J. Z. Knight

Judy Zebra Knight (born Judith Darlene Hampton on March 16, 1946, in Roswell, New Mexico) is a channel and 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.

Career

Knight appeared on "The Merv Griffin Show" in 1985, and later wrote the autobiographical "A State of Mind" in 1987. "Time" called her at that time "probably the most celebrated of all current channellers." [cite journal|last=Friedrich|first=Otto|year=1987|month=December|title=New Age Harmonies|journal=Time|url=http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,966129,00.html|accessdate=2008-09-16] Ramtha's School of Enlightenment website 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.Fact|date=September 2008

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 Rose, 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.

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. [ 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 ] 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.

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:

# The statement 'You are God'
# The directive to make known the unknown
# The concept that consciousness and energy create the nature of reality
# The challenge to conquer yourself

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. [http://www.kelebekler.com/cesnur/txt/ram2.htm Essay on Gordon Melton's study of Ramtha] ]

Controversy

Court cases

JZ Knight has been involved in several court disputes, some personal (her divorce from Jeff Knight, see Jeff Knight interview below under external links) and others business-related, for example, one involving the dissemination of material containing the copyrighted Ramtha. [ [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=wa&vol=223619&invol=o01 Jzk, Inc. v. Joseph Glandon] ] 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. 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. [ [http://www.apologeticsindex.org/r09.html#copyright Ramtha School of Enlightenment, J.Z. Knight - Religious cults and sects, doctrines and practices] ]

keptics

James Randi, a famous skeptic, criticised JZ Knight for charging people $700 to attend a retreat on how to become rich and suggested that the advice was likely on how to perform fake channelling. [ [http://www.randi.org/jr/2006-05/052606action.html#i11 James Randi's Swift - May 26, 2006] ]

Film

The movie "What the Bleep Do We Know!?"

JZ Rose

JZ Knight has an online store (along with a physical presence in the Bellevue Square mall in Bellevue, Washington, and on 1st Ave in Yelm, WA) which sells 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." [ [http://www.jz-rose.com/About_Us JZ Rose - For All Things Beautiful: About Us] ]

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. There have been over 120 books and 40 DVDs released by RSE, JZK Inc. or independently in the past twenty-five years.Fact|date=September 2008

poofs

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".

ee also

* The Power of Belief

Notes

Further reading

*cite web|url=http://ramtha.com/html/pdf/introduction.pdf
title=Ramtha's School of Enlightenment: An Introduction
work=Ramtha.com|accessmonthday=18 February
accessyear=2006|format=PDF
*cite web|url=http://ramtha.com/html/community/teachings/default.stm
title=Selection of Ramtha's Teachings: Excerpts of teachings given by Ramtha
work=Ramtha.com|accessmonthday=18 February
accessyear=2006

External links

* [http://www.ramtha.com/ Ramtha's School of Enlightenment]
* [http://skepdic.com/channel.html The Skeptic's Dictionary entry for Ramtha (a.k.a. JZ Knight) ]
* [http://www.nndb.com/people/994/000031901/ NNDB entry for J. Z. Knight]
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5378628563904592346 The Joe Szimhart interview with Jeff Knight 1992]
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9124849147412897371 Glen Cunningham interview, part 1] - J.Z.Knight/Ramthas Former bodyguard, Glen Cunningham discusses his observations in this video interview part 1
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=732321041698968714&q=source:011929 Glen Cunningham interview, part 2] - J.Z.Knight/Ramthas Former *bodyguard, Glen Cunningham discusses his observations in this video interview part 2