Edna Ballard, often called Mama Ballard by her students, used the pen name of Lotus Ray King. She went through tremendous trials and persecution during her time as messenger.

In Los Angeles in 1940 (the year following Godfre’s ascension), federal criminal indictments were brought against Mrs. Ballard, her son Donald and others for alleged fraudulent solicitation of funds through the mail. Despite strenuous objections by the defendants’ attorney, a jury was in effect given the task of deciding whether the Ballards really believed what they taught and wrote about their messengership and the ascended masters.

Over a period of six years, United States vs. Ballard went through two trials and an extended series of appeals, during which Mrs. Ballard was at one point convicted and sentenced to a year in prison and fined $8,000, although the prison sentence was later suspended. Soon thereafter, the Post Office Department issued an order denying use of the mail to the I AM Activity. In the face of adverse media coverage and extreme prejudice within the criminal justice system, Mrs. Ballard and her students fought on, and their efforts culminated in the U.S. Supreme Court throwing out the conviction in 1946. The written opinion from the case has often been cited in subsequent litigation to prohibit judicial inquiry into the truth or falsity of religious beliefs.

The ascended lady master Magda spoke of the service of the Ballards and of their persecution. She said that we would not have the opportunity to give the violet flame and ascend “if Saint Germain and Godfre and Lotus had not been willing to bear the utter persecution, the trial, the lies in the newspapers regarding the I AM movement. You have also been persecuted in your time, but those days of the I AM movement were horrific and without parallel.”[1]

On November 18, 1970, Edna Ballard gave her final dictation before her transition. On February 12, 1971, she made her ascension and became the ascended lady master Lotus.

[1] Magda, “Transmute the Past and the Future,” Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 40, no. 36, September 7, 1997.

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Picture: The messengers Guy and Edna Ballard