Overview

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. Prophet's Daughter describes Erin's search for her mother's origins and motivations. With the craft of a storyteller, she describes the combination of health crises and external pressure that drove her mother's ever-more dire prophecies. She reveals how the allure of infallibility led her mother to a conspicuous downfall, and how her mother's rapidly progressing Alzheimer's disease truncated any hope of resolution. A remarkable memoir with implications for the dialog about power, group behavior and the future of religion. As reported in a Los Angeles Times obituary, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, who had been called ""Guru Ma"" by her followers, died on October 15, 2009.

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9781599219721

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Reviews

<p>It has been my privilege to interview thousands of members and former members of religious communities that had been branded destructive cults. The founder/prophets of these groups emerge as everything from humankind's saviors and enlightened beings to demonic tyrants and self-serving predators. The testimonies of children of founders tend to report resentments, oppressions, family dysfunctions, and great relief that their history with their respective group lays in the past. The reader gets no sense of why anyone would want to follow such a leader.<p><p>Erin Prophet is different. By reading her account, I really feel that I have seen Elizabeth Clare Prophet and the Church Universal and Triumphant as fully and realistically as possible. I can understand her power and her weakness. I can feel what it was like for Erin as her daughter and assistant - her ambivalences, her awkward moments, her accomplishment on behalf of her community, her confusions, her realizations, her personal and family struggles, etc. Erin does not present herself as a victim or as a heroic scandal-monger seeking to destroy the community into which she was born and reared. This is unique in first-person accounts of this genre. I cannot think of another book that enables me to learn about a group, its founders, and its primary followers as this one does.Lowell Streiker, Ph.D

It has been my privilege to interview thousands of members and former members of religious communities that had been branded destructive cults. The founder/prophets of these groups emerge as everything from humankind's saviors and enlightened beings to demonic tyrants and self-serving predators. The testimonies of children of founders tend to report resentments, oppressions, family dysfunctions, and great relief that their history with their respective group lays in the past. The reader gets no sense of why anyone would want to follow such a leader.Erin Prophet is different. By reading her account, I really feel that I have seen Elizabeth Clare Prophet and the Church Universal and Triumphant as fully and realistically as possible. I can understand her power and her weakness. I can feel what it was like for Erin as her daughter and assistant - her ambivalences, her awkward moments, her accomplishment on behalf of her community, her confusions, her realizations, her personal and family struggles, etc. Erin does not present herself as a victim or as a heroic scandal-monger seeking to destroy the community into which she was born and reared. This is unique in first-person accounts of this genre. I cannot think of another book that enables me to learn about a group, its founders, and its primary followers as this one does.Lowell Streiker, Ph.D

It has been my privilege to interview thousands of members and former members of religious communities that had been branded destructive cults. The founder/prophets of these groups emerge as everything from humankind's saviors and enlightened beings to demonic tyrants and self-serving predators. The testimonies of children of founders tend to report resentments, oppressions, family dysfunctions, and great relief that their history with their respective group lays in the past. The reader gets no sense of why anyone would want to follow such a leader. <p>Erin Prophet is different. By reading her account, I really feel that I have seen Elizabeth Clare Prophet and the Church Universal and Triumphant as fully and realistically as possible. I can understand her power and her weakness. I can feel what it was like for Erin as her daughter and assistant - her ambivalences, her awkward moments, her accomplishment on behalf of her community, her confusions, her realizations, her personal and family struggles, etc. Erin does not present herself as a victim or as a heroic scandal-monger seeking to destroy the community into which she was born and reared. This is unique in first-person accounts of this genre. I cannot think of another book that enables me to learn about a group, its founders, and its primary followers as this one does. Lowell Streiker, Ph.D

It has been my privilege to interview thousands of members and former members of religious communities that had been branded destructive cults. The founder/prophets of these groups emerge as everything from humankind's saviors and enlightened beings to demonic tyrants and self-serving predators. The testimonies of children of founders tend to report resentments, oppressions, family dysfunctions, and great relief that their history with their respective group lays in the past. The reader gets no sense of why anyone would want to follow such a leader. Erin Prophet is different. By reading her account, I really feel that I have seen Elizabeth Clare Prophet and the Church Universal and Triumphant as fully and realistically as possible. I can understand her power and her weakness. I can feel what it was like for Erin as her daughter and assistant - her ambivalences, her awkward moments, her accomplishment on behalf of her community, her confusions, her realizations, her personal and family struggles, etc. Erin does not present herself as a victim or as a heroic scandal-monger seeking to destroy the community into which she was born and reared. This is unique in first-person accounts of this genre. I cannot think of another book that enables me to learn about a group, its founders, and its primary followers as this one does. Lowell Streiker, Ph.D

Author Information

Erin Prophet is the co-author of Reincarnation: The Missing Link in Christianity. She has also contributed to several New Age bestsellers, including The Lost Years of Jesus as well as Astrology of the Four Horsemen. Her work has been translated into six languages. As spokesperson for her mother's church, she appeared on more than fifty local and national radio and television shows, including ""Oprah!"" and ""Donahue."" She now lives in Massachusetts where she teaches technical writing and works in health care management.

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