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Heaven's Gate (religious group)

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The logo used by the Heaven's Gate group

Heaven's Gate was an American UFO religion based in San Diego, California and led by Marshall Applewhite (1932-1997) and Bonnie Nettles (1927-1985).[1] The group's end coincided with the appearance of Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997. Applewhite convinced 38 followers to commit suicide, which he claimed would allow their souls to board a spaceship that they believed was hiding behind the comet.

Belief system

Heaven's Gate members believed that the planet Earth was about to be recycled (wiped clean, refurbished and rejuvenated), and that the only chance to survive was to leave it immediately.[2] While the group was formally against suicide, they defined "suicide" in their own context to mean "to turn against the Next Level when it is being offered",[3] and believed that their "human" bodies were only vessels meant to help them on their journey.

The group believed in several paths for a person to leave the Earth and survive before the "recycling", one of which was hating this world strongly enough: "It is also possible that part of our test of faith is our hating this world, even our flesh body, to the extent to be willing to leave it without any proof of the Next Level's existence".

The members of the group added "-ody" to the first names they adopted in lieu of their original given names, which defines "children of the Next Level." This is mentioned in Applewhite's final video, "Do's Final Exit," that was filmed on March 19, 1997, just days prior to the suicides.

For a few months prior to their deaths, three members, Thurston-ody, Sylvie-ody, and Elaine-ody, worked for Advanced Development Group (ADG), Inc. (now ManTech Advanced Development Group), a small San Diego-based company that developed computer-based instruction for the U.S. Army. Although they were polite and friendly in a reserved way, they tended to keep to themselves. When they quit working for ADG, they told their supervisor that they had completed their mission.[citation needed] A few weeks later, they were dead.

History

Structure

The structure of Heaven's Gate could be compared to that of a medieval monastic order.[4] Group members gave up their material possessions and lived a highly ascetic life devoid of many indulgences. The group was tightly knit and everything was shared communally. Six of the male members of the group, including Applewhite, voluntarily underwent castration as an extreme means of maintaining the ascetic lifestyle.[5]

The group funded itself by offering professional website development for paying clients under the name Higher Source.[6]

Suicide

Thirty-eight group members, plus Applewhite, the group's leader, were found dead in a rented mansion in the upscale San Diego community of Rancho Santa Fe, California, on March 26, 1997. Two former members of Heaven's Gate, Wayne Cooke and Charlie Humphreys, died in copycat suicides. Humphreys had survived a suicide pact with Cooke in May 1997, but successfully committed suicide in February 1998.[7][8] The mass death of the Heaven's Gate group was widely publicised in the media as an example of cult suicide.[9]

In preparing to kill themselves, members of the group drank citrus juices to ritually cleanse their bodies of impurities. The suicide was accomplished by ingestion of phenobarbital mixed with vodka, along with plastic bags secured around their heads to induce asphyxiation. They were found lying neatly in their own bunk beds, with their faces and torsos covered by a square, purple cloth. Each member carried a five dollar bill and three quarters in their pockets. All 39 were dressed in identical black shirts and sweat pants, brand new black-and-white Nike "Cortez" athletic shoes, and armband patches reading "Heaven's Gate Away Team." The suicides were conducted in shifts, and the remaining members of the group cleaned up after each prior group's death.[10]

Media coverage prior to suicide

Although not widely known to the mainstream media, Heaven's Gate was known in UFO circles as well as a series of academic studies by sociologist Robert Balch. They also received coverage in Jacques Vallee's Messengers of Deception, in which Vallee described an unusual public meeting organized by the group. Vallee frequently expressed concerns within the book about contactee groups' authoritarian political and religious outlooks, and Heaven's Gate did not escape criticism. [11]

In January 1994, the LA Weekly ran an article on the group, then known as The Total Overcomers. Through this article Rio DiAngelo discovered the group and eventually joined them. [12] Rio was the subject of LA Weekly's 2007 cover story on the group.[13]

Louis Theroux contacted the Heaven's Gate group while making a programme for his BBC Two documentary series, Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends, in early March 1997. In response to his e-mail, Theroux was told that Heaven's Gate could not take part in the documentary as "at the present time a project like this would be an interference with what we must focus on."[14]

Cultural references

The religious group was also parodied on Family Guy episode "Chitty Chitty Death Bang" where Meg joins a suicide cult that features many similarities to Heaven's Gate including the killer cocktail and castration. Meg is interrupted by her father just before drinking the poison and escapes, though the rest of the cult members are not so lucky.

