Blazing Eye Sees All: Love Has Won, False Prophets, and the Fever Dream of the American New Age

Amy Carlson (1975-2021) was an ordinary working woman and non-maternal mother of three when she abruptly abandoned her family and departed for parts unknown. When she resurfaced, it was as “Mother God,” the female component of the Deity. Her conspiracy-theory fueled rants attracted followers to her website and social media presences. Some even joined Carlson and her various male consorts at the Love Has Won compound in Colorado, where they were subjected to classic cult manipulations such as sleep deprivation and verbal abuse.

Carlson’s sordid death in 2021 made the news. The cult leader was a physical wreck, her body done in by a combination of alcoholism and anorexia. Years of colloidal silver abuse had given her a skin tone of deep azure. Yet her faithful followers believed she had triumphed. In death she passed into the next dimension and joined such figures as Jesus Christ, Marilyn Monroe, and Carlson’s personal favorite, Robin Williams as Ascended Masters.

Investigative journalist Leah Sottile fits Amy Carlson and her followers into the broader context of the American New Age movement. It is a fascinating story filled with eccentric characters and fringe ideas, some of which, like QAnon, have entered into the mainstream. Sottile’s thesis is that the New Age movement offers women a spiritual outlet that traditional patriarchal religions can’t match.

The narrative covers a great deal of territory. I wish that Sottile had written more about the consumerism that drives much of New Age practice. Moreover, some of the tangential material, such as Sottile’s long digression about medium JZ Knight, feels like padding.

Nonetheless, for cult watchers, this book offers valuable insights.

I enjoyed reading this, but the purpose of this novel felt a bit odd. The parts about Amy Carlson and the Love Has Won cult feel like narrative nonfiction. But then there are interruptions that talk about the history of the spread of New Age spirituality and the historical links to bigotry. I'm wondering if the author wanted to write a book about the crunchy to far right pipeline, and some editor told her to bulk up the Amy Carlson parts to sex it up, so to speak. Or, maybe she only had enough material on Carlson for a magazine article so she bulked it up with some history? Anyway, not a bad read, but I feel like with a little more focus it could have been a great read.