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March 27, 1997
Charles Krause provides a background report on the mass suicide near San Diego.
March 27, 1997
Jim Lehrer leads a discussion of the cult.
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The nation awoke Thursday to the troubling story of an apparent mass suicide of 39 people in a San Diego-area mansion. Newspaper stories and television broadcasts have been filled with reports of a cult, whose members believed if they committed mass suicide they would free themselves of their "corporal containers" (their bodies). Now free of their bodies, they believed their spirits would be prepared for the arrival of an alien space ship hiding behind Comet Hale-Bopp that would take them to "a higher plane."
What is even more intriguing is that the cult supported itself by crafting Web pages for corporate clients and even posted their beliefs on a Web site called Heaven's Gate.
What's behind extreme cult-related behavior? Why are people driven to cults? Are cult members mentally unstable? Send us your questions and comments. A cult specialist will discuss your responses in an online forum in the near future.
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