Mother Ship

Marshall Applewhite of Heaven's Gate

March 26, 1997: The Heaven’s Gate suicides are discovered. Heaven’s Gate was a UFO cult based in San Diego, California. The group was founded in the early 1970s. Marshall Applewhite, born in 1931, had a heart attack and claimed to have a near-death experience. He was on a psychiatric ward when he first met Bonnie Nettles, a nurse. They ran into each other several times outside the hospital. Applewhite decided they were “the Two” mentioned in the Bible’s Book of Revelations. They became known as “Bo” and “Peep” and later were called “Ti” and “Do.”

The two co-founded Heaven’s Gate and mixed together some aspects of Christianity and added some New Age evolutionary doctrine. The cult’s core beliefs centered on Earth’s impending reformation. According to Do/Applewhite, the planet was scheduled for an overhaul. Do compared himself to Jesus with both beings given the mission of raising Humanity to the “Level Above Humanity.” The Luciferian program was waged by Lucifer and the fallen angels. These evil spirits were ruining the planet. The “lower focus” used “norms” to degrade humans.

Heaven’s Gate members were against suicide. The “physical vehicle” or body was needed at this level of existence in order to learn the lessons needed to transition to the next level. Bodies were to be cared for as members awaited the spacecraft approaching from the distant heavens. Suicide did not mean killing oneself but rather “to turn against the Next Level when it is being offered.” The cult members were not committing suicide, but rather they were availing themselves of this special opportunity to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Heaven’s Gate members gave up possessions and lived a Spartan life. They rented a 9,000 square foot house. The lease was for seven people but 39 people lived there. Applewhite and six other men underwent castration as a method of maintaining their ascetic lifestyle. The house was labeled and wired (and crowded) and no cult members were ever alone or unmonitored. As the comet Hale-Bopp approached (hiding a spacecraft behind it) the 39 members dressed in black and donned new Nike running shoes. They each had five dollars and three quarters in their pockets. They ingested Phenobarbital and vodka. They tied plastic bags over their heads. They died in shifts with later suicides cleaning up after the previous members. Each body was covered by a purple square cloth.

We fully desire, expect, and look forward to boarding a spacecraft from the Next Level very soon (in our physical bodies). There is no doubt in our mind that our being ‘picked up’ is inevitable in the very near future. But what happens between now and then is the big question. – Marshall Applewhite

I am in the same position to today’s society as was the One that was in Jesus then. My being here now is actually a continuation of that last task as was promised, to those who were students 2000 years ago. – Marshall Applewhite

It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so. – Robert A. Heinlein

What’s a cult? It just means not enough people to make a minority. – Robert Altman

Also on this day:

Stella! – In 1911, Tennessee Williams was born.
Cruising Legally – In 1634, Britain began testing drivers.
Dr. Death – In 1999, Dr. Kevorkian was found guilty of second degree murder.