7 December 7 - 13, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents in the group’s Colorado home. The grisly discovery prompted criminal charges to be filed against several members, but the charges would later be dropped. Here’s what you need to know about Love Has Won and Carlson’s North Texas ties. Love Has Won’s Ideology Members of Love Has Won viewed Carlson as an in-the-flesh deity on a mission to pro- cess humanity’s trauma. They were per- suaded that she would eventually shepherd her chosen followers into the so-called Fifth Dimension. Mother God, as she was called, was sup- posedly a reincarnation of prominent histor- ical figures, including Joan of Arc, Cleopatra, Jesus Christ and Marilyn Mon- roe. Other famous people, such as former President Donald Trump and the late come- dian Robin Williams, were believed to be part of her “Galactic A-team.” Carlson had a series of romantic partners, all of whom were invariably christened “Fa- ther God.” Love Has Won blended various conspir- acy theories, such as Holocaust denial, belief in reptilians and QAnon — another “cult- like” group with connections to Dallas. In Love Has Won’s mythos, Carlson would someday part ways with her earthly exis- tence and “ascend” via starship. In addition to its fringe beliefs, the group came under fire for its frequent alcohol and drug use and for glorifying anorexia. Mother God’s Strange Death The cause of Carlson’s death is only part of what makes this case so odd. An autopsy re- port found that she “died as a result of global decline in the setting of alcohol abuse, an- orexia, and chronic colloidal silver inges- tion,” The Guru magazine first reported in December 2021. The 45-year-old habitually ingested a dan- gerous amount of colloidal silver, which the group viewed as tonic for a variety of ail- ments. The supplement turned her skin a blue-gray color as her health deteriorated, and she appeared emaciated in her final days. Carlson died in spring 2021, but her fol- lowers held onto her corpse, transporting it from Northern California to their “mission house” in Colorado. They enveloped the body in a sleeping bag and wrapped it with Christmas lights, turning it into a sort of ma- cabre shrine. Carlson’s corpse was mummified by the time a member contacted the authorities. A crown had been placed on Carlson’s head and she was “adorned with make-up.” She had been dead for around a month before of- ficers responded to the scene. Amy Carlson Used to Live in Dallas Love Has Won’s core members would film livestreams and conduct business out of a home in Moffat, Colorado, near the New Age destination city of Crestone, according to The Denver Post. They also stayed in a rental cabin in Salida but would at times hop between Oregon, Florida and California. Carlson’s followers weren’t the only ones to participate in the docuseries. Her mother, Linda Haythorne, also appears. Haythorne describes getting a divorce and taking her young daughters out of a rocky home environment. Carlson would eventu- ally wind up moving to the Lone Star State. “If you take a map and put an ‘X’ in the middle of the United States, that’s where I was born — in a little town of McPherson, Kansas,” Carlson says in an audio diary played in the doc. “It was tornado alley: I went through Kansas, Oklahoma City, Dal- las, Houston. Tornadoes showed up wher- ever I was.” Haythorne recalled that Carlson, her first child, was a good student in school, bringing home As and Bs. She had big dreams and “wanted to be somebody,” her mother says. Carlson would later become the manager of a McDonald’s in Dallas, where she would quickly climb the ranks, Haythorne says. She was beloved by her employees and “had a gift” for knowing how to make them feel good about themselves. But then, at some point, a shift occurred within Carlson. “She quit McDonald’s, just quit,” Hay- thorne says. “Her path was starting to change.” In a recording, Carlson describes the first time that she took ecstasy. Photos of the Dal- las skyline flash on screen as she speaks, in- cluding images of Bank of America Plaza and Reunion Tower at night. “I was just rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ in these waves of love, and joy and happiness,” Carl- son says. “I was like ‘This is reality! Did they take that from me? Who stole this?’” The experience seems to have altered Carlson’s entire life trajectory. Before long, her mom says, she was constantly spending time on the computer and turned increas- ingly spiritual. Carlson would ultimately leave behind her own three children and family in pursuit of her mystical path, one that ended with her as a mummy in Colorado. ▼ CITY HALL GO SLEEP IN A PARK IN STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS, MAYOR BACKS PARKS, NOT HOUSING. BY JACOB VAUGHN D allas Mayor Eric Johnson said parks were vital to his family as he was growing up in the city. His family didn’t have a backyard or a swimming pool, or country club or gym memberships. They depended on the city’s parks and aquatic centers and