International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 9, 2018 7
switches, which in turn were replaced by the
‘board of education,’ a long, hard piece of wood,
swung by 250-pound [disciplinarian].”
74F
75
Sparked by reports of mistreatment in
Jonestown, in 1978, U.S. Congressmen, Senator
Leo Ryan, and members of the press visited the
compound.
75F
76 They sensed something was
desperately wrong when they received messages
from adherents.
76F
77 Fearing that he was losing
control over his followers, Jones set in motion a
mass murder and suicide.
77F
78
The entourage was making its attempt to leave
when they were gunned down on the airstrip at
Jones’ command.
78F
79 Moments later, Jones
75 Id. at 11.
76 See WOODEN, supra note 72, at 150−55. Jonestown members
complained to Jones of jungle work camp conditions. As Robin D.
Willey explains:
Indeed, working and living conditions were harsh, and so
were many of the group-enforced social practices, which
often involved child abuse, humiliation, harsh punishments
for misbehavior, and isolation Eventually, a number of
people who were hostile to Jones and Jonestown and who
had relatives in the commune formed a group called the
Concerned Relatives. The purpose of this group was to
raise awareness of the plight of those people who were with
Jones. This effort resulted in a government-sponsored fact-
finding mission to Jonestown in November 1978.
Congressman Leo J. Ryan ...led this mission, and several
members of the media accompanied him. The efforts of the
Concerned Relatives played into Jones’ paranoia of
infringement from the outside.
Robin D. Willey, Religion, Revisionists, and Revolutionary
Suicide: A Marxist Framework for the Rise and Fall of Communal
Religious Groups, 4 INT’L J. CULTIC STUD. 44−59 (2013).
77 WOODEN, supra note 72.
78 Id. at 159−60.
After murdering the congressman and some of his
entourage, Jones proclaimed that it was time for his people
to “die with dignity” it was time for “revolutionary
suicide.” On November 18, 1978, more than nine hundred
Jonestown residents drank or were forcibly injected with
cyanide-laced Flavor-Aid in “protest” of what Jones
believed was going to happen to them.
Willey, supra note 74.
79 See Violent Outcomes, supra note 1, at 287 Decoding the Past:
Cults Dangerous Devotion (History Channel television broadcast
July 18, 2015) [hereinafter Decoding the Past]. Explained in more
detail:
[A] group of [Jones’s] guards had attacked the US senator
Leo Ryan and a group of family members of the disciples,
along with journalists who had accompanied Ryan on his
visit to the headquarters of the cult to check on the
condition of the disciples. Just as they were about to get on
the plane to fly home, almost all of them were murdered.
ordered his followers to drink a lethal substance,
killing over 900 people, 276 of whom were
children, administered poison by their
mothers.
79F
80
Sexual and physical abuse, prevalent in
destructive cults, reinforces undue influence,
fear, and paranoia among followers. Often,
beatings are publicly displayed for other
members to see as a lesson of what would
happen should they be disobedient.
80F
81 For
instance, Children of God (“The Family”) leader
David Berg sexually and physically abused his
granddaughter, Merry, at a young age.
81F
82
Beginning at age seven she was forced to
perform sexual acts with her grandfather.
82F
83
When Merry doubted her “faith” as a young
teenager, she was subjected to violent exorcisms
involving being spanked with paddles and
beaten with rods.
83F
84 Later, Merry testified in
court that “[i]t all felt like torture and once I
fainted, throwing up. They said I was throwing
up demons. The exorcising terrified me.”
84F
85
The Family created camps around the world for
problem teenagers. These camps were called
“Teen Training Camps” and “Victor Camps.”
Teenagers endured public beatings, coerced
calisthenics, and other atrocities.
85F
86
These atrocities shape the adherents’ minds to
submission and control by the destructive cult.
86F
87
The individual is no longer the former self, but a
different self.
87F
88 However, the theory of mind
Alvaro Rodriguez-Carballeira et al., A Psychosocial Analysis of the
Terrorist Group as a Cult, 1 INT’L J. CULTIC STUD. 49−60 (2010).
80 See Langone, Responding to Jihadism: A Cultic Studies
Perspective, 5 CULTIC STUD. REV. 268, 282 (2006) [hereinafter
Jihadism] Violent Outcomes, supra note 1, at 287 Decoding the
Past, supra note 77.
81 See Perry Bulwer, A Response to James D. Chancellor’s ‘Life
in the Family: An Oral History of the Children of God,’ 6 CULTIC
STUD. REV. 101, 124 (2007).
82 See id. at 124.
83 Id.
84 Id. at 125.
85 Id. (quoting Merry).
86 See Stephen A. Kent &Deana Hall, Brainwashing &Re-
Indoctrination Programs in the Children of God, 17 CULTIC STUD.
