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The Judgment of "Is" through Church Universal and Triumphantby Lorraine MichaelsNovember 3, 2007
I never saw myself as an expert on Church Universal and Triumphant. At times I felt like I really knew very little about what it was and stood for. Yet I knew one thing. And that was that this church had a holy purpose and its cause was for the spiritual advancement of the people of God and the continuation of Jesus' mission, far preceding his life as Jesus the Christ.
Fortunate for me, once I found the Summit Lighthouse, I did not have to look far and wide to find Saint Germain. Within a month or two of my hearing about Saint Germain, a couple moved in across the street from our home who were dedicated members of the church. And as a final wrap-up to this inner awakening and divine direction, I went over one day to help them move in and they had playing on their tape recorder a dictation from Saint Germain. Upon asking who that was, I was told about the church and Saint Germain. I was ecstatic. I had found Saint Germain—or rather Saint Germain had found me. I immediately joined his organization, The Keepers of the Flame Fraternity, a nondenominational fraternity for men and women who felt the calling to keep the Flame of Freedom through mentoring the Flame of Life—the threefold flame within the heart. I had no idea what a threefold flame was or how to keep this flame. But I did know I already was this Keeper without a conscious thought otherwise. I was simply impelled to move in this direction without thought. That might seem strange, but a part of my being never questioned certain things about life, but just allowed them to Be. And much of the course of my future with the church followed this inner direction without thought—just accepting what IS. So when I heard about these prayers called decrees, I jumped right in and started giving them. I started attending the local prayer meetings where all they did were these decrees. At first they were boring and long, hard to give as they were spoken so fast and they seemed tedious at times with the constant repetition. But yet I took to them like a fish to water. I loved the giving of the violet flame the most—invoking the violet fire and the flame of Saint Germain.
Mark and Elizabeth Prophet The unseen hand of divine direction led me to the church at the exact time I was meant to find it. In fact, the "In Search of" T.V. show where I saw Saint Germain as the Wonderman of Europe, first aired a year earlier, which I missed. And yet I watched this show faithfully each week. But when the time was right, which showed up as astrologically conjunctions and squares to my sun in my chart, I was led to find the next major step in my life. Coincidentally, after I sent off my application to be a Keeper of the Flame, I did not hear back from the Summit. I finally contacted them again and found out they never received my application—or had lost it. I reapplied again and by the time it was all said and done, a whole year had transpired where I was not officially a Keeper but had been attending all the Keeper functions. It was as if to say that the hands of some unseen dark force did not want me to join this organization. It was a difficult time in the church's history—but what time was not in their existence? Elizabeth Prophet had remarried after Mark Prophet's death, marrying Randal (Kosp) King. They divorced in 1980 and he was expelled from the church. Around the same time a man named Gregory Mull was also expelled from the church and a lawsuit was pending against him from them, over a dispute in money. In turn, he countersued, claiming psychological slavery and other such claims. He and Randal King joined together to fight the church. The church's practices went on trial, and little trial time was spent on the actually money issue, but mostly on the "cult" nature that set the stage for this dispute. He won, but before he could spend a dime he succumbed to complications of MS and died—reputed to be caused from the stress of the trial. Also in the decade of the 80's members of the church were being kidnapped and attempted to be deprogrammed by cult deprogrammers. Residing in California and in Malibu placed the church at the mercy of the media, and the articles were a source of gossip and sensational stories from local papers. I learned more from those news articles about the church and the private lives of members than I did through the church. Although I was shocked by some of the things I read, I yet had faith that stories were twisted and facts distorted to be good copy material. But also to discredit Elizabeth and bring down the church. Because I could not confirm the truth from outer sources, I relied on my inner knowing to guide me to put aside any doubts that wrong doings were going on and put my faith in the Masters and the sponsorship of this organization. Becoming a Communicant
And that sums up what I felt. It was an inner calling and being the Christ on earth was my inner drive. I didn't outwardly know what that meant. But yet I knew it wouldn't be easy. And seeing all that opposition and negative publicity that the church and messenger received, I had no doubt that both were being crucified in the name of Christ. If all had of been a bed of roses I would have been more concerned that Christ really wasn't there in the organization and in the messenger. Summit University at Camelot
