Frequently asked questions

As a young boy, Ramtha was a part of that pilgrimage. Atlantis was an advanced, technologically oriented civilization. The Lemurians were thought to be soulless by the Atlanteans (or "Atlatians" as Ramtha calls them) and subjected to the worst kinds of abuse. At 14, Ramtha became a conqueror who freed his people from Atlantean tyranny. He became the greatest of all warriors, for his ignorance and hatred were overwhelming and he feared nothing.

Many people from all races joined Ramtha's crusade. Over the course of 63 years, he conquered two-thirds of the then-known world. Traces of this march can be found in the remnants of ancient traditions. The great warrior was also known as Rama of the Hindu religion, the first God of the people of India. Late in his march, Ramtha barely survived a brutal assassination attempt. During his seven-year recovery, he contemplated the mysteries of nature, the life force, and what his people from Lemuria called the Unknown God. From that long study, he learned to leave his body and ultimately to take his body with him. This was his greatest enlightenment. Finally, he ascended in front of his people, promising to return.

Where does Ramtha come from?

He was originally from Lemuria. Some people have referred to him as a Neanderthal or Cro-Magnon due to the time period. In Ramtha's cosmology, he states that mankind has been in existence much longer than the view held by conventional science. Ramtha says mankind is millions of years old and that very advanced civilizations coexisted with lesser ones. Without entering into the debate about lost civilizations or anthropological findings, it is important to note that the conventional view is increasingly being challenged. It has recently been discovered that mankind used tools as early as two million years ago. The important element that is usually omitted from reports on Ramtha is that he is a human being who attained enlightenment like Siddhartha Gautama, who became the Buddha.

What is an ascended master?

The term "ascended master" means different things in different belief systems. An ascended master is one who learns to become one with the source of all reality, the godhead. Through their experiences and/or study, they overcome the limitations of the human experience. Their bodies begin to vibrate at a high rate of speed, a vibrational frequency that is one of universal and unconditional love. Jesus is an example of an ascended master. There have been others, some well known and some known by very few, like Apollonius of Tyana. When a great being "ascends," he or she actually takes their body into a frequency and dimension that vibrates more rapidly than the human eye can see. Ramtha became an ascended master late in his life.

Why does Ramtha speak through JZ Knight?

Ramtha does not wish to be worshiped. His greatest message is that God is within every individual. If Ramtha lowers his frequency to that of physical mass, he can be seen. JZ has seen him, as have a few others. However, if he were to appear routinely in his physical body, many people would likely deify him, as has happened to others who have attained godhood. Another reason is because God has traditionally been viewed in the Western world as a male. Ramtha speaks through JZ Knight's body to demonstrate that God is both male and female.

Ms. Knight is considered by many religious historians to be an icon of American New Age Doctrine and one of the most charismatic and controversial spiritual leaders in America. The following is a concise chronology of her life. (For more details see A State of Mind: My Story, by JZ Knight.)

1946: JZ is born on March 16 in Roswell, New Mexico, to Charles and Helen Hampton, migrant farmworkers living in Hagerman, New Mexico. Her mother names her Judith "Judy" Darlene Hampton after Judith, the heroine of the Book of Judith. She is the eighth child born to the impoverished Hamptons.

1946-1964: Soon after her birth, the family moves to Rockwall, Texas, to work cotton fields owned by large landowners in the area. Her first spiritual experiences begin to have an influence on her character. When Judy is five years old, her mother moves the younger children to Artesia, New Mexico, leaving behind her abusive and alcoholic husband. Judy begins her education in the local schools, and with the marriage of her mother to a local businessman, Bill Angley, the family becomes stable. Judy graduates from Artesia High School in 1964.

1965-1976: An unsuccessful attempt to attend college in 1965 leads to her first marriage and the birth of her two children, Brandy and Christopher. The marriage ends in 1969 and Judy moves her small family to Roswell, New Mexico. Without child support but empowered by her strong faith in God, Judy begins her business career in cable television as the sole provider for her children, eventually moving to California. Judy gains the nickname of "Zebra" due to her ability to make black-and-white decisions. (This nickname was later to be abbreviated into the familiar "JZ.") Working her way up the corporate ladder, JZ becomes an extremely successful businesswoman. After landing cable television contracts in Bremerton, Seattle, and Tacoma, JZ moves to the Puget Sound area of Washington State, where she remarries and settles in Tacoma.

February 1977: On Sunday afternoon of February 20, JZ has her first encounter with an extraordinary being in her Tacoma kitchen. The being is Ramtha.

