
16 years after a mass suicide, the webpage is still up - standeven
http://www.heavensgate.com/
======
chimeracoder
From Wikipedia:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven%27s_Gate_(religious_gro...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven%27s_Gate_\(religious_group\))

> Only one of the group's members, Rio DiAngelo/Richard Ford, did not kill
> himself: weeks before the suicides, in December 1996, DiAngelo agreed with
> Applewhite to leave the group so he could ensure future dissemination of
> Heaven's Gate videos and literature.

This isn't surprising. The most dangerous viruses and parasites aren't the
ones that kill their hosts immediately - they have to ensure their own
survival first. If you view suicide cults as a meme (in Dawkin's terminology,
not the Reddit usage of the word), then this makes sense.

~~~
ics
> The group earned revenues by offering professional website development for
> paying clients under the name Higher Source.

Wikipedia cites this[0] article which is pretty interesting. There even seems
to be what I assume is a mirror of the original site:
[http://www.religio.de/highersource/server/](http://www.religio.de/highersource/server/)

[0]:
[http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=199...](http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19970328&slug=2531080)

~~~
softbuilder
>The group earned revenues by offering professional website development

This is the best part of their story. Just because a person does technical
work doesn't exclude them from being a moron.

~~~
tommorris
Cult membership isn't just for "morons". There have been very intelligent
people who, because of perfectly human errors in judgement have found
themselves inside cult organisations.

Look at Scientology and lots of other cults like it. The people in it aren't
stupid. Brainwashed, perhaps. There are many tricks both seemingly
logical/cognitive and emotional that people can be taken in by. The emotional
side is important: these people show affection to people who join them, and
they often target people who are at uncertain points in their lives. Cult-
style groups have often gone after college students precisely because they are
at a point in their life where they are unsure about their future and
potentially emotionally volatile.

There's a lot of people out there who are living unhappy lives, who find
themselves alienated from society, who have a strong but unfulfilled desire to
join together in a community with others, who lack self-confidence or enough
self-belief to push back.

Cults aren't just stupid people making stupid decisions: sometimes joining a
cult is a decision made by an intelligent, educated person in a moment of
weakness. And the way the thing is set up makes it not seem cultish when they
are joining. Scientology don't tell you about Lord Xenu on day one. They lure
you in with promises of making you a better person: reducing your stress and
anxiety, helping you with addictions to drugs, tobacco, alcohol etc., helping
you succeed in business or education or whatever, helping you have a better
relationship with your partner or family. Out of that menu, there's something
everyone will want. Those are all the same things advertisers lure people in
with. Falling for that kind of pitch doesn't make you stupid, it makes you
human.

~~~
softbuilder
Whoa whoa whoa. You can't take what I said and then decide I'm lambasting
everyone who ever joined a cult. That's your projection, not my comment. I'm
sympathetic to people who find themselves in a cult or religion that goes
against their self-interest. But... there is a spectrum. Killing yourself to
somehow spirit away to an imagined UFO following a comet is at the very far
end of that spectrum.

My point was that IQ and/or technical competence are no assurance that you
won't make really, really bad choices in life.

------
Matt_Cutts
And the page still has hidden text at the bottom of the page.

Truth be told, this is one of my favorite examples of hidden text, because it
shows that people don't always use spam techniques for making money.

I haven't had much luck contacting the maintainer of that page to ask them to
remove the hidden text.

~~~
ruttiger
Why are you trying to contact them to remove the hidden text?

~~~
bound008
It's a joke

~~~
vidarh
A dark one, given that the maintainer in all likelihood was one of the people
who committed suicide.

~~~
ruttiger
LOL.

------
ksrm
>Computer technology enables everyone from Madison Avenue executives to
Government agencies to keep a record of your every move, and "flags" are
thrown up any time you don't fit their pre-conceived mold of what a good
citizen should be. Our right to travel and remain nomadic is rapidly being
restricted. We often travel light on spur-of-the-moment instructions, however
we can no longer take an airline flight on short notice without harassment.
Anyone who purchases a ticket with cash without advance reservations and does
not have a load of baggage to check will likely be subjected to baggage
searches, interrogation, and suspicion. Even when they can find nothing
whatsoever that is questionable, authorities have at times reluctantly let our
members proceed, convinced that they are indeed guilty of some crime but too
clever to be caught. Police presence at border crossings have increased to the
point that you feel you are in a war zone.

