Elizabeth Clare Prophet
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Elizabeth Clare Prophet is an American who became the leader of the New Age 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 Prophet passed away on February 26 1973.
She and her late husband, Mark L. Prophet, have published more than 75 books on the Teachings of the Ascended Masters, including Climb the Highest Mountain, (their magnum opus) Kabbalah: Key to Your Inner Power, and The Masters and Their Retreats, Lost Years of Jesus, among others. She has lectured widely throughout the United States and in 28 countries, speaking in more than 150 cities on six continents.
In addition to publishing a weekly newsletter entitled Pearls of Wisdom and lecturing regularly for over 30 years (1964-1994), Prophet has talked about her life, work and teachings on numerous radio and TV programs. In 1977, she was featured on "The Man Who Would Not Die," a program about Saint Germain produced by Alan Landsburg and narrated by Leonard Nimoy as part of Nimoy's "In Search of" series which was broadcast on NBC in the United States. She had a talk radio program entitled "Inner Perspectives" that aired for several months on KIEV radio in Los Angeles in the early 1980s. Her public-access cable series were available in 12 million homes during the 1980s. She has appeared on "Larry King Live," "Sonya Live," "CNN & Company," "Donahue" and "Nightline" and was featured on NBC's "Ancient Prophecies."
Ms. Prophet had lifelong petit mal epilepsy, and has suffered from advanced Alzheimer's disease since about 1999. The leadership of her church was taken over by a three-person presidency.
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Biography
Early years
She was born Elizabeth Clare Wulf in Red Bank, New Jersey in 1939 to Hans and Frida Wulf. After she completed her French studies in Switzerland, she attended Antioch College in Ohio. She later transferred to Boston University, where she received a bachelor of arts degree in political science.
Her spiritual quest sprang from what she recounted as a childhood recollection of a past life. She attended the Catholic church, the Jewish synagogue and every Protestant church in Red Bank and later studied the teachings of Mary Baker Eddy. She was also influenced by Mohandas Gandhi, Albert Schweitzer and Norman Vincent Peale.
In 1960, she met and married Dag Ytreberg, which marriage lasted only about 3 years.
Mark Prophet
On April 22 1961, she attended a meeting of The Summit Lighthouse in Washington D.C., where she met its leader, Mark Prophet. She was enthralled with the man who claimed to be a Messenger for the Ascended Masters. Mark and Elizabeth were married in 1963, had four children, and together built The Summit Lighthouse, an organization that Mark had founded in 1958. By 1964, Elizabeth had been trained to be a messenger too.
In 1966, the fledgling organization relocated to Colorado Springs, Colorado.
In 1970, the Prophets founded Montessori International, a school based on the principles of the acclaimed educator Dr. Maria Montessori.
Also in 1970, Mark and Elizabeth mounted a pilgrimage to India with several dozen Church members. They toured the country and met with Indira Gandhi as well as the Dalai Lama.
In 1971, the Prophets travelled to Ghana, West Africa to meet with and address the large CUT congregation there (several thousand), which was led by a man named Herbert Krakue.
In 1972, the Prophets again conducted a pilgrimage, this time to the holy sites in the Middle East.
In 1972, Climb the Highest Mountain was published, which was to become the central scripture of the Church Universal and Triumphant. The Prophets received the first printed copy by air mail, while on vacation in Hawaii.
February 26 1973, Elizabeth's husband, Mark, died of a massive stroke. She quickly assumed leadership of their organization, which then began its first foray into survivalism, with the purchase of a large property outside of Colorado Springs, and an even larger one in Idaho.
Ministry and expansion
In 1973, shortly after the death of Mark Prophet, Elizabeth married Randall King, a staff member. This marriage lasted 7 years. King later sued Prophet, and the Church eventually settled with King out of court for an undisclosed amount.
In 1974, the headquarters of the Church were moved to Santa Barbara, California, where Prophet founded Summit University. Regular enrollment in the religious studies program ranged from 50-125 students per quarter.
In 1975, Elizabeth Prophet founded Summit University Press, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2000. The Prophets' books are now translated into 23 languages and have been distributed in more than 33 markets.
In 1976, Church headquarters were again relocated to a large campus in Pasadena, California. Summit University, Montessori International, and quarterly church conferences were held there. About 300 staff members were then in residence.
In 1977, Elizabeth again traveled to Africa, this time being met by cheering crowds at the airport. She conducted a conference at the Kwame Nkrumah conference center in Accra which was attended by thousands. She also met with the heads of state in Ghana (Ignatius Kutu Acheampong) and Liberia (William Richard Tolbert, Jr.), both of whom were coincidentally deposed and executed shortly thereafter.
