CultNEWS101 Articles: 8/26/2025

Trafficking, Love Has Won, Baha'i

A Little Bit Culty: Protecting Kids from Cults and Traffickers with Robin Boyle-Laisure

"What happens when a street-corner "religious" pitch nearly ropes in a teenage girl—only for her to dodge the hook and spend the next three decades dismantling the playbook that tried to claim her? In Part 1 of our conversation with Professor Robin Boyle-Laisure—St. John's University School of Law faculty, board member of the International Cultic Studies Association, and author of the upcoming Taken No More: Protect Your Children Against Traffickers and Cults—we follow the twisted parallels between cult recruitment and human trafficking.

Robin breaks down how predators groom, coerce, and control—whether they're fishing for followers in a dorm lounge or luring teens through online games. We talk about NXIVM's "collateral" bombshell, the grooming-to-control pipeline, and why charisma is just the sugar coating on a rotten core. You'll never look at "just talking" to strangers online the same way again.

Catch Robin's new book, Taken No More, this fall, and keep an eye on robinboylelaisure.com for free downloadable articles and updates."

Ladbible: Why the cult leader's face turned blue before she was found mummified in a jaw-dropping documentary

Her body was found in a sleeping bag covered in fairy lights and glitter two weeks after her death.

"Documentaries can often leave us shocked and full of questions, but the recent coverage of cult leader Amy Carlson is likely one of the craziest things you might ever see.

The Kansas-born mum-of-three quit her job at McDonald's and left her third husband after a man called Amerith WhiteEagle convinced her she was 'ethereal', and in 2007, they moved to Colorado to become Mother and Father God for the cult that would come to be known as Love Has Won.

Her controversial journey was covered in the 2023 HBO documentary Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God, which showed how the cult convinced its followers that they were led by 'Galactics', which mostly included deceased celebrities such as Carrie Fisher, Robin Williams and the very-much-not-dead Donald Trump.

While viewers were no doubt left confused by the cult's beliefs, which included a wide range of conspiracy theories - one of which suggested that Carlson was a reincarnation of Jesus Christ, or Joan of Arc - it was the 45-year-old's extraordinary death which posed the most questions.

While viewers were no doubt left confused by the cult's beliefs, which included a wide range of conspiracy theories - one of which suggested that Carlson was a reincarnation of Jesus Christ, or Joan of Arc - it was the 45-year-old's extraordinary death which posed the most questions."

AP News: Qatar sentences the country's Baha'i leader to 5 years for social media posts

"The leader of the small Baha'i community in Qatar was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison for social media posts that allegedly 'cast doubt on the foundations of the Islamic religion,' according to court documents obtained by an international Baha'i organization monitoring the case.

A three-judge panel of Qatar's Supreme Judiciary Council issued the verdict against Remy Rowhani, 71, who has been detained since April, according to documents provided to The Associated Press by the Baha'i International Community office in Geneva, Switzerland.

The judges rejected a defense request for leniency on the grounds that Rowhani suffered from a heart condition, according to the documentation.

Saba Haddad, the Geneva office's representative to the United Nations, depicted the verdict as 'a serious breach and grave violation of the right to freedom of religion or belief and an attack on Remy Rowhani and the Baha'i community in Qatar.'"

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The celebrity worship of "Love Has Won": Why Robin Williams may have resonated with a cult

COMMENTARY

The celebrity worship of "Love Has Won": Why Robin Williams may have resonated with a cult

Star worship can be taken to extremes, and death sometimes isn't even an obstacle ... but an opportunity


MELANIE MCFARLAND
Salon
DECEMBER 4, 2023

There is little about Amy Carlson’s cult that diverges from other groups profiled in docuseries like “Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God.” To fans of such docuseries, it may feel like an expansive palette sparkling with conspirituality themes. Self-identified light workers bandy about the concept of twin flames and profess that cumulus cloud tufts disguise space ships.

Each of Carlson’s followers describes some version of being adrift in life before meeting her, whether due to addiction, trauma, serious illness or existential malaise. They credit her for guiding them out of the 3D illusion that is mundane reality into their five-dimensional ascended state. At this "frequency" it is understood, for instance, that Hitler was a lightworker. They proclaim the miraculous health benefits of ingesting colloidial silver.

And Carlson, whose followers call her Mother God or simply Mom, comes from basic beginnings. The supposed messiah was born in Kansas and found success as a McDonald’s district manager in Texas before suddenly abandoning her family in 2007, reappearing online shortly after that claiming to be a divine healer who practices spiritual surgeries. Among her many wild claims was that she lived more than 500 lives over 19 billion years and was once known as Joan of Arc, Marilyn Monroe and Cleopatra. She also purported to be the reborn “Madam Blavtski,” likely referring to Russian mystic Helena Blavatsky, the founder of the Theosophy occultist movement.

