01x07 - A Tale of Two Cults

[bunniefuu]

-Planet Earth
about to be recycled.

Your only chance
is to leave with us.

-The '90s are bracketed
by two cults,

each prepping for
the end of the world.

-When they come busting in
on my door with g*ns drawn

and pointed in the air,

that just ain't gonna happen.

-One trains for
an apocalyptic battle

with the armies of Babylon.

-The US government
on your doorstep,

ready to get it on with you.

-The other preps for its final
exit from Earth with aliens.

-We were actually making
application

for employment
on their spacecraft.

-Their actions will send
shockwaves through the nation...

-They were like lambs
led to slaughter.

- that still echo to this day.

-We're taking back our country,

and it's gonna be biblical.

♪♪

[ Dial-up modems screeching ]

♪♪

♪♪

-US and Russian
military officers

are working side by side tonight
to ensure

that no Y2K bugs trigger
an accidental nuclear exchange.

-Let's go, guys. Let's go.

-As the '90s draws to a close.

There's growing concern
that the Y2K computer bug

could wreak havoc on the nation.

-There is no one on this planet
that can say

that the year 2000 problem
doesn't affect me.

[ Thunder crashes ]

-But for some religious zealots,

the entire decade
is one long string of events

proving the actual end of days
is fast approaching.

-There's some trouble
in the Middle East.

Let me tell you about it
just quickly.

Iraqi and Kuwaiti troops
have clashed at the border.

-The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait

brings violence
to the Holy Lands,

tornadoes ravage
the American Midwest,

and some of
the deadliest wildfires

on record put California
in a chokehold.

-There are many people now
who are sort of obsessed,

if you will,
with the idea of the millennia.

-For some small groups
of Christian Americans,

all these events point
straight to Armageddon.

That final battle between
the armies of Heaven

and the forces of evil
that's prophesied

in the Bible's
Book of Revelation.

-It was just in the air...
The idea

that the end of the world
was coming.

-Whether by nuclear devastation,
environmental disaster,

or a plague
that wipes out billions,

they're bracing for
an apocalyptic event

to strike sometime in the '90s.

-Minus one minute.

-It might be the end
of the human race

and not necessarily the world.

-My name is Alan R. Warren.
I wrote the book

"Doomsday Cults:
The Devil's Hostages."

When people get scared,

they start to look
for something to calm them,

something to soothe
their nerves.

So what better than a cult?

-For two cults in particular,

their apocalyptic beliefs
will lead them down

a parallel path
to their own self-destruction.

-I'm sure the news media,
after we leave,

is gonna have a heyday
comparing us to the Davidians.

-The first is
the Waco Branch Davidians.

-We have what appears
to be a fire going on right now

raging at
the Branch Davidian compound.

-The second is Heaven's Gate.

-If you're just joining us,
our top story, of course,

is the cult suicide
near San Diego, California.

Officials said today
the 18 men and 21 women

took their lives in stages
over the past few days.

-How could these people choose
to do something,

which, from my perspective,
made no sense,

but from their perspective,
made total sense?

I'm Benjamin Zeller.
I'm a professor

of religious studies
at Lake Forest College

outside of Chicago, Illinois.

I wrote a book on Heaven's Gate.

Alright. How to start.

-The Mass Suicide
in Rancho Santa Fe, California,

doesn't mark the first time
CBS News has reported

on the cult
led by Marshall Applewhite.

-We tend to think
about Heaven's Gate

as a 1990s phenomenon,

but to understand them,
we have to step back

to the 1970s...
The mid-'70s when they started.

-A mysterious couple appeared
three weeks ago

circulating a flier proclaiming
a UFO would soon be ready

to take whomever would
follow them to another life,

another world.

-Heaven's Gate
first made national news

in the wake of a public event
they held in Oregon,

where they literally
put posters up and said,

"Come to this little venue,
this little Waldport Inn,

and we're gonna have
a public meeting

and talk about UFOs
and talk about how UFOs are real

and the Bible is real
and the Bible is about UFOs."

And dozens of people show up.

-Today, there is a group
of earthlings

who believe they're on their way
to a rendezvous

with such a ship
for a trip to the unknown.

