The group studied by Festinger dated from much earlier than Bo and Peep who were Heaven's Gate leaders:
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en.wikipedia.org]
'A housewife from Chicago (changed to "Michigan" in the book), given the name "Marian Keech" (real name: Dorothy Martin, later known as Sister Thedra), had mysteriously been given messages in her house in the form of "automatic writing" from alien beings on the planet Clarion. These messages revealed that the world would end in a great flood before dawn on December 21, 1954. Mrs. Keech had previously been involved with L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics movement, and her cult incorporated ideas from what was to become Scientology. The group of believers, headed by Keech, had taken strong behavioral steps to indicate their degree of commitment to the belief. They had left jobs, college, and spouses, and had given away money and possessions to prepare for their departure on the flying saucer, which was to rescue the group of true believers.'After the non-appearance of the flying saucer, Sister Thedra lived on until 1992, still channeling UFO's:
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www.wolflodge.org]
Heaven's Gate, where Bonnie Nettles (Peep, later Ti) died of natural causes but Marshall Applewhite, (Bo, later Do)a small time conman before becoming a cult guru, committed suicide in 1997:
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en.wikipedia.org])
'Applewhite and Nettles used a variety of aliases over the years, notably "Bo and Peep" and "Do and Ti". The group also had a variety of names. Before the name Heaven’s Gate was used and stuck, it was known as Human Individual Metamorphosis. At the time Vallée studied the group, it was called HIM (Human Individual Metamorphosis). The group re-invented and re-named itself several times and had a variety of recruitment methods. Marshall himself believed he was directly related to Jesus, meaning he was an "Evolutionary Kingdom Level Above Human".'Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/2011 10:08PM by Stoic.