Friday, April 25, 2025
Thursday, April 24, 2025
Wednesday, April 23, 2025
My NYC Residence.
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| This is where I lived for several years while going to school and working in NYC. On the third floor over what is NOW TURTLE BAY TAVERN on Second Ave at 52nd St. |
Tuesday, April 22, 2025
Monday, April 21, 2025
Sunday, April 20, 2025
RONNIE MILSAP (1943-)
Ronnie Lee Milsap (born Ronald Lee Millsaps; January 16, 1943) is an American country music singer and pianist.[2] He was one of country music's most popular and influential performers of the 1970s and 1980s. Nearly completely blind from birth, he became one of the most successful and versatile country "crossover" singers of his time, appealing to both country and pop music markets with hit songs that incorporated pop, R&B, and rock and roll elements. His biggest crossover hits include "It Was Almost Like a Song", "Smoky Mountain Rain", "(There's) No Gettin' Over Me", "I Wouldn't Have Missed It for the World", "Any Day Now", and "Stranger in My House". He is credited with six Grammy Awards and 35 number-one country hits, fourth to George Strait, Conway Twitty, and Merle Haggard. He was selected for induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2014.[3][4]
Career
Early life (1943–1971)
Milsap was born January 16, 1943, in Robbinsville, North Carolina.[2] A congenital disorder left him almost completely blind from birth.[2] Abandoned by his mother as an infant, he was raised in poverty by his grandparents in the Smoky Mountains until he was sent to the North Carolina State School for the Blind and Deaf in Raleigh, North Carolina, at age five.[2]
During his childhood, Milsap developed a passion for music, particularly the late-night radio broadcasts of country music, gospel music, and rhythm and blues. When he was 7, his instructors noticed his musical talents. Soon afterward he began formal study of classical music at Governor Morehead School and learned several instruments, eventually mastering the piano.
When he was 14, a slap from one of the school's houseparents caused him to lose what very limited vision he had in his left eye.[2][5]
With the national breakthrough of Elvis Presley in 1956, Milsap became interested in rock and roll music and formed a rock band called the Apparitions with fellow high-school students. In concert, Milsap has often paid tribute to the musicians of the 1950s who inspired him including Ray Charles, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Presley.
Milsap was awarded a full college scholarship and briefly attended Young Harris College in Young Harris, Georgia, with plans to become a lawyer.[2] During this time, Milsap joined a popular local R&B band called the Dimensions that played gigs in the Atlanta area, and became a regular attraction at the rough and rowdy Royal Peacock Club. In the fall of 1964, Milsap declined a scholarship to law school and left college to pursue a full-time career in music. He met Joyce Reeves one night at a dinner party during this period, after which the two were married in 1965.
In 1963, Milsap met Atlanta disc jockey Pat Hughes, who became an early supporter of his music career. Milsap recorded his first single, "Total Disaster/It Went to Your Head",[6] which enjoyed some local success in the Atlanta area. The single sold 15,000 copies with the help of Hughes, who played the record on his radio show. Around this same time, Milsap auditioned for a job as a keyboardist for musician J. J. Cale.[2] In 1965, Milsap signed with New York–based Scepter Records, recording several obscure singles for the label over the next few years,[2] and working briefly with other soul musicians like Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder.
Also in 1965, Milsap scored his first hit with the Ashford & Simpson–penned single, "Never Had It So Good", which peaked at No. 19 on the R&B chart in November of that year.[7][8] It would be his only successful single during his time with Scepter. Milsap cut another Ashford & Simpson tune, "Let's Go Get Stoned", that was relegated to a B-side.[2]
In the late 1960s, after moving to Memphis, Tennessee, Milsap worked for producer Chips Moman and became a popular weekly attraction at the Memphis nightclub T.J.'s. During this time, Moman helped Milsap land work as a session musician on numerous projects including several recordings with Elvis Presley such as "Don't Cry Daddy" in 1969 and "Kentucky Rain" in 1970.[2] That same year, Milsap made the lower reaches of the pop charts with the single "Loving You Is a Natural Thing". He recorded and released his debut album, Ronnie Milsap, on Warner Brothers in 1971.[2]
Breakthrough success (1973–1975)
In December 1972, Milsap relocated to Nashville after a chance meeting with country music star Charley Pride who was in the audience for a Milsap gig at the nightclub Whiskey A-Go-Go on Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles.[9] Pride was impressed with Milsap's singing and encouraged him to change course and focus on country music. Milsap began working with Pride's manager, Jack D. Johnson, and was signed to RCA Records in 1973.[2] He released his first single for RCA that year, "I Hate You", which became his first country music success, peaking at No. 10 on the country chart. In 1974, Milsap toured with Pride as an opening act and had two No. 1 singles: "Pure Love" (written by Eddie Rabbitt) and the Kris Kristofferson composition "Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends" which won Milsap his first Grammy. In 1975, he revived the Don Gibson song "(I'd Be) A Legend in My Time" and scored another No. 1 hit with "Daydreams About Night Things".
"It Was Almost Like a Song" (1976–1978)
From 1976 to 1978, Milsap became one of country music's biggest stars. He scored seven No. 1 singles in a row, including the Grammy-winning "(I'm a) Stand by My Woman Man" and "What a Difference You've Made in My Life". The most significant of this series was "It Was Almost Like a Song" in 1977, a piano-based ballad, which became his most successful single of the 1970s. In addition to topping the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, the song was his first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 pop music chart since "Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends" reached No. 95; "It Was Almost Like a Song," reached No. 16. It was also his first song to make the Adult Contemporary Chart, stopping at No. 7. While the song was Milsap's only crossover success of the 1970s, he continued to achieve hits on the country music charts for the remainder of the decade.
