WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.820 I want to start today by asking you to picture 00:00:01.820 --> 00:00:06.519 a scene with me. It's late March 1997, and it 00:00:06.519 --> 00:00:11.509 is unseasonably hot. in Rancho Santa Fe, California. 00:00:11.890 --> 00:00:13.490 And we should probably be clear about what Rancho 00:00:13.490 --> 00:00:15.710 Santa Fe is. This isn't just any suburb. No, 00:00:15.730 --> 00:00:17.750 not at all. This is one of the most exclusive, 00:00:17.870 --> 00:00:19.789 wealthiest neighborhoods in the entire country. 00:00:19.910 --> 00:00:23.129 We're talking massive, gated communities, perfectly 00:00:23.129 --> 00:00:26.809 manicured lawns, sprawling Spanish -style mansions. 00:00:26.809 --> 00:00:28.750 It's the picture of American success, really. 00:00:28.969 --> 00:00:31.750 But inside one of those mansions, a huge one, 00:00:31.809 --> 00:00:34.899 like 9 ,000 square feet, there's this... The 00:00:34.899 --> 00:00:37.500 silence, a really heavy silence. A heavy silence. 00:00:37.500 --> 00:00:39.799 And as the first deputies on the scene would 00:00:39.799 --> 00:00:42.460 report, a heavy smell. That's right. It wasn't 00:00:42.460 --> 00:00:44.219 just the quiet that was oppressive. When the 00:00:44.219 --> 00:00:45.820 San Diego Sheriff's Department deputies first 00:00:45.820 --> 00:00:48.100 walked in, that was what hit them before they 00:00:48.100 --> 00:00:50.179 saw a single thing. The smell of decomposition 00:00:50.179 --> 00:00:54.079 amplified by that California heat. It was overwhelming. 00:00:54.460 --> 00:00:56.420 Absolutely. And when they finally moved through 00:00:56.420 --> 00:00:59.880 the house, what they found, this defies the logic 00:00:59.880 --> 00:01:01.600 of what we typically think of when we hear the 00:01:01.600 --> 00:01:04.150 term crime scene. Right, because it wasn't chaotic. 00:01:04.370 --> 00:01:06.510 It wasn't what you'd call violent, not in the 00:01:06.510 --> 00:01:11.170 traditional sense. It was orderly, almost ritualistic. 00:01:11.290 --> 00:01:15.329 Military even. They found 39 bodies, 39 people, 00:01:15.370 --> 00:01:18.250 all dressed in identical black shirts and plain 00:01:18.250 --> 00:01:21.049 black sweatpants. And they all had these patches 00:01:21.049 --> 00:01:23.890 on their sleeves. Heaven's gateway team. Lying 00:01:23.890 --> 00:01:26.090 peacefully in bunk beds, each one covered from 00:01:26.090 --> 00:01:30.090 the waist up with a pristine purple shroud. And 00:01:30.090 --> 00:01:31.409 then, of course, there's the detail that just 00:01:31.409 --> 00:01:33.450 burned itself into the public consciousness forever. 00:01:33.689 --> 00:01:36.049 The shoes. The black and white Nike decades, 00:01:36.290 --> 00:01:38.870 all 39 of them. Exactly. It was an image that 00:01:38.870 --> 00:01:40.829 looked less like a mass suicide and more like 00:01:40.829 --> 00:01:44.250 some bizarre, quiet dormitory where everyone 00:01:44.250 --> 00:01:46.370 had just decided to go to sleep at the very same 00:01:46.370 --> 00:01:49.129 time. It was the precision of it all that was 00:01:49.129 --> 00:01:52.590 so deeply unsettling. And the world just, it 00:01:52.590 --> 00:01:55.250 just exploded. I remember this so vividly. The 00:01:55.250 --> 00:01:57.840 media circus was immediate and... Frankly, kind 00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:00.000 of gross. Oh, totally. You had Saturday Night 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:02.340 Live doing skits about it within, what, a few 00:02:02.340 --> 00:02:04.459 days? Late night hosts were falling over themselves 00:02:04.459 --> 00:02:06.900 to make jokes about the crazy cult? Look at these 00:02:06.900 --> 00:02:09.379 lunatics who thought a spaceship was hiding behind 00:02:09.379 --> 00:02:12.580 a comet. That was the narrative. It was framed 00:02:12.580 --> 00:02:16.800 as this inexplicable explosion of madness. A 00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:19.580 freak show. for the evening news well it's always 00:02:19.580 --> 00:02:21.280 easier to laugh at something you don't understand 00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:23.879 right if you just label them as crazy you create 00:02:23.879 --> 00:02:26.099 this safe distance you can tell yourself i would 00:02:26.099 --> 00:02:29.199 never do that i'm sane but i think our mission 00:02:29.199 --> 00:02:32.090 today is to do something much harder We have 00:02:32.090 --> 00:02:35.370 to try and strip away that crazy cult label and 00:02:35.370 --> 00:02:37.590 actually understand the internal logic of what 00:02:37.590 --> 00:02:39.569 happened in that house. And that's the real challenge, 00:02:39.629 --> 00:02:41.509 because as we've been digging through the source 00:02:41.509 --> 00:02:43.750 material for this and we've got a lot, we have 00:02:43.750 --> 00:02:45.909 biographical records, transcripts of their own 00:02:45.909 --> 00:02:48.430 audio tapes, sociological studies by people who 00:02:48.430 --> 00:02:50.349 studied them for years. The one thing that keeps 00:02:50.349 --> 00:02:52.870 jumping out at me is that these were not. Stupid 00:02:52.870 --> 00:02:55.310 people. This wasn't a group of, you know, lost, 00:02:55.389 --> 00:02:58.069 drug -addled teenagers they picked up off the 00:02:58.069 --> 00:03:00.409 street. Far from it. That's probably the single 00:03:00.409 --> 00:03:02.849 biggest misconception we have to correct right 00:03:02.849 --> 00:03:06.710 at the top. The away team, as they called themselves, 00:03:07.050 --> 00:03:09.469 included some very accomplished people. Like 00:03:09.469 --> 00:03:12.229 who? Well, for starters, a respected Republican 00:03:12.229 --> 00:03:15.650 politician, the brother of Nichelle Nichols. 00:03:15.650 --> 00:03:18.129 I mean, Lieutenant Uhura from the original Star 00:03:18.129 --> 00:03:20.810 Trek. Wow. I did not know that. Yeah. And there 00:03:20.810 --> 00:03:23.650 were business owners, mothers, fathers and some 00:03:23.650 --> 00:03:26.330 incredibly skilled computer programmers. These 00:03:26.330 --> 00:03:29.870 were articulate, intelligent, searching people. 00:03:30.110 --> 00:03:31.789 So that's the real question we're trying to answer 00:03:31.789 --> 00:03:33.729 today, isn't it? Yeah. How do you get from being 00:03:33.729 --> 00:03:36.210 a rational thinking person with a life with a 00:03:36.210 --> 00:03:40.669 family to to. Laying down in a bunk bed, eating 00:03:40.669 --> 00:03:43.569 applesauce laced with phenobarbital, and willingly 00:03:43.569 --> 00:03:45.490 putting a plastic bag over your head because 00:03:45.490 --> 00:03:47.729 you believe it's a graduation. It's a terrifying 00:03:47.729 --> 00:03:50.229 journey. But to understand it, we can't just 00:03:50.229 --> 00:03:53.110 look at the end. The comet is almost a footnote. 00:03:53.189 --> 00:03:54.650 We have to go all the way back to the beginning. 00:03:54.909 --> 00:03:56.789 We have to look at the theology they built. The 00:03:56.789 --> 00:03:59.250 theology, the psychology of what experts call 00:03:59.250 --> 00:04:02.310 bounded choice. And most importantly, we have 00:04:02.310 --> 00:04:04.569 to look at the two people who started it all. 00:04:04.750 --> 00:04:08.189 The two. Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Ness. 00:04:08.199 --> 00:04:11.460 But long before they were don't I before they 00:04:11.460 --> 00:04:14.539 were supposedly commanding a starship crew they 00:04:14.539 --> 00:04:17.720 were two very different very human people living 00:04:17.720 --> 00:04:21.040 very messy lives in Texas in the early 1970s. 00:04:21.100 --> 00:04:23.240 OK let's start with Marshall Applewhite because 00:04:23.240 --> 00:04:26.079 if you just looked at his early resume he seems 00:04:26.079 --> 00:04:28.100 like the kind of guy who would be a pillar of 00:04:28.100 --> 00:04:30.819 his community. Oh absolutely. He was the son 00:04:30.819 --> 00:04:34.259 of a Presbyterian minister. He was a gifted baritone 00:04:34.259 --> 00:04:37.279 singer. He had a master's degree in music. He. 00:04:37.420 --> 00:04:39.579 taught at universities, the University of St. 00:04:39.639 --> 00:04:41.720 Thomas, the University of Alabama. And by all 00:04:41.720 --> 00:04:45.180 accounts, he was charismatic, stylish. His students 00:04:45.180 --> 00:04:47.139 apparently loved him. He just doesn't fit the 00:04:47.139 --> 00:04:49.839 stereotypical profile of a madman cult leader. 00:04:50.060 --> 00:04:52.420 He definitely had that stage presence, that charisma, 00:04:52.620 --> 00:04:55.139 yes. But you have to look at what was churning 00:04:55.139 --> 00:04:57.899 just beneath that polished surface. And you have 00:04:57.899 --> 00:05:00.699 to remember the context. This is the early 1970s 00:05:00.699 --> 00:05:02.620 in the American South. Right. Applewhite was 00:05:02.620 --> 00:05:05.220 dealing with these deep, profound conflicts about 00:05:05.220 --> 00:05:08.189 his own identity. specifically his sexuality. 00:05:08.470 --> 00:05:11.149 He was gay. He had relationships with men, yes. 00:05:11.370 --> 00:05:13.670 And in that time and place, especially coming 00:05:13.670 --> 00:05:16.730 from a conservative minister's family, that wasn't 00:05:16.730 --> 00:05:19.490 just a lifestyle choice. It was a source of immense 00:05:19.490 --> 00:05:22.790 internal shame and turmoil. It led to real -world 00:05:22.790 --> 00:05:24.990 consequences for him, too. Huge consequences. 00:05:25.509 --> 00:05:28.029 He was fired from his teaching position at the 00:05:28.029 --> 00:05:30.389 University of Alabama over an alleged relationship 00:05:30.389 --> 00:05:33.709 he had with a male student. His wife... whom 00:05:33.709 --> 00:05:36.230 he had two children with, divorced him. He was 00:05:36.230 --> 00:05:38.829 losing everything that defined him. So you have 00:05:38.829 --> 00:05:42.350 a guy who is talented, he's ambitious, but he 00:05:42.350 --> 00:05:45.970 feels like his own desires, his own biology really 00:05:45.970 --> 00:05:48.850 are just systematically ruining his life. Precisely. 00:05:49.160 --> 00:05:51.759 That is the key psychological seed for everything 00:05:51.759 --> 00:05:54.199 that follows. He felt betrayed by his own human 00:05:54.199 --> 00:05:56.379 nature. He starts to fall into a deep depression. 00:05:56.560 --> 00:05:58.779 He's hearing voices. He checks himself into a 00:05:58.779 --> 00:06:01.220 psychiatric hospital. He was having what we would 00:06:01.220 --> 00:06:03.459 now identify as a severe mental health crisis. 00:06:03.560 --> 00:06:05.379 He was looking for a way out. He was desperate 00:06:05.379 --> 00:06:07.439 for an escape from the pain of being Marshall 00:06:07.439 --> 00:06:10.079 Applewhite. He wanted to transcend the very things, 00:06:10.180 --> 00:06:12.699 sex, gender, human relationships that had caused 00:06:12.699 --> 00:06:14.759 him so much suffering. And right at that moment 00:06:14.759 --> 00:06:18.189 of crisis, he meets Bonnie Nuttles. Right. And 00:06:18.189 --> 00:06:20.629 looking at her background, as you said, she seems 00:06:20.629 --> 00:06:23.310 like his complete opposite in so many ways. She 00:06:23.310 --> 00:06:25.449 wasn't an academic or a performer. She was a 00:06:25.449 --> 00:06:27.790 registered nurse. A nurse and a mother of four. 00:06:27.990 --> 00:06:31.189 Just a seemingly normal middle class woman. On 00:06:31.189 --> 00:06:34.769 the surface, yes. But she was also a seeker in 00:06:34.769 --> 00:06:37.910 the truest sense of that 70s term. While Applewhite 00:06:37.910 --> 00:06:39.970 was struggling with the rigid structures of the 00:06:39.970 --> 00:06:42.870 church, Nettles was diving deep into the whole 00:06:42.870 --> 00:06:46.110 alternative spiritual scene. She was fascinated 00:06:46.110 --> 00:06:48.779 by theosophy. Can we just pause there for a second? 00:06:49.220 --> 00:06:51.360 Theosophy. I see that word a lot in the research, 00:06:51.500 --> 00:06:53.759 but what does it actually mean in this context? 00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:56.120 Sure. It's a spiritual movement that really kicked 00:06:56.120 --> 00:06:58.259 off in the late 19th century. And it's, well, 00:06:58.360 --> 00:07:00.300 it's a blend of everything, a bit of Eastern 00:07:00.300 --> 00:07:03.040 philosophy, a bit of Western occultism. But one 00:07:03.040 --> 00:07:05.579 of the core ideas is that there are these masters 00:07:05.579 --> 00:07:08.180 of wisdom, these highly evolved spiritual beings 00:07:08.180 --> 00:07:10.939 who live on another plane and secretly guide 00:07:10.939 --> 00:07:13.819 humanity's development. So she's already primed 00:07:13.819 --> 00:07:16.339 for this idea of higher beings communicating 00:07:16.339 --> 00:07:19.540 with Earth. Completely primed. She was already 00:07:19.540 --> 00:07:21.879 conducting seances, trying to talk to spirits. 00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:25.079 She truly believed she was in regular communication 00:07:25.079 --> 00:07:27.959 with a 19th century monk she called Brother Francis. 00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:30.360 Okay, so she's very open to this kind of thing. 00:07:30.480 --> 00:07:33.139 Very. And get this. She had also been visiting 00:07:33.139 --> 00:07:35.139 fortune tellers who all told her the same thing. 00:07:35.300 --> 00:07:38.100 They predicted she was destined to meet a mysterious 00:07:38.100 --> 00:07:42.060 man. A tall man with light hair and a fair complexion. 00:07:42.180 --> 00:07:44.459 Someone who was going to change her life. and 00:07:44.459 --> 00:07:46.579 maybe the world. And then Marshall Applewhite 00:07:46.579 --> 00:07:48.939 walks into Relay. He fits the description perfectly. 00:07:49.259 --> 00:07:52.060 Now, the story of how they met in 1972 has become 00:07:52.060 --> 00:07:54.620 a bit of a legend within the group's lore. How 00:07:54.620 --> 00:07:56.839 does it happen? There are conflicting accounts, 00:07:57.079 --> 00:07:59.480 but the one Applewhite always told was that he 00:07:59.480 --> 00:08:01.779 was in the hospital either as a patient or visiting 00:08:01.779 --> 00:08:04.779 a sick friend, and Nettles was his nurse. And 00:08:04.779 --> 00:08:07.139 when she walked into the room, their eyes locked. 