By Gerald B. Bryan
Of all Ballard miracles, the one relating to the
“Ascension” is perhaps the most alluring. It is the biggest plum of them all,
and hangs higher on their miracle-bearing tree than all the others.
It is the Ballard answer to the ever-present problem of
death, for when one makes the ascension, he does not die!
His physical body becomes charged with Light, and it
“ascends” to become forever free from the limitations of birth and death. He
then becomes, according to the Ballard idea, an “Ascended Master,” able to roam
the corporeal and incorporeal worlds at will.
Of course, the idea is not new. It has been and is a part
of many religious philosophies, varying only in details.
All their students have to do, it appears, is to be
obedient to the “Accredited Messengers,” sweep an imaginary “Violet Consuming
Flame” through their bodies morning, noon, and night for the necessary
purification, and then call most vehemently for their ascension. The Ballards
have virtually guaranteed their faithful and obedient students their ascension
in this life!
One suspects, therefore, this ascension business is but
another lure to gain converts, and we believe evidence for this belief will be
amply justified in this chapter.
In Unveiled Mysteries, the hero —Godfre Ray King— recounts
how he, personally, assisted an “old man with white hair and beard” to make his
ascension from the side of Mt. Shasta, California.
He had just given the tired, discouraged old man a drink
from a “Crystal Cup” which formed miraculously in Godfre’s hand, when lo!
without warning the man began to rise from the ground all clothed in a “raiment
of Glistening White,” and then “disappeared on a Radiant Pathway of Light!” (p.
242, U.M.)
The experience naturally made a profound impression upon
our hero, who of course was none other than Guy Ballard of Chicago. And he has
been thinking and acting this “Ascension” drama ever since.
In Godfre’s next book, The Magic Presence, he describes a
couple of other ascensions, but instead of using the potent drink in the same
“Crystal Cup,” he brought in the idea of a mechanical device known as the
“Atomic Accelerator” — a marvelous golden chair which in some way, by merely
sitting in it, helps the weary neophyte to make the final journey into the
heavens.
Time was when the initiatory process was an arduous one,
but in the Ballard system one just sits and sits in a golden chair. It is as
easy as that!
Such a device is alleged to be in Saint Germain’s secret
retreat in the Wyoming Rockies, the “Cave of Symbols.” And here one day,
Ballard and his party arrive to observe the “Ascension” of a “white-haired
elderly gentleman” by name of David, who for some reason or other was
privileged to sit in the golden Atomic Accelerator.
Well, as might be expected, it wasn’t long before David’s
“hair had returned to its original color, dark brown, the lines faded from his
face, his flesh became the pink of perfect health, and his beard disappeared.”
(p. 84, M.P.)
But more marvelous of all, the whole of David himself
soon disappeared in a “dazzling radiance” of Light. Thus is described ascension
No. 2.
Ascension No. 3 was that of his friend and fellow
traveler, Rayborn, the wealthy ranch owner, who was soon to say goodbye to all
his cattle and gold mines and sit in the golden Atomic Accelerator.
Ballard and his party arrive according to schedule, as
likewise do the “Ascended Masters” and some lovely “Lady Masters,” among whom
is numbered Rayborn’s “Twin Ray.”
All is in readiness. The spectators take their positions,
and the western cattle king sits in the golden accelerator.
In a few moments, it is all over. Rayborn ascends clear
through the ceiling of the cave and disappears with his Twin Ray, while “like a
flash of lightning, a circle of the most intense, dazzling, white Light”
encompasses the entire place. (p. 288, M.P.) Thus did the cattle king make his
“Ascension.”
Now, when any one of the Ballard family can make an
ascension like this, or the two before, then we will more readily believe in
the Ballard “Ascension Miracles.”
Already, Mr. Ballard has claimed he has had such an
opportunity, but for reasons best known to himself did not chose to ascend. He
did, however, he says, sit in the golden Atomic Accelerator and it had the
effect of making him “want to jump right out of my body!”
