Some excerpts from Cosmic Suicide: The Tragedy and Transcendence of Heaven's Gate
Copyright (C) 1997 by Rodney Perkins and Forrest Jackson
Published by the Pentaradial Press in an edition of only 2000 copies. Buy your copy from Amazon Books now!

From Chapter 6: "Bo and Peep"

In 1975, Bo and Peep wrote their first public announcement while staying in Ojai, California and distributed it throughout the area. The statement specifically addresses humanity's desire to reach heaven and the false concepts of transcendence that have been promoted by the world's organized religions. It argues that all people desire to achieve eternal life, but most have been taught that the only method of achieving this transcendent goal is by worshipping a deity and/or simply living a good life. Bo and Peep decided that this concept was false. Achieving transcendence is likened to the metamorphosis in which a caterpillar changes into a butterfly. By no means a new metaphor, it remains a resonant one. Just as a caterpillar must give up its caterpillar "ways" to change, a human must give up his or her humanity to achieve the next level of existence. The statement says:

The flyer drew the attention of a local psychic named Clarence Klug. He arranged for Bo and Peep to speak to a group of his metaphysically interested acquaintances at the house of his friend, Joan Culpepper. A crowd gathered to hear The Two speak and a meeting the next night at Klug's home drew an equally large crowd. Bo and Peep offered those who seemed serious among the group the opportunity to meet at a campground in Golden Beach, Oregon. So, several of these people gathered at the shore to hear to hear The Two speak. Evidently, their space-age philosophy appealed to a lot of hopeful people. Applewhite did most of the talking while Nettles sat silently and listened. Applewhite viewed Nettles as his spiritual anchor. So close were The Two, that he consulted her on virtually every decision he made. He said that "it became evident after a period of time in my searching, not because Ti imposed it, but in my searching I recognized that Ti knew more. Therefore, she had a better, trusting relationship with her Heavenly Father. She could recognize His voice more readily than I."

Without the explicit approval of Bo and Peep, their new students began to hold seminars of their own to spread the message across Southern California. The students' attention focused on select aspects of the cult's philosophy, such as the inevitable trip to outer space. The flyer for an August 23, 1975 meeting at Canada College, The Two's first truly public appearance featured a sensational lead-in: "UFO's Why they are here. Who they have come for. When they will leave." The hype proved to be successful; the lecture drew two capacity crowds to the auditorium.

Details about what occurred at these meetings are sketchy. One of the most thorough accounts was written in Messengers of Deception by Dr. Jaques Vallee, who attended an H.I.M. meeting on the Stanford University campus in 1975. According to Vallee, the meeting followed a simple format. A group of eight cult members sat in front of an audience. One member did the majority of the speaking, describing cult philosophy in a programmatic fashion. When the audience asked questions, H.I.M. members responded with quick, prefabricated answers. While Vallee was unimpressed with the group's talk of alien contact and transcendence, he felt that H.I.M. embodied a potent trend. He wrote that "an increasing number of humans claim contact with space beings. They believe that the spacemen are, in fact, here with us. This belief is of enormous importance to individuals and to society." Of The Two, he said that "they have touched a sensitive nerve. They found many people to listen to them."

The sensational claim that attracted people to the cult was Bo and Peep's continued promises that a UFO would descend and take them and faithful cult members to T.E.L.A.H. While the UFO's arrival was continually imminent, The Two never provided a definite date or time, an equivocation typical of doomsday cults and millennial-minded religions alike. After all, in Matthew 25:13, Christ said that people would not know the hour of his return, be it in a UFO or otherwise. The spacecraft's arrival was further delayed by its dependence on an event deemed "The Demonstration." Just like The Two witnesses in Revelation, Bo and Peep would be murdered by outraged detractors and rise from the dead. Only then would they, along with their followers, ascend to the heavens in a UFO.

The group achieved widespread notoriety after a holding a meeting in Waldport, Oregon, on September 17, 1975. A local man and his wife were so convinced by Bo and Peep's message that they immediately gave away their possessions and placed their children in the care of friends. As many as twenty other people took off with the group and the news Media began to investigate Bo and Peep's activities. The news Media were not the only ones interested in Applewhite and Nettles' UFO cult. Police in Texas had a definite interest in their location; the Harris County Sheriff's Department still had three warrants for their arrest.

