Heaven's Gate was the name of a cult co-led by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles until Nettles' death. The cult's end, coinciding with the appearance of Comet Hale-Bopp, created a sensation in the United States in 1997. Applewhite convinced 39 followers to commit suicide so that their souls could take a ride on a spaceship that they thought was hiding behind the comet; members reportedly believed themselves to be aliens.
Cult members gave up their material possessions and the male members of the cult underwent castration. In preparation for their suicide, members of the cult drank citrus juices to ritually cleanse their body of impurities. In the wake of the cult's suicide, some attributed the cult's ability to attract new members to the growth of the Internet. (The cult earned money by providing their services as professional web page designers.) The thirty-nine bodies of the cult members were found in a rented mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, California on March 26, 1997. Their suicide, conducted in shifts, was accomplished by ingestion of phenobarbitol-laced apple sauce and vodka. A video of the bodies in bunkbeds, covered neatly with purple blankets and wearing identical brand new Nike sneakers, was shown repeatedly during the media coverage following the suicides. They had also packed suitcases and money, presumably for the UFO trip.
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