Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2003, Page 83
In Chapter Four we read about CUT‘s relocation from Southern California to Montana. The
title, ―The Road to Armageddon,‖ is utterly appropriate. Whitsel sketches the intriguing
details of group end-time philosophy stemming from its inception and reveals the then
clandestine plans as CUT staff secretly moved a cache of weapons and eventually got
caught illegally purchasing and transporting more guns. The book contains photo images of
the huge underground shelters under construction. Whitsel explains how the community
―functioned more effectively as a self-contained social network‖ after the move. He
describes the required and inadvertent information control as most members were just too
busy and tired to read or watch any news had the ―Masters‖ even recommended it. This
chapter and the following, ―The Apocalyptic Nonevent,‖ give the reader an in-depth view of
how a large group of basically intelligent adults succumb to a frenzied preparation for an
attack that was imaginary.
I can understand why any writer might overlook or choose to omit a good portion of CUT‘s
history, teaching, ritual, and belief—even with my extensive familiarity with the group I was
regularly surprised by what new informants revealed. I am impressed with what Bradley
Whitsel did manage to include as it gives any reader a solid basis from which to understand
CUT. To his credit he avoids the apologetic, reactionary approach taken by the authors of
Church Universal and Triumphant in Scholarly Perspective (1994) and he does mention the
criticism of that pseudo-study by scholars who dropped out of the project. However, Whitsel
neglected any mention of CUT‘s extensive use of and claims to the Theosophist teachings
and illustrations of Nicholas and Helena Roerich. This late Russian couple who founded the
Agni Yoga Society had a significant international following, especially from 1921 through
1955, the year Helena died. Elizabeth and Mark Prophet claimed that their youngest
daughter, Tatiana, was Helena Roerich reincarnated, and they also claimed in their early
book The Chela and Path that the Ascended Masters appointed them to continue the work of
the Roerichs as well as of the Ballards. Several books from the Agni Yoga series were
teaching tools only at the higher levels of CUT‘s Summit University, then a 12-week per
level esoteric indoctrination program.
Whitsel does not suggest that the CUT leaders were at all cynical. He never ventures to ask
if Elizabeth or Mark, the Messengers, knew all along that they had no psychic contact with
Masters or future events. Although his thesis was not about psychoanalyzing the
Messengers, I believe Whitsel missed an important discussion about a pervasive character
feature that helps explain group anxiety and the high turnover rate among CUT staff—
Mark‘s and Elizabeth‘s volatile tempers. Emotionally unstable and insecure, these
Messengers could not trust their alleged psychic abilities, so they often and irrationally
berated the performance and misinterpreted the motives of the inner core staff. Whether
they deserved it or not, targeted staff were demoted or dismissed if they had not already
managed to slink away. Though the Messengers claimed to represent and communicate with
the same Ascended Masters, CUT staff reported observing them argue and disagree about
the sacred teachings especially while composing CUT‘s first testament, Climb the Highest
Mountain. Not unlike an abusive spouse, the charismatic Messenger increased control of
staff by not only keeping them very busy, but also with a labile, authoritarian style that kept
sensitive devotees of the Masters back on their emotional heels. CUT members even had a
label for the Messenger‘s outbursts—they called it ―blue-raying,‖ group jargon derived from
CUT doctrine about blue rays of energy denoting the divine power they invoked daily in
decrees and meditation.
To place CUT‘s decline and domestication in context, Whitsel invokes a Weberian notion of
―formal rationality‖ when authority seeks approval from social systems. Without charismatic
leadership CUT has entered a ―rational/legal‖ phase and is now led by a democratically
elected committee of three. As he notes, CUT appears to be following the pattern of
previous Ascended Master sects, especially the ―I AM,‖ which operates quietly today with a
In Chapter Four we read about CUT‘s relocation from Southern California to Montana. The
title, ―The Road to Armageddon,‖ is utterly appropriate. Whitsel sketches the intriguing
details of group end-time philosophy stemming from its inception and reveals the then
clandestine plans as CUT staff secretly moved a cache of weapons and eventually got
caught illegally purchasing and transporting more guns. The book contains photo images of
the huge underground shelters under construction. Whitsel explains how the community
―functioned more effectively as a self-contained social network‖ after the move. He
describes the required and inadvertent information control as most members were just too
busy and tired to read or watch any news had the ―Masters‖ even recommended it. This
chapter and the following, ―The Apocalyptic Nonevent,‖ give the reader an in-depth view of
how a large group of basically intelligent adults succumb to a frenzied preparation for an
attack that was imaginary.
I can understand why any writer might overlook or choose to omit a good portion of CUT‘s
history, teaching, ritual, and belief—even with my extensive familiarity with the group I was
regularly surprised by what new informants revealed. I am impressed with what Bradley
Whitsel did manage to include as it gives any reader a solid basis from which to understand
CUT. To his credit he avoids the apologetic, reactionary approach taken by the authors of
Church Universal and Triumphant in Scholarly Perspective (1994) and he does mention the
criticism of that pseudo-study by scholars who dropped out of the project. However, Whitsel
neglected any mention of CUT‘s extensive use of and claims to the Theosophist teachings
and illustrations of Nicholas and Helena Roerich. This late Russian couple who founded the
Agni Yoga Society had a significant international following, especially from 1921 through
1955, the year Helena died. Elizabeth and Mark Prophet claimed that their youngest
daughter, Tatiana, was Helena Roerich reincarnated, and they also claimed in their early
book The Chela and Path that the Ascended Masters appointed them to continue the work of
the Roerichs as well as of the Ballards. Several books from the Agni Yoga series were
teaching tools only at the higher levels of CUT‘s Summit University, then a 12-week per
level esoteric indoctrination program.
Whitsel does not suggest that the CUT leaders were at all cynical. He never ventures to ask
if Elizabeth or Mark, the Messengers, knew all along that they had no psychic contact with
Masters or future events. Although his thesis was not about psychoanalyzing the
Messengers, I believe Whitsel missed an important discussion about a pervasive character
feature that helps explain group anxiety and the high turnover rate among CUT staff—
Mark‘s and Elizabeth‘s volatile tempers. Emotionally unstable and insecure, these
Messengers could not trust their alleged psychic abilities, so they often and irrationally
berated the performance and misinterpreted the motives of the inner core staff. Whether
they deserved it or not, targeted staff were demoted or dismissed if they had not already
managed to slink away. Though the Messengers claimed to represent and communicate with
the same Ascended Masters, CUT staff reported observing them argue and disagree about
the sacred teachings especially while composing CUT‘s first testament, Climb the Highest
Mountain. Not unlike an abusive spouse, the charismatic Messenger increased control of
staff by not only keeping them very busy, but also with a labile, authoritarian style that kept
sensitive devotees of the Masters back on their emotional heels. CUT members even had a
label for the Messenger‘s outbursts—they called it ―blue-raying,‖ group jargon derived from
CUT doctrine about blue rays of energy denoting the divine power they invoked daily in
decrees and meditation.
To place CUT‘s decline and domestication in context, Whitsel invokes a Weberian notion of
―formal rationality‖ when authority seeks approval from social systems. Without charismatic
leadership CUT has entered a ―rational/legal‖ phase and is now led by a democratically
elected committee of three. As he notes, CUT appears to be following the pattern of
previous Ascended Master sects, especially the ―I AM,‖ which operates quietly today with a
