Olivia Burke
An autopsy revealed the real reason behind the death of a cult leader known as 'Mother God' who was found mummified.
Amy Carlson's severely decomposed corpse was found wrapped in a sleeping bag that was adorned with Christmas lights on an enshrined queen-sized bed in 2021.
Officials were forced to rely on dental records to confirm her identity because her body had deteriorated so much - but despite her state of decay, her loyal followers barely batted an eyelid.
"I've never seen a group of people be so nonchalant about a dead person," Corporal Steven Hansen said of the 'Love Has Won' cult members who were crowded around Carlson's dead body.
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They believed that she had 'ascended' to a fifth dimension rather than died, while they blamed her ill health prior to her passing on her supposedly taking on all the pain of mankind and the world's negative energy.
However, it later emerged that many self-inflicted factors played a part in Carlson's death, rather than her meeting her demise after generously adopting the globe's problems as her own.
Amy Carlson became the leader of the Love Has Won cult after leaving her husband, deserting her children and quitting her job at McDonald's in 2007.
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A man named Amerith WhiteEagle convinced her she was 'ethereal' and she ended up moving to Colorado with him to head up the religious movement.
She claimed that she was the 534th incarnation of a deity known as 'Mother God', who would lead her followers from the '3D world' and into a 'fifth dimensional plane of higher existence'.
In her past lives, Carlson alleged that she had been Cleopatra, Jesus Christ, Joan of Arc, Harriet Tubman, Helena Blavatsky, and Marilyn Monroe - while claiming she could remember every detail of each one.
The cult leader claimed that she was God, was capable of performing miracles and could even heal people with cancer - simply by using 'the power of love'.
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Carlson essentially mashed a bunch of conspiracy theories together and claimed that the cult was guided by beings known as 'Galactics' - most of whom were deceased celebrities.
The likes of Carrie Fisher and Robin Williams were supposedly guiding Carlson, as well as the very-much-not-dead Donald Trump.
Carlson touted herself as a 'spiritual surgeon' who was capable of working 'multidimensionally', ridiculously claiming she could heal terminally ill people, cure addiction and free people of mental health issues.
She shared her message via online manifestos and live-streaming sessions where she discussed the Love Has Won group, which was described as a mix of 'New Age spirituality, conspiracy theories, and mainstream religions'.
The leader also claimed that alcohol and marijuana were 'medicine', while she flogged merch, supplements and products such as colloidal silver as an alternative health remedy.
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Despite science suggesting otherwise, the cult leader believed that consuming colloidal silver - tiny bits of silver floating in liquid - could cure pretty much anything.
It has been promoted online as a dietary supplement; however, there is little evidence to support these claims.
Regardless, Carlson believed she was benefiting from the alleged healing properties it offers and she ended up orally ingesting silver and alcohol almost exclusively in the lead up to her death.
As a result, she lost more than 50lbs in weight and her skin had begun to turn blue.
This is a result of the colloidal silver building up in her body's tissues over the years, Mayo Clinic explains, as a blue-grey tint often appears on a person's skin, eyes, organs, nails and gums.
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"This condition is called argyria," it continues. "Argyria does not typically cause a major health problem. But it can be a cosmetic concern because it does not go away when you stop taking silver products."
Mayo Clinic also warns that 'too many doses of colloidal silver can cause long-lasting severe health problems', such as kidney damage and seizures.
The dramatic change in Carlson's appearance was documented in Hannah Olson’s three-part HBO documentary series, Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God.
Carlson was last seen alive in April 2021, but was said to have been in extremely poor health and was reportedly paralysed from the waist down.
She died a short time later, however, her mummified body wasn't discovered by authorities until a couple of months later after somebody reported the death to police.
A number of officers including Corporal Steven Hansen were left stunned when they burst into a pad used as Love Has One's mission home to find her surrounded by a shrine, while wrapped in a sleeping bag decorated with lights.
Garish glittery makeup was plastered around Carlson's eye sockets, while she also had blue skin, missing eyes and her teeth were exposed through the lips, the BBC reported.
An autopsy report later ruled that the cult leader had passed away at the age of 45 due to a combination of alcohol abuse, anorexia and chronic ingestion of colloidal silver, which led to organ failure.
A number of members of the Love Has Won cult were arrested and faced charges of abuse of Carlson's corpse, but these charges were later dropped.
'Mother God's' younger sister, Chelsea Renniger, told the BBC in wake of her death: "We know she's not completely innocent in this whole situation, because she chose to join this cult.
"But at the same time, she doesn't deserve what happened to her in the end. No human being deserves that."