00:08:07.399 --> 00:08:09.959 Like something out of a movie. Exactly. He described 00:08:09.959 --> 00:08:12.620 it as a shared recognition of esoteric secrets 00:08:12.620 --> 00:08:15.800 from a past life. He felt instantly that they 00:08:15.800 --> 00:08:17.980 had known each other for eons, that they had 00:08:17.980 --> 00:08:21.000 a shared cosmic purpose. It sounds almost like 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:24.379 a romance, but with this spiritual sci -fi twist. 00:08:24.660 --> 00:08:26.860 And that's a good way to put it. But it was a 00:08:26.860 --> 00:08:29.279 platonic spiritual partnership, not a sexual 00:08:29.279 --> 00:08:31.199 romance at all. In fact, that was part of the 00:08:31.199 --> 00:08:34.570 point. He felt that she was the sage. In the 00:08:34.570 --> 00:08:37.149 beginning, she was the one with all the answers. 00:08:37.250 --> 00:08:39.110 She was the one channeling the information. Yes. 00:08:39.210 --> 00:08:42.230 And he was the speaker. He was the performer, 00:08:42.470 --> 00:08:45.370 the one who could take her strange, mystical 00:08:45.370 --> 00:08:48.350 visions and translate them, sell them to the 00:08:48.350 --> 00:08:51.429 public. He had the charisma. That dynamic is 00:08:51.429 --> 00:08:54.210 so interesting because usually we think of the 00:08:54.210 --> 00:08:58.250 charismatic male cult leader as the sole mastermind. 00:08:58.470 --> 00:09:00.470 But you're saying she was really the architect 00:09:00.470 --> 00:09:02.350 of the whole belief system, at least initially. 00:09:02.789 --> 00:09:04.950 Initially, absolutely. She provided the entire 00:09:04.950 --> 00:09:07.009 framework. She was the one who convinced him 00:09:07.009 --> 00:09:09.610 that his depression, his voices, that it wasn't 00:09:09.610 --> 00:09:11.789 mental illness. What did she say it was? She 00:09:11.789 --> 00:09:14.409 told him he was evolving, that he was being prepared 00:09:14.409 --> 00:09:16.769 for a higher purpose. Now, imagine how incredibly 00:09:16.769 --> 00:09:18.590 relieving that must have been for him to hear. 00:09:18.669 --> 00:09:20.990 You're not broken. You're just special. That 00:09:20.990 --> 00:09:23.429 is an incredibly powerful hook. The most powerful. 00:09:23.669 --> 00:09:27.450 So they bond over this shared destiny and they 00:09:27.450 --> 00:09:30.240 just. Leave. They drop everything. Everything. 00:09:30.740 --> 00:09:33.000 Nettles walks away from her husband and her four 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:35.980 children. Applewhite leaves his old life in the 00:09:35.980 --> 00:09:38.720 dust. They get in a car and just start driving. 00:09:39.360 --> 00:09:42.399 They became nomads. Arethi spent the next few 00:09:42.399 --> 00:09:45.500 years just wandering the country, camping in 00:09:45.500 --> 00:09:48.700 parks, sometimes doing odd jobs. Odd jobs and 00:09:48.700 --> 00:09:50.480 sometimes even selling their own blood plasma 00:09:50.480 --> 00:09:53.379 just to buy gas. Selling their blood for gas 00:09:53.379 --> 00:09:56.080 money. That is such a desperate, stark image. 00:09:56.320 --> 00:09:59.009 It was a test. In their minds, they were undergoing 00:09:59.009 --> 00:10:01.350 a process, a metamorphosis. They started to see 00:10:01.350 --> 00:10:04.370 themselves as the two witnesses from the book 00:10:04.370 --> 00:10:06.830 of Revelation. The two prophets from the Bible 00:10:06.830 --> 00:10:09.190 who are destined to be killed in Jerusalem and 00:10:09.190 --> 00:10:11.129 then resurrected three days later. Those are 00:10:11.129 --> 00:10:13.389 the ones they believe they were the literal biblical 00:10:13.389 --> 00:10:15.870 fulfillment of that prophecy. So this is where 00:10:15.870 --> 00:10:18.590 the theology starts to get really, really blended. 00:10:19.230 --> 00:10:21.149 Because on one hand, they're pulling directly 00:10:21.149 --> 00:10:23.149 from the most apocalyptic parts of the Christian 00:10:23.149 --> 00:10:25.889 Bible. But on the other hand, they're talking 00:10:25.889 --> 00:10:28.659 about UFOs in space. How did they bridge that 00:10:28.659 --> 00:10:32.240 gap? This is the absolute genius, if you can 00:10:32.240 --> 00:10:33.840 call it that, of their synthesis. You have to 00:10:33.840 --> 00:10:36.419 look at the culture of the 1970s. The ancient 00:10:36.419 --> 00:10:38.879 astronaut theory was exploding. Right, from books 00:10:38.879 --> 00:10:41.240 like Chariots of the Gods. Exactly. That book 00:10:41.240 --> 00:10:44.100 was a massive bestseller. And the basic idea, 00:10:44.240 --> 00:10:46.460 for anyone who isn't familiar, was that the gods 00:10:46.460 --> 00:10:49.360 and angels you read about in ancient texts weren't 00:10:49.360 --> 00:10:52.019 supernatural beings. They were extraterrestrials. 00:10:52.440 --> 00:10:55.259 with advanced technology. So when the Bible says 00:10:55.259 --> 00:10:57.620 Elijah was taken up to heaven in a chariot of 00:10:57.620 --> 00:11:00.399 fire. To Applewhite and Nettles, that was just 00:11:00.399 --> 00:11:03.340 a primitive description of a UFO abduction, a 00:11:03.340 --> 00:11:05.559 beam up. And when the Bible talks about heaven. 00:11:06.250 --> 00:11:09.009 It's not some spiritual dimension. No, it's a 00:11:09.009 --> 00:11:11.970 literal physical place in the universe, a planet, 00:11:12.049 --> 00:11:15.149 an actual physical level of existence above the 00:11:15.149 --> 00:11:19.070 human one. And Jesus, Jesus wasn't God incarnate. 00:11:19.070 --> 00:11:21.929 He was an alien. He was a next level being who 00:11:21.929 --> 00:11:24.830 came down, occupied a human body for a while 00:11:24.830 --> 00:11:26.690 and tried to teach a small group of followers 00:11:26.690 --> 00:11:29.490 how to graduate to that next level. That completely 00:11:29.490 --> 00:11:31.750 reframes the entire goal of religion, doesn't 00:11:31.750 --> 00:11:34.149 it? If heaven is a real planet. then you don't 00:11:34.149 --> 00:11:36.210 need to save your soul. You need to get on the 00:11:36.210 --> 00:11:38.370 ship. You've got it. That's the core belief. 00:11:38.629 --> 00:11:41.789 They called it tele, the evolutionary level above 00:11:41.789 --> 00:11:44.909 human. They preach that humanity is just a larval 00:11:44.909 --> 00:11:47.409 stage. We are all caterpillars. And the goal 00:11:47.409 --> 00:11:49.629 of life isn't to be a good human and die and 00:11:49.629 --> 00:11:52.590 go to a cloudy heaven. The goal is to biologically 00:11:52.590 --> 00:11:55.730 metamorphose into a butterfly, a new species. 00:11:55.889 --> 00:11:58.429 A species that doesn't have gender, doesn't have 00:11:58.429 --> 00:12:01.519 sexual desire. doesn't die a species that is 00:12:01.519 --> 00:12:04.799 efficient intellectual and pure all the things 00:12:04.799 --> 00:12:07.480 applewhite desperately wanted to be and this 00:12:07.480 --> 00:12:10.419 message as strange as it sounds to us now resonated 00:12:10.419 --> 00:12:13.639 with people in 1975 they held a public meeting 00:12:13.639 --> 00:12:16.000 in a little town called waldport oregon they 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:18.080 put a flyers right yeah posters that said something 00:12:18.080 --> 00:12:20.980 like ufos why they are here when they are coming 00:12:20.980 --> 00:12:24.220 they call themselves the ufo too and they expected 00:12:24.220 --> 00:12:26.759 you know maybe a dozen curious locals to show 00:12:26.759 --> 00:12:28.960 up the room was packed and what was the pitch 00:12:29.200 --> 00:12:31.480 Exactly. The pitch was basically, the people 00:12:31.480 --> 00:12:34.460 you know as Jesus and God the Father are extraterrestrials. 