Having never heard of Marshall Applewhite or Heaven’s Gate before, I was completely absorbed upon going to the main website. In relation to Strozier’s points about charismatic leadership, and how a group member must maintain absolute conviction in a cause, separate to what that cause logically/rationally is, I was amazed at the convictions of the Heaven’s Gate website writers and/or Marshalle Applewhite’s writing.
Upon watching most of initiation tape of Heaven’s Gate, I noticed the elements of charismatic leadership occurring. The idea of self-confidence that a charismatic leader must have is very evident in watching Applewhite. The tape may not be the same as a real interaction with him may have been, but I found myself listening and thinking, “Maybe you’re on to something here!” because he managed to speak in a way that held absolute confidence, yet was not forceful or dogmatic. In general I think that is the kind of speaking that draws people in the most. It is, “Hello, I am presenting The Truth. You may not believe me, and that is fine, but it is The Truth. If you want it, please listen.”
As “The Charistmatic Leader and Total Conversion” (Essay 4) states, a charismatic leader is most convincing when that leader sticks to social norms, lore, leadership styles, and convictions. What was so interesting to me about the way Heaven’s Gate operated was how openly it addresses that, “There will be people who think that you are an outsider, cult member, etc.” By operating in the language that the cult knew it would be addressed with, I found it was able to subvert that label of abnormality that would otherwise prevent people from accessing it. There is this, indeed, paranoia mentioned (to me) in the writing of the Heaven’s Gate website. The cult went so far as to address that they may commit suicide (which they indeed did – it was as though the note on suicide was meant as a pre-nuptial, “We make an acception in case this happens.”). They even said that because member are ascending to the Next Level of Human, before the UFOs and and people are taken to Heaven, that they will have to revoke society’s rules and regulations. They psychologically convince the reader by mentioning the caveat that members may be arrested, and will feel distinctly different and struggle from abandoning society’s rules — this psychological isolation, and separation from society that would normal cause someone to become anti-social, (and indeed I think increase the likelihood of mental stress, depression, anxiety, and/or suicidal thoughts or tendencies) is all addressed within the mythology of this “religion.” By separating from society one is re-accessing one’s soul, and thus experiencing a level completely separate and within the binary fundamentalist mindset of humanity. One is becoming not “the Other,” but “the Chosen.”
I was also really interested in how this was different than some fundamentalist Christianity. On one hand, Heaven’s Gate operates within the same binary as “believers,” and “non-believers.” But there is a (to me, huge) difference because Christians believe that anyone can be saved, they just must be willing and open their heart. Anyone is fair game. If someone does not mean to be saved, perhaps they are operating under Satan or perhaps they are just lost. Now, it is true that some fundamentalists develop into the violent idea that anyone who is a non-believers is an operator of Satan, while I feel some think that people aren’t being operators in lines with Satan, but under Satan’s control. However, since Heaven’s Gate contains a caste-like system for a human’s capacity and developmental stages in regards to being saved, I feel like the ideas of violence or disregard of non-believers is even higher. A Heaven’s Gate-r (HG, I’ll abbreviate for now) could in theory commit violence upon a non-HG who is at the age of reasoning/self-control because they are not someone with a soul, or someone who is at level to receive a soul and they are operating for Lucifer. Correct me if I am wrong in this line of thinking, or have missed something that states otherwise. I never found anything against violence (except for suicide) or anything stating, like in the Bible, that one should be good to one’s neighbors, even those non-believers. Also, since people can get reincarnated, an HG who commits violence could argue that the person that the HG committed violence on was not at the level for being saved or ready to receive a deposit, and that violence was done as a way of helping that non-HG recognize his/her Luciferian ways.
To me, this element of Heaven’s Gate, with its caste-like separation and levels, made it both much more compelling and much more easily steered towards mass-violence and violent behavior.
