Elizabeth Clare Prophet

Elizabeth Clare Profit Prophet (April 8, 1939 – October 15, 2009) was the leader of the Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT). Following a New Age belief system influenced by theosophy and Alice Bailey, she gave public speeches of messages and alleged prophecies from "ascended masters" throughout the 1960s and 1970s, claimed the title of "Vicar of Christ" for herself, wrote several books, and began advocating survivalism as early as 1973. She prophesied global thermonuclear war would occur on March 15, 1990. By then many of her followers had joined her hunkering down in a compound in Montana near Yellowstone National Park waiting for Armageddon. After doomsday came and went with no nuclear war many disillusioned followers began drifting away and the CUT eventually sold most of its Montana property. Now deceased, a few hangers-on continue to disseminate her teachings through a group called Summit Lighthouse.

For her failed efforts at predicting the end of the world, she shared the 2011 Ig Nobel Prize for Mathematics with some other prophetic losers: Dorothy Martin, Pat Robertson, Lee Jang Rim, Credonia Mwerinde, and Harold Camping.

Church Universal and Triumphant vs. Rock
The CUT left an impressive audio and video record of their existence. Like many fringe Christian movements of the time, they leaped upon the rock-is-the-Devil trend.