Peoples Temple Cult

November 18,1978, 913 members found dead in a mass suicide/ killing in Guyana South Africa. All were members of The Peoples Temple a cult that fled the US four years prior. There are many different cults around the world that have an impact on our society. A cult is defined as “a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious, also : its body of adherents.”Some cult leaders are known to have Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD) and some members are known to have Dependent Personality Disorder (DPD). Cult leaders are also good at keeping members loyal to the cult once they are in. Cults have a strong impact on our society and they also reveal how our society works.

The Peoples Temple was a cult lead by Jim Jones located in Jonestown, Guyana. On

In 1956 he started his own church called The Peoples Temple and preached about equality and integration. In 1965 Jones feared the midwest was in danger of a nuclear attack and moved to California with one hundred forty church members and his family. While in California his church grew to have over 2,500 members in 1973. Jones convinced his members to get rid of their financial resources and preached a socialist lifestyle for his followers. His ultimate goal was to create a utopian society that did not judge people on their financial status or race. After receiving lots of negative publicity and feeling threatened by the United States government he made a plan for him and his church to flea the US to move to Guyana a small country in South Africa. To avoid detection throughout the late nights in the spring and summer of 1977 members of the Peoples Temple made the move to Guyana. By September 1977 the population of ‘Jonestown’ grew to over 1,000 people. By November the families and US Representative Leo Ryan became concerned about Jones and the Peoples Temple. Ryan published lots of articles and

COG is a polygamous cult that both of her parents were in. COG emphasizes on communal living and traditional Christian beliefs it started in the late 1960’s, when ‘hippies’ left their middle class lifestyles to live a communal lifestyle in California. Members are encouraged to remove all contact to their outside families and give up all of their possessions to the group. David Berg (one of the leaders in COG) attempted to separate the group by having different ‘colonies’ from the cult move throughout the US. He later claimed that a comet would strike the US destroying all life forms, convincing the colonies to move to other countries throughout the world including Europe, South America, and Australia. Female members of the cult were sent out to seduce male members into joining the cult this tactic is called ‘flirty fishing’. The COG also disapproved of ‘the system’ which included the United States government along with the rest of society. They believed that sexual enjoyment from masturbation and intercourse were a gift from god and should be the main focus of their lives. While McGowan lived in the cult throughout her early life she felt as if she didn't fit in and was disgusted by her fellow ‘family’ members hippie lifestyles. Despite the fact she had no access to outside world including newspapers and television while in the cult and knew of no other lifestyles. When she was nine McGowan, her father, and one of