Heaven free essay sample

# 8217 ; s Gate Cult Essay, Research Paper On March 26, 1997, in what has become known as one of the most notable mass self-destructions in history, 39 work forces and adult females affiliated with the Heavens Gate cult took their ain lives by consuming a combination of Sodium thiopentals assorted with apple sauce and intoxicant. Each was dressed all in black, their faces covered by a violet shroud. Those who wore spectacless had them neatly folded following to their organic structure, and all had designation documents for the governments to happen. The house was speckless, tidier even than before the victims had moved in. It was as if, in fixing for their decease, they were minding the words of the prophesier Isaiah: # 8220 ; Set thine house in order ; for 1000 shalt dice, and non live. # 8221 ; And while their disconnected terminal may look instead unusual, the manner they lived is even more perplexing. The group came together in the mid 1970s under the magnetic sermon of Marshall Herff Applewhite, and his comrade, Bonnie Lu Nettles, a former nurse. We will write a custom essay sample on Heaven or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page It enjoyed a ephemeral explosion of ill fame, during which clip they referred to themselves as Bo and Peep, before the twosome took it underground in 1976. After bing in deep privacy in assorted Southwestern metropoliss, the group surfaced once more briefly in 1994, when members sought out recruits with a series of public talks. In the group # 8217 ; s paperss, Applewhite and Nettles are described as representatives of an extraterrestrial plane called the Kingdom of Heaven, who have come to Earth # 8220 ; to offer the manner taking to rank # 8221 ; to those who could get the better of their fond regard to money, sex, and household life. Such entire separation, the group preached, was necessary because Earth # 8217 ; s human constructions # 8211 ; governmental, economic and, particularly, spiritual # 8211 ; were under the control of diabolic forces: # 8220 ; Luciferians # 8221 ; and evil # 8220 ; infinite foreigners, # 8221 ; in the group # 8217 ; s footings. In clip, they began naming themselves # 8220 ; the Two, # 8221 ; a mention to the # 8220 ; two informants # 8221 ; of Christ foretold in the Bible # 8217 ; s Book of Revelation. Harmonizing to the Bible, the two informants are Prophetss who will be slain by a animal from the bottomless cavity, so be resurrected and ascend to Heaven. They were both anti-establishment and intolerant, naming for entire separation from society, simple life with shared resources, and attachment to a strict moral codification. Applewhite besides required members of the cult to dress, talk, and look the same. He made them all wear the same apparels, shaved everyone # 8217 ; s caput, and made them forbear from utilizing personal pronouns such as # 8220 ; he # 8221 ; and # 8220 ; she # 8221 ; . They were besides non permitted to get married, hold sex, or imbibe. Members had to give all their ownerships to the cult ; several even voluntarily castrated themselves. Much of the indispensable beliefs of Heaven # 8217 ; s Gate are spelled out in a drawn-out, first-person statement published on the group # 8217 ; s website. Written in 1995 by Mr. Applewhite ( under the rubric # 8220 ; An E.T. Presently Incarnate # 8221 ; ) , it reveals that Ms. Nettles died in 1985 ( or, as he wrote, # 8220 ; separated from her borrowed human container and returned to the Next Level # 8221 ; ) . The remainder of their religion system is detailed in a 200-page book that the members of Heaven # 8217 ; s Gate self-published. One of them wrote that they had spent 17 old ages undergoing a type of re-education, # 8220 ; a # 8216 ; metaphoric # 8217 ; schoolroom experience of altering over their consciousness and behaviour, # 8221 ; germinating to make a phase in which they could come in the higher kingdom that Mr. Applewhite and Ms. Nettles preached. In these and other plants, the group elaborated on its divinity, based on a Christian model, but with a whole n ew set of millennialist beliefs that seems more like the plants of a celebrated scientific discipline fiction author. The beliefs were these: Two thousand old ages ago, the existences of the Kingdom Level Above Human appointed an # 8220 ; Older Member # 8221 ; to direct to Earth a # 8220 ; Representative # 8221 ; ( Jesus ) to learn people how to come in the # 8220 ; true # 8221 ; Kingdom of God. But worlds inspired by diabolic forces killed this person, besides called # 8220 ; the Captain, # 8221 ; and transformed his teachin gs into â€Å"watered-down Country Club religion.† Then a new opportunity was offered to humanity in the 1970 # 8217 ; s, when the Kingdom Level dispatched a 2nd squad of two Older Members to take up human organic structures ( or # 8220 ; vehicles # 8221 ; ) and restart the instructions. The paperss besides make clear that the group # 8217 ; s members took curious new names, another mark of their complete interruption with the outside universe. Applewhite was identified on the Internet site merely as Do while Nettles was Ti. The group # 8217 ; s followings arrived on Earth in # 8220 ; staged # 8221 ; ballistic capsule clangs and were temporarily disembodied before taking human signifier in organic structures particularly designated for that intent by # 8220 ; other crews from the Level Above Human. # 8221 ; The papers is full of predicting about the province of the universe, warning that the Government, the wealthy and # 8220 ; moral # 8221 ; leaders are controlled by evil infinite foreigners, who have besides used all faiths to lead on worlds about God. It warns of a coming apocalypse that will destruct civilisation. Gang wars and cultural cleaning are offered as cogent evidence that the procedure has begun. Later there will be a # 8220 ; Restoration period # 8221 ; in