Episode 10 - Chasing the Comet, part 2 Artwork

Professional Weirdo Podcast

Where I research strange stories and tell them to you. Because, let’s face it, I’m gonna research this anyway and blurt it to someone, might as well be a willing audience. Some of these stories might get dark, morbid, murdery…. so listener discretion is advised.

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Professional Weirdo Podcast

Episode 10 - Chasing the Comet, part 2

September 12, 2025 • Anonymous Narrator • Season 1 • Episode 10

0:00 | 50:39

In this episode we continue our look at cults. See, you listened to the first part and now you can't escape it.

This episode contains mention of abuse, murder, suicide, and the sexual abuse of minors. Discretion is advised. If you are ever struggling and need help is available by calling 988 in the U.S. or visit this site for resources around the world: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/suicide/suicide-prevention-hotlines-resources-worldwide

Songs I recommend with today’s episode can be found on the Spotify playlist I made to accompany this podcast:

Sheep by Mt. Joy
I’ll Believe in Anything by Wolf Parade
Cult of Personality by Living Color
Superstition by Mr. Stevie Wonder
Sheared Box by Portishead

Sources for today's episode:

Sound mixing performed by Brother Jay from The Rule of Scary podcast - check that out if you’re a horror movie fan! And hey! Thank you for listening to my stories. Keep it weird out there.

To find song recommendations for this podcast, check out the Spotify Professional Weird playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5jIkaamOZlCwtd2peUk9lF?si=0238d524a374492d

Email me at professionalweirdopodcast@gmail.com

And we are back. If you have somehow landed here without listening to any other episodes, there’s a part 1 for this that is not required listening, but might be something you want to catch. We’re talking about cults, which can get into dark subject matter topics, so listener discretion is advised. And I’m rating each story by spirit guides on a 1 to 5 scale which has no rules and is entirely scored by me with whatever numbers I pick in the moment… what else do I need to catch you up on? Oh - I like peanut butter cups. You ready? Here we go!

This is, well, I guess Episode 10 - Chasing the Comet, part 2.

Welcome weirdos, to the Professional Weirdo podcast, where I research strange stories and tell them to you. Because, let’s face it, I’m gonna research this anyway and blurt it to someone, might as well be a willing audience. Some of these stories might get dark, morbid, murdery…. so listener discretion is advised.

The Family International/Children of God

There are some famous names in this next group, mostly born into it. But let’s start at the quiet beginning. That takes place at a coffee shop in Orange County, California. It was started by a pastor named David Brandt Berg and he would speak at the coffee shop about his beliefs, that were a combo of 1960’s counter culture and Christianity - particularly the parts about loving your neighbor and sharing, which supported communal living, and those doom and gloom parts from Revelations. He said that California would be hit by a major earthquake and they needed to leave the area. His group, called the Children of God and described as “born-again hippies” followed. They formed communes in different locations and were known to speak on the streets and spread their messages through pamphlets. There’s a lot of lingo in this cult. The communes were called “colonies,” and a level of leadership under Berg was called “The Chain.” Those working on the streets and doing a good job of spreading information and raising money were called “Shiners” but those not performing well were “Shamers.” Potential recruits, especially people who seemed especially vulnerable to being led into the group, were referred to as “sheep.” The outside world was referred to as “the System.” Berg had a lot of self-applied labels like Moses David, Father David, Kin, and The Last Endtime Prophet. Other particularly interesting terms that we’ll talk about later in this story were the actions of “Loving Jesus” and “flirty Fishing.” The group itself changed names, like many cults do, and was also referred to as Teens for Christ, The Family of Love, or just The Family.