Protest the Hero's song titled Sequoia Throne deals with the Heaven's Gate cult.

The Porcupine Tree song "Last Chance to Evacuate Planet Earth Before It Is Recycled" features an excerpt from the video left behind by Applewhite when the group committed suicide.

Screamo band I Hate Myself has a song entitled "Secret Lovers at the Heaven's Gate Ranch."

Rock band Deftones referenced Heaven's Gate in their song 'Xerces' from the Saturday Night Wrist (2006) album.

Saturday Night Live aired a faux-commercial for the Keds brand of shoes. The commercial used scenes of the Heaven's Gate suicide victims wearing their Nike apparel.

Bibliography

  • Lalich, Janja. Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults. University of California Press, 2004. ISBN 0-520-23194-5. 329 pp.
  • Investigative Reports: Inside Heaven's Gate
  • Balch, Robert W. "Bo and Peep: a case study of the origins of messianic leadership." In Roy Wallis, ed. Millennialism and charisma. Belfast: Queens' University. 1982.
  • Balch, Robert W. "Waiting for the ships: disillusionment and revitalization of faith in Bo and Peep's UFO cult." In James R. Lewis, ed. The Gods have Landed: New Religions from Other Worlds. Albany: SUNY. 1995.
  • Balch, Robert W. "When the Light Goes Out, Darkness Comes: A Study of Defection from a Totalistic Cult". in Religious Movements: Genesis, Exodus and Numbers. Rodney Stark, (Ed). Paragon House Publishers. 1985. pp. 11-63.
  • Theroux, Louis. The Call of the Weird. Pan Macmillan. 2005. pp 207-221
  • DiAngelo, Rio. "Beyond Human Mind-The Soul Evolution of Heaven's Gate." RIODIANGELO PRESS. 2007. 128p

Notes

  1. ^ Hexham, Irving (7 May 1997). "UFO Religion - Making Sense of the Heaven's Gate Suicides". Christian Century. pp. pp. 439-440. Retrieved 2007-10-06. {{cite web}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "Planet About to be Recycled" (HTML). Heaven's Gate Web Site. Retrieved 2007-08-23.
  3. ^ "Our Position Against Suicide" (HTML). Heaven's Gate Web Site. Retrieved 2007-08-23.
  4. ^ http://www.prevensectes.com/paradis1.htm
  5. ^ http://www.culteducation.com/hgate.html
  6. ^ Weise, Elizabeth (1997-03-28). "Internet Provided Way To Pay Bills, Spread Message Before Suicide". Associated Press. Seattle Times. Retrieved 2007-12-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ "Heaven's Gate: A timeline". The San Diego Herald Tribute. 18 March 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-21.
  8. ^ "Ex-Cultist Dies In Suicide Pact; 2d Is 'Critical'". The New York Times. 7 May 1997. Retrieved 2007-21-10. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  9. ^ "First autopsies completed in cult suicide". CNN. 28 March 1997. Retrieved 2007-10-06.
  10. ^ Katherine Ramsland. "Death Mansion". All about Heaven's Gate cult. CourtTV Crime Library. Retrieved 2006-09-20.
  11. ^ Vallee, Jacques, Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults. Ronin, 1979.
  12. ^ Dave Gardetta (21 January 1994). "They Walk Among Us". LA Weekly. Retrieved 2007-08-23.
  13. ^ Joshuah Bearman (21 March 2007]]). "Heaven's Gate: The Sequel". LA Weekly. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ "Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends: UFO".
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