#Congressman Leo Ryan

[howwelldoyouknowyourmoon]

Former Moonies Tells of Training in Deception, Suicide

February 21, 1979

WASHINGTON—A former “Moonie” says she received suicide training while a member of the Unification Church, including specific instruction on how to slash her wrist.

Virginia Mabry, a 24-year-old Californian who spent a year as a follower of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, told a congressional inquiry on cults that she and others were under orders to commit suicide “if we were taken from the group or intended to leave our allegiance to Moon.”

In an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Mabry said that in December, 1976, following the defection of some high-ranking church officials, a nurse who also was a church leader showed her group how to slash their wrists. “And if that wasn’t fast enough, we were told to go for the jugular vein,” she recounted.

In the event a “Moonie” was captured by a “deprogrammer,” a different method of death was preferred. “You were to throw yourself in front of a car so that the deprogrammer would be blamed for your death,” Mabry averred.

Mabry’s accusations came as Sen. Robert Dole, R-Kan., undeterred by an intensive lobbying and intimidation effort by Moon’s disciples, chaired an informal inquiry into cults and their mind-control techniques.

Although the hearing wasn’t directed at any particular sect, the Moonies, crying “witch-hunt,” dispatched at least 90 national and state leaders to Congress in an attempt to quash the session. When unsuccessful, they helped pack the giant meeting room and periodically interrupted proceedings with shouts of “liar” in response to critical witnesses. Outside, a protest demonstration was held, replete with band and chants.

Some religious leaders and theologians protested the hearing as an encroachment of the First Amendment right of religious freedom.

“Government is not competent to judge which religious groups are good and which are bad anymore than it can tell which religious are true and which are false,” declared Dr. James K. Wood Jr., executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs.

But Rep. Robert N. Giaimo, D-Conn., pointed out that the mantle of religion does not protect sects that break the law or abuse individual human rights, as has been alleged by a number of groups, including the Moonies.

The star witness, who was wearing a special device to help rehabilitate her mangled arm, was a vivid reminder of recent cult horrors.

Jackie Speier, who was wounded in the Jonestown attack that killed her boss, Rep. Leo Ryan. D-Calif., noted that some cults espouse religious beliefs while pursuing a quite different course. She admonished the panel to remember “perhaps the singularly most important factor of Jonestown: It can happen again.”

Mabry claimed that the Unification Church taught that “murder is okay if it’s done in the name of the cause. . . specifically, world domination by Moon.”

In written testimony, she asserted that as a bookkeeper and fundraiser, she was ordered to commit “heavenly deception — a Unification term for fraud and deceit.” Among other things, she said she and others censored mail and telephone calls, solicited money under false pretenses, sold food donated for charity at a profit, manipulated accounting records, received state welfare for medical expenses fraudulently, stole ex-members papers and knowingly disobeyed laws. All of this was done under orders of church leaders, Mabry said.

Mabry said she almost committed suicide when she left the Unification Church a year and a half ago. “Over and over again, you were told by higher-ups, ‘You have to be willing to give your life, you have to be willing to die for the cause.’ We were told that you’ve left your allegiance with God…

“That’s why I considered suicide. I felt like Satan was a part of me because I was leaving the church,” she said. “But I had so much love for the friends I went and stayed with and my parents that I just knew that it wasn’t right, what I was taught.” Mabry sought help from a Catholic priest in Eugene, Ore.

Rabbi Maurice Davis of White Plains, N.Y., who claims to have separated 128 young people from cults, said cults generally have dictatorial leaders, unlimited funds, and a philosophy of “instilling fear, hatred and suspicion of the outside world in order to keep the victims in line.”

“Put them all together and you have a prescription for violence, death and for destruction. It is a formula that fits the Nazi youth movement as accurately as it describes the Unification Church or the Peoples Temple,” he said.

“I am not here to protest against religion or religions,” added the Rabbi. “I am here to protest against child molesters. For as surely as there are those who lure children with lollypops in order to rape their bodies, so, too, do these lure children with candy-coated lies in order to rape their minds.”

A host of witnesses called for new laws to crack down on cults. But most theologians claimed that existing criminal laws cover any illegal behavior and that any new ones might interfere with religious freedoms.

________________________

February 19, 1979

Moonies push suicide, 3 allege

WARWICK, R.I. (AP) — Three former members of the Unification Church say mass-suicide was advocated among followers of Rev. Sun Myung Moon and there is potential for a “replay of Jonestown.”

The former members said over the weekend they had been encouraged to commit suicide rather than give up their beliefs. Moon church officials have consistently denied they would contemplate any such actions.

Shelly Turner, of Warwick, said she was repeatedly taught that it was better to be dead than to be a “Judas.” She said she was taught it was better to kill her parents than to let Moon be killed.

Miss Turner, Virginia Mabry, of Pennsylvania, and Rita Ashdale, of Boston, commented in telephone interviews on charges made at a news conference in Providence Friday by Robert B. Boettcher, staff director for the U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on international organizations.

Boettcher said members of Moon’s church are being schooled in suicide techniques.

Miss Mabry said she and 25 others were taught in San Francisco in 1976 how to cut their wrists if they were taken captive by “deprogrammers.”

“They asked if any of us had any other ideas, and there were a lot of suggestions from the group of other ways of committing suicide,” she said. “It was sort of a contest to see who could come up with the best way.”

Miss Ashdale, a Boston University student, said: “The brainwashing technique is much more complete than it was in the People’s Temple.”

The People’s Temple in Guyana was the site of the mass-murder suicide of 900 people last November.

________________________

Jackie Speier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Speier

Speier entered politics by serving as a congressional staffer for Congressman Leo Ryan. Speier was part of his November 1978 fact-finding mission organized to investigate allegations of human rights abuses by Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple followers, almost all of whom were American citizens who had moved to Jonestown, Guyana, with Jones in 1977 and 1978.

Several Peoples Temple members ambushed the investigative team and others boarding the plane to leave Jonestown on November 18. Five people were killed, including Ryan. While trying to shield herself from rifle and shotgun fire behind small airplane wheels with other team members, Speier was shot five times and waited 22 hours before help arrived. The same day, over 900 remaining members of the Peoples Temple died in Jonestown and Georgetown in a mass murder-suicide.

