Chocolate Pudding and Space Aliens: How the Heaven’s Gate Cult Propagated

An image depicting what a member of the Kingdom of Heaven might look like. Retrieved from Heaven’s Gate Website: https://heavensgate.com/misc/member.htm

By Michael Corcoran

 

A VHS tape crackles to life. The year is 1996. An older, balding, and unassuming man sits in front of the camera, staring directly at us. He is wearing a plain, tan button-up, and behind him is a plain blue curtain. He says the title for the tape is “planet earth is about to be recycled, your only chance to evacuate is to leave with us.”^[1] He speaks for nearly an hour in a calm and slow tone, very relaxed in his manner. Throughout the tape, he tells a curious story about aliens, God, spaceships, and rebirth. It seems so ridiculous and far-fetched that no one would ever believe it. Yet a year later, in 1997, he and 38 other people would be found dead in a California mansion, all dressed the same: thirty-nine black outfits, thirty-nine pairs of Nike Decades, thirty-nine plastic bags placed over heads. Thirty-nine believers in this man’s teachings dead, the result of group suicide.

The initiation tape was only one of several used by Heaven’s Gate, a UFO cult that existed from the 1970s to 1990s. It recorded the views of Marshall Applewhite, the leader of Heaven’s Gate, which is still today regarded as one of the most notable, and maybe peculiar, examples of the numerous religious cults that existed in the twentieth century. Unlike other cults of this time, the history of Heaven’s Gate is marked by a notable online presence, and the specifics of the tragedy that surrounded their end are well documented. It seems unbelievable that anyone would go along with the beliefs of Applewhite, but people did— and died as a result. This paper will analyze the rhetoric the leaders used by looking at three tapes that were produced in the final two years of the cult. These tapes reveal how Heaven’s Gate used social isolation to reinforce their indoctrination, which effectively reinforced the beliefs of the cult. These processes led to the death of the members of Heaven’s Gate, the largest mass suicide on U.S. soil in history.

 

Cults, Brainwashing, and Belonging

Before analyzing Heaven’s Gate as a cult, we must first understand the attraction of cults or new religious movements in the late 20th century. First, a rising UFO craze began to develop during the 1960s and 1970s, driven in no small part by the popularity of Erich von Däniken’s 1968 book Chariots of the Gods?, which posited that ancient civilizations had been visited and aided by aliens.^[2] This book brought up questions about the place of humanity in the universe, and it is only logical that people asking these questions were more likely to accept the message of extraterrestrial salvation that Heaven’s Gate preached.^[3]

Secondly, people in the 1960s and ‘70s were struggling with what they wanted to do with their lives and began to look outside of the regular confines of society and mainstream religions.^[4] Due in part to America’s victory in World War Two, there was “the idea that there was a rising middle class… and the children of this group [that middle class] said ‘Oh, see, I can go to college, I can get a house, I can have two children, a white picket fence, a dog, and have a good job… but is that all there is in the world?’”^[5] These Americans born in the 1950s who grew up in the ‘60s and ‘70s, began to break away from society and start movements such as the beatniks, hippies, and counterculture. The culture of the 1960s and 1970s led to many people feeling alienated in their search for what more there was to life. Many wanted to “follow the gurus” and achieve some sort of enlightenment, so a cult promising ascension to heaven would naturally attract attention.^[6]

A cult also provides a sense of equality and belonging for people, which is one of the primary reasons people may join. The People’s Temple, led by Jim Jones, demonstrates how this sense of community draws people to cults. Jim Jones’ cult was the “first racially integrated church in Indianapolis,” and this certainly appealed to those in search of belonging.^[7] Even if Jones integrated his church to better spread his own Marxist beliefs, this idea that there was “equal right among the faithful” is what made people join.^[8] Heaven’s Gate offered a similar promise of equality. However, Heaven’s Gate not only promised a heaven where everyone is equal and all problems are alleviated, but also took steps to promote equality within the cult, to the point where everyone consumed the same serving of food, down to the portion size. We can see specific examples of people who were dealing with personal problems before joining Heaven’s Gate, such as Jimmy Simpson (or Gbbody), who left the group but killed himself shortly after the news broke about the mass suicide. Simpson had suffered from depression and found answers and community within the group.^[9] Another example is Gail Maeder (or Yrsody), who was among the final group and had gone through a breakup shortly before she joined.^[10] These examples demonstrate how cults prey on vulnerable people in need of a sense of belonging.

