappointments and their struggles. There was no king or prince to rescue them, not even a "Saint Germain" to prevent the bills from mounting nor end the hundred-and-one ills to which flesh is heir.

Born at Newton, Kansas, on July 28, 1878, it was not until Ballard was fifty-two years of age that he assertedly met the ascended Master Saint Germain on the side of a California mountain. And likewise, it was not until his good wife Edna was at the middle age of life that Aladdin rubbed his Wonderful Lamp and produced for her the money and power which, like most others, she had long been seeking.

Showing the struggles and ambitions of their early life, we now quote excerpts from letters written by people who knew one or both of the Ballards intimately:

"I have known Guy Ballard for more than thirty years," writes one of his friends, who is amazed at Ballard's sudden ascension into power. "He came to our home when I was a little girl, and at that time tried to be a medium. Edna, his wife, always has been ambitious, great for personal adornment, and has always been the man of the family."

"We have known Mr. and Mrs. Ballard for years," writes another party. "Mr. Ballard was a spiritualist in Chicago, and practiced spiritualistic mediumship. Your diagnosis of them is practically correct."

"I have known Mr. Ballard for over thirty years," says still another. "He has been a medium during all these years. He told me he had made a great discovery and that he has the answer to all the difficulties we encounter."

We quote now from a much longer letter, written in the summer of 1938, which will give, perhaps, as vivid a picture of the Ballard background as it is possible to give:

"I know whereof I speak, for I have known the Ballards intimately for about twenty-six years. It was about 1915 we will say that I wrote a book on ancient Egypt. It had considerable to say about Egyptian Black Magic, and it was printed in an occult magazine. The story aroused considerable interest in several people...men who walk around apparently sane, but have a break somewhere in the brain fibre. Well these people wrote to me and many of them were most interesting correspondents. One of them later spent about four years in a mad house; still, he now walks around and proves himself to be a very subtle and dangerous person...

"I wrote to the Ballards for four years steady every week, then my husband died...They invited me to visit them in Chicago, which I did March 12, 1919. I lived with them for seven months, sharing their poverty, their sorrows, and their woes, for they were as poor as the proverbial church mouse...

"They induced me to finance the trip to California...The baby Eudonia [Donald ] was just five years old...While in San Francisco this great idea of Guy's was born. We went to a fake __________ church, and there was a lot of chicanery. The Priest and Priestess sitting in two gold chairs with the twelve vestal virgins as the choir. Behind them was a great illuminated cross with flashing lights. During the service the very lightly clad virgins threw flowers among the audience. It was a scream. Afterwards came the Love Feast. A virgin held a basket of strips of bread and the audience were asked to join this holy order, which was non-sectarian. Another virgin held a loving cup of wine. Talk of hypnosis, would you believe it, over one hundred and fifty people went forward and partook of that sacrilegious feast, a parody upon the Lord's Supper!

"During this scene Guy's face was a study. He was enchanted with the show, but did not join the church. As soon as he reached the sidewalk, he could not stop talking about it...and from what I now hear, he has fashioned his church upon the same lines with his illuminated background. He could not stop talking about this laughable service . .

"Guy Ballard had one obsession. He wanted to find a gold mine. He had dabbled a bit in mining, prospecting, etc. He also studied hypnotism at this time, but was a bit afraid of it. His idea in bringing me to Chicago was that I might lead him to a gold mine, because I was a medium and had a spirit guide.

"My guide offended them both, for one night he told Edna that she had better stop right where they were, that she would become...[Here this woman quotes what the spirit guide said about Edna launching a great deception.]

"Thenceforth Edna had nothing more to do with my Ascended Master, but Guy thought he could manage him.

"So we traveled to the top of the Sierras, and lived in a tiny cottage next door to a gold mine. Every day either he and I walked out on the mountains, or Edna and he wandered to far distant places while I took care of the dream child. Guy was determined to find that gold mine. There was no money in the house and we lived upon practically nothing.

"One day in September, I remember it was the 21st, I was exploring the little village of about twenty houses, when I came across a tall white shaft numbered 10 up to 150.

"Why, what's that?" I asked, "the game they play in Coney Island?"

"'No, Ma'm,' replied the native, 'that be the snow gauge. After this month you won't see anything but the roofs of the houses; even the horses go on snow shoes.'

"Well sir, I prayed hard to get out of discovering a gold mine. And strange to relate in a day or two a registered letter came to me inviting me to Ontario, Canada.

"I took the next train out of the nearest station, and that's the last I saw of the Ballards, until I ran into a group of people who with bated breath and fear in their eyes told me of the wonders they perform...

"I don't believe a word of the Mt. Shasta story. Poppy-cock! He got the idea wandering around the top of the Sierras. They would be gone for days together and camp out under the stars.

"The people I met in New York nearly mobbed me when I told them that the Ballards were frauds. One of them, not yet touched by their crazy ideas, gave me your letters, and this story of the killing of dear little trusting animals has induced me to write to you . . .

"I am told that thousands seem to be paralyzed or under a spell while they hold their meetings. He must have turned into a wizard of some sort. No wonder they bothered my life to try and give them the names of certain books . . .

"They are just very ordinary people, but clever. But again, they may be dealing in black magic. Guy was crazy about it."

From this graphic description of the Ballards' early history, two facts stand out in bold relief:

First, Guy Ballard and his wife Edna had what amounted to almost an obsession about gold mines. Second, they craved occult powers and mastery over others. Their books and platform utterances are clear evidence of these two cravings, and confirm what is said in this letter by a woman who had not, when she wrote it, read any of the Ballard books and had only attended one or two of their meetings.

Both were interested in, and no doubt had studied hypnotism. When they first came to Los Angeles in 1935 Guy Ballard at every class would suddenly get up from his seat and start to make mesmeric passes over his audience. This would continue for many minutes, or until the audience would be in a suitably passive condition, enabling "Saint Germain" and his band of darkened "Spirits" to work on those susceptible to this kind of thing.

These mesmeric passes later were discontinued, no doubt for the reason it was all too apparent what these people were trying to do to their audiences. Perhaps, too, after such a good start in psychologizing their people there was no further need for being so objective in their hypnotic methods.

All through their books this same love of magical powers and mastery over others is shown. Saint Germain demolishes huge temples by the use of "Light Rays." Ballard and son Donald ape the great "Master" in the use of destructive forces.

When Mrs. Ballard was allegedly "Lotus, the Vestal virgin," she was saved by the present Donald from being carried away by the slave of a "visiting prince" who wanted "to seize the vestal virgin for his bride." (p.25, U.M.) We quote:

"The High Priest ... [Donald in a past life] ...raised his right hand and pointed directly at the slave. A flash of Flame shot forth like lightning, and the slave fell lifeless to the floor."

The visiting prince, all too careless of such death-dealing power, in a "blind rage" and "giving full vent to lust, rushed forward."

But again the priest raised his hand.

"The Flame flashed out a second time--and the prince followed the fate of his former slave."

In this same book the senior Ballard also tells of his own deftness in the use of destructive forces; but instead of saving a fair vestal virgin in a past life, he in his present life saves a poor, lone widow from having her rich gold mine taken away from her by a wicked mine superintendent. We quote:

"He [the superintendent] lifted his steel cane and as I [Ballard] raised my hand to seize it--a White Flame suddenly shot forth flashing full in his face. He dropped to the floor as if struck by lightening." (p.221, u.m.)

After this happy combination of both "magic power" and a rich "gold mine," Ballard proceeds in his next book to even tell about meeting face to face the "God of Gold" !

This great Being appeared to him, he says, while he was at the Rayborn mine in Colorado in 1932, and very unselfishly showed to him the location of a marvelous gold mine. And then the generous "Saint Germain"--still, however, holding on to his "Spanish gold lost at sea" - tells him: "After your return from the Far East, it will be opened up and one day the ore will be used for a special purpose . . ." (p. 280-281, M.P.)

But, alas! Ballard never achieved his dream of gold, except in his writings, and his magical powers only blossomed in his story books.

The Ballards wandered around on mountain tops with mediums and guides looking for the elusive metal, ever seeking, but never finding. And in their seeking after occult powers, they wandered from teacher to teacher. Not "Ascended Masters," mind you, as their books would have the credulous believe, but merely physical-plane mediums, occult lecturers, Hindus, Egyptians, and others in the magic world of metaphysics.

They became wandering metaphysical tramps, sat at the feet of earth-plane teachers too numerous to mention, and varied the business by getting through a few spiritualistic messages for themselves, as any other ordinary medium might.

They imbibed a little of Christian Science, read a bit of the Walter Method C.S., branched over to the Unity School at Kansas City, linked up with the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (A.M.O.R.C.), joined the Order of Christian Mystics, studied under Pelley the Silver Shirter, sat at the feet of some of the Swamis, read a little of Theosophy, looked into the magic of Yogi Philosophy and Oriental Mysticism, interested themselves in Baird T. Spalding and his "Masters of the Far East," which association gave them the idea, no doubt, of making all these metaphysical contacts produce the gold which their gold mines had failed to do--and which "Saint Germain," in a private dictation, said would bring in more money than a gold mine!

