Miguel Lamboy was gone for most of the day on April 28, 2021. When he returned to his Moffat, Colorado, home, Lamboy was greeted by the body of a dead woman, whose mummified remains clearly did not belong in his house.
Lamboy knew the dead woman well, though. It was Amy Carlson, the founder of Love Has Won, the cult to which he belonged. His fellow cult members, it seemed, had transported her now-mummified remains from California to his home near Crestone after he agreed to let them stay.
After the discovery, Lamboy attempted to leave with his two-year-old son in tow, but the other cult members would not allow him to take his child with him, according to Alamosa Valley Courier. Rather than stay and ignore the situation, Lamboy went to the authorities instead and reported his discovery. The Saguache County Sheriff’s Office immediately obtained a search warrant for the home.
When deputies arrived, it didn’t take them long to find the mummified body of Carlson, 45. Her body was in a back room on a bed, tucked away inside of a sleeping bag and wrapped with Christmas lights. Carlson had also dolled up with glittery makeup, according to arrest documents related to the case. Her eyes were missing, her skin was gray, and she was placed next to a shrine that the Love Has Won cult members had built for her.
“I’m not sure what to think about this whole thing,” Corporal Steve Hansen told KUSA. “I’ve never seen a group of people be so nonchalant about a dead person in their back room.”
“She did not pass away. She ascended.”After the discovery of Carlson’s body, seven Love Has Won cult members — Christopher Royer, Sarah Rudolph, Jason Castillo, John Robertson, Obdulia Franco, Ryan Kramer, and Karin Raymond — were arrested and charged with two misdemeanor counts of child abuse, as there were two children at the home with the mummified remains. Four of the members face other charges of tampering with a deceased human body, while the remaining three have been charged with abuse of a corpse.
While it was clear to both the authorities that Lamboy was dead, what remains unclear is exactly how Carlson died — and why the cult remembers decorated and mummified her remains. The cause of death will now be determined by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation with an autopsy.
While the report of the mummified remains may be the strangest encounter authorities have had with this group, it was hardly the first time the Saguache County Sheriff’s Office had heard of Love Has Won. The New Age cult has, over the years, attracted numerous complaints and calls to the law enforcement department that patrols the county of just 6,800 residents.
According to Saguache County Sheriff Dan Warwick, the sheriff’s office “had calls from family members of people in the group who were concerned about them.” However, “there was never any criminal activity,” he told the Valley Courier.
If you’re unfamiliar with Love Has Won, this group, located near Crestone, Colorado, is a cult that was started and run by Carlson, who is referred to as Mother God by her small group of followers.
Castillo, who was among those who were arrested at the Moffat home, also helped run the cult and was called Father God. While the belief system followed by Love Has Won ranges from the typical to the utterly bizarre, the cult is generally centered around the belief that Carlson was Jesus, has been reincarnated 534 times, and was here on Earth to save humanity. The group also offers spiritual classes and sells healing products online, including the controversial dietary supplement known as colloidal silver, which the group had been promoting as a supposed cure for COVID-19 — and has received a warning from the FDA for doing so.
Even in death, Carlson is still a fixture in the cult’s beliefs. Once news of her death hit the mainstream, her followers began to react. One group member, identified only by the name of Bobby, posted a video addressing the former cult leader’s demise. In it, Bobby stated: “She did not pass away. She ascended.”
The case of the mummified body in Colorado has made national headlines, and left a lot of questions about what Love Has Won is, and who Carlson was.
It’s tough to find the answers, though. Since Carlson’s death, the cult has since rebranded itself as 5D Full Disclosure. The group’s Facebook page states that they are “dedicated to whole truth & full disclosure for planet Earth=Heart. Raising the collective consciousness into 5D frequencies & bringing humanity back home into the Light with Mother & Father of All Creation.”
But while the group’s name has changed, Carlson is still very much present as part of the rebrand. The page’s profile picture features a series of images of Marilyn Monroe, who the group believes was one of Carlson’s former reincarnations, which morph into an image of the former cult leader with the words “I told you so” stretched across the photo.
From Texas mother… to Mother God?Amy Carlson was not always the New Age cult leader who claimed to be on her 534th reincarnation — all while making YouTube videos about planetary ascension. The Love Has Won founder, referred to as Mother God by her followers, was once a mother living a relatively normal life in Texas with her three children. She supported her family by working as a manager at a McDonald’s.
