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This control proved tenacious, even in the face of ideological stagnation and disappointment. "Do and Ti had repeated things for so long," says Sawyer (he refuses to give his real name), later a high-ranking member of the organization. "There was frustration. We had even waited for a craft to pick us up on several dates, and it didn't happen. Ti and Do both had a lot of depression over that." Then in 1985 came a reformulation of tenets. "In the early days," says Theo Althuiszes, who joined and left the cult twice, "Ti had the real control. Do looked to her for guidance." At first the group believed that when believers "advanced to the next level," they took their human bodies with them. But when Ti died, says Althuiszes, Do "had to reinvent everything." Soon there emerged the doctrine of spiritual graduation into extraterrestrial vehicles, with souls transferrable from one physical container to another. Between 1991 and 1993, Do slowly became the incarnation of Jesus. "He was very hesitant to claim that," says Sawyer. But by 1994 the group had posters proclaiming Ti the Father and Do the Son.
Castration was first discussed in 1987 merely as "think-tank material," a next step that Do did not plan to impose on all male members. He was fearful, says Sawyer, that "someone would leave and tell people and he'd be blamed." Eventually, Sawyer and another cultist, Steven McCarter, who died in Rancho Santa Fe, pressed Do to begin the castrations. Says Sawyer: "I wanted to do it. I was very much in favor of it. It was me and Steve. We flipped a coin to decide who would go first. He won the toss." The surgery took place in Mexico. "It was very traumatic for Do. He was not sure it was right." Coroners, however, reported that Applewhite was among eight castrated males found at Rancho Santa Fe. (Sawyer, who decided against castration and subsequently left the cult in September 1994, is now an expectant father.)
The '80s brought prosperity to the group. Two members inherited about $300,000, allowing the cult to rent houses, called "crafts," in Denver and later the Dallas-Fort Worth region. (In the Rancho Santa Fe area, the group appears to have rented two different crafts.) Thus Applewhite had enough assets to initiate the cult's last great recruitment drive, on New Year's Day 1994. An estate sale was held at the Escondido mansion, raising money to buy four vans and gear to tour the country.
By August the number of believers had doubled, to about 50--and suicide had arisen as an option. At a hotel meeting room near Worcester, Massachusetts, Do met with his disciples to reflect on the matter. Says Sawyer: "It was mentioned that we should not discount the possibility that the Next Level is not going to pick us up and we'll have to be the ones to leave our vehicles behind." He adds, "I felt a sense of life preservation. I felt like I wanted to live." The separation was swift, as it had always been when a disciple chose to leave or was expelled. Do gave Sawyer $600 and a plane ticket to Phoenix, Arizona.