On planet Earth, people like to place themselves into different social groups based on their likes, beliefs, and backgrounds. One of the more peculiar groups some people categorize themselves in is a cult. A cult is a group of people who find meaning in anecdotes preached to them by a charismatic leader and that carry out socially unacceptable acts. Heaven’s Gate, founded in 1974, would be classified as a cult due to the fact that its founder and leader, Marshall Herff Applewhite, spoke actively to a group of people about there being a place beyond the stars that is only accessible through killing oneself. Applewhite and Bonnie Lu Nettles, a nurse Applewhite recruited to become a leader of Heaven’s Gate, established that the cult’s main belief …show more content…
was that they and their members’ souls were placed into human bodies by an alien being and in order to meet with their creator, they must release their souls by killing themselves. Applewhite and Nettles clicked instantly upon their first interaction with each other, they felt that they knew each other from a past life. The pair went around to multiple churches claiming that they were biblical prophets and were able to assemble a group of people who believed that Applewhite and Nettles would save their souls when the world came to an end. Along the way, the duo came to the conclusion that they were not biblical prophets but they were disciples of a space god. With the epiphany they had, they sent their followers to campsites where they were preparing for the arrival of a spaceship to take them to their creator. The preparations changed, however, when Nettles died of cancer. Applewhite came to the belief that, to get to the Next Level and enter the Kingdom of Heaven, one must board a spaceship that followed the Hale-Bopp comet by committing suicide. On March 26, 1997, after consuming a lethal dose of applesauce, Applewhite and his 38 followers were found dead in a San Diego mansion they had rented. Marshall Applewhite was able to retain a devoted following by catering to the religious and extraterrestrial beliefs of his followers, promising entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven, and by displaying a peaceful composer and keeping his followers in seclusion. The New Age movement of the 1970’s allowed for Applewhite and Nettles to entice their followers through the use of religion and the belief of extraterrestrial life. The people of the New Age movement were those that sought new ways of becoming spiritual and believed in mysticism, which proved to be the perfect fuel for Applewhite and Nettles to preach to their followers that “they were figures mentioned in the Book of Revelation and that they were on a divine mission” (Biography). The biblical references that Applewhite and Nettles spoke of were important in attracting followers because it made people feel like their lives were now going to be guided by people who have spoken to God and are knowledgeable about the afterlife. With the alluring idea of being guided into what Applewhite and Nettles would call the Next Level, meaning the afterlife, they were able to attract about 70 members in the late 1970’s (Hill and Svn). As the years went on, The Two, as Applewhite and Nettles would refer to themselves as, came to the realization that God, along with the Bible, were in fact extraterrestrial. The Two’s extraterrestrial realization about God and his work, played perfectly into the mysticism that the people of the New Age movement were looking for. Mysticism is the belief that if one surrenders all of their earthly possession, they will be able to reunite with their creator in another world. Over a 20-year span, Applewhite and Nettles lost many followers but as the end of the millennium came near, there was a spike in membership because it was believed to be the end of days. After the death of his platonic soulmate, Nettles, who died of liver cancer and not of some cosmic deity they developed a following over, Applewhite was left with the duty to inform his people that the only way to survive the end of days was to commit suicide. The idea of committing suicide in order to survive the end of the world once again attracted his followers because the timing was right. With the approach of the Hale-Bopp comet, this was enough to prove to his followers that there was in fact a higher, cosmic being ready to save their souls from planet earth. Applewhite was able to persuade his fellow Heaven’s Gate followers into taking part in a mass suicide by promising that they would reach the Next Level and enter the Kingdom of Heaven, an extraterrestrial version of the biblical heaven. What this meant was, that if his followers would go through with the mass suicide, and the remaining 38 of them did, they would then be able to accompany Nettles, Applewhite’s late soulmate, on the supposed spaceship that trailed behind the Hale-Bopp comet that would then send them to the Kingdom of Heaven (Hill and Svn). After many years of development, the Kingdom of Heaven became the Heaven’s Gate’s main belief system. The concept of the Kingdom of Heaven came from both Applewhite and Nettles as they believed their bodies were purely used as vehicles for their souls, and on their time on earth, it was up to them, as member of the Kingdom of Heaven, to “offer the way leading to membership into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Heaven’s Gate). To their most devoted followers, it was clear to them that it was necessary for them to commit suicide in order to show they were true believes in the Kingdom of Heaven and to “take advantage of the rare opportunity” to depart from earth (Heaven’s Gate). The core concept of the Kingdom of Heaven was that Applewhite was the reincarnation of an alien Jesus and when the time was right, he would be able to return to the Kingdom of Heaven with a select few.