Camelot - Santa Monica Mountains It was during my S.U. quarter in 1982 that I finally had my wish come true and I was accepted as a communicant of the church. Nothing outwardly seemed to change, but I was happy with my involvement with the church. The year prior I had been separated from my husband and lived near Camelot. I felt like I was in heaven. I attended services several times a week and I was able to attend a few conferences. The experience was other worldly and unbelievable. In those days, Sunday service was an all day affair, culminating in a dictation by one of the Masters or a Cosmic Being. All began at the Court at 10 a.m., at the chapel, which they named so for the mythical court of Camelot. The sponsoring masters of the present and prior Ascended Master activities, as well as the messengers, were all a part of this mythical court. El Morya was King Arthur and Lanello was Sir Lancelot. Guru Ma (a title given to her by Padma Sambava) was Queen Guinevere. Saint Germain was Merlin and then there were the knights of the Round Table, which were surely those embodied in the community. We began at 10 a.m. in the Court and we decreed until the messenger appeared, sometimes late afternoon. Decrees were a dynamic form of prayer that were a certain amount of repetitions designed to give you maximum help in overcoming blocks to one of the Seven Rays. Each Ray had several types of decrees you could recite. Some for money and supply. Some for wisdom and understanding. Some for healing and some for transmutation of karma, etc. Little did any of us know what would hold the messenger up from coming out some Sundays. She always came eventually, but we got the impression that the opposition to her giving a dictation was great. And our role was to handle this energy through decrees to Archangel Michael, Surya and Astrea. We might break up the decreeing through singing some songs and help open up the heart chakra and then we would get right back into more decrees. Conferences Over the years that followed, I spent a lot of volunteer hours in childcare and even in the kitchen in exchange for someone watching my children. Or to receive a discount off the conference fee—which were large fees at the time. We paid for childcare in registration fees, as well as had to serve there to attend a conference. We had to find our own lodging and pay for meals, which were never inexpensive. In fact, I always saw the church as being very exorbitant. Their bookstore carried items other than books. Things you might need for a conference but didn't bring with you, like raincoats and umbrellas. But these were no dimestore prices, but twice as much as you would pay in an average store. I reasoned they did this to bring in extra money. We never knew figures of any kind in the church. Everything was very secret. Members, their names, locations and amount of them were highly secret. If you wanted to locate a friend, it was nigh impossible to get the church to release how to contact them. If you ran a study group in your local town, they would not give you the names of those in your local area. They would however, send local members information of where they may join the nearest Teachings Centers, their approved study and decree centers and from them you could find smaller subgroups. Rules and Direction As the years progressed in my time in the church, the rules seemed only to get tighter and to be more of them. At one time in the 80's the Master Serapis Bey asked us to attend at least four or five services a week—if we really saw ourselves as chelas of the Ascended Masters. I comfortably attended two and sometimes three services a week. There was Saint Germain service on Saturday night, Sunday service, Tuesday night service to El Morya, Wednesday night healing service and Friday night Ascension service. We didn't know it at the time, but often direction like this would come forth through the messenger from the masters or during a dictation to push us to our limits—and to test us. You just thought you might be doing enough to win this elusive ascension, when you would get this direction that there was more! In all reality, you couldn't do all they asked us to do—and you weren't meant to. We were on the outer path and I believe the masters were teaching us how to stop following all these outer directions and move to the inner path of following only the inner direction. And I found myself over the years doing what I knew best for myself, but the outside pressure from others for you to conform was great. So to Be I AM in this environment was very hard. At that time my home was the platform for our services. I had four children to care for some weekends, and other weekends none at all, as they were at their father's house. But somehow we managed to have services and quiet time while the children were relegated to the back bedroom. I don't look back fondly to my treatment of our children. Somehow they were not seen as important as the task of getting those decrees done and the dictations released. Yet, they were provided with a wonderful school program. The messenger established Montessori International and her staff were always on top of the most proclaimed new systems of learning, such as the Glen Doman Method of teaching babies how to read. Brain Gym and Dr. Makoto Shichida's methods were available. But yet throughout all those years of advanced education for these children, many social unfit children came out of it and rebelled against their families, the church standards and society. Although this is not unusual in many societies in the rebellious years, it was very shocking to church members. How could these children, who had been given the best standards of spiritual development, delve into the worst of society? And to boot, the parents of these children were seem as some kind of derelicts. They would be shunned by other church members as negligent parents. Their children would be kicked out of Montessori. Their parents might be kicked off of staff. Someone was always ready to sit you down and read the riot act to you for some perceived wrong you had done, if you dared to go outside of the stringent rules set up in the community.
