Written by: Riyaj Kuikel - 23035, Grade XI
Posted on: 07 April, 2022
Cult is defined as a movement that follows a set of beliefs that other people find strange or fail to understand and praises the leader as a god-like figure.Most of the cults have a negative implication in our society.Most of the cults insists that they are not cults and no one in a cult realizes that they are in a cult.The members of a cult have a very rigid belief and are firm believer that their beliefs are absolutely right.
There have been many cults throughout history but the infamous “Heaven’s gate cult'' also known as the cult of the cults is one of the most interesting one. The heaven’s gate cult was founded in 1974 and led by Bonnie Nettles and Marshall Applewhite who were known as Ti and Do within the cult.Applewhite who was fired from University of St. Thomas for having an alleged relationship with one of his male students met Nettles, a 44 years old married nurse with a keen interest in theosophy and Biblical prophecy in 1972 while visiting a friend in a hospital and together went on a spiritual journey attracting several hundreds of people in the mid 1970’s.They studied various teaching of Christology, asceticism, and eschatology together.Later in october 1996 Applewhite and his followers created a which outlines his belief about heaven’ gate and how to enter it. He believed that the humans can transform their body chemically and biologically transform their body into next level alien .That they can physically get on aboard on a ufo which was on the tail of Hale-Bopp comet which would sail off to heaven .Applewhite persuaded his followers to prepare for ritual mass sucide so that their souls can board the supposed UFO.He believed that the UFO would take their souls to another level of existence which was above the human existence. Then the members of the cult started preparing and videotaping a farewell message.
Then On march 26 1997 police entered a mansion in San Diego,California where they found 39 dead bodies, 21 women and 18 men of the members of the heaven’s gate cult all of them wearing identical black Nikes and tracksuits covered in purple shrouds .The police found that they died from eating applesauce mixed with phenobarbital and washing it down with vodka.
