American spiritual leader and guru, leader of the Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT) based on Gnostic Christianity, Buddhism, New Age mysticism and masonry. With intense and, it seems, utterly sincere belief in her own righteousness, Prophet convinced her followers that she is able to foretell the end of time. Although she has prepared for the apocalypse at least six times, her church continues to draw followers. As head of the CUT, she and her fourth husband draw a modest salary of $1,900 a month plus expenses.
The daughter of a strict German father who worked as a yacht maker and a Swiss mother who dabbled in the occult, Elizabeth had visions from the time she was a kid. By the age of nine she had visited every church and synagogue in her hometown, seeking spiritual enlightenment. When she was a student of Boston University she met Mark Prophet (1918-73), who claimed to be a reincarnation of Sir Lancelot. A former insurance and vacuum cleaner salesman, he had founded a church in 1958 which he was operating out of a Washington, DC storefront. Both were married to other people but with divine guidance, they shed their respective mates and wed in 1963. They soon moved their burgeoning flock to Colorado Springs and produced four children. In 1973, Mark died suddenly of a stroke at the age of 54, becoming an ascended Master. Elizabeth found herself the keeper of a sprawling spiritual empire worth by then about $50 million, funded by the tithing of members. They headed for California to settle on a 257-acre estate in the hills above Malibu.
The church continued to grow despite major controversy, including the defection of Randall King, a former husband of Prophet’s (one of four). After divorcing her, he accused his ex-wife of slavery and he sued her and the church for $23 million. She settled out of court about 1997.
In 1981 she married Edward L. Francis, a much younger follower and he soon became business manager of the Church. Prophet received a message from St. Germain that it was time to move on, and in 1981 the cult moved their headquarters from Malibu, California to a 12,000 acre ranch in Montana that they bought from Malcolm Forbes.
The ranch was operated on strict guidelines with a day beginning at 5:00 AM (seven days a week), with two hours prayer and meditation, and hard labor in between communal meal breaks. The diet was low protein and all stimulants were banned. Sex between married couples was allowed but for no more than 30 minutes twice a week. Once probation has been passed, devotees sign away all their property irrevocably to the Church.
Mrs. Prophet and her young husband had luxurious private quarters and she made her appearances dressed in spotless white satin with the occasional pink and gold sari, wearing diamonds and looking like a queen, being treated like a goddess.
With messages from the Archangel Gabriel, Prophet warned her followers that there was going to be a movement by the Soviets to overtake Europe and the U.S. and that major encounters could be expected as early as 10/02/1989. The cult members accelerated their efforts into getting large bomb shelters built, shelters that unfortunately were serviced by huge oil tanks that leaked into the Yellowstone River, causing a level of pollution that local citizens found objectionable.
In November 1998 the news was released that Prophet has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. She was no longer manager of her Church but continued to channel the “Ascended Masters,” with messages from Jesus, Pope John XXIII, Confucius, the saints and many of the angels of heaven. As “Mistress of the Universe,” she took spiritual dictation from Buddha, Shakespeare, Christopher Columbus and Merlin the Magician as well as Cosmic Master Ray-O-Light.
Murray Steinman, an astrologer who co-wrote Prophet’s books became a primary figure in the Church hierarchy. He sought to become a legal guardian of Prophet’s affairs but her four grown children contested this. Her 23-year-old daughter, Moira Lewis, said that she and her husband Rory and their two children fled Bozeman, fearful for their safety. She and Kathy Schmook, a writer and critic of the church, wrote a tell-all book about the organization in the mid-’90s.
Suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, she died on October 15, 2009 in Bozeman, Montana.
Link to Wikipedia biography