1978-1979: In November of 1978, Ramtha first channels through JZ. ("Channel" is a term coined by Ramtha and made popular by his teachings throughout the 1980s. A description of the process follows below.) JZ Knight holds sessions with Ramtha. She initiates nationwide forums called "Dialogues." Thus begins a long and enigmatic relationship where the very physical JZ and the spiritual being, Ramtha, combine to bring a message of human divinity to the world.

1980-1987: JZ appears on numerous national television programs, accomplishes a partial world tour with Ramtha and his teachings, and tours nationally to promote her autobiography, A State of Mind: My Story, published by Warner books in 1987.

May 1988: At Ramtha's request, JZ founds Ramtha's School of Enlightenment, the American Gnostic School. The school is started May 22-28 in Snow Mountain, Colorado, with 532 attendees. Ramtha introduces a dynamic breath technique called Consciousness & Energy®. He also introduces quantum physics to the students, initiating what is later to become a synthesis of science and spirituality.

1988-1991: Weekend and weeklong workshops and retreats enable students to integrate philosophical teachings with personal experiences. Ramtha introduces new disciplines and provides hands-on training for such mind-over-matter techniques as remote-viewing, Fieldwork®, and The Tank®.

1992-1993: Controversy about the school swirls in a media maelstrom due to the divorce case between JZ Knight and her ex-husband, Jeffrey Knight. All accusations advanced by Jeff Knight of cult activity, brainwashing, and mind control are tossed out by Pierce County Superior Court Judge Bruce Cohoe. However, the judge awards Mr. Knight $750,000 based on the fact that at the time of the original divorce agreement, neither party had considered the goodwill value of JZ's organization. The Washington State Court of Appeals later reverses this decision.

1996-1997: JZ agrees to have the teachings studied by scholars over the course of two years, culminating in a conference held February 8-9, 1997. Among the results are that JZ Knight and the students display a marked growth in their spiritual and mental abilities. Ramtha's School of Enlightenment enjoys a new level of acceptance in academic circles and with the general public, largely due to JZ's perseverance and her twenty-year history with Ramtha.

1997: The Austrian Supreme Court rules that JZ Knight is the only person allowed to channel Ramtha. In 1992, Julie Ravell, a Berlin woman, claimed to be the true channel for Ramtha. She held seminars in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, resulting in multiple instances of trademark infringement. JZ Knight, in her desire to keep the teachings of Ramtha pure, brings a lawsuit against Ravell. In 1995, an appellate court in Linz, Austria, orders Ravell to stop using Ramtha's name in conjunction with her channeling sessions and to pay JZ's court costs. Ravell appeals to the Austrian Supreme Court but the Court upholds the appellate court's rulings.

1999-2011: Ramtha's School of Enlightenment embarks on a six-continent world tour. In questionnaires given to students from the 2000 and 2001 world tour events, 84 to 90 percent of the new students that attended the first level training of the school reported that the Beginning Retreat was "the greatest week of their life, so far."

What is channeling?

Ramtha coined the term "channel." His popularity in the 1980s rapidly led to the broad use of the term. Before that, an individual involved in communication with etheric entities was called a "trance medium" or a "sensitive." Many people who claimed to go into a trance to communicate with spirits were reporting valid experiences. But JZ's process is different. Ramtha calls her a pure channel, which is very rare. She actually leaves her body and experiences rushing down a long tunnel to a brilliant light, not unlike the near-death experiences that have been reported by people who have been declared clinically and legally dead but have returned to their bodies. Ramtha surrounds her body and operates her body through the brainstem and lower cerebellum. Thus he can make it move, talk, and interact with the environment.

JZ's essence or Spirit is not present when channeling. She is not in a trance nor does she remember anything that occurs while she is out of her body. Ramtha controls her body by using her brain. Although the term channel has now been adopted by many people to describe what they do, it is usually not so. The remarkable results of the physiological testing JZ underwent during the research study in 1996 provided a standard from which scientists are able to distinguish the process of channeling from mediumship, trance, or other states of consciousness.

Is there proof of Ramtha's existence independent of JZ Knight?

In 1996, a distinguished panel of twelve scholars — including scientists, psychologists, sociologists, and religious experts from the Chicago Theological Seminary, Temple University, Colgate University, University of California, University of Oregon, and Birbeck College at the University of London — studied JZ Knight before, during, and after channeling Ramtha. The results of the academic research project were presented at a conference organized by J. Gordon Melton, Ph.D., Director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The two-day conference in February 1997 was entitled In Search of the Self: The Role of Consciousness in the Construction of Reality. It covered many aspects related to Ramtha and the channeling phenomenon. The complete conference proceedings are available on DVD.