Of course, his followers bought right into Applewhite’s story of being an alien messiah. Chkody, one of Heaven’s Gates loyal members, while talking about Applewhite and Nettles, claimed that “they are members of the Kingdom of Heaven and I know it. I knew the day I met them,” which goes to show that his followers truly believe in what Applewhite had to say (Heaven’s Gate). Applewhite was able to preach to his convinced followers that “if you leave everything of this world and follow me, I can take you into my Father's Kingdom” (Heaven’s Gate). However, it did take some time for his followers to agree to leave everything of this world and follow Applewhite into an extraterrestrial heaven. The members of Heaven’s Gate were against the idea of suicide, including Applewhite, as well, but once they defined suicide as “to turn against the Next Level when it is being offered” it made sense to them to partake in this, sort of, cosmic suicide. To them, they were not killing themselves, they were merely releasing their spirits from their flesh vessels in preparation for meeting with their creator in his cosmic space …show more content…
kingdom. With his calm demeanor and isolation tactics, Applewhite was able to assemble a group of 38 loyal followers to make up Heaven’s Gate.
Before Applewhite got into the cult business, he was a professor at the University of Alabama, which made him a well-rounded public speaker, and was said to have a “strong baritone voice and good diction” (Biography). This is evident in his videos where he is trying to recruit people into believing that the world was going to end and “your only chance to evacuate is to leave with us” (Downs). The difference in maintaining the loyalty of his followers through his charisma, compared to other cult leaders, like, for instants, Charles Manson who was loud with an underlying aggression, was that Applewhite did not act or speak in a belligerent manner, which proves one does not have to be loud in order to be charismatic. In his recruitment videos, Applewhite displays a very serene exterior accompanied with hypnotic vocals and only his eyes expressing his outlandish ideas. Applewhite’s constant state of tranquility reassured his most loyal followers of Heaven’s Gate that they were being guided by a celestial being and all they had to do was follow his
preaching’s. However, Applewhite not only maintained his follower’s loyalty through the calmness he exuded, but he controlled them by isolating them from the outside world. The members of Heaven’s Gate spend a period of time from the late 70’s to the early 80’s in secluded campsites in Wyoming and Denver. The campsites were stylized after boot camps, where members would often find themselves performing tasks that, according to Applewhite, would be similar to life on a spaceship like fuel preparation, which meant cooking meals, and learning how to be patient. Dedicated members strived for the approval of Applewhite while in the boot camps because if Applewhite felt that they were not true believers in his ideas, they would be asked to leave. Being in isolation caused many of the members to become dependent on Applewhite, and Nettles when she was still alive, to the point where they would make “decisions by asking themselves how their teacher would act in particular situations” (Bromley and Melton). The isolation of his members proved to be successful because Applewhite was able to brainwash them without any outside forces complicating his efforts. The creation of a cult can only be done if the environment is right and if it is led by someone who is utterly convinced that their ludicrous ideas are nothing but the truth, and Marshall Applewhite accomplished just that. Heaven’s Gate’s creation in the 70’s allowed for them to gain followers with interests in the zany and no one questioned it because people were seeking new beliefs of that kind. Once he had a following, Applewhite was able to get his members to commit suicide on the promise that their action would save them from a dying earth and allow them entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. Retaining a following of true devotees was simple for Applewhite, who was a tranquil man with a projecting voice, since he was able to keep them in secluded areas away from ideas that would alter the beliefs he had instilled into their minds. The Heaven’s Gate cult is a cautionary tale of a man who preached of empty promises to a group of people who gave up their lives to board a spaceship that would sent them to an alien heaven where they would them be reunited with their alien creator.
Not all cults are the evils the public makes them out to be; they are not necessarily spotless institutions, however. When one thinks of a cult, they imagine death, brainwashing, and simple human robots following the reincarnation of the devil. Not all cults end in mass suicide, violence, or terror; many religions once started as cults and have thrived since. However, some cults end in the expected display of death, confusion, and regret. Heaven’s Gate, led by Marshall Applegate, is one such example.