Crossover success (1979–1992)
Milsap's sound shifted toward string-laden pop ballads during the late 1970s which resulted in crossover success on the pop charts beginning in the early 1980s. From 1980 until 1983, he scored a series of eleven No. 1 singles. Milsap's Greatest Hits album, released in 1980, included a new single, "Smoky Mountain Rain", which became a No. 1 smash on the country charts. The single peaked in the Top 20 on the pop music chart and also became the first of two Milsap songs to score No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
Other crossover successes included the Top 5 pop single, "(There's) No Gettin' Over Me", and two Top 20 songs in "I Wouldn't Have Missed It For the World" and "Any Day Now", the latter which lasted five weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart. He also had some success with "He Got You". All four songs reached No. 1 on the country music charts.
Although the series of No. 1 hits ended in 1983, the last song of the series, "Stranger in My House", was still successful on all three charts, peaking at No. 5 on the country music chart, No. 23 on the pop music chart, and No. 8 on the Adult Contemporary chart. Just a few months later, "Don't You Know How Much I Love You" was released, becoming Milsap's last significant entry on the pop music chart, stopping at No. 58. However it, along with others, still became major successes on the Adult Contemporary chart. These successful singles include "Show Her", "Still Losing You", and finally, the Grammy-winning song "Lost in the Fifties Tonight" (his last pop crossover success) in 1985.
Between 1985 and 1987, Milsap enjoyed a series of uninterrupted No. 1 country singles, enjoying great success at this time with "She Keeps the Home Fires Burning", "In Love", "Snap Your Fingers", "Where Do the Nights Go", and the Grammy-winning duet with Kenny Rogers, "Make No Mistake, She's Mine". In 1987, Milsap contributed the theme song to the short-lived NBC television series J.J. Starbuck.
In 1989, Milsap had his last No. 1 song with "A Woman in Love", although he still remained successful on the charts. Other Top 10 singles between 1989 and 1991 include "Houston Solution", "Stranger Things Have Happened", "Turn That Radio On", a remake of the 1950s hit "Since I Don't Have You" (his last adult contemporary hit) and "Are You Loving Me Like I'm loving You". With the help of writer Tom Carter, Milsap wrote and released his autobiography, titled Almost like a Song, in 1990.
In 1992, he had a major success with "All Is Fair in Love and War". The song featured rock guitarist Mark Knopfler on lead guitar and peaked at No. 11; his last top-40 country hit, "True Believer," peaked in 1993 at No. 30. By that time, however, Milsap's chart success began to decline.
Since 1993: Life today
Milsap has remained one of country music's best-loved and most successful artists despite the lack of radio airplay since the mid-1990s. In 1993, he left RCA for Liberty and released the album True Believer which failed to achieve significant radio airplay, although the title song scored No. 30 on the country chart. In 2000, Milsap resurfaced with a two-CD set, 40 No. 1 Hits, featuring a new single entitled "Time, Love, and Money". The new collection earned a gold record although the single failed to score on the charts.
In 2000, Milsap's biography was featured by A&E Networks's Biography television series. Milsap has also been featured by CMT's numerous shows, including 40 Greatest Men of Country Music and a 2005 episode of Crossroads with Tex-Mex rock group Los Lonely Boys.
During 2004, Milsap worked with producer Jerry F. Sharell to record his first non-country album since the early 1970s, Just for a Thrill. The project was a collection of American popular/jazz music standards which earned Milsap a Grammy award nomination that year. In 2006, Milsap signed with his former company RCA and returned to a mainstream, contemporary country music style with the album My Life. The first single was "Local Girls" which reached No. 54.
In 2009, Milsap released a two-CD set entitled Then Sings My Soul which featured 24 hymns and gospel songs, including "Up To Zion". "Up To Zion" was co-written by Gregory James Tornquist and Noreen Crayton and became a No. 1 hit on the southern gospel charts. On May 12, 2010, he was part of a Gaither Video Taping.
Milsap's studio album Country Again was released in July 2011. The album was a return to a more traditional country sound.
On May 2, 2013, Milsap performed at the memorial service of country legend George Jones, singing the Jones classic "When the Grass Grows Over Me". The service was broadcast live on CMT, GAC, RFD-TV, The Nashville Network, and Family Net as well as Nashville stations. SiriusXM and WSM 650AM, home of the Grand Ole Opry, broadcast the event live on radio.
On December 27, 2013, it was announced Milsap would release a new album. Summer #17 was released in March 2014. The album features new recordings of classic pop and R&B songs from the 1950s and 60's.[10]
On June 1, 2014, Rolling Stone magazine ranked "Smoky Mountain Rain" #96 in their list of the 100 greatest country songs.[11]
In 2016, Milsap was selected as one of 30 artists to perform on "Forever Country", a mash-up track of "Take Me Home, Country Roads", "On the Road Again" and "I Will Always Love You" which celebrates 50 years of the CMA Awards.[12]
In October 2018, Billboard announced Milsap would release a duets album, titled Ronnie Milsap: The Duets in January 2019.[13] The album was released on January 18, 2019.[14] The Duets album has many artists including Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, George Strait, Little Big Town and many other of Country Music's finest. It also has the last recordings of the late Leon Russell and Troy Gentry of Montgomery Gentry. The Duets album charted on three different charts. Listed in the order from highest. Independent Album chart #15 - Top Current Album Sales chart #47 - Top Album Sales chart #57. The Duets album is Ronnie's latest album charting to date! The only song from The Duets album to chart was "Smokey Mountain Rain" with Dolly Parton. Charting #27 on the Adult Contemporary chart. Spending 5 weeks on the chart - Debuted 07.27.19 - peaked 08.10.19.
