Heaven's Gate 20th Anniversary Discussion

>>18819229
I remember when this happened, and watching the hale bopp comet in the sky, i was in my teens at the time.

If I remember correctly, they believed that the uvo they went up to after death was hidden behind the comet.

I think they should be remembered as a warning to the dangers of allowing others to manipulate the way you think.

Some stuff I would put out there, for starters:

>Here Be Monsters, Episode 43 (July 22, 2015)

Podcast with a general overview of Heaven's gate, but more interestingly, a focused looked at former member Steven Hill's life within, and after-leaving the group.

http://www.hbmpodcast.com/podcast/hbm043-last-chance-to-evacuate-earth

(More about Steven can be found here, from this Washington Post story written roughly a month after the events of March 22-March 26: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/05/02/the-purgatory-behind-heavens-gate/42f37e94-ef34-4955-8517-527bc5c72e9a/)
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>As Families Grieve, a Portrait Emerges of Cult's Final Days . . . Members prepared for trip, held a last supper at a restaurant. Some had given up jobs and abandoned their families to pursue nomadic life. (Los Angeles Times, 3/29/97)

Probably among the more humanizing looks at the members of Heaven's Gate you'll see, post-suicides.

http://articles.latimes.com/1997-03-29/news/mn-43284_1_cult-member

I've always really liked this quote

>"Tonight . . . forget about the world for a minute, go outside, look up in the northwest and take a look at this comet. It's a beautiful object. It's lovely. It's one of the most magnificent celestial objects you will ever see. But for all its beauty, its magnificence, its splendor, all it is is a dirty snowball that's orbiting the sun," Hale said. "Nothing more."

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>At The Gates Of Heaven (Orlando Sentinel, 6/8/97)

>Dick Joslyn Spent 15 Years As A Member Of The Heavens Gate Cult. He Left To Find His Own Way And Today Is Trying To Explain The Hearts And Minds Of 39 Others Who Stayed Behind.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1997-06-08/news/9706050500_1_heaven-joslyn-teachings-of-jesus

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https://sawyerhg.wordpress.com

A former member of the group, who still maintains an active online presence

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>>18819255
If you've ever wanted to know more about why the Heaven's Gate website (heavensgate.com) is still online, this is a good starting point:


>The Online Legacy of a Suicide Cult and the Webmasters Who Stayed Behind (Gizmodo, 9/17/14)

http://gizmodo.com/the-online-legacy-of-a-suicide-cult-and-the-webmasters-1617403237

>>18819258
>Cult's Members Enjoyed Many Earthly Pleasures

>Heaven's Gate: Financial ledger shows a frugal group enjoying outings to Las Vegas, Sea World and Mexico.

>Los Angeles Times, 4/3/97

http://articles.latimes.com/1997-04-03/news/mn-44907_1_cult-members

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>Like many an American family, Heaven's Gate apparently made television the centerpiece of its social life--television usage that was highly regimented.

>Each cultist was assigned a seat near the 72-inch television, the largest of the six televisions found in the mansion. Only approved shows were allowed on the big set.

>Cheryl Elaine Butcher, 43, who joined the group in 1976, was in charge of approving all television watching, possibly with a veto by cult leader Marshall Applewhite.

>On the approved list for one week were a PBS documentary about Thomas Jefferson and the movies "Chain Reaction" with Keanu Reeves, "The Frighteners" with Michael J. Fox, and "Eddie" with Whoopi Goldberg.

>Rejected for viewing were "GoldenEye" with Pierce Brosnan, "The Island of Dr. Moreau" with Marlon Brando, and "Multiplicity" with Michael Keaton. No reasons for the rejections were included and none apparently was needed for the cult members to obey.

>>18819265
>frighteners

huh, i wonder how peter jackson's other films would have fared on the ban/no-ban list. like bad taste or meet the feebles.

>>18819252
Unless they were right.

