What was different being raised in the "I AM" Activity or Saint Germain Foundation as a child in the 1950s?

The first thing is to remember this is NOT the 1960s or 1970s where New Age Religions became more acceptable to people like they did for especially college students and better educated people in the late 1960s and 1970s and after. People were still very racist and often violent towards anyone different than themselves much more than now. For example, Easy Rider(1969) the movie wasn't an unusual experience for people who were different (in any way) in the 1950s. People were often killed and buried along the side of the road or in their back yards nationwide then.  So, the more you could appear to be "Normal" (whatever that was or is?) the more you were going to find a way to stay alive. So, life in the 1950s was very scary for anyone of a different race or disadvantaged in any way and people in these states often died because they would be killed by those around them either directly or indirectly at a much greater frequency than today. The nation was filled with people who were disappeared and buried in back yards or fields and it was always this way from when the Pilgrims first came here. The law didn't exist really out in the country anywhere in the U.S. until the 1950s and 1960s simply because it wasn't there. There were no phones once you left any town and things always happened that were unexpected to you.

So, given all this, I wasn't really allowed to talk to people about my religion other than to say something like this: "My religion is similar to Christian Science" which was a true statement in itself. It was also based upon Christian Ideals and not going to doctors much so people died a   lot when they didn't need to just like in all Christian Science religions where people refuse to go to doctors. It's just the reality of the situation.

Given all that I can explain now to you safely what it was like then.

First of all, we didn't eat meat and fish but we did eat eggs and milk products like Milke and Cheese and cottage cheese and all that. We did eat fruit and nuts and vegetables. However, I think the basis of a vegetarian diet then was probably Baked Potatoes and Milk and things like this. Because there are only two things that you can live on that are grown which are Baked Potatoes (if you eat the skins where the most nutrient actually is) and Coconuts but then you have to be picking the coconuts because you have to eat them at every stage of ripeness and they also give someone the runs if that is all you eat. But, these two things alone (one or the other or both) will sustain a person for years not eating anything else if that is all they have.

The 2nd unusual thing is that even though we were mystical Christian we also believed in Reincarnation in that our goal as human beings was to keep reincarnating until we became enlightened like Jesus and Ascended into heaven like him too.

The third unusual thing is we were not allowed to wear red or black. We weren't allowed to wear red because it symbolized hate to Mrs. Ballard I believe and we weren't allowed to wear black because black meant death.

So, when my mother as an "I AM" minister in charge of the Hope Street I AM Sanctuary along with my father from 1954 until 1960 led funerals they all wore white instead. She said she led or gave the eulogies for around 300 funerals during this time period for members of our church in Los Angeles.

When the religion was 1 million people was when Mr. Ballard was still alive. After that it fragmented into several religions because he was the founder and the glue that held it together and the GURU? of this religion. So, when he passed away all sorts of bad things happened when other competing religions legally attacked Mrs. Ballard and the "I AM" religion once Mr. Ballard was gone. This commotion in the new reduced the members a lot too. So, the religion was discriminated against severely during World war II.

When my father and Mother were in charge of the Los Angeles "I AM" Sanctuary our lawyer then for the church was a Mormon. We even attended a Mormon Church with him in Glendale where he lived and met his son. Mormons have been discriminated against too as a religion so they identified with the discrimination against the "I AM" Activity and this Mormon Lawyer came to our defense (of the church).(While my parents were in charge of it from 1954 until 1960). Also, the Mormon religion is sort of unusual in some ways like the "I AM" Activity (also called the Saint Germain Foundation.