American UFO doomsday cult based in San Diego, California founded in

the 1970’s

Led by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles. Marshall believed that he

was directly related to Jesus, meaning he was the ‘Evolutionary Kingdom

Level above Heaven. Started following leader Marshall Applewhite having

a near-death experience

They combined Christian doctrine particularly the ideas of salvation and

apocalypse with the concept of evolutionary advancement and elements of

science fiction.

Heaven’s gate believed that the Earth was about to be recycled and

rejuvenated and that the only chance of survival was to leave it

immediately. They believed that their human bodies were only vessels

meant to help them on their journey ad referred to them as their vehicle.

Humans would have to shed every attachment to the planet and give up

their human characteristics such as family, friends, individuality, jobs,

money and possessions.

Applewhite and Nettles referred to the cult as extra-terrestrial walk-in and

defined a walk-in as an entity that occupies a body that has been vacated

by its original soul. They believed that the alien walk-ins would bean then

up and away from earth.

The group led an ascetic lifestyle and avoided any indulgences; they are a

tightly knit group that shares everything communally. Applegate told them

if they live an ascetic lifestyle they will be able to reach the next level and

leave earth before it was destroyed.

As the mental health of Applewhite deteriorated he led his followers on a

deadly path. He told his followers that the world was about to be ‘wiped

clean’ by the alien founders and told them they needed to leave earth. On

March, 26th 1997 he prepared his clan for a mass suicide in the isolated

house which they shared together in a wealthy San Diego suburb. 37

members of the Heaven’s gate committed mass suicide taking a lethal

mixture of vodka and phenobarbital believing that their souls would be

transported to the spaceship trailing the Hale-Bopp comet.

Each of the followers was dressed wearing black shirts and track-suit

bottoms branded with the black and white Nike logo and armbands

reading ‘Heaven’s Gate Away Team.

Now 200-strong, the group live outside the upside down mountain Pic-de-

Bugarach in the South of France. They hope that the extra-terrestrial

saviours will whisk them away when the world ends on December 21st

2012. However, this group does not seem to have a strong leader such as

Applegate and does not have a cohesive structure of rituals.