Background

Guy Ballard was born on July 28, 1878, in Newton, Kansas.

Education

Guy Ballard studied at the business college.

Career

Guy Ballard became a soldier in the United States Army during World War I and later worked as a mining engineer.

Ballard visited Mount Shasta (which is situated in the state of California) in 1930 and he met another hiker who claimed to be the Count of Saint Germain, who lived during the eighteenth century and who was a renowned polymath. He offered to tutor Ballard in the wisdom of the Ascended Masters. Saint Germain and other Ascended Masters often gathered in huge hidden caverns within the larger North American mountains. Ballard provided details of his encounters within the caves in a series of books such as "Unveiled Mysteries," "The Magic Presence," and "The "I AM" Discourses," used the pseudonym "Godfre Ray King." Also, in his works, he wrote several explaining his thoughts and beliefs.

This was an encounter that propelled Ballard to took the path of Theosophy and New Age wisdom. Ballard informed his wife of what had happened to him in a set of letters from Mount Shasta, and upon his return to Chicago, they founded the Saint Germain Foundation and Saint Germain Press. Ballard and his wife Edna took on the roles of the messengers of Saint Germain. They founded the "I AM" movement, which is sometimes also called "The I AM activity" or "The I AM method."

The "I AM activity" integrated Christian teachings with New Age wisdom. Essential to the "I AM" movement was the belief that there is a part of the Divine spark in each person, however small. The purpose of the movement was to acknowledge, nourish, and augment that spark. The phrase "I AM" is taken from the Sanskrit mantra, "I am that I am" (or "So Ham" in the original Sanskrit).

The ultimate aim of the "I AM activity" was to make a person more virtuous: to amplify their love, justice, and forgiveness. Sometimes, participants would call forth the Holy Spirit and ask for inspiration or forgiveness.

Central to this activity was the "I AM Presence" which was sometimes described as a bright violet light or flame. Whether or not this flame was the Holy Spirit, it was said to surround certain people who participated in the "I AM activity." And, when this happened, other participants usually gathered around the person who was surrounded by the "I AM presence" as this was a very special moment in the "I AM activity."

The "I AM" movement was very popular. At its height, Ballard unexpectedly died on December 29, 1939. His death created a problem as some expectation had spread through the movement that he would not die but physically ascend. Several years after his death his wife and son and many of the leaders of the movement were the subject of a judicial process initiated by several ex-members who questioned the sincerity of the movement. The process resulted in a 1944 Supreme Court ruling which suggested that it was not legitimate for the government to placed a religion, no matter how nonconventional, on trial.

By the late 1930s, the Ballards had garnered around a million followers. These numbers have stayed strong right up until the present day.

Achievements

• Guy Ballard was known as a co-founder and a co-leader of the "I AM" movement, which was founded in the early 1930s. And also, he was a co-founder of the Saint Germain Foundation and Saint Germain Press.
  
  Guy Ballard was known as the author of "Unveiled Mysteries," "The Magic Presence," and "The "I AM" Discourses," using the pseudonym "Godfre Ray King."

Works

More photos

• book

  • Unveiled Mysteries

    (The time has arrived, when the Great Wisdom, held and gua...)

    1934
  • The Magic Presence

    (This volume contains the group of experiences that Godfre...)

    1935
  • The I Am Discourses 1935

Religion

Guy Ballard's "I AM" Religious Activity centered its attention on the "I AM presence," God in Action, which emanates from the Great Central Sun, the impersonal source of the universe. The Great Central Sun was a knowable aspect of the supremely unknowable and transcendent God. The universe came into being as a series of emanations from God, the material world was the lowest level of those emanations. Each emanated level of the universe was inhabited by evolved beings that together constituted a spiritual hierarchy frequently referred to as the Great White Brotherhood. At the lowest level of the spiritual hierarchy were the Lords of the Seven Rays (of light), spiritual was who most easily and often communicated with humans.

Guy Ballard's creed promised the faithful the power to acquire wealth and he convinced them that he was bestowed with the gift to heal. His theology had two symbols, wealth and energy, and demanded that members abstain from tobacco, liquor and sex, which tended to divert the "divine energy."

Views

Guy Ballard believed that he was a divine messenger with the power to heal people afflicted with incurable illnesses.

He argued that mankind had forgotten "the original Divine Way of Life," and the "I AM activity" didn't entertain a destructive eschatological millenarian expectation. Ballard called for urgency during times of secular society's crisis to recognized the masters, the angelic hosts and their work of "constantly pouring out their "Transcendent Light and Assistance to mankind."

Interests

• Esoteric doctrines, theosophy

Connections

Guy Ballard was married to Edna Anne Wheeler Ballard since 1916. They had a son, Donald Ballard.

Wife:

Edna Anne Wheeler Ballard

Edna Anne Wheeler Ballard was a co-founder and co-leader of the "I AM" movement.

Son:

Donald Ballard