Witchvox Article religious Freedom Restoration Act Heaven s gate 1 (Intro) The Webster sDictionary defines cult as (1a) a system of religious worship or ritual. http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=uswa&c=cases&id=4892
Extractions: UFO Evidence Home General / Overview General / Mass Sightings Physical Evidence ... Radar Cases Special Types of Sightings Pilot Sightings Astronaut Sightings UFO Landings CE-5/Human-Initiated Contact ... Water Related Sightings Major Cases The Phoenix Lights Illinois UFO Sighting Roswell Incident Gulf Breeze Sightings ... Japan Airlines over Alaska Other Cases STS-48 Space Shuttle Video International UFOs in the United Kingdom UFOs in Australia UFOs in Russia UFOs in China ... Scientific Studies Other Topics Public Opinion Polls on UFOs UFO Disclosure Nuclear Facilities and UFOs UFO Waves ... Project Hessdalen (Hess. Lights)
Extractions: What happened in Jonestown? How could sensible people follow the rantings of a crazed lunatic? The questions and the simplified answers that are provided by the media coverage of Jonestown and Heavens Gate perhaps contributed to their downfall. The feeling of public persecution is a central theme of many new religious movements, and the negative publicity of suicide cults only fuels the fear of other like-minded religious groups. The misleading definitions the media provided for the how, what and why of these new religious movements were symptomatic of the media bias against all such movements. Through examination of the print media response immediately following both mass suicides, I will expose the hollow definitions and explanations provided for tragedies that were much more complex. Moreover, although the Jonestown Suicide occurred twenty years before the Heavens Gate suicides in March of 1997, coverage remained ignorant and simplistic of the critical differences between movements, and perhaps exacerbated their cultural alienation. My research of the media response to the Jonestown suicides concentrates on the coverage of the tragedy in the New York Times because the newspaper is one of the most widely read American newspapers, replete with religion experts. Through the coverage in the
Religious Cults, From Life In The USA The Complete Guide For religious cults are still a frightening aspect of modern American life. In 1997, for example, 39 members of the heavens gate organization committed http://www.lifeintheusa.com/religion/cults.htm
Extractions: Religious cults are still a frightening aspect of modern American life. They usually prey on confused young people, separating them from their families at a time when their judgment is weakest. The cults provide support networks for young people with adjustment problems or low self esteem. The most famous cult group for many years was the Unification Church run by the Korean Dr. Sung Myung Moon. Thousands of young "Moonies" would go door to door selling flowers and soliciting money for the church, sleeping in vans or communal dormitories and preaching the sect's teachings on the street. In controversial cases, parents had to kidnap and "de-program" their own children to save them from the cult. Other cults and millennial movements have from time to time caused shocking events such as mass suicides. In 1997, for example, 39 members of the "Heavens Gate" organization committed suicide together in an event designed to coincide with the arrival of the Hale- Bopp comet, which they interpreted as their signal to leave the earthly existence. Cults do run the gamut from benign to frightening, but they also highlight two key facts about religion in America: it is intense, and it is highly varied.
Cults & New Religious Movements: A Bibliography Heaven s gate cult suicides in San Diego. New York Harper Paperbacks. The devil at Heaven s gate Rethinking the study of religion in the age of http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/gthursby/rel/nanninga.htm
'Statement By Rkkody religious truth seekers and people looking for meaning to life s age old Heaven s gate cult Suicide in San Diego, currently published by Harper http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/gthursby/rel/gate/return.htm
Extractions: Return from Heaven's Gate - The Book A revealing insider's perspective as to what prompted 39 Heaven's Gate members to commit mass suicide. by Rkkody (Chuck Humphrey) Overview How can 39 intelligent men and women suddenly and willingly take their own lives in what has become this country's largest mass suicide ever? What is the truth behind this cult that for over 22 years kept themselves on the fringes of society, surfacing briefly periodically to "share their beliefs". What went through the minds of 39 otherwise happy people as they systematically took their own lives in a ritualistic demonstration? And, will there be others who following in the footsteps of those 39, and will a new leader emerge to re-kindle the cult and recruit new followers? Only one person can answer these and other crucial questions people everywhere are asking. Chuck Humphrey, "Rkkody," as he likes to be called, is the only surviving ex-member who actually believed in the Heaven's gate doctrine enough to attempt to take his own life mimicking the ritualistic mass suicide of 39 of his closest friends. For over 22 years, Chuck was in and out of what has become known as the Heaven's Gate suicide cult. What happened during the 22 years this small group of highly intelligent men and women lived in obscurity and practiced a belief system that borders on Christianity from a perspective of Science Fiction and UFO's. For the first time Chuck recounts his own personal experiences in a group that even described itself as the cult of cults.
