Thanks for watching. Good night. If you can believe the truth that we share with you, and if you believe it enough that you can put your trust in me, and thats a big dose. Thats a difficult task to trust me. You dont know me well enough to trust me. I understand. Welcome to how it really happened. Im hill harper. In the 1970s, a mysterious religious group deeply shrouded in secrecy was slowly recruiting followers and gaining momentum. People disappeared from their everyday lives to join this movement, leaving behind more questions than answers. Hardly anyone knew anything about this group until March Of 1997 when news about them shocked the world and made history. We talked to the people who lived and breathed this incredible story to find out the truth and uncover the mystery of heavens gate and how it really happened. Alice when gail got to be 21, she decided that she wanted to see california, and so she packed up her bags, and they took off for california. She seemed like she was doing okay. She seemed happy. Alice Gail Came Home in 1993 to be in my nieces wedding. She was just as full of fun. There was not a hint that anything was different about gail. Gail disappeared right after she went back from the wedding in 93. We were worried to death. Where was she . Who was she with . What was happening to her . Robert we didnt even know if gail was dead or alive until we started getting these flyers. One message from her was on the back of a ufo flyer. Simpson My Brother Jimmy had seen a ufo when he was a kid, and he was fascinated by that whole thing. He absolutely believed they existed and even young, seemed to have ufos connected to his spirituality. He seemed to feel that they were connected to god. At the time, i just thought it was his interest. Just not too long after christmas in 1994, my mother called, and she was crying. She said that My Brother Jimmy had left a letter that he was leaving to join what she believed to be a monastery. Jimmy was always inquisitive, and he was constantly pursuing his interest in other i guess it would be religions. I had asked her to find out if he had taken money, and she found out that he had cleaned out his bank account. He had told us that we could probably not find him, and he didnt want us to, but heres the thing. If youre joining a true religion, then you dont separate from the world. I cannot think of any other type of religion that would cause you to withdraw from your family, to have no contact, to not tell people where you are, and to take all of your money. Robert we were all concerned. These flyers that we got made me wonder what was going on. It had a date and a place on it where they were going to have a meeting, but we always got the flyer after the meeting was over, so we just completely lost contact with her. We just didnt know where he was or what he was doing. Ronan these werent isolated cases. For the last 20 years, these people had been drifting off, losing touch with their family, their friends, their relatives. Zeller in waldport, oregon, this small little town, a Fishermans Village in coastal oregon has a lot of sort of these hippie types, just sort of people who had dropped out of society. One day, out of the blue, a number of people just disappeared, dozens of people. Zeller the waldport, oregon, disappearances, as they were called, people who up and left, it made cbs national news. A score of persons from a small oregon town have disappeared. Its a mystery whether theyve been taken on a socalled trip to eternity or simply been taken. As was later found out, this wasnt a coincidence because all of these people, it turns out, had attended some sort of a meeting a couple days before, and thats where they came up with this plan to leave. And there was a poster on a Telephone Pole right outside this little general store, and it said, ufos, who are they . Where they have come from, and when they will leave . Even though i really knew nothing about ufos at the time, i just didnt disbelieve that it was possible, you know, that there could be beings from another planet or something. And at the time, i was still kind of a seeker. I didnt know what i was looking for. I remember thinking, i want to be enlightened. This was something out of the ordinary, extraordinary, and we wanted to just check it out. I was looking for something. I didnt know what. They get a couple hundred people to pack the room of this tiny, little inn in waldport, oregon. Greenberg all the people that came together were counterculture people. We had lived on the edge. A lot of us were vietnam vets and stuff. Lawrence in the mid 70s, there were a lot of lost souls. Remember what was going on. Vietnam was still going on. The counterculture was still going on. Zeller people had been involved in other new alternative religions, such as the unification church, the moonies, or Transcendental Meditation or scientology. People were looking for answers to things they couldnt possibly get answers to. Ronan it turns out that this meeting in oregon had been set up by Marshall Applewhite, and he liked to call himself do and his partner, Bonnie Nettles, who went by the name of ti. Sawyer they were sitting in chairs on a stage, and then applewhite started talking. Welcome to beyond human. We have a big picture to try to portray to you. He was an extremely charming and just a very persuasive, magnetic kind of guy. We have been given information on how to go from the Human Kingdom into the kingdom of heaven, and we want to share it with you. He just had a certain magnetism and an ability to bring people into the fold, so to speak. Man what attracted to you this group, aaron . The promise of everlasting life. I was promised that i would never die. They make you feel like you are a chosen one, like you are receiving this message because you are meant to. Zeller they say, bring a tent. Bring a change of clothes, but leave Everything Else behind and join us on this trip. I felt like, i need to do this. It was just, like, that simple. When i joined, i was informed to try to wrap up the affairs of my life in two to three days. They get 20 to 40 people to actually agree