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Nettles attended drama classes that Applewhite taught in Houston; she drew up his astrological charts and channeled her spirit adviser "Brother Francis" for guidance. In 1972 she helped him start the Christian Arts Center, a protocult that taught astrology and metaphysics. Applewhite had always been intense and charming. Now he became charismatic. Says Terrie Nettles: "I felt like I was in the presence of an incredible human being. It was like I was being uplifted." She adds, "I felt privileged to be with my mother and Herff. I was the only one who could talk with them together. Their followers had to talk to them in groups, not individually." By 1973 Applewhite and Nettles were convinced they were the Two Witnesses prophesied by Revelation to prepare the way for the kingdom of heaven. They traveled around the country, and Nettles wrote her daughter, "I'm not saying we are Jesus. It is nothing as beautiful but it is almost as big...We have found out, baby, we have this mission before coming into this life...All I will say is it's in the Bible in Revelation."
Then, in 1975, Bonnie Nettles told Terrie that she and Applewhite were leaving Houston permanently. "They felt like they had a mission and God was leading them and she would keep in touch with me. I never suspected that she would be gone that long." Mother and daughter never saw each other again. Applewhite severed all ties to his family. Says his sister Louise: "He hurt his family and children very deeply."
Nettles and Applewhite set up shop in Los Angeles with their cosmology of Jesus and UFOs. In the beginning, Applewhite and Nettles called their group Guinea Pig, with Nettles being "Guinea" and Applewhite being "Pig." Very soon, however, the group was called Human Individual Metamorphosis, and Applewhite was "Bo" and Nettles "Peep"--a reference to their roles as shepherds. They were then called "Him" and "Her" and finally the musical "Do" and "Ti."
The early days of the cult were a far cry from the well-organized, high-tech Rancho Santa Fe operation. Applewhite and Nettles, who did odd jobs to support themselves, were arrested in Harlingen, Texas, for stealing gasoline credit cards, a charge that was later dropped. Applewhite then spent months shuttling from state to state in a confusing legal tangle over a car. During this period, he wrote his first spiritual manifesto. Applewhite and Nettles also had a brush with a comet. Stranded with a broken-down car in St. Louis, Missouri, they comforted themselves with the thought that "God would provide the means," and on the same night comet Kohoutek appeared.
But they continued to preach with a passion, persuading followers to renounce their families, sex and drugs and to pool their money with promises of a voyage to salvation on a spaceship. A poster for an appearance at Canada College, in Redwood City, California, read, "If you have ever entertained the idea that there may be a real, physical level beyond the Earth's confines, you will want to attend this meeting." The auditorium was packed.