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Colton, Ann Ree (1898-1984)

Ann Ree Colton, spiritual teacher and founder of the Ann Ree Colton Foundation of Niscience, was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on August 17, 1898. She had extraordinary psychic experiences during her childhood and in her 20s established contact with a set of supernormal entities she termed the masters or great immortals, similar to the masters contacted by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky of the Theosophical Society. She began her public ministry in 1932 and four years later opened a church in Florida. The church continued through World War II (1939-45), and following its closing in 1945 she entered a period of transition.

In 1952 she met Jonathan Murro (1927-91), who she eventually married. Together, the following year they founded the Foundation of Niscience in Glendale, California, and Colton began the mature era of her ministry. Colton projected the picture of the spiritual hierarchy, at the highest level of which were the archetypes of God—the blueprints of creation, and the highest beings—Jesus, his disciples, and the archangels. At a slightly lower level were the masters who worked on Earth through a set of cosmos disciples and telepathic disciples who resided in earthly bodies. Colton taught that individuals can become open to the highest levels of the universe and believed that she had been united with the Niscience archetype. She was told that the "hum" of the archetype would bring a spiritual renewal uniting people with the Jesus ethic.

Colton expanded on her teachings in more than 20 books written in the 1960s and 1970s. She taught at the center in Glendale, and her students founded groups across the United States and in several foreign countries. She initiated the Ni-science Guild through which students may become ministers. Murro assisted her and dedicated himself to preserving and distributing her writings. Following her death on June 28, 1984, he succeeded her as head of the foundation.