LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Jonestown: Peoples Temple
built 266 days ago
Jonestown was the communal settlement in northwestern Guyana founded by the Peoples Temple of California, the following of Jim Jones. The group is widely regarded as having been a cult. Jonestown gained lasting international notoriety in 1978, when nearly its whole population died in a mass cult suicide orchestrated by Jones. "Jonestown" ... became a term for that incident, as well the name of settlement where it took place. The site is now an abandoned ruin.
Source:
Jonestown was a CIA experiment to determine whether it was possible to establish a large mind-controlled slave labor force. Jim Jones was a CIA operative and former Housing Commissioner for San Francisco. Ukiah District Attorney Tim Stone was assigned the task of procuring state mental patients and transferring their guardianship to the Peoples Temple. Assisting Jones was former police chief Dan Mitrioni, a contract CIA operative, who previously had instructed Brazilian and Bolivian security personnel in advanced torture interrogation techniques.
Source:
In the days of preparation for the trip to “Jonestown,” Ryan contacted Jim Jones by telegraph to inform him of his intention to visit the settlement. Through the U.S. Embassy in Guyana, Ryan learned that agreement for the visit was conditional. Ryan would have to ensure that the Codel was not biased, there would be no media coverage of the visit and Mark Lane, the People’s Temple legal counsel, would have to be present. On 6 November, Lane wrote to Ryan and informed him that he would not be able to attend at the time they wanted, and claimed that the Codel was nothing more than a “witchhunt” against the People’s Temple. Lane responded with a declaration of his intentions to visit the settlement anyway and that he would be leaving on 14 November.
Source:
People’s Temple Christian Church, Jim Jones, Jonestown, Guyana: Jones, influenced by Unitarian Humanism, Father Divine, and Marxism, founded his church in 1977. He later claimed at various times to be God, Buddha, and Lenin. In 1978 at Jones’ command, 914 people (including Jones) committed suicide or were murdered. The group is now defunct.
Source:
Jonestown was isolated—surrounded by thirty miles of jungle—so members were hesitant to leave. Jones made repeated threats that leaving would be difficult because of the lions, tigers, and human enemies in the jungle (Richardson 1980). The psychologist Robert Cialdini argues that isolation creates uncertainty, this uncertainty led Temple members to follow others. Therefore, when Jones was urging people to drink the cyanide-laced punch, Temple members may have looked around to see that others were lining up and compliantly got in line.
Source:
At one level, the deaths at Jonestown can be viewed as the productof obedience, of people complying with the orders of a leader andreacting to the threat of force. In the Peoples Temple, whatever JimJones commanded, the members did. When he gathered the community atthe pavilion and the poison was brought out, the populace wassurrounded by armed guards who were trusted lieutenants of Jones.There are reports that some people did not drink voluntarily but hadthe poison forced down their throats or injected (Winfrey, 1979).While there were isolated acts of resistance and suggestions ofopposition to the suicides, excerpts from a tape, recorded as thefinal ritual was being enacted, reveal that such dissent was quicklydismissed or shouted down:
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Peoples Temple