Editing Ramtha's School of Enlightenment

{{Short description|American New Age spiritual sect school}}
{{Infobox organization
|name                   = Ramtha's School of Enlightenment
|location               = [[Yelm, Washington]], U.S.
|founded                = 1988
|founder                = [[J. Z. Knight]]
|staff                  = 80
|staff_year             = 2014
|website                = {{official URL}}
|coordinates            = {{coord|46.955935|-122.633812|format=dms|type:landmark_region:US-WA|display=inline,title}}
}}
'''Ramtha's School of Enlightenment''' ('''RSE''') is an American [[New Age]] [[Spirituality|spiritual]] [[sect]] near the city of [[Yelm, Washington]], U.S. The school was established in 1988 by [[J. Z. Knight]], who claims to [[Mediumship|channel]] a 35,000-year-old being called Ramtha the Enlightened One. The school's teachings are based on channeling sessions. Critics consider the organisation to be a [[cult]].

==History==
In 1988, [[J. Z. Knight]] founded Ramtha's School of Enlightenment (RSE), then called Ramtha's School of Enlightenment: The American Gnostic School, on her {{no wrap|{{convert|80|acres|adj=on}}}}<ref name="olympian3">{{cite news|last=Pemberton|first=Lisa|title=Behind the gates at Ramtha's School|url=http://www.theolympian.com/news/local/article25225543.html|newspaper=The Olympian|date=July 16, 2006|access-date=November 20, 2009}}</ref> estate in [[Yelm, Washington]]. A division of Knight's company JZK, Inc.,<ref name="York2004">{{cite book|last=York|first=Michael|title=Historical Dictionary of New Age Movements|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=umbl7x8aYqkC&pg=PA105|series=Historical Dictionaries of Religions, Philosophies, and Movements|volume=49|year=2004|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-4873-3|pages=105–106}}</ref> the school had around 80 staff members {{as of|2014|lc=y}}.<ref name=SPLC/> According to RSE's website, it is an "academy of the mind that offers retreats and workshops to people of all ages and cultures".<ref>{{cite web|title=About Ramtha's School of Enlightenment|url=https://ramtha.com/content/aboutus.aspx|publisher=Ramtha's School of Enlightenment|access-date=26 February 2017}}</ref> RSE's private, fenced compounds are only open to staff members and students, not to the public.<ref name="olympian2"/>

Many students in Ramtha's School of Enlightenment sent money to the scam [[Omega Trust]], although Knight did not endorse or promote the program.  In 1998, Yelm resident and former Ramtha student Shaini Goodwin learned of Omega from a friend, and purchased two units.  By November 1999 she was posting reports on the Internet under the pseudonym "Dove of Oneness", identifying as an Omega investor who awaited her "propserity deliveries" from the program.  As Omega lenders became more conspiratorial and paranoid about the delay of their payouts, Goodwin's "information" about Omega grew popular.  By 2000, she attributed the Omega delays to a conflict between "White Knights" and "the dark agenda". After the August 2000 indictments, Goodwin assured her followers that the case would be unable to prevent funding.  She warned that lenders who read about, or cooperated with, the investigation could lose their payout.<ref name="Robinson 2004">{{cite news
|title=Snared by a cybercult queen |last=Robinson |first=Sean |work=[[The News Tribune]] |location=Tacoma, WA |date=July 18, 2004 |url=https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/special-reports/article25855081.html
|access-date=2023-03-18 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170801104406/http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/special-reports/article25855081.html |archive-date=2017-08-01}}</ref>

In 2004, various Ramtha school leaders joined community groups to strongly oppose a proposed 75,000-seat NASCAR racetrack in Yelm. The proposal was withdrawn. In 2007, Knight's profits from the school's activities and from sale of books, tapes, CDs and DVDs had reportedly been around $2.6 million. In 2008, lessons were given to the public in more than 20 countries, including the [[Czech Republic]], [[Romania]] and [[Chile]] for the first time.<ref name="olympian2"/>

In 2011, Knight stated (while at the RSE supposedly channeling Ramtha), "Fuck God’s chosen people! I think they have earned enough cash to have paid their way out of the goddamned gas chambers by now", and said that Mexican people "breed like rabbits" and are "poison", that all gay men used to be Catholic priests, and that organic farmers have bad hygiene.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Buchanan|first1=Susy|title=Ramtha Riled|url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2014/ramtha-riled|access-date=February 25, 2017|journal=Intelligence Report|volume=2014 Summer Issue|date=May 23, 2014|language=en}}</ref> In 2012, videos of this were placed on the Internet by ex-students of Knight's and by the Freedom Foundation.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Jenkins|first1=Austin|title=Washington Democrats Reverse Course, Shed JZ Knight Contributions|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=163750642|access-date=February 25, 2017|work=NPR|date=October 27, 2012|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Brunner|first1=Jim|title=State Democratic Party Will Donate Money from JZ Knight after Offensive Comments|url=http://blogs.seattletimes.com/politicsnorthwest/2012/10/26/state-democratic-party-will-donate-money-from-j-z-knight-after-offensive-comments/|access-date=February 25, 2017|work=The Seattle Times|date=October 26, 2012}}</ref>

