46 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant and beautiful! Buy it NOW!, October 25, 2001
This review is from: Finding Enlightenment: Ramtha's School of Ancient Wisdom (Hardcover)
In order to appreciate the great wisdom to be found in Finding Enlightenment, you must first know the credentials of this wonderful biographer. J. Gordon Melton is the director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion, the author of over 25 books, encyclopedias and almanacs, and an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church.
Further, this unbiased scholar studied the teachings of Ramtha as well as forming a kinship with JZ Knight. It is from this place he wrote his biography of JZ Knight and Ramtha and the lessons to be learned from both. These insights enabled seemingly ordinary citizen JZ Knight to discover the One living inside her...and the means to uncover the hidden realities. This is the wisdom and knowledge now available to us, today!
The foundation of Ramtha's teachings is Gnosticism...a belief that humans are angelic, perhaps even divine beings who are lost in a world of distractions, self-imposed limitations and confining traditions. We learn that Ramtha is a Lemurian who lived on Earth 35,000 years ago. His experiences and his desire to become the wind, and his ascension ultimately led him to God status. He is now back on Earth to teach us all he has learned...and JZ Knight with Ramtha's School of Enlightenment is his pulpit.
Finding Enlightenment offers a path as well as a comparison to the many religions abounding today. A major difference? Ramtha teaches that there is no Satan. This basic difference allows his students to focus on self-discovery and self-growth...and not fear.
This reviewer discovered in Finding Enlightenment a clear and unbiased view of Ramtha's teachings through his channel, JZ Knight. Thank you, J. Gordon Melton, for giving us insight into a woman shaman and an understanding of Ramtha's word!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
INSIGHT INTO JZ KNIGHT AND THE RAMTHA SCHOOL, September 9, 2009
This review is from: Finding Enlightenment: Ramtha's School of Ancient Wisdom (Hardcover)
J. Gordon Melton is a VERY respected scholar of religions, and has written/edited many standard works in the field (e.g.,
Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices,
Melton's Encyclopedia Of American Religions, Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America).
He has also written some works that are more controversial, considering as valid "religions" several groups that some observers label as "cults." Three such books are:
The Church of Scientology (Studies in Contemporary Religions, series volume 1),
The Children of God, "The Family", and this book about the Ramtha "School of Enlightenment" run by JZ Knight, the "channel" for Ramtha (who is purportedly a 35,000-year old God/warrior from Lemuria).
While some have cast aspersions on Melton for these latter books (even accusing him of being "bought off" by the groups, owing to his generally sympathetic treatment of them), I don't think this is justified; anyone who has read any of his encyclopedic works will realize that Melton is very sympathetic to ALL religions---from Islamic mystics, to "snakehandling" Christian churches.
That said, this book is a fascinating survey of the teachings of Ramtha as presented by JZ Knight, as well as Knight herself. The focus, however, is on the School of Enlightenment itself, which was begun in 1988, and has had prominent students such as the actress Linda Evans. Melton notes that the average age of the beginning student was their 30s, and in their 40s for an advanced student, so these are not starry-eyed teenaged "newcomers" to the alternative spirituality movement.
Melton says that "Having satisfied myself that JZ was sincere in what she was doing, I was ready to move on to the more substantive criticisms that had been leveled at her." He is not naive; he covers questions such as, "Is JZ a fake?" He is aware of the accusation (for example, made in the December 15, 1986 edition of Newsweek) that JZ Knight has been seen "rehearsing" her Ramtha "act," but Melton quotes an "insider" who suggests the a person simply witnessed Ms. Knight struggling with "becoming comfortable with Ramtha's presence." He also mentions the 20/20 TV program "expose" of Ramtha that was aired on January 22, 1987, and all of the (unfulfilled) "doomsday" prophecies Ramtha made during the mid-1980s. He even covers JZ's advice to her followers to invest in her Arabian horse business, a venture that was unsuccessful.
Whether one believes in the reality of Ramtha and of this message (I don't), this book is a highly informative study of a very interesting religious movement.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting perspective, June 24, 2011
This review is from: Finding Enlightenment: Ramtha's School of Ancient Wisdom (Hardcover)
I thought that this book provided a unique, somewhat unbiased perspective on Ramtha, the school and all the issues about it's origin's, growth, challenges, etc. It would be nice to get an updated version by someone more objective. By that I mean that he came with his own beliefs about religion and it would be interesting to hear more from someone more objective.
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