Cosmic Suicide: The Tragedy and Transcendence of Heaven's Gate by Perkins, Rodney, Forrest Jackson (1997) Paperback

By Rodney Perkins

Cosmic Suicide is the definitive study of the Heaven's Gate cult. Consisting of neither tabloid trash nor New Age pabulum, it details the group from its origin in the early 1970's to the sensational... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0965951219
• ISBN13: 9780965951210
• Release Date: July 1997
• Publisher: Pentaradial Press
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.04 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Cosmic Suicide - Forrest Jackson

I happened across Forrest Jackson's blurb about how inexpensive his book is if bought through him. Correct this was. Not only is this book fabulous, but Mr. Jackson was a pleasure to deal with by email. He was ultra-quick in responses, polite and even asked if I might like him to inscribe it, or would I prefere to have no handwritting on or in the book. Very considerate. Thank you, Mr. Jackson. I give this book and you a very high review.

Do, Ti, The Crew and T.E.L.A.H....

I was excited to read this book since material on the Heavens Gate group is woefully lacking. The book had much information, some of it somewhat obscure about the group and I found the history of the group from start to finish to be reported in an interesting, entertaining matter. There was something I had a problem with though.The Authors had a very judgmental attitude towards members of the group. Several times, they called them insane,disturbed and used other unflattering terms to describe them. I'm not a believer in Heaven Gates theology by any means, but I would have much rather seen a straightforward reporting of events than the Authors making so much of a value judgement and constantly asserting so much of their own commentary based on their personal opinions.They seemed to have the same sort of Attitude towards any sort of religion .There are many books of essays in which different writers assert their views on various groups and I felt that it would have been better suited for such an anthology. It is no way takes away from the quality of the book . I just found that to be a bit irritating. This is the best book out there on Heavens Gate that I've come across and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more.

All Hail Hale-Bopp

Suicide cults! Apple sauce! Sexless androgenoids! Sure there are satanic cults, drug cults, Ufo cults, Christ cults, Hip hop cults, beenie-baby cults, Ebay cults, and even tupperware cults, but none come close to the inspired zaniness of Doe's Heaven's Gate cult. I've been an observer of cults for most of my adult life and I must admit that I've got a soft-spot in me for all of them. Many books are written in the aftermaths of these cults and most are a boring lethargic read. Victims families are trotted out for the dog & pony show and stoic lawmen denounce the "crimes". NOT IN THIS BOOK! Here, Forrest Jackson and Rodney Perkins become entrenched in the genesis of the Heaven's Gate cult as well as interpreting the parallels with other cults and pull back the veil on our own cult dominated society, exposing our fetishes for some cults and our poison hatred of others. Not only is this book a fun read because of the scalpel-altered DOE and his suicide-prone squad of comet pilots, but this book takes it's subject matter seriously, and never in a Bugliosi tone of superiority. The closest equivalent that I can think of to this book in terms of cult research is MESSENGERS OF DECEPTION by Dr. Jacques Vallee. COSMIC SUICIDE is one of the best books written about the Heaven's Gate cult, hands down and it's written from the desk of someone who did the leg work and circumvented all the idiot editorializing that this book would have been subjected to had it been published by a major publishing house. To put it simply... if cults are your thing... especially the Heaven's Gate cult.... then BUY THIS BOOK!

Infomative, interesting, unbiased, a must read

This is one of those rare gems that is both informative, and interesting. It covers a lot more ground then just the history of the heavens gate cult. There are Ideas on why our society is causing a rise in such splinter groups. Most books about cults tend to be either biased, or boring; this is neither. First rate journalism, unpretentius writing, concise and to the point style, make this an enjoyable must read for any one who desires to be socialy aware.