Heaven’s Gate was a Millenarian cult, a term referring to the belief that at the end of a one-thousand-year period there would be some sort of great change. This promise of a great change is typical of Millenarian cults. Sometimes these cults claimed to predict apocalyptic events, however not all did. Applewhite was relatively vague on this point, only claiming the earth would be wiped clean. As the year 2000 approached, Heaven’s Gate joined many other groups in the belief that in the years before or after the turn of the century the world was going to end.^[11]Cults in general tend to rise during times of great societal stress, and if we look at the years before the formation of Heaven’s Gate we see such stresses: the Vietnam War, continuing Cold War tensions, the Kent State shooting, the Watergate scandal, and the heels of the Civil Rights Movement. These factors created an environment where prospective members, who were struggling with their place in the world, “wanted [their] brains washed,” to have something make sense of it all.^[12] Heaven’s Gate, and other cults, provided these answers.

But then, what is brainwashing? According to Merriam-Webster, the term has had a variety of meanings, first meaning a literal washing of the brain “generally as part of a cure for an illness,” then meaning confessing one’s sins or beliefs, and then becoming what we now mean by it— “a forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up basic political, social, or religious beliefs and attitudes and to accept contrasting regimented ideas.”^[13] This could be as benign as someone convincing you to buy a cheap used car, or as severe as thinking that by killing yourself you were going to get on a spaceship and go to heaven. But, as this paper will point out, Heaven’s Gate employed brainwashing that sought to undo a member’s previous programming from society. The idea was that the humanness could be washed out of their brains to make room for the consciousness of the upper level being that they would become. This promise of an upper level of consciousness made members actively desire the brainwashing that was instilled by Heaven’s Gate. In fact, many members hoped that they were brainwashed in the hopes of bettering their lives by going through this process.

The Two

The origins of Heaven’s Gate help us understand their process of indoctrinating members. Marshall Herff Applewhite was born in Texas in 1931 to a Presbyterian minister.^[14] He first pursued an academic career, earned a degree in philosophy in 1952, and partook in a course of study at a Presbyterian seminary school in Virginia. At the seminary, he gained a thorough understanding of religious texts, particularly the Bible.^[15] Applewhite eventually gave these studies up and pursued a career in music, becoming a choirmaster and voice professor. However, he was fired after reportedly engaging in a homosexual relationship with a student. These struggles with his sexuality would eventually be reflected in the cult’s ideology, with some members being willingly castrated to follow the cult’s belief of resisting all sexual urges.^[16]

While Applewhite has become synonymous with Heaven’s Gate due to his presence in surviving media, he was not the lone founder. Bonnie Lu Truesdale Nettles was born in Texas in 1927 to a Baptist family.^[17] She married and had three children but divorced her husband prior to meeting Applewhite, during the period when she was working in a hospital as a registered nurse.^[18] Nettles had an interest in spiritualism, and regularly “charted the stars” and “summoned the dead in seances,” often taking advice from someone she believed to be a nineteenth-century monk named Brother Francis.^[19] Her beliefs in spirituality were likely a part of her intention in forming the cult.

The two met in the early 1970s at a hospital in Texas. The specifics of their meeting are not agreed upon, ranging from Applewhite just visiting the hospital, to him being a patient seeking a cure for homosexuality.^[20] The two became friendly and began to believe they had known each other in a past life. They later had a revelation while in Oregon: they were the two witnesses, mentioned in the Book of Revelation, who would be sent by God to preach, be killed for this preaching, and return to “heaven in a cloud” after three days.^[21] Thus, this first version of the cult was referred to as, The Two. Nettles and Applewhite interpreted the heavenly cloud as being a spaceship. These beliefs were built as they traveled together shortly after meeting, “they hired a car and traveled through Canada, buying their necessities with a credit card, which Nettles had “borrowed.” Their technique of propagating their message appears to have consisted largely of leaving notes in churches announcing that the “two witnesses” had arrived.”^[22] However, Applewhite failed to return the car, and it was discovered that Nettles had stolen the credit card they were using, and they were both arrested in the mid-’70s.

