bleeping zipper heads

For the zipper ref, read on. Freud would have a field day! But first, I wonder how many of you know that J.Z. Knight, a.k.a. "Ramtha," was the primary focal point of that POS movie, What the Bleep Do We Know? Never heard of her? Perhaps you've heard of Shirley MacLaine. Go search ol' Shirley up in Finding Enlightenment: Ramtha's School of Ancient Wisdom by J. Gordon Melton, "a research specialist with the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California" who never met a cult he didn't like. At any rate, the following passage is from Millennium, Messiahs, and Mayhem; Contemporary Apocalyptic Movements, edited by Thomas Robbins and Susan J. Palmer (pp. 164-165). The Ramtha Foundation also espouses a feminist apocalyptic theory. J.Z. Knight, a petite blond businesswoman, began in 1977 to function as the mouthpiece for Ramtha, the invisible eight-foot, 40,000-year-old "Lemurian" warrior. Based in Yelm, Washington, Knight has traveled across the country renting hotel ballrooms to hold weekend "dialogues" wherein Ramtha takes over her body, expounds his Gnostic philosophy, and dispenses advice. In a manner reminiscent of nineteenth-century female mediums (Moore 1977), J.Z. Knight channels an entity that defends the rights of women and challenges male hegemony. Ramtha condemns males for their omnivorous sexual appetite and encourages the empowerment of women: Men defile your women. Men molest one another. You brutalize sex, eroticize violence.... And men, you don't have to go out and copulate everything to impregnate the whole world!.... You don't have to spill your seed every day!... See women as equals, as brilliant gods, just as you are. That changes the shadow, the destiny that allows you to go forward in harmony with Nature. (Ramtha 1987, 138) Ramtha describes our planet as a "living entity" regularly visited by space brothers, and on the verge of irresistible "evolutionary processes" -- and paints an unusual vision of an Earth "laced with zippers" about to explode into volcanic eruptions, tidal waves, and earthquakes (Ramtha 1987, 30-35). He recommends survivalist preparations -- put your money in gold, move to the Pacific Northwest, stockpile a two-year food supply, and cultivate vegetable gardens. Real estate agents have watched with interest the migration into Washington State of "Ramsters," "many of whom are middle-aged women" (Montreal Gazette 1984). special bonus link... Journal of EMERGENCE!

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