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File:Ernest and Ruth Norman.jpg
Ruth Norman, dressed as Queen Uriel, next to Ernest Norman

Ruth Norman (August 18, 1900 – July 12, 1993), born Ruth Nields and also known as Uriel, was an American religious leader who co-founded the Unarius Academy of Science. A native of California, Norman received little education and worked from an early age in a variety of fields. She developed an interest in psychic phenomena and past-life regression in the 1940s; these pursuits led to her 1954 introduction to Ernest Norman, who stated that he channeled historical figures, received communications from extraterrestrials, and told of people's past lives. She married Ernest, her fourth husband, in the mid-1950s. Together they published several books about his revelations and formed an organization that became known as the Unarius Academy of Science, to popularize his teachings. The couple claimed to recall numerous details about their past lives and spiritual journeys, forming a mythology from these accounts.

Ernest died in 1971, prompting Ruth to serve as their group's leader and increase her channeling; she subsequently began publishing accounts of her experiences and revelations. In early 1974, she predicted that a space fleet of benevolent extraterrestrials, the Space Brothers, would land on Earth later that year, which led the Unarius Academy to purchase a property for the Space Brothers' landing site. After the extraterrestrials' non-appearance, Norman attributed her prophecy's failure to the effects of her past-life trauma. Undaunted, she rented a building for Unarius' meetings and sought publicity for the movement. She revised the Space Brothers' expected landing date several times, before finally settling on 2001. Norman taught her students a form of past-life therapy that she believed allowed them to recall ancient crimes; her followers found it a therapeutic experience. Her writings were regarded as scripture by her disciples, and they showed her deep reverence, ostracizing those who questioned her leadership. Her health declined in the late 1980s, prompting her students to try to heal her with past-life regression. Although she had stated that she would live to see the extraterrestrials' landing in 2001, she died in 1993. Unarius continued to operate after her death, adapting to her loss by forming a board of directors and spiritualizing her predictions about alien landings.

Early life and marriages

Ruth Nields was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on August 18, 1900.[1][2] Three years later, her family moved to Pasadena, California, where her father worked as an upholsterer.[1][2] She and her five siblings were raised in that city, received little education, and worked from a young age.[3] In her early to mid-teen years, she labored as a fruit packer and a maid. She gave most of her income to her father, whom she later described as abusive.[1] In 1918, she married a man named Frank (his surname is unknown), and they had a daughter two years later.[1][2] The couple divorced in the early 1920s; Frank gained custody of their daughter, although Ruth stated that she spent time with her as well.[1][2]

Little is definitively known about Ruth's life from the mid-1920s until the 40s, although it is clear that she worked in a variety of fields during this period. She held positions in several restaurants and also found employment as a model, real-estate broker, resort manager, and nanny.[1][2] In the 1940s, she enrolled at the Church of Religious Science, where she studied New Thought under Ernest Holmes, and she was separately introduced to psychic healing in that decade.[1] Over time, she also became interested in spiritualism, channeling, and past-life regression.[4] She married Benjamin Arnold in the 1940s; the marriage lasted until his death in 1951.[5] Two years later, she remarried and settled in Lancaster, California, with George Marian, who owned a milk-delivery business; she assisted him in the management of the business.[1] In the mid-1950s, she became interested in acting and earned the starring role in a local play.[5]

Fourth marriage

In 1954, at a psychic event in California, Ruth was introduced to Ernest Norman, who told her that she was the daughter of an Egyptian Pharaoh in a past life and had protected Moses.[6] Unarius' tradition holds that Ernest and Ruth married on the day that they met,[7] and the group celebrates their anniversary as February 14, 1954.[8] Their account is doubted by Diana Tumminia of California State University, Sacramento, who notes in her 2005 study of the group that Ruth was likely still married to George Marian in early 1954 and speculates that their divorce was a lengthy process;[5] Tumminia posits that Ernest and Ruth married in 1956.[9]

Ernest believed that he channeled messages from historical figures,[10] and received communications from extraterrestrials.[6] After he married Ruth, she served as his typist,[6] later claiming to have learned the skill while sleeping.[7] Using this ability, she helped him write books about the information he channeled,[6] including 1956 publications about psychic healing and trips into the solar system.[6][11] Together, they believed that humans could spiritually travel to other planets, where they could learn from great teachers; this contact was said to hold the potential to educate and heal humanity.[12] Ernest also discussed the scientific knowledge of the inhabitants of these worlds.[13] In 1954, seeking to popularize his channeling, Ernest and Ruth formed an organization,[10][14] operating from their home in California.[12] In the 1950s and 60s, they gained several followers, including two students who were taught to channel in the latter decade.[12] One early trainee was Charles Spiegel,[11] who later led the group. Many converts had previous involvement with New Age or Mystic groups, allowing the Normans to convert them easily.[15]