 

During Applewhite’s “six-month period in prison” he “appeared to shape his theology,” as soon after he was released the two became more focused on UFOs, believing that they were to physically transform into these upper level beings and go to heaven aboard one, and began selecting a crew to go with them.^[23] They held a meeting in a motel in Waldport, Oregon in 1975 with standing room only— almost two hundred people in attendance.^[24] After the meeting, Nettles, Applewhite, and about twenty other people left Waldport, “giving up their attachments to the human world” and traveled to Colorado to meet up with some four hundred other people and board a UFO that, unsurprisingly, never showed up.^[25] There is little surviving footage, or audio, of these meetings, but the large number of people that attended demonstrates the effectiveness of Heaven’s Gate’s  rhetoric.

 

For the next couple of months, Applewhite and Nettles led their followers around the country. They often split into smaller cells to more effectively. spread their message. Applewhite and Nettles had taken up various different names such as Guinea and Pig, Bo and Peep, and Nincom and Poop, eventually settling on Do and Ti— like the pitches of the musical solfege.^[26] This reflected Applewhite’s past musical career, but may have stemmed from their liking of the 1965 film The Sound of Music.^[27] This period was when the cult hit its membership peak, with about two hundred people total.^[28] They stepped out of the light, however, in 1976 when Nettles declared that the media, who had painted the cult as a laughingstock, had “killed them” just as the two witnesses were killed in the Bible, and that they were no longer accepting new members.^[29]

After 1976, Heaven’s Gate moved around almost constantly, mainly camping. They all took on unisex appearances, cutting their hair short, dressing plainly, and removing all identifying features like facial hair.^[30] This was done in an effort to completely remove themselves from their human “vehicles,” and to prepare them for the genderless next level. The members also changed their names to three consonants followed by the suffix -ody at this time. Applewhite later explained that this was a diminutive suffix, similar to childrens’ nicknames like Jimmy or Bobby, because they were children in the eyes of the next level. The process of becoming similar in appearance and having similar names shows the efforts by Applewhite and Nettles to create a group identity while simultaneously distancing members from the outside world.

Nettles died of cancer in 1985. After her death, Applewhite restructured the cult’s beliefs as he did not know how to rationalize her passing himself. Nettles was very important to Applewhite; he credited her with creating most of the cult’s beliefs and, in many ways, she recruited him. Thus, her death rocked him. He explained her death by saying that they were not to physically transform into next level beings as previously taught, but would instead transform spiritually and leave their bodies behind.^[31] Applewhite also shifted the cult’s message to be more biblical and tightened control over the group at this time, even going so far as to hold a quasi-wedding ceremony where each member was given a ring and became “married” to him and the upper level.^[32] The cult reemerged publicly in 1992 and began intensely advertising its beliefs, taking out a full-page advertisement in a 1993 edition of USA Today and beginning a satellite television program called Beyond Human.^[33]

The Next Level

While Nettles played a large part in the creation of the cult’s original ideas, Applewhite is the one who discusses them in surviving videos, such as the aforementioned 1996 recruitment tape. He believed that he and Nettles were the reincarnation of heavenly bodies that had previously inhabited Jesus and other religious leaders, and that they were simply wearing human “vehicles.” Applewhite refers to Nettles as his “father” and his “older member,” meaning she mentored him just as he mentored the members. Despite the fact that Applewhite seemed to base this off of the bible, he simultaneously appeared to look down upon organized religion, believing that “modern religion is just the devil’s tomfoolery” meant to keep people complacent on earth, and he would call these ideas the “antichrist” or “dark forces.”^[34] The cult members believed that they too were members of the “evolutionary level above human,” were imprinted with knowledge from that level, and were meant to serve these beings who were, more or less, space aliens. As previously stated, Applewhite believed that they were to spiritually transform, and thus the mass suicide was an attempt to leave their human vehicles. They also believed that the earth was on the cusp of being “recycled” or “spaded under,” meaning to be wiped clean of all humanity and started afresh. Therefore, the time had come to abandon their human vehicles and move to the next level.

