Elizabeth Clare Prophet

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Elizabeth Clare Prophet (April 8, 1939 - October 15, 2009) was an American who became the leader of the Ascended Master Teachings new religious movement The Summit Lighthouse, an organization encompassing the branches of Church Universal and Triumphant, Summit University, Summit University Press, and Montessori International, after her husband, Mark L. Prophet, died on February 26, 1973.

Prophet had a talk radio program entitled Inner Perspectives that aired for thirteen weeks on KIEV (870 AM) radio in Los Angeles in the summer of 1977.^[1] She appeared on Larry King Live, The Morton Downey Jr. Show, Sonya Live, CNN & Company, Donahue and Nightline, and was featured on NBC's Ancient Prophecies.^{[citation needed]}

From the age of nine, Prophet suffered from absence seizures, a form of epilepsy, which worsened to include tonic-clonic seizures in 1988.^{[citation needed]} She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in November 1998. The leadership of her church subsequently passed to a board of directors.^{[citation needed]}

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early years 1.2 Mark Prophet 1.3 Ministry and expansion 1.4 Final years in the ministry 1.5 Retirement and death 2 Doctrine 2.1 Syncretism 2.2 The I AM Presence 2.3 Ascended masters 2.4 Dictations 2.5 Angels 2.6 Entities 2.7 UFOs 2.8 Fallen angels 3 Political theories 3.1 International Capitalist Communist Conspiracy 4 Controversial issues 4.1 Battle of light and darkness 4.2 Code of conduct for communicants and staff 4.3 Ethics 4.4 Clayton brokerage 4.5 Gregory Mull lawsuit 4.6 Fallout shelters 4.6.1 Guns 4.6.2 Fuel spill 4.7 War averted 4.8 Arranged marriages 5 Elizabeth Prophet's family 6 CUT after Elizabeth Prophet 7 References 7.1 Additional references 8 Publications 9 External links

Biography

Early years

Prophet was born Elizabeth Clare Wulf in Red Bank, New Jersey to Hans and Fridy Wulf. She spent her junior year studying French in Switzerland, and graduated from Red Bank Regional High School second in her class. She attended Antioch College in Ohio from September 1957 to March 1959 ^[2] transferring to Boston University in September, 1959. She received a bachelor of arts degree in political science in approximately August 1961.^[3]

After visits to the Catholic Church, the Jewish synagogue and every Protestant church in Red Bank, she attended Methodist Sunday School before finally settling on Christian Science at age 9, attracted in part by its emphasis on healing and her desire to overcome her epilepsy.^{[citation needed]} She eventually expressed ambition to become a Practitioner.

In 1960, while volunteering as a Sunday school teacher in the Christian Science Church in Boston, she met and married Dag Ytreberg; the marriage lasted about ten months.^[4]

Mark Prophet

On April 22, 1961, her group invited Mark Prophet, who claimed to be a messenger for the Ascended masters, to speak in Boston. She attended this meeting at which Mark claimed to give a message, from the Archangel Michael; afterwards, she asked Mark to train her to be a "messenger". Mark and Elizabeth were married in 1963, had four children, and together administered The Summit Lighthouse, which Mark had founded in 1958.

On July 5, 1964, Prophet delivered her first public dictation, purportedly as a messenger for the ascended masters.

In 1965, the Prophet family relocated to Fairfax, Virginia, and in 1966 to Colorado Springs, Colorado.

In 1970, the Prophet family founded Montessori International, a school based on the principles of the acclaimed educator Dr. Maria Montessori. "Montessori International" was used by the Prophets for their church/community school, which at various times offered classes for students ranging from preschool age to high school. Although their preschool teachers were trained at official Montessori organizations such as the Association Montessori Internationale and the Pan-American Montessori Society,^{[citation needed]} they were not officially associated with the Montessori umbrella organizations. In the elementary and high school levels, teachers were not Montessori certified.^{[citation needed]}

In 1970, the Prophets went to India with several dozen church members. They toured the country, meeting with Indira Gandhi as well as the Dalai Lama.^{[citation needed]}

In 1972, the first volume of Climb the Highest Mountain was published, a projected five-volume work^{[citation needed]}, which the Prophets intended to become their central scripture.

