A radical new approach to creation ex nihilo

Many of you know that one of the themes of our film is "creation ex nihilo".... the creation of matter from nothing, a physical impossibility.* At any rate, I never made the connection of this idea to new age thinking. I know that much new age thought focuses on the idea that we are the creators and shapers of our own reality. But I found out that Ramtha, channeled through J. Z. Knight, claims that if you cast aside any doubt, you can actually materialize objects from nothing. This excerpt [full article] describes ex-follower David McCarthy's experiences with Knight's spiritual college. I thought it was funny.

Year after year, McCarthy kept coming back, working at his disciplines, seduced by the promise that his new powers were right around the corner. He suppressed his doubts. "You're taught that doubt is your problem," he says. "We are sleeping Gods, and Ramtha will wake us up."

One day, McCarthy and other masters were working on "manifesting"--creating a physical object out of nothing by focusing on a mental image, like a gold coin, a rose, or a blue feather. "After several days, I'd not created anything solid," he says.

Then, across the Great Hall, he heard people shouting. He saw a woman walking through the crowd holding a blue feather over her head. Pandemonium broke out. Over roars of appreciation, the woman took her place next to McCarthy. He leaned over and asked her how she did it.

"She says she went into the store and bought it. I said, 'That's not creating something out of nothing!' And she said, 'Yes it is!--I've created my own reality.' And I thought, 'I have to get out of here.'"

*Creation ex nihilo violates the principle of the conservation of matter. The basic idea, as I understand it, is that matter is neither lost nor gained, but can be changed from one form to another. I don't know whether Knight is making the larger claim that matter can be created from nothing, or the smaller claim that the mind can control the process of matter conversion. An ad for a book by John Randolph Price sold on the Ramtha website suggests it is the latter—"Price provides you with a special course of study on the Truth of Being, the synchronous activity of Superconsciousness, and the materialization of form out of energy to help you enjoy whole, full, rich lives."