Mid 2020 Ronnie added an audio clip on his website stating he has a new home studio and he has been recording a new album! Then later on Oct 15th Milsap's team announced the release of his recording of the Christmas version of "Happy, Happy Birthday Baby" - "Merry, Merry Christmas Baby". The song was then released October 16, 2020. This is Ronnie's first Christmas material since his first and only Christmas album in 1986. Milsap released the album A Better Word for Love in 2021, recorded at Ronnie's Place and released by Black River Entertainment.[15] In addition to releases in 2021 Ronnie reissued his long out of print Christmas (only on CD) album "Christmas With Ronnie Milsap". It was announced on Sept 22, 2021, then released November 12, 2021.
In March 2022 Michael Feinstein released his tribute to the Gershwin brothers "Gershwin Country" which Included none other than Ronnie on the recording of "Oh, Lady Be Good". Their duet was released on March 11, 2022, On April 13, 2022, Ronnie's team announced the production of a new podcast "Music and Milsap" produced by Marty Mackeever (Mr. Producer as Ronnie calls him). The first episode was released April 22, 2022. Available on Spotify, Ronniemilsap.com, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music & more.[16] On May 1, 2022, Ronnie Inducted his longtime friend Ray Charles into the Country Music Hall Of Fame. Sometime over the summer of 2022 Ronnie was reported to have been in the studio recording with his longtime friend & album producer Rob Galbraith. The next album is said to be an American song book album. Then on September 15 Ronnie was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall Of Fame alongside Mavis Staples, Priscilla Presley, Jim Gaines and many others.
Turning 80 on January 16, 2023, Ronnie later celebrated his 80th birthday on March 25 on the Grand Ole Opry. He was joined by Trace Adkins, Little Big Town, Jeannie Seely, and a few others.
Ronnie has been featured on the tribute album for The Gaithers entitled "Gaither Tribute: Award Winning Artists Honor The Songs of Bill & Gloria Gaither". He'll be singing their song "I Just Feel Like Something Good Is About To Happen". The album will also feature Alabama, Reba McEntire, Ronnie Dunn, Lee Ann Womack & many others. Being released August 25, 2023.[17] On October 3, 2023, Ronnie Milsap was joined by many of his musical friends to do his final show at the Bridgestone Arena.[18] Although Ronnie will be retiring from the road he isn't fully retiring from music. He will continue with his podcast "Music and Milsap" and he'll continue to record.
On June 30, Ronnie released his latest duet "Jambalaya (On The Bayou)" with Deborah Silver.[19]
Amateur radio operator
Milsap is an Advanced-class amateur radio operator. His call sign is WB4KCG.[20]
Personal life
In 1965, Milsap married Joyce Reeves.[21] They had one son, Ronald "Todd" Milsap, who was found dead on his houseboat at the age of 49 on February 23, 2019, from an apparent medical condition.[22] Todd's son, who had not heard from his father for the previous two days, found the body. Joyce, who had been battling leukemia since 2014, died on September 6, 2021, at the age of 81.[21][23]
Discography
Industry awards and honors
- 1982 Top Male Vocalist
- 1985 Song of the Year – "Lost in the Fifties Tonight"
- 1988 Instrumentalist of the Year, Keyboards
- 2002 Pioneer Award
- 1980 No. 1 Country Song of the Year – "My Heart"
- 1985 No. 1 Country Song of the Year – "Lost in the Fifties Tonight"
- 1974 Male Vocalist of the Year
- 1975 Album of the Year – A Legend in My Time
- 1976 Male Vocalist of the Year
- 1977 Album of the Year – Ronnie Milsap Live
- 1977 Entertainer of the Year
- 1977 Male Vocalist of the Year
- 1978 Album of the Year – It Was Almost Like a Song
- 1986 Album of the Year – Lost in the Fifties Tonight
Country Music Hall of Fame 2014 Inductee
- 1975 Best Male Country Vocal Performance – "Please Don't Tell Me How The Story Ends"
- 1977 Best Male Country Vocal Performance – "(I'm a) Stand by My Woman Man"
- 1982 Best Male Country Vocal Performance – "(There's) No Gettin' Over Me"
- 1986 Best Male Country Vocal Performance – "Lost in the Fifties Tonight"
- 1987 Best Male Country Vocal Performance – "Lost in the Fifties Tonight"
- 1988 Best Country Collaboration with Vocals – "Make No Mistake, She's Mine" (w/ Kenny Rogers)
Music City News Country
- 1975 Most Promising Male Artist
Miscellaneous achievements
- 40 No. 1 hits, 35 of which reached the top spot on the Billboard chart; the remaining 5 topped other trade charts, including Cashbox
- Over 35 million albums sold
- Inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 1976
- Inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2002[24]
- Awarded the Career Achievement Award by Country Radio Seminar in 2006
- Awarded the 2007 Rocketown Legend Award
Other honors
On December 2, 2020, six miles of U.S. 129 in Graham County, North Carolina, from Yellow Creek near Robbinsville to the Swain County line, was designated Ronnie Milsap Highway.[25]
Bibliography
- Milsap, Ronnie; Carter, Tom (1990). Almost Like a Song. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0070423749.