At the beginning Berg distributed his message through letters, called Mo Letters - over 3000 of them during 24 years. As the group grew and people converted, there was some attention - not good - from parents who felt their children had been pulled into the cult. So much so that an organization had been formed to help deprogram members who can been recruited into the Children of God. Some say Berg suspected there would be charges against him and a crack-down on the group given some media attention that was starting to happen. He started to subtly suggestion his followers go global. By 1972 it was estimated they were in 70 countries, with 10,000 full-time members living in 130 colonies. Berg started promoting a new form of recruitment - that Flirty Fishing I mentioned earlier. He beta tested in within his inner circle - with his wife being the first one to try it - and then pushed to the wider audience by 1976. So what is it? Females followers would quote “show God’s love” unquote to potential new members by engaging in sex. Those with the larger number of recruits through this method were called “Soul Shiners.” Within a couple of years there was a major shift in the group. Big shock, many of the leaders of different colonies were found to have been abusing their power. Sexual assault, including minors, was found to be an issue and Berg dismissed more than 300 leaders. 1/8th of the group left as well and this is where Berg rebranded under the new title Family of Love. Despite this apparent condemnation of using sex as a tool within the group, Flirty Fishing was encouraged even more. One of the Mo Letters was titled “The Devil Hates Sex! — But God Loves it!” Okay, if we’ve learned anything from 80’s hair band lyrics, it’s that the Devil and Sex go together like peanut butter and chocolate. (Dammit, spirit guide, not the Reeses’ peanut butter cups again - there are none in the house and I need to get this podcast out!). Research estimated that Flirty Fishing led to over 223,000 people having sexual contact from 1974 until 1987. There’s no research to prove it, but I’m making a strong guess that 80’s hair band music caused more people to engage in sexual contact than that. But regardless, things were kinda wild during that time, which led to another crack-down and rebrand in the early 80’s. Siting a need to create a more wholesome environment for the children and members, the name of the group was changed to The Family and in the mid 80’s a memo was sent out with very strong language to set a new standard to be followed under threat of being kicked out of the cult. Okay… let’s see what this new standard was… “any such activities of adult-child sexual contact are strictly forbidden within our group.” Wow. And the memo said this was a REMINDER. You know what kind of reminder I’ve never needed…. Yep. That. Later the group explained that it hadn’t ever been published literature specifically calling out the proper behavior between adults and minors under 21, so things got a little lax and they just felt they should make it official.

Berg died in 1994 and the group was taken over by Karen Zerby, his wife. She has lots of names - Mama Maria, Queen Maria, Maria David, or Maria Fontaine (I’m guessing that’s the fun one she has put on her cup at Starbucks). She pretty quickly released a Love Charter that told members which of the previous rules were still expected, along with a new list of rights and responsibilities for the colonies (now called Homes). They are still going today, with Karen Zerby as their leader, although the expectation to live in communes is gone. The website is still out there and reads much like a Christian group and they call themselves the Family International. But before we escape this cult, here are some more wacky and gross items and a few famous names you might recognize….

The believed in Spirit Helpers, that were a mix of angels, other mythical characters like Aphrodite and Merlin, dead celebrities like Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn, and dead political figures like Winston Churchill and Richard Nixon. And also the Sphinx. And “the Snowman?” It don’t know what this means - is it just any snowman, or the abominable snowman? Or that’s the nickname for a cocaine dealer they once knew?

But their actual members were famous as well, although they were brought into it by their parents. Actress Rose McGowan was born into the cult in Italy. She’s described her experience in a couple of interviews and her book, but stated that it started simply enough, although early on she was bristling at the beliefs that woman were to be subservient to men. When she was 9, her father decided to flee with her and her siblings as the cult seemed to be advocating child abuse. Actors River and Joaquin Phoenix, along with their siblings, had a similar story. What seemed like a peaceful, anti-capitalist movement that included playing music in jails or on the streets, and teaching people about love, turned sour. Joaquin stated “I think my parents thought they’d found a community that shared their ideals. Cults rarely advertise themselves as such. It’s usually someone saying, ‘we’re like-minded people. This is a community,’ but I think the moment my parents realized there was something more to it, they got out.” River was quoted as saying of the group “they’re ruining people’s lives.”

A bit more about the strict standards set among the colonies that might have started to apply pressure for parents to flee - the standards handed down often enforced how parents should raise their children, keeping them out of traditional education and giving authority over children to the larger community. Everything was regulated, down to the sheets of toilet paper to be used. Food and supplies went to the highest authority first and trickled down the chain to the rest. Contraception was banned.

The cult produced media, including music videos, comic books, and children’s shows for their followers entertainment and indoctrination. One children’s show called “Life with Grandpa” (based on Berg and his family) includes Christian lessons but also sexual themes.

