Heaven's Gate: The Cult of Cults (2020–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - The Awakening: 1975 - full transcript

[music]

I'm Do...

Some called our partnership

Ti and Do.

That's not my name,
but that's how I'm referred to

on Planet Earth,
at this time.

I've been talking
to my students

that are sitting
in front of me.

Jmmody, would you want
to stand up and--

so that we can take a look
at your uniform.

Okay.



And maybe we can
back up a little bit

and get a little wider picture
of the uniform.

Okay, now, maybe we can
zoom in on the patch

that... great.

See, it says
"Heaven's Gate Away Team."

We've been away,
and now we're going back.

Okay, thanks, Jmmody.

Now let's go to Dvvody.

Dvvody.
[chuckling]

They're all camera shy.

We-- okay, come on over,
to Stlody.

We... came
from distant space,

what your religious literature

would call
the Kingdom of Heaven.



And we're about to return.

[music]

JWNODY: We might
see you all again,

and then we might not.

That's-- we hope that
you remember us as we were

and not how other people
are going to try

and tell you that we are.

And one last thing
we'd like to say is,

39 to beam up.
Thank you.

[music]

MAN: There is confirmed
39 deceased.

All of the individuals were
similarly clothed.

It appeared as if
there were almost a uniform.

2nd MAN: This was
a voluntary situation.

They may or may not
have been influenced,

but we'll never know that.

But, at this point,
this is considered

a mass suicide
investigation.

[music]

MAN: This wasn't
just something that--

oh, there's a spacecraft,
let's kill ourselves.

These people spent
22 years

preparing
for what they did,

and I wish people would examine
that 22-year period

instead of just examining
their method of leaving.

A score of persons

from a small Oregon town
have disappeared.

It's a mystery
whether they've been taken

on a so-called trip to eternity

or simply been taken.

Terry Drinkwater takes
a look at that story.

TERRY: Here along
the cloud-covered coast

near Newport, Oregon,

a mysterious couple appeared
three weeks ago,

circulating a flyer
proclaiming

a UFO would soon be ready

to take whomever
would follow them

to another life,
another world.

They held meetings,
one at this motel,

to recruit voyagers.

Francine Furst attended
but was unconvinced.

Those people who choose
to go along will be

picked up by a UFO,

and they will be leaving
this Earth forever.

TERRY: Why didn't you
decide to go?

I'm too human
and too normal.

- [chuckling]
- I love to travel,

but I also like to know
where I'm going.

There were 34 people
that actually...

ended up joining
because of the Waldport meeting.

All different kinds of
numbers were reported,

and I was among them.

SAWYER: I was living
in Waldport, Oregon.

I came out of a band practice,

like an all-nighter
party kind of thing,

and I saw that poster.

What piqued my interest
about the poster

that I remember making a comment
about to my partner is,

"I wonder what these people
look like," you know,

they were talking about
them being from outer space.

"If you ever
entertained the idea

"of a physical level
above the human level,

you will want
to attend this meeting."

Back then,
I had a girlfriend,

Erika, and we had

been together
for three years.

We were gonna take
a vacation to Oregon

to visit my cousin.

I was excited.

But at that point...

SAWYER: The place was packed.

I would estimate
there were, like,

close to 200 people
in this room.

And Ti and Do came out
onto the stage,

and they just sat there
for maybe a minute or two,

which seemed
like a long time to me.

TERRY: These are "The Two."

The two who promise
to take their followers

literally out of this world
in a spaceship.

SAWYER: They said that
they had come to teach

the process of becoming

a member
of the Next Level.

DO: When a human has overcome

all of his human level
activities,

a chemical change takes place,

and he goes through
a metamorphosis

just exactly as
a caterpillar does

when he quits being
a caterpillar.

And he goes off
into a chrysalis,

and he becomes a butterfly.

They said, if you followed
their approach,

that your body would chemically
and biologically transform

into a perfected space alien.

And you would go
physically on board a UFO

and sail physically
into Heaven.

What they would call

"The Next Level."

LESLIE LIGHT: I was impressed

with listening to the man.

He was kind of
mesmerizing.

I kept looking at his eyes.

