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Anonymous
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 05, 2002 - 8:16 pm: | 
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By ROB DOLLAR rdollar@kentuckynewera.com
Five years ago this month, the world learned the bizarre details of a mass suicide at a mansion in a well–to–do San Diego suburb.
Thirty–nine members of the Heaven's Gate cult, dressed in black and wearing their hair in buzz cuts, used pills, alcohol and suffocation to methodically kill themselves -- performing the deed in shifts.
The dead included a beauty queen, a former cowboy movie actor and the group's founder -- Marshall Herff Applewhite, a one–time music professor at a Texas college...
Apparently, they also were waiting for a spacecraft that was supposed to pick them up and take them to what they described as a higher plane of existence.
In the months leading up to the mass suicide, several of the Heaven's Gate cult members, including Applewhite, underwent voluntary castrations...
It seems that Applewhite, before he became famous, and a companion -- presumably Bonnie Lu Nettles, the woman who introduced him to the world of metaphysical studies -- made a one–day pilgrimage to Hopkinsville on Oct. 9, 1973, to visit Edgar Cayce's grave at Riverside Cemetery...
At the time of the 1973 visit, there had been quite a bit of publicity about psychic David Bubar's claim that he received an "angel message" from Cayce, directing him to establish a mountain–top healing center near Hopkinsville...
Found at: http://www.kentuckynewera.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?/200203/01+Stop-the-Press-03-01-02_news.html+20020301+news |
Anonymous
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 6:20 am: |
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Heaven's Gate Survivor Keeps Faith
SAN DIEGO -March 2002- Rio DiAngelo walked away from the regimented life within the Heaven's Gate cult in 1997 after three years, but a message from cult members drew him back a month later to the group's rented hilltop mansion.
There, on March 26, 1997, he uncovered the worst mass suicide on U.S. soil. The 39 cult members killed themselves, believing they were shedding their earthly "containers" to catch a ride on a spaceship trailing the Hale-Bopp Comet.
Five years later, DiAngelo, or "Neody" as he was known in the group, still sees himself as its messenger.
"I'm really the only one left," the 48-year-old Los Angeles resident said.
Interviews with news organizations five years ago left DiAngelo angry at the media, but he agreed reluctantly to a phone interview with The Associated Press last week.
Little remains from the group whose androgynous-looking men and women downed a lethal concoction of pudding or applesauce spiked with vodka and barbiturates. They sealed their fate by placing plastic bags over their heads.
The group's possessions have been auctioned off. The 9,000-square-foot mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, one of San Diego's northern neighborhoods, was sold for a fraction of its value.
Now a free-lance designer who makes ergonomic items, DiAngelo is applying what he learned from Heaven's Gate to his earthly life and cashing in on it. DiAngelo is auctioning off the cult's van on eBay to mark the Tuesday anniversary of the suicide.
He is asking a minimum of $39,000 for the 1992 Ford van, which cult members once used for road trips to SeaWorld and Las Vegas .
Some victims, who ranged in age from 26 to 72, had traveled around the country with the group for decades. They included Jackie Leonard, a grandmother who was the eldest member of the group, and Thomas Nichols, 59, whose sister, Nichelle, played Lt. Uhura on TV's "Star Trek."
Clad in black outfits with "Away Team" patches and Nike tennis shoes with their trademark comet-like swoosh, each packed a small bag and carried identification, $5 and some change for their journey toward what they believed was a "level beyond human."
Two other cultists later followed with similar suicides.
"They weren't trying to kill themselves because of a crazy idea, although some people saw it as a crazy idea," DiAngelo said. "It really is an advanced level of being."
DiAngelo said cult leader Marshall Applewhite, 66, known as "Do," was from another planet and taught DiAngelo to be more aware, honest and sensitive to the world around him: in short, a better person.
"What I've gained from this group is phenomenal," he said. "If he is just a gay music teacher from Texas how he could teach all these advanced ways of being that really work?"
At the same time, DiAngelo, is not sentimental about the past.
He signed a development deal to write a TV movie based on Heaven's Gate, but the project never got off the ground. A tabloid offered him $1 million for exclusive rights to his story five years ago, but he refused, preferring to preserve the dignity of his departed friends. Today, he said he'd take the money.