And since that has us in an icky place, I’ll wrap up with one more thing that is likely to make us all cringe a bit. That term I mentioned earlier about “Loving Jesus?” Listen, if you are a fan of Jesus, you might want to hit the skip button because this is gonna get really awkward. Berg used this term when describing, even encouraging, sexual relationships. Might include when someone was having… alone time. Might include when one member was engaging in special time with another members wife. Might include a married couple together. Regardless of the variables, Jesus is there. And because in Berg’s teachings, it was all a form of Loving Jesus and he was a part of it. Homosexuality was not permitted, so men were instructed to… think of themselves as women, or brides, in certain moments. Not hard to figure out how the lines might have blurred when it came to the sexual abuse of children. And with that, we’re escaping another cult. I rate this one abominable snowman spirt guide out of 5.

Order of the Solar Temple

Where to begin with this next cult. They were called the Order of the Solar Temple. It started in 1984 in Switzerland. One of its founders, Joseph Di Mambro was a French jeweler who dabbled in fraud. His co-founder, Luc Jouret, was from Belgian and gave lectures on alternative medicine. They had been involved in groups prior to building the Order of the Solar Temple, or OST, and it shows. The organization’s beliefs weren’t very organized. It was a smorgasbord of influences, movements, and philosophies that made it difficult to even be categorized. Members seemed to be allowed to bring in different ideals and traditions with them. If you believed in Egyptian mythology - cool. East Asian folk medicine? Sure. UFOs? Get in here. But they did develop 7 principles:

Re-establishing the correct notions of authority and power in the world.
Affirming the primacy of the spiritual over the temporal.
Giving back to man the conscience of his dignity.
Helping humanity through its transition.
Participating in the Assumption of the Earth in its three frameworks: body, soul, and spirit
Contributing to the union of the Churches and working towards the meeting of Christianity and Islam
Preparing for the return of Christ in solar glory.

A major theme was the star Sirius. Some of this will be familiar given its borrowing from new age beliefs. After this star appeared, the history of the universe can be described in different ages. Like the Age of Aquarius. The OTS thought that when the Age of Aquarius happened we’d enter the apocalypse, with our planet burning. The group’s plan was to build what they would consider “Ascended Masters” by having the members ascend through levels of learning, called clubs. These ascended masters would be souls worthy of escaping the apocalypse who would make their new home in Sirius the star. There’s a ton of other messy ideas - that souls can leave their bodies and reincarnate. They directed couples to part and reassigned them to new partners in cosmic couplings with the goal to create seven, or maybe nine, cosmic children. There were many rituals, oaths, and money troubles. During some of the rituals, apparitions had been shown, but it was discovered by Di Mambro’s own son that the apparitions had been faked, as well as other false information that had been presented to the group in ceremonies. He told other members and the fracturing started. Some stayed, others left and demanded the return of money they had given to the group. One of the women who had lost her husband to the cult demanded her money back and began to raise awareness of the cult through the media. In an unrelated event, the Quebec location was raided and illegal weapons were found. This also hit the press, which was reporting on OTC as a doomsday cult.

Now legal trouble and media attention was really increasing. Paranoia set in. The founders started to make a plan for “transit” as they called it, to Sirius. They explained this was not at all suicide. But added that is was not suicide “in the human sense of the term.” I think this is the part of the briefing where I would need to politely excuse myself to go to the bathroom or something and then give them a good ol’ Irish goodbye. Because they absolutely meant death. In the midst of all the trouble, they determined that any traitors would be killed. Any members who were too weak to transit on their own, called the Immortals, would be assisted with their transit. And that yes, the strong members, called the Awakened, would transit themselves. This was September 1994. Another point of tension at this time, Di Mambro believed his daughter to be the new messiah and had named her Emmanuelle. But another high-ranking member of the group had a son and named him Christopher Emmanuael, against Di Mambro’s direction. He ordered the family to be executed, which they were. By October, it’s really fall apart. Some members at the site of the family’s murder set up incendiary devices and burned themselves and the location down. At another of the group’s locations, some of the higher leaders began the transit plans where 23 members died through various methods - shot, suffocation, and sleeping pills. In another location it was injected poison. The founders wrote letters with transit instructions called the Testament letters and sent them out. These letters also had a lot of whining about how the group had been unfairly persecuted and complained about legal allegations against them. Police began getting calls about various fires, all at locations related to the cult. As they were moving in, bodies were found. The fires were to burn evidence, but in some locations the trigger devices didn’t work, so loads of evidence was found. The deaths included the 2 founders. The total number of transits was supposed to equal 54 to align with the deaths of Templars in the 14th century, but one of the members had escaped so they were 1 short for the magic to happen. Some surviving members actually felt sad they hadn’t been chosen, as they would have completed the number. But more was to come. In Dec. 1995, 14 other members of OTS died, either through murder or suicide. Later than month, 16 other members were found to have done the same. One of the devout had been telling members she was able to communicate with the founders, even beyond death, and was now directing more of the massacres. In March, 5 more died. Overall, the mass suicides and murders happened from 1995 to 1997 in multiple countries. There’s so much more to this story, but it is DENSE. 4 out of 5 spirit guides, because I need help getting untangled from this mess. Guide me out of here, spirit guides!

Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

This next one is still active and at this point there’s not much of a new story to tell, which is one of abusing children and unfortunately we’ve heard that a few times with these stories, so I’m gonna be pretty blunt and charge through this one. It’s the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There’s a Netflix series called Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey that has interviews with survivors and tells the story from their perspective, so if you are interested in more, that’s the best way to hear it.

Some argue that it’s not a cult, but a religion. I, with the authority invested in me by the powers of Greyskull, say it’s a classic cult. Using coded language, building a hierarchy of power in order to control its followers, promising a better life with a series of steps for followers to adhere to in order to achieve power or a promised place in heaven, fear of outsiders, punishment for those who question or try to resist and for what? So a group of men can have guaranteed access to sex with multiple women, even if it’s unwilling, and so they can be pedophiles without the consequences they might face outside of the bubble they’ve created and disguised as religion. Warren Jeffs, their latest and largest active leader. He’s not a prophet, he’s a pedophile and has been arrested and convicted and is in prison for more than 100 years. But there were a lot more men charged and convicted and a lot of gross behavior. Bigamy, sexual assault, child abuse, child labor, sex trafficking, using plural marriages as a means to acquire government assistance, essentially fraud, but they call it “bleeding the beast” and think it’s virtuous. Removing children from their parents, dumping teenage boys outside of their homes under the excuse of listening to rock music, but really because they were going to become competition for wives. Racism. Encouraging what they called blood atonement, but was really suggesting that murder was okay if the sinner was really bad. Also kidnapping children from their natural parents to take them back into the cult. And vehicle fraud, but at this point who even cares about that? And I’m adding to the list - dressing horribly. I’m saying that while wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt. I’m basically fashion icon in comparison. This is like negative 7 spirit guides out of 5. This has me wishing I could stage cult wars safe from all innocents. I would love to pit this one up against the Order of the Solar Temple.

AUM Supreme Truth/Aleph

Shoko Asahara started at doomsday cult called Aleph, or the Aum Supreme Truth in 1987 in Japan. It grew out of a yoga school and attracted elite members. There was suspicion of the new religion in Japan, but it grew through publishing comics and cartoons that tied the biblical prophecies that Asahara believed into popular anime. They published magazines as well under the banner of searching for the ultimate truth. They also leaned hard into a popular cult theme - hey, the world is going to end, but our elite group of people will need to lay low, ride it out, let all the undeserving kill each other off, then we’ll emerge and rule the new world. It was also wrapped in a lot of self-help information, like improving intelligence, positive thinking, health improvement techniques, and physical wellness. And people started to flock to them. Including people in positions of bureaucratic power and members of the Tokyo police and Japanese Self-Defense Forces. Force was preferred over relying on bonding. It was claimed they forced money from members. Then in 1989 an anti-cult lawyer named Tsutsumi Sakamoto threatened to sue them. He gave an interview for a talk show and before it aired, the network secretly showed a copy to members of the cult. A month later the lower, his wife, and his child went missing, and yes, it was later revealed the cult killed them. Because the cult had a kill list. Thankfully they didn’t get through it all, but had targeted members of Buddhist sects and a cartoonist who made fun of them (they actually tried to kill him but weren’t successful). In July of 1993 they went on the roof of their headquarters, climbed a cooling tower, and sprayed liquid containing anthrax spores into the air, hoping to start an anthrax epidemic. It failed. Because they used the vaccine strain and it’s nonpathogenic. The worst they got were people complaining about a bad smell. Unfortunately, they didn’t succumb to defeat. They continued their pursuit of chemical warfare and started making sarin gas and VX, both deadly nerve agents. They tested it on sheep this time and were successful. In June of 1994 they used a modified refrigerator truck and drove around homes of judges in Matsumoto, releasing a cloud of sarin in their wake. 8 people died, with 500 more sickened from the exposure. 6 months later they attacked 2 people with syringes of VX - one man who had previously assisted members who had left the cult. He was in serious condition, but survived the attack. The next was thought to be a spy. After being attacked on the street, he chased his attackers but collapsed and later died. Later, they attacked another man who had protested the cult, but he also survived. In February 1995 they kidnapped and killed a man who had helped his sister escape, but would not reveal her whereabouts. After he disappeared, a note he wrote was discovered that read “If I disappear, I was abducted by Aum Shinrikyo”.

