(Marshall Applewhite. Picture credit: imdb)*Please be aware that I will be sharing some disturbing details in this post regarding death and, mental health issues, depressive themes and abuse. As always I have tried to be as sensitive as I can be with the details without taking away the facts of the case*
''God has sent us here as an experiment, so you might call us Guinea & Pig.'' - Marshall Applewhite
I've written about a few cults over the years and I may have mentioned this particular one briefly in the past but there's no getting away from the fact that when cults come up in conversation, Heaven's Gate is often one that is commonly mentioned. Who could forget the totally bonkers leader 'Marshall Applewhite'. If he was around today and you saw one of his videos, you'd be forgiven for believing it to be an AI creation and somebody's idea of a joke. I don't know how to describe his 'preachy' videos other than it's like you are on some type of drug, hallucinating. It's not just the whole aesthetic of his videos, it's him....he almost doesn't look real.
All jokes aside, as out there as this cult appeared to be and certainly were, things quickly turned sour and in the end misguided (and I believe to be, quite lonely and mentally ill) people decided to take their lives. Cults are dangerous and I don't need to tell you why. They always start with the best of intentions and are like a haven for those who feel on the edge of society, lost, lonely, not loved by their parents or family. Life is hard at times as we all know and from the cults I have researched in the past it's always the same types of people who join them. People who have struggled and they just want somewhere to belong and accepted. When you find yourself lonely and then a group of people come along who can relate to you 100%, they feel exactly the same way that you may feel and then suddenly you don't feel alone anymore and that these people are your family. It's a very powerful thing to feel accepted and have (what appears to be) people around you who just want the best for you.
Cults can be addictive, it's like one big group of people under some sort of hypnosis and there's always a 'leader' at the helm of it all, a true master of manipulation who is often quite likeable and charismatic. The likes of Charles Manson and Jim Jones are looked back on with a lot of anger but can you imagine being back in those times before things turned sour, the way these men were able to attract people to them, hold people's attention, gain their trust and admiration is something that is very intriguing, not everyone can do that. I'm not talking about these guys like they are something to be admired I'm talking about their ability to reel vulnerable people in as if to cast a spell on them. With Manson, of course, he used drugs and alcohol in his manipulation tactics whereas others just simply learned the weaknesses of their followers and exploited them.
Please check out some of the other cults that i have previously written about, I recommend checking out:
- The Most Evil Cult Leader In History? Roch Theriault
- The Narcosatanists & The Gruesome Kidnapping & Murder of Mark Kilroy
So, how did the infamous Heaven's Gate cult begin in the first place? The foundations began in 1972 when Marshall Applewhite met a woman who he would form a deep emotional bond with, her name was Bonnie Nettles. They weren't lovers, Bonnie was already married and Marshall was a closeted gay man who for one reason or another tried to reject this side of himself, his father was a Presbyterian minister so he was brought up in quite a strict, religious household. Marshall had previously been married to a woman in a way hoping that the feelings that he would have for other men would go away, they didn't, the marriage ended in divorce in 1968. Marshall and Bonnie were both very religious with a fixation on UFOs and the paranormal and just seemed to click and understand each other. Bonnie (who worked as a nurse) had a keen interest in astrology so they would often have deep conversations about life and the universe. The pair were convinced that they had known each other in a past life.
Marshall had previously been involved in a scandal as he had lost his former professor of music position at a college for having an intimate relationship with one of his male students. Back in those times and being as religious as they and the community were, thoughts towards homosexuality were quite backward and ignorant, people who were known to be openly gay would lose their jobs and be shunned in society.
As Marshall continued to deny his sexuality it seemed to plunge him more and more into a breakdown which he was also trying to deny. Marshall and Bonnie studied the bible meticulously and came up with their own ideas and interpretations. They were convinced that they were both the chosen messengers from God and that the two witnesses mentioned in the Book of Revelation was them. They believed that they had been brought back in their bodies (which they described as 'vehicles') to spread an important message. The two of them were 100% serious about all of this and the pair fed off of each other. Whilst all of this was going on they were involved in petty crime involving the use of a credit card that they claimed had belonged to a follower on theirs (the lady agreed that she gave them permission to use the credit card). Marshall was also sentenced to 6 months in prison for stealing a car so I don't know what kind of message from God this was supposed to be sending. Anyway, fast forward to Marshall now being out of prison, pairing up with Bonnie again and they begin their own fellowship which they called 'The Crew'. They were heavily focused on tying in both religion and their obsession with UFOs and would give open recruitment style programmes to various people who had come to see them. Some people did actually join them.
(Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles. Picture credit: foxnews)In the beginning they had a small number of followers but that soon grew and over the years they had used a variety of nicknames for each other that they insisted on their followers addressing them as such as 'Do and Ti' and 'Bo and Peep'. Marshall's decent into madness continued to go on and he was now convinced that he was at one with Jesus Christ. Former members have said that they believed that Marshall was not a 'con-artist', they believed in him because they could see that he really believed these things to be true, he had convinced himself. In the videos where he preaches about God and that his followers are on earth for a short period of time before they rise up to the 'level above human' in their bodies (or as he called them, 'vehicles'), he speaks passionately, you could say that he was a con artist but in my opinion this was man who was insane beyond control.