[dejahisashmom]

Jim Jones and his Jonestown Cult - Historic Mysteries

Author’s Note: This post talks about multiple triggers. If you are not in the head space to read about murder, suicide, poisonings, etc., please feel free to read another one of our other posts. If you, or someone you know, needs someone to talk to, please reach out. Call 1(800)237-8255. Please be respectful of the survivors, of the families who live every single day without their loved ones, &…

[iwonderh0w]

"So much was attractive and unique that we turned a blind eye on what was wrong."

- Stephen Gandhi, Jim Jones's son about "People's Temple" (an infamous cult known for mass suicide/murder in Jonestown and murder of U.S congressman Leo Ryan)

I feel like this quote is quite perfect for describing in-cult mentality that a lot of people seem to experience, judging by what they later say in retrospective of being ex-member of what they now realise was a cult. They often describe their first weeks/months as this almost euphoric and magical high, so later on when they start to see some ugly details, they seem to ignore them for the sake of staying in this state of spiritual euphoria. It goes as far as to straight-out denying those details even if they happened to them personally, as did some members of "Buddhafield" in response to an email (from their ex co-member) exposing their leader as a sexual predator who was taking advantage of their young male members.

"... and some people coalesced around him, and even I did initially. I wrote a rebuttal to the letter. [Chuckles] Yeah. It was bullshit. I mean, I'd been in a sexual relationships with him [Jamie Gomez, the leader of Buddhafield]. I knew that everything on there was pretty much true."

- from an interview of an ex-member of Buddhafield, entry from a documentary "Holy Hell" timestamp 1:02:00

I think it's quite interesting how people get so attached to the idea of their cult, that they'll deny something they know for a fact is true, just because they want to preserve this idealistic image in their head, as otherwise they're faced with the harsh reality that they may not ready to accept, as it requires them to deny so much of what they've grown to firmly believe in and what's probably more important is that they're not ready to compromise their whole social-network of their shared community. That is especially true for those who spent literal years of their lives dedicated to that idea, community and everything that follows.

[whatisonthemoon]

Dan Fefferman attends an anti-cult conference

Stranger in an Even Stranger Land: Report on an Anti-Cult Conference

Dan Fefferman April, 2000 Washington, DC

In my capacity as director of the International Coalition for Religious Freedom, I decided to attend the annual conference of the Leo J. Ryan Foundation in Stamford Connecticut. Headquartered in Bridgeport, the LJRF makes no bones about its ties to the now-defunct Cult Awareness Network, which was put out of business by a lawsuit that tied it to an illegal deprogramming conspiracy. LJRF even bills itself as the renewed "Cult Awareness Community." Its current president is Priscilla Cole, who formerly ran the Cult Awareness Network, and several other CAN stalwarts can be found on its rolls.

Of course, it’s no coincidence that the group—named for the Congressman who was gunned down in the Jonestown massacre in 1978—has its headquarters in the town where the Unification Church is well known for its role in bailing out the financially troubled University of Bridgeport. LJRF’s executive director is Julia Bronder, an embittered former UB employee and UC critic.

Human Rights, but for Whom?

The title of the LJRF conference was "Human Rights and the New Millennium." This too may be no coincidence. Our own International Coalition for Religious Freedom (ICRF) sponsored a series of international conferences in 1988 entitled, "Religious Freedom and the New Millennium." Indeed a common thread running through the LJRF presentations was that "freedom of thought" is an even more fundamental human right than freedom of speech or religion. And since cultists can’t—by definition—have freedom of thought… Well, more on that later.

I have to admit that the conference was well run and well conceived to support its organizers’ purposes. I did feel a little out of place at times, especially with people who assumed I was an anti-cultist like themselves. One former UC member was so happy to see me, until I informed her that I was "still in." Another guy angrily accused me of being a private investigator hired by Scientology to harass participants and spy on them. Talk about bad vibes! But the majority of the organizers and participants I met were courteous, if cool, once they learned who I was. Below are some highlights. While many other groups other than the UC were dealt with, I’ve concentrated on what relates specifically to our work.

Accolades from the Adversary

Not to brag, but several speakers made reference to ICRF. They mentioned our four conferences and the cities in which they were held—Washington, Tokyo, Berlin, and Sao Paulo. They grudgingly praised our web site (www.religiousfreedom.com), and the "impressive array" of speakers whose papers we have posted there. A featured luncheon speaker, Prof. Stephen Kent of the University of Calgary, used the ICRF as a primary example of the way in which American new religious movements (NRM’s) are able to influence the American government and academic community. He admitted that ICRF has become an influential participant in the international human rights debate. Another speaker bemoaned the fact that ICRF had been able to get current and former congressmen, government officials, leading academics, and prestigious human rights leaders to join with us.

A special breakout session was devoted to the Maryland Task Force on Cult Activities which we’ve reported on previously in Unification News. The panelists—anti-cultists Ron Loomis, Denny Gulick, and Franz Wilson—declared the Task Force’s Final Report as a victory for their side. These men and other anti-cult activists on the Task Force were later given a special award for their efforts to create and influence the Task Force. The speakers acknowledged ICRF’s opposition to the Task Force, but naturally downplayed our effectiveness in blocking the anti-cultists’ aims. For example, they did not mention the fact that the state’s official task force on "Cult Activities" decided not even to use the word "cult" in its final report. Nor did they mention that one of its members, panelist Franz Wilson, interrupted UC member Alex Colvin’s testimony during a formal task force meeting and threatened him with violence.

Panelist Ron Loomis of the American Family Foundation avowed that the panel’s "agenda" was that "you should go back and attempt a similar effort in your state." But he warned about getting too much press in the beginning. "The best way to do it is locally," said Loomis, because national campaigns attract too much attention from NRMs and civil liberties groups. "Politicians are chicken," he complained. (In Maryland the legislation creating the Task Force was pushed through with almost no opposition voices raised, because our side did not find out about it until it had already passed the lower house and was on a fast track to pass the Maryland Senate. Four previous efforts by anti-cultists to pass similar legislation had failed when both sides were heard.)

