I've been interested in Manson and Jim Jones for a number of years along with other cults. I just find it interesting that one person can control so many others.
I've seen a number of documentaries, interviews and read books on the Manson family. The way I see it is the people in the group except Manson were all needy. They needed something or were looking for something. Many of them were looking for God or something like a God. They wanted answers. They also often didn't have anyone else in their life like close family who cared for them. They had left a marriage as Linda, been kicked out of their home, ran away or something like that. So they wanted to belong and wanted to be accepted. When you are in this situation you are very vulnerable. Kind of like a woman who falls into an abusive marriage. Does that make sense?
I'm not cutting and pasting all of what you said to quote from because I'm not going to respond to everything you wrote because of this....
You said you've been interested in Manson and Jim Jones for a number of years. Most likely you've also investigated Heaven's Gate and various others. For the most part you do know that most of the so-called "cult" activity had little to do with the actual blather either Manson or Jones would spew, rather it had more to do with CIA experiments having been a hold over from the early 60s. The whole thing was a mind grab in terms of seeing how far the populace could be pushed, and if some were more susceptible than others. Only a fraction of what you're saying is true. Scientology certainly uses their own algorithm to ensnare people. L. Ron Hubbard certainly used his share of the same CIA induced mind tricks in order to snag his victims early on. And when I say victims, I mean that.
Jones looked to the disenfranchised in terms of the racial unrest still going on in the late 60s to form his People's Temple. Most of Manson's early mind control experiments stemmed from the Process Church of the Final Judgment, an offshoot of Scientology. It was widely known that Manson was in and out of the Scientology Centre in San Francisco. There are a lot of us who have studied Manson who believe there was more to the whole thing than simply a guy who took wounded and hurt "kids" from off the street to bring them into a "family" of his own making. These people were capable of killing, and I believe that was the catch in all of them. Certainly Watson and Atkins were capable of it. I've never believed at all that it was only Watson who did any of the killings. Too easy to blame only one. I believe all of them including Atkins, Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten were more than capable, hence Manson's necessity for the latter to get her hands dirty on the night of the LaBianca killings. I also believe these victims were chosen for a purpose. It wasn't as random as some might think.
Sometimes my ruminations are too confusing for someone not inside my head. -Anon
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