By Shadow State
It turns out that many of the same kind of people who fell for NXIVM also fell for dangerous cults like Ramtha. Before Mark Vicente became enraptured by NXIVM and Keith Raniere, he was a follower of Ramtha, a cult run by a woman named JZ Knight. Vicente even filmed a movie about JZ Knight and Ramtha titled, “What the Bleep Do We Know”.
JZ Knight was born in Roswell, New Mexico in 1946, and lives in Yelm, Washington, just outside of Tacoma and Olympia, Washington in Thurston County. JZ Knight has done well for herself [and Ramtha]. She lives in a mansion on 80 acres. Unlike Keith Raniere, JZ Knight is not a renunciate.
In her vaudeville style routine, Ms. Knight goes into a trance and transforms herself into a 35,000 year old Lemurian Warrior named Ramtha. Lemuria is a lost continent located in either the Indian Ocean or the Pacific Ocean depending on which way the wind blows.
Ramtha speaks in a masculine voice with a slightly British accent. JZ Knight herself has a standard American accent. To JZ Knight’s credit, she actually speaks sentences that have nouns, verbs and proper syntax unlike the verbal vomit spewed out of Keith Raniere’s mouth.
Of course Ramtha and JZ Knight’s teachings are still full of crap.
In channeling the spirit of a long dead, 35,000-year Lemurian warrior, JZ Knight is a halfway decent actress. Better than many of the actresses who infest NXIVM. Like NXIVM, the Ramtha cult attracts pseudo-intellectual actresses who enjoy pretending to be smart.
Ramtha attracts a better class of stupid actresses than NXIVM. Among JZ Knight’s Hollywood followers are Linda Evans, Shirley Maclaine, and Salma Hayek. Linda Evans also dabbled for a time in NXIVM.
And JZ Knight has attracted wealthy airhead heiresses to help fund her research into alternate realities. One of Knight’s donors is Rebecca Oppenheimer, heiress to the South African De Beers diamond fortune. https://www.thenewstribune.
Knight taught Oppenheimer the sport of Blind Archery which is, as the name suggests, practicing archery while blindfolded.
JZ Knight and her Ramtha cult have some significant control of politics of Thurston County, Washington, through massive donations to the county’s Democratic Party, much the same way that the Bronfman-funded NXIVM made large donations to Democratic party candidates in New York State.
“From 2014 through 2016, the Thurston County Democratic Party has raised $526,391 according to their reports with the Public Disclosure Commission. For contrast and comparison, the Thurston County Republican Party has raised $115,468. Of the over half million dollars the Thurston Democrats raised, $145,000 of it came directly from racist cult leader JZ Knight/Ramtha. This was more money than all the cash raised by the local Republicans during that same time.”
Barack Obama with JZ Knight [Knight’s granddaughter in middle.]
While JZ Knight supports Democrats like Hillary Clinton, her masculine Ramtha alter-ego has endorsed Donald Trump. [I suppose that’s one of the advantages of having a split personality.]
Like Keith Raniere, JZ Knight sued a woman named Virginia Coverdale it seems to make Coverdale an indentured servant. A Federal Court rejected JZ Knight’s lawsuit.
Cult Leader JZ Knight fails in Federal Court
In a January 2018 story in theGoverned.com, we learn, “The nastiest litigation saga by the most litigious cult leader – JZ Knight – finally came to an end last month. Knight lost her final legal effort in Federal Court to turn former cult member Virginia Coverdale into a perpetual indentured servant. Federal Judge Brian Lynch wrote in his findings of fact filed December 15th:
“’Overall, this Court’s conclusion is that JZK was intent on suppressing efforts by Coverdale to expose tenets and practices of RSE because it might cause serious damage to its reputation. JZK attempted to use its superior financial resources to intimidate its dissident ex-students by its lawsuit. Coverdale had the temerity to defend herself in a lawsuit pursued vigorously by J.Z. Knight and JZK.’
“The 31-page court findings of fact and conclusions of law document is a damning rebuke of JZ Knight’s abusive harassment of a former cult member.
