It’s been two decades since the infamous Heaven’s Gate cult operated to any significant degree, but it still lives on in the popular culture as a prime example of the dangers of extreme religious zealotry. For those who just can’t get enough about bizarre groups with strange beliefs, HBO Max is producing a four part docuseries about Heaven’s Gate, and they’ve just released a trailer for it on Youtube.
Younger readers may not remember Heaven’s Gate as anything other than a reference in TV shows and films, but back in the 1990’s the group become the subject of fascination all across the U.S. for their bizarre beliefs. Led by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles, the group believed strongly that extraterrestrials would come and help them ascend to a higher form of evolution. They toured the U.S. gaining followers and preaching their strange brand of religion to whoever would listen. They were interviewed by many interested parties and went by many names until 1997 when they stopped accepting interview requests.
By 1997 Bonnie Nettles had long since passed away, and Marshall Applewhite had become convinced that the final step in their journey was to die and have their souls picked up by a UFO that would ascend them to a higher state of being. Applewhite and the group believed the UFO that would reclaim them was trailing the Hale-Bopp comet, and that the deaths and ascension of their group would be “the closure to Heaven’s Gate.” On March 26, 1997, San Diego deputies found the bodies of 39 members, including Applewhite, who had taken part in what would soon be known as the largest mass suicide in U.S. history.
Today very few members of the Heaven’s Gate cult are still around. Two former members continue to maintain the group’s website, but decline to identify themselves in interviews. The HBO docuseries is titled Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults, and purports to have never-before-seen footage first person accounts of how the cult managed to persuade so many people to join them. It also dives into the lives of the cult’s founders, and the beliefs of the organization that left a permanent mark on the psyche of America.
Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults will hit HBO Max on December 3rd, 2020.
Source: HBO Max/Youtube
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