Cult: Definition And Much More From Answers.com cult ( kult ) n. A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or Certain cults, such as Heaven s gate, Ordre du Temple Solaire, http://www.answers.com/topic/cult
Extractions: n. A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader. The followers of such a religion or sect. A system or community of religious worship and ritual. The formal means of expressing religious reverence; religious ceremony and ritual. A usually nonscientific method or regimen claimed by its originator to have exclusive or exceptional power in curing a particular disease. Obsessive, especially faddish, devotion to or veneration for a person, principle, or thing. The object of such devotion. An exclusive group of persons sharing an esoteric, usually artistic or intellectual interest. [Latin cultus , worship, from past participle of colere , to cultivate.]
Extractions: Has there ever been a cult as kitschy as Heaven's Gate? Despite the thousands of words and pictures, and the weeks of speculations, nothing has altered the sheer dullness of this group: their trips to Sea World and the San Diego Zoo, the meals at Taco Bell and the gambling in Las Vegas, the devotion to The X-Files and Star Trek , the leader who starred in productions of Oklahoma! and South Pacific , their brand-new Nikes and their last supper of potpies washed down with spiked applesauce. The cult even made itself seem thoroughly nondescript when setting out for what it called its "graduation," packing bags and taking pocket change, presumably so, as fully credentialed E.T.s, they could phone home. Their world seems just a slightly more loopy version of American pop culture. The cult didn't really dress that weirdly or cut their hair
The Closing Of Heaven's Gate But members of the Heaven s gate cult had visions of a different sort; Since this occurrence, the subject of religious cults and their bizarre belief http://www.angelfire.com/pa2/truthandthings/ufo.modtrend.html
Extractions: Search: Lycos Angelfire Dukes of Hazzard Share This Page Report Abuse Edit your Site ... Next The Closing of Heaven's Gate A Christian Response to a Modern Trend[1] Introduction In recent days the comet Hale-Bopp has been seen streaking across the earth's skies, and many have been looking to capture a glimpse of this rather rare celestial event. But members of the Heaven's Gate cult had visions of a different sort; they thought a massive UFO might be riding in the wake of the comet, and that this UFO could transport them to a better world. The cult's leader, named Do (as in dough)[2], considered himself to be a Christ-like figure, and led his New Age followers to believe that mass-suicide ("leaving these containers," as they put it) was the means of escape to "the level above." Since this occurrence, the subject of religious cults and their bizarre belief systems has been much discussed. Once again, UFOs are in the news. For many people of common-sense the whole scene appears ludicrous. Surely, the beliefs of groups such as Heaven's Gate pose no threat for the sane individual. Or do they? Is there something relevant to glean from this tragedy? Are there lessons we should learn and take to heart? Thirty-nine deluded individuals left this earth to stand before their Maker. Their legacy is, at the heart, religious in nature. Therefore, true believers in Jesus Christ should have something to say about these matters.
Fade To Black - Buying Guide: Cult$ puzzled by the mass suicide on March of 1997 by cult members of Heaven s gate? We compared a number of religious cults to the cult of all cults . http://www.fadetoblack.com/bestcult/
Extractions: If you are looking for religious belief in order to fill that empty hole in your soul, or simply want to be different and the first on your block with a strange theology, there are lots of cults to choose from. If you always wanted to join a cult yet never had the time to decide which one was right for you, nor the attention span to investigate the different religious dogmas attached to each cult, we present to you The Fade to Black's Cults Buyer's Guide. We compared a number of religious cults to the cult of all cults .... Scientology. We contacted nearly dozens of today's most popular sects with the following letter. Dear Believer: After careful study of the information about your religion I found that a lot of your ideology might suit me. I would like to know what does your doctrine offer that I can't get from another sect such as Scientology? Even though I find Scientology extremely overpriced, the literature is easy to understand and they do have a lot of celebrities. I am currently looking for a theology which is not very complex, rigorous or expensive, offers an easy passage to heaven and hopefully is tax deductible.
