Two thousand years ago, a crew of members of the Kingdom of Heaven who are responsible for nurturing "gardens," determined that a percentage of the human "plants" of the present civilization of this Garden (Earth) had developed enough that some of those bodies might be ready to be used as "containers" for soul deposits. Upon instruction, a member of the Kingdom of Heaven then left behind His body in that Next Level (similar to putting it in a closet, like a suit of clothes that doesn't need to be worn for awhile), came to Earth, and moved into (or incarnated into), an adult human body (or "vehicle") that had been "prepped" for this particular task. The body that was chosen was called Jesus. The member of the Kingdom of Heaven who was instructed to incarnate into that body did so at His "Father's" (or Older Member's) instruction. He "moved into" (or took over) that body when it was 29 or 30 years old, at the time referred to as its baptism by John the Baptist (the incarnating event was depicted as "...the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove" - Luke 3:22). [That body (named Jesus) was tagged in its formative period to be the receptacle of a Next Level Representative, and even just that "tagging" gave that "vehicle" some unique awareness of its coming purpose.]
The sole task that was given to this member from the Kingdom of Heaven was to offer the way leading to membership into the Kingdom of Heaven to those who recognized Him for who He was and chose to follow Him. "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" meant - 'since I am here, and I am from that Kingdom, if you leave everything of this world and follow me, I can take you into my Father's Kingdom.' Only those individuals who had received a "deposit" containing a soul's beginning had the capacity to believe or recognize the Kingdom of Heaven's Representative. They could get to His Father only through total reliance upon Him. He later sent His students out with the "Good news of the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand," and His followers could then help gather the "flock" so that the "Shepherd" might teach others what was required of them to enter His Father's House - His Father's Kingdom - the Kingdom of Heaven - in the literal and physical Heavens - certainly not among humans on Earth. Leaving behind this world included: family, sensuality, selfish desires, your human mind, and even your human body if it be required of you - all mammalian ways, thinking, and behavior. Since He had been through this metamorphic transition Himself from human to Level Above Human - under the guidance of His Father - He was qualified to take others through that same discipline and transition. Remember, the One who incarnated in Jesus was sent for one purpose only, to say, 'If you want to go to Heaven, I can take you through that gate - it requires everything of you.'
Our mission is exactly the same. I am in the same position to today's society as was the One that was in Jesus then. My being here now is actually a continuation of that last task as was promised, to those who were students 2000 years ago. They are here again, continuing in their own overcoming, while offering the same transition to others. Our only purpose is to offer the discipline and "grafting" required of this transition into membership in My Father's House. My Father, my Older Member, came with me this time for the first half of this task to assist in the task because of its present difficulty.
Looking to us, and desiring to be a part of my Father's Kingdom, can offer to those with deposits that chance to connect with the Level Above Human, and begin that transition. Your separation from the world and reliance upon the Kingdom of Heaven through its Representatives can open to you the opportunity to become a new creature, one of the Next Evolutionary Level, rightfully belonging to the Kingdom of Heaven.
We don't know if you believe in the real existence of negative or "lower" forces. If you do, then you may be able to understand or relate to some of what we are about to say. It seems that how your "programming" permits you to see or identify those forces, determines the limit of your acceptance or understanding. Many believe that there are "evil" acts or even "evil" individuals, but would draw the line before they would believe in evil spirits, evil discarnates, negative influences, malevolent space aliens, "Luciferians," or Satan and his fallen angels.
The generally accepted "norms" of today's societies - world over - are designed, established, and maintained by the individuals who were at one time "students" of the Kingdom of Heaven - "angels" in the making - who "flunked out" of the classroom. Legends and scriptures refer to them as fallen angels. The current civilization's records use the name Satan or Lucifer to describe a single fallen angel and also to "nickname" any "evil presence." If you have experienced some of what our "classroom" requires of us, you would know that these "presences" are real and that the Kingdom of God even permits them to "attack" us in order for us to learn their tricks and how to stay above them or conquer them. The space aliens, or Luciferians, use the discarnate spirits (the minds that are disembodied at the death of a body) as their primary servants - against potential members of the Kingdom of God. These "influences," or discarnates, are constantly "programming" every human "plant" (vehicle or body), to accept a set of beliefs and norms for behavior during a lifetime. From our point of view, this "programming" finds that body, and the vast majority of all human bodies, barely usable by students of the Kingdom of Heaven.
