Column 463 July 12, 2024
Most of us remember the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project in Jamestown, Guyana. It was made famous for a mass murder/suicide event on November 18, 1978. Its leader, Jim Jones, offered his followers a utopia where they could enact their vision of an equal, self-sufficient, “apostolic socialism” society. As often occurs with similar cult-oriented leadership, the leader is paranoid and controlling. Jim Jones was no exception.1
Part of the members’ ritual was to practice drinking “poison” as a loyalty test. It wasn’t poison of course, but in thefinal hours of the Temple, the members were ordered to drink a concoction laced with various real chemicals and cyanide—or be shot by the guards.