Title says it all

My interest in Japan's doomsday cult Aum led me to this book. I didn't know anything about religious cults abroad; the only name of a cult I'd heard of was the "Branch Davidians" of the U.S., its leader "David Koresh," and its demise in "Waco, Texas" in the 90's. The image of the group's compound burning was broadcast widely here in Japan too, and it's got stuck in my mind since.

As I started reading the book, which is about another messianic cult called "the Peoples Temple," I immediately began to notice similarities between Aum and this group: their teachings and the psychology of the disciples are very similar and sometimes even almost identical. Of course, that's why they are both called "doomsday cults". But what strikes me is that, even though there is the popular term "cult" and we are all supposed to know what it means, how we never seem to learn; how easily we humans continue to be deceived, made to give up our power of independent thinking, and turned into puppets or robots.

It's easy to say that what happened in the subway trains in the heart of Tokyo during the morning rush hour in 1995, and in the "paradise" in the Guyanese jungle of South America in 1978, were both caused by some crazy people. You might say, "Don't put your trust in anybody; think for yourself," or "If you didn't like it there, why didn't you just leave?" But I guess that's where things get tricky, as this book clearly illustrates.

Most of us do not, or do not want to, consider ourselves to be evil, unjust, or inhumane. And when we see evil, injustice, or inhumane realities, we want to change that, and when we see someone trying to do good, help the poor, or "change the world," we tend to want to help him or her, and that seems to have been the case with Deborah Layton, the author of the book.

It was 1970 when she met Jim Jones, the "remarkable pastor" of the People's Temple, a humanitarian self-help church to which her brother belonged. Jim Jones was fighting against prejudice, racial discrimination, and poverty. He was an important man doing important things; he even had a thank-you note signed by Ronald Reagan, then governor of California. So it's no wonder that a 17-year-old young woman, feeling insecure about her own racial origin and having troubles at school, who "wanted to become one with people who showed their anger, the poor, the working class, those who had experienced grief and misfortune," to be mesmerized by the handsome preacher, whom her brother described as living the Jesus' teachings.

She wanted to help, contribute, and find meaning in her life. She may have been a bit rebellious: in a British boarding school where she was "exiled," she throws a desk at a teacher in defense of her best friend accused of cheating. At another time she punches her fist through a window in frustration over being criticized for her American accent and chewing gum in classroom. But she was certainly not crazy. She joins the group after thinking a lot. She keeps asking questions, even after joining the Temple, about what she saw and felt. The independent thinking, however, was against the Temple's socialist doctrines and considered to be the sign of "capitalistic traits," punishable by being put on the "Learning Crew".

And once you join the cult, it's often difficult to get out because of the constant threat of retribution, or the physical location of the church or the temple. The members are obligated to report on one another, so they become suspicious of each other. There is also the "work": downing trees, clearing patches of land, burning debris, constructing log houses, etc., under the scorching sun and surrounded by bugs and mosquitos and what not.

The hard labor, lack of sleep, and meager diet are combined with the constant threat of attack from the CIA, which was often staged by the members themselves, and the followers are soon rendered incapable of thinking for themselves. The gloomy atmosphere is taken advantage of by the leader, whose initial, purported goal of righting the social ills or salvaging humanity, is now turned into maintaining his authority by any means, in the typical "end justifies the means" fashion.

The book was fast-paced and sometimes read like a suspense novel, especially towards the end where Ms. Layton attempts an escape from the jungle. The account is told with such vivid detail, particularly conversations. All in all, the book left me with the impression that this could happen to any of us, anytime, anywhere. People who are deceived, whether by the "it's me!" phone scams, pyramid schemes, or the religious organizations touting enlightenment or social justice, do not imagine they are being deceived until it's too late.

More than nine hundred people, including many elderly and children and babies, perished in the end. I think this is a highly recommendable book for anyone interested in knowing how a cult works, how its leader manipulates the minds of his followers, and how the followers themselves learn to deny their own thinking to conform to the group and please the leader.

("Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the People's Temple" by Deborah Layton; the review originally posted on Amazon Review in 2013)