A raid of the cult’s headquarters was planned by police, but the cult was tipped off and took a big, deadly step, thinking they would distract the police from pursuing the raid. They released sarin gas on 5 Tokyo subway trains, killing 13 people with over 1000 more seriously injured or impacted by the exposure. The distraction tactic didn’t work, as it only resulted in a series of coordinated raids across all of the cults locations. Police found labs for manufacturing drugs, piles of stashed money. Prisoners, explosives, more chemical weapons, enough sarin to kill 4 million people and a Russian military helicopter. 150 cult members were arrested. But more violence continued - The head of the cult’s Ministry of Science was stabbed to death outside of the cults headquarters in a crowd of 100 reporters. A member of the Korean yakuza was convicted but wouldn’t give a clear motive. A burning bag was discovered in one of Tokyo’s train stations and was put out. It was discovered that it was a cyanide device and if it had continued to burn it could have killed up to 10,000 commuters when the gas traveled through the ventilation. Later more cyanide devices were found in the subway, undetonated. More members of the cult continued to be arrested. One man claiming to be in league with them hijacked a plane. The founder, Asahara, was finally found hiding in a wall of one of the cult lcoations and was arrested. The same day the cult sent a bomb to the governor of Tokyo. He survived, but his secretary lost fingers.

It took awhile, but police got down to 3 fugitives that they were pursuing. It took 15 years, but eventually all were captured. On 2 separate dates, 13 members were executed, including cult leader Asahara. He had refused to speak during his time being held - even his lawyers and family.

The group continued after, but removed the radical ideas from its teachings. They adopted new leadership and apologized to victims of the sarin attack, setting up a fund for them. And despite changing their name, the internet still associates it to the radical group of murders. The terror and devastation for Japan is hard to outrun. 3 out of 5 spirit guides.

Branch Davidian

Victor Houteff had ideas for reform for the Seventh-day Adventists. And they rejected them. So he took his ideas and started a group called the Davidians and set up camp with his wife and followers in Waco, Texas and called it the Mount Carmel Center. When he died his wife took control, but a couple of years later bought more land and moved their headquarters. She predicted that the apocalypse would happen on April 22, 1959 and when that didn’t happen, she was done. Sold all the land and dissolved the organization. Benjamin Roden took over about 10 years later to pick up the group with his new ideas, buying back the land with his wife and son. When he died a few years later, his wife Lois was what they called the new prophet. A student of hers started to build his own group and for awhile they coexisted - different locations, different leaders, slightly different names, but with a lot of similarities. Then Lois died and her son George Roden stepped in to lead her group, but her student had other ideas. His name was Vernon Howell, otherwise known as David Koresh. The two of them were at odds for who would take over Lois’ group and decided to settle it with a dance off. Okay, not that, but nearly just as weird. A competition to see who would raise the dead. Roden exhumed the corpse of a 20 year buried Davidian (or as he later claimed in a trial, was just moving the community cemetery). David Koresh wasn’t able to raise the dead, but in an attempt to get evidence against George for digging up a corpse, he and his followers entered the Mt. Carmel center that belonged to Lois’ followers and engaged in a shootout. Which they caught charges for, but they weren’t convicted and David invited the prosecutors to Mt. Carmel for ice cream. And he was successful in taking control of both groups at that point. But it feels like they are starting out near that last step in how to build a cult where they are making enemies with investigators, despite the ice cream. In 1993 the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms tried to enter on a search warrant to investigate reports of sexual abuse and illegal weapons. A massive shootout took place. After 2 hours the ATF was low on ammunition and four of their agents had been killed, with 16 others injured. 5 Branch Davidians were killed, 2 of them by other cult members. 6 hours passed at a stalemate, but then a member of the Branch Davidians was seen entering the compound while, as they report, firing a pistol at them. He was shot and killed. The ATF then made contact with David Koresh to negotiate, while the FBI arrived to take over. They talked through the release of 19 children and held off at that point. The compound remained under siege, but with no more active exchange of gunfire, for 51 days. Then the FBI moved in on the compound, more heavily armed than the attempt of the ATF to just execute a search warrant. The FBI’s orders was to only return fire, not to initiate or actively pursue assaulting the cult members. They started using tear gas in the hopes that the members would evacuate the compound. It didn’t work, they just kept firing on the FBI. The FBI sent in more tear gas and then 3 fires were seen in different parts of the building. Here’s where there’s dispute. The cult members say the fires started from the FBI’s assault with tear gas. The FBI maintains the cult members set the fires. 85 members of the group had been in the compound and 76 died due to suffocation, falling rubble, or gunshot from fellow members.