00:12:34.460 --> 00:12:36.980 We are their representatives. The Earth is about 00:12:36.980 --> 00:12:39.440 to be recycled, and a spacecraft is coming to 00:12:39.440 --> 00:12:41.799 pick up those who are ready to evolve. We are 00:12:41.799 --> 00:12:44.200 leaving soon. Who wants a ride? And it worked. 00:12:44.340 --> 00:12:47.379 It worked spectacularly. About 20 people from 00:12:47.379 --> 00:12:50.940 that area just... vanished. They left their homes, 00:12:51.059 --> 00:12:53.340 their jobs, their families, and followed the 00:12:53.340 --> 00:12:56.559 two. It caused a national media frenzy. I mean, 00:12:56.580 --> 00:12:59.000 Walter Cronkite was reporting on it on the CBS 00:12:59.000 --> 00:13:02.860 Evening News. 20 people missing in Oregon. Okay, 00:13:02.960 --> 00:13:04.899 I have to stop you here. Yeah. Because this is 00:13:04.899 --> 00:13:07.059 the part where my modern skepticism just kicks 00:13:07.059 --> 00:13:09.919 into high gear. I can understand listening to 00:13:09.919 --> 00:13:12.360 a lecture. I can even understand being interested 00:13:12.360 --> 00:13:15.960 in UFOs. But packing a bag and leaving your entire 00:13:15.960 --> 00:13:18.759 life behind because two strangers said get in 00:13:18.759 --> 00:13:21.409 the van. Yeah. Who were these people? Were they 00:13:21.409 --> 00:13:24.330 just incredibly naive? That's the lazy assumption, 00:13:24.549 --> 00:13:26.169 right? That they must have been simple -minded 00:13:26.169 --> 00:13:28.809 or gullible. But the sociologists who studied 00:13:28.809 --> 00:13:30.669 them, people like Robert Balch, found something 00:13:30.669 --> 00:13:33.149 very different. What did he find? He found that 00:13:33.149 --> 00:13:35.590 these weren't followers. They were seekers. Many 00:13:35.590 --> 00:13:37.350 of them had been bouncing around different spiritual 00:13:37.350 --> 00:13:39.809 movements for years. They tried Scientology. 00:13:39.909 --> 00:13:42.470 They tried Eastern mysticism. They tried various 00:13:42.470 --> 00:13:45.509 New Age philosophies. They were spiritually homeless. 00:13:45.570 --> 00:13:47.230 They were looking for something they hadn't found 00:13:47.230 --> 00:13:49.730 yet. They were looking for structure and certainty. 00:13:50.190 --> 00:13:53.129 There's a term sociologists use called shilaism. 00:13:53.470 --> 00:13:56.210 It's named after a woman in a famous study who, 00:13:56.330 --> 00:13:59.029 when asked about her religion, said her religion 00:13:59.029 --> 00:14:02.529 was just shilaism, meaning she just picked and 00:14:02.529 --> 00:14:04.690 chose whatever beliefs made her feel good on 00:14:04.690 --> 00:14:06.990 any given day. That sounds like a lot of modern 00:14:06.990 --> 00:14:09.649 spirituality. It is. It's very individualistic. 00:14:09.970 --> 00:14:13.490 But it's also very lonely. It's uncertain. You're 00:14:13.490 --> 00:14:15.990 your own guru. Applewhite and Nettles offered 00:14:15.990 --> 00:14:18.450 the absolute opposite of Sheilaism. They offered 00:14:18.450 --> 00:14:21.929 total certainty. We know the one true way. We 00:14:21.929 --> 00:14:24.350 have the map to the spaceship. But you have to 00:14:24.350 --> 00:14:27.149 do exactly what we say. For someone who feels 00:14:27.149 --> 00:14:30.649 lost and adrift in the modern world, that strictness 00:14:30.649 --> 00:14:33.470 isn't a bug. It's a feature. It's the main selling 00:14:33.470 --> 00:14:35.730 point. So they get their first batch of recruits. 00:14:35.730 --> 00:14:37.669 They have this crew. And this is the part of 00:14:37.669 --> 00:14:39.889 the story that often gets glossed over. We tend 00:14:39.889 --> 00:14:42.629 to jump from the 1975 recruitment straight to 00:14:42.629 --> 00:14:45.590 the 1997 suicide. But there were 22 years in 00:14:45.590 --> 00:14:47.549 between. And those years weren't just them sitting 00:14:47.549 --> 00:14:49.600 around and waiting. It was a boot camp. It was 00:14:49.600 --> 00:14:52.919 an intense, all -consuming classroom, as they 00:14:52.919 --> 00:14:55.159 called it. And you're right, this is crucial. 00:14:55.320 --> 00:14:57.860 You don't get 39 people to commit suicide on 00:14:57.860 --> 00:15:00.340 the first date. You get there through two decades 00:15:00.340 --> 00:15:03.159 of slow, methodical conditioning. They went underground. 00:15:03.580 --> 00:15:06.360 Completely. They lived a nomadic life in campgrounds 00:15:06.360 --> 00:15:08.120 all across the Rocky Mountains and the West. 00:15:08.360 --> 00:15:11.960 They called themselves Human Individual Metamorphosis, 00:15:12.039 --> 00:15:16.159 or HIM. And life inside the group was grueling 00:15:16.159 --> 00:15:18.500 it was designed to systematically strip away 00:15:18.500 --> 00:15:21.740 every shred of your old identity how did they 00:15:21.740 --> 00:15:23.539 do that well first you gave up your name your 00:15:23.539 --> 00:15:25.960 human name was a link to your past to your family 00:15:25.960 --> 00:15:28.220 you were given a new three -letter name that 00:15:28.220 --> 00:15:32.580 always ended in Odie, O -D -Y, like Jamodi, Arkodi, 00:15:32.919 --> 00:15:35.980 Elvivodi. And what did Odie signify? It meant 00:15:35.980 --> 00:15:39.159 child of the next level. It intentionally infantilized 00:15:39.159 --> 00:15:41.799 them. It made them all siblings in this new cosmic 00:15:41.799 --> 00:15:44.940 family with Du and Ti as the older members or 00:15:44.940 --> 00:15:47.419 basically the parents. And the rules, the level 00:15:47.419 --> 00:15:50.460 of micromanagement was just staggering. Unbelievable. 00:15:50.460 --> 00:15:53.659 They had documents like the 17 steps. These were 00:15:53.659 --> 00:15:56.379 detailed step -by -step instructions on how to 00:15:56.379 --> 00:15:58.299 do everything. How to brush your teeth. How to 00:15:58.299 --> 00:16:01.570 wash your face. How to... How to cut a pancake. 00:16:01.909 --> 00:16:04.570 How to cut a pancake. You cannot be serious. 00:16:04.750 --> 00:16:07.250 I am dead serious. You had to cut your pancake 00:16:07.250 --> 00:16:10.450 in a specific grid pattern. If you did it the 00:16:10.450 --> 00:16:13.210 human way, you know, like a wedge, it was seen 00:16:13.210 --> 00:16:15.970 as a sign that your mind was still disorganized, 00:16:15.970 --> 00:16:18.289 that you weren't thinking efficiently like a 00:16:18.289 --> 00:16:21.529 next level being. You'd be corrected. That sounds 00:16:21.529 --> 00:16:24.110 absolutely exhausting to have your every single 00:16:24.110 --> 00:16:26.370 move policed like that. It's designed to be exhausting. 00:16:26.450 --> 00:16:28.529 It occupies all of your mental bandwidth. You're 00:16:28.529 --> 00:16:30.389 so focused on following the tiny rules that you 00:16:30.389 --> 00:16:32.250 don't have time to question the big ones. And 00:16:32.250 --> 00:16:34.330 then there was the check partner system. This 00:16:34.330 --> 00:16:36.110 to me is one of the most terrifying aspects. 