-For Heaven's Gate,
the Bible was interpreted

through the lens
of UFOs and ufology,

these ideas about
extraterrestrial contact

and that flying saucers
have crash landed

and that the government
is conspiring

to hide this from people.

The idea that they offered
was you are not of this planet.

You have been
on a spiritual quest,

and that's valid...
Spiritual quest is good.

It's good to try meditating.

It's good to read
different texts.

It's good to try
different religions.

But what is better is to realize
that none of those paths

will take you to the ultimate.

And that is what they called
the next level,

which is outer space.

The idea was that
you would leave

behind your human identity,

your human level,
but that included your family,

your possessions,
your loved ones,

and join them on this... this
attempt to leave our planet.

-[ Playing harmonica ]

-For that, you have
to abandon your humanity

and try to act like
a next-level alien.

-They said they came from
evolutionary level above human

and that they drove
physical spacecrafts,

that we were actually making
application for employment

on their spacecraft.

My name is Sawyer.

I was part of Ti and Do's group

that became known
as Heaven's Gate for 19 years.

[ Playing flute ]

I can do a little saxophone,
if you wanted, too.

It's in the car, though.

We're talking about a place
that has existence

outside of time
of the human kingdom

and outside of the environment

or the section of space

that we refer
to as the universe.

Ti is
Bonnie Lu Trousdale Nettles

and Do
is Marshall Herff Applewhite.

They were here to bring updates
to the Bible

and to fulfill prophecy.

-These are the two claiming
to be millions of years old.

-Ti and Do actually
come to decide

that they are two beings

referred to
in the Book of Revelation

as the two witnesses.

The job of the two witnesses
is to preach the truth of Heaven

and then to be martyred,
to be k*lled on the streets.

-We're going to be martyred
at the completion

of this testimony,

and when we are,
after three and a half days,

we're gonna walk up.

Just get right up,
and you're gonna watch us.

-Through the technology
of the extraterrestrials,

they're going to be
restored to life.

They can then demonstrate
to the world the reality of

this extraterrestrial technology
and that the Bible

is simply a record of
extraterrestrial investigations.

-Those people who choose to go
away will be picked up by a UFO

and they will be leaving
this earth forever.

-Why didn't you decide to go?

-I'm too human.

-This was an extreme group.

They say, "Come join us.

We're gonna live out
at campgrounds.

You're gonna spend
the day meditating

and trying to overcome
your humanity."

Didn't appeal to
a lot of people.

And increasingly,
it was hard to get converts.

So, at one point,
after being heckled,

Ti stood up and she said,
"The harvest is closed.

We're gonna turn inwards.

We're gonna effectively
go underground.

We're going to stop
proselytizing,

stop holding these meetings.

We're gonna focus
on overcoming our humanity."

-But when one of the co-founders
succeeds

in overcoming her humanity,

the intended result
doesn't happen.

-In the mid-'80s,
Bonnie Lu Nettles

gets increasingly sick.

She has cancer, which spreads,

and then eventually
she passes away.

And she does not,
as far as anyone can tell,

get picked up by a UFO.

-Ti's vehicle died in 1985,

and it did change the group
in the sense that Do believed

that Ti was his old member.

So Do had to operate alone.

-When that happened,
Applewhite changed

and he started looking at things
in a different light.

-Death of the body
or losing the body,

losing the vehicle, essentially
has no long-term effect on me.

-Yes, he was distraught,
but he got over it very quickly,

and for all intents
and purposes, that I could see.

-Now alone, as sole leader
of the group,

Applewhite makes a profound
shift in his philosophy.

-Do is effectively,
for members of the group,

he is Christ reborn
and he is the second coming,

and that's a big transition.

And the group really has
a sudden shift towards the idea

that, well, perhaps

they're not gonna,
in an embodied form,

get onto the spaceship
and fly off,

but it might be something
in a more metaphysical,

metaphoric, spiritual level.

That's what opens the door
a decade later to the suicide.

[ Birds cawing ]

-If the death of
Bonnie Lu Nettles opens the door

to members of Heaven's Gate
taking their own lives

in 1997...

