2023-04-27 19:40:05
The discovery in Kenya of a pit with more than 80 corps of followers of a sect believed to have been indoctrinated by their leader to starve and abandoning his “earthly life”, exposes the power of messianic preachers and the ingenuity of those who follow them.
Sadly, it’s a story that has been repeated countless times over the past decades with grisly results.
Here we present three of the most shocking cases in which preachers with wild theories of the end of the world and promises of salvation led their followers to collective suicide.
The People’s Temple, Jonestown, Guyana – 1978
He People’s Temple was a religious group founded in the 50s, tinged with secrecy and led by a striking character: Jim Jones.
Jones’s ideal was to create “a socialist paradise” in which there were no borders of race or nationality. But that dream didn’t fit very well in his country.
In 1975, Jones convinced some 900 followers to move to Guyana, a former British colony located next to Venezuela, where he founded a utopian community known as Jonestown.
Temple members were largely drawn in by Jones’ seductive speech. That fascination soon turned into loyalty, which later turned into fanaticism.
Y ended in idolatry.
Gradually, Jones’s personality began to become erratic and paranoid.
In his long speeches he spoke of supposed threats against his “paradise” from the CIA, whose agents he accused of being “traitors” and “capitalist pigs.”
There were also reports of abuse against members of the sect. In the so-called “white nights” they simulated collective suicides.
The information reached the ears of California Congressman Leo Ryan, who organized a trip to Jonestown to investigate the situation.
But the mission ended tragically when members of the People’s Temple gunned down Ryan and several of his companions.
It was then that Jones ordered to gather all the members of the community, to whom he asked for a final “white night”.
“Let’s end this now. Let’s end this agony”he was heard announcing on recordings obtained in an FBI investigation.
The members of the congregation, some voluntarily and others forced -including 300 children and babies- drank a soda adulterated with cyanide. In total, more than 900 people died.
A few who had hidden survived. Jones was found dead from a shot to the head.
The massacre was recorded as the biggest collective suicide in history.
Branch Davidian, Waco, Texas – 1993
The Branch Davidian was a sect based near Waco, Texas, founded in 1955 and derived from the Davidian Seventh-day Adventist religious group.
In 1981, Vernon Howell, a young man who came from a dysfunctional family and had a criminal record for having had sexual relations with a minor, joined the Davidian sect.
After a struggle for sect dominance, Howell emerged as the supreme leader of the Davidians and changed his name to David Koresh to vindicate his divine connection with David, the king of the Jews and with Cyrus the Great of Persia (Koresh is Cyrus in Hebrew).
He assumed a messianic role, declaring himself the last prophet and stating that he had received the same level of inspiration as Jesus when he was baptized.
His apocalyptic teachings of the Bible, including his interpretations of the Book of Revelations and the Seven Seals, in which he predicted the events that heralded the Apocalypse, attracted a large following.
To prepare for that apocalypse, Koresh established an “Army of God” and began amassing an arsenal of weapons at the Davidian complex known as Mount Carmel.
He also introduced the idea of practicing “spiritual marriages” with numerous women of the sect of all ages. It is believed that he had more than ten children with them.
Accusations of sexual abuse and arms trafficking led the US Department of Justice to surround the complex with 76 officers with military training and search and arrest warrants.
The place was besieged for 51 days and, despite initial negotiations and the release of some members, including some minors, on April 19, the authorities began the final siege of the complex.
They fired tear gas, there was an exchange of fire and, a few hours later, there was a huge fire.
Within minutes, Mount Carmel was reduced to ashes, all 79 Davidians inside perished.
The origin of the fire could not be established. Koresh had died earlier from a shot to the head, but it is not known if it was a suicide or someone killed him.
Although an official report concluded that the ultimate responsibility for the tragedy lay with Koresh and his followers for starting the fire, the decisions and actions taken by the government agencies involved in the siege were heavily criticized.
Heaven’s Gate, Rancho Santa Fe, California – 1997
Heaven’s Gate (Heaven’s Gate) is considered one of the first religious sects of the internet age.
They used digital technology to spread their beliefs to a wider audience. and also as a way to generate income.
It was founded in the early 1970s by Marshall Applewhite and his wife Bonnie Nettles, a nurse whom he had met when he was confined in a psychiatric institute.
They traveled the United States recruiting a group of followers they called “the crew” and eventually settled in southern California. When Nettles died in 1985, Applewhite continued to lead the congregation.
The philosophy of the group was a hodgepodge of principles of the Ipresbyteran church and beliefs in UFOs. Applewhite preached to his acolytes that he was the Advent of Christ, that God was an alien, and that the end of the world was near.
In his sermons he combined science fiction with the Old Testament to urge his followers to “overcome their genetic vibrations as a way to get out of their vehicles so that their spirits could reemerge aboard a spaceship and find the next evolutionary level above.” of the human”.
That was how he convinced them to consume applesauce and barbiturates, accompanied by shots of vodka.
This way, their liberated souls would ascend to a spaceship traveling in the wake of the Hale-Bopp cometwhich was passing by Earth at the time, and which would take them to their new home in space.
On March 26, 1997, police discovered the bodies of 39 people – including Applewhite – covered in purple cloaks, with plastic bags over their heads, and dressed in black and white sweatshirts and Nike sneakers.
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