When Carlson died in 2021 at the age of 45 as the result of what a coroner’s report deemed to be “alcohol abuse, anorexia and chronic colloidal silver ingestion," her followers refused to let Mom go. They drove her body from California to a Colorado house belonging to one of her most trusted acolytes, wrapped it in a blanket and blinking Christmas lights, and awaited her return. By the time the police raided the home, Carlson’s corpse was blue and mummified.

If you’ve seen “Wild Wild Country,” any of the Twin Flames or NXIVM examinations and “Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult of Sarah Lawrence,” to name a few, you have seen some version of this. But “Love Has Won” has one dazzling and bizarre differentiator from those: its followers’ universal connection through the spirit of Robin Williams.

Related

What "Escaping Twin Flames" teaches us about the anti-trans nature of a supposedly loving cult

The Love Has Won cultists are on a first-name basis with the legendary performer’s ghost, viewing him as one of "Mom’s main ambassadors" and the primary “Galactic” in her “etheric team.” “She signed over, like, the divine plan for him to make change,” explains one of Carlson’s main “Oracles,” Archeia Hope, whose real name is Ashley Peluso. “Like, he’s a very, very big part of this. And humanity is going to see that.”

Hope explains the Love Has Won belief system by holding up a mixed-media collage of smiling celebrities, most of them dead, that Hope describes as “the Galactic A-Team.” It includes but is not limited to Steve Irwin, Carrie Fisher, David Bowie, Rodney Dangerfield, Gene Wilder, Chris Farley, Tupac Shakur, Whitney Houston, Prince and Michael Jackson. John Lennon, who in life was such a terrible driver that he hired chauffeurs for the safety of those around him, is in command of the main spaceship. The cult calls him Ashtar.

Donald Trump is among them, of course, one of the living (aka "in the physical") members of the cult’s team. The still very much alive Carol Burnett is also in the picture, although Hope probably has no clue of who she or most of the others are. “Elvis is actually Mom’s son,” she says, pointing to Patrick Swayze's mug.

Carlson’s grinning visage is the largest and tops this mountain. Slightly smaller, but larger than the rest of the stars, is the face of the metaphysical figure Saint Germain. To her left is a picture of the same size which, Hope says, is “obviously Robin Williams.”

Williams built his comedy persona around being an outsider observing his fellow humans with affection, sensitivity and understanding.

All messages about what she or they should be doing come from what Carlson or one of her top followers claim to be Robin Williams. That could be as simple as Bring Mother God some onion dip and shrimp cocktail.

“I have seen Robin Williams come through Mother God because she’s on alcohol,” says still-loyal follower El Moyra, aka Ryan Kramer, “and I feel that she utilized it as a tool to let certain things through, because we needed to hear it.” Such as the fact that he took Mother God’s joy away “by making her the world’s worst quesadilla.”

“No Surprises Here Robin Is an Expert” one of her journal scrawls declares.

It is hard to say what Williams would have made of “Love Has Won” or the cult itself; several videos show Carlson ripping massive bong hits in her pursuit of a “higher vibration.” Williams once mused, "Do you think God gets stoned? I think so. Look at the platypus." (He was also famously inclusive, placing that reputation at odds with the cult’s views that homosexuality is wrong and, um, that whole Hitler excuse.)

Carlson isn’t around to explain why Williams, who died in 2014, holds such a vaunted status in her beliefs. That means we may never know why she proclaimed him to be Heaven’s herald as opposed to, say, Philip Seymour Hoffman or Casey Kasem, who "ascended" that same year.

Decoding a fractured psyche is a fool’s errand, we know. But there is some logic thread to tug at here, in that Williams built his comedy persona around being an outsider observing his fellow humans with affection, sensitivity and understanding.

November coincides with the 30th anniversary of “Mrs. Doubtfire,” which is neither here nor there when it comes to mulling over his supposed divinity. One could make a more compelling argument in surmising that “What Dreams May Come,” which was made 25 years ago this year, might have had a more lasting impact on a person who tumbled down the Internet spirituality rabbit hole.

Carlson and her Oracles aren’t “channeling” that essence. In the main Williams' kindly impression perseveres among Millennials and Gen Xers who came to accept Williams as a regular presence during the holidays thanks to movies like "Good Will Hunting," "Jumanji" and "Night at the Museum."

“Love Has Won” director Hannah Olson noticeably doesn’t solicit expert insights in her documentary series. However, the theory she presents in a recent LA Times interview makes sense. “I think for latchkey kids of the ‘80s and ‘90s, celebrities filled in for the family members we wish we had,” she said. “Who wouldn’t want an uncle or a father like Robin Williams?”