This was a mess. And footage of the event was aired on TV and looped in news reels for weeks. Civil suits were brought against various branches of government, but didn’t stick. Some surviving members of the cult were charged and convicted, some acquitted. And as it started - fracturing and splitting - that’s how it ended. Some schisms were happening within the sect before the raids, and several groups today claim affiliation with the Branch Davidians. But which branch? 3 out of 5 spirit guides.

The People’s Temple

Jim Jones had a growing interest in communism, but it was the early 1950’s and that was a tough time to rally people around you under the banner of communism. So… he entered the church instead. In 1954 he started his own church in Indiana. To draw crowds and money, he faked religious healings using animal tissue and sleight of hand, pretending he was removing cancerous tumors from people. He was a charismatic speaker and by aligning with other groups and appearing at conventions, he built out his group. He invited people from all races. He asked members to wear casual clothes to church, so that people unhoused people would still feel welcome. He opened a soup kitchen and provided services for the people to seek housing, food, clothing, and job opportunities. He was appointed to the Indianapolis Human Rights Commission which gave him more opportunities to further elevate his cause, which, along with feeding hungry people, didn’t seem so bad at face value.

But that would all be the love-bombing portion of the festivities. Now we’re moving into the phase where control - like telling followers to abstain from sex and start adopting children - seeps in. He directed members to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with other members and not their extended families. Then he started asking that they donate their money and possessions to the People’s Temple. But there was a limit to how many he could recruit in the US. People started to recognize the communist themes within his teachings and this was way too soon after the Red Scare. He decided to expand elsewhere and try to recruit in Cuba, urging people to move with him back to the midwest. It didn’t work. Out of a growing fear of nuclear attack, he decided he’d move to a location listed in a 1962 Esquire article as one of the 9 safest places to live during a nuclear war. He traveled to Brazil to scout out a location. But during all the travel, the group was fracturing and the funds were depleted. He had to return to Indiana and whip up support again with more fake healing revivals. During this time his messaging to followers leaned heavy on talk of an impending nuclear war, insighting fear in order to encourage them to relocate with him to California. Other leaders in the group began to dispute his decisions and persuade followers to abandon Jones and his teachings. Despite this, 140 followed him to California. Jones got a teaching job at Butler University and had his followers enroll. Together they all worked to recruit more members. Meanwhile, Jones continued to work on drawing his former followers in Indianapolis to follow him to California, which worked on some. The messaging shifted at this time and moved away from traditional christianity and the Bible, leading his group to follow a God that he identified, sometimes blurring the lines between himself and this God. Many people questioned if Jones actually believed the doctrine he was teaching, or was just crafting a message he felt would draw more people to him. Regardless, control was the new religion for Jones. Allegations came up that he was abusing members, requiring sexual favors from them, and demanding work and food rationing from them. Jones began to surround himself with security detail and weapons. We’ll speed up now to the inevitable end that many of you may already know. The group moved around California, grew the numbers, embedded themselves in politics, developed a hierarchy with a tight circle of yes-men and woman centered around Jones. Some members started to leave. Finally in 1974 Jones took steps to finally establish the large compound he had dreamed of and started Jonestown in Guyana, a place easier to control and away from media and legal scrutiny. But the attention didn’t stop and the media stayed hot on the trail, along with concern from the US government. 2 things increased with Jones - his paranoia and his use of barbituates. For the followers, work increased, and food decreased. Sermons lasted well into the night, keeping them sleep deprived. One of Jones’ leaders quoted him as saying “Let’s keep them poor and tired, because if they’re poor they can’t escape and if they’re tired they can’t make plans.” He began running drills, calling the group together at night and telling them Jonestown was surrounded by agents who would destroy them. They were required to sing, chant, and pray until the danger was over. Sometimes he even had his own guards out in the forest and firing their weapons to scare the group. One of the drills lasted for 6 days, and afterwards was referenced by Jones as a display of their strength and victory. In another drill, Jones told his followers it was time to perform revolutionary suicide and had them line up and drink fruit punch, telling them it was poison and they would be dead in 45 minutes. When that didn’t happen, Jones told them it was a loyalty test. 4 years after starting Jonestown, Representative Leo Ryan visited Jonestown. While there, some members asked to leave with him, but they were all detained at the airstrip before taking off. The Temple security guards arrived and began shooting, killing Representative Ryan, 3 journalists, and one of the escaping followers. Nine others were injured. Knowing that the time was up, Jones gave out orders for the mass suicide, serving grape-flavored Flavor Aid laced with cyanide. Some resisted and were forced. Some pretended to drink, not realizing that even holding the drink in their mouths was deadly. Only a few fled into the jungle and escaped death. Jones died of gun shot wound, suspected to have been self-inflicted. 918 people died, including 276 children. As you can imagine, this event was widely reported and had a huge, although chaotic, response in the US. Remaining Temple members claimed to be targeted by surviving assassins from Jonestown. Four months after the mass suicide, Michael Prokes who was representing the Temple arranged for a press conference in California. He read a statement he had written about the Temple to 8 reporters who had come, then stepped into a restroom and killed himself with a gun. The Jonestown massacre was the greatest single loss of American civilian life in a deliberate act until the Sept. 11 attacks. This story was…. A lot. Not sure how to rank this, but let’s say 3/5 spirt guides. Points for just the scale, and deduction for the, I don’t know, also the scale?

