Seductive Poison
by Deborah Layton
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Book Summary Information
Author: Deborah LaytonEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1998-11-03
ISBN: 0385489838
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Doubleday
Book Reviews of Seductive Poison
Book Review: Compelling and disturbing. I could not put it down.
Summary: 5 Stars
I had seen a documentary a while back on PBS, and Deborah Layton was one of the many former members and survivors who gave commentary on People's Temple and specifically the Rev. Jim Jones. In introducing Layton, there was a marker under her name that indicated she had written a book titled, Seductive Poison, on the infamous death cult. I ordered it. All I can say is that Layton's memoir is an altogether fascinating read that will keep you on the edge of your seat, because her very detailed account is absolutely all consuming, riveting in the best sense of the word when it pertains to memoirs; no stone is left unturned, and all the recollections are thoroughly laced together to form a disturbing portrait of how and why seemingly normal and intelligent people get emeshed in cults. And when they realize that they are in one it is often too late. Deborah Layton, among others, were the lucky ones.
Jim Jones was the charismatic pastor of the Disciples of Christ, a liberal Protestant denominationin that was a member of the National Council of Churches; it too was the division that housed People's Temple. Combining Scripture and Christian dogma with Marxist and Leninist philosophies, he espoused the concept of Liberation Theology, in essence, creating a social Gospel where people of all classes, colors, economic levels, ages and education would be a part of. In addition to the questionable socialist teachings, Jim Jones love-bombed his congregation, telling them how special and unique and important they were in the eyes of Jesus Christ, how what he required was the will of God, for he was supposedly the microphone of the Holy Trinity. And who can fight that concept? Bit by bit, people gradually gave their will over to him, assuming that his Divine influence was beyond question. And gradually, they became automatons, shadows of their former selves doing the will of their Father.
Aside from the fact that Seductive Poison is beyond exceptionally well written, it is the inside details that Layton offers that makes her memoir especially pulsating, particularly her details on the "white night", where members were so deeply indoctrinated that they on many an evening had practice drills to drink the cyanide laced punch. She also gives vivid details on the types of punishment used in Jonestone. The evil perpetrated upon children was especially disturbing: "...There was also the Well, a punishment used especially for children. They would be taken to the well in the dark of night, hung upside down by a rope around their ankles, and dunked into the water again and again while someone hidden inside the Well grabbed at them to scare them."--Page 176.
The spying, turning against loved ones, cruel assorted punishments, disturbing and nonsensical harangues all kept people in line until they flew off Guyana, to the Promise Land. Yet it was anything but that, and many had to suppress their inner feelings of disappointment for fear of severe retribution.
There is a lot to say about this work; it raises serious questions and offers important answers, paramount being that individualism is indeed a very good thing and following your own will is not something to be taken for granted. It also sheds light on why people join cults, to be a part of something bigger than themselves, to live in a community where those who have nothing have something of far greater worth: love.
Seductive Poison works as sociology, history, a family record, psychology, autobiography; it works on so many fronts and conveys so much. Religion is a good thing, but sometimes it is best to appreciate it from afar.
Summary of Seductive Poison
Twenty years ago, on November 18, 1978 in Jonestown, a commune in the depths of the Guyanese jungle, 913 followers of the Reverend Jim Jones obeyed his orders to take their own lives, dutifully swallowing fruit-flavored punch laced with cyanide. It was the worst mass suicide in modern history. The Peoples Temple had started out years before as a respectable church involved in community service and civil rights activism. Jim Jones's followers grew in number, and the organization gained prominence in the San Francisco community, recognized by such high-profile figures as Mayor George Moscone and First Lady Rosalyn Carter. But by the time Jones and his followers had begun their emigration to the "promised land" in Guyana, the group had become increasingly militant and paranoid.Deborah Layton saw that something was seriously wrong the minute she arrived in Jonestown, and six months before the massacre, she escaped the guarded compound she had imagined would be paradise. Her warnings to the press and to the U.S. State Department of an impending disaster fell on disbelieving ears: Exactly four days after her testimony in Washington, D.C., Congressman Leo Ryan, three reporters, and over nine hundred Peoples Temple members, including Layton's mother and countless friends, were dead. Layton's return to the world outside of the Peoples Temple was slow and painful. Her brother remains in prison, the only person alive today held accountable for the tragedy. After years of shame and silence, she is finally telling her story.
From Waco to Heaven's Gate, the past decade has seen its share of cult tragedies, but none quite so dramatic or compelling as Jonestown. In this very personal account, Layton opens up the shadowy world of cults that pervade our existence and shows how any race, culture, or class of individuals can fall victim to a cult's strange allure. Vividly written and powerfully told, Seductive Poison is both an unflinching historical document and an enthralling story of intrigue, power, and murder.
Deborah Layton was, by her own account, a typical rebellious youth, with nothing in her dossier to indicate that she would eventually find herself in Jim Jones's People's Temple in Guyana, looking for a way out of the green hell that had become the People's Temple Agricultural Project. She barely escaped in June 1978. Within months, more than 900 people drank Jones's cyanide punch and committed "revolutionary suicide" in the face of mounting stateside pressure on the cult, some of it prompted by Layton's own testimonials upon her safe return home. Her brother, Larry, also survived, and as one of the few left alive in Guyana became a scapegoat for Jones's crimes; he is now serving a life sentence in federal prison.
There is a simple naivet? at the root of Seductive Poison. Layton's own youthful innocence, foremost, but also the desire to trust another person, the need for belonging and meaning, which led so many perfectly normal Americans to place their faith in a suicidal madman. Far from confirming the simplistically monstrous Jones of the public imagination, Layton paints the man as a dark, twisted shaman, by turns soothing, then suddenly malevolent and petty, with a hugely sadistic streak that belied his perfectly coifed hair, expensive suits, and impressive political connections. The scenes in which she describes her escape and flight to safety are wrenching, her last-minute conversation with Jones and his seductive appeal for her to return home to Jonestown are chilling, and her fear and indecision are still palpable on the printed page. For Layton to recount tales this personal and horrifying must have been tremendously difficult. For her to lift those recollections above the bargain-basement freak-show reputation the People's Temple has achieved in the popular imagination and depict them with the power of great tragedy is nothing but extraordinary. --Tjames Madison
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