Washington Times Targeted

The Washington Times and the WT Foundation were also major targets of LJRF speakers. One session was devoted exclusively to "Following the Money Trail in the Moon Movement." Led by Rev. Fred Miller, the session complained about the continued success of the Washington Times and its influence in conservative political circles. Miller seemed particularly upset by the success of the WTF’s American Century Awards. He named several high level political leaders who honored True Father Moon on that occasion. Miller was visibly disappointed by Jerry Falwell’s presence.

Another focus was George W. Bush. Several speakers mentioned him, believing that Rev. Moon must be a major financial supporter of Gov. Bush, if not directly then through his father. They are hoping to find evidence that UC money is ending up in Bush’s campaign treasury. They also bemoaned the fact that New Yorker seems to be a highly successful financial enterprise and that it has become a Ramada franchisee. Miller even reported on a meeting between himself and Ramada officials in which he sought unsuccessfully to influence them to end the relationship.

The anti-cult movement had been seriously discredited in the 1980s because of its association with deprogramming. It lost several major court cases, and also lost credibility among its mainstream funding sources. Now, however, it appears to have found a new "Sugar Daddy." Bob Minton is a reputed multimillionaire whose primary hobby in life is fighting against "cults." His main passion is attacking Scientology. However, he is also rumored to be a major funding source for the LJRF. Minton was a keynote speaker at this year’s conference, although he seems to have few credentials other than the green kind. He publicly announced that he had purchased 2,000 copies of former deprogrammer (now exit counselor) Steve Hassan’s new book, "Breaking the Bonds," which retails for 24.95. If you do the math, that’s a nice little contribution, and it doesn’t count any other donations to Steve’s new "Freedom of Mind Foundation" non-profit group.

No Hassle with Hassan

Speaking of Steve Hassan, I had several conversations with Steve during the conference. I’ve also been corresponding with him through e-mail. Notice the distinction I made in the above paragraph between "deprogramming" and "exit counseling?" Steve is adamant about making this distinction because deprogramming involves force and exit counseling does not. I think he has a point. I asked if he would be willing to put his opposition to forced deprogramming in writing to the Japanese Christian churches who—sometimes using his earlier books on "mind control" as their justification—are reportedly involved in forced kidnapping of hundreds our UC members. He agreed to do so. The letter says, in part:

"[An anti-cultist minister in Japan] told me this morning that sometimes, albeit infrequently, a family might hold their adult child against his/her will, and then a minister might be invited to speak with them. In my opinion, no minister should get involved in something like this as a matter of policy--even if the cult member requests a meeting in writing…

"I want this letter to stand as a public record that I think that any approach to help cult members should be one of love, compassion, and positive communication, not force. Otherwise, kidnapping or involuntary detention will invariably be traumatic… In fact, there was always another way that would have been less traumatic."

In return for his writing the above-mentioned letter, Steve asked me to clarify to the world community of Unificationists that he is not involved in holding people against their will. I think Steve is sincere in this, although he is certainly wrong in many of the things he says about the UC, Rev. Moon, "mind control," and NRM’s in general. Steve is a former deprogrammer, not a current one. What he does now is called "exit counseling," or in his current parlance "strategic interaction" to "break the bonds of mind control."

Now some of you will ask, "But isn’t what Steve does still really faith-breaking based on religious intolerance?" And I’d have to say yes. He gets paid by people who disapprove of other people’s religion (usually family members) to talk them out of it. And he also writes books and speaks out wherever he can trying to convince people of the need for the service he provides. But technically speaking it shouldn’t be called deprogramming unless force is involved. I’m hoping that since Steve wants UC members to avoid speaking in the present tense about things he did in the past (namely deprogramming), he’ll do the same and stop speaking about things we did in the past as if they were going on today. Watch this space.

Perhaps the most disturbing presentation of the LJRF conference was made by Jim Seigelman and Flo Conway, authors of the book "Snapping," which was instrumental in forming the anti-cult movement’s ideological basis in the late 1970s. Their presentation was entitled "Church vs. State," and it called for a new interpretation of the First Amendment that recognizes "freedom of thought" as the most basic human right, even more basic than freedom of speech or freedom of religion. (Another featured speaker, Stephen Kent of the University of Calgary eerily entitled his presentation "Human Rights vs. Religious Freedom.") Keep in mind that Conway and Seigleman and their cohorts, including exit counselor Steve Hassan, clearly argue that members of the minority religions they call "cults" do NOT have freedom of thought, because the cults have robbed them of it.

Seigelman actually called religion "the Achilles heel of American democracy." And Conway stated that "freedom of thought must be added to the first amendment." The both supported what they call a "judicial initiative" that will establish a "right to freedom of thought" in the same way that a "right to privacy" or a "right to have an abortion" has been established.

But if you unpack the Owellian newspeak, this type of "freedom of thought" simply stands the First Amendment on its head. Instead of "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or abridging the free exercise thereof," Conway and Seigleman appear to say that "The Courts shall interpret the law so that anyone who joins an unpopular religion shall be declared incapable of exercising freedom of thought." The legal and political implications of such a doctrine are staggering.

At its closing banquet, the LJRF gave Conway and Seigelman its highest honor, the Leo J. Ryan Award. The first person they thanked and credited as a pioneer in "this work" was not other than the father of deprogramming himself, Ted Patrick.

[intriguingpeoplebyangelafloyd]

LEO RYAN

1925-1978

            Leo Ryan was an American politician and California’s congressman from 1973. He was murdered in 1978 by followers of Jim Jones the cult leader from the People’s Temple.

            In 1978, there were reports about abuse and human rights violations taking place in the People Temple, Jonestown in Guyana which was headed by cult leader Jim Jones. After hearing rumors about members not being permitted to leave, Ryan decided to go to Jonestown, where Jones and his 1,000 members lived in isolation.

