Heaven's Gate
A Chassidic Rabbi once said, It is not angels that God needs or wants, for He has myriads and myriads of them. What God wants is a human being to act angelic and remain a living human being.
When I think of Do Applewhite, the leader of Heavens Gate, I remember the famous proverb, Man is no angel, yet he is fully capable of becoming the angel of death.
As a rabbi I have a great sadness at the loss of these misguided souls. I wonder if spiritual leaders are asking themselves the big question. What went wrong there? These 39 Cyberspiritualists were relatively skilled intelligent people with questions. Religious leaders have been aware of their ongoing quest.
Erroneously the clergy may have completely discounted the need for answering the spiritual quest of many in the hightech scientific field. This is wrong and must be corrected as soon as possible. With the proliferation of new age religions promising answers to the unknown, more must be done.
What happened to the 39 Heavens Gate members should be an awakening call to those in the clergy. There are millions engaged in searching for higher purposes, some in the name of religion and yet others in a search for truth.
The fascination with UFOs and aliens is on an upswing. The television show, The X Files, is a wellwatched show. Its message is of a continual coverup by our government of space mobiles, flying saucers and aliens. Why do intelligent people watch such shows? Then again, why is Star Trek one of the longest running science fiction shows still on the air? For some its entertainment, while others believe these things may be happening. Some truly are afraid of being abducted by aliens and other space forms. There is a crying need to reach to the stars and above. Somehow, out there, we will find the answer to life.
In truth, by allowing our minds to be filled with such thought we invite trouble.
Religions deal with life and after life, physical and the metaphysical. The purpose and role of angels and celestial forms are the cornerstone of the three major religions.
The Heavens Gate people wanted to live a higher life. They claimed that they wanted to make contact with a higher form, whatever it may be and at any cost. This sounds almost like a mainstream religion.
They claimed that by living a normal life, marriage and procreation, they would be hindered from spiritual growth. They needed to be angelic, leave the body and make contact with a higher form. All this was to be done before becoming abducted by aliens.
Too bad that they really were abducted by aliens.
Their Alien thoughts abducted their purpose of living and destroyed them. They could not travel onto the better world because they took their own lives. They destroyed their very purpose. What they feared most happened to them.
There is an insurance program that has insured 4,000 people against abduction by aliens. The 39 cyberspiritualists were part of the group who had paid $1,000 annually for this coverage. Yet, it is known that there has never been a successful claim for alien abduction and every year more and more people apply for the coverage.
This spiritual quest for a greater life in an outoflife experience must be addressed. In the Jewish religion there is a special commandment to preserve life. Committing suicide is tantamount to committing murder. The rabbis taught, It is not your body that can be destroyed by you. Its Gods body, lent to you, and only God can request it back. It is true that religions have taught of prophets that performed miraculous events but in all cases they remained in their bodies, never claiming to have the freedom of destroying their bodies. Even if they had an outofbody experience, they always came back to their base, their living body.
Now is the time for all religious leadership to take action. We must reach out and begin to teach the mystical meaning of living here on earth. We can outgrow the seemingly limits we have, by enriching our lives with higher purpose. We dont have to look for the meaning of life when we have the time honored religions with the answers. You can reach high levels of spiritual bliss without killing yourself. People are searching for the deeper meaning of life.
We must not let them down, for all religions have great answers.