An online interview with a former Ramtha School of Enlightenment "insider" is taking a critical jab at channeler JZ Knight.
The group Life After RSE, or LARSE, plans to post a taped interview this week with Glen Cunningham, a former bodyguard for JZ Knight.
Members of LARSE said they are hoping Cunningham's video will prompt others to step forward and share experiences.
Cunningham, a former Yelm councilman and current president-elect of the Yelm Area Chamber of Commerce, was a student at RSE in the 1980s, but left in 1991.
In the video, he claims that throughout his time at the school he knew Ramtha didn't exist.
"I met JZ too fast," Cunningham said. "Once you meet JZ you know Ramtha isn't real."
"I never saw Ramtha do anything supernatural or extraordinary."
Asked to comment on specific assertions by Cunningham in the video, Knight's companion and RSE property manager James Flick declined.
Flick said Knight and RSE may comment later.
Throughout the video, Cunningham talks about why he joined RSE and experiences he had while working there.
"Many people will remember Glen as one of those key staff members," said David McCarthy, a founding member of LARSE.
"I think Glen puts it into perspective."
McCarthy conducted the video interview, which is divided into two parts and lasts approximately 90 minutes.
"Now that Glen is speaking of his experiences, we get insight and a lot of RSE students may get a lot of understanding and maybe healing."
Cunningham said he decided to do the interview as a way to help people.
"There's a lot of people who have approached me about their decision to get out of the school," Cunningham said. "I tell them my stories and it helps them."
"(Knight) is a very charismatic person," he said. "You want to be around her until you get to know her."
"(But) she's a drama queen; she likes to have drama in her life."
Cunningham said he believes that Knight has a photographic memory.
Cunningham said he once found books under Knight's bed, with sections highlighted. The next week, he said he heard Ramtha repeat those phrases, verbatim, during an event.
"Someone who has a memory like that is incredible," Cunningham said.
"I think she reads and knows what she's doing and gets lost in Ramtha."
Cunningham also talks about instances he claims revealed that Knight was "acting" as Ramtha.
One day, out in a field, Cunningham said he saw Knight, as Ramtha, scratch her eye in an ultra-feminine way.
When Knight noticed Cunningham watching, he said, she immediately stopped, like she knew she messed up.
"The more tired Ramtha gets, the more JZ comes out," he said.
While Cunningham admits he never believed Ramtha was real, he did learn things while attending RSE.
"I thought the philosophies were fantastic," Cunningham said.
"I realized you're never mad at anyone else, always yourself."
Cunningham also said that he considers RSE to be a cult.
"It's just like any other cult," he said. "All the things they do now are cult activities."
"I saw 1,200 people who would drink the Kool-Aid," he said in the online video.
Since leaving RSE, Cunningham has kept fairly quiet on his experience.
Occasionally he warns people how it is so they "don't waste their money."
"I think people have been disenchanted with things," Cunningham said. "There are too many dead people who came here to get cured."
He recalls when a woman suffering from cancer arrived at the school hoping to be cured. In front of everyone, Ramtha hugged her and told her she was free of the disease.
"The whole school is a lie and she's dead," he said. "I saw a lot of them that thought this was going to be their answer, but it wasn't."
Through all his experiences, Cunningham doesn't hold any harsh feelings towards Knight.
He refutes claims made by Knight supporters that he hates the channeler.
"I don't, because she's a very brilliant woman," Cunningham said.
"I just feel sorry for her."
"She's got herself in this thing to where she can't get out. It's the rest of her life."
LARSE was created by former RSE students to provide an online support community. They provide space for networking, educational information and discussion forums.