Heaven’s Gate

Picture this - it’s March 1972. A man named Marshall is visiting a sick friend in a hospital and he meets a nurse named Bonnie who works there. They had tons of common interests and Immediately, they were into each other. (Are you are picturing this as a Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan movie?) Marshall felt like he already knew Bonnie. Had known her for a long time. And as for Bonnie, well she felt like their meeting had been foretold. By extraterrestrials. 3 months after meeting and mashing up a bunch of Christian teachings and sci-fi, they started to finalize their own beliefs. They were both enlightened, of course, and had witnessed the last days is described in the book of revelation. And Jesus was reincarnated as a Texan. They started referring to themselves as “The Two” and would speak to spiritual groups, telling people that they would die, but be resurrected, and also possibly transported away on a spaceship. A sentence from one of the websites I used in researching this wasn’t meant to be comedy, but it so funny to me. It reads “These ideas were poorly received by other religious groups.” But they did gain one follower after a couple of years named Sharon Morgan. Sharon even left her family to join them. For a month. It lasted a month. Then Sharon went back to her family and they were charged for using her credit cards. The charges were dropped because Sharon had let them use her cards, but in investigating it was found that Marshall was driving a rental car that he had failed to return for 9 months and it was considered stolen. Apparently even a man on a divine assignment can catch jail time and he did 6 months. Once out, he and Bonnie started running ads to draw followers, which they called “the crew.” And it was working. They presented their ideas in front of groups, adding that they were there on behalf of extraterrestrials who needed volunteers for an experiment that would ultimately lead followers to a higher evolutionary level. People went for it, selling all their stuff and leaving families. In 1975 Walter Cronkite reported “A score of persons from a small Oregon town have disappeared. It’s a mystery whether they’ve been taking on a so-called trip to eternity - or simple been taken.” In reality, the group was traveling across the US, sleeping in tents and begging for money to cover expenses. Notably, they didn’t seek publicity and changed the name of the group often. And by 1976, the metaphorical doors closed. No new recruits. They withdrew from the public and tightened control of the current members. Drugs and sex were banned. It existed this way for a while, but then in 1985 Bonnie died of cancer. This changed the narrative of maybe ascending to heaven via a space ship while alive, to maybe the body is just a container and you are released from it first before ascending. in the 1990s the group started a website under the business name “Higher Source” where they started recruiting again. Books and articles started mentioning them, mostly describing it as a UFO group with political and religious outlooks.

