Bonnie Nettles
Bonnie Nettles was a significant figure in the formation of the controversial cult known as Heaven's Gate, co-founded with Marshall Applewhite. Born and raised in a Baptist tradition, she worked as a registered nurse in Houston and became involved in spiritual movements, including the Theosophical Society, where she explored astrological and spiritual themes. In the early 1970s, Nettles and Applewhite formed a deep, platonic bond, both experiencing personal crises due to their failed marriages. They began promoting a belief system that involved communication with extraterrestrial beings and the promise of transcendence through a process they called the "Process."
Nettles and Applewhite attracted followers with their teachings, which included strict celibacy and an expectation of ultimate salvation via a UFO. After years of wandering and seeking a UFO encounter, their movement culminated in tragedy when, following Nettles's death from cancer in 1985, Applewhite led 39 members to commit suicide in 1997, believing they would ascend to a higher existence. Nettles's legacy is intertwined with themes of spirituality, the search for meaning, and the complexities of human belief systems, reflecting the struggles of individuals in search of purpose and connection.
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Subject Terms
Bonnie Nettles
American cult founder
- Born: 1924
- Birthplace: Houston, Texas
- Died: June 19, 1985
- Place of death: Dallas, Texas
Cause of notoriety: With Marshall Applewhite, Nettles co-founded the Heaven’s Gate cult.
Active: 1974-1985
Locale: Western United States
Early Life
Little is known about Bonnie Nettles (NEH-tuhls) during her early years. Raised as a Baptist, she married young and had four children. She worked as a registered nurse in Houston, but where and when she studied nursing are unknown. In the 1950’s, she supposedly began to channel the spirit of Brother Francis, a nineteenth century Franciscan who provided her with astrological information, which she used for a column in a Houston newspaper. She was active in the Theosophical Society, whose members believe that all major religions are derived from an ancient religious philosophy. Most believe in spiritualism, and Nettles’s group in Houston performed weekly séances. Twice, she said, a mysterious man communicated with her, whom she later identified as Marshall Applewhite.
Religious Career
In March, 1972, Nettles met Applewhite at the hospital where she worked. Applewhite was depressed over the end of his marriage and the ruin of his career as a professor of music. At the time Nettles’s marriage was also ending. Nettles and Applewhite immediately became inseparable, although they described their relationship as platonic. They founded the Christian Arts Center at a Houston church but soon were forced to give it up because of rumors that they held séances there. About this time, Nettles and her husband were divorced.
Both she and Applewhite claimed to receive messages from beings on Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), who told the pair that they must abandon their ordinary life. Applewhite began to refer to himself as the “Mouthpiece” and Nettles as the “Battery.” In January, 1973, Nettles and Applewhite left on what they called a trip into the wilderness to find their calling. After a year of aimless wandering, their mission was revealed to them: They would soon be martyred, rise from the dead, and be taken by UFO to another planet. Those who wished to join them in the journey to the new world would have to undergo a metamorphosis, which they called the Process. Celibacy was required of followers, because sex took too much energy away from the Process, which would be complete only when they boarded the UFO.
In 1974, Applewhite spent four months in jail for failing to return a rental car, and Nettles returned to Houston, where she lived with her mother. When Applewhite was released, she went with him to Los Angeles, where they began to win converts, largely from another UFO group. Applewhite and Nettles became known as Bo and Peep, as they were now the “shepherds” of a “flock.” In late 1975 they received a revelation that a spaceship would come to collect them and their followers in Colorado. Some fifty followers joined them in making the trek there. The UFO failed to appear, and the number of cult members dropped to about twenty.
The two leaders now called themselves Do and Ti, notes in the celestial harmony, and they spent the following ten years wandering the western states, often dashing to meet a UFO, only to be disappointed. In 1983, Ti had an eye removed in the course of treatment for cancer. The cancer spread, and she died in Dallas in June, 1985. In Do’s words, she had left her earthly vessel and gone to the next level. In 1997 Do took the appearance of Comet Hale-Bopp as a marker from Ti that the arrival of a spaceship “to take us home” was imminent. He and thirty-eight others committed suicide in a rented house in the affluent San Diego suburb of Rancho Santa Fe.
Impact
Bonnie Nettles earned notoriety as the cofounder of Heaven’s Gate (the name of the cult she and Applewhite had established) when its members committed suicide in 1997, although there is no reason to believe that she would have approved. She demonstrated the close connection between Theosophy, spiritualism, and the belief in UFOs that contain benign aliens who intend only the best for humanity. Such beliefs have usually baffled both civil authorities and ordinary people, but they have an appeal to some, especially those who have difficulty finding meaning in their lives.
Bibliography
Balch, Robert. “Bo and Peep: A Case Study of the Origins of Messianic Leadership.” In Millennialism and Charisma, edited by Roy Wallis. Belfast: Queen’s Unversity, 1982. Balch and another sociologist joined Bo and Peep’s group as observer-participants for two months in 1975, and this article provides information on Nettles’s background and early beliefs.
‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. “The Evolution of a New Age Cult: From Total Overcomes Anonymous to Death at Heaven’s Gate.” In Sects, Cults, and Spiritual Communities, edited by William Zellner. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1998. This article, by a prominent sociologist of charismatic leadership, follows the story of Heaven’s Gate to the suicides of 1997.
Wessinger, Catherine. How the Millennium Comes Violently: From Jonestown to Heaven’s Gate. New York: Seven Bridges Press, 2000. Contains a valuable section on Heaven’s Gate, with details about Nettles’s life.