SPECIAL REPORT: HEAVEN'S GATE UFO Mythology: The Escape to Oblivion PAUL KURTZ eaven's Gate has stunned the ranging in ages from twenty-one to sev- world. Why would thirty-nine enty-two, seemed like a cross section of Hseemingly gentle and earnest American citizens—though they people in Rancho Santa Fe, California, demonstrated some degree of technical voluntarily commit collective suicide? and engineering skills, and some even They left us eerie messages on video- described themselves as "computer tapes, conveying their motives: they nerds." They sought to convey their wished to leave their "containers" (phys- bizarre UFO theology on the Internet. ical bodies) in order to ascend to a new Were these people crazy, a fringe group, plane of existence, a Level Above overcome by paranoia? Or were there Human. other, deeper causes at work in their It was a celestial omen, Comet Hale- behavior? Bopp, that provoked their departure. Heaven's Gate was led by Marshall For they thought that it carried with it a Herff Applewhite and Bonnie Lu UFO spacecraft—an event already pro- Nettles (who died in 1985), who taught claimed on the nationally syndicated An their followers how to enter the I !• _i ^ ^ K 1 Bell radio show when Whitley Strieber Kingdom of God. They believed that Marshall Herff Applewhite, leader of Heaven's and Courtney Brown maintained that a some 2,000 years ago beings from an Gate, in his videotaped farewell message to the world. spaceship "extraterrestrial in origin" and Evolutionary Level Above Human sent under "intelligent control" was tracking Jesus to teach people how to reach the May 6, one of diem succeeding—did so the comet. According to astronomer true Kingdom of God. But these efforts to achieve a higher level of existence. Alan Hale, co-discoverer of the comet, failed. According to documents left on Reading about the strange behavior what they probably saw was a star the Heaven's Gate Web site, "In the of this cult of unreason, one is struck by behind the comet. Interestingly, the early 1970s, two members of the the unquestioning obedience that twenty-one women and eighteen men, Kingdom of Heaven (or what some Applewhite was able to elicit from his might call two aliens from space) incar- faithful flock. There was a rigid authori- Paul Kurtz is the founder and chairman nated into two unsuspecting humans in tarian code of behavior imposed upon of the Committee for the Scientific Houston [Applewhite and Nettles]...." everyone, a form of mind control. Stria Investigation of Claims of the Para- Over the next twenty-five years rules and rituals governed all aspects of normal (CSICOP). Many of our readers Applewhite and Nettles transmitted their monastic lives. They were to give perhaps are aware that Paul Kurtz under- their message to hundreds of followers. up all their worldly possessions, their went open-heart bypass surgery in early Those who killed themselves at Rancho diets were regulated, and sex was strictly December of last year. We are pleased to Same Fe (including Applewhite)—plus forbidden (seven members, including report that he has fully recovered and is the two former members who subse- Applewhite, were castrated). The entire back on a fiill schedule.—ED. quently attempted to take their lives on effort focused on squelching the per- FROM THE CHAIRMAN 1 2 July/August 1997 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER sonal self. Independent thinking was What drivel NBC, Fox, and other net- the spawning of a New Age religion. discouraged. works have produced! (A notable excep- (This year marks the fiftieth anniversary The followers of Heaven's Gate lived tion to this is ABC, which we are glad to of Kenneth Arnold's sighting of the first under a siege morality; they were super- say has called upon CSICOP skeptics to flying saucers over the State of secretive, attempting to hide their per- present alternative views on 20/20, Washington in 1947.) sonal identities. They were like nomads Prime Time, and other shows.) TV is a There are many other signs that wandering in the wilderness, seeking die powerful medium; and when it enters UFO mythology has become a space- truths of a Higher Revelation from the home with high drama and the age religion and that it is not based on extraterrestrial semi-divine beings. What stamp of authenticity, it is difficult for scientific evidence so much as emotional has puzzled so many commentators is ordinary persons to distinguish purely commitment. Witness the revival of imaginative fantasies from reality. Many the depth of their conviction that space astrology today; or the growth of people blame the Internet. I think the aliens were sending envoys to Earth and Scientology, which proposes space-age media conglomerates, who sell their abducting humans. They kept vigils at reincarnation to their Thetans and ideas as products, are to blame, not the night, peering for streaks of light that attracts famous movie stars such as Tom Internet. We are surely not calling for might be UFOs, waiting for spacecraft Cruise and John Travolta; or the Order