METAPHYSICAL PLUMS

 

 

By Gerald B. Bryan

 

Clever leaders in political organizations know they must be lavish in scattering political plums among their adherents. They must also be prodigal in their promises, and wax eloquent in their statements concerning the marvelous benefits resulting should these favored ones become full-fledged members of the party.

 

Is similar with astute leaders of some metaphysical orders — and, certainly, the Ballard cult is no exception. Its metaphysical plum tree has been a marvelously productive one, so far as promises go, bearing luscious fruit and promising budlets within season and without. From a never-failing material supply in this life to tremendous power and influence in the life to come, the Ballard promises run the whole gamut of human desires.

 

Poor, struggling human mortals lost in the wilderness of a great economic depression! Who among them wouldn’t want their “financial freedom” as promised by the Ballard?

 

Hearing such statements as, “The precipitation of gold or jewels from the invisible to the visible is as simple as breathing” (p. 97, D.) — they flock to the meetings as moths to the flame.

 

Reading such statements as, “To you who have had a struggle financially . . . if you will only make your earnest application, I assure you that all obstruction will be removed from your pathway” (p. 7, Dec., 1938, V.) — they buy the Ballard books, thinking that some magic formula will give them the money they need.

 

Pathetic, weak, sickly individuals looking so earnestly for health! How attracted they are to a cult which promises: “You can renew any nerve, any organ, and build any member of the body into its perfection almost immediately.” (p. 42, D.)

 

Or to the hopelessly old and decrepit, what a balm to hear: “I say to you, beloved ones, who are in the neighborhood of sixty years old . . . I tell you — any one of you — in six weeks CAN be as strong, firm and active as you were in your fullest youth; but you must be determined.” (p. 16, Sept., 1937, V.)

 

Oh, what a hope to the soul-sick individual who is tired of life and yet afraid to die, to hear a great Master say: “There are quite a number in this room, who with complete harmony maintained, would make their Ascension in this embodiment.” (p. 4, March, 1938, V.)

 

These people were promised that if they made this so-called “Ascension,” they would never die, or undergo physical death; that they would become “Ascended Masters” —or “Lady Masters”— immediately.

 

And so the frustrated and buffeted individual held down in the heavy morass of lie, what an infinite blessing to hear: “When this class at the Pan-Pacific Auditorium (at Los Angeles) is completed, there will be hundreds of you precious ones who will not again know limitation.” (pp. 141-2, A.M.D.)

 

How credulous these students are to believe these, and many other, promises made so glibly, such as: “There is not a single thing your heart can desire to do with this Instruction it cannot do . . . to cause the storm to cease and become obedient . . . to cause the rain to fall . . . to hold in abeyance the frost . . . etc., etc.,” (pp. 28-33-34, March, 1937, V.)

 

In this way, by promises, and not by works, have the Ballards and their deceiving band of “Masters” attracted credulous people into their network of unreality.

 

What a cruel deception! These poor people give their money, their time, and their energies. They neglect their families and their opportunities, their health and perhaps even their spiritual salvation, by following a movement which will inevitably lead to sad disillusionment. And along the Ballard pathway there are hundreds of broken lives, wrecked homes, and an alarming number of insanity cases.

 

For over five years now the mills of these “Ascended Masters” have been grinding and turning out unbelievable promises. And the more they turned, the more the appetites of their people were whetted for the promised miracles.

 

Still, even among the unduly credulous, there is a limit to what people will take, as even the great Barnum discovered. So as time went on in the early days of the movement there was a noticeable restlessness among some of the students at the non-appearance of the scheduled miracles. Cleverly, to satisfy these people, the Ballards decided to make a few specific instances of attainment under the high promotion system of the great Ascended Master Saint Germain.

 

Therefore, preceding the Christmas holidays of 1936 there was circulated among the faithful veiled allusions as the marvels that would take place at the coming “Shrine Class” in Los Angeles.

 

Word went forth that this was to be a “closed” class, open only to the elect. Transcendental things would occur. there were rumors of “group Ascensions,” precipitated dinners, and some of the more popular “Ascended Masters” were scheduled to make tangible appearances. It was to be the outstanding metaphysical event of all time.

 

This had the effect, many months ahead, of giving the desired impetus and solidarity to the movement, which was then like a loose-jointed adolescent going through the teen age.

 

All roads led to the Los Angeles mecca, and around the middle of December, 1936, the pilgrimage was on. So great was the expectancy of the students for the promised miracles that many coming from eastern states brought along their Ascension Robes! A little precautionary measure which, by the way, was observed also rather widely in the City of the Angels among the faithful who did not want to be caught like the “foolish virgins” of a bygone age.

 

Of course all this was a good advertising build-up for the Accredited Messengers of Saint Germain, but it was a bit tricky. Realizing their inability to deliver the promises they had made, the leaders apparently became a little panic-stricken as the reaction this might have if the scheduled miracles should be a little timid about showing up.

 

Therefore, there was a sudden change of plans. Edna Ballard, who usually can rise to the occasion, let it be know at a special meeting called just previous to the big “Shrine” opening, that it was not to be a “closed” meeting after all.

 

“All may come,” she generously stated. “Fill the auditorium —  but don’t expect anything!”

 

And, of course, nothing did happen — other than more promises. Altogether it was a most tame affair. Not a single Ascended Master or precipitated dinner put in an appearance.

 

It was rumored around, however, that an “Ascended Master” was seen in the audience, and that he had talked privately to several of the Ballard staff members!

 

This is quite understandable in dear old Los Angeles where at any large heterodox meeting there is likely to be found one or more bewhiskered, longhaired, hermit-looking individuals who appear the living prototype of John the Baptist or Elijah the Prophet.

 

Also, among some of the students, there was a report of another transcendent happening. Looking around for anything that might even give a semblance to a miracle, Guy Ballard suddenly stopped at a certain point in his talk, and listened. Audible to some, sounds of music floated in through the auditorium.

 

“If you will listen very carefully,” said the heaven-gazing Messenger in an enraptured way, “you will hear something very interesting.”

 

It was then reported among certain of the faithful in the audience that the fabled “Music of the Spheres” had been heard.

 

Some of the least susceptible ones, however, said it was merely syncopated jazz from a nearby skating rink. Others, even more skeptical, said it was somebody’s radio played at a propitious time. It is a strange and startling thing, however, and one which certainly shows the extent to which credulity exists in the world today, that despite all these failures throughout so many years the students are still waiting, waiting for the promised miracles. The whole process readily reminds one of the Raven — in Poe’s poem of the name — “sitting, sitting above the chamber door,” and forever quoting “Nevermore.”

 

These Ballard miracles just didn’t happen, never have, and it will take more than the Ballard family and all their king’s horses to produce them.

 

However, the “Accredited Messengers” have learned to bring the promised miracles closer home to the poor students by vaguely referring to a certain number in each city who have made the grade in some way. In one city, for instance, Guy Ballard said:

 

“In this room tonight there are 104 for whom the Divine Director will consume the last vestige of human accumulation tonight.” (March 11, 1938, Ballard Group Letter to Class Leaders.)

 

In another city, Cleveland, Ballard said:

 

“In this small audience, the human creation of 346 has been dissolved and consumed.” (March 11, 1938, G.L.)

 

And so on with other audiences in various cities.

 

Nobody, of course, ever knows who these fortunate individuals are who have had their “human creation” —whatever that is—  removed. It seems to have been kept a dark secret, not at all like some appendiceal operations. Each hopes that this human accumulation has been dissolved or extirpated in some way, but doubts must assail him when he discovers, despite the operation, that some remnants of the thing have been inadvertently left.

 

At the Kansas City class the statement was made:

 

“. . . For 373 of the students all human accumulation had been completely dissolved . . . for 283 time and space had been set aside!” (February 18, 1938, G.L.)

 

Kansas City, it appears, wins the “human creation” honors; and, in addition, cleans up the entire running field in the Ballard “Time and Space” classic. How wonderful it must have been for these two hundred and eighty-three “Mighty I AM-ers” from Missouri to soar away —timeless and space-less— into NOTHINGNESS, and be free from current bill collectors and future evils they know not of!

 

For reasons which we shall later discover, the Ballards for four long years did not hold public classes in their own home town after leaving there in the fall of 1934 to “Save America.”

 

Although Chicago is undoubtedly a part of America and needs saving perhaps as much as Los Angeles and Miami, there were good reasons why the wise and cautious “Saint Germain” did not for four years include that city in his Messenger’s itinerary. There he was, titular head of a flourishing book concern — the “Saint Germain Press,” with a perfectly good Chicago post office box number, and he was careless enough to forget to have his own Accredited Messengers lecture there to boost book sales.

 

The nearest city he would permit them to come, for a public ten-day class, was Detroit. As a result, the Chicago faithful had to go to the automobile city to hear Saint Germain’s Accredited Messengers — a modern instance, as it were, of the mountain going to Mahomet!

 

So in the spring of 1938 scores of the Chicago students traveled down railway ties or across macadamized roads bound for Detroit, to hear and learn from these modern prophets, whose symbol was the dazzling, golden “Light” of the sun, instead of the pale, silvery crescent of Mahomet.

 

They descended upon that mechanized city in such numbers that Prophet Ballard simply had to take notice of his people, It must have been very complimentary to him, and, of course, one good compliment deserves another.

 

So when they appeared in a festive body at the Scottish Rite Cathedral in Detroit to attend the Ballard class —somewhat as native Iowans congregate in Lincoln Park at Los Angeles for their annual get-together meeting— he looked them over and seeing their eagerness for one of the long promised miracles, was moved to say:

 

“Out of the number of Chicago people who have come to this class, one hundred of that number have had their own human creation dissolved and consumed in its completeness!” (p. 11, June, 1938, V.)

 

What joy there must have been among these pilgrims from neglected Chicago who had sacrificed time and money for the journey. One hundred of them had had their “human creation” dissolved into thin air, or extirpated in some way by these miracle surgeons, the “Ascended Masters” — and not a single patient had succumbed, or had even been discommoded by the operation!

 

Then this modern prophet and dispenser of miracles looked away from the Chicago contingent, and gazed upon the Detroit gathering of the faithful. They, too, deserved something, some reward for their services; but some of them had been listening to things that all hundred-percent “I AM” students had been warned not to listen to. So, counting very rapidly, he said:

 

“Of those in Detroit, twenty-seven have had their entire human creation dissolved and consumed.”

 

Only twenty-seven, as compared to Chicago’s neat hundred. It just didn’t seem fair, for Detroit too had turned out in large numbers. But, it appears, it was Detriot’s own fault, for, said Prophet Ballard:

 

“Detroit has had a great opportunity; but because the students listened to very vicious gossip they have deprived themselves of this great, great opportunity.”

 

However, offering a little encouragement to the losing team, he added:

 

“But still the Light shall claim Its own in Detroit! The Light shall claim Its own in Detroit! I so decree it!” (p. 11, June, 1938, V.) Poor Detroit! The Ballards wanted, for good reasons of their own as we shall discover, to shake the plum tree for their Chicago visitors at this class, but found it was a good opportunity also to penalize the Detroit students a little for disobedience in this little game of human creation.

 

Thus while they graciously shake the metaphysical plums off one limb, they none too graciously use another limb to whip the erring into line.

 

 

 

(Psychic Dictatorship in America, chapter 8)