In 1978, CUT purchased the former Claretian seminary in Calabasas, California, a 218-acre campus near Los Angeles, and moved its operations there. Elizabeth called the property "Camelot." The property was coveted by the National Park Service, and the Church was never able to fulfill its vision of building its large-scale headquarters there. CUT sold the property in 1986 to Soka University who have had similar land-use difficulties.
In 1981, Elizabeth married Edward Francis, who was at that time a VP of the church. Their marriage lasted about 17 years, and they had a son in 1996.
Also in 1981, the Church began its second foray into survivalism, with the purchase of the Forbes Ranch, just outside of Yellowstone Park, near Gardiner, Montana.
Breakdown
In 1986, Prophet relocated her headquarters and 750 staff to the Forbes Ranch, which she had renamed the "Royal Teton Ranch." It was this mountain setting that was the backdrop for her more dire prophecies and the building of bomb shelters to survive nuclear war. These predictions earned Prophet worldwide notoriety as her organization weathered a rash of scandals in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
1989-1990 Prophet predicted specific dates for nuclear war between the United States and Soviet Union, and entered bomb shelters with hundreds of her followers on at least two occasions.
In 1998, Prophet withdrew completely from the church she led, and entered full-time nursing care for Alzheimer's disease in Bozeman, Montana.
Doctrine
Syncretism
Her doctrine is a conflation of Eastern and Western religious teachings, one of several successors to H. P. Blavatsky's nineteenth century teachings on Theosophy with a 1970's new-age bent. It could best be described as "new-age fundamentalism," since it combines expansive new-age doctrines such as karma and reincarnation with puritan and restrictive moral codes. She also borrowed heavily from the 1930's "I AM" movement, now called the I AM Foundation, started by Guy Ballard with his wife Edna. Prophet's doctrine could also be described as syncretism: she made a systematic effort to combine the truths in the world's religions, and make them more accessible to spiritual seekers. She has lectured extensively on Buddhism, Christian mysticism, gnosticism, Hinduism, Kabbalah (mystical Judaism) and Taoism.
The I AM presence
Some of her favorite topics are soul evolution, angels, twin flames and soul mates, prophecy, spiritual psychology, karma and reincarnation, and techniques to balance karma. A key theme is "the Ascension," which is purported to be the soul's reunion with God. This is said to occur after many lifetimes, upon balancing 51% or more of negative karma the soul has created during its evolution. Prophet has stressed the importance of knowing of self as the "I AM Presence," which is said to be that part of one's soul which remains with God, and can be relied upon for guidance. Prophet also advanced many theories of causes for the world's difficulties, with constructive steps for the individual and society.
Ascended Masters
Prophet taught that Ascended Masters are invisible spiritual beings who she believed once walked the Earth as humans. Three of the most prominent masters were claimed to be El Morya (spiritual founder of her organization), Saint Germain, and Jesus Christ. She taught that Saint Germain was to the "Age of Aquarius" what Jesus Christ was to the "Age of Pisces." A central theme of Saint Germain's teaching (via Ms. Prophet) was that all human negativity could be transmuted with "the violet flame." The violet flame was a special segment of what Prophet called more generally the "Science of the Spoken Word." Namely, a powerful rhythmic form of prayer which she considered superior to the soft-spoken type preferred by other faiths.
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 did. She believed it was every person's destiny (or at least potential) to do so. Some of the categories of Ascended Masters Prophet and her late husband supposedly communicated with were: Elohim, Archangels, Chohans, and the Holy Kumaras, of which there were seven each. Other masters included the Hindu pantheon: (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Kali, Durga, Lakshmi, Krishna), the Virgin Mary, Gautama Buddha, Maitreya Buddha, and Alpha and Omega, to name a few. Prophet's detractors often cited some of the more outlandish names of masters, such as "K-17" (head of the Cosmic Secret Service), which they saw as a "Marvel Comics" type of character. Critics also had difficulty with the fact that when Mark Prophet died, he too was believed by Elizabeth and her followers to have become an Ascended Master, who she called Lanello (a contraction of the names of two people she believed he had been in his former lives, Lancelot [of "Camelot" fame] and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.)
Dictations
Elizabeth Clare Prophet and her late husband Mark Prophet were renowned among their followers for their vast body of work, including more than 1,800 "dictations" in which they supposedly channelled messages from the Ascended Masters. Dictations followed common themes, which included: flattery, tough love, righteous anger at the wickedness of the world, encouragement and pleading for humanity to improve. They took an almost invariably superior but supportive tone toward the audience. These messages could last over an hour, while some were as short as ten minutes. The personalities of the supposed masters varied widely. Some dictations, usually by "feminine" masters, were soft and gentle. While others--especially those from the often severe El Morya (aka El Morya Khan)--were full of drama and bombast. There were dictations to mark special occasions, such as the yearly messages said to be from Jesus Christ on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Gautama Buddha also was claimed to speak through Prophet each New Year's Eve, to give the spiritual "thoughtform" for the new year. Quarterly conferences were also held, in which there were usually a dozen or more of these messages.
