The fringe.

Suh-weet. You gotta click through 'em all. And, you know, visualize. Don't stop there, though. These guys have lots and lots of visualizations for you. Some of them move, some have sound, and some even get a full chorus.

I found this via The Biomes Blog, and while I always love this sort of thing, the odd Church of the Subgenius vibe (except without all the irony and humor and, in fact, quite earnest instead) made me wonder just who these folks were. Turns out it's a group called The Summit Lighthouse, and I can't believe none of you people have ever told me about them previously. What kind of friends are you, anyhow?

The fortuitously named Mark L. Prophet founded TSL in 1958 after the Ascended Master El Morya contacted him from beyond to take some dictation. For the next 15 years, "Mark L. Prophet gave more than 1,000 dictations from various Ascended Masters, archangels and other advanced spiritual beings," until he stroked out in 1973, at which point his wife, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, took over and renamed it the Church Universal and Triumphant. Where Mark Prophet was all special on El Morya, Elizabeth Clare seems a little more Saint Germain-oriented. Who's Saint Germain? Glad you asked.

Saint Germain is Chohan of the Seventh Ray, the violet ray, of freedom, alchemy, justice, mercy and transmutation. He is the sponsor of the United States of America and the hierarch of the age of Aquarius, who comes bearing the gift of the violet flame for world change. He tutors and initiates souls in mastery of the seat-of-the-soul chakra, preparing them to receive the Holy Spirit's gifts of prophecy and the working of miracles.

Two of his well-known embodiments were Christopher Columbus and Merlin the magician, a spiritual adept who has unfortunately been mythologized. In a series of recent embodiments from the prophet Samuel to Francis Bacon, Saint Germain was the all-pervasive mind, laying the empirical foundation for an age of enlightenment, pushing back the barriers of limitation in the physical and spiritual sciences. As Roger Bacon he directed and inspired devotees of the sacred science, then in his embodiment as Saint Germain, the Wonderman of Europe, he outpictured the quintessence of the alchemists' dream for all to see.

Excuse me? There are six other Chohans besides and if you click the 'More' link for each, you can see some of the historical figures they have inhabited over the years. Saint Germain, for example, was High Priest of the Violet Flame Temple on the mainland of Atlantis thirteen thousand years ago. Having been not just Francis Bacon, but also Roger Bacon, one presumes he's probably now Kevin Bacon, though they leave that tantalizingly unsaid.

The Summit Lighthouse folks also own the domain name teenage-pregnancy.org, a site encouraging teenagers not to have abortions because of reincarnation. Really.

Throughout the entire nine months of gestation, the soul may go back and forth from her body in the womb to the higher planes of existence in the heaven-world. Each time the soul enters her body she anchors more of her soul substance in that body. As gestation progresses, the spirit, or the essence of the soul becomes a part of the blood and the cells—a part of the brain, the heart and all of the organs. [...] If a soul is aborted, it could be a very long time before it is able to reincarnate (be born again) and connect with the specific people it needs to in order to fulfill its personal mission. We all need to be born at the right time and in the right place, even though it may not seem to be the "right time" to a lot of people.

Odd, odd stuff and you should click the little video links of her speaking on the main site there to get a feel for her strange, affectless delivery about angels and whatnot. It isn't clear when these were recorded because Elizabeth Clare Prophet retired in 1999, citing Alzheimer's. The group's money and rosters had been dwindling since 1990, when Prophet's biggest prophecy failed to materialize:

Primarily due to its doomsday predictions and attempts to establish a self-sufficient community on its 32,000 acre ranch in Montana, the Church Universal and Triumphant has come into considerable conflict with local residents and federal officials alike. The church was propelled into the national spotlight when Prophet predicted a massive Soviet missile strike on the United States for April 23, 1990. She now states that this date did not mean nuclear holocaust, but rather marked the beginning of a 12 year cycle of negative karma for the organization. [I can see how a person might mix up the two -'r] Nevertheless, members from around the world streamed to the group's ranch, paying up to $12,000 each for space in one of the underground bomb shelters built by staff members [and completely bad karma-resistant -'r]. The state of Montana has since banned the church from ever using the shelters again.

While the prediction came and went, the problems remained. On the same day the world was to be rocked by nuclear war, federal officials ordered the excavation of 35 underground fuel tanks which had leaked upwards of 20,000 gallons of petroleum. Eventually, the church removed over 650,000 gallons of fuel from its ranch. Federal authorities again fostered opposition after they tried to revoke the group's tax exempt status and obtain $2.6 million in back taxes. This stemmed from the government's claims that the church had been stockpiling weapons. Sworn statements show that weapons were being purchased as early as 1973, but culminated in 1989 when Prophet's fourth husband, the Vice President of the Church Universal and Triumphant, was arrested and served prison time for assuming the identity of a dead AIDS patient and, under that name, purchased military style equipment for the group. While the church agreed to dispense of its weapons in return for tax exempt status, [what a bargain! -'r] it still allows weapons purchased by individual members to be brought onto the property. A myriad of other claims have also been leveled against the church, ranging from interfering with bison migration patterns to harboring illegal aliens.

Deeply weird. And I still can't believe I'd never heard of them before now.