00:16:36.330 --> 00:16:39.409 What was that? You were never, ever alone. You 00:16:39.409 --> 00:16:41.909 were assigned a partner and your job was to watch 00:16:41.909 --> 00:16:45.169 that person 24 -7 for any sign of human behavior. 00:16:45.450 --> 00:16:47.549 So you were spying on each other? Constantly. 00:16:48.080 --> 00:16:50.659 If your partner expressed nostalgia for their 00:16:50.659 --> 00:16:53.220 family, or if they started humming a pop song 00:16:53.220 --> 00:16:55.440 they remembered, or if they showed frustration 00:16:55.440 --> 00:16:59.100 or anger, you were required to report them to 00:16:59.100 --> 00:17:02.200 DO &T. It's a surveillance state within a campground. 00:17:02.399 --> 00:17:05.220 Exactly. And the partners were rotated constantly, 00:17:05.339 --> 00:17:07.819 so you could never form a genuine bond or friendship 00:17:07.819 --> 00:17:10.140 with anyone. You couldn't have a best friend. 00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:12.839 Your only real connection was to the leaders. 00:17:12.940 --> 00:17:15.619 It was a system of perfect control. And they 00:17:15.619 --> 00:17:17.339 had other rituals too. I read about the tuning 00:17:17.339 --> 00:17:20.589 forks. Yes. They believed the air was full of 00:17:20.589 --> 00:17:24.029 human static or luciferian frequencies, so they 00:17:24.029 --> 00:17:26.349 would strike a tuning fork and hold it up to 00:17:26.349 --> 00:17:29.109 their ears to supposedly tune out the human world 00:17:29.109 --> 00:17:31.789 and tune into the frequency of the next level. 00:17:31.890 --> 00:17:34.369 This is all about purging their humanity. Purging 00:17:34.369 --> 00:17:37.369 everything. They went on extreme diets, the master 00:17:37.369 --> 00:17:39.690 crins, where you drink nothing but lemonade with 00:17:39.690 --> 00:17:42.210 maple syrup and cayenne pepper for wicks on end 00:17:42.210 --> 00:17:44.890 all to purify their vehicle. Vehicles, that's 00:17:44.890 --> 00:17:47.220 the word they use for their bodies. Always. The 00:17:47.220 --> 00:17:49.740 body wasn't you. It was just a container, a suit 00:17:49.740 --> 00:17:51.380 of clothes that you were wearing for a little 00:17:51.380 --> 00:17:54.400 while. And this constant linguistic dissociation 00:17:54.400 --> 00:17:56.519 is so important. If you spend 20 years telling 00:17:56.519 --> 00:17:59.299 yourself, this body isn't me, it becomes a whole 00:17:59.299 --> 00:18:01.859 lot easier to just discard it when the time comes. 00:18:02.039 --> 00:18:04.740 But again, this is what's so strange. These weren't 00:18:04.740 --> 00:18:07.720 Luddites living in caves. By the 1990s, they 00:18:07.720 --> 00:18:10.440 were actually quite technologically savvy. They 00:18:10.440 --> 00:18:13.059 were running a successful business. This is the 00:18:13.059 --> 00:18:15.650 great paradox of Heaven's Gate. They became what 00:18:15.650 --> 00:18:18.589 one sociologist called a cyber sect. In the early 00:18:18.589 --> 00:18:21.369 90s, as the Internet was becoming a thing, they 00:18:21.369 --> 00:18:24.009 started a web design company called Higher Source. 00:18:24.289 --> 00:18:26.130 And they were good at it. They were very good. 00:18:26.230 --> 00:18:29.210 They were coding and HTML and Java. They did 00:18:29.210 --> 00:18:31.549 graphic design for all sorts of commercial clients 00:18:31.549 --> 00:18:33.930 in the San Diego area. Clients described them 00:18:33.930 --> 00:18:37.730 as polite, incredibly efficient, but... A bit 00:18:37.730 --> 00:18:40.049 odd. Because of the identical haircuts and the 00:18:40.049 --> 00:18:42.230 baggy clothes to hide their gender. Right. So 00:18:42.230 --> 00:18:44.029 you have this bizarre situation where they're 00:18:44.029 --> 00:18:47.150 building websites for like a local candy shop 00:18:47.150 --> 00:18:49.970 or a cinema multiplex by day and then preparing 00:18:49.970 --> 00:18:52.430 for the apocalypse by night. Using the tools 00:18:52.430 --> 00:18:54.789 of the modern world to plan their escape from 00:18:54.789 --> 00:18:58.470 it. Exactly. They saw the Internet as a powerful 00:18:58.470 --> 00:19:01.089 tool to spread their message to a global audience. 00:19:01.170 --> 00:19:03.970 But they viewed the society that built it as 00:19:03.970 --> 00:19:07.660 fundamentally corrupt. Luciferian, as they would 00:19:07.660 --> 00:19:10.140 say. That's a strong word. Luciferian. It was 00:19:10.140 --> 00:19:12.180 central to their worldview. They believed the 00:19:12.180 --> 00:19:14.640 entire planet was under the covert control of 00:19:14.640 --> 00:19:17.759 Luciferians, these evil space aliens who wanted 00:19:17.759 --> 00:19:19.859 to keep humans distracted and trapped in their 00:19:19.859 --> 00:19:21.799 biological containers. And how did they do that? 00:19:22.109 --> 00:19:25.130 Through sex, drugs, family attachments, consumerism, 00:19:25.190 --> 00:19:28.750 pop culture. To them, watching a sitcom wasn't 00:19:28.750 --> 00:19:30.789 just harmless entertainment. It was a weapon 00:19:30.789 --> 00:19:32.809 used by the enemy to keep you from evolving. 00:19:33.089 --> 00:19:35.569 Okay, I want to pivot now to a specific moment 00:19:35.569 --> 00:19:37.910 in their history. Because for a very long time, 00:19:38.069 --> 00:19:41.450 the plan was not suicide. The plan was that a 00:19:41.450 --> 00:19:44.089 UFO would physically land, they would all walk 00:19:44.089 --> 00:19:47.420 up the ramp and fly away. Alive. That was the 00:19:47.420 --> 00:19:49.099 original promise. They called it the demonstration. 00:19:49.619 --> 00:19:51.740 They believed they would literally ascend into 00:19:51.740 --> 00:19:54.180 the sky without dying, just like Jesus supposedly 00:19:54.180 --> 00:19:58.480 did. But then, in 1985, reality crashed headfirst 00:19:58.480 --> 00:20:01.079 into their fantasy. It did. Bonnie Nettles' tea, 00:20:01.200 --> 00:20:03.299 the sage, the direct link to the next level got 00:20:03.299 --> 00:20:06.779 sick. She was diagnosed with liver cancer. And 00:20:06.779 --> 00:20:08.660 she died. This must have been a catastrophic 00:20:08.660 --> 00:20:11.180 failure for their belief system. The woman who 00:20:11.180 --> 00:20:12.680 was supposed to lead them onto the spaceship 00:20:12.680 --> 00:20:16.160 just died a very human death in a hospital in 00:20:16.160 --> 00:20:19.599 Dallas. If I'm a follower at that point, I'm 00:20:19.599 --> 00:20:21.940 thinking, wait a minute. She didn't ascend. She's 00:20:21.940 --> 00:20:24.309 dead. Maybe this whole thing is fake. And it 00:20:24.309 --> 00:20:27.630 was a massive crisis. The group nearly fell apart. 00:20:27.670 --> 00:20:30.829 People left. Applewhite himself was distraught. 00:20:30.950 --> 00:20:33.470 He went into a deep depression. But this is where 00:20:33.470 --> 00:20:37.250 a charismatic leader shows their ability to improvise, 00:20:37.250 --> 00:20:40.190 to reframe reality. He came up with a new explanation. 