            Jonestown was located in Guyana in North America, Ryan arrived in Georgetown 150 miles away from Jonestown and stayed at the hotel for three days. On 17 November 1978, Ryan, his aide Jackie Speier, embassy chief Richard Dwyer, Guyanese information officer, nine journalists and four relatives boarded a plane to fly to Port Kaituma Airport, not far from Jonestown. On arrival they were welcomed and initially Ryan was impressed by the community and its followers. A member then handed a letter to one of the visitors stating ‘please help us get out of Jonestown’, Jones became aware of the note and became paranoid. Most of the group returned to their hotels, except for Ryan, Speier and Dwyer who continued interviewing members the next morning. They met numerous people who stated they wanted to leave Jonestown with their family members (14 all up), Jones loyal followers Larry Layton pretended to be one of the defectors. Before they were ready to leave, a member attacked Ryan with a knife and Ryan was ordered to leave. Ryan told members he will return to help them.

            The group left Jonestown and arrived at Kaituma airstrip at 4:45pm, their two planes didn’t arrive until 5:10pm. Layton opened fire and wounded several cult members. More of Jones loyal members turned up and opened fire on the group, which killed Ryan, three journalists and one of the members and nine more were wounded. Ryan was shot 20 times, and survivors fled into the fields to hide. The Guyanese army didn’t turn up until the next morning and by the time they turned up, they found Ryan and the other victims as well as 909 cult members at Jonestown dead by suicide and murder - including Jones. Layton survived and was convicted in 1986 and was released in 2002.

#leoryan #jonestown #jimjones #peoplestemple

[cocainaenvenenada]

The November 19th Tape

A tape designated by the FBI as Q 875 was found along with the hundreds of others at Jonestown. There was apparently nothing special about the location of the tape, or any differences in appearance to distinguish it from the others, or anything else. It was just there. As opposed to all the other tapes, though, this is the only tape made after the deaths.

Q 875 consists of four broadcast news stories recorded off the air on November 19, 1978, all concerning the deaths of Congressman Leo Ryan and members of his party “last night” at the Port Kaituma airstrip in Guyana. Two of the broadcasts are of Guyanese origin, and two are American, including an ABC broadcast. The first newscast includes “unconfirmed reports reaching Georgetown” of mass suicide at Jonestown. Later broadcasts said that Temple attorneys Charles Garry and Mark Lane are safe, although at the time there was still “nothing [confirmed] about reports of mass suicide in the commune.”

The MP3 of the tape appears here and can be reviewed in conjunction with the transcript and summary of the tape. A supplement to the transcript by Josef Dieckman appears here.

Because this is the only tape from Jonestown which was made after the deaths, it has been the subject of much interest and discussion. The editors of this site wrote a commentary about Q 875 in 2002, raising what we believed were the fundamental questions about it, and over the years, a number of people have offered their own perspectives. Those articles appear below. In our view, perhaps the most compelling explanation to date was offered in 2008 by Joel Thomas, but certainly we welcome additional commentary by anyone interested in challenging this interpretation and presenting new ones.

[bobmccullochny]

History

November 19, 1493 - Puerto Rico was discovered by Columbus during his second voyage to the New World.

November 19, 1703 - The "Man in the Iron Mask," a prisoner of Louis XIV in the Bastille prison in Paris, died. The prisoner may have been Count Matthioli, who had double-crossed Louis XIV, or may have even been the brother of Louis XIV. His true identity has been the cause of much intrigue, and was celebrated in literary works such as Alexandre Dumas' The Viscount Bragelonne.

November 19, 1863 - President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address during ceremonies dedicating 17 acres of the Gettysburg Battlefield as a National Cemetery. Famed orator Edward Everett of Massachusetts preceded Lincoln and spoke for two hours. Lincoln then delivered his address in less than two minutes. Although many in attendance were at first unimpressed, Lincoln's words have come to symbolize the definition of democracy itself.

November 19, 1868 - New Jersey suffragists attempted to vote in the presidential election to test the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which states, "no State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States." 172 suffragists, including four African American women, were turned away. Instead they cast their votes in a women's ballot box overseen by 84-year-old Quaker Margaret Pryer.

November 19, 1939 - Construction of the first presidential library began as President Franklin D. Roosevelt laid the cornerstone next to his home in Hyde Park, New York. Roosevelt donated the land, but public donations funded the library building which was dedicated on June 30, 1941.

November 19, 1942 - The Russian Army began a massive counter-offensive against the Germans at Stalingrad during World War II.

November 19, 1969 - The first news reports emerged that American troops in Vietnam had massacred civilians in My Lai Village back in March of 1968.

November 19, 1977 - Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to visit Israel.

November 19, 1978 - The biggest mass suicide in history occurred as Reverend Jim Jones led over 900 followers to their deaths at Jonestown, Guyana. Members of his "Peoples Temple" religious cult were ordered to drink a cyanide-laced fruit drink. Those who refused were forcibly injected. Precipitating the tragedy a day earlier, California Congressman Leo J. Ryan, along with four associates and several reporters, had been shot to death during an ambush at a nearby airstrip. They were attempting to return home after investigating the cult's remote jungle location. Jones and his mistress killed themselves after watching his entire membership die. Only a few cult members managed to escape.

November 19-20, 1990 - The Cold War came to an end during a summit in Paris as leaders of NATO and the Warsaw Pact signed a Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe, vastly reducing their military arsenals.

November 19, 1996 - Pope John Paul II and Cuban leader Fidel Castro held their historic first meeting in the Vatican.

November 19, 1998 - The U.S. House of Representatives began an impeachment inquiry of President Bill Clinton, only the third presidential impeachment inquiry in U.S. History - the other two being of President Andrew Johnson in 1868 and President Richard Nixon in 1974.

Birthday - Charles I, King of Scotland and England (1600-1649) was born. He ruled from 1625-49. He maintained the Divine Right of Kings to rule and opposed Parliament's challenges to his authoritarian style. This resulted in civil war and his eventual execution, followed by the establishment of a Commonwealth with Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector.

Birthday - James A. Garfield (1831-1881) the 20th U.S. President was born in Orange, Ohio. He served from March 4 to September 19, 1881. He was shot by a disgruntled office-seeker while walking into the railway station in Washington, D.C., on the morning of July 2nd, 1881. Garfield survived until September 19, 1881, when he succumbed to blood poisoning.

