Editing Luke Helder (section)

== Personality, writings and theories ==
[[File:Helder.jpg|right|thumb|150px|Helder performing with Apathy in his hometown of [[Pine Island, Minnesota]]]]
Helder was not at the top of his college class, but his professors described him as a reasonably good, quiet and polite student, and at first there was confusion as to what the motivation for the bombings could be.<ref name = "time001"/> Family, friends, and many acquaintances referred to Helder as normal and without a propensity to hurt people.<ref name="apn8">{{cite news|url=https://apnews.com/article/354ed899b70ad245331a1dfac4097eee|title=Pipe Bomb Suspect Is Described|date=May 8, 2002|work=AP News|access-date=12 June 2021}}</ref><ref name="times9">{{cite news|url=https://nytimes.com/2002/05/09/us/bomb-suspect-gave-few-hints-of-violent-plan.html|title=Bomb Suspect Gave Few Hints Of Violent Plan|date=May 9, 2002|work=The New York Times|access-date=12 June 2021}}</ref> But his roommate noted that Helder had recently become obsessed with death, had begun smoking [[marijuana]],<ref name="apn8"/> and had been reciting extended monologues about his new spiritual beliefs to his friends (which they had mostly "laughed off").<ref name="times9"/>

Within the year prior to his arrest, Helder had become passionate about [[astral projection]] techniques and came to believe that death of the flesh and body is not the end of existence, as evidenced by the [[manifesto]] he sent to ''[[The Badger Herald]]'' of the [[University of Wisconsin&ndash;Madison]] at the beginning of the bombing spree.<ref name = "time001"/> The essay also includes statements such as <blockquote>"I'm taking very drastic measure in attempt to provide this information to you... I will die/change in the end for this, but that's ok, hahaha paradise awaits! I'm dismissing a few individuals from reality, to change all of you for the better"<ref name="man001">{{cite news|url=http://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/luke-helder-manifesto|title=Pipe Bomb Suspect's Grungy Past|date=May 7, 2002|work=The Smoking Gun|access-date=21 March 2018|archive-date=22 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322020027/http://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/luke-helder-manifesto|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="bad001">Lagorio, Christine. "News Analysis: Newspapers receipt of shady mail a daily occurrence." ''The Badger Herald'' May 10, 2002</ref></blockquote>

Notes attached to the bombs denounced [[government]] control over daily lives, denied that anyone who had died was really dead, and promised more of the same kind of message.<ref name="time001" />