In 1996 the group lived together in a large house in California. So wild that this exists, but they purchased alien abduction insurance - it covers abduction, impregnation or death by aliens). The group at the time had a total of 38 followers and Marshall. A common practice, should a member need to leave the house, was to take a five dollar bill with them (to cover vagrancy fees) and 3 quarters (for using a pay phone to call home).

Host Art Bell on Coast to Coast AM started mentioning them, in particular their theory about the “companion object” in the shadow of a comet. Louis Theroux, host of the BBC2’s series Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends invited them to be on his show, but the email response read “at the present time a project like this would be an interference with what we must focus on.” That was March 1997. Also that month, many reports were coming in that unidentified lights were seen over Phoenix and Marshall made a video talking about how a UFO was trailing the Hale-Bopp Comet, and this was their sign to prepare for ascension. He said their souls would need to leave their bodies during the closest approach of the comet to ensure they could catch their ride through… Heaven’s Gate. Members videotaped their last messages. They dressed in matching black shirts and sweatpants, loaded their pockets with a five dollar bill plus 3 quarters, tied up their new black and white Nikes and donned armbands that read “Heaven’s Gate Away Team.” Broken out into 3 groups, from March 22 until March 23, they took a mixture of applesauce or pudding mixed with phenobarbital and then chased it with a swig of vodka. After that they put plastic bags on their heads, secured them, lied back in their bed and waited for death. Once the first group died, living members would remove the back from their head and place a square purple cloth over their faces, then take their turn. Two people, who were believed to be the last, were found with the bags still on their heads.

Prior to all of this, packages had been sent out to former members, and apparently trying to fulfill the declined invitation, one went to Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends. One package, containing the goodbye tapes and a final tape from Marshal, when to Rio DiAngelo, a previous follower. He traveled to the house, went through a back door which had been left unlocked, and discovered what had happened and placed an anonymous phone call to authorities alerting them to a mass suicide at the residence. A single deputy arrived, stepped in long enough to see 10 of the bodies, and then left to await back up.

Incredibly, once news broke, more people, mostly outside members of the group, also committed suicide. Weirdly enough, remember the Order of the Solar Temple cult? One of their group suicides also happened on the same day the Heaven’s Gate suicides started.

And even more incredibly, the borrowing of the Star Trek terms used by Heaven’s Gate - like the arm bands saying “away team” has a pretty solid explanation. One of the members found in the house was Thomas Nichols, who was the brother of Nichelle Nichols who played the original uhura on the show.

The house that had belonged to the Heaven’s Gate group was ultimately purchased by neighbors and torn down.

Before the Heaven’s Gate suicides, Alan Hale, one of the men who discovered the Hale-Bopp comet, said to a colleague “We are probably going to have some suicides as a result of this comet.” And later explained his quote after hearing about the mass suicide, saying “The sad part is that I was really not surprised. Comets are lovely objects, but they don’t have apocalyptic significance. We must use our minds, our reason.”

That feels like a solid piece of advice and a good place to end this episode: We must use our minds, our reason. In so, so, so many things.

Many thanks for listening to my stories. And being patient with me while took a really deep dive into this one. Follow me on Instagram, under professionalweirdopodcast where I’ll share some supplemental information to this episode, or just fun weird stuff. If you are enjoying the podcast and would like to support it, please make sure you hit that follow button. And a recommendation to others is always appreciated. You can also email me at professionalweirdopodcast@gmail.com

Songs I recommend with today’s episode can be found on the Spotify playlist I made to accompany this podcast. For each episode I’ve done or will do, I’ve pulled together a few songs. The ones for this episode are:

Sheep by Mt. Joy

I’ll Believe in Anything by Wolf parade

Cult of Personality by Living Color

Superstition by Mr. Stevie Wonder

Sheared Box by Portishead

I’ll list these, along with the link to the playlist, in the show notes.

One last note - I mentioned suicide a lot in today’s episode. Suicide is devastating and insidious so I want to share this for anyone who might need this information, you can call 988 here in the US for help. I’m also putting a link in the show notes with a list of hotlines and prevention resources around the world. Take care of yourselves.

That’s a wrap! Sources used for this episode can be found in episode notes. Sound mixing performed by Brother Jay from The Rule of Scary podcast - check that out if you’re a horror movie fan! And hey! - thank you for listening to my stories. Keep it weird out there.