Strange Country Ep. 62: Heaven's Gate

Marshall Herff Applewhite and Bonnie Lu Nettles believed they were heavenly messengers sent from outer space to Earth to recruit humans and help them reach the next Evolutionary Level. For two decades, a handful of converts followed the teachings and worked on shedding their humannesses until they eventually shed their "containers" in a mass suicide in March 1997.

Cite your sources

“'95 Statement by an E.T. Presently Incarnate.” Heaven's Gate - How and When It May Be Entered, www.heavensgate.com/misc/95upd96.htm.

Feinberg, Ashley. “The Online Legacy of a Suicide Cult and the Webmasters Who Stayed Behind.” Gizmodo, Gizmodo.com, 5 Jan. 2015, gizmodo.com/the-online-legacy-of-a-suicide-cult-and-the-webmasters-1617403237.

Fisher, Marc, and Sue Ann Pressley. “Crisis of Sexuality Launched Strange Journey.” The Washington Post, 29 Mar. 1997, www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1997/03/29/crisis-of-sexuality-launched-strange-journey/3709d9ff-51ee-4f50-a9cd-a45525d7ad8f/?utm_term=.29280808a359.

Genoni, Thomas G. “Art Bell, Heaven's Gate, and Journalistic Integrity.” CSI, 1997, www.csicop.org/si/show/art_bell_heavenrsquos_gate_and_journalistic_integrity.

Hafford, Michael. “Heaven’s Gate 20 Years Later: 10 Things You Didn’t Know.” Rolling Stone, 24 Mar. 2017, www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/heavens-gate-20-years-later-10-things-you-didnt-know-114563/.

“Inside Story: Heaven’s Gate Cult.” BBC One, BBC, 6 Aug. 1997, www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00h1nt7.

Myers, Sergio, director. Heaven's Gate: The Untold Story. UFOTV, www.amazon.com/Heavens-Gate-Untold-Marshall-Applewhite/dp/B071XNRVKW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1534795461&sr=8-1&keywords=heaven's gate the untold story.

Phelan, James S. “Looking for: The Next World.” The New York Times Magazine, 29 Feb. 1976, archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/national/mag.html.

Purdum, Todd S. “Former Heaven's Gate Member Commits Suicide.” The New York Times, 7 May 1997, archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/national/050797heavens-gate.html.

Rainey, James. “The Cult in Hindsight : Diamond Bar Woman Recalls Group's Beginning and the Unease That Turned Into a Crusade Against It.” Los Angeles Times, 30 Mar. 1997, articles.latimes.com/1997-03-30/news/mn-43687_1_diamond-bar.

Steinberg, Jacques. “From Religious Childhood to Reins of a U.F.O. Cult.” The New York Times, 29 Mar. 1997, www.nytimes.com/1997/03/29/us/from-religious-childhood-to-reins-of-a-ufo-cult.html.

“Suicide Cult's Possessions Auctioned Off.” The New York Times, 22 Nov. 1999, www.nytimes.com/1999/11/22/us/suicide-cult-s-possessions-auctioned-off.html.

Zeller, Benjamin E. “Anatomy of a Mass Suicide: The Dark, Twisted Story behind a UFO Death Cult.” Salon, Salon.com, 15 Nov. 2014, www.salon.com/2014/11/15/anatomy_of_a_mass_suicide_the_dark_twisted_story_behind_a_ufo_death_cult/.

Zeller, Benjamin E. Heaven's Gate: America's UFO Religion. NYU Press, 2014.

Strange Country Ep. 43: Cult of the Great Eleven

May Otis Blackburn and her daughter Ruth were going to write the book that would knock the world's socks off in the 1920s. The Angel Gabriel dictated it to them and in return, he would give them the lost measurements to gold, diamond and oil deposits. Did it matter that their book made no sense or that it never was a book, but more of a scam? Not to their followers who willingly signed over deeds and life savings to follow The Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven. Strange Country Episode 43 is culterrific and includes plans for our very own Strange Country cult. Send us your cash ASAP. 

Big shout-out to Samuel Fort for his book Cult of the Great Eleven that was used in this podcast.

Cite your sources:

Fort, Samuel. Cult of the Great Eleven. Nisirtu Publishing, 2015.

Rassmussen, Cecilia. “Divine Order's Tale Smacks of Cult Fiction.” Los Angeles Times, 23 May 1999, articles.latimes.com/1999/may/23/local/me-40217.

“Who Was King Solomon in the Bible?” What Christians Want To Know RSS, www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/who-was-king-solomon-in-the-bible/.