From Chapter 7: "Follow the Leader"

Between 1975 and 1976, the group held meetings in over twenty states and continued to gather students and assets. On April 21, 1976, the group closed its earthly gates to new members. Those who remained were called to Medicine Bow National Forest, Wyoming to attend a large "classroom" session in June. The Wyoming classroom served as a weeding-out process. As Balch described, the group had become unorganized and disorderly. Consequently, Bo and Peep decided to separate the wheat from the chaff.

The group soon acquired the rigid, disciplinarian character evident at the time of the mass suicide; eccentric, yet orderly and organized. Bo and Peep transformed themselves into "Do" and "Ti," names taken from the musical scale. Members were given strict rules to follow and were obligated to participate in odd rituals. The campground was arranged in "star clusters," which were intended to simulate life within a spacecraft. Each cluster was named after a galaxy and arranged in similar manner with identical equipment. To leave one's cluster required a "flight plan" that explained one's reasons for exiting. A decontamination zone was provided for people who were bothered by the influence of Luciferians. The parking lot was called a docking zone.

The Two designed activities to keep cult members occupied, diverting their attention from baser needs. An August 28, 1978 article in Time magazine gives a description of a ritual:

Robert Balch notes another ritual called "smooth whirlwind," during which cultists were compelled to visit each other's tents (within the star clusters) to make them better acquainted and more receptive to change. As such, they were encouraged to rid themselves of interpersonal conflicts. Undoubtedly, some sexual activity must have occasionally ensued, but even though sex can be seen as a healthy release, such promiscuity must have been kept secret. Tuning forks were used in an attempt to communicate with the Next Level. More specifically, by placing vibrating tuning forks to their heads and focusing on the vibrations, members believed that they could "tune" into the Next Level. A ritual known as "tomb time" required members to be silent for days, except to answer simple questions with "yes," "no," or "I don't know." They believed that talking was not necessary as Next Level members, who naturally communicate telepathically. For three months, members wore hoods with mirrored eye slits.

By October, many dropped out. Ti and Do closed the Wyoming classes with a dedicated core of around seventy followers. For the next two years, the group oscillated between campgrounds in the Rocky Mountains and a ranch somewhere in Northern Texas. By the late 1970's, the group had achieved almost popular status. Articles in Time and the New York Times Magazine helped spread the word, while ABC developed a television pilot based on Applewhite's and Nettle's adventures. Entitled The Mysterious Two, John Forsythe and Phyllis Pointer portrayed Do and Ti, respectively.

From Chapter 8: "The Process"

There has been much speculation about the role that Applewhite's sexual problems played in the cult's lifestyle. At one time in his life, Applewhite was openly gay, but since he had previously fathered two children, he might be considered a bisexual. One interpretation of Heaven's Gate is that the entire cult was a projection of Do's desire to rid himself of homosexuality. Whatever obsessions Applewhite may have had, much of the cult's philosophy was focused on sex and how to avoid it. The group believed that the inhabitants of the Next Level were androgynous and that in order to transcend, they must lose their sexuality. In his farewell video, Applewhite explained that "we are all totally celibate and there is no relationship in the nature of male or female, there is no sexuality, there is no sensuality, that is very distasteful to us." He believed that sex was so repulsive that he compared it to drug or alcohol addiction. In Beyond Human ñ Session Twelve, he said that "when people are vibrating at the level of participating in sexuality, they become quite aware of how long it's been since they've had their fix, or since they have participated in that which was so much pleasure."

Heaven's Gate members did everything possible to make themselves indistinguishable from each other. They wore uniforms of untucked long-sleeve shirts buttoned to the neckline. In many situations, including during interactions with the public, cult members wore regular clothing. This was done to present an image of normalcy to the outside world. Near the end of their existence, male and female cult members shaved their heads. All members wore the same black uniform, an attempt at removing telltale gender characteristics from their appearance. Once again, it is worthwhile to point out that news wire reports initially informed a confused public that each victim was male, aged between eighteen and twenty-four.

Young males and females commingling in campgrounds and houses must have posed quite a problem for those determined to remove all sexuality from their lives. The Representatives took a number of steps toward ending the male/female dichotomy within cult. The potential temptations that active bodies present can be difficult to overcome. Some members wanted to ensure that sexual desire would not divert them from their path and willingly castrated themselves. The castrations were publicly documented in a 1994 Internet posting entitled "Undercover 'Jesus' Surfaces Before Departure." The posting mentions that "some in the class have chosen on their own to have their vehicles neutered in order to sustain a more genderless and objective consciousness."

