 After Applewhite 's release , he traveled to California and Oregon with Nettles , eventually gaining a group of committed followers . Applewhite and Nettles told their followers that they would be visited by extraterrestrials who would provide them with new bodies . Applewhite initially stated that he and his followers would physically ascend to a spaceship , where their bodies would be transformed , but later , he came to believe that their bodies were the mere containers of their souls , which would later be placed into new bodies . These ideas were expressed with language drawn from Christian <unk> , the New Age movement , and American popular culture . 
