I AM Foundation
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The I AM Foundation is a common name that is most often referred to in a growing number of new age and self-help organizations such as; http://www.iamfoundation.org and http://www.iamfoundation.com, but most commonly is attributed to the original I Am activity of the Saint Germain foundation , from which many new age splinter groups and new age individuals founded their own ideas and movements; sometimes referred to as the "New Age I AM movement".
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I Am activity of the Saint Germain foundation
The I Am activity of the Saint Germain foundation today still heads it's base of operations in the town of Mt Shasta city in northern California, near the south west side of Mount Shasta itself, where they not only have their head office "the I AM reading room", but also their grand amplitheater, in which every summer they hold 2 event Pageants in a single weekend in mid August which has being going non-stop since 1950. The first being the I AM Pageant of the Angels and Concert of Sacred Choral Music, and the second a 4 hour event called I AM COME, which portrays the life of the Christian figure Jesus Christ as an ascended being. Both Pageant's are beautifully set in colourful garments by its members of mostly white, pink and violet, and were both founded by Mrs. Edna W. Ballard, wife of Guy W. Ballard, who were of course the original founders of the "I Am activity" school. Their most prominent cult figure is Saint Germain which they represent with a violet flame or violet ray as an ascended being, the origins of which can be traced back to Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and her Theosophical society along with the Biblical quotes of "I AM".
History of the I Am activity
Its founder, Guy W. Ballard, was a business man travelling through the Mount Shasta area around the beginning of the 1930s, claimed to have encountered Saint Germain near a stream on the south east side of the mountain and then later received a number of his teachings from which he began writing his I AM Discourses under the pen name of Godfrey Ray King, beginning with his first of many books; UNVEILED MYSTERIES. Today the "I Am activity of the Saint Germain foundation" has many centers and many followers across North America and the world. They believe Saint Germain to be the true founding father of the United States. In time a number of new agers alike came to know and even worship saint Germain as their primary cult figure along with a few others quite often referred to as the ascended masters of the white brotherhood. Common splinter groups of the "I Am activity of the Saint Germain foundation" include The Church Universal and Triumphant -by Elizabeth Clare Prophet, and "The Aquarian Foundation" -by Keith Milton Rhinehart.
A contributor to the local Mount Shasta urban legends
The "I Am activity of the Saint Germain foundation" is looked upon as yet just another new religious movement along with many others that tend to have it's origins beginning in the Mount Shasta area, where also local urban legends speak about an ancient civilization that lives in the Mount Shasta volcano based in Mt. Shasta, California, USA. Their movement is probably the best publicized Mount Shasta-related movement up to this day which likely gains further popularity for itself from these local legends along with much other related new age books and new age activity, also going on in the same area.
Urban legend holds that Mount Shasta is home of the Lemurians, a race of very descendant civilized refugees from an ancient kingdom called "Mu" that was lost to a cataclysm when their continent Lemuria sank to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Lemurians are described as being seven feet tall, with close-cropped blond hair, friendly, noble looking, dressed in spotless white robes and according to Leroy Thorpe, having a walnut-sized sensory pronounced protrusion in the middle of their foreheads. It's assumed they reportedly use this organ to communicate via extra-sensory perception. Believers also state that this race can appear and vanish at will and now claim they have built an elaborate tunnel system under Shasta. The popularity of the Lemurians was first published by Frederick S. Oliver in his book A Dweller on Two Planets, through the channel of Phylos the Tibetan. (1899,1905)
By 1930 around the same time of Guy Ballard's founding of his I'AM Activity school, Nola Van Valer, along with her husband Jerrett had also claimed to have had coming into contact with ascended masters on the mountain and even published their own books such as, MY MEETINGS WITH THE MASTERS ON MOUNT SHASTA and also founded her own Radiant School of Seekers and Servers. It was not long there after when during the 1930s locals reported to have come in contact with people whom they thought were Lemurians, as was reported by Edward Lanser in 1932. About 20 years later, Earlyne and Robbert Chaney founded their own Astara Foundation and published a book called Secrets from Mt. Shasta in an almost copy repeat of former authors Jerrett and Nola Van Valer.
External links
See also:
- "I Am" Activity
- Guy Ballard
- University of Virginia religious movements' entry on "I AM" written by a student of the late Jeffrey Hadden
Not: this page is still being worked on.