Crank Dot Net | Cults crankier Heaven s gate cult 2004 Apr 06 cults . The Church of Scientologyis a religious cult which has unwisely decided to declare war against the http://www.crank.net/cults.html
Extractions: cults "A database of information about cults, destructive cults, controversial groups and movements. The Rick A. Ross Institute of New Jersey (RI) is a nonprofit public resource with a vast archive that contains thousands of individual documents. RI on-line files include news stories, research papers, reports, court documents, book excerpts, personal testimonies and hundreds of links to additional relevant resources. This database is well-organized for easy access and reference." cults "Whether Hale-Bopp has a 'companion' or not is irrelevant from our perspective. However, its arrival is joyously very significant to us at 'Heaven's Gate.' The joy is that our Older Member in the Evolutionary Level Above Human (the 'Kingdom of Heaven') has made it clear to us that Hale-Bopp's approach is the 'marker' we've been waiting for the time for the arrival of the spacecraft from the Level Above Human to take us home to 'Their World' in the literal Heavens. Our 22 years of classroom here on planet Earth is finally coming to conclusion 'graduation' from the Human Evolutionary Level. We are happily prepared to leave 'this world' and go with Ti's crew." mind control cults "... is a nonaligned electronic lending library and preservation archive. The purpose of Factnet's news and historic archive service is to promote independent investigation and public debate and dialog on cult and mind control issues critical to our social and individual well-being. Statements made in any documents in any of our libraries on or off the Internet do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the F.A.C.T.Net organization. F.A.C.T.Net provides only the electronic medium for transferring information, with the explicit understanding that each user will independently evaluate it and carefully make up his or her own mind as to its factual accuracy and usefulness."
CULT OF DUMBASSES MISINTERPRETS DOBBS, JUMPS GUN!! ENTER HEAVEN S gate the original cult website! HIGHER SOURCES the cult s It was the usual religious Right Baiting so many of us love to pull. http://www.ibiblio.org/subgenius/hellsgate/HELLSGATE.html
Extractions: If you have RealAudio installed, just click on the speaker icon. If you only have TrueSpeech, hit the TS icon. If you're clueless about Internet Radio and audio, study THE HOUR OF SLACK page. FIRST HALF HOUR SECOND HALF HOUR We hope to have Hour of Slack #574 up in RealAudio by this weekend CHECK THE HOUR OF SLACK MAIN PAGE for updates! The Callous Response from alt.slack and alt.binaries.slack to a Terrible Tragedy Rev. "Do'" Stang's Almost Compassionate but Still Hate-Filled Final Word on the mess NEW!!! NOW!!! PROFIT FROM THE DEATHS OF OTHERS! AMAZING NEW SCHEME! Thanks to the selfless sacrifice by our San Diego friends, 2,000 more people a day than usual are visiting this, the One True Official SubGenius Church website... starting, unfortunately, at THIS PAGE. We welcome you newcomers... but aren't you just a bit CURIOUS as to what this "CHURCH OF THE SUBGENIUS" cult is ABOUT? (YOU SURE AS HELL SHOULD BE!!)
The Spirit Of Babylon At Heaven's Gate The members of the Heaven s gate cult who committed suicide were not the troubled On average, they have no religious faith to speak of, and they have no http://www.jeremiahproject.com/prophecy/babylon.html
Extractions: The Spirit of Babylon at Heaven's Gate But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. - 2 Corinthians 11:3-4 As the media pundits delved into the suicide of 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult, they themselves seemed to be mired in the same questions that lured these intelligent people to mass suicide. They and the public are fascinated with everything about a group that believed in UFO's and are unable to answer the question: The members of the Heaven's Gate cult who committed suicide were not the troubled teens taken in by a charismatic cult leader. They were middle-aged men and women with enough education and sophistication to run a successful Internet computer business. So, how can "nice, honest and decent" people believe they were aliens briefly leasing human bodies, and that they would soon join the mother ship trailing behind the Hale-Bopp comet? They believed so fervently that they were willing to take their own lives to escape a planet they thought would soon be recycled by aliens.
