Podcast Project

This is a summary about the cult Heaven's Gate. It was founded in 1973 by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Lou Nettles. They believed they were reincarnations of Jesus Christ and preached celibacy and abnegation. They controlled their followers through threats of facing the rapture if they left. They isolated themselves and restricted access to family, friends, and technology. The cult disbanded in 1976 but continued with reforms. They believed in ascending to a higher level after death. In 1985, Bonnie Lou Nettles died, and the leader changed the theology to differentiate between transcendence of the body and soul. In the end, 39 members committed suicide, believing they would find redemption in an alien-led Kingdom of Heaven. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we'll be counting down the top ten... Wait, this isn't the right script. Can someone get me the right script? Thank you. Let's try this again, shall we? Greetings, everyone, and welcome to the Creepy Crypt. My name is Maddie Dotson, and I will be your guide to the graveyard of mysteries old and gone. Today's episode will be centered around Heaven's Gate, one of many infamous cults making waves in the latter part of the 20th century. Let me preface that this will not be a traditional review of Heaven's Gate, as so many True Crime podcasts have done before, but rather a short summary on the ideas of the Promised Land and the cult's ideology. But never fear, I'll keep it short, sweet, and spooky. So grab your shovels. We're going digging. To begin, allow me to provide a quick summary of what Heaven's Gate is and how it got started. Heaven's Gate is a cult. The year is 1973, started by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Lou Nettles. They meet in Houston, Texas. Marshall Applewhite was the son of a Presbyterian minister, only taking a brief detour from his music studies and attempting to pick up a good book, as his father had done. Bonnie Lou, on the other hand, was a Houston nurse with a small side hustle in astrology. She was reportedly happily married with four children. That would soon change, as Applewhite and Nettles moved out of Houston and began a, in quotes, spiritual odyssey. In the words of Winston Davis, author of Heaven's Gate, a study of religious obedience. The goal of this journey, which one could argue was a sort of transformative pilgrimage designed for hyper-religious conversion, was to create a special apocalyptic ministry. Applewhite changed his name to Doe, and Nettles changed hers to Tea. They called themselves The Twos. Professing to be reincarnations of Jesus Christ sent to Earth via UFOs to save souls by imposing on them a strict regimen of celibacy and abnegation. This comes from page 246 of Davis's article. Now, why do I get the feeling that Protestant Victorians might have been utterly fascinated by these two? Maybe it's because both groups like to heavily emphasize the rapture in their messages. Either that, or this whole thing would send a Victorian into a coma. Speaking of all things apocalyptic, Tea and Doe favored New Testament scriptures to control their followers, particularly those that had to do with end times. Scripture from Revelations and the Gospels, containing themes that qualify them as apocalyptic literature, were used frequently. However, there were problems with the theology of Heaven's Gate, and membership waxed and waned between the numbers of 280 during its lifetime. To keep members controlled, Doe and Tea threatened that anyone who left would, in quotes, face the rapture when a UFO would come to Earth, instead of being invited to join their brethren in their version of the Promised Land or eternal life, a place called Level Above Human. This idea was, in the words of a spiritual seeker who happened across Doe and Tea in the cult's early years, vaguely biblical and unspecific. It appears as more of a manifestation of an ill conscience and carries very little weight, seeing as Doe and Tea struggled to control their members. But here is where we finally get a glimpse of some sort of holy land in Heaven's Gate theology. Doe and Tea believed that, to achieve worthiness of being taken to the Level Above Human, each of their followers needed to be entirely dependent on them. They restricted access to family members, friends, even newspapers and technology. They were nomadic in practice, taking up residence in campgrounds and isolating themselves between meeting times. This method of isolation and shedding of earthly bonds demonstrates a type of spiritual cleansing to, in theory, prepare oneself for inspection upon the arrival of the rapture. This type of heavily controlled ritual isolation led to a large portion of the members leaving the cult between 1973 and 1976. The threats of being unable to access this Level Above Human or their Promised Land weren't enough. To remedy this, in 1976, Heaven's Gate was moved to a campground in Wyoming. Dissenters who did not perform duties up to the standard were moved to a camp in Phoenix. The sect of Heaven's Gate disbanded soon after. However, a series of reforms managed to keep membership from declining further. Members embraced an idea called Tomb Time, defined by Davis as a mandated silent period occurring around 3 AM when the UFOs that would eventually take them to the Level Above Human were believed to be close by. Members experienced a newfound sense of freedom given the release from worldly responsibilities and relationships. They were taught that, at the end of their life, they would ascend rather than experience a normal death and achieve the Level Above Human, which appears to be a spiritual transcendence beyond physical reality. However, this belief didn't last long. This expectation that the two had taught their members was broken. In 1985, T died of liver cancer. She did not ascend as they believed she would. Though as alone and in a desperate attempt to salvage his cult, he changed the theology and adapted the concept of death into one that can almost be called normal by Protestant standards. He needed to differentiate between a transcendence of the body and a transcendence of the soul. The souls of Heaven's Gate's members would be able to reach their ideal of the Promised Land, freeing themselves after death and being able to reach the Level Above Human, so long as they were obedient. In a tragic turn of events, 39 members chose to commit suicide at the end of Heaven's Gate's life. They believed they were leaving their bodies behind to find peace in a form of redemption in an alien-led Kingdom of Heaven. I don't think we'll ever know if they made it to their Promised Land, and while tragic, it makes a fascinating case for theological study. Ah. A lot of hard work, but it all pays off in the end. Thanks for joining me on this little trek through the creepy crypt. Don't trip on any loose bones, and make sure to leave your shovel inside the gate. If you want more spooky content, leave a suggestion in that little cast-iron mailbox outside. Bye now.