-Sure, we know
it's the same Christ who...

- then it's this man
that blows that door

right off its hinges.

-David Koresh was dangerous,

irrational, and probably insane.

-At the start of the '90s,

the number-one book
among American Christians

is a fictionalized account
of the end of the world

called the "Left Behind" series.

-It's a retelling
of the Book of Revelation.

Hundreds of millions of people
being k*lled,

with demons and angels fighting
and meteors falling

and rivers of blood
and government conspiracies,

and this was... this was
pop Christian culture.

-The books remain
New York Times best sellers

through the early '90s.

And while Heaven's Gate
continues its self-exile,

another group
preaching Armageddon

is about to grab
the nation's attention.

-The groups we tend
to think about,

when we... when we're thinking
about doomsday cults,

well, Heaven's Gate
is one of them,

but probably the best example
might be

the Branch Davidians in Waco.

Both think they're interpreting
the Bible

and thought they were standing

at the precipice
of the... of the end times.

-But for the Branch Davidians,
the end times come

a little bit sooner
than they do for Heaven's Gate.

-On February 28th in 1993,
I was sitting at home.

I was then living in Dallas.
My phone rang.

It was my boss who said,
"There's been a sh**t-out,

they're a bunch
of religious nuts.

It sounds like
your kind of people.

Get down there."

I'm Lee Hancock.
I'm a journalist

and worked for 24 years
for The Dallas Morning News.

Let's start with David Koresh.

Do you consider yourself
a prophet?

-Let me say this much.
I consider myself

someone who's found grace
in the sight of Christ.

And if I can be a prophet to you

by giving you a study
about the Bible,

then, yeah, I'd say
I'm a prophet.

{\an1}-David Koresh was the child of a
single mother who had him at 14,

spent some time in East Texas
living with his grandmother,

who took him to
a Seventh-day Adventist church.

The Seventh-day Adventists
are a religious group

that focus a lot of their
attention on the end times

when Christ will return

and there will be
a great conflict,

and the believers
will go to Heaven

and everyone else will suffer
and go to Hell.

Well, there was an offshoot
of the Seventh-day Adventists

called the Branch Davidians.

-The Branch Davidian
were founded in the 1950s

and built their new
Mount Carmel Center

on the outskirts of Waco, Texas.

-By the early 1990s,

David Koresh
had taken complete control

over the Waco compound.

-He said he'd had a vision
and he was the Messiah come back

and was the figure

that was going to bring
the end of the world.

-The followers started
buying into it.

They really believed

that he was who was being
talked about in the Bible.

He was the new Jesus.

-He was a very exciting figure

and he had a photographic recall
of the Bible,

so he could take you to Daniel
and Isaiah and then Revelation

and back again in a way
that just dazzled people.

-In that day, quote-unquote,
it says,

"Lord, you will not be ashamed
for all your sins

you committed against me."

-And so those folks
who followed him

absolutely believe

that he was the Messiah.

-Like Marshall Applewhite
over in Heaven's Gate,

David Koresh claims
to be the second coming sent

to help humanity reach
the next level

after Armageddon
destroys the planet.

For Applewhite, that means
a trip to Heaven in a UFO,

but for Koresh, it's a much
more violent picture.

-He taught that if
you were going to die for God,

you had to k*ll for God.

And the outside evil forces of
the world were gonna come in

and they were going to have
to fight

and they were gonna go up
in a fiery battle.

They're a laugh riot.
[ Chuckles ]

-It's not just
their different visions

of how the world will end

that sets the Branch Davidians
and Heaven's Gate apart.

-Hi, Alex. [ Laughs ]

-It's also how they approach
their sexuality.

-For Heaven's Gate,

abandoning their humanity
was key because in their mind,

it was about going...
Going beyond this earth,

and that culminated in...
In celibacy.

- [ Laughs ]
- Ideally, that meant

not just sort of
external sexuality

in terms of actually
you couldn't have sex.

That was just the beginning.

But the idea was that you would
eventually, after long enough,

give up even your sex drive.

-Welcome to "Beyond Human."