censorship, only that some measure of to arrive. responsibility be exercised by editors of the Solar Temple, in which seventy- We read on their Web page: "We sus- and producers. Interestingly, the four people committed suicide in pect that many of us arrived in staged Heaven's Gaters were avid watchers of Switzerland, Quebec, and France, wait- spacecraft (UFO) crashes, and many of TV paranormal programs. ing to be transported to the star Sirius, our discarded bodies (genderless, not nine light-years away. Perhaps one of the belonging to the human species), were CSICOP and the SKEPTICAL most graphic illustrations of this phe- retrieved by human authorities (govern- INQUIRER have been dealing wirh UFO nomenon is what occurred on April 21, ment and military)." claims on a scientific basis for more than 1997, when the cremated remains of This form of irrational behavior twenty yean. We have attempted to pro- twenty-four people, including Gene should be no surprise to the readers of vide, wherever we could, scientific eval- Roddenberry (father of Star Trek), the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. I submit that uations of the claims. We have never Timothy Leary (former Harvard guru), the mass media deserve a large share of denied that it is possible, indeed proba- and Gerard O'Neill (scientific promoter the blame for this UFO mythology. ble, mat other forms of life, even intelli- of space colonics), were catapulted into Book publishers and TV a nd movie pro- gent life, exist in the universe. And we space from the Grand Canary island off ducers have fed the public a steady diet support any effort to verify such an of the Moroccan coast aboard an of science fiction fantasy packaged and exciting hypothesis. But this is different American Pegasus rocket. This celestial sold as real. Alarmed by the steady from the belief that we are now being burial is symptomatic of the New Age stream of irresponsible programming visited by extraterrestrial beings in religion, in which our sacred church is spewing forth claims that were patendy spacecraft, that they are abducting peo- outer space. The religious temptation false, last year CSICOP (the Committee ple, and that there is a vast government enters when romantic expectations out- for the Scientific Investigation of Claims coverup of these alien invasions—a reach empirical capacities. of the Paranormal), publisher of "Luciferian" conspiracy, according to Science is based on factual observa- SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, established the Heaven's Gate. tion and verification. It was perhaps best Council for Media Integrity, calling for In my view, what we are dealing with illustrated by the discovery of Comet some balanced presentation of science. is "the transcendental temptation," the Hale-Bopp. That the comet has been We said that, given massive media mis- tendency of many human beings to leap captured by the paranormal imagination information, it is difficult for large sec- beyond this world to other dimensions, and transformed into a religious symbol tors of the public to distinguish between impervious to the tests of evidence and is unfortunate. Alan Hale deplored this science and pseudoscience, particularly the standards of logical coherence, the extrapolation of his observations. Yet the since there is a heavy dose of "quasi-doc- temptation to engage in magical think- transcendental temptation can at times umentary" films. Why worry about ing. UFO mythology is similar to the be so powerful that it knows no bounds. these programs? Because, I reply, the message of the classical religions where Incidentally, the paranormal—which public, with few exceptions, does not God sends his Angels as emissaries who means, literally, that which is alongside have careful, critical knowledge of para- offer salvation to those who accept the of or beside normal scientific explana- normal and pseudoscientific claims. So faith and obey his Prophets. Today, the tion—was involved in other aspects of far, the Council for Media Integrity's chariots of the gods are UFOs. What we the Heaven's Gate theology. The mem- warnings have gone largely unheeded. are witnessing in the past half century is bers expressed beliefs in astrology, tarot | HOH THE CHAIBIWAW | SKEPTICAL INQUIRER luly/Augusl 1997 13 cards, psychic channeling, telepathy, res- Jewish Zealots who committed suicide I am struck by the fact that the urrection, and reincarnation. That is at Masada in 73 C.E., or the early Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah's why it is often difficult to ferret out and Christians who willingly died for the Witnesses, Mormons, and Chassidic examine diese claims dispassionately, for faith, or the young Muslim Palestinians Jews were considered radical fringe New Agers are dealing with faith, today who strap explosives to their bod- groups when first proclaimed; today credulity, and a deep desire to believe, ies and blow themselves to kingdom they are part of the conventional reli- rather than widi falsifiable facts; and come in the hope of attaining heaven.