Heaven’s Gate
Heaven’s Gate is doomsday and disparaging cult mostly practised in California. 39 individual intentionally committed suicide in three groups, on three consecutive days beginning from 23rd march 1997 (Gutierrez, 2019). Most of these people were at the age of 40, and the ages of the others ranged between 26 and 72. After two months, two other members, Wayne Cooke and Charles Humphrey, tried to commit suicide at a hotel nearby. Cooke died, and Humphrey attempted again and died in the Arizona desert in February 1998 (Gutierrez, 2019). Their religion was syncretism. They combined aspects of Christianity with strange beliefs on the nature of UFOs. The believers interpreted readings from the book of Revelation and the four gospels, about the visitation of UFO. Notably, the Heaven’s Gate believers stressed a story in the book of Revelation, which described how two witnesses were killed, and after three and a half days they were resuscitated and taken into the clouds. These individuals also believe that the earth controlled evil forces, and they considered themselves as among the select few to attain Heaven. Besides, they possessed a dualistic belief that the soul is the most powerful entity and the body houses it temporarily. Applewhite stated that the ultimate act of separating the soul from the body is disconnecting it from the body (the human physical container), for it to be unconfined from the social environment.
Moreover, the UFO believers of the Heaven’s Gate believed that nearly 2000 years ago, a team of extra-terrestrials descended from Heaven. Among them was “Do”, who they trusted received instructions from “Ti”, his companion. “Ti” was “Do’s” Heavenly Father (Davis, 2016). “Do” disconnected from the physical body, transported through a space-ship to the earth, and moved into the body of Jesus Christ. The second team of the extra-terrestrials came back to earth during the early 1920s, with Do as its Captain, and Ti as the Admiral. Every one of them entered a human body, but they became separated. Ti and Do regularly help public meetings where they disseminated their beliefs. Eventually, they were surprised when they discovered most of their converts being the long-lost members of the crew.
The UFO believers of the Heaven’s Gate referred to one another as brothers and sisters. They viewed themselves as nuns and monks. They all lived in a common home in San Diego County of California, which they all called a monastery (Davis, 2016). Most of these individuals did not have much contact with their native families nor neighbours. Most of them had also pursued professional careers before joining the cult. Others abandoned their friends and families; therefore, they would be free to leave at any time. They wore unisex clothes: black shirts with no shape, and mandarin collars, together with black pants. Their most import requirement was to commit themselves to live a celibate life. Eight males from the group, with Do included, were voluntary castrated. This was a way of preparing them for their next life, which was free of sexual activities and gender.
The support of the Heaven’s Gate believers came from a business effort that they referred to it as Higher Source. The enterprise designed World Wide Web pages for a profit (Ewing, 2018). Their recruitment tool was the Internet. They presently have an internet site with the name Heaven’s Gate. On this site, Applewhite drew lines between him and the heavenly spirit that entered into the body of Jesus. After the group diminished, the FBI took over the website. However, some individuals downloaded the files of the site and created reflections at different places.
Marshall Applewhite was a homosexual. Rumours spread that he had sexual affairs with some of his male students when he used to teach music. For about two decades ago, Applewhite took himself in a hospital in an attempt of overcoming his gay feelings. During this period, therapists believed that the sexual orientation of an individual could be refined. Unluckily, Applewhite’s therapy didn’t go through. However, this inspired him to enter a life of celibacy. Also, among the beliefs of the UFO, extra-terrestrials do not have vocal cords, no sexual organs, and they have an emaciated digestive system. This symbolized celibacy, fasting and silence. Maybe he was trying to follow both the ancient tradition of Christianity and UFO inhabitants.
Similar to other UFO groups, the followers of the Heaven’s Gates consider UFOs as inter-stellar space ships run by extra-terrestrial beings who are trying to take humanity to a high knowledge level. Nevertheless, there is a belief that is only for Heaven’s Gate. They believed that by committing suicide at the correct time altogether, their physical bodies would be left behind. Their souls go to rest until they are replanted into other bodies. Later on, the soul is planted in a representative of a level above human being. A video was taken shortly before the followers committed suicide. This video shows that they were excited about the future. They timed the suicide to the arrival of Easter, and by the nearest approach to comet earth, which they all referred to as a celestial marker. Their timing did not correlate with the March-20 spring equinox as they were afraid of being prosecuted, arrested, physically or psychologically tortured, or being killed. They had a feeling that people outside their group would sue them. A few of the surviving group members are still maintaining their website. They are distributing information and materials left by the other members. According to Ewing (2018), they created more than 500 audio tapes in the 1980s about their separate classroom teachings.
Furthermore, they created 11 video clips and authored an extensive collection of their teachings. These survivors have also digitized more than 200 of the audio record, and nearly 20 hours of videos, and stored them on CD-ROMs. They felt that they needed to give the world a history of the activities of the Heaven’s Gate.
References
Davis, W. (2016). Heaven’s Gate: A study of religious obedience. In Heaven’s Gate (pp. 89-116). Routledge.
Ewing, E. (2018). Heaven’s Gate’s Website: The Group is Gone, the Religion Lives On. Relics, Remnants, and Religion: An Undergraduate Journal in Religious Studies, 3(1), 6.
Gutierrez, C. (2019). Know Place: Heaven’s Gate and American Gnosticism. Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies, 4(2), 147-164.