Applewhite referenced multiple religions, including Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, to demonstrate that while each have their respective texts which act as manuals, his is the new and only manual. He also spoke and looked directly into the camera, which fostered a more intimate feeling than watching a normal sermon or talk would. He spoke quite slowly, did not use big words, and repeated the same points over and over, further emphasizing the belief system of the cult. He acknowledged that it may be hard to believe what he was saying, but then explained these doubts away by telling people that they have been brainwashed by these dark forces and would not be able to understand until they joined the cult. That last concept is an extremely important part of his rhetoric— the only way you can understand and get answers is to join the cult. This further separated members from the world, as they were special and “got it.”

Applewhite also used certain words and phrases to target people who may be lonely or feel disconnected from the world. Part of the cult’s beliefs was that they needed to sacrifice all worldly connections to people, as these would affect their ability to serve in heaven. Applewhite also claims that humanity’s purpose is not to marry and have children, but to serve. He also expressed the importance of the individual while using words like “us,” “our,” and “we.” This shows an attempt to appeal to people who are not married and do not have children (Applewhite himself was divorced) or feel like all they have is their individual selves and thus want to belong to an “us” or a “we.”^[35]

The tape also shows how the cult isolated prospective and current members from friends, family, and the world around them. Applewhite would say that people should think about what he is saying alone, even telling people to go into their closets to think about it. He urged them not to ask their neighbors and friends what they think of it, saying how those people would ‘of course’ tell them that it is silly and should be disregarded because they were part of the structure that kept them brainwashed and from reaching salvation. This not only painted Applewhite as almost a Christ-like savior figure (except, unlike Jesus, he is trying to get these people to not share his teachings with others) but also furthered the sewing of distrust of society in the heads of followers of the cult.

In the cult’s final years, they rented a mansion “thirty miles to the north of San Diego,” where they “[supported] themselves [by working] as web designers.”^[36] However, they also used the internet as ways to spread their messages and beliefs, starting a website that is still operational today. The mere existence of these tapes on the internet at all shows the cult’s intent to distribute and spread them, and perhaps an effort to attract younger people, who would use the internet more often. The members viewed the internet as a way to reach people and spread their beliefs, and Applewhite posted a manifesto on Usenet, an early-internet forum similar to Reddit.^[37] The members and Applewhite were laughed at, and their attempts to spread their beliefs on the internet did not amount to much. This is interesting, as it was an example of the social connectivity that the founders of such forums hoped for. However, they certainly did not intend for their sites to aid in a suicidal cult’s recruitment process. Nonetheless, Applewhite and his followers were laughed at, and their attempts to spread the cult’s beliefs on the internet were hardly successful.

 

News of the Hale-Bopp comet began circulating in November of 1996, and an Emory University professor named Courtney Brown claimed to have communicated with psychics who said that there was a UFO in the tail of the comet.^[38] This was of great interest to the cult, who saw this as the marker of the time when they were meant to return to the next level. In the third week in March of 1997, they recorded two more tapes. Between March 22nd and 26th, in three groups, they “packed suitcases, put money and identification in their pockets,” ate phenobarbital laced apple sauce and pudding, washed it down with vodka, placed bags over their heads, and quietly “committed suicide, as planned.”^[39]

In Do’s Final Exit, one of the two mentioned tapes, Applewhite spent a lot of time repeating himself. He continued using terms like “us” and “we,” and continued to say that the members were special and had a higher level of understanding and were united under the cause of “working against the forces of what this evolutionary level has become.”^[40] One important thing to note is that even though he was talking to the watcher, the members were present in the room. By doing this, he spread the message that he was ready to leave but was simultaneously getting the members excited about leaving. This further locked in the idea that they were doing the right thing.

 

Halfway through the tape, the camera is turned onto the members, and we are introduced to them. Applewhite explained the naming system in this tape, saying that they exclude vowels because that’s how members of the next level communicated with humanity previously “if you know your history books.” This could have been a reference to the exclusion or reduction of vowels in the Torah, which was “written without vowels or punctuation marks.”^[41] This naming process aided in facilitating a group identity and a sense of uniqueness.

