One of the videos in this lecture mentioned that the cult's website is still up and running. Even today,
www.heavensgate.com is up and running. I found it very strange that with salvation being just around the corner there was someone or even a team of people tasked with staying behind to maintain the website for future members. On the site, there is even an article titled "Our Position Against Suicide". The article actually doesn't say anything negative about suicide except to say that "The true meaning of "suicide" is to turn against the Next Level when it is being offered." Unsurprisingly, it actually seems to condone suicide in certain scenarios but then states the group decided such a scenario was very unlikely and need not be discussed further.
The entire website is very surreal. Their reasoning behind their beliefs is very hard to follow but for anyone interested in the inner workings of a cult, their entire book is available on the site. One thing I hand't realized before was that they claim that all UFOs are attempts (some of which may have been successful) at transporting people to the kingdom of heaven. Below is a picture from their website which shows how a member of the Kingdom of Heaven might appear.
Heavens Gate and cults in general I have always wanted to understand how they get in and can't get out or don't want to leave. Another cult who committed a mass suicide were the ones responsible for Jonestown, I always wondered why this was a theme in these groups.
ReplyDeleteI find it very interesting that the Heaven's Gate website is still running. People still look into the events that happened years ago, but because the website is still up, it is strange to me that this cult is still active and might be recruiting new members. It just makes me wonder about the motives behind joining this cult and why people stay in it.
ReplyDeleteIt is very eerie to me that the website is still up and running- almost to the point of giving me goosebumps. From the lecture, it seemed that these people were more than happy to commit suicide, whereas as Carmela had mentioned Jonestown the members of that group were forced to commit suicide after their cult leader Jim Jones locked down their compound and surrounded it by armed guards.
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