Ernest and Ruth taught about their purported spiritual visits to other planets, relating elaborate details about these journeys.[16] They also discussed revelations about their past lives, claiming to have been prominent historical figures such as Jesus and Mary of Bethany.[12] Ruth stated that she had lived about 50 lives over several million years; she recalled that she had been several well-known and a few obscure people on Earth, as well as beings from other planets and an archangel.[3][17] Their group developed a mythology from the accounts that Ernest and Ruth gave of these lives,[7][18] including tales from their past incarnations in Atlantis and Lemuria. Some of their stories were similar to the plots of contemporary books and films, prompting Tumminia to cast their beliefs as a pastiche or bricolage of the surrounding culture.[19]

Ernest and Ruth promoted millenialist teachings, holding that higher beings were to transform the Earth and bring devotees to a new level of existence; the couple held that this growth would allow people to travel through space. Zeller compares their millenialist doctrines to those of Christian dispensationalism, noting their shared utopian views.[20]

Death of Ernest and leadership

Nikola Tesla, from whom the group claimed to receive communications, experimenting in 1899

Ernest died in 1971; thereafter, Ruth led their organization and served as its primary channeler.[21] Spiegel moved to San Diego to assist her.[7][18] He helped convince her that she was a being from the "fourth dimension",[22][23] and she determined that she was spiritually an archangel named Uriel.[24] She had also stated that Ioshanna was her spiritual name.[13]

In 1972, Ruth Norman began publishing Tesla Speaks, a series of messages that she said were given to her by Nikola Tesla from his dwelling in outer space.[25] The next year, she stated that she had experienced a spiritual marriage to the archangel Michiel at a lavishly decorated temple on another planet; the event was said to have culminated with her being crowned the Queen of Archangels, Uriel, by the Archangel Raphiel. She and Spiegel recorded the events of the ceremony over several days,[26] and she published their recollections later that year.[27] Her students subsequently referred to her as Uriel, an acronym of "universal, radiant, infinite, eternal light".[3][28] She and Spiegel reenacted the ceremony for her followers,[7] and the group celebrated the anniversary of the event annually.[26] After her spiritual marriage, she increased her channeling of historical figures, including Plato, Tesla, and John F. Kennedy.[27]

Prophecy and therapy

First extraterrestrial prophesy

In a volume published in early 1974, Norman predicted that a spacefleet of an "Intergalactic Confederation"[a] was to land on Earth in December 1974.[25] In November 1974, assisted by some of her students, Norman purchased a 67-acre (0.27 km2) property near Jamul, California, to serve as a landing site for extraterrestrials, whom Norman referred to as the "Space Brothers".[3][7][25][29] Norman revised the date at which she expected extraterrestrials to land to September 1975, citing ongoing Confederation efforts to prepare humanity for their landing.[25] In her view, there were many levels of beings in the universe, and humans were the lowest.[28] She predicted that a single flying saucer would bring extraterrestrials to persuade humans of their teachings, after which another 33 vessels would arrive.[30] These beings were to restore the lost teachings of Atlantis to the Earth, and their revelations were to free humanity from crime and disease, ushering in an era of learning.[21] She believed that this information would be imparted by a thousand extraterrestrial scientists, who would also bring advances in technology, among which she specified crystal computers, to Earth.[31] Norman presumed that Confederation leaders were to take her on a world tour after their arrival, and she bought herself a new wardrobe in preparation. In addition, she arranged a large banner to welcome them, made arrangements for buses to the landing site,[25] and informed the National Enquirer, an American tabloid, of her expectations.[32] In early September 1975, she gave a farewell message to her students, telling them of her future home on a spaceship. On September 22, however, she concluded that a landing would not occur and explained to her followers that she was reliving the trauma of a past life—in which she was Isis—when she was assassinated shortly before extraterrestrials were to land.[33] Norman led the group in classes to teach them how to relive the event that had culminated in Isis' assassination and took them to the expected landing site to stir their memories.[34] They began to hold public meetings again in November.[32] Several students doubted Norman's explanation; some of them left the group.[33][b]

In 1975, Norman used the proceeds of a home sale to rent a storefront for her students' meetings, which they lavishly decorated.[35][36] She purported to be the "Spirit of Beauty" and the "Goddess of Love"; in this capacity she said she had complete knowledge of truth and the ability to heal.[5] Around that time, she announced that she was an ambassador from the Interplanetary Confederation,[36] and, in February 1975, she opened the Academy of Parapsychology, Healing, and Psychic Science, a non-profit group which became known as the Unarius Academy of Science.[7][c] The group celebrates October 12 as a holiday, believing it to be the date that Norman united Earth with the confederation.[37]