-They wanted to be
basically space angels,

these genderless beings who...

Who didn't need to eat
or to sleep

or to procreate
or even to breathe.

It was... It was perfection.

It's what you find in an ancient
text talking about the angels.

-These... These flesh vehicles,
I mean...

-Some students desired
to have their vehicles neutered,

and I'm one of those students
that did that.

And I can't tell you how free
that has made me feel.

I've been here long enough
from the time

I had that operation to know
the freedom that it offers me.

-Castration in the group
was never a requirement.

It was always
an optional thing to do,

and the reason for that
is because

they don't have any sexuality
in the next level.

They don't reproduce.

Their bodies don't even have
the plumbing for it,

and so we have to prepare
our mind for that ahead of time.

Otherwise, they don't really
want us to be

on board their spacecraft.

And so, yes,
I wanted to be castrated.

-There are different stories
about how

the castrations come up.

What everyone agrees on
is actually it was members

of the movement
rather than Do himself

who thought that one way to
alleviate their constant anxiety

about controlling
their sexuality

was simply not
to have any sexuality.

-When Do ask me about it,
he asked me

if I had any reservations,
and I said to him,

"Well, my vehicle
isn't looking forward to it,

but I'm overriding my vehicle."

But then he said,
"Who's gonna go first?"

And so what we did when we had
a situation like that

where it didn't matter,
we would do a coin toss.

And so the coin toss
was to decide

whether we wanted
to go first or not.

♪♪

-Sawyer loses the coin toss
and never gets castrated.

But eight other members,
including Applewhite,

do go through
with the procedure.

♪♪

The Waco Branch Davidians,
on the other hand,

have their
own questionable method

of controlling their sexuality.

-For the Branch Davidian, their
interpretation of the Bible

called for celibacy
from some members,

but it actually called
for their leader,

David Koresh,
to take multiple wives,

including underage women
and girls.

-At that time,

he started implementing
his own rules and lifestyles.

He started having sex
with a lot of the females,

whether they are married or not.

This was a problem
because he started doing this

with girls as young as 12.

-He came up
with the "New Light."

That was a teaching that said

not only could
he have multiple wives,

but no one...
No man could have wives

and he was going to take
all of their wives,

every member of the group.

-Some of the members
that had their wives

that were now having sex
with David Koresh

or having his child,
some of them left rather upset,

so they ended up
making complaints.

-So how's God gonna talk?

-Those complaints,
along with reports

that Koresh
is stockpiling weapons,

finally make their way
to the A*F and the FBI,

who team up to go
and arrest Koresh.

-Heavily armed law-enforcement
officers have now

totally surrounded
a ranch outside Waco, Texas.

-To Koresh and his followers,

the arrival of armed federal
officers outside their compound

is the confrontation

they've been preparing
to fight all along.

-It looks like David Koresh's
prophecies are coming true.

You know, there is Babylon,
the US government,

on your doorstep
ready to get it on with you.

-♪ There's a mad man
living in Waco ♪

♪ He's bowing his knee to bed ♪

♪ Won't you help, Mr. Sheriff? ♪

♪ So we won't fail ♪

-The Federal Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, and Firearms,

after a months-long
investigation,

was going in with a major
operation to arrest Koresh

for g*n violations
and search the compound

for evidence of ill*gal weapons.

In their search warrant,

they included allegations
of child abuse.

He's sleeping
with underage children

and he may be leading them
in a suicide pact.

The problem was that Koresh and
his group had been tipped off,

so they had an hour to prepare,

And when the A*F pulled up

to this remote compound
on a barren plain,

the Davidians
were ready for them.

I mean, they had enough weaponry
for a small army

and enough weaponry to take on
the federal government,

which they did.

-Sounds like they're firing now.

And he says that y'all
are making the move

and they're gonna defend
themselves

to the last men,
so [speaks indistinctly]

[ g*nf*re ]

[ Speaking indistinctly ]

-We're trying to stop
the ambulance.

- Why?
- We're trying
to stop the ambulance.

-We're trying to stop
the ambulance now.

Hold your fire.
Please hold your fire.

