THE DEATH OF GUY BALLARD

 

DEATH ENTERS THE BALLARD HOUSEHOLD

 

By Gerald B. Bryan

 

At his expensive Vermont Avenue mansion near the edge of beautifully-wooded Griffith Park in Los Angeles, a white-haired old man lies dying.

 

It is the early morning hours of December 29, 1939; and at exactly 5:20 A.M. the Messenger of Death is scheduled to arrive and take this man into the Great Unknown.

 

Seven days previous, their seventeen-day "Mighty I AM" class had opened in Los Angeles, and the announcement had gone forth: "Mr. and Mrs. Ballard will conduct another class at the Shrine Civic Auditorium in Los Angeles."

 

But when the great Shrine class opened, Guy Ballard was not there.

 

Edna Ballard explained that because of a serious crisis in world affairs, "Blessed Daddy was out with Saint Germain." And her followers, psychologized into believing the "Blessed Mommie Ballard" never told one single blessed word that was not the truth, believed her in this as in everything else.

 

They did not know that Guy Ballard, broken in health and decrepit of body, had been half carried from his expensive hotel apartment in downtown Los Angeles and secretly taken to this big house at 2545 N. Vermont Ave., in the exclusive Griffith Park district of Los Angeles.

 

They did not know that instead of being out on some "world service" with Saint Germain, Guy Ballard was waiting to keep his last appointment on earth — the one with the grim Messenger.

 

During his nine days residence in this house, Guy Ballard's condition had become steadily and progressively worse. Neither Edna Ballard, "Saint Germain," nor any other member of the "Ascended Host," could relieve the pain in his body or reduce the tremendous swelling in his abdomen which was gradually but surely taking his life.

 

Two days before the appointment with Death, a surgeon was hastily summoned. He came with his instruments and performed an abdominal operation on the body of this man — a man who for years had claimed to have a body of "Immortal Endurance," and who said over and over again that his was a different and more perfect body than the bodies of other men.

 

But neither the surgeon nor any other material or spiritual aid could keep the Messenger away.

 

And here on his death-bed, in the early morning hours of December 29, 1939, Guy Ballard, "Accredited Messenger of the Ascended Masters" and co-originator of the Mighty I AM Movement, was soon to be called to render an account of his sixty-one years and five months of earth life.

 

Perhaps already, as he lies there in a comatose condition, the Scroll of Life, like a great panorama, unfolds before his eyes, bringing vivid pictures of his good and bad deeds done in the life now closing.

 

The pictures go racing by...his early contacts with "Masters"...his travels to mountain tops in search of gold...the gold stock-selling deals in Chicago...the years spent as fugitive from justice...his refuge in Los Angeles...his secret return to Chicago...the re-union with his wife...the dawn of their great metaphysical idea...the piecing together of their books...the secret classes in Chicago...the start of their great "Mighty I AM" movement...the applauding audiences...their Messianic claims...the blasting of their enemies...their White House ambitions...the death-blasts at the First Lady of the Land...their death-decrees against the President of the United States.

 

And now, this last scene of all. Here in this big mansion near Los Angeles' wooded park, Guy Ballard, "Messenger of the Ascended Master," but now deserted by his Mighty Saint Germain, who has allegedly given him power over the forces of nature — awaits his own rendezvous with Death.

 

Is that grim Messenger there in response to the great "Law of Action and Reaction" which Guy Ballard so often said could not fail to operate in the lives of others but would not affect his own life because "no longer could anything be recorded on his life stream"?

 

Is it true that "What one sends out, will inexorably return"?  Have his own death-decrees, like some fearful, gigantic boomerang, returned upon their creator?

 

The breath rasps, the heart action falters, and those who have been waiting in that death chamber draw nearer.

 

 

When all was over, the mortician was notified that death had entered that household, and he came and prepared the body.

 

The physician took out his pen and wrote on his certificate as cause of death — "Arterio-sclerotic heart disease," confirmed by X-Ray diagnosis of the heart, and, as probable contributing cause- — " 'Cardiac' cirrhosis of liver."

 

And on January 1, 1940, the body of Guy Ballard, which assertedly in 1932 at Chananda's retreat in India had emerged unscathed after remaining "two days and two nights" in the "white heat of a great furnace" (p. 390, M.P.), was taken to a Los Angeles crematory and destroyed by fire.