==Teachings==
{{Further|J. Z. Knight#Teachings}}
[[File:2012-05-17 Yelm Ramtha School of Englightenment entrance.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Gate to Ramtha's School of Enlightenment northwest of [[Yelm, Washington]]]]

The school teaches that human beings have the capacity to utilize their inner wisdom, focus their brains, and create their own reality.<ref name="olympian2"/> The school's [[curriculum]] is based on the supposed channelings by Knight of the entity Ramtha.<ref>{{cite news |first=Chris |last=Lydgate |title=What The #$*! is Ramtha?: The year's sleeper hit was inspired by a 35,000-year-old warrior spirit from Atlantis |url=http://wweek.com/story.php?story=5860 |work=Willamette Week|date=December 22, 2004|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050309094737/http://www.wweek.com/story.php?story=5860|archive-date=March 9, 2005}}</ref> Although the school has been criticised for being a [[cult]] (see below), Knight and her followers deny such claims and say that the school is neither a [[religion]] nor a cult.<ref name="whitebook">{{cite book|last=Knight|first=Judy Zebra|title=Ramtha: The White Book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gz78a6_iDlAC&pg=PA28|year=2005|orig-year=1999|publisher=JZK Publishing|location=Yelm, Washington|isbn=978-1-57873-045-2|page=28}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ramtha.com/html/media/faqs/school/school-religion.stm|title=Media: Is it a school or a religion?|publisher=Ramtha's School of Englightenment|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070401080232/http://www.ramtha.com/html/media/faqs/school/school-religion.stm|archive-date=April 1, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ramtha.com/html/aboutus/about-jz.stm|title=About Us: Greetings from JZ Knight|publisher=Ramtha's School of Englightenment|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308043731/http://ramtha.com/html/aboutus/about-jz.stm|archive-date=March 8, 2012}}</ref>

Ramtha's School of Enlightenment teachings have been described as part of the [[New Age]] movement (the school itself claims to be outside it).{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}

Lessons in the school's compounds sometimes include wine drinking,<ref name="cunningham"/> tobacco pipe smoking, and dancing to rock and roll music. Allegedly, it is being taught that the [[Nitric_oxide|nitric oxide]] in red wine (not the alcohol), also found in pipe tobacco (not the nicotine), can help to facilitate changes in the brain as a part of the process in which to achieve these means.{{citation needed|date=December 2012}}

Through various focus techniques, the students believe they are on their way to becoming as "enlightened" as other shamans who can alter their personal reality at will.<ref name="szimhart"/> The main activities towards that goal vary from specific focusing, meditation-like techniques, breathing techniques, blindfolded archery, energy healing (for one's self and for someone else), finding the heart of a maze, and many more. The students are taught that human beings can train themselves into such powers that will allow them to levitate, raise the dead, make gold appear in their hand and predict the future. Eventually this may lead to the "ascension" of the physical body into the "light body".<ref name="szimhart"/>

The dialogues, and a lot of transcripts from Knight's Ramtha talks, have been compiled and published over the course of many years. Videotapes of various dialogue sessions have also been released. While some major themes in the school's teachings are covered in these publications, more in-depth and systematic presentation of its philosophies and teachings is only accessible by attending a retreat in person.{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}

==Research==
{{POV section|date=October 2020}}
{{undue weight section|date=October 2020}}
In February 1997, Knight hosted a conference of scholars who had been studying her, the students and the school for the previous year. During their research phase, they also observed Knight's Ramtha sessions and measured various physiological functions of her body. The researchers examined Ramtha's teachings and the school's practices from a variety of perspectives, including [[physics]], [[feminism]], [[parapsychology]] and religion. [[J. Gordon Melton]] organized the research. In addition to the conference presenters, Knight invited the media to attend. However, Knight said she did not sponsor the conference to gain publicity or to convince her skeptics.<ref name="tribune">{{cite news|author=Maynard, Steve|title=JZ Knight to Open Ranch to Scrutiny|newspaper=The News Tribune|location=Tacoma, Washington|date=February 1, 1997|page=A1}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Professors at Ramtha Meeting Defend Objectivity, Integrity|last=Maynard|first=Steve|newspaper=The News Tribune|location=Tacoma, Washington|date=February 10, 1997|page=B2}}</ref>

