The Jonestown Massacre

A common phrase used loosely in America is “Don’t drink the Kool-aid!” Unfortunately, this saying is no joke. This quote comes from the Jonestown massacre; a holocaust resulting in nine hundred and nine American lives deliberately lost. This mass murder was the largest planned loss of American life in modern history until September 11th. These nine hundred and nine lives belonged to the controlling religious cult known as People’s Temple under the complete dictatorship of Jim Jones, its’ creator. Jones convinced his followers to drink a cyanide laced drink for the good of the group. The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), is also known for their cult-like status. The wrath that Warren Jeffs places on his followers

The amount of unrestricted power one person can have is unbelievable and frankly must be limited. One researcher reasons the Mormons’ supreme leader, who is also called the prophet or president, word is said to be supreme. The supreme leader’s followers can be disciplined to neglect or scorn those who show any signs of defiance (Hitchens). This statement proves that religious cult leaders, such as the leaders of the Mormon church, have absolute power over their followers. The prophet can control how his followers respond in any situation and that type of power is excessive and unneeded. As stated in the second sentence of the quote, if someone has wronged or thought to have wronged the supreme leader, they must suffer the wrath of not only them, but forced ignorance from the other members of the cult. Some similarities to the outside world is North Korea as that their head of state is also known as the supreme leader. Their supreme leader also has absolute authority over all of the state’s subjects and is able to convince the subjects to neglect a fellow comrade of social interaction. In both situations, the cult members have no say or influence in the judgement of their peers. Another researcher acknowledges when Adam got his first job, he was allowed to keep his first paycheck; after that all the

Ex-members of numerous cults report not only physical abuse, but also psychological. Mental abuse of these innocent cult members has been proven to be just as harmful as physical abuse. A researcher acknowledges that cult leaders feed off their followers wish to fit in and their capacity to believe; that is what makes them professionals in psychological manipulation (Tamm). The author realizes that the religious cult leaders take advantage of the young growing minds of their followers. The leaders deceive the members into believing that they belong and give them that feeling of being wanted. However, once the leaders have drawn them in enough, they demand all mental devotion or there will be consequences. Another researcher describes that if Ron [cult leader] felt like verbally harassing a member for not obeying or just simple because he was able to, he would and this was done by making he/she stand in front of a crowd and proclaiming what was wrong with that member (Gard). This statement proves that psychological abuse is real threat among religious cults. This is taken from an ex-cult member/ mental abuse survivor 's real account, and he states that this is just the beginning of the abuse. The mental abuse this ex-member received has left emotional scars on him and unfortunately they will not be healed. In reality, this type of action is known as verbal