HEAVEN'S GATE (1997)
Heaven's Gate was an American new religious movement known primarily for the mass suicides committed by its members in 1997. Commonly designated a cult, it was founded in 1974 and led by Marshall Applewhite (1931–1997) and Bonnie Nettles (1927–1985), known within the movement as Do and Ti. Nettles and Applewhite first met in 1972 and went on a journey of spiritual discovery, identifying themselves as the two witnesses of the Book of Revelation, attracting a following of several hundred people in the mid-1970s. In 1976, a core group of a few dozen members stopped recruiting and instituted a monastic lifestyle.
Scholars have described the theology of Heaven's Gate as a mixture of Christian millenarianism, New Age, and ufology, and it has been characterized as a UFO religion. The central belief of the group was that followers could transform themselves into immortal extraterrestrial beings by rejecting their human nature, and they would ascend to heaven, referred to as the "Next Level" or "The Evolutionary Level Above Human". The death of Nettles from cancer in 1985 challenged the group's views on ascension; while they originally believed that they would ascend to heaven while alive aboard a UFO, they came to believe that the body was merely a "container" or "vehicle" for the soul and that their consciousness would be transferred to "Next Level bodies" upon death.
On March 26, 1997, deputies of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department discovered the bodies of the 39 active members of the group, including Applewhite, in a house in the San Diego County suburb of Rancho Santa Fe. They had participated in a coordinated series of ritual suicides, coinciding with the closest approach of Comet Hale–Bopp. Just before the mass suicide, the group's website was updated with the message: "Hale–Bopp brings closure to Heaven's Gate ...our 22 years of classroom here on planet Earth is finally coming to conclusion – 'graduation' from the Human Evolutionary Level. We are happily prepared to leave 'this world' and go with Ti's crew."[1]
History
The son of a Presbyterian minister and a former soldier, Marshall Applewhite began his foray into Biblical prophecy in the early 1970s. He was fired from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, over an alleged relationship with one of his male students. In March 1972, he met Bonnie Nettles, a 44-year-old married nurse with an interest in theosophy and Biblical prophecy.[2] The circumstances of their meeting are unclear. According to Applewhite's writings, the two met in a hospital where she worked as a nurse while he was visiting a sick friend. James Lewis suggests that Applewhite may have been a patient in the facility.[3] Applewhite later recalled that he felt that he had known Nettles for a long time and concluded that they had met in a past life.[4] She told him their meeting had been foretold to her by extraterrestrials, persuading him that he had a divine assignment.[5][6]
Applewhite and Nettles pondered the life of St. Francis of Assisi and read works by Helena Blavatsky, R. D. Laing, and Richard Bach.[7] They kept a King James Bible and studied passages from the New Testament focusing on Christology, asceticism, and eschatology.[8] Applewhite also read science fiction, including works by Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke.[9] By June 19, Applewhite and Nettles's beliefs had solidified.[10] They concluded that they had been chosen to fulfill biblical prophecies and given higher-level minds than other people.[11] They wrote a pamphlet that described Jesus' reincarnation as a Texan, a veiled reference to Applewhite.[12] Furthermore, they concluded that they were the two witnesses described in the Book of Revelation,[13] and occasionally visited churches and spiritual groups to speak of their identities,[14] often referring to themselves as "The Two", or "The UFO Two".[7][15] They believed they would be killed and then resurrected and, in view of others, transported onto a spaceship. This event, which they referred to as "the Demonstration", was to prove their claims.[12] These ideas were poorly received by other religious groups.[16]
The Two would gain their first follower in May 1974: Sharon Morgan, who abandoned her children to join them. A month later, Morgan left The Two and returned to her family. Nettles and Applewhite were arrested and charged with credit card fraud for using Morgan's cards, although she had consented to their use. The charges were dropped. A routine check revealed that Applewhite had stolen a rental car from St. Louis nine months earlier, which he still possessed. Applewhite spent six months in jail primarily in Missouri, and was released in early 1975, rejoining Nettles.[16]
Eventually, Applewhite and Nettles resolved to contact extraterrestrials and sought like-minded followers. They published advertisements for meetings, where they recruited disciples, called "the crew".[17] At the events, they purported to represent beings from another planet, the Next Level, who sought participants for an experiment. They said those who agreed to participate in the experiment would be brought to a higher evolutionary level.[18] In April 1975, during a meeting with a group of eighty people in Studio City, Los Angeles, they shared their "simultaneous" revelation that they were the two witnesses in the Bible's story of the end time.[19] According to Benjamin Zeller, while accounts of the meeting differ, all describe it as momentous and agree that Applewhite and Nettles presented themselves as charismatic leaders with an important spiritual message. About 25 individuals joined the group.[20]
