Heaven's Gate Cult Analysis

This paper will be examining The ‘Heaven’s Gate’ cult in relation to the topic of collective behaviour. The ‘Heaven’s Gate’ was a cult led by Marshall Applewhite, “who claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus and a higher alien life form” (Locher, 2002, pp. 88). Applewhite and the wider group believed that a spaceship was going to take them to heaven (‘The Next Level’), and the only way to access this spaceship was to commit suicide (Locher, 2002, p. 88). A cult is defined as a group with an excessive commitment to a particular belief, in which rituals and socialisation are used by the leader to commit members to the ideology, which is in the best interests of the leader (Jenkinson, 2008).
The ‘Heaven’s Gate’ appears to be an example of collective

behaviour because the group displayed abnormal behaviour and beliefs, which are inconsistent with the norms of society (Locher, 2002, pp.1-2). It is therefore important to try and ascertain and analyse what factors may have led these individuals to take their lives in this instance of collective behaviour. This paper will examine the possible reasons why individuals may have sought membership to the Heaven’s Gate cult, the influence of the group leader Applewhite’s ideology and behaviour on the members and how the collective behaviour of the group may have changed and established new meaning in their lives. Several prominent collective behaviour theories from Freud, Allport and Turner and Killan will be used to analyse the cult’s behaviour.

Firstly, it is important to examine why the members of ‘The Heaven’s Gate’ cult sought membership of the group and decided to engage in the destructive collective behaviour. Goldberg (1997) suggests that individuals often peruse cult membership at a time of disharmony in their lives and they often see it as a solution to feelings of loneliness and low self esteem. Furthermore, Feldmann and Johnson (1995) suggest that the strong sense of community a cult provides may eradicate these feelings of low self-esteem and loneliness. Balch (1995) provides some evidence for this theory, as he claimed that many of the members of the cult were “marginal individuals living on the fringes of society”. Therefore, the members of the Heaven’s Gate may have joined the cult because the sense of a collective and the group’s ritualistic behaviour may have resolved their inner troubles.

Furthermore, ‘The Heaven’s Gate’ cult’s ideology and rituals may have attracted people to join the group. Ungerleider and Wellisch (1972) suggest that individuals who are participants of cults are not intellectually impaired, but instead have a strong sense of ideological hunger. Balch (1995) provides some evidence for this, through his data on the cult collected through covert participant observation. He suggested that the members of the cult were attracted by the ‘New Age’ spiritual/religious beliefs. Furthermore, Zeller (2014) suggested that members of the cult were spiritual seekers who had left other religions in search of ‘the truth’, which further exemplifies the ‘ideological hunger’ reasoning. Therefore, the cult’s ideology and sense of ‘spirituality’ may have attracted individuals to join the cult and engage in the collective behaviour. ‘The Heaven’s Gate’s’ idiosyncratic and unorthodox views may have attracted those individuals in search of meaning on the edge of society, and the collective behaviour may have satisfied their sense of ideological hunger.
Moreover, Allport’s convergence theory of collective behaviour could explain the formation of ‘The Heaven’s Gate’ cult. The convergence theory explains that individuals come together and form collectives when they share analogous values and beliefs (Locher, 2002, p. 75). In addition, these shared interest collectives serve the purpose of satisfying the inner desires of individuals (Locher, 2002, p. 75). Snow, Zurcher and Peters (1981) add that convergence theory explains the homogeneity of behaviours within the cult as the result of these congruent beliefs. Therefore, the members of ‘The Heaven’s Gate’ may have sought membership to the cult due to finding others who shared similar attitudes and worldviews, which may have resulted in the gratification of their ideological hunger.

Another factor, which may have influenced the collective behaviour of ‘The Heaven’s Gate’ cult, is the behaviour and ideology of the leader Marshall Applewhite. Goldberg (1997) suggests that leaders of cults present themselves as ‘religious leaders’ and entice pospective individuals to join their cult on the basis of rewards. Cult leaders also promise potential followers with the premise of a better life, answers to the ultimate questions life and a shield from the ambiguity and ambivalence of everyday life (Goldberg, 1997). Zeller (2014) suggested that ‘The Heaven’s Gate’ leader, Marshall Applewhite, promised the followers the spirituality they were seeking and that they would all reach the ‘The Next Level’ (heaven) and be saved from the end of the world, as long as they solely followed his ideology. Therefore, the members of Heaven’s Gate may have joined and engaged in the collective behaviour because the group’s leader manipulated their desires and took advantage of their search for spirituality.