“Virginia Coverdale was a former member who left the cult and attempted to warn local government officials and current cult followers about JZ Knight’s racist and bizarre behavior. JZ Knight initiated aggressive legal action against Coverdale in an attempt to silence her and intimidate other followers from exposing the truth about Knight.
“Coverdale had few resources and sparse legal representation during most of the five-year legal drama. JZ Knight spent nearly a million dollars to harass Coverdale over the past five years, and it is difficult to prevail in Washington State’s court system with such a disparity of resources. Eventually, Coverdale was forced into bankruptcy by Knight’s relentless legal harassment.”
The parallels between JZ Knight and Keith Raniere are startling. And what does it say about cults that their leaders behave in remarkably similar ways?
Frank Parlato 
Janine Morrison 
J.J. O'Hara 
Richard Luthmann 
Marie White 
Paul Serran
Please leave a comment: Your opinion is important to us!
You can’t clarify abuse and hate and evil. It is what it is and speaks for itself. You can explain away poop by calling it lemon pie and eat it if you want, but it’s still poop and it still stinks. Those of us lucky enough to have had our eyes opened to the truth have left. Anyone still with eyes closed reading this, still in the skool, I pray that one day your eyes will be opened and you’ll find your way out of this abusive cult.
You and those making these ridiculous comments and comparisons are simply ‘grasping at straws’. Why have you not interviewed JZ or a current student from RSE to get the facts, not this batch of biased assumptions and confusion with no basis in fact? There are thousands of genuine students that would clarify this confusion and disinformation.
[…] A supporter of J.Z. Knight criticized my article on Ramtha, entitled Shadow: The Parallels Between JZ Knight’s Ramtha and Keith Raniere’s Nxivm Are Startling […]
[…] you – lacking diligence – publish a story such as Shadow: The Parallels Between JZ Knight’s Ramtha and Keith Raniere’s Nxivm Are Startling, it shows you are desperately trying to get a wider […]
[…] you – lacking diligence – publish a story such as Shadow: The Parallels Between JZ Knight’s Ramtha and Keith Raniere’s Nxivm Are Startling, it shows you are desperately trying to get a wider […]
Hey Frank. You better hire better and serious investigative journalist who wants to really inform your audiences accurately, before is too late and You and your bisiness end-up sued precisely by Mrs. Knight, for being so undiligently to publish some piece of story like this one above, making such a comparaison is so blatantly desperate and infortunate to get a wider audience that You obviously did not make your own impartial, neutral, factual checking research. But, unlike other cults like the many in US and all around the world You have never look at them even closer, the wrongly called cult about Ramtha, has been deeply and widely studied by the foremost and prestigious academics and scholars from the highly regarded institutions and universities who published their findings in such precise and detailed way that it will take, believe me, more than this kind of gossip notes in an unprestigious blog like yours to discredit those scientific credential and names. You do not even made one foot note reference. But, it is your journey as a publisher and, perhaps, some day, as a real journalist, so, I will just recommend to You and your respectable audience, to first look the quantum cafe library http://www.ramtha.com and start making your own journey about Yourself and who You are/be really? to allow to this kind of material be published in your website? Frankly, You may need to read some book, listen some teachings on compact discs and, perhaps, even watch some dvds about what is really going on at Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment, and, of course, what really this marvelous little School is about, which, by the way and unlike so many cults it does pay its taxes, do not receive any money from cities, syate or federal governments and, do not harm nor does any damage to the students that freely and willfully attend the events they choose to attend. You can start listening this material, for FREE! Remember, not even have a Bible this days have been free!
“Ramtha ~ All The Power Is Within You” on #Vimeo https://t.co/CCepEwoW2a https://twitter.com/ADHitchin/status/1136341202561839106?s=17
Hey Frank, I think what it says is that you can trace them ALL back to the same source- check out Nancy Salzman’s trainers? Why arent more people digging into this? Every one of her trainers has worked for CIA or at least in some sort of secret goverment capacity. https://twitter.com/OliversWilde/status/1132848767433154561
Cult is what cult does.
All Hail Paul. :))
Guru Master your words fall on us as gentle summer rain in a Californian firestorm. Tell us which KoolAid we should drinK?
