Benjamin E. Zeller - Heavens gate : Americas UFO religion

HEAVENS GATE

Americas UFO Religion

Benjamin E. Zeller

Foreword by Robert W. Balch

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

New York and London
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2014 by New York University
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Zeller, Benjamin E.
Heavens gate : Americas UFO religion / Benjamin E. Zeller ; foreword by Robert W. Balch.
pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4798-0381-1 (cl : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4798-8106-2 (pb : alk. paper)

1. Heavens Gate (Organization) 2. CultsUnited States. 3. United StatesReligion. I. Title.

BP605.H36Z45 2014
299.93dc23
2014020797

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For Emily, without whose support this book would not have been written

Illustrations

Tables

ROBERT W. BALCH

The subject of this bookthe UFO religion Heavens Gatehas fascinated me since my first encounter with it in 1975. The group, then named Human Individual Metamorphosis (HIM), had been in the news for weeks because dozens of people had suddenly disappeared after hearing its message. Yet almost nothing was known about life inside the group or the identities of its founders. About the only thing anyone knew for sure was that at least one hundred people had given up everything they had in hopes of boarding a spacecraft that would take them to a better world.

Late in 1975, David Taylor and I infiltrated HIM to find out for ourselves what was really happening behind the scenes. Suffice it to say, instead of a dangerous cult, we found a group so lacking in leadership and structure that it appeared to be falling apart. Shortly after we finished our fieldwork, the group stopped recruiting and disappeared from public view, but by then we were hooked. Taylor and I kept track of new developments by interviewing defectors whenever we could find them, and we soon became the acknowledged experts on this obscure cult, if only because we were the only ones who had ever studied it.

Then, in 1997, our cult, now calling itself Heavens Gate, decided to commit mass suicide, and suddenly scholars of every stripe swarmed the carcass. Of course, Taylor and I were among them, but I confess to viewing most of the others as interlopers who either misunderstood the group or didnt have much to add to what we had already written. However, I make an exception for Ben Zeller. Not only has he uncovered intriguing new information about the groups final years, but he approaches Heavens Gate from a refreshingly different perspective. Perhaps because he is a religious studies scholar and not a sociologist, Zeller examines Heavens Gate through the lens of beliefboth the package of beliefs that made Heavens Gate a true religion, and belief in the message by individual members.

When I lived with the group in 1975, I was so absorbed by the minutia of everyday life that I didnt think much about its beliefs. They were simply a given. Although I recognized that the belief system shaped and constrained members actions, I, like other sociologists, was more concerned with the actions themselves than with the beliefs on which they were based. But, as Zeller explains, Heavens Gate was a true religion with a coherent system of beliefs that explained the order of the universe, gave meaning to human existence, and offered a plan of salvation.

Sociologists havent neglected this belief system entirely, but they have focused narrowly on how one particular change contributed to the suicide. In 1975, a core belief was that humans did not have to die to enter heaven; rather, possession of a living, physical body was required to board the spacecraft. But, by 1997, this belief had undergone a dramatic change. Now, the only way members could get to heaven was by leaving their bodies, or, as they put it, exiting their human vehicles.

Zeller examines this change in detail, but more importantly, he gives close attention to continuities in the belief system, most of which have been ignored or overlooked by others. From my perspective, the most important of these is the theme of separation from all things human. From the beginning, the group was based on the idea of cutting ties with the past, overcoming human attachments, and ultimately leaving Earth altogether. Eventually, suicide came to be seen as nothing more than the final act of separation, the last step on a path members had been following all along.

As Zeller explains, the belief system was the foundation for almost every action in Heavens Gate, starting with the decision to join. One might think this would be obviousHeavens Gate was a religion, after allbut some social scientists view belief as a product of membership rather than a reason for membership. They argue that people join new religions for friendship and community, and that belief develops only after immersion in the group. However, Zeller rightly takes members at their word when they claim that they joined because the message rang true.

As Taylor and I discovered in 1975, the groups method of recruiting maximized the importance of belief as a reason for joining, while minimizing the importance of social bonds. Typically, the first time anyone heard the message was during a short, public presentation. Those who wanted to learn more were called later that night and told the location of a follow-up meeting the next day. After the second meeting, people had to decide. If they chose to join, they had only a few days to settle their affairs, say their goodbyes, and catch up with the group, because the members would already be gone, often hundreds of miles away.

Clearly nobody joined Heavens Gate because they had made friends with members. There simply wasnt time for that. Rather, they joined because the belief system clicked. For some, it was eminently logical; for others it just felt right. This is not to say that new members became instant converts, but they at least found the message plausible enough to bet everything they had on the hope that it was true.

Upon joining, new members entered a world in which belief infused every aspect of daily life. In most new religions there is a close link between belief and action, but as the reader will discover in these pages, the connection was especially tight in Heavens Gate. In 1975, the group already was largely sealed off from the outside world, and within a year the leaders restructured it into a kind of boot camp designed to instill discipline and test members determination to continue. The extent to which the belief system permeated everyday life was reflected in a banner that later hung in one of their houses reminding members that they were in a classroom twenty-four hours a day. Of course, being in class isnt the same as learning the lesson, but Heavens Gate also displayed a tight fit between the ideal and the reality.

Does this mean that members committed suicide because they were brainwashed? Zeller doesnt think so, and neither do I. Based on his evidence, as well as my own, I propose an alternative explanation: People joined Heavens Gate because they found its message believable, and they complied with its demands for the same reason. Those who still had doubts eventually defected, and any who remained out of step with the program were expelled, leaving only the true believers to carry on. The process was not much different from becoming a Marine or a monk.