Mass Suicide and Its Prevalence

Mass Suicide is not a very prevalent topic today. Mass Suicide is not a wide spread problem, it is more so based upon the individual. The following is a timeline, starting in 1978, which shows the mass suicides that have occurred since then.

• March 27, 1997- 39 Heaven's Gate came to public attention when they committed mass suicide.
• March 22, 1997- in St. Casmir, Quebec, five members of the Order of the Solar Temple die in a fiery mass suicide. Cult devotees believe suicide transports them to a new life on a planet called Sirius. Over the past three years, murder-suicides by Temple followers have resulted in 74 deaths in Europe and Canada.
• Dec. 23, 1995- 16 members of the Order of the Solar Temple were found dead in a burned house outside Grenoble, in the French Alps. Most of the bodies were arranged in a star shape on the floor.
• Oct. 5, 1994- Swiss authorities found the bodies of 48 people linked to the cult in a farmhouse and three chalets, all consumed by fire. Five more bodies were found the same year in Morin Heights, north of Montreal.
• April 19, 1993- Branch Davidian leader David Koresh and 80 followers -- including 18 children -- died by fire or gunfire, six hours after the FBI started filling their cult compound near Waco, Texas, with tear gas. The government called the deaths a mass suicide in fires set by cult members after a 51-day armed standoff.
• Dec. 13, 1990- in Tijuana, Mexico, 12 people die in a religious ritual, apparently after drinking a poisoned sacrament. It was never clearly established if this was a suicide and authorities speculated the deaths might have been accidental. They said some kind of industrial alcohol, perhaps rubbing alcohol, was poured into a fruit punch the participants shared during the religious ceremony.
• Nov. 18, 1978- in Jonestown, Guyana, more than 900 followers of the Rev. Jim Jones died after he ordered them to drink cyanide-laced grape punch. Jones, who was found dead with a bullet wound in the head, led the Peoples Temple in San Francisco and moved it to Guyana. In the United States, the Peoples Temple ran a free clinic, a drug rehabilitation program and performed other charitable functions. Jones also had been chairman of the San Francisco Housing Authority in 1976.

The Conclusion

Heaven's Gate Cult is the Unit
Mass Suicide occurs at the organizational level.
The two main concepts that play a huge role in the reasoning behind mass suicide are:

• Anomie- a condition resulting from the absence of norms and moral guidelines in a society. These types of individuals tend to feel alienated, displaced, and powerless.
  
• Social Integration- it refers to the degree of social bonding within a society.

Anomie contributes to mass suicide because one of the personalities that takes part in cults are those that are very adventurous and creative, but they are very isolated from society. The never seem to be content with anything, however they are constantly seeking contentment. As mentioned before, Heaven's Gate Cult formed a sort of fake family, although they lived together in the same house, they were still very isolated from one another. They hardly talked except for in their meetings, and most of their other time was spent on the computer.

Social Integration, in Heaven's Gate Cult, resulted from too much social integration. The members were to socially integrated in the cult, that they lost all ties with other healthy groups and friends. They lost sight of reality because they allowed for themselves to become so bond to a group.

Before entering a group or cult be sure to remember that there are risks involved whether you know it or not, so never let yourself become too involved with one thing. Review your motivation behind wanting to join the group or cult and be sure to do your homework before you make a commitment that you may regret in the long run.

The Possible Solutions...

Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem, which should never be the first solution

There are a few different steps to avoiding the risk of mass suicide:

1. Avoid Joining Any Cults- once you are in a cult it is not easy to get out of it and if they decide to commit suicide you may feel obligated to do the same. This is by far the easiest way to avoid mass suicide at all costs!

2. Have a Strong Personality and Foundation- Do not be easily persuaded by anyone person or group, you have to be able to make decisions and hold firm to each one.

3. Know Where You Are Going and Why You Are Choosing To Do So- If you are considering killing yourself in a cult, ask yourself why. If the reasoning is to get somewhere sooner, most likely you aren't even going to be getting there. If you are going to end your life to board a spaceship with aliens, then perhaps you should reconsider the real meaning of life. Maybe you have not yet found the ultimate reality and should not yet end your life. From a religious aspect suicide puts you behind the eight ball. It often times makes your eternal fate more questionable.

4. Being Rooted In A Meaningful Faith- Having something to live for is always a good things. However people and things come and go so living for them will only make you want to resort to suicide. Having faith in a superior being (hopefully, God) will lead you to a more peaceful life with an internal joy, if you are faithful and obey His commands. However, faith should never be taken to the level of dying for someone to prove your faith or to go join that person.

