Cult [kuhlt] noun
1. a particular system of religious worship, especially with reference to its rites and ceremonies.
2. an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, especially as manifested by a body of admirers: the physical fitness cult.
3. the object of such devotion.
4. a group or sect bound together by veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc.
5. Sociology . a group having a sacred ideology and a set of rites centering around their sacred symbols.
Socialism [soh-shuh-liz-uhm] noun
1. a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.
2. procedure or practice in accordance with this theory.
3. (in Marxist theory) the stage following capitalism in the transition of a society to communism, characterized by the imperfect implementation of collectivist principles.

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Those That Do Not Remember The Past Are Condemned To Repeat It
I have provided those definitions to help the reader try to make sense of the story that the author has written.
As many of you know one of my favorite reads are ” I was there” books/ Biographies. Because As we all know The truth is stranger than any fiction that has been written, And in recent history some Fiction has become fact in certain ways. (Just read Tom Clancy).
That Being said. Of all the important dates in Our history, Nov 22 1963, April 19 1995, Sept. 11 2001 Who remembers where they were on Nov 18 1978?
What is Significant about that date you ask? Well while watching the NBC Nightly News that evening we learned that The only U.S. Congressman that has ever been Assassinated while in office Leo J. Ryan Jr.(D) CA. NBC Reporter Bob Brown and 2 others had been killed by Followers of The Reverend Jim Jones leader of the Peoples Temple Religious movement on a Air strip in the Guyanese jungle.
The next Monday we learned the whole awful story that 909 of of the members of the Peoples Temple had Drank Cyanide Laced Flavor-Ade, Until 9/11 the largest loss of life of American citizens in one event.

[in a degree of separation I have a small link to this tragedy, The Air Force transported the Victims back to Dover AFB in Delaware. After Identification and preparation they were transported back to their home towns Mainly in CA. and Indianapolis, IN. In Specially outfitted Moving Vans with Refrigeration units. My Brother and his Truck Driving Partner were one of the teams that did this.]

This Book is written by Deborah Layton Blakey who was a member of Jones’ “Inner Circle” and the woman who after escaping the group earlier in 1978 gave sworn testimony before congress that all was not as it was reported to be and that the “Church” was in fact a Cult in which people had been tortured and blackmailed to stay inside and prompted Congressman Ryan to begin a investigation on behalf of his constituents from California and go to Jonestown that fateful day.
From the text we learn that the group was not in fact a Church but a Socialist Movement Using religion to mask the real purpose of Jones motives, To create a Socialistic State where he wielded absolute power and amassed great wealth and political power while his followers lived in abject poverty giving all their possessions and monies to him.

There were bank accounts in several countries containing Millions while Jones told his followers in Jonestown that there was not enough money to afford the basics of life.
I had always wondered why most of his trusted inner circle were women. In this book I learned that he was having sexual relations with most of those women many of whom were at least 20 years younger than him and his wife.
We learn that this was just another case of someone Bastardizing Religion and scripture for their own selfish means.
So to sum up, I urge anyone who wants to know the real story of what happened to what was touted as a utopian paradise where all persons were to be treated as equals regardless of race or standing to pick this one up. I pray that something like this will never happen again (I said the same thing on April 19 1993 in Waco, TX.) But as long as there are those who pray on the spiritual needs of those who feel disenfranchised it can happen again because the populous sadly does not remember the past, and when one asks the average person today “What Was Jonestown?” Most reply “That’s where those religious kooks drank poison”
That’s only the tragic aftermath of the Story.
Also here is the most informative website on the whole tragedy.
http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/