Ti and Do (who became known as The Two) claimed that Heaven was a physical place that could be accessed by a certain procedure, and eventually (though not knowing exactly when) a spaceship would come to Earth and take the followers of The Two to The Evolutionary Level Above Human, otherwise known as The Kingdom Of Heaven.
Would you trust this man?
The group committed suicide in 1997, after believing that there was a spaceship hiding behind the comet Hale - Bopp which would "pick them up" and take them back to TELAH. The group had to "shed" their physical bodies in order to leave the earth and regain their original identities which were believed to exist in the Level Above Human.
Unlike the other NRM's we have studied throughout this course, I think that the Heavens Gate movement is one that deviated considerably from the mainstream religion it had been influenced by. Because of this I find myself interpreting the cult as completely outrageous. If you already were a devout Christian it would not be so strange to consider that you could have joined The Peoples Temple, which preached equality and practiced values from the Bible, of which you already believed. But to join Heaven's Gate, a religion that was practically made up by Applewhite whilst he was in prison and contained notions that were literally out of this world, I find very strange.
Although I struggle to comprehend that such a movement ever existed, there are still some redeeming features. People who joined the group were not brainwashed or forced, since Applewhite always made clear at the end of most of his speeches "It is your decision", and so members were free to leave and return if they wished and were not held against their will (unlike those of Jonestown). Members were part of a close community, in which all were equal (something many people strive for) and addictions which were (and still are) considered the bane of many societies, such as alcohol, drugs and sex, were banned amongst the Heaven's Gate community. The group also believed in a physical Heaven, somewhere that could actually be reached; this installed hope amongst many followers.
But despite these redeeming features, I am still disturbed by the fact that people went to their deaths purely because of the beliefs (or imagination) of Applewhite; I find it almost perverse. But I suppose that there is no way of proving Applewhite's theory right or wrong, since we will never know whether "The Heaven's Gate Away Team" actually made it to TELAH, or whether the beliefs of Applewhite were just the result of an extremely over active imagination.
To read more about Heaven's Gate I would recommend Apocalypse Observed: Religious Movements and Violence in North America, Europe, and Japan, by John R. Hall, which can be found on Ebrary by clicking on the link below.
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