On February 26, 1973, Mark Prophet died of a stroke. Elizabeth assumed leadership of their organization, which then began its first foray into survivalism, based on instructions she said Mark gave her the night before his stroke. She organized survival training on a 240-acre (0.97 km²) property outside of Colorado Springs, which they had purchased with the intention of using for a headquarters. In May 1973, the organization entered into a partnership with a member who owned a property near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and attempted to establish a community there.^{[citation needed]}

Ministry and expansion

Prophet married Randall King, a staff member, on October 17, 1973. This marriage lasted seven years. King later sued Prophet for $16 million, alleging involuntary servitude, among other causes of action. The suit was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.^{[citation needed]}

In 1974, the headquarters of the Church was moved to Santa Barbara, California, where Elizabeth Prophet founded Summit University, a 12 week program of instruction in her teachings. In 1975, she founded Summit University Press.

On May 1, 1975, Prophet established Church Universal and Triumphant as the religious arm of the organization. She believed her church to be the rightful successor to the Catholic Church, even using the title Vicar of Christ for the highest spiritual office in the church. (She was the first holder of that office; the church articles and bylaws define processes for future appointments to the office).

The church eventually became the umbrella organization for Prophet's work, with The Summit Lighthouse becoming the publishing arm of the church.

In the summer of 1976, church headquarters were again relocated to the campus of Pasadena College, in Pasadena. Summit University, Montessori International, and quarterly church conferences were held there. About 300 staff members were then in residence.^{[citation needed]}

In September 1976 and again in January 1978, Prophet returned to Africa.^{[citation needed]} She conducted a conference at the Kwame Nkrumah conference center in Accra which was attended by thousands.^{[citation needed][vague]} She also met with the heads of state of Ghana (Ignatius Kutu Acheampong) and Liberia (William Richard Tolbert, Jr.).^{[citation needed]}

In 1977, the church purchased a former Claretian seminary in Calabasas, a 218-acre (0.88 km²) campus near Los Angeles, and moved its operations there in 1978. Due to opposition from various governmental agencies, including the California Coastal Commission, the church was never able to build its planned headquarters there. The church sold the property in 1986 to Soka University.

In October 1981, Prophet married Edward Francis, who was at that time a vice-president of the church. Their marriage lasted 16 years, and they had a son in 1994.

Also in 1981, the church purchased the 12,000-acre (49 km²) Forbes Ranch, just outside of Yellowstone Park, near Gardiner, Montana.

Final years in the ministry

In 1986, Prophet relocated her headquarters to the Forbes Ranch, which she had renamed the Royal Teton Ranch. It was here that she made her more dire prophecies including the possibility of a nuclear war between the superpowers.^{[citation needed]}

Beginning in 1986, as she was leaving Los Angeles, Prophet began predicting a possible first-strike nuclear attack by the Soviet Union and urged followers to prepare for this possibility by building fallout shelters and storing food and other necessities for survival.^{[citation needed]}

Retirement and death

In 1999, deteriorating health led Prophet to retire from the church. In 2000, she entered full-time nursing care for Alzheimer's disease in Bozeman, Montana. She died October 15, 2009 at the age of 70.^[5][6]

Doctrine

Syncretism

Prophet's doctrine combines both Eastern and Western religious teachings, building on the foundation of H. P. Blavatsky's nineteenth century teachings on Theosophy, while disagreeing with Theosophical teachings on some points.^{[citation needed]}

Another foundation was the teaching of the "I AM" Activity, founded by Guy Ballard with his wife Edna in the 1930s. Prophet's sanctuaries include "portraits" of Ascended Masters Jesus Christ and Saint Germain painted by Charles Sindelar, an "I AM" artist, and a Chart of the I AM Presence similar to that used in the I AM Activity.^{[citation needed]}

She has lectured on Buddhism, Christian mysticism, Confucianism, gnosticism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Kabbalah (mystical Judaism) and Taoism.^{[citation needed]}

