Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles founded the religious group Heaven's Gate in the 1970s. They believed that they were the two witnesses from the Book of Revelation and that they had to prepare their followers to leave Earth on a spaceship hidden behind the Hale-Bopp comet. The group practiced strict rules and rituals aimed at overcoming human tendencies like sexuality. After Nettles' death in 1985, Applewhite came to believe that the only way to reach the "Next Level" was by shedding one's human body through suicide. In 1997, he led 39 followers in a mass suicide so their souls could board the spaceship before it passed Earth. The group's website is still online with their final messages

1. By: Daniel Potes

2. Ti & Do
Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles’ names
• Shakti Devi (Powerful Goddess) and Shri Pranavah (Auspicious Mantra)
• Guinnea and Pig
• The Two
• Vickie and Seymour Morgenstern
• Bo and Peep
• Ti and Do Marshall Herff Applewhite
(1932-1997)
Bonnie Lu Nettles
(1927-1985)

3. Names of the Group
• 1st HIM (Human Individual Metamorphasis)
– Process to help people transform their bodies and
prepare to leave the planet.
• Total Overcomers Anonymous
– Was the pseudonym they used to release their final
stage of recruitment material.
• Heaven’s Gate
– The title that this NRM is most widely known as, and
the name of the website that they left in operation
after the mass suicide.

4. Timeline
• 1927 Birth of Nettles.
• 1932 Birth of Applewhite.
• 1952 Applewhite enrolls in Virginia Union Theological Seminary.
• 1973 The Two are the only members of their NRM.
• July 1973 The Two come upon a firm realization of their spiritual identities
as the two witnesses decribed in the Book of Revelation.
• 1974 by may 1 student has joined the community, a former client named
Sharon form their book store days.
• 1974-1975 Applewhite Jailed for stealing a rental car and Sharon’s Credit
Cards. In jail he wrote his first recruitment piece and seems to have become
stable.
• 1975 Applewhite apparently stops showing evidence of mental health
problems and becomes more centered.
• April 1975 The Two meet with an already existing esoteric group run by
Clarence Klug, here they attain many of their original converts in the form of
spiritual seekers.
• May 1975 the community now consists of several dozen members.
• Late 1975 early 1976 have gathered several hundred followeds in the last 12
months.
• 1976 The Two Institute a rigid hierarchical social structure predicated on
their total dominance and control over the religious and social lives of their
students.
• 1983 Nettles has her eye surgically removed because of a cancer that they
had not noticed.
• 1985 Nettles dies from the cancer that took her eye, Beginning of
Applewhite seeing the shedding of the human body as the only way to
escape the human condition
• 1992 a “Last call” under the name Total Overcomers Anonymous is released
• 1993 TOA makes final offer to gain members, of which they get 20
respondants
• 1996 Hale Bopp Comet first appears
• 1997 Heaven’s gate ends with a mass suicide in a mansion in california over
the course of 3 days

6. Cosmology/Mythology
• The Evolutionary Level Above Human (TELAH)
– Otherwise known as The Next Level, synonymous with the Kingdom of
heaven or the Kingdom of God
– Considered a tangible place by most of the members of Heaven’s Gate.
– https://youtu.be/AqSZhwu1Rwo?t=11
• Luciferians
– “Technologically advanced humans who have retained some of what
they learned while in the early training of members of the true
Kingdom of God”
– “Have represented themselves to humans as ‘Gods’”
– “Still need to reproduce”
-1993 Heaven’s Gate ad in USA Today
– In constant conflict with the Next Level, seeking to tempt humanity
away from trying to the Level Above Human

8. Ritual/Rules
– The Rituals in the beginning of the growth of Heaven’s Gate is
described by ex- members as being very boring, with a focus on
confronting sexuality and erasing social relationships.
– Check Partners was created after The Two decided to split the
movement into groups of two paired sexes together to make them
forcibly confront and overcome sexual attractions
– “Self Initiation” the alchemical process of transcending human limits
and evolving into beings of light
– Talking during training camps was forbidden in preparation for the
mental communication when they evolve to the Next Level of Human
Evolution or the Kingdom of Heaven.

11. Scriptures of importance to Heaven’s gate
• As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for
the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must
bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it
again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it
down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my
Father.
John 10:15-18
• Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he
do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
John 14:12
• He who loves his life will lose it and he who hates his life in this world will keep it
for eternal life
John 12:25
• Blesses are the dead who died in the Lord
Revelation 14:13

12. Beliefs• Believed that Ti & Do we the Father and Jesus respectively.
• Ti returned to the heaven’s in 1985 and returned as the pilot of the space ship behind Hale-Bopp
• Originally believed in a process of “Self Initiation” an alchemical process of transcending human
limits and evolving into beings of light.
• This evolved throughout the religion due to the death of Nettles, after which the only way to
escape earth is by shedding the human body, not alchemically changed.
• Before Nettles death viewed it as a Demonstration, which was the first taste of the fact that they
are going to be killed or die as a sacrifice of martyrdom, later morphs into the idea of shedding
their human bodies
• The two surviving members of the Mass suicide have continued to keep the website up and
running, and have shown a changed belief in suicide as a means of escape
• https://youtu.be/AqSZhwu1Rwo?t=347
• https://youtu.be/U0we2lBn3Qw?t=2313

15. Heaven’s Gate 2

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