Heaven's Gate

Wow, this book was a lot.

I've always been intrigued by cults like Waco, Jonestown, and the most out of this world cult, Heaven's Gate. Heaven's Gate was led by Marshall Herff Applewhite and his wife, Bonnie Lu Nettles. Their group was significantly different from the others for a number of reasons. Let's start with the belief in UFO's. At the time of writing this post, it's 2022. We've now been told that there are other life forces out there (which, duh), but the government has actually acknowledged it now. But when Heaven's Gate formed in the 1970's, people were skeptical of UFO's and aliens. Heaven's Gate didn't just believe in these things, they also believed that they would be taken upon a spacecraft and transported to another world.

They also practiced celibacy, going as far as castrating several male members of the group including Applewhite himself. That alone sets them apart from many, many cults or fringe religious groups. Some people believed that Applewhite struggled with his sexual identity and this was his way of dealing with it. That seems a little extreme to me, but it was mentioned in the book.

Heaven's Gate: Cult Suicide in San Diego presents some bizarre theories that I feel need mentioning. Since it's publication in 1997, the internet has absolutely exploded. But at the time, the "World Wide Web" caught a lot of heat after the mass suicide of 39 members of the Heaven's Gate Cult. Many called the group things like "UFO Computer Cultists," "Computer Cult," "Internet Wackos." The internet was blamed for creating a forum for Applewhite to attract new members into his wild group.

This book also really needed a proofreader. There were so many basic grammatical errors and misspellings. But if you can move past that, there is valuable information about Heaven's Gate within it's pages. But there's also a slew of misinformation given what we know now.