Just Visiting
A variant of traditional channeling is a “walk-in,” by which an extraterrestrial entity occupies a body whose original soul has voluntarily—but not irrevocably —departed. The ET assumes complete control of the body. Although worryingly close to possession, a walk-in is different because the original soul still resides in the body. Rather than possession, then, a walk-in is more like a sub-lease.
The walk-in notion relates to a Theosophical belief that Jesus and Christ were separate souls. According to this line of thought, Christ’s soul is more highly developed than Jesus’, but because the body of the baby and child Jesus could not contain such a force, Christ’s soul was inert during Jesus’ early years. As Jesus became a young adult, he vacated his body so that the Christ could “walk in.” Similarly, ET walk-ins involved adults, and never babies or young children.
The Doomed Flock of Bo and Peep
The typical person is disturbed and puzzled by suicide. The finality, and the presumed cowardice or courage that allows the act, force us into uncomfortable reflection on our own states of mind and power of will. Suicide pacts carried out by two people are even more intriguing because they allow us to imagine some great passion that bound the victims, and moved them to exit this plane together.
Mass suicides—whether inspired by panic, nationalism, or cultish devotion— inspire equal levels of dread, disgust, and fascination.
And then there are those who choose death in order to live.
Much of human social life is a push-pull between autonomy and membership in a group. In moments when a group identity seems important, you give what you are to the group. You may engage in collective behavior that may be productive, destructive, both, or neutral. Devotion is elevated when a group becomes a cult. Although some cultists have passive personalities or low self- regard that make them malleable (and thus desirable as recruits), some others have inflated, even grandiose notions about themselves. People in the latter group may gravitate to a movement’s positions of influence, believing themselves chosen or otherwise set apart from common people. The occult writer Brad Steiger considered these egoists and called them Star People. He suggested that they descended from trysts between aliens and humans, or were interplanetary souls reincarnated in human form. Steiger found that an unusual preponderance of these people were women, whom he called Star Maidens.
The behavior of egoists may be explainable, but isn’t always excusable.
Although one might argue that “aberrant” behavior is relative (that is, what a member of one group labels aberrant may be rational and normal to a member of another group), relativity of perception does not imply moral relativism. Murder cultists may regard their crimes as rational, yet those crimes are nevertheless immoral.
Which brings us to two people named Marshall and Bonnie Lu. Under their manipulation of the psychology that underpins cults of personality, and their exploitation of their followers’ interest in UFOs and salvation, they facilitated the suicides of thirty-nine people near San Diego during March 23–25, 1997.
The group called itself Heaven’s Gate. Like some other quasi-religious, UFO– linked cults, Heaven’s Gate pursued a supposedly transformative schema intended to elevate members not just to self-realization but, during the end times, salvation. Texas music teacher Marshall Herff Applewhite and a nurse, Bonnie Lu Nettles, established the group—initially called Human Individual Metamorphosis—in 1975.
Typical of many quasi-religious self-enlightenment groups, HIM/Heaven’s Gate required members to divest themselves of personal possessions (to the material benefit of Applewhite and Nettles), and surrender their wills to the goals of the group. Use of books, magazines, and television was strictly proscribed. Applewhite (who came to call himself Dō) and Nettles (later known as Ti) supplied the critical information they felt was needed by their followers.
The pair expressed, for instance, that space aliens and fallen angels are synonymous. The Virgin Mary was impregnated after being taken aboard a spaceship. Further, Applewhite and Nettles were the divinely protected “two witnesses” bound for martyrdom and resurrection, as introduced in Revelation 11: 3. Revelation 11: 12–13 says, “And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither.
And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.” Applewhite and Nettles recognized themselves in this passage. Calling themselves “Bo” and “Peep,” they fashioned the Heaven’s Gate blend of Christianity and science fiction. Official regulations listed deceit, “sensuality,” and negativity as “major offenses.” Men and women alike were encouraged to appear androgynous. Male followers had to shave, but they were to move their blades downward only, never up. And then there was this transgression: “Trusting my own judgment—or using my own mind.”
A hand-lettered recruitment flyer from the early 1990s was headed with, “UFO’s [sic]
- Why they are here.
- Who they have come for.
- When they will leave.”
The body of the flyer said, in part, “If you have ever entertained the idea that there might be a real, PHYSICAL level in space beyond the Earth’s confines, you will want to attend this meeting.” The group picked up followers in 1993, with a salvation-can-be-yours advertisement placed in USA Today, America’s national daily newspaper. Yes, the ad said, salvation is possible, but only after a violent dissolution of civilizations. Playing into the self-help movement as well as apocalyptic thinking, Applewhite and Nettles attributed the ad to an apocryphal group, Total Overcomers Unanimous.
The name Heaven’s Gate comes from the Book of Genesis. The dreaming Jacob, having surrendered to tiredness on a journey from Beer-sheba to Haran, sees a ladder that ascends into Heaven. Angels busily ascend and descend, attending to the Lord’s business. The Lord appears at the top of the ladder and says to Jacob, “And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of” (Genesis: 28:15).