These kind of eyes

that you would look through,

and I just remember

feeling like,

could this, like--
I was trying

to pick up
on his energy, like,

if it was really true.

SAWYER: There was this haze
floating around them,

like a shimmering light.

It wasn't like
a smoke haze.

It was more
electrical-looking.

And I turned to my left,

and above the crowd,
the people,

there was
that same kind of haze,

but it was
less distinguishable

as electrical.

And so I recognized that
that might've been,

like, the Holy Spirit.

I was pretty young, I was 24,

so I didn't maybe have
a lot of concrete beliefs,

but I believed everything
he was saying.

I felt euphoric.

Higher than a kite
in this meeting.

Erika had felt the same thing.

Same euphoric feeling.

I felt like I sat in front
of the equivalent of Jesus.

By the end of the meeting,
I looked at my partner,

and she looked at me,
and it was like

we knew that
we wanted to do this.

All they wanted you to do was
to make the choice to go,

and then leave
your possessions.

Leave everything that was
connected to your humanness

and to go with them
to begin to repair.

People have disappeared,
yes, we have roughly

fifteen to twenty people that
are no longer in the area.

[music]

LESLIE: You had to say
goodbye to everybody

in your life and leave.

Nobody else wanted
to go with me.

They thought it was crazy.
I just went.

SAWYER: They told us to bring

any camping gear with us.

Then we were given
instructions to go

to a campground
at Boulder Canyon,

where they would split us up
into groups.

I definitely was seeking
something more than I had.

But I didn't know
what that was.

[jingling]

I'm allowed to do this now.

But not federally.

These guys.

My children.
It's mild.

I don't like
any intense stuff, you know?

I wanna be able to function.

I was in high school
when I was experimenting

with drugs and LSD
and stuff like that.

I started to get
into spirituality.

[Indian rhythm]

I was experimenting
with different spiritual groups.

You know, meditations.

I would dance with the Sufis

and relate
to the Hare Krishna people.

I read the book
"Paramahansa Yogananda,"

you know,
"Autobiography of a Yogi."

And I remember thinking,

gosh, I wanna be
enlightened like that.

Like, I wanted that.

I wanted to have
that specialness.

BENJAMIN: Heaven's Gate was
never exactly mainstream,

but it wasn't as alternative
as we think about it today.

So, you have to imagine
what it was like in the '70s.

So, this is the time
when hippies and beatniks

and-- and folks like that are

looking outside
of established religions.

Many people who were drawn
to Heaven's Gate

had tried all sorts
of religious options.

I was struggling

with what I wanted to do
with my life.

I was a young
beautiful girl.

A child model in Hollywood.

I went out to Moran
and became a hippie.

So, when the two came along,
it just resonated

with my own spiritual dilemma

of being attached
and being of this world

and what role it played
in my own, you know, struggle.

We have
this simple truth,

though the most potent truth,

and it is
the identical truth

that Jesus brought
to human beings

two thousand years ago.

Heaven's Gate is effectively,
from my reading,

a Christian offshoot.

Now, this is important
because it's also a time

when many Christians looked
around at the world

and thought
the world was about to end.

REZA ASLAN: Groups
like Heaven's Gate are

what scholars refer to
as millenarian.

And they have an understanding

of time as coming to an end.

Planet Earth is
about to be recycled.

Your only chance
to survive

is to leave with us.

These kinds of
millenarian groups

tend to arise in times
of societal stress.

[explosion booming]

PROTESTORS: Out now!
Out now! Out now!

It's later than
most people think.

Whether it's five minutes
to midnight,

or whether it's ten minutes
to midnight is debatable.

BENJAMIN: And for Heaven's Gate,
also, this is really

the first generation
of belief in flying saucers

and things like that.

What do we know
of outer space?

Is there anyone
out there?

And are they headed our way?

BENJAMIN: One of
the best-selling books

at the time was
"Chariots of the Gods"

by Erich von Daniken,

who claimed he had evidence

that the world's
ancient religions were

actually founded
by extraterrestrial visitors.

I was interested in UFOs.

Curious.

Never saw one.

BENJAMIN: That's why,
in the '70s,

when people encountered
Heaven's Gate,

people didn't say,
"Whoa, this is weird."

They said, "This is
what I've been looking for."

