Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 8, No. 3, 2009, Page 48
to ―keep it real‖ while writing about a past that resembles a fantasy novel. Erin grew up
believing she was Mahatma Gandhi reincarnated. Her siblings Moira, Sean, and Tatiana
believed in past lives as John F. Kennedy, King Arthur, and Helena Roerich. They believed
this because their mother and father told them it was so. Elizabeth Prophet 1939-2009)
ceased her function as a guru due to the early onset of Alzheimer‘s, diagnosed by 1998 but
her mythic and symbolic status remains strong among Summit Lighthouse followers.
The author‘s father Mark L. Prophet (1919-73) founded Summit Lighthouse (a.k.a. Church
Universal and Triumphant) in 1958. Erin was the second of four children born to Mark and
Elizabeth after they wed in 1961. Mark trained Elizabeth to be a spirit medium or
―Messenger‖ for a host of nearly forty disembodied Ascended Masters who guide the affairs
of humanity and the entire cosmos. Erin was in training to be the next Messenger until she
gradually defected from the Teachings of her parents, starting in 1993.
True to its title, the book focuses on this unusual, exhilarating and difficult relationship
between mother and daughter/guru and disciple. The book is also a privileged insider‘s
overview of life in the group as it faced social, legal, and political conflicts in its growth from
nearly a thousand members when Mark died to well over ten thousand at its peak under
Elizabeth (group members estimate more than twenty-five thousand members).
Erin Prophet opens her story with perhaps the most pivotal event of the group‘s history. On
March 14 of 1990, around two thousand church members went underground into survival
shelters to avoid annihilation from a predicted nuclear strike. Unknown to the general
membership, Erin, as junior messenger or ―seer,‖ had an integral role in revealing the
specific dates related to her mother‘s prophecy of a ―doom cycle‖ based on a form of
astrology. We learn from Erin just how tenuous these predictions were yet thousands of
devotees moved everything from locations around the globe to be in Montana by the late
1980s. The church members spent millions of dollars and volunteered many man-hours to
build several large underground shelters, including one that held more than 700 people.
They stocked these shelters with provisions to last more than a year, all because Elizabeth
through the ―Masters‖ said they must to survive. After all, these ―Keepers of the Flame‖
might be responsible for reconstituting a devastated planet with a culture based on
Ascended Master teachings.
Although CUT leaders spun the nonevent of doomsday as merely a ―drill,‖ most members
saw it differently. Erin makes it clear that they fully expected to survive a nuclear hit that
night. As they all emerged the next morning, they saw nothing on the surface had changed.
It was a beautiful day. Inwardly, many hundreds of followers did change that day and over
the following few years, they would withdraw from participation, defect, or gradually drift
away from the ―Teachings.‖
Splinter groups formed, led by former members who claimed to channel the ―Masters.‖ Faith
in Guru Ma or Mother as prophet was shattered except among the most devoted.
Nevertheless, CUT reorganized as a less fear-laden New Age religion governed by
committee by the late 1990s as Mother lost all ability to function as Messenger. Since then,
CUT has enjoyed new membership more aligned with goals of personal ascension than fear
of annihilation.
Erin reveals another theme regarding her mother‘s medical condition that contributed to the
guru‘s odd religious obsessions and the direction the group took. Elizabeth suffered from
petit mal seizures or blackouts from an early age. This disorder may have contributed to her
profound visionary experiences throughout her life. The magical way Elizabeth perceived the
illness also contributed to her various phobias of bad energy and psychic attack. Indeed, as
Erin confirms throughout her story, Elizabeth and her followers used an elaborate book of
―decrees‖ (chanted mantras, or a form of casting spells with words and swords) to ―clear‖
just about any problem imaginable. With the decrees, Mark and Elizabeth Prophet combined
to ―keep it real‖ while writing about a past that resembles a fantasy novel. Erin grew up
believing she was Mahatma Gandhi reincarnated. Her siblings Moira, Sean, and Tatiana
believed in past lives as John F. Kennedy, King Arthur, and Helena Roerich. They believed
this because their mother and father told them it was so. Elizabeth Prophet 1939-2009)
ceased her function as a guru due to the early onset of Alzheimer‘s, diagnosed by 1998 but
her mythic and symbolic status remains strong among Summit Lighthouse followers.
The author‘s father Mark L. Prophet (1919-73) founded Summit Lighthouse (a.k.a. Church
Universal and Triumphant) in 1958. Erin was the second of four children born to Mark and
Elizabeth after they wed in 1961. Mark trained Elizabeth to be a spirit medium or
―Messenger‖ for a host of nearly forty disembodied Ascended Masters who guide the affairs
of humanity and the entire cosmos. Erin was in training to be the next Messenger until she
gradually defected from the Teachings of her parents, starting in 1993.
True to its title, the book focuses on this unusual, exhilarating and difficult relationship
between mother and daughter/guru and disciple. The book is also a privileged insider‘s
overview of life in the group as it faced social, legal, and political conflicts in its growth from
nearly a thousand members when Mark died to well over ten thousand at its peak under
Elizabeth (group members estimate more than twenty-five thousand members).
Erin Prophet opens her story with perhaps the most pivotal event of the group‘s history. On
March 14 of 1990, around two thousand church members went underground into survival
shelters to avoid annihilation from a predicted nuclear strike. Unknown to the general
membership, Erin, as junior messenger or ―seer,‖ had an integral role in revealing the
specific dates related to her mother‘s prophecy of a ―doom cycle‖ based on a form of
astrology. We learn from Erin just how tenuous these predictions were yet thousands of
devotees moved everything from locations around the globe to be in Montana by the late
1980s. The church members spent millions of dollars and volunteered many man-hours to
build several large underground shelters, including one that held more than 700 people.
They stocked these shelters with provisions to last more than a year, all because Elizabeth
through the ―Masters‖ said they must to survive. After all, these ―Keepers of the Flame‖
might be responsible for reconstituting a devastated planet with a culture based on
Ascended Master teachings.
Although CUT leaders spun the nonevent of doomsday as merely a ―drill,‖ most members
saw it differently. Erin makes it clear that they fully expected to survive a nuclear hit that
night. As they all emerged the next morning, they saw nothing on the surface had changed.
It was a beautiful day. Inwardly, many hundreds of followers did change that day and over
the following few years, they would withdraw from participation, defect, or gradually drift
away from the ―Teachings.‖
Splinter groups formed, led by former members who claimed to channel the ―Masters.‖ Faith
in Guru Ma or Mother as prophet was shattered except among the most devoted.
Nevertheless, CUT reorganized as a less fear-laden New Age religion governed by
committee by the late 1990s as Mother lost all ability to function as Messenger. Since then,
CUT has enjoyed new membership more aligned with goals of personal ascension than fear
of annihilation.
Erin reveals another theme regarding her mother‘s medical condition that contributed to the
guru‘s odd religious obsessions and the direction the group took. Elizabeth suffered from
petit mal seizures or blackouts from an early age. This disorder may have contributed to her
profound visionary experiences throughout her life. The magical way Elizabeth perceived the
illness also contributed to her various phobias of bad energy and psychic attack. Indeed, as
Erin confirms throughout her story, Elizabeth and her followers used an elaborate book of
―decrees‖ (chanted mantras, or a form of casting spells with words and swords) to ―clear‖
just about any problem imaginable. With the decrees, Mark and Elizabeth Prophet combined
