It's not easy being a guru—followers come and go, spiritual fashions change, and there's always some skeptic questioning you. But somehow, Judy Z. Knight, a.k.a. Ramtha—a 35,000-year-old enlightened male spirit that Knight has channeled since 1977—has managed to sustain a career profile on par with that of famed '60s mystic Ram Dass. In 1988, Knight, a native of Roswell, New Mexico, founded Ramtha's School of Enlightenment at her home in Washington State. People go to the school to hear Ramtha's lectures, learn the nature of reality and connect with their inner being by, for instance, practicing archery blindfolded. After appearing in the indie spirituality–meets–quantum-physics art film What the Bleep Do We Know? (2004), Knight and Ramtha (whom she affectionately calls "the Ram") are back in the spotlight. This week, they're holding two seminars at the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew on the Upper West Side. Knight, 59, usually requires that reporters take an eight-day course at her school before being granted an interview, but she let TONY off the hook and called us to chat about her life as a busy dual personality.

Time Out New York: Who am I speaking to now—J.Z., or Ramtha?

J.Z. Knight: J.Z.

TONY: Are you on tour because of What the Bleep Do We Know?

JZK: Yes. When What the Bleep? came out, I started to travel for the first time since the '80s. It's wonderful to come back out and be with people again.

TONY: Did the film do a lot to elevate public awareness of you, the school and Ramtha?

JZK: Absolutely. The film's writers and directors attended the school. That's why the Ram is in it. And it's a fabulous thing. It brought Ramtha back into the public eye. But we've endured since the '80s, I'm an icon and Ramtha is the being who coined the term channeling! So now we're out and about, advertising the school, trying to get people to come. And it's a good thing! And that's not Martha Stewart!

TONY: What is Ramtha trying to teach us?

JZK: That we are here to make known the unknown. And that's our quest—to marshal our brains in areas that we didn't know we could before.

TONY: You mean enlightenment?

JZK: Enlightenment is a personal transition. It's waking up. And every human being who wakes up understands the deeper mysteries about themselves. The greatest mystery isn't about any religion. The greatest mysteries are about ourselves. Who are we? Where do we come from?

TONY: What will it require for everyone to become enlightened?

JZK: You mean, will there be an event? Well, Jesus is late. He promised he'd be back—it's been over 2000 years. Enlightenment is personal transformation. The message has to go person by person, individual by individual. You have to have a personal reality regardless of what is going on in the world.

TONY: So…

JZK: So if you can have it that means everybody in the world can have it. If that's possible, is that the end of war, of segregation, of borders and boundaries? Yes it is. It's the beginning of everyone participating in the future according to the reality they create. Are you digging this conversation?

TONY: Who wouldn't? Now, how did you learn all of this?

JZK: Ramtha appeared to me in my kitchen in 1977—he looked a little bit like Yul Brynner. He said, "I've come to help you over the ditch of limitation." Then I began to study with the Ram. Every day he'd pull me out of my body and take me through a tunnel at the speed of light to a reality that was happening at the same place as my living room, but at a different frequency. It's an unbelievably beautiful place, and it has everything to do with death, birth and reincarnation. I went through the tunnel a thousand times and learned how reality works. He didn't have to tell me a lot because I learned from experience.

TONY: Do you pay much attention to the news?

JZK: I'm very concerned with world events, but I don't watch entertainment. I am so tired of throwing my house slippers at my big-screen TV because of what's going on!

TONY: Karmically, what is your opinion of George Bush?

JZK: He's a person who needs a lot of understanding and a lot of love to have a reason for his life, but he wound up in this family who wanted to become legendary. He and his family are people rising from the dung heap to the top, for power. That's been going on forever.

TONY: Do you date or have a personal life?

JZK: It's hard to have a life with me because—what kind of life could you have with my channeling?! But I have had a long-term relationship of nine years with a wonderful man who is a student of the Ram's.

TONY: So really, he's dating you and Ramtha.

JZK: Well, he knows the difference.

J.Z. Knight and Ramtha appear at the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4. $150 for both seminars. For information, go to www.ramtha.com.