 

Thus ended the earth career of Guy Warren Ballard, self-styled "Accredited Messenger of the Ascended Masters," who in the last seven years of his life had a meteoric rise to a position of strange influence over the lives and destinies of thousands, and yet, despite his claim to "Immortal Endurance," died as other mortals have ever died.

 

But to his thousands of followers, Guy Ballard did not die! They believe that death, in the usual sense, did not come to him; that instead of dying, he "Ascended"!

 

They believe that this "Ascension" was made voluntarily and that there was no suffering or disease in his body, which, allegedly, was not like the bodies of the rest of mankind.

 

They do not want to believe that Guy Ballard, after weeks of agonizing illness, died from a complication of chronic diseases. They believe exactly as Edna Ballard —considered by many as the real originator and sustaining force of this cult— has psychologized them into believing.

 

For three days, she kept the public and her thousands of followers from knowing that her husband had died. The usual obituary notices were withheld from the press, and only her closest intimates knew that Guy Ballard's physical body lay dead at this house in the hills. The newspapers did not get the story of his death until three days later.

 

 

Guy Ballard died early Friday morning, December 29, 1939, from the diseases we have enumerated, which fact may be confirmed by the official death certificate filed at the Bureau of Vital Statistics at Los Angeles. The record of his abdominal operation on December 27, 1939, is given on this certificate as well as his cremation notice.

 

The symptoms of his illness are given on the certificate as having begun "three months and two days" before death. This would place the beginning of his illness on September 27, 1939, at which time he was in his legal home of Chicago.

 

During the last part of this illness Edna Ballard made it appear that "Blessed Daddy" was out on some important business for Saint Germain, and therefore could not appear at the Shrine class. But the fact is that Guy Ballard was so ill he could not possibly appear. His body was so swollen that he was forced to sit up in his chair instead of lying down.

 

Following his death, the body, bearing the record of suffering and the diseases which took his life, remained for three days on the bed, awaiting the "Ascension," which did not take place. Afterwards, it was, with difficulty, placed in an expensive pink-plush casket.

 

On Monday morning, January 1, 1940, a private funeral was held in that house. And there, over the closed casket containing the body of her "Ascended-Master" husband, Edna Ballard preached his funeral oration.

 

Following the funeral the body was taken to a Los Angeles crematory and consigned to the flames — hours after its owner was supposed to have made his "Ascension." For years the Ballards taught that the physical body itself had to ascent when the "Ascension" was made; yet, instead of it rising heavenward, here was the body still on the earth plane, being consumed by the flames.

 

Edna Ballard claims that her husband made his "Ascension" three days after so-called death. It is a strange commentary on this contradictory cult that in the same issue of their official magazine which announced to the world the "Ascension" of Guy Ballard, appeared the following alleged statement from the Ballard "Jesus," made November 30, 1939:

 

-      "There has been lurking in many the idea that one may make the Ascension after so-called death; but that cannot be accomplished ..." (p. 6, Jan., 1949, V.)

 

Yet, the claim is made that Ballard did make the Ascension after so-called death. The dramatic role played by Edna Ballard in perpetuating the hoax of this cult is without parallel, we believe, in the history of cultism in America.

 

 

During the three days following her husband's death, and during all the preceding seven days while the Shrine class was in session and her husband lay ill, suffering, or dying, Edna Ballard made her appearance every afternoon and evening —as usual— and her applauding audiences did not know the secret locked within her heart.

 

Some might say Edna Ballard is different from other human beings, that she did not feel the well of emotion which must have sought for expression as she made these public appearances, while, all the time, her partner of twenty-three years either lay dying or dead. Only Saint Germain's "Little Dynamite" can ever tell what went on within her brain and heart as she kept her secret.

 

Donald, the son, broke down and cried at his father's death, but not the stoical mother and wife. Her own aged mother died in Chicago on January 2nd, the day following the funeral of her husband — but the classes at the Shrine continued "as usual."

 

Such is no doubt the effect of the teachings of this cult, whose requirement to its students is the throw human sympathy out of their lives. One of the Ballard "Ascended Masters," the great "Maha Chohan," said of Edna Ballard that he took "the precious child Lotus" under his direction "because she was ready and willing to have every human thing ground out of her." (p. 9, April, 1940, V.)

