Heaven's Gate

“Cults are religious groups who express their similar and sometimes “unique” beliefs together”("Religious Violence"). Characteristics of a typical cult include a leader’s continuous efforts to gain influence and control over members thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. “Anti-cult activists and scholars have all come to describe cults as groups that physically, mentally, emotionally, and materially exploit and manipulate their followers” ("Suicide Cults"). The members show extreme loyalty and…

consider the childhoods of Michal and Katurian Katurian of The Pillowman, Abigail Williams of The Crucible, and Emily Bas-Thornton of A High Wind in Jamaica, reason and sense are truly asleep. When these four characters finally arrive at the pearly gates, the two that find themselves welcomed into heaven are Katurian of The Pillowman and Abigail Williams of The Crucible. The first new addition to heaven is Katurian. He has been accepted into heaven because of his willingness to take part of…

Referred to as “hypnopedia,” Huxley addresses the problem of brainwashing, a problem that in today’s world is not in the lure of soma and Obstacle Golf, but in the government, religion, and media that controls the masses. Brainwashing is defined as the action of “making someone adopt radically different beliefs by using systematic and often forcible pressure”. The term "brainwashing" was coined by Edward Hunter—a CIA operative also working as a journalist. Hunter exposed that the Chinese…

In Sonnet 29, the narrator examines his life that he has been dealt. Shakespeare uses poetic devices to describe the speaker’s emotional progression from a depressed soul to a happy lover. In Quatrain 1, Shakespeare introduces the life topic of depression; as the narrator battles this within himself, a conflict is presented to the audience. The narrator “beweep[s] [his] outcast state,” which translates the narrator’s discontentment with his life. An outcast is a person who has been rejected by a…

other group with the savages. This shows that influence takes a large role in how we act. This can be connected to an example of peer pressure. Everything we do influences one person of another in any sort of way. Furthermore, this connects to Heaven’s Gate, a cult that was lead by Marshall Applewhite with beliefs of souls being “transported to a spaceship trailing the Hale-Bopp comet” (Zennie). Applewhite preached that “denying themselves worldly comforts, sex and physical affection,…

Wind howled at sunset leafs and the swollen silver moon rose from its uncoiled grave as the sun nestled once more into the grip of heaven's edge. Those nights you could smell autumn in the air, and even a deaf man would have heard the season’s calls, light and entangled with icy breath. The pathway flooded with crisp yellow leaves turned soggy from mid-night's rain. The gate would rust over and I would often think to myself that it was stardust the heavens had sprinkled onto the exit. It was no…

“Memories of Things Unseen” states the importance of the study of memory and gives examples of how people’s memory can be changed based on external suggestions. The article talks about false memory and how people’s memories can be altered just by being questioning or having an instance mentioned to them. The article states many studies and events where this has occurred, especially during crime scene investigations where the longer the person is investigated, the more prone they are to…

A religious typology is the classification of religious groups according to their distinguishing characteristics. Sociologists have divided these characteristics into four main types of voluntary religious communities: Church type, Sect type, Denomination type and Cult type. Church organizations are those within founded religions whose members share a religious commitment to a spiritual life. Church type communities are made of larger structures and are concerned with maintaining doctrine,…

An overall theme within Shakespearean sonnets is love (Mabillard 2009). “Sonnet 29” addresses the conflict between love and self representation within a young man. In the first eight lines, the octave, the young man portrays himself as an “outcast” (Clauson 2009). The young man’s portrayal of himself, as an outcast, is emphasized throughout the octave through the man’s envy of what other men possess. The octave is then followed by the setset, in which the young man decides to change his “state”…

standards if he wants to get through Hell and Purgatory to reach Heaven. Just before entering The City of Dis, Dante (author) tries to show the limitations of human power when Virgil relies on Heaven’s messenger for gaining entrance to Dis. “I knew well he was Heaven’s messenger, […] He came up to the gate, and with a wand, he opened it, for there was no resistance.” (Canto IX. 85-90) One could talk about Dante’s views by his ranking of sins. This is because it seems that his discussion on…