Ramtha's School of Enlightenment
Ramtha's School of Enlightenment (RSE) is an American New Age spiritual sect near the city of 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 Ramtha the Enlightened One. The school's teachings are based on channeling sessions. Critics consider the organisation to be a cult.
Founded
History[edit]
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 80-acre (32 ha)[1] estate in Yelm, Washington. A division of Knight's company JZK, Inc.,[2] the school had around 80 staff members as of 2014.[3] According to RSE's website, it is an "academy of the mind that offers retreats and workshops to people of all ages and cultures".[4] RSE's private, fenced compounds are only open to staff members and students, not to the public.[5]
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 The proposal was withdrawn.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.[5]
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.[6] In 2012, videos of this were placed on the Internet by ex-students of Knight's and by the Freedom Foundation.[7][8]
Related projects[edit]
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 criticized by the scientific community[22][23][24][25] due to its misrepresentation of quantum physics, and an unnecessary connection to consciousness.[23] 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."[25]