 

But despite Edna Ballard's efforts to conceal her husband's death from the public, the newspapers got hold of the story about noon on January 1st, and on the afternoon of that day the news of Guy Ballard's death was out. Many of the local and national newspapers ran news items such as the following:

 

Chicago Tribune (Special news item from Los Angeles, Monday, Jan. 1): "Private funeral services conducted here today revealed that Guy W. Ballard, founder and head of the Great I AM cult, has been dead since Friday...After a funeral oration by Mrs. Ballard, the former Edna Anna Wheeler of Chicago, who served as high priestess of the cult, Ballard's body was cremated...Ballard was born in Newton, Kansas, and gave up paper hanging about 25 years ago to delve into mysticism...obtained large sums of money from his followers and lived expensively...because of his difficulties in Chicago, Ballard promised to send the cows, pigs, and sheep which have been slaughtered in the stockyards, to haunt the people."

 

Los Angeles Times: "Attracting a huge following across the nation...preached that through 'thought octaves' he could defend himself against all enemies, all evils...traveled in expensive fashion and owned four canary-colored high-priced automobiles...used a suite of rooms at the most expensive downtown hotel."

 

Chicago Herald-American: "Drew huge crowds to his meetings in the Civic Opera House...unique among modern Messiahs...it was estimated at least 50,000 men and women joined his movement in Chicago alone...Followers of the cult were astonished when they learned of Ballard's death."

 

 

With this break of newspaper publicity concerning her husband's death, it was of course necessary for Edna Ballard to make a statement of some kind. Therefore, on Monday afternoon, January 1st, just before or while the newspapers were appearing on the street carrying the news of her husband's death, Edna Ballard came once again before her applauding audience at the Shrine class in Los Angeles — this time to make the most dramatic announcement she had ever made in a seven year career filled with sensational utterances.

 

Having previously intimated that there would be an "Ascension" at this class, she said to these miracle-seeking people:

 

-      "Our Blessed Daddy Ballard made his Ascension last night at twelve o'clock from the Royal Teton Retreat, and is now an Ascended Master!"

 

The audience, stunned for a moment at so marvelous an event and the significance of it, came suddenly to life. Applause rang through the large auditorium, and ecstatic faces looked heavenward, for, at last, their blessed leader had made his "Ascension," as he so often said he would!

 

-      "Our Blessed Daddy will come back," dramatically continued the victorious Messenger, "and there will be a big temple in Los Angeles where he will some day appear in all his Ascended Master Radiance, wielding infinitely more Power of the Light Rays than before his Ascension."

 

 

Having this counteracted at this large Shrine class the newspaper stories of the death of her husband, Edna Ballard proceeded in the next issue of her magazine to play up the "Ascension" idea to her followers throughout the country. In an article entitled: "Our Messenger's Ascension," she insists that her students be positive about this matter.

 

-      "When people of the outer world," she says, "are discussing what has happened to Mr. Ballard, please make it clear that Mr. Ballard has made the Ascension! [her italics]...He can wield Power in that Body which America needs right now; and He is doing it with no uncertainty...Make your statements with positive force; for I assure you I am telling you the Truth and will never tell you anything but the Truth...We have nothing to cover up." (pp. 30-31, Jan., 1940, V.)

 

Following through with this intention of not "covering up" anything (not even a beautiful sales idea), Edna Ballard, in the next couple of issues of the Voice of the I AM, instituted a thorough-going campaign to sell her Ascended-Master husband's colored photograph — and at prices ranging from $2.50 to $25.00 per photograph!

 

-      "The photographs of Our Beloved Messenger," says she, "have been definitely prepared and charged by Him and us to render tremendous Service to all who use them for contemplation...Contemplation of His Picture and calls to Him are bringing forth instantaneous answers." (pp. 41-42, March, 1940, V.)

 

Having guaranteed instantaneous results to purchasers of her deceased husband's photograph, Edna Ballard proceeded to guarantee similar results to her students by permitting them to listen to Blessed Daddy's "Voice" — sold on phonograph records at $2.50 per record! "If the students," she says:

 

-      "Will use them in their own homes every day...it will enable Him to charge tremendous Power of the Cosmic Light and Perfection into the individual and his world." ("Our Messenger's Voice," p. 45, May, 1940, V.)

