Heaven’s Gate is one of the most controversial groups that hold on to the idea of being a religion. Since its formation in1974, Heaven's Gate has elicited a lot of public scrutiny due to the activities that members of the group reportedly perform and the type of belief system that they hold on (Zeller, 2014) . However, much of public scrutiny came on 26 th March 1997 after 39 bodies of the group’s followers were found in a house in San Diego after participation in a mass suicide ritual. While Heaven’s Gate poses to be a religious organization, I think it has more characteristics of a cult than a religion.
Heaven’s Gate poses as a religious group that is pertinent in the development and satisfaction of the spiritual needs of members. Religion is an organized gathering of cultural systems, beliefs, and world views that relate to human beings and how they are ordered in existence. While there are challenges in the definition of religion and determining what a religion is, some essential characteristics define most religious groups. Heaven's Gate meets some of the traits destined for a belief.
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The primary characteristic of a religion is the belief in supernatural beings, especially gods. The belief in a supernatural being who is above humans characterizes religion and differentiate it from theism ( Cline, 2019) . Heaven's Gate believes in psychic people who are aliens who are higher on the order of beings. The members believe that they can achieve a higher status in order by observing certain rituals.
Another characteristic of a religion found in Heaven’s Gate is the presence of ritual acts, sacred objects, places and times. Ritual acts and objects are a confirmation of the sacredness and importance of a religion that makes it tangible ( Cline, 2019) . Members of the group observed sacredness by avoiding excessive contact with people (Zeller, 2014) . This is what made Heaven’s Gate so conspicuous.
Prayer and other forms of communication are also a trait of religious groups. Seeking interaction with the supernatural being is often necessary for the personalization of the belief. Therefore, members of the religious group engage in some form of communication mainly prayers with the being. The Heaven's Gate group involved in a conversation with UFO in sacrifices and other forms of worship which assured the presence of goodwill (Zeller, 2014) . It increased their grasp on the supernatural and strengthened their faith in the course of their religion.
On the other hand, Heaven's gate group also has specific characteristics that make it fit into a cult. According to Cowan & Bromley (2015), a cult is a social group whose members have some form of unusual spiritual, philosophical, or religious beliefs. Cults often have a common interest based on a given personality goal or object. While before cults usually referred to new religions, today the term is related to some negative aspects which makes cults generally unaccepted. The Heaven’s Gate group has several characteristics that make it fit to be defined as a cult.
The main characteristic that marks a cult is the separation from major religious groups. A cult is often a new form of religion that seems to be different from existing religious beliefs ( Barker, 2012) . Traditionally, factions were new religions formed mainly by separatist from major religious groups. This characteristic of a cult is positive and is primarily accepted. Heaven's Gate started in 1974 and did not affiliate itself from major religious groups at the time. This makes Heaven's Gate a cult.
The second important feature of a cult comes from observing members who show radical changes in behaviour and personality. Cults comprise of people who were previously diverse but then bounded by an unconscious acceptance of some self-gratifying but entirely imaginary scenarios that they alone epitomize a positive force of purity and righteousness that comes from exclusive access to superhuman knowledge ( Barker, 2012) . Members of a cult also believe themselves to be the lone opponents of evil and impurity. Consequently, the members of the cult feel obliged to adjust their behaviour according to the purpose. Members of Heaven's Gate who followed the original initiators of Heaven's Gate had to drop out of the society and make a transition into a new life in a space ship. The members made radical changes in their lifestyle, including the addition of –ody to their first name (Zeller, 2014) . Also, members went to the extent of castration, leaving their jobs, money and possession in preparation for the next level. However, the most radical act was when the 39 of them committed suicide in San Diego.
The third important feature that marks Heaven's Gate as a Cult is the separation of members from the rest of society. According to Till, (2010) a cult does not allow a high level of contact between members and other members of the society. Moreover, in some sects, it members who interact with society and even leave the cult are highly penalized. Penalties may range from bodily sacrifice to death sentence. After the group was formed, the members were preparing for the transition to living afresh in a spaceship (Zeller, 2014) . To qualify for the higher level of existence, members of Heaven's Gate group kept very few contacts with outsiders. Members of the Heaven's Gate group believed that humans had to shed off attachment to the planet to be elected as members of the next level (Zeller, 2014) . This marks the group as a cult that kept the people within and made it hard for members to leave at will.
Another characteristic that makes Heaven’s Gate a cult is Pseudo-scientific mystification. The initiators of factions often overwhelm followers intellectually and intellectually by masquerading to have progressive initiation in some superhuman knowledge that will eventually defeat some negative force or impurity leading to restoration and a secure idealistic existence (Till, 2010) . If you do not believe, you will not attain redemption. Through the creation of a belief before recovery, followers are put into a logic trap. Moreover, to make it more logical, the cultic mindset is made to fit not only the spirit but also the times to gain a broad range of individuals. This is where scientific concepts are used. The originators Heaven's Gate developed believe based on the ideals of the 1970s science on unidentified foreign objects. Seeing that people at the time had little knowledge on the concept, they quickly became prey to the idea of spaceships and salvation coming from the heavens (Zeller, 2014) . They presented people with the belief of redemption based on spiritual ideals out of this world and the idea that the earth would be destroyed.
Finally, a monopoly of information and false justification also characterize the cult that is Heaven’s Gate. Leaders of cults are very keen to control the information that enters the minds of followers. Constant denigration of external information sources, constant re-invention key ideals and member isolation help achieve information monopoly (Till, 2010) . In Heaven's Gate, the primary method used was the isolation of members where the leaders made members believe that by interacting with other people, they would be unclean and not fit for the next phase (Zeller, 2014) . False justification involves the disassociation from false reality so that members can further the objectives of the leader.
In conclusion, evidence suggests that Heaven's Gate is more of a cult than a religion. The definition of a cult and religion presents challenges that make it difficult to establish a stand on the type of organization that Heaven's Gate takes. Also, the characteristics of a cult at times are similar to those of religion as they were interchangeable before, which makes it even harder to distinguish between the two. However, by careful consideration of the primary characteristics of bot a religion and a cult, we see Heaven's Gate be more inclined towards Cultic than religious features.
References
Till, R. (2010). Pop cult: religion and popular music . A&C Black.
Cowan, D. E., & Bromley, D. G. (2015). Cults and new religions: A brief history . John Wiley & Sons.
Barker, E. (2012). New religious movements: their incidence and significance. In New Religious Movements (pp. 33-50). Routledge.
Zeller, B. E. (2014). Heaven's Gate: America's UFO religion . nyu Press.
Cline, A. (2019). Defining the Characteristics of Religion. Learn Religions. https://www.learnreligions.com/defining-the-characteristics-of-religion-250679