During this section, Applewhite also took time to have Robert John Arancio (or Jmmody) show the uniform all the members wore: completely black outfits, like jumpsuits, with a patch reading “Heaven’s Gate Away Team.” Applewhite explained that these patches meant that they were away from the level above human to spread the message, and now they were going to return. Just like the names, uniforms promote group psychology. Susan Fike, a research psychologist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst says that, for school uniforms, “almost all groups tend to see themselves as superior, and so to the extent that uniforms encourage group identification, you increase ‘in-group’ favoritism.”^[42] So, wearing uniforms promoted a sense of belonging within the group, but also aided the group in feeling separate from, or even superior to, others. This aided in separating the cult from the rest of the world, further creating an idea that they were special and different.

The uniforms that Applewhite put Heaven’s Gate members in could be seen as similar to school uniforms, with him referring to the cult as a “classroom.” This is something he had done previously, but it is an important part of his rhetoric. The idea that the members were in a classroom further promoted a group identity and environment where they are meant to be learning. It also, of course, solidified Applewhite as a leader and “teacher” figure in a classroom environment.

 

While Applewhite used the tapes to continue locking in the beliefs of the cult for members, an even more important intent was to leave behind sentiments to non-members of the cult and the world as a whole. He expressed understanding that the media would make this a big event, but he explained how what they are doing was not suicide. In fact, he told the audience that the cult was firmly against suicide, saying that what was truly suicide is to stay behind on the earth at this evolutionary level willingly, that “it is suicide to not leave.”^[43]

Applewhite also provided a solution to those who did not join but perhaps felt like they understood the message and wanted to move to the next level too. He said that people could condense many years of learning into a brief period and would have to hate this level and want to move to the next level a great deal. If they believed and followed the message of the cult, Applewhite said people can act quickly (meaning, even though the cult would not use this terminology, kill themselves) and ascend to the next level with the cult. Towards the end of the tape, he again urged that if the viewer recognized him or recognized the message, they should act quickly as they would still get to the level above human.

Sadly, these calls were, in some ways, successful. Some former members went through with committing suicide after the news broke about the mass suicide. As previously mentioned, Jimmy Simpson (or Gbbody) left a note and killed himself shortly after.^[44] Similarly, Wayne Cooke (or Jstody) — whose wife was among the 39— attempted suicide along with Chuck Humphrey (or Rkkody).^[45] Cooke passed away, but Humphrey survived and, after some TV appearances, attempted suicide once more, successfully. Both Humphrey and Cooke recorded exit interviews just like the other members of the cult did in the Heaven’s Gate Exit Statements. Analyzing the way the members spoke shows us quite a bit about how the cult’s propaganda affected those within. This tape was filmed in the last few days before the mass suicide and contained interviews with each member of the cult, who talk about their experiences and how they felt about the cult.

Many of the members took time to say that it would be beneficial to those left behind to look into the cult’s message and do whatever they could to enter the level above human. The first member interviewed, Steven Terry McCarter (or Srrody) took a great deal of time to say that what they were doing was right. He even called out specific televangelists, namely Kenneth Copeland and Paul and Jan Crouch, saying that they did nothing when the cult tried to spread their message and explain how to truly get into heaven. Another member, Slvody (the wife of Wayne Cooke, Suzanne) urged people to cling to this message if they resonated with it, and if they genuinely believed then they would be welcomed into the level above human. These interviews are difficult to watch, but they show the effectiveness of the ideas that Applewhite preached. In what was their last contact with the outside world, they only wanted to tell people to trust the cult, because they had been convinced that this was real and that they were going to go to this place.

This sentiment is apparent throughout the entirety of this tape, as they were all excited and believed that they were doing the right thing Several became emotional when discussing the  move to the next level. Thomas Alva Nichols (or Dstody) explained that he was pondering questions like what the meaning of life was and found answers inside of the cult, saying he was the happiest person in the world. Similarly, Joyce Angela Skalla (or Sngody) said that she was involved with social action movements but found the true change that she needed was from within and, like Nichols, found answers in the cult. Judith Ann Rowland (or Wndody) called membership in the cult a true gift. Applewhite’s rhetoric was extremely effective— members did not believe that they were killing themselves, but that they were going home.

