Making Sense of the Heaven's Gate Suicides

Balch, Robert W.; Taylor, David

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511499326.012

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…We are happily prepared to leave 'this world' and go with Ti's crew." On 26 March 1997, the authorities found the dead bodies of 39 members of Heaven's Gate in their monastery in the San Diego village of Rancho Santa Fe (see Balch & Taylor, 2002;Muesse, 2011;Zeller, 2014 for the complete story of Heaven's Gate).…”

Section: Heaven's Gatementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The previous studies into Peoples Temple and Heaven's Gate have primarily focused on social-psychological factors explaining the characteristics particularly the philosophical background, social practices and behavior, and the formation of destructive social goals of these groups (Balch & Taylor, 2002;Chidester, 1991;Chryssides, 2016aChryssides, , 2016bDavis, 2016;Hall, 1988;Hall & Schuyler, 1998;Hall, Schuyler, & Trinh, 2000;Johnson, 1979;Lincoln & Mamiya, 1980;Lindt, 1981;Moore, 2000;Muesse, 2011;Ulman & Abse, 1983). According to the study of Wessinger (1998), the two destructive cults had millennial expectations or beliefs which shaped their views to form an isolated community.…”

Section: Previous Studies Into Destructive Cultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Language of Destructive Cults

Palayon¹,

Todd²,

Vungthong³

2020

CLaW

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Destructive cults are the most notable damaging religious groups in society where leaders convince their followers to engage in destructive acts. Examples of such cults include Peoples Temple led by Jim Jones and Heaven’s Gate led by Marshall Applewhite who convinced their followers to commit mass suicide. Previous research into destructive cults has mainly focused on their social-psychological development. This research breaks new ground by examining the patterns of linguistic features in the sermons of destructive cults indicating the characteristics of their language using keyness analyses. The main data sets are the sermons of Jim Jones and the sermons of Marshall Applewhite in the period leading to mass suicide. As a benchmark, these sermons were compared to the sermons of Billy Graham and the sermons of Rick Warren, leaders of mainstream religious groups. The findings show that the language of destructive cults based on the sermons of the leaders upholds extreme non-religious ideologies that cannot be found in the sermons of mainstream religious groups. The styles of their language focus on othering, intensifying, elaborating, and negating with the aim of controlling their followers. The results may allow destructive cults to be identified before damaging events occur.

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Section: Heaven's Gatementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Previous Studies Into Destructive Cultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Language of Destructive Cults

Palayon¹,

Todd²,

Vungthong³

2020

CLaW

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“…The boys are castrated and there is a clock which is counting down the ‘Time Until Transformation’, but otherwise none of the group’s beliefs are known. While it is true that some Heaven’s Gate members voluntarily castrated themselves, this hardly encompasses the breadth of the group’s beliefs (see Balch 1995; Balch & Taylor 1977, 2002). However, rather than trying to unravel or parody the beliefs of this complicated group and explain their mass suicide in a way that reflects their heartfelt belief that they were transcending their bodies to the level beyond human, Family Guy uses a generic reason for Meg joining the group (and by extension, anybody who affiliates with an NRM)—they feel like outcasts:…”

Section: The Nrm Spectrummentioning

confidence: 99%

New Religious Movements in Animated Adult Sitcoms—A Spectrum of Portrayals

Feltmate

2011

Religion Compass

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As globally syndicated television programmes that are celebrated for their biting satirical content, The Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy are popular culture phenomenons. Furthermore, they are programmes which have consistently featured a wide variety of religious traditions, including a significant selection of new religious movements (NRMs). This article provides an overview of the different movements depicted in the programmes, categorizing them as accepted, annoying, misguided, untrustworthy and dangerous. It concludes with a discussion of this pattern’s significance, and suggests avenues for future analysis of NRMs’ humorous depictions in popular culture.

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“…Examples of toxic leadership are ample in the political domain as well, such as in the Lava Jato (Car Wash) corruption scandal of Rouseff (Watts 2016), the often‐stated electoral authoritarianism of Putin (Snyder 2018) and Viktor Orbán (Lendvai 2018) and the outright dictatorship of Kim Jong‐Un (Frank 2012). There is also an unfortunate number of toxic leadership phenomena at the societal level, ranging from the Women's National Anti‐Suffrage League movement (Bush 2007) to more marginal and tragic incidents such as the mass suicides of Jonestown Massacre (Barker 1986) and the Heaven's Gate suicides (Balch and Taylor 2002). Nevertheless, the toxic leadership phenomenon is not limited to extreme and infamous cases, and most people experience the consequences of varying degrees of toxic leadership in their work, family and society on a daily basis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the Followers of Toxic Leaders: Toxic Illusio and Personal Uncertainty

Mergen

Özbilgin

2020

Int J Management Reviews

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Toxic leaders are one of the main threats to the wellbeing of people in the workplace and in society in general, and followers play a critical role in constructing and maintaining toxic leaders. In this narrative review, we draw on Bourdieu's concept of illusio and incorporate it with the social and cognitive psychology approaches in an attempt to frame the dynamic system that sustains toxic leadership through continued support of the followers. More specifically, as we introduce the illusio perspective in a process‐relational context to the toxic leadership discussion, we (i) address the allure of toxic leaders as an incentive for followers to join the toxic illusio as a way to cope with their high personal uncertainty and (ii) illustrate the mechanisms and processes that motivate followers of toxic leaders to remain in the toxic illusio once they join. In this context, we also briefly discuss and differentiate between the ethical and moral dimensions of toxic leadership.

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Making Sense of the Heaven's Gate Suicides

Cited by 11 publications

References 2 publications

The Language of Destructive Cults

The Language of Destructive Cults

New Religious Movements in Animated Adult Sitcoms—A Spectrum of Portrayals

Understanding the Followers of Toxic Leaders: Toxic Illusio and Personal Uncertainty

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