From this curious mixture of heterodoxy came forth the Ballard books--books which "Saint Germain" himself has said "none in the world had ever been written like them," which we can well believe.

They used what they wanted, changed and distorted what they desired, flavored the whole heterogeneous mixture with literary spice from novels of the Deadwood Dick type, salted it with pseudo-scientific facts from the pulp magazines, sugared it with a certain amount of goodness to catch the spiritual-hungry souls of this world, put it out in cellophane wrappings with an Arabian Nights' sparkle, labeled it the "Ascended Master Instruction of the Mighty I AM," privately imported by the three and only divinely-appointed Messengers, and sold it hot over the counters for large profit in the sacred temples of the I AM.

And this is the strange and fantastic concoction that so many thousands of sincere people are being fed morning, noon, and night, and most of them will need a good psychological purging to get it out of their system.

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Chapter 18
The Ballard Gold Mine Deals
As the antecedent history of the Ballards has been largely one of their seeking for magical powers and gold mines, it is no wonder that, living in need as they were, they should try to sell these things to their friends and to the public.

In October of 1938, as an aftermath of some old gold mine deals, Guy Ballard was sued in Chicago by a woman who had years before looked upon him as a "Master," and a high spiritual teacher. The Chicago papers were full of it, devoting front-page headlines to the suit and to his gold-mine stock-selling projects of a previous decade.

The writer has no desire to reveal the mistakes of a man's life just for the mere sake of showing up those mistakes. God knows we all make enough of them. But here is a man who has made unprecedented claims for himself. He has publicly proclaimed the great purity of his life which caused him to be selected as the "Accredited Messenger" of Jesus (!) and the other members of the Cosmic Host. He has sold his public on these claims. They have bought his books and merchandise and have accepted his teachings completely on the strength of the sincerity, honesty, and truth of his claims.

It is conceivable that a man previous to a certain spiritual revelation might have lived a very unprincipled life, and then to have changed over completely. It would be manifestly unfair for some one to rake over those mistakes and publicly reveal them for the mere purpose of disconcerting this individual or turning people against him when he was so sincerely trying to "live the life."

The writer, for this reason, has sought mainly to analyze the Ballard books and public utterances, feeling that that alone should be sufficient to reveal the fraud and deception. But many people are not analytically minded, and must have evidence of some personal nature before they can recognize deception.

Besides, the Ballard movement has made history, and is no longer a private, secret affair. It is part of a great psychological wave of "escape mechanisms," or "salvation straws," both economic and religious, which people have been and are still holding on to, to save themselves from the tragic course of human events which now seems to engulf a good part of the world.

Therefore, as this is a history and study of the Ballard cult, it must deal with all phases of it, and certainly there can hardly be eliminated from it those gold-mine activities which have entered so dominantly into the affairs of this cult. When Ballard boldly comes out and makes statements concerning the saintliness of all his life in a last endeavor to keep his people buying his merchandise, then it seems necessary to show the real facts regarding his earlier life as well as more recent events and save additional people, if possible, from being deluded further.

What can one think of two people, whose history is known, who over their own signed names will make such a statement as follows?

"Mr. G. W. Ballard has never done a dishonest nor dishonorable thing in his entire life and never shall. We have never asked any human being for a thing, not even a dime nor a student list." (p. 19, Nov., 1938, V.)

In 1932 their Saint Germain assertedly said: "This beloved Sister and Brother have gone through thirty years of strenuous, conscious preparation for this work." (p. 244, D.)

It would appear from this statement that Ballard and his wife have consciously been under the direction of great Teachers since 1902, but we ask whether the factual record of Guy Ballard's earlier life, as already revealed and to be additionally shown, would indicate any real direction from such great Teachers?
As further evidence that it does not, we quote from a reliable source as follows:

"...His activities were first in selling stock in an oil well in one of the southern states...He had a dream that it was going to 'gush' in February and sold more stock, but many Februaries have passed since then, and no gush. His victims were mostly women

"Seeing how gullible they were over buying imaginary things, he then sold almost the same list on another well, so they could get the money lost in the previous investment.

"Then Mr. Ballard joined with some others and cooked up the "GOLD LAKE" in California, and practically the same bit again..."

Now, this "Gold Lake" project in California, which our correspondent mentions above, gives a most revealing picture of the background of Ballardism.

On March 25, 1929--about a year and a half before Ballard said he met Saint Germain on the side of Mt. Shasta--Guy Ballard was indicted in Chicago by the Cook County Grand Jury on charges of "OBTAINING MONEY AND GOODS BY MEANS OF THE CONFIDENCE GAME." We have a copy of this indictment before us, and that is exactly the way it reads, capitals and all.

There were two such indictments, made on the sworn testimony of two women who had invested thousands of dollars in this "Lake of Gold" in California. Warrants were issued for Ballard's arrest, but he was not apprehended, and did not stand trial.

Guy Ballard, during this time, was in Los Angeles using the assumed name of Dick Gilbert . It was in this city while on this enforced absence from Chicago that he gathered some of his material for Unveiled Mysteries , which was later supplemented by Mrs. Ballard's literary talents when he eventually was able to get back to Chicago.

He was absent for two years or more from his home town, during which time his book avers he was "traveling in the Far East." As a matter of fact, he was in the far west , on the Pacific Coast, traveling around attending metaphysical lectures and still looking for gold mines. There are a number of people in Los Angeles who knew him at that time, and he was certainly not in India.

Referring more specifically now to this "Lake of Gold" in California, which caused so many Chicagoans to lose their money, we quote from an unsolicited letter written by a woman who had invested in it:

Chicago, Ill.
Dec. 14, 1937

A friend, Mrs. ________, showed me your letter to her of recent date, and as I am one of the Ballards' victims, I am very glad to tell you a few things of how I have been treated...
I have known the Ballards for years, first meeting him through a mining proposition called the Gold Lake, and like everybody else I was fooled in the man.
I borrowed $200.00 from a friend to put in the Gold Lake, having already several hundred in it, and he begged me to loan him that $200 for his personal use he was so up against it and he said he would give me double the shares in the mine out of his holdings, etc.
It took me a long time to let him have it, and I asked him especially if he would be sure and give me credit on the books anyway so I would be sure to get my shares, and he promised, and which he NEVER did...
I have letters in which he says he does not owe me by 'Divine right.'...
A dear old lady in her 80's then, and has now passed away, felt so certain of this proposition going over she gave her all, her last $100 Ballard went and took from her...
He went to see a couple of elderly ladies, two sisters, one totally blind, and he got some money from them presumably for the Gold Lake, and he gave a receipt but never put it on the books.
(Signed) Miss __________

This woman has many times tried to get Ballard to pay back the money he borrowed from her. In reply to one of her early letters to him in regard to this loan, he wrote her a letter which was postmarked Los Angeles.
Excerpts from this letter, which was written in Ballard's own handwriting, follow:


March 28, 1929

My dear Miss _________
God bless you most kind friend. Your letter reached [me] after being forwarded twice, as I am changing about all the time trying to get something accomplished. The mining deals I came out here on did not work out ...
I have been trying to secure employment west, but so far have not been able to get work... You do not seem to understand (from your letter) dear friend the terrible sacrifice I made to try to serve those people in that lake enterprise...
But some day God will place in my hands money to pay back every dollar that anybody ever assisted me with. At this time I haven't a dollar to help any body...
When God sees fit to help me to success, I will be so happy and grateful to return every dollar of kindness that has been extended to me. Until then I am powerless to help. ... I know so well everyone who condemns me will be consumed by their own hatred.
I am leaving for Nevada at once. If anything comes into my hands to help, I will gladly do it. A friend is trying to help me get on my feet again.

(Signed) Guy W. Ballard



This hand-written letter of Mr. Ballard's gives a very good picture of his life and wanderings just prior to his alleged contact with "Saint Germain" on the side of Mt. Shasta.

Does that life, with all of its admitted inability to cope with circumstances, seem to be good material for a great "Master" to work with?

Why should this man, who admittedly was duped in a mining deal, be selected out of one hundred and thirty million people to "Save America" from all its economic and spiritual ills?

Why should this particular "Messenger," of whom, assertedly, Jesus himself says has "not made one single mistake from the beginning ," a man who "for thirty years has been consciously preparing for this work," have been selected when there were records against him of having made mistakes?

But let us see the sequel of this correspondence.

This woman who was duped, hearing Ballard was back in Chicago selling people on his "Mighty I AM," and thinking that the "I AM" would surely give him enough money to pay the small debt he had so faithfully promised to pay, wrote him again.