According to the Rancho Sante Fe Mass Suicide autopsy reports released by the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office, eight Heaven's Gate members, including Applewhite, had suffered a procedure called bilateral orchiectomy. This painful gonad-removal operation stops the production of testosterone and is usually only performed on those suffering from testicular cancer. The Eight were unable to find doctors in the U.S. willing to participate in their bizarre request, so they most likely went to nearby Mexico for the operation. The youngest member, an Army veteran named Michael Barr Sandoe, proved to be one of the castrati since his "testes [were] not palpable in the scrotum." Ford, the only true Heaven's Gate survivor, stated that Do's experience was particularly painful; his first operation was botched and took much longer than expected to heal. Castration may seem like an insane last resort, but cult members had adequate justification, considering their goal of circumventing the sex drive. And who doubts their complete insanity? Cult member Trsody was one of those who underwent surgery. He claimed that the surgery was of great benefit. He said that "I can't tell you how free that has made me feel. I've been here long enough from the time that I've had that operation to know the freedom it offers me."

Since they thought of biological bodies as only containers that are easily exchangeable for others, it made sense to Heaven's Gate members to modify them for maximum efficiency. A biblical quote referenced in Appendix B of the Heaven's Gate book provides another potential source of inspiration for the cutting. Matthew 19:12 states: "For there are eunuchs who have been born incapable of marriage; and there are eunuchs who have been made so by men; and there are eunuchs who have made themselves incapable of marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let him who is able to accept this accept it."

The Old Testament contradicts the option of testicular adjustment by disallowing Jews to modify their bodies. Even today Orthodox Jews refuse to have piercings or tattoos. The consequence for disobeying this stricture is the individual's post-mortem refusal in Jewish burial grounds. Specifically, Leviticus 22:24 says "not to castrate the male of any species; neither a man, nor a domestic or wild beast, nor a fowl." It is worth pointing out that the messages of the Old and New Testaments frequently negate each other. Bob Martin, a contemporary Jewish mystic and expert in comparative religion, says that "even liberal Jews reject the authenticity of the New Testament, viewing it as nothing more than an attempt to combine the mystery cult ideas common in the Hellenistic world with a mere patina of jewishness. Ideas such as spiritual intercessor, sin, and savior hardly enter into true Judaism, which is more concerned with teaching proper living while on Earth." Though such contradictions might worry biblical scholars, Heaven's Gate was content to make use of Matthew 19:12 for their own deviant ends, no matter what Leviticus might say.

From Chapter 11: "Science or Science Fiction?"

Like Theosophical communiqués with the dead, science fiction provided a fecund source of ideas for Heaven's Gate. Science fictional ideas pervaded every aspect of Applewhite's cult; their dress, behavior, communication, and philosophy were all based on a wild amalgam of pulp sci-fi and fringe science. When authorities reported that Thomas Nichols, brother of Nichelle Nichols who portrayed Lt. Uhuru on the original Star Trek TV series, was one of the thirty-nine people who committed suicide, the entire tragedy came full circle.

In Section 5-1 of The Level Above Human and How to Achieve It, the group explains the logic behind their sci-fi approach: "In our attempts to relate to the public, we were always experimenting with contemporary ways to express our information that could potentially override traditional religious, as well as 'New Age,' preconceptions and stereotyping."

Science fiction has profoundly affected the consciousness of twentieth century humans. As a literary genre, its subjects range from the grotesque to the sublime. In its baser forms, science fiction treats readers and movie-goers to escapist tales of flying saucers, alien races, and radioactive mutants. This type of SF was originally known as "scientifiction" and was promoted by Hugo Gernsback via his magazine Amazing Stories. As previously discussed, it was this magazine that first put flying saucers on the news stands and introduced the world to the Shaver Mystery.

In other instances, the genre gives insight into the darkest regions of human psychology and sociology. An imaginary future serves as a way to investigate a murky past, when considering the work of the genre's masters, who are not limited to, but include J. G. Ballard, Harlan Ellison, and Philip K. Dick. The latter is particularly noteworthy in connection with Heaven's Gate. Around the same time that Applewhite and Nettles experienced mystical UFO messages, Dick proclaimed an encounter with VALIS, the Vast Active Living Intelligence System. Both he and Applewhite were surprised to gnostically experience what they thought was God and both lost their sanity while trying to spread the word. However, insanity can be a beautiful, transcendent thing when experiencing extra-human intelligences, even if they arise from a cracked mind. During his period of lunacy, Dick's belief system fluctuated daily. As he recorded in the autobiographical VALIS, for a time he wholeheartedly believed:

He knew his theory was mad, but this realization did not prevent him from credulously drawing pictures of the three-eyed aliens in his Exegesis, a sort of theophanic diary. Regarding another mass suicide case, it is worthwhile to recall that the Solar Templars burned themselves to death in hopes of incarnating as gods on a planet in the Sirius system.

