Bizzare Secrets About The Heaven’s Gate Cult

#1 They Were To Be Picked Up By A Ship Following The Hale-Bop Comet

The reasons behind how the leader was able to get his followers to commit mass suicide are very bizarre. Marshall Applewhite, the founder of the group, believed that by taking their own lives they would be able to transcend their human bodies and teleport to an alien spacecraft. He had made the followers believe that they were going to picked up a spacecraft that would then teleport them to a higher level of existence.

This was referred to as TELAH– The Evolutionary Level Above Human. The followers of his teachings were almost hypnotized by Applewhite, who told them that the starship was following in the tail of the 1997 Hale-Bopp comet, which was visible to the naked eye that year from almost everywhere on earth. So the date for their planned deaths was set, and they all took his teachings to heart and ended their lives.

#2 Their Leader Believed He Was Jesus Christ

Applewhite made a series of strange and creepy videos, which are still available on YouTube, claiming that he was made from the same "spirit" that created Jesus Christ. He also, like Jesus, claimed his father was not a human being. He not only believed that he was the “Present Representative” of Jesus Christ but he also told his followers that his “father” (i.e. God) had returned to Earth with him and occupied the “vessel” of his life partner, and co-founder of the group, Bonnie Nettles.

#3 The Exit Videos

The followers of Applewhite referred to themselves as The Heaven’s Gate Away Team, and they too made a series of videos which they called "exit" videos. In the clips, each member explains why they decided to give up their families, homes, income, and become members of the "religion". The videos show people who are calm and relaxed, but experts claim they appear to be on drugs or brainwashed in some manner, not understanding that they are going to die. These videos are intensely creepy when you realize that every single one of the people in them died by their own hand shortly afterward.

#4 There Were Even More Victims

Two bodies of Heaven's Gate members showed up supposedly dead by suicide in a motel room in 1997, two months after the mass suicide event that had taken place at the mansion. Wayne Cooke and Charlie Humphreys were both found face up, dressed in the trademark black clothing and purple shrouds but Humphreys was still clinging to life and paramedics were able to resuscitate him and take him to the hospital. Cooke had given an interview to ABC News saying he was sorry he had missed the big event but was still going to do it. Humphreys survived his attempt but died by his own hand in February 1998 alone in the Arizona desert.

#5 Heaven’s Gate Connection To Star Trek

Star Trek actress Nichelle Nichols who played the character Uhura in the original TV series, had a brother named Thomas, who was found dead in the Rancho Santa Fe mansion suicides. He had been a member of the cult for 11 years before his death and in his exit video he simply said, "I’m the happiest person in the world."

The group often used imagery and designs from Star Trek in its videos and on its website. There are even accounts of the group recruiting new members at early Star Trek conventions.

#6 They Didn’t All “Exit” Together

Not all of the group members died together, though that's how the story was told. The truth is, they carried it out over a three day period between the 24th and 26th of March and that they died in three groups. Each time one group would commit suicide, the next team would clean up after them. Fifteen members died in the first wave, 15 more on day two, and nine on the third day.

Applewhite, who was found alone in one of the master bedrooms, was the third last to die, followed by two women, according to autopsy reports. This just goes to show how charismatic Applewhite was, to keep the group calm enough to commit the act in shifts and clean up the messes. Nobody knows what life was really like for those victims in the days leading up to their deaths, however.

#7 How The 39 Bodies Were Discovered

Rio DiAngelo, one of the few members to leave the house, was sent a note to deliver to the police the day after the deaths. However, he opened it to read the contents and was shocked at what was happening. He had not received the letter until two days after the suicides, so he went to the mansion with a video camera before calling the police.

What he recorded was a total of 39 bodies, most of which had already begun to decompose producing a gag-inducing smell. Each one of the bodies was laid out face-up on a bed or mattress and 37 of them had a purple shroud over their face and shoulders. They were all dressed in black and wore matching Nike trainers. DiAngelo recorded the discovery on a hand-held video camera but didn’t share the video with police until 2002.

#8 Some Male Members Underwent Voluntary Castration

Applewhite spoke often in his many videos on how the next level of beings have perfect shape and form. He says they are neither male nor female, are hairless, and have no need to be different by wearing fancy clothing, make-up, or jewelry. Not wearing make-up or shaving your hair off is one thing, but Applewhite and two dozen male members underwent voluntary castration. In one video a follower refers to this experience and said it made him feel free. Applewhite claimed it made the men more aligned with the aliens.

#9 What Happened To The House They Died In?