The I AM Presence

A key theme of Prophet's doctrine is "the ascension" which she described as the soul's final reunion with God. She claimed this would occur after many lifetimes, upon balancing 51% or more of the negative karma of the soul. Prophet stressed the importance of knowing the self as the I AM Presence which is "the presence of God that is individualized in each one of us." ^[7] she also referred to "the Holy Christ Self...your chief guardian angel and dearest friend, your inner teacher and voice of conscience" as the "Higher Self."^[8]

Ascended masters

Prophet taught that the Ascended Masters are invisible spiritual beings whom she believed once lived as humans. Some of the Masters she spoke of were Sanat Kumara, Lord Maitreya, El Morya (spiritual founder of her organization), Saint Germain, and Jesus. She taught that Saint Germain was to the "Age of Aquarius" what Jesus Christ was to the "Age of Pisces". A central theme of her exposition of Saint Germain's teaching (as well as the Ballards') was that human negativity could be transmuted with "the violet flame".^[9]

She claimed that the violet flame was a spiritual energy which could be invoked through the activity she referred to as the "Science of the Spoken Word," which built on the science of mantra practiced in the East. Through the "Science of the Spoken Word", as well as good works and self-sacrifice, Prophet believed that any soul could ascend to heaven just as Jesus and the other masters had. She believed it was every person's destiny (or at least potential) to do so.^[10]

Other Masters included deities derived from the Hindu and Buddhist pantheons including: (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Kali, Durga, Lakshmi, Krishna, and Gautama Buddha).^{[citation needed]}

Dictations

Elizabeth and Mark Prophet claimed to have taken more than 3,000 "dictations" from Ascended Masters. The messages often quoted the Bible or other scriptures. They tended to focus on several common themes including: flattery, encouragement, tough love as well as words meant to heal emotional and physical problems, transcendence along with hope in an afterlife following the ascension, and warning of further suffering if the ascension were not obtained. Dictations also offered righteous anger at human "wickedness," warning of impending karma, and pleading to follow the messengers and their organization. They took an almost invariably superior but supportive tone toward the audience.^{[citation needed]} Messages could last over an hour, while some were as short as ten minutes or less. There were dictations to mark special occasions, such as the yearly messages said to be from Jesus Christ on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Prophet claimed that Gautama Buddha spoke through her each New Year's Eve, to give the spiritual "thoughtform" for the new year. During conferences and seminars, the messengers usually gave a dozen or more of these messages.^{[citation needed]}

The messages were published as "Pearls of Wisdom," which were mailed to weekly subscribers and later compiled into annual hardcover volumes.^[11]

Angels

Prophet also taught extensively about angels, giving a series of seminars on the subject, which were later edited to become cable TV shows. She taught that there are angels and archangels who serve on each of the seven rays and that people can invoke their assistance for personal and world conditions through prayer and the Science of the Spoken Word.^{[citation needed]}

Entities

Prophet taught about two types of entities, non-physical forces that could negatively affect people. Specifically these could be either "discarnate entities" which consisted of one or more of the Subtle bodies of individuals who were once embodied on earth, or "mass entities", which Prophet defined as "forcefields of humanly misqualified energy." Belief in spirit attachment is not unique to Ms. Prophet's teachings, but originated in ancient belief systems. H.P. Blavatsky, Annie Besant and C.W. Leadbeater, the founders of Theosophy developed a more systematic interpretation of these ideas and some of Prophet's concepts built on this foundation.

Prophet proposed that entities were an important factor in addictions and that they also influenced individuals to engage in what she considered to be harmful or destructive behavior such as anger, swearing, use of alcohol or other drugs and misuses of sexuality. She also felt they were instrumental in violence, insanity, and suicide. She claimed the discarnates were parasitic beings who lived on the "light" energy released when humans engage in such practices. Prophet published a list of entity names that could be read aloud during decree services, asking for God to "Seize, pin, and bind" such entities. ^{[12] [13]}

Prophet gave names for a number of mass entities, including "Infurio" (involved in expressions of anger) "Jazzor" (associated with jazz music), "Roccoco" (associated with rock music), "Sodoma" (homosexuality) and "Sappho" (lesbianism), and "Annihla" (suicide).

