Episode 19: Hands Clasped
Q919 Jim Jones: You that are not familiar with this ministry, we endeavor very, very hard to see that nothing is spoken that would in any way cause embarrassment to you. And even if there was something spoken personally, it will unfold deliverance that will save your life, heal you of every known disease. And I think that that is something that you can’t find any place. But if there is something very private, we will speak it to one of the registered nurses that work without compensation, or one of the social workers, and they will speak to you, personally. