An interesting article about Jim Jones and his People's Temple movement, and the obvious similarities with Lafayette Ron Hubbard own Church of Scientology.

Jim Jones's son: "I feel freed of the past now".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1492133,00.html

Following are selected quotes from the article. I added a personal comment after each quote.

Quote:

"But, says [Stephan] Jones, the narcissism driving his father was never far below the surface. "We were ruled, subjugated, manipulated by a very sick man. Anything we were saying or doing was tainted by that. I was behind the scenes and I saw from much earlier on it was pretty crazy. His number one driving force," he says of his father, "was adulation - he needed it like a drug."

Comment:

Note that L. Ron Hubbard Jr. said the same thing about his father: "I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." Clearly, L. Ron Hubbard's extraordinary claims about himself, like being a nuclear physicist, a naval hero, a scientific researcher, etc. show that he desperately wanted to be admired. And in the case of Hubbard, as long as he was admired, people wouldn't question the fact that they have to pay endlessly to learn about his "researches".

http://www.clambake.org/archive/ronthenut/nukenut.htm
http://www.clambake.org/archive/ronthenut/warhero.htm
http://www.clambake.org/archive/ronthenut/dewolf.htm

Quote:

Eugene Smith: "The one common thread," says Smith, "is that people wanted a better society and they wanted a society based not on what your last name is, not based on your ethnic origin or your cultural background but based on who you are as a person, and what you're willing to contribute to make it better not just for yourself but for the people around you."

Comment:

Isn't what member of the Church of Scientology are told, that they are working to save the world, to make the world a better place? Yes it is.

Quote:

"The last word belongs to Stephan Jones: "The main thing that I've noticed," he says when I ask him if the play has affected how he feels about his experience, "is that I feel freed of it, much freer of it. A lot of this has been about amends for me, about making right my wrongs. Everybody says you were 19; you couldn't have done any better. Well, for the most part that's not true.

"It's been important for me to look back on my life and say where did I do harm and how can I do right. And a big part of that has been sharing with them as honestly as I can my experience of Jonestown, my wrongs, my motivations, and be willing to have that shared with people so that one, I can be free of it, and, two, maybe someone can identify and learn something from it.""

Comment:

Well I have been reading Tory Christman and Creed Pearson first hand testimonial this week (there are many more stories from different individuals available), and clearly, this is exactly what they went thru as I understand it. They feel like talking about it so that maybe others will learn from their experience. People's Temple, Church of Scientology: different cults, same insight in looking back after having left it.

http://www.torymagoo.org/
http://www.lermanet.com/creed-pearson/index.htm

For more personal stories about ex-members"
http://www.xenu.net/
http://www.lermanet.com/

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