Death is but a doorway. That's an idea that many people find hopeful, positive, whether

it's the revolving door of reincarnation spiraling the soul upward toward the God realization

of enlightenment, or the promise of eternal bliss on an otherworldly plane.

The concept of an afterlife, enjoyed as the immaterial soul which animates this temporary

body, has almost universal appeal. But there's a dark side to this pleasant notion of transcending

death. Think of the 39 bodies found at that Rancho Santa Fe mansion 20 miles north of San Diego

in 1997, reclining on their bunk beds in uniform black

Nikes, sporting unisex bowl haircuts with ceremonial purple fabric draped over their bodies and faces?

The Heaven's Gate, faithful, believed the day had come to leave their earth suits and ascend to

the mothership literally riding behind the tail of the hail-bop comet visible in the sky.

The key they were told would open the door to the Great Beyond was a deadly mixture of drugs,

stirred into the pudding or apple sauce that they each dutifully swallowed like it was a holy sacrament.

All it did was tragically closed the door on their real lives

and any possibility of future love and happiness. In this way, they echoed the actions of the

much larger group of Americans some 20 years previous who had followed their preacher Jim Jones

to a remote settlement in the South American British colony of Guyana. There, having fled negative publicity in Indianapolis, and then more of the same, plus

potential criminal charges in California, the People's Temple relocated in late 1973.

Just five years later, all 913 members, including 304 children, 105 of whom were younger than 10, all died in the mass

suicide ritual of drinking poisoned flavorade juice mix. It wasn't Kool-Aid, it was flavorade.

Beyond the inner circle and their tragic end, Jones had also fooled many others during his rise.

He had wrapped himself in the robes of a socialist

Christianity and drawn a congregation made up of at least 80% African Americans with his fake faith

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