MattOrchard
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Full Interview with Sawyer (Heaven's Gate Adherent and Former Class Member)
🕑 Added 2022-06-09 18:51:00 +0000 UTCHere's a one and a half hour (plus) interview I did with Sawyer from Heaven's Gate while I was researching and writing The Weird World of Cults. Personally I'm quite proud of it as an example of "open interviewing." You sometimes get the most interesting stuff out of people when rather than challenging them, you just follow up and get as much clarification as you can.
Sawyer and his partner Cathy have a channel where they discuss their beliefs and comment on HG tapes which you can check out here: https://www.youtube.com/c/3spmSwy
If you do go and say hi, make sure to BE NICE! They may look at the world very, very differently but they took the time to answer questions and explain their beliefs as best they could, even though they knew the final product wasn't going to be pro HG. I really appreciate them for that, and it'd be great if you let them know you do too.
Comments
Ergot
Interesting addition to the doc. Thanks to sawyer for being so open.
Ergot
This kneel comment is unnecessary and unoriginal . The weed joke is so square it is putting me in full on cringe. Haha?
Skyler Stanley
Or don't smoke *enough* weed before we get to his age
Faster River
You know Matt is a real g cus he doesn’t even flaunt this extra content on the YouTube
kneeL
Haha this guy is a looney. Is this what happens to any of us if we smoke too much weed before we get to his age?
Katie
I really ended up liking (sympathizing with?) Sawyer during the HBO documentary. It’s really cool you interviewed him!
Christine
I think you were very fair and courteous; it was an interesting interview. Thank you for all your work.
Matt Orchard
Haven't heard from them. I told them upfront it wasn't going to be pro HG and sent them the script to provide any feedback (Sawyer did give extensive notes, a few of which resulted in minor changes) so they got the jist of what it was going to be and obviously hardly co-sign my interpretations of the group. Again, I appreciate them being "good sports" on that. Fun story: I also corresponded with the webmasters that run the HG website and also did them the courtesy of sending them the script in advance, Let's just say they were...less benevolent.
Christine
Have they seen the finished piece? If so, did they have any comment on how it turned out?