In September 1975, Applewhite and Nettles preached at a motel hall in Waldport, Oregon. After selling all "worldly" possessions and saying farewell to loved ones, around 20 people vanished from the public eye and joined the group.[2] Later that year, on CBS Evening News, Walter Cronkite reported on the disappearances in one of the first national reports on the developing religious group: "A score of persons from a small Oregon town have disappeared. It's a mystery whether they've been taken on a so-called trip to eternity – or simply been taken."[19] In reality, Applewhite and Nettles had arranged for the group to go underground. From that point, "Do" and "Ti" (pronounced "doe" and "tee"), as the two now called themselves, led nearly one hundred members across the country, sleeping in tents and sleeping bags and begging in the streets. Evading detection by the authorities and media enabled the group to focus on Do and Ti's doctrine of helping members of the crew achieve a "higher evolutionary level" above human, which the leaders claimed to have already reached.[19][21]
Applewhite and Nettles used a variety of aliases over the years, notably "Bo and Peep" and "Do and Ti". The group also had several names prior to the adoption of the name Heaven's Gate. At the time Jacques Vallée studied the group, it was known as Human Individual Metamorphosis (HIM). The group re-invented and renamed itself several times.[22][23] Applewhite believed he was directly related to Jesus, meaning he was an "Evolutionary Kingdom Level Above Human". His writings, which combined aspects of Millennialism, Gnosticism, and science fiction, suggest he believed himself to be Jesus' successor and the "Present Representative" of Christ on Earth.[19] Do and Ti taught early on that Do's bodily "vehicle" was inhabited by the same alien spirit that belonged to Jesus; Ti was presented as God the Father, Do's "older member".[19]
The crew used various recruitment methods as they toured the United States in destitution, proclaiming the gospel of higher-level metamorphosis, the deceit of humans by "false-God spirits", envelopment with sunlight for meditative healing, and the divinity of the "UFO Two".[19] In April 1976, the group stopped recruiting and became reclusive, and instituted a rigid set of behavioral guidelines, including banning sexual activity and the use of drugs. Applewhite and Nettles solidified their temporal and religious authority over the group. Benjamin Zeller described the movement as having transformed "from a loosely organized social group to a centralized religious movement comparable to a roving monastery".[24]
Some sociologists agree that the popular movement of alternative religious experience and individualism found in collective spiritual experiences during that period helped contribute to the growth of Heaven's Gate. Sheilaism, as it became known, was a way for people to merge their diverse religious backgrounds and coalesce around a shared, generalized faith, which followers of new religious sects like Applewhite's crew found to be an appetizing alternative to traditional dogmas in Judaism, Catholicism and evangelical Christianity. Many of Applewhite and Nettles' crew hailed from these diverse backgrounds; most of them are described by researchers as having been "longtime truth-seekers" or spiritual hippies who had long since believed in attempting to "find themselves" through spiritual means, combining faiths in a sort of cultural environment well into the mid-1980s.[25] Not all of Applewhite's crew were hippies recruited from alternative religious backgrounds – one such recruit early on was John Craig, a respected Republican and ranch owner who came close to winning a 1970 Colorado House of Representatives race. He joined the group in 1975.[26][27] As its numbers grew in its pre-Internet days, the clan of "UFO followers" seemed to have in common a need for communal belonging to an alternative path to higher existence outside the constraints of institutionalized faith.[citation needed]
Identifying itself by the business name "Higher Source," the group used its website to proselytize and recruit followers beginning in the early 1990s. Rumors started spreading among the group in the following years that the upcoming Comet Hale–Bopp housed the secret to their ultimate salvation and ascent into the kingdom of heaven.[28]
Contemporary media coverage
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Heaven's Gate received coverage in Jacques Vallée's book Messengers of Deception (1979), in which Vallée described an unusual public meeting organized by the group. He expressed concerns about contactee groups' authoritarian political and religious outlooks, and Heaven's Gate did not escape criticism.[29] Known to the media (though largely ignored), Heaven's Gate was better known in UFO circles, and through a series of academic studies by sociologist Robert Balch.
In January 1994, LA Weekly ran an article on the group, then known as "The Total Overcomers".[30] Richard Ford, who would play a key role in the 1997 group suicide, discovered Heaven's Gate through this article and eventually joined them, renaming himself Rio DiAngelo.[19] Coast to Coast AM host Art Bell discussed the theory of the "companion object" in the shadow of Hale–Bopp on several programs as early as November 1996. Speculation has been raised as to whether Bell's programs contributed to Heaven's Gate's group suicide. Knowledge Fight host Dan Friesen blames more on Courtney Brown rather than Bell.[31][32]
Louis Theroux contacted Heaven's Gate for his BBC2 documentary series, Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends, in early March 1997, weeks before their mass suicide. In response to his e-mail, Theroux was told that Heaven's Gate could not participate in the documentary: "at the present time a project like this would be an interference with what we must focus on."[33]
Mass suicide
In October 1996,[34] the group rented a large house which they called "The Monastery", a 9,200-square-foot (850 m2) mansion located near 18341 Colina Norte (later renamed to Paseo Victoria[35]) in Rancho Santa Fe, California. They paid the $7,000 per month rent in cash.[36] The same month, the group purchased alien abduction insurance that would cover up to fifty members and would pay out $1 million per person (the policy covered abduction, impregnation, or death by aliens).[37] In June 1995, they had purchased land near Manzano, New Mexico, and began creating a compound out of rubber tires and concrete, but had left abruptly in April 1996.[38]
