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| Deborah Layton |
Full title: Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the People's Temple.
Sadly, especially for those still young enough to be filled by ideals, implementing and tightening of these shackles can be far too insidious to be recognized, until their force have become overpowering. By the time this is understood, what at first appeared to be a gossamer strand of welcome has shown itself to be iron chains of restraint.
Each experience is individual, and every cult unique in its way. Still, the detailed candor of Ms. Layton’s memoir is especially vivid. By the time she began to suspect its fraudulence, she had become indoctrinated, almost to the edge of automatism. For these reasons, this book can serve as a road-map, exhibiting warning signs to those tempted by any similar avenue.
Like many cult leaders, despite his seeming logic and eloquence, Jim Jones preached a hodgepodge of flimsy philosophies, choosing whatever aspects of Marxism and Christianity served his goal as being perceived as the penultimate oracle.
Deborah Layton, born in 1953, reached her mid-teens during the late 1960s, an era when a cornucopia of gurus of various kinds were abundant. The ethos of the time encouraged openness and exploration. Often, chemical and spiritual avenues were combined in a melange which, if scrutinized, simply meant relinquishing freedom of thought and will to an autocrat.
(As a member of a different cult stated, while being urged to think for one’s self, the leaders demanded a type of mind control which left no space for even the slightest vestige of genuine self-analysis.)
Initially, Ms. Layton attended Jim Jones’ meetings by way of experiment, hoping to add to her spectrum of ideas via gleaning the benefits of his renowned intensive reading and understanding.
Who then was this monumental Jim Jones? The ways by which he accomplished his preeminence are not relevant here. They are complex and lengthy, and can be found in any number of books, as well as on websites. As this book review centers upon the recollections of Ms. Deborah Layton, our discussion will touch upon only the basic facts regarding Jim Jones rise to a Messiah-like status.
James Warren Jones was Born on May 13 1931, in Indiana. He married nurse Marceline Baldwin in 1949. His good looks, combined with a comforting, nearly mesmeric voice and demeanor, allowed him to convince some of those on the highest levels of political echelons of his worthiness to continue his “ministry” in various parts of America. Beginning in Indiana, he traveled to the most cutting edge areas of the already radical centers of California, where his beliefs became yet one more route for those thirsting for an authority figure outside their parental strictures.
Jim Jones died, on November 18 1978, along with his wife, children and those followers who felt too committed or intimidated to leave his by then well-established Jonestown in British Guyana.
Returning to Deborah Layton’s memoir; after a few private conversations, Jones began imploring her to help him reach others in need of his healing abilities. He stated that while his community would succeed without her impetus, it would evolve in a far slower, less focused way. Would she allow that to happen? By then, her choice had nearly crystallized. Her belief in Jones’ teachings was such as to allow her to accept his blandishments as realities. Like many in their late teens and early twenties, Ms. Layton’s ego was eager to sponge up a sense of being crucial to the acceleration of a potentially global endeavor.
Hence, having succumbed, she was allowed to become aware of previously concealed chicaneries. In time, she came to believe if staged healing were needed to bring atheists to the Lord, such frauds could be justified. As her elevation in the Jones’ People’s Temple increased, her awareness of sordid tactics grew clearer.
When any follower voiced a wish to leave, he or she was sedated into a long-term slumber, in hidden rooms reserved for this purpose. As Jones’ wife Marceline was a nurse, she could ascertain the correct amount for the body weight, without causing either brain damage or death. When allowed to awaken, the skeptic would have no memory of the experience, and ideally, no further wish to leave.
An equally venomous tool of control lay in Jones’ pretense of wishing a sense of harmony to pervade the community. In fact, the principle of “divide and rule” was exploited to its utmost. This resulted in the quelling of potential friendships. Jones encouraged the slightest hint of grousing to be reported to him, ASAP. Those who complied had an opportunity to rise in rank in his mini-empire.
As to Ms. Layton’s decision to leave, it is always hard to determine, just as in any relationship or friendship, when someone, dissatisfied for some while, decides to end long-term ties. In her incisive but vivid way, Ms. Layton shows us, as readers, her growing disillusionment. Once having decided to leave, she realized the need to plan. In fact, this meant her waiting until 1978 in order to flee.
She was wise to have chosen that time, as only a few months later, on November 18 of that same year, the 909 adherents remaining in Jonestown were coerced into joining in a videoed mass suicide, brought about by ingesting a soft drink containing a deadly dose of cyanide. (Jones himself appears to have died due to a self-inflicted bullet wound to his head)
Although this book review may seem to cover Ms. Layton’s memoir, in fact it is only an outline of a book which voices adult understanding of a girl on the edge of womanhood, wishing to contribute globally, and vulnerable to the cajoling of a master strategist.
I believe almost anyone reading this book, especially those who grew up during that era when the hopes of youth were reinforced by beliefs in invincibility, will feel the intensity which impelled Ms. Layton to be absorbed by this seemingly infinite path towards universal improvement.