His life today is far from his days in Heaven's Gate, when members watched selected TV programs in assigned seats and wrote the "Individual Needs Department" when they ran out of deodorant.
He has re-established contact with his 19-year-old son and earns his living working in the nation's second-biggest city, slogging his way through daily traffic jams.
"Here I am a slave to commerce like everybody else," he said.
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On the Net: The Heaven's Gate site still online , Apologetics Index on: Heaven's Gate , Rick Ross on: Heaven's Gate , a Google search on: Heaven's Gate
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Tom
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 26, 2003 - 11:47 am: |
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I am currently working on a project that is about extremist religious cults. Is it possible for somebody to answer a few of my questions? Thank you. |
Anonymous
| | Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2003 - 4:42 pm: |
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A tragedy! |
Anonymous
| | Posted on Friday, August 22, 2003 - 9:44 pm: |
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For Herff, it was true over the years, the people he worked with were usually caused to die all together. That was partly because of the Rev. Lee situation in cult-building to cover up the bin Laden elements and those of the answering service now in the Austin Greens.
Usually, the Pacifica situation winds up in catastrophes for the board, wiping them out. Unfortunately, there was much damage done on the air as far as foreign language programming. The Persian announcer way stoned and all the Persians complained. Unfortunately, the board is considered responsible, when they can't influence Pacifica or the Dylan/Baez, etc., catering to physics profs kids especially in Austin, as far as Travis County's push for Khoumeini as soon as the Shah was out. There was cult-building around D'Ann Johnson as far as her blueblooded holiness considered, which was extremely destructive of alan pogue and the Greens to participate in.
The anti-answering service element, it is true, goes around shooting those the answering service catered to, and runs the air for the Austin Green situation, which is based on the original synod grace element which Herff ran into.
Originally they needed a Herff to get a head injury and be pushed in with an astrologer, in order to bail out the Pres. clergy into astrology and wicca, for a dean at Schreiner and those at the RR Commission to bail out Travis County's doings, too. |
Anonymous
| | Posted on Friday, November 21, 2003 - 8:45 pm: |
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http://www.jmccanneyscience.com/SpectrumMay2003.htm
"Well, hours later, there’s the 39 people who supposedly commit suicide in California, with Heaven’s Gate, the Heaven’s Gate suicide massacre. The government goes in, takes their website down, and posts a brand new website in place of theirs. This is all a thing right now that’s going on—people were able to capture their site before it went down, so that’s available now. But, at any rate, that’s a whole other story.
But then the government came in and had a national news campaign the next day: “Crazy people, Heaven’s Gate cult group, were going to go to this alien ship that was coming in with Hale-Bopp, the comet, and they all put on nice tennis shoes and robes and ate porridge and committed suicide so they could go to meet the aliens.”
That’s not what happened; what happened is: The government killed all those people. And the reason they killed them is because they were in competition with a very large software outfit, and the Heaven’s Gate group were all programmers. They were building encryption software and firewalls that the government couldn’t break into.
There was another little bit—that they were competing with a very large contractor who was selling encryption encoding and firewalls to the government, and these people were able to break through theirs. Anyway, there are a whole series of things that went on there.
At any rate, the other half of the Heaven’s Gate thing is, they just posted a thing, and they had been recruiting all over the country for many years, saying there was a large comet that they expected to come in. It would have aliens, and go up to the aliens, and they were going to be transcended into this life. In fact, they were not suicidal at all. They took very good care of their bodies because their belief was, they needed their bodies in excellent condition to transform, and go into this long-term state of living with the aliens. Be that as it may, they were not suicidal.
The other half of the Heaven’s Gate equation was that when Hale-Bopp showed up, they posted: “This is it, folks; this is what we’ve been waiting for, we’re all going to meet.” And they had—the counts were astronomical—they probably had a half million people who were going to get up and walk off their jobs—a lot of them young people, college age, high-school age. Those were the kinds of people they had been recruiting. Then the “hit number” on their page went through the ceiling. That’s when the government went in and killed them.
