Marshall Applewhite - Arrest and Proselytism

Arrest and Proselytism

In August 1974, Applewhite was arrested in Harlingen, Texas, for failing to return a car that he had rented in Missouri. He was extradited to St. Louis and jailed for six months. At the time, he maintained that he had been divinely authorized to keep the car. While in prison, he pondered theology and subsequently abandoned discussion of occult topics in favor of extraterrestrials and evolution.

After Applewhite's release, he and Nettles resolved to contact extraterrestrials, and they sought like-minded followers. They published advertisements for meetings, where they recruited disciples, whom they called "crew". At the events, they purported to represent beings from another planet, the Next Level, who sought participants for an experiment. They stated that those who agreed to take part in the experiment would be brought to a higher evolutionary level. He and Nettles referred to themselves as "Guinea" and "Pig". Applewhite described his role as a "lab instructor" and served as the primary speaker, while Nettles occasionally interjected clarifying remarks or corrections. The two seldom personally spoke with attendees, only taking phone numbers with which they could contact them. They initially named their organization the Anonymous Sexaholics Celibate Church, but it soon became known as the Human Individual Metamorphosis.

Applewhite believed in the ancient astronaut hypothesis, which claimed that extraterrestrials had visited humanity in the past and placed humans on earth and would return to collect a select few. Parts of this teaching bear similarities to the Reformed Christian concept of election, likely owing to Applewhite's Presbyterian upbringing. He often discussed extraterrestrials using phrases from Star Trek and stated that aliens communicated with him through the show.

Applewhite and Nettles sent advertisements to groups in California and were invited to speak to New Age devotees there in April 1975. At this meeting, they persuaded about half of the 50 attendees to follow them. They also focused on college campuses, speaking at Cañada College in August. At a meeting in Oregon in September 1975, they saw further recruitment success—about 30 people left their homes to follow the pair, prompting interest from media outlets. The coverage was negative: commentators and some former members mocked the group and leveled accusations of brainwashing against Applewhite and Nettles. However, Balch and Taylor state that Applewhite and Nettles eschewed pressure tactics, seeking only devoted followers.

Benjamin E. Zeller, an academic who studies new religions, notes that Applewhite and Nettles' teachings focused on salvation through individual growth and sees this as similar to currents in the era's New Age movement. Likewise, the importance of personal choice was also emphasized. Applewhite and Nettles, however, denied connection with the New Age movement, viewing it as a human creation. Janja Lalich, a sociologist who studies cults, attributes their recruitment success to their eclectic mix of beliefs and the way that they deviated from typical New Age teachings: discussing literal spaceships while retaining familiar language. Most of their disciples were young and interested in occultism or otherwise lived outside of mainstream society. They came from a variety of religious backgrounds, including Eastern religions and Scientology. Most were well versed in New Age teachings, allowing Applewhite and Nettles to convert them easily. Applewhite taught that his followers would reach a higher level of being, changing like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly; this example was used in almost all of their early literature. Applewhite contended that this would be a biological change into a different species, casting his teachings as scientific truth in line with secular naturalism. He emphasized to his early followers that he was not speaking metaphorically, often using the words "biology" and "chemistry" in his statements. By the mid-1970s, he attempted to avoid the use of the term "religion", seeing it as inferior to science. Although he dismissed religion as unscientific, he sometimes emphasized the need for faith in the aliens' abilities to transform them.