Heaven's Gate

by Benjamin E. Zeller

  26. Sawyer, email to author, July 28, 2013.

  27. DiAngelo, Beyond Human Mind, 43.

  28. Ibid., 46.

  29. Sawyer, email to author, July 25, 2013.

  30. Marshall Herff Applewhite, Do’s Exit Video (Rancho Sante Fe: Heaven’s Gate, 1997).

  31. Heaven’s Gate, “Our Position against Suicide.”

  32. Ibid. For the earlier quote, see Hewes and Steiger, UFO Missionaries Extraordinary, 89.

  33. Heaven’s Gate, “Our Position against Suicide.”

  34. Balch and Taylor, “Making Sense of the Heaven’s Gate Suicides,” 221.

  35. Heaven’s Gate, “Our Position against Suicide.”

  36. Jeffrey Kaplan, Radical Religion in America: Millenarian Movements from the Far Right to the Children of Noah (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1997).

  37. For more on the Branch Davidians, see James D. Tabor and Eugene V. Gallagher, Why Waco? (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995); Stuart A Wright, Armageddon in Waco: Critical Perspectives on the Branch Davidian Conflict (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995).

  38. This account is found in Book VII, verse 400, of Flavius Josephus, The Jewish War, trans. H. St. J. Thackeray, vol. 3 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997), 419.

  39. For more on Jonestown, see Chidester, Salvation and Suicide; Rebecca Moore, Understanding Jonestown and the Peoples Temple (New York: Praeger, 2009).

  40. DiAngelo, Beyond Human Mind, 49.

  41. Derek Humphry, Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying (New York: Dell, 1991), 110–13.

  42. For more on the possible use of weaponry, see Balch and Taylor, “Making Sense of the Heaven’s Gate Suicides,” 222.

  43. DiAngelo, Beyond Human Mind, 55.

  44. Heaven’s Gate, “’95 Statement by an E.T. Presently Incarnate,” 1:9; Stmody, “Evolutionary ‘Rights’ for ‘Victims’,” A:76.

  45. Neoody reports that Alxody and Vrnody were first to have the procedure done, in winter 1995 when the group was living in Phoenix. Sawyer indicates that Srrody underwent the procedure a year earlier in California, and that he himself was supposed to be the second volunteer but complications from Srrody’s procedure led to the cancelation of his operation. DiAngelo, Beyond Human Mind, 57–58; Sawyer, “Two Witnesses Ti Do Father Jesus Part 12 Castration Suicide Born Again UFO Luciferians,” http://sawyerhg.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/two-witnesses-ti-do-father-jesus-part-12-castration-suicide-born-again-ufoluciferians/.

  46. Todd S. Purdum, “Death in a Cult: The Inquiry; Last 2 Names of Cult Members Are Listed as Investigators Try to Find Their Families,” New York Times, 1 April 1997, A18.

  47. DiAngelo, Beyond Human Mind, 58.

  48. Balch, email to author, October 16, 2013.

  49. Heaven’s Gate, How and When “Heaven’s Gate” May Be Entered, 1:1–2.

  50. Heaven’s Gate, “Undercover Jesus Surfaces (Www.Indirect.Com/Www/Lillo),” (UseNet Post, 13 October 1995, Message-ID: <44a1do$69@news1.channel1.com>, 1995).

  51. Ibid.

  52. The group included an “edited/updated” version of this posting in their anthology that omits this description, but here I refer to the original UseNet posting.

  53. Heaven’s Gate, How and When “Heaven’s Gate” May Be Entered, 1:2.

  54. Balch, email to author, October 16, 2013.

  55. Heaven’s Gate, How and When “Heaven’s Gate” May Be Entered, 1:2.

  56. Heaven’s Gate, “E.T. Speaks: Ufo’s / Space Aliens / Reboot Civilization” (UseNet Post, 13 October 1995, Message-ID: <45m7sm$o9q@ddi2.digital.net>, 1995).

