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The results of the academic scrutiny were released at a weekend conference held at JZ's home on February 8-9, l997. A distinguished panel of twelve scholars — including scientists, psychologists, sociologists and religious experts from such diverse institutions as Chicago Theological Seminary, Temple University, Colgate University, the University of California, the University of Oregon, and Birbeck College at the University of London — studied JZ Knight before, during, and after channeling Ramtha.
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Coordinated by Director of the Northwest Research Group Joseph Bettis, Ph.D., retired professor of religious studies at Western Washington University, and J. Gordon Melton, Ph.D., Director of the Institute for the Study of American Religions in Santa Barbara, California, and author of the Encyclopedia of American Religions, the two-day conference entitled "In Search of the Self: The Role of Consciousness in the Construction of Reality" covered a variety of aspects related to Ramtha and the channeling phenomenon.
“What is important about this conference is it represents a beginning of serious scholarly research into an area that has too long been neglected by the academic world" opined J. Gordon Melton Ph.D. organizer of the conference.
A team of highly qualified psychologists, headed by Stanley Krippner, Ph.D., of Saybrook Institute Graduate School, studied Ms. Knight and her school for a year, and conducted a battery of psychological and physiological tests with highly sensitive equipment. They concluded that the readings taken of Ms Knight's autonomic nervous system responses were so dramatic that the scientists categorically ruled out any possibility of conscious fakery, schizophrenia or multiple personality disorders.
Dr. Stanley Krippner, a psychologist and the leading parapsychology researcher in the U.S.A. described himself as "extremely skeptical and yet open-minded" before performing the tests in collaboration with outstanding neuroscientist Ian Wickramasekera, Ph.D., a fellow professor at Saybrook Institute Graduate School.
Says Krippner "When we were testing JZ, Ian was quite astonished because the needles on his polygraph that were graphing all of the psychophysiological responses literally jumped from one part of the page to the other part of the page when Ramtha entered the picture. And he had never seen such a dramatic change" says Krippner, "[We Were] very surprised because of the dramatic shift when Ramtha entered the picture."
"She's not faking it," he added, "because when we hooked her up to test her physiological responses, we got results which could not have been manipulated." According to Ian Wickramasekera, who is president-elect of the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback in Colorado, when Knight went into trance and the spirit of Ramtha took over her body, her heart rate hit a low of 40 beats per minute and then raced to 180 beats per minute. In her normal, resting state, Knight's heart rate was between 85 and 90. "You might see this in someone who is jogging or having a serious panic attack, but at the time Ms. Knight was sitting completely still."
“It became apparent to the research team that something very dramatic and physiological was going on, and something that on the basis of everything that is known about human capacities, cannot be faked." Krippner explained, “An individual cannot really fake, cannot really role-play because in hypnosis there’s barely any physiological change at all. In role-playing there’s basically very little change at all.”
"After noticing all of this dramatic data being collected, I just said offhandedly to JZ as we were leaving the building, I said, 'Well, JZ, I don't know what you are but at least you're not a fake and not a fraud.' And little did I know that that offhand statement just meant so much to her because of all the accusations thrown her way over the years." He continued, "Ian and I were quite surprised that the data were as dramatic and unique as they were. Neither Ian nor I had any hesitation about getting the word out." Wickramasekera presented this material to the American Psychological Association, which is a very prestigious venue for such work. Krippner presented the findings at a number of scientific conventions. The first article on this work, a phenomenological analysis came out in 1998.
Wickramasekera, who according to J. Gordon Melton was initially not at all interested in being involved in such a study, did not expect to come up with such significant results and was animated in his enthusiasm for the physiological results he had recorded when testing Knight as she channeled Ramtha. He explained how eight standardized, physiological, psychological, and behavioral tests of known validity and reliability were administered. "When you go fishing, you use a big net," Wickramasekera said. "What we didn't expect was to find fish in all eight nets."
To the students of Ramtha, the differences between the teacher and his channel are obvious and unmistakable. Some scholars have even remarked on their difference. Says Dr. Gail Harley, "Her eyes change from a soft striking blue as JZ Knight to an unfocused, deep-steel gray as Ramtha. Her skin tone darkens and her jaw stiffens, as her bearing becomes more militant and formal as Ramtha. Her stride becomes stiffly gaited." Harley concluded Knight could not be playacting or performing as Ramtha. "The dramatic changes in her appearance when Ramtha is in control are far too stringent to suggest that."
What else did the researchers discover?
Knight also withstood a number of psychological tests, along with a number of her students. "Knight and the students tested extremely high in their hypnotic abilities," said Dr. Stanley Krippner, a former divisional president of the American Parapsychological Association and Psychology Professor at Saybrook Institute in San Francisco. That, Krippner went on to explain, was a significant finding because the relationship between hypnotic ability and bipolar personality (schizophrenia) and other organic disorders is counterbalancing: when one goes up, the other goes down. "You cannot have both," he stated.
The Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious and Spiritual Leaders
In October 2002, representatives of the JZ Knight Humanities Foundation attended The Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious and Spiritual Leaders, which is part of the Millennium World Peace Summit. Here, 40 women speakers from around the world, briefly addressed the several hundred delegates and attendees with their ideas on attaining world peace. On the evening of the Inaugural Session, the representatives hosted a dinner for the main speakers and attendees, and showed a brief talk given by JZ, which was especially prepared and taped for the dinner guests.
Two days later, the JZ Knight Humanities Foundation, in conjunction with One Voice International hosted an evening of short films titled "Pearls of Wisdom", a film fest featuring Visions of Truth and Freedom and included The Rockumentary "Where Angels Fear to Tread". One Voice International serves as the Multimedia Production and Fundraising Associate to the Global Peace Initiative.
A State of Mind by JZ Knight
The intimate account of JZ's life in her own words. Her story, which includes her humorous and poignant introduction to Ramtha, is a story of the triumph of the human spirit.
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