How did Heavens Gate Begin?
Who started it?On March 16th, 1972 Marshall Herff Applewhite AKA Do(shown on top left) met Bonnie Lu Nettles(shown on bottom left) while trying to get over his sexual confusion. He was put into a hospital for his uncertainty about his homosexuality, which is where he met his long lost wife Bonnie. After talking with each other about his problems, they decided to start recruiting people that believed they could easily influence. By holding meetings and putting posters all over big cities, they recruited over a hundred people into their cult. During these meetings, they were very straight forward about all of the ways in which they believed. Back in the 70’s there were a lot of questions in many religions, so when these members went to this meeting, Do filled in all of the missing pieces. All of the questions everyone once had were now answered. This was now a breaking point for not only the members that I have interviewed, but many others as well(Ramsland)
Applewhite and Nettles taught them that the earth was simply a garden for growing souls. When they were ready to leave the garden, a spaceship would come down to earth and take them to heaven to spend the rest of their lives with God.. This made for
elements of higher level discipline and lessons that only improved the way that we behaved with each other. Human reactions and emotions were removed from the equation and we performed in ways that were clearly above anything on this planet.” These people committed their entire lives to be a part of this group. Initiated members abstained from not only sex, but any sexual thoughts at all. Do had complete control over each member in this group, so much control that many people trust that they were hypnotized. To “regular” people, it seems ridiculous that anyone would give up that many things to one person, but it’s what they did and they were content with it.(Tollenaere) |