Totally agree. I'm making the distinction here that the concept of "cult" was weaponized. I did a significant dig on this, and traced what the word means and how it arose. It's interesting that it only had the nuance or meaning of "destructive, weird pseudo-religious movement using CCP-like 'brainwashing' techniques" only arose in the 70's.
This is why your CIA instrument theory sounds plausible to me. We know the clowns were doing stuff in all sorts of psychological weaponization, so it would make sense that they would build this Jonestown thing.
Now, there were some really weird groups, for example. The CHildren of God, if I recall, that was basically a free-sex thing. TM, however, is rooted in a many centuries old techniques from the yogis in India, and there is/was nothing destructive about this in particular, and in fact, generated a lot of benefits, as far as I can see.
The Bahai, for example, are rooted in Islam, but they actively promote the unity and cooperation between faiths, and an appreciation that whatever the label or name, the Creator is beyond any one doctrine.
legit spiritual movements that clowns wanted to shut down
The best example of this is the Unificationists. Guess what Sun Myung Moon's main theme was when he arrived in the USA? The communists/marxists are operating to destroy this nation from inside, and America is completely unaware of this. If you look at what he was saying, he was vehemently against the Marxists (although he called his movement "Victory over Communism" not simply "Anti-Communism"). He said there are 3 great headaches for America: The Communist infiltration, the degradation and collapse of morality, especially in the young people, and the deterioration of Christianity.
He was, in fact, spot on. We know that the Frankfurt School was largely responsible for the free sex, free love hippy culture that essentially wiped out that generation and took it in the direction that Hollywood and Celeb culture came to embody. He really shook up the Christian establishment in the US. At first he was widely welcomed by the establishment, until he started actually getting a big following. From that point on, he was the worst charlatan and brainwasher the world had seen!
He stated that Reagan was chosen and the man necessary for the US, and founded umpteen projects, orgs etc to deal with and solve those three headaches, because he saw (well, claimed) that the US was the key and that if America falls, the world falls. Sound familiar?
Consequently, he was attacked constantly and lied about constantly by who? The Media. The only person I know who got a comparable or worse attack was POTUS 45.
The communist hated him with everything they had. The guy had survived the North Korean concentration camps and knew exactly what Communism was.
Back to Jones, yeah, no I have no doubt that he was either a total nutjob, or a CIA plant, as your theorize.
Well, as far as TM goes, I learned the technique on recommendation of a good friend and mentor during my college days. (*We were, and I still am, a fully dedicated Christian).
The theory of TM makes bundles of sense to me, and I always found the practice beneficial.
TM as a practice - well, maybe I never got to the other stages. yeah, they did have the Samadhi training. I only ever used the basic TM technique, and not only was it enjoyable, it was helpful.
That said, I never got involved at an institutional level, so I cannot really say anything about that.
There is a tendency for institutions to devolve or become corrupt over time. I mean, heck, Francis of Assisi was such a MASSIVE reformer in the unrolling of the Christian providence via the Catholic church, but even he got backlash and was ostracized by his OWN order when they felt he wasn't holding up their institutional aims...
I had a friend in my teen years who got involved in Hatha Yoga, and that was radical for us in those days. They were supposed to practice celibacy! OMG! "How barbarian is that?" was my thinking in the very liberal-esque environment I grew up in.
My Aunt was a catholic nun who entered the convent at around 17, but when she was around 35, felt moved by God and the Holy Spirit that she just HAD to have children, so she left, got married and had two daughters.
Still a faithful catholic to this day.
The moonies. Yeah, I could go on at length about them, or him. But at this juncture, suffice it to say, this dude was on point, and warning about the exact things we are dealing with today.
Did you know he ran the biggest religious rally in America up to that date at his 1976 bicentennial "God bless America" rally in washington. Some 300,000 people. And he'd only arrived in the States "to put out the fire that was consuming America" in 1972. It scared the bejeepers out of the Marxists and also the established churches.
Lots of good stuff to dig into there.
BTW, Moon's designated heir (son) is now a Pastor that runs a ministry based in Pennsylvania but which is expanding to other states, and the pastor's older brother is an award-winning firearms designer and manufacturer. (Khar) They are about as strongly 2nd Amendment as you can find in the states. No wimpy peacenik church stuff for them. Very pro-trump lads, and very anti-Marxist.
