I AM Activity (Saint Germain Foundation)
Historical American Ascended-Master movement founded by Guy and Edna Ballard (1930s). Precursor to modern New Age teaching including the later Church Universal and Triumphant.
CLCI radar
BITE breakdown
0 — historical American Ascended-Master movement; precursor to modern New Age.
Profile facts
In context
The I AM Activity introduced 'Ascended Master' teachings to the USA. The Ballards' messages from 'Saint Germain' inspired widespread following before the 1942 federal mail-fraud convictions (later overturned on First Amendment grounds in US v. Ballard, 1944). Continues today through the Saint Germain Foundation.
Recovery resources
- ICSA (International Cultic Studies Association) — General referral and cult-aware therapist directory.
- INFORM (Information Network on Religious Movements) — LSE-founded UK research-based information service covering new religious movements.
- Reclamation Collective — Religious-trauma-aware therapist network; relevant for post-exit identity-rebuilding.
- Religious Trauma Institute — Religious-trauma clinical research and clinician directory.
- Freedom of Mind Resource Center — Steven Hassan's organisation; BITE-model resources and family-side exit guidance.
See the full curated list at /resources.
Legal cases & controversies
- 1942 mail-fraud convictions
- US v. Ballard (1944)
This profile is in progress — history, deeper BITE evidence and survivor voices are still being added. Contributions welcome via GitHub.
Timeline
- 1932Guy Ballard's claimed encounter with Saint Germain
- 1942Federal mail-fraud convictions
- 1944US v. Ballard Supreme Court ruling
Sources
- Catherine Wessinger academic work search ↗
We cite sources by name and outlet rather than fabricating links. Where a source includes its own URL, the open ↗ link opens it directly; otherwise search ↗ runs a Google Scholar query for the cited title — useful for verifying academic sources. For news outlets, search the outlet's own archive.
Change history
Substantive edits logged per the score-updates policy.
- 2026-05-29Phase 1 Batch J corrective: Moderate-band (CLCI 17) entry upgraded from Mainstream-comparator lighter palette to NRM high-control palette — Batch J's clci<21 fallthrough was too lean for the documented control vector of this category.
- 2026-05-29Phase 1 Batch J: per-group recovery resources applied via programmatic palette (closest-fit by category + subCategory + score). Palette: Mainstream-comparator lighter.
- 2026-05-20Source-density flags derived from existing free-text sources[]: academic sources. Heuristic auto-flag; subsequent editorial pass will populate structuredSources[] with reliability tiers.
- 2026-05-20Score band scheme migrated from 4 bands to 5 (Minimal 0–5 / Low 6–12 / Moderate 13–20 / High 21–30 / Extreme 31–40). No CLCI value changed; the new Minimal band was carved out of the bottom of the previous Low band.
Key terms in this profile
Relevant hubs
Curated entry points on CLCI Hub for situations connected to this group.
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