RAMATHA-
has many similarities to He Man or the original DC Comics character Captain Marvel otherwise known as Shazam
Basically Ramatha is a comic book cult type leader.
At night I turn into Hiawatha a 300 year old Indian woman spirit and speak in a 2000 year old language known as gibberish…
ahh liz warren is that you
Given that the phenomenon of the mind typically at the root of “channeling” – similar to supposed “past life” recollections – is based in part on forgotten or subconscious memories from childhood, it wouldn’t be surprising if Ramtha has some roots in comic books, or something like old movie shorts, that Knight saw when young.
A fair bit of L. Ron Hubbard’s Scientology “space opera,” including the name of the infamous Xenu, has turned out to have precursors in stories on old comic book covers that must have stuck in the back of his mind, or the mind of one of his early “research” subjects who were subject to the sort of suggestive or hypnotic techniques that can cause the mind to produce such imaginative material.
Yes! I love the fact this awful cult is getting some attention. Just like Raniere, JK Knight is an absolute nutcase. You should also highlight how she gets absolutely blasted on wine and who knows what else alongside her followers (victims) while giving out speeches and then having them run head first into trees while blindfolded. Injuries have occurred. Followers have been left bankrupt and without family or friends. Meanwhile JK runs around with her Amex black card spending like no other. She also sued another person that claimed to channel “Ramtha” stating this person left her sprit low and so incapacitated that she couldn’t channel Ramtha. What a bunch of BS.
This cult must be dissolved.
” she gets absolutely blasted on wine”
I should mention that JZ Knight’s cult believes that there are magical properties in wine and smoking tobacco from a pipe that allow one to comprehend the universe better.
“Lessons in the school’s compounds sometimes include wine drinking,[10] tobacco pipe smoking and dancing to rock ’n’ roll music. Allegedly, it is being taught that the nitric oxide in red wine (not the alcohol), also found in pipe tobacco (not the nicotine), can help to facilitate changes in the brain as a part of the process in which to achieve these means.[citation needed]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramtha%27s_School_of_Enlightenment
So Raniere even stole the running into a tree routine?
There are SO MANY to choose from on here:
https://gurumag.com/articles/
this is one of the worst:
https://gurumag.com/tech-bro-guru-inside-the-sedona-cult-of-bentinho-massaro/
Guru Magazine I love it.
I still don’t get the draw of cults, especially if someone all ready belonged to a cult and joined another one.
I
It’s okay, niceguy. You don’t get a lot of things.
Scott,
You’re right I don’t get why people join cult-ish MLM’s, having never been in one myself.
BTW, are you still making carvings from AMWAY soap?
I’ll keep making AMWAY soap carvings as long as your wife keeps beating the crap out of you.
I understand that it is easy to sh*t on those of us who have been cult members. Do you really want to know why a person could fall for this stuff?
I would like to offer a few personal contributing factors:
No maternal bond. My parents were kept extremely busy by the organization that I was born into. They were made to believe that nothing was ever good enough, there was always more to do. I could expound on this aspect for hours but essentially it contributed to my feeling like I don’t belong. I didn’t have a safe space at home. But it was all justified by the sense of urgency. “Jesus is coming! Any moment now! Gotta save souls! Gotta do more!”
I was schooled by this religion, so I was kept away from the general public, as well as taught that the rest of the world was evil. I was not allowed to read things such as Greek Myths or Fairy Tales or comics. Of course I was not allowed to read the newspaper or watch TV. Movies were forbidden. Seriously. My guardian angel would wait outside the movie theater, so that if I died (and of course I was told that movie theater deaths were very common) I would not go to Heaven.
Holy F**k! I KNOW! How did I not see through this stuff? Right?
No critical thinking skills were taught. I was encouraged to go to the faith’s expensive college, which did not teach science or philosophy. Daily classes about the faith were mandatory, from kindergarten on. Can you say, “Indoctrination”?
I was encouraged to work for this organization, which justifies lower wages to employees due to the group’s “Mission.” In other words, employees are missionaries and have to accept lower wages.
As I stated, I did not feel like I fit in. I was always seeking. I felt as though somewhere “out there” an answer might exist, something to make me feel whole.
