Word: cults
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...next to my 8-year-old cousin, Andrew. He had just recently begun to enjoy reading, and was curious about the newspaper in my hands. Andrew was drawn to the image of an alien accompanying the lead story of the day: the mass suicide of the Heaven's Gate cult. He then began to read aloud what they had left on their web page: "As was promised--the keys to Heaven's Gate are here again in Ti and Do as they were in Jesus and His Father 2000 yrs. ago." I tried to explain what these people had believed...
...dead belonged to the Heaven's Gate cult, details about which soon surfaced from a video suicide note the group had made and a Website documenting the group's beliefs (accessible at http://pathfinder.com/@@4mMj9gYAd Z9*V0S3/news/heavensgate...
...Cult members had worked as Web page designers prior to their death, but they focused their eyes on another world--a "level above human" attainable only by suicide. "The final act of metamorphosis or separation from the human kingdom is the 'disconnect' or separation from the human physical container or body," they wrote. "We will rendezvous in the 'clouds' (a giant mothership) for our briefing and journey to the Kingdom of the Literal Heavens." Members believed that the Hale-Bopp comet, which visited Earth last week for the first time in 2,400 years, was a "marker" that the mothership...
...suicide of Heaven's Gate has captivated American attention and raised an important set of issues in the media. Newspapers have filled pages with the history of the cult, the historic significance of comets in human affairs and the comparison of this event with other mass suicides...
...suicide has united society in a brief moment of concern. What could have led people to leave their homes, jobs and families to live their lives in an isolated community, awaiting a "mothership"? What role did the Internet play in the growth of the cult? Who, if anyone, is to be held responsible for the loss of life...