Cults Of The People 's Temple

When one hears of a cult, one thinks of organizations such as the Church of Scientology, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and small fanatical groups such as the Assembly of God. According to Robert J. Lofton, author of Letters to an Elder, there are two kinds of cults; those that use mind-control, and those that do not. Lofton describes eight characteristics of destructive mind-control cults, saying, “If any group exercises all eight of these control elements, they are, in fact a destructive mind control cult”. Lofton’s characteristics are ‘Environmental Control’, ‘Mystical Manipulation’, ‘Demand for Purity’, ‘Cult of Confession’, ‘Sacred Science’, ‘Loading the Language’, ‘Doctrine over Person’, and ‘Dispensing of Existence’. These eight

The word “Cult” has not always had such a negative connotation attached to it. Many religions would’ve been considered cults when they first began. By the end of the 19th century many visionaries had revealed radically new religious systems, claiming immunity to the impurities of the old ones (Powers, 1997). These were no more than a group of people organizing themselves in worship and devotion for a person, object, or movement. They practiced rituals different to other “mainstream” religions, and were therefore considered cults.

Like any other group there would be some rebels and Jones had support from almost the entire group to inflict some punishment, some include public homosexual humiliation, forced boxing matches between a much stronger opponent, being locked in confinement without food and water for 24 hours, and the list goes on. Members of the group knew that is they broke any of the rules great shame would be brought upon them and their families.

The history surrounding cults is not as simple as one might think. Cults raise a

The first step being the mental preparation and physical reenactment, also known as the “white nights”. The second and third step can be considered the investigation by the US government through congressman Leo Ryan and the Jonestown defects that tried to escape with Ryan. The last and final step would be the final speech given by Jones in the center pavilion where he encouraged his people to drink the poison, which seemed to be a way out of the inevitable government prosecution Jones would receive after assassinating Ryan and his party. After his convincing speech, about 900 people, including 276 children, took their lives by drinking poison. However, this “suicide” can be considered a murder because many of the people who died (the children) did not have a say and/or did not fully understand what was happening and why they were doing what they were doing. The future of Peoples Temple does not look prosperous at all, considering almost a thousand members took their life in Guyana and after the tragedy, the existing members in the United States formally disbanded and continued to live their life, but faced prejudice and

Ever since we were little, our parents, guardians, or even ourselves grew up to know the difference in between was would be considered peversive and what isn’t. Many people find it difficult to understand how people can be so devoted to a religion or something that can’t be scientifically proven, but the real question is how can a normal resident be allured by cults. A religious cult may be well known to us as a religious imposter who claims to lead the way to salvation and a lifespan of well being filled with blessings and free of the damnation a disease may bring, only because he or maybe even she may claim that he was sent from the heavens to the filthy earth. People who are believers in a omipitent kind believe this to be a ludicrous idea ,

Cultic activity has taken place since the practice of religion was established thousands of years ago. Since then, literally thousands of denominations have been inoculated throughout the world, especially in the United States. A cult, according to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary is a system of religious beliefs and rituals. By definition, this includes organizations such as Baptists, Catholics as well as Satanists and Witches. While this maybe true, cults have been popularly perceived as Separatists who are consumed by the belief of apocalyptic events, and the leader is someone who believes he or she is chosen by God or some other deity to lead those who are to follow him or her. One group that fits this description is the

On November 18, 1978, with the help of grape flavored Flavor-Aid, over 900 members of “The people’s temple” were killed in a mass suicide directed by leader Jim Jones. In the beginning Jones movement was one that helped the poor and needy but with a growing number of members, unflattering reports surfaced. With former members telling stories of having all belongings, homes, and even children being taken from them Jones was forced to move his congregation to Guyana where he promised to build a socialist utopia. However, Jones created a socialist government far from utopia. Members worked long hours, had phone calls or any communication censored, and harsh punishment was given to anyone who questioned Jones. After hearing about these living circumstances,

