The recent group suicide in San Diego raises a number of issues that are worth addressing.

I have been favorably impressed by the news coverage in the first day after the event. There does seem to be a genuine desire to come to grips with the event, apart from the expected defensive posture and narrow focus from many of the observers.

Any dramatic deviant behavior on the part of a group brings attention to the fragility of the social fabric. Each observer has to wonder what lines have been crossed and how easy it is to fall off any one of the many edges of our social world.

What was the significance of this act for the participants? Was is undertaken out of desperation, protest, celebration or what? Was being prone to suicide something that these people brought to the group, or did it only emerge out of the group dynamic?

Part of the significance for the Aquarium is the dualistic metaphysics signified by this act. We could blame Heaven's Gate on Rene Descartes, who introduced the mind-matter dichotomy to the modern world. These people thought they had to "shed their containers" to reach their "higher source." This is the old Gnostic dualism reduced to its modern absurdity.

From an immaterialist point of view, the body is much more of a vehicle and facilitator of the "soul" than it is a container or obstacle. The entire world is a construct of consciousness. The fate of humanity and the world are inseparable. Our destiny lies in the eschaton and our successful navigation of that cosmic connection. Where we are now is where all the action is. Leaving prematurely is at worst a tremendous waste, and at best a very minor side show in the much bigger drama.

Without the proper "vehicle," the eschatological transformation of humanity and the world will simply not be experienced -- too bad for the non-participants.

There will be more acts like this one, and they will help to focus public attention onto the larger questions and events. But such acts can also be distracting and confusing to the public. Repetition will quickly produce a jaded audience.

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rev. 3/28/97