Prophet's primary technique for exorcism of entities was invocations to the Archangel Michael and to the Elohim known as Astrea. Prophet also drew on teachings by Helena Blavatsky that the use of a stainless steel blade could be useful in exorcisms (Isis Unveiled, vol. 1, pp. 362–63). In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Prophet was known to spend four to six hours at a time on the altar of her church at the Royal Teton Ranch, swinging a sword with a four-foot blade in her battles with the "discarnate entities." The sessions took place with hundreds of people chanting at top speed and volume for the duration. These battles went on at such length that Prophet often became physically tired. A special "honor guard" of the strongest men in the community would then take their turns on the altar swinging the sword. The organization also sold short scimitar-style swords with Archangel Michael's name engraved on them, which members could use privately for the same purpose.

UFOs

One feature of the Prophets' beliefs was UFOs. However, Prophet did not see them as a benign presence (as did many new-agers) but generally having malevolent intent. On July 1, 1988, Prophet invited ufologists Stanton Friedman, Budd Hopkins, Linda Howe and Bruce Maccabee to speak at a church conference, where they spoke of research on UFO abductees. Mark Prophet's 1965 book The Soulless One: Cloning a Counterfeit Creation described in very general terms the genetic manipulation of life on earth by entities from other planets who had journeyed here.^[14]

Fallen angels

When ancient-astronaut theorist Zechariah Sitchin published his book The Twelfth Planet in the late 1970s, Prophet saw similarities between his claims and what Prophet had written fifteen years earlier, and she incorporated some of Sitchin's conclusions into her theories on the origins of evil on earth. (However, she rejected Sitchin's theory of an extraterrestrial origin for all of humanity.) While Sitchin proposed the the Nephilim described in Biblical and other texts from the Near East would return physically to Earth at a future time, Prophet proposed that they are here now, having reembodied on earth up to the present time.

Some of Prophet's theories are published in her book Fallen Angels and the Origins of Evil and in Paths of Light and Darkness, the sixth book in her Climb the Highest Mountain series.

Political theories

Prophet was largely a populist, distrusting elites of all stripes. But she felt that the world's elites were often supported by disembodied forces of evil, incuding hierarchies of fallen angels. A primary political principle for her was individual freedom, and this led her to take a stand against totalitarian systems of both the left and right. Her views on individual issues ranged across the political spectrum, from causes that are generally considered conservative (pro-life and anti-communist) to liberal (against nuclear power and monopoly capitalism).

International Capitalist Communist Conspiracy

Prophet taught that power elites of the world managed both sides of the great political conflicts of the twentieth century. She dubbed this cooperation the "International Capitalist/Communist Conspiracy". She held that Wall Street financiers such as Rockefeller, Morgan and others had knowingly assisted the Bolshevik revolution, and even the Nazis as part of their plan to ammass wealth and power.

Prophet based much of this theory on the work of Antony Sutton, who in a number of books documented financial and political support provided by Wall Street to the Nazis and the Bolsheviks. Sutton also spoke of plans for a one-world "order" by power elites of East and West. But she believed that it was more than a simple political theory. Her view was that many individuals among these power elites were embodied fallen angels or Nephilim who were attempting to keep the children of God subservient to them.

Mark Prophet had earlier sown the seeds for Elizabeth's embrace of this philosophy, having invited retired Army colonel Archibald Roberts to speak to the group in 1973. Roberts had written several books about "the decline of American sovereignty and the international elite's plan to construct a one-world corporate state". Prophet believed America to be a divinely inspired nation, and had become disillusioned with the United Nations (where as a young woman she worked for three months as the assistant to the delegates' photographer), she vigorously opposed any such plan.

Controversial issues

The organization was the target of attacks by anti-cult groups in the 1980s and 1990s.^{[citation needed]} The designation^[vague] also has been used to describe the organization in numerous newspaper articles during that time. Some issues that have caused concern and media scrutiny of the organization include:

Battle of light and darkness

In her ministry, Prophet focused on the "light" and "the ascension", but also taught that the individual victory of the soul also involved confronting "dark forces" and forces of evil in different forms. These might include UFOs, extraterrestrials, persons who lack souls, Nephilim, fallen angels, the "international capitalist-communist conspiracy", rock musicians, the power elite, and others who were seen as instruments of the forces of darkness. Regular updates in the form of prayer inserts were passed out to church congregations all over the world (often through a "telephone tree" or e-mail network), in which issues for prayer work were listed. Some of these included lists of names of individuals concerned.