Knight paid the travel expenses and [[stipend]]s for the conference presenters,<ref name="tribune"/> which caused some of Knight's critics to suggest she had influenced their research. The researchers denied this contention to the press and, according to the ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'', "were offended by a suggestion that the New Age spiritualist could have tried to buy their support".<ref name=SPLC>{{cite news|last=Iwasaki|first=John|title=JZ Knight Not Faking It, Say Scholars – But They Bristle at the Idea She's Buying Them|newspaper=Seattle Post-Intelligencer|date=February 10, 1997|page=B1}}</ref>

==Controversy and criticism==
{{Further|JZ Knight#Controversy and criticism|JZ Knight#Court cases}}
Ramtha's School of Enlightenment is considered to be a cult by various people, including her former husband Jeff Knight,<ref name="jeffknight">{{cite web|title=From Abracadabra to Zombies: Ramtha (a.k.a. JZ Knight)|last= Carroll |first=Robert T.|date=October 27, 2015|website=The Skeptic's Dictionary|url=https://skepdic.com/ramtha.html|access-date=February 25, 2017}}</ref> former personal bodyguard Glen Cunningham,<ref name="cunningham">{{cite news|last1=Hansen|first1=Megan|title=One-Time Insider Tells RSE Experience|work=Nisqually Valley News|date=September 26, 2008|location=Washington}}</ref> former students of the school (such as David McCarthy<ref name="olympian2">{{cite news|last=Brenner|first=Keri|title=Disillusioned Former Students Target Ramtha|newspaper=The Olympian|date=January 27, 2008}}</ref> or Joe Szimhart<ref name="szimhart"/>), and [[skeptic]] [[Michael Shermer]].<ref name="shermer">{{Cite book|last=Shermer|first=Michael|title=Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time|year= 2002|publisher=Henry Holt and Company|isbn=978-1-4299-9676-1|page=295}}</ref> Melton's book, which denies the school's status as a cult,<ref name="tribune"/> has been criticized for siding with the school and not providing a neutral description of what is going on within the school. He has also been called a "cult apologist" by various opposers of cults. His position was further criticized when he took the stand as a witness in the case of ''Knight v. Knight'' (1992–1995) against Jeff Knight (JZ Knight's husband at the time), by further supporting that the school is not a cult.<ref name="szimhart">{{citation|last=Szimhart|first=Joe|title=Critical Study of Gordon Melton's Book on Ramtha|work=Kelebek<!--Site is in English, so don't translate this Turkish word--> |date=July 1998|url=http://www.kelebekler.com/cesnur/txt/ram2.htm|access-date=February 25, 2017}}</ref>

[[File:2012-05-17 Yelm Ramtha School of Enlightenment sign.jpg|thumb|right|320px|Sign along [[Washington State Route 510|WA 510]]. The entrance to Ramtha's School of Enlightenment is in the background on the left.]]

Former students of the school have accused the RSE of practicing brain-washing and mind-control, as well as using intimidation and fear techniques to keep students in the school. David McCarthy, a student of the RSE between 1989 and 1996, calls Knight a "spiritual predator", and he mentions various parts of the teachings which had an intimidative character, such as the [[prophecy]] that unless students remain faithful to Ramtha, they will become prey of the "lizard people", and that the ancient figure of [[Jehovah]] would return to earth accompanied by lizard people, in a spaceship.<ref name="olympian2"/> The former students (including David McCarthy and Joe Szimhart) have formed an online community, Life After RSE (LARSE), to provide support for people who have quit the school and find themselves lost.<ref name="cunningham"/>

A further controversial issue regarding the Ramtha teachings involve the so-called "days to come", which were prophesied earth changes. Instructions reputed as coming from Ramtha were given to the students, telling them to leave the cities, find a place in the country to grow their own food and become sovereign or self-sufficient. Another instruction told to students was to build underground shelters to protect themselves and their families.<ref name="szimhart"/>

Various incidents within the school's grounds have been characterized as controversial. Glen Cunningham, in an interview with David McCarthy, describes how, one evening, Knight suggested that all students should stay there overnight because she said it would be "good for the energy". That was before the Great Arena (formerly used as horse stables) had been floored, and as a result there would be a lot of dust in the air. Cunningham says that there was a very old woman among the students, who begged him that she did not want to do this and she wanted to go home, but Ramtha said that she could stay under the protection of Ramtha and her bodyguard. Leaving the arena the following day, the old woman died of pneumonia (due to the dust in the air and humidity).<ref name="cunningham"/>

