By Shadow State
A supporter of J.Z. Knight criticized my article on Ramtha, entitled Shadow: The Parallels Between JZ Knight’s Ramtha and Keith Raniere’s Nxivm Are Startling
Knight claims to channel a 35,000-year-old spirit named “Ramtha” who has advice and guidance to her [paying] followers.
Ramtha appears like a dangerous cult to me but Ramtha’s defender wrote, “In your article, you do not even make one footnote reference.”
Here are two stories – take them as footnotes if you will – about the cult of Ramtha:
The first is from a Seattle area TV station, KCPQ Channel 13 Fox.
Shocking Allegations From Former J Z Knight Follower [April 18, 2014]
The essence of the story is that JZ Knight and her Ramtha School of Enlightenment, which has thousands of followers, including many celebrities, recommends its members drink lye, and that allegedly got people sick.
One local doctor, Dr. Brian Keay, was so concerned he wrote a letter to the county health department.
Former follower Virginia Coverdale said members were encouraged to drink a concoction of Dead Sea water mixed with Red Devil Lye to enlighten themselves.
Her mother and brother were among those who drank the lye concoction.
Coverdale said. “They were taking it for five years and Ramtha at one point told them to chug it. This was not just a teaspoon in the morning, in the evening. People were losing their hair.”
“If I feed you lye, it’s going to cause huge ulcers in your esophagus; it could kill you if you took it straight,” Dr. Keay said.
Concerning Keay’s letter,” J.Z Knight’s spokesperson said, “there will be a complaint filed with the Washington State Medical Board. Keay’s medical opinions in the letter may constitute a breach of HIPAA and the standards of professional conduct.”
Another article on the same topic adds to our knowledge about drinking lye as part of the Ramtha School of Enlightenment. Ex-RSE students claim they drank lye concoction [news3@yelmonline.com]
Coverdale, the former RSE student, who claimed Ramtha suggested drinking lye, was also sued by Knight after posting YouTube videos of Knight making offensive remarks about Catholics, gays, Jews, Mexicans and organic farmers.
She provided affidavits of former students who claim they were given detailed instructions on preparing the mixture they were to drink so as to neutralize the lye.
The former students claimed they were instructed to memorize the instructions and that Ramtha students mixed the lye concoction while intoxicated.
The lye instructions were allegedly given to students in the late-1990s and early-2000s.
Former RSE student Janet Muller said in her affidavit that she created, and ingested, the “elixir” from 1998-2002.
Gail Andres, another former RSE student, said in an affidavit that Ramtha told students to prepare and ingest the formula to accelerate their “individual enlightenment.”
Students were allegedly told to ingest it in the morning on an empty stomach and in the evening before sleeping, claim the affidavits.
Ramtha allegedly told students to take between one quarter of a teaspoon and one teaspoon twice per day.
“This information was given to us in a general atmosphere of secrecy,” Andres wrote.
Main ingredients in the formula were sea water and 100 percent lye, “such as Red Devil (lye).”
Muller claims she was among RSE students who mixed the formula based on handwritten notes from a lecture at an RSE event held sometime between 1996-97.
Muller also stated in her affidavit that the spirit of Ramtha [speaking through J.Z., Knight], at an RSE event in 2002, said that “he would no longer teach the new students the sacred knowledge of the elixir because too many students were taking it with a bad attitude which was making their hair fall out and get sick.”
“Ramtha further forbade advanced students from passing on the sacred knowledge of the elixir,” Muller said in her statement.
Another former RSE student said in her affidavit that she experienced “extreme swelling of my limbs and numbness in my arms” from ingesting the formula, initially attributing the symptoms to a difficult pregnancy.
“After giving birth, my hair started falling out, I developed a goiter on my thyroid, my hands shook constantly and my resting heart rate increased by 120 bmp (beats per minute),” she stated.
The symptoms stopped after she ceased taking the lye formula.
Dr. Keay said the directions required the students to manipulate the pH levels of the formula, which he said is “not easy to do”.
“You have to be very precise and it will precipitate out the minerals in the water,” he said.
The concoction is then washed a couple times.
Without precise measurements students wouldn’t know if they were really washing out the lye, he said.
“If you’re inebriated, you shouldn’t being doing this stuff anyway,” he said.
Keay said RSE students were told to use industrial-quality lye — used as a cleaning agent — as opposed to food-quality lye, which is used to prepare lutefisk and other foods.