From: JEK@cu.nih.gov
Subject: about Eliz C Prophet
Lines: 21

Rob Butera asks about a book called THE LOST YEARS OF JESUS, by
Elizabeth Clare Prophet.

I do not know the book. However, Miss Prophet is the leader of a
group (The Church Universal and Triumphant) derived from the I AM
group founded by a Mr. Ballard who began his mission in the 1930's
(I am writing this from memory and may not have all the details
straight -- for an old account, check your library for a bnook by
Marcus Bach) after an eighteenth-century Frenchman appeared, tapped
him on the shoulder, and offered him a cup of "cosmic essence." A
major tenet of the movement is that there is a monastery in the
mountains of Tibet from which a monk descends to the lower altitudes
every few centuries to preach, and that all major religions have
been founded by monks from this monastery. Typically, the Ballard
family and their successors, the Prophet family (related by
marriage, if I remember aright), base almost all their teachings on
messages they have allegedly received by telepathy from Tibet. I
should be surprised if the book you mention has any scholarly basis.

 Yours,
 James Kiefer