As the above example can serve to testify, the "lower forces" would - through their "norm" concept - what is "socially acceptable," what is politically correct - have you not believe in spirits, spirit possession, negative space aliens, Satan, etc. They would have you believe that to even dabble in these ideas is of the "occult," satanic, or at the least, giving credence to "fringe" topics. That's where they would also categorize any mental search of Eastern religions, astrology, metaphysics, paranormal, UFOs, etc., etc. In other words, they (these space aliens) don't want themselves "found out," so they condemn any exploration. They want you to be a perfect servant to society (THEIR society -- of THEIR world) -- to the "acceptable establishment," to humanity, and to false religious concepts. Part of that "stay blinded" formula goes like this: "Above all, be married, a good parent, a reasonable church goer, buy a house, pay your mortgage, pay your insurance, have a good line of credit, be socially committed, and graciously accept death with the hope that 'through His shed blood,' or some other equally worthless religious precept, you will go to Heaven after your death."
Many segments of society, especially segments of the religious, think that they are not "of the world," but rather that their "conversion" experience finds them "outside of worldliness." The next statement that we will make will be the "Big Tester," the one that the "lower forces" would use to clearly have you discredit or disregard us. That statement is: Unless you are currently an active student or are attempting to become a student of the present Representative from the Kingdom of Heaven - you ARE STILL "of the world," having done no significant separation from worldliness, and you are still serving the opposition to the Kingdom of Heaven. This statement sounds - to humans who have been so carefully programmed by the "lower forces" - arrogant, pompous, or egotistical at the least - as if by taking this stand we had something to gain - as if we were seeking recognition as "Deity" or as self-appointed prophets.
That Luciferian programming has truly been effective, for we don't even want to voice to you the statement in question. However, believe it or not, it is only for your sake - the sake of prospective recipients of the Kingdom of Heaven - that we must "tell the truth," openly identify to you as Representatives of the Kingdom of Heaven, well aware of the "fallout" of that position.
The hard facts or bold statements in a nutshell, that are so difficult to accept or "digest" - come down to: If you want or ever expect to go to Heaven - here is your window. That window opportunity requires: 1) an incarnate (as human) Representative of the Kingdom of Heaven; 2) that all who hope to enter Heaven become active students of that Representative while the Representative is present; 3) those who endure the "transition classroom" until it ends (adequately bonding or "grafting" to that Representative) will go with that Representative - literally LEAVE the human kingdom and Earth as He is about to do. Staying behind, for any significant period, could jeopardize that "graft." That window to Heaven will not open again until another civilization is planted and has reached sufficient maturity (according to the judgment of the Next Level).
We can't blame you for "buying into" the "Luciferian" program. What else has been available during those periods when no Representative was present? Almost nothing - save some warnings in the Scriptures, i.e., Luke 20:34-36, Luke 21:23, Mark 12:25, and Mark 13:17-19. Check these out.
Another fact is that what someone is into during the time a Representative is not present really doesn't matter that much, except that they are found unprepared when One comes - the only time when the Kingdom of Heaven can be offered to you.
The dilemma is we are here and most humans are thoroughly "hooked" to humanity. However, the same "grace" that was available at the end of the Representative's mission 2000 years ago is available now with our presence. If you quickly choose to take these steps toward separating from the world, and look to us for help, you will see our Father's Kingdom.
It is clear to all of us, that to the Anti-Christ -- those propagators of sustained faithfulness to mammalian humanism -- we are, and will be seen as, their Anti-Christ. This is certainly to be expected, and it will not delay our return to our Father's Kingdom. It might even accelerate that return.
We will, between now and our departure, do everything we can for those who want to go with us. But we cannot allow them to interfere with or delay our return to Him.
The Present Representative, Do
We know that it is only while we are in these physical vehicles (bodies) that we can learn the lessons needed to complete our own individual transition, as well as to complete our task of offering the Kingdom of Heaven to this civilization one last time. We take good care of our vehicles so they can function well for us in this task, and we try to protect them from any harm.