Birthday - Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (1917-1984) was born in Allahabad, India. She served from 1966-75 and later from 1980 to 1984, when she was assassinated by her own bodyguards as she walked to her office. Her only surviving son, Rajiv, became the next prime minister. In 1991, he was assassinated while campaigning for re-election.

Birthday - Baseball player Roy Campanella (1921-1993) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was one of the first African American major league players and was one of the Brooklyn Dodgers' "Boys of Summer." His career ended when an automobile accident left him paralyzed in 1958. He then became an inspirational spokesman for the paralyzed.

[delux2222]

Nov 18,1978, in Jonestown, Guyana, Jim Jones led his Peoples Temple cult to a mass murder-suicide that claimed 918 lives in all, including over 270 children. Congressman Leo J. Ryan, searching for his daughter, had been murdered by members of the Peoples Temple hours earlier

[rielpolitik]

MIND GAMES: Was The CIA Behind The Jonestowm Massacre? - By Jeremy Kuzmarov (Flashback)

MIND GAMES: Was The CIA Behind The Jonestowm Massacre? – By Jeremy Kuzmarov (Flashback)

Source – covertactionmagazine.com “…I think the Jonestown incident was an extension of In Search of the Manchurian Candidate…It escalated once they killed Congressman Leo J. Ryan; basically, they had no other way to go, so they just tried to self-destruct the whole mission. And that means the death of hundreds of people. (They) wouldn’t even allow the bodies to be properly examined when they…

[biology-is-not-binary]

Thought Control - The BITE Model

Require members to internalize the group’s doctrine as truth

Adopting the group’s ‘map of reality’ as reality

Instill black and white thinking

Decide between good vs. evil

Organize people into us vs. them (insiders vs. outsiders)

0 - There is no group doctrine because there is no governing body or figurehead. Any 'doctrine' is the science and history that supports the existence of trans people and of gender affirming care. People are naturally wary of those who are against the science as these attitudes lead to the harmful laws that take away the rights of trans people and cause direct physical harm. Us vs Them mentality means accepting there are no inbetweens. In this case, it would have to establish that anybody who ever does or says anything transphobic, even by accident or out of ignorance, is a transphobe. They cannot improve and never will. This is not the case however. When people are called out for being transphobic or a transphobe, it usually a statement of fact. A comment can be transphobic and person can be a transphobe. Those who have not explicitly shown support of trans people but haven't shown otherwise are not considered evil or outsiders. An example of insider vs outsider or us vs them mentality in cults is usually pretty obvious. In cults like Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormonism, you are either part of the organization or you are considered an agent of the enemy and will go to hell. In Jonestown, this idea was taken to the extreme. Anybody who was not a part of the cult was considered a dangerous enemy. Anybody who left the cult was an enemy. Visits from outsiders were considered threats and members were prepped on what they were allowed to say. The "us" is incredibly exclusionary. When Congressman Leo Ryan went to Guyana to see the cult, it ultimately ended in his death along with the deaths of three reporters and a defector. This threat from Congressman Ryan, who was nothing but polite and was unaware of how truly dangerous the cult was due to how they presented themselves to him, was enough to trigger the mass murder of ~918 members.

Change person’s name and identity

0 - Yes, many trans people change their names. But this is by their own choice and the reason each person does it or doesn't do it is incredibly personal. There is no governing body or figurehead forcing anybody to change. Some trans people may choose to keep their birth name even. Or just take on a variation of it. Nobody blinks an eye when a cis child or cis person takes on a nickname that is different from their birth name. And nobody should assume that someone voluntarily changing their name is due to brainwashing. An actual example of a cult changing the names of their members is the Heaven's Gate cult. Members took on 6 letter names that ended in 'ODY' and in all caps. These were given by the cult leaders and not chosen in any way by the members. This is not at all similar to an individual choosing to change their name.

Use of loaded language and clichés which constrict knowledge, stop critical thoughts and reduce complexities into platitudinous buzz words

1 - I'm being generous here because there are some phrases that have caught on, but mainly because they were made as a way to help provide support to trans people (see the "trans women are women" and similar phrases that are meant to uplift a marginalized community, such as the phrase "love is love"). Another you'll often see is the sex is different from gender. This came about for a similar reason. Much of society (at least in the US and many other places) still refers to sex and gender as the same thing instead of the different things they actually are according to anthropology and biology. (Gender is also often equated with gender identity, but I'm not getting into that rn.) None of these are used to stop critical thinking either. With loaded language in cults, words will be defined differently or given exaggerated importance with assumptions attached to the word/phrase within the group. I don't consider TERFs to be a cult group per this model, but look at how TERFs have chosen to define gender and how it differs from the scientists who use the term. Additionally, those who use loaded language in cults will have no resources to back up their rebuttals. They will discredit the individual rather than try to argue the point. I hate to use this as an example again, but TERFs will frequently do this online. Instead of arguing the actual point, they will try to discredit the individual instead most of the time (such as how gayfencingtongueegg was accused unfairly of being antisemitic or lostelvenqueen is frequently accused of being a man when that is not the case). Or they will create a different point to argue, see "what is a woman". Or creationists when trying to talk about evolution will make comments like "if evolution is true, why do monkeys only give birth to monkeys". Any arguments made are usually made against a strawman.

Encourage only ‘good and proper’ thoughts

0 - There are no thoughts that are considered "good and proper" more than other thoughts at base value. There is no 'sin' or similar concept. This is not like Mormonism where even the thought of possibly being gay is considered unacceptable. Where it is believed that thoughts are sinful and will be broadcast with all your other since in heaven. Or the auditing in Scientology where the goal is to calm the "reactive mind" erase negative thoughts and experiences.

Hypnotic techniques are used to alter mental states, undermine critical thinking and even to age regress the member

0 - There is no evidence for hypnotic techniques being used, particularly as there is no figurehead or governing body. Steven Hassan has tried to claim that hypnoporn is used but uh...that's literally just porn. It a fetish for some people. It's not evidence of hypnosis being used.

