Prophet's Daughter: My Life with Elizabeth Clare Prophet Inside the Church Universal and Triumphant [Hardcover]

Erin Prophet (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 24, 2008

In early 1990, in response to apocalyptic prophecies given by her mother, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Erin Prophet entered a network of underground bunkers in Montana along with members of her mother's Church Universal and Triumphant, a controversial New Age sect. Emerging to find the world still intact, Erin was forced into a radical reassessment of her life and her beliefs. She had spent her adolescence watching her mother vilified as a dangerous cult leader even while attempting to meet her expectations by becoming a "prophet" herself.

 

  

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this extraordinary memoir, Prophet pulls the curtain back on the highest levels of life inside a cult, documenting her life inside as the daughter of cult leader Elizabeth Clare Prophet, of the Church Universal and Triumphant, from her birth through 1990, when the Church's long-awaited apocalypse failed to materialize. Without judgment or reservation, but a remarkably clear-eyed view built on more than 10 years on the outside, Prophet's account reveals cult life through the complex relationship with her charismatic, manipulative mother-a figure of equal reverence and alarm. Prophet's straightforward voice makes the facts all the more disturbing and heartrending, but her empathy for her fellow sect-members is both touching and telling, drawing readers into the cult's midst almost against their instincts. Those expecting sordid tales and angry judgments will be surprised by the subtlety and seeming safety of the cult; at heart, Prophet's story is a classic coming-of-age tale, a young woman learning about the family business and facing the inevitable realization of her parent's fallibility, but on a truly awesome scale. Like her own experience, Prophet's intense tale is sure to stick with readers long after they make it through.
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From Booklist

Before diagnosis with Alzheimer’s, a malady that eventually caused her consignment to full-time nursing care, Elizabeth Clare Prophet was founder (with second husband Mark Prophet), popularizer, and executive of the Church Universal and Triumphant, which promulgated a heady mixture of Christian Science, survivalism, UFOlogy, and syncretistic Christianity and is still active. Erin, Elizabeth Clare’s daughter, provides a disillusioned insider’s look at the church, which all four of Elizabeth Clare’s children have left. It can’t be easy being a mother with a supposedly direct line to the deity, but so it was in the Prophet household. Over time, Elizabeth Clare’s prophecies became more extreme—for instance, the one that spurred her to lead family and congregation literally underground in Montana in 1990, where they lived in a network of chambers to avoid the apocalypse. Emerging to find that the world had not ended, Erin began to reassess her mother’s teaching and eventually write this book. Good stuff about a powerful religious entrepreneur and her flock. --Mike Tribby

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Lyons Press (September 24, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1599214253
• ISBN-13: 978-1599214252
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,143,180 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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47 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Honest, Informative and Well Written, February 13, 2009

By 

H. Lynn (MT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Prophet's Daughter: My Life with Elizabeth Clare Prophet Inside the Church Universal and Triumphant (Hardcover)

This book deals with matters of belief and as such it tends to evoke strong emotions. Read the rest of the book reviews if you want to know what I mean. By and large they are 1 star or 5 stars depending upon whether or not the reviewer believes in the ascended masters. Since the opinions of the book are so subjective, I think it's only fair to offer some information about myself.

I was born and raised in the Church Universal and Triumphant. I was named by Elizabeth Prophet. I attended Montessori International. My family was on permanent staff during the shelter cycle and I was a child at that time. I was in the the large shelter complex in the Heart during the 'drills' in the spring of 1990.

This book is goldmine of first-hand information about the Church Universal and Triumphant and the shelter cycle. For anyone looking to answer the questions 'what actually happened?' and 'how did it come about?' this book is a great place to start.

For those of us that were present during the shelter cycle, it confirms many things that we suspected but were unable to prove. For instance, it was rumored around the cafeteria that we had acquired an armored personnel carrier. Erin confirms the presence of not one, but two APC's on church property. We believed that the church members responsible for security had acquired a stockpile of assault rifles. Erin confirms the existence of a hidden cache of AR-15's. As far as the scandal of Vernon Hamilton, Edward Francis and the weapons purchase: everyone on staff knew that permanent staff members were essentially paupers and that there was no way Vernon Hamilton was walking around with $150,000 of his own money. We believed (without proof) that the upper echelons of the church hierarchy knew of the weapons purchase, approved it and backed it monetarily. Erin confirms all of this. (I might add that no-one on staff that I talked to at that time disapproved of stockpiling weapons; we thought it was a prudent precaution for the post-apocalyptic fantasies that we indulged. Vernon and Edward had our full moral support.)