We fully desire, expect, and look forward to boarding a spacecraft from the Next Level very soon (in our physical bodies). There is no doubt in our mind that our being "picked up" is inevitable in the very near future. But what happens between now and then is the big question. We are keenly aware of several possibilities.
It could happen that before that spacecraft comes, one or more of us could lose our physical vehicles (bodies) due to "recall," accident, or at the hands of some irate individual. We do not anticipate this, but it is possible. Another possibility is that, because of the position we take in our information, we could find so much disfavor with the powers that control this world that there could be attempts to incarcerate us or to subject us to some sort of psychological or physical torture (such as occurred at both Ruby Ridge and Waco). It has always been our way to examine all possibilities, and be mentally prepared for whatever may come our way. For example, consider what happened at Masada around 73 A.D. A devout Jewish sect, after holding out against a siege by the Romans, to the best of their ability, and seeing that the murder, rape, and torture of their community was inevitable, determined that it was permissible for them to evacuate their bodies by a more dignified, and less agonizing method. We have thoroughly discussed this topic (of willful exit of the body under such conditions), and have mentally prepared ourselves for this possibility (as can be seen in a few of our statements). However, this act certainly does not need serious consideration at this time, and hopefully will not in the future.
The true meaning of "suicide" is to turn against the Next Level when it is being offered. In these last days, we are focused on two primary tasks: one - of making a last attempt at telling the truth about how the Next Level may be entered (our last effort at offering to individuals of this civilization the way to avoid "suicide"); and two - taking advantage of the rare opportunity we have each day - to work individually on our personal overcoming and change, in preparation for entering the Kingdom of Heaven.
Source: Heaven's Gate Homepage
Associated Press
Published Saturday, March 29, 1997
Suicide Cult Member Profiles:
Thumbnail sketches of some suicide cult members:
Bowers, 45, of Jupiter, Fla., was "lost," said Karin Nickeson, who befriended him along with her husband, Denny, when they all found a common interest in music. "He cried all the time. He was very much in love with his wife, who divorced him. That's when he lost it," Mrs. Nickeson said. His wife left him a few years ago. He was also depressed about the death of his brother before he disappeared about three years ago without paying the rent, said former landlord Margo Bruynel in Jupiter. "His brother's death hit him so hard," Ms. Bruynel said. "He would stop by and talk, but I know he was depressed about the death of his brother. His brother died in some sort of freak accident up in New England. It was a tragedy he never got over." Bowers first met members of the cult 22 years ago during a lecture at Stanford University, said his sister, Susan. He was "a spiritual person who saw good in everybody. God knew his heart. God wouldn't turn his back on him," she said. Bowers lived in East Haven, Madison and Milford, Conn., before moving to Florida about three years ago.
Ms. Brugato, 40, of Englewood, Colo., was an outstanding violinist and computer programmer, said her father, Joe Brugato of Newberg, Ore. She was one of nine children born to the real estate agent and former math teacher. Brugato said he lost touch with his daughter when she became involved in the cult and he had hired a private investigator to help him re-establish contact. When Ms. Brugato rented a home in the Cherry Creek School District in Colorado, her landlords noticed unusual behavior. "She had a canopy bed set up with four diamond-shape crystals on each corner of her bed and one large crystal" suspended from the ceiling over the middle of her bed, Al Wallace said. "It clearly left me with the impression that this was some New Age experiential worship place that she used to commune with her gods."
Ms. Bull, 53, joined the cult in the mid-1970s after teaching English in Spain for a few years, said her brother, John Bull of Ellensburg, Wash. She graduated from Ellensburg High and earned an English degree from the University of Washington. Ms. Bull returned home when her mother died three years ago. At the time, she told relatives that cult members were self-supporting, drove expensive cars, lived communally, moved frequently and were celibate, her brother said. She was found with a New Mexico driver's license.
Ms. Butcher, 43, left Springfield, Mo., in 1976 to take up with a group in Oregon led by Marshall Applewhite. Her mother, Virginia Norton, said she seemed content. "She didn't call it a cult. She didn't consider it as a cult. She was happy," Mrs. Norton said. Mrs. Norton said she had not seen her daughter since 1993, when she visited her in Dallas. Ms. Butcher was found with a Texas driver's license.