There are many even simpler solutions to this problem, but these are just good starting points when pondering mass suicide.

Names of Those Who Died That Day

Marshall Herff Applewhite (aka Elder Jonathan), 66, no license
Dana Tracey Abreo, 35, (female) Denver
Robert John Arancio, 46, Texas
Raymond Alan Bowers, 45, Jupiter, Fla.
Ladonna Ann Brugato, 40, Englewood, Colo.
Margaret June Bull, 53, New Mexico
Cheryl Elaine Butcher, 43, Texas
Michael Howard Carrier, 48, Texas
Suzanne Sylvia Cooke, 54, New Mexico
John M. Craig (aka Logan Lahson), 63, New Mexico
Betty Eldrie Deal, 64, Texas
Erika Ernst, 40, California
Lawrence Jackson Gale, 47, Lake Forest, Calif.
Darwin Lee Johnson, 42, Orem, Utah
Julie Lamontagne, 45, Las Cruces, N.M.
Jacqueline Opal Leonard, 71, Littleton, Colo.
Jeffrey Howard Lewis, 41, Texas
Gail Renee Maeder, 28, Salt Lake City
Steven Terry McCarter, 41, Albuquerque, N.M.
Joel Peter McCormick, 29, Salt Lake City
Yvonne McCurdy-Hill, 39, Cincinnati
David Geoffery Moore, 41, of Los Gatos, Calif.
Nancy Dianne Nelson, 45, of Mesa, Ariz.
Norma Jeane Nelson, 59, Texas
Thomas Alva Nichols, 59, Arizona
Susan Elizabeth Nora Paup, 54, New Mexico
Margaret Ella Richter, 46, California
Judith Ann Rowland, 50, Texas
Michael Sandoe, 26, Boulder, Colo.
Brian Alan Schaaf, 40, New Mexico
Joyce Angela Skalla, 58, New Mexico
Gary Jordan St. Louis, 44, New Mexico
Susan Frances Strom, 44, Texas
Denise June Thurman, 44, Texas
David Cabot Van Sinderen, 48, California
Gender, age and state issuing driver's license of the others whose names have not been released:
Male, 50, Arizona license, born in New York, passport issued in Los Angeles.
Female, 63, Albuquerque, N.M.
Male, 44, Minnesota, born in Michigan, passport issued Los Angeles
Female, 41, state license unknown, born in Texas, passport issued in Seattle.

The Reasoning Behind Mass Suicide and The Types of People Who Get Involved

So... Why do people commit mass suicide together?

When groups like Heaven's Gate Cult commit mass suicide they do not see it as suicide. To us, we see it as bizarre but, they saw it as moving on to another dimension of existence. Much as that of Hindu or Buddhist would, in the sense of a reincarnation or migration to another realm of being.
So now as for the next big question... Just what kind of people are joining these groups?
Most often, it is people who are searching, and are discontented. They are idealists. They often times are very bright and creative. They are the people who go on search for a more exciting religion because they become bored with the traditional types. They seek adventure and want to stray from the norm. The reason for their search and adventure is because they are looking for absolute answers.
In these cults you have two different types of people: First you have the vulnerable ones who are searching and frustrated. Then you have those who are very adventurous and tend to have creative answers for nearly everything. However, they tend to be isolated from society and they become known as the misfits. The cults create a sort of fake family seeing as how all these members lived in a house together, but they rarely talked, most of their time was spent in front of their computer screens.

The Story Behind Heaven's Gate Suicides.

To Heaven's Gate Cult suicide meant turning against the "Next Level" when it is being offered. In their last days, they were focused on two primary tasks the first one was making a final attempt at telling the truth on how to enter the Next Level. It was essentially their last effort at offering individuals a way to avoid suicide. The second was taking advantage of the opportunities to work individually on our personal over comings and changes, so that they would be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

The story goes as follows. Inside a mansion in San Diego, California, 39 friends lay dead in their beds after the largest mass suicide in the United States. All members of this crazy cult had each drunk a lethal cocktail of drugs mixed with vodka in a deluded attempt to leave earth and board an alien spaceship. The tragedy was timed to meet with a UFO they believed was trailing the Hale-Bop comet blazing in the sky above them. All of the members were dressed in a tracksuit with a 'Heaven's Gate Away Team' patch on the sleeve, as well as black Nike running shoes with the comet-like slash on the side. The 21 women and 18 men had each packed a suitcase for their journey and each had five dollars in their pockets.

