extraordinary%20encounters

alien to them” (Hewes and St e i g e r, 1976).
Their behavior and general demeanor we re
so odd that Hewes wondered if they we re actual
extraterre s t r i a l s .
T h rough leaflets signed by Human In d i v i dual
Metamorphosis (HIM), the Two sought
f o l l owers. The documents identified them as
two individuals who had come from an advanced
realm to testify to the same message
that Jesus had given to the world. Those who
f o l l owed them would have to abandon all ties
to this world, including family, friends, jobs,
and possessions. When they achieved metamorphosis,
they would experience actual biological
and chemical changes in their bodies.
Bo and Be e p, as they then called thems
e l ves, made themselves available to the public
in the spring of 1975 at a meeting held in the
home of a Los Angeles psychic. Twe n t y - f o u r
persons followed them to participate in furt h e r
gatherings in California, Colorado, and elsew
h e re, where new believers we re solicited to
become Bo and Pe e p’s sheep. Little of this attracted
press attention until twenty members
of an audience, which had come to hear the
Two in Wa l d p o rt, Oregon, disappeared with
them the next day. Newspaper accounts depicted
the couple as mysterious. The account
e ven seemed to leave open the possibility that
the missing audience members had flown off
in a UFO. In fact, they had joined the pilgrimage.
Six weeks later, two Un i versity of Mo ntana
sociologists found them—though not Bo
and Peep—in Arizona. Bo and Pe e p, fearing
assassination, had dropped out of sight. Be f o re
their depart u re, howe ve r, they separated their
150 to 200 followers in autonomous “f a m i l i e s”
of about a dozen persons each. Within each
family there was further bre a k d own into couples,
preferably a man and a woman, who we re
to observe each other care f u l l y. Sex and eve n
friendship we re explicitly discouraged; the “rel
a t i o n s h i p” had one purpose, which was that
each person would have his or her faults
pointed out, thus making it possible to ove rcome
human limitations.
Each family went its own way, supporting
itself via meetings, contributions by new
The Two 247
Marshall Herff Applewhite and Bonnie Lu Nettles,
photographed after their 1975 arrest by local police in
Harlington, Texas, for auto theft and credit card fraud
(Bettmann/Corbis)
members, and begging. The reception of such
proselytizing was usually hostile, but small
numbers of recruits filled the ranks, often replacing
those who had lost interest. Most followers
were occult tourists whose fascination
with any particular metaphysical doctrine was
only passing. The failure of flying saucers to
arrive to take believers to a New World also
discouraged interest.
In early 1976, the movement, now consisting
of fewer than one hundred members, retreated
with Bo and Beep to a mountain camp
near Laramie, Wyoming. The couple’s authoritarian
control was intensified, and those
judged unqualified were forced out. By fall,
the band had relocated to Salt Lake City.
Around this time, two members inherited a
great deal of money, which they turned over
to Bo and Peep. They purchased houses
(“crafts” in their terminology) in Denver and