Heaven's Gate was the name of an 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 carrying Jesus. 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 "vehicles" 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".

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 five dollar bills and a few quarters in their wallets. All 39 were dressed in identical black shirts and sweat pants, brand new black-and-white Nike tennis 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.

Last Chance to Evacuate Planet Earth is a good song.

kultz r gaye

To be completely honest I hardly find things like this any stranger than the beliefs of fundamental christians or muslims. Organized religion has made it quite clear that people will do quite literally anything in the name of faith, and there is no conceivable limit to the absurdities which they are able to be made to believe.

heh. oddly enough, yesterday i was thinking that if jesus were around today, he'd be considered a cult leader and written off.

heh. oddly enough, yesterday i was thinking that if jesus were around today, he'd be considered a cult leader and written off.

I don't think so, Jesus differed from these other nuts in that he actually did stuff to back up what he was preaching about. Cult leaders seem to just run their mouths, they're not out there healing people and performing various miracles and such.

Are you sure of that? I mean. If Christianity never became the official religion of the Roman Empire, it never would have grown beyond a fringe religion. Would history remmeber it as a cult then?

More than likely or as a heretic religion that was persecuted to extinction. Also, If Jesus were around today, doing and saying the stuff he supposedly did and said back then, he'd be locked up in an asylum or a prison.

i find cults fascinating to read about.