  57. Ibid.

  58. Several scholars have remarked upon the parallels between Q and various forms of the divine. For the most extended of such considerations, see Ross Shepard Kraemer, William Cassidy, and Susan L. Schwartz, Religions of Star Trek (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001), 49–56.

  59. P.H., “Re: E.T. Speaks: Ufo’s / Space Aliens / Reboot Civilization,” (UseNet Post, 17 October 1995, Message-ID: <45t0qn$nou@status.gen.nz>, 1995).

  60. D.F., “Re: E.T. Speaks: Ufo’s / Space Aliens / Reboot Civilization,” (UseNet Post, 19 October 1995, Message-ID: <466d0i$2qs@portal.gmu.edu>, 1995).

  61. C.C., “Re: E.T. Speaks: Ufo’s / Space Aliens / Reboot Civilization,” (UseNet Post, 18 October 1995, Message-ID: <4626qt$bvv@noc.usfca.edu>, 1995).

  62. T.B., “Re: E.T. Speaks: Ufo’s / Space Aliens / Reboot Civilization,” (UseNet Post, 18 October 1995, Message-ID: <30854839.5625@freeway.net>, 1995).

  63. Ellipses in original. R.S., “Re: E.T. Speaks: Ufo’s / Space Aliens / Reboot Civilization” (UseNet Post, 16 October 1995, Message-ID: , 1995).

  64. Ellipses in original. J.K., “Re: E.T. Speaks: Ufo’s / Space Aliens / Reboot Civilization,” (UseNet Post, 26 October 1995, Message-ID: <46okgl$buc@uwm.edu>, 1995).

  65. UseNet archives are available through several sources. Interested readers should consult an Internet search engine to find the current archives.

  66. Heaven’s Gate, How and When “Heaven’s Gate” May Be Entered, 1:2.

  67. These posts were most easily accessible from the archives of Rkkody’s website, Rkkody, “Newsgroup Postings,” http://www.rkkody.com/rkk/rkkpost.htm [Defunct].

  68. Ellipses added by author. Quoted in Balch and Taylor, “Making Sense of the Heaven’s Gate Suicides,” 221.

  69. Paul DiMaggio et al., “Social Implications of the Internet,” Annual Review of Sociology 27(2001): 307.

  70. Ibid., 308.

  71. See, for example, Thomas, “Web of Death.”

  72. Urban takes the strongest position in this regard, though he admittedly is interested not in Heaven’s Gate itself but the condition of religion in late modernity. Urban, “The Devil at Heaven’s Gate,” 269.

  73. “Heaven’s Last Mission,” 1:2.

  74. Neoody, email to author, October 5, 2013.

  75. On the authorship of the anthology, see DiAngelo, Beyond Human Mind, 58.

  76. Mrcody and Srfody, oral history and interview.

  77. Heaven’s Gate, “How and When ‘Heaven’s Gate’ (The Door to the Physical Kingdom Level Above Human) May Be Entered: An Anthology by Representatives from the Kingdom of Heaven.”

  78. Jwnody, “Overview of the Present Mission,” ix.

  79. Neoody reports that Dvvody’s husband did not join because of health problems, but he himself told Balch and Taylor that he simply did not accept them or their message. Dvvody does not provide any clear indication. DiAngelo, Beyond Human Mind, 101; Balch, email to author, October 16, 2013; Dvvody, Exit Video (Rancho Santa Fe, CA, 1997).

  80. Heaven’s Gate, “Last Chance to Evacuate Earth before It’s Recycled [Transcript of Videotape].”

  81. Heaven’s Gate, “Planet About to Be Recycled—Your Only Chance to Survive—Leave with Us [Edited Transcript].”

  82. Heaven’s Gate, “Last Chance to Evacuate Earth before It’s Recycled [Transcript of Videotape].”

  83. Heaven’s Gate, “Planet About to Be Recycled—Your Only Chance to Survive—Leave with Us [Edited Transcript].”

  84. Michael Cook, Muhammad (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983), 31–41.

  85. Margit Warburg, Baha’i, Studies in Contemporary Religions (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 2003), 9–10.