That intimation may transcend cultures, suggested in Williams’ recent surprise cameo in “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon,” of all places. In the course of Norman Reedus’ wandering hunter escorting a supposed Messiah and a pair of nuns through zombie-infested France, they come to be hosted by a community of children in “Alouette.”

entertain their honored guest, they activate a bicycle-powered generator that fires up their TV to show an old episode of “Mork & Mindy.” Daryl’s uncharacteristically open joy is one of the limited series’ highlights; his memory of watching the show with his brother Merle is a happier one in an abusive home that wasn’t so happy.

"Reality is just a crutch for people who can’t cope with drugs," Williams once said.

Choosing “Mork & Mindy,” a show most people under 35 probably never heard of has metaphorical significance, as the episode’s director Daniel Percival told The Wrap when it aired in September. Percival wanted to imply a connection between Daryl’s story as “a fish out of water and an alien in a strange land” to that of Williams’ ambassador from Ork. When the children’s beloved caretaker dies, they send her off with a chorus of “Nanu, nanu.”

That leaves a very different impression from the following spirit world proclamation, relayed by one of Mother God’s followers in “Love Has Won.” “Another message for you disgusting b***hes and a**holes from Robin Williams. We’ve been instructed to take your heaters. Robin Williams is disgusted. You don’t get s**t.”

Many conspiracy-driven groups ground a portion of their whackadoodle belief system in a celebrity’s legacy. The most prominent example is QAnon, whose followers are certain that John F. Kennedy Jr. is alive and working with Trump – which, predictably, Love Has Won embraces. Rogue theories swearing that, say, Elvis, Tupac and Biggie Smalls are upright and possibly living together in a hidden bunker, have been flying around for decades.

Carlson’s obsession with Williams, however, illustrates the conspiritualist tendency to conflate celebrity and authority and how that amplifies a message’s potency. (Hence the continued viability of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s presidential campaign, along with Trump's.) Love Has Won was born on the Internet; its earliest members chose its name because it was more searchable. Celebrity fame also lives and dies online and is frequently co-opted for dubious purposes.

Between selling “wellness” products making pseudoscientific claims of effectiveness and their massive output of livestreams and YouTube content, Carlson and her close-knit community rode a wave swelled by disillusionment, a sense of powerlessness and doubt like the one that made Gwyneth Paltrow an alternative wellness guru.

Like Goop, Love Has Won benefitted from our broken safety net. Some who appear in the documentary attest to having struggled with mental health issues; one former member was drawn to the spiritual respite Mother God offered because she was being crushed by medical debt. Surrendering to love has a concentrated appeal to the psychologically embattled.

But the average extremely online person wouldn’t know what to do with some random saint’s orders from beyond, even one best known for toplining a liqueur.

Williams, on the other hand, played the genie in “Aladdin,” along with a career’s worth of roles positioning him as everybody’s good guy, assuming most cultists missed his work as a soulless psychopath in “Insomnia.”

In a culture that deifies celebrities, Williams remains one whose memory is often invoked with affectionate nostalgia, accompanied by some of his better movie quotes, or from one of his stand-up sets.

"Reality is just a crutch for people who can’t cope with drugs," he once said. We may never know if that punchline launched a religion. The universe has pulled stranger jokes on humankind.

"Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God" is streaming on Max.



https://www.salon.com/2023/12/04/love-has-won-robin-williams-culture/

CultNEWS101 Articles: 12/29/2021 (Church of Scientology, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Love Has Won)

Church of Scientology, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Love Has Won

Tampa Bay Times: Scientology's David Miscavige discusses 'partnership' with Clearwater

"After a contentious 46-year history in Clearwater, three top city officials and Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige met this week to discuss how to start fresh.

The meeting on Monday [11/29/2021] at a church office on North Fort Harrison Avenue served as an introduction between Miscavige and Clearwater's two newest administrators: City Manager Jon Jennings, who took over on Nov. 8, and City Attorney David Margolis, who started on Oct. 25. Mayor Frank Hibbard also took part in the meeting.

"I heard loud and clear from (Miscavige) that he wants to partner with the city," Jennings said. "From my perspective, a partnership is really that we are going to put the past behind us in terms of any acrimony and so forth and that we are going to develop a place of trust where we can work collaboratively together."

That partnership would relate primarily to redeveloping downtown, where Scientology has had its international spiritual headquarters since 1975 and where companies connected to the church have purchased large tracts of real estate in recent years. During a sit-down that lasted 3½ hours, Miscavige reintroduced photo renderings and a video simulation of the downtown retail plan Scientology developed in 2017, according to Hibbard.

The plan, created without city input, included Scientology paying to renovate facades of buildings on four blocks of Cleveland Street and using consultants to recruit high-end retailers to empty storefronts. It also included building an entertainment complex along vacant land on Myrtle Avenue with a movie theater, bowling alley and dining.