Electric Peak, Heart of the Inner Retreat, Montana I did move to Glastonbury in 1989. It was my dream from early 1980's. And I used to prayer to Archangel Michael every day to get me to my rightful place. He gave us that direction in 1982. He told us to pray to him that we may be in that right place, whether it be in the Inner Retreat in Montana or not. And he said the date to be in that rightful place was January 1, 1987. But I had to fight long and hard to get to Montana with my children, but I did it. And I felt the most glorious exhilaration for being in Paradise Valley and eventually moving to Glastonbury. It was there I met Kim and it was there the second darkest period if my life began. Our life was one big test of opposition from everyone and everything. But we were in it together and we worked through every test until one day we had passed through that long dark night into the light of Being I AM.
Paradise Valley, Montana The Staff Over the years I was privileged to know and meet some very fine people in the church. But as every basket of apples can have a few rotten, the church was not exclusive to their few rotten apples, although they tried to keep well hidden. The whole church hierarchy was based on a top down management. The top being the messenger for the Great White Brotherhood who was supposed to know everything and be the most powerful, all-knowing one. She had the power to lay down the law and everyone knew what that meant. If you had the hammer come down on you of the blue-fire law of God, carried out by the messenger and often from the Master Morya, sponsor of the Summit Lighthouse, your end could be swift and final. We saw this in many of the people who turned on the church: Gregory Mull and Randal King and then Monroe Shearer, president of the church for a time—who did not turn on the church directly but certainly indirectly. He later formed his own ascended master organization and set himself up as messenger for the Great White Brotherhood, along with his wife, who was once a member of the church as well. Others who were disciplined and kicked off of staff, or out of the church, left in a huff or in embarrassment and disappeared into the night. The fear of being disciplined by Mother, as she was affectionately called, was great. No one wanted that to happen to them and all saw and felt the power that came through her. Many a time those reprimands would happen publicly for hundreds to witness. Other times the entire staff was called to a meeting where the details of the reprimand and expulsion were detailed for staff to learn their lesson. The hierarchical system from the messenger down carried forth as power and in the staff as abuse of authority. Those who were closest to the messenger in that top-down management often saw themselves as all-powerful, like the messenger. Department heads use to call themselves the hierarch. And they could not be gainsaid. You learned very quickly that they were not to be challenged or you would be reported as guilty—without trial and jury. Yet I wanted to work on staff. From the early days of my experience in the church, I dreamed of serving on staff. I knew where and how I wanted to do that service—and I got to do and be exactly where I dreamed of being. It was about 15 years from the onset of that dream that I found myself finally on staff part time. To say I loved it and was happy for the realization of my dream would be not entirely true, although I did love what I was doing on staff. I transcribed or retyped lectures and meetings of Mark Prophet for posterity. I also transcribed lectures of Elizabeth and many interviews she had—private and public. We were not allowed to waste time and talk to others, so most of my time was closed up in an office typing eight hours a day. I loved it and was really happy that I could serve in this way. Yet at the same time I felt like it was such a strange and alien environment to work in that I could barely stand it. The people were wonderful in my department, or at least in my trailer. The closer the staff were to Mother the more uppity they acted—her children often the worst. I worked in the editorial department and the pressure to perform perfectly was very big there. Mother wanted the Pearls of Wisdom (the weekly dictations published and mailed to members) to be perfect. Editors vary in their agreement and interpretation of the rules. So it was a difficult place to work in that regard. Mother always had the final say in when to capitalize or how to use a word or edit the words she received. So it was slow work because everything but minor transcriptions had to funnel through her. I only worked on staff a year, and then I was let go because staff felt my children were causing trouble and they needed my attention. But my work performance was extraordinary and I could put out a lot of material. But I was never so happy to get out of a workplace as I was to leave staff. I had finally gotten that out of my system. I would have loved to continue to serve the masters, but I could better serve outside this stringent, confined and judgmental place. This fear-inducing place was not a healthy environment to work in whatsoever. The Messenger Retires and the Wolves Appear I learned innumerable lessons from my various levels of commitment within this church. I studied and I applied the Teachings seriously throughout my 20 years of involvement. I stayed active with the church until the messenger's retirement in 1999. But I could not continue with the church