The cult had many beliefs that our human bodies were only vessels, occupied by members of the “Kingdom of Heaven.” They believed that Marshall Applewhite was a link between their cult and their god. It was said that god spoke to them through Applewhite. He was considered an equivalent to the Christian religions Jesus. And that people need to follow him as people had followed Jesus 2000 years ago. The cult believed that their time on earth was only a schooling to learn how to become a member of the kingdom of heaven. Do (Applewhite) taught them that in order to leave behind this world and move on to the next, people had to give up their family, sensuality, selfish desires, your human mind and your human body if necessary.
There are numerous different kinds of social groups in the world, but clearly not all of them are cults. So what makes a cult a cult? [So where is the distinction?] Where is the metaphorical line drawn and what has to be done to cross it? Cult psychological experts Joseph Salande and David Perkins say the differences between a cult and a group are the methods of control and the negative effects on its members (Salande and Perkins 382). They define cults as “groups that often exploit members psychologically
As I have previously mentioned, the Heaven’s Gate Cult’s purpose was to prepare those on earth for recycling, In order to further elaborate on this concept, Applewhite believed that Earth existed on a continuum. And it was his duty to carry on the last task, as promised by the Book of Revelation; to provide vessels in which souls returned to heaven. This process according to Book of Revelation, offered a way for cult members to gain access or membership into the evolutionary level above human.
The Gospel Spreading Church was founded by a man by the name of Elder Solomon “Lightfoot” Michaux, who was born, raised, and educated in Virginia. In 1906, Lightfoot came to Mary Eliza Pauline, a woman one year his junior, was born and raised in the church. With hard work and dedication, by the age of 34, Lightfoot, had become “a prosperous business man, securing large government contracts to furnish food to defense establishments.” Mrs. Michaux prayed for the salvation of her husband daily, and one day, “God saved him and from that time forward, they worked as a team in gospel ministry.” One year after finding salvation, Elder Michaux was ordained and licensed. He then began preaching at a small church called “Everybody’s Mission” which he had built up from scratch. Moving from Everybody’s Mission, Michaux began once again to build a church, this time starting from a tent. It was here, in this tent, that one hundred and fifty people would come to accept the Lord as their Savior, and would join the Michaux family in becoming the foundation of the Gospel Spreading Church (GSC).
Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” is a horror story about revenge and murder that occurred half a century ago. Through the haunting confession of the narrator, Montresor, the reader is able to feel what Fortunato had endured half a century ago. In this tale of revenge and murder the dark, damp, and bone-filled catacombs provide a contrast to life during the “madness of the carnival” (553).
Cults are dangerous institutions that have existed for many years, corrupting and reforming the minds of innocent people into believing outrageous doctrines that eventually result in disaster. Horrifying cases involving men such as Charles Manson, Jim Jones and David Koresh have bewildered people and raise the question: how could individuals be easily susceptible to the teachings of these men, so influenced that masses go as far as to commit the unthinkable? Individuals who are in a vulnerable position in search for an identity are attracted to cults because they offer a sense of belonging. In addition, isolation from society contributes to the functioning of a cult for it creates an atmosphere where submissiveness and obedience runs high. These two factors seem to hold true for one of the most notorious cults currently established in the United States and Canada. The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or, FLDS, is an international polygamist sect that incorporates belonging and isolation along with a dangerous mentality that have resulted in the abuse of women and children in the name of God.
Cults can be dangerous as manipulative strategies are used to control large groups of people into behaviour they may not usually be comfortable with. A cult is a counterculture that is an extremist group usually lead by religion and a charismatic leader (Winner 2011:417). Counterculture is the rejection of popular norms and values and replaces them with extreme views on violence, family and loyalty (Winner 2011:417). Cult leaders often preach about religious history as they take it very seriously. Usually, these religious views guide the bizarre behaviour and conformity within the cult. Anthropologists see cults as a way for people to find self-identity and belonging within a group which they are not receiving from outside of the group.