A cult, also known as a new religious movement, is defined as an exclusive group of individuals who come together to follow a leader's extreme ideas. A cult holds three general characteristics which include: being led by a charismatic leader, has radical beliefs and rituals compared to the norm, and isolates its members from their society to protect them from “evil”. The Unification Church, short for The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, is a cult that began in 1954 and was founded by Sun Myung Moon. Moon believed Jesus appeared to him when he was a teenager and told him he was carefully chosen to continue the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. He was told that Jesus himself had begun this mission before his death,

Cults are the groups that exhibit intense and unquestioning devotion to a single cause. All the group members have a same goal or mission, and the group thinking helps the group members to stick on the same goal. For the Heaven Gate, their goal is to enter the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom level above human. The documentary of “Heaven Gate Cult” perfectly shows the four ways for the cult to promote their group thinking.

The church of Scientology has been the subject of controversy since its inception. Its methods and beliefs have attracted the attention of scholars from around the world. The church has been under government investigation and has endured a countless amount of lawsuits (Reitman 14). It is also a hot topic by the media with several endorsements by some of the most recognized Hollywood celebrities. However, the main topic of debate regarding the Church of Scientology is its status as a religion. Some members claim that the church has helped them overcome their struggles and that they are happier people, while others condemn it as a dangerous cult (Sweeney). The church of Scientology is a religious group whose purpose is to retain their

Cults have existed throughout history since the beginning of time. A cult is defined in Webster’s dictionary as a “system of religious worship with a devoted attachment to a person, principle, etc.” Over the past thirty years numerous religious cults have caused “ tens of thousands to abandon their families, friends, education’s, and careers to follow the teaching of a leader they will never meet”(Beck 78).

Most historians use the more neutral term ‘new religious movement’ instead of the cult, because there is no one definition of cults, their number and membership cannot be accurately measured even today (Sarah Pike, 2016). New religious groups are regularly developed from another, more accepted religion. An example of this is Christianity, which first began as a cult extending from Judaism (Sarah Pike, 2016). While this was regularly the case, many cults did not begin as religious groups. A famous example of this is the movement called Synanon, which was originally organised to rehabilitate drug addicts, but then later changed into a commune and won legal recognition as a religion (Sarah Pike, 2016). A theory among UFO groups, there is a widespread belief that extraterrestrials have no vocal cords, an atrophied digestive system and no sexual organs (B.A. Robinson, 2009). This is symbolic of three common religious disciplines: silence, fasting and celibacy. These attitudes may have somewhat shaped what the UFO group Heaven’s Gate believed in.

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines cult as: "a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also: its body of adherents." Indeed, any religion involving unconditional worship and unquestioning obedience to God could be labeled as a cult (using the derogatory suggestion of the word), since such a religion would have that high level of dependency, obedience, and unwavering compliance ascribed to cults by definition. Many mainstream religions still require their members to believe in God unquestioningly, to have faith that he is good and that what he does is good, to consider one's own wants and needs as unimportant while accepting the will of God as paramount. All of these are certainly characteristics commonly attributed to cults, but while it would not be unreasonable to apply this definition of a cult to any dogmatic religion that requires strict compliance with God's word and will as a condition of membership, the notion of applying the word "cult" to Christianity, Islam, Judaism, or any other major world religion today is considered absurd. There are those who make this very claim: that those who worship God fit the classic depiction of cult members in their dogmatism, unswerving

Some of the people were just compliant. They yielded to social pressure in their public behavior, even though their private beliefs had not changed. I believe these people to be the ones who ended up wanting to leave the cult. Some of these people were killed for trying to leave. There were still others who conformed to the social norms for fear of negative social consequences which they called catharsis. Their example of catharsis was, for example, if a teenager was accused of being rude to a senior citizen , the congregation would hear the evidence and vote on the teenagers innocence or guilt. The punishment could be a severe spanking administered by Jones. Adults who transgressed were punished by being placed in a ring and forced to box with bigger, stronger Temple members. Transgressions subject to catharsis ranged from selfishness, sexism, discourtesy to drug and alcohol abuse, and petty crimes for which members could be arrested and convicted by public authorities.