On-axis: Mountain Meadows Estates

Lee Harris-Onaxis & Suzanne Harris-Onaxis and their alleged cult with its roots in the Ramtha cult

Notes by Joe Szimhart based on conversations and emails from eight ex-members during 2007-10.

[This new religion is defunct as of 2015]

Onaxis as a group has practically folded [2010] save for a few naïve supporters from Europe due to defections, the ill health of a founder, and the dismantling of much of the original grounds and buildings (now in a decaying state) in northern Georgia.

Former members yet struggle to bring their lives into balance after ten, twenty years of devotion to this manipulative and allegedly abusive couple. Joe Szimhart (October 2011)

Onaxis is what I call it and not what it calls itself. Not all cults go by a name. The name comes from "on axis" a concept channeled by one of the leaders from "John the Baptist."

By cult, in this case, I mean a system of devotion to a person or persons and their ideas that represent God or some transcendent notion to the devotees. Ex-members of this group say they followed "charismatic leaders with high demands." According to ex-members, the high demands on members included coercive persuasion to give large sums of money, time and labor as well as being battered by the leaders "for their own good" or to "knock the evil out."

The leader Lee Harris claims to be Jesus reincarnated and his wife Suzanne, Mary Magdalena reincarnated. The couple also claims to be reincarnations of the gods Rama and Sita of Hindu tradition as well as Adam and Eve of Genesis, according to ex-members I interviewed.

Channeling: The two leaders channel or represent divine beings. This cult claims many "ascended masters" as divine contacts and the primary one seems to be Onaxis. The leader Lee Harris has called himself Onaxis and Dr. Onaxis [no confirmation of how Lee got the title "Dr." but he once worked as a 'Physician Assistant']. Others in the Onaxis pantheon are John the Baptist a.k.a. EliAnu Ram, Mother God a.k.a. AnaMata RaMuAn, Father God a.k.a. Atmanu RamAnu.

Sample of Onaxis channeling: http://www.hiddenmysteries.org/themagazine/vol14/articles/human-species.shtml

Grandiose claims: Lee preached, 'Habersham County will be known as the place on the planet where Prime Creator Source, Yeshu Ben Joseph, Magdalena, Atmanu Ram Anu, AnaMata RaMuAn, and two very human beings so much like you, Dr. and Mrs. Harris-Onaxis, exposed the entire new age community and spit them directly out of The Garden forever.'

Lee claimed the ex-members have "abused" him when his 'only intent, and Prime Creator's intent, was to build a place where all people would be welcome, [including] Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, so that all people could come to that fifteen acres to celebrate life and their own beautiful existence, any way they choose to do it as long as they live by The Golden Rule.'

Paranoia: Lee/Onaxis blames the ex-members' "selfishness" for causing his stroke in 2006. In 2007 Suzanne claimed that for the past twenty years and more, some ex-members have been trying to kill her and Lee. The inference is that this is some kind of  New Age style sorcery or black magic.

Confusion: Lee both denied and claimed to be a messiah. '...you have been so convinced that I am a crazy man claiming to be Jesus the Christ, that you have missed the entire operation.'  

Abuse: Several ex-members told me of Lee Harris's propensity to abuse them emotionally and physically over the years. Typical accounts include hitting and bruising, knocking members to the floor and pulling hair out of female members' heads [last incident as recently as 2008]. Again, as mentioned above, group devotees tended to take this abuse as if they deserved it.

Location: This group operated primarily at Mountain Meadows Estates in Habersham Co. near Clarksville, Georgia. MME was a small commune also known as "The Garden" begun around 1994. Eventually it contained seven homes for members. The leaders recruited a dozen or so couples to invest in the retreat center of MME and "The Garden" in the northern Georgia mountains. The beautiful grounds were a testament to the devotion of hardworking members in the community.

The leaders are Lee Harris (born in Alabama in 1948) and his wife Suzanne (born around 1960 in Indiana ). Lee Harris had been married before. He was a "student" of the Ramtha School of Enlightenment or RSE based in Yelm, WA from around 1987 to 1990. Lee met Suzanne around 1990. Suzanne led Ah Ha Seminars at the time and gave something called an Ascension Retreat. She also founded a 'sacred places' tours for New Agers wanting to see the Pyramids and such to get a spiritual charge. Around the time they met,  Lee separated from RSE and claimed that the leader, JZ Knight, no longer channeled Ramtha and was faking it. Lee retained many ideological similarities to the Ramtha group including signing off with "So be it", a common phrase used by Knight as Ramtha.

Lee and Suzanne paired up to form their own movement. They have one daughter around age 13 in 2010. According to ex-members, Lee is yet recovering from a stroke he had over a year ago (2007?).

The Onaxis goal is the Great Work that would not only change the devotees but the whole planet. The leaders job was to implement and reveal to followers the transformative path to ascension. The path included total obedience to and support for the incarnated gods in the leaders. The leaders have recruited many German nationals, some of whom send significant support money from Germany. The members pay for workshops with titles like Onaxis Mastery: The Next Step. The Garden was also called 'an ascension corridor.'

Ex-member description of her experience---an excerpt from email to author:

"I think it was 1993 or 1994 they started Mountain Meadows Estate.  It was 14.74 acres with one house a small out building and a barren field, with woods on one end of the property.  The called it the Farm. People gathered from the WA and GA groups to create community.  They were required to bring money to join the group.  I think all amounts were different, I know one person put in $5,000.00, and another $2,000.00.

 They all began building homes and planting veggie gardens.  I recall at a grouping in their home in the beginning days, where I first saw him strike one member.  Her nose began to bleed, and Suzanne came to the rescue with ice and kind words.  The name was changed to Mountain Meadows Estate. Several people left, and others came in their places, until the grouping was 11 not including them, nor the 3 children.  We had a swimming pool, and a green house full of plants and birds, finches, parakeets, and doves, also there were several hot tubs on the property. We built a formal garden with many concrete statues, of Jesus, lions, angels of all sizes, elephants, and a variety of huge planting pots. We created fountains, ponds, pergolas, and a ships deck for him.  He also had tons of sand in his front yard, because he wanted to create a beach. We planted thousands of trees of every kind, bushes and other plants. We had lamas, horses, birds and many dogs and cats.  We all spent so much time working on the property or off the property there was little time to enjoy all the beauty we had created.  He slapped everyone at one time or another telling us he was knocking off evil from us.  He slowly progressed into hitting people more often and pulling hair, breaking things all over the property in our homes.  He spend a lot of time on the computer writing to a variety of people in the community. We all pooled our money, and Suzanne was in charge of where it was spent.

 In 2003 Lee invited a group of Germans to visit us.  He met them through some friends who were doing work all over the world with people.  And he began his work with them over the internet.  We were to tend the every need of the Germans.  He wined and dined them.  He was cruel to all the residents, and ridiculed us in front of the Germans.  This is the timing of the incident of Suzanne hitting me in the face... "

My interviews with ex-members indicate that most left the commune with no return on their investment, some giving tens of thousands of dollars if not more. They left because they could no longer put up with the emotional and physical abuse from the leaders.

Current status: Most long-time members of MME have defected in the past few years leaving only or less than a handful to support the leaders in America but more in Germany who are apparently either disbelieving or ignorant of the reports and criticisms by USA ex-members. Criminal charges against Lee Harris have been filed in court by former members. Trial is pending as of March 2010.