Heaven's Gate (Religious Group)

The logo used by theHeaven's Gate group

Heaven's Gate (religious group)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaHeaven's Gate was an American UFO religiousMillenarian group based in San Diego, California,founded in the early 1970s and led by MarshallApplewhite (19311997) and Bonnie Nettles(19271985).[1] On March 26, 1997, policediscovered the bodies of 39 members of the groupwho had committed mass suicide[2] in order toreach what they believed was an alien space craftfollowing the Comet HaleBopp, which was then atits brightest.[3]

Contents1 History2 Belief system3 Structure4 Mass suicide and aftermath5 Media coverage prior to suicide6 See also7 References8 Bibliography9 Further reading10 External links

HistoryAccording to Jacques Valle in his 1979 book Messengers of Deception,[4] thegroup began in the early 1970s when Marshall Applewhite was recovering from aheart attack during which he claimed to have had a near-death experience. Hecame to believe that he and his nurse, Bonnie Nettles, were "the Two", that is, thetwo witnesses spoken of in the Book of Revelation 11:3 in the Bible. After a briefand unsuccessful attempt to run an inspirational bookstore, they began travelingaround the United States of America giving talks about their belief system. Aswith some other New Age faiths[5][6] they combined Christian doctrine(particularly the ideas of salvation and apocalypse) with the concept ofevolutionary advancement and elements of science ction, particularly travel to

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other worlds and dimensions.Applewhite and Nettles used a variety of aliases over the years, notably "Bo andPeep" and "Do and Ti" (pronounced doe and tea). The group also had a variety ofnamesprior to the adoption of the name Heaven's Gate (and at the time Vallestudied the group), it was known as Human Individual Metamorphosis (HIM). Thegroup re-invented and renamed itself several times and had a variety ofrecruitment methods.[7][8] Marshall believed that he was directly related to Jesus,meaning he was an "Evolutionary Kingdom Level Above Human".

Belief systemHeaven's Gate members believed the planet Earth was about to be "recycled"(wiped clean, renewed, refurbished, and rejuvenated), and the only chance tosurvive was to leave it immediately. While the group was formally against suicide,they dened "suicide" in their own context to mean "to turn against the NextLevel when it is being oered"[9] and believed their "human" bodies were onlyvessels meant to help them on their journey. In conversation, when referring to aperson or a person's body, they routinely used the word "vehicle"; when shown apicture of his son in an interview, Rio DiAngelo commented, "Look, there's thelittle vehicle."[citation needed]The group believed in several paths for a person to leave the Earth and survivebefore the "recycling", one of which was intentioning love to this world stronglyenough: "It is also possible that part of our test of faith is our loving of this world,even our esh body, to the extent to be willing to leave it without any proof of theNext Level's existence."[citation needed]The members of the group added to the rst names they adopted in lieu of theiroriginal given names, which denes "children of the Next Level". This ismentioned in Applewhite's nal video, Do's Final Exit, lmed March 1920, 1997,just days prior to the suicides.[citation needed]They believed "to be eligible for membership in the Next Level, humans wouldhave to shed every attachment to the planet". This meant all members had to giveup all human-like characteristics, such as their family, friends, sexuality,individuality, jobs, money, and possessions.[10]These basic beliefs of the cult stayed generally consistent over the years;however, "the details of their ideology were exible enough to undergomodication over time."[11] There are many examples of the cult's adding orslightly changing their beliefs over time, such as: modifying the way one can enterthe Next Level, changing the way they described themselves, placing moreimportance on the idea of Satan, and adding several other New Age concepts.


