extraordinary%20encounters

210 Ramu
effect, Knight’s business partner; would-be investors
in Knight’s Arabian horses would seek
the master’s advice. After some complained
they had purchased mediocre horses after
heeding Ramtha’s advice, authorities investigated,
and Knight ended up reimbursing unhappy
buyers, though no charges were filed.
Critics also asserted that the once gregarious,
friendly Ramtha had grown ever more authoritarian
and demanding. Even some sympathetic
to channeling beliefs speculated that
“whatever energy came through J. Z. Knight
has either shifted, departed, or been replaced
by a less benign entity” (Klimo, 1987).
In 1988, Knight formed Ramtha’s School of
Enlightenment, which claims some three thousand
students from twe n t y - t h ree countries. In
1995, a small scandal erupted when press accounts
exposed the Federal Aviation Ad m i n i st
r a t i o n’s payment of $1.4 million for sensitivity-training
classes overseen by a Ramtha
disciple. Over the past decade or so, accord i n g
to one knowledgeable observe r, “the pro p h e c i e s
of Knight and Ramtha seem to have move d
closer to those of right-wing surv i valists and
a n t i - Semites, who foresee a world held in the
sinister group of international bankers as part
of a New World Ord e r” (Brown, 1997).
Knowledgeable observers, such as religiousstudies
scholar J. Gordon Melton, say that
much of Ramtha’s teaching comes from the
Gnostic tradition, which holds that God exists
within each of us and is to be found there
through contemplation and self-mastery.
See Also: Atlantis; Channeling; Lemuria
Further Reading
Brown, Michael F., 1997. The Channeling Zone:
American Spirituality in an Anxious Age. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press.
Carroll, Robert Todd, n.d. “The Skeptic’s Dictionary:
Ramtha aka J. Z. Knight.” http://skepdic.
com/channel.html.
Kauki, Christopher Vincent, 1997. “Ramtha in the
Petri Dish: The Mixing of Science and Faith in
Yelm.” Syzygy 6, 1 (Winter/Spring): 139–142.
Klimo, Jon, 1987. Channeling: Investigations on Re -
ceiving Information from Paranormal Sources. Los
Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher.
Knight, J. Z., 1987. A State of Mind. New York:
Warner Books.
MacLaine, Shirley, 1985. Dancing in the Light. New
York: Bantam Books.
Melton, J. Gordon, 1998. Finding Enlightenment:
Ramtha’s School of Ancient Wisdom. Hillsboro,
OR: Beyond Words Publishing.
Stearn, Jess, 1984. Soul Mates. New York: Bantam
Books.
Weinberg, Steven L., ed., 1986. Ramtha. Eastsound,
WA: Sovereignty.
———, ed., 1988. Ramtha: An Introduction. Eastbound,
WA: Sovereignty.
Ramu
Ramu is the name George Adamski gave to a
visitor from Saturn. With Ramu and others,
Adamski flew around the moon one memorable
night in 1954. He cautioned, however,
that Ramu, like the other Space Brothers, has
“an entirely different concept of names as we
use them” (Adamski, 1955). Thus, Ramu was
not really the spaceman’s name. Adamski describes
Ramu as slightly over six feet, with
ruddy complexion and dark brown eyes and
wavy black hair.
A different Ramu from Saturn figures in a
story that farmer Velma Thayer told the
Cincinnati Enquirer in August 1955. This
Ramu landed in a flying saucer at her Lake
Geneva, Wisconsin, farm on October 15,
1928, along with other “little fellows.” All
were blond-haired and from four feet six
inches to five feet three inches in height. They
stayed for ten days (it is not clear whether at
Thayer’s residence or in their saucer). Ramu
told Thayer that they were from Saturn and
had come with peaceful intentions. U.S. government
authorities came to the farm and
placed a guard around the ship. At one point,
however, the guard fell asleep, and the saucer
escaped. Thayer said she had had occasional
contacts since with Ramu and his crew.
Nonetheless, in an earlier account—one
published in a contactee-oriented magazine
before Adamski’s Ramu became known—
Thayer did not mention a Ramu in connection
with the alleged experience, suggesting
that the inclusion of the name was a later embellishment.
This earlier version says nothing