The reason Mr. Ballard did not choose to make his
ascension is allegedly as follows. We quote his remarks made at Los Angeles on
the afternoon of August 25, 1935:
“Saint Germain insists that I mention something that I
have never mentioned even to my blessed family. Before Mrs. Ballard starts to
read about the ascension of Mr. Rayborn, of which I have spoken, I want to say
this:
“At the time of Mr. Rayborn’s ascension I was given the
opportunity to make the ascension, but the Mighty ‘I AM’ Presence said: ‘No! Go
back into the world and serve.’
“That hour my earthly pilgrimage was finished. Since that
time I am here in this atomic structure on extended time . . . Nothing this
human form can do can be recorded on my Life stream. “I know there will be
those who will go forth and say possibly, ‘That’s just a little bit of drama.’
Beloved ones, I would be removed from this embodiment if I said one word that
was not true.”
It is certainly one of the magic workings of this man’s
life that he has the ability of making people believe in him. Against logic and
common sense, despite contradictions and misstatements, and in the face of
absurdity after absurdity, his followers believe the statements that he makes.
At still another time, while assertedly in India, at
Chananda’s Secret Retreat in the Himalayas, he said he had the opportunity of
making his ascension, but again, his “I AM” told him to go back into the world
and serve.
Edna Ballard, also, has had her opportunity, but like her
self-sacrificing husband, she refused her ascension, too. We quote “Saint
Germain’s” statement made at Philadelphia on May 9, 1937:
“The Beloved Messengers here, when they came back from
Honolulu could have said Good-bye to you and have gone on, but they did not!
Their Love was great enough to go on, and on, facing and conquering the
viciousness which has been projected at them.” (p. 8, A.M.L.)
But could not these people have served and conquered
better by making their “Ascensions?”
We are curious enough to wonder whether the Ballards will
use the “Crystal Cup” and make their ascensions from the side of Mt. Shasta, or
will they make use of the more scientific “Atomic Accelerator” and ascend
through the ceiling at the Cave of Symbols in Wyoming. Only time can tell.
The Ballard Ascension miracles have lured thousands of
old people to the fold. But after four years of promises without a single
ascension, even the most Ballardized of the students began to wonder if any of
them would ever make their ascensions, or, for that matter, ever sit in the
golden chair for just a few moments.
Therefore, the resourceful Messengers evidently decided
that instead of making more promises, they had better produce a few ascensions.
So out of a clear sky one evening, on the Ides of March, at Cleveland, they
announced to a thrilled audience:
“On next Sunday, there will be ten Ascensions!” (p. 3,
April, 1938, V.)
But alas! Clevelandites were soon to learn that these
ascensions were not to be made in their fair city. They were to be made at
Saint Germain’s private and quite inaccessible mountain retreats: “Five from
the Cave of Symbols” and “Five from the Retreat in Arabia.”
Imagine the consternation of those who could not leave
their businesses to go to Wyoming or to far-away Arabia.
They had been told the “Ascension” had to be made in an
actual physical body and it had to be a living body, not a dead one. But none
of these students knew how to take their bodies to the Cave of Symbols in
Wyoming, and certainly not to the retreat in the fastnesses of the Arabian
mountains.
Incidentally, two of the other alleged secret retreats,
the one at Mt. Shasta, California, and the “Royal Teton” in Wyoming, have been
the occasion for a number of foolish pilgrimages of the students. There are
authentic stories of students who have given up their families, their
positions, their money, and have camped outside the rocky portals of Mt. Shasta
in California and the Grand Teton in Wyoming, waiting for the respective
mountain to open up and let them in. It had for Guy Ballard — why not for them!
A friend writes from the Grand Teton National Park that
he had talked to the postmistresses at Moose, Wyoming, at the base of the Grand
Teton; the postmistress at Jenny Lake; also to forest rangers and others; and
found, “the same old story”:
“I AM students, queer people . . . looking for the pot of
gold at the end of the rainbow.
