Making New Religions: The Mighty 'I AM'

Countless new religious movements have emerged in the twentieth century. Few, however, have been as colourful, or suffered such a precipitous rise and fall and played such a key role in legal history, as the American movement known as I AM. This activity began obscurely amid the hard times of the early 1930s, making remarkable claims concerning the presence and work of Ascended Masters on Earth. It grew with astounding force to reach millions of Americans before the end of that deeply troubled decade. It then subsided in the early forties after the death of its founder and the conviction of his widow and son on mail fraud charges in connection with I AM literature distribution, only to be vindicated – amid great publicity – by two Supreme Court reversals of the convictions in landmark decisions for the history of religious freedom in the United States.