  86. Jan Shipps, Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985), 69–71.

  87. Nathan O. Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989), 167–70.

  88. Heaven’s Gate, “Planet About to Be Recycled—Your Only Chance to Survive—Leave with Us [Edited Transcript].”

  89. The most succinct version of this perspective is the statement that the Two provided for UFO Missionaries Extraordinary. Applewhite and Nettles, “A Statement Prepared by the Two,” 167–68.

  90. Hewes and Steiger, UFO Missionaries Extraordinary, 98.
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  91. Heaven’s Gate, “Last Chance to Evacuate Earth before It’s Recycled [Transcript of Videotape].”

  92. Mrcody and Srfody, oral history and interview.

  93. Heaven’s Gate, “Last Chance to Evacuate Earth before It’s Recycled [Transcript of Videotape].”

  94. Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003).

  95. Ibid., 2.

  96. Ibid., 60.

  97. Ibid., 123.

  98. Ibid., 60.

  99. See, for example, Heaven’s Gate, “’88 Update.”

  100. Ibid., 3:17–18.

  101. Stmody, “Evolutionary ‘Rights’ for ‘Victims’,” A:76–A:77.

  102. Srrody, “Earth Exit Statement: Why We Must Leave at This Time,” http://www.heavensgate.com/exitsrr.htm.

  103. Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy, 20.

  104. Heaven’s Gate, “Beyond Human—the Last Call, Session 12,” 4:159–60.

  105. DiAngelo, Beyond Human Mind, 102.

  106. Heaven’s Gate, “Connecting Links.”

  107. David J. Eicher, “Here Comes Hale-Bopp,” Astronomy 24, no. 2 (1996): 68.

  108. Ibid.

  109. Scientific American, “The Trail of Hale-Bopp,” http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-trail-of-hale-bopp.

  110. Wayne Horowitz, “Halley’s Comet and Judean Revolts Revisited,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 58, no. 3 (1996); William E. Phipps, “The Magi and Halley’s Comet,” Theology Today 43, no. 1 (1986); E. S. Kennedy, “Comets in Islamic Astronomy and Astrology,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 16, no. 1 (1957).

  111. Ronald L. Numbers, Science and Christianity in Pulpit and Pew (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 14.

  112. Daniel Wojcik, “Embracing Doomsday: Faith, Fatalism, and Apocalyptic Beliefs in the Nuclear Age,” Western Folklore 55, no. 4 (1996).

  113. Anlody, “Investments,” A:98.

  114. Andrea Adelson, “After Midnight, a Radio Talk Show Is Growing Coast to Coast,” New York Times, May 18, 1998, D7.

  115. Ray LaFontaine, “Talk Radio’s Comet Caper,” Washington Post, February 23, 1997, C5.

  116. Ibid.

  117. Ibid.

  118. David J. Tholen and Olivier Hainaut, “Fraudulent Use of a Ifa/Uh Picture,” http://www.eso.org/~ohainaut/Hale_Bopp/hb_ufo_tholen.html.

  119. Farsight Institute, “Farsight Professional 1: Hale-Bopp” http://web.archive.org/web/19970228025402/http://www.farsight.org/et/prof/Hale_Bopp/p2.html.

  120. Farsight Institute, “Professional Et Examples: Hale-Bopp,” http://web.archive.org/web/19970228024034/http://www.farsight.org/et/prof/Hale_Bopp/.

  121. Farsight Institute, “Student Project: Hale-Bopp,” http://web.archive.org/web/19970228025429/http://farsight.org/et/prof/Hale_Bopp/boppproject/.

  122. Art Bell, “The Art Bell Web Page: Hale-Bopp Companion,” http://web.archive.org/web/19961219235158/http://www.artbell.com/art/halebopp.html.