Past-life therapy and subsequent prophesies

Norman pioneered a form of past-life therapy, teaching her followers how to recall details of experiences from their past incarnations.[36][38] These recollections contributed to the group's mythology, which developed over time with student input. Unarius' members occasionally recalled crimes that they had committed in past lives, including times they harmed incarnations of Ruth Norman.[17] The students sometimes acted out scenes from previous lives, productions which the group filmed.[39] Participants found these experiences to be therapeutic, citing this effect as proof that the past-life events were real.[40] Norman's therapy, according to Kirkpatrick and Tumminia, differed from most New Age past-life therapies in the way that it wove students into the group's narrative.[41]

In March 1976, Norman publicly wagered $4,000 with the British gambling firm Ladbrokes that extraterrestrials would land on Earth within one year, attracting media attention, after which she embarked on a publicity tour of Canada.[42] That year, Brad Steiger interviewed Norman and published an account of their conversation, coverage that she preferred over academic writings about her group.[43][44] Tumminia states that Norman had "no public distress" over the failure of her prediction.[45] The publicity of the prophecy's failure attracted new members, and the group subsequently grew.[46] After she lost the wager, the expected landing date was changed to 2001; Norman taught that the close of the 20th century coincided with the end of a cycle and the beginning of a new cycle that was to bring great benefits to humanity.[45][47] Representatives of Unarius later stated that the prophecies had been misunderstood, and that the unreadiness of humanity precluded a visitation from the Space Brothers.[48] They have argued that Unarius' teachings must be understood to correctly interpret Norman's statements.[49] Tumminia writes that they used "adaptive storytelling and continuous narrative invention" to explain the failure.[23]

1980s and 90s

In 1979, Norman claimed to have an unofficial following of more than 100,000.[28] The same year she announced that she had received a spiritual promotion: she was no longer an archangel, but, with Michael, a "Lord of the Universe" and a "Prince of the Realm".[39] She renamed Spiegel to Antares in 1984, stating that he had overcome the evil of his past incarnations; he subsequently began to channel.[29] As of 1986, the group had about 450 regular students and charged $5 per class. At that time, Norman lived in a house in La Mesa, California, with two students.[3]

Norman's teachings were recorded in about 80 books,[24] which her followers helped her write.[29] The group developed a set of six core sacred narratives about the past lives of its founders, describing key events on Earth and other planets.[50] Norman wrote educational materials that were designed to empower students by teaching them about subjects such as the "psychology of consciousness" and "self-mastery".[51] Ernest and Ruth Norman's writings are revered as scripture by members of the Unarius Academy.[52] Kirkpatrick and Tumminia state that the Unarian canon appears to be impenetrable but is possible to appreciate after sufficient study.[53]

Norman wore a variety of brightly colored, elaborate costumes and was often photographed by media while wearing royal-style gowns and wigs and holding a scepter.[22][28][54] She stated that her habiliments mirrored the practices of extraterrestrials, whose attire she said was brighter and more radiant than clothing on Earth.[28] At the group's headquarters, she had a gold-colored throne that was decorated with peacock feathers.[28] Her students helped shepherd her media image;[29] Kirkpatrick and Tumminia speculate that her charisma was primarily responsible for gaining publicity for the group.[55]

Followers of Norman held her in high regard: they occasionally fainted when she touched them, and some wept when allowed to meet with her.[56][57] Her followers painted several portraits of her,[22] one of which they believed had healing powers.[56] Students had faith that she could heal them in their dreams[58] and sometimes reported visions of her.[56] Tumminia states that Norman was a clear example of the German sociologist Max Weber's concept of charismatic authority.[8]

Norman sometimes had disagreements with students and excommunicated two senior assistants who questioned her,[39] although she welcomed one back a few years later.[59] If her followers unsuccessfully sought healing, their failure to receive it was sometimes attributed to disloyalty to leadership.[60] In 1992, some members argued in favor of a focus on Ernest Norman's teachings and a shift towards science.[61] Criticism of Norman was not tolerated by the group;[62] Tumminia describes Norman's leadership style as "benign authoritarian".[11]

Declining health and death

In 1988, Norman's health began to decline, and she broke a hip. Although she had promised to live until 2001, her condition led her followers to suspect that she would die before the promised date, causing some distress and denial. In an attempt to help her recover, students held meetings to use past-life regression to recall interactions with her, and some became very emotional after experiencing memories of events in which they had rejected and hurt her.[63][64]

