JZ Knight
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Judy Zebra Knight (born Judith Darlene Hampton on March 16, 1946, in Roswell, New Mexico) is a self-proclaimed channel as well as the CEO of JZK, Inc., parent company of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment. Knight says that on February 7, 1977, an entity called Ramtha, The Enlightened One, appeared to her and her husband in the kitchen of her Tacoma, Washington trailer. Knight says that since then, she has been able to channel Ramtha by going through a process of leaving her body, allowing Ramtha to teach through her.
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[edit] Career
Knight appeared on The Merv Griffin Show in 1985, and later wrote the autobiographical A State of Mind in 1987. Time magazine called her at that time "probably the most celebrated of all current channellers."[1] Ramtha's School of Enlightenment Web site says that since 1988, through the JZ Knight Humanities Foundation, Knight has donated $1,181,068 to 200 graduating high-school seniors "that they may pursue their educational goals." In 1996, a total of $280,000 was given to 39 graduating seniors. Yelm High School counselor Carol Parker is quoted on the Ramtha Web site: "JZ has done a lot for the kids in our community. Her generous scholarships have given them the opportunity to further their education."[2]
Knight now lives in a French-chateau-styled mansion in the outskirts of Yelm, Washington, where she teaches courses nationally and internationally and runs Ramtha's School of Enlightenment, JZ Roze, and JZK Publishing — among other pursuits. Although absent from public view for almost five years, she has returned to public speaking, on radio, and in magazines and workshops.
[edit] Ramtha
Ramtha is the entity that Knight says she channels. According to her, Ramtha was a Lemurian warrior who fought the Atlanteans over 35,000 years ago.[3] She says that Ramtha led an army of over 2.5 million across the continents, conquering two thirds of the known world, which was going through cataclysmic geological changes. According to Knight, Ramtha led the army for ten years until he was betrayed and almost killed.
Knight says that Ramtha spent the next seven years in isolation recovering and observing nature, among other things. He later mastered many skills, including foresight and out-of-body experiences, until he led his army to the Indus River while in his late seventies. Ramtha taught them everything he knew for 120 days, until he ascended before them. He made a promise to his army that he would come back to teach them again, and so he appeared to JZ Knight in 1977 to re-educate the "forgotten gods", those who had forgotten themselves and their divinity.
[edit] Teachings
Ramtha is the central figure (the "master teacher") of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment, started by JZ Knight in 1987 in Yelm, Washington. Classes (or "dialogues") had been held around the world for the previous ten years. A central theme of Ramtha's alleged teachings involve the internalization of divinity (God is in Us, You are God, Behold God, etc.). Ramtha is described as having brought his knowledge to many ancient civilizations in the world such as the Ancient Egyptians. The website also suggests that traces of the lineage of the original teachings and philosophies he taught 35,000 years ago have appeared throughout history in the schools of philosophers like Socrates, religions like Hinduism and Judaism, and the works of great minds such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.
In Ramtha's system of thought, the material world — the densest plane of existence — and the physical body are never regarded as evil, undesirable, or intrinsically bad. A dualistic interpretation of reality typically found in the gnostic traditions — emphasizing the struggle between good and evil, light and darkness, sin and righteousness — is excluded in Ramtha's system of thought. What becomes an undesirable condition is to remain in a state of ignorance or denial as to our true nature and destiny.
