|
|
|
I saw it on PBS last night, or most of it, on KQED in San Francisco. It was extremely well done, fascinating and also terrifying. A few of the people who made comments in the documentary, Marianne introduced to me when we went to see the premiere of "The People's Temple" at the Berkeley Rep last year. The play was riviting, but in some ways the documentary was more terrifying because they used tapes of the actual words of Jim Jones and others, including the words during the mass murder scene. Ghastly.
|
|
|
|
Yes, it was absolutely chilling to watch. It's so scary to think that this can be the ultimate end to a cult with a megalomaniac leader. Especially bizarre was the admissions of his predatory sexual behavior. I actually had a sort of anxiety attack by the end of watching this, it hit too many familiar buttons.It was strange to see the naivity of the cult members before things got too heavy, it reminded me so much of us in the early days of DLM. I thank God I never encountered that group before DLM, or who knows what could have happened, I was such a sucker for cults back then. They were right in showing how it functioned as a surrogate family for those from dysfunctional ones (just like ours did, father figure and all). I had an old school friend in San Francisco at the time, who got quite angry with me after Jonestown happened, because she thought I was in a cult, too. I, in turn, got quite angry with her for even thinking that anything like that could happen to me, or that my beloved Guru was anything like the mass murderer. I got so offended I stopped talking to her and haven't spoken to her since, actually (though I hear about her from a mutual friend from time to time). She was right, and I was wrong, I probably should try and call her, even after all these years, and apologize for my cult-like behaviour towards her.
|
|
|
|
Yeah, it was chilling, especially the last half hour. There are so many similarities to the Rawat cult. The inabiity to discuss one's true feelings, doubts, thoughts among each other is one. Turning over income another. Watching that reminded me of the isolation from the world at the DECA project. I'll never forget when I was almost carjacked late late at night in the (then) bowels of Hialeah. A man had opened my driver's door brandishing a big long a long metal pipe (I couldn't tell if it was a shotgun or not), while I was stopped at a light right off the highway. He almost got into my car, but I was able to speed away, driving very recklessly for my life. I was so frightened and upset, but when I got to DECA, the security people just shrugged it off and didn't even suggest calling the police to tell them about what happened. They basically said, go back to work. I was so upset about that too, but along with all my other nervous feelings and thoughts, I buried it all. The premies in the design dept. laughed at me and couldn't understand why I was shaking. So strange. The mentality there was that we were at the Lord of the Universe's place and his grace took care of all matters, including -- especially -- police matters. Those Jonestown survivors were wonderful to talk again about their experience with that cult, because it was obviously painful.
Modified by Cynthia at Wed, Apr 11, 2007, 08:48:51
|
|
|
|
Yes, we, too (you and I) have had experience of living and working at a cult compound, isolated from the rest of the world. You at DECA, me at SHIP and IHQ. They were their own little worlds, completely independent of what was going on in the "real" world. I think that's what made this Jonestown documentary so scary, it hit so close to home, and all those years of complete physical, mental and emotional devotion to the cause and the "master". Your story is so typical of the cognitive override we were all experiencing. Things that happened in that other, supposedly unreal world, just didn't register much.But I sometimes think we escaped lightly as far as cults go, it could have been so much worse. While Jim Jones got off on power and death (and kinky sex with whomever he could), Maharaji got sidetracked by materialism (but the same sexual predator thing with the blonds--at least he was exclusive and didn't bother the majority of us, or the men). It was really moving to see at the end the list of the family members the people in the film had lost. I cannot even imagine that pain, my heart just totally went out to them. Thank God we had our families to come back to, to put the pieces back together for us, after giving our hearts and minds and time and money and energy so completely to such an ultimately empty and phoney cause.
|
|
|
|
Yes, we, too (you and I) have had experience of living and working at a cult compound, isolated from the rest of the world. You at DECA, me at SHIP and IHQ. They were their own little worlds, completely independent of what was going on in the "real" world. I think that's what made this Jonestown documentary so scary, it hit so close to home, and all those years of complete physical, mental and emotional devotion to the cause and the "master". Your story is so typical of the cognitive override we were all experiencing. Things that happened in that other, supposedly unreal world, just didn't register much.But I sometimes think we escaped lightly as far as cults go, it could have been so much worse. While Jim Jones got off on power and death (and kinky sex with whomever he could), Maharaji got sidetracked by materialism (but the same sexual predator thing with the blonds--at least he was exclusive and didn't bother the majority of us, or the men). It was really moving to see at the end the list of the family members the people in the film had lost. I cannot even imagine that pain, my heart just totally went out to them. Thank God we had our families to come back to, to put the pieces back together for us, after giving our hearts and minds and time and money and energy so completely to such an ultimately empty and phoney cause.
|
|
|
|
It is a harrowing tale with many similarities to our own journeys. They all sounded like premies, didn't they? The thing about Peoples Temple is that they actually did do good works for a long time, unlike the self aggrandizing crap we engaged in for Rawat. I wonder if he's ever haunted by this stuff in his dreams? Marianne
|
|
|
