Away Team: The Story of Heaven's Gate

I have vivid memories of the night of March 22, 1997. Part of it
has to do with, y’know, young dumb love—but most of it has to do
with the Hale-Bopp Comet, also known as the Great Comet, which was
brilliantly visible from my hometown that night. I had a huge crush
on this guy, and he invited me to watch the comet with him. We
climbed up on the rooftop of this neighborhood bar with a bottle of
screw-top wine, and we watched the sky—and suddenly, there it was,
a bright silvery ball with a long glowing tail. Magic. I’ll never
forget it—wrote some bad poetry about it later that night. And then
a couple mornings later, I woke up to the strangest news story of
my life. A group calling themselves Heaven’s Gate had taken their
own lives en masse out in California—and they’d left behind a video
explaining why. They were catching a ride on the comet, with the
full certainty that it would take them to paradise. They were
leaving their human bodies behind, chasing the pure perfection of
enlightenment. These were smart, educated people with families who
loved them. What led them to this? Join us for the story of one of
the deadliest cults in American history: Heaven's Gate. 

Sources:
Heaven’s Gate: America’s UFO Religion, Benjamin Zeller
https://web.archive.org/web/20081003124716/
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070318/news_lz1n18timelin.html

Cult Education Institute
https://www.heavensgate.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20080122002236/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,986136-1,00.html

Wikipedia "Comet Hale-Bopp"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Hale%E2%80%93Bopp

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