“Yes, quite a few of them come up here . . . Leave
disillusioned . . . one was killed on his way back home after waiting a year
for the mountain to open up . . . Another was placed in the State Insane Asylum
here . . . etc.”
Getting back to the announcement at Cleveland; even
through the students were never told who the lucky ten were who made their
ascensions, it had the effect of arousing hope and renewed efforts among the
faithful students, and made them even more obedient than before to the Ballards
and their “Ascended Masters.”
But in time, after a few more “Ascensions” of this order,
the private ascension idea began to play out, and the Ballards for that and
other reasons too were compelled to institute a totally different kind of
ascension than previously described in their books.
One of these reasons is most obvious. The Ballards
themselves were getting older, and the strain of their work was telling on
them. Therefore, they had to make their ascension promises fit any eventuality
that might occur in their own lives.
Then, again, for years, their students had been dying,
leaving the mortal coil behind — a clear proof the promised ascension had not
taken place!
In some way this “proof” had to be concealed or rendered
unimportant in some way. The following is a description of the way they
attempted to do it.
Despite the fact that they had formerly most emphatically
stated the ascension could only be made by “raising” the actual PHYSICAL body,
and then only before death occurred, they now had the resourceful but
none-too-consistent Saint Germain come through with a startling and
unprecedented message. A message which completely changed the effect and intent
of their original inviolate “Ascension Law.”
“Beloved Children of the Light,” said Saint Germain on
November 8, 1938, at Washington, D.C., “I want you to see and feel the Reward
which Life has chosen to give to certain individuals.
. . In all ages past, the Ascension could only be made by
taking the purified physical body into the Higher Mental Body, as the Messenger
has explained to you.” (p. 5, Dec., 1938, V.)
Then Saint Germain told how a “New Dispensation” had been
arranged for the faithful students!
It seems that two fair members of the “Ascended Master”
hierarchy —the “Goddess of Light” and the “Goddess of Liberty”— went personally to a great Being, “Sanat
Kumara,” sitting somewhere in the heavens, to intercede in the Ballard
students’ behalf.
It appears further that this great Being, Sanat Kumara,
giving in to the entreaties of two beautiful goddesses, agreed to take special
pity on the plight of Ballard students, who, instead of making their ascensions
as they were promised, were dying and leaving their bodies behind.
The outcome of the heavenly conclave was —as Saint
Germain so clearly explains— there will now be “certain ones among the
students” who will be “permitted to make the Ascension while the outer
structure, the discord of human form, remains here.”
Now that this troublesome little matter of the “physical
remains” has been solved in this heavenly fashion, it seems reasonable to
suspect this new kind of ascension will occur by the wholesale.
And sure enough, in the second issue of their magazine
following this stupendous announcement of the “New Dispensation” authorized by
a single individual sitting in his high heaven, we see in purple print that the
Ballard ascension mills are already beginning to grind!
As evidence of this, we quote the “Great Divine
Director’s remarks made at the Shrine Class in Los Angeles on January 8, 1939:
“Already in three different instances, those, who have made the change, which
others not understanding thought was so-called death, have made the Ascension,
In each instance there has not been one particle of Life remaining in the cells
or structure of the flesh that remained behind, which is mechanical evidence of
the Truth that they had made the Ascension. There are quite a number who will
make that change within a few months . . . it can easily and readily be done.”
(pp. 19-20, Feb., 1939, V.)
This kind of ascension, “so easily and readily
accomplished,” is no doubt all right for any of the un-Accredited Messengers,
class leaders, and obedient students, but for the three and only “Accredited Messengers,”
surely the more difficult ascension under the old dispensation is required.
We therefore expect that the Ballards will stage at least
one, if not, three good, old-fashioned ascensions such as described in their
books, and ascend heavenward physically and corporeally either by way of the
“Crystal Cup” or the “Atomic Accelerator”!
And when they do that, we and the other doubting Thomases
of the land will believe in the Ballard “Ascension Miracles.”
(Psychic Dictatorship in America, chapter 9)
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