Heaven's Gate by Benjamin E. Zeller

Author:Benjamin E. Zeller
Language: deu
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: NYU Press
Published: 2014-03-08T05:00:00+00:00

Neoody writes that he received the “-ody” portion of his name only after he had proven his commitment to the group, approximately three months later, and that this represented his new “family name.” Like the family names (“last names”) of most American people, this family name indicated Neoody’s membership in a kinship network of supportive individuals, and the value that Heaven’s Gate placed on the group as a form of family.

Beyond the step of renaming themselves, members of the movement also engaged in practices meant to remold themselves into a Next Level spacecraft crew rather than a gathering of human spiritual seekers. These practices included rhetorical ones of referring to themselves as a crew, as well as social practices meant to reinforce crew consciousness. Most notable of the latter practices, members adopted identical diets, uniform clothing, and grooming. Famously, members of the group wore uniforms during their final acts of suicide. Yet this practice extended well before the 1997 suicides. Members shown in the 1992 video series wore uniforms as well, though of a different style. Neoody recounts that when he joined, uniforms served the simple purpose of “making the laundry easier,” but the first uniforms were more a dress code than an actual uniform, indicating appropriate clothing to emphasize modesty, comfort, and utilitarian value.47 Members of the group never actually indicated why they wore uniforms or why they chose the ones they did, but clearly wearing the uniforms functioned to make Earth more akin to the Next Level. The specific uniforms that the movement chose reflected this attempt to orient themselves toward the Next Level, to use religious practice as a “compass,” as Tweed would say. During the 1992 video series, members wore simple grey Oxford-style shirts, fully buttoned to the top. At the time of the suicides, members wore identical black pants and shirts, and black Nike shoes. Members of the San Diego Sheriff’s department who found the remains described these as “track suit”-style uniforms, and reported that all members of the group wore identical clothing, and had draped identical purple shrouds over themselves. Famously, each carried a roll of quarters and a five-dollar bill in their pocket. (Ex-members report that this was a sort of inside joke recalling how members brought small change for bus fares whenever they traveled.48)

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