The Heaven’s Gate American Religious Group
1. Introduction The Heaven’s Gate American religious group is one of great notoriety due to its atypical beliefs and short lived existence that culminated in a mass suicide. They are considered a UFO religious group due to their belief system and experienced a large popularization really only after their dissolution – making their history short but the mark they made on religious history profound.
2. History To begin, Heaven’s Gate was formed in the years of 1972 to 1975 by two individuals, named Bonnie Lu Nettles and Marshall Herff Applewhite but regarded as Ti and Do to their followers, respectively (Bromley and Melton 210). When they met each other they both had been uneasy of typical ideologies …show more content…
Beliefs There are many general beliefs that the Heaven’s Gate cult prescribed to, however there are several very core beliefs that they stuck to from beginning to end and preached diligently to their followers. By understanding their understandings, their history and eventual, shocking demise makes more sense. Ti and Do believed that around 2000 years ago extra-terrestrials visited Earth from the Kingdom of Heaven and used Jesus’ body to spread their message. From here, Do asserted that this extra-terrestrial spirit embodied his physical form, and that he was sent to “harvest others” before the Earth could be recycled and all life wiped clean – certainly becoming this Christ figure that he sought for from the very beginning (“The Heaven’s Gate Cult”). They fiercely believed in the beginning that a UFO would pick them up from Earth, often times sitting outside and watching for their vehicle’s arrival (“The Heaven’s Gate …show more content…
As a UFO based religion, they were certainly unique in their history, with little organization other than a teacher – student relationship between the two founders and the members, and their only practicing institution being their rented mansion in California. Additionally, their small, reclusive nature after recruiting their group of followers allowed them to essentially go unnoticed up until their infamous mass suicide. Now, they are remembered as an absurd relic of the late 1900s, only a few ex-members left to answer emails from their time capsule of a
1. Introduction The Heaven’s Gate American religious group is one of great notoriety due to its atypical beliefs and short lived existence that culminated in a mass suicide. They are considered a UFO religious group due to their belief system and experienced a large popularization really only after their dissolution – making their history short but the mark they made on religious history profound.
2. History To begin, Heaven’s Gate was formed in the years of 1972 to 1975 by two individuals, named Bonnie Lu Nettles and Marshall Herff Applewhite but regarded as Ti and Do to their followers, respectively (Bromley and Melton 210). When they met each other they both had been uneasy of typical ideologies …show more content…
Beliefs There are many general beliefs that the Heaven’s Gate cult prescribed to, however there are several very core beliefs that they stuck to from beginning to end and preached diligently to their followers. By understanding their understandings, their history and eventual, shocking demise makes more sense. Ti and Do believed that around 2000 years ago extra-terrestrials visited Earth from the Kingdom of Heaven and used Jesus’ body to spread their message. From here, Do asserted that this extra-terrestrial spirit embodied his physical form, and that he was sent to “harvest others” before the Earth could be recycled and all life wiped clean – certainly becoming this Christ figure that he sought for from the very beginning (“The Heaven’s Gate Cult”). They fiercely believed in the beginning that a UFO would pick them up from Earth, often times sitting outside and watching for their vehicle’s arrival (“The Heaven’s Gate …show more content…
As a UFO based religion, they were certainly unique in their history, with little organization other than a teacher – student relationship between the two founders and the members, and their only practicing institution being their rented mansion in California. Additionally, their small, reclusive nature after recruiting their group of followers allowed them to essentially go unnoticed up until their infamous mass suicide. Now, they are remembered as an absurd relic of the late 1900s, only a few ex-members left to answer emails from their time capsule of a