recreation centers. “They gave us some relief from the daily grind that can sometimes feel overwhelming in a big city like Dallas,” he said. This is partially why he’s pushing so hard for money for parks in the upcoming bond package. In his state of the city address on Nov. 30, Johnson advocated for bond money for parks over money for housing. He said the bond package should allow the city to make critical investments without raising taxes. It should also include, he said, long overdue funding for a new police academy at the University of North Texas at Dallas. “But the two biggest allocations in this bond package must be for streets and for parks,” he said. “That’s what our citizen-led Community Bond Task Force recom- mended. That’s what the people of Dallas want. That’s what I want as your mayor. And that’s what our city needs.” Johnson said that the Community Bond Task Force, made up of community volun- teers who had heard extensive public input, recommended $375 million in investments for streets and $350 million for parks. John- son called the investment in streets bold but responsible. As for the recommended money for parks, Johnson said it would be the largest investment ever in the city’s parks system. “And it will help us to achieve our goal of ensuring that everyone in Dallas lives within a 10-minute walk of a park or a trail,” he said. Some would rather see more funding in the bond package directed toward housing. A group of organizations called the Dallas Housing Coalition has been advocating for $200 million to be put toward housing in the upcoming bond package. Instead, $100 mil- lion is being proposed for housing, eco- nomic development and homelessness in the bond. Supporters and followers of the coalition were set to appear at the Dec. 6 City Council meeting to speak in favor of a larger allocation for housing. Bryan Tony, one of the principal orga- nizers for the group, planned to be there. “For Dallas to be the economic engine of the region that it needs to be, it has to take housing more seriously and make it a greater priority,” he told the Observer. To Tony and others, that looks like allocating some $200 million toward housing in the bond issue. “Unfortunately, but predictably, we have heard from a few loud voices who believe the proposed parks allocation should be cut in favor of more taxpayer-supported hous- ing,” Johnson said during his address. He said Dallas needs housing, but that histori- cally government is not good at playing the role of a housing developer. “Spending mil- lions of taxpayer dollars on a handful of houses or a couple hundred apartments here and there isn’t the answer here, and it won’t reduce your rent or your mortgage a single cent,” he said. When it comes to housing, what the city needs is real scale, according to Johnson, who said that can only be provided through the private sector. He said the city’s role should be to make things simpler for profes- sional builders. “Improving our city’s per- mitting process and easing our zoning restrictions are where we can make a much bigger difference,” he said. This is why he’s asking the Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee to de- velop five new recommendations, not for programs, but for simple, innovative ways to free up the private sector to allow the build- ing of more housing. Tony agrees that the city should make it easier for the private sector to build housing, but he said the local government still has a role to play in building housing itself. Johnson said while government isn’t good at building housing, it is good at parks and recreation, and that’s what Dallas should be focusing on. “Parks have an ex- traordinary ability to revitalize neighbor- hoods,” Johnson said. “They encourage private investment. They attract visitors and give our communities a gathering place. And most importantly, parks help us attract and keep families in Dallas.” These are all things that Tony said can also be said about housing. But Johnson claimed developers who are building in Dallas have said they want to build near parks. It’s also why plans for renovations at Fair Park and the downtown Convention Center include more public green spaces. It’s why the city is pursuing a new deck park that will tie into the Dallas Zoo over Interstate 35 in southern Dallas. “And that’s why we must press forward with an unprecedented investment in our city’s parks in the next bond program,” Johnson said. “Today, if you go to a Dallas park, you’ll see people from every neighborhood in our city – no matter how much money they make, no matter how old they are, no matter if they are Black or white or Brown, and no matter whether they’ve had a good or a bad day,” he said. “I would say that, today, parks are to Dallas what Dallas has become to the rest of our nation: a place where we can breathe – and where prom- ise and potential are still within our grasp.” Courtesy HBO Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God, the story of Amy Carlson (center), is available to view on HBO MAX.