There was a collective excitement in the members leaving Earth as  a group. Applewhite’s efforts, and surely Nettles before him, to create a group atmosphere were highly effective. One member, Gordon Welch (or Stmody), explained that he felt like he had a family with Ti, Do, and the other members. Susan Paup (or Nrrody) said that she was excited to leave for the next level with the other members. Many used the same language that Applewhite did in his tapes, often referring to the group over themselves, showing that they felt true belonging in the cult. Applewhite’s ideas of separating them from society had been successful, and they felt like this was their family.

 

Additionally, many members left the cult and eventually came back, despite the vast majority originally joining in the 1970s. Dmmody (Whose real name was either Lindley Pease or Raymond Bowers), said that when he left in 1981, he realized how corrupt and polluted the world had become, and that he needed to return to the group. Similarly, Gary St. Louis (or Stlody) said that he felt like he did not belong in the human world when he left the cult from 1988 to 1991 and that he also needed to go back. Again, this shows the level to which members were isolated from the world and only felt like they could fit in within the cult.

Members also discussed the amount of time they had been in the cult. As previously stated, many joined in the 1970s ,left, and rejoined later, but there were some who joined more recently to the recording of the final tapes. LaDonna Brugato (or Gldody), said she had only been with the cult for three years. Another member, Marion Yvonne McCurdy-Hill (or Dvvody) was the most recent member to join, having joined only six months before the filming of the interviews. The youngest member, Michael Barr Sandoe (or Vrnody) was only twenty-six at the time of his death and likely joined fairly recently. Despite the intensity of these late-stage recruitment methods, they were in some ways successful.

It is also clear in this tape that Applewhite had created the illusion of choice for members. Many members expressed how happy they were that they were able to choose what they wanted to do with their time in the cult and that they were allowed to leave whenever they wanted. Applewhite himself even said that he regularly scrutinized and questioned members to make sure they wanted to be there. This is creating a mock choice for the members, as they technically could leave, but they were simultaneously being fed so much propaganda about the cult’s beliefs and have been so deeply indoctrinated that, realistically, there was very little choice for them. This is clearly evidenced in all of those that returned after leaving.

 

Conclusions

Applewhite seems to have truly believed in his teachings. Firstly, Nettles perhaps did not believe as much as it may first seem. She regularly sent letters to her daughter, Terrie, telling her to conform to society and often signed off with “love mom.”^[46] This is inconsistent with the cult’s beliefs, as she should be seeing the vehicle as Terrie’s mother, not herself, and any true believer would in no way urge anyone to conform to society. One could argue that Nettles said these things because she, herself, wanted out of the cult, but upon closer inspection, it seemed more likely that she liked the position of power she was in and had plans to return to her daughter eventually. It is important to note that, as previously mentioned, the mass suicide was not a plan until Nettles died.

Conversely to Nettles, there is strong evidence that Applewhite did believe. He seemed to have moments of lucidity, where he was coming out of a trance and realizing what he had created. This can be evidenced after the first castration on Steven McCarter (or Srrody), where Applewhite felt like things had gone too far and wanted to be brought to the police, only to be talked down by other members.^[47] Applewhite was also influenced by other members, and there were times where he stumbled in his belief too, just as any other member would. Applewhite’s belief can also be seen in how he consistently got emotional when talking about Nettles and returning to her— he even left a seat for her in his final exit tape. One could see this as simply grief over losing a life partner, but his resoluteness in these beliefs, and the fact that he had to reorganize his own beliefs after her death seem to align with him being a firm believer in the idea that what he was preaching was real. Applewhite was also in the second group that committed suicide, not the final group.^[48] He did not stick around to make sure that all his followers followed through with the plan, almost as if he were eager to move on himself. This is simply not consistent with someone who was simply doing this for power over a group, but with someone who believed as well.