Rio DeAngelo was the one who found 39 of his closest friends dead in the California mansion. Rio met the group at a California hotel in 1994. There he listened to nine cult members, in identical loose clothes and short haircuts, describe how an alien spacecraft would arrive to take the chosen few away to paradise. When Rio first met the group he was around 40 years old and had recently been divorced. He said he was in search for meaning in his life. To him, the group seemed so happy and calm, and it was as if they had found what he had been in search of. On the first day that Rio had joined his hair was cut short and he was given the new name Neo. (All the members abandoned their real names and replaced them with different names such as Ti or Bo). For the next three years Rio lived with the believers and followed the instructions from the Messiah. The rituals eventually began to seem absurd to him. Some days members had to report to their "superiors" every 12 minutes. Sometimes they even wore cones on their heads to help them focus on their soon to be new alien bodies. They were forbidden from having sex and were not allowed to hug each other or even shake hands. Some members took this to the extreme and even castrated themselves in order to have more control over their bodies. Everyday words were changed in hopes that members would not remember their human past once they were eventually carried off into space (House became "craft"). But then their "Messiah" sent message which made him wonder. Rio remembers: that day in December of 1995 when the leader sat all the members down and said there was another way to do this if everyone is willing to leave their bodies behind. Only one guy walked out, the rest of the members did not have a problem with it and trusted the leader's advice.

Eleven months after this took place someone took a photo of the Hale-Bop comet which showed a mysterious object trailing in the sky. The photo was later exposed as a hoax, but the leader convinced the group, that it was a spaceship coming to take them away and that his deceased friend was flying it. One month before the suicides, Rio decided he wanted to leave the group, and he moved to Beverly Hills and started working for a web design company.
The leader agreed that this was part of the plan that Rio would stay behind. But he was always sure to keep in touch by phone or email all the time.

The Founder of Heaven's Gate Cult

Marshall Applewhite founded Heaven's Gate Cult. He was around the age of 65 years old. Marshall Applewhite had started the cult in 1972 with Bonnie Nettles, who he had met while undergoing treatment in a mental hospital. He was a sexually confused music teacher and opera singer. Applegate meet Nettles when he was looking for a cure for his homosexual impulses. After many years pasted, with seven other members of the cult, Applegate was surgically castrated.

The History and Mission of Heaven's Gate Cult

Two thousand years ago member from the Kingdom of Heaven were said to have been responsible for nurturing "gardens," which determined that a percentage of the human "plants" of the present civilization of this Garden, which we would know to be Earth, had developed enough that some of those bodies might be ready to be used as "containers" for soul deposits. A member of the Kingdom of Heaven then left behind His body in that Next Level came to Earth, and moved into, an adult human body that had been "prepared" for this particular task. The body that was chosen was called Jesus. The member of the Kingdom of Heaven who was instructed to incarnate into that body did so at His "Father's" instruction. At the age of 29 or 30 he "moved into" that body and that was referred to as its baptism by John the Baptist. This member was then given the only task from the Kingdom of Heaven which was to offer the way leading to membership into the Kingdom of Heaven to those who recognized Him for who He was and chose to follow Him. "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" meant - if you are willing to give up everything and follow that man he would in turn lead you to God's kingdom. Only those who had a "deposit" containing the soul's beginning had the ability to believe the Kingdom of Heaven's "Representative." The only way to the Father was through this Representative. The Representative would later sent His students out with the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven. The followers gathered more believers and taught them the way to the Father's house. Each follower should know that they will be leaving behind all that is in this world which included: family, sensuality, selfish desires, your human mind, and even your human body if the Father wanted you to. This Representative had been through a metamorphic transition Himself from human to Level Above Human through the power of His Father therefore He was qualified to take others through that same transition as well as discipline. Remember, the One who incarnated in Jesus was sent for one task only, to which was to say, 'If you want to go to Heaven, I can take you through that gate but it will require all that you have to give.
Therefore the mission of Heaven's Gate Cult precisely the same. There is a man in the same position to today's society as was the One that was in Jesus then. His being here is actually a continuation of that last task as was promised to those followers of 2000 years ago. They are here again to continue in their own overcoming, while still offering the same transition to others. Our only purpose is to offer the discipline and changing required of this transition into membership in The Father's House. The Father, is the Older Member, who came with Him this time for the first half of this task to assist in the task because of its present difficulty and how much the world has changed over the course of 2000 years. Supposedly, looking up to this group and desiring to be a part of Their Father's Kingdom, can offer those with "deposits" that chance to connect with the Level Above Human, and begin that transition. Your separation from the world and reliance upon the Kingdom of Heaven through its Representatives can open to you the opportunity to become a new creature belonging to God's Kingdom.