Ha! I almost was a Scientologist! I have Rodney King to thank for that! My first day of class was to be April 29, 1992, but once I heard of the riots, I was too chicken to drive the 74 miles INTO the chaos. When the group charged me anyway, and berated me for my cowardice, I thought, “no way.”
Then I fell for the love bombing of the mormons. Another cult entirely, in my opinion. But I do know that my particular personality (which I see as open and seeking, yet broken, somehow) is exactly what recruiters of any high demand group are looking for. And not just that, my particular flaws make me see to attract the most culty parts of any group. Ha! As I am typing this I received a friendshipping text from my Ministering Sister, or whatever they call Visit Teachers now. Luckily I am out now.
Anyway, Niceguy, these are just a tiny smattering of contributing factors. Gaps in education compared to the general public, fear of anyone different that me, culturally, things of that nature helped keep me stuck. I am still combating these tendencies, and it makes me susceptible anyone who acts as though they “have the answers.”
And yet it is easy for me to crap on the gullible, too. Someone I know lost money to Eric Pearl and Teal Swan. My sister went to a Ramtha retreat, and my reaction was both shock at her stupidity and envy somehow, even though her experience was miserable.
Interesting, sad….thanks for writing
satan
and his brain washed imps
cannot believe that people get caught up in this junk
very manipulative people
looks as tho a lot of these cults are run by attractive people
and it is said that satan is very attractive
lots of empty souls join these cults
they sell their souls
I wouldn’t say that What the #$*! Do We (K)now!? is about JZ Knight and Ramtha – I remember it at the time as representing the sort of general worldview that appealed to the new age crowd, which happened to include a family member who insisted I watch it, and I had to go back and check on IMDB to see that Knight and, apparently, the voice of Ramtha, did indeed have cameo appearances.
Channeling is a curious phenomenon of the mind, related to dreaming, which often occurs when individuals are in a suggestible or hypnotic state. It’s spurious, but the individuals doing it are not necessarily consciously perpetrating a hoax, and may even believe it is somehow authentic.
I also meant to mention, Knight is a somewhat different sort of guru, and her Ramtha School of Enlightment a somewhat different type of cult, though as with all of these groups and their leaders, there are significant similarities nonetheless.
NXIVM’s inner circle operated more like Warren Jeffs’ FLDS.
NXIVM overall operated more like Scientology – which was a model that Raniere was fascinated with, and deliberately took ideas and practices from, with some help from people who had been directly involved (though the story of that, has yet to be fully told). And, obviously, Amway, NLP and hypnosis were significant parts of the mix as well.
I still laugh at the statement Vincente made about believing JZ Knight could transform herself into a 35,000 year-old warrior: When he was asked why he finally left Ramtha after all those years—he said that in the end it didn’t make sense.
Quick thinking, Vinnie…
And he stumbled into a cult equally bad if not worse.
Ramtha didn’t make any sense but Raniere did. And to think I once invited Vicente to come on my radio show. LOL
wealthy airhead heiresses – first qualifier to be a “great one” in a cult – have lots of money and be dumb as a rock. I loved Linda Evans in Big Valley and Falcon Crest. But I was very sorry to see her fall for JZ and the non-pianist Yanni. Oh well. Blondes do have more fun.
OOPS! Not Falcon Crest but Dynasty! I guess I spent too much time watching these and Dallas. Do you know who shot J.R.?
“Do you know who shot J.R.?’
No, I don’t know who shot JR and I don’t care.
As I remember the actor who played JR was Larry Hagman who drank so much alcohol that he rotted out his liver and needed a transplant.
“In 1995, Hagman underwent a life-saving liver transplant after he was diagnosed with liver cancer which was most likely brought on by approximately 40 years of heavy drinking.[34][35] His clinical picture was further complicated by cirrhosis of the liver which had been diagnosed three years earlier in 1992. ”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Hagman
A good story to tell the kids so they don’t overindulge in liquor.
