Ramtha

According to self-professed spirit channeler J.Z. Knight of Tacoma, Washington, Ramtha is a thirty-five-thousand-year-old warrior who Knight says speaks through her whenever she is in a trance. Knight began channeling Ramtha in 1977, and when she is supposedly possessed by his spirit, she walks with a swagger and speaks in a husky voice. As channeled by Knight, Ramtha says he comes from the lost civilization of Atlantis by way of Lemuria, which was itself a highly advanced civilization that, according to Ramtha, sank into the Pacific Ocean thousands of years ago.

From 1977 to 1979, Ramtha supposedly taught Knight a variety of advanced scientific and theological concepts, as well as how to have out-of-body experiences and how to heal people with prayer and touch alone. Knight then decided to share Ramtha with the public, and she began holding Ramtha seminars—in which she goes into a trance and allows Ramtha to speak—before paying audiences, charging more than one thousand dollars per appearance.

JZ. Knight

She also sells books and tapes of Ramtha’s talks through an organization known as the Ramtha School of Enlightenment. Since then, JZ Knight/Ramtha has been having private sessions with students of Ramtha's teachings, which were called "dialogues". The dialogues were held in 24 cities between 1979 and 1988 (including Seattle, Honolulu, New York and Denver), when she decided to found Ramtha's School of Enlightenment, on land which was previously a ranch. By 1995 she had expanded her tours to include other countries in the world, such as Australia, Italy, Japan and South Africa. It is now a place where students can travel to and attend the more systematically organized lessons, usually staying there over the course of several days, called “retreats”.

The campus is located on a property owned by J.Z. Knight, under the umbrella of JZK, Inc. (a corporation by J.Z. Knight). The School's 80-acre (320,000 m2) fenced compounds are open only to staff members and students and are not open to the public.

Knight has been making immense profits from the School's activities, and from sale of books, tapes, CDs and DVDs, and in 2007 Knight had reportedly made a profit of $2.6 million in sales alone.

In 2004, various Ramtha school leaders (including James Flick, her current husband) joined community groups to strongly oppose a proposed 75,000-seat NASCAR racetrack in Yelm. However, the proposal was withdrawn.

In 2008, lessons were given to the public in more than 20 countries, including the Czech Republic, Romania and Chile for the first time.

A further controversial issue regarding Ramtha's teachings involve the so-called "endtimes", which were prophesized catastrophes. Instructions from Ramtha were given to the students, telling them to leave their friends behind if they resisted or disagreed with them. He taught that "your government is an illusion", which encouraged some students to engage in tax evasion, and he also directed students to build and prepare individual underground shelters to protect themselves against an imminent invasion of Chinese Communist soldiers from Mexico, planning to invade Seattle and the surrounding areas. Other prophesies include a holocaust would take place in 1988, the USA's involvement in a major war in 1985, a discovery in Turkey would reveal a big hidden pyramid which would reach to the center of the Earth, or that cities would be obliterated by diseases.

Sources:
The Greenhaven Encyclopedia of Paranormal Phenomena by Patricia D. Netzley;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramtha%27s_School_of_Enlightenment

Pic Source:
http://www.inlightimes.com/archives/2008/09/f1.htm