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>>18819265

http://web.archive.org/web/19970128184621/http://www.highersource.com/

>Yes, Heaven's Gate were web designers. The group ran a firm called Higher Source, and counted the San Diego Polo Club, a local topiary company, and a Christian music store among their clients. In the heady early days of the World Wide Web, this crew of androgynous roommates in matching close-cropped haircuts and baggy, modest clothes practiced what they called "Higher Source-computer programming" in Java, Visual Basic, SQL, and C++.

>They also implemented Intranets ("we're proficient with Windows 95/NT, Novell Netware, and Unix, to name a few"), did systems analysis, and developed multimedia applications. They were a one-stop shop; of their graphic design, they promised, "Higher Source can go from 'cool' to 'corporate' like a chameleon."

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>>18819309

>>18819309
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHz9it70TdI

>Students express their thoughts and feelings right prior to exiting the human kingdom.

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I remember hearing about them shortly after the incident happened. I was 7 years old when this happened and it was the first time I really stepped back and thought long and hard about religions (I never really went to church as a kid).

Since then, I've been obsessed with cults, suicide groups, and a list of other stuff that regularly gets posted on this site.

>How do you believe they should be remembered?

A warning to those that are "100% certain" about the end of the world.

Speaking of which, I wanted to share this song that was inspired by the group (pic related)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yqn9fXzYWoo

nike

>>18819229
Not trying to shill (definitely trying to shill) but if you guys want, I very recently did a 4 part series of posts about the 20 year anniversary on a facebook page that posts a bunch of morbid tangentially /x/ related stuff. Hope you guys read through the posts, and hope you enjoy- (I also linked some of the student exit statements there.)
/meme.mento.mori/photos/a.448462665342184.1073741828.448461398675644/670015849853530/?type=3&theater

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>>18819573

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"....and tomorrow, we'll be traveling through space with cool aliens who actually LIKE us!..."

>>18819593


ZOLTAN

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>>18819594

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The strangest thread I have seen on this subject is archived at 4plebs, and you can find it here:
https://archive.4plebs.org/x/thread/13574896/#q13575409
Ti and Do ran their cult for a long time, and in a wide variety of places, so they piled up a bunch of coincidental links to other people who are topics of conspiracy speculation.
The above linked thread sews them all together.

>>18819611
http://www.laweekly.com/news/heavens-gate-the-sequel-2147951

there's a lot of good stuff in this story about their efforts to get their name out to people in the entertainment industry, including shopping a script around for a television series.

>The script incorporates the Heaven’s Gate cosmogony. Humans are bit players in a vast galactic drama, including at least one alien summit on Mars. The protagonist is a telepathic man-dog descended from the Atlanteans who has a crystal embedded in his forehead and journeys to Earth to grow a soul. Rio and OLLODY started the first version when the group lived in Pleasant Valley, Arizona, and DO decided that a screenplay would be a ticket to the masses. The first draft was several hundred pages long, and featured concept art for all the different alien races and ships. NBC, Rio said, was interested.

>All of this checked out when I tracked down Alex Pappas and Rick Singer, the producers who shopped the script around in 1996 and 1997. They ran a company called Way Out Pictures with Mark Bakshi, son of animator Ralph Bakshi and current president of Paramount Production. They were introduced to Heaven’s Gate when the group rented a house from Pappas. DO found out about Pappas’ ties to Hollywood and set up a meeting. “It was pretty wild shit,” Pappas said. “Good, but unwieldy. Needed rhythm.” When Pappas suggested cutting half of the story, especially the elaborate extraneous alien races and planets that only added confusion, DO and Rio were reluctant. “I asked, ‘Why?’ ” Pappas recalled. “And they said, ‘You don’t understand. This is all true.’ ” Pappas and Singer brought in writer Alan Haft to help pitch a take on the project around town. “NBC had Dark Skies then,” Singer said. “So they were getting into sci-fi, and there was some traction there.”

I guess the gate was
>closed

>>18819636
hmmmmmmmm