Tragedy

[YO-ELEVEN-11]

Here is a truly sad story..

How could this have happened..

Heres the link...

30 years after, the legacy of Jonestown - Americas


I saw it on Msnbc the other night...


Any thoughts on this in terms of how "religion" effets peoples state of mind?

[Dream]

This happens when people here a voice that appeals to them, and then decide to listen to nothing else. It is analogous to the Hypnotist's practice when a patient hears nothing but their commands. Mr. Jones was a dynamic speaker, much loved, and intelligent. His weakness was that he enjoyed influence and knew too well how to manipulate people. He earned their trust and then taught them not to hear any voice but his. At all times he kept their ears ringing with his voice, just to keep them hanging on it.

The phenomenon of hypnotism was first studied by psychologist James Braidy in 1843, and his book on it is free on the internet. It really helps explain cattle-like behavior in groups.

Neurypnology; or, The rationale of ... - Google Book Search

[YO-ELEVEN-11]

Originally Posted by Dream

This happens when people here a voice that appeals to them, and then decide to listen to nothing else. It is analogous to the Hypnotist's practice when a patient hears nothing but their commands. Mr. Jones was a dynamic speaker, much loved, and intelligent. His weakness was that he enjoyed influence and knew too well how to manipulate people. He earned their trust and then taught them not to hear any voice but his. At all times he kept their ears ringing with his voice, just to keep them hanging on it.

The phenomenon of hypnotism was first studied by psychologist James Braidy in 1843, and his book on it is free on the internet. It really helps explain cattle-like behavior in groups.

Neurypnology; or, The rationale of ... - Google Book Search

Are you saying this man hypnotized these people?
Thats a lot of people..I have never heard of a large group like that being speel bound by someone. The most iv seen is 10 people on tv once.
I once was told that they do that in commercials too..They use the "power of suggestion" to get you to buy their products...

[Dream]

Not exactly. He deceived them, but that was only possible after they made him into a god. Although no one actually called him a god, that is what he was to them. He did not directly hypnotize them, but his method parallels the hypnotherapist, who after relaxing a subject will continuously say comforting words -- whatever makes the subject relax and stop thinking conciously. As Jones gained their trust, he began to use that trust to make them paranoid, cutting them off from the world. Similarly, a hypnotherapist tells a subject to focus upon the therapists voice alone, until nothing but that voice exists for them. By this means the therapist gains deep control, but they must maintain that control with continual talking called 'psychobabble'. As you can see, Jones was eventually able to deceive them about anything he wanted as they had given him power to interpret the world around them. They had given him their 'souls'. In the interest of doing the 'Right' thing, they were willing to kill at his command. Jones practiced something that was not hypnotherapy but operated upon the same basic principle of misdirection. He is not the only minister who has established such deep control over his church. There are others who've done that. Jones is just one of the rarer ones who go crazy and kill all of their followers.

[YO-ELEVEN-11]

Those people killed their own children though...Thats the strange part. How could someone influence someone else to kill their own kids..

[Dream]

Yeah, totally weird; but happens every century or so.

[YO-ELEVEN-11]

Originally Posted by Dream

Yeah, totally weird; but happens every century or so.

Thats happened before????

When???

[Dream]

There are many mass-suicides in history. Mostly they have to do with war and avoiding capture not mind control like Jim Jones, but people do kill their own children on such occasions.

More recent religious mass suicides:
2000 Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God
1997 Heaven's Gate
1978 Jonestown
1974 Order of the Solar Temple

But I got these from a list of others at: Mass suicide - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[YO-ELEVEN-11]

Originally Posted by Dream

There are many mass-suicides in history. Mostly they have to do with war and avoiding capture not mind control like Jim Jones, but people do kill their own children on such occasions.

More recent religious mass suicides:
2000 Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God
1997 Heaven's Gate
1978 Jonestown
1974 Order of the Solar Temple

But I got these from a list of others at: Mass suicide - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I always knew religion caused wars...Never knew about the suicides...thanks for references....especialy the one about uganda...I know or knew a woman from that region of africa...wow...