Dick's wise crab-monsters and Applewhite's Next Level mind-swappers perhaps evolved from the Great Race postulated in H. P. Lovecraft's "The Shadow Out of Time." In that story, a professor faints during a lecture and wakes up with an alien consciousness that has to learn the ways of Earth in order to report back to a great, extra-temporal library. Meanwhile, the character's human mind is transported across millennia to inhabit the body of a cone-shaped, coleopterous creature that records the habits of Twentieth Century humans. The three-eyed Great Race "had no sex, but reproduced through seeds and spores." Furthermore, "resemblances to human attitudes and institutions were, of course, most marked in those fields where on the one hand highly abstract elements were concerned, or, where on the other hand there was a dominance of the basic, unspecialized urges common to all organic life." Although Lovecraft was primarily a horror writer, the aliens of the story are not particularly menacing. In fact, their super-human qualities are presented in a positive light. The Next Level Representatives of Heaven's Gate are distinctly humanoid, but their proposed attributes and duties on Earth directly mirror the plot elements of the "Shadow Out of Time."

Science fiction has influenced and inspired several cults and alternative religions. Pulp sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard authored the book Dianetics, which spawned the aforementioned Church of Scientology. With the galvanic skin response detector, known to Hubbard's adherents as the e-meter, Scientology was perhaps the first religion to incorporate both psychology and technology into its canon. According to David Kaplan and Andrew Marshall's book, The Cult at the End of the World, Shoko Asahara's Aum Supreme Truth was influenced by Isaac Asimov's Foundation series of novels. The Japanese genocide cult used Asimov's ideas as a blueprint for their vision of a new society.

Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert Heinlein is another science fiction novel with parallels to events in the real world that testify to the visionary nature of the genre. In the novel a child, born of human parents, is raised by Martians on the red planet. When he returns to Earth, he quickly becomes a celebrity, because people are excited to see the "Man from Mars." The Martian, named Michael Valentine Smith, brings with him strange customs and stranger skills, such as the ability to make objects and people disappear. He can retreat underwater for long periods of time without surfacing. Smith's powers lead him to associate with a religious guru who is interested in utilizing his powers. However, the occasionally naive Smith takes his own path and becomes the leader of a cult known as the Church of All Worlds. According to Ed Sander's book The Family, Charles Manson incorporated ideas from Stranger in a Strange Land into his love-and-blood ideology. This theory may not be tenable, owing to Manson's nearly complete illiteracy. Whatever the case, both M. V. Smith and C. M. Manson can both be viewed as Christ figures. In 1970, a group of people were so influenced by Heinlein's novel that they formed a real Church Of All Worlds, using the same organization outlined in the book. The cult following of hippies was not particularly appreciated by the author. He liked the money that rolled in from his bestsellers, but he spent it building himself a fortress to escape his mystically rabid fans.

What kind of science fiction specifically influenced Heaven's Gate? Popular television and movies like Star Trek had more than a minor influence; they seemed to represent models for super-mammalian behavior. Former member Sawyer, who was interviewed for an episode of 60 Minutes television program that aired on March 30, 1996, said that "they [Applewhite and Nettles] felt like they were preparing people to enter an environment that was like a Star Trek environment in the sense that it was exploration and it was new frontiers but without the family relationship and the close physical relationships."

The cult placed an expensive advertisement in the May 23, 1993 edition of USA Today [SEE APPENDIX F], as well as other mainstream and marginal publications. The ad mystified its readers by discussing the cult's history in a narrative that seemed derivative of a Star Trek episode. The lead paragraph describes the cult's history:

Gordon Thomas Welch, also known as Stmody, who died in the mass suicide, gave his assessment of the group's closure in one of the farewell videos:

The deceased apparently saw themselves as astronauts or space travelers, since they often referred to themselves as the "away team." As was immediately publicized upon the discovery of the mass suicide, the cult members wore uniforms consisting of black shirts, pants, and shoes. Handmade by Heaven's Gate seamstresses, the shirts displayed triangular patches that read "Heaven's Gate Away Team." These patches looked like something that true astronauts might wear. The black Nike shoes, with their comet-like trademarks, simply completed the ensemble.