to join them, to drop everything that they have and to just take off, basically, the next day. And six of us actually drove away in two cars. We left our world behind. And they gave away everything, including kids, all of their material belongings, property, automobiles, boats, and money and just left. Were still trying to compile our information. Were getting calls from all over the United States now of other people that have children missing, have had received letters from them. Alice once gail was missing, you go to bed at night and wonder, where is she sleeping . Is she comfortable . Is she fed . Is she okay . Ronan so you had worried parents and relatives, and they were very upset, but for all the worrying, nobody could have predicted that this was going to happen. They would become genderless, ageless, diseaseless, eternal perfect beings, angelic space aliens. It probably would look like what you might consider a very attractive extraterrestrial. Ronan in 1975, Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles went up to oregon, and they recruited people at the meeting in waldport, and then very shortly thereafter, a lot of people just left, and there were husbands and wives, and they just disappeared. We went to waldport, oregon, and we heard ti and do speak. A few days later, we were all headed for training as part of the next levels awakening. Ronan and then for about 20 years, they were flying under the radar, and no one really heard about them. When they left oregon in 1975, they went all over the country, Traveling Thousands of miles preaching this strange newage philosophy. Man theyd wandered for years like nomads, working for a few weeks, then moving on. A long period of time, we had been in tents, and, oh, maybe little trailers because we were staying outside and just moving to wherever the climate would permit us to continue with our classroom. Sometimes their group would grow. At one point, it grew to more than 100 people. Then it would winnow down. People would leave. The group kept changing its name, so when a relative or friend would get a lead on what was going on, the name would change, and it made it very hard for friends and relatives to get any information. I may have the name wrong, but it was total renunciance in readiness for the kingdom of heaven. Then it was called total overcomers. So it was very confusing as to what the name of the group was. Jimmy was part of what is now known as heavens gate for about 13 months, and he came back, and he spent several weeks with me. I asked him questions about the cult. I wanted to know what his beliefs were, and so he told me stories. Ronan Marshall Applewhite was able to convince his followers that there was a path to eternity and that they could live forever, but you had to go to outer space to have that eternity. They would transcend our planet and go to a physical place in outer space, which would be heaven. The startling thing to many is that the kingdom above human is physical. That was really important to them. It wasnt metaphoric. It wasnt sort of ethereal. It was a physical place. If you had a powerful enough telescope, you could see it. According to Marshall Applewhite, the only way you could get to this heavenly place was to hitch a ride on a ufo. The idea was that you were going to get on a spaceship and physically journey into the next level. They really thought they were going to find this spaceship. Zeller so someone was on duty to watch the sky, waiting for the ufo to land, at all times. When applewhite and when nettles are asked, do you have to die to go on this journey, they say, no. They say, in fact, you cant die. Its a physical journey. Its possible that a spacecraft will come down, and well walk onboard that craft, and theyll take these bodies from us and issue us the ones that belong to that level. Ronan Marshall Applewhite told his followers that once they were onboard this ufo, they would be transformed into some sort of an alien, and from that, they would have eternal life in this new body. They say what they are teaching is a process by which a human body can biologically and chemically transform itself to become a nextlevel creature. Klebnikov they use the analogy of caterpillars. They believe that they were like caterpillars that would be transformed into butterflies. They would become genderless, ageless, diseaseless, eternal, perfect beings, angelic space aliens. Applewhite a creature that has two eyes, some remnant of a nose, some remnant of ears, have a voice box but dont really need to use it because they communicate with their minds. It probably would look like what you might consider a very attractive extraterrestrial. Ronan they were going to sail around on spaceships, and they were going to interact with planets and take care of them. They really believed what they were preaching and telling folks, but no ones been able to figure out how they came up with the idea. Its a bit of a mystery. Velezmitchell these were two troubled people who were meeting at troubled times in both of their lives, and they made a connection. Zeller nettles is going through this divorce. Shes separated. Her family is sort of falling apart. Shes basically what we would call today a newager, sort of this hodgepodge of different sort of alternative religious and spiritual practices. Velezmitchell Marshall Applewhites life was a total shambles. Hes bisexual. So hes dating men, hes dating women, and it never works out. Velezmitchell he had tried to do the straight and narrow, married, couple of kids, job as a professor. He ends up losing his job. He ends up losing this relationship. He ends up sort of confused and lost as a person, and thats just when he meets bonnie lou nettles. Their eyes meet, and they realize that they are spiritual partners. And then she tells him, you are the messiah. You are jesus christ reincarnated, and you have a mission on this earth. So it was almost like she was a little bit of the brains behind the operation, and he was the mouthpiece. Together, it was a powerful combo. No one really knew how much influence they had on their followers. You have to know me. You have