Here’s another scam where they run away, watch the video here: https://www.bravotv.com/personal-space/leah-remini-family-adopts-william-kilmartin-scientology-split
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODUfbqDuP84 This is the first part of a series of presentations by the foremost authority of cults, Dr. Walter Martin. He is easy to listen to or you can get a copy of this BIBLE of cult information and read it at your leisure.Here is one – http://eindtijdinbeeld.nl/EiB-Bibliotheek/Boeken/KingdomOfTheCultsWalterMartin.pdfFASCINATING! Cults have several things in common. This is a great site for more information – https://culteducation.com/
I can personally attest that cukts, cult leaders and their die hard followers behave similarly.
Only the names change, not the behaviors.
Every member of NXIVM, even if they leave that cult, still suffers from the emptiness, the rootlessness that led them to join Raniere and his cult in the first place.
These people need to belong to something higher than themselves to find some meaning to their lives.
An excellent book on this subject was titled “The True Believer” and it was written many years ago by a man named Eric Hoffer.
Hoffer does not refer to cults specifically but he addresses mass movements like Communism, Nazism and various religious movements and finds many similarities.
The Believers will often flip from one movement or cult to another to find some meaning in their otherwise empty lives.
“Even when their stated goals or values differ, mass movements are interchangeable, that adherents will often flip from one movement to another, and that the motivations for mass movements are interchangeable. Thus, religious, nationalist and social movements, whether radical or reactionary, tend to attract the same type of followers, behave in the same way and use the same tactics and rhetorical tools.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_True_Believer
Last October Pea Onyu even used the phrase “true believer” in describing a commenter.
“Pea Onyu
October 7, 2018 at 9:13 pm
Tell me troll, are you paid to post here or are you a true believer?”
https://frankreport.com/2018/10/07/prosecutions-latest-filing-portends-big-problems-for-raniere-et-al/
Linda Evans is a follower.
Catherine Oxemberg was, maybe still is. One hopes she is not and had learnt all the amswers she seeks are within herself.
Question. This Ramtha also claims to know higher math, writes it down for all to see.
Has any bona fide mathematician taken a look at said equations? Can Ramtha write asked for equations from a vetted outside tester?
Cause she could easily memorize, or crib, them from a book.
Houdini showed us it’s all fake magic.
“Question. This Ramtha also claims to know higher math, writes it down for all to see.”
I believe the only higher math JZ Knight understands is her fattening bank account.
In researching Knight I found that a few years ago she put up a massive collection of art and furniture for auction through Bonhams and Butterfields auction gallery in Los Angeles in 2009.
Over 500 items were put up for auction.
The Heart and Soul of a Collector The JZ Knight Collection at Bonhams & Butterfields in September (2009)
LOS ANGELES, CA.- Bonhams & Butterfields is pleased to announce the September 27, 2009 auction of The JZ Knight Collection. Amassed over a decade, the Collection will feature eclectic and unique examples of period furniture, decorative arts, carpets and paintings from the 17th through 20th centuries with a particular focus on European and American elegance.
Each item on offer during the 500-lot sale has been personally selected by Knight to reflect her passion for rare and unique items. Featured works from the Los Angeles-based auction include a discerning selection of 20th Century design as well as a diverse array of European furnishings, decorative arts, carpets and paintings.
In addition, she is founder of the JZ Knight Humanities Foundation, which focuses on the empowerment of women, and world peace. To date, the foundation has granted over $2-million in educational scholarships for children. Known worldwide as a spiritual leader for over three decades, Knight has captivated and inspired audiences with ancient wisdom and training in the power of consciousness. In conjunction with her teachings, she has appeared on numerous television shows, including the Merv Griffin Show and Larry King Live, as well as several films including What the Bleep Do WE Know!?, and Wake-Up. Knight is also the author of numerous articles and New York Times Bestseller, A State of Mind.
http://artdaily.com/news/32094/The-Heart-and-Soul-of-a-Collector-The-JZ-Knight-Collection-at-Bonhams—Butterfields-in-September-#.XPKaYRZKjcs
Notice the focus on “the empowerment of women” just like Jness and NXIVM DOS.
Starting on this page you can scroll through 41 pages of art and furniture from the JZ Knight collection to be auctioned.
The JZ Knight Collection
27 Sep 2009, starting at 10:00 PDT .
Los Angeles
https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/17678/