Heaven's Gate (religious group)

The logo used by the Heaven's Gate group

Heaven's Gate was the name of a San Diego based American religious group led by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles. The group's end coincided with the appearance of Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997. Applewhite convinced thirty-eight followers to commit suicide so that their souls could take a ride on a spaceship that they believed was hiding behind the comet. Such beliefs have led some observers to characterize the group as a type of "UFO religion" They 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. The group was formally against suicide, but they defined "suicide" to mean "to turn against the Next Level when it is being offered." They were convinced 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. A few weeks later, they were dead.

Structure

The structure of Heaven's Gate resembled that of a medieval monastic order. 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 voluntarily underwent castration as an extreme means of maintaining the ascetic lifestyle.

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

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. The mass death of the Heaven's Gate group was widely publicised in the media as an example of cult suicide.

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.

Media coverage prior to suicide

Although not widely known to the mainstream media, Heaven's Gate was known in UFOlogical 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.

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

Louis Theroux contacted the Heaven's Gate group while making a program 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."

In Popular Culture

The Evan Dando song "Rancho Santa Fe" was reportedly inspired by the group.

The music group Porcupine Tree used audio samples taken from Applewhite's video message for the song "Last Chance to Evacuate Planet Earth Before It Is Recycled" which appears on the band's album, Lightbulb Sun.

The band Tub Ring released a song on their 2004 album Zoo Hypothesis entitles vehicle, which dealt with the cult and its leader.

The emo artist I Hate Myself included a track titled "Secret Lovers At The Heaven's Gate Ranch" which was noted to be a possible reference to this cult. It appears on the band's album, Ten Songs.

Sacramento based rock band Soccer Hooligans created a song entitled "Heavens Gate". That can be found on the EyeLAshout podcast

An episode of the animated television series Family Guy had Meg joining a cult based upon Heaven's Gate. The cult was named "Heaven's Helpers Youth Group", was lead by a man resembling Applewhite, many of the males in it were castrated, and all the members (except Meg) committed suicide in an expensive looking mansion. The only major deviation from the Heaven's Gate cult suicides was that instead of barbiturate-laden applesauce and vodka, the "Heaven's Helpers" drank fruit punch spiked with cyanide, arsenic, rat poison, and Paul Rieser's book "Couplehood".

Northern Irish band Therapy? have a song entitled Heaven's Gate on their 1998 album Semi-Detached.

The Church of the SubGenius reacted to the mass suicide by calling the church a "cult of dumbasses" and alleging that "Hale-Bopp" was actually a misguided message; it should have been "Hail 'Bob'".

An episode of Futurama saw character Leela say "For Heaven's Gate" to the Professor, when he was driving the hovercraft slowly.

New York death metal act Immolation have an album and song entitled Unholy Cult, based in part on the Heaven's Gate suicides.

The "Raincoat Cult" in Dead Rising is led by a leader who represents Applewhite.

In a skit on an episode of Saturday Night Live, pill-addicted Collette Reardon (portrayed by Cheri Oteri) is seen picking up a wide range of prescription drugs at the pharmacy. When the pharmacist becomes alarmed by some of the prescriptions she is requesting, Mrs. Reardon proudly boasts, "Same drugs the Heaven Gates kids used!" In another unrelated sketch, Will Ferrell plays Applewhite being interviewed via satellite by Ted Koppell, played by Darell Hammond, which shows that Heaven's Gate was correct and that the 38 members who committed suicide were alive and well on the spaceship.

In the music video by group Pendulum - Propane Nightmares, the cult depicted bears close resemblance to Heaven's Gate, e.g. people drinking poison have 'Away Team' patches.

Nike SB shoe company will release a shoe design in 2008, that is to resemble the Heaven's Gate logo.

In the anime Cowboy Bebop, a cult in the episode "Brain Scratch" has similarities to the Heaven's Gate and Applewhite.

Season three of the HBO sketch comedy series Mr. Show, featured a skit about a cult called "Heaven's Chimney", which professed a belief that the show's host, Bob Odenkirk, would "...Lead us out through Heaven's Chimney in a giant cigar-shaped UFO-brand flying saucer."

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 Macmillian. 2005. pp 207-221
• DiAngelo, Rio. "Beyond Human Mind-The Soul Evolution of Heaven's Gate." RIODIANGELO PRESS. 2007. 128p

External links

• Official Website (created in Dec 1997)
• Heaven's Gate: The New Followers
• "How and When HEAVEN'S GATE May Be Entered" (the cult book)
• All about Heaven's Gate cult by Katherine Ramsland - The Crime Library
• Some members of suicide cult castrated
• TIME magazine Cover Story Out where religion and junk culture meet, some weird new offspring are rising. By Richard Lacayo
• L.A. Weekly cover story Heaven's Gate: The Sequel. Ten years after the 39 suicides, the sole survivor is back – and he has something urgent to tell us. By Joshuah Bearman, 3/21/07
• "The Apparent Suicides in Southern California", Talk of the Nation (with host Neal Conan and guests), March 27, 1997] - National Public Radio realaudio stream
• Jones, J. Harry (2007-03-18). "Heaven's Gate revisited". San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved 2007-03-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Knocking On Heaven's Gate Article by Nigel Watson.
• Broder, Jonathan (1997-03-31). "Marshall Applewhite's cry for help". salon.com. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)