A team of psychologists, led by Stanley Krippner, Ph.D., of Saybrook Institute Graduate School, studied JZ and her school for a year and conducted a battery of psychological and physiological tests. They concluded that the readings taken of JZ's autonomic nervous system were so dramatic that the scientists categorically ruled out any possibility of conscious fakery, schizophrenia, or multiple personality disorders.

Krippner described himself as extremely skeptical before performing the tests in collaboration with neuroscientist Ian Wickramasekera, Ph.D., a fellow professor at Saybrook. "When we were testing JZ, Ian was quite astonished because the needles on his polygraph that were graphing all of the psychophysiological responses literally jumped from one part of the page to the other part of the page when Ramtha entered the picture. And he had never seen such a dramatic change," he said.

The team also found that JZ and the students that were tested were found to have a very high hypnotic ability. Krippner explained that was significant because as hypnotic ability goes up, the likelihood of bipolar personality, schizophrenia, and other mental disorders goes down. "You cannot have both," he said.

According to Wickramasekera, JZ's heart rate in her normal, resting state was between 85 and 90. When Ramtha took over her body, JZ's heart rate hit a low of 40 beats per minute and then raced at 180 beats per minute. "You might see this in someone who is jogging or having a serious panic attack, but at the time Ms. Knight was sitting completely still," he said. "She's not faking it," Krippner added, "because when we hooked her up to test her physiological responses, we got results which could not have been manipulated."

the campus is a place of special beauty and deep serenity. Great cedar and fir trees grace the grounds, and a sense of timelessness prevails. Due to inaccurate reporting in the past, it is important to note that no students live on the campus. There are no dormitories. When an event concludes, the students leave the campus. All students are encouraged to be sovereign and to provide their own homes and livelihoods.

Is it a school or a Gnostic religion?

Ramtha's School of Enlightenment is considered by its students, who currently number over 5,000, to have the most exciting, dynamic, and relevant educational and spiritual curriculum in the world. Since its inception in 1988, the philosophical and theoretical teachings of Ramtha have created experiences that are fundamental in establishing the truth of the teachings for the students. This school integrates contemporary knowledge with practical teachings, enabling students to gain wisdom. Ramtha's School is not a school in the traditional sense of the word, nor is it a church. It is not a religion because it is not based on authority or belief. It is a unique academy whose broad curriculum is rooted in the experience of self. It offers students knowledge that allows them to expand their truth and broaden the boundaries imposed on them by society and convention. The school format creates conditions in which the students learn to apply knowledge that improves their ability to trust their spiritual instincts.

How is the school structured?

Ramtha's School of Enlightenment has students from all over the world and all walks of life from six years of age and up. The starting point for the school is a Beginning Event. New students can attend the retreat at the school's location in Yelm and at select international venues. An online version is also available via on-demand streaming. All programs are available in multiple languages. The next step for new students is a five-day Advancing Workshop. This course can be attended at the school's campus or as an on-demand stream. If a new student desires to continue with their schooling and become a current student, they are required to attend a five-day Follow-Up event held toward the end of the year. The Follow-Up can be attended at the school's location, via live stream, or the on-demand option in multiple languages.

The school is based on the concept of learning through personal experience; following a charismatic individual or collecting philosophical phrases is not enough. For the same reason, words like disciple, adherent, devotee, and believer are not appropriate.

Who is the typical Ramtha student?

In 1996, Constance Jones of the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco visited the school three times. Jones drew this demographic picture of Ramtha's School from the 540 students she sampled:

A high number of students have college and post-graduate degrees. The average age is 41 years old. Some are former city dwellers who left to live in or near Yelm. "Leaving the city is about accommodating their changing values," Jones said. "Most of the students have intentionally chosen to leave prestigious and high-income jobs and live with fewer resources. Money, prestige and fame are not as important as living closer to the land."

Students report everything from greater self-esteem to miraculous healings (some medically confirmed), psychic phenomena, precognition, clairvoyance, remote-viewing, manifestations of objects, manifestations of wealth, and more joy in life due to what they have learned in the school.

In Jones' closing remarks at the February 1997 conference, she stated, "These are people who have found extreme happiness, and it comes from their involvement with the school."

How many students attend the Ramtha School?

More than 5,000 students participated in events in 2011. The current student body is 60 percent female and 40 percent male.

Where do the students come from?

The school recently completed a twelve-year worldwide tour of dozens of nations, presenting classes and training programs that explore the latent abilities of our brain and human potential. Students come from all over the United States and 93 foreign countries. Now most programs are conducted at the main campus in Yelm, Washington, and live-streamed via the Internet to students around the globe with simultaneous translation in multiple languages. RSE's international coordinators provide regional programs in 22 countries.

Do students live close to the school?

Approximately 15 percent of the students live within a one-hour drive of the school.