These could be read aloud, and prayers made for these individuals to be cut free from negative forces and for God to judge the momentums of evil that may be work through them. Occasionally, Prophet would identify particular individuals as being aligned with forces of darkness. For example, on December 30, 1975, (speaking as Archangel Michael) she pronounced judgement on then secretary of state Henry Kissinger for what she described as his betrayal of America and its people in his unprincipled conduct of foreign policy.

Code of conduct for communicants and staff

Prophet published a strict "code-of-conduct" for Communicants of the church, similar to that of a monastic religious order. They were required to "tithe 10 percent of their income and follow a strict moral code which forbade drugs, alcohol, and tobacco, homosexuality, and extra-or pre-marital sex, as well as masturbation and oral or anal sex." [Prophet's Daughter pp. 50-51] Oral sex was considered to be a misuse of spiritual energy; Prophet stated that it involved a juxtaposition of the upper chakras with the lower chakras and thus tended to cause a lowering of the kundalini rather than raising of it (a major goal of the spiritual path pursued by Prophet's followers). For staff, the code was even more strict. In addition to the code for Communicants, there were dietary recommendations, which included not eating meat and avoiding highly processed foods. Desserts or sweets made with refined sugar, and especially chocolate, were strongly discouraged. The colors red, black, orange, chartreuse, and fuchsia were generally not permitted in clothing, as Prophet declared they tended to amplify lower energies, and tight or revealing clothing were not allowed. Rock music was not allowed. Celibacy was required for those who were unmarried; and married persons were asked to limit sexual activity to twice a week. Singles were admonished "spend no more than ten minutes at a time in conversation with members of the opposite sex, that women wear bras, and that hoop earrings be no larger than a dime." [Prophet's Daughter p. 51]

Ethics

Prophet presented an air of infallibility to her followers, who believed that in spite of her personal shortcomings, the ascended masters did sponsor her as their representative. On July 2, 1977, a dictation by Padma Sambhava announced that she held the mantle of Guru.^[15] In 1980, it was announced that she had balanced 100% of her karma and had fulfilled the requirements for the ascension, but she had volunteered to remain in embodiment following the ideal of the bodhisattva (Pearls of Wisdom: vol. 23 #46, Summit University Press).

Prophet was known for her temper. She was also criticized for making exceptions for herself and her family regarding the rules in the community. There was something of a disparity between the lifestyle of the Prophet family and the staff. In the 1980s and 1990s, accommodation was limited at the church's Montana ranch, due to the church's plans to build additional housing being blocked by the state government. Consequently, many single staff were housed in tight quarters in trailers or dormitories, and married couples often lived in small single rooms in inexpensive modular housing units. Some of these units and other equipment had been bought by CUT from the former Rajneeshpuram in Oregon, others from mining companies in Montana. In the meantime, Prophet and her family lived in a double-wide trailer on the ranch.

In court transcripts, under cross examination, (CUT v. Mull, 3:492-499) Prophet revealed that she shared information from confession letters and kept those letters in members' personal files. Staff were also encouraged to inform on each other if there were any infractions of the code-of-conduct or questioning of the faith or Prophet's leadership. This took place either via communication with department heads or directly with the Office of Ministry. On many occasions when long-time staff members were dismissed from the community, they would be labeled "betrayers," and have their names added to the lists for "decree sessions." Tragically, and even despite long-standing friendships, it was common for dismissed staff to be shunned by their peers and dispatched with a few hundred dollars severance and/or a bus ticket.

Clayton brokerage

In 1973-74, Randall King, a member of the board of the organization and then-husband of Prophet, used church funds to speculate in the silver futures market. His trading resulted in losses of $697,000 in church funds, and a lawsuit was filed against the church by the Clayton Commodities brokerage. Because there was some doubt as to whether the church board of directors had authorized King's use of its funds, the IRS began an investigation and threatened to revoke the organization's tax-exempt status. King was removed from the board. The church received a reprimand from the IRS but did not lose its status.