Many of the books published by The Summit Lighthouse are republished dictations. Sometimes a short introduction is provided, but by and large the books contain the dictations verbatim. This is especially true with the bound volumes of Pearls of Wisdom. Later works were better written for mass market publication. But earlier ones appealed mostly to the converted. Some did not attempt to be scholarly, others were extensively edited and footnoted, (she maintained an extensive research staff).
Controversy
Church Universal and Triumphant is purported to be a cult due to its 20 year history (1973-1993) of survivalism and members' possession of high-powered weapons in the past. The designation also has been used to describe the organization in numerous newspaper articles throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Some additional issues that have caused concern and media scrutiny of the organization are listed below, as well as in the scandals section.
Battle of light and darkness
In her ministry, Prophet focused on the "light" and "the ascension," which also involved battling incessantly against "dark forces." These included UFOs, extraterrestrials, soulless ones, rebellious angels and elementals, the "international capitalist-communist conspiracy," rock musicians, politicians, the power elite, "Nephilim," and others. 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 dozens to hundreds of names would be read aloud, and prayers made for God to "judge" those who were named. On one occasion in the 1970s Prophet (speaking as Archangel Michael) pronounced judgement on then secretary of state Henry Kissinger.
Discarnate entities
Ms. Prophet was especially keen on opposing and exorcising "discarnate entities" which were seen to prey upon weak humans, getting them to become angry, swear, drink alcohol, take drugs, masturbate, become homosexual, listen to rock music, or any one of a number of infractions. The discarnates are said to do this because they are believed to parasitically thrive on the "light" energy released when humans engage in such "sins." A typical ritual of "exorcism" involved wielding a short machete with Archangel Michael's name engraved on it (which the Church sold to members for about $25) and moving the knife around vigorously while praying, to "cut yourself free" from and/or "kill" the discarnate entities. During this time, participants in the exorcism, as well as hundreds to thousands in the congregation, would decree and shout affirmations, sometimes for hours.
The code of conduct
Prophet published a strict "code-of-conduct" for staff and students which banned most common or natural human activity. There were dietary restrictions, which changed over the years. Dietary restrictions included not eating pork and avoiding highly processed foods. Alcohol was banned, as were any form of recreational drugs. Red, black, brown, orange, chartreuse, and fuchsia clothing was banned, as was tight or revealing clothing. Popular music was banned. Sex was not permitted between unmarried persons; even married persons were limited to sex twice a week, and oral or anal sex were considered to be sins that would make the "ascension" impossible.
Ethics
Members of the "inner circle" were privy to Prophet's personal foibles, but she did not share these with followers. Instead, she projected an air of infallibility to her flock. They were told not to question her, that she was a bodhisattva and had balanced 100% of her karma. Source: Summit University Press: Pearls of Wisdom: vol. 23 #46 Prophet also had a temper that was legendary, and often made exceptions for herself and her family regarding the rules in the community. There was a large disparity between the lifestyle of the Prophet family and the staff. In the 1980s and 1990s, many single staff were housed in trailers or dormitories, and married couples often lived in single 12' x 12' rooms in "tri-plex" trailer units with paper thin walls. The housing units had been bought by CUT from the former Rajneeshpuram in Oregon. In the meantime, Prophet and the leadership lived in comfortable private homes.
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. When members were dismissed from the community, they were shunned by their peers and often dispatched with a few days' food money and/or a bus ticket.
Scandals
The Clayton Brokerage
In 1974, due to bad commodity investments by Summit Lighthouse leaders which resulted in losses of $697,000 in church funds, a lawsuit was filed against the church by the Clayton Commodities brokerage. Because the church was prohibited from such investments by its tax exempt status, the IRS threatened to revoke the status. As a hedge, the leadership founded a successor organization called Church Universal and Triumphant. In the end, the church escaped with a reprimand from the IRS, but Elizabeth Prophet decided to use the new name anyway. She derived it from the old Catholic "Church Militant," which upon perfection was supposed to be the "Church Universal and Triumphant." She believed her Church to be the rightful successor to the Catholic Church, even going so far as to take the title "Vicar of Christ." It was during this period that the CUT began to take on additional pomp and circumstance, complete with robes and large altars in its chapels.