after that time because of the level of darkness that quickly spread like a wildfire amongst the leadership after her retirement. Leadership were quick to withdraw my Keeper of the Flame membership after I started my mission. Although it is a nondenominational fraternity, they decided that being a messenger myself was against their rules. I withdrew as a communicant under my own inner direction before they would have excommunicated me. That was because that commitment I had made changed with my becoming a messenger myself and the masters directed me to make a statement in that withdrawal. Throughout all those years I never harbored the need or want to be in Mother's position. I saw the difficulties she endured, the condemnation, the judgment, the hatred of her, the jealousy. I saw the hard work, the constant hard work and sacrifice she gave. I believe I saw the real person behind the outer mask she sometimes wore at conferences. I rarely saw the stern disciplinarian she could be. And I was thankful for that. But most importantly, I saw and felt the Light through her. Whether she was a perfect human being or not never was at the forefront my thoughts. It was immaterial, as I knew that being humanly perfect was not our goal. But striving to be the Christ was. And she exemplified the Christ to me. And yet I saw things through her that I didn't think a Christed Being would do. But what would I know? Jesus challenged the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes when he needed to. And Mother certainly had her share of such ones on staff. That I knew emphatically. I don't know how I knew, but I had a sixth sense about that. And I also picked up and observed a lot. Being of an inquisitive nature, I watched everyone and everything and always wanted to know what was going on behind the scenes. I listened to countless lectures and dictations, studying them while I worked my own business. I had access to the tape library we had in our study group and had an extensive library myself. I immersed myself in the Teachings on a daily basis year after year. Unbalanced People One day a neighbor across the street from us in Glastonbury was shot and killed by the police. He was renting a trailer and had brandished a huge sword and was swinging it around. The police were called and in a short space of time he had made a move that threatened them and they responded by eliminating the threat and he was killed. What was his problem? Well, he was unbalanced and far out in his beliefs. The church often drew people of imbalanced psychologies to them. Because of the Teachings, the church fit the psychological profiles of some who were very unorthodox and did not fit in with others in society. There were the schizophrenic and manic depression type people, of which some were committed to mental homes in their past. This in itself is not extraordinary, as there is a lot of mental disease out in the mainstream of society. But when coupled with psychism and communicating with the other side, some of these people were feeling quite comfortable. It was not that the church itself endorsed this activity—far from it. You could be quickly kicked out of the church if you took messages from the other side, even if you thought it was the real masters. No one but the messenger was allowed to do that. The tight rules were necessary because one out of ten people did communicate with the other side. And most of that communication was astral—but they believed otherwise. One of the staff members had been mentally and emotionally abusing other members for years. No one dared speak out against her abuse because she was so close to the messenger and the messenger seemed to respect and treat her well, so they must endure this abuse they thought. Until one day the messenger's daughter spoke to her mother about this constant abuse. The individual was reprimanded by the messenger and El Morya, after it came to light, and she was kicked off of staff. A public letter went out to all members of the church from El Morya, detailing the abuse and reprimanding us for taking such abuse and the attentive idolatry that went with it, and we never heard from the disciplined woman again. She later died of cancer. Some of the abusers were never disciplined and others were. One Montessori leader was abusive to the parents of the children and God knows how she treated the children. I observed this when my children were very young and attended the school. Later she too was kicked off of staff for her behavior. But how many were hurt before she was let go? The Final Judgment and Opportunity It came to some of us as quite a shock – and vehemently rejected by most Summit Lighthouse students – but the Master Morya revealed in a dictation through me that the Summit was comprised of predominantly fallen angels. And that the organization was created – of which Mark and Elizabeth were aware of this purpose – to be the opportunity to draw them like moths to the flame for their judgment. And that judgment was not for the event and vision of their demise, but the opportunity for them to serve, to give, to grow, to love and to know God as I AM. But if they did not, well then, their actions would prove their own judgment—and for some the last opportunity. Would they rise to positions of power in the organization and use that power to control, to destroy, to manipulate and to set themselves up as gods to be worshipped? Over the years I heard the messenger speak of souls who would be lost if they carried out their