That changed in 2012, when after a Thanksgiving meal, Carlson abruptly left her family for a man she met online who called himself Father God, according to a recent interview with her mother, Linda Haythorne. Shortly after, Carlson began referring to herself as Mother God.
“It was a complete shock to us,” Haythorne said. “We had no idea what was going on.”
The man introduced Carlson to a new life in Crestone, Colorado. This area is known to draw groups and individuals seeking spirituality. The town of just 132 people boasts Tibetan Buddhist stupas, a Hindu temple, New Age groups, a Zen center, and a Carmelite monastery.
According to Haythorne, Carlson started talking about starships and heavenly ascension following her departure. The relationship didn’t last, but Carlson kept the Mother God moniker.
And, Carlson, a white woman, eventually expanded her work and formed her own religion: a culturally appropriated blend of Native American and Indigenous Polynesian faith, New Age, and Christianity, along with some conspiracy theories thrown in for good measure. All this to explain the origin story of Mother God, her 534 reincarnations, and how she will save humanity from dark forces.
From afar, Haythorne continued to watch as her daughter became more deeply embedded in the cult she was creating.
“Everything she did I totally didn’t agree on, but there was nothing I could do to talk her out of it,” she said.
In 2018, Castillo joined the group, becoming the next Father God. The group spent years moving between Colorado, Oregon, California, and Florida, as well as a base in Moffat, just 13 miles west of Crestone.
For a short stint, the group also resided in Hawaii during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. But because Carlson also claimed to be Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes and creator of the Hawaiian islands, their presence became unwelcome, and was quickly met with protests.
“That was highly offensive to the whole Hawaii kingdom,” Mahealani Chandler, an islander, told the Denver Post in September 2020. “That was almost like a threat to us.”
For days on end, protest groups stood outside the cult’s Hawaiian base and voiced dissent over their presence. The protests eventually grew volatile as people threw rocks and eggs at the house, damaged a car in the driveway, and yelled threats at the cult members.
The protests eventually became so prolific, in fact, that the mayor of Kauai got involved and the cult members were escorted to the airport by police.
“I think karma has its ways of getting to people who need it,” Chandler said.
By December 2020, the cult had a new permanent residence in Colorado. Lamboy, who later found Carlson’s body in his home, purchased the property for $63,000, according to the Denver Post, and registered Love Has Won as a nonprofit organization in Colorado. By doing so, Love Has Won got a 501(c)3 status from the IRS, meaning the cult was exempt from paying a federal income tax.
By the time Carlson was found dead, she had 29 followers who lived on the cult’s properties in Colorado and California.
Love Has Won… exposedPrior to the mummy being found, the cult’s YouTube account was updated daily with fresh content from cult members discussing everything from healing humanity to oracles. Older videos featuring Carlson can still be found on the group’s channel. In one YouTube post, entitled “God’s most recent visit to share Her story, December 16, 2019,” Carlson is seen being carried to her seat by a bearded, shirtless man. She is sandwiched between two women throughout the more than 10-minute video. All four are dressed wearing a single color — an earthy red, similar to the garments worn by the infamous Rajneeshpuram cult, a group that, between 1981 and 1988, tried to take over Wasco County, Oregon, and poisoned its residents with salmonella.
While there is no evidence that Love Has Won contaminated any buffets or salad bars like the Rajneeshpuram, there are plenty of accounts from former cult members, as well as video evidence of Carlson’s and other cult members’ abusive behavior, manipulation, and brainwashing.
That behavior is what prompted the creation of Love Has Won Exposed, a entire platform dedicated to bringing to light the alleged abuse the cult has inflicted on others. On the website, there are multiple videos of Carlson and Castillo yelling at and berating followers. In one video, Carlson is seen roughly handling a cat. In another video, Carlson is shown demeaning one cult member for bringing her the wrong food: meatballs instead of chicken parmesan.
“My vision was chicken parmesan,” said Carlson, who appears to be the one recording. “So, the f*cking atoms turned around on me and gave me meatballs. I didn’t say meatballs. I love meatballs, but I didn’t f*cking say that!”
After continuing to chastise the cult member and calling her followers “motherf*ckers” and “wh*res,” an exasperated Carlson crawls out of bed and announces she’s taking a shot of tequila.