00:20:40.569 --> 00:20:42.650 He went into isolation for a while and came back 00:20:42.650 --> 00:20:44.569 with a new understanding from the next level. 00:20:44.809 --> 00:20:47.049 He gathered the remaining followers and told 00:20:47.049 --> 00:20:50.349 them that T hadn't died. She had simply exited 00:20:50.349 --> 00:20:52.349 her vehicle. He moved the goalposts. He moved 00:20:52.349 --> 00:20:54.809 them into a different stadium. He said that her 00:20:54.809 --> 00:20:57.069 spiritual energy, her next -level consciousness, 00:20:57.309 --> 00:20:59.529 had become too powerful for her human container 00:20:59.529 --> 00:21:02.049 to handle, so she had to burn it out. She had 00:21:02.049 --> 00:21:03.890 gone on ahead to the next level to prepare things 00:21:03.890 --> 00:21:06.230 for their arrival. But the implication of that 00:21:06.230 --> 00:21:09.210 is so dark. It's chilling, because it meant you 00:21:09.210 --> 00:21:11.390 didn't actually need your body to travel to the 00:21:11.390 --> 00:21:13.789 next level. In fact, the body was now seen as 00:21:13.789 --> 00:21:16.849 an obstacle. a burden that is the moment it becomes 00:21:16.849 --> 00:21:19.150 a potential suicide cult that is the pivot point 00:21:19.150 --> 00:21:22.509 that's the theological justification before 1985 00:21:22.509 --> 00:21:25.950 they were a group waiting for a ride after 1985 00:21:25.950 --> 00:21:28.450 they were a group waiting for an excuse to die 00:21:28.450 --> 00:21:31.529 the theology shifted from preservation of the 00:21:31.529 --> 00:21:34.769 body to discarding the vehicle so let's fast 00:21:34.769 --> 00:21:37.049 forward to the late 1990s they're living in a 00:21:37.049 --> 00:21:40.269 huge mansion in rancho santa fe they're paying 00:21:40.269 --> 00:21:42.880 seven thousand dollars a month in rent Paid in 00:21:42.880 --> 00:21:44.720 cash, by the way, all money they earned from 00:21:44.720 --> 00:21:47.440 their web design business. And then the comet 00:21:47.440 --> 00:21:50.339 Hale -Bopp appears in the sky. Hale -Bopp was 00:21:50.339 --> 00:21:53.460 a major astronomical event. It was one of the 00:21:53.460 --> 00:21:55.640 brightest comets in history, visible to the naked 00:21:55.640 --> 00:21:58.819 eye for a record 18 months. But for the group, 00:21:59.019 --> 00:22:00.900 the real trigger wasn't just the comet itself. 00:22:01.259 --> 00:22:04.200 It was a rumor associated with it. A rumor from 00:22:04.200 --> 00:22:06.680 a late -night radio show. That's right. Art Bell, 00:22:06.900 --> 00:22:09.059 the famous host of the paranormal -themed show 00:22:09.059 --> 00:22:12.259 Coast to Coast AM, had a guest on who claimed 00:22:12.259 --> 00:22:15.000 to have a photograph showing a companion object 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:18.680 trailing behind the comet. A large, mysterious 00:22:18.680 --> 00:22:22.799 object. A spaceship. And astronomers debunked 00:22:22.799 --> 00:22:24.680 this almost immediately, right? I mean, it was 00:22:24.680 --> 00:22:28.339 just a background star that was distorted by 00:22:28.339 --> 00:22:30.720 the telescope's movement. Yes. It was completely 00:22:30.720 --> 00:22:32.960 and totally fake. Any real astronomer knew it. 00:22:33.259 --> 00:22:35.440 But for Applewhite, it didn't matter if it was 00:22:35.440 --> 00:22:38.319 real to scientists. It was real to him. He seized 00:22:38.319 --> 00:22:40.579 on it. This was the sign he had been waiting 00:22:40.579 --> 00:22:43.039 for. He told the group, Ty is coming back for 00:22:43.039 --> 00:22:45.400 us. She's in the ship behind the comet. It's 00:22:45.400 --> 00:22:47.660 time to shut our vehicles and go home. And the 00:22:47.660 --> 00:22:50.160 preparations began in earnest. And this is where 00:22:50.160 --> 00:22:51.759 we have to talk about the castration. It's one 00:22:51.759 --> 00:22:54.200 of the most horrifying and, I think, revealing 00:22:54.200 --> 00:22:56.700 details of their final years. A number of the 00:22:56.700 --> 00:22:58.799 men, including Applewhite himself, underwent 00:22:58.799 --> 00:23:02.000 surgical castration. Why? It goes all the way 00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:04.980 back to Applewhite's original conflict, his self 00:23:04.980 --> 00:23:08.259 -hatred for his own sexual desires. The theology 00:23:08.259 --> 00:23:11.339 taught that sexual urges, what they called mammalian 00:23:11.339 --> 00:23:14.460 vibrations, were like static interference. They 00:23:14.460 --> 00:23:16.920 blocked the signal from the next level. They 00:23:16.920 --> 00:23:18.599 were an anchor to this world. The biological 00:23:18.599 --> 00:23:21.220 anchor. Applewhite convinced himself and then 00:23:21.220 --> 00:23:23.839 seven of his male followers that as long as they 00:23:23.839 --> 00:23:26.579 possess the physical capacity for sex, they were 00:23:26.579 --> 00:23:29.400 fundamentally tethered to this corrupt human 00:23:29.400 --> 00:23:32.539 planet. To be truly free, they had to remove 00:23:32.539 --> 00:23:34.440 the source. So they went to Mexico to have it 00:23:34.440 --> 00:23:37.099 done. They drove to Tijuana, used fake names 00:23:37.099 --> 00:23:40.160 and paid for the surgeries. A former member who 00:23:40.160 --> 00:23:42.779 knew the men said they came back smiling, relieved. 00:23:43.180 --> 00:23:45.920 They felt they had finally fixed the last broken 00:23:45.920 --> 00:23:50.250 part of their human vehicles. that shows is just. 00:23:50.529 --> 00:23:52.289 Yeah. It's absolute. It's absolute. They weren't 00:23:52.289 --> 00:23:54.589 playing a game. They were literally surgically 00:23:54.589 --> 00:23:56.710 altering their bodies to match their image of 00:23:56.710 --> 00:24:00.029 the androgynous, sexless aliens, the greys, that 00:24:00.029 --> 00:24:02.289 they essentially worshipped. And then came the 00:24:02.289 --> 00:24:05.950 final exit, videotapes. We've all seen the clips 00:24:05.950 --> 00:24:08.890 of Applewhite staring into the camera, eyes wide, 00:24:09.049 --> 00:24:11.910 talking about how much he hates this world. We 00:24:11.910 --> 00:24:13.950 do in all honesty hate this world. That's the 00:24:13.950 --> 00:24:16.430 famous quote. And he meant every word of it. 00:24:17.069 --> 00:24:20.029 They truly believed the Earth was a failed experiment, 00:24:20.309 --> 00:24:23.210 a garden that had become overgrown with weeds 00:24:23.210 --> 00:24:26.170 and was about to be spaded under and recycled 00:24:26.170 --> 00:24:29.529 by the cosmos. The apocalypse was imminent. They 00:24:29.529 --> 00:24:32.069 believed it was days away, and the only way to 00:24:32.069 --> 00:24:34.529 survive was to leave before it happened. The 00:24:34.529 --> 00:24:36.650 other members recorded their own goodbye messages, 00:24:36.789 --> 00:24:40.190 too. And when you watch them... They don't look 00:24:40.190 --> 00:24:42.369 like brainwashed zombies. They look happy. They're 00:24:42.369 --> 00:24:45.109 smiling. They're cracking jokes. That's the most 00:24:45.109 --> 00:24:46.970 chilling part of it all. They look like people 00:24:46.970 --> 00:24:48.670 who are about to go on a long -awaited, exciting 00:24:48.670 --> 00:24:51.349 vacation. They talk about their vehicles, like 00:24:51.349 --> 00:24:53.569 their old clunker cars they're finally getting 00:24:53.569 --> 00:24:55.890 to send to the junkyard. One woman just beams 00:24:55.890 --> 00:24:57.809 at the camera and says, I can't wait to get out 00:24:57.809 --> 00:25:00.029 of this atmosphere. They had fully adopted the 00:25:00.029 --> 00:25:02.150 Star Trek language by then. They were the away 00:25:02.150 --> 00:25:05.180 team. And they were finally beaming up. So let's 00:25:05.180 --> 00:25:07.960 talk about the actual days of the event. It happened 00:25:07.960 --> 00:25:12.200 between March 22nd and March 26th. How did they 00:25:12.200 --> 00:25:15.039 do it? Because as we said at the start, it was 00:25:15.039 --> 00:25:17.960 so orderly. It was done in three waves over three 00:25:17.960 --> 00:25:20.539 days. They started with a group of 15, then another 00:25:20.539 --> 00:25:23.140 15, then the final nine, which included Applewhite. 