Miscavige confirmed at the time the church used limited liability companies to purchase the Myrtle Avenue land, a vacant jewelry store and auto garage, a nine-story office tower and a historic theater on North Fort Harrison Avenue for the retail plan."

Religion News Service: Mormon tithing, revisited

"In this season of giving, I have been thinking about what has changed in my life in the last year since I published a column explaining why I had stopped tithing to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The short version of the story is that I was deeply disturbed two years ago by the revelation that the church had stockpiled more than $100 billion worth of investments and was not utilizing those funds for helping others, but rather to shore up business enterprises such as the City Creek Mall in Salt Lake City.

$100 billion is an almost unimaginable sum of money, and it is fair to say with the tremendous gains in the stock market in the last two years, that could have grown to $130 billion or even more, depending on how the assets are allocated.

I don't want to have the argument that "The church is already doing so much! Look at all it does for charity." It's true the church gives millions of dollars every year to charity. In 2020, it gave nearly a billion (though not, apparently, from the investment fund in question). I have been very proud this year, for example, of the church's involvement globally with ensuring a more equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to poor nations, to which it has donated more than $20 million."

Daily Beast: Cause of Death Revealed for Mummified Colorado 'Cult' Leader Found Without Eyes

"Amy Carlson, the leader of a New Age sect known as Love Has Won, died due to decline brought on by alcohol abuse, anorexia and dosing colloidal silver, according to an autopsy report from the El Paso County Coroner's Office in Colorado.

Mystery initially shrouded Carlson's death after her mummified body was discovered in April in a green sleeping bag with its eyes missing in a home in Crestone, Colorado, arrest affidavits revealed at the time. Police had raided the home after being alerted by a member of the group who said Carlson's body had been transported to a mobile home that served as the group's headquarters from across the country.

Several members of Love Has Won, who referred to Carlson as "Mother God," were taken into custody after her body, which had been decomposing for roughly one month, was found. In interviews with law enforcement, the group claimed Carlson was not dead, but was simply "out of communication."

But, in a report obtained by The Guru Magazine, Dr. Emily Russell ruled that Carlson "died as a result of global decline in the setting of alcohol abuse, anorexia, and chronic colloidal silver ingestion."

Corporal Steve Hanson of the Saguache County Sheriff's Office previously said that investigators found human remains with "what appears to be glitter type makeup on around the eyes."

While conducting an external examination, Russell similarly remarked on the body's missing eyes which she said were "not appreciated secondary to decomposition," but showed no evidence of trauma.

At a mere 75 lbs, Carlson had a tie-dye fleece shawl draped around her bony shoulders and a faux-fur scarf and bandana cradling the blue-gray skin around her neck, Russell wrote.

The 45-year-old wore two pairs of socks and donned a gold-colored headband encrusted with blue and green stones, several chains, and a pendant necklace, the report stated. A red scrunchie swept back her reddish-brown hair and she wore grey cotton pants with a "diaper containing red purge-type fluid," the report states.

County coroner Tom Perrin told The Daily Beast in May that there was nothing to indicate her death was caused by foul play. In July he told the Denver Post that autopsy results had been delayed due to challenges finding a lab that could test Carlson's body for metals."

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CultNEWS101 Articles: 12/9/2021 (Jehovah's Witnesses, Religious Freedom, Kyrgyzstan, Legal, Amma, Book Review, Love Has Won)

Jehovah's Witnesses, Religious Freedom, Kyrgyzstan, Legal, Amma, Book Review, Love Has Won

RFE/RL: Kyrgyz Court Refuses To Recognize Books Used By Jehovah's Witnesses As 'Extremist'

"A court in Bishkek has refused to deem publications from the Jehovah's Witnesses as extremist, rejecting a step by authorities toward completely outlawing the religious group.

The Birinchi Mai district court in the Kyrgyz capital on December 3 rejected a request by the Prosecutor-General's Office to recognize 11 books, two brochures, and six videotapes belonging to the Jehovah's Witnesses in Kyrgyzstan as extremist.

The materials in question were confiscated in 2019 from the religious group, which has operated in the Central Asian nation for more than 23 years, by the State Committee for National Security (UKMK).

Investigators then concluded that the materials "instigate religious hatred," while the Prosecutor-General's Office asked the court last month to recognize the literature and videotapes as extremist and ban the group's activities in the country."

The Jehovah's Witnesses were officially registered in Kyrgyzstan in 1998. Currently, there are some 5,000 followers of the religious teaching.

The Amma Empire

"Amma, "The Hugging Saint", Mata Amritanandamayi or Amrita, went from a simple Indian fisherman's daughter in the late seventies to an international phenomenon worshiped by millions worldwide.

Jacques Albohair (aka Sarvatma), who belonged to the initial inner circle of disciples in the early eighties, contributed to her early reputation as her first European representative and translator until he quit more than a decade later. He provides a captivating insider testimony of his life as an early disciple and of the development of the organization from the simple "family business" to the "global empire" it has become today.