Daily life was designed to mimic imaginary life on a spacecraft. After all, those studying for the Next Level had to be disciplined and trained to exist in its advanced civilization. Ex-cult member Sawyer commented in the January 22, 1994 meeting in Dallas that "if you are on a spacecraft and you are performing tasks that are very important, let's say that you're designing a new physical vehicle for a soul to occupy, you have to have set guidelines for what you have to do. You can't go into that laboratory, anymore than you can in chemistry class and design it yourself. And so, you learn the disciplines of following instructions." The Two renamed everyday tasks and common experiences in order to give each of them an exciting, space-age flair. As mentioned earlier, the Wyoming campgrounds were called "star clusters," named after constellations. They referred to kitchens as "nutri-labs" and food preparations as "experiments."

Dreams of uncovering sci-fi secrets helped attract many people to the cult. One member described himself as having a "strong interest in UFOs as well as abductions and space aliens and cattle mutilations." Referring to the Luciferians, he expressed the belief that the "negative forces" suppress this information in order to maintain the world's present governmental and economic systems. In fact, the entire Heaven's Gate tragedy seems so strange, its story sounds exactly like the plot of a science fiction novel or movie.

From Chapter 13: "End of Class and Life After Death"

During his last years Applewhite became an increasingly peculiar character. While acting as Do, he abandoned the weird, diverting rituals of the past (those were for Bo), only to embrace and enforce new strange practices. While most of the cult members lived at the estate on 18241 Colina Norte, Do lived with two female cult members in the community of Lake Hodges, about fifteen minutes away. Perhaps these facts should not be considered too odd, since many cult leaders give themselves strange names and live apart from their flock. For instance Robert and Mary Ann DeGrimston, the leaders of the once-successful pseudosatanic Process Church of the Final Judgement, called themselves the Omega and constantly traveled so as to avoid most of their apocalypse-seeking adherents. The odd thing about Applewhite was that, according to former member Richard Ford, Do stayed in a separate house because he vibrated at a higher level than the other members and that regular contact would disturb him. Applewhite was plagued by numerous health problems. Ford said that Applewhite suffered from an obstructed colon, which made it difficult to dispose of his bodily waste, but this digestive affliction is not mentioned in the leader's autopsy report. Some cult members also believed he was dying of cancer. He may have implied that he had cancer, but the medical examiner who dissected his body recorded no signs of that illness. [SEE APPENDIX A]

Ford became wary of the increasingly negative tone of the cult, and most likely anticipated the impending mass suicide. After consulting Do, who provided him with bus fare, Ford went off to work for Nick Matzorkis at Interact Entertainment Company. His exodus occurred almost one month before the suicides. As a result, speculation suggests that he was assigned the role of cult spokesperson to explain the Heaven's Gate belief system after the suicides claimed everyone else.

Their last fraction of a year on Earth was spent in (comparatively) hedonistic splendor. In January, the group made its revelatory trip to the UFO conference in Nevada. On February 26, some members went to Mexico where they reportedly purchased the Phenobarbital used to kill themselves. Beginning on March 5, all thirty-nine cult members enjoyed a bus tour that lasted four days. The first stop was Golden Beach, Oregon where Ti and Do had held one of their first sessions in 1975. The group then headed to Ashland, Oregon and eventually made their way back to California where they visited Santa Rosa. Cult members went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park on March 11. That night they ate $300 worth of hamburgers at a Fuddrucker's restaurant and, the next day, they went to Seaworld. After filming their farewell tapes on March 19, the entirety of Heaven's Gate went to see the movie Secrets and Lies and dined on pizza. The next day the group gathered for a last supper at the Red Oak Steakhouse in nearby Encinitas. On March 21, the entire crew went for a final lunch at a Marie Callendar restaurant in Carlsbad where they ordered thirty-nine identical meals of chicken pot pie, cheesecake, and iced tea.

