Locals open Heaven's Gate mystery

In the aftermath of last week's mass suicide in San Diego, University students and faculty members are speculating as to the causes.

"My guess, without going through the criteria for studying a patient, is that Applewhite was schizophrenic," said Michelle Newman, an associate professor in clinical psychology, referring to the cult's leader.

Marshall Herff Applewhite, who committed crimes and left his wife and six children 22 years ago, motivated 38 people to search for the "next level." Applewhite told his followers that the only way to reach that "next level" was by getting on a spaceship trailing the Hale-Bopp comet after killing themselves.

- Ron Sleek
(junior-hotel restaurant administration)

Other students shared Sleek's skepticism about the cult's claims.

"The people who killed themselves weren't in the right mind," said Randy Fisher (freshman-health policy administration).

The whole belief of refusing your own life and "leaving the physical container of our bodies" connects with the myth of Attis, said Joseph Cotter, professor of classics.

"Attis was a young man who in order to please the goddess Cybele, he castrated himself," Cotter said.

Similar to Attis, Applewhite preached that in order to become better followers, men had to castrate themselves.

"Castration is a complex problem," Cotter said. "It is an old tradition for refusing yourself and refusing the pleasures of the body to please a god."

Applewhite began preaching his beliefs after a stay in a Houston mental hospital, where he met a nurse who told him that God's purpose for him was to lead people to "the light."

Immediately after the hospital stay, Applewhite started to preach his religious beliefs around the nation.

Kenneth I. Clarke, acting director of the Center for Ethics and Religious Affairs at the University, said the thinking that drove a group of people to commit suicide is a tragedy that "reflects the fundamental human need to belong to something."

Clarke said the Heaven's Gate cult seems to be connected with gnosticism, an ancient philosophy in the religious world.

"Gnosticism propagated the idea that the body was the prison house of the soul, therefore true life was found in the life of the spirit," Clarke said.

The cult members, Newman said, probably were lost souls who wanted to feel special by belonging to a group.

"My perspective is that these people were brainwashed," Newman said.

Clarke said that in cults, there is an emphasis on suppressing individuality.

Heaven's Gate cult members prepared themselves before committing suicide by dressing identically; $5 bills and quarters were found in their pockets.

"The whole thing seems kind of bizarre," said Jason Laux (junior-advertising). "They were very meticulous and detailed when preparing their own death."