THE STRANGE JOURNEY OF HEAVENS GATE

 HEAVENS GATE

Heaven’s Gate, was a religious group founded in the United States on a belief in unidentified flying objects. Under a variety of names over the years, including Human Individual Metamorphosis, Bo and Peep, and Total Overcomers Anonymous, the group advocated extreme self-renunciation to the point of castration. It burst into public consciousness following the suicide of 39 of its members in a suburb of San Diego, California, in March 1997.

Founders Marshall H. Applewhite (1932–1997) and Bonnie Nettles (1927–1985) met in 1972 and soon became convinced that they were the two “endtime” witnesses mentioned in Revelation 11. In 1975 they held gatherings in California and Oregon that attracted their initial followers. Those who attached themselves to “The Two” dropped out of society and prepared for the “transition” to a new life on a spaceship.