On March 13, 1997, media reported on a mass sighting of unidentified lights over Phoenix.[39] During March 19–20, Marshall Applewhite taped himself in a video titled Do's Final Exit, speaking of mass suicide and "the only way to evacuate this Earth". After asserting that Comet Hale–Bopp was the sign that the group had been looking for, as well as the speculation that an unidentified flying object (UFO) may have been trailing the comet, Applewhite and his 38 followers prepared for ritual suicide, coinciding with the closest approach of the comet, so their souls could reach the Next Level before the closure of "Heaven's Gate". Members believed that after their deaths, a UFO would take their souls to another "level of existence above human", which was described as being both physical and spiritual. Their preparations included most members videotaping a farewell message.[40][41][42] The 39 adherents – 21 women and 18 men between the ages of 26 and 72 – are believed to have died in three groups over three successive days, with the remaining participants cleaning up after the prior group's deaths.[43]
The suicides began on March 22–23 in three waves.[44][45][a] To kill themselves, members took phenobarbital mixed with apple sauce or pudding and washed it down with vodka. After ingesting the mix, they secured plastic bags around their heads to induce asphyxiation. All 39 were dressed in identical black shirts and sweatpants, brand-new black-and-white Nike Decades athletic shoes, and armband patches reading "Heaven's Gate Away Team" (one of many instances of the group's use of the terms of Star Trek). Each member carried a five-dollar bill and three quarters in their pockets.[50][44] According to former members, this was standard for members leaving the home for jobs and "a humorous way to tell us they all had left the planet permanently"; the five-dollar bill was for covering the cost of vagrancy laws and the quarters were for calling home from pay phones.[51][44] Another former member stated that it was a reference to a Mark Twain story, which said $5.75 was "the cost to ride the tail of a comet to heaven."[52] No such passage from the writings of Twain is known to exist.[53]
After a member died, a living member would arrange the body by removing the plastic bag from the person's head, followed by posing the body so that it lay neatly in its own bed, with faces and torsos covered by a square purple cloth, for privacy. In a 2020 interview with Harry Robinson, two members who were not in Rancho Santa Fe when the suicides happened said that the identical clothing was a uniform representing unity for the mass suicide, while the Nike Decades were chosen because the group "got a good deal on the shoes".[44] Applewhite was also a fan of Nikes "and therefore everyone was expected to wear and like Nikes" within the group. Heaven's Gate had a saying, "Just Do it", echoing Nike's slogan, but pronouncing "Do" as "Doe", to reflect Applewhite's nickname.[54]
Among the dead was Thomas Nichols, brother of the actress Nichelle Nichols, best known for her role as Uhura in the original television series of Star Trek.[55] Applewhite was the third to last member to die; two people remained after him, and were the only ones found with bags over their heads and not having purple cloths covering their top halves. Before the last of the suicides, similar sets of packages were sent to numerous Heaven's Gate affiliated (or formerly affiliated) individuals,[43] and at least one media outlet, the BBC department responsible for Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends, for which Heaven's Gate had earlier declined participation.[citation needed]
Among those on the list of recipients was Rio DiAngelo. The package DiAngelo received on the evening of March 25,[40] as other packages sent had,[43] contained two VHS videotapes, one with Do's Final Exit, and the other with the "farewell messages" of group followers.[40] It also contained a letter stating that, among other things, "we have exited our vehicles just as we entered them."[56] DiAngelo informed his boss of the contents of the packages, and received a ride from him from Los Angeles to the Heaven's Gate home so he could verify the letter. DiAngelo found a back door intentionally left unlocked,[56] and used a video camera to record what he saw. After leaving the house, DiAngelo's boss, who had waited outside, encouraged him to make calls alerting the authorities.[40]
The San Diego County Sheriff's Department received an anonymous tip through 911 at 3:15 p.m. on March 26,[34] suggesting they "check on the welfare of the residents".[57] Days after the suicides, the caller was revealed to be DiAngelo.[40][56]
Caller: Yes, I need to report an anonymous tip, who do I talk to?
Sheriff's Department: Okay, this is regarding what?
Caller: This is regarding a mass suicide, and I can give you the address [...]
— San Diego County 911 call, March 26, 1997, 3:15 p.m. PST[56]
The lone deputy who first responded to the call entered the home through a side door,[57] saw ten bodies, and was nearly overcome by a "pungent odor".[34] (The bodies were already decomposing in the hot Southern California spring.)[34] After a cursory search by two more deputies found no one alive, they retreated until a search warrant could be procured.[57] All 39 bodies were ultimately cremated.[citation needed]
Aftermath
The Heaven's Gate deaths were widely publicized in the media as an example of mass suicide.[58] When the news broke of its relation to Comet Hale–Bopp, the co-discoverer of the comet, Alan Hale, was drawn into the story. Hale's phone "never stopped ringing the entire day". He chose not to respond until the next day at a press conference after researching the details of the incident.[59] Speaking at the Second World Skeptics Congress in Heidelberg, Germany on July 24, 1998:[60]
Dr. Hale discussed the scientific significance and popular lore of comets and gave a personal account of his discovery. He then lambasted the combination of scientific illiteracy, willful delusions, a radio talk show's deception about an imaginary spacecraft following the comet, and a cult's bizarre yearnings for ascending to another level of existence that led to the Heaven's Gate mass suicides.[61]
