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The Master Cleanse was a process created by Stanley Burroughs in the 1940s. Along with isolation from the outside world, Applewhite and Nettles encouraged this cleanse because cleansed the members of all impure things from unhealthy food to inappropriate thoughts and actions. -
When Applewhite was a teacher at UA, he ended up getting fired after getting caught having sexual relations with a male student. -
Bonnie Nettles and Applewhite met when Marshall Applewhite was a former music teacher and Nettles was a nurse, during a psychiatric institution visit. -
Nettles and Applewhite went on a search for followers for their belief at the beginning of the year.
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Nettles wrote a letter to her daughter, whom she left, saying that she is on an important mission. She claimed that her and Applewhite were the chosen ones that would fulfill the scriptures of the bible the same way Jesus and some others have done in the past.
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Heaven's Gate was founded by Nettles and Applewhite, who were addressed by multiple names, the main two being Ti an Do.
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During September of 1975, Nettles and Applewhite, along with a small group of their believers traveled to Waldport, Oregon and gave a lecture that the human race and UFO's would soon be interacting with each other. This info as published in a NYTimes article, and many people thought it was a joke, however 150 people showed up to hear this lecture.
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The group had decided to stop recruiting people and follow a monastic lifestyle, leading very organized lives.
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Nettles and Applewhite had finally let the members of Heaven's Gate call and contact their families. They even allowed members to visit home on Mother's Day, however, they were to tell their families that they were living as modern-day monks, and couldn't stay home long or contact home too often.
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Nettles died of liver cancer, however, Applewhite didn't tell this to her children until months after. -
This website was created with the intention of getting people to join. Applewhite and his followers believed that this would be the last chance for people to join them before it was time for them to ascend to a higher level -
Applewhite, along with the other members created "Exit Messages" claiming that the time has come for them to be taken by UFO's and ascend to Heaven.
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The suicides of the all the members took place over the course of three days. They died in groups starting on a Sunday. The first group included 15 members, the another group of 15, and the last group included nine. It was said that members consumed a mixture of phenobarbital, hydrocodone, and alcohol, which was placed into their food. Then they put plastic bags over their heads to suffocate themselves to death.
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The bodies of the dead members were discovered by the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, in a suburban home of Rancho Santa Fe.