On March 21, the communications cluster sent packages to eight organizations and people, including ex-cult members Charles Humphrey and Richard Ford. The lucky recipients received the two farewell videos and assorted documents. Media-conscious up until their deaths, the group also issued a press release. The words are somber, oddly victorious sounding, and to the point. "By the time you receive this, we'll be gone -- several dozen of us. We came from the Level Above Human in distant space and we have now exited the bodies that we were wearing for our earthly task, to return to the world from whence we came -- task completed. The distant space we refer to is what your religious literature would call the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God." The thirty-nine humans learned their lessons with the assistance of plastic bags and purple shrouds and the class finally ended.

The suicides initiated a predictable chain-reaction of events as the public tried to understand what was proclaimed a tragedy. United States President Bill Clinton commented, "I think it's important that we get as many facts as we can about this and try to determine what in fact motivated those people and what all of us can do to make sure that there aren't other people thinking in that same way out there in our country -- that aren't so isolated that they can create a world for themselves that may justify that kind of thing." During the ensuing news Media frenzy a legion of cult experts, computer professionals, and UFO watchers were interviewed and probed. A new threat was added to the laundry list of the Internet's dark side: "cyber cults" like Heaven's Gate were now using the network to indoctrinate innocents across the world!

Instead of the traditional sense of loss and mourning that usually follows events remotely similar to the Heaven's Gate suicides, a bizarre spat of schadenfreude ensued. Schadenfreude is a German expression that refers to feeling gratification at the expense of someone else's misfortune. To many, Applewhite's easy-going manner and tone of voice looked and sounded considerably more humorous than ominous. Cult beliefs presented in the news Media seemed so outrageous and unbelievable, it was difficult to ingest them all without smirking. Ted Turner, president of Turner Broadcasting, said that the cult suicides were "a good way to get rid of a few nuts, you know, you gotta look at it that way." Turner's "who cares?" comments reflected the developing schadenfreude attitudes about the cult.

The anonymity of Internet users allows expression of humor to be nastier than usual. The Internet was quickly inundated with playful and often cruel parodies of the cult. A site billing itself as www.highersource.org, treats web surfers to a fake corporate logo with a photo of a bald Applewhite clone sitting in lotus position and smiling happily. The corporate motto for the fictitious business is "we kill ourselves working for you." Also featured on the page is a phony advertisement for "an attractive mansionî in Rancho Sante Fe. The ad explains that the house is "well cared for, previous owners suddenly departed: MUST SELL!" The site also contains tepid critiques of the news Media's characterization of Heaven's Gate as an Internet cult. Numerous parodies based on the Away Team uniform feature Nike athletic shoes, including one in which the corporate motto "Just Do It" becomes "Just Did It." A message warning "Do not eat the applesauce" found its way into many people's e-mail boxes. Another site allows a user to interactively stack images of bunk beds containing dead, purple-shrouded cult members.

Any other event of similar tragic magnitude would have been met with more civility. Even mainstream comedians like David Letterman and Jay Leno made particularly morbid jokes. However, because Heaven's Gate went so far off the radar of convention, humor seems to be an appropriate response. The passing of time will show whether or not the cult suicide will continue to harden an already cynical public.

The Heaven's Gate suicides provided a perfect excuse for a few disturbed individuals to end their lives. By Mid-April 1997, two people who had nothing to do with the cult killed themselves, claiming sympathy with Heaven's Gate. On March 29, author Michael Dorris drank a barbiturate-vodka cocktail and wrapped a plastic bag over his head. He survived the first attempt, but in April he tried again and succeeded. Dorris had been under investigation for child sex-abuse charges in Minneapolis, so perhaps his suicide was a rather easy resolution of his problems. Robert Leon Nichols, a former Grateful Dead roadie from California, put a plastic bag over his head and then inserted a propane hose and turned on the gas. A purple scarf covered his body and, according to news reports, he left a note that claimed he was going to the spaceship behind the Hale-Bopp comet.

No late twentieth century mass suicide would be complete without the requisite Media deals. Long before the suicides, some Heaven's Gate members conceived of a movie about their ideas entitled "Beyond Human: Return of the Next Level." They hired Rick Singer, a Hollywood writer and producer, to help them develop the screenplay and pitch it to the industry. At least one screenplay for a one-hour television series was written. NBC showed interest, but ultimately passed. With the help of Nick Matzorkis, Richard Ford signed a deal with ABC Television for a TV movie about his experiences with the group. Matzorkis' business, Interact Entertainment Group, quickly tried to appropriate Higher Source Contract Services, claiming that the Heaven's Gate members wished to see Richard Ford, now an Interact employee, take over the business.

