In spite of my knowledge of the Jonestown massacre/suicide, I had never before listened to the recording. I have read books and seen the movie with Powers Boothe playing the role of Jonestown leader Jim Jones. I have long been both horrified and fascinated with this terrible tragedy. How did a man like Jones persuade 1000 people to move to the jungle of Guyana, surrender all of their property and possessions to him, and ultimately, follow him to their death? I was in high school at the time and could not comprehend such an act.

Tonight while surfing around I came across a link with the sound recording of Jones explaining to his followers why they all had to commit suicide. A woman named Christine and a couple of others dissented but they were shouted down by others. Many yelled and cheered as Jones told them it was time to commit “revolutionary suicide”. He explains how somehow he knows that some his followers followed a visiting congressman and reporters to their waiting plane and opened fire on them. He told them that soldiers would soon be parachuting in and would torture their children and the senior citizens. To prevent this everyone had to die. He grew agitated as some people become reluctant and some of the children became hysterical. In the end it is believed that he shot and killed himself, avoiding the 5-10 minutes of suffering from they cyanide that his followers had to endure.

Because of the movie I had always imagined a deep voiced, authoritative, charismatic man. What I heard was someone with a pronounced lisp whose inane rationalizations and lies should have been obvious even to his devoted followers. How did THIS guy do it? I can’t imagine myself following him across the street.

Reading about Jones tells us that he recruited to his church many of society’s outcasts. He brought in drug users, homeless people, battered women, and others who had been through traumatic events in their life. He built them up and made them feel like they were part of something. Many overlooked his financial shenanigans and sexual escapades. They wanted to believe….and they did believe in his mixture of Christianity, socialism, communism, and utopianism. When you can’t find something to believe in you often find someone to believe in.

What Jones tapped into was basic need. We all want to find meaning in our lives, to ascertain what we are doing here, what our purpose is, how we can find peace. We also want to be part of something larger than ourselves, to feel needed, to feel like we belong. Many people spend a large part of their lives searching for the answers.

Over 900 people had their search end with a cup of cyanide-laced fruit drink in a Guyanese jungle. I can't believe its been almost 30 years.