He delivers a detailed investigative analysis of the philosophy, the ethics, the communication, the practices and the reality of this sprawling organization . He reveals the corruption and deception at the heart of the Amrita-system covering a wide range of fields: economic, fiscal, charitable, educational, sanitary, land and real-estate, ethical and spiritual, in words and deeds. He demonstrates how the guru herself is at the origin of the omnipresent ambiguities and doublespeak. The author's close and intimate personal experience combined with quality testimony, documented evidence and a wealth of sources is nothing short of an eye-opener.

His critical review of the official biography , thanks to his hindsight and experience, is especially enlightening as it lays bare in simple and clear terms the reality of the person, her evolution and realizations.

As a lover of India and a believer of its ancient wisdom, he broadens the debate by clarifying common misunderstandings on some of the founding principles of Hinduism , and explores the criteria of the real spiritual master , of a healthy master-disciple relationship and the means to empower oneself when regaining one's autonomy .

His book caters as well to admirers of India, to cult critics and to devotees in search of answers. In the wake of Gail Tredwell's testimony , Amma's former personal assistant for twenty years, "Holy Hell - A Memoir of Faith, Devotion and Pure Madness" published in 2013, this is the second major critical insider testimony on Amma and her movement .

430 pages, printed and electronic versions available at amazon.com,  amazon.in and other international sites."

The Denver Post: Love Has Won cult leader died from anorexia, substance abuse and colloidal silver use, autopsy report says

"Love Has Won cult leader Amy Carlson died of natural causes after years of alcohol abuse, opioid use, anorexia and chronic ingestion of colloidal silver, a substance that some believe can boost the body's immune system, according to an autopsy report prepared by the El Paso County Coroner's Office.

The report, which was finalized last month, found alcohol, narcotics, marijuana and high levels of silver in the 45-year-old's body. Carlson, who was 5-feet-4-inches tall, weighed 75 pounds when she died, the report said.

The autopsy results were first reported by Guru Mag, an online publication that reports on cults, and were confirmed to The Denver Post by Rising Above Love Has Won, a group that tries to rescue the group's followers.

The autopsy also reported that there were no signs of cancer, despite Carlson's followers saying that she was suffering from it. Her followers, who called Carlson "Mother God," also had said she was paralyzed. Those who follow the cult said there was no sign that she was paralyzed, although the autopsy report does not address that condition."

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CultNEWS101 Articles: 12/8/2021 (Mormonism, Documentaries, FLDS, Clergy Sexual Abuse, Legal, Love Has Won)

Mormonism, Documentaries, FLDS, Clergy Sexual Abuse, Legal, Love Has Won

Religion & Politics: New Documentary "Keep Sweet" Follows Mormon Fundamentalists

" ... [America's] infatuation with these exclusive communities is the new documentary Keep Sweet, directed by Don Argott, which began streaming on Discovery+ in November. The film looks at the twin fundamentalist towns of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, as the fundamentalist Mormon community once led by Warren Jeffs—an offshoot not sanctioned by the global Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church)—disintegrates into factions in the wake of his arrest, imprisonment, and the repossession of the church's land. At the center of the film is a question: Is it possible for society to incorporate people with divergent interests and loyalties? On the one hand, there are those in these towns who still see Jeffs as a God-ordained prophet, and on the other, there are those who see him as a dangerous fraud.

The question is an important one for modern America. And the film is a powerful exploration of one peculiar case study, filled with engaging personalities and twists. For example, the filmmakers do an excellent job in allowing fundamentalist women to speak for themselves rather than remain the silent victims so typical in other media depictions.

But the documentary's own existence and approach raise a similar, and perhaps even more pressing, question: Why do Americans continue to turn to Mormon fundamentalists to answer this widespread cultural question? And in doing so, do they risk perpetuating the same framework that depicts these groups as both fascinating and marginalized in the public imagination?

While LDS leaders announced the end to polygamy in 1890, they covertly continued the marital order for several decades. Church authorities both approved and initiated new plural unions until around 1910, and many continued to secretly practice the principle even after that. It was not until the 1920s and 1930s that they tried to root out new sealings. In response, hundreds of members who believed polygamy to be the core of Mormonism formalized their own organizations. Many of them moved to what was then known as Short Creek on the Arizona/Utah border. And despite excommunications from the LDS church and police raids from state governments, the community continued to grow over the next few decades, and eventually became the hub for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or FLDS."

Washington Post: Former D.C. assistant pastor found guilty of misdemeanor sexual abuse while serving time for felony child sexual abuse

'A former assistant pastor at a Catholic church in Northwest Washington who is serving a prison sentence for sexually abusing children was found guilty Monday in a separate case of sexually abusing an adult parishioner, officials said.

