A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture

mediums as well as students of Theosophy for years prior to the foundation of their church. 177
Bryan compared the Ballards to the Fox sisters, calling the Great I Am a “Streamlined”
Spiritualism.
But in this latter-day happening which assertedly occurred in an equally unpretentious
house, although not considered “haunted,” this ancient and primitive belief in the
supernormal has taken wings on a flight of fancy far beyond that of the humble
happenings at the cottage home of the little Fox sisters. For this later happening deals not
with spirit “raps” and “knocks,” but with distinctly more modern and streamlined
methods of communicating with the other side of life.
In short, instead of having ordinary “spirit guides” and commonplace “ghosts” of
departed relatives giving the usual type of spirit messages, we now have, reportedly, great
and mighty “Ascended Masters” speaking audibly over a dazzling “Light and Sound
Ray!” 178
The Ballards went beyond the spiritual telegraph and Pelley’s “mental radio,” utilizing a device
that suggests nothing so much as the then-emerging technology of television. The Ballards, like
Pelley before them, combined the two key nineteenth century sources of Spiritualism and
Theosophy. Guy Ballard was also apparently familiar with Mesmerism. Bryan described him as
making passes over his audiences before leading them in “decrees,” which were basically
affirmations intended to create openness toward the guiding power of the Great I Am
presence. 179
In 1930, Guy W. Ballard, a.k.a. Godfre Ray King and Ascended Master Daddy Ballard,
was ostensibly investigating reports about the presence of a group of Divine Men known as the
Brotherhood of Mt. Shasta. While engaged in this investigation Ballard came across a fellow
hiker who revealed himself as the Comte de St. Germain, an ascended Master who Blavatsky had
claimed as the greatest Oriental adept in Europe. A central figure in the Theosophical pantheon
of the Great White Brotherhood, it was Germain, according to theosophical lore, who founded
177 Bryan
178 Bryan, 14.
179 Bryan.
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