Another incident which is mentioned by both Cunningham and Joe Szimhart is the practice of running blindfolded in a large fenced field. Szimhart mentions in particular an occasion around the year 1990, in which about 1,000 blindfolded students were directed to split up and run across the field, with their hands in the "Consciousness & Energy" position in front of them, and the exercise was meant to help the students overcome their fears. Szimhart recalls how many people crashed into each other, and that there were some injuries. A customer of his ended up with a deeply bruised shoulder and a big lump on his forehead. Aside from the minor injuries, a few people had to be treated at the hospital.<ref name="cunningham"/><ref name="szimhart"/>

In May 2022 near Spinello, Italy, a small city believed to be blessed by Knight,{{Ambiguous|reason=Believed by Knight to be blessed, or believed to have been blessed by Knight?|date=March 2024}} an Italian couple allegedly affiliated with the School committed suicide in their self-built bunker. The School noted that the couple had not attended any events in ten years and questioned the connection since suicide does not reflect the philosophy of the school which "celebrates life". The Prosecutor's Office in [[Forlì]] investigated the case and found no reason to suspect the suicides were linked to RSE.<ref>{{Cite web |title=FORLÌ: Suicidi Spinello, lutto in città, Ramtha, 'noi celebriamo vita'  |url=https://www.teleromagna24.it/cronaca/forli-suicidi-spinello-lutto-in-citta-ramtha-noi-celebriamo-vita-video/2022/5 |access-date=2022-05-24 |website=TeleRomagna24 |date=24 May 2022 |language=it}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Montanari |first=Margherita |date=2022-05-22 |title=La setta Ramtha: che cos'è il gruppo a cui aderivano i coniugi morti a Spinello |url=https://corrieredibologna.corriere.it/bologna/cronaca/22_maggio_22/setta-ramtha-che-cos-gruppo-sfondo-suicidio-spinello-b831ff08-d9e1-11ec-b83d-f1c96e08e8c7.shtml |access-date=2022-05-24 |website=Corriere di Bologna |language=it}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Doppio suicidio, per gli inquirenti non c'è plagio o istigazione. Proseguono le indagini |url=https://www.forlitoday.it/cronaca/suicidio-spinello-ramtha-indagini-istigazione.html |access-date=2022-05-24 |website=ForlìToday |language=it}}</ref>

== Related projects ==
In 2004, three members of the RSE produced a controversial film that combined documentary interviews and a fictional narrative to posit a connection between science and spirituality, called ''[[What the Bleep Do We Know!?]]''. The film has been [[What the Bleep Do We Know!?#Academic reaction|criticized]] by the  scientific community<ref name="Physics-Today">{{cite journal |last1=Kuttner |first1=Fred |last2=Rosenblum |first2=Bruce |title=Teaching Physics Mysteries Versus Pseudoscience |journal=Physics Today |volume=59 |issue=11 |page=14 |date=November 2006 |doi=10.1063/1.2435631|bibcode=2006PhT....59k..14K |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="boggle">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2005/may/16/g2.science|title=The Minds Boggle|department=Science|newspaper=The Guardian|date=May 16, 2005|access-date=February 25, 2017}}</ref><ref name="ABC">{{cite news|url=https://www.abc.net.au/science/features/bleep/|title=What the Bleep Are They On About?!|last=Hobbs |first=Bernie|department=In Depth: Science Features|work=ABC Science|date=June 30, 2005|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|access-date=December 19, 2007}}</ref><ref name="ACS">{{cite web |last=Wilson |first=Elizabeth |title=What the Bleep Do We Know?! |publisher=American Chemical Society|department=Reviews|work=Chemical & Engineering News: Reel Science |date=January 13, 2005 |url=http://pubs.acs.org/cen/reelscience/reviews/whatthe_bleep/ |access-date=December 19, 2007}}</ref> due to its misrepresentation of [[quantum physics]], and an unnecessary connection to [[consciousness]].<ref name="boggle"/> The [[American Chemical Society]]'s review criticizes the film as a "pseudoscientific docudrama", saying "Among the more outlandish assertions are that people can travel backward in time, and that matter is actually thought."<ref name="ACS"/>

==See also==
* [[Anti-cult movement]]
* [[New Religious Movement]]
* [[Pseudoskepticism]]
* [[Skepticism]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
* {{official}}
* {{Wikiquote-inline|Ramtha}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramtha's School Of Enlightenment}}
[[Category:New Age organizations]]
[[Category:Thurston County, Washington]]
[[Category:New religious movements established in the 1980s]]
[[Category:Religious belief systems founded in the United States]]