His reply follows:


February 11, 1934

Miss __________
Your letter received after some delay, I have no money for myself, you or anyone else.
If you will remind yourself of the thought and feeling of condemnation, hatred and the wish to take away the liberty of God's children, then you will understand why you have no position, money or health. For what you think, feel and desire for another you draw with invincible power into your own life and experience whether you believe it or not...
When you joined others with the intent to take away my freedom, you deprived yourself of every divine right of any assistance from me.
However, at some future time should abundance come into my hands I would gladly help you if only to return good for evil. May God's Love and Light ever enfold you.

(Signed) Guy W. Ballard


Not to be put off by any such letter, this woman again wrote Ballard pointing out that his accusations in the second paragraph were totally untrue, but that IF they were, the same thing would apply in his case also and be the reason why he, too, had "no money for himself, his creditors, or anyone else."

Then referring to the third paragraph in which Ballard had said, "You deprive yourself of every divine right of any assistance from me," she said: "Let me make this clear to you. By DIVINE right you owe me the $200 which you borrowed in cold cash for your 'personal use.' I am not asking you for any 'help,' 'assistance,' or CHARITY... I am asking for only what is mine... If you have not got the $200 to send at one time, then pay by the week."

And what was the "Accredited Messenger's" reply to this righteous request? It is given below:


Miss ____________
Your second letter received. I have informed you this outer form has no money to assist you and no income to promise you or anyone anything definite.
In spite of reports to you, we do not own a home and no money is being received for the instruction that is being given. In regard to the letter that you sent me, I simply say God bless You.

(Signed) Guy W. Ballard


Remember at this time (1934) Ballard, for nearly four years had been under the special training of "Saint Germain," at least so he said, having met that gentleman on the side of Mt. Shasta in 1930, and at that time this great "Master" for his amusement had plucked a ten dollar gold piece from the mountain air with all the ease of a frock-coated magician.

He had also shown Ballard an entire room filled with coins and nuggets, and "Spanish gold lost at sea"--and had presented him with a gold mine or two.

Yet, despite the magic of his great "Master" and the wealth of "Spanish gold" and Colorado gold mines, this man could not pay this poor, deaf, struggling woman the $200.00 he had borrowed from her--not even a few dollars a week!

And this money has not been paid to this day, despite the fact that these people and their "staff" tour the country in princely style and life off the fat of the land.

How different is their front to the world! How can they write and speak the consummate nonsense of their saintliness and goodness that they do?

"Dear ones," said Ballard through his own vocal cords to his San Francisco audience on January 23, 1938, "the Messengers should be a mighty example to you. They have never asked for a dime in their lives." (pp. 391-392, A.M.L.)

And yet in the city of Chicago and elsewhere there are a number of people from whom Ballard has begged and borrowed money. Despite this, he and his wife had the audacity to publish over their own signatures the following moral instruction to their people--as though they had lived up to it one hundred per cent themselves!

"Beloved Young America!... If you borrow either money or things, FEEL your responsibility and see that you return them to the one who was kind enough to accommodate you. Just because someone is kind and willing to make things easier for you is no reason you should fail to remember that the thing loaned to you should be returned ... Lovingly, Mr. and Mrs. G. W. Ballard." (pp. 33-34, Feb., 1938, V.)

Ask the scores of people who either lent money to Ballard or his wife, or invested it in the "Lake of Gold," whether these "Accredited Messenger of the Ascended Masters" have lived up to precepts they so glibly give others.

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Chapter 20
The Ballard Past Bobs Up Again

Into this Chicago "I AM" heaven, which the Ballards had so carefully prepared for themselves, entered the wicked serpent.

It did not tell the woman, as in the traditional story, but it seems that it did tell the Chicago authorities to taste and investigate the particular brand of apple sauce the Ballards were selling the good Chicago people.
It appears that the bailiff's office particularly tasted of this apple concoction, and apparently thought it was too good to keep to themselves. So one evening, shortly after Mrs. Ballard's "So what?" query, a duly appointed bailiff invaded the peace of the Chicago "I AM" heaven and publicly served Ballard with a summons to appear in court to answer certain charges.

The following morning the Chicago dailies ran big front page headlines about the suit.

The Chicago Herald & Examiner , on the morning of October 14, 1938, came out with a big two-inch headline, reading:

"WOMAN SUES 'GREAT I AM.' "

Below was a large photograph of Ballard being served the summons, and there was nothing else on the front page with the exception of a description of this "I AM" suit. The photograph shows Ballard sitting at a desk in the lobby occupied with his favorite pastime of autographing books (freshly sold at $2.05 to $3.00 per copy), while his startled followers stand and gesticulate wildly around him in their efforts to prevent the bailiff from carrying out his duty of serving the papers.

Underneath the photograph it states that the "Accredited Messenger" was "served the summons despite pandemonium among the followers."

Then on page three was the story, from which we quote in part:

"In a stormy scene in the lobby of the Civic Opera House, Guy W. Ballard, 'Accredited Messenger' of the 'Great I AM Presence,' was served with a summons in a $10,906.55 suit last night.

"Ballard was surrounded by a dozen or more of his followers in the Civic Opera lobby when C_____ read the summons.

"Men and women shouted, tried to push the bailiff from the lobby. Others seized Ballard's arm, and sought to draw him away. In a loud voice, C_____ read the summons."

Picture the scene. Here was a man who had publicly stated:

"My earthly pilgrimage is finished ... I am here in this atomic structure on extended time... nothing this human form can do can be recorded upon my life stream."

And yet, here he was, in his own "I AM" heaven, having his own record read and recorded, and there was nothing he could do about it. Nor could his followers who crowded around him wildly decreeing and gesticulating.

The record follows in part, according to this bill which was filed in the Superior Court:

"Some time prior to and about the years 1923 or 1924 the plaintiff became acquainted with the defendant, Guy W. Ballard, who represented himself to be interested in and learned in said mysticism and occult arts and sciences.

"Through the mutual interest of said plaintiff and of said defendant, the said defendant obtained the confidence and trust of the plaintiff, and the defendant, abusing and taking advantage of said confidence and trust imposed by the plaintiff in the defendant, requested from the plaintiff and obtained from her advances of large sums of money...under various pretexts and reasons, such as personal loans for current expenses...etc., etc."

Virtually all the Chicago newspapers that morning ran headlines and stories about this suit against the "Mighty I AM "--the name they dubbed Ballard.

The Chicago Tribune headed their story: "The Great I AM Runs Afoul of a Cynical Mystic." The Chicago Daily News captioned their article: "Mundane Bailiff Invades Mystic Realm to Get Man." the Chicago Daily Times styled theirs: "'Great I AM' Face to Face with Cash Suit." The Chicago American said: "Woman Sues 'I AM' Leader for $10,000."

We quote in part from the Chicago American article: "Miss _____ , a little, grayhaired woman of about 60, is employed as a housekeeper ... Her life savings, gleaned from her work as a servant for some of Chicago's best known society families, were given to Ballard, she said today, to invest in what he called 'The Cottonwood Trust' to exploit 'The Lake of Gold' in California, supposedly a mining project.

"Loss of the $6,775 which Miss _______ says she entrusted to the 'Mighty I AM' before he left town, made her unable to bring criminal proceedings at that time. She visited the state's attorney's office, Miss ____ explained, but was told she would be required to post some money if a policeman were to be sent after the 'Mighty I AM.' She explained:

"'But he had taken all my money and I didn't have any left to put up to have him arrested.'

"The Ballards, she said, were well-known along the North Shore as far as Milwaukee, but more in servants' quarters than in drawing rooms. She explained: 'He had a very large following of North Shore servants when he was operating as 'The Master.' A lot of servants followed him.' "
Asked by one of the newspaper reporters if she had attended any of the Civic Opera House meetings, she retorted:

"I should say not! I was afraid I would lose my temper and would expose him right there!"

One of the Ballard decrees reads:

"Compel all that consciously opposes This Work in any way to annihilate itself and blast its own cause and effect from existence forever!"

Another one reads:

"Prevent the press, reporters, and all outer channels from making any false statements about this work...SILENCE everything of that kind throughout the world forever!"

Nevertheless, despite the alleged power of these decrees, the reporters and the press would not be silenced. The next morning there followed further revelations about Ballard's "Lake of Gold."

We quote from the Chicago Herald & Examiner of October 15 in an article headed, "Sought in Gold Swindle; Cult Leader Begs Faith" :

"...Many other persons were known to have invested money. Blue sky authorities said these investors lost $200,000, some estimates going as high as $500,000. An investigator sent to look at the California property of the company reported title to the land was doubtful and that not more than $5,000 had ever been spent there. There was a rough board building, he said, but no evidence of mining machinery."
This article further stated:

"All that was needed, investigators say they were told, was to drain the lake and take out the precious metals with scoop shovels."

This "Gold Lake" project in California which Guy Ballard and his associates sold to credulous people was a happening of a dozen years or more ago, and was preceded, as we have seen, by his gold-seeking adventures upon mountain tops. But all this was really only the beginning of Ballard's sensational gold-mine career--a mere preliminary skirmish, as it were, before the real campaign.