In the mid 70s, Marshall decided that they were no longer going to go on these 'recruitment drives' and took the followers that they had already acquired into hiding. They shut themselves off from the outside world and rules were put in place, no sex, no drugs, no alcohol. The followers had believed that Bonnie had been a 'special being' so when she had died of cancer, Marshall had to come up with a way to explain her death and he managed to manipulate the followers (who hung on every word he said) that he was now going to be able to work through Bonnie and take on the role fully as leader who would guide them to the level above human.
They emerged again towards the 1990s via a website they had created called 'Higher Source'' and they would use this site for various projects including recruiting new followers. As well as the ban on sex, drugs and alcohol. Some of the members had gone through castration. The women had cut off their hair and wore baggy clothing. They would fast and try different diets and they had been cut off from their family and friends for years. Marshall had convinced his followers that the comet Hale-Bopp was going to be their sign that the time had come for them to evolve (basically leave their 'vehicles' bodies to go back to where they belonged).
Marshall was aware that the outside world had been writing articles about his 'cult' and the followers also became aware of this. One wonders if he began to feel like he was losing control of them. Some of the followers expressed an interest in visiting their relatives, in some cases Marshall did allow them a short visit to really decide if they wanted to join the others later in the kingdom above heaven when the time came. For him to do that showed an air of confidence, he believed he had such a hold over them that they would come back and most of them did. I remember watching a documentary years ago about Heaven's Gate and there was a woman who was a Heaven's Gate member and she had made a phone call out of the blue after so long, to her parents, they were shocked to hear from her. The phone call came across as odd because the relationship between the woman and her parents seemed tense, strange, like it had always been like that. Her mother especially came across as quite critical and there was a coldness to the whole thing. In a way you (or at least I) could sense that maybe that was part of the reason this woman ended up in this cult, because she had such a uncomfortable, almost loveless relationship with her parents (I could be wrong but that's how it came across to me). Her mother at one point asked her what she had been eating and said ''You're not getting fat are you?''. They just struck me as the type of parents who were not the type that praised her.
So, the majority of anyone who did go back to their families for a visit, did return but some did not. In October 1996 they rented a huge mansion in California and took out 'alien abduction insurance' for each member in the event that an alien kidnapped them, experimented on them etc. They had begun to prepare for their final exit and recorded videos explaining their reasons for why they were going to 'leave this planet' and that it was their choice, that they were happy and excited to go. The tapes have been available to the public for quite some time now and they make for sad and disturbing viewing, these people really believed in everything they were saying and it is heartbreaking to watch. One can only imagine how the families of these people felt seeing their loved one speaking in such a manner and then going on to take their own life. None of us know what really went on with these people and their families but in some of the documentaries I have seen, the relatives appear to be heartbroken by what happened but they felt completely powerless.
Marshall Applewhite recorded a final video message for his followers and they began to prepare for their 'mission'. The suicides were reported to have taken place over three days. Each member was instructed to take an overdose and tie a plastic bag around their heads before laying down on their bed. Everyone was dressed in black with a pair of Nike trainers. They also had arm bands which read 'Heaven's Gate Away Team'.
''We are so excited, we don't know what we are going to do.'' - Marshall Applewhite
After it was clear that each member had passed on, another living member would arrange the bodies by taking off the plastic bags and placing a cloth over the faces. All in all, 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult had taken their lives including Marshall Applewhite. A small number of members remained and one contacted the police anonymously to tell them to check the house.
Packages of video tapes of the exit statements had been posted out to certain members and media outlets almost like they were trying to have the final say in their story.
The story of the Heaven's Gate cult is one that still continues to shock to this day, not just because of how bizarre the cult was or how Marshall Applewhite appeared, but partly because everything they did was so documented. They (or should I say, under instructions from Applewhite) had planned their suicides right down to the last detail, when it was going to happen, how it was going to happen, what they were going to wear and who would stay behind and arrange the bodies and receive the evidence, the statements of the members.
So what was all this about? what was it all for? So many people taking their lives and for what? All of this because Marshall Applewhite couldn't accept his sexuality, he forced himself to live a lie for so long that it actually drove him insane. And what of Bonnie Nettles? A married mother who ran off to be with Marshall, not in a romantic way but in this strange religious, crazy journey that they were on. A crazy fantasy that ran out of control. Were these just two very depressed and mentally ill people who just met each other at the wrong time and formed this disturbing bond where they both fuelled each other's mental illness? Who knows the real story. Whatever the case, so many people are no longer with us and it's a sad fact.
RIP to those who died and as for Marshall Applewhite? Can we hate him if he was so mentally disturbed? He led other innocent people down a path of destruction but did he do it on purpose? It's certainly is a case that will divide opinion, I would love to know yours, please leave some comments below or email me at jocaledoniankitty@gmail.com
Further Reading & Sources:
- Heaven's Gate Members Exit Videos
- Cults: A True Crime Collection | Book by Wendy Biddlecombe Agsar
- Heaven's Gate: Article | History.com
- Heaven's Gate: Article | Rolling Stone
- Heaven's Gate: Article | NBC News
- Heaven's Gate | Book by George D, Chryssides
- Heaven's Gate | Book by Charles Rivers Editors
- The Little Book of Cults | Book by Jamie King
- The Kingdom of Cults | Book by Walter Martin
Thank you as always for taking the time to read my latest post and I hope to see you on my socials as well as in my next post.
Take care until next time x
No comments:
Post a Comment