Elizabeth Clare Prophet
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Elizabeth Clare Prophet | |
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Born | Elizabeth Clare Wulf April 8, 1939 |
Died | October 15, 2009 Bozeman, Montana, US | (aged 70)
Other names | Guru Ma, Mother of the Flame |
Occupation | Spiritual leader |
Years active | 1959–2009 |
Known for | Founder of the Church Universal and Triumphant |
Children | 5 |
Elizabeth Clare Prophet (née: Wulf, a.k.a. Guru Ma
In 1975, Prophet founded Church Universal and Triumphant, which became the umbrella organization for the movement, and which she expanded worldwide. She also founded Summit University and Summit University Press.[2] In the late 1980s Prophet controversially called on her members to prepare for the possibility of nuclear war at the turn of the decade, encouraging them to construct fallout shelters.[7] In 1996, Prophet handed day-to-day operational control of her organization to a president and board of directors. She maintained her role as spiritual leader until her retirement due to health reasons in 1999.[8]
During the 1980s and 1990s, Prophet appeared on
Early years
This section may contain excessive or inappropriate references to self-published sources. (January 2021) |
Elizabeth Clare Prophet was born Elizabeth Clare Wulf at Monmouth Memorial Hospital in
One of the major difficulties in her early life was her father's
In her early life, she periodically
Elizabeth Wulf claimed mystical experiences while growing up. She claimed that when she was about four, she had a vision of herself playing on the sands of the Nile river in Egypt. (Her mother told her that it was a past life.)[19] She claimed that as a child she felt God's light around her naturally, and heard a sound in her inner ear like that of an ocean wave or the roar of Niagara Falls.[20] While water-skiing, she said she felt she was suspended in a place where other spiritual beings existed, who were joyous in the light, radiating love. This motivated her to find out more about who these "saints robed in white" (Rev. 7:9-17) were, for she had always believed in the "universality of all true religion".[21]
Influences
Wulf grew up in a home that was mainly non-religious except for major holidays. Her father was
Education
Wulf spent her junior year studying French in Switzerland in 1956, and a year later graduated from Red Bank Regional High School ranked second in her class. She attended Antioch College in Ohio from September 1957 to March 1959 majoring in political science and economics. She transferred to Boston University in September 1959, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in August 1961.[24]
Career
In the summer of 1958, Wulf took a co-op job as a camp counselor in a French immersion school in Vermont. She was in charge of a number of high school girls between 15 and 16 years old and her role was to discipline them. She described the experience as frustrating and said she ended up praying to God she might never be put in a position of authority over others.[21]
In the fall of 1958 she served an internship at the United Nations as secretary for Leo Rosenthal, a UN photographer. She claimed that her experience at the UN showed her that many of the ambassadors were not there to solve the world's problems and rather were engaged in power politics and manipulation of the world's economies. When she left after three months, she was depressed, and held the opinion that, to solve the world's problems people would need to change their concept of themselves and God.[21]
After moving to Boston in 1959, she worked as a secretary for the Christian Science church and The Christian Science Monitor. According to Prophet that is where she learned much about the publishing operations, organization, and administration of a church on a worldwide scale. This would help her later in running her own church.[25]
Wulf claimed she had realized she was intended to be a messenger while meditating with Mark L. Prophet at a public meeting in Boston on April 22, 1961. He had come to teach what he called "the Ascended Masters". She later claimed to have received a vision, while meditating with him, that her role in life was to pass on a higher teaching to further humanity's spiritual evolution.[26] She confided to Mark the next day she was also to be a messenger like him. He accepted her as a student at his mystical school, The Summit Lighthouse. She said she received another vision in June of that year by way of a visitation by the Ascended Master, El Morya, who told her to go to Washington, D.C. to be trained as messenger.[26]
After she attended her first conference in Washington in July, Mark Prophet returned to Boston in August to help her move to Washington to begin her training under him.
Teachings
The dogma of The Summit Lighthouse included a doctrine called the Path of Personal Christhood, or the way of the soul's one-on-one relationship with God through Christ consciousness. Prophet believed she shared the gift of the word, both written and spoken. She claimed to be in constant communion with God.
The Science of the Spoken Word, as Elizabeth and Mark taught it, was thought to be a gift of sound combined with meditation, prayer and visualization.[31] They believed that a Divine Gift (The Ascension) of union with God was possible.[32]
In 1987, Prophet predicted a first strike by the Soviet Union if America did not implement a missile defense program. She began to admonish her followers to move to Montana and build nuclear fallout shelters for the impending nuclear holocaust.[33][8] Adherents started construction of a large bomb shelter in the church compound in Corwin Springs, Montana[7] on land purchased from magazine publisher Malcolm Forbes.[2] Church members not on the staff built private shelters nearby. In April 1990 at Prophet's prompting, the entire community spent the night in their various shelters, communicating with each other by radio. Insiders, however, spread the word that the event might be the real thing. No one knew for sure, and many children believed this could be the end of life as they knew it. Nothing happened, and Prophet's focus took a gradual turn away from nuclear prepping and toward community outreach. Around this same time, the nearly-completed construction was halted by court order when large amounts of stored diesel fuel leaked and contaminated the area.[7]
Final years and death
Prophet was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in November 1998 and she died on October 15, 2009,[8][34] in Bozeman, Montana.[2] Her five children—Erin, Moira, Tatiana, Sean and Seth—were all still alive at the time of her death.[2] In 2009, her daughter Erin Prophet published Prophet's Daughter: My Life with Elizabeth Clare Prophet Inside the Church Universal and Triumphant,[35] and, in 2016, she contributed a chapter to The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements.[36] Prophet's children have largely stayed away from their mother's church. Some are on friendly terms with the group as it is today; others not necessarily. Prophet encouraged all of her children to fill various roles in the organization's leadership and spiritual work. At one time, Elizabeth appointed Erin Prophet as her successor but Erin declined this role. Sean Prophet is an avowed atheist, he has renounced all religions, including his mother's church. Tatiana Prophet is a conservative blogger on Facebook.[37]
Ascended Lady Master Clare
Those who adhere to the Ascended Master Teachings believe that Elizabeth Clare Prophet made her ascension after her death. She is known by various names which have been given to her by different organizations, including Ascended Lady Master Clare and Ascended Lady Master Clare de Lis.
