Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 8, No. 3, 2009, Page 50
Randall before Mark died. With the pile of other conflicts already stressing the Prophet
children as they grew into adulthood, this was a last straw. Something emotionally
unraveled after that for all of them. In Erin‘s words, ―She had just undermined so many of
the decisions I had made in my life‖ (248).
For the most part, Erin Prophet fulfilled her task to write this book with a keen and at times
raw honesty. As the short reviews (21 at this writing) on Amazon.com reveal, ex-members
who were there before and during the ―shelter‖ period found Erin‘s testimony rich with
insight and meaning. CUT sympathizers reacted with disgust as if Erin were a confused
traitor, with one reviewer calling her book a ―hall of mirrors.‖ Any reader, familiar or not
with CUT, must appreciate the utter weirdness and difficulty of such self-exposure—after all,
this is about her mother, her father, and her siblings. Add to that the complex if confusing,
not to mention comical richness of, CUT teachings that borrow from and violate a host of
religions and myths.
Erin easily left out hundreds of pages of story. What she included is enough to make her
point clear. That point is that her mother might have exhibited a certain leadership charisma
and an extraordinary talent for channeling, but the world of CUT Masters was essentially all
in Elizabeth‘s head. That world was primarily dependent on one woman‘s stability in reason,
ethics, and health. Perhaps as memes the same Masters continue to speak through
hundreds of other channels today but Elizabeth Prophet‘s Masters are gone, if indeed they
were ever there. Erin leaves little doubt that the Ascended Masters of CUT depended on the
Prophets for their very existence. None of the Prophet children could get their heads into it
to continue the legacy.
One issue I have with this book is personal, so I very well might be the only one interested
in what I say next. Like me, I imagine that the vast majority of people who bought this
book soon after its release have a personal connection to the CUT experience. Among the
buyers will be a handful of scholars who continue to study the movement. Erin Prophet
leaves out some significant aspects of CUT teaching and facts about her family that
attracted me to the group in 1978 and subsequently drew me into it as a devotee for nearly
two years. I want to make it clear that I was never a core member, but I did go to three
conferences and I pursued CUT‘s Keeper of the Flame fraternity for one year. My deeper
interest at the time was with Agni Yoga (AY), a Theosophy movement started by Nicholas
Roerich and Helena Roerich in the early 1920s. In 1978, when friends of mine in CUT
revealed that Helena Roerich reincarnated as Elizabeth Prophet‘s youngest daughter
Tatiana, I was curious to meet this auspicious little girl. The closest I got was seeing her
from afar at CUT conferences in 1979.
Erin hardly mentions connections to the Roerichs and Agni Yoga. On page 149, she does
report reading the Morya-related writings of the Roerichs. Agni Yoga is never mentioned.
For me, it was significant not only that El Morya, the ascended ―sponsor‖ of the Prophets,
was integral to the Agni Yoga foundation myth but also that ―he‖ dictated that the Prophets
would fulfill both the ―I AM‖ teachings of the Ballards and the Agni Yoga of the Roerichs. I
was very familiar with both movements prior to my intro to CUT, so this seemed like a
natural, or should I say supernatural, progression for the book to take for me.
The general reader should understand that this Agni Yoga aspect of CUT is controversial at
best. In 1980 (two years before I rejected the Roerich teachings), the director of AY, then in
New York at the Roerich Museum, explicitly denied to me in person that AY approved of
anything the Prophets were doing. Sina Fosdick told me that Mark and Elizabeth approached
her with their newer ―Morya‖ message many years before, but she declined to align with
them. Nevertheless, the Prophets continued to use images of Nicholas Roerich paintings to
illustrate their book covers and teachings. The museum had not given CUT permission to do
so. This is one example of just how self-entitled the Prophets were as they patched anything
Randall before Mark died. With the pile of other conflicts already stressing the Prophet
children as they grew into adulthood, this was a last straw. Something emotionally
unraveled after that for all of them. In Erin‘s words, ―She had just undermined so many of
the decisions I had made in my life‖ (248).
For the most part, Erin Prophet fulfilled her task to write this book with a keen and at times
raw honesty. As the short reviews (21 at this writing) on Amazon.com reveal, ex-members
who were there before and during the ―shelter‖ period found Erin‘s testimony rich with
insight and meaning. CUT sympathizers reacted with disgust as if Erin were a confused
traitor, with one reviewer calling her book a ―hall of mirrors.‖ Any reader, familiar or not
with CUT, must appreciate the utter weirdness and difficulty of such self-exposure—after all,
this is about her mother, her father, and her siblings. Add to that the complex if confusing,
not to mention comical richness of, CUT teachings that borrow from and violate a host of
religions and myths.
Erin easily left out hundreds of pages of story. What she included is enough to make her
point clear. That point is that her mother might have exhibited a certain leadership charisma
and an extraordinary talent for channeling, but the world of CUT Masters was essentially all
in Elizabeth‘s head. That world was primarily dependent on one woman‘s stability in reason,
ethics, and health. Perhaps as memes the same Masters continue to speak through
hundreds of other channels today but Elizabeth Prophet‘s Masters are gone, if indeed they
were ever there. Erin leaves little doubt that the Ascended Masters of CUT depended on the
Prophets for their very existence. None of the Prophet children could get their heads into it
to continue the legacy.
One issue I have with this book is personal, so I very well might be the only one interested
in what I say next. Like me, I imagine that the vast majority of people who bought this
book soon after its release have a personal connection to the CUT experience. Among the
buyers will be a handful of scholars who continue to study the movement. Erin Prophet
leaves out some significant aspects of CUT teaching and facts about her family that
attracted me to the group in 1978 and subsequently drew me into it as a devotee for nearly
two years. I want to make it clear that I was never a core member, but I did go to three
conferences and I pursued CUT‘s Keeper of the Flame fraternity for one year. My deeper
interest at the time was with Agni Yoga (AY), a Theosophy movement started by Nicholas
Roerich and Helena Roerich in the early 1920s. In 1978, when friends of mine in CUT
revealed that Helena Roerich reincarnated as Elizabeth Prophet‘s youngest daughter
Tatiana, I was curious to meet this auspicious little girl. The closest I got was seeing her
from afar at CUT conferences in 1979.
Erin hardly mentions connections to the Roerichs and Agni Yoga. On page 149, she does
report reading the Morya-related writings of the Roerichs. Agni Yoga is never mentioned.
For me, it was significant not only that El Morya, the ascended ―sponsor‖ of the Prophets,
was integral to the Agni Yoga foundation myth but also that ―he‖ dictated that the Prophets
would fulfill both the ―I AM‖ teachings of the Ballards and the Agni Yoga of the Roerichs. I
was very familiar with both movements prior to my intro to CUT, so this seemed like a
natural, or should I say supernatural, progression for the book to take for me.
The general reader should understand that this Agni Yoga aspect of CUT is controversial at
best. In 1980 (two years before I rejected the Roerich teachings), the director of AY, then in
New York at the Roerich Museum, explicitly denied to me in person that AY approved of
anything the Prophets were doing. Sina Fosdick told me that Mark and Elizabeth approached
her with their newer ―Morya‖ message many years before, but she declined to align with
them. Nevertheless, the Prophets continued to use images of Nicholas Roerich paintings to
illustrate their book covers and teachings. The museum had not given CUT permission to do
so. This is one example of just how self-entitled the Prophets were as they patched anything
