They were tragically misguided, says Proctor, 43, in believing a spaceship trailing a comet would take them to the "next level." Their bodies were found in nearby Rancho Santa Fe on March 26.
Proctor fears there could be more suicides with the coming millennium. That is why it is important to spread the truth.
And the truth, he says, is this: In 2001, a spacecraft will land on a raised Atlantis, and it will be followed by others that will land here, perhaps next to the eucalyptus tree to his right, the pepper tree to his left, or somewhere on these 67 acres owned by the Unarius Academy of Science.
In all, there will be 33 spacecraft, landing one on top of the other, each carrying 1,000 "space brothers," he says. More highly evolved than us, operating at a higher frequency, they will teach us the way to peace and harmony. They will speak from their experiences to end hatred and disease, and they will invite us to become a member of an interplanetary confederation.
Unarius, where Proctor is a student and teacher, is a "new life science" that has unveiled to him answers.
to life's quintessence - reasons to live, not die. Unarius, which stands for Universal Articulate Interdimensional Understanding of Science, was founded in 1954 by the late Ernest and Ruth Norman. The nonprofit group says it has nearly 5,000 members worldwide and that about 475,000 people have read its books or viewed its videos.
It is one of about three dozen UFO spiritual organizations in the country, said Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine and founder of the Skeptics Society.
They are, he said, the result of this culture's fascination with space and science fiction, and the mysterious reality that "it really is possible there could be external intelligence."
Unarius has been in the spotlight since the Heaven's Gate suicides. The media have come to their headquarters in El Cajon asking who they are and what they believe and if they might be the next to die in an attempt to reach a higher plane.
A few members of the community also have turned their attention to them. The day after the mass suicide, a window was broken at the school, and before it could be repaired, Christian literature was placed inside.
Proctor is caretaker of the Unarius 1969 Cadillac, with 472 cubic inches under the hood and a spaceship with blinking lights on its crown. "Welcome Your Space Brothers" is written on its sides.
As he drives down the winding road from the hillside and heads back to El Cajon, passersby honk and wave. Usually, he says, people are friendly and amused by the "Space Cad." But lately, he has been cautious.
"The other night when I was coming down to the center, I heard somebody holler, 'Why don't you go kill yourself,'" he said. "One of the students got a call from some religious church telling her, 'I feel sorry for you, and I hope you're saved.'"
The caller's sentiments were similar to the way Margie Proctor, William's mother in North Carolina, felt when she learned her son had accepted Unariun principles, which include reincarnation and clairvoyance, and when she learned that he believes he rode with Genghis Khan in a previous life.
"William was brought up the way we believe," she said, "with the King James Bible. When he started talking about all this, I was concerned that maybe he was being misled. ... I'll be honest, I thought it was a cult."