Since then he has really become proficient in manufacturing gold mines, and he makes them bigger and better all the time. When once one puts his hand to the plow, or rather his mind to the great task of manufacturing gold mines on a mass production basis, there is no turning back. He has to make new, bigger, and better gold mines, or else the shortcomings of the old ones will be too apparent to those who signed on the dotted line.

It is not surprising, therefore, to find that a few years later the lone California "Gold Lake" blossomed into three marvelous Colorado "Gold Mines." And in Ballard's book the great Saint Germain tells about them.
"This body of ore," said the great Master, referring to the second one of the mines, "contains over twenty million dollars in gold, clear and above all operating expenses." (p. 40, M.P.)

But fortunately for Saint Germain's "patented" gold claim and Ballard's "deeds" placed in his hands, the unbelieving Commissioner of Mines of the State of Colorado is quite skeptical about the matter, as will be discovered in the following letter received from the Commissioner himself, dated March 15, 1937, at Denver:

"I know of no marvelous mine in Colorado owned by one Daniel Rayborn, and I know nothing of G. W. Ballard...We frequently hear of 'Mystic' mines in Colorado and other states, and people have spent years and years looking for them, but I have never heard of one that has been found. I look upon them as fakes; in fact, I know it is a fake pure and simple."

The three marvelous, though hypothetical, gold mines having served their particular purpose in luring buyers for their book (why else should they be there?), the Ballards turned their attention to manufacturing out of whole cloth a new sort of gold mine. Not even the genie in Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp could have ever thought of it.

This is the way of it. For years the Ballards have been telling their audiences about the dangerous "Gas Belts" which are supposed to lie under some of our most populous cities and which, they say, are the cause of earthquakes. Many of the susceptible ones in these cities became extremely jittery over the "Gas Belts" under their feet and joined the cult to protect themselves--for only the Ballard "decrees" could save these cities from utter destruction.

That of course was very much in line with the cult's usual procedure in psychologizing their people through fear, but in this case they went a step further and combined another mainspring of human action.
It was to Mrs. G. W. Ballard, co-originator and prime mover of the cult, that the idea first came. In her efforts to "Save America" from these earthquakes--which they said were "long past due"--she conceived the brilliant idea of changing all these restless "Gas Belts" into "pure metallic gold " !

That was a stroke of genius which naturally did not go unrewarded, for who wouldn't want to join a movement which would guarantee to change ordinary sewer gas, or its deeper-lying relative, into pure metallic gold?

To get "saved" and "rich" at one time is motive enough for anybody. So a gas-converting decree was drawn up by the decree-maker of the establishment, Mrs. G. W. Ballard, and the blessed, gold-loving students shouted it from coast to coast in their heroic efforts to "Save America"--a nation which already has more gold stored away in the ground than it knows what to do with, some $20,000,000,000 worth!

To date, latest news from the decreeing front indicates that the I AM-ers have not been successful in accomplishing their great alchemical feat, for their high command, Mrs. G. W. Ballard, still speaks of the earthquake danger. The "gas" menace, therefore, is still with us, an everpresent worry in the I AM-ers' troubled world.

The luring of the Ballard hopeful by means of the bright yellow metal still continues, but always it is the new and not the old "gold mine" to which attention is called.

Guy Ballard, shortly after his old stock-selling activities in his "Lake of Gold" project bobbed up in Chicago, stated to his Los Angeles audience:

"In India there are five great mountain peaks," and referring to one of these peaks, he added: "There is gold enough in that one peak to a hundred times pay the debts of the world. I know this to be true." (p. 28, March 1939, V.)

Despite all his assurance of debt-paying gold in India the Chicago papers wouldn't let Ballard's old "Lake of Gold" in California alone. He tried his best to switch the minds of people off to a gold-studded mountain peak in far-away India, but this fabulous "Gold Lake" which had suddenly reappeared out of his past was a bit more real to the scores of people who had lost their life-savings in it. It had to be explained in some way, and in the following chapter we will see how the Ballards made answer to it.

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Chapter 26
Some Results Of Ballardism
Probably in no other movement has there ever been such attempt at widespread interference with the personal lives of its members as in this cult of the Mighty I AM.

The Ballard students are instructed to push people out of their lives who cannot embrace the Mighty I AM teachings, and to have as little as possible to do with them. As as result, the deepest relationships of many years' standing have been severed by zealous students fanatical enough to live up to the Ballard instructions.

Husband, wife, mother, or some other relative living in a fanatical Mighty I AM family, has actually been kept in another part of the house and denied former privileges because he or she would not embrace the Ballard doctrines. We cite an instance of this in the following story.

A car was parked outside of an "I AM Temple" in a certain city. The man within it had his head bowed over the steering wheel.

Another man was waiting outside this same "I AM" meeting place, and was pacing back and forth.
In passing by the parked car this latter man noticed that the man with head bowed over the wheel was sobbing. In ready comprehension, he approached him.

"I see they've got you too," he said.

The man at the wheel raised himself up confusedly, quickly brushing the tears away. Then seeing the understanding in the other's face, said:

"Yes, I was conceded an unusual privilege today. I ate at the table with my wife and children for the first time in weeks. They've had me in another part of the house."

He looked pathetically into the face of the other man who seemed to understand, and added:

"I hope other privileges will be conceded too, or at least these same ones continued, but one never knows what the demand will be next. I am waiting to take my family home."

This intolerance of other people's beliefs and methods of living is a direct outcome of the Ballard teachings, particularly among so-called "hundred per cent students" who follow the Ballard instructions in every way.

We quote the following letter written by a former class leader under date of June 29, 1939:

"Last July during the Shrine class I had a private interview with Mrs. Ballard, at which time she told me (I might well use the terms, ordered or commanded, as that was her manner) to call for the release of my own mother, whom she knew I love with all my heart, just as we were taught to call for the release of our little pets.

"Why? Because my mother did not believe in them nor their teaching, though she never opposed me or them in any way.

"Mrs. Ballard told me I was carrying a big load and that my mother was a 'Vampire activity' keeping alive on my energy.

"She shot this question at me: 'Doesn't your mother take a lot of soda?' 'Yes.' Then: 'Doesn't she eat a lot?' I answered: 'She has a good appetite.' 'Yes,' she said, 'and she sits around no good to herself or anyone else and she can keep alive for years drawing on your energy and living on it. Call for her release, you have work to do!'

"Then she told me to come home and 'Tell ___________ to stop all sex relations.' (___________ is my daughter, who is very happily married to a fine fellow and they have two beautiful children.)

"I told her: 'But they want two more children,' etc. 'No,' said the dictator, 'It is too near the Ascension for that now.'

"I asked: 'What if her husband will not agree?' 'Tell her to take a child by each hand and walk out and slam the door,' was her reply."

The Ballards themselves, at least in this regard, evidently live up to their own teaching. Years ago, Mrs. Ballard pushed her own aged mother and only sister out of her life because they would not accept the Mighty I AM or believe that Guy Ballard's books and his trips to India were true, knowing as they did that he was right here in the United States all the while.

Former students who have had the courage to get out of the cult are oftentimes denounced in public and even decrees for their physical death demanded.

On Sunday evening, July 3, 1939, at a "Hundred Per Cent Group" in Los Angeles, Guy Ballard spoke the following words, saying they were from the great Ascended Master, "Sanat Kumara."

"Do not again make the call for anyone to return to this Light. Rather call for their release from those bodies that they have chosen to desecrate by vicious falsehoods against the Messengers of this Light."

Not only do the Ballards teach their students to call for the "release" of certain individuals from their bodies, but it is their duty, they say, to "free" all ANIMALS from their bodies, because: "Animal forms were created in the beginning by powerful black magicians." (p. 22, Oct., 1936, V.) We quote:

"...It is the DUTY of every I AM Student to call the Mighty I AM Presence and Ascended Masters to Free All Animal Life from its discord, limitation, and imperfection." (p. 30, Oct., 1937, V., our capitals.)

To the credit of some of their students, there was a protest against this inhuman doctrine. One of them wrote the Ballard official representative, and received the following reply:

"Now you ask me if it is right to put animals out of their bodies. I am going to answer this by simply telling you what I have heard Mrs. Ballard say--that animal forms are imprisoned life and as you know, we have a decree in our magazine and one in the new decree book sending all animals into the higher life and Light.

"Now, dear, each one of us must interpret that as best we can. I do know many of the students have put their beloved pets out."

The fact that many of these animal pets have been "put out" or "released" is again shown by Guy Ballard's letter to one of the students in November of 1937, dictated and signed by him personally:

"When this call is sincerely made and the desire for their RELEASE is felt in the feelings, it is quickly effective in releasing this life...This is accomplished in perfect peace and harmony as has been demonstrated in the case of HUNDREDS of the students. GWB: PBC" (Our capitals.)

