In the Heaven's Gate cosmology, where talk about the end of the world alternates with tips for shrugging off your fleshly container, the cosmic and the lethal, the enraptured and the childish come together. Look at the Heaven's Gate Website. We have seen the Beast of the Apocalypse. It's Bambi in a tunic. Applicants require only an unsatisfied spiritual longing, a condition apt to strike anyone at some point in life.
Social status is no indicator of susceptibility and no defense against it.
For instance, while many of the dead at Jonestown were poor, the Solar Temple favors the carriage trade. Its disciples have included the wife and son of the founder of the Vuarnet sunglass company. The Branch Davidians at Waco came from many walks of life. And at Rancho Santa Fe they were paragons of the entrepreneurial class, so well organized they died in shifts. The U.S. was founded by religious dissenters.