Jonestown (saw this tonight)

[Triana]

...and it was a creepy as when it happened. Good film for those who don't remember November 18th, 1978. Or who weren't old enough to be aware. I remember it pretty well, but this film brought all the details back.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/jonestown/

[Redstone]

1. What a nightmare that was. I remember it as well.

Redstone

[unsavedtrash]

2. I remember it well.

My mom's best friend bought in and we lost her and her daughter. We were very close friends and always loved playing when our mother's got together.

[Triana]

7. I'm sorry to hear that...

...what a horrible way to lose someone. I felt REALLY bad for the survivors they interviewed for the film. Every one of them was in tears - still.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

3. The trailer is stunning. I learned more about the People's Temple watching this

than I ever learned from "the news", watching it unfold almost 30 years ago. MKJ

[StrictlyRockers]

4. Advice - Don't drink the Kool-Aid. (!)

!!!

[Sydnie]

5. And what was the cult group that followed in these footsteps

with mass suicide because they thought they were going to be "raptured" by aliens ... was it Heavens Gate?

There was a rash of groups like this for a while after Jonestown and it created a whole industry - the Deprogammers. Creepy no matter how you look at it. Wonder how Scientology made it (although still considered a cult by most of us) to the mainstream and these other groups just never did? Perhaps they just didn't live long enough to find enough followers to reach the status that Scientology has? :shrug:

[Triana]

6. I think it was Heavens Gate - not too long after Jonestown...

...was it?

[Sydnie]

8. I had to google it to see the dates

seems there was 19 years in between the two mass suicides. I guess it just seemed closer in time than it really was. ;)

[northofdenali]

9. Heaven's Gate and the Hale-Bopp "spaceship" (comet)

was in 1997. My husband and I got photos of the Hale-Bopp comet that winter, and the mass suicide happened shortly after we had them developed. Some ok info is here:

"In San Diego on March 26, 1997, the bodies were found of 39 similarly dressed men and women who took their own lives in a mass suicide. Led by Marshall Applewhite, the Heaven's Gate cult believed that a flying saucer was traveling behind the Hale-Bopp comet. They chose to leave their physical bodies behind to find redemption in an extraterrestrial "Kingdom of Heaven." The sect also left behind apocalyptic messages in their Rancho Santa Fe mansion and on home pages on the World Wide Web. This paper looks at online material produced by the cult and the media coverage of their tragic end, it explores the background of the cult and the science fiction and millennial influences on their beliefs, and it considers the group's connection with cyberculture and some of the questions raised by their mass suicide, which perhaps, as David Potz said in Slate, "promises to be the first great Internet mystery" <(Potz, March 28, 1997)>."

It's from a paper written by Wendy Gale Robinson of the Department of Religion at Duke University. More at http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol3/issue3/robinson.html

[Triana]

14. Ah - OK NOW I remember - thanks for the tickler...

...the arrival of the comet was key in that one. Totally whacked. Ha!

[WhiteTara]

17. You leave out the Moonies

Moon owns a few dozen publications...The Washington Times being one. You get all your sushi from the Moonies. Of course, Bush the Meaner is very close friends with the Rev

[loyalsister]

10. One of the scarriest parts of all

is that the People's Temple might have been a prime candidate to receive funding for "faith-based" programs.

[Triana]

16. Uh -yea. I don't doubt that there are similar orgs...

....that actually DO. I wonder if anyone has ever researched this in present-day? Wonderful use for our tax dollars eh?

[fujiyama]

11. Just saw the trailer

and it prompted me to read more about the event.

I never knew about all that happened before the actual murders/suicides, including the death of a democratic congressman (Leo Ryan) investigating the cult.

What a bizarre and disturbing series of events...and it really makes you wonder how people can get brainwashed like that.

[malaise]

12. There's a good book called

Six Years with God. Jonestown was a major tragedy in Guyana.

[justice1]

13. A guy I know, had an ex who had just enlisted in the military.

Her first assignment was to help remove all of the bodies.

[Triana]

15. !!! OMG What a horrible task to start someone on.

Wishing her well and hoping SHE doesn't become one of the bodies. :(

[shrike]

18. Let's not forget that Jones had his share of left-wing supporters

And declared himself an atheist and Marxist at one point (while serving as a minister for a mainstream church.) And on paper, "walked the walk" for a while -- communal farms, social justice.

Shows how easy it is for any of us to be hoodwinked.

[Mr. McD]

20. He told his followers to take down Christs pictures and put his up

my first wife and I attended one of his services in Ukiah, California around 1976. We didn't stay till the end. Strange guy!

[shrike]

22. No kidding

Very strange mishmash of ideology, Christianity and whatnot.

[GumboYaYa]

19. I am going to watch it this weekend.

Everything I hear about it is good.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

21. Incredible story from a friend

She was an abandoned baby who ended up in an orphange in Southern California in the late 1950's.
On the day she was adopted, she appeared with other babies also being adopted that day, with her new parents, and this was regularly filmed for a local weekly religious TV show. Appearing in the video that morning was Jim Jones with his adopted baby.
We have no idea who the child is or what happened to her, but we can only assume the worst, and think that but for fate- it could have been my friend.