Jacob learns that he and his numberless descendants are blessed, and shall “spread abroad” to all points of the compass. Jacob awakes and realizes that he has a great responsibility. Frightened and awed, Jacob says, “How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Genesis: 28:17).
The apocalyptic portion of the Heaven’s Gate message reflected Christian fundamentalism. (In video lectures, Applewhite referred to the apocalypse as Earth’s “respading” or “recycling.”) Unknown to his followers, though, was that Marshall Applewhite was a closeted gay who divorced his first wife around 1970, and lost his music professorship at St. Thomas University. He met Bonnie Lu Nettles in 1972, and was attracted to her biblical knowledge and high self- regard. Because they were the witnesses of Revelation (“The Two”), they felt free to flout earthly laws. Credit card fraud involving a rental car landed Applewhite in prison for six months in 1974. He used the time to ponder the role that God had given him. Consistent with Christian thought, Applewhite felt that his body was merely a “vehicle” that carried his soul. But his egoism encouraged him to believe that he and Nettles had origins in what they called the “Level Above Human”; this level was heaven itself, a physical place located in outer space and populated by beings more elevated than ordinary humans. (Applewhite claimed to be two thousand years old.) By spreading God’s message, Applewhite and Nettles would elevate themselves and their followers to permanent residency in heaven. Delivery method was via spaceship.
The pair traveled extensively, and began to pick up members. When about twenty people joined almost simultaneously in Oregon in 1975, newspapers and local television took notice. A 1976 book, U.F.O. Missionaries Extraordinary, discussed their activities. (The cover blurb of this mass-market paperback reads, “For the first time, Bo and Peep speak freely about their work on Earth.”) Applewhite was his own best salesman, but general public exposure rattled him, probably because of his desire to obscure aspects of his past. For the next few years, he and Nettles reduced their appearances, sending trusted Heaven’s Gate members to proselytize in their places. Heaven’s Gate carried on, and did not begin to really thrive until the early 1980s, when the group inherited a member’s estate.
Somewhat like the Bible’s wandering prophets, the Heaven’s Gate flock wandered the west and southwest, camping for long periods and adopting a uniform look comprised of coveralls and short hair. Funding from members later allowed the group to purchase residences in Dallas and other parts of the west and southwest.
Bonnie Lu Nettles passed away in 1985, and although her death left Heaven’s Gate temporarily rudderless, Applewhite continued to travel and speak. He had wanted to be a New York actor as a young man, and although he hadn’t achieved his dream, he had a persuasive oratorical style and a calm, accessible presence that suggested a well-liked middle school science teacher. By about 1990, Heaven’s Gate shepherded two hundred members.
Applewhite returned to active preaching, and exploited the relative confinement of indoor quarters to evaluate his members. Those suspected of insufficient zeal were expelled; true believers, as well as those with tangible assets, were retained. Members with computer expertise generated substantial business income that supported the group. While Applewhite encouraged members to make proselytizing videos, he grew increasingly strict, prohibiting drinking and sex. Eight male followers, including Applewhite himself, submitted to voluntary castration.
When astronomers discovered the comet Hale-Bopp in 1995, Applewhite reasoned that the body was a herald of the spaceship sent to take him and the others to heaven. The craft’s pilots were space aliens, which to Applewhite were synonymous with fallen angels.
The group shared a final meal at a Rancho Santa Fe, California, restaurant on March 21, 1997. In a banal touch, each member consumed the same innocuous items: iced tea, dinner salad with tomato vinaigrette dressing, turkey pot pie, and cheesecake with blueberries.
Then Applewhite and his followers waited a day, until Hale-Bopp reached its closest proximity to Earth. And then inside the group’s nine thousand-square-foot mansion, the members of Heaven’s Gate began to array themselves on neatly ordered mattresses and bunks, wearing identical blousy black shirts and trousers, shoulder patches (“HEAVEN’S GATE AWAY TEAM”), and black Nike athletic shoes. Applewhite and thirty-eight other believers—twenty-one women and seventeen men—ate a pudding- applesauce mix doctored with vodka and Phenobarbital. Four members had taken the opioid hydrocodone, as well.
Purple shrouds covered the bodies and faces, suggesting that the suicides were accomplished in stages, with members assisting the first victims and tidying up before taking their own lives. Forensic examinations suggested three waves of suicides on March 22 and 23: fifteen, fifteen more, and nine. (Because the bodies had begun to decompose by the time they were discovered, the precise dates of death are not easy to determine; some sources claim the suicides stretched over three days, March 24–26.) The first person inside the house after the event, a former follower alerted by a letter Applewhite posted a day or two before the deaths, discovered that the heads of many victims had been tied with plastic bags. Some of the flock had carefully packed their suitcases, which stood next to their corpses.
In video shot by the former member, we see a shelf in Applewhite’s expansive bedroom, with a few framed pictures. One of them is a neatly matted image of a classic gray, with a large, hairless head; narrow chin; and enlarged eyes.
An angel.