"Guru Ma," Controversial Leader of Religious Sector Dies

BOZEMAN, Montana - Elizabeth Clare Prophet, former head of the Church Universal and Triumphant, died Thursday at the age of 70. She retired in 1999 from a church which gained around 50,000 members. Her legal guardian, Murray Steinman, said Prophet suffered from Alzheimer's disease.

Prophet and her church gained fame in the late 1980's for their elaborate preparations for nuclear Armageddon. Around 2,000 church followers headed to a Montana ranch, stockpiling weapons and supplies. The ranch included a large underground bomb shelter.

The church combined aspects of major religions, mixing Western philosophy with mysticism. Despite her illness, her videos and writings continued to dominate teachings in the church, and transformed into a New Age publishing enterprise and spiritual university.

Her followers called her "Guru Ma." They believed she received "dictations" from masters such as Jesus and Buddha.

Prophet was born in Red Bank, New Jersey. She was raised in a Christian Science environment, but told The Times in 1980, "by the age of nine, I had gone to every church in town, only to find that none taught the whole truth. I found that within the self."

While attending Boston University as a political science student, she met Mark Prophet. He founded the Summit Lighthouse in 1958. The church taught practical spirituality using the world's major religions. They married in 1963.

Summit Lighthouse moved to Colorado Springs in 1966. Mark Prophet died in 1973 and Elizabeth Prophet assumed the leadership role.

She went on to found the Church Universal and Triumphant, Summit University, and Summit University Press. The church moved to Pasadena in 1977. The following year, they purchased an estate in Calabasas.

In 1981, the church purchased 12,000 acres in Montana. Prophet, close associates and followers started moving to Montana in 1983. She told The Times in 1987, "We felt we were divinely led here. You know it is easier to meditate here than it is in Los Angeles. You have 10 million auras in Los Angeles and here you have wide open space."

In 1986, the Calabasas property was sold to Soka University. Soon afterwards, former church follower Gregory Mull said he had been subjected to a form of thought control by Prophet and the church. He was awarded $1.5 million.

She is survived by her five children, Erin, Moira, Tatiana, Sean and Seth.