In other words, hundreds of animal pets have been "released" because the students decreed their DEATH!
However, what really happened was admitted by the Ballard representative whose letter was quoted: "Many of the students have put their beloved animals out." The decrees didn't work--so they chloroformed, drowned or otherwise killed their trusting little animal friends!

One such case is quoted in the letter below written in November, 1937. it is only one of many cases where fanatical I AM-ers have killed their animal pets. We quote:

"The phone rang this morning and an I AM-er called and told me that another of Mrs.__________'s 100% class was put in a sanitarium last week.

"It seems that she owned a lovely dog and that they were told there were to be no more dogs. She had the dog electrocuted.

"Her family resented it so they had her taken to a psychiatrist who analyzed her and of course she did not know when to speak and of what to speak, and started in on the books, and when she was asked why she did not give the dog to __________ , she said, it was just as bad for him to have it as it was for her.

"Well, they pronounced her insane and put her away last week. God pity them all."

Some additional results of the Ballard doctrines may be summed up in a few short sentences.

It has taught credulous followers to forget everything else but the "Mighty I AM," tending to hold its people in moronic ignorance of what is going on in the world.

It has caused fanatical students to "decree" long hours during the day and part of the night, with such intensity and emotionalism that a number of them have had nervous breakdowns, or have been confined to psychopathic wards and insane asylums.

It has produced untold mental suffering from fears of cataclysms, entities, black magicians, destructive decrees, and other fear-inspiring bogeys.

It has caused students to worship at the shrines of an endless number of mythological gods and heathenish "Masters," instead of teaching a devotion to the One and True God, the Creator of the Universe, of whose grandeur, love, and wisdom there is no end.

It had induced some of its fanatical devotees to get rid of their life insurance, thinking that they or their loved ones would soon make their "Ascension" and have no need of it.

It has promised financial security by merely "decreeing" it, which resulted in some of their people quitting their jobs, turning over their savings to the Ballards, and neglecting their financial future.

It has caused people to neglect their physical health as a result of being told that it was not necessary to seek diversions, play games, exercise, or place any dependence in physical remedies.

It has brought about needless deaths because of dependence upon "Ascended Masters" and "decrees" to restore health, remove tumors, etc. instead of sanely instituting physical and surgical treatment when necessary.

It has produced in the student a false sense of the greatness of the little personal self, which is the self which makes its decrees to the "Mighty I AM," causing distortion of the real truth concerning the God consciousness within.

It has caused the student to look outside of himself for guidance to some invisible "Teacher" or psychic "Master" whose real purposes and designs are of the nature of things hidden, and whose responsibility and honesty may be nil.

It has produced in the minds of many people the idea that animals have been created by "black magicians" instead of by God, causing in these cases a severance of the beautiful relationship which has always existed between the dog and his master, and a breaking of man's comradeship with other members of the animal kingdom.

It has through the hands of fanatical students sent hundreds of little pets to the pound to be killed, or the sensitive animal cruelly sent away from its accustomed home.

It has caused untold grief, insanity, and even suicide!

With all these sins and crimes the Ballard "Mighty I AM Instruction of the Ascended Masters" stands indicted, and it is time that the public should know the full truth of it and its history written.

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Chapter 31
Decrees Of Death!
The Ballards have not only by fear and threat and by flattery and cajolery tried to keep their movement from disintegrating, but they have in their decrees against individuals called upon the Mighty Powers of Heaven to destroy physically those who sought in any way to interfere with it.

It seems a strange and fantastic thing, but for over five years large groups of people throughout the United States have been meeting together and shouting decrees which have for their purpose the "dissolving," "consuming," "annihilating," "blasting," "exploding," and "destroying" of certain human beings, or the political or religious organizations which they represent.

They project at their meetings what they call the destructive "BLUE LIGHTNING," analogous it seems to the "DEATH RAY" of the pulp magazines, and if the reader should happen to pass an I AM Temple or "Sanctuary," he would be very likely to hear reverberating out upon the street the loud shouting of the following decree:

"STOP! STOP! STOP! YOU HAVE NO POWER! YOUR DAY IS DONE! BE THOU DISSOLVED AND CONSUMED BY THE POWER OF LIGHT!"

In an effort to show the power of these "Blue-Lightning" blasts, Guy Ballard at the Chicago class on May 8, 1938, said:

"You five hundred thousand students have been calling into action the Power of the Blue Lightning! Do you know what that means? Do you know one day the momentum gained in that action, if necessary, will be released! and no matter how terrifying It is to humanity, That Power Shall Be Released!" ("Goddess of Liberty" dictation, page 2, May 19, 1938, Group Letter.)

In the Ballard "I AM Decree Book," copyrighted by the Saint Germain Press, there are seventy-one decrees intended to meet all their needs, from controlling the state of the weather to the state of the nation! The book presents a curious litany of hate, love, and intolerant rule over the life and liberties of others.

The following are parts of some of the other decrees which are shouted from coast to coast:

"SILENCE the tongue and make HELPLESS and inactive all attempts to interfere with or cast discredit upon this I AM Instruction!...BLAST and annihilate all that would interfere in any way with this Perfection!...Project the Blue Lightning into every one of these vortices of human discord...and EXPLODE, EXPLODE, EXPLODE every one this instant!"

On the evening of October 21, 1937, in New York City, Guy Ballard shouted to his audience the following decree:

"I call the Angels of Blue Lightning, the Legions of Light to stand guard over your America; My America; that every person who tries to bring destructive conditions, qualities or activities into America, SHALL CEASE TO EXIST IN HIS HUMAN FORM!" (p. 23, Dec., 1937, V., our capitals.)

The above is a decree for death! It takes one back in imagination to some aboriginal jungle where some native medicine man with savage incantations and rites is decreeing the death of his enemy. Books dealing with witchcraft, sorcery, and demonology are full of this sort of thing, but we hardly expect it in civilized America. Yet this decree for the destruction of a human form was publicly uttered on the stage of the Engineering Auditorium in our own New York City!

If it be thought this death decree was merely a slip of the tongue made in the excitement of the moment, the reader should be disillusioned. Such a thing is a studied and regular activity of this black-magic organization.

In making these death decrees Ballard sometimes tries to hide behind what he calls his own "Mighty I AM Presence," and says that it is his "I AM" speaking and not Ballard. If so, Ballard's "I AM" is a dangerous and death-dealing "I AM," and most sensible people would have nothing whatever to do with it.

Speaking at West Palm Beach, Florida, on the afternoon of December 5, 1937, Guy Ballard stated:

"Ere long the light shall compel every human being, every human form, to give the necessary obedience to Me, the Mighty I AM...When It reaches a certain state of vibratory action, the human form who will not give obedience becomes DISSOLVED." (p.12, Jan, 1938, V., our capitals.)

At Cleveland on the afternoon of November 14, 1936, "Mighty I AM" Ballard shouted:

"I AM the Presence that silences and places out of action every person, association or whatever sends forth destructive activity to My Presentation...of this Light and work!...All unfortunate individuals in human form who henceforth attempt to personally interfere with this Light...SHALL MEET the recoil of their own destructive creation...There is no Power in heaven or earth to stop it...I HAVE SPOKEN!" (pp. 3 and 9, Jan., 1937, V., their capitals.)

Most often, however, instead of hiding behind his "I AM," Ballard takes cover behind some supposedly great "Ascended Master," and has this great Being say and do things of which not even the most ordinary of human beings would be guilty--and certainly not a real Master of Wisdom.

It is easy to discover that the Ballard "Gods" and "Goddesses" are all created in the image of their maker. We find them without exception expressing the thoughts, feelings, and grammatical errors of their creators.

Once when Edna Ballard was reading one of Saint Germain's (?) discourses, a former school girl friend dryly remarked: "Edna, you should not have Saint Germain make the same grammatical errors that you made in class."

It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the Ballard "lady and gentlemen Ascended Masters" are just as proficient in throwing the "Blue Lightning" as are the Ballards. The following threats of death are all taken from the Ballard literature, and supposedly made by great "Ascended Masters."

"Those who try to oppose this Light are dissolved by it...Destructive individuals shall be searched out and shall leave those bodies... I would dissolve those physical bodies before they shall harm him...They sound their own death knell!... When It moves into action everything unlike Itself dissolves and disappears before It! If that includes some of mankind's bodies, then shall it be so!" Etc., etc.

Openly revealing a sadistic tendency, "Saint Germain," at the Minneapolis class threatened to draw these vicious individuals before him and "see them cry out in agony." A little later, he boasted: "We have our own means of causing people to disappear." (pp. 26-27, Oct., 1939, V.)

"Mighty Cosmo," another of the Ballard fraternity of avenging gods, said at Los Angeles: "The insane human beings that try to spread doubt concerning the Glory of these Messengers...should be shut up forever... no longer may mercy be shown to those who willfully turn away from this Light...better had a rattlesnake woven itself in among you than the poisonous breath of doubt. (applause)...If they do not stop it, they will sting themselves to death! (applause)" (pp. 8-12-16-18, Aug., 1939, V., our italics.)

Emphasizing this idea of destruction of the physical body, Ballard came out on the stage of the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Wednesday, July 6, 1938, and said that "Saint Germain" would have the dictation.

"I ask you," said Saint Germain, "to watch these unfortunate creatures who have tried to destroy the work of the Messengers and My Work. One of the worst ones in America is here in your city. Watch the reaction of their own DESTRUCTION. It must return upon themselves--it is the Law of Life, so the Law will take its toll. Therefore, I trust BY SUNDAY I shall have still added joyful news for you." (p. 17, Aug., 1938, V., our capitals and italics.)

Is it not evident from "Saint Germain's" remark of "added joyful news by Sunday," that he expected something physically to happen to a certain Los Angeles person within four days?

At the following Shrine Class in Los Angeles, held six months later, there seemed to have been much discouragement about the slowness of action of these "Death Rays" upon certain individuals. The Ballards therefore gave their chief G-man, K-17 of the "Inner Secret Service," additional work to do--and the Chief of the I.S.S. did not hesitate to say that "physical action" would be necessary. We quote:

"The Messenger said to you, I think it was on last Tuesday, that he felt the attempted opposition to this Great Light had been dissolved. It has on the Inner action of life but there are still things to be done in the outer...

"Beloved students in the future, do not hesitate to put down anything that tries to defame This Work. You have My permission! (applause)...

"Your Mighty Decrees have been answered remarkably so far and they will be answered in a more and more remarkable way; but, since time is an essential in this, We shall take a part in PHYSICAL ACTION.
"...The unfortunate individuals who...have tried in every conceivable way to bring disgrace upon This Work, watch that disgrace return upon them! (applause) DO NOT HESITATE TO HELP IT ALONG, beloved students. (applause)" (pp. 12-13, Feb., 1939, V., our capitals and italics.)

It is evident from the above that the Ballard decrees for destruction do not work, and that, therefore, this "Secret Service Master," who says he has a "tangible body," is going to take a part in some "PHYSICAL ACTION." Whatever it is that he has in mind, the Ballard students are urged to "help it along" and to "put down anything" which works against their movement. And the audience, emotionally aroused with the spirit of the mob, applauds and applauds.

If it was the intention of this "Secret Service Master" to arouse members in the audience to take some kind of "physical action" against individuals who were revealing certain facts about this cult, then it was not altogether unsuccessful.

At least in the case of the writer it was so, for on the evening of January 13th--twelve days after 17's "permission" to students to "put down anything that tries to defame This Work"--he was decoyed to a dead-end street in Los Angeles, where several members of a gang were waiting to do him bodily harm. He recognized in time, however, that it was a hold up, and was able to get away without being injured; but for a number of days following this experience he received telephone calls from various members of the gang threatening him bodily harm if he didn't "lay off" the Mighty I AM.

This thing of inflaming the mind to destructive action against so-called "vicious individuals" is one of the most dangerous aspects of this cult. Imagine the possible effect on certain types of emotional, unbalanced individuals when statements like the following are made. They were made publicly in Philadelphia on November 15, 1938, by Guy Ballard, but if you can believe it--they are the actual words of the Archangel Michael!

"Since more than six hundred thousand people are calling for Me...they shall wield the Sword of Blue Flame in their PHYSICAL HANDS. (p. 7, Jan., 1939, V.)

"Therefore, tonight, I release to you in Philadelphia the Power of the use of the Sword of Blue Flame. Mentally, picture it in your hands. (pp. 8-9)

"These forces that hate so greatly and do all they can to spread discord everywhere, must be governed; sometimes by FORCE! That is what We shall proceed to do...Therefore, when We tell you that We intend to use FORCE where it is necessary, We mean just that! We mean the force and Power of Light that can absolutely SILENCE ANY HUMAN ACTION!...That is why there will be thousands of students in America in the near future who can say "STOP!" with a force that will FASTEN THE HUMAN FORM IN ITS TRACKS." (pp. 12-13, our capitals.)

Imagine making such dangerous promises and placing in the hands of emotionally-aroused people such imaginary power!

In any large meeting of this kind there are likely to be present those who are mentally unbalanced, psychopathic, or perhaps criminally insane. Fired with the ardor of being able to wield Archangel Michael's "Sword of Blue Flame" in their "physical hands," there is no telling what such individuals might do physically against any so-called vicious person; for when their decrees of death do not work on the mental plane of being, the tendency is to go over to the physical.

When such a mob spirit as this gets loose in America under the guise of religion and patriotism, does it not constitute a danger and a menace?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 34
Death-Blasts Over the White House
It is very evident from what has gone on before that the self-proclaimed George Washington, his wife, and son, have certain irrepressible ambitions to occupy the White House and bring a "New Government" into America.

Their methods of installing themselves there will doubtless not meet with the approval of the present occupants of the White House--nor indeed the approval of the really patriotic Americans who believe in a representative government and not in a form of witchcraft.

Here is described the most fantastic plan of dictatorship over the lives and liberties of others ever recorded in American history.

For five years the Ballard "Death Decrees" have been hurled forth day and night in an effort to "blast," "dissolve," and "annihilate" anyone who would interfere in any way with their plans to bring in a weird sort of government in America--a government of the "Ascended Masters" and their "Friends."

High officials of the present government, who might stand in their way of getting into power, have been especially singled out as their victims in a strange species of witchcraft.

As proof of this we now quote from one of their official "Staff Dictations."

These dictations are very private and secret. The staff members are warned never to reveal them to a living soul, and to "keep them under lock and key."

The one to be quoted from is in mimeograph form, dated August 17, 1938, and is headed: "SAINT GERMAIN'S TALK TO THE STAFF--YOSEMITE."

The following not is attached:

"This has not been edited and is for the Staff use only. Please keep it carefully guarded and under no condition allow anybody to see or even know there were dictations in Yosemite."

This particular dictation is largely in the form of Questions and Answers. We quote:

Q. "Can't we consider destructive individuals the same as as we consider discarnate entities as to free will?
A. "Yes, don't have any qualms of conscience, dear ones. When an individual has become totally destructive, it would be a thousand times better to make the call and have them taken out of the body...

"I think it would be very great wisdom never to let it be known that you had dictations here, or even refer to your private dictations under any circumstances. Then there is not the desire to get hold of them.

"And be very careful--all of you--in referring to ROOSEVELT or MRS. ROOSEVELT by name openly.

"Be sure you don't do it; because you see, these sinister forces if they got sufficient hold of individuals in the government they might trump up charges to interfere with this work from the government standpoint."
Q. "We should be careful what we say in the rooms for somebody might put an instrument in to get the conversations.

A. "Now, please, every one of the Staff, take that firm positive determined attitude that nobody can put an instrument in the rooms where you are."

Now, why should the Ballards have been so careful to warn their staff members not to refer to President and Mrs. Roosevelt's names openly to others? Why all this fear about a dictaphone being installed in their rooms? Why all this secrecy in s so-called "Ascended Master" instruction?

We remind you, as shown by the preceding chapter, that these people for many years have had designs on the White House, and they want to bring into America a "New Government." They do not want any governmental investigation of their cult. And least of all do they want a dictaphone set in their hotel rooms to record such a meeting as will be described involving the President of the United States!

Reminding one of some aboriginal jungle where the medicine men and their fanatical tribesmen perform rites and incantations to bring about the death of their enemies, we now record a secret activity of this cult which has taken place many times in their hotel apartment. It is no strange bit of fiction, nor did it happen in the darkest Africa or some other aboriginal land where voodoo practices are still in vogue, but it has happened right here in civilized America--in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, and in other cities--and the truth if it is sworn to on affidavit by former members of the Ballard staff.

At night, following their class meetings, the Ballards and their staff many times would congregate in secret conclave in Mrs. Ballard's hotel apartment.

They formed a circle around the room, with so far as possible, a man and woman alternating.

In the center of the circle would be a stand or table upon which had been placed a chalice or gilded goblet containing a few odd gold trinkets and coins--put there no doubt for some magical reason.

Upon this chalice would be placed a list of names. It was a "black list"--names of people they wanted destroyed!

Then still standing in the circle around the magic urn with its list of persons to be destroyed, they would raise their hands and thrust them rhythmically back and forth as though pushing something away from themselves. This was supposed to represent the destroying or cutting power of Archangel Michael's "Sword of the Blue Flame."

Calling on their various "gods" and "goddesses," they would then issue the decree:

"STIFFEN ON THE CROSS OF BLUE FLAME ALL THOSE WHO OPPOSE THIS LIGHT!"

