Amy Carlson

Amy Carlson (November 30, 1975 – c. April 2021), also known by her followers as Mother God, was an American cult leader and co-founder of the new religious movement Love Has Won. Carlson and her followers believed herself to be God, a 19 billion years old being, a reincarnation of Jesus Christ, and could heal people of cancer “with the power of love.”

In Carlson’s early adult life, she began to talk increasingly about “outlandish concepts” such as starships. During the mid 2000s, Carlson developed an interest in New Age philosophy, and became a regular poster on the forums of the website Lightworkers.org. In late 2007, Carlson left her third husband, her three children, and her job as a manager at McDonald’s. She ceased contact with most members of her family, and moved to Colorado.

The group was originally known under the name “Galactic Federation of Light”. The group posted their first videos to YouTube in 2009. The movement began to grow from 2014 onwards, mainly by the internet. The group travelled between Colorado, Oregon, California and Florida prior to 2018, before moving to Moffat, Colorado.

In September 2020, it had been stated that Carlson was in poor health and was paralysed from the waist down, with Carlson herself stating that she had cancer. In early April 2021, the group was located in an RV park in Mount Shasta in northern California, but were asked to leave due to overcrowding. Carlson was last seen alive by someone outside the group on April 10, 2021.

On April 28, 2021, the mummified corpse of Carlson was discovered in the mission house near Crestone. Its state of decay suggested that she had been dead for several weeks. She was 45 at the time of her death. The body was found in a sleeping bag wrapped in Christmas lights, the face covered in glitter and the eyes missing, in what authorities stated was a makeshift shrine.

In the aftermath of Carlson’s death, the group splintered, with the most recent “Father God” Jason Castillo forming the separate group Joy Rains with a small number of followers.