The Consequences Of Suicide

There are many background events that caused the massacre on Nov. 18,1978. One major thing to know is that Jim

Throughout history, there have been many wars that were fought. When thinking of combats, many citizens associate battles with the thought of physical wars, but many don't think of the mental battles that might occur within a person. Teen suicide, which is known as the second leading cause of death globally, is frequently overlooked and underestimated as a problem when confronted about it. The poem, Romeo and Juliet by the famous author William Shakespeare, uses literature to profoundly go into the concept of how suicide can affect everyone. The community of Orland Park has taken their part to inform the society, by setting up basic services for people to learn or get help about suicide prevention. While resources are available in our

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

The Jonestown Conspiracy Over 900 People were killed on November 18th 1978, The Peoples temple was a Cult that moved to Guyana shortly after being Located in the United States. Shortly after moving more than 900 people drank Kool-Aid laced with Cyanide and died. This is Regarded as one of the worst Tragedies in american History Before 9/11 But what really happened? Was it truly just because of Money?

They got all the kids together that were in that Monday, Wednesday, and Friday group along with Laura Dawn and ran some tests on them to try to see if they had mistaken it for a different disease, but they couldn't find anything out. They decided to give the kids one more chance and even if one of them messed up they would get hanged. right then one of the girls back talked the mayor in front of this whole town meeting! So after the parents finished arguing, the city decided execution.

“Prior to the 9/11 attack, the tragedy at Jonestown marked the single largest loss of U.S. civilian lives in a non-natural disaster”(Jonestown Massacre 2). Jim Jones, a cult leader of the Peoples Temple, was responsible for the loss of the 900+ people that died in Guyana on November 18, 1978. Before all of this Jim Jones was a normal man living a life as a preacher who preached against racism. Throughout his life he was very popular by “currying favor with public officials and the media, donated money to numerous charitable causes and delivered votes for various politicians at election times”(History Staff). Jim Jones was a cult leader that preached to 900+ people of the Peoples Temple, made hundreds of people commit suicide, and made history of the biggest loss of U.S. civilians before 9/11.

Jonestown Massacre Peoples Temple was a church founded by Jim Jones in 1956. It was originally established in Indiana, moved to California in 1966, and then moved outside the United States in the South American country of Guyana in 1973. Peoples Temple was an integrated spiritual congregation that believed in christianity. It was also a church that was focused on helping people and congregating in a temple to hear about God, have dinner and dances in a pavilion together to show communion and respect towards the religion. Jim Jones was the leader of the church and had a vision of a communist community, one in which everyone lived together in harmony and worked for the common good.

The mass suicides, that took place under the influence of Reverend Jim Jones, can be explained from a sociological perspective. By looking at how the group dynamics played into the outcome one gets a better idea of the whys? of the massacre. The sociological explanation is but one way to explain this horrific event. It is , however, the only one explored in this essay for reasons of concision.

As word gets out that people are leaving, one of the followers described that, “All hell broke loose” (Jonestown). People are gathering to leave, as one of the devoted followers attempts to stab Congressman Ryan which immediately struck the feeling of endangerment. The Congressman, his crew and a few of the Jonestown members try to get out of there and head to an air strip where a plane is waiting. As they get ready to board the plane a truck with followers blocks the plane begins shooting. The Congressman is shot but is not killed, yet the followers believe they have killed him.

By the time of the final ritual, opposition or escape had become almost impossible for most of the members. Yet even then, it is doubtful that many wanted to resist or leave. Most had come to believe in Jones -- one woman's body was found with a message scribbled on her arm during the final hours: "Jim Jones is the only one" (Cahill, 1979). They seemed to have accepted the necessity, and even the beauty, of dying -- just before the ritual began, a guard approached Charles Garry, one of the Temples hired attorneys, and exclaimed, "Its a great moment... we all die" (Lifton, 1979). A survivor of Jonestown, who happened to be away at the dentist, was interviewed a year following the deaths:

The four choices consisted of physical pickup, natural death, accidental death, or death from random violence, or outside persecution that leads to death and wilful exit from the human body. Toward the end Applewhite decided that they all would have to leave their bodies just as Jesus did. On March 24,25,26 all 39 members committed suicide and “graduated”. Thirty-eight members plus Applewhite were found dead. They all used a phenobarbital mixed with applesauce and used vodka to wash it down. They were all found with bags on their heads and all wearing identical clothing. Richard Ford was the one member who didn’t kill himself and videotaped the mansion. The mass death of the Heaven’s Gate Cult was so widely publicized in the media it is now believed to be one of the most massive cult suicides in

The members that are able to leave the cult will be left with the physical and mental damages the cult leaves them with. In an interview, Paul Martin talks about the damaged patients who were in cults looking for a way to be happier, “seekers looking for a worthy cause or a way to serve God, the lonely or depressed who find a caring community in the group, and those who are caught up by the excitement of the movement or the charisma of its

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.

This group fits the definition of a cult perfectly, they were a small select group of people with beliefs that were to the rest of the world, outlandish and strange. They also became dangerous after the leader, Marshall Applewhite, told them that suicide was the only way to ascend to the spaceship awaiting them to take them to heaven. Not all cults are small groups for example the People 's Temple more famously known as Jonestown, had just over 900 members. It was “a religious group based in California which moved to Guyana in the late 1970s to establish a communalistic utopia. This group became very dangerous as it caused the deaths of 918 people. Nine people died attempting to escape Jonestown including U.S. senator Rep. Leo Ryan, the remaining 909 died in Jonestown of either poisoning or were shot.” I personally was very shocked at how many people died and why it wasn’t investigated properly, the government had information that things were not as it seemed. Instead of investigating they sent senator Ryan, I believe that this was a huge mistake and perhaps if the matter was taken more seriously so many lives wouldn’t have been lost. It does also make me question whether this kind of neglect towards potentially dangerous cults is still occurring.

Jim Jones was the leader of the religious and social group known as The People’s Temple. The case studied is the incident of the Jonestown mass suicide and the thesis is a study on manipulation and what can be said about manipulation.