Then again pushing their hands back and forth with appropriate gestures toward the "death list," they would call aloud the names of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, and issue the decree to--

"BLAST! BLAST! BLAST! THEIR CARCASSES FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH FOREVER!"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 35
Death Enters The Ballard Household


At his expensive Vermont Avenue mansion near the edge of beautifully-wooded Griffith Park in Los Angeles, a white-haired old man lies dying.

It is the early morning hours of December 29, 1939; and at exactly 5:20 A.M. the Messenger of Death is scheduled to arrive and take this man into the Great Unknown.

Seven days previous, their seventeen-day "Mighty I AM" class had opened in Los Angeles, and the announcement had gone forth: "Mr. and Mrs. Ballard will conduct another class at the Shrine Civic Auditorium in Los Angeles."

But when the great Shrine class opened, Guy Ballard was not there.

Edna Ballard explained that because of a serious crisis in world affairs, "Blessed Daddy was out with Saint Germain." And her followers, psychologized into believing the "Blessed Mommie Ballard" never told one single blessed word that was not the truth, believed her in this as in everything else.

They did not know that Guy Ballard, broken in health and decrepit of body, had been half carried from his expensive hotel apartment in downtown Los Angeles and secretly taken to this big house at 2545 N. Vermont Ave., in the exclusive Griffith Park district of Los Angeles.

They did not know that instead of being out on some "world service" with Saint Germain, Guy Ballard was waiting to keep his last appointment on earth--the one with the grim Messenger.

During his nine days residence in this house, Guy Ballard's condition had become steadily and progressively worse. Neither Edna Ballard, "Saint Germain," nor any other member of the "Ascended Host," could relieve the pain in his body or reduce the tremendous swelling in his abdomen which was gradually but surely taking his life.

Two days before the appointment with Death, a surgeon was hastily summoned. He came with his instruments and performed an abdominal operation on the body of this man--a man who for years had claimed to have a body of "Immortal Endurance," and who said over and over again that his was a different and more perfect body than the bodies of other men.

But neither the surgeon nor any other material or spiritual aid could keep the Messenger away.

And here on his death-bed, in the early morning hours of December 29, 1939, Guy Ballard, "Accredited Messenger of the Ascended Masters" and co-originator of the Mighty I AM Movement, was soon to be called to render an account of his sixty-one years and five months of earth life.

Perhaps already, as he lies there in a comatose condition, the Scroll of Life, like a great panorama, unfolds before his eyes, bringing vivid pictures of his good and bad deeds done in the life now closing.

The pictures go racing by...his early contacts with "Masters"...his travels to mountain tops in search of gold...the gold stock-selling deals in Chicago...the years spent as fugitive from justice...his refuge in Los Angeles...his secret return to Chicago...the re-union with his wife...the dawn of their great metaphysical idea...the piecing together of their books...the secret classes in Chicago...the start of their great "Mighty I AM" movement...the applauding audiences...their Messianic claims...the blasting of their enemies...their White House ambitions...the death-blasts at the First Lady of the Land...their death-decrees against the President of the United States.

And now, this last scene of all. Here in this big mansion near Los Angeles' wooded park, Guy Ballard, "Messenger of the Ascended Master," but now deserted by his Mighty Saint Germain, who has allegedly given him power over the forces of nature--awaits his own rendezvous with Death.

Is that grim Messenger there in response to the great "Law of Action and Reaction" which Guy Ballard so often said could not fail to operate in the lives of others but would not affect his own life because "no longer could anything be recorded on his life stream"?

Is it true that "What one sends out, will inexorably return"? Have his own death-decrees, like some fearful, gigantic boomerang, returned upon their creator?

The breath rasps, the heart action falters, and those who have been waiting in that death chamber draw nearer.

When all was over, the mortician was notified that death had entered that household, and he came and prepared the body.

The physician took out his pen and wrote on his certificate as cause of death--"Arterio-sclerotic heart disease," confirmed by X-Ray diagnosis of the heart, and, as probable contributing cause-- " 'Cardiac' cirrhosis of liver."

And on January 1, 1940, the body of Guy Ballard, which assertedly in 1932 at Chananda's retreat in India had emerged unscathed after remaining "two days and two nights" in the "white heat of a great furnace" (p. 390, M.P.), was taken to a Los Angeles crematory and destroyed by fire.

Thus ended the earth career of Guy Warren Ballard, self-styled "Accredited Messenger of the Ascended Masters," who in the last seven years of his life had a meteoric rise to a position of strange influence over the lives and destinies of thousands, and yet, despite his claim to "Immortal Endurance," died as other mortals have ever died.
..................................................................................................................................................................
But to his thousands of followers, Guy Ballard did not die! They believe that death, in the usual sense, did not come to him; that instead of dying, he "Ascended"!

They believe that this "Ascension" was made voluntarily and that there was no suffering or disease in his body, which, allegedly, was not like the bodies of the rest of mankind.

They do not want to believe that Guy Ballard, after weeks of agonizing illness, died from a complication of chronic diseases. They believe exactly as Edna Ballard-- considered by many as the real originator and sustaining force of this cult--has psychologized them into believing.

For three days, she kept the public and her thousands of followers from knowing that her husband had died. The usual obituary notices were withheld from the press, and only her closest intimates knew that Guy Ballard's physical body lay dead at this house in the hills. The newspapers did not get the story of his death until three days later.

Guy Ballard died early Friday morning, December 29, 1939, from the diseases we have enumerated, which fact may be confirmed by the official death certificate filed at the Bureau of Vital Statistics at Los Angeles. The record of his abdominal operation on December 27, 1939, is given on this certificate as well as his cremation notice.

The symptoms of his illness are given on the certificate as having begun "three months and two days" before death. This would place the beginning of his illness on September 27, 1939, at which time he was in his legal home of Chicago.

During the last part of this illness Edna Ballard made it appear that "Blessed Daddy" was out on some important business for Saint Germain, and therefore could not appear at the Shrine class. But the fact is that Guy Ballard was so ill he could not possibly appear. His body was so swollen that he was forced to sit up in his chair instead of lying down.

Following his death, the body, bearing the record of suffering and the diseases which took his life, remained for three days on the bed, awaiting the "Ascension," which did not take place. Afterwards, it was, with difficulty, placed in an expensive pink-plush casket.

On Monday morning, January 1, 1940, a private funeral was held in that house. And there, over the closed casket containing the body of her "Ascended-Master" husband, Edna Ballard preached his funeral oration.
Following the funeral the body was taken to a Los Angeles crematory and consigned to the flames--hours after its owner was supposed to have made his "Ascension." For years the Ballards taught that the physical body itself had to ascent when the "Ascension" was made; yet, instead of it rising heavenward, here was the body still on the earth plane, being consumed by the flames.

Edna Ballard claims that her husband made his "Ascension" three days after so-called death. It is a strange commentary on this contradictory cult that in the same issue of their official magazine which announced to the world the "Ascension" of Guy Ballard, appeared the following alleged statement from the Ballard "Jesus," made November 30, 1939: "There has been lurking in many the idea that one may make the Ascension after so-called death; but that cannot be accomplished ..." (p. 6, Jan., 1949, V.) Yet, the claim is made that Ballard did make the Ascension after so-called death.

The dramatic role played by Edna Ballard in perpetuating the hoax of this cult is without parallel, we believe, in the history of cultism in America.

During the three days following her husband's death, and during all the preceding seven days while the Shrine class was in session and her husband lay ill, suffering, or dying, Edna Ballard made her appearance every afternoon and evening--as usual--and her applauding audiences did not know the secret locked within her heart.

Some might say Edna Ballard is different from other human beings, that she did not feel the well of emotion which must have sought for expression as she made these public appearances, while, all the time, her partner of twenty-three years either lay dying or dead. Only Saint Germain's "Little Dynamite" can ever tell what went on within her brain and heart as she kept her secret.

Donald, the son, broke down and cried at his father's death, but not the stoical mother and wife. Her own aged mother died in Chicago on January 2nd, the day following the funeral of her husband--but the classes at the Shrine continued "as usual."

Such is no doubt the effect of the teachings of this cult, whose requirement to its students is the throw human sympathy out of their lives. One of the Ballard "Ascended Masters," the great "Maha Chohan," said of Edna Ballard that he took "the precious child Lotus" under his direction "because she was ready and willing to have every human thing ground out of her." (p. 9, April, 1940, V.)

But despite Edna Ballard's efforts to conceal her husband's death from the public, the newspapers got hold of the story about noon on January 1st, and on the afternoon of that day the news of Guy Ballard's death was out. Many of the local and national newspapers ran news items such as the following:

Chicago Tribune (Special news item from Los Angeles, Monday, Jan. 1) : "Private funeral services conducted here today revealed that Guy W. Ballard, founder and head of the Great I AM cult, has been dead since Friday...After a funeral oration by Mrs. Ballard, the former Edna Anna Wheeler of Chicago, who served as high priestess of the cult, Ballard's body was cremated...Ballard was born in Newton, Kansas, and gave up paper hanging about 25 years ago to delve into mysticism...obtained large sums of money from his followers and lived expensively...because of his difficulties in Chicago, Ballard promised to send the cows, pigs, and sheep which have been slaughtered in the stockyards, to haunt the people."
Los Angeles Times: "Attracting a huge following across the nation...preached that through 'thought octaves' he could defend himself against all enemies, all evils...traveled in expensive fashion and owned four canary-colored high-priced automobiles...used a suite of rooms at the most expensive downtown hotel."

