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the ballards detest logic and calm reason

bacon vs st germain

The Ballards state Saint Germain was Sir Francis Bacon in a previous life. Sir Francis is accredited with delineating inductive reasoning to formulate modern Scientific Methodology, hence heralding in the modern age of science and dispelling the world of Dark Age superstition and ignorance, and fear driven obedience to the dictatorial power of the Roman Catholic church.

Therefore, it is only consistent that Saint Germain would vigorously advocate people rigorously investigate the truth of the 'Laws of Life' in the Ballard teachings.

Quite the contrary, the Ballards aggressively and emphatically banned students from questioning their words by threatening them with all sorts of scary scenarios about being cast out of God's Light, or having all the positive effects of years of decrees reversed by the slightest hint of doubt- pretty heavy stuff; a trick the Ballards must have known helped the Catholic church in the middle ages. Me oh my, what would Sir Francis have thought of the Ballards?

a glut of dictations on the light & sound ray

Of the many Ascended Masters brought to life by the Ballards in their delivery of over 3000 dictations via the Light and Sound Ray, it is difficult to rationalize why these Masters all of a sudden, with the death of Edna, decided mankind deserved not one further dictation.

Further, the concept that the Masters spoke to the Ballards on a light and sound ray is perplexing. It is hard to imagine a more difficult thing than to listen to a Master and at the same time try to voice what you hear. Try it yourself. Get a friend to talk at you, while you try to repeat what he is saying. It eventually breaks down.

The Saint Germain Foundation states the Masters have not chosen to use other messengers since the Ballards because no one is strong enough to carry the light as they did. If this is so, then one must query the claimed potency of decrees to purify and strengthen I AM students.

It is even more interesting that Don Ballard, being one of Saint Germain's three true accredited messengers, could not continue dictating after his mother's death. Indeed, it is amazing that someone with the divine attributes accredited Don by Saint Germain could make a mistake like marrying a woman who would later divorce him. It is even more amazing that Don resigned from the I AM Activity in 1957. Wow, when the whole world depended on Don and only Don, he walks away.

that money issue again

What is one to make of the Ballards drawing wealth, not from Saint Germain's gold mines and sunken Spanish galleons, nor even directly from the universal, but from 'love gifts' and book sales.

And who paid for the Ballards to get through the drawn out and expensive mail fraud trials? Once again, not the Ascended Masters. It was by large donations from students who worked like you and me in normal jobs.

Why does the St Germain Foundation after 70 years of decrees, still struggle financially? Why do they rely on so much volunteer or poorly paid labour in their business pursuits?

when is an ascension an ascension? when the ballards say so.

The teachings state that one can raise their body into the Ascension without passing through the change called death.

But in fact, the original I AM teaching, from 1932-1939 stated the only way to ascend was to take the body up with you. But after Guy Ballard died of cardiac arterial sclerosis, and failed to take his body into the ascension in December 1939, Edna Ballard changed this law to state that one could now actually ascend after the body died.

Unfortunately, despite Edna's posthumous concocted cover up, most I AMers smelled a rat, and left feeling conned.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica, who aren't known for getting their facts wrong, puts it this way:

"A major reversal [in membership] occurred when Guy Ballard died on Dec. 29, 1939. Mrs. Ballard had his body cremated and on Jan. 1, 1940, announced in a class that Ballard had ascended and was now an Ascended Master. News of his death, however, led many followers to leave the movement, since the Ballards had taught that the ascension, the liberation forever from the physical body and from reincarnation, would come without the experience of physical death." (1)

the death of individuality

The Ballards said decrees could never be created by students, that the only decrees sanctioned by the Masters were those written by the Ballards.

I AM Students are not allowed to play music in classes other than that sanctioned by those high and mighty ones who run the St Germain foundation from Chicago. And these people were never chosen by Edna, hence they cannot have St Germain's blessing, because he doesn't speak through anyone else but the Ballards.

