The Church Universal and Triumphant is a New Age religious organization established chiefly by Elizabeth Clare Prophet.
The CUT traces its lineage through Rosicrucianism to Theosophy to the I AM movement. Prophet, who grew up under influences including New Thought, Asian thought, Christian Science, Swedenborgianism, and Roman Catholicism continued the work of her husband Mark Prophet, who branched off of Guy and Edna Ballard's I AM group, and became the church's leader upon his death. Known informally as Guru Ma, she reportedly dictated the minutest elements of members' lives, demanded extremes of their time and contributions, and did not herself adhere to the vegetarianism, macrobiotic diet, rejection of abortion, and chastity she enforced at various times on the lives of her followers, having supposedly "balanced the karma of the world". Her absolute control over members, which some believe lives on in indirect effect today through the church itself, extended to direction of marriage choices, taking personal jewelry, clothing, and possessions (on the grounds the Masters required them), and similar actions, leading many to classify the CUT as a cult. Prophet is today in hospice care in Bozeman, Montana suffering from Alzheimer's disease (though some members hope for her spontaneous recovery), leaving the church under the direction of a three-person presidency.
The church became best known when during the 1980s it predicted nuclear apocalypse and retreated en masse from California to land it acquired just north of Yellowstone National Park. Members were urged to liquidate their wealth for the final days, purchasing and borrowing to prepare for the end in underground bunkers with caches of weapons at the ready. When the civilized world did not end on the date Prophet foretold, she explained that the community had averted the war through their prayers. Adherents however were left both humiliated and frequently bankrupt; bad debts by members forced the closure of one hardware store in nearby Livingston, Montana. Following this episode church membership fell off significantly, though the CUT remains a significant presence in the area with some international following but nothing like in its heyday, during which its arrival nearly doubled the population of Park County, Montana. With its decline in membership, the church was forced to downsize its land holdings in the first years of the 2000s with sales back to the U.S. government.
CUT theology is a syncretistic mix of beliefs not always to others' eyes harmoniously consistent, including Buddhism, Christianity, esoteric mysticism, the paranormal, and belief in elves, fairies, and other entities it calls elementals. It revolves chiefly around communications channeled from Ascended Masters, many such as El Morya, Kuthumi, and St. Germain with their roots in the theosophy of Madame Blavatsky, though its own pantheon of spiritual agents number from dozens to hundreds. It practices prayers of affirmation at high speed known as decrees and is wary of malevolent influences and energies, which may be reflected in phenomena others regard as harmless such as chocolate, dark or reddish colors, and the full moon.
400 Years of Imaginary Friends is an excellent and balanced insight into the organization, its history, and its founder, written not unsympathetically by two former members, one of whom was an elite personal bodyguard and assistant for many years to Prophet. A privately produced work, its print status may be irregular.