About right.

~~~
goldenkey
Back to the future...

------
heavensgate
Right after the mass suicide we took over DNS for heavensgate.com.

We pointed it at aolsucks.org until their t1 melted.

[https://web.archive.org/web/19990429131245/http://www.aolsuc...](https://web.archive.org/web/19990429131245/http://www.aolsucks.org/hacked.html)

We took control of DNS for two weeks.
[http://linbsd.org/geek.mp3](http://linbsd.org/geek.mp3) details the rest of
the fun we had from snafu.org. The person who did the hack put himself as
technical contact...

Glad we got away with it...

------
dobbsbob
Their indoctrination vids are a must watch for craziness:
[http://youtu.be/AqSZhwu1Rwo](http://youtu.be/AqSZhwu1Rwo)

Check out that thousand yard stare.

This guy reminds me of that insane space cult leader from Star Trek TOS.
Apparently this cult was full of ST fans, including wearing "away team" gear
while they killed themselves.

~~~
mariodiana
I remember hearing this at the time, but it's mentioned on her Wikipedia page
as well. The brother of Nichelle Nicholas ("Uhura," as I'm sure you know) was
a member of the cult and took part in the mass suicide.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nichelle_Nichols#Personal_life](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nichelle_Nichols#Personal_life)

------
adamnemecek
The wiki page of the sect links to this

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_abduction_insurance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_abduction_insurance)

~~~
werner34
I clicked on that link as well and was astonished

~~~
gotrecruit
by what? that there are people who are stupid like that, or that enterprising
individuals or companies would capitalize on their stupidity? i feel like both
of those things are well documented in humanity by now...

~~~
zachlatta
I'm not sure if "stupid" is the right word for this. These companies are
capitalizing on fear. Intelligent people can be fearful too.

------
InclinedPlane
I remember watching the "Hale-Bopp object" fiasco unfold in real time. It's
really quite surreal to think about. A person takes a completely innocent
picture and it contains a perfectly typical example of CCD bleeding from a
background star. And yet in the hands of someone filled with ignorance and a
willingness toward self-delusion they are able to convince themselves that it
is in fact a picture of an alien space ship trailing the comet. And many other
people fall into the same delusion despite many people trying to correct their
misperceptions.

And then other folks who have been stewing in their own brand of delusion mix
this new delusion with their own eventually leading to mass suicide.

It makes you think about the importance of critical reasoning skills.

------
BorisMelnik
lol @ meta keywords

<meta name="keywords" content="Heaven's Gate, Heaven's Gate, Heaven's Gate,
Heaven's Gate, Heaven's Gate, Heaven's Gate, ufo, ufo, ufo, ufo, ufo, ufo,
space alien, space alien, space alien, space alien, space alien, space alien,
extraterrestrial, extraterrestrial, extraterrestrial, extraterrestrial,
extraterrestrial, extraterrestrial, millennium, millennium, millennium,
millennium, millennium, millennium, millennium, misinformation,
misinformation, misinformation, misinformation, misinformation,
misinformation, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, second
coming, second coming, second coming, second coming, second coming, second
coming, angels, angels, angels, angels, angels, angels, end times, end times,
end times, end times, end times, end times, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,
Jesus, God, God, God, God, God, God">

------
danso
How sadly amusing is it that this website can be maintained in its original
state 16 years after its owners died, yet publishing companies today routinely
fail to protect heir still-alive brands.

Case in point: Michelin Guides [http://www.constructaquote.com/business-
insurance-blog/index...](http://www.constructaquote.com/business-insurance-
blog/index.php/2013/02/michelin-guides-fury-michel-guides-
website/#.UpFRXrK9KK0)

------
shubhamjain
A town in my state had a similar case where a family of 5 including 3 children
committed suicide ( 3 survivors) by consuming poison [1]. Motive? Apparently,
they wished to meet Lord Shiva after their death. They even made a video of it
where each one was very delighted before the act. In India, lunacy in name of
religion is not uncommon but I was deeply disappointed by the kind of
foolishness that prevails in my country even with fairly educated people.
However, it is surprising how such an incident could happen in US in name of
some Sci-Fi Heaven-Earth bullshit.

[1]: [http://ibnlive.in.com/news/rajasthan-5-of-a-family-commit-
su...](http://ibnlive.in.com/news/rajasthan-5-of-a-family-commit-suicide-
believing-they-will-meet-god/381854-3-239.html)