intentions. And she and Mark did everything in their power to save them. But the fact of the matter is that no one can be saved, least of all by us and even by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If Jesus could not save the Pharisees and the Sadducees, do we think we can do any better? There is no one on this planet that can save another. It is not our job or our role to save anyone. And that is one of the biggest traps that we can get into, believing then that we are all powerful enough to save another life. We can always intercede and help another, but that is not necessarily saving another. We can also reach our hand out to someone drowning and thereby pull them out of the water that might have taken their life. But again, we did not save them and can do nothing by ourselves. God within us, the Light and Being, is the only power that can act that would reach out to help another. But saving ones physical life is not saving anyone by a long shot. Lives are lost and lives are gained over the course of our existence. But souls may be lost in the darkness. And souls may be trapped and tormented in that darkness. And yet through the Law of Free Will, we cannot stop ones free will choice to be in that darkness. But we may lawfully show another the way out and even encourage them to come our way. And so the Summit and Church Universal provided the truth, the cajoling, the disciplining, the example and the light to see through this darkness. But each and every person was responsible to choose for themselves. The Master MORE (El Morya then) put his light and attainment on the line to sponsor the organization. But the only way he could do this was to set up certain criteria and limitations on how far people could go to use his sponsorship for their own personal gains. Therefore, he could – on their behalf – intercede and hold back their karmic debts to life. When a person joined staff they may have their karma held in abeyance or even transmuted by Master MORE himself. But after a certain amount of karmic acts against life, the Master had no choice but to cast them out of his fold or thereby lose his opportunity to continue to sponsor others. Some church members saw these expulsions as cruel, uncalled for at times, and even heartless on the messenger's part. Even after they received the teachings on why these expulsions were necessary, some of these fallen angels themselves turned those lessons inside out, criticizing them as mind manipulations and fear-mongering putting the blame on the messenger as being the one controlling. The Messengers' Children One of the children was reputed to be the incarnation of John F. Kennedy. Because of his attempts to stop the Soviets and Castro through Cuba in the Bay of Pigs Invasion, and for the subsequent assassination and loss of his life, he was given an extraordinary opportunity to reembody under the Ascended Masters' tutelage. But during the 1990's, this daughter turned on her mother, the church and her siblings by writing an exposé about her negative experience in the church. Her family publicly denounced her and eventually she dropped the book and settled down away from the church. Eventually she reconciled with her mother. The eldest child turned atheist and spends a good amount of his time today denouncing the church, the Teachings and the masters on his website, and mocking those who do believe in them as being ignorant and silly people. Because he does not believe in the spiritual aspects of the organization, he objects that others do. He believes no proof was ever given of the existence of God, the Masters or any spiritual experience. Obviously, he never has felt the reality of Light as an internal fire that is burning in the heart and the oneness we may feel with that light and Being I AM. There is no proof of God. There is no proof of I AM. There is no proof of spirituality. Why would he think his mother or the organization would be able to offer any tangible proof of their reality? And yet many people do believe in the reality of the Masters as our ascended elder brothers and sisters in the Light, and God as all there IS. And we do so through knowing the reality of Spirit—even without proof. And although we would love for everyone to know that peace, that love and reality of Being, of oneness with I AM, we might not necessarily create a website to denounce those who don't believe as we do. And we wouldn't mock others as poor fools, that they are duped and trapped in their egos and controlled by dark forces. Why would we? And what benefits would that serve us? And yet others who turn against God and the Masters will often mock those who love God, or those who seek out Spirit through more than the five senses, as if they are threatened by people who love God. The Fallen Angels Vie for Positions We did not know why we were sent away from Montana at that time and away from the headquarters. The messenger didn't announce her retirement until a year later. But being away from the energies of the persecution of the church and the messenger after her retirement was a blessing. It was incredible to watch the shake-down from a distance and for most long-time students, we could not believe this could ever happen in an ascended master organization. Even if you believed some fallen angels could have been in the organization, you could not have ever imagined that there were so many of them and could so blatantly and arrogantly do what they did in the years that followed. The energies of the organization