Left Alive And Unchanged: The Heaven’s Gate Website
Exploiting members for their coding skills turned out to be more profitable than exploiting them for preexisting financial assets. It didn’t take long for the cult to be flush with internet cash, and this currency became the group’s primary source of income. With more resources at their disposal, the cult could afford new housing big enough to cram 40 or so members into one space. If leadership hadn’t been psychotic, who knows what the nerds could’ve accomplished?Marshal Applewhite was at his zenith as a cult leader, but he didn’t come down from the perch of his post-Nettles prophecy to revel in the spoils of capitalism that had blessed his creation. He was steadfast about the death element, and informed his followers they’d be leaving their “bodily containers” to reach an alien vehicle hidden behind the Hale Bopp comet, which would be passing by the earth at a safe enough distance to board in 1997.Preparations needed to be made, the message needed to be preserved, and more people were sought to join the killer journey to space. There was enough time for all this as Applewhite made his proclamation well in advance of doomsday. The cult bought A/V equipment and a telescope that costed thousands of dollars to try to take a peak at the spacecraft they thought was on its way. What else did they do to keep themselves busy? More coding and design. This is when Heaven’s Gate became something of brand, with its own logo and website. It was a new home for Applewhite to spread his message and try to find his final recruits, in addition to being a marketplace for the sale of a book he was selling for $45. It was a very niche website for obvious reasons, but it got clicks.
How did a cult with such an esoteric story advertising the “Last Chance to Evacuate Earth” gain traffic in the 90’s internet landscape? Primitive SEO. Search engines of the era weren’t as advanced as they are today, which meant websites of all sizes would often bury text into the background of their pages to be recognized. If you examine the Heaven’s Gate site, you can highlight the words Applewhite wanted to show up in searches that might attract people to the main page. It probably goes without saying that the web surfers who found the page weren’t looking to join a death cult but had interests in topics Heaven’s Gate was adjacent to like UFO’s and transcendence. Because it’s ridiculous, here’s the metatext of search terms in their redundant, baffling absurdity in full-
Heaven’s Gate Heaven’s Gate Heaven’s Gate Heaven’s Gate Heaven’s Gate Heaven’s Gate Heaven’s Gate Heaven’s Gate ufo ufo ufo ufo ufo ufo ufo ufo ufo ufo ufo ufo space alien space alien space alien space alien space alien space alien space alien space alien space alien space alien space alien space alien extraterrestrial extraterrestrial extraterrestrial extraterrestrial extraterrestrial extraterrestrial extraterrestrial extraterrestrial extraterrestrial extraterrestrial extraterrestrial extraterrestrial extraterrestrial extraterrestrial misinformation misinformation misinformation misinformation misinformation misinformation misinformation misinformation misinformation misinformation misinformation misinformation freedom freedom freedom freedom freedom freedom freedom freedom freedom freedom freedom freedom second coming second coming second coming second coming second coming second coming second coming second coming second coming second coming angels angels angels angels angels angels angels angels angels angels end end times times end times end times end times end times end times end times end times end times end times, Key Words: (for search engines) 144,000, Abductees, Agnostic, Alien, Allah, Alternative, Angels, Antichrist, Apocalypse, Armageddon, Ascension, Atheist, Awakening, Away Team, Beyond Human, Blasphemy, Boddhisattva, Book of Revelation, Buddha, Channeling, Children of God, Christ, Christ’s Teachings, Consciousness, Contactees, Corruption, Creation, Death, Discarnate, Discarnates, Disciple, Disciples, Disinformation, Dying, Ecumenical, End of the Age, End of the World, Eternal Life, Eunuch, Evolution, Evolutionary, Extraterrestrial, Freedom, Fulfilling Prophecy, Genderless, Glorified Body, God, God’s Children, God’s Chosen, God’s Heaven, God’s Laws, God’s Son, Guru, Harvest Time, He’s Back, Heaven, Heaven’s Gate, Heavenly Kingdom, Higher Consciousness, His Church, Human Metamorphosis, Human Spirit, Implant, Incarnation, Interfaith, Jesus, Jesus’ Return, Jesus’ Teaching, Kingdom of God, Kingdom of Heaven, Krishna Consciousness, Lamb of God, Last Days, Level Above Human, Life After Death, Luciferian, Luciferians, Meditation, Members of the Next Level, Messiah, Metamorphosis, Metaphysical, Millennium, Misinformation, Mothership, Mystic, Next Level, Non Perishable, Non Temporal, Older Member, Our Lords Return, Out of Body Experience, Overcomers, Overcoming, Past Lives, Prophecy, Prophecy Fulfillment, Rapture, Reactive Mind, Recycling the Planet, Reincarnation, Religion, Resurrection, Revelations, Saved, Second Coming, Soul, Space Alien, Spacecraft, Spirit, Spirit Filled, Spirit Guide, Spiritual, Spiritual Awakening, Star People, Super Natural, Telepathy, The Remnant, The Two, Theosophy, Ti and Do, Truth, Two Witnesses, UFO, Virginity, Walk-ins, Yahweh, Yeshua, Yoda, Yoga
Heavensgate.com didn’t end up having the conversion rate it intended after its launch, the cult lost more members then they gained after the site went live, but that mind boggling list illustrates the concepts leadership wanted to ensnare would-be members with. Some of the items here seem like longshots to attract devotees, for instance, the terms Harvest Time and Non Perishable are barking up the wrong tree. The mention of other cults sticks out too- what are the Children of God doing here? Perhaps the most curious of entries is listed at the very bottom when Star Wars sage Yoda is given a shout out. As the plan for the permanent transition of the group approached, Marshal Applewhite got his earthly affairs in order. Cult leaders are all narcissists, so preserving the philosophies and theology of their creation’s is really important to them, especially when the fate of the group is in jeopardy. Jim Jones famously made recordings of everything he thought was important at Jonestown for posterity, including the massacre. Applewhite was no different. Who could he trust to keep his message alive? He’d exited just about all substantive relationships outside his own cult. Applewhite decided to get in touch with a few former members who’d done some collaborative work with heavensgate.com. There was an agreement to carry out a few tasks on behalf of the soon-to-be-former cult, and that’s the reason why the website is still alive all these years later.
The rest of the story you already know. 39 people died. The media circus, etc. And the internet played a role in the end of things too. Remember, 39 people died in a MANSION big enough for 39 beds. They didn’t die in a single-family home or in a field somewhere, they were in a luxurious estate. That mansion wasn’t financed with the sale of $45 books or bake sales. It was a funded by web 1.0 design. The story of Heaven’s Gate is incomplete without the internet, and somehow the death cult has an afterlife online today.