Finally, the previously mentioned posts on Usenet and the overall language he uses in these videos is evidence of his true belief. What a cult normally does can be explained by the frog in boiling water apologue. When a frog is placed in hot water, it will jump out right away. However, if it is placed in cool water where the temperature is slowly increased, it will eventually boil and die. The water represents the beliefs of a cult, and the frog is the member. Applewhite’s language in these tapes and his writings is not consistent with someone trying to latch on to little pieces of a prospective member’s psyche— he was operating at such a high level and density that was entirely impossible for any non-member to understand. If he were continuing to try to pull in members like some other cult leaders, he would at first dull it down, but he could not. This is because Applewhite truly believed— he was already boiling.

This in no way undermines the effectiveness of his rhetoric, in fact, it only increases it. By believing in his own teachings, Applewhite was able to be both a member and a leader. The other members influenced him just as much as he influenced them. There was no doubt that Applewhite was the leader, but by not putting himself so high above the members while spreading these beliefs he painted himself almost as a man of the people, someone just like them. This is a concept that many historical figures have used, including Hitler, Jesus, many US Presidents, and nearly countless other influential leaders.^[49] People are more likely to believe and follow someone who they view as similar to them over someone who paints themselves as an all-powerful leader. Again, while it is clear that the members of Heaven’s Gate did believe that Applewhite was their superior, by believing in his own teachings he was able to relate to them and manipulate them more easily.

Studying Heaven’s Gate allows us to better understand the propaganda and overall effects that other cults, cult-like movements, and propaganda as a whole have on people. The sermons that Jim Jones gave to his followers, ultimately leading to the death of nine hundred people in Guyana, similarly promise salvation. Thus, we can even compare these methods to larger religious movements. Although they are far more benign than Heaven’s Gate or the People’s Temple, large, organized religions similarly push ideas of salvation through holy books and other related teachings. Other mass cult-like movements, such as the Ku Klux Klan, used posters and flyers to facilitate a belief that foreigners, Christians, and other groups were going to destroy the American way of life. If one pulls the thread further, certain political movements can be seen as cult-like, with political cartoons and certain tv spots creating an “us against them” view— and there have, in fact, been political cults. This is how propaganda works: turning people against others and towards a group for salvation, protection, or belonging. It can perhaps be seen in its most pure form in a cult but can also be applied in many other contexts.

It is very easy to point and laugh at what may just appear to be a crazy UFO cult— just as programs like Conan and Saturday Night Live have done.^[50] It is not that we cannot find humor in these things, but it is important to understand how these groups operate. By using comedy to cope with cults and their effects, we lessen the importance of events like the mass suicide of the members of Heaven’s Gate and diminish the lives that each member lived and could have lived if not for the systematic indoctrination of Heaven’s Gate and cults like it. It is easy to believe that people who join cults are weak minded, but as sociologist Robert Balch says, people who are members of cults are mainly well educated, come from good families, and suffer from minimal psychological problems.^[51] People die for these causes because they think they are justified, and many cults still exist today. Many people who learn about such cults believe that they could never fall for something that on its face seems so bizarre. However, the formation and history of Heaven’s Gate demonstrates that under the right circumstances anyone is vulnerable to such groups.

 

 

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Endnotes

^[1] HeavensGateDatabase, “Planet Earth About To Be Recycled (Your Only Chance To Survive Is To Leave With Us),” YouTube Video, 57:55, April 9, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC0tqZfMv34. Originally recorded March 19th & 20th, 1997.

^[2] Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults, directed by Clay Tweel (2020, HBO), Episode One.

^[3] Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults, Episode One.

^[4] Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults, Episode One.

^[5] Benjamin Zeller, PhD, “How ‘60s and ‘70s America gave rise to cult leaders,” interview by Jonathan Bastian. Life Examined, KCRW, August 21, 2021. Transcript. https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/life-examined/utopian-societies-communes-sects-america/ben-zeller-cult-leaders-heavens-gate.

^[6] Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults, Episode One.

^[7] Tom Bissell, “How Cults Made America,” review of American Messiahs, by Adam Morris, New Yorker, April 24, 2019.

^[8] Bissel, “How Cults Made America.”

^[9] Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults, Episode Three.

^[10] Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults, Episode Three.

^[11] Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults, Episode Three.

