“Gods
going to be there, Jesus Christ is going to be there, all the angels and
everything. And you know, whatever’s on the the beyond. I think it’s going to
be more like Star Trek. Beaming me up into a space vehicle man then I’ll move
on, recolonize to another planet or whatever but whatever’s on the beyond, I
know it’s going to be good…”
-Aileen Wuornos, quoted the day before her execution on
October 9th, 2002
Five years prior to this quote
being aired 39 seemingly gender-less corpses were found lying peacefully in
bunk-beds, wearing matching sweat suits and Nike’s in a mass suicide in Rancho
Santa Fe, CA. The bodies belonged to Marshall Applewhite and his followers,
members of the Heaven’s Gate cult. Heaven’s Gate was an eschatologically based
religious cult that believed their bodies were just “vehicles”, a thought similar
to that of Wuornos near the time of her passing. These vehicles needed to be
discarded in order to take their souls to “another level of existence above
human” according to members. Chances are wherever Aileen Wuornos wound up she
would at least be right about the Star Trek part. Thomas Nichols, brother of
Nichelle Nichols (Uhura from the original Star Trek series) was one of the
unfortunate victims found that day. I’m sure he saved a seat for you, girl.
Heaven’s Gate was founded by
Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles, also known and “Bo” and “Peep” or “Do”
and “Ti”. They prophesized that they were “the two” that were spoken of in the
Book of Revelation 11:3 and it was their responsibility to show the world that
it was so. Both devoutly believed they were ‘walk-in’s’, meaning that they were
extraterrestrial beings who had taken over adult human bodies, discarding the
souls previously occupying them. The concept was certainly new but accepted by many
in the 1970’s with the growing presence of the New Age movement. The group
fluctuated in its amount of followers with their frequent tests of faith, at one
point having roughly 200 men and women hanging on their every word. After the
death of Nettles in 1985 the group dwindled down to only the most committed and
Applewhite was forced to build his group anew.
In
order to prove their devotion and trust in their walk-in status, that their
human bodies were mere vehicles for their eternal souls, followers gave up many
of the things that made them feel human; families, jobs, individuality, many
men including Applewhite were even castrated to ensure a lack of sexuality
entirely. They were tracking the comet hale-bopp because they believed it was
being trailed by a UFO. This UFO was the supposed vessel in which their souls
were to board. In order to make this possible, they had to commit suicide
within the appropriate time period while it was closest to planet earth…obviously.
March 19-20 all but a couple remaining members of the Heaven’s Gate cult drank
their phenobarbital cocktail and passed away to be found one week later.
It is a curious thought what happened to all
39 souls of those passengers of the “Heaven’s Gate Away Team” that had been
replaced so long ago. Honey Boo Boo? Or should I say Honey Bo Bo?