dynamically changed. In-fighting was occurring throughout the planet on who would have control of the Teaching centers. Those who sought to keep their control of the organization would not heed, communicate or change their goals and views of how to run the organization. You got the distinct impression that they had been lying in wait around the messenger as her body started to fade and age before them, as they hoped to be the first to ponce on her place she held at the top. Anyone who dared to speak out against the leadership were quickly replaced and ousted from the community. Ex-communications, taking away Keeper status and replacing field leadership were systematically carried out for years by the ministers and church hierarchy. Eventually, there was no one left on staff or in the field who challenged the present leadership–control had been won. So many left the church that tithing fell to record lows (it had been systemically falling since the shelter cycle and President, Gilbert Cleirbaut's attempts to bring order out of bad management, but he could not even reverse that fall) and even after cutting staff down to a skeleton crew, more flow was going out than coming in. But the church had its inheritance: the land and properties. Worth many millions of dollars, much of those lands have been sold and traded since. Record high salaries to the elite on staff were given to themselves. Not one, but three presidents were needed to run the organization! And if they didn't like a tenant established by the messenger and board from prior years, they simply changed them. All was going very well for the established power elite of Church Universal and Triumphant. They had won their coveted positions in church leadership and had finally gotten rid of that immoveable powerful messenger and those ascended masters who the leadership thought were trying to control them. They had also easily gotten rid of those potential Christed ones in the organization, as being mostly humble people they rarely spoke out or displayed the power to stand up to such forces. And leadership thought they had control of the published and unpublished Teachings and thereby the Word. But the Word can never be confined to any one organization or box and the Masters would never put their eggs all in one basket. Over 2,000 dictations were delivered over the 40 years of service by the messengers and hundreds of lectures, S.U. studies and staff meetings. Thousands of people have those teachings in their possession and most importantly, progressive revelation will not be stopped. Those 'pesky' ascended masters they had gotten rid of in their organization have moved on and sponsored others. And the masters kept out of the Summit those precious souls who were not meant to partake of the harshness and stringent rules. When they found the Summit, they were not drawn to join, or did not find the Summit until after the messenger retired and thereby did not get involved, but only partook of the Teachings. But the work had been done. The fallen angels had been judged. The Summit Lighthouse and Church Universal and Triumphant had provided an extraordinary opportunity for souls to choose life, to choose Being, to choose to enter the River of Life and Be I AM—and continues to do so. Those that continually snubbed their noses at the Masters and their messengers, while yet drinking the light and nectar daily provided, were judged by their own absence of remission—and are continuing to be judged. The Summit Lighthouse, Church Universal and Triumphant had been victorious. The messengers gave their all and their lives to this mission. They too are victorious. A most extraordinary experience and a most extraordinary work of Light. My gratitude and awe to Mark and Elizabeth Prophet, to the Christed ones who supported them and who recognized the Light and the Masters when they moved on. My prayers go out to Elizabeth Clare Prophet, as she is in the hands and at the mercy of the church and its former members. Although she has lost all of her memory now, even of her children, from Alzeihmers disease, she is choosing to keep her body in the physical. In this way, it is my understanding, she seeks to continue to serve in this on-going judgment. I pray for her God Victory in this mission. May the victory continue wherever the Masters place their sponsorship and give their Light and Being. And may this planet sustain her victory in the Light as this work is multiplied around the planet. Hail, Maitreya! Hail, Victory! Hail, Flame of God!
Copyright © 2007 Shangra-la Mission, Inc. |
What drew me to the church was not the church itself or the organization of the Summit Lighthouse, but Saint Germain. I had never heard of a "messenger" of the Ascended Masters. I had not even heard the term "ascended masters." In fact, I had little indoctrination into the occult and New Age religions, having been brought up in the Episcopalian faith. Yet the moment I heard the name Saint Germain and discovered his title as the "Wonderman of Europe" I was awakened. All I knew from within myself was that I must find this Saint Germain and where he was on the planet today. 
I learned about Mark Prophet, the founder of the Summit Lighthouse, and his wife, Elizabeth. I learned of their church, at that time headquartered in Malibu and titled "Camelot." That time of my life was 1978-79. I had been married seven years and had given birth to two sons. Right after I found the Summit, I got pregnant with my third son. I was at that tender age of 27.