In subsequent interviews, former members claimed that there still existed a number of people who believed in the group's philosophy. While police downplayed any rumors of other copy-cat suicides, the cult members who were left behind began to show signs of life. Some of those who received packages after the suicides also received special instructions. According to a report in the April 19, 1997 edition of the San Jose Mercury News, cult member Charles Humphrey received post-mortem instructions to upload new files to the cult's WWW site. The original site was so busy that Humphrey started a new site entitled www.levelabovehuman.org. It contained the contents of the old site along with new material, including Applewhite's farewell press release and three essays by students who killed themselves. In these essays, students elaborated two issues: why the group must leave and why they, as individuals, decided to leave. The answers to the group needs revolved around the desire to achieve T.E.L.A.H. The individual answers echoed the collective sentiment, but were slightly more revealing. Each student specifically cited Ti and Do as the reasons for their desire to leave Earth. Glondy wrote that "Once He [Do] is gone, there is nothing left here on the face of the Earth for me, no reason to stay a moment longer. Furthermore, I know that my graft to Them would be jeopardized if I linger here once They have departed. I know my classmates/siblings feel the same as I do and will be choosing to go when Do goes." Chkody wrote something similar: "The main reason [for committing suicide] is that I know who Ti & Do are. They are members of the Kingdom of Heaven and I know it. I knew the day I met them." Though most non-believers think of Applewhite as an utter kook, obviously many were affected by his spacy charisma.

Representatives of groups with philosophies similar to those of the Away Team condemned the suicides, perhaps out of sheer self-interest. In the April 13th edition of The Washington Post, a member of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Raelians called the Heaven's Gate group "false prophets" and "primitive obscurantists." Charles Spiegel, current leader of Unarius, spoke out in The San Diego Union-Tribune. He claimed that the suicides happened because of the group's "lack of understanding of the nature of the cosmos." He said that they had "maimed themselves" and had "been taken to a healing ward on one of the planets." Erstwhile avid UFO believers across the world reexamined their convictions and many abandoned them in fear of being mistakenly associated with the suicide cult.

Alan Hale held a press conference to comment on "another victory for ignorance and superstition." He simply reconfirmed his statement of November 1996, by saying that "[The Hale-Bopp comet] is one of the most magnificent celestial objects you will ever see. But for all its beauty, its magnificence, its splendor, all it is a dirty snowball that's orbiting the sun. Nothing more. It has no influence on Earthly events. It has no power to affect anything that happens here on Earth." Actually, the comet proves that ancient sciences like astrology still claim adherents. Hale-Bopp did have the power to influence Earthlings, insofar as some invested it with supernatural significance.

On May 6, just as the Media attention on the March events subsided, another brief flurry of suicides occurred. This time, two more "former" cult members, Wayne Marshall Cooke and Charles Humphrey, were found in a Holiday Inn room in Encinitas, California. Cooke, whose wife Susan had participated in the March suicides, died while Humphrey survived. They executed themselves in the same manner as those in nearby Rancho Sante Fe. That is, they wore black Nike shoes, black uniforms, and purple shrouds. Phenobarbital and alcohol were present in their blood and Cooke died with a plastic bag over his head. Once again, videos and notes spread the message of doom. The two men shot farewell videos and sent copies to CNN and Wayne Cooke's daughter, Kelly. She contacted Lesley Stahl, a reporter for CBS news series 60 Minutes, who in turn called the weary San Diego police department. Stahl had interviewed Wayne Cooke and his daughter about the suicides for a March 30th edition of 60 Minutes. When Stahl asked Cooke if he wished he had been part of the suicides, he replied, "oh definitely." He continued by saying that "I wish I had the strength to have remained, to gain the kind of control through Do's help, Ti's help, to have stuck it out and gotten stronger and continued to be part of that crew." Humphrey had left the group at least three times after joining in 1975. He made the following comments in his farewell tape. I'm taking a gamble by leaving so much later than the others have left. But I'm going to take that gamble and I would rather gamble on missing the bus this time than to stay here on this planet and know that I would be committing literal suicide with my soul." This check partner who accidentally survived now owns the copyright to Heaven's Gate, which may bring him earthly rewards eventually. It remains to be seen whether he will decide to continue spreading the message of the Two. Even now, as Hale-Bopp has passed from earthly view, there may be other world-weary Heaven's Gate members wishing they had left with the Away Team. Most, however, probably see the folly of the belief system.

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