ABSTRACT
On 26 March 1997 the news broke that some 39 members of a “cult” known as Heaven’s Gate had committed mass suicide in a suburb of San Diego, California. Few people had heard of the group, which had not featured in anti-cult literature and was relatively unknown in the academic world. The almost universal ignorance of the group did not prevent anti-cult leaders securing interviews on television and radio, where they were designated as “cult experts” and declared that this was “a typical cult,” demonstrating the dangers that “cult involvement” posed for today’s youth. Academics, who by their nature want to research their material thoroughly and provide measured judgments, were inevitably much slower to make their voices heard and to provide firm, reliable information.
