George D. Chryssides - Heavens Gate: Postmodernity and Popular Culture in a Suicide Group

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HEAVENS GATE

On March 26, 1997, the bodies of 39 men and women were found in an opulent mansion outside San Diego, all victims of a mass suicide. Messages left by the Heavens Gate group indicate that they believed they were stepping out of their physical containers in order to ascend to a UFO that was arriving in the wake of the Hale-Bopp comet. The Heavens Gate suicides were part of a series of major incidents involving New Religions in the 1990s, as the new millennium approached. Despite the major attention that Heavens Gate attracted at the time of the suicides, there have been relatively few scholarly studies. This anthology on Heavens Gate includes a combination of articles previously published in academic journals, some new writings from experts in the field, and some original Heavens Gate documents. All the material is expertly brought together under the editorship of George D. Chryssides.

ASHGATE NEW RELIGIONS

Series Editors:

James R. Lewis, University of Troms, Norway

George D. Chryssides, University of Birmingham, UK

The popularity and significance of New Religious Movements is reflected in the explosion of related articles and books now being published. This Ashgate series offers an invaluable resource and lasting contribution to the field.

Heavens Gate

Postmodernity and Popular Culture in a Suicide Group

Edited by

GEORGE D. CHRYSSIDES

University of Birmingham, UK

First published 2011 by Ashgate Publishing

Published 2016 by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright 2011 George D. Chryssides and the Contributors

George D. Chryssides has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editor of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notice:

Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Heavens Gate: postmodernity and popular culture in a suicide group. (Ashgate new religions)

1. Heavens Gate (Organization) 2. Unidentified flying object cults California San Diego. 3.Mass suicide California SanDiego. 4.Psychology, Religious. 5.Postmodernism Religious aspects.

I. Series II. Chryssides, George D., 1945

299.93-dc22

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Heavens Gate : postmodernity and popular culture in a suicide group / [edited by] George D. Chryssides.

p. cm. (Ashgate new religions)

Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.

ISBN 978-0-7546-6374-4 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Heavens Gate

(Organization) I. Chryssides, George D., 1945-

BP605.H36H43 2011

299.93--dc22

2011008626

ISBN 9780754663744 (hbk)

Contents

George D. Chryssides

Marshall Herff Applewhite

Robert W. Balch and David Taylor

Mark W. Muesse

Patricia L. Goerman

Winston Davis

Hugh B. Urban

Douglas E. Cowan

Benjamin Ethan Zeller

George D. Chryssides

Robert W. Balch is a professor of sociology at the University of Montana. After obtaining his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon, he covertly researched the Heavens Gate group, together with David Taylor. He has also researched Aryan Nations and the Love Family.

George D. Chryssides has taught at several British universities, and was Head of Religious Studies at the University of Wolverhampton. He is currently Honorary Research Fellow in Contemporary Religion at the University of Birmingham, UK. His publications include The Advent of Sun Myung Moon (1991), Exploring New Religions (1999), Historical Dictionary of New Religious Movements (2001), A to Z of New Religious Movements (2006), A Reader in New Religious Movements (2006, co-edited with Margaret Z. Wilkins, and Historical Dictionary of Jehovahs Witnesses (2008).

Douglas E. Cowan is Professor of Religious Studies at Renison University College at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. He is the author of a number of books, including Sacred Space: The Quest for Transcendence in Science Fiction Film and Television (2010), Sacred Terror: Religion and Horror on the Silver Screen (2008), and Cults and New Religions: A Brief History (with David G. Bromley, 2008).

Patricia Goerman received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Virginia in 2004. Her M.A. thesis focused on the Heavens Gate movement, while her dissertation research was about recent trends in Hispanic migration to the new south in the United States. She currently works as a Research Sociologist in the Center for Survey Methods at the U.S. Census Bureau. Her research there focuses on best practices and methods for the pre-testing of survey translations, with a particular focus on Spanish-language materials.

Mark W. Muesse is the W. J. Millard Professor of Religious Studies at Rhodes College, where he directs the Asian Studies and core humanities programs. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard and has taught at the University of Southern Maine and Tamilnadu Theological Seminary in Madurai, India.

David Taylor obtained his Ph.D. in sociology at Queens University, Northern Ireland in 1983. He researched the Heavens Gate group in the late 1970s with Robert Balch. He is currently Training and Development Director for the City of Portland Oregon, as well as adjunct professor at Maryland University, Portland. He has undertaken research on the Unification Church, and on Ian Paisleys faith and politics.

Hugh B. Urban is a professor of religious studies in the Department of Comparative Studies at Ohio State University. He is interested in the role of secrecy in religion, particularly in relation to questions of knowledge and power. His two main areas of research are religions of South Asia and New Religious Movements in the United States. He is the author of seven books, including Tantra: Sex, Secrecy, Politics and Power in the Study of Religion (2003), Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism (2005), and The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion (2011).

Benjamin E. Zeller researches religion in America, focusing on religious currents that are new or alternative, including new religions, the religious engagement with science, and the quasi-religious relationship people have with food. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, and a Masters of Theological Studies from Harvard University. Zeller serves as Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Coordinator of the Religion and Philosophy Major, and Director of the Honors Program at Brevard College, a private liberal arts college in North Carolinas Appalachian mountains.

This collection of essays on Heavens Gate was originally conceived as an anthology of new material on the infamous religious group who committed mass suicide in 1997. However, for several reasons it seemed preferable to compile a collection of both old and new essays, incorporating Robert W. Balch and David Taylors early research on the group before they attained international attention, as well as more recent material that had appeared in academic sources but had not been brought together. Some primary source material from the Heavens Gate group also serves to anchor the academic research, presenting the groups history and ideas, unfiltered by the interpretation of individual scholars.

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