Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 8, No. 3, 2009, Page 33
We do know that dissidents were often sedated (heavily drugged against their will) and
confined to an ―extensive care unit.‖
We do know that children, as well as male and female adults, were physically and/or
sexually abused.
We do know that Jones had a highly functioning leadership body and medical entourage who
kept him going and were instrumental in administering the poison on that last day, the ones
who carried out Jones‘s final call for what he labeled ―Revolutionary Suicide.‖
There was no exit for anyone who doubted or challenged the directive. The residents of the
Jonestown commune were doomed. As they watched the children being forcefully injected
first with the lethal mixture of cyanide and fruit drink, the adults could ―choose‖ afterward
to poison themselves. Should one even have had the wherewithal to resist, he or she was
threatened at gunpoint by a security squad made up of fellow parishioners. This larger-
than-life incident is a hideous illustration of what I refer to as ―bounded choice.‖3
Horrific grisly pictures flooded the airwaves. I remember seeing them on TV while I was in a
cult myself. One hard-core true believer—me—seeing the bloated, decomposing corpses of
hundreds of other true believers piled one atop another. It was shocking.
Most of these people were from San Francisco, where I was living at the time. The Peoples
Temple church building was in one of the very districts where I had walked hundreds of
times, organizing and recruiting, selling my cult‘s newspaper, getting petitions signed, and
even doing fundraising among the poor folk who lived in that neighborhood. Some of those
same African American ladies who held quilting bees to create and donate beautiful pieces
of work for our so-called political efforts may well have gone to Guyana and died in that
jungle.
While the images of the dead were endlessly visible on TV, and in newspapers and
magazines, my cult‘s newspaper ran a lengthy editorial in which our leader extolled Jones,
his followers, and their socialist mission and vision. We understood why they did what they
did, my leader wrote. We too lived in the belly of the beast and knew the desire to flee to a
better land. Of course, that editorial was a superficial, knee-jerk sympathetic analysis—one
cult leader defending another. And not for the first time. Over the years we‘ve seen some
strange bedfellows: various far-flung groups with opposing ideologies and goals coming
together to join forces—in PR campaigns, legal battles, and so on.
So, what have we learned?
Do some cults induce their members to commit suicide?
Yes, but not often. Nonetheless, as much as we know that not every cult will go the way of
Jonestown, we also know that one or two will in fact, one or two or more have since then.
Should we consider these acts of induced suicide as murder?
Yes, I think so.
If you have any doubts as to the control mechanisms at play, listen to this excerpt from a
letter written to Jones by one of his inner-circle nurses. She is proposing how the end will
take place:
Dad... The very people who resist Revolutionary Suicide because they want to
save their asses would make excellent captives for the enemy... Though the
strongest might kill themselves before being taken, the weakest—no matter
what they might say in public meetings—would not kill themselves and would
be the first to talk.
We do know that dissidents were often sedated (heavily drugged against their will) and
confined to an ―extensive care unit.‖
We do know that children, as well as male and female adults, were physically and/or
sexually abused.
We do know that Jones had a highly functioning leadership body and medical entourage who
kept him going and were instrumental in administering the poison on that last day, the ones
who carried out Jones‘s final call for what he labeled ―Revolutionary Suicide.‖
There was no exit for anyone who doubted or challenged the directive. The residents of the
Jonestown commune were doomed. As they watched the children being forcefully injected
first with the lethal mixture of cyanide and fruit drink, the adults could ―choose‖ afterward
to poison themselves. Should one even have had the wherewithal to resist, he or she was
threatened at gunpoint by a security squad made up of fellow parishioners. This larger-
than-life incident is a hideous illustration of what I refer to as ―bounded choice.‖3
Horrific grisly pictures flooded the airwaves. I remember seeing them on TV while I was in a
cult myself. One hard-core true believer—me—seeing the bloated, decomposing corpses of
hundreds of other true believers piled one atop another. It was shocking.
Most of these people were from San Francisco, where I was living at the time. The Peoples
Temple church building was in one of the very districts where I had walked hundreds of
times, organizing and recruiting, selling my cult‘s newspaper, getting petitions signed, and
even doing fundraising among the poor folk who lived in that neighborhood. Some of those
same African American ladies who held quilting bees to create and donate beautiful pieces
of work for our so-called political efforts may well have gone to Guyana and died in that
jungle.
While the images of the dead were endlessly visible on TV, and in newspapers and
magazines, my cult‘s newspaper ran a lengthy editorial in which our leader extolled Jones,
his followers, and their socialist mission and vision. We understood why they did what they
did, my leader wrote. We too lived in the belly of the beast and knew the desire to flee to a
better land. Of course, that editorial was a superficial, knee-jerk sympathetic analysis—one
cult leader defending another. And not for the first time. Over the years we‘ve seen some
strange bedfellows: various far-flung groups with opposing ideologies and goals coming
together to join forces—in PR campaigns, legal battles, and so on.
So, what have we learned?
Do some cults induce their members to commit suicide?
Yes, but not often. Nonetheless, as much as we know that not every cult will go the way of
Jonestown, we also know that one or two will in fact, one or two or more have since then.
Should we consider these acts of induced suicide as murder?
Yes, I think so.
If you have any doubts as to the control mechanisms at play, listen to this excerpt from a
letter written to Jones by one of his inner-circle nurses. She is proposing how the end will
take place:
Dad... The very people who resist Revolutionary Suicide because they want to
save their asses would make excellent captives for the enemy... Though the
strongest might kill themselves before being taken, the weakest—no matter
what they might say in public meetings—would not kill themselves and would
be the first to talk.