Hale said that well before Heaven's Gate, he had told a colleague:
"We are probably going to have some suicides as a result of this comet." The sad part is that I was really not surprised. Comets are lovely objects, but they don't have apocalyptic significance. We must use our minds, our reason.[61]
News of the mass suicide motivated the copycat suicide of a 58-year-old man living near Marysville, California.[62] The man left a note dated March 27, which said, "I'm going on the spaceship with Hale–Bopp to be with those who have gone before me," and imitated some of the details of the Heaven's Gate suicides as they had then been reported. The man was found dead by a friend on March 31 and had no known connection with Heaven's Gate.[63]
At least three former members of Heaven's Gate died by suicide in the months following the mass suicide. On May 6, 1997, Wayne Cooke and Chuck Humphrey (known as "Rkkody" within the group) attempted suicide in a hotel in a manner similar to that used by the group. Cooke died, but Humphrey survived and was saved by authorities.[64][65] Another former member, James Pirkey Jr., died by suicide by a self-inflicted gunshot wound on May 11. In February 1998, Humphrey killed himself in Arizona. His body was found carrying a five-dollar bill and four quarters in his pocket; next to him, a note: "Do not revive".[64][65][66]
On March 22, the same day as the Heaven's Gate suicide, five members of the Order of the Solar Temple group also died in a mass suicide.[67] The Solar Temple happened to be a group with similar beliefs, in both cases believing that suicide would allow their souls to be transported into space.[68][69] This led to initial suspicions of a connection,[70][71] though police investigating the Heaven's Gate deaths refused to acknowledge these speculations.[72] The Solar Temple suicides had been timed for the vernal equinox on March 20, not the comet, but due to several failed attempts it only happened on the 22nd.[73] There was no apparent connection between the two groups.[69]
Although most people considered the event a mass suicide, sociologist and former member of a cult, Janja Lalich, referred to the event as "murder".[74] UCLA psychiatrist Louis J. West described the dead members as "victims of a hoax [...] There was villainy here."[75]
Two former members, Marc and Sarah King of Phoenix, Arizona, operating as the TELAH Foundation, are believed to maintain the group's website.[28][76]
The house at which the mass suicide took place became a stigma on the neighborhood. Local residents opted to rename the street on which it was located to "Paseo Victoria". The property itself ended up being purchased by a local developer in 1999 for $668,000 during a foreclosure sale, well below half its assessed value of $1.4 million. It was subsequently purchased by neighbors who razed the building, built a new house in its place, and changed the address to 18239.[77][78]
Belief system
Scholars disagree over whether the theology of Heaven's Gate is fundamentally either New Age or Christian in nature. Benjamin Zeller has argued that the theology of Heaven's Gate was primarily rooted in Evangelicalism but it also had New Age elements.[79] Scholars have described the theology of Heaven's Gate as a mixture of Christian millenarianism, New Age, and ufology, and as such it has been mainly characterized as a UFO religion.[80]
The group adopted the ancient astronaut hypothesis, which was prominent at the time of the group's formation due to the then-recent publication of works like Erich von Däniken's Chariots of the Gods?.[81] The term "ancient astronauts" is used to refer to various forms of the concept that extraterrestrials visited Earth in the distant past.[82] Applewhite and Nettles took part of this concept and taught it as the belief that "aliens planted the seeds of current humanity millions of years ago, and have to come to reap the harvest of their work in the form of spiritually evolved individuals who will join the ranks of flying saucer crews. Only a select few members of humanity will be chosen to advance to this transhuman state. The rest will be left to wallow in the spiritually poisoned atmosphere of a corrupt world."[83] Only individuals who joined Heaven's Gate, follow Applewhite and Nettle's belief system, and make the sacrifices required by membership would be allowed to escape human suffering.
Paralleling the beliefs of ancient astronaut theorists like Däniken, Heaven's Gate interpreted the Bible as recording events of extraterrestrial contact.[81]
Initially, recruits had been told that they would be biologically and chemically transformed into extraterrestrial beings and would be transported aboard a spacecraft, which would come to Earth and take them to heaven – the "Next Level". When Bonnie Lou Nettles (Ti) died of cancer in 1985, the group's doctrine was confounded because Nettles was "chosen" by the Next Level to be a messenger on Earth, yet her body had died instead of leaving physically to outer space. Their belief system was then revised to include the leaving of consciousness from the body as equivalent to leaving the Earth in a spacecraft.[84]
The group declared that it was against suicide, because in its own context, to commit suicide is "to turn against the Next Level when it is being offered", and the members of the group also believed that their human bodies were only "vehicles" which were meant to help them on their journey. Therefore, by committing suicide, they would not allow their consciousness to leave their human bodies and join the next level; they would remain alive rather than participate in the group suicide because suicide was considered the suicide of their consciousness. In conversations, when they referred to a person or a person's body, they routinely used the word "vehicle".[85]
The members of the group adopted names which consisted of three letters followed by the suffix -ody to signify themselves as "children of the Next Level". This is mentioned in Applewhite's final video, Do's Final Exit, filmed March 19–20, 1997, just days prior to the suicides.
