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THE FAMILIES DESTROYED BY THE BALLARDS


Guy and Edna Ballard caused many families to be destroyed because of the aberrations that the Ballards instilled in their followers. And on this matter, Gerald B. Bryan, who was a former member of the I AM cult, commented the following:
 
 
 
Repudiation of those who are not supporters
 
Probably in no other movement has there ever been such attempt at widespread interference with the personal lives of its members as in this cult of the Mighty I AM.
 
The Ballard students are instructed to push people out of their lives who cannot embrace the Mighty I AM teachings, and to have as little as possible to do with them. As result, the deepest relationships of many years’ standing have been severed by zealous students fanatical enough to live up to the Ballard instructions.
 
Husband, wife, mother, or some other relative living in a fanatical Mighty I AM family, has actually been kept in another part of the house and denied former privileges because he or she would not embrace the Ballard doctrines. We cite an instance of this in the following story.
 
 
We cite an example of this in the following story:
 
A car was parked outside of an “I AM Temple” in a certain city. The man within it had his head bowed over the steering wheel.
Another man was waiting outside this same “I AM” meeting place, and was pacing back and forth.
 
In passing by the parked car this latter man noticed that the man with head bowed over the wheel was sobbing. In ready comprehension, he approached him.
 
-        “I see they’ve got you too,” he said.
 
The man at the wheel raised himself up confusedly, quickly brushing the tears away. Then seeing the understanding in the other’s face, said:
 
-        “Yes, I was conceded an unusual privilege today. I ate at the table with my wife and children for the first time in weeks. They’ve had me in another part of the house.”
 
He looked pathetically into the face of the other man who seemed to understand, and added:
 
-        “I hope other privileges will be conceded too, or at least these same ones continued, but one never knows what the demand will be next. I am waiting to take my family home.”
 
 
This intolerance of other people’s beliefs and methods of living is a direct outcome of the Ballard teachings, particularly among so-called “hundred per cent students” who follow the Ballard instructions in every way.
 
 
 
 
 
Sexual prohibition
 
This sect teaches the total abolition of sex, and although in the past they taught that sex could be used to bring children into the world, they today teach quite differently.
 
As we have seen from the Goddess of Purity’s (?) statement, a philosophy of race suicide is preached. No marriage, no children. Make the “Ascension” instead. Leave the earth to the morons. What a wonderful chance for the Dictators!
 
Despite the alleged “purity” of this cult, a disguised but easily discernible eroticism plays through this cult.
 
Guy Ballard, over and over again on the public platform, referred to his so-called “Sex Law,” and seemed to take delight in picturing the fearful consequences which would result for any violation of it. At one of his early classes in Los Angeles (August 19, 1935), he said:
 
“The sex urge was only to be used for procreation. When it is used for so-called pleasure, mankind loses the dominion of his physical form . . . When it is wasted, the body becomes decrepit and helpless . . . Your aura becomes charged with the most vicious entities you can imagine.”
 
Since then, with fanatical persistence, the Ballards have constantly referred to the subject of sex. They inject the strongest sort of fear-thought into the minds of their students should any violation of their instruction take place. Time and again their “Ascended Masters” come forth to keep this subject flaming before the minds of their audiences.
 
“. . . To seek these classes,” says their Great Divine Director, “to gain acquaintance and companionship for sex desire is the most infamous thing ever on this earth! . . . There are those who have been doing it . . . If you don’t stop it, I shall pick you out! . . .You have been told repeatedly that unless you cease your sex desire, you cannot gain your Freedom and Ascension . . . Do not be surprised if I release the Fire, the Flame of Life to burn these desires out of you tonight. (applause)” (pp. 18-19, April 1940, V.)
 
 
 
Sexual abstinence is required even for family members who do not belong to the I AM cult, and to demonstrate this we quote the following letter written by a former class leader dated June 29, 1939:
 
“Last July during the Shrine class I had a private interview with Mrs. Ballard, at which time she told me (I might well use the terms, ordered or commanded, as that was her manner) to call for the release of my own mother, whom she knew I love with all my heart, just as we were taught to call for the release of our little pets.
 
“Why? Because my mother did not believe in them nor their teaching, though she never opposed me or them in any way.
 
“Mrs. Ballard told me I was carrying a big load and that my mother was a ‘Vampire activity’ keeping alive on my energy.
 
“She shot this question at me: ‘Doesn’t your mother take a lot of soda?’ ‘Yes.’ Then: ‘Doesn’t she eat a lot?’ I answered: ‘She has a good appetite.’ ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘and she sits around no good to herself or anyone else and she can keep alive for years drawing on your energy and living on it. Call for her release, you have work to do!’
 
“Then she told me to come home and ‘Tell to stop all sex relations.’ (is my daughter, who is very happily married to a fine fellow and they have two beautiful children.)
 
“I told her: ‘But they want two more children,’ etc. ‘No,’ said the dictator, ‘It is too near the Ascension for that now.’
 
“I asked: ‘What if her husband will not agree?’ ‘Tell her to take a child by each hand and walk out and slam the door,’ was her reply.”
 
 
The Ballards themselves, at least in this regard, evidently live up to their own teaching. Years ago, Mrs. Ballard pushed her own aged mother and only sister out of her life because they would not accept the Mighty I AM or believe that Guy Ballard’s books and his trips to India were true, knowing as they did that he was right here in the United States all the while.
 
 
 
 
 
Fanaticism
 
But sex was not the only thing which broke up these homes. The general philosophy itself, with its devotion to “Masters,” fanatical inhibitions and prohibitions, caused and is causing today many intolerable conditions in the home environment, separating life-long partners and estranging children and relatives.
 
Decrees which have to be uttered the live-long day and half the night leave little time to devote to the duties and obligations of home building. Children are neglected, the husband or wife ignored, for this newer and more thrilling experiment of worshiping unseen “Masters” and “Goddesses.”
 
A marriage partner who before the advent of Ballardism was all that the other could reasonably expect, almost overnight became neglectful of things which had produced happiness in the past in a fanatical endeavor to follow this newer and more streamlined pathway to happiness.
 
All this, and much more than we have space to record, is the result of this teaching — in a land which the Ballards assertedly came to “Save.”
 
Further, much of the alleged “purity” and “morality” of this cult is puritanical and ridiculous. This is readily seen from the following quotations.
 
 
 
(This is found in chapters 25 and 26 of the book Psychic Dictatorship in America)
 
 
 
 
 
 
OBSERVATION
 
The lack of consideration that Guy and Edna Ballard showed towards their followers, imposing their whims on them without caring about the dire consequences they would have, shows me that this couple had become dehumanized and was completely lost in their delusions.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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