Beliefs
Applewhite and the rest of Heaven's Gate strongly believed in the existence of higher life, many of which stemming from the bible. However, the foundations of the group did not main constant, and was not written in any sort of formal document. This led to the change of some of the Heaven's Gate principles, and Applewhite stated that their beliefs were more metaphorical than literal. In addition, doctrines of the group were often affected (changing on will of the leader) by whatever was the ideology at the time. For example, Applewhite and Nettles originally believed themselves to be the prophets mentioned in The Book of Revelation, however they later became infatuated with the idea of extraterrestrial life and started referring to themselves as 'extraterrestrial walk-ins' (meaning their souls, originating from another planet, have 'walked in' to their current Earthly bodies).
They also believed the 'Ancient Astronaut' theory (another new concept at the time), where extraterrestrial life had landed on Earth before humans had come, and 'planted the seeds of humanity'. They expanded on this concept by believing that the same life forms who originally gave birth to humanity will soon 'recycle' or wipe the Earth clean, killing all residing on it in the process. Applewhite believed the only way to avoid death was to leave the Earth, and in 1997 following the discovery of the Hale-Bopp comet, 39 members agreed to commit suicide (ironically they were against suicide, and justified their actions as going on to a better place), believing a UFO traveling behind the comet would beam up their souls, and eventually take them to the 'Next Level'. |