But why would we possibly care about a cult? “Why would this topic matter to us? Only crazy people would join cults,” some of you may think. Well, understanding a cult does matter, and you will know why. You will find that the followers of these so-called “gods” are not very crazy after all.
According to Rick Ross, one major destructive cult of the past would be Jonestown, run by a leader named Jim Jones. Jones claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus, Buddha, And Vladimir Lenin. He later lead 913 of his followers to their death in 1978. According to Jan Groenvield, Jones was born in Indiana on May 13,1931. He was just like the average child until around 3rd and 4th grade, when he started to read books at the 6th and 7th grade level. He was also able to attract the other students in his class and control them by entertaining them, while maintaining a hold on them at the same time.
During the month of June in 1952, Jones accepted a position as a student pastor at the Somerset Methodist Church in Indianapolis, where he later became a reverend. Jones wanted more than anything to buy and build an establishment. He tried just about everything to obtain money, even selling monkeys for $29 each. Finally, in 1955, Jones and his first followers formed “The Wings of Deliverance,” which was later changed to “The People's Temple.” There were many social services provided by “The People's Temple,” one of which included a free restaurant and social service center in the Temple's basement. The population of Jones's followers then grew enormously fast.
IN 1965, Jones and around 70 of his followers relocated to Ukiah in Mendocino County. Jones and around 300 of his followers located to Guyana, where Jones promised a town of peace. They then named their town Jonestown. According to Deborah Layton, there were around 1,100 followers in Jonestown at the time when a group of congressmen heard that some people in Jonestown were wanting to leave but were being kept there against their will. The group then later flew to Jonestown to investigate. On their first day there everyone seemed happy to be in Jonestown and nothing seemed to be wrong. But the second day around 7 people came to Congressman Leo Ryan and told him they were being kept against their will. The congressmen then arranged for two planes to come to fly them back to the United States. Congressman Ryan was going to stay to investigate further problems in Jonestown, but was soon attacked by the People's Temple member Don Sly with a knife.
The congressmen and some of the citizens of the People's Temple were getting on board the plane to leave, when a group of men suddenly came from behind a tractor and opened gunfire on them. When the men with guns left, there were 5 people, including Congressman Ryan, dead. There were 5 others, including Deborah Layton, injured. According to Rick Ross, a short while later there was an announcement in Jonestown by Jim Jones that said all people should hurry and meet in the center of Jonestown. He said that Jonestown was no longer a place of peace and that they must go to the peace by drinking the “Kool-aid,” which was cyanide-laced poison. They first started with the children. He claimed that they weren't crying because of the pain of death, but only crying because of the bitter taste. There was a “security squad” whose job had been to force the others to drink the poison by aiming a gun at them.
Those who didn't drink were shot. Some attempted to hold the poison in their mouths until everyone was dead but the poison was too strong and would dissolve on their tongue and would still kill them. After the deaths Jim Jones either shot himself or another person shot him at point-blank range. Stephan Jones, one of Jim Jones's sons, survived because he was playing basketball against the Guyanese nation team in Georgetown at the time. Stephan Jones stated, “If the members of the temple had a choice, maybe 20 would've chosen to take their lives.” There government stated that “Jim Jones very professionally manipulated his followers.” Around 120 people survived Jonestown. Some of them acted like they were dead and stayed on the ground until everyone else was dead. A couple others ran into the jungle and made it out alive.
Another destructive cult was called Heaven's Gate, where 39 people killed themselves on March 26, 1997. The leader of the Heaven's Gate Cult was Marshall Applewhite. The followers of the Heaven's Gate believed that they were shedding their earthly “Containers” to catch a ride on a spaceship trailing the Hale-Bopp Comet. They all killed themselves on free will.
In my opinion, cults should be watched for and should be taken seriously and not just be put aside. There probably will be more cases like this in the future. There are very good manipulators out there in the world. It only takes one to kill many. Jim Jones was very smart, and found out about many specific problems and needs that people had, and he used that information to convince them to join the cult, making them believe that they'd live a better life there. At the time, many black people joined because he promised them a land free of racism, which was a major problem at the time. Hopefully, next time something like this happen we will be ready t take action.
