The I AM movement is probably the best publicized Mount Shasta-related religion. It holds that Shasta is home of the Lemurians, a race of very civilized refugees from an ancient kingdom called 'Mu' that was lost to a cataclysm when their continent Lemuria sank to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Lemurians are described as being seven feet tall and having a walnut-sized sensory organ in the middle of their foreheads. They reportedly use this organ to communicate via extra-sensory perception. Believers also state that this race can appear and vanish at will and that they have built an elaborate tunnel system in Shasta.
The movement was founded as a result of the first reported sighting of Lemurians that is said to have occurred about 1930. Movement founder Guy Ballard says that he encountered a 'divine being' high on Shasta named St. Germain.