Heavens Gate Essay -- essays research papers

On March 26, 1997, in what has become known as wizard of the virtually noteworthy mass suicides in history, thirty-nine men and women consort with the Heavens Gate cult took their own lives by ingesting a conspiracy of Phenobarbitals mixed with applesauce and alcohol. Each was dressed all told in black, their faces cover by a purple shroud. Those who wore glasses had them neatly folded next to their body, and all had identification papers for the authorities to find. The house was immaculate, tidier even than before the victims had go in. It was as if, in preparing for their death, they were heeding the words of the prophet Isaiah Set thine house in order for thou shalt die, and not live. And while their abrupt end whitethorn seem quite a strange, the dash they lived is even more perplexing.The root came together in the mid 1970s under the charismatic preaching of marshal Herff Applewhite, and his companion, Bonnie Lu Nettles, a former nurse. It enjoyed a short-lived go b ad of notoriety, during which time they referred to themselves as Bo and Peep, before the couple took it underground in 1976. subsequently existing in deep seclusion in various southwesterly cities, the group surfaced again briefly in 1994, when members sought out recruits with a series of public lectures. In the groups documents, Applewhite and Nettles are described as representatives of an unknown plane called the Kingdom of Heaven, who have come to Earth to offer the way leading to membership to those who could overcome their attachment to money, sex, and family life. Such total separation, the group preached, was necessary because Earths human structures --governmental, economic and, especially, religious-- were under the control of demonic forces Luciferians and abomination space aliens, in the groups terms. In time, they began calling themselves the Two, a reference to the 2 witnesses of Christ foretold in the Bibles Book of Revelation. According to the Bible, the two witn esses are prophets who pull up stakes be slain by a beast from the bottomless pit, thusly be resurrected and ascend to Heaven. They were both anti-establishment and intolerant, calling for total separation from society, sincere living with shared resources, and adherence to a rigorous moral code. Applewhite too required members of the cult to dress, talk, and look the same. He made them all get around the same clothes, shaved ev... ...of the world turn violently against them, it added, the group would be mentally prepared for whatever came its way. They also allude to the example of the Jews at Masada who killed themselves rather than impart to Roman legions in A.D. 73. Furthermore, the group said its understanding of suicide was not at all conventional The true meaning of suicide is to turn against the undermentioned Level when it is being offered. In the groups thinking, a spaceship, thought to be spare-time activity in Hale-Bopps wake, would be offering just such an oppo rtunity. In conclusion, the good aura of the Heavens Gate cult seems like something unfeigned out of a late night TV movie. Like most millennialist groups, members held a firm belief in an oncoming apocalypse and that only(prenominal) an elect few would achieve salvation. The spread of their doctrine on the net income brought about widespread concern over the power of the web. The argument has subsided, however, with the transportation 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.