Download or read book Cults Religion and Violence written by David G. Bromley and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002-05-13 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This explores the question of when and why violence by and against new religious cults erupts and whether and how such dramatic conflicts can be foreseen, managed and averted. The authors, leading international experts on religious movements and violent behavior, focus on the four major episodes of cult violence during the last decade: the tragic conflagration that engulfed the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas; the deadly sarin gas attack by the Aum Shinrikyo in Tokyo; the murder-suicides by the Solar Temple in Switzerland and Canada; and the collective suicide by the members of Heaven's Gate. They explore the dynamics leading to these dramatic episodes in North America, Europe, and Asia, and offer insights into the general relationship between violence and religious cults in contemporary society. The authors conclude that these events usually involve some combination of internal and external dynamics through which a new religious movement and society become polarized.
Download or read book Heaven s Gate written by Bill Hoffmann and published by HarperCollins Publishers. This book was released on 1997 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Heaven s Gate written by Benjamin E. Zeller and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2014-10-31 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In March 1997, thirty-nine people in Rancho Santa Fe, California, ritually terminated their lives. To outsiders, it was a mass suicide. To insiders, it was a graduation. The author explores the question of why the members of Heaven's Gate committed ritual suicides, and examines the origin and evolution of the religion, its appeal, and practices.
Download or read book Heaven s Gate written by George D. Chryssides and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2011 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Heaven's Gate suicides were part of a series of major violent incidents involving New Religions in the 1990s. Despite the major attention that Heaven's Gate attracted, there have been few scholarly studies. This anthology on Heaven's Gate includes a combination of articles previously published in academic journals, some new writings from experts in the field, and some original Heavens Gate documents. All the material is expertly brought together under the editorship of George Chryssides.
Download or read book The Heaven s Gate Suicide written by Tom Brown and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Heaven s Gate written by George D. Chryssides and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-12-05 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On March 26, 1997, the bodies of 39 men and women were found in an opulent mansion outside San Diego, all victims of a mass suicide. Messages left by the Heaven's Gate group indicate that they believed they were stepping out of their 'physical containers' in order to ascend to a UFO that was arriving in the wake of the Hale-Bopp comet. The Heaven's Gate suicides were part of a series of major incidents involving New Religions in the 1990s, as the new millennium approached. Despite the major attention that Heaven's Gate attracted at the time of the suicides, there have been relatively few scholarly studies. This anthology on Heaven's Gate includes a combination of articles previously published in academic journals, some new writings from experts in the field, and some original Heaven's Gate documents. All the material is expertly brought together under the editorship of George D. Chryssides.
Download or read book Cosmic Suicide written by Rodney Perkins and published by . This book was released on 1997-01-01 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Gender and Apocalyptic Desire written by Brenda E. Brasher and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-12-18 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The female body has been an object of oppression and control throughout history. 'Gender and Apocalyptic Desire' exposes the often-hidden links between the struggles of women and the conflict of good versus evil. The essays examine the collisions between feminist and apocalyptic thought, the ways in which apocalyptic belief functions as bodily discipline and cultural practice, and how some currents of apocalyptic desire can enable women's equality. A wide range of issues are examined, from anti-abortion terrorism to the stigmata of Christ and visions of Mary.
Download or read book Handbook of UFO Religions written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-03-08 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Handbook of UFO Religions, edited by scholar of new religions Benjamin E. Zeller, offers the most expansive and detailed study of the persistent, popular, and global phenomenon of religious engagements with ideas about extraterrestrial life.
Download or read book Bounded Choice written by Janja A. Lalich and published by University of California Press. This book was released on 2020-11-30 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Heaven's Gate, a secretive group of celibate "monks" awaiting pickup by a UFO, captured intense public attention in 1997 when its members committed collective suicide. As a way of understanding such perplexing events, many have seen those who join cults as needy, lost souls, unable to think for themselves. This book, a compelling look at the cult phenomenon written for a wide audience, dispels such simple formulations by explaining how normal, intelligent people can give up years of their lives—and sometimes their very lives—to groups and beliefs that appear bizarre and irrational. Looking closely at Heaven's Gate and at the Democratic Workers Party, a radical political group of the 1970s and 1980s, Janja Lalich gives us a rare insider's look at these two cults and advances a new theoretical framework that will reshape our understanding of those who join such groups. Lalich's fascinating discussion includes her in-depth interviews with cult devotees as well as reflections gained from her own experience as a high-ranking member of the Democratic Workers Party. Incorporating classical sociological concepts such as "charisma" and "commitment" with more recent work on the social psychology of influence and control, she develops a new approach for understanding how charismatic cult leaders are able to dominate their devotees. She shows how members are led into a state of "bounded choice," in which they make seemingly irrational decisions within a context that makes perfect sense to them and is, in fact, consistent with their highest aspirations. In addition to illuminating the cult phenomenon in the United States and around the world, this important book also addresses our pressing need to know more about the mentality of those true believers who take extreme or violent measures in the name of a cause.