-4 agents were dead,


A number of Davidians,
including Koresh, were wounded.

Two were actually k*lled
by A*F g*nf*re.

-Well, I've been hit through...

Ah! Watch out. Okay.
[ Groans ]

I've been... I've been hit
to the stomach,

and I think it broke
my pelvic bone.

-With Waco, the most important
element is who shot first...

Was it the A*F
or was it the Waco compound?

-The Davidians would later say
and Koresh would later claim

that A*F shot first.

-And there's still a fight
about that today.

There's still people
that take sides.

If you think that the A*F
did the first shot,

it's because you... you feel
the government is intrusive.

And if you're on the other side,
then you think, of course,

the Waco,
they were the bad people.

David Koresh
was holding them hostage

and he's the one
that did the first shot,

so it's his fault.

-After that first gunfight,

federal officers
lay siege to the compound...

while the media lay siege
to the federal officers.

-This was day 16 of the standoff
in central Texas.

-The tense standoff
between cult leader David Koresh

and federal agents
is now entering its fourth week.

-This was the 48th day
of the standoff between...

-To help contain the situation,

the A*F and FBI call in support
from the local military base.

-There was a point the head
of the hostage rescue team said,

"Well, I'm gonna bring in
an Abrams tank."

And so literally they ordered
an Abrams tank to come up.

The problem with that was
that if you are a Davidian

looking at this army
amassed outside

with the biggest tank
in the US arsenal, you know,

it looks like David Koresh's
prophecies are coming true.

Koresh taught his followers
and they fervently believed

the only way to get to Heaven

was to go with him
through this fiery ending

where they knew
that they were gonna die.

-When they come busting in
on my door with g*ns drawn

and pointed in the air

and someone fire at me,
then I'm gonna lay down

and die for anybody.

It just ain't gonna happen.

-After a 51-day siege,

federal agents
bring it to an end

by driving a tank
straight into the compound.

News networks from all over
the world beamed their

live coverage
to millions of households.

Also watching are members
of Heaven's Gate.

-Well, we began to see
on the news the experience

in Waco, Texas,

with the Branch Davidians
and David Koresh.

We were following the news
every day on that.

At one point,
we were watching TV,

and that's when
the fire started.

-We have what appears to be
a fire going on right now

raging at
the Branch Davidian compound.

-And we're watching it live
and we were all aghast

that that happened

and that, you know,
all the military presence

and everything
that was happening there.

-You had this national trauma
aired live

on national television.

You knew when you watched
that fire,

you were watching
more than 70 people,

including more than
two dozen children,

dying in that fire
right over your lunch hour.

-In the wake of Waco,
Do Applewhite believed

that the government was going
to come get them and k*ll them

and that ultimately
this was an okay thing

because this is what
would resolve the problem

of how to get themselves
to the next level.

-He talked about
how we might buy

a... a r*fle or two

and use it...
Not against anybody,

but to pose a threat so that

if the government thought of us
as a fanatical cult

and that knew that we had
weapons, that they might

be the instrument
of our exiting our vehicles.

-Look at the camera.
You look great.

-But suicide by cop
was never a possibility.

-They had no interest,
no ability to use weapons.

But ultimately, the government
had no interest

in coming to get this group.
They didn't break any laws.

This was a movement that paid
their library fines in the week

before their suicides.

There was no interest
from anyone in raiding them.

-For Heaven's Gate,
a violent standoff

with law enforcement
wasn't in their future,

which forces Marshall Applewhite
to come up

with an alternate plan
for his members to,

as he puts it,
"shed their vehicles."

-This is your chance. I'm here.

I can take you out of here.

-The website says the group
started in 1975 in Houston

and refers to this article
in The New York Times

about the recruiting efforts
of Marshall Herff Applewhite.

-In 1993,
just months after Waco,

Heaven's Gate
stages their comeback

when they take out
a full-page ad

in a national newspaper.

-The group bursts into
public consciousness again.

They do it in a couple of ways.

One is this 1993 USA Today ad,

which they take trying
to explain that they're back

and that they're offering
the one chance for humanity

to escape our planet
and to achieve immortal life

in this perfected next level,
heavenly state.

