Balch is best known for his studies of Heaven's Gate (with David Taylor), the Aryan Nations, and the Love Family.
Balch found a UFO flyer for Heaven's Gate at a Christian coffeehouse in Sedona, Arizona.
He called up graduate student David Taylor, asking him to drop everything and move with him to California.
He and Taylor joined Heaven's Gate for 3 months in the 1970s, traveling with the cult and secretly taking extensive notes on his experience before eventually leaving to go resume his life.
He held a reunion for surviving ex-members in the late 90s that included "Ti"'s daughter.