Craig, 63, a onetime political candidate who ran a dude ranch and had a bit part in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," left his wife and six young children in Durango, Colo., in July 1975. "For me, he died 22 years ago," said Mary Ann Craig, his ex-wife. "When we found out he was dead, there was a sense of closure more than anything for us." Craig owned the Wilderness Trails Guest Ranch. Former neighbors recalled him as the first horseman out of the boxcar in the famous train robbery scene in the movie. In 1970, he also ran as a Republican for the Colorado House. He ended up losing the election by fewer than 20 votes. After his abrupt departure, he contacted his family only occasionally through impersonal letters with no return addresses.
Johnson, 42, played in a band called Dharma Combat, former band manager David Fratt told KTVX, a Salt Lake City television station. Fratt said the band was playing in several clubs. The band's lyrics talked about death and aliens. Johnson was found with a Utah driver's license.
LaMontagne, 45, looked forward to her future when she graduated in 1974 from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst nursing school, but then her father died and her life fell in disarray, relatives said. "She thought he was her knight in shining armor," said her brother, Andrew LaMontagne, of Windsor, Vt. "When he passed away, Julie just freaked out. And then she met those people, and it was all over."
Ms. LaMontagne joined the cult as a personal nurse to Applewhite when it recruited in Amherst in 1975, said her stepmother, Theresa Boucher. Ms. LaMontagne wrote months later that she wanted nothing more to do with her family, relatives said. The family spent tens of thousands of dollars looking for her and she did visit her stepmother's home in Brooksville, Fla., in 1990. Then she disappeared for good. "We lost a daughter, but we really lost her 21 years ago," Boucher said Saturday. "This was just the final loss." LaMontagne's brother was angry at Applewhite. "Look at the guy, he looks like a lunatic," he said. "He's a monster. He took my sister."
At 72, Ms. Leonard was the oldest among the dead. She grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, and raised her two daughters and a son there with her late husband, said her son-in-law, Angelo Bellizzi of Seattle. Bellizzi said Ms. Leonard "was always groping and looking for something that interested her." In the early 1970s, she moved to Colorado, where she met members of the UFO cult, Bellizzi said. A few years later she joined the group in San Francisco, he said.
Lewis, 41, was a former massage therapist from San Antonio. Four years ago, Lewis sold his possessions and left San Antonio to join the Heaven's Gate, according to a friend, David Tayloe. "He told us that he wouldn't be communicating with any of his friends and to be happy for him, because this is what he felt was right for him," Tayloe said. Lewis, who worked as a masseur out of his house, said he was joining a cult for the second time.
Fear of death drove Ms. Maeder, 28, to the cult, said her mother, Alice Maeder. "They promised her she would never die," Mrs. Maeder said. "Her mind was controlled beyond her control." Ms. Maeder left Sag Harbor, N.Y., five years ago, moving to California with her boyfriend. "At first she seemed happy," said her father, Robert Maeder, describing how she opened a small shop and did housework to pay the rent. "But then she broke up with her boyfriend, lost her business and fell in with the wrong crowd," he said. Authorities said Ms. Maeder had a Utah driver's license.
The mother of McCormick, 29, once said that she saw the cult as having taken his decisions away from him. McCormick, who graduated from Malcolm Shabazz City High School in Madison, Wis., in 1986, joined a group then called the Total Overcomers in Seattle on May 16, 1994. In a published report in 1994, his mother, Megan McCormick, said she was "reasonably certain that Joel is physically all right. Sometimes I think he'll be irrevocably changed if and when he comes out." McCormick was living in Salt Lake City when his driver's license was issued, authorities said.
Ms. McCurdy-Hill, 39, learned about the cult over the Internet and left her five children in Cincinnati last September to join the group, the family's minister said. She was a postal worker for 10 years, sorting magazines and operating a mail machine at the main processing center in Cincinnati, said Bonni Maines, a U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman. Ms. McCurdy-Hill quit in August, citing "circumstances beyond my control." She headed West in September.