Applewhite’s unorthodox views and his control over the group could be explained by Bainbridge and Stark’s (1979) psychopathology model. They suggest that a leader of a cult may have a particular psychological disorder or be deluded. Zeller (2014) suggested that Applewhite suffered from anxiety issues and alleged delusion. Therefore, Applewhite could have socialised his followers into his ideology and into the mass suicide under his alleged delusion.

Freud’s theory on crowds and collective behaviour may be able to explain why members of the cult were so willing to follow Applewhite’s ideology and instructions. Freud (1922) theorised that every person has an unconscious ‘death instinct’, which is a desire to leave and hand themselves and their individuality over to a leader. He states that every individual has the aspiration to be controlled, and that the leader is seen as a ‘God-like’ figure (Freud, 1922). Therefore, Applewhite’s alleged control over the followers could have been the result of the participants’ unconscious motives and could explain their adherence to his ideology to the final result of their deaths in a mass suicide.

As well as the allure Applewhite’s ideology and his power, the rituals and collective behaviour of the group could have had an affect on their individuality and persuaded them to commit suicide. Schwartz and Kaslow (1979) suggest that leaders of a cult place individuals in a nurturing environment and hypnotise them into a new way of thinking, which results in a loss of identity. Goldberg (1997) expands on this, by adding that leaders send followers into a hypnotic state of impressionability with their rituals. Through the rituals and teachings, the leader will change the followers’ worldview and personal identity, and a strong sense of community will follow (Goldberg, 1997). As previously discussed, this may have exploited the followers’ desire for a sense of community.
As a result of this socialisation, a very extreme ‘either-or’ worldview emerges, which is “the cult’s way is the true way” (Goldberg, 1997).

Jenkinson (2008) labels this phenomenon as a ‘cult pseudo-personality’, the dropping of one’s old values and behaviours and internalising the cult’s worldview. This suggests that this collective-wide ‘cult pseudo-personality’ formed via the leaders socialisation is the controlling force of the collective behaviour. Under this new worldview, a person’s sense of individuality and reason may be weakened, possibly making them susceptible to external influence. This may explain why the followers of ‘The Heaven’s Gate’ cult committed suicide together, as this new personality governed their thoughts. Balch provides evidence of this socialisation within ‘The Heaven’s Gate’ cult. Balch (1995) described that each individual was completely stripped of his or her old identities and had their human form minimised. The cult members were to dehumanise themselves; they wore clothes to cover their bodies at all times, were banned from sex and sexual urges had to be repressed (the male members were castrated) and participated in rituals to focus on ‘The Next Level’ rather than human thought were designed to keep them busy at all times (Balch, 1995). Therefore, the socialisation in the Heaven’s Gate cult may have stripped the participant’s sense of being human and changed their meaning and purpose in life, enabling them to engage in the collective

behaviour without question. This may have led them to believe that their purpose in life was to reach ‘The Next Level’, so the mass suicide would fulfil their desire.
However, Turner and Killan’s emergent norm theory may provide a rational explanation of why the members of the cult adopted the ideology. The premise of the emergent norm theory is that “group norms drive individual behaviour” (Locher, 2002, p.25). This theory is based on symbolic interactionalism, in which individuals ground their behaviour based on their interpretation of their environment (Locher, 2002). Aguirre, Wenger and Vigo (1998) add that under the emergent norm perspective, collective behaviour is rational as social relationships combined with collective norms to define behaviour within a group. Under the emergent norm perspective, ‘The Heaven’s Gate’ cult’s behaviour and ideology could be seen as rational. As the members of the cult engaged in social interaction, the groups norms may have been shared and discussed, leading to a conscious decision about whether to adopt the cult’s ideology. Therefore, the adoption of Applewhite’s ideology by the cult members may have been a rational decision, thus the influence of a leader may not be the only factor influencing the individual’s endorsement of the cult’s ideology.

This paper has examined the reasons why individuals may have sought membership to The ‘Heaven’s Gate’ cult, the influence of the group leader Applewhite’s ideology and behaviour on the members and how the collective behaviour of the group may have changed and established new meaning in their lives.

It was found that the members might have joined the cult due to feeling lost, having a strong ideological hunger and a desire for a sense of community. The cult’s leader may have also had a strong influence on the unification and maintenance of this cult, with Applewhite’s alleged promises of spirituality and a meaning to life, coupled with the participants’ unconscious desire to be ruled. However, under the emergent norm perspective, this instance of collective behaviour may be seen as rational due to the participants having the chance to make decisions after engaging in social interaction. Nevertheless, more evidence was found in support of irrationality, as the collective behaviour and rituals of the cult might have changed the participants’ worldview and conscious personality, resulting in a collective personality and a state of submission to the leader. This paper has highlighted the importance of knowing why these types of collective behaviour occur, and could be used to help prevent future mass suicides and other

tragedies.