美国国家公共电台 NPR For 'Heaven's Gate' Podcast Host, The Cult Story Hits Close To Home

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

In 1997, a bizarre story hit the national news. Thirty-nine people in California had killed themselves by drinking poison. They were dressed identically with identical haircuts, and they were all members of the cult¹ Heaven's Gate. In their videotaped farewell messages, they insisted that their suicides were not a final death. They believed they were shedding their earthly bodies in order to meet a UFO, which would transport them to the kingdom of heaven. Their story had a powerful impact on our next guest, Glynn Washington.

GLYNN WASHINGTON, BYLINE²: I was in a bar when I heard about what was going on with Heaven's Gate when they were finding people in the San Diego mansion³. And instantly, the bar silenced for a little bit. But in a few moments, everyone got back to talking about, you know, look at those crazies or whatever. And I couldn't stop watching. I was staring, I wanted them to turn the TV back up because in a lot of ways, it felt like that was something that my group could have done.

SHAPIRO: My group - when Glynn Washington was growing up in Michigan in the 1970s and '80s, his family belonged to a different apocalyptic⁴ faith organization called the Worldwide Church of God. And he recognized a lot of what he saw in Heaven's Gate. Now he brings that recognition to his new podcast, a 10-episode investigation⁵ into the cult and its members. The podcast is called Heaven's Gate. And when I spoke⁶ with him about it, I asked if by investigating this cult, he was really excavating⁷ his own history.

WASHINGTON: And that's just it. I think that - my group was called the Worldwide Church of God, as you mentioned earlier. And we had this apocalyptic leader. And we - I grew up being told that I wouldn't make it through the end of my teens, that the world will be enveloped⁸ in this fiery⁹, apocalyptic scene and that a few of the callen (ph), a few of the chosen, just a few would make it out. Look to your left and look to your right and only one-third of this particular congregation is going to do it, are you going to be one of the chosen sort of thing.

And so to see another - see that kind of similar apocalyptic vision from another organization, it was so compelling. Again, I think because the people that we were able to speak to and that we're able to investigate their stories, the more that you get into someone's story, the less they become an other. And these were real people with families that cared about them, with goals and aspirations¹⁰ and they were swept into this cult.

SHAPIRO: There were a lot of people who were members of this cult who left before the mass suicide in 1997. And you interview many of them in this podcast.

WASHINGTON: Yes.

SHAPIRO: And I wonder about the experience of approaching them. Did your own history being raised in a cult, do you think, affect the way you approached these people and told their stories?

WASHINGTON: Absolutely. And I hope that the people who I spoke to came away from our interviews feeling like I wasn't trying to exploit them because I do - we do kind of - we have almost a shared history. And thank goodness that my particular organization didn't end up in a mansion the way that Heaven's Gate did. But I know this, that if the founder¹¹ of my group had said to drink some Kool-Aid, 70 percent of us would have downed it in an instant.

SHAPIRO: And do you include yourself among that 70 percent?

WASHINGTON: I keep asking myself that question. I left in my late teens. And I've - and I try to forget it. I've tried to forget it for a long time. But, yeah, that question, if Herbert W. Armstrong, the founder of the group, had said drink this, this is going to take you to paradise, would I have downed that bottle? I have absolutely no idea, (laughter) and that, I think, gets to the heart of why I really wanted to do this project.

SHAPIRO: To me, one of the most chilling moments in the 10 episodes of this podcast comes in an episode where you allowed listeners to tell their stories. And there was somebody who wrote in from Australia.

(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "HEAVEN'S GATE")

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I guess what's been on my mind a lot as I've been listening to Heaven's Gate is really how not so different I am. I believe that there is a prophet on the earth who speaks directly to God and converses¹² directly with him. And then I was thinking, you know, if the prophet came to me personally and asked me to do something, asked me to do something awful, would I do it? And I, you know, I - it was a very shocking and scary thought when I realized that, yeah, I think I would because I truly believe that this prophet speaks for God.

WASHINGTON: I think that a lot of people are searching for some connection to the divine. And once they find it, they're going to take that all the way to the end. And oftentimes, I think what really came out in this work was that it's a community that really kept people in this group, that these were people that are oftentimes before the Heaven's Gate organization, they felt like misfit toys. And the Heaven's Gate organization gave them a home, gave them a place, gave them a future, gave them a goal.