(** Amended at the request of the author based on additional information and clarification that she supplied about the purchase of the APC's.)

As a member of permanent staff and a participant in many of the events in this book, I though I knew the whole story of the shelter cycle. I was mistaken. Secrets were kept and information was withheld even from the 'inner circle' of the permanent staff. For instance, none of us had any idea that Elizabeth had been diagnosed with epilepsy, or that she had suffered a tonic-clonic seizure during the shelter cycle. None of us understood the role that Erin played as seer to Elizabeth during that critical time. And, as I mentioned earlier, none of us were privy to knowledge that the leadership had of the weapons purchases. In expectation of the apocalypse, and in the grip of paranoia, the church had become very compartmentalized. At each level of the hierarchy, knowledge was jealously sealed away from the level below. It is a testament to the effectiveness of this compartmentalized structure that the leadership was able to keep such secrets in a communal environment where we all lived, worked, ate, sang and decreed together.

But there is a lot more to this book than a simple list of dates and events. Erin offers analysis and insight into the dynamics of the organization of the church and the forces that impelled us to those actions that seemed ludicrous and dangerous from an outside perspective. One of the most important aspects of the Church that Erin examines up is the dichotomy between the outer Teachings versus the inner Teachings. Briefly, the outer teachings focused on self reliance through a personal connection to God via the Holy Christ Self. In contrast, the inner teachings focused on personal surrender as implied by the guru / chela relationship. The self-dissolving love of the guru grew to such a degree that we revered her as a living deity who had balanced 100% of her karma and who was infallible. The abuses of the shelter cycle that horrified the members of the outer circle of the church become more understandable when viewed in the light of the inner teachings through which we had fallen into the idolatry of worshiping a living human being.

There is a lot more. Erin spends a lot of time discussing the group mechanics of the staff, and the symbiotic relationship between the Prophet and the chelas who hungered for her prophecy. I find that I do not have space to rehash these subjects here; for those who want more, I must simply recommend that they acquire the book and begin to read.

I do have a few nits to pick with the book. In some places, I think that Erin does not fully own up to the consequences of her actions and the impact that they had on other people's lives. For instance, Erin's divine revelation of the need to stockpile supplies for seven years dramatically effected the lives of every staff member down to the smallest. Children were pulled out of school at Montessori International and forced to work (without pay) in a food processing plant to meet the expanded supply needs by the divine deadline. But I digress; no book can tell the story from everyone's point of view. This is a memoir, after all, and it's perfectly legitimate for Erin to tell her story rather than attempt to tell the story of every staff member.

I would have read this book one way or another simply for the informational content within it. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the high quality of the text; Erin is a much better writer than I had expected. I read not only with interest, but with pleasure. She strikes a fine balance between presenting the facts and evoking a setting. The places times and attitudes are recalled with such vivid clarity that one can begin to understand the psychology of the major players in the story. I'm sure that some of the sections were quite painful to write. I was shocked at Erin's candor in discussing the details of the Prophet's private family lives. Her recollections of psychological coercion and sexual manipulation shed light on the inner workings of the mind of a leader already in the grips of illness, prophecy and paranoia.

I'd like to express my gratitude to Erin for writing this book. It is an illuminating read, even for those of us who had a front seat ticket to the drama of the times. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in new age religions. I think that anyone who was a member of the Church Universal and Triumphant during the shelter cycle will find it to be enlightening. I would especially recommend it to anyone who is currently in or considering joining an organization based on the teachings of the ascended masters.

70 of 90 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gripping Cautionary Tale, September 20, 2008

By 

Sean Prophet "BlackSun" (West Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Prophet's Daughter: My Life with Elizabeth Clare Prophet Inside the Church Universal and Triumphant (Hardcover)

This outstanding document accomplished two extremely difficult tasks: Providing a history and human context for our mother's life, and demonstrating Erin's difficulty coming of age while faced with the expectations of following in her mother's footsteps. The story is told against a backdrop of constant crisis, "divine revelation," fame and the idolatry of followers.

It is to Erin's credit that she did a decade of research, and consulted a wide range of sources both within our family and outside of it. Her book is factually unimpeachable when it comes to its representation of the lives of our parents and the church they founded. Erin went way beyond due-diligence as an author in having her manuscript vetted and triple-checked by every member of our family.