After a one-day trial in D.C. Superior Court and hearing a victim impact statement, Judge Juliet McKenna sentenced Urbano Vazquez, 49, to the maximum sentence of 180 days on one count of misdemeanor sexual abuse, officials said. That term will be served consecutively to a 15-year sentence that was imposed after Vazquez was convicted in 2019 of four felony counts of child sexual abuse, according to a statement by the District's U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves and Police Chief Robert J. Contee III.

The abuse of the woman occurred in April 2017 during a confession at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, the statement said."

Westword: Jenifer Ann Driver Missing Love Has Won Cult Connection Update

"Jenifer Ann Driver, who also goes by the "spiritual name" Mountain Sun, has been missing since mid-October. But the case is receiving renewed attention in part because Driver is believed to have last been seen with a member of Love Has Won, a group frequently described as a cult that made national news earlier this year when the mummified remains of its leader, Amy Carlson, aka "Mother God," were found in Colorado. Carlson's body had been reportedly transported here from California by followers waiting for her "ascension."

The Saguache County Sheriff's Office first publicized word about the search for Driver on October 29. In the release, shared on its Facebook page, the SCSO noted that she "was last seen in the North Crestone Campground area in Crestone, Colorado. It is believed Jenifer might have hiked to the North Crestone Lake. It is believed Jenifer might have her backpack, sleeping bag and blue tent with her. Jenifer is five-foot four-inches, approximately 170 pounds, has brown eyes, gray shaved hair, and is known to wear baggy, comfortable clothing. Jenifer was last seen on October 16, 2021."

The sheriff's office initially made no mention about Love Has Won, but in a November 2 article in the Alamosa News, Sheriff Dan Warwick confirmed that Driver was believed to have been "associating with and was last seen in the company of a member of the Love Has Won group."

"We're looking for both Driver and the person she was last seen with, hoping that person can provide us with information on her whereabouts," Warwick told the paper. "Our only interest is in finding Driver."

Nonetheless, the mention of Love Has Won set off alarm bells nationwide, for reasons made clear by articles such as "A Cult Leader Known As 'Mother God' Was Found Mummified," published by New York magazine on May 5. The piece vividly begins with this: "Last week, a distressed man walked into a police station in rural southern Colorado, alerting officers to a corpse inside his home. There, they came upon a disturbing, unreal scene: Situated in what appeared to be 'some type of shrine,' investigators discovered a decomposing body, mummified and wrapped in a sleeping bag and Christmas lights, with glitter makeup encircling the corpse's seemingly empty eye sockets. The man who notified authorities identified himself as a follower of Love Has Won — which claims to be a spiritual organization but is more often described as a cult — and the body, he continued, belonged to Love Has Won's leader: a woman named Amy Carlson, known within the group as 'Mother God.'"

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Love Has Won cult leader died from anorexia, substance abuse and colloidal silver use, autopsy report says

NOELLE PHILLIPS

The Denver Post

December 3, 2021

Love Has Won cult leader Amy Carlson died of natural causes after years of alcohol abuse, opioid use, anorexia and chronic ingestion of colloidal silver, a substance that some believe can boost the body’s immune system, according to an autopsy report prepared by the El Paso County Coroner’s Office.

The report, which was finalized last month, found alcohol, narcotics, marijuana and high levels of silver in the 45-year-old’s body. Carlson, who was 5-feet-4-inches tall, weighed 75 pounds when she died, the report said.

The autopsy results were first reported by Guru Mag, an online publication that reports on cults, and were confirmed to The Denver Post by Rising Above Love Has Won, a group that tries to rescue the group’s followers.

The autopsy also reported that there were no signs of cancer, despite Carlson’s followers saying that she was suffering from it. Her followers, who called Carlson “Mother God,” also had said she was paralyzed. Those who follow the cult said there was no sign that she was paralyzed, although the autopsy report does not address that condition.

Carlson’s body was discovered April 28 in a home near Crestone in Saguache County after one member drove to Salida to tell police there was a dead body in the house.

Saguache sheriff’s deputies found Carlson’s body in a green sleeping bag and enshrined in Christmas lights. She was wearing makeup, including multicolored, glittery eye shadow. The body had a crown made of brown and gold beads and blue and green stones, and there were multiple necklaces around her neck, the autopsy report said. She also was wearing a tie-dyed fleece shawl along with bandanas and a faux-fur scarf.

After Carlson’s body was discovered, seven people were charged in connection with transporting her body to Colorado from California and for allowing two children to stay in the house with the body. The Saguache County district attorney later dismissed the charges.

Since the death, cult members have scattered and rebranded themselves as 5D Full Disclosure.