Totally agree. I'm making the distinction here that the concept of "cult" was weaponized. I did a significant dig on this, and traced what the word means and how it arose. It's interesting that it only had the nuance or meaning of "destructive, weird pseudo-religious movement using CCP-like 'brainwashing' techniques" only arose in the 70's.
This is why your CIA instrument theory sounds plausible to me. We know the clowns were doing stuff in all sorts of psychological weaponization, so it would make sense that they would build this Jonestown thing.
Now, there were some really weird groups, for example. The CHildren of God, if I recall, that was basically a free-sex thing. TM, however, is rooted in a many centuries old techniques from the yogis in India, and there is/was nothing destructive about this in particular, and in fact, generated a lot of benefits, as far as I can see.
The Bahai, for example, are rooted in Islam, but they actively promote the unity and cooperation between faiths, and an appreciation that whatever the label or name, the Creator is beyond any one doctrine.
The best example of this is the Unificationists. Guess what Sun Myung Moon's main theme was when he arrived in the USA? The communists/marxists are operating to destroy this nation from inside, and America is completely unaware of this. If you look at what he was saying, he was vehemently against the Marxists (although he called his movement "Victory over Communism" not simply "Anti-Communism"). He said there are 3 great headaches for America: The Communist infiltration, the degradation and collapse of morality, especially in the young people, and the deterioration of Christianity.
He was, in fact, spot on. We know that the Frankfurt School was largely responsible for the free sex, free love hippy culture that essentially wiped out that generation and took it in the direction that Hollywood and Celeb culture came to embody. He really shook up the Christian establishment in the US. At first he was widely welcomed by the establishment, until he started actually getting a big following. From that point on, he was the worst charlatan and brainwasher the world had seen!
He stated that Reagan was chosen and the man necessary for the US, and founded umpteen projects, orgs etc to deal with and solve those three headaches, because he saw (well, claimed) that the US was the key and that if America falls, the world falls. Sound familiar?
Consequently, he was attacked constantly and lied about constantly by who? The Media. The only person I know who got a comparable or worse attack was POTUS 45.
The communist hated him with everything they had. The guy had survived the North Korean concentration camps and knew exactly what Communism was.
Back to Jones, yeah, no I have no doubt that he was either a total nutjob, or a CIA plant, as your theorize.
Kuul rooftop.
Well, as far as TM goes, I learned the technique on recommendation of a good friend and mentor during my college days. (*We were, and I still am, a fully dedicated Christian).
The theory of TM makes bundles of sense to me, and I always found the practice beneficial.
TM as a practice - well, maybe I never got to the other stages. yeah, they did have the Samadhi training. I only ever used the basic TM technique, and not only was it enjoyable, it was helpful.
That said, I never got involved at an institutional level, so I cannot really say anything about that.
There is a tendency for institutions to devolve or become corrupt over time. I mean, heck, Francis of Assisi was such a MASSIVE reformer in the unrolling of the Christian providence via the Catholic church, but even he got backlash and was ostracized by his OWN order when they felt he wasn't holding up their institutional aims...
I had a friend in my teen years who got involved in Hatha Yoga, and that was radical for us in those days. They were supposed to practice celibacy! OMG! "How barbarian is that?" was my thinking in the very liberal-esque environment I grew up in.
My Aunt was a catholic nun who entered the convent at around 17, but when she was around 35, felt moved by God and the Holy Spirit that she just HAD to have children, so she left, got married and had two daughters.
Still a faithful catholic to this day.
The moonies. Yeah, I could go on at length about them, or him. But at this juncture, suffice it to say, this dude was on point, and warning about the exact things we are dealing with today.
Did you know he ran the biggest religious rally in America up to that date at his 1976 bicentennial "God bless America" rally in washington. Some 300,000 people. And he'd only arrived in the States "to put out the fire that was consuming America" in 1972. It scared the bejeepers out of the Marxists and also the established churches.
Lots of good stuff to dig into there.
BTW, Moon's designated heir (son) is now a Pastor that runs a ministry based in Pennsylvania but which is expanding to other states, and the pastor's older brother is an award-winning firearms designer and manufacturer. (Khar) They are about as strongly 2nd Amendment as you can find in the states. No wimpy peacenik church stuff for them. Very pro-trump lads, and very anti-Marxist.