Norman returned to leading services in February 1989,[59] making a quicker than expected recovery, which her followers attributed to their rituals. After a period of good health, her condition again deteriorated, prompting students to resume recounting their past crimes. Norman lost most of her hearing[65] and experienced chronic pain;[66] she was admitted to a hospital in December 1989,[67] but by the summer she was well enough to be present at events.[59] She was nearly bedridden in her last years and was attended to by some followers.[54] In 1991, she stated that the Space Brothers had said that it was acceptable for her to die before their expected arrival in 2001.[67]

Before her death, Norman met with each of her followers; she died on July 12, 1993,[67] and was cremated. In her will, she promised to return to Earth, accompanied by the Space Brothers, in eight years. Students, some of whom were surprised and confused by her death, were instructed by leaders not to grieve because she was in a celestial state. Nevertheless, some of them privately mourned,[68] and a few left the group.[69] Items that had belonged to Norman were distributed to students,[68] some of whom wore them at later events.[70] After Norman's death, Antares took over as leader and stated that he channeled messages from her.[71] Others later began channeling her,[72] and students also listened to recordings of messages she had delivered.[73]

Legacy

Antares died in 1999 and was replaced by a board of directors who led the group and channeled.[69] In the 2000s, Unarius' leaders emphasized individual transformation, focusing on spiritual, rather than physical, changes.[74] They have embraced the idea that humanity will be gradually transformed.[13] The movement has generally had around 60 active, core students.[30]

In 1996, an MTV executive viewed a picture of Norman and decided to use her image in an advertising campaign for that year's MTV Music Video Awards. The network contacted the Unarius Academy of Science and received permission to use a look-alike in their promotions.[75]

Notes

  1. ^ Norman taught her students that she founded the Confederacy of 33 planets millions of years ago in a past life. (Tumminia 2005, p. 73)
  2. ^ By the mid-1970s, Norman had formed a core group of 40 students. (Kirkpatrick & Tumminia 1995, p. 93)
  3. ^ Unarius is an acronym for "universal articulate interdimensional understanding of science". (Melton 2010, p. 2936)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Tumminia 2005, p. 53.
  2. ^ a b c d e Tumminia 2005, p. 165.
  3. ^ a b c d e Granberry 1986.
  4. ^ Zeller 2009, p. 334.
  5. ^ a b c d Tumminia 2005, p. 166.
  6. ^ a b c d e Kirkpatrick & Tumminia 1995, p. 86.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Tumminia 2005, p. 167.
  8. ^ a b Tumminia 2005, p. 121.
  9. ^ Tumminia 2005, pp. 53–4.
  10. ^ a b Zeller 2009, p. 335.
  11. ^ a b c Tumminia, "When the Archangel Died" 2003, p. 65.
  12. ^ a b c d Kirkpatrick & Tumminia 1995, p. 88.
  13. ^ a b c Melton 2010, p. 2937.
  14. ^ Saliba 2003, p. 191.
  15. ^ Tumminia 2005, p. 191.
  16. ^ Saliba 2003, p. 195.
  17. ^ a b Kirkpatrick & Tumminia 2004, p. 367.
  18. ^ a b Tumminia, "When the Archangel Died" 2003, p. 66.
  19. ^ Tumminia 2005, p. 66.
  20. ^ Zeller 2009, pp. 335–6.
  21. ^ a b Zeller 2009, p. 336.
  22. ^ a b c Tumminia, "When the Archangel Died" 2003, p. 67.
  23. ^ a b Tumminia, "How Prophecy Never Fails" 2003, p. 176.
  24. ^ a b Saliba 2003, pp. 192 & 206.
  25. ^ a b c d e Tumminia, "How Prophecy Never Fails" 2003, p. 178.
  26. ^ a b Tumminia 2005, p. 55.
  27. ^ a b Kirkpatrick & Tumminia 1995, p. 89.
  28. ^ a b c d e f Coleman 1979.
  29. ^ a b c d Tumminia, "When the Archangel Died" 2003, p. 68.
  30. ^ a b Tumminia, "When the Archangel Died" 2003, p. 62.
  31. ^ Kirkpatrick & Tumminia 1995, p. 90.
  32. ^ a b Tumminia, "How Prophecy Never Fails" 2003, p. 180.
  33. ^ a b Tumminia, "How Prophecy Never Fails" 2003, p. 179.
  34. ^ Tumminia, "How Prophecy Never Fails" 2003, pp. 180 & 186.
  35. ^ Tumminia 2005, pp. 20 & 167.
  36. ^ a b c Kirkpatrick & Tumminia 1995, p. 93.
  37. ^ Kirkpatrick & Tumminia 1995, p. 96.
  38. ^ Kirkpatrick & Tumminia 1995, p. 94.
  39. ^ a b c Tumminia 2005, p. 168.
  40. ^ Tumminia, "How Prophecy Never Fails" 2003, p. 185.
  41. ^ Kirkpatrick & Tumminia 1995, p. 95.
  42. ^ Tumminia, "How Prophecy Never Fails" 2003, pp. 180–1.
  43. ^ Tumminia 2005, p. 85.
  44. ^ Tumminia 2005, p. 91.
  45. ^ a b Tumminia, "How Prophecy Never Fails" 2003, p. 181.
  46. ^ Tumminia 2005, p. 42.
  47. ^ Saliba 2003, p. 198.
  48. ^ Tumminia, "How Prophecy Never Fails" 2003, p. 182.
  49. ^ Tumminia, "How Prophecy Never Fails" 2003, p. 184.
  50. ^ Tumminia 2005, pp. 74–8.
  51. ^ Melton 2010, p. 2936.
  52. ^ Saliba 2003, p. 201.
  53. ^ Kirkpatrick & Tumminia 2004, p. 366.
  54. ^ a b Kirkpatrick & Tumminia 1995, p. 97.
  55. ^ Kirkpatrick & Tumminia 1995, p. 85.
  56. ^ a b c Tumminia 2005, p. 123.
  57. ^ Tumminia 2005, p. 128.
  58. ^ Tumminia 2005, p. 115.
  59. ^ a b c Tumminia 2005, p. 169.
  60. ^ Tumminia 2005, p. 194.
  61. ^ Tumminia 2005, p. 170.
  62. ^ Tumminia 2005, pp. 59–60.
  63. ^ Tumminia, "When the Archangel Died" 2003, p. 69.
  64. ^ Tumminia, "When the Archangel Died" 2003, p. 70.
  65. ^ Tumminia 2005, p. 129.
  66. ^ Tumminia 2005, p. 127.
  67. ^ a b c Tumminia, "When the Archangel Died" 2003, p. 71.
  68. ^ a b Tumminia, "When the Archangel Died" 2003, p. 72.
  69. ^ a b Tumminia, "When the Archangel Died" 2003, p. 77.
  70. ^ Tumminia 2005, p. 150.
  71. ^ Saliba 2003, p. 192.
  72. ^ Tumminia 2005, p. 151.
  73. ^ Tumminia 2005, p. 152.
  74. ^ Zeller 2009, p. 337.
  75. ^ Davis 1996, p. 28.