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One of these concepts was the belief of extraterrestrial walk-ins; when the cultbegan, "Applewhite and Nettles taught their followers that they wereextraterrestrial beings. However, after the notion of walk-ins became popularwithin the New Age subculture, the Two changed their tune and began describingthemselves as extraterrestrial walk-ins."[11] The idea of walk-ins is very similar tothe concept of being possessed by spirits. A walk-in can be dened as "an entitywho occupies a body that has been vacated by its original soul". Heaven's Gatecame to believe an extraterrestrial walk-in is "a walk-in that is supposedly fromanother planet."[12]The concept of walk-ins aided Applewhite and Nettles in personally starting fromclean slates. They were no longer the people they had been prior to the start ofthe group, but had taken on a new life; this concept gave them a way to "erasetheir human personal histories as the histories of souls who formerly occupied thebodies of Applewhite and Nettles."[12]Another New Age belief Applewhite and Nettles adopted was the ancientastronaut hypothesis. The term "ancient astronauts" is used to refer to variousforms of the concept that ufonauts[citation needed] visited our planet in the distantpast.[11] Applewhite and Nettles took part of this concept and taught it as thebelief that "aliens planted the seeds of current humanity millions of years ago,and have to come to reap the harvest of their work in the form of spiritual evolvedindividuals who will join the ranks of ying saucer crews. Only a select fewmembers of humanity will be chosen to advance to this transhuman state. Therest will be left to wallow in the spiritually poisoned atmosphere of a corruptworld." [13] Only the individuals who chose to join Heaven's Gate, followApplewhite and Nettle's belief, and make the sacrices required by membershipwould be allowed to escape human suering.[citation needed]

StructureGroup members gave up their material possessions and lived a highly ascetic lifedevoid of many indulgences. The group was tightly knit and everything wasshared communally. Eight of the male members of the group, includingApplewhite, voluntarily underwent castration in Mexico as an extreme means ofmaintaining the ascetic lifestyle.[14]The group earned revenues by oering professional website development forpaying clients under the name Higher Source.[15]The cultural theorist Paul Virilio has described the group as a cybersect, due to itsheavy reliance on computer mediated communication as a mode ofcommunication prior to the group's collective suicide.[16]


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Mass suicide and aftermathOn March 1920, 1997, Marshall Applewhite taped himself speaking of masssuicide and asserted "it was the only way to evacuate this Earth." After claimingthat a spacecraft was trailing the comet HaleBopp, Applewhite convinced 38followers to commit suicide so that their souls could board the supposed craft.Applewhite believed that after their deaths, a UFO would take their souls toanother "level of existence above human", which he described as being bothphysical and spiritual. This and other UFO-related beliefs held by the group haveled some observers to characterize the group as a type of UFO religion. InOctober 1996, the group purchased alien abduction insurance to cover up to 50members at a cost of $10,000.[17]The cult rented a 9,200-sq.-ft. mansion, located at 18241 Colina Norte (laterchanged to Paseo Victoria) in a gated community of upscale homes in the SanDiegoarea community of Rancho Santa Fe, from Sam Koutchesfahani, paying$7,000 per month in cash.[18] Thirty-eight Heaven's Gate members, plus groupleader Applewhite, were found dead in the home on March 26, 1997. In the heatof the California spring, many of the bodies had begun to decompose by the timethey were discovered. Autopsies were carried out on the corpses, and medicalexaminers found the people had taken cyanide and arsenic. The bodies were latercremated.The members took phenobarbital mixed with apple sauce, washed down withvodka. Additionally, they secured plastic bags around their heads after ingestingthe mix to induce asphyxiation. Authorities found the dead lying neatly in theirown bunk beds, faces and torsos covered by a square, purple cloth. Each membercarried a ve-dollar bill and three quarters in their pockets-- said to be forinterplanetary toll. All 39 were dressed in identical black shirts and sweat pants,brand new black-and-white Nike Decades athletic shoes, and armband patchesreading "Heaven's Gate Away Team" (one of many instances of the group's use ofthe Star Trek ctional universe's nomenclature). The adherents, between the agesof 26 and 72, are believed to have died in three groups over three successivedays, with remaining participants cleaning up after each prior group's deaths.[19]Fifteen members died on March 24, fteen more on March 25, and nine on March26. Leader Applewhite was the third to last member to die; two women remainedafter him and were the only ones found without bags over their heads. Among thedead was Thomas Nichols, brother of the actress Nichelle Nichols, who is bestknown for her role as Uhura in the original Star Trek television series.[20]Only one of the group's members, Rio DiAngelo/Richard Ford, did not kill himself:weeks before the suicides, in December 1996, DiAngelo agreed with Applewhiteto leave the group so he could ensure future dissemination of Heaven's Gatevideos and literature. He videotaped the mansion in Rancho Santa Fe; however,


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the tape was not shown to police until 2002, ve years after the event.The mass death of the Heaven's Gate group was widely publicized in the media asan example of cult suicide.[21]Two former members of Heaven's Gate, Wayne Cooke and Charlie Humphreys,later committed suicide in a similar manner. Humphreys survived a suicide pactwith Cooke in May 1997, but ultimately killed himself in February 1998.[22][23]

