Mass Suicide by Jim Jones Cult - 1060 Words

Jim Jones was the founder of the Peoples Temple; a cult best recognized for the mass murder/suicide of over 900 people. Before the events that made him a part of history, he was seen as a man with great charisma and visionary ideas; now he is viewed as a manipulator, abuser, and murderer. This paper will explore the life of Jim Jones and with the use of psychological models, try identifying abnormal behavior patterns. Jones grew up in Indiana with his mother and disabled, alcoholic father in a small shack with no plumbing. His parents held very opposite views of race that would come to influence Jones later in life. His father was said to be associated with the Ku Klux Klan, while his mother was in support forward progress politics; Jones would come to side with the latter. As a child, Jones studied Joseph Stalin, Karl Marx, Mahatma Gandhi, and Adolf Hitler (Reiterman, 1982). He would pick out the strength of each person and this is where he gained his knowledge that led him to be in support of socialism. Jones was obsessed with religion as a child and would often perform funerals for deceased animals; one of these animals came from when he stabbed a cat to death. Jones showed many signs of intelligence; one being when he graduated from high school early with honors (Jones, 2002). Jim Jones saw the application of the religion to spread his ideas; socialistic ideas to be precise. He became a student preacher at a church but soon quit because the leaders of theShow MoreRelatedCults Essay583 Words   |  3 PagesCults Many people feel that cults are nothing more than a nontraditional religion, because of beliefs, organization, and interest. Cults are much more than just little religions. They are a dangerous, and in the United States there is little we can do about it. The term cult has many different meanings. According to Jan Groenveld, a cult researcher and author, Christians define a cult as anything that differs from traditional orthodox teachings, but the general definition is that, aRead MoreThe Difference Between Leadership and Followership759 Words   |  4 Pagesof charisma used for destruction is Jim Jones. Jim Jones was the founder and leader of a cult called the Peoples Temple, which is best known for the November 18, 1978 mass suicide of 914 members in Jonestown. The mass suicide consisted of Jim Jones having his followers knowingly drink cyanide-laced Kool-Aid. Not only was he able to accomplish this act, but he had the audacity to trick his followers on multiple occasions with practice runs for the mass suicide. A quote by Deborah Layton confirmsRead More The Jonestown Massacre: Jim Jones881 Words   |  4 Pagesfrom the cult society led by Reverend Jim Jones, named Jonestown. Jonestown was a small community in the jungle of Guyana, South America. After getting word of people coming to investigate the society, Jones had committed a mass suicide by poisoning Kool-Aid and giving it to the people of Jonestown. A cult society is an organization that basically disguises itself as a religion. In a cult, they normally perform rituals. There are usually many people in these societies. In Jim Jones’s cult, thereRead MoreCult Is A Cult Or Cult?904 Words   |  4 Pagesthink of it as a Cult but, I ask the question â€Å"Could a religion actually be considered a cult?† A few religions that we have studied in class have actually been considered a cult at one point in history, either many years ago, or very recent. What intrigues me about this is: the definition and characteristics of a cult or religion, what groups/religions have been considered to be a cult, and why do we think that a cult is not considered a religious group. Some characteristics of a cult can be: thatRead MoreEssay New Religious Movements and the Biased Media3935 Words   |  16 Pagespublicity of suicide cults only fuels the fear of other like-minded religious groups. The misleading definitions the media provided for the how, what and why of these new religious movements were symptomatic of the media bias against all such movements. Through examination of the print media response immediately following both mass suicides, I will expose the hollow definitions and explanations provided for tragedies that were much more complex. Moreover, although the Jonestown Suicide occurred twentyRead MoreUtopian Cults Essays1111 Words   |  5 PagesFor many years, cults have been a subject of great controversy. A cult is a group of people that are bound together by an appreciation of the same thing, person, ideal, etc. Usually these groups keep close because of religious reasons, but their beliefs are almost always considered strange by outsiders . Cults are similar to clans or congregations, but are usually referred to as sects. There are many different categories that a cult could be sorted into. Apocalyptic, Utopian, Spiritualistic, SatanicRead MoreKingdom of Matthias Essay example763 Words   |  4 PagesKingdom of Matthias As a United States American culture there are many possibilities for a cult like Matthias to occur again, this is contributed by not only a market-oriented American culture but also by tendencies that are present in every society. We have rights and freedoms given to us by our United States Constitution, including the freedom of speech and the freedom of religion. These freedoms mean that anyone has the right to speak publicly about their religiousRead MoreJonestown Massacre : The Mass Suicide1125 Words   |  5 PagesJonestown Massacre: The Mass Suicide On November 18, 1978, is what soon come to be acknowledged as the â€Å"Jonestown Massacre† in modern history of the late 1900s. Where a cult leader names Jim Jones brought his followers to Guyana, South America to commit a mass suicide of 900+ people. He accomplished this by having every one drink a laced Kool-Aid. A few other things that will be discussed about with be how the Peoples Temple (the cult name) grew and got this many members. Also on what was in theRead MoreMind Control Is the Foundation of Cults Essay1523 Words   |  7 PagesMind Control is the Foundation of Cults What are cults and what are the issues society argues about them? Many people argue over all different central issues of cults. One issue people argue is that cults cause social and personal disruption. Another issue would be that people in society dismiss the whole notion of cults completely saying that every religion can be viewed as a cult. However, when it comes down to it a cult is simply nothing other than a person using mind control over theRead MoreCults Of The People s Temple1476 Words   |  6 Pagesbeginning and as far as the eye can see, cults have been and will continue to be part of human life. These small religious groups can happen anywhere and have been the cause of much debate and interest. For humans have an innate need to know why things are the way they are. Cults for one have done some rather unmoral things that lead the people to ask, Why did they do it? The People s Temple, Aum Shinrikyo, and Ku Klux Klan are extraordinary examples of wicked cults that b egged the question Why?