Statements That Heaven's Gate Released Over The Years They now believe that in reality they were in the Kingdom of Heaven before we re seen as a religious cult on an ego trip if we try to state our http://www.ishipress.com/mass-sui.htm
Extractions: March 28, 1997 From a note included with a videotape from the leader of the group: y the time you read this, we suspect that the human bodies we were wearing have been found, and that a flurry of fragmented reports have begun to hit the wire services. For those who want to know the facts, the following statement has been issued. . . . 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 distance space we refer to is what you literature would call the Kingdom of Heaven, or Kingdom of God."
SOC / RELS 130 Sociology Of Alternative Religions Spring, 2005 cults offer alternatives to mainstream religious thinking, and while nearly allquickly Thursday, May 5 The cult (BBC documentary on Heaven s gate) http://www.umt.edu/sociology/syllabus spring 05/syl 130 spr 05.htm
Extractions: Phone: 243-2982 (office), 243-5281 (department), 728-6508 (home) Teaching Assistants The TA's are undergraduates who received an A in this course in a previous semester. In addition to conducting formal review sessions, they will hold regular office hours in SS 326 (x4697) to answer questions and go over exams. Office hours and emails will be announced in class. Don Luebbert Dani Soto Overview of the Course The course will focus on new religious movements, commonly called religious cults. In popular usage the term "cult" has strong negative connotations, but for sociologists it simply refers to a group of people bound together by their common devotion to a set of unconventional beliefs and practices. Hundreds of religious groups fit under this umbrella, including Scientology, Heaven's Gate, the Hare Krishnas, the early Mormon Church, and the first Christians. Cults offer alternatives to mainstream religious thinking, and while nearly all quickly fade into obscurity, a few have literally changed the course of history. We will use historic and contemporary examples to investigate the following questions: What distinguishes cults from other religious groups? What historical conditions contribute to the popularity of alternative religions? How do new religions differ in their beliefs, practices and organizational structures? How do new religions originate? How do they change over time? Why do people join? How do new members become committed? What conditions lead to extreme behavior, including violence? Why do members leave, and how do they adjust to life outside the group?
Cult Test Analysis of the characteristics of religious cults, and Alcoholics Anonymous Heaven s gate Marshall Herff Applewhite Going To Heaven In A Flying http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-cult.html
Extractions: (Matthew 24:5) I have occasionally called A.A. a religious cult, and so have other people. It might be helpful if we ask, "What are the real characteristics of a religious cult? How do I tell if I have just walked into a real religious cult, rather than just some church with a bunch of overly-enthusiastic members?" Or, for that matter, No, not all religions are cults, far from it. So let's look at the characteristics of some typical cults. Here are a few good general information pages to start with: And then there is this list of cult characteristics, which I have assembled from a wide variety of sources books and magazine articles on cults, other people's descriptions of cults, and my own personal experiences with cults. It incorporates the ideas of Lifton, Singer, Schein, Hassan, and many others. This cult description is structured as a test that you can apply to any group that you might be wondering about religious or non-religious, crazy or not. It is a collection of the common characteristics of many well-known cults, and some not-so-well-known ones:
Heaven's Gate Cult Made Visit To Chico Heaven s gate cult made visit to Chico. Matt Notley. News Editor has heardabout the 39 members of the HeavenÕs gate religious cult who took their lives http://orion.csuchico.edu/Archives/Volume38/Issue9/News/HGcmvtChic.html
Extractions: Matt Notley News Editor -Wednesday, April 2, 1997 By now, most everyone has heard about the 39 members of the HeavenÕs Gate religious cult who took their lives in a bizarre mass suicide in Rancho Santa Fe, an affluent San Diego suburb. Most members were apparently led into the cult with promises of shedding their earthly bodies for a rendezvous with an alien spaceship that would take them to the heavens, various national news reports have said. The cultÕs drive to recruit members even passed through Chico three years ago, when the group toured the country holding promotional public meetings at college campuses. But by all accounts, it doesnÕt seem the cult was successful in gaining members in Chico. In a San Francisco Chronicle article, staff writer David Dietz reported that the cult had been suffering a drop in members and mounted a heavy recruiting tour in 1994. An information graphic of a map on the HeavenÕs Gate web page identified 63 cities, mainly college towns, that the cult visited and dotted Chico as one of the stops. According to the web page, the cultÕs primary means of notifying the public of the meetings were by placing posters on bulletin boards and telephone poles. At some campuses, the cult rented classrooms for their meetings and tried to get as much media attention as possible, sometimes appearing on local radio programs.