J. 56 (2000).
87 HASSAN, supra note 55, at 80−81.
88 Id.
switches, which in turn were replaced by the
‘board of education,’ a long, hard piece of wood,
swung by 250-pound [disciplinarian].”
74F
75
Sparked by reports of mistreatment in
Jonestown, in 1978, U.S. Congressmen, Senator
Leo Ryan, and members of the press visited the
compound.
75F
76 They sensed something was
desperately wrong when they received messages
from adherents.
76F
77 Fearing that he was losing
control over his followers, Jones set in motion a
mass murder and suicide.
77F
78
The entourage was making its attempt to leave
when they were gunned down on the airstrip at
Jones’ command.
78F
79 Moments later, Jones
75 Id. at 11.
76 See WOODEN, supra note 72, at 150−55. Jonestown members
complained to Jones of jungle work camp conditions. As Robin D.
Willey explains:
Indeed, working and living conditions were harsh, and so
were many of the group-enforced social practices, which
often involved child abuse, humiliation, harsh punishments
for misbehavior, and isolation Eventually, a number of
people who were hostile to Jones and Jonestown and who
had relatives in the commune formed a group called the
Concerned Relatives. The purpose of this group was to
raise awareness of the plight of those people who were with
Jones. This effort resulted in a government-sponsored fact-
finding mission to Jonestown in November 1978.
Congressman Leo J. Ryan ...led this mission, and several
members of the media accompanied him. The efforts of the
Concerned Relatives played into Jones’ paranoia of
infringement from the outside.
Robin D. Willey, Religion, Revisionists, and Revolutionary
Suicide: A Marxist Framework for the Rise and Fall of Communal
Religious Groups, 4 INT’L J. CULTIC STUD. 44−59 (2013).
77 WOODEN, supra note 72.
78 Id. at 159−60.
After murdering the congressman and some of his
entourage, Jones proclaimed that it was time for his people
to “die with dignity” it was time for “revolutionary
suicide.” On November 18, 1978, more than nine hundred
Jonestown residents drank or were forcibly injected with
cyanide-laced Flavor-Aid in “protest” of what Jones
believed was going to happen to them.
Willey, supra note 74.
79 See Violent Outcomes, supra note 1, at 287 Decoding the Past:
Cults Dangerous Devotion (History Channel television broadcast
July 18, 2015) [hereinafter Decoding the Past]. Explained in more
detail:
[A] group of [Jones’s] guards had attacked the US senator
Leo Ryan and a group of family members of the disciples,
along with journalists who had accompanied Ryan on his
visit to the headquarters of the cult to check on the
condition of the disciples. Just as they were about to get on
the plane to fly home, almost all of them were murdered.
ordered his followers to drink a lethal substance,
killing over 900 people, 276 of whom were
children, administered poison by their
mothers.
79F
80
Sexual and physical abuse, prevalent in
destructive cults, reinforces undue influence,
fear, and paranoia among followers. Often,
beatings are publicly displayed for other
members to see as a lesson of what would
happen should they be disobedient.
80F
81 For
instance, Children of God (“The Family”) leader
David Berg sexually and physically abused his
granddaughter, Merry, at a young age.
81F
82
Beginning at age seven she was forced to
perform sexual acts with her grandfather.
82F
83
When Merry doubted her “faith” as a young
teenager, she was subjected to violent exorcisms
involving being spanked with paddles and
beaten with rods.
83F
84 Later, Merry testified in
court that “[i]t all felt like torture and once I
fainted, throwing up. They said I was throwing
up demons. The exorcising terrified me.”
84F
85
The Family created camps around the world for
problem teenagers. These camps were called
“Teen Training Camps” and “Victor Camps.”
Teenagers endured public beatings, coerced
calisthenics, and other atrocities.
85F
86
These atrocities shape the adherents’ minds to
submission and control by the destructive cult.
86F
87
The individual is no longer the former self, but a
different self.
87F
88 However, the theory of mind
Alvaro Rodriguez-Carballeira et al., A Psychosocial Analysis of the
Terrorist Group as a Cult, 1 INT’L J. CULTIC STUD. 49−60 (2010).
80 See Langone, Responding to Jihadism: A Cultic Studies
Perspective, 5 CULTIC STUD. REV. 268, 282 (2006) [hereinafter
Jihadism] Violent Outcomes, supra note 1, at 287 Decoding the
Past, supra note 77.
81 See Perry Bulwer, A Response to James D. Chancellor’s ‘Life
in the Family: An Oral History of the Children of God,’ 6 CULTIC
STUD. REV. 101, 124 (2007).
82 See id. at 124.
83 Id.
84 Id. at 125.
85 Id. (quoting Merry).
86 See Stephen A. Kent &Deana Hall, Brainwashing &Re-
Indoctrination Programs in the Children of God, 17 CULTIC STUD.
J. 56 (2000).
87 HASSAN, supra note 55, at 80−81.
88 Id.