Gregory Mull lawsuit

In 1986, CUT and Mrs. Prophet were put on trial in the Los Angeles Superior Court, regarding a lawsuit that was filed several years earlier by architect and former employee Gregory Mull. His complaint alleged many things, including intentional infliction of emotional distress, involuntary servitude, and quantum meruit, alleging that he had not been paid for his services, an amount he claimed was $32,598.^[16]

Mull was upset because of what he felt was unfair treatment, and efforts by Prophet to recategorize monies he had understood to be compensation into loans that he was obligated to repay. The church, on the other hand, claimed that these funds were a loan to Mull to cover his living expenses, and that there had been an agreement by Mr. Mull they would be repaid when Mull sold real estate in San Francisco and moved to Los Angeles. Mull had signed a promissory note for the amount of the loan, and in a recording of a private conversation between Mull and Prophet that was played at the trial, Mull spoke of the money as a loan.

The legal action began when Mull refused to repay the loan, and the church sued to recover the funds and Mull countersued. Mull's case rested on the claim of "undue influence," that he'd been a member of the church for ten years, during which time they had access to his highly-skilled professional labor. After he left, and during the course of his lawsuit, he began to suffer health problems which included multiple sclerosis. Three months after the verdict, Gregory Mull died. According to his attorney, "Only the will to strike a blow on behalf of other cult victims, as he put it, held him together through the ordeal."

Mull's attorney exposed some of the unsavory manipulations used by Mrs. Prophet and church leaders on members, including threatening spiritual sanctions, as well as labeling them "fallen ones," and in Mull's case "the beast of blasphemy." Church members were also called to the witness stand and asked to demonstrate examples of their religious practices in the courtroom. Mull's complaint had asked for $253 million. After a lengthy trial, he was awarded $1.5 million,^[17] $500,000 of which was punitive damages against Prophet herself.

Prophet unsuccessfully appealed this verdict all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ultimately denied the writ of certiorari needed for them to hear the case.

Fallout shelters

Following the trial, the organization moved its headquarters to the Royal Teton Ranch in Montana. Prophet began to become more apocalyptic in her dictations. The masters began to speak through Prophet of the potential for social, economic and military disaster. They also began to reiterate earlier statements about the possibility of cataclysmic "earth changes".

By 1987, Prophet's prophecies began to become more specific about the potential for nuclear war. She began to refer to the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse". Specifically, she warned that the Soviet Union could mount a first-strike nuclear attack, and it was the duty of the "light bearers" to survive physically and preserve the ascended masters' teachings if this should come to pass.

She encouraged followers to build fallout shelters, either in Montana or close to where they lived, and to store food and other essentials.^[18] The Church itself built a huge shelter complex in what it referred to as "The Heart of the Inner Retreat." Locals referred to the spot at the end of Mol Heron Creek Road near Gardiner, Montana as "Taylor Meadows." map Designed for 756 people, with food storage for seven years, the facility has generators, communications equipment, air-filtration equipment, and room to store equipment needed for long-term survival given many possible scenarios. This was built at an estimated cost of $20 million. (The funds came largely from the sale of the Church's former campus in Calabasas, near Los Angeles.)^[19]

Guns

Rumors of gun purchases dogged Prophet's Church for 30 years. Some church members had privately purchased a large cache of weapons and ammunition in 1973-1974 during the first survival phase in Colorado and Idaho. These included over 100 AR-15 assault rifles, the civilian version of the M-16. Though the goal of acquiring the weapons privately was to avoid scrutiny, the purchases occurred with full knowledge of the Summit Lighthouse board of directors. It was part of an organizational plan called "Operation Christ Command" (OCC) which included the stockpiling of dried food, precious metals, and camping gear. In the early 1970s, staff at TSL's Colorado Springs headquarters were required to take a vow of poverty. So any private funds used for gun purchases would have otherwise been turned over to the church—rendering the "private funds" vs. "church funds" distinction moot. Still, the existence of these guns was discussed and denied by Church leaders during their appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 1989.

