One of the stranger suicidology graphs
In 1997, 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult died by ritualistic mass suicide
In doing some research for a larger data analysis, I came across a suicide database for San Diego County. I was trying to get a sense of the overall trend and direction and ran one of the first plots I do when I get daily data… cumulative suicides:
Normally, this is a boring plot, but it does let me look at the general trend and slope of suicides. I thought! I saw a data error in 1997, so i went to the original data… what did i see?
A whole bunch of deaths with the same method!
This made me wonder - was this Heaven’s Gate? I was 20 when it occurred so I had an awareness of it. Sure enough: location is “Rancho Santa Fe” - this is it.
The graph for 1997 is absolutely wild:
A brief summary of Heaven’s Gate and the events in March 1997
In 1974, Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles founded the Heaven's Gate cult, blending aspects of Christianity with beliefs in extraterrestrial life. The cult members were led to believe that they were destined to ascend to a higher existence by following a spacecraft, and they were encouraged to detach from Earthly desires and relationships. The cult garnered attention for its peculiar practices, such as a strict regimen of celibacy, renaming themselves with celestial monikers, and wearing identical clothing.
In March 1997, the group came to a tragic end when Applewhite and 38 of his followers participated in a mass suicide event. They believed that the Hale-Bopp comet, which was passing close to Earth at the time, had a spacecraft in its tail that would take their souls to another level of existence. In a San Diego mansion, they ingested a lethal cocktail of phenobarbital mixed with applesauce and vodka, laid down in bunk beds, and covered themselves with purple shrouds. Each member prepared the body of the most recent decedent, and they went down this bizarre ‘congo line of suicide’ until the very end. There was one last post from the cult on the website: “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.”
The discovery of the mass suicide shocked the public and received extensive media coverage. It has been part of media portrayals in popular media, and literally led to the discontinuing of the Nike shoe line that the cult famously wore in their death. Despite the tragic end, the Heaven's Gate website still remains online, maintained by surviving members, serving as a grim reminder of the group's existence and beliefs. You can read the press release of their own death here.
The suicidology of Heaven’s Gate
Of course, this event is a great example of socioistic motivations for suicide. When someone values people or causes over their own life such that it is worth dying over. Socioistic motivations are a part of many suicidal thoughts:
“I’m causing a burden on others so I should go” (sacrifice suicide, guilt)
“I can dive on that grenade to save my fellow soldiers” (sacrifice suicide, duty)
“I want to murder my ex-wife but not go to jail” (murder suicide)
“I will self-immolate to protest Chinese rule over Tibet” (cause suicide)
"My boyfriend fought with me, I’ll show him!” (spite suicide)
“I can’t live without them” (grief suicide)
“I can die just like they did” (contagion suicide)
Interestingly, the Heaven’s Gate suicide did more than just kill its own members. According to the Guardian:
…on 1 April, a 58-year-old recluse was found dead in his home in a remote mountain canyon in northern California after committing suicide. He had left a note indicating he believed that he would also join the dead Heaven's Gate cult members.
Indeed, a great example of how media coverage of the event precipitated a social contagion suicide (this is a real phenomenon!)
Eventually, surviving members also died to join their comrades. In reading the Wikipedia on the event, I learned:
On May 6, 1997, Wayne Cooke and Chuck Humphrey tried to end their lives in a hotel, replicating the cult's suicide method. Cooke succumbed, but Humphrey lived.
Within the same week, on May 11 1997, another ex-member, James Pirkey Jr., took his own life through a self-inflicted gunshot.
Humphrey, who initially survived his attempt in May, eventually died by suicide in Arizona come February 1998.
It remains one of the most bizarre and public American suicide events in history.
Thank you, Dr. Tyler Black