The description of the video also notes that the individual who brought the food to Carlson “can barely stand because he is so tired from having to stay up all day and night and sleep in half-hour increments.”
Sleep deprivation is a common technique used by cults to control their followers. By dictating when members can or cannot sleep, a cult can easily control the willpower and mental state of individuals. Cults that have used this practice in the past include The People’s Temple, Aum Shinrikyo, and Heaven’s Gate.
Another cult member, who remains unnamed, left his wife and children in May 2020 to join Love Has Won in Colorado. As a QAnon believer of conspiracy theories with no factual evidence — like the belief that liberals who cannibalize and sell children into slavery run the world — the man would often read up on or watch videos of people discussing conspiracies. This eventually led him to Love Has Won, which addressed the topic in their videos. He bought in even further during the COVID-19 pandemic caused him to lose his job, according to the Denver Post.
The man began paying for spiritual sessions, and in total, would end up giving the cult about $15,000. Eventually, his behavior became more erratic, and began to fall in line with the cult’s sleep schedule, the garments they wore, and the foods they ate.
And, in May 2020, he finally left his wife and children, telling his spouse, “Mother God called me home.”
Sometime later, his family received a call from a Colorado hospital alerting them that the man had been found naked in the wilderness, severely dehydrated, and covered in cactus needles. Before his family could pick him up, however, the man left the hospital. He was later found under a bridge near Salida, where he was picked up by a Good Samaritan, who watched over him until his family was able to pick him up. When the man’s brother picked him up, he was confused about where he was.
“He thought he had ascended the world into this 5D matrix and had done what Mother God and Father God wanted him to do,” his wife told the Denver Post. “We had to play that game with him. ‘Yes, you did it. You’re done.’ … He’s still healing and he will be for a long time from this. He has tons of shame, tons of guilt. He just can’t believe he did what he did. He just can’t fathom it now that his mind is clear.”
It appears, at least anecdotally, that the members weren’t the only ones being put through a proverbial hell at the hands of Love Has Won. Video and firsthand accounts make it clear that the cult’s controlling treatment may have been used on Carlson as well.
“I believe that she has been brainwashed, so I think there might be some mental illness there,” said her sister Chelsea, who believes Carlson was aware that she was scamming people. “Sometimes she acts like she’s Amy and sometimes she acts like completely different people, so I see that mental illness. I do think she’s possibly too far gone to get help, though. … I also believe she rambles sometimes and doesn’t know what the truth is anymore.”
In many of the images and videos captured by the cult, Carlson looks unwell and underweight. In one video, two cult members discuss why they would never allow Carlson to see a doctor or go to a hospital, though she had asked her followers to take her to one.
“There’s no way that Mom would go to a 3D doctor. They would be so perplexed by Mom to begin with. First off, Mom just triggers people just by smiling or breathing in their presence, so to take her to a dense place like that — absolutely not. There have been moments where Mom asked us to a 3D hospital, but nope.”
Whether or not that played into the death of Carlson remains to be seen. For now, all we have is a mummified body — and speculation about how it came to be.
“Is she going to be reincarnated?”As the seven cult members, who now free on bond, await their court proceedings, the state of the cult, as well as its future, is in question. The death of the founder is a big hit to the group, and while it appears the group is still ongoing under the name 5D Full Disclosure, it is unclear what is next for the cult. These uncertainties can best be summarized by an interview by Denver’s CBS4 reporter Rick Sallinger with Love Has Won members Ryan Kramer and Karin Raymond, fresh out of jail.
Kramer: “God is a woman.”
Sallinger: “And that’s Amy?”
Kramer: “That is correct. Let everyone know, that’s all I have to say. God is a woman and this whole planet will know.”
Sallinger: “Why can’t she heal herself? She’s God?”
Kramer: “Well, that’s a great question. God can do anything. Why can’t she heal herself? I actually can’t answer that question.”< p>
Salinger: “Christmas lights and glitter. … Is she going to be reincarnated?”
Kramer: “We don’t know.”
Sallinger: “How did she die?”
Kramer: “I sincerely do not know. I don’t know.”
Raymond: “God is a woman. God is a woman. God is a woman.”
Sallinger: “I want to make sure I understand. God is a woman and Amy is the god?”
Kramer: “Yes.”
Sallinger: “She says she has been reincarnated many, many, many times?”
Kramer: “534 [times]. … So maybe she will come off a starship.”