And don't let anyone convince you otherwise. Over and over, the Ballards stated emphatically that the Masters would never use anyone else as a messenger before they came to earth themselves. In fact, the Ballards also said the Masters would appear to all mankind within their lifetime. This is just another promise that never occurred.

So if anyone claims they are receiving messages from the Masters, then they or the Ballards are lying.

Anyway, the point is, all these restrictions and rules started in the 1930s and added to every decade, impose severe restraint on the expression of individuality by Ballard followers.

artistic license

There are four artists' impressions of Saint Germain sanctioned by the I AM Activity. They look nothing alike, but all artists claim Saint Germain posed for them. The earliest one is the most realistic and masculine, curiously enough painted by a man, Charles Sindelar; while the latter three get progressively more feminine and naive in style, and are curiously enough painted by a woman, May DaCamara. So will the real Saint Germain please step forward.

One must ask why there is a need for so many paintings. The Activity gives this explanation: The original painting was never copyrighted by Sindelar. This allowed the rogue splinter group, Summit Lighthouse, to use it in their meetings. Because Edna hated Elizabeh Claire Prophet who was running that show, Edna wanted to have her own special Saint Germain picture.

This would then allow Edna to say we have the approved picture and Summit don't. To add an extra level of oomph to the argument, Edna came out and said Saint Germain no longer radiates through the old picture so all I AM students should dump it. Suppose it didn't hurt sales either.

In fact, the artists' impressions of all Masters in the I AM Activity are pretty amazing. The face of each master possesses a certain flat generic quality rarely seen outside a middle school art room. It is as if someone just learnt how to paint angel faces, then applied a template when painting each Master. One would be hard pressed to distinguish the faces of any two masters if the accompanying clothing was blocked from view.

fear rulez

When you become an I AM student, there is a lof of talk about the need for protection from a world full of discord and depravity. Students soon never leave the house without giving decrees.

This negativity spills over into attitudes about certain occupations. It seems Mrs. Ballard felt one would be hard pressed to avoid soul destroying evil if they worked in the medical field (nurses included), psychology, the defence forces, the police, television, the IRS.

It is strange the Ballards felt a need to scare everyone with all the talk of entities and evil out in the world. In doing so they contradict one of the fundamental premises of the I AM movement: "one becomes what they place their attention on". The Ballards would rarely remind their followers that God is more powerful than evil.

The net effect of this imbalance was to fill I AM students with so much fear they would have difficulty holding down a full time job in addition to doing all the protection and purifying decrees necessary to keep one's energy untouched by the world.

appearances count more than truth

Attendance at the big annual classes held at Shasta Springs has decreased from ~800 in 1987 to ~400 in 2002. The Saint Germain Foundation is very shy about releasing its membership number, but they should know based on the sales of their monthly I AM Magazine, which all good I AMers buy. The foundation does admit to there being 300 sanctuaries in the world.

We have met students from many sanctuaries, and infer the median average active membership per sanctuary to be less than 10. There is a trend for new people to come in, try hard for a few years, get disillusioned when their lives don't improve, then leave. This pattern just keeps repeating through the years.

Anyone who needs to work in the real world soon finds it difficult to make it along to the recommended 3 meetings a week. They also become bored with the repetitive unchanging format of the classes, the same old decrees, and the same old songs you'd never be proud to let your non I AM friends hear.

If all that the Masters say in the books is true, then it is amazing that the fate of the world rests in the hands of so few, and that more people do not feel drawn to this most true teaching of God. It is also a telling sign that the success of a sanctuary is usually related to the charisma of the group leader.

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real life for i am students

This section reveals some of the psychological trauma imposed on I AM students by the Ballards and their perfect teachings. It also reveals overwhelming evidence that decrees don't work in the emphatic way taught by the Ballards. And sadly, confirms there is no other conclusion to draw other than the wealthier the Ballards became off book sales and "love gifts", the more they believed their own bull.

disease disease disease

-Edna used to get very sore legs, and needed to have a good sit down and put her legs up to ease the pain. So much for the body of Light.