And so all these people,
for one reason or another,

accept this message
that "The Two"

are actually
who they say they are,

space aliens, effectively,

who offer them a way
to get to Heaven.

DO: In 1975,

there were two individuals

who came public,

held some meetings
around the country,

and said that they were
from the Kingdom of Heaven.

And those two individuals
were Ti and Do.

BENJAMIN: They go
by a variety of names,

but they also just call
themselves "The Two."

And they went
to Bo and Peep after that.

[whir, ding]

SAWYER: They said, I guess,
"Our names are Bo and Peep,

because we now have sheep.

And then Bo and Peep
became Do and Ti,

in that order,
relative to the names.

I didn't know at the time
why they chose those names,

but I learned
not too long after that

that it came from that musical

"The Sound of Music."

♪ When you read,
you begin with ♪

♪ A B C ♪

♪ When you sing,
you begin with ♪

♪ Do re mi ♪

ALL: ♪ Do re mi ♪

♪ Do re mi fa so la ti ♪

Oh, let's see
if I can make it easier.

Ti and Do were
both fans of musical theater.

Do's first love was music--
before he got into religion

and spirituality,
was music.

[gentle major key melody]

NEELY BRUCE:
It's very disorienting

when you call him Marshall.

Nobody called him Marshall.
Everyone called him Herff.

So, um, when Herff Applewhite

came to the University
of Alabama,

he didn't look at all
like a professor.

He was very casual,
very laid back.

There was no hint
that all this catastrophe

was looming in his future.

He had a fantastic voice.

He had a lot of charisma.

He was such
a natural performer.

He would have the audience
in the palm of his hand.

But it was widely rumored
that he was having an affair

with-- with one of the male
graduate students.

And his father was
a very, very hard-nosed

Presbyterian minister
who did not like the fact

that he had a gay son.

I'm sure, in Jesus' eyes,

his relationship
to his father

was... goodness,

when will I ever grow
to be like my father?

I'm so ignorant!

I do things so poor.

I can't get them right.

And yet...

his ability
to recognize his father...

and want to be like his father

and realize that
he is nothing but a child.

His wife divorced him.
I remember her very well.

Very nice family.
Then, that seems to put him--

put him in a bit
of a tailspin.

And so he left Alabama
for Houston.

I got a call

telling me that--
that this notorious couple

in the news was
actually, you know,

Herff Applewhite
and his former nurse.

This is the story
that I heard.

He was gonna attempt
a career on the opera stage

at Houston Grand Opera.

He was going to do
his biggest role there,

which was the role
of Olin Blitch.

He's a traveling preacher
who seduces Susannah

in the opera "Susannah."

The Lord, he spoke to me
this afternoon.

And he said, "Blitch,

"there's gonna be
a lot of lost souls

"at that meeting tonight!

"Don't take no text.

I'll put the words
in your mouth."

NEELY: He was
in rehearsal, and he had

some sort of
a psychotic episode

and was actually
hospitalized.

DO: We met...
just perchance...

while I was visiting
a sick friend in a hospital.

Where Ti was a nurse.

JANJA LALICH: I think
most people don't think of Ti

as the real leader
of the group,

but she met Do
when he was

obviously
at a vulnerable point.

She convinced him that--

that he was her soulmate.

Ti had more experience

and was older than me.

I could see Ti's control
was better than mine.

Ti really recruited Do, and--
and Do was her follower.

Nettle says,
"Well, I'm an astrologer.

Uh, and I can do
your chart."

And she deduces
that they're fated

to work together
on some grand project.

They are destined to be
spiritual partners.

JANJA: After that,
they became very close.

He eventually went
to live with her.

They were never romantic.

But she was very much
the force behind the group,

the founding of the group,

and the way
the group functioned.

- You're a sweetie, yeah.
- [meowing]

This is Mom.

The others are similar, but...

she looks-- for some reason,
she looks sad in those pictures.

My mom was a--
was an RN.

Her passion was working
with babies.

So, she ended up
being a baby nurse

at a hospital in Houston.

I always wanted to be with her.

She was my best friend.
We did everything together.

Actually,
I was a candy striper

at the hospital
where she worked,

and so we'd hang out at work.

