And I guess the conclusion that I came to personally-although I should preface this by saying whatever anybody else wants to think of any of these aspects, they’re perfectly welcome to. It was the probing of my own brain as much as anything, but I did as much reading as I could do about it. And also, I must say that one of Arturo’s speeches, the “as I am” speech, is a very close parallel of one of Jim Jones’ speeches, which I was able to find a transcribed version of.īut my concern was what makes viable, intelligent, very educated people seek to engage in that kind of organization or group. So that was definitely an impetus for including this structure, and exploring that structure. But it was extremely powerful to me, and very, very scary. I had no personal connection with it, except to read the headlines like everyone else. But the Jonestown massacre in Guyana was a very, very potent event in my life. As I define cults, I have been quite fascinated by them, and fascinated also by the structures in normal society that seem to replicate some of the functions of cults. I don’t consider all religions to be cults, or anything like that. When I’m talking about a cult, I’m talking about a negative structure that is destructive to its members, and usually one that has a charismatic central figure who is the dominant power, rather than a whole doctrine of spiritualism. I am fascinated by the existence of cults and by the concept of cults, which I define as negative.
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