History of the Fellowship
 |
Bella Karish, D.D. |
The Fellowship of Universal Guidance (FOUG) was a Center for Prayer, Healing, and Wisdom whose focus was growth on all levels of body, mind, and spirit. It was created by Divine instruction in 1961. At that time, it consisted of a small group of people—“Twelve Plus One”—who had already been gathering for several years to receive instruction on how to bring security and balance to those who, they were told by the Forces of Light, would come to them for help in the future. As time went on, with the Forces of Light continuing to guide the Fellowship, it did attract others and the thirteen dedicated people—the “Twelve Plus One”—increased to many more.
The group’s guide and leader in the very early years, from 1954 to 1960, was a fine teacher, Dr. Peter Ballbusch. He was a longtime student of Rudolph Steiner and, after emigrating from Switzerland to the United States, he became acquainted with renowned seer and prophet Edgar Cayce. He was also a friend of and studied with well-known author Max Freedom Long, whose books on the Kahunas of Hawaii had received international acclaim.
Having settled in the U.S., Dr. Ballbusch felt guided to gather certain individuals to form an Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.) Study Group to explore the work of Edgar Cayce. They also began an intensive study of the two-volume A.R.E. book, Search for God. In 1954, some forty people were coming together to study Edgar Cayce’s work, but by 1961 the number had dwindled to the “Twelve Plus One.”
Just before the Fellowship of Universal Guidance officially came into existence in 1961, a member of the “Twelve Plus One,” Bella Karish, without any formal training, suddenly opened to the Spirit of Edgar Cayce, who had made the transition some fifteen years earlier, and she was instructed to bring forth a metaphysical teaching entitled “The Three Selves Approach to the Field of Consciousness.” Wayne Guthrie came to the class to be part of this group, and was subsequently trained by Peter Ballbusch to become a Channel of Outer-Spacial Wisdoms. He later became, along with Bella Karish, the leader of the Fellowship.
Why was that small group chosen to bring forth this important work? In those days, the Work had no meaning to the group’s members, for they had nothing to compare it with. Their individual past lives were veiled and not until several years later did they understand that this Work had been part of their lives on Atlantis and in many other areas after that. The Creator’s Will was that they tap once again, through Spiritual guidance, into the wisdoms of ancient intelligences for the highest good of all.
From the very beginning, the group followed Spiritual guidance. As part of their training, they were taught to understand and analyze the vast amount of knowledge that was given to them, even though many times it was in parables and in symbolic forms that were difficult to translate into modern English.
Wayne Guthrie and Bella Karish guided and directed the Fellowship of Universal Guidance for a total of thirty years. Since Dr. Guthrie's transition in 1991 and the transition of Dr. Karish in 2007, the work of the Fellowship has continued for sixteen years under the direction of Dr. Karish's associate of fifteen years, Dr. William Miller and his wife Rev. Cynthia Miller.
