Reconceptualising the human body: Heaven's Gate and the quest for divine transformation

Abstract

The mass suicide of the members of Heaven's Gate in 1997 stimulated much debate about the causes of so extreme an end to a new religious movement. Using primary source materials in conjunction with existing research, I present in this article an in-depth analysis of both the belief system and the behaviours of the members of the group. By using the sociology of the body and a psychobiography of the group leader, Marshall Applewhite, I show how ideas about the human body derived from individual psychopathology were translated into group belief and action. I argue that the relationship among these variables created the circumstances that led thirty-nine persons to believe that they were leaving this planet for a better existence in a parallel dimension.