^[12] Arthur Goldwag, Cults, Conspiracies, & Secret Societies: The Straight Scoop on Freemasons, the Illuminati, Skull & Bones, Black Helicopters, The New World Order, And Many, Many More (New York: Vintage Books, a division of Random House Inc., 2009), 37.

^[13] “‘Brainwashing’: A History,” Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/brainwashing-word-history.

^[14] Goldwag, Cults, Conspiracies, & Secret Societies, 35.

^[15] George D. Chryssides, “‘Come On Up, and I Will Show Thee:’ Heaven’s Gate as a Postmodern Group,” Controversial New Religions, 2004, 3 https://doi.org/10.1093/019515682X.001.0001.

^[16] Goldwag, Cults, Conspiracies, & Secret Societies, 35.

^[17] Barry Bearak, “Eyes on Glory: Pied Pipers of Heaven’s Gate,” New York Times, April 28, 1997, http://proxy.library.stonybrook.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/eyes-on-glory-pied-pipers-heavens-gate/docview/109835168/se-2?accountid=14172, 1.

^[18] Bearak, “Eyes on Glory,” 1997.

^[19] Bearak, “Eyes on Glory,” 1997.

^[20] Chryssides, “Come On Up,” 4.

^[21] Goldwag, Cults, Conspiracies, & Secret Societies, 35; Revelations 11:12.

^[22] Chryssides, “Come On Up,” 4.

^[23] Chryssides, “Come On Up,” 4.

^[24] Chryssides, “Come On Up,” 5.

^[25] Chryssides, “Come On Up,” 5; James Brooke, “The Day A Cult Shook a Tiny Town,” New York Times, March 30, 1997. https://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/30/us/the-day-a-cult-shook-a-tiny-town.html.

^[26] Chryssides, “Come On Up,” 5.

^[27] Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults, Episode One.

^[28] Chryssides, “Come On Up,” 5.

^[29] Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults, Episode One.

^[30] Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults, Episode Two.

^[31] Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults, Episode Three.

^[32] Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults, Episode Three.

^[33] Chryssides, “Come On Up,” 4; Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults, Episode Three.

^[34] Bearak, “Eyes on Glory,” 1997.

^[35] Goldwag, Cults, Conspiracies, & Secret Societies, 35.

^[36] Chryssides, “Come On Up,” 6; Goldwag, Cults, Conspiracies, & Secret Societies, 37.

^[37] Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults, Episode Three.

^[38] Chryssides, “Come On Up,” 7.

^[39] Chryssides, “Come On Up,” 7; “Mass Suicide Involved Sedatives, Vodka and Careful Planning.” CNN, March 27, 1997. http://edition.cnn.com/US/9703/27/suicide/index.html.

^[40] HeavensGateDatabase, “Do’s Final Exit,” YouTube Video, 1:28:54, April 9, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdGXDQ_8bSA&t=2364s. Originally recorded on October 5, 1996.

^[41] HeavensGateDatabase, “Do’s Final Exit.”; Rabbi Eli Mallon, “Reading Torah,” Reflections: Torah, Hope, and Healing, September 17, 2016.

^[42] William R. Macklin, “School Uniforms May Fuel Rivalries, Psychologists Say,” Baltimore Sun, June 7, 2000. Quote from Susan Fike.

^[43] Do’s Final Exit, Marshall Applewhite (1997, Heaven’s Gate), direct quote.

^[44] Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults, Episode Four.

^[45] Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults, Episode Four.

^[46] Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults, Episode Four.

^[47] Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults, Episode Four.

^[48] Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults, Episode Four.

^[49] Julius Yourman, “Propaganda Techniques Within Nazi Germany,” The Journal of Educational Sociology 13, no. 3 (November 1939): 154-155. Makes a specific mention of Adolf Hitler’s use of this tactic.

^[50] Conan O’Brien, “Wikibear: Heaven’s Gate Edition,” Conan, TBS, Burbank, California, February 26, 2015; Cast of Saturday Night Live, “Heaven’s Gate Cold Open,” Saturday Night Live, NBC, New York, New York, April 12, 1997.

^[51] Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults, Episode One.