Media coverage prior to suicideKnown to the mainstream media (though largely ignored through the 1980s and1990s), Heaven's Gate was better known in UFO circles as well as a series ofacademic studies by sociologist Robert Balch.Heaven's Gate received coverage in Jacques Valle's book Messengers ofDeception (1979), in which Valle described an unusual public meeting organizedby the group. Valle frequently expressed concerns within the book aboutcontactee groups' authoritarian political and religious outlooks, and Heaven'sGate did not escape criticism.[24]

The lm Mysterious Two (1982)[25] was loosely based on reports of the cult'sactivities during the 1970s, which had received extensive media coverage at thetime.[citation needed] Applewhite and his co-founder would go on to occasionally usethe name "The Mysterious Two" in their website's materials.[citation needed]In January 1994, the LA Weekly ran an article on the group, then known as TheTotal Overcomers.[26] Through this article Rio DiAngelo discovered the group andeventually joined them.[27]Louis Theroux contacted the Heaven's Gate group while making a program for hisBBC Two documentary series, Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends, in early March1997. In response to his e-mail, Theroux was told that Heaven's Gate could nottake part in the documentary as "at the present time a project like this would bean interference with what we must focus on."[28]Rio DiAngelo, a surviving member of the group, was the subject of LA Weekly's2007 cover story on the group.[29]

See alsoCult suicide


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Hale-boppJonestownUFO cult

References^ Hexham, Irving; Poewe, Karla (7 May 1997). "UFO Religion - Making Sense of theHeaven's Gate Suicides" (http://www.ucalgary.ca/~nurelweb/papers/irving/HGCC.html). Christian Century. pp. 439440. Retrieved 2007-10-06.

1.

^ "Mass suicide involved sedatives, vodka and careful planning" (http://www.cnn.com/US/9703/27/suicide/index.html). CNN. Retrieved 2010-05-04.

2.^ AYRES Jr, B. DRUMMOND (March 29, 1997). "Families Learning of 39 Cultists WhoDied Willingly" (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9400E7DB133AF93AA15750C0A961958260&sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=all). New York Times. Retrieved 2008-11-09. "According tomaterial the group posted on its Internet site, the timing of the suicides wereprobably related to the arrival of the HaleBopp comet, which members seemed toregard as a cosmic emissary beckoning them to another world."

3.

^ Vallee, Jacques, Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults. Ronin, 1979.4.^ Partridge, Christopher, Introduction to World Religions (Fortress, 2005), entry on"UFO Religions, Human Potential and the New Age", p. 444.

5.^ Wojik, Daniel, "Apocalyptic and Millenarian Aspects of American UFOism", inPartridge, Chistopher, ed., UFO Religions. Routledge, 2003, p. 274.

6.^ Ryan J. Cook, Heaven's Gate (http://www.anthroufo.info/un-hgate.html), webpageretrieved 2008-10-10.

7.^ Steven Mizrach, Heaven's Gate? (http://www.u.edu/~mizrachs/heavensgate.html),Fortean look at facts vs. media hype.page found 2008-10-10.

8.^ "Our Position Against Suicide" (http://www.heavensgate.com/misc/letter.htm).Heaven's Gate Web Site. Retrieved 2007-08-23.

9.^ Balch, 2002, p. 21110.^ a b c Lewis, 2001, p. 1611.^ a b Lewis, 2001, p. 36812.^ Lewis, 2001, p. 1713.^ Rick Ross, "'Heaven's Gate' Suicides" (http://www.culteducation.com/hgate.html),October 1999, The Rick A. Ross Institute

14.^ Weise, Elizabeth (1997-03-28). "Internet Provided Way To Pay Bills, SpreadMessage Before Suicide" (http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=2531080&date=19970328). Associated Press. SeattleTimes. Retrieved 2007-12-30.

15.

^ Paul Virilio, The Information Bomb (Verso, 2005), p. 41.16.^ Edith Lederer, "Alien Abduction Insurance Cancelled!" (http://www.artgomperz.com/newse/abd.html), Associated Press, 2 April 1997, Retrieved March 12, 2008

17.