Memories are manipulated and false memories are created

0 - This was covered in Information Control

Teaching thought-stopping techniques which shut down reality testing by stopping negative thoughts and allowing only positive thoughts, including:

Denial, rationalization, justification, wishful thinking

Chanting

Meditating

Praying

Speaking in tongues

Singing or humming

0 - When many people figure out they're trans, there's a lot of reckoning to do, particularly in an area like the USA that has conservative Christians with large amounts of power. This culture often leads to a denial of self that affects queer folk beyond just the trans community. Many Christian organizations have created an atmosphere where people have to hide who they are and try to feel better about it through methods similar to the above. These are not present in the trans community and are certainly not something passed on from a governing body or individual of authority. When looking at this category, it's easy to think of some examples. Look at conversion therapy (which Hassan has also strongly denounced in large part due to this). Or of how some groups will tell you to sing or recite phrases when faced with negative thoughts/emotions. Phrases like "doubt your doubts" or specific Bible verses are common here. The idea is to not think of thinking these thoughts. Tbh, it makes me think of Turn It Off from the musical The Book Of Mormon.

Rejection of rational analysis, critical thinking, constructive criticism

1 - Being generous here again. The scientific research of trans issues is certainly up for rational analysis, critical thinking and constructive criticism. These are the ideas behind the scientific process that includes null hypotheses and peer review. However, individuals may be unwilling to hear from transphobes at a certain point, usually due to a variety of reasons, which may include being harassed when discussing trans related topics in the past, being sent death threats upon coming out or having attempts at discussions be derailed by people refusing to address the issues and/or repeating themselves. Marginalized communities, like the trans community, are understandably anxious and cautious towards others who may be bad faith actors. For more discussion on this, please refer back to Information Control where I talk about thought stopping techniques and loaded language that is used for this rejection.

Forbid critical questions about leader, doctrine, or policy allowed

0 - See the above points. No leadership and the scientific process already allows for critical questioning. In some cults, this is taken to extremes beyond disfellowship and shunning. In Scientology, the leaders are idolized and speaking against them or the beliefs are punished, usually harshly. In fact, it's speculated that some of the investigations stalled in Clearwater and in Scientology's German base city are related directly to the organization and are due to the people speaking out against them or leaving. Or in the Hebrew Israelite Movement which murdered members who questioned leadership as examples to other members.

Labeling alternative belief systems as illegitimate, evil, or not useful

0 - Support of trans people is not based on a belief but on science. An example of this would be, well, almost all cults. Think of the numerous Christian cults that claim they are the one true source of information and everyone who is not a member is an agent of Satan trying to take you away from the religion. Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Order of the Solar Temple, etc all exhibit this belief and will dismiss ideas from others immediately and without thought. All of them, if asked to choose which is more correct: science or their doctrine, will say their doctrine and that science has just not caught up with it yet. Therefore, stating the science is not useful for them

Instill new “map of reality”

0 - This is referring to changing a person's idea of how the world works and a person's place in it. Support of trans people is based on science and clearly does not do this. The acknowledgement of gender diverse communities and of gender affirming care is a reflection of reality. It is the most predictive view we have of the world right now. Nearly all cults implement this as it helps set them apart from the rest of the world. Some cults take this far more extreme than others. With Scientology, they claim that their top level members can receive superpowers, like mind reading, to protect humankind from doom. While more of a conspiracy theory than a cult, the idea of reptilians "lizard people" would be another clear example of people being installed with a new map of reality.

Ok, yeah. I don't know what I expected, but I think it's clear here as well that "trans ideology" exhibits little to no thought control. This is in large part due to not having leadership and due to "trans ideology" accepting the current scientific research.

[thatsnotcanonpodcasts]

Jonestown

In this episode Julie tells KB about all the just plain awful things that happened in Jonestown.

TRIGGER WARNING: This episode deals with very heavy themes.

If you are struggling with any of these issues please reach out to one of the services below.

You are not alone & there are people ready to support you.

Lifeline Australia: 13 11 14

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National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1800 273 8255 (USA)

Join the conversation.

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& as always Rate, Review & Subscribe!!!

EPISODE NOTES: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown_conspiracy_theories

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/jonestown-13-things-you-should-know-about-cult-massacre-121974/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown

Southwell, D. and Donald, G., 2018. Conspiracy Theories. 2nd ed. London: SevenOaks, p.97.

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[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

For Jackie Speier, the growing threat of political violence in America is personal.

Before becoming a member of the House of Representatives in 2009, Speier served as a staffer to congressman Leo Ryan. When Speier joined Ryan for a 1978 trip to Guyana to investigate the Jonestown settlement, she was shot five times.

Speier survived the attack, but Ryan and four other members of their delegation did not.

So when one of her Republican colleagues recently shared a threatening video about the president and another House member, Speier knew she needed to act. The Democratic congresswoman spearheaded an effort to censure Paul Gosar, who had tweeted an altered anime video showing him killing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacking Joe Biden.

The censure resolution passed the House last week, in a vote of 223 to 207. All but three House Republicans voted against the resolution, with the minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, condemning the measure as a Democratic “abuse of power".

The Guardian spoke to Speier to discuss the censure resolution, her coming retirement and the shifting dynamics of the House as lawmakers face more threats of violence...

[father-jones-temple]

Operation and End of Jonestown

In San Francisco, Jones became a powerful leader. He was on good terms with public officials and the media, donated money to a bunch of charitable causes and delivered votes for various politicians at election time. The Peoples Temple ran social and medical programs for the needy, including a free dining hall, drug rehabilitation and legal aid services. Jones’s message of social equality and racial justice attracted a diverse group of followers, including naïve young people who just wanted to do something meaningful with their lives.

As his congregation got bigger, Jones began to perceive negative attention from the media. Former members of the Peoples Temple had talked about how they were regularly humiliated, beaten, and blackmailed. Many were also coerced or brainwashed into signing over their possessions, including their homes, to the church. They also talked about how Jones had done fake “cancer healings” where he used old, rotting animal parts as fake tumors. Black people and members of other minority groups were convinced that if they left the Peoples Temple, then they would be rounded up and put into concentration camps run by the government. As a result of this unwanted attention, Jones got over 1,000 of his followers to join him in coming to Guyana in 1974, where he told them that they would build a “socialist utopia” that he called Jonestown. 