And she'd take me
to dance classes

and acting classes
and music classes,

and all this stuff,
and-- and I'd--

we'd talk about everything
under the sun.

We spent a lot of time
talking about

spiritualism
and mediums and astrology.

Things like that.

Even before she met,
uh, Marshall Applewhite,

she was someone who
was already very entrenched

in New Age thinking.

JANJA: You know,
all of this kind of stuff,

crystals and ascended beings

and channeling
dead people and seances.

I have come.

And I am going to work
with many of you today.

And part of that interest
was in UFOs.

TERRIE: We used to dream
about a UFO picking us up

and taking us away
from this world.

We didn't feel
like we belonged here.

I don't remember
if I saw it first

or she saw it first...

we saw this light in the sky

that appeared to move
in different directions.

We would talk
about how neat it would be

if... it were a UFO
and it would come down

and pick us up
and take us away.

And we would speculate
about what it would be like

in... going
to different planets...

'cause both of us wanted
to leave this earth.

DO: We were going through
an awakening period.

It's common for the person
who is awakening.

For his life to begin
to fall apart

or her life to begin
to fall apart.

It got kind of tense
at home, you know,

because now there's
another man involved.

And eventually
my parents

got a divorce when I was 19.

My mom said that
we need to find out

what we're supposed to do.

And as soon as they discovered

what they were supposed
to be doing,

she'd be back.

But that... it didn't
turn out that way.

[soft string music]

♪ There's a highway ♪

♪ Telling me to go
where I can now ♪

BENJAMIN: They travel
around the country

on this journey
of self-exploration.

And they visit
other New Age-ers.

Various gurus,
alternative health centers.

They stop and stay
in churches.

They have no money,
so they take odd jobs.

Their car's
always breaking down,

and they're digging ditches
to try and make money.

TERRIE: Shortly after
my mom and Herff left,

and my mom sent me
this picture.

It's Herff and my mom in Vegas.

And on the back
of the card, it said,

"Herff cut my hair.
How do you like it?

Love you, Mom."

♪ Gonna be all right now,
gonna be all right... ♪

In July of 1973,

Bonnie Lou and Herff had
been on the road

for over a year at this point.

And they end up
on the Oregon coast.

And it occurs to them

that they finally
figured out the answer.

Herff and Bonnie Lou discover

that they are
the two witnesses

who are foretold
in the Book of Revelation.

They are destined
to be martyred.

And then to rise
from the dead.

Revelation...

Ti and Do believe
that they...

will then lead all those
who accept their message

into outer space
to the Kingdom of God.

The Next Level.

And they refer to this
as The Demonstration.

Initiating the end
of the world.

They say when the Book
of Revelation talks about,

"ascending up to Heaven
in a cloud,"

well, they say,
well, first-century,

second-century people
wouldn't've understood a UFO.

So they say a cloud,
but in fact that cloud

is a flying saucer.

BENJAMIN: They saw themselves
not ultimately as offering

religious
or spiritual guidance

but scientific,
technological message.

Because they taught that,

with a powerful
enough telescope,

you can see God.

I think they took acid.

[laughing]

There was a short period of time
when, in isolation,

we went through
an extreme awakening period.

This is...

unimportant information--
the only thing that's important

is, can you shed
human-ness?

And then hang on to your hat,

because, from that point
until the time you leave,

will be one major growth
after another

that will change you
from a human

into a member
of that Next Level.

When they started,
you know, the--

the leaving was imminent.

The spaceship was gonna
come and get them,

and it was gonna
happen tomorrow,

and there was really
the sense of immediacy.

Which, if you were
one of the early followers,

you know, you really
bought into that.

Dick Joslyn was a young man

in Los Angeles.

He wanted to be an actor.

And he was
one of the first followers.

A matter of some months ago,

uh, those of us
who are up here

were sitting in a meeting
similar to this,

where you are...

and listening
to two individuals--

a man and a woman--

share some information with us.

It's important to understand
that you cannot die

and achieve the level
we're talking about.

You cannot die
and get to Heaven.

Uh... this level
that we're speaking of

is obtained
only while you're alive

and physically healthy.

In a way that you've never
been alive before.

We're not here
to convince you of anything.