-We don't know if we're gonna
take these flesh

bodies onboard that craft

or if we'll leave
these flesh bodies behind.

-This time around,
Heaven's Gate starts

blending their message
with pop culture.

-There were members of the group
who said,

"Hey, let's try to repitch
everything we're saying

with the lens
of science fiction.

Instead of calling Do
Jesus Christ,

let's call Joe the captain."

-That year, "Star Trek:
The Next Generation" is pulling

in an average of 20 million
viewers per episode,

and members of Heaven's Gate

become some of
the show's biggest fans.

-They all had emblems
on their shirts,

just like they were part
of "Star Trek."

-Now, if you would
hold your patch,

maybe we can zoom in
on the patch that... Great.

-It's laughable now,

but people really believed it.

They were really into it.

-We watched "Star Trek:
Next Generation,"

I guess you could say
religiously.

And Do enjoyed them because
he thought

that it was a good example
of a crew

in the next level
working on a spacecraft.

In a next level crew,
there are no human behaviors,

there's no competition,

there's no relationships,
no ego.

-We're gonna sail around
and we're gonna

take care of planets
and help civilizations,

and we're going to bring
peace and tranquility

and we're gonna bring
this sort of utopian ideal,

which goes back to
Gene Roddenberry's vision

for "Star Trek."

-Heaven's Gate also starts
exploring a real-life technology

that's just beginning
to change the world.

-Ti and Do were always
encouraging us to upgrade.

And so we got into technology
and eventually became

the business known
as Higher Source.

-Higher Source was a Web design
and hosting company

that would create websites.
They had a number of clients.

You have to remember,
this was... this was a time

before there was software

which was easily automated
making a website.

If you wanted to make a website,

you had to know HTML,

you had to know Java,
JavaScript.

And these were all skills
that they learned.

And these were skills
that paid really,

really well back in the '90s.

This was a way in which
the group could afford

to live comfortably.

By the end
of the group's existence,

they were in a gated community,

they were in a mansion which
they could comfortably rent.

-It's during this time period
that Heaven's Gate

manages to attract
a few new members.

-The Heaven's Gate cult
recruited young members

across the country.
This video was taken

at a recruiting session
in New Hampshire.

-We're talking about a place
that has a real existence

outside of time

of the human kingdom
and outside...

-One person who signs on
is 21-year-old Gail Maeder.

-There's our... So we're getting
a little shadow on her, so...

There. Great.

-My sister was very much
a hippie bohemian at heart.

There was always
a lot of tie dye

and that type of thing.

I'm Dan Maeder.

I am Gail Maeder's
younger brother.

You know, my first indication
that anything had gone wrong

with my sister
was when we received the flier

from the the group
she had joined.

-"Dear Mom and Dad,
just a little note

wishing everyone there the best.

I think my choices in life
might puzzle you at times,

but I really want you
to be aware that I'm doing

exactly what I want to
and it makes me very happy."

- Can you hear okay?
- Yes.

- Okay.
- Thank you again.

I know you said this might
be your last interview,

and if it is, I'm so grateful
that you're doing it with me.

-I don't know how good we can do
for you, but we'll try.

Gail was very much afraid
of dying.

When our cat died,
she didn't want to see him.

When her grandfather died,

she didn't want to go
to the funeral.

I guess with everybody,
it's a fear of unknown,

and I think maybe that was why
she was a little bit afraid.

Heaven's Gate believed
that by being in this group,

you could overcome anything
on this earth.

You would go to Heaven,
board a spaceship.

You would never know death.
You would never know pain.

-Right about the time
that that flier showed up

is when our entire lives
became cults.

-Worried about Gail's safety,

the Maeder family travels
from their home

in Long Island to Ohio
for an anti-cult convention.

-At 13 or 14,

my parents started bringing me
to the cult conventions

and some part of the back
of my brain is thinking,

"Well, if you ever start a cult,

you're gonna want to know this,"

so I was paying attention.

And that all paid off the day
that she did call,

and we all knew what to say,
what not to say.

-She said,
"Is there anybody else

who would like to speak to me?"

