Heaven's Gate - Marshall Applewhite and the New Age UFO Religion, Benjamin Zeller Details the Heaven's Gate Cult and Comet Hale Bopp (Video)

Benjamin E. Zeller is a researcher and teacher of religion in America. He focuses on religious currents that are new or alternative, including new religions, the religious engagement with science, and the quasi-religious relationship people have with food. His interests are united by an interest in expanding the conversation about religion by including less commonly studied groups, phenomena, and topics, and looking at more common topics (e.g. religion & science; American religious history) from new angles.

Zeller is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Religion at Lake Forest College, a private liberal arts college in the Chicago suburbs. He previously served as Director of the College Honors Program, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, and Coordinator of the Religion and Philosophy Major at Brevard College, and visiting Fulbright Fellow at Åbo Akademi (Turku, Finland).

Heaven’s Gate is best known as the UFO group that ended with the mass suicides in San Diego in 1997 at the time of the Hale-Bopp comet. It made the news after the movement’s 39 active members committed mass suicide, and there was a bit of a media frenzy. The group is now defunct, though ex-members maintain their website and there are still a few believers out there.

After introductions, Benjamin explains how he got into Ufology & what he learned about the infamous Heaven’s Gate. Benjamin has done extensive research on the even of 1997 that will live on forever.

Who were these people? What were they truly like? Find Out.