Cult Control (Seductive Poison - Deborah Layton)

Member Name: nickyturnill

Product:	Seductive Poison - Deborah Layton
Date:	31/07/07 (181 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A fascinating subject matter and an invaluable account

Disadvantages: Nott the best written book ever published

Seductive Poison was written by Debora Layton following her experiences as a member of the People’s Temple. Led by Jim Jones, this Californian based cult, gradually relocated to Guyana, where in 1978, the mass suicide-murder of more than 900 people, shocked the world. Luckily Debbie defected only months before this tragedy. Published in 1998, on the 20th anniversary of the deaths, Seductive Poison was my personal choice to read with my book group and it certainly generated some interesting discussions.

The book starts with a lengthy but necessary prologue written by Charles Krause. This is an excellent start as the information provides numerous facts to familiarise readers with the circumstances surrounding Jonestown and the details of what actually happened on the day. Krause, a journalist, visited Jonestown of the day of the mass murder suicides, an event which sparked the disaster to follow, and he was lucky to escape with his life.

Debbie starts the book by describing her increasing horror at being unable to answer questions posed by her five year old daughter. Why can’t we visit grandma’s grave? Why is uncle Larry in Prison? Debbie decided to confront her past both for herself and to help her daughter to understand their past in future years.

Debbie goes on to present an account of her childhood in a privileged affluent family, in Berkeley, California, as the youngest child of four. The substantial age gap between her and her other siblings meant she was the center of the families attention. But this all changed when her older siblings gradually left for college and Debbie became rebellious. Her grades dropped, her relationship with her parents deteriorated and she started experimenting with drugs. I found Debbie’s account of these years very self-centered, she was clearly a spoilt child and I didn’t feel that her childhood was any more messed up than millions of other peoples.

It was during these troubled adolescent years that Debbie was first introduced to Jones by her brother, Larry and around a year later she joined as a full time member herself. In her 37-point affidavit written following her release Debbie stated that she wanted to join the People’s Temple to help others and in the process to bring structure and self-discipline to her life.

The People’s Temple was formed in Indianapolis in the mid-1950s by Reverent Jim Jones. They were a socialist group masquerading as a religious organisation based around Christianity. Debbie gives a detailed account of her life as a Temple member in California. Jones claimed that he had been Jesus and Lenin in previous lives. He claimed that he had divine powers and that he could heal the sick. Temple members worked long hours for Jones and most held down full time jobs as well. Members were required to give up all their possessions and savings, including their homes and their salaries went directly to the Temple. Debbie’s main role during her seven years was of Financial Secretary, a trusted position, and her dedication to the cause ensured her gradual rise into the ‘inner circle’.

In 1974, Jones leased over 3,800 acres of jungle land from the Guyanese government and in the following years he began shipping people out in increasing numbers. The site was immersed within the jungle, miles from anywhere. Jonestown was meant to have been a paradise land but when Debbie and her mother arrived in 1977 things were very different. It was immediately apparent that Jonestown was not the Paradise that had been described to them. The majority of their possessions were confiscated and the camp was patrolled by armed guards. Members were expected to work long 12 hour days in the fields and to sit up half the night in meetings. Jones used manipulative mind-control tactics, staged suicide drills and enforced punishments such as wrapping a boa constrictor around the neck of an old man, hanging children upside-down in a well or enforcing days within a tiny box sized cell.

Increasingly unhappy and aware of the danger that Temple member’s faced Debbie began to plot her escape. She succeeded and with the help of the US embassy left Guyana in June 1978. The scenes in which she describes her escape and the Temple’s attempts to coax her back are wrenching and must have been hard to write. Following her escape Debbie wrote a 37-point affidavit and encouraged the Government to investigate Jonestown on the basis that their lives were in danger.

Debbie was very lucky, within months of her defection on November 18th 1978, more than 900 people drank Jones's cyanide punch and committed the ‘revolutionary suicide’ required of them. These events were sparked by Congressman Leo Ryan visit to Jonestown with reporters following Debbie’s horrifying affidavit. They left with a number of defectors who couldn’t believe that Jones would let them go so easily. They were right. Before boarding the plane at the nearby airstrip, a tractor approached the runway and shots were fired from within. Ryan was killed alongside four others. These events sparked panic at Jonestown and resulted in Jones’s order that all commit suicide….

Jones himself did not drink the poison but instead died of a single gun wound. It remains unclear whether he shot himself or was shot by his nurse, the only other person to die from a gun wound. Only a handful of people present at Jonestown on that fateful day survived. Temple members who were temporarily off site were also ordered to commit suicides but with one exception this advise was ignored. High ranking member, Sharon then in Guyana’s capital, obeyed and slit the throats of her three children followed by her own…..

Debbie’s mother died of cancer in Jonestown shortly before the mass suicides. Her brother, Larry, one of the few to survive Jonestown was jailed for the conspiracy to kill Congressman Leo Ryan. He was the only person held responsible for any of the events at Jonestown. Larry was finally paroled in 2002.

Jim Jones is not portrayed as a madman, although the psychological power he exerts over his people is clear. He's clearly a sadistic bully, who knows how to manipulate individuals and to make the most of their personal weaknesses. Debbie's account of the charming and chariasmatic Jim Jones of California and how he gradually spiralled out of control becoming increasingly paranoid were some of the most interesting parts of seductive Poison for me. Debbie herself doesn’t come across particularly well and seemed un self-aware and selfish. She appeared to pass much of the blame on to others, even though she was a high ranking member herself and she doesn’t seem to have accepted the events of her past or to have moved on. I also felt that Debbie probably portrayed herself, either consciously or subconsciously, in a more positive light than things were at the time. Despite this, her account provides a valuable insight into the inner workings of the People’s Temple which is important in helping the world at large to understand cults and hopefully help prevent anything like this happening again.

I definitely recommend this book and award it four stars. Seductive Poison isn’t a particularly well written book and but the subject matter is fascinating and ultimately this is an incredibly valuable account of life within the People's Temple and within cults in general. The events that occured at Jonestown were chilling and unbelievable and the information held within this book will stay with me for many years

I’ve read a lot about Jonestown online since reading Seductive Poison, the web is awash with information and unsurprisingly there are also other published accounts of life within the People’s Temple from defectors. If you are interested some of the best sites for further information are attached below:

http://www.deborahlayton.com/
http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown

Summary: An account of life in the People's Temple from a defector who just escaped in time.