Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 8, No. 3, 2009, Page 47
By the end of this memoir, the reader realizes that the title Cartwheels in a Sari is a
metaphor for the double life Tamm was forced to live, her life in the cult and life in the
outside world. Shortly before she finally leaves the group for good, Tamm recalls a
childhood memory of performing gymnastics in a Chinmoy-directed circus:
Banned from wearing leotards because they were too revealing, in my circus
costume of a shiny sari fearlessly tumbling, somersaulting, and cartwheeling
around the stage to Guru‘s applause… The inversion of my body, losing track
of gravity and direction, was disorienting and delirious. From my vantage
point, I saw Guru and all of the disciples upside-down, and no one else had.
Their faces blurred past, a rush of nonsensical colors and shapes. By the end
of my routine, I didn‘t know which was the correct way. Both felt as equally
unstable then as they did now. (pp. 265–266)
When she finally leaves the group, Tamm vows, ―I was through tumbling for him, done
cartwheeling, dwelling upside-down.‖ (p. 284)
Every general reader will be fascinated and moved by this excellently written memoir.
People interested in cults will especially find it a valuable contribution to their knowledge of
cults and especially to their understanding of the lives of those born into and raised in them.
I wish Tamm had told us more details about what must have been a very difficult transition
to the outside world. Did she undergo counseling to help her adjust? How did she survive
financially? What is her current relationship with her parents? Did her brother ever leave the
group? How did she develop healthy relationships with men? But I was inspired by her
apparently successful journey to freedom and a new life. Now an English professor at Ocean
County College in New Jersey, Tamm is married and a mother. In one final irony of fate, she
reports that her daughter was born only a few hours after Sri Chinmoy died of a heart
attack. Illustrative of the humor Tamm exhibits throughout her memoir, she comments:
While I had long ago dismantled him [Chinmoy] as my god and savior, his
very ordinary, mortal death shocked me, as though a small part of me had
still expected him either to be immortal or to ascend toward the heavens. I
was sure that he, too, would have wanted something more visionary and
celestial than a mundane cardiac arrest. (p. 287)
Marcia R. Rudin
Prophet’s Daughter: My Life with Elizabeth Clare Prophet Inside the Church
Universal and Triumphant
By Erin Prophet, Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2008. ISBN-10: 1599214253
ISBN 13: 978-1-59921-425-2 (hardcover). $24.95 ($16.47 Amazon.com). 304
pages.
Ten years ago, journalist Scott McMillion interviewed Erin Prophet for his article ―Prophet‘s
Daughter Is Writing a Book‖ (Bozeman Chronicle, March 16, 1998). In that interview, the
author projected that her book would be out in 1999. Prophet‟s Daughter eventually saw
publication in September of 2008. That delay might have been a good thing. The author‘s
life took many turns in the past decade, until she settled in the New England area. During
that gestation period, she refined this memoir of an extraordinary journey through and
beyond her mother‘s cult.
I mean ―cult‖ in the ordinary sense because no other word describes the reverence and
ritual surrounding the ―mantle‖ of Elizabeth Prophet as ―Mother‖ and ―Mother of the
Universe.‖ If you read this account, you will appreciate the difficulty any author would have
By the end of this memoir, the reader realizes that the title Cartwheels in a Sari is a
metaphor for the double life Tamm was forced to live, her life in the cult and life in the
outside world. Shortly before she finally leaves the group for good, Tamm recalls a
childhood memory of performing gymnastics in a Chinmoy-directed circus:
Banned from wearing leotards because they were too revealing, in my circus
costume of a shiny sari fearlessly tumbling, somersaulting, and cartwheeling
around the stage to Guru‘s applause… The inversion of my body, losing track
of gravity and direction, was disorienting and delirious. From my vantage
point, I saw Guru and all of the disciples upside-down, and no one else had.
Their faces blurred past, a rush of nonsensical colors and shapes. By the end
of my routine, I didn‘t know which was the correct way. Both felt as equally
unstable then as they did now. (pp. 265–266)
When she finally leaves the group, Tamm vows, ―I was through tumbling for him, done
cartwheeling, dwelling upside-down.‖ (p. 284)
Every general reader will be fascinated and moved by this excellently written memoir.
People interested in cults will especially find it a valuable contribution to their knowledge of
cults and especially to their understanding of the lives of those born into and raised in them.
I wish Tamm had told us more details about what must have been a very difficult transition
to the outside world. Did she undergo counseling to help her adjust? How did she survive
financially? What is her current relationship with her parents? Did her brother ever leave the
group? How did she develop healthy relationships with men? But I was inspired by her
apparently successful journey to freedom and a new life. Now an English professor at Ocean
County College in New Jersey, Tamm is married and a mother. In one final irony of fate, she
reports that her daughter was born only a few hours after Sri Chinmoy died of a heart
attack. Illustrative of the humor Tamm exhibits throughout her memoir, she comments:
While I had long ago dismantled him [Chinmoy] as my god and savior, his
very ordinary, mortal death shocked me, as though a small part of me had
still expected him either to be immortal or to ascend toward the heavens. I
was sure that he, too, would have wanted something more visionary and
celestial than a mundane cardiac arrest. (p. 287)
Marcia R. Rudin
Prophet’s Daughter: My Life with Elizabeth Clare Prophet Inside the Church
Universal and Triumphant
By Erin Prophet, Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2008. ISBN-10: 1599214253
ISBN 13: 978-1-59921-425-2 (hardcover). $24.95 ($16.47 Amazon.com). 304
pages.
Ten years ago, journalist Scott McMillion interviewed Erin Prophet for his article ―Prophet‘s
Daughter Is Writing a Book‖ (Bozeman Chronicle, March 16, 1998). In that interview, the
author projected that her book would be out in 1999. Prophet‟s Daughter eventually saw
publication in September of 2008. That delay might have been a good thing. The author‘s
life took many turns in the past decade, until she settled in the New England area. During
that gestation period, she refined this memoir of an extraordinary journey through and
beyond her mother‘s cult.
I mean ―cult‖ in the ordinary sense because no other word describes the reverence and
ritual surrounding the ―mantle‖ of Elizabeth Prophet as ―Mother‖ and ―Mother of the
Universe.‖ If you read this account, you will appreciate the difficulty any author would have
