THE MARKER WE'VE BEEN...WAITING FOR

(5 of 7)

Other acquaintances were aware of some of the group's odder beliefs. A man who worked with Higher Source for more than six years on several computer projects discussed the imminent coming of the Hale-Bopp comet with them. "They didn't know, but they felt it could be something other than a comet--that maybe it was a spaceship coming to collect them," the acquaintance says. He says he even joked with them about Jonestown once, but got little reaction. This man last heard from the group just a few weeks ago; they wanted help setting up some new domain names on the Internet. "They talked about the future a lot," he says. "That's what's confusing." He, too, received a postmortem videotape.

"WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?"

If their acquaintances had checked out the Heaven's Gate Website, they might have been somewhat less nonchalant. Through the teachings of their charismatic leaders, Applewhite and Nettles, who claimed to be extraterrestrial representatives of the "Kingdom Level Above Human," the cult members believed their bodies were mere vessels. By renouncing sex, drugs, alcohol, their birth names and all relationships with family and friends, disciples could become ready to ascend to space, shedding their "containers," or bodies, and entering God's Kingdom. "If you cling to this life, will you not lose it?" Do asks in the Heaven's Gate manifesto.

With a mixture of paranoia and passion, the teachings rail against Judaism and Christianity and complain of oppression by nonbelievers, evil "Luciferians," whom they say will be "plowed under" in the apocalypse. Only those vessels prepared to receive the word will be fortunate enough to ascend when the time comes. Indeed, while the group may have given outsiders an impression of Christianity, their version of Jesus was most certainly heterodox. Two thousand years ago, the Kingdom Level Above Human appointed a representative to preach the Kingdom of God to earthlings. This being inhabited the container called Jesus (also known as "the captain"), who was killed by forces that eventually turned his legacy into "watered-down Country Club religion." Ti and Do, however, were then appointed as the Kingdom Level's successor representatives to Jesus, in fact, the "two witnesses" prophesied in Revelation, who would appear at the time the world was coming to an end, to prepare the way for the Kingdom.

And the time of the end, apparently, was last week. A recently posted "Red Alert" announcement on the group's Website hailed the Hale-Bopp comet as the "marker" the members were waiting for. In this belief, at least, Heaven's Gate cultists were not alone. According to a popular theory circulating on the Internet, a spaceship is hidden behind the comet--whether inhabited by benign or evil aliens is unclear. Astronomers say the image behind the comet in some photographs is a mere star.