Global Courant 2023-04-28 02:39:29
Sadly, it's a story that has been repeated countless times over the past decades with grisly results.
The People's Temple, Jonestown, Guyana – 1978
Getty Images Jim Jones had a seductive speech that attracted his fanatical followers.
The People's Temple was a religious group founded in the 50s, tinged with secrecy and led by a striking figure: Jim Jones.
Jones's ideal was to create "a socialist paradise" in which there were no boundaries of race or nationality. But that dream didn't fit very well in his country.
In 1975, Jones convinced some 900 followers to move to Guyana, a former British colony next to Venezuela, where he founded a utopian community known as Jonestown.
Temple members were largely drawn in by Jones' seductive speech. That fascination soon turned into loyalty, which later turned into fanaticism.
And it ended in idolatry.
Gradually, Jones's personality began to become erratic and paranoid.
In his long speeches he spoke of supposed threats against his "paradise" from the CIA, whose agents he accused of being "traitors" and "capitalist pigs."
There were also reports of abuse against members of the sect. In the so-called "white nights" they simulated collective suicides.
Getty Images In the final "white night", Jones ordered his congregation to drink a cyanide-laced soda.
The information reached the ears of California Congressman Leo Ryan, who organized a trip to Jonestown to investigate the situation.
But the mission ended tragically when members of the People's Temple gunned down Ryan and several of his companions.
It was then that Jones ordered to gather all the members of the community, to whom he asked for a final “white night”.
“Let's get this over with now. Let's end this agony," he was heard announcing on recordings obtained in an FBI investigation.
The members of the congregation, some voluntarily and others forced -including 300 children and babies- drank a soda adulterated with cyanide. In total, more than 900 people died.
Getty Images More than 900 people died in Jonestown, including Jim Jones.
A few who had hidden survived. Jones was found dead from a shot to the head.
The massacre was consigned as the largest collective suicide in history.
Branch Davidian, Waco, Texas – 1993
The Branch Davidian was a sect based near Waco, Texas, founded in 1955 and spun off from the Seventh-day Adventist Branch Davidians religious group.
In 1981, Vernon Howell, a young man who came from a dysfunctional family and had a criminal record for having had sexual relations with a minor, joined the Davidian sect.
CBSHowell changed his name to David Koresh to project a biblical identity.
After a struggle for sect dominance, Howell emerged as the supreme leader of the Davidians and changed his name to David Koresh to vindicate his divine connection to David the King of the Jews and to Cyrus the Great of Persia (Koresh is Cyrus in Hebrew).
He assumed a messianic role, declaring himself the last prophet and claiming that he had received the same level of inspiration as Jesus when he was baptized.
His apocalyptic teachings of the Bible, including his interpretations of the Book of Revelations and the Seven Seals, in which he predicted the events that heralded the Apocalypse, attracted a large following.
To prepare for that apocalypse, Koresh established an "Army of God" and began amassing an arsenal of weapons at the Davidian complex known as Mount Carmel.
He also introduced the idea of practicing "spiritual marriages" with numerous women of the sect of all ages. It is believed that he had more than ten children with them.
Getty Images It is estimated that Koresh had more than ten children with different women.
Accusations of sexual abuse and arms trafficking led the US Department of Justice to surround the complex with 76 officers with military training and search and arrest warrants.
The place was besieged for 51 days and, despite initial negotiations and the release of some members, including some minors, on April 19, the authorities began the final siege of the complex.
They fired tear gas, there was an exchange of fire and, a few hours later, there was a huge fire.
In a matter of minutes Mount Carmel was reduced to ashes the 79 Davidians who were inside perished.
Getty Images It is not known how the fire started at the Mount Carmel complex.
The origin of the fire could not be established. Koresh had died earlier from a shot to the head, but it is not known if it was a suicide or someone killed him.
Although an official report concluded that the ultimate responsibility for the tragedy lay with Koresh and his followers for starting the fire, the decisions and actions taken by the government agencies involved in the siege were heavily criticized.
Heaven's Gate, Rancho Santa Fe, California – 1997
Heaven's Gate (Puerta del Cielo) is considered one of the first religious sects of the internet age.
They used digital technology to spread their beliefs to a wider audience and also as a way to generate income.
Getty Images Marshall Applewhite combined science fiction terminology with biblical texts in his messages.
It was founded in the early 1970s by Marshall Applewhite and his wife Bonnie Nettles, a nurse whom he had met while in a mental institution.
They traveled the United States recruiting a group of followers they called "the crew" and eventually settled in southern California. When Nettles died in 1985, Applewhite continued to lead the congregation.
The group's philosophy was a hodgepodge of Presbyteran Church tenets and UFO beliefs. Applewhite preached to his acolytes that he was the Advent of Christ, that God was an alien, and that the end of the world was near.
In his sermons he combined science fiction with the Old Testament to urge his followers to “overcome their genetic vibrations as a way to get out of their vehicles so that their spirits could reemerge aboard a spaceship and find the next evolutionary level above. of the human”.
That was how he convinced them to consume applesauce and barbiturates, accompanied by shots of vodka.
Getty Images Forensics found the bodies of 39 people in the Heaven's Gate sect mansion.
In this way, their liberated souls would ascend to a spaceship traveling in the wake of the Hale-Bopp comet, which was passing Earth at the time, and which would take them to their new home in space.
On March 26, 1997, police discovered the bodies of 39 people - including Applewhite - covered in purple cloaks, with plastic bags over their heads, and dressed in black and white sweatshirts and Nike sneakers.
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