But we know that
there are a lot of people,

at least some people,

who are waiting
for this information,

and they will recognize it
when they hear it.

ROBERT: My name is
Robert W. Balch.

I am a sociology professor,

now retired,
at the University of Montana.

My connection with Heaven's Gate

began in 1975

when the story broke

about 20 people
who had disappeared

on the Oregon coast

after attending
a meeting about UFOs.

Initially, 1975,

I had gone to Sedona, Arizona

to do research

on what was then

this emerging
New Age community.

And so I'm walking
down the sidewalk

and saw this poster on the wall.

It says, "Humans,
do you really know

"what Christ came to tell us?

"Do you believe
in flying saucers?

"Are you ready to take
your physical body

to the next
evolutionary kingdom?"

I looked at it
and I thought,

boy, I wonder
if these are the people

that I've been reading about
in the newspapers.

The people
from Waldport, Oregon.

I just thought,
this is so weird.

I wanna go and see
what they have to say.

We're now in the process

of... overcoming the world

and converting
all of our energies

to becoming
Next Level individuals.

ROBERT: Members of the group
were presenting the message.

The leaders, the two,
they were not there.

Nine people decided that day
to join the group.

And so I am thinking,
this is very bizarre.

I've never seen anything
like this before.

And it was at that point
I thought, ahh,

maybe I should
just go undercover.

And so that night,

I went home, and I called
my friend David Taylor.

I said, would you like
to do this with me?

He called me, and he said,
"Do you think you could join me

for a couple weeks
in California?"

ROBERT: David was
at the time this kind of

hippie-trippy graduate student
here in our department.

And he was the only person
I knew who would drop everything

spur of the moment to do
something like this.

And, sure enough, he did.

At that point,
we knew that

the members were
all on their way

to be reunited with The Two,

who they hadn't seen
for a few weeks at this point.

I told them I wanted
to join the group.

And so, how are we gonna
rendezvous with you?

And they-- "Well, we don't know
where we're gonna be yet.

"So, here's
what we'll do.

"Go to the town of Varinda,

"which is
outside of Oakland.

"Find the post office,

"and we will leave you
an address

on page 100
of the zip code book."

DAVID: Rob said
this group is very secretive,

not just about publicity

but scrutiny from the media
and the police.

We get to the post office

and find
the zip code book.

There's no address.

They just say, "Meet us
at the top of Mt. Diablo."

We had to hitch a ride

to get to the top
of this damn mountain,

and there's nobody else there.

And I look through
the garbage can, and,

sure enough, I find
some of the group's literature.

And so I know that
they have been there,

and I think, oh, my God,
we've come all this way,

and we just freakin'
missed 'em.

And just then,
two cars pull up

full of members of the group.

They're like, "Hop in!"
And off we go.

It was really important for me
to be able to keep a record

of everything that I saw.

Everything that
I heard going on.

And, of course,
that had to be done secretly,

because I was an infiltrator
in this situation.

Initially, I was writing
on just scraps of paper.

This I found somewhere,

and so I was recording
all of my notes.

One of the interesting things
that I discovered

was that there was

no authority structure
whatsoever.

The name of their process was

Human Individual
Metamorphosis.

Because this was
such an individual process,

nobody felt like they had
any authority over anybody else.

You need to be focused
on your own overcoming.

The Kingdom of Heaven
can't be entered

as long as I still have

attachments
and addictions

to the human kingdom.

Whether it be people, things,

careers.

WOMAN: Is there
some special place

that you have people go

to learn about...
how to do this?

Camps or something
like that?

You mean, here on...
here on this planet?

WOMAN: There was something
about going to Colorado.

Uh... there...

we have no training camp.
[chuckling]

BENJAMIN: Ti and Do didn't give
a lot of formal instruction.

So, the group lives
a nomadic existence

but also one characterized
by what I would call

social chaos.

For a while, there are
several hundred people

traveling around the country,
going to campgrounds.

Thinking that their leaders are
gonna teach them

the way off planet Earth.

Sometimes, we're together
in groups of ten or 20,

Sometimes we're together in...

just two or three of us.

We would have meetings

twice a day,
morning and evening.

Most of those meeting times
were spent

tuning in to The Next Level.

They gave us tuning forks

for each group--
had a tuning fork.

