Heaven’s Gate Mass Suicide…..
March 26, 1997…..
Police discover the mass suicide of 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate cult, including its leader Marshall Applewhite. The were all found lying in matching dark clothes and Nike sneakers. They believed their suicide would allow them to leave their earthly bodies and join an alien spacecraft that was trailing behind the Hale-Bopp comet in order to reach the next level of existence. Among the dead was Thomas Nichols, brother of actress Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura in the original television series of Star Trek. In the following months, several other former member also committed suicide. The members believed they could transform themselves into immortal extraterrestrial beings by rejecting their human nature, and they would ascend to heaven, referred to as “The Evolutionary Level Above Human”, believing that their body was merely a “container” for the soul and that their consciousness would be transferred to new “Next Level bodies” upon death.