Download or read book How and when heaven s Gate the Door to the Physical Kingdom Level Above Human May be Entered written by and published by Wildflower Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Closing the Gate written by Deb Simpson and published by . This book was released on 2012-03-01 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For most of us, the headlines regarding the Mass Suicide of the 39 "Heaven's Gate" cult members in Rancho Santa Fe, Ca. in 1997 was a sad curiosity. For Author Deb Simpson, it became up close and personal when her now adult, baby brother Jimmy, became collateral damage. She writes with great courage and honesty in examining Jimmy's plight: his dream of a place to call home, his tumble into the world of a cult, and the inevitable downward spiral that his lonely life takes. She causes us to examine and reflect on the crucial developmental years and every child's yearning to belong. Closing the Gate is simply and frankly written. The author pulls you into her story and doesn't let you go. In fact, you will be thinking about this one long after you close the book.
Download or read book Heaven s Gate written by Charles River and published by . This book was released on 2020-12-27 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "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." To most people, it is almost impossible to understand the mere existence, let alone the baffling, yet indubitable appeal of doomsday cults, but they have been morbidly fascinating phenomena throughout history. The bizarre and often objectively comical beliefs of these offbeat denominations are so far removed from most people in society that even the horrific fates that befell the devoted disciples of the latter cults have repeatedly been reduced to cheap, throwaway punchlines. The phrase "drinking the Kool-Aid," for one, has become an overused expression regularly tossed around in playful banter, despite the fact it is a derogatory reference to the cyanide-laced Flavor-Aid ingested by 908 members (many of them children) of the Peoples Temple cult in Jonestown, Guyana at the behest of their leader, Reverend Jim Jones, in 1978. David Koresh, leader of the Branch Davidians, had deep convictions based on the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation, and his sect believed the world was in the power of Satan and that the nations were merging to form a new Babylon. David hoped to establish the kingdom in Jerusalem, where, according to him, he would suffer martyrdom. The headquarters of the sect was a complex called Mount Carmel Center located in Waco, Texas. In the last manuscript produced by Koresh, which was preserved by a woman named Ruth Riddle who escaped the fire, the cult leader spoke extensively about his identity and the mystery of the Seven Seals. Koresh claimed to be the mysterious Lamb of Revelation who opens the sealed scroll, as well as the figure who rides the White Horse when the first seal is opened. While Waco remains notorious more for the federal agents' siege of Koresh's compound and the deaths of the Branch Davidians, it was followed a few years later by a mass suicide carried out by one of the most notorious doomsday cults in American history. On paper, the extraordinarily unorthodox ideology spouted by Heaven's Gate ranks near the top of the list of most outlandish end-of-the-world prophecies, and it was built on a blend of Christian, Gnostic, supernatural, New Age, and extraterrestrial lore. Although the cult did not speak in Christian terms, it was clearly apocalyptic, and its belief system was a strange mix between science fiction and the basic message of Revelation. The cult's leader, Marshall Applewhite, and his female companion, Bonnie Nettles, concluded that they were the two witnesses mentioned in Revelation 11:3-4: "And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the Earth." Applewhite believed the Earth would be transformed and renewed, and that evil entities (not beasts, but in this case, aliens) called Luciferans conspired against humanity. In his view, the elect members of Heaven's Gate would be taken up to a spaceship when the hour came. The opportunity to join the Rapture arrived with the passing of comet Hale-Bopp in 1997. Applewhite told his congregation that a spaceship was following the comet, and that the event would mark the closure of the gates of Heaven, making the spaceship the last opportunity to leave Earth. Over the course of three days, 39 members committed ritual mass suicide, all dressed identically, to be taken up by the UFO. Heaven's Gate: The History and Legacy of Marshall Applewhite's Notorious Doomsday Cult chronicles the notorious cult and the mass suicide. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Heaven's Gate like never before.
Download or read book Martyrdom Self sacrifice and Self immolation written by Margo Kitts and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Suicide in the forms of martyrdom, self-sacrifice, or self-immolation is perennially controversial: Should it rightly be termed suicide? Does religion sanction it? Should it be celebrated or anathematized? At least some idealization of such self-chosen deaths is found in every religious tradition treated in this volume, from ascetic heroes who conquer their passions to save others by dying, to righteous warriors who suffer and die valiantly while challenging the status quo. At the same time, there are persistent disputes about the concepts used to justify these deaths, such as altruism, heroism, and religion itself. In this volume, renowned scholars bring their literary and historical expertise to bear on the contested issue of religiously sanctioned suicide. Three examine contemporary movements with disputed classical roots, while eleven look at classical religious literatures which variously laud and disparage figures who invite self-harm to the point of death. Overall, the volume offers an important scholarly corrective to the axiom that religious traditions simply and always embrace life at any cost.