That’s why they had the news blip on the next day, which was on the front-page of every newspaper. And they blamed Art Bell because he posted those pictures of the companion. They blamed him for the murder of these 39 people. They roasted Chuck Schramek. Courtney Brown lost his position as a teacher. He was a Ph.D. in astronomy. Art Bell was accused publicly of being responsible for the death of these 39 people. And NASA came out and said there was no companion, and produced pictures from the University of Hawaii that proved that there was no companion."
This is snipped from the above web site...if this is against any "rules" please edit correctly.
Anyway, this is a totally different take on what happened at Heaven's Gate? Does anyone have any opinions on this? Thank you. |
Anonymous (66.81.153.48)
| | Posted on Friday, October 08, 2004 - 8:52 pm: |
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I only heard about this traggic event after the fact. How did these intelligent, probably good people get involved in something so obviously strange, weird & out of wack? |
Anonymous (172.171.136.240)
| | Posted on Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 11:03 pm: |
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Because they rejected the faith of their fathers, Christianity, and got sucked into a weirdo, wacko new age cult. Same old song, different verse. |
friend (168.171.25.30)
| | Posted on Friday, October 22, 2004 - 2:09 pm: |
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I think that this wack job who started this cult just wanted attention. I know a few wack jobs like him. just craving attention. I just can't beleave they were stupid enough to follow the wack job. |
JESTER (168.171.25.30)
| | Posted on Friday, October 22, 2004 - 2:11 pm: |
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Well i feel that if these people want to belive in something so odd and bizarre that they can go ahead and be that away be it makes more room for the people who dont feel this way. |
Anonymous (64.12.117.13)
| | Posted on Friday, October 22, 2004 - 7:17 pm: |
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There was an obvious failure of Christians to reach these people. Christians are commanded to spread the gospel. Those who knew these people failed in this respect. |
nwmomike (nwmomike)
Junior Member
Username: nwmomike
Post Number: 33
Registered: 11-2004
Posted From: 207.43.195.205
| | Posted on Monday, November 22, 2004 - 3:51 pm: |
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Why in the world are Christians responsible for not reaching them? Who said they didn't try? Who said they didn't try and were rejected? I mean you seem to be making a huge assumption here unless there is information to the contrary. You also need to learn something about cults and how they close their minds to outside influence. I just don't understand why you even said that or on what basis.
M or Michael |
franklin (franklin)
Intermediate Member
Username: franklin
Post Number: 183
Registered: 11-2004
Posted From: 172.153.19.106
| | Posted on Monday, November 22, 2004 - 8:43 pm: |
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It was an assumption. Maybe people did, maybe they didn't. If they didn't try to reach them then that was a failure on someone's part. If they did and were rejected, then they did what they could. I don't know.
But, the question becomes a challenge for us to reach as many as we can, despite the obstacles, to help prevent a tragedy like this from happening again.
I know all about cults and how they exclude the outside world and thoughts. And I have tried and have been rejected. But I tried. That is what Christ expects, that we try. Your post makes a good point. Failure is ok as long as you try. It is ultimately their choice. |
ihavesinned (ihavesinned)
Junior Member
Username: ihavesinned
Post Number: 49
Registered: 9-2005
Posted From: 71.112.180.149
| | Posted on Thursday, September 29, 2005 - 7:16 pm: |
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Click here to listen to the honorable Reverend Robert Tilton speaking in tongues. This is good stuff. Also be sure to check out the videos.
http://216.131.88.117/tilton/ |
david_munson (david_munson)
Junior Member
Username: david_munson
Post Number: 37
Registered: 9-2005
Posted From: 63.235.25.153
| | Posted on Friday, September 30, 2005 - 5:34 pm: |
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ihavesinned,
this guy's still around?
In the words of PT Barnum,"there's a sucker born every minute."
Oy Vay!
Dave
} |
redpurusha (redpurusha)
Junior Member
Username: redpurusha
Post Number: 45
Registered: 3-2005
Posted From: 68.36.226.248
| | Posted on Saturday, October 29, 2005 - 1:25 am: |
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Suicide is not the answer. |
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