HEAVEN’S GATE Heaven's Gate was an American cult based in San Diego California, founded in the early 1970s and led by Marshall Applewhite, and Bonnie Nettles. On March 26, 1997, police discovered the bodies of 39 members of the group who had committed suicide in order to reach what they believed was an alien space craft following the Hale-Bop comet. The first public meeting was in the seaside town of Waldport, Oregon in 1975. For months before, they had put up fliers on telephone poles urging people to attend the meeting to discover the truth about reality. Two hundred people arrived at the Bayshore Inn Hotel to find out what the fliers were about. The Two believed that to be saved, spiritual-minded people must recognize that the appearance that most humans have souls is only an illusion. Only those who truly had souls and were ready to be harvested by God would recognize the truth of the message. Once they did, they would give up their worldly clutter at once and follow a strict regimen. Using biblical notions about sexless angels and the praise Christ gave to those who sacrificed family life to follow him, they insisted that spiritual perfection came only at a price. One had to first see the truth about the evils around them and want desperately to free oneself. The demands for members were overwhelming, which slowed down the cult's early success, but Applewhite and Nettles believed that purging earthly ways was the only means for rediscovering the alien beings they truly were. There was to be no more sexual contact and no personal privacy. The members soon formed into an isolated community, sharing the same thoughts and repeatedly affirming the dogma and prophecies of Applewhite and Nettles. They developed "crew-mindedness," as Applewhite called it, working together in one mind the way they might have to function on a spaceship. Applewhite and Nettles began to teach their followers that they were all related. Applewhite was their father and Nettles, who was an older alien that had inhabited an older human form, was their grandfather. The Two renamed themselves variously as "Guinea" and "Pig," "Bo" and "Peep," and finally "Do and "Ti." After they thought that the media was distorting their message, they went underground. They had a plan to fulfill. Yet by the end of 1976, the group had diminished from around 200 adherents to only eighty. Cult expert Steven Hassan says that the people involved in cults like these are typically intelligent and educated, but that a loving charismatic leader who presents beliefs for which there can be no reality testing manipulates them. A new identity takes over that is dependent on how the leader defines it. "The mind can learn," he adds, "and it can learn things that are abusive to the self." Then in 1985, Nettles died of cancer and was not physically resurrected as promised. Such an ordinary death seemed out of keeping with the sacred doctrines of the two witnesses, and it was clear that she was not going to get into heaven with a perfected body. Applewhite had to repair the damage, so he continued to emphasize the discomfort that true believers have with mainstream American society and he said that Nettles had gone on before them to get things ready. In 1993, Applewhite began another campaign for advancing into something "more than human." Naming the group Total Overcomers Anonymous, he placed a large ad in USA Today to alert the American people to the fact that the earth would soon be "spaded under" and they would have one last chance to escape. He went so far as to say that he was the alien that had been inside the body of Jesus Christ, but two thousand years earlier, the souls had not been ready. He had returned in the form of Applewhite to take those who were prepared, but he was still the very same alien with the very same mission. In 1994, members of Heaven’s Gate told a reporter for the LA Weekly that they would all be departing this Earth. They were going to walk out to the Santa Monica pier and catch a ride into space. But that did not take place, and in October of 1996, they went to southern California, renting a large seven-bedroom house in the wealthy community of Rancho Santa Fe, north of San Diego. There they developed a computer business as Web page designers. They called the place the Monastery and their business Higher Source. They also used the internet for communication capabilities to promote their beliefs and gather more disciples. They renamed themselves Heaven’s Gate. At this time, they had only around 25 adherents left in the group. Then in November and December of 1996, a comet called Hale-Bopp made a big headlines, not just for Heaven's Gate but for the entire new age community and beyond. Its last visit had been in 2200 BC, which was viewed then as a harbinger for the arrival of a great teacher, or Peacemaker, who would visit many different civilizations around the world to deliver a sacred doctrine. He would bring purification and save true believers from the tribulations of the end times. One astronomer said that a ringed object was following the comet, which was four times the size of Earth and which had thrown the comet off its course several times. It was even said that the Vatican in Rome was looking for some sign in the heavens, since this would be the last comet of the millennium. It supposedly signaled the final three years of Satan's reign on earth and would usher in a more enlightened age. Sensing the arrival of the most amazing event in their short history, the crew-minded group went together to watch Star Wars. They also attended a UFO conference, purchased insurance against alien abductions and impregnation, and purchased a high-powered telescope. They were looking for the "companion" to Hale-Bopp, they told the store manager, which they described as a small shape near the comet. That was their mother ship. When they failed to find it, they returned the telescope. The manager found their ideas puzzling. On March 21, 1997, the members of Heaven's Gate went to a chain restaurant called Marie Callender's, they ordered 39 identical meals of salad and pot pies, and finished off with cheesecake. This was to be their final earthly meal, because the next day, the Hale-Bopp comet would be in its closest proximity to Earth. It was time to begin their departure. On Saturday, they started the process. Everyone dressed identically in black long-sleeved shirts and black sweat pants, with new black-and-white Nike tennis shoes. On their left shirtsleeves were armband patches on which the words "Heaven's Gate Away Team". The members of Heaven's Gate each packed a small overnight bag with clothing, lip balm, and spiral notebooks, and they placed these bags at the foot end of their beds. They also put three quarters and a five-dollar bill into their shirt pockets a habit they had developed whenever they went out so they would always have cab fare or change for the phone. The Nike slogan at the time was "just do it," which could explain why they all wore Nike shoes.
They worked in three teams. The first team of 15 received the barbiturate Phenobarbital mixed into pudding or applesauce. They then drank vodka to wash it down. A lethal dose was some 50 to 100 pills. It's surmised that after consuming this toxic mix, they lay on their beds with plastic bags over their heads until they passed out. Those who still lived removed the bags and covered their bodies with purple shrouds. The following day, Sunday, the next team of fifteen followed. Finally there were seven on Monday, and then only two. The final two people, both women, were not shrouded but they had placed plastic bags over their heads to assist them in dying. Deputy Sheriff Robert Bunk went over to the mansion on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 26. An overpowering stench indicated the presence of dead bodies, so he called for back-up. Together, the two officers entered the home. Now they knew for sure there were bodies and remembering Jonestown, they wondered about some kind of mass murder. Yet they soon realized that the deaths there had been peaceful, voluntary, and surprisingly uniform. The place was eerily quiet as the coroner went from one room to another, videotaping the scene. Twenty white plastic trash bags were found piled in the trash, along with elastic straps. On computer screens in the house were images of alien-human hybrids, along with one screen flashing a "Red Alert" from the Heaven's Gate Web site. Hundreds of videotapes found there featured cult members speaking to people they had left behind about how excited they were to be joining Ti on a higher plane. Clearly, each person had died of his or her own free will and had wanted very badly to do so. There were 39 bodies lying on ordinary cots or bunks. Because they were all dressed all in black jump suits and with their hair cut short, the investigators assumed they were all male and reported that to headquarters. The news media spread this as well. However, it turned out that among the victims were 21 women and 18 men, all white, from ages 26 to 72. Most had joined during the seventies, but eight had joined more recently during the nineties. It was the largest mass suicide to date to occur within the United States.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Henry, William. The Keepers of Heaven's Gate: The Millennial Madness. Anchorage, AK: Earth pulse Press, 1997.

Holliman, John. "Applewhite: From Young Overachiever to Cult Leader," CNN.com./specials/1998.

Krueger, Anne, and Susan Gembrowski, "Strange odyssey of Heaven's Gate," San Diego Union-Tribune. April 13, 1997.