That same year, in their plan to protect the bomb shelters, Prophet's then-husband Edward Francis, and staff member Vernon Hamilton purchased more high-powered weapons in Washington state. They registered their purchases under the stolen identity of deceased San Francisco attorney Malcolm Pace, leading to Hamilton's arrest.^[20] The $100,000 arsenal seized by ATF agents included seven Barrett .50 caliber semi-automatic sniper rifles, and a number of smaller .308 and .223 military-style firearms. The guns were legal to own, but in trying to protect the Church's image by hiding their identities, Francis and Hamilton opened themselves up to criminal prosecution. Hamilton served four months, and Francis also spent a month in jail and several months under house arrest. Even as late as 1999, a U.S. House of Representatives report mentioned the incident, citing CUT as an example of a "Doomsday Religious Cult".^[21]

At the time, Elizabeth Clare Prophet disavowed any knowledge of the two men's plans. But according to the Billings Gazette, her daughter Erin Prophet contradicted this claim in her 2008 book Prophet's Daughter ^[22]

As a result of media reports regarding this and other church activities, the IRS began another investigation of the church and revoked the Church's tax exempt status. According to the New York Times, "a looming face-off with the United States government was averted when church leaders agreed not to store weapons in return for a reinstatement of the church’s tax-exempt status, which had been revoked in 1987."^[23]

Fuel spill

The shelters needed a fuel source, and in the winter of 1989-90, the church buried about thirty 20,000 gallon fuel tanks nearby. Several of the tanks proved to have faulty welds, and they began to leak. In the end, 21,000 gallons of diesel fuel and 11,500 gallons of gasoline spilled,^[24] prompting a massive $1 million cleanup, handled by Missoula-based contractor Envirocon.^[25] The company and church workers removed contaminated soil and water, a process which continued for nearly a year. The church was sued by the state of Montana, and required to pump out and remove all gasoline and diesel fuel from the shelter site. It was also fined by the U.S. Coast Guard for polluting the Yellowstone River. Later, the diesel generators at the shelter were converted to run on LP gas. Six 30,000 gallon propane tanks remain at the site, keeping the units operational.

War averted

After spending two separate nights inside fallout shelters praying in March and April 1990, with the war having failed to occur, Prophet declared a reprieve. This period coincided with what turned out to be the beginnings of the collapse of the former Soviet Union. On June 30, 1990, Prophet said (in a dictation said to be from Mother Mary entitled You have Won the Prize! Now Pass Your Tests!) essentially that the building of the shelters and all the difficulties entailed was a victory in itself and that people should not be disappointed or angry that they had not been needed at that time.^[26]

Arranged marriages

In the spring of 1989, Prophet had another problem. Many foreigners had come to work at the church's headquarters in the years up to the shelter emergency. They did not want to leave, but their visas were expiring. In a turnabout of the former somewhat monastic community norms, she encouraged people to actively look for potential marriage partners. The Livingston Enterprise ran an article titled Corwin Springs a Popular Spot for Spring Weddings after the Park County clerk was overwhelmed with applications for marriage licenses.

Elizabeth Prophet's family

Prophet's four adult children—Sean Prophet, Erin Prophet, Moira Prophet, and Tatiana Prophet—who all worked for the group at one time or another, left the Church in the 1990s. Erin Prophet is a project manager at a Boston hospital, and was her mother's co-guardian for many years. She also ran a website that raised funds for her mother's medical care. Sean Prophet is a creative director in Los Angeles, and also runs a prominent atheist website, Black Sun Journal. He has publicly repudiated the teachings of the Ascended Masters and recounted his mother's admission to him of her abuses of power. He has also expressed regret for his role in promoting the organization as minister and vice-president, and his desire to right past wrongs by exposing what he now views as transparent fraud—-not only in Ascended Master organizations, but throughout organized religion and the new age movement.^[27] Moira Prophet was the first of Prophet's four children to become publicly antagonistic, speaking out against the church on the Oprah Winfrey show in 1989.

Tatiana Prophet used to be a reporter for the Victorville Daily Press.

Prophet's grandson, Chris Prophet used to be the drummer for the post-hardcore group Horse The Band.

CUT after Elizabeth Prophet

Leadership of the Church went through a major transition in July 1996, when Prophet handed day to day operations of the church over to a newly appointed president and the church board. Prophet's retirement due to health reasons in 1999 was a further major change.

As of 2009, the church is managed by President Valerie McBride, Vice Presidents Jon Springer and Tina Storti, as well as a board of directors and a council of elders.