The Temple members worked long, hard days in the field and were harshly punished if they questioned Jones’ authority. Their passports and medications were taken as they were subjected to tropical diseases and mosquitos. Armed guards kept a close watch on Jonestown, ready to kill or torture anyone that tried to escape. Their letters and phone calls to family were censored and they were forced to attend long, late-night meetings that stretched far into the early hours of the morning. 

Jones, who by then was addicted to drugs with a rapidly declining mental health, had his own personal throne in the main pavilion and often compared himself to Vladimir Lenin, a Russian communist revolutionary that led one of the most explosive political events of the twentieth century, and Jesus Christ. He also was paranoid that the government was after him, so he often made his followers run through mock suicide trials in the middle of the night. 

In November of 1978, U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan traveled to Guyana, hearing that some of his constituents had family members that were being held there against their will. He arrived on the 17th along with news reporters, photographers, and concerned relatives of the Temple members. During this time, some of the members begged Ryan to help them escape. The next day when Ryan and his group (including some of the Temple members) were set to leave, they were ambushed by gunmen sent by Jones. Five people were killed, including Ryan, and 11 others were injured. 

Image of former U.S. Congressman, Leo Ryan

Shortly after the shooting, Jones ordered everyone to gather in the main pavilion and commit what he called a “revolutionary act”, which was the suicides his members had been planning in the past. The youngest members of the Peoples Temple were the first to die, as parents and nurses used syringes to drop a potent mix of cyanide, sedatives and powdered fruit juice into children’s throats. (Jones had reportedly obtained a jeweler’s license at some earlier point, which enabled him to stockpile cyanide.) Adults then lined up to drink the poison-laced concoction while armed guards surrounded the pavilion. 

When Guyanese officials went to Jonestown the next day, they found it carpeted with hundreds and hundreds of bodies, many of which had died with their arms around each other. Jim Jones was found in his throne with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

[chaoticxnightmare]

Today marks 43 years since the Jonestown massacre.

I won’t call it a suicide for obvious reasons

If you don’t know what it was, or what happened, this video gives the rundown, but I will put a

Trigger Warning

Because it’s very dark, very explicit and there’s audio clips of children being.. well you know.

I just wanted to take this moment to honor the children, and those who were forced into death.

This shows how very important it is, not to blindly follow something without asking questions or doing research. To not allow people to exploit your vulnerabilities and weaknesses. To think for yourself and most importantly “don’t drink the kool-aid”.

Because unfortunately it is very easy to manipulate others into things, and it’s something that happens even today.

RIP to those innocent people and congressman Leo Ryan for having the bravery to go down there when no one else would take the claims seriously.

I hope Jim Jones is rotting in the deepest pit of hell.

[intriguingpeoplebyangelafloyd]

LEO RYAN

LEO RYAN

1925-1978

            Leo Ryan was an American politician and California’s congressman from 1973. He was murdered in 1978 by followers of Jim Jones the cult leader from the People’s Temple.

            In 1978, there were reports about abuse and human rights violations taking place in the People Temple, Jonestown in Guyana which was headed by cult leader Jim Jones. After hearing rumors about members not being permitted to leave, Ryan decided to go to Jonestown, where Jones and his 1,000 members lived in isolation.

            Jonestown was located in Guyana in North America, Ryan arrived in Georgetown 150 miles away from Jonestown and stayed at the hotel for three days. On 17 November 1978, Ryan, his aide Jackie Speier, embassy chief Richard Dwyer, Guyanese information officer, nine journalists and four relatives boarded a plane to fly to Port Kaituma Airport, not far from Jonestown. On arrival they were welcomed and initially Ryan was impressed by the community and its followers. A member then handed a letter to one of the visitors stating ‘please help us get out of Jonestown’, Jones became aware of the note and became paranoid. Most of the group returned to their hotels, except for Ryan, Speier and Dwyer who continued interviewing members the next morning. They met numerous people who stated they wanted to leave Jonestown with their family members (14 all up), Jones loyal followers Larry Layton pretended to be one of the defectors. Before they were ready to leave, a member attacked Ryan with a knife and Ryan was ordered to leave. Ryan told members he will return to help them.

            The group left Jonestown and arrived at Kaituma airstrip at 4:45pm, their two planes didn’t arrive until 5:10pm. Layton opened fire and wounded several cult members. More of Jones loyal members turned up and opened fire on the group, which killed Ryan, three journalists and one of the members and nine more were wounded. Ryan was shot 20 times, and survivors fled into the fields to hide. The Guyanese army didn’t turn up until the next morning and by the time they turned up, they found Ryan and the other victims as well as 909 cult members at Jonestown dead by suicide and murder - including Jones. Layton survived and was convicted in 1986 and was released in 2002.

#leoryan #jonestown #jimjones #peoplestemple

[sigmadecay]

You said you can info dump about Jonestown massacre? I'm here to learn about Jonestown massacre.

OHOHOHO YES

okay so if I start from Jim Jones’ early life this is literally gonna take me hours to write and probably take you forever to read so I will try to cliffnote the context of....y’know, his life

He didn’t have super present or even very parental parents, his mother worked a lot & his father was a disabled WWI vet. A neighbor took him to church w her family on Sundays and that began his interest in religion. He went to different churches all the time to see what they were about but had a particular interest in the Pentecostal church, it was loud & interactive & joyful but they did get a bad rep for “speaking in tongues”

Jim married his wife Marceline when he was 17 or 18 and she was like 20-21. She was working as a nurse in a hospital that Jim did custodial work in while he was trying to get himself through school. I have a lot of thoughts about Marceline Jones and most of them are “she deserved better” but we will come back to Marceline later.

Fast forward fast forward and Jim & Marcy have a number of kids, their “rainbow family” which consists of one bio child and a number of adopted children I think?? Listen in my defense he ended up with nine (!!! NINE) kids and they’re hard to keep track of but I know Stephan was their biological son and they adopted Jim Jr. who was black and Lew & Suzanne who were Korean which was a bigass deal at the time. More kids cropped up over the course of things but y’know. When Jim founded the Peoples Temple he got the MLK Jr award for racial equality because his church was the first fully integrated church at least in Indiana which was fucking nuts at the time??? Lots of people liked him. It appeared that he was doing good things.