Chicago Herald-American: "Drew huge crowds to his meetings in the Civic Opera House...unique among modern Messiahs...it was estimated at least 50,000 men and women joined his movement in Chicago alone...Followers of the cult were astonished when they learned of Ballard's death."

With this break of newspaper publicity concerning her husband's death, it was of course necessary for Edna Ballard to make a statement of some kind.

Therefore, on Monday afternoon, January 1st, just before or while the newspapers were appearing on the street carrying the news of her husband's death, Edna Ballard came once again before her applauding audience at the Shrine class in Los Angeles--this time to make the most dramatic announcement she had ever made in a seven year career filled with sensational utterances.

Having previously intimated that there would be an "Ascension" at this class, she said to these miracle-seeking people:

"Our Blessed Daddy Ballard made his Ascension last night at twelve o'clock from the Royal Teton Retreat, and is now an Ascended Master!"

The audience, stunned for a moment at so marvelous an event and the significance of it, came suddenly to life. Applause rang through the large auditorium, and ecstatic faces looked heavenward, for, at last, their blessed leader had made his "Ascension," as he so often said he would!

"Our Blessed Daddy will come back," dramatically continued the victorious Messenger, "and there will be a big temple in Los Angeles where he will some day appear in all his Ascended Master Radiance, wielding infinitely more Power of the Light Rays than before his Ascension."

Having this counteracted at this large Shrine class the newspaper stories of the death of her husband, Edna Ballard proceeded in the next issue of her magazine to play up the "Ascension" idea to her followers throughout the country. In an article entitled: "OUR MESSENGER'S ASCENSION," she insists that her students be positive about this matter.

"When people of the outer world," she says, "are discussing what has happened to Mr. Ballard, please make it clear that Mr. Ballard has made the Ascension! [her italics]...He can wield Power in that Body which America needs right now; and He is doing it with no uncertainty...Make your statements with positive force; for I assure you I am telling you the Truth and will never tell you anything but the Truth...We have nothing to cover up." (pp. 30-31, Jan., 1940, V.)

Following through with this intention of not "covering up" anything (not even a beautiful sales idea), Edna Ballard, in the next couple of issues of the Voice of the I AM , instituted a thorough-going campaign to sell her Ascended-Master husband's colored photograph --and at prices ranging from $2.50 to $25.00 per photograph!

"The photographs of Our Beloved Messenger," says she, " have been definitely prepared and charged by Him and us to render tremendous Service to all who use them for contemplation...Contemplation of His Picture and calls to Him are bringing forth instantaneous answers." (pp. 41-42, March, 1940, V.)

Having guaranteed instantaneous results to purchasers of her deceased husband's photograph, Edna Ballard proceeded to guarantee similar results to her students by permitting them to listen to Blessed Daddy's "Voice" --sold on phonograph records at $2.50 per record! "If the students," she says, "will use them in their own homes every day...it will enable Him to charge tremendous Power of the Cosmic Light and Perfection into the individual and his world." ("Our Messenger's Voice," p. 45, May, 1940, V.)

Thus, even though her husband is dead or "Ascended," he is still of considerable value to the surviving widow in holding the blessed students and increasing the I AM revenue.

It is one of the extraordinary workings of this mercenary cult that, today, thousands of apparently intelligent people who ordinarily would judge a business deal on its merits, refuse to use their minds to analyze the numerous absurdities, contradictions, and money-making schemes of this "Ascended Master" organization.

Ignoring the easily provable facts of Guy Ballard's death, as shown by the death certificate and cremation record, these psychologized people believe just as Edna Ballard tells them. They do not want to believe, or, FEAR to believe, differently; and until they are able to become thinking individuals again, their minds, souls, and pocket-books are mortgaged to the I AM cult.

We would point out to these students that in all the so-called "Ascensions" in the Ballard books certain changes to the body of the ascending one took place. The "hair returned to its original color"; the "flesh became the pink of perfect health." (p. 84, M. P.) Afterwards, the physical body "disappeared on a Radiant Pathway of Light." (p. 242, U.M.)

It was this kind of "Ascension" which Ballard promised his students he would make--and didn't. Trying to get around this failure in some way, Edna Ballard explains that the "Beloved Messenger...was given His Ascension under the New Dispensation." (p. 26, Jan., 1940, V.) We have, however, shown in Chapter 9, "The Ballard 'Ascension' Miracles," that this New Dispensation idea is all part of the same cruel hoax.

In her article entitled, "The Victory of the Ascension," Edna Ballard, referring again to her husband's "Ascension," stated: "Saint Germain and the Other Ascended Masters said so repeatedly that His Body was not like the bodies of the rest of mankind," and added:... "The proof of the Tremendous Cosmic Power He now wields is the hundreds and thousands of instantaneous answers to the calls of the 'I AM' Students all over the world..." (p. 34, March, 1940, V.)

Nevertheless, this man who claimed to have healed thousands and whose body was so different from the bodies of others, ended his life in utter repudiation of his own claims and teachings. His last days on earth were spent in agony and disillusionment, causing him to fling away from himself the picture of his own "Saint Germain" which had been handed him in an effort to help him in his misery.

These and many other facts, Edna Ballard has sought to keep from her hypnotized students, who do not want to look--or fear to look--at the record in this book.

But some day, when the Mountain of Deception becomes too great for them to bear, and the Goddess of Truth --the one "Goddess" they did not dare bring forth--gets a hearing, then the record left by Guy Ballard and his wife, Edna Ballard, will be here for them to read.
...................................................................................................................................................................
Guy Godfre Ray King Ballard, self-styled "Accredited Messenger of the Ascended Masters," co-originator of the Mighty I AM cult, and self-proclaimed reincarnated George Washington, first President of the
United States--is dead.

But his widow, EDNA LOTUS RAY KING BALLARD, beloved "Little Dynamite" of Saint Germain, surviving co-originator of the Mighty I AM, self-styled "Accredited Messenger of the Ascended Masters," and self-proclaimed reincarnated Joan of Arc, sainted Savior of France--still carries on publicly the cult's activities through her radio broadcasts, sale of books, charts, photographs, and other articles of "Ascended-Master" merchandise.

Her thousands of credulous followers meet today in secret classes dedicated to "Saving America"--closed now except to those who give unquestioning obedience to unseen "Masters" and their earth-plane "Accredited Messenger"--and with fanatical zeal look forward to the time when George Washington Ballard, their former "Blessed Daddy" but now Mighty "Ascended Master" who "wields tremendous Cosmic Power," will come forth to bring the "NEW GOVERNMENT" into America and fulfill Edna Ballard's oft-repeated prophecy: "An Ascended Master shall sit in the chair at the White House!"

And so, dominated by a woman dictator, this strange subversive cult which has deceived and hypnotized so many...broken up homes...brought about divorces...caused insanities...blasphemed Christ...propagated lies...enunciated doctrines of hate...instilled nameless fear...bound thousands to psychic "Masters"...sent death blasts at the President of the United States--still continues in the United States of America, land of "religious" liberty.

Strange, incredible, fantastic--pathetic --yet this is the true story of that most extraordinary cult, known as the "Mighty I AM.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just before this book came off the press the amazing cult which it exposes was indicted by the Federal Grand Jury at Los Angeles on charges of fraudulent use of the mails. We quote below excerpts from Associated Press Dispatch of July 24, 1940:

"A federal grand jury today indicted 24 leaders of the "I AM" Foundation, a nationwide movement reported to have attracted a million converts, on charges of fraudulent use of the mails

" Testimony by postal inspectors resulted in 16 counts of misuse of the mails and one count of conspiracy...

"Norman Neukom, assistant United States attorney who presented the case to the grand jury, said the "I AM" cultists had collected close to $3,000,000 since the movement's inception in 1930."



©1940 Gerald B. Bryan, All Rights Reserved

Copyright © 1999-2002 Kenneth Paolini and Talita Paolini

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Terrorists Behind the Terrorists War Crimes "Depleted" Uranium Nuclear Threat and Use Negotiating in Good Faith  Occupation Responsibilities Protection of Civilians

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Bold new book, State of Darkness: US Complicity in Genocides since 1945 documents (original sources, declassified documents) US complicity in 8 genocides (Iraq, Laos, East Timor, etc.). Click on website below and READ FOR YOURSELF quotes from Chomsky, Blum, Edward Herman, Ben Kiernan, Ramsey Clark.

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