00:25:23.529 --> 00:25:26.730 And they had a recipe. A specific recipe. They 00:25:26.730 --> 00:25:30.029 took applesauce or pudding, mixed it with a massive 00:25:30.029 --> 00:25:32.710 dose of phenobarbital, a strong barbiturate, 00:25:32.890 --> 00:25:36.250 and ate it. Then they washed it down with vodka 00:25:36.250 --> 00:25:38.890 to speed up the drug's absorption into the bloodstream. 00:25:38.970 --> 00:25:41.190 And the plastic bags, what was their role? Once 00:25:41.190 --> 00:25:43.769 they fell into a deep sleep from the drugs, the 00:25:43.769 --> 00:25:46.029 members who were still alive, the ones scheduled 00:25:46.029 --> 00:25:48.809 for the next wave, would gently place plastic 00:25:48.809 --> 00:25:51.690 bags over their heads to ensure asphyxiation. 00:25:51.809 --> 00:25:54.430 It was a failsafe. And then those same people 00:25:54.430 --> 00:25:56.349 would clean up. Yes. Once their friends were 00:25:56.349 --> 00:25:58.690 gone, they would remove the bags, drape the purple 00:25:58.690 --> 00:26:01.490 cloths over them, and tidy up the room. It was 00:26:01.490 --> 00:26:03.690 an act of service, a ritual. They were helping 00:26:03.690 --> 00:26:05.410 their friends graduate. In their minds, that's 00:26:05.410 --> 00:26:07.130 exactly what they were doing. And the Nikes. 00:26:07.190 --> 00:26:09.690 We have to come back to the Nikes. For a group 00:26:09.690 --> 00:26:11.950 that so thoroughly rejected consumerism and pop 00:26:11.950 --> 00:26:16.039 culture, why did they all buy... 39 pairs of 00:26:16.039 --> 00:26:18.480 brand name sneakers. People have analyzed this 00:26:18.480 --> 00:26:21.559 for years, looking for some deep symbolic meaning. 00:26:21.839 --> 00:26:24.880 But the truth is much more banal. It was pragmatic. 00:26:25.259 --> 00:26:27.599 It was totally pragmatic. Applewhite liked the 00:26:27.599 --> 00:26:30.380 look of them, yes. But mostly they found a place 00:26:30.380 --> 00:26:32.599 that would give them a good bulk discount on 00:26:32.599 --> 00:26:34.900 the model. They needed shoes that look uniform, 00:26:35.160 --> 00:26:37.799 were comfortable, and were cheap. That's it. 00:26:38.079 --> 00:26:41.079 But you can't ignore the slogan. Just do it. 00:26:41.180 --> 00:26:43.220 It's too perfect. You couldn't write that. You 00:26:43.220 --> 00:26:45.200 really couldn't. And former members have said 00:26:45.200 --> 00:26:47.619 that they did appreciate the slogan because of 00:26:47.619 --> 00:26:50.240 its connection to their leader's name, Do. It 00:26:50.240 --> 00:26:51.900 was a little inside joke for them at the end. 00:26:51.960 --> 00:26:54.279 Just do it. Just follow Do's final instruction. 00:26:54.539 --> 00:26:57.039 And what about what was in their pockets? I read 00:26:57.039 --> 00:27:00.160 they all had a $5 bill and three quarters. Exactly 00:27:00.160 --> 00:27:04.759 $5 .75. The media immediately called it an interplanetary 00:27:04.759 --> 00:27:07.819 toll. Yeah, the media loved that angle. Like, 00:27:07.859 --> 00:27:09.859 you need to have exact change for the saucer 00:27:09.859 --> 00:27:12.519 when it lands. But again, the real reason is 00:27:12.519 --> 00:27:16.779 so much more bureaucratic and sad. What was it? 00:27:17.039 --> 00:27:19.579 Former members explained that this was just standard 00:27:19.579 --> 00:27:22.160 group procedure. Whenever a member went out into 00:27:22.160 --> 00:27:24.400 the city on an errand, they were required to 00:27:24.400 --> 00:27:27.619 take $5 for food or emergencies so they wouldn't 00:27:27.619 --> 00:27:30.160 get picked up for vagrancy and three quarters 00:27:30.160 --> 00:27:33.210 to make a phone call back to the house. So since 00:27:33.210 --> 00:27:35.230 they were leaving the house for the last time. 00:27:35.329 --> 00:27:36.589 Yeah, you just followed the rule. They took their 00:27:36.589 --> 00:27:39.089 pocket money with them. That is just, it's so 00:27:39.089 --> 00:27:41.789 heartbreakingly mundane. Yeah. They were following 00:27:41.789 --> 00:27:45.099 the cult's internal rules. right up to the very 00:27:45.099 --> 00:27:47.559 last moment of their lives. It shows you how 00:27:47.559 --> 00:27:50.059 deeply their minds were still operating within 00:27:50.059 --> 00:27:52.440 the logic of that closed system. They weren't 00:27:52.440 --> 00:27:54.880 panicking. They weren't having second thoughts. 00:27:54.960 --> 00:27:57.920 They were following procedure. So the bodies 00:27:57.920 --> 00:28:00.500 are discovered by a former member, Rio D 'Angelo. 00:28:00.720 --> 00:28:04.059 The police arrive. The world finds out. What 00:28:04.059 --> 00:28:06.799 was the immediate aftermath? It was a media tsunami. 00:28:07.099 --> 00:28:09.539 Time and Newsweek both had it on their covers. 00:28:09.799 --> 00:28:12.680 But the cultural reaction was interesting. Nike 00:28:12.680 --> 00:28:15.480 actually had to discontinue that specific model 00:28:15.480 --> 00:28:18.059 of shoe, the Decade, because the association 00:28:18.059 --> 00:28:21.000 became so macabre. And the astronomer, Alan Hale, 00:28:21.099 --> 00:28:23.880 the co -discoverer of the comet, he was horrified. 00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:27.140 Oh, deeply. He had to hold this surreal press 00:28:27.140 --> 00:28:29.380 conference where he basically pleaded with the 00:28:29.380 --> 00:28:32.579 public, saying things like, comets are lovely 00:28:32.579 --> 00:28:42.680 astronomical objects, but they don't Did the 00:28:42.680 --> 00:28:45.329 group as an entity die with them? in that house 00:28:45.329 --> 00:28:48.170 not entirely and this part of the story is just 00:28:48.170 --> 00:28:50.289 tragic there were a handful of members who had 00:28:50.289 --> 00:28:52.890 left the group or had been sent away by applewhite 00:28:52.890 --> 00:28:55.829 before the final exit and two of them wayne cook 00:28:55.829 --> 00:28:58.210 and chuck humphrey were devastated that they 00:28:58.210 --> 00:28:59.990 had been left behind they felt like they'd missed 00:28:59.990 --> 00:29:02.170 the bus they felt like they had failed the final 00:29:02.170 --> 00:29:04.950 exam they attempted suicide later to try and 00:29:04.950 --> 00:29:07.769 catch up with the group cook succeeded humphrey 00:29:07.769 --> 00:29:09.650 survived his first attempt but then killed himself 00:29:09.650 --> 00:29:12.170 a year later they were desperate to rejoin their 00:29:12.170 --> 00:29:14.680 family And the website is still active. To this 00:29:14.680 --> 00:29:17.380 day. HeavensGate .com. If you go there right 00:29:17.380 --> 00:29:20.420 now, it looks exactly like it did in 1997. It's 00:29:20.420 --> 00:29:23.000 got the blinking text, the Starfield background, 00:29:23.339 --> 00:29:26.220 the slightly off -center text. It's a digital 00:29:26.220 --> 00:29:28.460 time capsule. Who keeps it running? It's maintained 00:29:28.460 --> 00:29:31.700 by two former members, Mark and Sarah King, who 00:29:31.700 --> 00:29:34.059 operate under the name of the Telefoundation. 