which another civilisation will be born. The group # 8217 ; s stiffly autocratic codification is besides revealed. # 8220 ; The lone manner an person can turn in the Following Degree is to larn to be dependent on his Older Member as that beginning of limitless growing and cognition. So, any younger member in good standing forever remains wholly dependent upon ( and looks to ) his Older Member for all things. # 8221 ; The most recent ( and concluding ) posting on the Heaven # 8217 ; s Gate Internet site declared that the attack of the Hale-Bopp comet provided # 8221 ; the # 8216 ; marker # 8217 ; we # 8217 ; ve been waiting for # 8212 ; the clip for the reaching of the ballistic capsule from the Level Above Human to take us place to # 8216 ; Their World # 8217 ; # 8212 ; in the actual Heavens. # 8221 ; Heaven # 8217 ; s Gate left no deficit of hints as to its negative thought about the value of this secular life. The group held fast to a Gnostic spiritual position of the psyche as a separate and superior being, temporarily populating a physical signifier. Bodies, wrote Do, were simply # 8221 ; the impermanent container for the soul. # 8221 ; A psyche, he added, could germinate to a higher degree of being, at which point it would have a new physical signifier to house it. # 8221 ; The concluding act of metabolism or separation from the human land, # 8221 ; he wrote, # 8221 ; is the # 8216 ; unplug # 8217 ; or separation from the human physical container or organic structure in order to be released from the human environment. # 8221 ; In another papers posted on its Internet site, Heaven # 8217 ; s Gate ironically declared itself # 8221 ; against self-destruction # 8221 ; # 8211 ; but yet subtly left open the possibility. Yes, the group said, its members expected to go out Earth in their # 8221 ; physical vehicles ( organic structures ) # 8221 ; when a starship arrived to take them to the # 8221 ; Next Level. # 8221 ; But should the forces of the universe turn violently against them, it added, the group would be # 8221 ; mentally prepared # 8221 ; for whatever came its manner. They besides allude to the illustration of the Jews at Masada who killed themselves instead than subject to Roman hosts in A.D. 73. Furthermore, the group said its apprehension of self-destruction was non at all conventional: # 8221 ; The true significance of # 8217 ; suicide # 8217 ; is to turn against the Following Degree when it is being offered. # 8221 ; In the group # 8217 ; s thought, a starship, thought to be following in Hale-Bopp # 8217 ; s aftermath, would be offering merely such an chance. In decision, the full aura of the Heaven # 8217 ; s Gate cult seems like something straight out of a late dark Television film. Like most millennialist groups, members held a steadfast belief in an onset apocalypse and that merely an elite few would accomplish redemption. The spread of their philosophy on the Internet brought about widespread concern over the power of the web. The statement has subsided, nevertheless, with the transition of clip. I, for one, find the supposed nexus between the Internet and cult activities instead absurd. Extreme credulousness and brainwashing, I believe, would be the lone ways a recruit would of all time accept such an bizarre set of beliefs. Heaven free essay sample I’m not sure that heaven exists. But sometimes I imagine what would be like if it . In the book by Mitch Albourn, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, each person lives forever in a memory or experience that brought him or her peace in life. If heaven is anything like Albourn’s model, I already know where my heaven is going to be: 1152 Haverstraw Road, Suffern New York. This is the address of Ramapo Equestrian Center. More specifically, my heaven will be the trail that runs around the back of the barn along the stream. I will be riding my favorite horse, Dutch, cooling down like I have done so many times after a good ride. Under the stretching blue sky, with a gentle breeze playing in my hair, I will walk round and round, scratching Dutch’s shoulder, gazing up at the beautiful tree covered mountains that crouch protectively over the valley. We will write a custom essay sample on Heaven or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This is where my mind slows down, at 1152 Haverstraw Road in Suffern New York. On the weekends, I come here to breathe. Monday through Thursday, my life is a blur, a nonstop marathon of incomprehensible math problems, rushing bodies in the hallway, tests, quizzes, alarm clocks, responsibilities, SAT’s, ACTs, and more afterschool activities than I can count on one hand. I would kill to get a many hours of sleep per night as I have clubs on my resume. But if my life is the Daytona 500, the cars grind to a halt and the crowds disperse on Friday, when I drive up to the barn. The roaring engines in my mind shut off and for a brief moment, it is quiet in my head. Most people find peace lying on beaches for hours or relaxing on the couch, but the stiller my body is, the faster my thoughts race. Horseback riding is as much a mental game as it is physical, and concentrating on my body position and my horse’s movements absorbs my full attention unlike anything else; due dates, t rigonometry, and gnawing anxieties gallop away. Tightly packaged in the suburbs, I never really experienced the outdoors until I started riding. I’ve always felt an emptiness that should have been filled with fresh air. If my childhood was largely nature-deficient, horseback riding has been my multivitamin. Stress can be a poison that eats you up, but the blue sky, the air, the mountains, and the sun-drenched grasses at 1152 Haverstraw Road are the perfect antidote. While I can’t be sure where I’ll go when I die, I do know that heaven exists. Maybe it’s not in the sky, maybe it’s not in another dimension, but heaven exists at 1152 Haverstraw Road.