The unnaturally calm voice of former cult member Rio DiAngelo was the first to notify authorities of the mass suicide by members of the Heaven's Gate cult (LaMotte. "Calm Call"). DiAngelo went into detail with the emergency dispatcher, describing the distribution of the bodies in the mansion. San Diego County sheriff's deputies did not respond to DiAngelo's call until a follow-up call two hours after the original notification (LaMotte. "Calm Call"). When the police arrived they found a very disturbing site in the mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, California. The body count of the dead cult members was 39 people. 21 women and 18 men voluntarily committed suicide in three groups on three successive days starting on March 23 1997 (Religious Tolerance). The cult members committed suicide ov

There was another incident of suicide a few months after the mass suicide at the Heaven's Gate mansion. On the 6th of May, San Diego County sheriff's deputies found Charles Humphrey and Wayne Cooke on the floor of a room in the Holiday Inn Express four miles away from the Rancho Santa Fe mansion where the cult committed suicide. Cooke was already dead but Humphrey was only unconcious. Apparently, they felt that they had missed out with the group's suicides because they had both left the cult a short while before. When they got to the hotel, they mixed their potion, changed into suicide garb-Nike shoes, black running clothes, purple shrouds-and took their medicine. At 3:30 p.m., they lay down to die (Taylor). Obviously, Humphrey's afternoon was not so relaxing. "The applesauce we used was baby-type applesauce, and it was the worst- tasting stuff," he said. "It tasted even worse with the Phenobarbital in it. We washed away the taste with a mixture of vodka and Minute Maid orange soda" (Taylor). Afterwards, he felt like somewhat of a failure.

Since Humphrey survived, he and other former followers of Do and Ti are maintaining the group's World Wibe Web sites, distributing books and videos, and publishing a new Heaven's gate "bible" (Geier 32). Since this web page is open to everyone it can be very influential. Vast numbers of newly exposed listeners are susceptible, too, owing to the emotional appeal of ideas that friendly aliens would visit, and the implication that a grand future awaits humanity (Lynch).

A bright comet and a lunar eclipse happening at the same time is rarer than a once in a lifetime occurrence. With their focus on astronomical events, this specific event would seem to be the right sign, especially happening approximately 2000 years after Christ was born, and around the same time of year. They believed that around 2000 years ago, a group of aliens came to Earth from the "next level". One of these aliens was Do. He was instructed by Ti, his female counterpart. He left his alien body behind, then transported to Earth in his space ship, and entered a human body, coincidentally that of Jesus Christ. Lter, in the 1920's, a second group of extraterrestrials returned to Earth. Ti was the Admiral of this expedition and Do was the Captain. Each of them took a human body, but were later seperated. Ti and Do held public meetings in order to spread their beliefs. They were happy to find out that most of their converts were their long- lost crew members.

As passive as this group was, however, they still had a system of control. This group of people had a schedule to follow at all

Some common words found in the essay are:
Heaven's Gate, Imitates Death, Religious Tolerance, Wibe Web, Ti Admiral, Star Bethlehem, Santa Fe, Marshall Applewhite, Final Exit, Fe California, heaven's gate, star bethlehem, mass suicide, heaven's gate cult, gate cult, committed suicide, hale-bopp comet, gate suicides, heaven's gate suicides, suicide imitates death, san diego, mass suicide heaven's, religious tolerance, cult committed, rancho santa fe,
Approximate Word count = 1759
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)