Download or read book Salvation and Suicide written by David Chidester and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2003-10-16 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Praise for the first edition: "[This] ambitious and courageous book [is a] benchmark of theology by which questions about the meaningful history of the Peoples Temple may be measured." —Journal of the American Academy of Religion Re-issued in recognition of the 25th anniversary of the mass suicides at Jonestown, this revised edition of David Chidester's pathbreaking book features a new prologue that considers the meaning of the tragedy for a post-Waco, post-9/11 world. For Chidester, Jonestown recalls the American religious commitment to redemptive sacrifice, which for Jim Jones meant saving his followers from the evils of capitalist society. "Jonestown is ancient history," writes Chidester, but it does provide us with an opportunity "to reflect upon the strangeness of familiar . . . promises of redemption through sacrifice."
Download or read book UFOs Conspiracy Theories and the New Age written by David G. Robertson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-08-24 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How-and why- were UFOs so prevalent in both conspiracy theories and the New Age milieu in the post-Cold War period? In this ground-breaking book, David G. Robertson argues that UFOs symbolized an uncertainty about the boundaries between scientific knowledge and other ways of validating knowledge, and thus became part of a shared vocabulary. Through historical and ethnographic case studies of three prominent figures-novelist and abductee Whitley Strieber; environmentalist and reptilian proponent David Icke; and David Wilcock, alleged reincarnation of Edgar Cayce-the investigation reveals that millennial conspiracism offers an explanation as to why the prophesied New Age failed to arrive-it was prevented from arriving by malevolent, hidden others. Yet millennial conspiracism constructs a counter-elite, a gnostic third party defined by their special knowledge. An overview of the development of UFO subcultures from the perspective of religious studies, UFOs, Conspiracy Theories and the New Age is an innovative application of discourse analysis to the study of present day alternative religion.
Download or read book Ti Do the Father Jesus Heaven S Gate Ufo Two Witnesses written by Sawyer and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2017-01-18 with total page 2194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides detailed evidence from everything Jesus prophesied, often broken down to the root definitions of terms from the Greek and Aramaic/Hebrew languages which manuscripts were written in, to show in context by numerous Bible records, how and why those called, Ti (Tee) and Do (Doe) were the new incarnations of the One referred to as the Father and before then, Jehovah and Elohim, with the One who was incarnate in the vehicle (body) named Jesus, and before then Elijah, Moses, Enoch and Adam, who with Their Crew of Student "Saints," were on earth again to fulfill the promised return of Their Kingdom during these "End Times," through Their task recorded as the "Two Witnesses" in the Book of Revelations, that was completed when they exited their incarnations in March of 1997 - seen in the world's news as Heaven's Gate. Ti and Do left extensive records of everything they came to awaken to know over their combined 25 years incarnate. As I spent 19 fully dedicated years with them I drew upon their records and my experience to describe many new translations of terms and new interpretations of most all Book of Revelations records. Finally, I studied world history and current events that can be shown to be valid reference points in many prophecies. This includes many unusual events NASA has photographed in outer space as Jesus prophesied; a cityscape of Lights on dwarf planet Ceres, earth-like qualities to dwarf planet Pluto, hexagon shaped top on Saturn, spire like towers on the Moon, complicated objects that resemble Star Trek's star-ship enterprise in the sun's corona, comets that are comprised of several to seven objects flying in V formation, or having companion objects with them and parts of UFO and Luciferian space alien reports, holograms like Fatima and Spirits. TI & DO The Father and "Jesus" Heaven's Gate UFO Two Witnesses, Who Returned Incarnate With Their "Saints," From 1972 to 1997 Prophesied in the Book of Revelations Termed by Christians as "The Second Coming" From The Physical "Evolutionary" Level Above Human The Kingdom of God in Heaven Whose Membership: "Wear" Physical Vehicles (Bodies), Grown on a Vine (That Human bodies are Designed to Resemble) To Work Within planet Sized Spacecrafts Like Pluto and Ceres That Serve as Laboratories for Their Earth Soul-Growing "Garden" Experiments That Incorporate the Negative Influence of The Luciferian "Space" Aliens, aka "The Fallen Angels" So Prospective New Members, Directed By Incarnate Older members May Overcome the Human "Evolutionary" Kingdom To Graduate Into the Next Level Kingdom In the Literal Heavens.