And my mother was there.
She says,

"Hi, honey, how are you doing?

When are you coming home, baby?"

And she said,
"Probably never, Grandma,"

and my mother said... broke down

and she said, "Oh, no,
you can't do that, honey.

I have to see you.
I have to see you."

-I met Gail in 1994

while we were holding
public meetings.

She was in the group
that I was an overseer of.

Gail was a young vehicle.

But people can make
a big mistake

by thinking that a young vehicle

can't be very advanced
in their soul development,

and I believe that she was.

-After Gail joins Heaven's Gate,
two things happen...

Sawyer leaves the group to deal
with personal issues

he feels are preventing him
from reaching the next level

and Applewhite finally receives
the sign from the heavens

that he spent the past
two decades waiting for.

-They believe that there's a UFO
traveling behind that comet

as it's coming close to Earth
and using the comet as a shield.

-In the mid-'90s,
conspiracy theories

start to go mainstream.

After Waco, fundamental
Christians become convinced

that the government
is out to get them.

-It is a millennium.

You've got a lot
of conspiracy theorists.

Quite frankly,
you've got a lot of people

who have a certain belief
that this millennium

is going to be a holy w*r
or a hate w*r.

-But for people who believe
in the existence of aliens,

it's NASA that they believe
is conspiring against them.

Then, in the summer of 1995,

two amateur astronomers
named Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp

spot something NASA
has seemingly missed...

A massive comet


hurtling through space.

And Heaven's Gate believes
there's a deeper truth

that's attached to it.

-The story of the end
of Heaven's Gate

cannot be separated
from the claims

that Hale-Bopp Comet
had a companion.

This idea that there was
a giant planet-sized UFO

trailing Hale-Bopp Comet

and that NASA and the government
were conspiring

to hide it from the people.

Members of Heaven's Gate said,

"Aha, there's the marker
we've been looking for."

-For Applewhite,
this is his ticket to the stars.

-You can follow us,

but you cannot stay here
and follow us.

-Some members of Heaven's Gate,
I think, clearly did believe

that the companion was real.

Others believe that
there was something there,

but it wasn't something
we could see.

It was on...
On a vibratory level.

We couldn't...
We couldn't actually see.

It wasn't unreal.
It just wasn't visible.

What they all agreed on was that
we were all paying attention

and that this was their chance

to show the world
the truth of their message.

-We don't care to be aborted
by the body that we're wearing.

We care more to abort it,
in proof to our Heavenly Father

that we're ready
to leave this place.

-They thought a door was open...
Well, a gate.

They thought the gates
of heaven was open.

This was their chance
to leave the planet

they didn't want to be on.
They didn't want to be here.

They didn't see themselves
as human.

They didn't see our planet
as worthwhile.

They didn't see our society
as worth saving.

This was the millennial group

and this was
the end of the world.

-The website says,
"If you study our material,

you will understand our joy,"

but instead,
many are having difficulty

comprehending that,

how a group of people
can k*ll themselves

in the belief that the afterlife
can be found on a UFO.

-How do you feel about
what is ahead for us?

-Oh, this...

this is the happiest day
of my life. [ Laughs ]

-For those that
we've left behind,

we're going on to something
greater and better

and that we hope that someday
you will understand this

and you might join us.

-Maybe they're crazy,
for all I know,

but I don't have any choice
but to go for it

because I've been on this planet
for 31 years,

and there's nothing here for me.

-We wanted to let you know
that you might need

to get someone else to finish up
your website right now

and that we might see you
all again and then we might not.

But we hope that you remember us
as we were

and not how other people
are going to try

and tell you that we are.

And one last thing we'd like
to say is 39 to beam up.

Thank you.

♪♪

-On this Easter Sunday,
a day for celebrating life

and rebirth, the struggle
goes on to understand

how 39 people
could have chosen death.

-The Heaven's Gate exits took
place over a three-day period.

They dressed in...
In their uniforms,

and then, in ritual order,

they... they committed suicide.

They ingested poison.

-They thought
they would just fall asleep

and then wake up their souls
on the spaceship.

-They tied bags over their heads
and suffocated to death.