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^ "The Marker We've Been... Waiting For" (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,986136-4,00.html), by Elizabeth Gleick, Cathy Booth and JamesWillwerth (Rancho Santa Fe); Nancy Harbert (Albuquerque); Rachele Kanigal(Oakland) and Richard N. Ostling and Noah Robischon (New York). Time. Monday,April 7, 1997.

18.

^ Ramsland, Katherine. "Death Mansion" (http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/mass/heavens_gate/5.html). All about Heaven's Gate cult(CourtTV Crime Library). Retrieved 2006-09-20.

19.

^ "Some members of suicide cult castrated" (http://www.cnn.com/US/9703/28/mass.suicide.pm/). CNN.

20.^ "First autopsies completed in cult suicide" (http://www.cnn.com/US/9703/28/mass.suicide/index.html). CNN. 28 March 1997. Retrieved 2007-10-06.

21.^ "Heaven's Gate: A timeline" (http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070318/news_lz1n18timelin.html). The San Diego Union-Tribune. 18 March 2007. Retrieved2007-10-21.

22.

^ Purdum, Todd S. (May 7, 1997). "Ex-Cultist Dies In Suicide Pact; 2d Is 'Critical' "(http://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/07/us/ex-cultist-dies-in-suicide-pact-2d-is-critical.html). The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-10-21. "A former member of theHeaven's Gate cult was found dead today in a copycat suicide in a motel room nearthe scene of the group's mass suicide in San Diego County, and another formermember was found unconscious in the same room, the authorities said."

23.

^ Vallee, Jacques (1979). Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults. Ronin.24.^ Mysterious Two (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084375/) at the Internet MovieDatabase

25.^ Dave Gardetta (21 January 1994). "They Walk Among Us" (http://www.laweekly.com/general/features/they-walk-among-us/15922). LA Weekly. Retrieved 2007-08-23.

26.^ Bearman, Joshuah (21 March 2007). "Heaven's Gate: The Sequel"(http://www.laweekly.com/2007-03-22/news/heaven-s-gate-the-sequel/). LA Weekly.

27.^ Louis Theroux. Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends: UFO (http://www.veoh.com/videos/v266439DxcWKyTx). Veoh.

28.^ Bearman, Joshuah (21 March 2007). "Heaven's Gate: The Sequel"(http://www.laweekly.com/2007-03-22/news/heaven-s-gate-the-sequel/). LA Weekly.

29.

BibliographyInvestigative Reports: Inside Heaven's Gate[citation needed]Balch, Robert W. (1982). "Bo and Peep: a case study of the origins ofmessianic leadership". In Wallis, Roy Wallis. Millennialism and charisma(Belfast: Queens' University).Balch, Robert W. (1985). "When the Light Goes Out, Darkness Comes: AStudy of Defection from a Totalistic Cult". In Rodney Stark. ReligiousMovements: Genesis, Exodus and Numbers (Paragon House Publishers).pp. 1163.Balch, Robert W. (1995). "Waiting for the ships: disillusionment andrevitalization of faith in Bo and Peep's UFO cult". In James R. Lewis. The


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Gods have Landed: New Religions from Other Worlds (Albany: SUNY).DiAngelo, Rio (2007). Beyond Human Mind-The Soul Evolution of Heaven'sGate. RIODIANGELO PRESS.Lalich, Janja (2004). Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults.University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-23194-5.Theroux, Louis (2005). The Call of the Weird. Pan Macmillan. pp. 207221.

Further readingChryssides, George D., ed. (2011). Heaven's Gate: Postmodernity andPopular Culture In A Suicide Group. Ashgate Publishing.ISBN 978-0-7546-6374-4.

External links"Ocial Website" (http://www.heavensgate.com/). Heavensgate.com."How and When HEAVEN'S GATE May Be Entered (the cult book)"(http://www.press1.com/current/hgate/mirror/book/book.htm). Press1."Proles: Heaven's Gate Timeline" (http://www.has.vcu.edu/wrs/proles/Heaven'sGate.htm).Ramsland, Katherine. "All about Heaven's Gate cult"(http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/mass/heavens_gate/1.html?sect=8). The Crime Library."Some members of suicide cult castrated" (http://www.cnn.com/US/9703/28/mass.suicide.pm/). CNN.

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Heaven's Gate (Religious Group)