Embedded Files
Trigger Warning: Mass Murder, Suicide, Child Death, Racial Targeting
Typically, there are three types of cult leader. The first is the delusional martyr, as seen with Marshall Applewhite of Heaven’s Gate. The Heaven’s Gate Case is fascinating in that nearly 40 people were suffering from a shared psychosis which made them believe that if they committed suicide, they would “graduate the human evolutionary status” and board a spaceship hidden behind the Hale-Bopp comet. This resulted in a mass suicide in 1998 in which 39 people died, 18 men and 21 women. The second type of cult leader is the hard and fast narcissist, which is the category that Keith Raniere of NXIVM fits into. Raniere convinced members—most of which were women—that he could emotionally and spiritually heal them if they had sex with him. NXIVM posed as a self help program for those in need and in turn trapped the most vulnerable among us. The final type of cult leader is the preacher turned egomaniac. This is the box that Jim Jones most properly fits into, as he began as an actual preacher. However, his views soon turned extreme and he coerced his followers into many things, including sex, giving up their children to communal parenting, and even moving from Indiana to California and finally to Guyana.
There are some incredibly terrifying tactics that cult leaders use to trap their victims in their organizations. One which was famously used by Jim Jones was self incrimination. Jones would force members to write down their personal fears and mistakes, and then the church would shame them for it. Another tactic is public humiliation, which breaks down the walls of the mind and forces the new member to become more vulnerable. Cult leaders like to brainwash their victims, creating a blur between reality and the fantasy world they have been inducted into. Jones also used paranoia to control his followers, convincing them that the government and their families were out to get them. This pulled them further away from their loved ones, eventually leading them to believe in Jones’ preachings more and more. Jones would also speak through the loudspeakers in Jonestown at all hours of the day, so that his followers were never truly rid of him.
The Jonestown Massacre occurred on November 18th, 1978 in the jungle of Guyana. However, the People’s Temple was actually started years before by Jim Jones. Jones grew up in Indiana and had always been referred to as “a strange kid.” He kept odd animals as pets and often had funerals for them. He grew up during the Great Depression, and his family was deeply religious. During his childhood, he also read the works of both Karl Marx and Adolf Hitler, which shaped his extremist mindset. In 1951, he joined the Communist Party of Indiana. He also became a youth minister in church and used that power to promote communism to the next generation. Over time, Jones grew to hate the mindsets of those in his church, so in 1956 he bought his own church and named it “Wings of Deliverance.” Jones’ church was both pro communism and desegregated. It was renamed to “People’s Temple Full Gospel Church” and finally shortened to “the People’s Temple.” The church was praised by journalist Herb Caen, governor Jerry Brown, and even vice president Walter Mondale. Over the next decade, the temple amassed over 3000 members and moved from Indiana to California, and finally around a thousand members traveled all the way to the jungles of Guyana. The members built their new “socialist paradise” in this jungle and named it “the People’s Temple Agricultural Project,” unofficially calling it “Jonestown.” What they didn’t know was that Jones had restricted their visas, and they were now trapped in Guyana. Throughout the next few years, Jones claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, Vladimir Lenin, and a plethora of other political and religious figures. He also had armed guards, who would catch those attempting to escape and inject them with a cocktail of different sedatives. Jones’ most terrifying stunt, of course, was what he called his “white night rehearsals,” where he would tell his followers to drink Kool-Aid. Once they had consumed it, he would then claim that it was poisoned. After the panic eventually died down and the people did not die, he would tell his followers that it had all been a test. This happened often, but on November 18th, 1978, it was no longer just a rehearsal. Earlier that day, a group of around 20 people had planned to escape with a journalist on a small plane. However, they were stopped and killed by a group of armed men. Once they were dead, Jones gathered his followers in the temple and began to preach about a “revolutionary suicide” and how they would “die with pride.” He then forced his followers to drink grape-flavored Kool-Aid, which had been laced with cyanide, valium, phenergan, and chlorohydrate. Throughout the period in which the people began to die, Jones continued to preach, framing it as an act of peace, that it was dying with dignity, and telling them that it was the only option. Jones, however, did not drink his concoction; he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
On that day, 912 people died in Jonestown. Some were shot, others died from the poisoned Kool-Aid they ingested, and still others were injected with poison. Around a third of the people who died were under the age of 18, children, fed the poison by their parents because there was nothing else they could do. Only 87 people survived, some by hiding, some by playing dead, and one woman even slept through the whole thing and woke up to find everyone she loved was just another body among the piles in the streets. Most bodies in Jonestown remained unclaimed and unidentified, and were subsequently buried in a mass grave in California. Still, there are some staggering statistics involving the demographics of Jonestown. In this particular graph, the racial demographic is shown—nearly 70% of Jonestown was Black. This shows the possibility that Jim Jones was specifically targeting people of color because they are a minority that is extremely maltreated in everyday society, especially at this time. Jones took advantage of his own personal beliefs and used them to take advantage of this specific group of people, because he knew he would be more than able to. The next graph shows the gender demographic between male and female cult members. Jim Jones not only had an odd relationship with the men in his cult in which he believed that every man but himself was a homosexual, but he also took advantage of many of the women in Jonestown.