This was the method recommended
by a euthanasia handbook

that they had picked up.

The last two people didn't have
anyone to clean up for them,

{\an1}so they were found with the with
the bags still over their heads.

-Danny saw it first,
and he was the first one

to call in
to the medical examiner,

and he said, "I think
my sister's in this cult."

-Well, I just want to let
everyone know how lucky

and happy I feel to be here

and let you know that
what we're about to do,

certainly nothing to think
negatively about.

We're all choosing
of our own free will

go to the next level
with Ti and Do.

And they are certainly
not what...

-It was very strange watching
my sister's goodbye video.

Aside from the voice, I would
never have guessed it was her.

She looked that different
with the short hair

and just so pale and so gaunt

that she... had it not been
for the voice,

I wouldn't have recognized her.

-I guess that's really
all I want to say.

-It was hard
and it's still hard, so...

And I think it will remain hard

until I see her again someday.

-I understand the pain that her
parents and loved ones

are experiencing by that,
but I did not feel sad

when I found out that
they left their vehicles behind

because I didn't think
they were dead.

I thought their vehicles
were dead,

and it's not real to me.

That we're not our vehicles.

-Despite the tragic deaths
of members of Heaven's Gate

and the Waco Branch Davidians
before them,

by the decade's end,
they become a punch line.

- We made it!
- Whoo!

- We made it!
- But what drove them

to their fates will continue

to haunt the nation
right into the new millennium.

-If we don't teach people
to be better critical thinkers,

these type of things are gonna
occur over and over again.

-And good evening from
the crossroads of the world.

People from all over the planet
have come here

to celebrate the arrival
of the year 2000.

-In the last days of the '90s,
it's not just doomsday fanatics

who are preparing
for the end of the world.

Even military experts
are bracing

for the millennium Y2K bug,
a computer software problem

that many fear will lead
to global catastrophes.

-Representatives
from all federal agencies

are standing by,
such as Energy, Defense,

and the State Department.

-Then, when the clock
strikes 12:00...

-3, 2, 1!

- nothing happens.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-Worldwide, according
to US military spokesman,

all is quiet.

Can't do better than that.

-But the arrival
of the 21st century

does little
to ease the anxieties

that got triggered
back in the '90s.

-For those of us living
in 2020 today,

the idea that we live
at a turning point

is no less powerful now
than it was in the 1990s.

We don't have the Y2K bug.

We don't have the year 2000
to look forward to.

Instead, we have everything from


where we feel
like the world is on fire.

-I think this planet has become
a very, very hideous place.

They take control of you
from cradle to the grave.

-Both Heaven's Gate and
the Branch Davidians believed

that you couldn't
trust the government

and couldn't trust society,

and that sort of
conspiratorialism in the 1990s,

we thought it was extreme.

We thought it was violating
social norms.

-That was the beginning movement
of the distrust

for the government,
and that same movement

has become very,
very dominant in the US.

-By 2020,
it was in the White House,

and the idea...
And in Congress...

The idea that you could believe
in conspiracies

and that that there were
deep state working against us.

I mean, this is now part of
our mainstream American culture.

-[ Chanting indistinctly ]

-We're taking back our country,

and it's gonna be biblical.

-The things that are happening
in the world,

there's so much manipulation
and deceit going around.

It's... It's come to a head like
never before on this planet.

♪♪

-What's the difference between
a cult and a religion?

And I still don't have
a real answer to this day.

- [ Chuckles ]
- Okay.

-Everyone on this planet
and in this society

longs for a better life
or the idea of Heaven.

My God,
we live in a Christian country

where the whole foundation is
leaving to Heaven when you die.

-All I can say is I'm hoping
that she was happy

in whatever she did.

She was a pleasure to have
for as long as I had her.

-I feel like I wish
I would have overcome

what I could have overcome
while I was with the group

in order to exit with them, yes.

That doesn't mean I don't love
my vehicle's daughter.

And so I'm not, like, crying
over spilled milk kind of thing.

That wasn't the way
of the next level.

I don't...
I don't feel guilty about it.

I-I enjoy being alive
at this moment, yes.