to trust me. You have to believe me. Very, very short period of time, a leader can get them to believe the most preposterous things and even at the expense of their own instincts for survival. Shell renewable race fuel. Reducing emissions by 60 . Were moving forward with indycar. Because were moving forward with everybody. Shell. Powering progress. Norman, bad news. I never graduated from med school. What . But the good news is. Xfinity mobile just got even better now, you can automatically connect to wifi speeds up to a gig on the go. Plus, buy one unlimited line and get one free for a year. I gotta get this deal. Thats like 20 a month per unlimited line. I dont want to miss that. Thats amazing doc. Mobile savings are calling. Visit xfinitymobile. Com to learn more. Doc . Lighting every soccer match at shell energy stadium. Were moving forward with the houston dash. Because were moving forward with everybody. Shell. Powering progress. Ut to regain life, and we hope that our lesson time here has made us stronger and able for our Better Service. Who were these people . Well, obviously, very little is known about them at this particular point in time, but it is apparently clear that they were computer buffs. They were techies. Many of them were. They had gotten involved in the Tech Industry and web design. They had gotten involved in programming. Goodspeed their personal appearance was a little bit odd, but once we got over that hurdle and got to know them, very genuine people and very talented in their craft. So people on the outside in regular society, they really had no idea what was going on within the group. Zeller we call heavens gate by that name, but, in fact, members called it, the class, and they saw ti and do as their teachers, starting in kindergarten, which is as a human being and culminating in graduation, which is as a space alien. Ronan in order to prepare for what was called a graduation, there was a very strict set of rules that Marshall Applewhite insisted on. He wanted to really strip the people of their humanness. The purpose of that is to go to the heavens. Zeller all aspects of life were regulated, including what books they could read and what tv shows they could watch. They could only wear certain clothes. Every single aspect of their lives was dictated by these two. They all had closecropped hair. They all wore the same things, as well. We noticed they all had short buzz cuts, real short haircuts, even the women. I mean, it was just hard to distinguish male from female. He offered a place to belong, but it was a rigid life of rules and isolation. You know, its not an everyday normal type of situation. When people are drawn into this closed mindset and this closed psychological and physical world, a very, very short period of time, a leader can get them to believe the most preposterous things and even at the expense of their own instincts for survival. I plan on following an older member, no matter where he goes or what it is. That is what i want to do, and thats what i have to do. The task of overcoming the Human Kingdom requires that they overcome the desire to cling to offspring or spouse or parents. Golding they were forbidden to contact Family Members, and i think that any cult or religion that doesnt allow you to contact your family should be a warning to everyone. Zeller members intentionally disconnected themselves from their families because they didnt think that was their real family. For them, their real family was the crew they were joining. Now, breaking away from the world is not easy. Its difficult. Its tough. It means that you leave that world behind. We destroyed our old lives. I left my job. We left homes, families, everything. Without a doubt, though, this caused unimaginable suffering. They would write letters now and then. They would send cryptic postcards saying, im doing fine. Alice danny answered the phone, her brother, and he said, hello . And she said, this is gail, and he said, gail who . And she said, your sister and we were talking to her, you know, said, gail, come on home. She said, no, im too busy. Alice i said, well, what are you doing now . She said, im learning computers, and i thought, well, learning computers isnt bad, but maybe when you come out, youll have some kind of a background, and but she said, i have to go now. Its cut right off. She never called again. One of their tenets was no earthly desires, no earthbound anything. Were all totally celibate. Theres no sexuality. Theres no sensuality. That is just very distasteful to us. Sawyer we had to overcome our sexuality, and the reason for that was that there is no sexuality in the next level. Zeller they wouldnt need to reproduce. So overcoming this sexualreproductive need of humanity was absolutely key to them. So the way you overcame that and, in fact, the way you overcame all your humanity was, you were paired up with a check partner. These two people were put in close physical contact 24 7. So youd have to overcome the natural sexual tension which would evolve over spending 24 7 with someone. They were like a spouse where you have to work out all your issues. Sawyer there were times where i was partnered with a female that i was attracted to, and it was difficult. Man at one point, applewhite and others took celibacy a giant step further. Zeller eventually, eight members decide that they want to have themselves castrated. They want to have their sexuality chemically or ultimately surgically removed from them so they can overcome it. And im one of those students that did that, and i cant tell you how free that has made me feel. Sawyer i had compromised my vows of celibacy with entertaining thoughts of sexuality in my head. It was considered a major offense. I said, i guess i have to leave. What differentiated this group from others is that you were free to go. Weve always had free rein to come and go. In fact, more times than not, ti and do would put more effort into pushing anybody out of the class that didnt want to be here. If someone wanted to leave, often, they said, please dont take off in the night, as some did. They said, please come to us. Let us he