Elizabeth Clare Prophet Dies at 70; Former Leader Of Religious Sect
She was the head of the Church Universal and Triumphant, which gained notoriety in the late 1980s for its followers' elaborate preparations for nuclear Armageddon.
Elizabeth Clare Prophet, retired spiritual leader of the Church Universal and Triumphant, which was based for several years in a Calabasas headquarters called Camelot and gained notoriety in the late 1980s for its followers' elaborate preparations for nuclear Armageddon, has died. She was 70.
Prophet, who had Alzheimer's disease, died Thursday in Bozeman, Mont., her legal guardian, Murray Steinman, told the Associated Press.
The church's beliefs combined aspects of the world's major religions, mixing Western philosophy with mysticism. Despite Prophet's illness, her videos and writings continued to dominate teaching in the church, which has transformed into a New Age publishing enterprise and spiritual university.
Prophet was called "Guru Ma" by her followers, who believe she received "dictations" from such "ascended masters" as Jesus, Buddha and St. Germain. She retired in 1999 from an active role in the church, which once had about 50,000 members.
Elizabeth Clare Wulf was born April 8, 1939, in Red Bank, N.J. She grew up in a Christian Science environment, she told The Times in 1980, but by age 9 had gone "to every church in town" only to find that none taught "the whole truth. . . . I found that within the self."
She was a political science student at Boston University when she met Mark L. Prophet, who in 1958 founded the Summit Lighthouse, which teaches practical spirituality using the world's major religions.
After earning her bachelor's degree, they were married in 1963.
In 1966, Summit Lighthouse moved to Colorado Springs. Mark Prophet died in 1973 and Elizabeth Clare Prophet assumed the leadership of Summit Lighthouse.
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