Bibliography

Books

  • Kirkpatrick, R. George; Tumminia, Diana (1995), "Unarius: Emergent Aspects of an American Flying Saucer Group", in James R. Lewis (ed.), The Gods Have Landed: New Religions from Other Worlds, SUNY Press, ISBN 978-0-7914-2330-1{{citation}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
  • Kirkpatrick, R. George; Tumminia, Diana (2004), "The Mythic Dimension of New Religious Movements: Function, Reality Construction, and Process", in James R. Lewis (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-514986-9{{citation}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
  • Melton, J. Gordon (2010), "Unarius", Religions of the World, Second Edition: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices, ABC-CLIO, ISBN 978-1-59884-204-3 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)
  • Saliba, John A. (2003), "UFO and Religion: A Case Study of Unarius Academy of Science", in James R. Lewis (ed.), Encyclopedic Sourcebook of UFO Religions, Prometheus Books, ISBN 978-1-57392-964-6{{citation}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
  • Tumminia, Diana (2003), "How Prophecy Never Fails: Interpretive Reason in a Flying Saucer Group", in James R. Lewis (ed.), Encyclopedic Sourcebook of UFO Religions, Prometheus Books, ISBN 978-1-57392-964-6
  • Tumminia, Diana (2003), "When the Archangel Died: From Revelation to Routinization of Charisma in Unarius", in Christopher Partridge (ed.), UFO Religions, Psychology Press, ISBN 978-0-415-26324-5
  • Tumminia, Diana (2005), When Prophecy Never Fails: Myth and Reality in a Flying-Saucer Group, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-517675-9 {{citation}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Zeller, Benjamin E. (2009), "Apocalyptic Thought in UFO-Based Religions", End of Days: Essays on the Apocalypse from Antiquity to Modernity, McFarland & Company, ISBN 978-0-7864-4204-1 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Magazines

Newspapers

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