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Instead of surrendering to the limitations of existence, assert your own being, reclaiming and reforging reality in your own image through the power of the I AM.
The Count of St Germain stood in their living room, preaching to them about the mysteries of the cosmos and their place within it. A well-known philosopher, scientist and adventurer in Europe in the 1700s, the Count was often sought out for his opinion on a myriad of topics. However, in this case, they were not in Europe, no one had sought him out and this was not the 1700s. It was 1932, and Edna Ballard and her son Donald were being visited by an immortal being. The husband and father, Guy Ballard, had previously become acquainted with the Count on a business trip.
The business trip in question occurred in 1930 in the foothills of Mt Shasta, where the Count had unveiled to Ballard the mysteries of the divine Self. Having embraced his own divinity, the Count apparently now had the attribute of omnipotence over matter, thereby enabling him to live well beyond the 1700s. While Ballard published the record of their initial encounter in Unveiled Mysteries (1934), the Count apparently continued to appear in the Ballard family home for many years afterwards, giving 33 discourses that were collected and published as the I AM Discourses in 1939.
Delivered in the wake of the Great Depression and written down in the months following the start of World War II, these discoveries proclaimed that our divine Self can overcome both the poverty of our past and our anxiety over the future. In the face of war, the discourses were meant to be a message of hope that a higher divinity can overcome our baser humanity. It is not that God is on our side but rather that we are God, and there is no other side than our own.
When Jesus made his ‘I AM’ statements in the New Testament (‘I am the way’, ‘I am the resurrection’, ‘I am the bread of life’, and so on), he was in fact alluding to the Old Testament, when God referred to himself as ‘I am that I am.’ By describing himself in the same way that God had described himself, Jesus was claiming to be God – claiming to be the one who IS, the Source of all Being, the great I AM. The Count explains that Jesus is not suggesting that he alone is divine but that all of us are divine. He claims that Jesus is not God’s one and only son, but merely the first of many children. We too can reclaim our birthright as one with the Divine.
By repeatedly saying ‘I AM’, we can allegedly reclaim and proclaim our inner divine Self, arousing our latent abilities. Harnessing this divine power, we can control matter with our thoughts and words. Our power can also breathe pain and suffering into the world whenever we use ‘I AM’ in a negative statement: for example, ‘I AM a failure’, ‘I AM sick.’ If only we realised the divine power of our thoughts, actions and words, we would recognise that we birth the failures and negativity around us. The failures, ugliness, pain, and imperfections of the outer Self are mere illusions, waiting to be tamed and formed by the inner, perfect divine Self. Nothing is truly real except the I AM (I Am that I Am).
For those who believe Ballard’s claims, there might be something quite empowering about his worldview. In terms of worth, we are not mere mortals but gods – children of the Most High and destined unto greatness. Our imperfections are illusions of the personality, for our inner divine Self is flawless; each of us is ‘a glittering, dazzling Jewel of Light’. All of our limitations are artificial, and we are empowered to overcome any obstacle of life once we accept ‘I AM what I want to be.' Nothing can enter my reality ‘unless it be invited… I AM the Master of my world.’ When overcome by doubt or insecurity, we can chant ‘I AM’ to ourselves, reasserting our authority over reality.
Additionally, those who have already read through Unveiled Mysteries will find the I AM Discourses to be the natural next step in their study of the Ascended Masters. While the former work focused more on the narrative history of the Ascended Masters, these discourses are dedicated almost entirely to their teachings, offering one of the most comprehensive doctrinal statements of the ‘I AM’ Activity and the movements it inspired.
