Visiting An Anomalous Outpost of a Fading Religious Movement

During my last visit to Washington, D.C. in the summer of 2024, I came across a piece of Chicago-adjacent history: an “I AM” Activity sanctuary, housed in an anomalous old three story brick house on a densely built block that was likely once filled with many buildings like this one.

 

The “I AM” Activity is a religious movement founded by Guy Ballard and Edna Ballard in Chicago in the 1930s, centered on the concept of “Ascended Masters” who throughout history have perfected their souls through many cycles of reincarnation and eventually ascended to the status of immortal beings. The religion’s basic teachings have their roots in Theosophy, an esoteric belief system that rose to popularity during the late 19th century, and the Ballards claimed to have direct contact with the semi-historical, semi-mythical figure Saint Germain whose mortal life took place centuries before. The couple founded the “I AM” Activity to communicate Saint Germain’s teachings through books, events, and radio programs, and the religion gained a substantial following – claiming up to a million adherents at the end of its first decade in the public eye.

Though significantly diminished in numbers and public visibility today, decades after the Ballards and their son passed away as the only designated messengers of Saint Germain, the religion continues. The Saint Germain Foundation, headquartered in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg, is the official organizational home for the “I AM” Activity, continuing to publish books and pamphlets and videos replicating the Ballards' communicated teachings. In Chicago proper, the Foundation owns an elaborate 15-story 1910s office building that is their single most visible remaining facility and a common first point of curiosity for people who’ve never heard of the “I AM” Activity. In Mount Shasta, California – where Guy Ballard claimed to have first made contact with Saint Germain – the Foundation owns a retreat where remaining adherents occasionally gather.

At this DC sanctuary, I took a step I hadn’t ever taken in Chicago: I rang the doorbell.

A Black woman of about retirement age answered the door, surprised to have a visitor. She was the only person there, tending to the building and maintaining open study hours for other members of this particular “I AM” community who are dwindling in number these days and don’t show up very often. We talked for awhile about the religion and about the history of this particular sanctuary, which it turns out is one of the only majority Black groups of “I AM” adherents in the country (many neo-Theosophical religions have nationalist or white supremacist roots or offshoots, and while the “I AM” Activity has not ever taken an outwardly white supremacist stance in its teachings, the Ballards recruited members from the fascist Silver Shirts in the religion’s early years and some far-right apocalyptic new religious movements like the Church Universal and Triumphant can trace their histories to “I AM” Activity splinter groups). There is another “I AM” Temple in DC, but this one has long been a distinct faith community of its own.

The future of the sanctuary within this building, which has been part of the “I AM” Activity for long enough that Guy and Edna Ballard both lectured here during their human lifetimes, was potentially in peril at the time of my visit. The longtime leader of this group of adherents had recently passed away, leaving behind a mess of paperwork and logistical needs that remaining members of this community were ill prepared to take on after decades relying on one person’s confident, familiar labor. The woman I spoke to was the one who everything fell to in the aftermath, navigating the group’s finances and scheduling its gatherings and managing new shipments of literature from Saint Germain Foundation’s main office in Illinois. She was overwhelmed, and seemed to lack significant support to continue the functions of the group easily as she and other once-active members aged.

Though this sanctuary holds historical significance for the religion, its location has become a challenge, too, as downtown DC has swelled outward toward Dupont Circle and nearby housing has become prohibitively expensive over the years. These changes have placed members of the sanctuary further and further from their place of worship. Many small religious groups eventually fade away this way. 

In the time since my visit late last summer, this DC sanctuary has ceased advertising public study hours like the ones I dropped in on. I am unsure about the current status of the sanctuary.