Gregory Mull
In 1986, CUT and Elizabeth 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. 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. But the lawsuit turned into a trial of the religion itself, with members being asked to demonstrate examples of their religious practices in the courtroom. His complaint asked for $253 million. After a lengthy trial, he was awarded $1.5 million, $500,000 of which was punitive damages against Prophet herself. Clearly, the jury was not impressed with either the religion or her behavior. However, neither did they believe the more outrageous claims of Mull or his attorney Lawrence Levy. (Source: Los Angeles Times 4/3/1986, p.1) 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.
Bomb shelters
Prophet never really recovered from the humiliation of this trial. She had felt infallible as the messenger of God, and now she was hauled before a court of law and suffered compensatory and punitive damages. Following the trial, Prophet began to become more apocalyptic in her dictations. The masters began to speak through her more and more of social, economic and military disaster. They also began to talk of cataclysmic "earth changes."
By 1987, Prophet's prophecies began to drift toward global nuclear war. She began to refer to the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse." Specifically, she warned that the Soviet Union would mount a first-strike nuclear attack, and it was the duty of the "chosen ones" or "light bearers" to survive this onslaught to be able to preserve the religion for a post-nuclear "golden age."
She encouraged followers to build expensive underground bomb shelters. The Church itself built what is arguably the largest privately owned bomb shelter in the US. Designed for 756 people, with food storage for seven years, the cavernous underground city had generators, communications equipment, and room to store semi-trucks and armored personnel carriers. 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, California near Los Angeles.)
Guns
Rumors of gun purchases dogged Prophet's Church for 30 years. Some church members acting on their own accord had purchased a large cache of weapons and ammunition in 1973-1974 during the first survival phase in Colorado and Idaho. The existence of these guns was widely reported in the media, and even discussed and denied by Church leaders during their appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 1989.
That same year, to protect the shelters, Prophet's then-husband Edward Francis and staff member Vernon Hamilton purchased more high-powered semi-automatic weapons in Washington state under a false name. The guns were legal, but in trying to protect the Church's image by hiding their identities, they opened themselves up to criminal prosecution. Hamilton spent four months in jail, and Francis spent a month in addition to an unknown amount of time 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" [1]. The IRS again threatened to revoke the Church's tax exempt status, but it ultimately relented when the church agreed to make changes to its operations.
Fuel spill
The shelters needed a fuel source, and in the winter of 1989, the church buried dozens of 20,000 gallon fuel tanks nearby. Several of the tanks proved to have faulty welds, and they quickly sprung leaks. In the end, untold thousands of gallons of fuel were spilled, prompting a massive and costly cleanup along with an equally massive assault of bad press and state and federal litigation. (Source: Bozeman Daily Chronicle) [2]
War averted
Hundreds of followers all around the world traveled to Montana, many leaving their jobs and selling their properties (in order to buy gold, since paper money would be worthless after the war). After spending a couple of grueling nights inside the shelters praying in March and April of 1990, with the war having failed to occur, Prophet declared a reprieve. This was a tense period of waiting to see if the war might still take place, or if it had somehow been permanently averted. On June 30 1990, Prophet came out saying (in a dictation said to be from Mother Mary entitled "You have Won the Prize! Now Pass Your Tests!") essentially that "thanks to your prayers (decrees) the war was prevented".
Arranged marriages
In the spring of 1990, Prophet had another problem. Many foreigners had flocked to the Montana ranch during the "shelter emergency." They did not want to leave, but their visas were expiring. In a turnabout of the above mentioned "code-of-conduct," she endeavored to get a lot of couples to "hook up." Her solution was to marry the foreigners off to staff members who were citizens. So she held a dance, and announced to her apparently sex-starved staff that it was open season. 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. Many people who had been celibate for years jumped at the chance to wed. Around 50 couples got married during that initiative. Some of these marriages lasted, some did not.
CUT after Elizabeth Prophet
Leadership of the Church went through several transitions in the 1990s and 2000s, with Elizabeth Prophet bowing out for good sometime in 1998. As of 2005, the church is run by a two-person presidency, a board of directors, and a council of elders. Its staff has declined from a high of 750 to around 70.
In recent years, there has been a trend away from the old authoritarian model of leadership established by Ms. Prophet. The current CUT presidents present the appearance of running the organization based on its charter and bylaws. Most of the excesses and abuses of the past seem to have been curtailed.
Prophet's four adult children, who all worked for the group at one time or another, left in the 1990s. Erin Prophet currently runs a site to help raise funds for her mother's medical care.
Today, Church Universal and Triumphant still derives its primary inspiration from the teachings of Elizabeth Clare Prophet and to a lesser extent, Mark Prophet. Since 2000, the organization has engaged in a huge effort to repackage, update, translate, and publish this primary source material. A current search on Amazon.com lists over 150 titles in several languages.