Charles Manson Cults Vs Religion

A notorious cult leader dies at age 83 in Bakersfield, California. Born on November 12, 1934, Charles Manson lived a life of crime. From a young age, he was living on the streets committing petty thefts for food and money. Charles Manson spent the next 32 year of his life going in and out of prison. During the late 1960s, the Manson Family rose from the depths. A cult made up of young drug addicts devoted their lives to Charles Manson. After brutally murdering several people, Manson was convicted of nine murders.

Many psychologists and researchers have for many years tried to explain what makes normal human beings become evil and become perpetrators of evil. The study of a normal human being becoming a perpetrator of evil has almost become it’s own branch of psychology. There are many examples of evil actions in this world, which has led to a lot of research of the human mind; where evil is born. Hitler, Anders Breivik, and Jim Jones are just a few examples of the many evil human minds we have seen in this world. All people, who were thought to hold the same mindset as everyone else. The big question is, what creates these evil people, and what gives them such an evil mindset? By focusing on the mind of Jim Jones, this paper will attempt

“Hurry my children, hurry, Jim Jones told his followers as they drank the poison that ended their lives”(Streissguth 1). James Warren Jones was an American religious leader who was born on May 13, 1931 and died on November 18, 1978. Jones soon became known as the leader of a cult called “ The People’s Temple”. Jim Jones initiated and was responsible for a mass murder and mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana. Mass murder and mass suicide committed by Jim Jones and the government as a part of the massacre are two theories surrounding the mystery behind “The Jonestown Massacre”.

The “Lessons from Jonestown” article from the American Psychological Association explains what happened in Jonestown, Guyana and why it happened. The members of the church wanted to leave the United States to escape racism, so they agreed to follow Jim Jones to South America. They hoped to live more peaceful, happy lives, but their lives were cut short due to a mass suicide led by Jones. Psychologists, such as Philip Zimbardo, believe that Jones’ success came partially from George Orwell’s book, “1984.” This book explained different facets of mind control and how it is executed, and there are many parallels between the examples in the book and in Jim Jones’ church. In the case of Jim Jones and Jonestown, an extremely intelligent leader played

The one cult that left a mark on Americans is The Peoples Temple and its leader Jim Jones. As I started to do my research for this project I had in mind I would do an overview of cults in American society in the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s but one cult stood out from the rest it and it was The Peoples Temple and Jonestown. Jim Jones a very charismatic leader literally talked 914 people into killing themselves in the name of God. In this paper you will find strong evidence of how Jim Jones rose to power and why people followed his warped since of religion and

The Holy Ghost People by Peter Adair, was created in 1967. It exposes people of the Pentecostal religion, and their unusual rituals and ceremonies that they partake in. While watching the movie I kept on wondering why someone would want to sit through one of their services and participate in such odd rituals and behaviors. After reviewing the sociological theories we have learned in class, I concluded that Durkheim’s Social Consensus theory and Collins Interaction Ritual Chains theory both best explain the motivations for joining and staying in a religion that has such unusual rituals and extreme commitments.

“Jim Jones of the Peoples’s Temple began as a sound, fairly mainstream Christian minister” (Sects, ‘Cults’ & Alternative Religions). Before all the madness Jones seemed like a caring person, that wanted to bring peace to a town he made, Jonestown. Instead it turned into something more horrific. Jim Jones was the manipulative mastermind behind the traumatic events that happened in Jonestown, Guyana, this essay will discuss interviews by people who are survivors of the mass suicide, and dive into the crazy conspiracies that have emerged, and finally conclude with the death of the Peoples Temple.

Resocialization is defined by the dictionary as the process of learning new attitudes and norms required for a new social role. In essence, the members of Peoples Temple were certainly brainwashed and taught new values and beliefs that were in actuality the standards of Jim Jones. I believe Jim Jones appeared at a time where people desperately wanted to spread peace and love throughout their communities. He appeared at the lowest point of a lot of people’s lives like drug addicts and the less fortunate. Moreover, these people needed a clear path of guidance from a leader that could possibly grant them a miracle. In the words of a past member of Peoples Temple named Hue Fortson, “Jim Jones said If you see me as your father, I’ll be your father. If you see me as your god, I’ll be your

The 1950s to the 1980s were a time filled with social change within the US. These people fought for deserved justice in multiple places of controversy, such as race. Partly as a result of this, came on a wave of organizations and cults, all with their own agendas. The People’s Temple was among these, ran by a former reverend, Jim Jones. The organization started small in 1956 as a racially integrated church. Slowly, it marched its way to 1978 on the fateful day when its members “drank the Kool-Aid” as a revolutionary act of suicide. This suicide, however, involved the poisoning of 918 people, a third of whom were children. These facts led to the conclusion that it was a coerced suicide. This 20-year transformation from integrated

A cult, according to Merriam Webster, is a small religious group that is not part of a larger and more accepted religion and that has beliefs regarded by many people as extreme or dangerous. The Branch Davidians was a cult. It was a spinoff of the Seventh-Day Adventists. The Seventh-Day Adventist church is a church that believes Jesus will come back to earth one day, and they use Saturday as the Sabbath day. The Branch Davidians preached that the end of the world was near. They thought that they were the chosen ones and that their church was the chosen church (Reavis 15). This is why the Davidians thought they had so much power over everyone, including the FBI. Their leaders would preach that God loved their religion more than any other and that the Davidians had power over everything. “Born Vernon Wayne

From a young age Charles Manson experienced neglect from his mother and his father, often times being left alone to fend for himself. Charles had the ability to manipulate people even

Over ten people died all because of one person. Some were stabbed, some were shot, some were dismembered. All because of one person. Charles Manson was a notorious cult leader who traveled around California in the late 1960’s ordering his followers to murder innocent people and leaving others scared for their lives.

The Jonestown Massacre took place in Guyana on November 18, 1978. This was a mass-suicide murder of a cult called the Peoples Temple. This massacre was run by the cult leader, Jim Jones. Jones told his members that soldiers were coming to torture them and some 900 members died in during this event. When Jones was younger, he sold live monkeys to people to raise money. The Jamestown Massacre was the largest killing of American civilians before the terrorists attacks on 9/11.

Charles Manson was thought to have killed thirty-five people. Most of the cases were never solved, or he was already sentenced with something else. He was an American cult leader, who was responsible for several murders in the 1960’s, resulting in life in prison. Manson had around 100 followers, who had shared his pasion use of drugs, and killing. He was thought to be the murder of Sharon Tate and other famous Hollywood stars (Charles Manson).

Charles Manson, father of the ¨Manson Family¨ was born on November 12, 1934. The ¨Manson Family¨ was created in the late 60ś but gained national notoriety after the family committed a series of nine murders in July and August of 1969. All of Manson's followers lived in a single home where, they were cut off from their families, friends, and society as a whole. Manson was viewed as the single undoubted leader who held all power in the organization. Manson worked to organize his followers to commit murder for him. However, Manson's followers were only following orders to achieve a ¨wonderful, life-affirming opportunity¨ Manson had offered them.