Ramtha's School of Enlightenment(RSE) is an American New Age spiritual sect near the rural townof Yelm, Washington, U.S. The school was established in 1988 by J. Z.Knight, who claims to channel a 35,000-year-old being called Ramthathe Enlightened One. The school's teachings are based on channelingsessions. Critics consider the organisation to be a cult.

History

In 1988, J. Z. Knight founded Ramtha'sSchool of Enlightenment (RSE), then called Ramtha's School ofEnlightenment: The American Gnostic School, on her 80-acre (32 ha)estate in Yelm, Washington. A division of Knight's company JZK, Inc.,the school had around 80 staff members as of 2014. According to RSE'swebsite, it is an "academy of the mind that offers retreatsand workshops to people of all ages and cultures". RSE'sprivate, fenced compounds are only open to staff members andstudents, not to the public.

In 2004, various Ramtha school leadersjoined community groups to strongly oppose a proposed 75,000-seatNASCAR 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 The proposal was withdrawn.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, includingthe Czech Republic, Romania and Chile for the first time.

In 2011, Knight stated (while at theRSE supposedly channeling Ramtha), "Fuck God's chosenpeople! I think they have earned enough cash to have paid their wayout of the goddamned gas chambers by now", and said thatMexican people "breed like rabbits" and are"poison," that all gay men used to be Catholicpriests, and that organic farmers have bad hygiene. In 2012, videosof this were placed on the Internet by ex-students of Knight's and bythe Freedom Foundation.

Teachings

The school teaches that human beingshave the capacity to utilize their inner wisdom, focus their brains,and create their own reality. The school's curriculum is based on thechannelings by Knight of the entity Ramtha. Although the school hasbeen criticised for being a cult, Knight and her followers deny suchclaims and say that the school is neither a religion nor a cult.

Ramtha's School of Enlightenmentteachings have been described as part of the New Age movement (theschool itself claims to be outside it).

Lessons in the school's compoundssometimes include wine drinking tobacco pipe smoking and dancing torock 'n' roll music. Allegedly, it is being taught that thenitric oxide in red wine (not the alcohol), also found in pipetobacco (not the nicotine), can help to facilitate changes in thebrain as a part of the process in which to achieve these means.

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

The dialogues, and a lot of transcriptsfrom Knight's Ramtha talks, have been compiled and published over thecourse of many years. Videotapes of various dialogue sessions havealso been released. While some major themes in the school's teachingsare covered in these publications, more in-depth and systematicpresentation of its philosophies and teachings is only accessible byattending a retreat in person.

Research

In February 1997, Knight hosted aconference of scholars who had been studying her, the students andthe school for the previous year. During their research phase, theyalso observed Knight's Ramtha sessions and measured variousphysiological functions of her body. The researchers examinedRamtha's teachings and the school's practices from a variety ofperspectives, including physics, feminism, parapsychology andreligion. Melton organized the research. In addition to theconference presenters, Knight invited the media to attend. However,Knight said she did not sponsor the conference to gain publicity orto convince her skeptics.

Knight paid the travel expenses andstipends for the conference presenters, which caused some of Knight'scritics to suggest she had influenced their research. The researchersdenied this contention to the press and, according to the SeattlePost-Intelligencer, "were offended by a suggestion that theNew Age spiritualist could have tried to buy their support".

Controversy and criticism

Ramtha's School of Enlightenment isconsidered to be a cult by various people, including her formerhusband Jeff Knight, former personal bodyguard Glen Cunningham,former students of the school (such as David McCarthy or JoeSzimhart), and skeptic Michael Shermer. Melton's book, which deniesthe school's status as a cult, has been criticized for siding withthe school and not providing a neutral description of what is goingon within the school. He has also been called a "cultapologist" by various opposers of cults. His position wasfurther criticized when he took the stand as a witness in the case ofKnight v. Knight (1992–1995) against Jeff Knight (JZKnight's husband at the time), by further supporting that the schoolis not a cult.

Former students of the school haveaccused the RSE of practicing brain-washing and mind-control, as wellas using intimidation and fear techniques to keep students in theschool. David McCarthy, a student of the RSE between 1989 and 1996,calls Knight a "spiritual predator", and he mentionsvarious 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", andthat the ancient figure of Jehovah would return to earth accompaniedby lizard people, in a spaceship. The former students (includingDavid McCarthy and Joe Szimhart) have formed an online community,Life After RSE (LARSE), to provide support for people who have quitthe school and find themselves lost.

A further controversial issue regardingthe Ramtha teachings involve the so-called "days to come",which were prophesied earth changes. Instructions reputed as comingfrom Ramtha were given to the students, telling them to leave thecities, find a place in the country to grow their own food and becomesovereign or self-sufficient. Another instruction was told tostudents to build underground shelters to protect themselves andtheir families.

Various incidents within the school'sgrounds have been characterized as controversial. Glen Cunningham, inan interview with David McCarthy, describes how, one evening, Knightsuggested that all students should stay there overnight because shesaid it would be "good for the energy". That wasbefore the Great Arena (formerly used as horse stables) had beenfloored, 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 gohome, but Ramtha said that she could stay under the protection ofRamtha and her bodyguard. Leaving the arena the following day, theold woman died of pneumonia (due to the dust in the air andhumidity).

Another incident which is mentioned byboth Cunningham and Joe Szimhart is the practice of runningblindfolded in a large fenced field. Szimhart mentions in particularan occasion around the year 1990, in which about 1,000 blindfoldedstudents were directed to split up and run across the field, withtheir hands in the "Consciousness & Energy"position in front of them, and the exercise was meant to help thestudents overcome their fears. Szimhart recalls how many peoplecrashed into each other, and that there were some injuries. Acustomer of his ended up with a deeply bruised shoulder and a biglump on his forehead. Aside from the minor injuries, a few people hadto be treated at the hospital.

In May 2022 near Spinello, a small citybelieved to be blessed by Knight, an Italian couple allegedlyaffiliated with the School committed suicide in their self-builtbunker. The School noted that the couple had not attended any eventsin ten years and questioned the connection since suicide does notreflect the philosophy of the school which "celebrates life."The Prosecutor's Office in Forlì investigated the case andfound no reason to suspect the suicides were linked to RSE.

Related projects

In 2004, three members of the RSEproduced a controversial film that combined documentary interviewsand a fictional narrative to posit a connection between science andspirituality, called What the Bleep Do We Know!?. The film has beencriticized by the scientific community due to its mis-representationof quantum physics, and an unnecessary connection to consciousness.The American Chemical Society's review criticizes the film as a"pseudoscientific docudrama", saying "Amongthe more outlandish assertions are that people can travel backward intime, and that matter is actually thought."