Guy Ballard
Guy Warren Ballard (July 28, 1878 - December 29, 1939) was an American mining engineer who became, with his wife, Edna Anne Wheeler Ballard, the founder of the "I AM" Activity.
Ballard was born in Burlington, Iowa and married his wife in Chicago in 1916. Ballard served in the U.S. Army in World War I, and then became a mining engineer. Both Edna and Guy studied theosophy and the occult extensively.
Revelation
Ballard visited Mt. Shasta, California in 1930, where he reported meeting another hiker who identified himself as Saint Germain, who offered to tutor him in the wisdom of the Ascended Masters. [1] Saint Germain and other Ascended Masters allegedly 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 and The Magic Presence, using the pen name "Godfré Ray King."
Guy Ballard, his wife Edna, and later his son Donald became the "sole Accredited Messengers" of Saint Germain.
Activity
The "I AM" Activity started from public lectures about these encounters and grew rapidly in the 1930s. Ballard lectured frequently in Chicago about Saint Germain's mystical teachings, in which America was destined to play a key role. By 1938, there were claimed to be about a million followers in the United States.
The organization grew steadily in the 1930s until, in 1939, Ballard and his wife were charged and convicted of mail fraud. Although the conviction was later overturned, the conviction began the decline, but not demise, of the movement.
The "I AM" Activity describes itself as an apolitical, spiritual and educational organisation financed by contributions from its members. Its parent organization is Saint Germain Foundation, with headquarters in Schaumburg, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. [2]
Notes
- ^ King, Godfre Ray. Unveiled Mysteries. Chicago, Illinois: Saint Germain Press 1934 page vii: "The time has arrived, when the Great Wisdom, held and guarded for many centuries in the Far East, is now to come forth in America, at the command of those Great Ascended Masters who direct and protect the evolution of mankind upon this Earth."
- ^ Saint Germain Foundation. The History of the "I AM" Activity and Saint Germain Foundation. Schaumburg, Illinois: Saint Germain Press 2003