The mass suicide of members of the UFO cult Heaven’s Gate is one of the most bizarre and enduringly fascinating events of the 90s. But nearly 20 years after the strange deaths, part of the cult’s legacy lives on via its perfectly preserved retro website, loyally maintained by two surviving members. They’ll even answer your questions via email. [...]
By all accounts, the administrators behind HeavensGate.com are a couple named Mark and Sarah King, though they would not confirm their identity when I emailed this week. Via email, the couple told me they were entrusted with this task after being members of the group for 12 years. They have regular full time jobs outside of tending the site, but take their duties seriously. They answer any inquirer’s questions within a day or so, and make sure the site—crammed with information about the cult’s beliefs, and with a strikingly 90s aesthetic—ticking along, exactly as it was in March 1997. [...]
It’s a fairly fitting legacy considering the cult had earned money throughout the 90s through a web design company (which is detailed in this Motherboard story from 2014). But what’s the purpose? Marshall Applewhite, the founder of Heaven’s Gate and one of the members who killed himself in ‘97, had predicted that the Earth would be “recycled” shortly after the cult member’s deaths, and that this was the last chance to exit to the Next Level. If the mass suicide was the last chance to depart Earth, why force two believers to stay behind and preserve information for a planet full of hopeless beings?
The admins simply told me they stayed behind because they were asked to, but in an interview with Reddit’s blog, Upvoted, last year, they went into a little more detail, explaining that those on the Next Level will return at some point, and anyone on Earth who is ready may have an opportunity to join them.
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