“The Monastery”, the sprawling 9,000 square-foot residence in Rancho Santa Fe, California, was a rental that cost the cult/church $7,000 and had been rented since 1996 with monies earned from the cult's website. After all the media attention at the address, it was difficult to sell or rent it again. In fact, the owner ran into financial trouble and the residents, sick of all the media attention, joined together and bought the house. They paid $668,000 for the 7 bedroom mansion, less than half of its estimated $1.6 million value. They then bulldozed it and just to bring final closure, changed the name of the street as well.

#10 They Believed God Was An Alien

The Heaven’s Gate beliefs touched on what we now call ancient alien hypothesis. This is not a new theory nor has it died down. Many people, the Gate members included, believe the Earth was "seeded" by aliens, and the God talked about in the Bible is simply a highly developed being from the futuristic past.

Similar to Scientology, which is under heavy scrutiny lately, Heavens Gate members believed that besides these heavenly aliens there was also a race of evil space aliens, which they called Luciferians. According to Applewhite, these aliens were using all kinds of trickery to misrepresent themselves as God on Earth and that all other religions on Earth were following these evil space aliens instead of the real God.

#11 TELAH – The Evolutionary Level Above Human

Central to the belief structure of Heaven’s Gate was the belief that the earth was about to be “recycled” and that the only way to survive this would be to leave. And the only way that people could leave was by giving up everything and following Marshall Applewhite. Only then could you become eligible for membership to TELAH – The Evolutionary Level Above Human.

We now know what this also meant– that the members also needed to commit suicide in order to shed their human form and so be able to hitch a ride on the TELAH spaceship that they believed was traveling in the tail of the Hale-Bopp comet. They believed that the spaceship would take them to another world, a physical heaven where they would live in pure bliss.

#12 The Members Weren’t Just Crazy Hippies

Many think of cults or communal living as hippies or crazies. It's hard to imagine a sane and rational person getting mixed up with such a group, let alone follow the leader into death. The truth is none of his believers, who came from a number of different backgrounds and professions, were stupid. They may have been impressionable or open to suggestion but Marshall was such a brilliant manipulator that it was easy for him to get people to believe him. His charisma transformed his outlandish ideas into plausible theories and people followed him. All the way to the end.

The group even managed to convert people from far-left alternative religious backgrounds. One example was John Craig, an early recruit. At the time he joined Heaven’s Gate he was a respected Republican running for a place in the Colorado House of Representatives. But he gave it all up.

#13 They Were One Of The First Cults To Use The Internet

The World Wide Web was still in its infancy during the early nineties but Marshall Applewhite saw its potential. The group earned money for themselves by doing website design for clients under the name Higher Source. They also developed a site to recruit for themselves, Heaven's Gate.

You can still visit their official website, which is a perfect example of nineties web design and cyberculture of the time. It’s pretty eerie to do so knowing that the page basically serves as the group’s collective suicide note. Many people refer to Heaven’s Gate as one of the first examples of a cyber-sect as they used the web to communicate with their followers from all over the world.

#14 They Were Around For Nearly 30 Years Before They Made Their “Exit”

Nettles told Applewhite that 'God" had told her that someone would enter her life that would help her to carry out a divine assignment. That was in 1972. They would travel all around the country to religious meeting and revivals calling themselves 'The UFO Two'. Throughout the 70s and 80s, the group went through many name changes and their philosophy evolved a little bit as time went on. In the 90s Heaven’s Gate became reclusive, recruiting using the internet. The media reported on the group as early as 1975 but it wasn’t until the suicides in 1997 that the group really came into the spotlight.

#15 Their Leader Was Almost Certainly Suffering From Severe Mental Illness

After failing to get a singing career off the ground, being fired from his music teaching job and getting a divorce Applewhite sank into a deep depression and was hospitalized for his many mental issues that came to the surface. It was while in the mental hospital that he met Bonnie Nettles. At the time she was a psychiatric nurse who helped treat him. However, his charisma and verbiage took her off guard and the two became a couple.

Looking at his prophecies, teachings, and videos some experts say that he could have been suffering from any number of serious mental conditions, for example; bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or histrionic personality disorder. Due to his claims that he was the son of God, it’s believed that he also suffered from megalomania. People with this disorder falsely believe that they are famous or powerful and often these delusions have supernatural or religious themes.

#16 They Are Still Around

Some 20 years after the mass suicide event, you'll be shocked to learn that many members of the cult are still around. They have a modern website and updated logos but are still active. On their site's homepage, a message reads “Hale-Bopp Brings Closure to Heaven’s Gate”. In the text below is an even creepier message, frozen in time: “You may even find your ‘boarding pass’ to leave with us during this brief ‘window.'”

There is no address listed for the "church" and all messages to the email are still being answered by representatives of the TELAH foundation. Apparently, there are three or four members running the site, but the actual number of members is unknown since their whereabouts are not disclosed. Perhaps they are up there watching from above.