They believed that "to be eligible for membership in the Next Level, humans would have to shed every attachment to the planet". This meant all members had to give up all human-like characteristics, such as family, friends, gender, sexuality, individuality, jobs, money, and possessions.[12] "The Evolutionary Level Above Human" (TELAH) was a "physical, corporeal place",[86] another world in our universe,[87] where residents live in pure bliss and nourish themselves by absorbing pure sunlight.[88] At the next level, beings do not engage in sexual intercourse, eating or dying, the things that make humans "mammalian".[89] Heaven's Gate believed that what the Bible calls God is a highly developed extraterrestrial.[90]
Members of Heaven's Gate believed that evil space aliens – Luciferians – falsely represented themselves to Earthlings as "God" and conspired to keep humans from developing. As technically advanced humanoids, these aliens have spacecraft, space-time travel, telepathy, and increased longevity.[91] They use holograms to fake miracles.[89] They are carnal beings with gender, and they stopped training to achieve the Kingdom of God thousands of years ago.[91] Heaven's Gate believed that all existing religions on Earth had been corrupted by these aliens.[92]
Although these basic beliefs of the group generally stayed consistent over the years, "the details of their ideology were flexible enough to undergo modification over time".[82] There are examples of the group's adding to or slightly changing their beliefs, such as: modifying the way one can enter the Next Level, changing the way they described themselves, placing more importance on the idea of Satan, and adding several other New Age concepts. One of these concepts was the belief of extraterrestrial walk-ins; when the group began, "Applewhite and Nettles taught their followers that they were extraterrestrial beings [...] after the notion of walk-ins became popular within the New Age subculture, the Two changed their tune and began describing themselves as extraterrestrial walk-ins."[82] A walk-in can be defined as "an entity who occupies a body that has been vacated by its original soul". Heaven's Gate came to believe an extraterrestrial walk-in is "a walk-in that is supposedly from another planet".[93]
The concept of walk-ins aided Applewhite and Nettles in personally starting from what they considered to be "clean slates". In this clean slate, they were no longer considered to be the people they had been prior to the start of the group, but had taken on a new life; this concept gave them a way to "erase their human personal histories as the histories of souls who formerly occupied the bodies of Applewhite and Nettles".[93] Over time, Applewhite revised his identity in the group to encourage the belief that the "walk-in" that was inhabiting his body was the same that had done so to Jesus 2,000 years ago. Similar to Nestorianism, this belief stated that the personage of Jesus and the spirit of Jesus were separable. This meant that Jesus was simply the name of the body of an ordinary man that held no sacred properties, that was taken over by an incorporeal sacred entity to deliver "next level" information.
Techniques to enter the next level
According to Heaven's Gate, once the individual has perfected himself through the "process", there were four methods to enter or "graduate" to the next level:[94]
- Physical pickup onto a TELAH spacecraft and transfer to a next level body aboard that craft. In this version, what Professor Zeller calls a "UFO" version of the "Rapture", an alien spacecraft would descend to Earth and collect Applewhite, Nettles, and their followers, and their human bodies would be transformed through biological and chemical processes to perfected beings.[95]
- Natural death, accidental death, or death from random violence. Here, the "graduating soul" leaves the human container for a perfected next-level body.[96]
- Outside persecution that leads to death. After the deaths of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, and the events involving Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge, Applewhite was afraid the American government would murder the members of Heaven's Gate.[97]
- Willful exit from the body in a dignified manner. Near the end, Applewhite had a revelation that they might have to abandon their human bodies and achieve the next level as Jesus had done.[96] This occurred when 39 members died by suicide and "graduated".[98]
Animals were said to have souls, and a soul in an animal could enter the next level, a human soul, if it becomes a servant of humans, such as in a guide dog, and "sees itself as a family member in that human family".[99]
Structure
The group was only open to adults over the age of 18.[86] Members gave up their possessions and lived an ascetic life devoid of indulgences. The group was tightly knit, and everything was communally shared. In public, each member of the group always carried a five-dollar bill and a roll of quarters.[100] Eight men in the group, including Applewhite, voluntarily underwent castration as an extreme means of maintaining the ascetic lifestyle.[101] The group initially attempted castration by having one of its members, a former nurse, perform the castration, but this almost resulted in the patient's death, and caused at least one member to leave Heaven's Gate. Every castration that followed was done in a hospital.[102]
The group earned revenue by offering professional website development under the business name Higher Source.[103]
The cultural theorist Paul Virilio described the group as a cybersect, due to its heavy reliance on computer-mediated communication prior to its collective suicide.[104]
In popular culture
In 1979, Gary Sherman produced the made-for-TV movie Mysterious Two for NBC, based on the exploits of Applewhite and Nettles, then relatively unknown, which aired in 1982.[105]
In its first live episode following the mass suicide, Saturday Night Live aired a sketch where the cult members made it to space. It was followed by a commercial parody for Keds, featuring the tagline, "Worn by level-headed Christians," as well as footage of the Nike-clad corpses of the Heaven's Gate members.[106][107]
In 2018, rapper Lil Uzi Vert posted a concept album art for their then-upcoming album, Eternal Atake. Soon after, they were threatened with legal action by Marc and Sarah King, the couple responsible for maintaining the group's website and intellectual property. A representative for the two wrote "[Uzi] is using and adapting our copyrights and trademarks without our permission and the infringement will be taken up with our attorneys. This is not fair use or parody; it is a direct and clear infringement". The teased cover contained a logo almost identical to the Heaven's Gate logo, with similar text and visuals below. When the album officially released, it would be changed substantially to instead feature three figures standing on the moon, accompanied by a UFO overhead.[108]
Heaven's Gate: The Cult of Cults, a documentary miniseries about the cult, was released on HBO Max in 2020.[109]
In 2021, Heaven's Gate was one of the subjects in the first season of Vice Media's documentary television series Dark Side of the 90s entitled "A Tale of Two Cults".[110]
Heaven's Gate was the subject of the 10-part podcast of the same name produced by Glynn Washington to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the mass suicide.[111]
In February 2023, a movie following the story of Applewhite and Nettles entitled The Leader was introduced during the Berlin Film Festival.[112] In October 2023, it was announced that Michael C. Hall and Grace Caroline Currey had joined the cast.[113]
Nike Decades
The infamy which was caused by the mass suicides, their limited availability, and their sudden discontinuation have been cited as reasons for the high resale value of Nike Decades.[114][115]