And then shit like faith healings started where he would stage religious healings from cancer and shit and his congregation began regarding him as a deity. Someone would be blessed and would spit out a “tumor” (a piece of chicken liver) or the woman in the wheelchair who got up and walked turned out to be Jim’s secretary. Completely bogus nonsense, but it was a good, integrated church and they all thought he was a good person.

So, (and I’m leaving out details here sorry) Jim starts teasing like an escape to a “promised land” type deal. And he goes to a bunch of places looking for one—he spends time in Brazil especially—until finally settling on Guyana. The Guyanese govt was excited to have Americans coming bc they were at war with Venezuela and it was...sort of like insurance, but yeah. They gave the Peoples Temple a couple hundred acres in the middle of basically the fucking rainforest. And it was touted as like this socialist utopia and shit. It’s work but there’s housing and you grow your own food, and it seemed nice! Especially for people who were so disillusioned with the government and racial inequality. So they move out to Guyana and start to build houses, and shit is pretty alright at first, but...The soil isn’t fertile and almost no food actually grows. The hours are long and the work is backbreaking, not to mention the HEAT, but it’s like, deal-with-able until Jim Jones gets there. At this point Jones is like completely totally paranoid and he’s losing his grip on reality. He’s been doing drugs for years and his sermons have gone from “the US government is bad because it’s capitalist and racist” to “the US government is literally plotting to kill us.”

Some people managed to get out, and formed a group called the “concerned relatives.” They were, you guessed it, concerned relatives of the members who’d been whisked off to the Guyanese wilderness. Lots of people wrote off their concerns because of how many people, namely politicians, liked Jim Jones for his work in racial equality, but the one guy who listened to them was Congressman Leo Ryan, who was by all accounts a Pretty Solid Dude. He didn’t think anything fishy was happening, necessarily, but his whole stance was “I hear you & your concerns, and we should check it out to put your mind at ease! :)”

By this point, life in the Temple is falling! the fuck! apart! Jim Jones has a PA system set to run 24/7 that either play a) recordings of past sermons or b) his announcements happening Right This Second. People work for like 16 hours a day, there are armed guards at the entrance and around the fields to keep people in, the housing is cramped and overcrowded and they do Not have enough food for the almost 1000 people there. They are also getting record low amounts of sleep because Jim Jones, Nutjob Extraordinaire, has gotten into the habit of blaring the air raid siren at god knows what our and calling all his followers into the pavilion for a White Night. Which is, if you can even fucking believe it, a PRACTICE MASS SUICIDE BY KOOL AID.

Talk about foreshadowing.

So anyway, Leo Ryan rolls up to the compound, relatives and an NBC camera crew in tow, and is like “hey what’s up! :)” Jim Jones has been COACHING PEOPLE to tell him how much they love it. It’s fucked up. But okay

So they put on this dinner and a show type deal for the congressman and all the visitors, and Marceline (remember Marceline?) gives them a whole tour and shows them her pride and joy, the school she’d built and helps teaches at, and the medical center, and the daycare, like Marceline ADORES children this cannot be overstated. There are about 300 children in Jonestown and she loves them with her whole heart. ANYWAY

And everyone is having a funky good time, except Jim Jones, whose sanity is coming unraveled like an old sweater and his 950-ish overworked undercompensated cult members

But as Leo Ryan is leaving, someone slips a note to one of the reporters, BEGGING him to get them out of there. And then someone else comes forward. And then another. There are like....maybe 10 people total that come forward? Jim Jones loses his mind, naturally, but Leo Ryan is still like “hey, 10 out of 950 isn’t bad at all! They just miss their families :)” and they get going.

Unfortunately, because the number of people traveling back to the US from Guyana is greater than before, and they came on a small plane, they’re all posted up at the Port Kaituma airstrip waiting for a second aircraft. And this is when shit gets fucking real.

Jim Jones secretly sends his Red Men (read: “guards” with shotguns) to the airstrip to kill everyone because they’re going to give their secrets to the CIA or whatever. So they fucking roll up in this trailer and...open fire. Leo Ryan is killed, an NBC cameraman is killed, some of the defectors and concerned relatives are killed, many of them are wounded.

The Red Men return to the compound and report back to Jones. And then he gets on the PA and tells everyone that the USA’s destruction of them is imminent. He lies and tells them that the pilot will be shot and the plane will go down, and the US government will come into the compound for retribution and kill their seniors and kidnap the children and rape the women. You can hear a recording of this on YouTube! It’s called the Jonestown death tape and it will absolutely ruin your day if you listen to it. Anyway.

People are panicking. It’s time for the real White Night. Jones gets a vat of Flavor-Aid (off brand Kool-Aid) filled with cyanide and narcotics and says “drink :)” and...everyone is...understandably afraid. They’re tired and exhausted and terrified and have no idea what’s true or not. One woman, Christine, argues and pleads for another solution, like running off to the Soviet Union. The entire rest of the compound shouts her down.

So, finally, people drink. Those who won’t, and young children, are injected with it. The death is not painless. People suffer for a long time, and move to the back of the line, lie down, and die. At a reception house in Georgetown, one of Jones’ aides kills her three children and then herself with a steak knife.

A handful of people get out. Maybe five are able to hide, and three of Jones’ sons are away at a basketball game in Georgetown while this is all going down, so they live.

Jim Jones does not drink the poison. Jim Jones shoots himself in the head, and his private nurse does the same.

Marceline Jones screamed, sobbed and struggled until every single child had died, hoping at least one of them would be spared. And when none were, she dried her eyes, resigned herself to her fate, and drank the Kool-Aid.

The 900-something bodies, about a third of which were children, began rotting in the tropical sun almost immediately. Many of them were decomposed beyond recognition by the time the US troops got there. Those unidentified are buried in a mass gravesite in...California, I think? It was the largest loss of American life not due to a natural disaster up until 9/11. The place is still there, though now it’s overgrown, and it’s just...haunting. There’s a number of documentaries on it (recommend) and if you have a really masochistic streak, the Port Kaituma airstrip shooting and the Jonestown death tape audio are both on YouTube the last I checked.

Thank you for indulging me my special interest, and I’m happy to expand on anything here or give more details :3