 

Thus, even though her husband is dead or "Ascended," he is still of considerable value to the surviving widow in holding the blessed students and increasing the I AM revenue.

 

~ * ~

 

It is one of the extraordinary workings of this mercenary cult that, today, thousands of apparently intelligent people who ordinarily would judge a business deal on its merits, refuse to use their minds to analyze the numerous absurdities, contradictions, and money-making schemes of this "Ascended Master" organization.

 

Ignoring the easily provable facts of Guy Ballard's death, as shown by the death certificate and cremation record, these psychologized people believe just as Edna Ballard tells them. They do not want to believe, or, FEAR to believe, differently; and until they are able to become thinking individuals again, their minds, souls, and pocket-books are mortgaged to the I AM cult.

 

We would point out to these students that in all the so-called "Ascensions" in the Ballard books certain changes to the body of the ascending one took place. The "hair returned to its original color"; the "flesh became the pink of perfect health." (p. 84, M.P.) Afterwards, the physical body "disappeared on a Radiant Pathway of Light." (p. 242, U.M.)

 

It was this kind of "Ascension" which Ballard promised his students he would make — and didn't. Trying to get around this failure in some way, Edna Ballard explains that the "Beloved Messenger...was given His Ascension under the New Dispensation." (p. 26, Jan., 1940, V.) We have, however, shown in Chapter 9, "The Ballard 'Ascension' Miracles," that this New Dispensation idea is all part of the same cruel hoax.

 

In her article entitled, "The Victory of the Ascension," Edna Ballard, referring again to her husband's "Ascension," stated:

 

-      "Saint Germain and the Other Ascended Masters said so repeatedly that His Body was not like the bodies of the rest of mankind," and added:... "The proof of the Tremendous Cosmic Power He now wields is the hundreds and thousands of instantaneous answers to the calls of the 'I AM' Students all over the world..." (p. 34, March, 1940, V.)

 

Nevertheless, this man who claimed to have healed thousands and whose body was so different from the bodies of others, ended his life in utter repudiation of his own claims and teachings. His last days on earth were spent in agony and disillusionment, causing him to fling away from himself the picture of his own "Saint Germain" which had been handed him in an effort to help him in his misery.

 

These and many other facts, Edna Ballard has sought to keep from her hypnotized students, who do not want to look —or fear to look— at the record in this book.

 

But some day, when the Mountain of Deception becomes too great for them to bear, and the Goddess of Truth —the one "Goddess" they did not dare bring forth— gets a hearing, then the record left by Guy Ballard and his wife, Edna Ballard, will be here for them to read.

 

Guy Godfre Ray King Ballard, self-styled "Accredited Messenger of the Ascended Masters," co-originator of the Mighty I AM cult, and self-proclaimed reincarnated George Washington, first President of the United States — is dead.

 

But his widow, EDNA LOTUS RAY KING BALLARD, beloved "Little Dynamite" of Saint Germain, surviving co-originator of the Mighty I AM, self-styled "Accredited Messenger of the Ascended Masters," and self-proclaimed reincarnated Joan of Arc, sainted Savior of France — still carries on publicly the cult's activities through her radio broadcasts, sale of books, charts, photographs, and other articles of "Ascended-Master" merchandise.

 

Her thousands of credulous followers meet today in secret classes dedicated to "Saving America" —closed now except to those who give unquestioning obedience to unseen "Masters" and their earth-plane "Accredited Messenger"— and with fanatical zeal look forward to the time when George Washington Ballard, their former "Blessed Daddy" but now Mighty "Ascended Master" who "wields tremendous Cosmic Power," will come forth to bring the "NEW GOVERNMENT" into America and fulfill Edna Ballard's oft-repeated prophecy: "An Ascended Master shall sit in the chair at the White House!"

 

And so, dominated by a woman dictator, this strange subversive cult which has deceived and hypnotized so many...broken up homes...brought about divorces...caused insanities...blasphemed Christ...propagated lies...enunciated doctrines of hate...instilled nameless fear...bound thousands to psychic "Masters"...sent death blasts at the President of the United States — still continues in the United States of America, land of "religious" liberty.

 

Strange, incredible, fantastic —pathetic— yet this is the true story of that most extraordinary cult, known as the "Mighty I AM."

 

 

 

(Psychic Dictatorship in America, chapter 35)