Strange Country Ep. 62: Heaven's Gate
Oct 11, 2018
Marshall Herff Applewhite and Bonnie Lu Nettles believed they were heavenly messengers sent from outer space to Earth to recruit humans and help them reach the next Evolutionary Level. For two decades, a handful of converts followed the teachings and worked on shedding their humannesses until they eventually shed their "containers" in a mass suicide in March 1997.
Theme music: Resting Place by A Cast of Thousands.
Cite your sources
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Feinberg, Ashley. “The Online Legacy of a Suicide Cult and the Webmasters Who Stayed Behind.” Gizmodo, Gizmodo.com, 5 Jan. 2015, gizmodo.com/the-online-legacy-of-a-suicide-cult-and-the-webmasters-1617403237.
Fisher, Marc, and Sue Ann Pressley. “Crisis of Sexuality Launched Strange Journey.” The Washington Post, 29 Mar. 1997, www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1997/03/29/crisis-of-sexuality-launched-strange-journey/3709d9ff-51ee-4f50-a9cd-a45525d7ad8f/?utm_term=.29280808a359.
Genoni, Thomas G. “Art Bell, Heaven's Gate, and Journalistic Integrity.” CSI, 1997, www.csicop.org/si/show/art_bell_heavenrsquos_gate_and_journalistic_integrity.
Hafford, Michael. “Heaven’s Gate 20 Years Later: 10 Things You Didn’t Know.” Rolling Stone, 24 Mar. 2017, www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/heavens-gate-20-years-later-10-things-you-didnt-know-114563/.
“Inside Story: Heaven’s Gate Cult.” BBC One, BBC, 6 Aug. 1997, www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00h1nt7.
Myers, Sergio, director. Heaven's Gate: The Untold Story. UFOTV, www.amazon.com/Heavens-Gate-Untold-Marshall-Applewhite/dp/B071XNRVKW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1534795461&sr=8-1&keywords=heaven's gate the untold story.
Phelan, James S. “Looking for: The Next World.” The New York Times Magazine, 29 Feb. 1976, archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/national/mag.html.
Purdum, Todd S. “Former Heaven's Gate Member Commits Suicide.” The New York Times, 7 May 1997, archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/national/050797heavens-gate.html.
Rainey, James. “The Cult in Hindsight : Diamond Bar Woman Recalls Group's Beginning and the Unease That Turned Into a Crusade Against It.” Los Angeles Times, 30 Mar. 1997, articles.latimes.com/1997-03-30/news/mn-43687_1_diamond-bar.
Steinberg, Jacques. “From Religious Childhood to Reins of a U.F.O. Cult.” The New York Times, 29 Mar. 1997, www.nytimes.com/1997/03/29/us/from-religious-childhood-to-reins-of-a-ufo-cult.html.
“Suicide Cult's Possessions Auctioned Off.” The New York Times, 22 Nov. 1999, www.nytimes.com/1999/11/22/us/suicide-cult-s-possessions-auctioned-off.html.
Zeller, Benjamin E. “Anatomy of a Mass Suicide: The Dark, Twisted Story behind a UFO Death Cult.” Salon, Salon.com, 15 Nov. 2014, www.salon.com/2014/11/15/anatomy_of_a_mass_suicide_the_dark_twisted_story_behind_a_ufo_death_cult/.
Zeller, Benjamin E. Heaven's Gate: America's UFO Religion. NYU Press, 2014.