Without her physical presence in the organization, the organization has had to adopt more conventional structures and processes. The board and current CUT presidents run the organization based on its charter and bylaws.

Church Universal and Triumphant still derives its primary inspiration from the teachings of Elizabeth Clare Prophet and Mark L. Prophet.

Since 2000, the organization has engaged in a large effort to repackage, update, translate, and publish this primary source material.

Elizabeth Prophet died October 15, 2009 due to complications of Alzheimer's disease. She was 70.^[5]

Within three days after her death, former CUT staffer David Lewis, leader of rival organization The Hearts Center^[28] claimed to be channeling Prophet's spirit. CUT elder Neroli Duffy disputed his claim.^[29]

References

This article includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (October 2009)

Additional references

• Roth, Chris (1995) A Prophet in Her Own Compound: The Millennial Angst of Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Secretary to the Gods Steamshovel Press, no. 14, pp. 13–19
• Lewis, James R., and J. Gordon Melton, eds (1994) Church Universal and Triumphant in Scholarly Perspective, Stanford, Calif. Center for Academic Publication
• Whitsel, Bradley C. (2003) The Church Universal and Triumphant, Elizabeth Clare Prophet's Apocalyptic Movement, Syracuse University Press
• Erin Prophet (2008) Prophet's Daughter: My Life with Elizabeth Clare Prophet Inside the Church Universal and Triumphant, Lyons Press
• Kenneth Paolini, Talita Paolini (2000) 400 Years of Imaginary Friends: A Journey Into the World of Adepts, Masters, Ascended Masters, and Their Messengers, Paolini International

Publications

Works by Mark and Elizabeth Prophet (See full list of books published by Summit University Press, Corwin Springs, Montana):

• (1965, reprinted 1974, 1983, 1991, 2004) The Science of the Spoken Word ISBN 0-916766-07-1
• (1965, reprinted 2005) The Soulless One: Cloning a Counterfeit Creation ISBN 0916766438
• (1984, reprinted 1986, 1987) Prayers, Meditations, Dynamic Decrees for the Coming Revolution in Higher Consciousness, Loose-leaf Sections I, II, and III, informally known among followers as "The Decree Book"
• (1986) The Path of the Higher Self, book 1 of the Climb the Highest Mountain series ISBN 0-916766-26-8
• (1993) Saint Germain on Alchemy ISBN 0-916766-68-3
• (1999) Saint Germain's Prophecy for the New Millennium ISBN 0-922729-45-X
• (2000) Fallen Angels and the Origins of Evil: Why Church Fathers Suppressed the Book of Enoch and Its Startling Revelations ISBN 0922729433
• (2005) Paths of Light and Darkness, book 6 of the Climb the Highest Mountain series ISBN 1-932890-00-9
• (2006) The Path to Immortality ISBN 1-932890-09-2
• (2009) In My Own Words, Memoirs of a Twentieth Century Mystic ISBN 978-1-932890-15-0

By Elizabeth Clare Prophet (published independently)

• (2008) Preparation for My Mission: Childhood Recollections Edited by Tatiana and Erin Prophet ISBN 978-0-578-00357-3

External links

• Official Church Universal and Triumphant site
• Official Church Universal and Triumphant biography and information about Elizabeth Clare Prophet
• Official Church Universal and Triumphant site of information about Mark and Elizabeth Prophet
• Official Summit University Press site
• Site on Elizabeth Clare Prophet maintained by daughter Erin Prophet
• Black Sun Journal, by son Sean Prophet
• Memories of Elizabeth Clare Prophet and husband Mark Prophet contributed and maintained by followers
• Randall King, Lanello Reserves, and the Tiffany Transatlantic Cable sections
• web site of Summit University Press, publisher of Prophet's teachings
• Elizabeth Prophet - Daily Telegraph obituary

Persondata
NAME	Prophet, Elizabeth Clare
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Wulf, Elizabeth Clare
SHORT DESCRIPTION	American religious leader
DATE OF BIRTH	April 8, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH	Red Bank, New Jersey
DATE OF DEATH	October 15, 2009
PLACE OF DEATH	Bozeman, Montana