Predicated on the idea that god is female, Amy Carlson found her true crime niche as the leader of the cult known as Love Has Won. After living a relatively normal life in Texas and raising three children, everything changed.
One day, she packed her things and left her family for Colorado. There, she fell in with a New Age community and designated herself “Mother God.” The cult teachings vary, but many of the followers believe that she is god and she is in communion with entities known as the Galactics. She claims that Robin Williams came to her after his death and gave commands, such as regimenting her food intake.
While this is by far one of the more outwardly outrageous concepts a cult has sold, still, all of her followers bought it hook, line, and sinker. They not only supported Amy’s preaching, but fully enabled her — to a deadly degree. Two of her most staunch supporters were Aurora and Hope, who Amy Carlson designated oracles, in charge of everything to do with the Galactics. They, among the rest of the cult, believed in the con so strongly that even when Carlson revealed to them on her deathbed that she wasn’t god, they refused to bring her to a hospital. Amy Carlson eventually expired due to a combination of anorexia and alcoholism.
Born Ashley Peluso, Archeia Hope never doubted Carlson for a moment, even when her biological mother tried to intercede in this harrowing true crime tale.
Where is Hope now?
Hope’s journey to joining Love Has Won started early, as featured in the Max documentary, Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God. Documentarian Hannah Olson interviewed her mother, Debbie, who outlined her daughter’s trajectory to joining a cult. The product of divorce, young Ashley was described as angry before disappearing altogether. When Debbie saw her next, she was on Carlson’s YouTube channel praying to Mother God.
Concerned with how thin her daughter had become, Debbie started a group online to find help. She ultimately called the FBI in a bid to save her daughter, who was not receptive to the efforts. Olson told AwardsDaily.com that she viewed the members of Love Has Won with the utmost empathy. She recognized that people who followed Carlson’s teachings were reacting to histories of pain.
“I became very interested in the set of social circumstances that brought people into Love Has Won and the pain and trauma that made people go down the wormhole to look for a new reality, the loneliness at the heart of these communities and conspiracies.”
This pain resulted in fanaticism, which continued after Carlson’s death. In her final days, the cult leader had become frail due to organ failure. At first, refusing to take her to what the followers called a “3D hospital,” they tried to cure Mother God with colloidal silver. It had no perceived effect besides turning her skin blue. Despite motions from Carlson’s family to bring her back home, it ended inevitably. When she died, her followers believed that she was simply “ascending.” They kept her mummified corpse in her room before the authorities were called.
This never deterred Hope or Aurora, who continued Carlson’s teachings. Though Love Has Won dissolved, they continued to preach her word through their YouTube channel. Essentially the same message, the cult has been rebranded as 5D Full Disclosure. The former cult members became more invested in conspiracy theories surrounding Trump and QAnon, which they talked about heavily. To this day, they continue to make money from selling spiritual sessions and related merchandise.