It is asserted that Lady Master Clare's previous incarnations were:[38]
- Martha of Bethany
- Hypatia
- Clare of Assisi
- Catherine of Siena
- Empress Elisabeth of Austria[39]
- One of the daughters of Tsar Nicholas II, the last sovereign of Imperial Russia
Works
- Soul Mates and Twin Flames: The Spiritual Dimension of Love and Relationships (Pocket Guide to Practical Spirituality)[40]
- The Lost Years of Jesus: Documentary Evidence of Jesus' 17-Year Journey to the East[41]
- Violet Flame: Alchemy for Personal Change[42]
- How to Work with Angels (Pocket Guides to Practical Spirituality Book 4)[43]
- Access the Power of Your Higher Self (Pocket Guides to Practical Spirituality Book 3) [44]
- The Great White Brotherhood: In the Culture, History and Religion of America[45]
- The Masters and Their Retreats (by Mark L. Prophet, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Booth Annice (Editor) )[46]
- The Story of Your Soul: Recovering the Pearl of Your True Identity[47]
- Your Seven Energy Centers (A Holistic Approach to Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Vitality)[48]
Notes
- ^ a b c d e "Elizabeth Clare Prophet dies at 70; former leader of religious sect". Los Angeles Times. October 19, 2009. Retrieved March 7, 2018.
- ^ ISBN 0-8103-4921-3.
- ISBN 0-02-865980-5.
- ^ DeHaas 1994, p. 21-37.
- ^ "Obituaries – Elizabeth Prophet". Telegraph. October 23, 2009. Retrieved February 13, 2010.
- ^ a b c Egan, Timothy (April 24, 1990). "Guru's Bomb Shelter Hits Legal Snag". The New York Times. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
- ^ a b c d Flandro, Carly (August 28, 2011). "The legacy of Elizabeth Clare Prophet". Bozeman Daily Chronicle. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
- ^ DeHaas 1994, p. 31-32.
- ^ Nimoy, Leonard (host) (December 31, 1977). "The Man Who Would Not Die." In Search of... [Television series]. NBC.
- ^ McCallum, David (host) (1994). Ancient Prophecies. Coast to Coast Productions. ASIN B0027PIA6M.
- ^ Prophet 2009, p. 8.
- ^ Prophet 2009, p. 33.
- ^ Prophet 2009, p. 37.
- ^ Prophet 2009, p. 67.
- ^ Prophet 2009, p. 74.
- ^ Prophet 2009, p. 90.
- ^ Prophet 2009, p. 101.
- ^ Prophet 2009, p. 48.
- ^ Prophet 2009, p. 106.
- ^ a b c Prophet 2009, p. 131.
- ^ Prophet 2009, p. 45.
- ^ Prophet 2009, p. 52.
- ^ Prophet 2009, p. 238.
- ^ Prophet 2009, p. 18.
- ^ a b Prophet 2009, p. 188.
- ^ Prophet 2009, p. 211.
- ^ Grimes, William (October 17, 2009). "Elizabeth Prophet, 70, Church Founder, Is Dead". The New York Times. Retrieved March 7, 2018.
- ^ Lewis 2009, p. 171.
- ^ Tribune Staff. "125 Montana Newsmakers: Elizabeth Clare Prophet". Great Falls Tribune. Retrieved August 26, 2011.
- ^ Prophet 1972, p. 1.
- ^ Prophet 1991, p. 9.
- ^ SU Press dictations
- ^ "Former CUT leader Prophet dies at age 70". Billings Gazette. October 16, 2009. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
- ISBN 978-1-59921-718-5.
- ^ The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements ed.James R. Lewis, Inga B. Tollefsen - 2016 Page 48 0190466170
- ^ "Tatiana Prophet's "Back to Facts" Magazine & website blog links". facebook.com. Retrieved November 25, 2021.
- ^ "Church Universal & Triumphant / Summit Lighthouse – WRSP".
- ^ "Ascended Master Encyclopedia (published by The Summit Lighthouse)".
- OCLC 48715081.
- )
- OCLC 961008524.
- OCLC 41851600.
- OCLC 52630538.
- )
- OCLC 53117044.
- OCLC 148873543.
- ^ "Your Seven Energy Centers". Elizabeth Clare Prophet. Retrieved February 15, 2021.
References
- DeHaas, Jocelyn H. (1994). "The Mediation of Ideology and Public Image in the Church Universal and Triumphant," in Lewis, James R., and J. Gordon Melton, eds. (1994). Church Universal and Triumphant in Scholarly Perspective. Center for Academic Publication. ISBN 978-0-8191-9634-7.
- Prophet, Elizabeth Clare (2009). In My Own Words. Gardiner, Montana: Summit University Press. ISBN 978-1-932890-19-8.
- Lewis, James R and Sarah M (2009). Sacred Schisms: How Religions Divide. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521881470.
- Prophet, Mark and Elizabeth Clare (1972). Climb the Highest Mountain: The Everlasting Gospel, Book 1. Summit Lighthouse.
- Prophet, Mark and Elizabeth Clare (1991). The Science of the Spoken Word. Summit University Press. p. 9. ISBN 9780916766078.
The Science of the Spoken Word elizabeth clare.