The group that works to dispel the cult’s teachings and rescue followers pointed to the autopsy report on Friday as evidence that the cult’s teachings are false and that Mother God was not a mythical being sent to Earth to deliver people to another dimension.

“There weren’t any magical, unexplained findings when her body was examined,” the group’s Facebook page said. “Amy’s ‘3D medicine’ was simply opioids, alcohol, THC and colloidal silver. The easiest way to obtain donations is manipulation and victim mentality.”

The cult promoted colloidal silver to its followers and sold bottles of it online. The family member of a former member told The Post in a previous interview that the group would melt various metals, such as the heads of cigarette lighters, into potions to drink.

At the scene where Carlson’s body was found, deputies confiscated eight bottles with medicine droppers and colorful labels with names such as “Gaia’s Colloidal Iridium,” “Colloidal Titanium” and “Gaia’s Collodial Palladium,” the autopsy report said.

The Mayo Clinic’s website says there is no scientific evidence that colloidal silver has healing properties.

The autopsy and toxicology report took months because Saguache County Coroner Tom Perrin said he needed help testing the body for heavy metals. The El Paso County coroner performed the autopsy on behalf of Saguache County.

 

https://www.denverpost.com/2021/12/03/amy-carlson-mother-god-autospy-report-love-has-won/

Cause of Death Revealed for Mummified Colorado 'Cult' Leader Found Without Eyes

Mystery initially shrouded Amy Carlson’s death after her decomposing corpse was found in a Colorado home, wrapped in a sleeping bag with glitter around her missing eyes.


Daily Beast
Zoe Richards
December 2, 2021

Amy Carlson, the leader of a New Age sect known as Love Has Won, died due to decline brought on by alcohol abuse, anorexia and dosing colloidal silver, according to an autopsy report from the El Paso County Coroner’s Office in Colorado.

Mystery initially shrouded Carlson’s death after her mummified body was discovered in April in a green sleeping bag with its eyes missing in a home in Crestone, Colorado, arrest affidavits revealed at the time. Police had raided the home after being alerted by a member of the group who said Carlson’s body had been transported to a mobile home that served as the group’s headquarters from across the country.

Several members of Love Has Won, who referred to Carlson as “Mother God,” were taken into custody after her body, which had been decomposing for roughly one month, was found. In interviews with law enforcement, the group claimed Carlson was not dead, but was simply “out of communication.”

But, in a report obtained by The Guru Magazine, Dr. Emily Russell ruled that Carlson “died as a result of global decline in the setting of alcohol abuse, anorexia, and chronic colloidal silver ingestion.”

Corporal Steve Hanson of the Saguache County Sheriff’s Office previously said that investigators found human remains with “what appears to be glitter type makeup on around the eyes.”

While conducting an external examination, Russell similarly remarked on the body’s missing eyes which she said were “not appreciated secondary to decomposition,” but showed no evidence of trauma.

At a mere 75 lbs, Carlson had a tie-dye fleece shawl draped around her bony shoulders and a faux-fur scarf and bandana cradling the blue-gray skin around her neck, Russell wrote.

The 45-year-old wore two pairs of socks and donned a gold-colored headband encrusted with blue and green stones, several chains, and a pendant necklace, the report stated. A red scrunchie swept back her reddish-brown hair and she wore grey cotton pants with a “diaper containing red purge-type fluid,” the report states.

County coroner Tom Perrin told The Daily Beast in May that there was nothing to indicate her death was caused by foul play. In July he told the Denver Post that autopsy results had been delayed due to challenges finding a lab that could test Carlson’s body for metals.

Her body was found accompanied by “eight small brown bottles with medicine droppers that were colorfully labeled,” which were retained as evidence and detailed contents of various metals, including colloidal titanium, gold, silver, among others. Love Has Won, which has previously been described by ex-followers and law enforcement as a “cult,” had also hawked colloidal metals for treating compulsive behaviors.

Carolina Noble, a forensic toxicologist at a Pennsylvania lab, said after conducting a test on Carlson’s liver tissue on Nov. 16, that silver was present in her body. She had 470 mcg/g—more than six times the daily average intake (70 mcg) from the environment and diet of an American adult, according to the report.

A toxicology report further revealed the presence of ethanol and acetaminophen and her fluids tested positive for chemicals found in cannabis and tobacco, as well as opiates, including hydrocodone and hydromorphone.

Andrew Profaci, a former member who left the group five years ago, previously told The Daily Beast that she “drank ten shots of vodka a night,” losing her cognitive abilities to the point that she “would fall and walk into walls.”