And when you do that to someone, when you give them love and they haven't felt that type of love or that type of a belonging before, it's not even so much the theology anymore. It's that warmth, that sense of home that keeps them in that group. And community is powerful, really, really, really powerful.

SHAPIRO: This mass suicide took place in 1997. That's sort of the beginning of what we think of as the Internet era. And shortly before the end, they put up a website. And that website is still active. And there is an email address.

WASHINGTON: Yes.

SHAPIRO: Does the cult still exist in any form today?

WASHINGTON: There are definitely people who believe the teachings of Ti and Do.

SHAPIRO: Ti and Do, the two leaders, yeah.

WASHINGTON: Ti and Do, the leaders of Heaven's Gate, that they were divine and that they did in fact go to the next level and get on an interstellar craft when they committed that act in the San Diego mansion.

SHAPIRO: So is the website being run by people who consider themselves Heaven's Gate members?

WASHINGTON: Ari, you've opened up a huge...

SHAPIRO: This is the second season of the podcast (laughter).

WASHINGTON: Yeah, this is a big contention¹³. There are a lot of different groups and organizations that would vie for the mantle¹⁴ of, you know, the repository of the knowledge of the Heaven's Gate crew. And what they all believe at this time, I just do not feel comfortable in saying. Let me just say this. There's a lot of belief out there and some people who feel that they missed their chance when the people in that San Diego mansion did that ultimate deed.

SHAPIRO: That was Glynn Washington, host of the podcast Heaven's Gate and the public radio show Snap Judgment¹⁵.

1 cult   

n.异教，邪教；时尚，狂热的崇拜

参考例句：

• Her books aren't bestsellers,but they have a certain cult following.她的书算不上畅销书，但有一定的崇拜者。
• The cult of sun worship is probably the most primitive one.太阳崇拜仪式或许是最为原始的一种。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 mansion   

n.大厦，大楼；宅第

参考例句：

• The old mansion was built in 1850.这座古宅建于1850年。
• The mansion has extensive grounds.这大厦四周的庭园广阔。

4 apocalyptic   

adj.预示灾祸的，启示的

参考例句：

• The air is chill and stagnant,the language apocalyptic.空气寒冷而污浊，语言则是《启示录》式的。
• Parts of the ocean there look just absolutely apocalyptic.海洋的很多区域看上去完全像是世界末日。

5 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

6 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

7 excavating   

v.挖掘( excavate的现在分词 )；开凿；挖出；发掘

参考例句：

• A bulldozer was employed for excavating the foundations of the building. 推土机用来给楼房挖地基。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A new Danish expedition is again excavating the site in annual summer digs. 一支新的丹麦探险队又在那个遗址上进行一年一度的夏季挖掘。 来自辞典例句

8 enveloped   

v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She was enveloped in a huge white towel. 她裹在一条白色大毛巾里。
• Smoke from the burning house enveloped the whole street. 燃烧着的房子冒出的浓烟笼罩了整条街。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 fiery   

adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的

参考例句：

• She has fiery red hair.她有一头火红的头发。
• His fiery speech agitated the crowd.他热情洋溢的讲话激动了群众。

10 aspirations   

强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音

参考例句：

• I didn't realize you had political aspirations. 我没有意识到你有政治上的抱负。
• The new treaty embodies the aspirations of most nonaligned countries. 新条约体现了大多数不结盟国家的愿望。

11 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

12 converses   

v.交谈，谈话( converse的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• We now shall derive the converses of these propositions. 现在我们来推导这些命题的逆命题。 来自辞典例句
• No man knows Hell like him who converses most in Heaven. 在天堂里谈话最多的人对地狱最了解。 来自辞典例句

13 contention   

n.争论，争辩，论战；论点，主张

参考例句：

• The pay increase is the key point of contention. 加薪是争论的焦点。
• The real bone of contention,as you know,is money.你知道，争论的真正焦点是钱的问题。

14 mantle   

n.斗篷，覆罩之物，罩子；v.罩住，覆盖，脸红

参考例句：

• The earth had donned her mantle of brightest green.大地披上了苍翠欲滴的绿色斗篷。
• The mountain was covered with a mantle of snow.山上覆盖着一层雪。

15 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。