The four cornerstones of Ramtha's philosophy are:
1. The statement 'You are God'
2. The directive to make known the unknown
3. The concept that consciousness and energy create the nature of reality
4. The challenge to conquer yourself
[edit] Nature
When Knight claims she is channelling Ramtha, she speaks only English, although in an accented and sometimes simplistic way and has expressed confusion about modern items ("What is a carrot?", "What say you in this silver chariot?" directed at a woman in a wheelchair ['Ramtha', 1986]) while also professing intimate knowledge of worldly affairs and conspiracies. During the channeling she behaves 'manly', with her chest puffed up talking in a deeper and stern voice, and often seen smoking a pipe.[1]
[edit] Controversy
[edit] Court cases
JZ Knight has been involved in several court disputes, some personal (her divorce from Jeff Knight) and others business-related, for example, one involving the dissemination of material containing the copyrighted Ramtha. [2] In Knight vs. Knight, 1992-1995, Jeff Knight alleges that he lost years of his life by postponing modern medical treatment for his HIV infection, due to advice from his wife that Ramtha could heal him — he died before he could appeal the court's decision against him.[3] Another case, in Austria, involved a Berlin woman who also claimed to channel Ramtha. The Austrian Supreme court decided that JZ Knight was the only person with the sole trademark and copyright license for the name Ramtha and its associated teachings.[4]
[edit] Skeptics
There are many skeptics of Ramtha and JZ Knight's channeling abilities.
Most books regarding Ramtha and RSE come from JZK Publishing, one of the several companies started by JZ Knight. Other books somewhat sympathetic to Ramtha like Finding Enlightenment: Ramtha's School of Ancient Wisdom (See Literature section) have ties to RSE in other ways. J. Gordon Melton, the author of Finding Enlightenment, testified for JZ Knight in a 1992 court case against her former husband Jeffrey Knight.
James Randi, a famous skeptic, criticised JZ Knight for charging people $700 to attend a retreat on how to become rich and, tongue-in-cheek, suggested that the advice was likely on how to fake channelling [5].
[edit] Film
The movie What the Bleep Do We Know!? is also a source of controversy involving Ramtha. Critics of the film describe it as pseudoscientific fiction and not the documentary it claims to be. JZ Knight appears to be "channelling" Ramtha in the film as an example of alleged connections between ancient spiritual beliefs and new discoveries in quantum physics. Two of the three directors of the film are admitted students of RSE.
[edit] JZ Rose
JZ Knight's online store has been criticized for selling products not connected with JZK's spiritual teaching. The store sells kitchen utensils, women's apparel, cosmetic products and pet supplies, among other products. The "About Us" section of the online store mentions that: JZ Knight is the President and owner of JZ ROSE, formerly The Outback Boutique, a treasure chest in the countryside of Washington State that offers vintage style gifts and collectibles, home furnishings, fine antiques and everything beautiful.
[edit] Literature
Ramtha was one of the more popular channelled entities during the New Age explosion of the '80s in America and was figured in Shirley MacLaine's book Dancing in the Light, amongst others. The book Finding Enlightenment: Ramtha's School of Ancient Wisdom (J. Gordon Melton, 1998, ISBN 1-885223-61-7) describes Ramtha's Teachings and RSE. The book was written after several years' study of the school, its environs, and the school's body of teachings. It was presented as balanced and accurate research by a religious scholar, but this claim has come under attack by others as biased and incomplete.[6] There have been over 120 books and 40 DVDs released by RSE, JZK Inc. or independently in the past twenty-five years [7].
[edit] Spoofs
In the comic strip Doonesbury the Californian airhead character Boopsie forms a Ramtha-like cult in Malibu centered on her supposed "channeling" of an Atlantean warlord spirit named Lord Hunk-Ra.
The 1992 video game Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis features a JZ Knight-style charlatan "psychic" character named Sophia Hapgood. She claims to channel an Atlantean named Nur-Ab-Sal, "who guides my thoughts." Her stage presentations about Atlantis conclude with lighting effects and a prop ghost on a rope rig.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ New Age Harmonies. Retrieved on 2006-06-01.
- ^ Ramtha's School of Enlightenment, the School of Ancient Wisdom
- ^ Colin Groves in Skeptical - a Handbook of Pseudoscience and the Paranormal, ed Donald Laycock, David Vernon, Colin Groves, Simon Brown, Imagecraft, Canberra, 1989, ISBN 0731657942, p16
- Ramtha's School of Enlightenment: An Introduction. Ramtha.com. Retrieved on 18 February, 2006.
- Selection of Ramtha's Teachings: Excerpts of teachings given by Ramtha. Ramtha.com. Retrieved on 18 February, 2006.