  123. While no web archive exists of Shramek’s web page in early 1997, one can compare the December 24, 1996 archive and May 8, 1999 archives to determine what materials did and did not change during that time period. Chuck Shramek, “The Great Comet of 1997,” http://web.archive.org/web/19961224064739/http://www.neosoft.com/~cshramek/.; Chuck Shramek, “The Chuck Shramek Home Page: Ufo’s over Washington!” http://web.archive.org/web/19991014003523/ http://www.neosoft.com/%7Ecshramek/.

  124. Balch and Taylor, “Making Sense of the Heaven’s Gate Suicides,” 223.

  125. Heaven’s Gate, “Heaven’s Gate—How and When It May Be Entered.”

  126. The group’s final financial ledgers are in the possession of Mrcody and Srfody of the TELAH Foundation, and I thank them for permission to examine them.

  127. In addition to the actual ledgers, see also Ayres, “Cult’s Self-Denial Left Room for Pizza and Trip to Las Vegas,” 16.

  128. Srrody, Exit Video (Rancho Santa Fe, CA, 1997).

  129. Yrsody, Exit Video (Rancho Santa Fe, CA, 1997).

  130. Glnody, “Earth Exit Statement: Why We Must Leave at This Time,” http://www.heavensgate.com/exitgln.htm.

  131. Heaven’s Gate, “Exit Press Release.”

  132. Mrcody and Srfody, oral history and interview; Crlody, “The Aftermath of Heaven’s Gate.”

  133. Crlody, “The Aftermath of Heaven’s Gate.”

  134. The “Comm Center Daily Log” is in the possession of Mrcody and Srfody of the TELAH Foundation, and I thank them for permission to examine it.

  135. Crlody, “The Truth and Lies of Heaven’s Gate.”

  NOTES TO THE AFTERWORD

  1. Robert Hilton, “First Watch: Django Django’s ‘Hail Bop’,” National Public Radio, http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2012/07/24/157232208/first-watch-django-djangos-hail-bop.

  2. Django Django, “Django Django—Hail Bop (Official Video),” YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JQGTORbJgB4.

  3. Hilton, “First Watch: Django Django’s ‘Hail Bop’.”

  4. Amazon.com, “E-Squared: Nine Do-It-Yourself Energy Experiments That Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality,” http://www.amazon.com/E-Squared-Do-It-Yourself-Experiments-Thoughts-Reality/dp/1401938906/.

  5. Jay P. Dolan, The American Catholic Experience: A History from Colonial Times to the Present (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1992); Jonathan D. Sarna, American Judaism: A History (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004).

  6. Stark and Finke, Acts of Faith; Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge, The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1985); Jon Butler, Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990); Albanese, A Republic of Mind and Spirit.

  7. Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity.

  8. Craig James Hazen, The Village Enlightenment in America: Popular Religion and Science in the Nineteenth Century (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000).

  9. David J. Rhees, “Corporate Advertising, Public Relations and Popular Exhibits: The Case of Du Pont,” History & Technology 10, no. 1/2 (1993).

  10. Paul S. Boyer, By the Bomb’s Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994).

  11. Zeller, Prophets and Protons.

  12. Thomas Robbins and Susan J. Palmer, Millennium, Messiahs, and Mayhem: Contemporary Apocalyptic Movements (New York: Routledge, 1997); Wessinger, How the Millennium Comes Violently.

  13. Rapture Ready, “Rapture Ready,” Rapture Ready, http://www.raptureready.com; Samaritan Sentinel, “Samaritan Sentinel,” https://samaritansentinel.com/Home_Page.php; Rapture Watch, “Rapture Watch: A Global, End Times Prophecy Resource,” Rapture Watch, http://www.rapturewatch.net; Prophecy News Watch, “Prophecy News Watch: Biblical Prophecy in the News,” Prophecy News Watch, http://www.prophecynewswatch.com.

  14. Christopher S. Parker, Change They Can’t Believe In: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in America (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013).

  15. Manuel Castells, Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2012).

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

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