Moore, 40, grew up in Los Gatos, Calif., near San Jose. He hooked up with the cult in the mid-1970s and had contacted his family just twice since then, said his mother, Nancie Brown. Ms. Brown described her son as an emotional, often angry teen-ager. At age 19, he attended his first cult meeting in a neighborhood park, Ms. Brown said. After the cult moved to San Diego County, Moore and two female cult members worked as free-lance employees for Arrowhead General Insurance Agency, an employee there said.
IRISH TIMES -- Monday, March 31, 1997
A CULT OF IGNORANCE
Last week's 'Internet death cult' stories raise plenty of questions, writes Michael Cunningham What do you do when your Web design company tells you not to call until after Easter because they are going to be "involved with monastery activities", and the next thing you find their names plastered all over the news in headlines such as "INTERNET KILLS 40 PEOPLE" or "The Internet's First Mass Suicide"? That's what happened to Heather Chronert, office manager of the San Diego Polo Club. Last Wednesday her Web designers turned out to be the death cult who thought the arrival of a comet was a sign that the alien spacecraft had finally come to pick them up, and 39 of them committed suicide.
It just shows that it's possible to believe in apocalyptic comets and flying saucers, yet work in a growing computer-based service-industry. The irony is that while most people still regard Web page construction as something akin to alchemy in the middle ages - as a dark, mysterious art somewhere between science and the occult - the technology and skills required aren't that difficult. Even schoolkids can do it, and it's still very much a "garage industry", much as desktop publishing was in the late 1980s, where entry is still relatively easy.
Were the cult members nerds? -- We read that the cult "left everything behind" - partners, children, jobs, homes - for this obsession. It does sound sort of nerdy alright, because computer programmers have traditionally been stereotyped as outcasts and loners. The subtext is that the cult members are geeks, the hippies of the 1990s, tripping out on HTML and VRML instead of LSD.
Did they use the Web to recruit and spread their ideas? -- Well, they tried to. Besides their Web consultancy page, their other Web site explained their ideologies. Someone possibly involved in the mass suicide also spent months spreading an apocalyptic message (by "spamming") on fringe Usenet newsgroups that discuss conspiracies, culture, aliens, religions.
How did the Internet react to the story? -- By Thursday the group's Web site was nigh on impossible to access, so many major online news agencies created mirrors of it. Then by Friday they had stories with timelines of other mass suicides, links to the pages designed by the cult, archive stories about the Jonestown suicides, background stories about the "Swank Enclave Known For Privacy, Posh Estates", info on the HaleBopp comet, links to suicide groups, local media in San Diego and cult analysis. It's a good example of how the Net can now amass a large amount of quality information about an event.
The cult's use of the Web just shows how the Net has become an increasingly everyday, widespread medium. Blaming the Net for suicides is a bit like blaming the fax machine for Waco, or Hitler's telephone for the second World War, or stone masonry for the siege of Derry. . . As Mike Emke told reporters: "I think if all these guys who committed suicide were construction workers they wouldn't be showing all these buildings and saying construction workers are vulnerable to cults." But it's not building workers - it's West Coast utopians!
California has often been a melting pot for high tech and alternative religions. The West Coast is where virtual reality companies collide with LSD casualties and "retreats" into the desert. Several Net observers have also noted that the digital evangelism of "digital evangelists" such as Nicholas Negroponte or John Perry Barlow often has uncanny parallels with the language of cults and fundamentalist preachers. Take Barlow's legendary call to arm, the Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, and the barrier it draws between believers and unbelievers: "Your legal concepts of property, expression, identity, movement, and context do not apply to us. They are based on matter. There is no matter here."
And cyberspace, as if we need reminding, has out-of-this-world (otherworldly?) qualities. It is where people say they become disembodied, where they feel they hook up to a global consciousness. But what the Higher Source tragedy is quickly turning into is a mishmash of North American myths: the European Puritans and Quakers taking their ships (rather than spaceships) to the New World; the obsession with UFOS, conspiracies and The X- Files; the end-of-millennium nutters; a secular resurrection movement (e.g. cryogenics); and day-to-day technophobia.
Ironically, after all that, the cult will probably live on, in an immortality of sorts, in the modern mediasphere which now includes the Internet itself.
Go back to Sociology 265 - Religion, Culture and Society
If you have any questions or comments please email: