ON November 18, 1978 a thriving community carved in the wilderness of the South American country of Guyana suddenly became extinct, devoured in an orgy of self-destruction. Some 914 residents took their lives at the command of a messianic narcissist named Jim Jones. The act was incomprehensible and never fully understood, if anyone cared to understand.
Never were the complexities of Jonestown explained; never were the social and political forces that gave rise to this movement explored; and never was the paradox that was Jim Jones examined objectively.
Until now.
Laurie Efrein Khalas’ Snake Dance: Unraveling the mysteries of Jonestown is a dizzying expose of the Peoples Temple, a movement that was birthed in the 1950s in Indiana and later morphed into an influential social force in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Jones delivered an eclectic blend of Marxist-Leninism and apostolic mysticism that attracted people from every strata of society.
Snake Dance is subtle and suggestive, but equally loud and unapologetically raw. Kahalas is an insider but is deft at impartially dissecting Jonestown. The result is an intimate account of one of the most tragic episodes in history.
At the outset Kahalas describes her uneventful life before joining the Peoples Temple. A feeling of drifting into irrelevance could hardly prepare her to serve alongside the magnetic personality of Jones. “You belong here,” he tells her. And like so many others her life suddenly takes on new meaning.
Academically sound with a penchant for writing and research, she lands an enviable position in the prestigious Planning Commission.
It is there that she experiences the foibles of the movement’s unique leader.
With metaphorical precision Kahalas details Jones’ unchecked hubris. His growing list of titles is telling – pastor, father, prophet, saviour, and even God. She writes, “It evolved in increments, as if to gradually immerse the receiver into baptismal waters, a toe here first, then a dunk, fully immersion only later on. Jim had laid it out as if to calibrate the listeners to their limits.” Jones slowly emerges as the redeemer of his followers having worked tirelessly to gain their trust. His sincerity is indisputable.
And to the disaffected he asks the most searching of questions: “Why would Jesus come two thousand years ago and not come for you?” Jones’ unorthodox style resonates with black activists, leftist politicians and radical theologians.
Snake Dance nudges critics to interpret the socio-political culture impacting minorities during that period. It offers clues to their willingness to emigrate. Throughout, Jones’ inimitable passion for social justice is well documented.
Kahalas describes a scene that immediately holds court. “One night I remember poignantly, because it was the only time that I had ever seen [Jim] cry. There was a skit, depicting black children being dragged away by cruel white overseers at some unspecified future time. Jim began to cry. He put his hand over his forehead as his body rolled involuntarily forwards and I saw that he was beginning to weep…” She later adds, “He spoke the language of Baptists and Pentecostals and Methodists. He was credibly, wholly, of the church.
Yet, he tore into the institution of the church mercilessly. Never did a service pass without passionate sermons on social issues and current event affairs…never did a service pass without vehement pleas for social change, and heart-rending defence of the downtrodden and oppressed – Native American woes, South African woes and Chilean woes… And the constant drumbeat: racial and economic equality, preached practised, lived.” By 1971 Kahalas is a committed but unassuming member although she “craved and feared” contact with Jones. Then, the Achilles Heels of most cult leaders begin to surface. Jones’ relentless work to advance social causes is shadowed by sexual orbs that blur the inner circle.
Jim, she says, “was a being totally and incontrovertibly oriented to the necessities of others.” His “gradual encroachment upon the very privacy of the flock” troubles Kahalas. She recalls, “I do remember the evening he told us all to write him every sexual contact we ever had…” By then Kahalas realises that dedication to the work is being smothered in an avalanche of sexual liaisons.
In discussing the hierarchical dynamics of the Planning Commission Kahalas proves remarkably astute. “Even the abuse of power is not necessarily simple; or its adherents the monolithic underlings the public seems to crave…” She elaborates, “Honestly, it seemed at the time that [Jones] paid, and copiously, for whatever power he had in our lives. [A] powerfully benevolent soul …became progressively snared into his own sacrifices and, once the dam burst, could never stay the flood released in its wake.” In 1973 eight members defect sending shock waves through the movement. Jones is devastated.
And for the first time suicide is mentioned. “How would you all feel about us jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge?” Jones asks.
Not waiting for a reply he answers, “Because [the defectors] won’t just let us live in peace and build an interracial society.” Kahalas then recalls Jones’ prophetic words: “Someday, we might all be translated together.” Despite Jones’ necromania members of his inner circle do not budge. We are befuddled but we are not all psychologists. As paranoia seeps in a new environment is sought. Guyana welcomes Jones.
Jonestown is founded but not before Kahalas, artistic and sensitive, channels an inexorable epic she calls ‘Allegory.’ Her muse foretells the tragedy about to unfold.
“Images arose washing through me like a kind of existential dyslexia,” she writes. “Having this scenario close in on me was terror enough. What if it were true? If I were truly seeing the leader dying, and I voiced this, I myself could have been accused of wanting the leader dead. I could be labelled traitorous.” Jones’ response to ‘Allegory’ is seismic. The psychological assault, humiliation and emotional emasculation of Kahalas are unleashed as if in slow motion.
The episode marks her break from Jones’ suffocating spell, although she remains steadfast to the cause..
As my heart was felled, my brain must assume its function.
Jim Jones had much of what evangelists would call ‘The Christ Spirit’ working through him with healings, comfortings, unceasing devotion and love. But then there was the human soul – driven, impassioned, ambitious, fanatical – which sported a far more political version of God – more like Caesar, or the Pharaohs, or Alexander, the Great…The God of Politics. The God of the World.” By 1973 the seeds of Jonestown begin to blossom. A void is filled for so many.
Jonestown is a Herculean accomplishment – their paradise on earth – economically independent with an accredited school system and medical clinic.
Kahalas describes a proud, classless, colourless, effervescent and self-sufficient community. But something went terribly wrong? While she does not deny that Jonestown was sometimes weighed down by internal strife, she posits that it was a community under political siege, one that was targeted by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Jones eyed Russia.
Plans were under way to resettle.
Who assassinated Congressman Leo Ryan shortly after visiting Jonestown? This was the act, the tipping point that triggered the mass suicide/murder.
It was the act that convinced an unhinged and gravely ill Jim Jones that his community faced imminent retribution and annihilation.
Suicide, he reasoned was far better than dying at the hands of the enemy.
Snake Dance is at its riveting best as Kahalas argues her case. Forget all that we have been fed. It was a “frame” masterfully orchestrated by the US intelligence agency to implicate Jones. But why? Kahalas is brutally forthcoming, answering every conceivable question surrounding the catastrophe. She is persuasive and presents substantive and voluminous evidence to corroborate her case.
Naysayers are ill-advised to dismiss Kahalas’ work as apologetic.
What a missed opportunity if we fail to go beyond insensitive bantering. We are asked to shun the cold jocularity that dismisses the humanity of the Peoples Temple and explore its creative potential. Regrettably, we must also grapple with its irreversible and indefensible decision to wreak unspeakable destruction.
Snake Dance: Unraveling the mysteries of Jonestown by Laurie Efrein Kahalas Publisher: Trafford Publishing Available at Amazon Ratings: Essential Feedback: glenvilleashby@ gmail.com or follow him on Twitter@ glenvilleashby LOST from Page 3B