-One of the most devoted students of the movement until the 1980s, a man of high character and much love, had a dense stroke (CVA) in his 50s, and ended up stuck in a nursing home, unable to walk or talk.

-A dedicated and sincere student, with 60 years of decrees behind him, could not stop a deer tick from making him seriously ill and cutting short his life.

I AM students do not outpicture the Ballard promises of health and youth. Rather, they just get old and die like the Ballards and everyone else. And we are putting $10,000 up to back our words.

ascended master racism

It was a rule, though disguised and guarded, that Blacks were not allowed into I AM sanctuaries. This rule got changed sometime in the 1980s when a white man became a student, and his black wife was rejected when she tried to come. To avoid a major scandal in the press and courts, The St Germain Foundation had to do some quick policy changes.

They were also motivated monetarily, as the Foundation would lose its religious organization tax exemption status if they didn't let in blacks. Proof the Saint Germain Foundation are prepared to compromise on 'God's teachings" for the big buck, which further supports the observation students don't have their hands on Ballard's limitless wealth.

Indeed, the whole racism thing is a sticky one for the Ascended Masters. They would allow very dark skinned subcontinent Indians in, as well as all Asians, Central and South Americans, and Pacific Islanders; but not African Americans, even if they had a lighter skin color. Ascended Master policy regarding half casts or African albinos was in the too hard basket.

teachings lead to psychiatric illness

We know of two dedicated students from the early 1980s who suicided after becoming disturbed about failed decrees.

-A female student, after taking the Masters at their word that I AM music could raise a person within days into the Ascension, decided to play her piano non stop until she did Ascend. A few days later, her poor husband had to watch broken heartedly as she became psychotic from sleep deprivation, and needed placement in an asylum.

-A husband of a student had to put up with her walking around with violet tinted glasses, saying he looked better in the violet flame. The poor man was driven so disturbed, he grabbed a hand gun and confronted the local I AM leader with the full intent of shooting him dead. Just as he put the gun to the leader's head, he reflected momentarily and said, "nah, I'm not going to kill you; trash like you aren't worth going to jail for."

-In 1979 in Melbourne, Australia, in a case that made national headlines, an I AM student constructed a 12 foot high silver painted concrete fence around his home to keep the sinister "outer world" from harming his family. He also stopped sending his children to school and eventually stopped them from leaving the home. Eventually, the eldest of the children escaped with her siblings and went to the nearest police station. The media went into a feeding frenzy, and savaged the I AM Activity relentlessly in the press and on television for 2 weeks

-Many students were known to go and hang around on MT Shasta and the Grand Tetons waiting for the Ascended Masters to open the doors and let them in. Some of these students ended up in asylums, and one of them was known to be struck dead by a car on his way home when he realized the Masters didn't want to know him.

troubles with sex

-It would be fair to say that the rule of celibacy in the I AM Activity has been responsible for an alarming number of divorces and marriage difficulties. This is probably one of the areas of greatest damage by this movement. We are not saying that sexual restraint, even celibacy, are bad in themselves. But we are making the point that the Ballards were naive and mindless in using fear to motivate people to practise celibacy.

In most Eastern religions, celibacy is aspired to by monks, but ancient traditions there have a time proven graduated path to celibacy, and a novice is always under the training of a more experienced monk, who can compassionately guide the younger one.

None of this exists in the I AM Activity. One is expected to go cold turkey. Eastern traditions also believe it is foolish to attempt celibacy without some time within a monastery away from the constant temptation in normal life.

-The Ballards once again displayed gross hypocrisy, by preaching celibacy after they had reached their 50s, and had a child. It is a lot easier at this age to practise.

-It is interesting too that the Ballards recommended their students strive not to marry. Yet another example of do as I say, not as I do. Even Don, an accredited Messenger, couldn't follow this advice. As is to be expected, there are very few students who don't marry in the I AM. The financial and social benefits of marriage are hard to deny.

