The

first response was that of a young woman who calmly approached the now famous vat of strawberry flavored poison, administered one dose to her baby, one to herself, and then sat down in field where she and her child died in convulsions within four minutes. Others followed steadily in turn. Although a handful of jonestowners escaped rather than comply, and a few others are reported to have resisted, the survivors claimed that the great majority of the 910 people who died did so in an orderly wilful fashion. Nws of the event shocked us. The broadcast media and the papers provided a barrage of reports, up dates and analyses. For days, our conversations were full of the topic, how many have they found dead? Now, a guy who escaped says they were drinking the poison like they were hypnotized or something. What were they doing down in south america? Anyway, it's so hard to believe. What caused it? Yes, what caused it? The critical question, how are we to account for this most astounding of compliant acts? Various explanations have been offered. Some have focused on the carisma of jim jones, a man whose style allowed him to be loved like a saviour, trusted like a father and treated like an emperor. Other explanations have pointed to the kind of people who were attracted to the people's temple. They were mostly poor and uneducated individuals who were willing to give up their freedoms of thought and action for the safety of a place where all decisions would be made for them. Still, other explanations have emphasized the quasi religious nature of the people's temple, in which unquestioned faith in the cult's leader was assigned highest priority.