...fortunately, when a person is given that much power and control over a large group of people their decisions as well as reasoning can become altered. In the case of Jim Jones his power lead to an enflamed ego, which led to a greed, not only of loyalty but of money. Money then lead to drug use, and in the end, drug use led to insanity. Those who are gifted with the ability to influence others have a huge responsibility. They must recognize what they have as a gift and not abuse what God has given them. Jim Jones is a person who had this gift as well as good intentions, yet he could not balance and keep in perspective that what he was doing was to benefit the world, not to benefit himself.
In conclusion, the entire aura of the Heaven’s Gate cult seems like something straight out of a late night TV movie. Like most millennialist groups, members held a firm belief in an oncoming apocalypse and that only an elect few would achieve salvation. The spread of their doctrine on the Internet brought about widespread concern over the power of the web. The argument has subsided, however, with the passage of time. I, for one, find the supposed link between the Internet and cult activities rather absurd. Extreme gullibility and brainwashing, I believe, would be the only ways a recruit would ever accept such an outlandish set of beliefs.
Fallen Angels is about a young man name Richie Perry going into the army to escape a terrible future he is facing. He finished high school, but his mother cannot afford for him to go to college because they're poor. In the army, he faces the harshest realities in the Vietnam War. This is his first time in the army and doesn’t know what will happen. Richie meets other people in the army who are also facing the harsh realities there as well. It depends on how they feel, what they’re learning, and what will they’re facing. Peewee is different slightly different from Richie because of their different experiences in the army. Lobel is a Jewish soldier who has more sympathy as a racist in the war. Monaco is an Italian soldier who likes to take harder
The essays from both McCutcheon and Muesse were very enlightening. In the essay, Religious studies and “Heaven’s Gate”: Making the Strange Familiar and the Familiar Strange, Muesse expressed that the motivations behind the practices of one religious sect really aren’t as far fetched as the next body of believers. In the case of the Heaven’s Gate sect, its members believed that they were to achieve the “next level” of spiritual euphoria by means of succumbing to a lifestyle that would prepare them, (after death), for such expectations. Conversely, what Muesse drives home is that the motivations of this sect, when compared others, are not so different. In fact, members of Heaven’s Gate sect compared their actions to that of what Christians
Throughout our history, cults have become a prevalent part of our society. More and more cults are forming every day. Although not all of them are dangerous, some can perform practices that are toxic to their members. Cults use fear and control to gain more and more members. Once members join a cult, they are forced to perform the practices that the cult leaders require. It is through these practices that cult leaders convince their members to stay in the cult. Through mind control and scare tactics, cults have become a very powerful and dangerous part of our society.
From the time of the creation of God’s Kingdom and the earth until present day in the eternal life, God has intended for His people to live as full human beings in order to live a fulfilled life, and a life of salvation and redemption through His son Jesus Christ. Through living the eternal life and living within God’s Kingdom, the anticipation of the return of Christ and the beginning of the New Heaven and the New Earth is what Christians are currently living for and anticipating. New Heaven and New Earth are both goals Christians work towards through their faith in Christ, along with the anticipation and work towards the eschatological goal as we work and live towards the future and end result, while some aspects of life will continue and some will discontinue in the New Heaven and the New Earth. While the New Heaven and New Earth is an opportunity to refresh our spirituality and redeem ourselves in a spiritual way through the work of the Holy
“Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.” According to Buddha, everyone needs some form of spirituality to define his or her life and existence. Webster Dictionary defines spiritualism as “a system of beliefs or religious practices based on supposed communication with the spirits of the dead, often times through mediums.” Though this is one general definition of spiritualism, this concept is one that does not hold a conclusive meaning. Each and every single person has the ability and right to create and practice their own idea of spiritualism. From ancient times to present day, the term and practice of spirituality has transformed, particularly from region to region. Despite the discrepancies in practices and overall understanding of this idea, spirituality has had an effect and impact upon all of humanity since the creation of time. This religion that is believed to have been established in the early eighteen hundreds, after two little girls claimed to have the ability to talk to spirits, sparked interest in this spiritual movement, allowing it to spread rather rapidly over many geographical locations. Aside from being recognized as a religion, spiritualism is also believed to be a form of philosophy and a science in which spiritualists believe that there is life after death and try to demonstrate this through the ability of attempting to communicate with those that have passed on. Spiritualism was socially different from other religions in existence at the time because it presented followers with a more tolerant belief system that assimilated the principles and facts from a selection the world's religions. Spiritualism also made it acceptable for women to play a disti...