~~~
joshstrange
"Lunacy in the name of religion"

Umm... That's par for the course....

~~~
girvo
A tautology, as far as I'm concerned.

------
deweerdt
This article from 2012 offers some background on the page:
[http://lasvegas.cbslocal.com/2012/05/02/heavens-gate-
website...](http://lasvegas.cbslocal.com/2012/05/02/heavens-gate-website-
still-active/)

------
nsxwolf
I haven't looked at this in 16 years, but I remembered verbatim one of the
links and got a little chill waiting to see it again as I scrolled down: "Our
position against suicide".

------
inanov
ReligiousTolerance.org states that:

'A couple of the surviving members of the group who did not "leave" have been
maintaining their web site at
[http://www.heavensgate.com'](http://www.heavensgate.com')
([http://j.mp/1cKc0KA](http://j.mp/1cKc0KA))

------
foxhop
It isn't going to be online much longer.

Domain Name: HEAVENSGATE.COM

Creation Date: 1997-12-18 05:00:00Z

Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2013-12-17 05:00:00Z

~~~
nkuttler

       Server: Microsoft-IIS/7.5
       X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
       X-Powered-By-Plesk: PleskWin
    

Does 7.5 still get security support?

~~~
ams6110
Clearly not the server to which would originally have been deployed. Someone
is actively maintaining it.

------
enko
This is a fascinating, well-written account, a decade after the events:
[http://www.laweekly.com/2007-03-22/news/heaven-s-gate-the-
se...](http://www.laweekly.com/2007-03-22/news/heaven-s-gate-the-sequel/full/)

------
STRiDEX
Interesting that the G in gate from the top image is the green bay packers
logo from the NFL.

~~~
dsl
I have bad news for you if you think the packers game up with the idea of a
stylized G.

------
axelfreeman
There is a full documentary on youtube about "heavensgate".
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBTLThA0wOw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBTLThA0wOw)

------
atmosx
Was Einstein who said that quote about the universe and human stupidity,
trying to describe infinity?

Cantor would argue though that some infinities are bigger than others..

------
FrankenPC
Of course I had to contact the Kingdom of Heaven admin to see if they made it
to the comet: rep@heavensgate.com.

I wonder if their nads were waiting for them?

------
chris_wot
Their stance on suicide:

[http://www.heavensgate.com/misc/letter.htm](http://www.heavensgate.com/misc/letter.htm)

------
elwell
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHz9it70TdI](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHz9it70TdI)

------
chias
Wow... <font size="6"><font color="#ff0000">stuff</font color></font size>

~~~
code_duck
I've been working with an awful shopping cart product with template 'tags'
that produce HTML containing <center> and many other unsemantic abominations.
You also see <font> tags still come up on stack overflow... Old tutorials will
never die, it seems.

~~~
chias
nothing wrong with font tags per se (well back then, anyway)... more a matter
of what appears to be a complete lack of understanding of the difference
between a tag and an attribute. The page is a wealth of HTML abominations and
bad quotation mark placement:

alt="To Access Our Book: "Heaven's Gate"

and so on

------
foobar388383
At the time, the site was hosted by Spacestar Communications (now defunct).
Now, it's hosted by Cyrus One.

I wonder who maintains it.

------
elwell
<font size=+1> i didn't know you could do that!

------
maaku
Well, were you expecting someone to take it down?

~~~
Timmmmbob
I was expecting nobody to pay for hosting! Websites don't run on magic.

------
testsheep
What if it was real and they are gods now.

------
mortyseinfeld
And very Geocities looking.

