Does the 'Mother God' cult, Love Has Won, still exist?

• Love Has Won was a cult that was led by Amy Carlson, referred to as "Mother God."

• The group was the subject of a startling HBO documentary.

• While Love Has Won doesn't exist in its prior form today, there are offshoots continuing its mission.

A new HBO documentary explores the legacy of the organization Love Has Won, called a cult by some of its former followers, two years after the death of its leader, Mother God.

The film, "Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God," tracks the ascension of Amy Carlson as a guru. The group espoused both New Age and QAnon-adjacent beliefs and alternative health treatments.

After years of leading followers online and living with a smaller group of devotees in Colorado, Hawaii, and Oregon, Carlson's mummified body was discovered by police in April 2021. Her followers had been keeping a vigil over it for weeks.

Here's what you need to know about the cul, and where it stands today.

What was the 'Mother God' cult, 'Love Has Won?'

Carlson left her job as a McDonald's manager in the late 2000, and began posting videos online as Mother God with Amerith White Eagle, a man she dubbed Father God. He was the first mantod accompany her and bear the title, but there would be several more.

Carlson moved on, Vanity Fair reported, building a following online on Facebook and YouTube. Hannah Olson, the director of "Love Has Won," told the publication that the group, in particular, attracted followers who had undergone difficulties in the American health syste. In fact, one of the early members of the group claimed that Carlson had cured his cancer.

The group cobbled together its belief system from an amalgamation of multiple creeds and conspiracies, ranging from New Age mysticism to QAnon-adjacent theories. Carlson, however, was the epicenter: she claimed that she had been reincarnated 534 times, with her past lives including Jesus Christ, Joan of Arc, and Marilyn Monroe. She also claimed that a group of "Galactics," including the late Robin Williams and Donald Trump, advised her and communicated with her. Members, per Vice, believed that Carlson would eventually lead 144,000 of her followers into a new dimension.

To support themselves, followers offered up their savings, and the group soldvariousf products, including colloidal silver, which has been peddled as a "miracle cure" but was declared unsafe to consume by the Food and Drug Administration in 1999.

The group eventually had about 20 people living together, producing daily livestreams that thousands would watch online, hawking health supplements, and asking for donations. Speaking to Business Insider in 2021, some former members of the group alleged abuse and exploitation, but others contested the accounts.

On April 28, 2021, Colorado police executed a search warrant on the group's home, discovering Carlson's mummified remains wrapped in Christmas lights and with glitter applied near her eye sockets. An autopsy revealed she had died from organ failure tied to anorexia, alcoholism, and ingesting colloidal silver.

In the wake of the discovery, seven members of the group were arrested and charged with abuse of a corpse. The charges were dropped later that year.

Does the 'Mother God' cult still exist today?

Love Has Won no longer exists under that name, or obviously, under Carlson's leadership. Some of its members, however, have continued its mission and Carlson's teaching under new names or offshoot groups.

The Daily Beast reported following Carlson's death that a person reached at a phone number that had been listed on the now-defunct Love Has Won website suggested the organization had been "dissolved."

Following its dissolution, Lauryn "Aurora" Suarez and Ashley "Hope" Peluso separated from many of the other followers to form 5D Full Disclosure, which espouses many of the same teachings as Love Has Won. They similarly offer online sessions, podcasts, and YouTube shows, and sell merch to support their cause.

"Father God" Jason Castillo now leads a Colorodo-based offshoot from the group called Joy Rains.

"Mama and papa have done everything possible to save us, and have successfully done so, so we can complete our task of remembering our creators," says the Joy Rains site.

Read the original article on Business Insider