00:29:34.569 --> 00:29:37.130 They pay the hosting fees every year. They even 00:29:37.130 --> 00:29:39.630 answer emails from people. They believe their 00:29:39.630 --> 00:29:42.190 job is to preserve the information until the 00:29:42.190 --> 00:29:44.670 next level decides to open another window for 00:29:44.670 --> 00:29:48.109 new recruits. It's a digital ghost town, a monument. 00:29:48.309 --> 00:29:50.750 It really is. So we've laid out the timeline. 00:29:50.869 --> 00:29:52.430 We've looked at the people. Yeah. But I want 00:29:52.430 --> 00:29:54.089 to go back to that central question, the why. 00:29:54.230 --> 00:29:56.210 You mentioned the term bounded choice earlier. 00:29:56.470 --> 00:29:59.190 Can you break that down for us? Because brainwashing 00:29:59.190 --> 00:30:01.670 just feels like such a lazy, simple word. It 00:30:01.670 --> 00:30:04.369 implies they were just mindless robots. Exactly. 00:30:04.609 --> 00:30:08.069 The term brainwashing implies total passivity, 00:30:08.170 --> 00:30:10.069 that someone just reached into their heads and 00:30:10.069 --> 00:30:13.289 flipped a switch. But sociologists like Janja 00:30:13.289 --> 00:30:15.470 Lalic, who has studied these groups for decades, 00:30:15.769 --> 00:30:18.029 argues that it's a much more active process. 00:30:18.410 --> 00:30:22.670 She uses the analogy of a funnel. A funnel. Think 00:30:22.670 --> 00:30:24.769 about it. At the top of the funnel, the rim is 00:30:24.769 --> 00:30:27.349 very wide. You have lots of choices, lots of 00:30:27.349 --> 00:30:29.930 freedom. You make a small choice. You decide 00:30:29.930 --> 00:30:32.470 to go to a meeting. You read a pamphlet. Still 00:30:32.470 --> 00:30:34.730 lots of room to move. But then you make a bigger 00:30:34.730 --> 00:30:36.970 choice. Right. You choose to leave your family. 00:30:37.190 --> 00:30:39.750 The funnel gets narrower. Then you choose to 00:30:39.750 --> 00:30:41.329 move to the campground in the middle of nowhere. 00:30:41.710 --> 00:30:44.250 Narrower still. You choose to give up your name, 00:30:44.430 --> 00:30:46.910 your money, your past. You choose to ignore your 00:30:46.910 --> 00:30:48.849 doubts. You're burning all your bridges as you 00:30:48.849 --> 00:30:51.990 go further down. You're systematically dismantling 00:30:51.990 --> 00:30:54.259 your escape routes. And by the time you're standing 00:30:54.259 --> 00:30:56.839 in that mansion with a cup of poisoned applesauce 00:30:56.839 --> 00:30:59.460 in your hand, you're at the very bottom of the 00:30:59.460 --> 00:31:01.299 narrowest part of that funnel. You've cut off 00:31:01.299 --> 00:31:04.079 everyone who ever loved you. You have no money, 00:31:04.180 --> 00:31:07.180 no independent identity, no hair, no sex drive. 00:31:07.480 --> 00:31:10.140 You have invested more than 20 years of your 00:31:10.140 --> 00:31:14.019 life into this one singular truth. To turn back 00:31:14.019 --> 00:31:17.200 now would mean admitting that your entire adult 00:31:17.200 --> 00:31:20.220 life was a catastrophic mistake. It would be 00:31:20.220 --> 00:31:22.940 psychologically impossible. So in that tiny closed 00:31:22.940 --> 00:31:25.460 system at the bottom of the funnel, death becomes 00:31:25.460 --> 00:31:28.359 the only logical step left. It's the only way 00:31:28.359 --> 00:31:30.559 to validate the lifetime of sacrifice you've 00:31:30.559 --> 00:31:33.400 already made. It's the sunk cost fallacy played 00:31:33.400 --> 00:31:35.660 out on a lethal scale. That makes it so much 00:31:35.660 --> 00:31:37.400 more terrifying to me than just saying, oh, they 00:31:37.400 --> 00:31:39.599 were crazy. It means they were human. They were 00:31:39.599 --> 00:31:41.740 making what seemed like rational choices at every 00:31:41.740 --> 00:31:44.460 step within a system designed to make only one 00:31:44.460 --> 00:31:46.759 final choice possible. They were looking for 00:31:46.759 --> 00:31:49.180 meaning, for purpose. They wanted to feel special. 00:31:49.400 --> 00:31:51.599 And Marshall Applewhite gave them a story where 00:31:51.599 --> 00:31:53.920 they weren't just followers. They were the most 00:31:53.920 --> 00:31:56.140 important people in the universe. They were the 00:31:56.140 --> 00:31:59.599 elite away team chosen to save humanity's consciousness. 00:32:00.359 --> 00:32:03.259 It's not hard to see the appeal. It reminds me 00:32:03.259 --> 00:32:05.779 a little of how we all curate our identities 00:32:05.779 --> 00:32:08.809 today. We might not wear purple shrouds, but 00:32:08.809 --> 00:32:11.430 we all have our online tribes, our political 00:32:11.430 --> 00:32:13.829 bubbles, the stories we tell ourselves about 00:32:13.829 --> 00:32:15.769 who the good guys and bad guys are. We do, and 00:32:15.769 --> 00:32:18.450 we all crave certainty in a chaotic world. It's 00:32:18.450 --> 00:32:21.589 a fundamental human need. If someone comes along 00:32:21.589 --> 00:32:23.769 with enough confidence and says, I have the answer, 00:32:23.950 --> 00:32:26.029 it's simple, just follow me, trust me, and you 00:32:26.029 --> 00:32:28.509 will be safe and special, that is an incredibly 00:32:28.509 --> 00:32:31.349 powerful, incredibly seductive drug. So as we 00:32:31.349 --> 00:32:32.769 wrap this up, I guess I want to leave you with 00:32:32.769 --> 00:32:36.349 a final thought. The 39 people in Heaven's Gate 00:32:36.349 --> 00:32:38.769 believed the world was about to be spaded under 00:32:38.769 --> 00:32:42.049 and recycled. They were wrong. The comet passed. 00:32:42.329 --> 00:32:45.470 The world kept spinning. But looking at our world 00:32:45.470 --> 00:32:47.930 today, with the information overload, the intense 00:32:47.930 --> 00:32:50.650 polarization, the widespread feeling that things 00:32:50.650 --> 00:32:54.049 are spinning out of control, can we really truly 00:32:54.049 --> 00:32:57.589 not understand the desire to just get out? We 00:32:57.589 --> 00:33:00.579 can't condemn the desire. We can only mourn the 00:33:00.579 --> 00:33:02.980 tragic final destination where their particular 00:33:02.980 --> 00:33:05.460 search led them. What vehicles or containers 00:33:05.460 --> 00:33:08.180 are you clinging to for your own identity? And 00:33:08.180 --> 00:33:09.839 maybe more importantly, who's driving your bus? 00:33:10.079 --> 00:33:12.160 It's something to think about. Thanks for taking 00:33:12.160 --> 00:33:13.859 this deep dive with us. We'll see you next time.