[tuning fork rings]

The note A, 440 hz.

They said that we should tune
our mind to that frequency.

[tuning fork rings]

So, you take it and hit it
and stick it on your head.

And then, kind of like,
hum it to yourself.

You know, they didn't
give us instructions

on how to do any of that.

And we were living
on donations at that point,

that we asked the churches for.

So, you'd have to go
knock on doors

and-- and spread
the message,

and then you-- maybe
if you needed money for gas,

do something for them.

The things that we need
to literally live

on this human planet
until we get off

are provided
by situations that come up.

Help will come
in the strangest ways.

[soft music]

In early days,
there was a lot of this...

"we've got this message that
we may be picked up,"

and they would go out
in the desert and wait.

We'd look up at the sky a lot.
Were the UFOs coming for us?

SAWYER: We had
an assigned task.

Somebody would get up and watch
the heavens for an hour

and then go back to sleep.

And we burned the fire
the whole time too.

That's where I got
the name Sawyer.

I was the woodcutter.

Do you regret at all

giving up
what you had to give up?

No regrets, it's been
such an accelerated

growth experience that...

no matter what happens,
I could never regret

taking this move.

It's difficult for our friends
and our relatives who really

do love us to understand it's us
who really want to do this.

And they might think
that it's...

better for us
not to do this endeavor.

So, I get asked this question
all the time about,

you know, is there
a certain personality type

who gets into a cult?
And the answer is "no."

People who join cults

are typically well-educated.

Often from
very good families.

They don't have prior
psychological problems.

Because, in reality,
cults don't want

lonely, strange,
weird people, you know,

cults want highly-functioning
individuals who can help

run the cult.

Right now, Joyce is going
through the process

of leaving.

Uhh, I did have to decide
what to do with my job.

I was in a job that
I was very satisfied with.

But I think
the biggest thing was

working with my children
and talking to them.

Uhh, one of-- I do have
twin girls that are 13.

- They will go
with their father.
- Mm-hmm.

If an individual
finds themselves

with children...

and they know...

that it is time
for them to move up

into the kingdom of God,

they must weigh
where their responsibility is.

To their heavenly Father?
Or to those children?

This is a rare photo.

It's my mom, me,
and my dad.

Looks about three-ish.
Two- or three-ish, yeah.

My mom had a real affinity
with nature.

Definitely really
into astrology.

She looked a lot like me.

My dad was an inventor.

Here's one of
my father's inventions.

It's an ergonomic workstation.

They both were
very, very, very smart.

That was probably
one of the biggest challenges.

They weren't very simple

in how they thought
about anything.

Well, I attended a...
a meeting

at La... La Cañada College

in... which is north
of San Francisco,

uh, in late August of 1975.

And, uh, recognized
at that time

that it was
the... the truth,

that-- it was
what I'd been looking for.

They both sat me down

and... said that
they were going to...

go with this cult.

I remember trying to discourage
my mother about it.

"Oh, it's nonsense,
UFOs, come on."

I don't know
how they ever believed that.

Really don't, you know.

I mean, me, a ten-year-old,
I didn't believe that.

How did they... it just never
made any sense, you know?

They really explained it

as though they may not
even be here much longer

than a month or two.

I mean, it was really
an immediate state of mind

that everything was
gonna change.

The UFOs are coming
to pick us up any day now.

I went to live
with my mother's parents,

my grandparents.

It was very hard.
Very hard.

It's easier for those
who are left in the world

to go ahead and move on
with their lives.

So in a way,
I think, well,

that's been the pattern
for most of us.

To, uh, let that--
the past go--

you know, the... the people
that have been our past

to go on with their lives.

KELLY: It was trying
to talk sense,

like, to your parents.

How...

them telling you that...

the likelihood that
they were gonna go off in UFOs

and I would never, ever,
ever speak to them again, never.

Even-- Even if they didn't--

as soon as they were gone,
I was just--

it was absolutely no contact
with me ever again.

And...

I just couldn't imagine what...

it was like trying
to compete with God.

That's really
what it felt like.

And...

made me feel rather meaningless,
to be honest.

I mean, I felt bad
on a personal level that

my parents were freaked out.

