Why did this unlikely mix of businessmen, mothers, students and computer jocks (the group earned much of its income as Web-page designers) eat a phenobarbital pudding, put plastic bags over their heads and die? To reach the Next Level, yes. But also, perhaps, to reach Earthlings. “They are laughing,” one former Heaven’s Gate member told NEWSWEEK. “They really wanted the whole world to know this information but couldn’t get it out. No one would listen. I think they would be happy.”
