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TV Show on Jonestown


VeganXTC
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I, too, watched with my jaw dropped. I new this story and had defended my involvement in TWI against people who tried to draw the comparison at the time. We would NEVER die for the ministry ... we were told that was wrong. We needed to LIVE for it. Then in 1997 I heard the co-campus coordinator of Indiana state, from the head-table so it is probably still on some tape, that we should be willing to die for this ministry. It gave me the creeps ... because at the time I knew that LCM seemed to be going south mentally - screaming his lungs out over little chocolate gifts our parents might send us for valentines' day, etc., how he'd spend days in a darkened room, sweating it out while he stood in the "gap" for the world, and then would emerge drained after the spiritual battle had been won, because of our (his) intercession. I, too, think we were on the verge. I don't get the sense that those still "in" are in that danger today, though.

He wasn't spending time in those darkened rooms, sweating it out, ALONE.... I'm sure those three-somes were draining.

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Yes, Out There, I clearly remember a phone hookup in Indiana (it would have been in early 1997 as best I can remember) where he described himself doing just this. I WISH I had recorded the day and the event of the hook-up, but it must have been a Corps hookup, one of those Wednesday morning events we did for awhile. After the meeting, I looked at my husband and asked him if he thought that was a bit crazy - but as in Jonestown, we were not to question anything. I had to be careful to even suggest to my husband that I thought anything was in any way a little "off." But, LCM described what I would think any professional mental health expert would say was a psychotic event - unapproachable, distressed, "spiritually" spent, ... and that these times would break as quickly as they had come on. He would then be fine, drained, but ready to go on with normal daily activities. His physical surroundings during these times he described as being spent alone, with instructions not to be disturbed, no food, conversation, distractions, light, noise, company of any type. I sware I remember him saying that he just spiritually KNEW afterwards that Michael had won that battle, and he IMPLIED (if not directly stated) that his intervention allowed the victory.

A little hyperbolic, perhaps.

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we should be willing to die for this ministry.

I remember hearing something along these lines, too. I'm going to have to think on it, though, to be able to give specifics. It's highly probable that it came from my ex, though, as he IS, WAS and HAS BEEN for some time sold out to that degree.

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The show opened up with Jim Jones saying, "Its Christ in you, the hope of glory." Where did I hear that before?

It was a very good show. I learned so much. I didn't know he had a church in Indianapolis, my hometown, or that he and his wife were the first white couple to adopt a black child in Indiana, or that he was well respected in the political world, at least while he lived in the states.

I saw this documentary a few night ago. At the end, Jim Jones was a really warped monster. It seems like earlier in the history of his church that he was a decent human intent on putting together a true community of believers. It would be great if we were able to see how his path got so caught up in a slippery spiritually deceived slope.

There was some very genuine love and joy in that community in some of the earlier days. It seems that part of the problem was JJ's overly controlling character. Near the end, he had become many cards short of a full deck.

Edited by caribousam
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I saw it a while ago. It was really creepy. I remember being in rez. when that all happened. I really don't think TWI with all its problems was ever on that level of evil, all those hundreds of people dead.

If, as implied in another thread, the abortion doctrine was a result of their sex activities, than yes, they were that bad. They did what they thought they could get away with. Isolationist and totalitarians. Thank God the fields of Ohio aren't as isolated as the jungles of Guyana.

Edited by Bolshevik
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Seriously,

the parallels.

"Everyone here is free to go as they please Senator"[sic]

The joy people had amongst each other vs. the heaviness when Jim Jones walked in

the community separate from "the world", building together, the ownership of all

selling of houses and giving all to the church

beauty above , darkness below

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