In September 2020, Carlson told the Dr. Phil show she had advanced cancer. After reviewing her organs, the coroner said that one of Carlson’s thyroid glands contained a nodule “containing clear brown gelatinous fluid,” that she said was “grossly consistent with a colloid,” but found “no evidence” of metastatic cancer.



https://www.thedailybeast.com/amy-carlson-love-had-won-cult-leader-died-of-alcohol-anorexia-and-colloidal-silver-autopsy-shows

CultNEWS101 Articles: 11/30/2021 (Shincheonji, Korea, Legal, Mother of God, LGBT, Conversion Therapy, France)

Shincheonji, Korea, Legal, Mother of God, LGBT, Conversion Therapy, France

BBC: 'Wait a second, am I in a cult?'

"There are believed to be as many as 2,000 suspected cults currently operating in the UK and many of them recruit students.

Jess, a former physiotherapy student, was recruited into the Shincheonji Church of Jesus on the campus of the University of Salford.

Jess says she "didn't recognise herself" when she was with them.

A spokesperson for Shincheonji says they are not a cult and deny controlling or manipulating members.

The University of Salford says its campus is open to the public which can cause challenges with external organisations."

The Guardian: South Korea: cult whose leader 'heals' by poking eyes at centre of Covid outbreak

At least 241 people linked to religious community test positive for virus.

"A little known sect led by a pastor who pokes eyes to heal is at the centre of a Covid outbreak in South Korea, as the country reported a new daily record of 4,116 cases and battles a rise in serious cases straining hospitals.

In a tiny, rural church in a town of 427 residents in Cheonan city, south of Seoul, at least 241 people linked to the religious community tested positive for coronavirus, a city official told Reuters on Wednesday.

"We believe the scale of the outbreak is large …" the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said in a statement.

About 90% of the religious community are unvaccinated and the majority are in close contact through communal living.

Many of the congregation are in their 60s and above and are unvaccinated, the city official said. Just 17 out of the 241 confirmed cases had been vaccinated."

Rolling Stone: From 'Mother God' to Mummified Corpse: Inside the Fringe Spiritual Sect 'Love Has Won'

"Amy Carlson was supposed to be the incarnate of Marilyn Monroe, Joan of Arc, and Jesus Christ. When she shed her Earthly body for the latest time, authorities found her followers still worshiping it — shedding light on the group many have called a 'cult''"

RFI: Gay conversion therapy victims push France towards banning 'medieval' practice

"As a teenager, Frenchman Benoit Berthe was subjected to sessions led by a charismatic Catholic movement to "cure" him of his homosexuality. Traumatised, he went on to co-found Rien à guérir (Nothing to heal) – a collective that has helped bring a bill before parliament criminalising conversion therapies in France."

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Charges dropped for all seven 'Love Has Won' cult members

Carol McKInley 

The Denver Gazette 

September 16, 2021

The Love Has Won Cult was based near Crestone, Colorado and used to have followers from all over the world, but the since Amy Carlson died, the group has split.

The mother of a religious sect's leader whose mummified body was found in the group’s Moffat headquarters last spring expressed dismay that charges have been dropped for all seven members of the sect allegedly involved with transporting her remains.

Linda Haythorne says District Attorney Alonzo Payne doesn’t want to deal with the bizarre case of the death of her daughter, Amy Carlson who led the group Love Has Won.

“They’re trying to push it under the rug. There’s still a question in our minds that Amy was murdered,” Haythorne said.

The self-appointed replacement for "Mother God," Jason Castillo, who calls himself “Father God,” has started a new group he has dubbed “Joy Rains.” Prosectutors dropped charges of tampering with human remains and two misdemeanor counts of child abuse against Castillo and two others. Charges were also dropped against another sect member that had alleged abuse of a corpse and two misdemeanor counts of child abuse. Court records show that three other members of the Love has Won also had charges stemming from the case dropped.

Carlson, 45, whose followers were in the now-defunct group “Love Has Won,” was found dead in the sect headquarters, a mobile home located in Casada Park, west of Crestone. Saguache County Sheriffs deputies and Colorado Bureau of Investigation detectives discovered the body of Carlson, a self-proclaimed “divine being,” answering a tip from a member of the sect who told them her remains were transported to Colorado from across the country.

According to an arrest affidavit, when investigators found Carlson, she had glittery make-up around her eyes and her emaciated body was wrapped in Christmas tree lights. Through interviews with cult members, investigators learned that she had been transported from the West Coast, court papers said. Saguache County Coroner Tom Perrin said the body was in such a state that investigators couldn’t identify her through fingerprints. Her cause of death wasn't determined.

Haythorne said she's frustrated that Castillo is no longer charged in the case, telling The Gazette, “I’m afraid he’s going to hurt somebody else.”

When Carlson’s body was released to the family this summer, Haythorne, her two daughters and Carlson’s son Cole held a memorial service for her.

Payne did not respond to a request for comment.

https://denvergazette.com/news/courts/charges-dropped-for-all-seven-love-has-won-cult-members/article_ae01b19a-173b-11ec-9a7e-03560fab1bb9.html