The Heaven’s Gate Cult

Just the Gist

In 1987, San Diego police discovered the bodies of 37 people in a house. They all had matching haircuts, matching outfits, and infamously - matching Nike sneakers. These were the members of the Heaven’s agate cult, and they had decided to ‘graduate’ from their human forms, so they could ride the Hale-Bopp comet to Heaven.

Led by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles (also called ‘Ti and Do’), Heaven’s Gate initially seemed like a bunch of of eccentric alien believers, until they orchestrated one of the most shocking mass suicides in modern history. (Unless you believe them, in which case, they just hitched a ride to Planet Heaven on a spaceship comet and lived happily ever after.)

This episode deals with suicide and body mutilation so please take care while listening. If you want to talk to someone about it, Lifeline is available 24 hours a day on 13 11 14.

We give you just the gist, but if you want more, there's this:

Watch the incredible documentary “Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults” on Binge https://binge.com.au/shows/show-heaven-s-gate-the-cult-of-cults!9107

If you just want a quick 5 minute glimpse of Marshall’s manic video sermons and of the footage of the crime scene released to the media, here’s a quick news clip that gives you the essentials https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlrcUeUt8XU

Listen to the excellent podcast series “Heaven’s Gate” https://open.spotify.com/episode/3CM9Usux78Xf6nw9epKGko

Peruse the cult’s website, a relic of 90s internet design https://www.heavensgate.com/

Read some news reports from 1997 worth reading https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/02/us/former-cultists-warn-of-believers-now-adrift.html

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/national/042897suicide-cult.html

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