Over half of the people in Jonestown were female, which could point to the idea that Jim Jones was specifically targeting girls and women. Looking at the first graph as well, it is also clear that he was most likely targeting women of color, as they are extremely at risk based on societal norms. The deceased demographic of Jonestown was roughly 65% female, which makes sense based on the basic gender demographic. However, the survival rate (where n=87) is almost 60% male, which is a huge outlier compared to the actual number of women in Jonestown. Although around 70% of the cult was female, the vast majority of survivors were male. Black people were also disproportionately affected by the massacre—whilst a whopping 68% of Jonestown was Black, Black people only made up around 49% of survivors. About 45% were white and the rest had no identified race. These numbers don’t make any sense based on the racial demographic of Jonestown, as they should reflect the same proportions from the first graph. Finally, the most staggering statistic of all is perhaps the most simple—the proportion of the deceased vs the survivors. On that day, over 90% of the population of Jonestown died; ⅓ of them were children. Just over 400 of the dead were under the age of twenty. It was a devastating day with lasting consequences not only for everyone involved, but also the rest of the world. Seeing what one man was capable of truly changed the way people think about cults and their impact. There are many reasons why someone would join and stay in a cult. Many people simply join to have some place to belong. Cult leaders are master manipulators and know who to target and how to target them. They take advantage of those with low self esteem, as they may be looking for something to believe in other than themselves. Because they typically have lower self-esteem, as they are heavily impacted by societal norms and cultures, women are more vulnerable when it comes to cults. Nearly 70% of all cult members are female. Cult leaders are against critical thinking, and don’t allow doubt within and towards their organization, so many cult members develop something called cognitive dissonance. This means that they want to leave, but feel obligated to stay. This stunts their psychological and emotional growth, which also bars them from leaving. Contrary to popular belief, people with higher education are also more susceptible to cults. Sometimes the people who claim that they would never join a cult are the most vulnerable of all.
Many people are unsure of how to stop the spread and impact of cults. It’s difficult to get information on cults, so it is difficult to make plans on how to keep them in check. However, we need to keep something like the Jonestown tragedy from happening again; we must learn from past mistakes and push for a better and safer future. The most important thing we can do is to educate ourselves and those around us about the dire consequences of cultism in our society. If people know what to look out for both in people and organizations, then they will be far less at risk. The main goal is for something this drastic to never happen again, but it will continue to happen as long as people are susceptible to the lies of narcissistic, delusional leaders like Jim Jones.
Overall, cults are still a terrifying mystery. However, the Jonestown Massacre gives us a small window into the lives of those within cults and those who lead them. They are led by people who prey on people’s insecurities, especially those of women and people of color. These leaders find ways to separate their victims from their families and the rest of society using a variety of tactics. They can convince their followers to do anything they want—with Charles Manson, it was murder; with NXIVM, it was sex; and with Jim Jones, it was the largest mass suicide in American history. This tragedy should never be forgotten—it should push us to protect ourselves and those at risk.
By Eleanor Black
Roosevelt High School
Published September 19, 2023
Report abuse