Heaven's Gate (New Religious Movement)

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Heaven's Gate was a New Religious Movement founded in the United States in the early 1980s that advocated UFO belief . It was led by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles.

The collective suicide of most of the group members during the appearance of Comet Hale-Bopp caused a worldwide sensation in 1997. Applewhite convinced 39 of his followers to mass suicide as a way to send their souls on a trip in a spaceship . The spaceship was supposed to be behind the comet.

development

Marshall Herff Applewhite (1931-1997) was the son of a Presbyterian preacher and worked as a church musician . He was released in 1970 because of "health problems of an emotional nature". In 1971 he tried to be "cured" of his homosexuality in a hospital . There he met the nurse Bonnie Lu Nettles (about 1927–1985). From then on, both stayed together until Nettles' death. Both were interested in astrology and believed to have known each other in previous lives . They found themselves surrounded by spirits and guardian angels . Soon they founded their UFO religion and called themselves "The Two", later also "Bo and Peep", "Winnie and Pooh" and the like. In the years that followed, they gained a following and became prominent. Your organization was initially called Guinea Pig (guinea pig or "guinea pig"), then HIM (Human Individual Metamorphosis) , then TOA (Total Overcomers Anonymous) . Most recently, she used the name Heaven's Gate (translated of Heaven ).

The structure of the group roughly corresponded to a medieval monastic order. The members gave up all private property and privacy. They lived ascetic and communal. The villa in which they lived was equipped with technical monitoring equipment. Every light switch, every shelf and container was labeled meticulously. Seven male members, including Applewhite himself, were castrated for better asceticism .

After Nettles' death, Applewhite continued to run the community alone. The group recently financed itself through professional website development under the name "Higher Source".

Comet, spaceship and group suicide

In November 1996, the amateur astronomer Chuck Shramek published a photo of Comet Hale-Bopp , showing a glowing object right next to the comet that he estimated to be four times the size of Earth - astronomers later identified it as a fixed star. Shramek informed the radio presenter Art Bell, who was interested in border sciences . In his broadcast, the political scientist Courtney Brown stated that the clairvoyants he had examined in his Farsight Institute had recognized the object as a spaceship alien .

That was the expected sign for Heaven's Gate supporters. They believed that the earth was about to "recycle" (in the sense of cleaning, renewal) and that the alien spaceship behind the comet would help them to escape this apocalypse. In February 1997 the comet Hale-Bopp reached an apparent magnitude of 2 m . On March 19, 1997, three days before the comet was closest to Earth, Applewhite filmed himself. In it, he spoke of mass suicide as the only way to leave Earth. He and his followers reckoned that their souls would then be taken on board the spaceship and transferred to a "higher level of development".

On March 26, 1997, the bodies of Applewhite and 38 of his followers were found in their mansion in the Rancho Santa Fe community, north of San Diego , California. They apparently committed suicide in three phases: 15 members died on March 24, 15 others on March 25 and nine on March 26.

The 39 dead lay neatly in bunk beds, covered with purple towels and wearing uniform black clothing, new sneakers and bracelets with the words "Heaven's Gate Away Team" on them. (The term "away team" is borrowed from the science fiction series Star Trek ; it refers to crew members who are on a mission outside the spaceship, for example on a planet.) Each had a $ 5 Bill and three quarter dollar coins in the pocket.

One group member, Rio Di Angelo, did not commit suicide. He had agreed with Applewhite weeks earlier to leave the group so that he could redistribute the movement's videos and literature. He made a video of the villa in Rancho Santa Fe, which the police did not receive until 2002, five years after the event.

literature

  • Paul Kurtz , Martin Gardner , Joe Nickell , Thomas R. Casten, Thomas C. Genoni Jr .: Special Report: Heaven's Gate. In: Skeptical Inquirer , 21/4, 1997, p. 12
  • Hugh Partridge, UFO-Religionen, p. 277 ff. ( Online in the Google book search)
  • James R. Lewis, Legitimating new religions, p. 129 ff. ( Online in the Google book search)
  • George D. Chryssides, Exploring New Religions ( Online in Google Book Search)

Web links