As someone who was right by Erin's side through most of the events that make up her narrative, I can say that she made every attempt at laser-accuracy. In my view, she has also been gracious and erred on the side of protecting her parents and the feelings of church members at almost every level. As I read through the book, I was often astounded by her dispassionate and unbiased tone even when describing very painful situations. There were many less charitable ways she could have presented the information, and some earlier drafts reflected that.

I speak here specifically to those in CUT who may be disturbed by her revelations, which some have called "salacious." I ask: What better way is there to evaluate a person's ethics than how they lived? I would argue that like running for public office, the very act of raising oneself up as a "guru" invites and even demands just such scrutiny. For it is in the nuance of personal life decisions that character is revealed.

I applaud Erin's discussion of mom's meddling in her marriage. For Erin's marriage was by no means the only one to suffer. I saw countless people humiliated and broken up. Whenever mom used to chastise married staff members, she insisted that their spouse be present--often demanding the spouse take her side and reinforce her position. People were told on a whim that their husband or wife was a "fallen one" or "betrayer"--if that person became inconvenient to mom's agenda. Friendships, relationships and marriages were all expendable. This kind of spiritual hubris only survived as long as it did through the shame of followers to acknowledge it--a code of silence to protect the "sanctity" of the messengership on which they based their lives. I agree with Erin that it must be exposed if it is not to be repeated.

This is reinforced by the example of my own experience. I made the decision in 1985 at the age of 21 to marry Kathleen Mattson, who was then pregnant with my eldest son. Mom was violently opposed to it. She summoned me to her house in Malibu and arranged to have my best friend (a staff member) present at an all-night session where she spiritually threatened and browbeat me and convinced me to send Kathleen away to a CUT center in Vancouver. This separation lasted about 2 months until I realized that my wife-and-son-to-be were far more important to me than mom's blessing or spiritual pronouncements. I sent Kathleen a plane ticket, and brought her back. When I told my mom of my decision, she first threatened to excommunicate us from the church and to cut off all contact. Rather than admit she might have overreached, she preferred to compound the error by instructing followers that I and her future daughter-in-law be outcast and shunned like pariahs. Eventually she saw that I wasn't backing down, and she agreed to marry us in a group ceremony with 9 other couples, and accepted us back into the fold. Contrary to the disaster she had predicted, our marriage lasted 10 years and produced 3 (now adult) sons whom she loved dearly. As this episode demonstrates, more people should have stood up to her over the years.

But many people did not, and allowed their lives to be knocked off track. Of course the biggest example of the folly of her spiritual authority was the decision to squander the lifetime endowment of her church in a massively paranoid exercise in survival preparation.

As Erin documents, both she and I played no small part in the shelter drama, Erin on the spiritual side, and I on the engineering side. I felt that if the prophecies were real, we should spare no expense, and we didn't. Erin gave the confirmations the engineers were looking for, and it became a runaway train of excess.

Twenty years later, now that we have the opportunity to reflect, this memoir should be seen as a cautionary tale. Rather than CUT members circling the wagons because they are uncomfortable, they should be willing to look in the mirror. They need to realize that it was their beliefs and their elevation of the "messenger" to a place of unquestioned authority that led to every abuse. It is the authority-based tradition of "gurus" and "masters" that was the essence of the problem.

Though Erin doesn't quite reach the same conclusion, it is to me the undeniable implication of her courageous book. Once we remove anything, including spiritual authority, from the check and balance of reasoned analysis, all bets are off. Once a person claims (and people accept) prophecy and "divine revelation," all manner of abuses and wrong turns can and will result.

Erin's book succeeds on all counts. It's a gripping story of our mother's downfall into paranoia, a cautionary tale about power and group dynamics, and a very personal memoir of Erin's struggles and triumph over adversity. As her brother, as a philosopher, and as a humanist, I'm proud beyond words.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential acquisition for any spirituality or new age library, January 15, 2009

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Prophet's Daughter: My Life with Elizabeth Clare Prophet Inside the Church Universal and Triumphant (Hardcover)

In early 1990 in response to the apocalyptic prophecies of her mother Elizabeth Clare Prophet, daughter Erin Prophet went to live underground in Montana along with members of her mother's New Age sect, anticipating the end of the world. When she emerged to find it whole, Erin was forced to reassess everything she had been taught about church and family. PROPHET'S DAUGHTER provides an insider's view of the cult, its beliefs, and its values, and is an essential acquisition for any spirituality or new age library as well as many a general-interest lending library.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch