different social groups based on their likes, beliefs, and backgrounds. One of the more peculiar groups some people categorize themselves in is a cult. A cult is a group of people who find meaning in anecdotes preached to them by a charismatic leader and that carry out socially unacceptable acts. Heaven’s Gate, founded in 1974, would be classified as a cult due to the fact that its founder and leader, Marshall Herff Applewhite, spoke actively to a group of people about there being a place beyond the
The Heaven’s Gate Cult was founded in the early 1970’s by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles. Applewhite was recovering, under the care of his nurse Ms. Nettles, when he claimed to have has a near death experience. Applewhite claimed that he and Nettles were the two witnesses spoken of in the Book of Revelation. And they were to prepare the worlds inhabitants for recycling. In order to gain supporters/followers Applewhite and Nettles began by opening a specialty bookstore. The bookstore was greatly
The Heaven's Gate Cult According to dictionaries a cult is 1) a system of religious worship or ritual. 2) A religion or sect considered extremist of false. 3) Obsessive devotion to a person or principle. It is believed that every cult ties into some kind of religion, and religions all have a common basis of “a leap of faith”. Whether this so-called leap of faith is going to heaven or being reincarnated, or moving on to some other planet, depends on the beliefs of the cult itself. The Heaven’s
Heaven’s Gate was a cult founded in 1972 by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles. The beliefs behind the Heaven’s Gate cult was based around unidentified foreign objects (UFO). Members of this cult believed the Earth was about to be “recycled” and that the only way to survive was to leave Earth. The members commit suicide with the belief it was the only way they could make it to the “Next Level”. Marshall Applewhite was born on May 17, 1931 in Spur, Texas. Applewhite grew up very religious
A cult is defined as a small group of people that do not adhere to the larger widely accepted belief system, instead they are often regarded to have extreme or dangerous beliefs (Cult). Cult leaders engage in many different methods and actions to gain their followers. Some cults last for a long period, others end shortly after creation. Cults nevertheless hold a stigma that brings terror and confusion to many outsiders looking in. The public questions why people could become so consumed in someone
religion in which propaganda was used to lead it’s followers down the wrong path. In March of 1997, a tragic event took place. Applewhite as well as thirty eight members of a cult known as the Heaven’s Gate Cult committed collective suicide. Mass suicide is a waste and a tragedy, and causes mankind to wonder what attractions cults hold for it’s members. What could separate people from their families and responsibilities in order to follow radical leaders,
Some say that cults are all religious and work together, in fact the definition of a cult is “a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object”, yet this can vary. Cults are not all religious or trying to reach a spiritual goal and in a lot of cases it is mostly all about one goal that is completely derived off his followers. Most cult leaders are so infatuated with their goals that they truly believe the psychological damage they are causing is good for
On March 26, 1997, the bodies of 38 members of a religious cult that would come to be known as “Heaven’s Gate” were found decomposing on a large San Diego estate.1 Heaven’s Gate was a millenarian cult that operated from 1974 -1997 under the leadership of Marshall Applewhite and his wife, Bonnie Nettles. At its peak, this group recruited over one-hundred members who all believed in Applewhite’s theory that the world was going to be “recycled,” ending all human life on Earth.2 The cause that drove
paper will be examining The ‘Heaven’s Gate’ cult in relation to the topic of collective behaviour. The ‘Heaven’s Gate’ was a cult led by Marshall Applewhite, “who claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus and a higher alien life form” (Locher, 2002, pp. 88). Applewhite and the wider group believed that a spaceship was going to take them to heaven (‘The Next Level’), and the only way to access this spaceship was to commit suicide (Locher, 2002, p. 88). A cult is defined as a group with an excessive
Another well-known cult leader is Marshall Applewhite, one of the founders of Heaven’s Gate. Applewhite was born on May 17, 1931 in Texas. He was a music teacher who was also well known for having good public speaking skills. He moved to Huston in the 1960’s to take over as head of the university’s music department. Shortly after moving, Marshall began to experience a mental decline. He and his wife divorced, he quit his job, and left his children. In the midst of a nervous breakdown and near-death
fully understand the bizarre case that is the cult of Heaven’s Gate one must first go back before the group was founded and understand the creator and self proclaimed prophet that was Marshall Applewhite. Marshall Applewhite was born on May 17, 1931, in Spur, Texas. Through the help of his second wife Bonnie Nettles they created a strange cult called Heaven’s Gate which brought the unfortunate deaths of thirty-nine men and women. The strange religious cult drew inspiration from science fiction movies
practices. Cult groups however, are often victim of limited religious freedom simply because of the negative connotation that the word “cult” carries. As a society, we tend to label small, religious groups, with deviant beliefs and practices, far removed from mainstream religions as cults. With the word “cult” comes a plethora of negative, insulting, and often exaggerated stereotypes which lead to the unlawful treatment of these groups. With that being said, some practices of certain cults do warrant
group of people who are bound by their desire to wo... ... middle of paper ... ... the potion were surrounded by armed guards and shot. Nevertheless, until laws were broken and human life was sacrificed, both the People’s Temple and Heaven’s Gate cults members were allowed to practice their beliefs freely without the intervention of the government. The inalienable right of a human being to give benediction to a divinity of their discretion is an opportunity that is not given in every country
Cults On March 29th, 1997, thirty nine men and women took their own lives in the belief that they would travel to a space ship hidden behind the Hale-Bop comet. The "Heaven's Gate" cult planted these beliefs within their members, resulting in a mass death. It is cults such as these that weave a sense of panic through society. What defines a cult? A cult is a group that has an intense devotion to a person, object, or set of usually new ideas. Cultus is a Latin word translating
Agricultural Project, a cult lead by Jim Jones.1 For many years people have been shocked and dumbfounded at why this would happen, and who would ever want to participate in such a thing? Through the inquiry method, it can be seen that masses generally chose cult membership to attain a sense of belonging and security, to satiate a desire for sense of meaning and become party to salvation from the apocalypse, and finally because the person seeks hope and opportunity offered by the cult.2,3 Indeed, it initially
For many years, cults have been a subject of great controversy. A cult is a group of people that are bound together by an appreciation of the same thing, person, ideal, etc. Usually these groups keep close because of religious reasons, but their beliefs are almost always considered strange by outsiders. Cults are similar to clans or congregations, but are usually referred to as sects. There are many different categories that a cult could be sorted into. Apocalyptic, Utopian, Spiritualistic, Satanic
A cult can be roughly defined as a relatively small body of people having, often religious, beliefs and practices that are regarded by others as dark or menacing. Some more formally known as New Religious Movements (NRM), cults come in many various categories and extremes from religious, racist, and terrorist cults to mass transformational, new age, and commercial multi-marketing cults- but the list goes on. (Lalich, 2006). Cults deploy several methods to draw in potential members. They frequently
I believe that a cult is considered a smaller scale social group that shares it religious believes or philosophical beliefs. In other words is a very unorthodox social group. One of the first cults to come to mind when I think of the word is the Charles Manson cult from the 1960s. Usually, when you think of cults the first thing that comes to mind is some form of inherently bad or evil cult. I believe this is mostly due to the way that the media has talked about cults in the past. Examples being
CULTS I. Introduction Thesis: The forces that draw individuals into cults can be explained by psychological doctrine. II. What is a cult A. Brief description B. Types of cults 1. religious 2. psychotherapy or personal growth 3. political 4. popular or faddist III. Popular cult groups A. People's Temple B. David Koresh C. Heaven's Gate D. The Family IV. Charismatic group A. Brief desciption B. Characterization V. Sigmund
Following a mass suicide of 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate cult in Rancho Sante Fe, California, individuals were faced with the quandary of an additional unconventional religious group and cult arisen in the United States. Heaven’s Gate is recognized as a coeval cult originating in America with the religious goal of reaching the next level, ultimately achieving such through a mass suicide mission. The Heaven’s Gate Cult serves as a modern exemplar of a new religious movement, providing a belief