Elizabeth Clare Prophet was a new age spiritual leader and author of more than fifty books which have sold more than a million copies and been translated into a dozen languages. She carried on a teaching and healing ministry for thirty-six years. She held a degree in political science from Boston University. She began her spiritual quest in Christian Science and continued through The Summit Lighthouse, a group founded by her late husband, Mark L. Prophet, in 1958. His was one of several groups to promote the teachings of the ascended masters, believed to be a group of unseen saints and sages.