Heaven's Gate
Subtitle: America's UFO Religion
By: Benjamin E. Zeller ; foreword by Robert W. Balch
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 287
ISBN-13: 9781479803811; 9781479881062
Subjects: Religion; Cults; Heaven's Gate (Organization)
Description: In March 1997, thirty-nine people in Rancho Santa Fe, California, ritually terminated their lives. To outsiders, it was a mass suicide. To insiders, it was a graduation. The author explores the question of why the members of Heaven's Gate committed ritual suicides, and examines the origin and evolution of the religion, its appeal, and practices.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 227-273) and index.
Table of contents: title: The cultural and religious origins of heaven's gate; title: The spiritual quest and self-transformation: why people joined heaven's gate; title: The religious worldview of heaven's gate; title: Understanding heaven's gate's theology; title: Religious practices in heaven's gate; title: Why suicide?: closing heaven's gate; title: Heaven's gate as an American religion.