Computer Connection

The mansion where the bodies were found apparently was the center of a thriving business designing Web pages for businesses that want a presence on the Internet. One unusual site reportedly produced by the group, however, speaks of reaching the afterlife and UFOs.

Higher Source Web site

Adorned with pictures of stars and nebulae, but appears largely a straightforward business site, touting the company’s abilities and listing satisfied customers.

The Cult’s Philosophy

A voluminous document called “Heavens Gate: The Door to the Physical Kingdom Level Above Human” was posted on the Internet at https://www.heavensgate.com. Here are some excerpts from the manifesto:

“Periodically, the Kingdom Level Above Human sends one of its members ‘down’ into the human kingdom (to incarnate into a human body) a member who has previously been taken through that evolutionary transition -- to offer the knowledge to those who have been ‘picked’ as possible recipients of that graduation information. This REPRESENTATIVE of THAT NEXT KINGDOM literally takes those candidates through their weaning from the human world -- assisting them in the actual separation or breaking of ties to heir humanness and helping them graft to Him as the Representative of that Next Level. Their final separation is the willful separation from their human body when they changed enough to identify as the spirit/mind/soul -- ready to put on a biological body belonging to the Kingdom of Heaven. (This entering into their ‘glorified’ or heavenly body takes place aboard a Next Level spacecraft, above the Earth’s surface.”

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“Remember, the one who incarnated in Jesus was sent for one purpose only, to say, ‘If you want to go to Heaven, I can take you through that gate--it requires everything of you.’ Our mission is exactly the same. I am in the same position to today’s society as was the One that was in Jesus then. My being here now is actually a continuation of that last task as was promised, to those who were students 2,000 years ago. . .”

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“We will, between now and our departure, do everything we can for those who want to go with us. But we cannot allow them to interfere with or delay our return to Him.”

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“Whether Hale-Bopp has a ‘companion’ [spacecraft] or not is irrelevant from our perspective. However, its arrival is joyously very significant to us at ‘Heaven’s Gate.’ The joy is that our Older Member in the Evolutionary Level Above Human (the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’) has made it clear to us that Hale-Bopp’s approach is the ‘marker’ we’ve been waiting for--the time for the arrival of the spacecraft from the Level Above Human to take us home to ‘Their World’--in the literal Heavens.”

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“That window to Heaven will not open again until another civilization is planted and has reached sufficient maturity (according to the judgment of the next level.)”