Learn & Teach Cult Awareness Heaven s gate is a religious, millennial cult, and we ll likely see more of themas the year 2000 approaches. Millennial cults believe the end of the world http://www.elca.org/youth/helpsheets/cult.html
Extractions: Highlights Types of Cults What You(th) Can Do About Cults Cult Mind Control Techniques Ways to Use This "Help Sheet" as a Resource With Youth ... Reasons That Young People Join Cults What would lead 39 people to commit suicide, believing they could leave their bodies or "vessels" behind and be carried in a UFO to a new world? These people weren't crazy; they were victims of a cult group. Heaven's Gate is a religious, millennial cult, and we'll likely see more of them as the year 2000 approaches. Millennial cults believe the end of the world is coming soon, and they misinterpret symbolic signs found in the book of Revelation to support their belief. Heaven's Gate leader Marshall Applewhite believed that he replaced Jesus, and that he and his followers must die so they could experience eternal life. Applewhite thought the comet, Hale-Bopp, was a sign of the end times and that a space craft that followed the comet would transport his followers to a new world. This cult group combined teachings of early Christian Gnosticism, an extreme Christian view that believes the body was totally sinful and should be punished, along with elements of teachings from New Age, Mormonism, and Scientology. A cult can be defined as: an extreme group or movement that shows excessive dedication to a person or cause Cults use various mind control techniques to control and persuade members to accept the group's beliefs and practices. The leader or group takes advantage of cult members, using them for a particular purpose (often to make money) and causing them to develop a psychological dependency upon the cult. Cult members eventually aren't able to think for themselves, but instead blindly accept decisions made by their leader. Cults are psychologically and spiritually harmful to members, their families and the larger community.
Las Vegas Review Journal: LIFESTYLES :5155622 Two weeks ago, just after 39 members of the Heaven s gate cult killed cults and groups holding outof-mainstream religious or political beliefs have http://www.cybercitycafe.com/info/lvjournal.htm
Providence Phoenix - P & J Marshall Applewhite, head ramrod of the Heaven s gate religious cult, did bearan uncanny resemblance to Ray Walston, circa My Favorite Martian. http://www.providencephoenix.com/archive/pj/97/04/03/pj.html
Extractions: April 3 - 10, 1 9 9 7 No, your eyes are not deceiving you. Marshall Applewhite, head ramrod of the Heaven's Gate religious cult, did bear an uncanny resemblance to Ray Walston, circa My Favorite Martian If this were the only TV/film connection in this bizarre saga, it would be weird enough, but the group seemed to take a number of cues from the entertainment industry. After watching the film Cocoon , for instance, members of the cult became convinced that they needed boats to make contact with the alien vessel that would take them to the "Next Level." Since the Heaven's Gate followers made quite a few connections between pop culture and religious belief, your superior correspondents are surprised no one else has commented on the phenomenon. In fact, Moe, Larry, and the unfortunate Curly Joe DeRita also took a journey to the Next Level 35 years ago in their 1962 feature-length Columbia film, The Three Stooges in Orbit The Stooges were never vulnerable to human attachments either and were rarely seen alone. Hell, they even slept in the same bed. (Like Heaven's Gate members, who practiced celibacy, the Stooges did not appear to be sexually active.) And did not Moe's co-leader, Curly, pass away prematurely like Bonnie Lu Nettles, Applewhite's co-founder and soulmate, did?