And some of my relatives thought
how horribly mean it was

for me to be so, like,
they thought I was

a spoiled person who just
did reckless and didn't care.

But that was not the case.

You have to realize that,
when Jesus met his disciples,

he said, "You have
to leave your family behind

if you want to... surrender
to a higher principle."

You can't have it both ways.

If you do adhere
to that belief.

So, the point is--
is even though

it seems extreme
and drastic,

I was put in a position

if I wanted to be
100% faithful to this belief,

that I still love my mother,

but I needed to follow

this higher...
calling.

ROBERT: The whole time
that I was with the group,

you're not supposed
to be forming

human-level
relationships.

So, all I had to do was
keep my mouth shut

and just go through the motions
and play the role.

[cawing]

At this point,
it's been three months

since I've joined
the group,

and I had no idea
what had become of David.

We had separated,
and it was like,

well, I'll see you
back in Montana.

It's also in December now,

and my deadline
for having to leave the group

was before Christmas.

I've gotta be home
for Christmas

with my family.

DAVID: So, the decision was

to write a series
of academic papers

beginning with
Psychology Today.

ROBERT: We were the only people

who had been
behind the scenes, really,

in that group,
and Psychology Today

jumped at the opportunity.

And so we ended up
being the cover story.

There we are.
Me and David.

One of the big issues then was,

why are people joining,

and what happens to them
after they join?

Are they being manipulated?
Are they being coerced?

Is there brainwashing going on?
What does that really mean?

DAVID: What we concluded was,
this group was really unique.

The two leaders didn't
assert their authority

near as much as
your typical New Age leader.

We found no evidence
of manipulation.

No evidence of coercion.

No evidence
of brainwashing.

Everything about it just was
all about free choice.

Now, it'd still be
another 20-some years

before this mass suicide was
gonna happen,

and I don't think
I grasped in my own mind

the gravity
of the situation here.

Recently, we had the story
of a small town in Oregon that

was visited by a man
and a woman who said

they were millions of years old,
from outer space.

Nobody knows
if they are earthly hoaxers

or Pied Pipers
from outer space,

but apparently some people
believe their story.

DO: Unfortunately,
very little of the human element

across the globe is even
interested in this information.

You would not believe
what we go through

to even try to get it...
to people,

and the harassment
that we go through.

How difficult it is
to find anyone

who even cares to hear.

SAWYER: Ti and Do felt like

the demonstration
of dying and resurrecting,

like the two witnesses were
depicted as doing,

was Ti and Do being
shot down by the press.

They say, "Well, actually,
the media has killed us.

It's a metaphoric
martyrdom and resurrection."

No one knows how many others are
following the couple,

known up to now only
as "he and she" or "The Two."

Well, that mystery at least
appears to be solved.

BENJAMIN: Most of the treatments
were not serious.

Most people looked
at the group

and thought
it sounded ridiculous.

There's lots of rumors
that there's a connection

with the Charles Manson family,
that these people are

gonna commit suicide
by starving themselves to death.

They're being connected
with cattle mutilations.

This is the biggest cult story
in the country.

SAWYER: The meetings
at that point were

very poorly-attended.

And Ti stood up and said,
"The harvest is closed."

And that was
the end of the meeting.

They told
the remaining students,

"You made the first cut."

That's the way they put it.
That's the way Ti said it.

DO: The fact
that Ti and I expressed

that caused us to retreat
and take our little classroom

and go hide with them

is because the last thing
we could stand was

to have people say,
"Blasphemy.

"You say you're
from the Kingdom of God.

"Who do you think
you are? Jesus?

Who do you think
you are? God?"

Because they didn't
understand.

So, our hope
and our prayer for your sake

is...

you will start warding off

all the bombardment
that you will begin to hear.

They say, "Boy,
is this guy crazy!"

"Is this a cult
if I ever heard one?"

Yes, it is! It's the cult.
I mean, it's the cult of cults.

It's the cult of truth!

And I see that
we're down to five seconds.

We'll see you
in our next session.

♪ When I die
and they lay me to rest ♪

♪ Gonna go to the place
that's the best ♪

♪ When I lay me down to die ♪

♪ Goin' up to the spirit
in the sky ♪

[instrumental continues]