-A sincere student of 10 years who devoted 5 years of his life working for peanuts for the I AM movement at Shasta Springs was seriously psychologically damaged after not getting results with his decrees and trying to stay obedient to the movement's "100% student" celibacy rules. Disillusioned and broken, he gradually became a deviant homosexual preying on the underprivileged from third world countries.

car accidents galore

-We personally know of at least three incidents where cars occupied by two students, driving straight home from I AM classes, were involved in car accidents. So it seems, even after giving all that service to life and the Masters, the Masters cannot hang around long enough to see their loved ones get safely home to bed. Furthermore, these crashes make a mockery of the Ballard saying "where two or more of you are gathered, there is a Master present".

-A nice old couple with over 50 years of decrees behind them, were in a serious car crash caused by the husband. His wife was killed instantly, and the other driver was critically injured. The husband died the following day in hospital, admitting the accident was his mistake before he died. Contrast the harsh horrible reality of this with the flowery rhetoric and unlimited promises of the Masters as channeled through the Ballards.

you can rely on the masters, not

-A student of 9 years who gave decrees every day, when trying to get into his car outside his home, had a gun held to his head, was forced to the ground, and was robbed of his wallet, watch, and new SUV. All of this occurred while he was belting out decrees under his breath for the Masters to come and help him. Apparently, there is never a Master around when you really need one.

psychological abuse

-Apparently the Ballards turned many of their early disciples into emotionally challenged basket cases, because many of them began mollycoddling Don Ballard, even into his twenties. Early I AM students say Don became such a pathetic milksop, his Mum and Dad put him in the defence forces to toughen him up.

This is all after the Ballards had decreed for years that war was evil and the USA should stay out of WWII. But mind you, Mama wanted her Don to be a handsome air force officer, not some schmuck grunt in the trenches. Unfortunately, F.D. Roosevelt, who hated Edna, must have talked to the right Generals and had Don put in the trenches where he apparently lost his nerve for the I AM Activity. Seems the Ascended Masters can protect an officer better than an army grunt, even if the grunt is one of their Beloved Messengers.

You would think Ma and Pa Ballard would have known an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure; and stopped the mollycoddling before it started.

But I suppose this fits with the Ballards encouraging their followers to refer to them as Beloved Daddy and Mama Ballard.

Unfortunately, the Ballards said many things and made I AM laws, like the ones below, effecting young people in a way real caring Daddys and Mamas just plain wouldn't do.

-It is a rule of the I AM Activity that people who have taken illicit drugs are not allowed into the Sanctuaries. Indeed, Edna said many things to a young man who had once experimented with drugs. Edna told him he could not make his ascension in this embodiment and would never have success. The poor young man had been so disturbed by this he felt he had nothing to live for, and was seriously considering suicide when last seen.

But different sanctuaries have relaxed their policy on this as new memberships have stagnated.

-Young student X, after being in the I AM Activity for a year and never having made vows of celibacy, was banned from his religion by the Group Leader when the leader was informed by another student that Student X had dated a woman. There is nothing in the I AM books about dating being banned.

-It is a rule of the I AM Activity that students need to attend an I AM sanctuary at least once every three weeks or their radiation will decrease and they will be at the mercy of the sinister forces.

-However, if a student doesn't attend classes for three weeks, there is another rule that students then cannot come back to the sanctuary until they go through the 7 week Fundamentals Classes again. Obviously, the students are supposed to fend off the sinister forces by themselves while waiting to get back into the next fundamentals class, which might not occur for 10 months.

-One I AM sanctuary leader banned a student for life because he had three periods of not coming for three weeks in one year. Obviously some group leaders make up their own rules as they go, depending on whether they like a person. It is hard to see a loving God in any of this.

And then pity the poor I AM student who lives in a town with no I AM Sanctuary.

-A student was so emotionally disturbed by some of the fear tactics used in the I AM, that he lost all the hair on his head and body at the age of 21. Twenty years later, he still has no hair.

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