Reconceptualising the human body: Heaven's Gate and the quest for divine transformation |
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Authors: | Susan Raine [Author Vitae] |
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Institution: | Department of Sociology, University of Alberta, 5-21 HM Tory Building, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H4, Canada |
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Abstract: | The mass suicide of the members of Heaven's Gate in 1997 stimulated much debate about the causes of so extreme an end to a new religious movement. Using primary source materials in conjunction with existing research, I present in this article an in-depth analysis of both the belief system and the behaviours of the members of the group. By using the sociology of the body and a psychobiography of the group leader, Marshall Applewhite, I show how ideas about the human body derived from individual psychopathology were translated into group belief and action. I argue that the relationship among these variables created the circumstances that led thirty-nine persons to believe that they were leaving this planet for a better existence in a parallel dimension. |
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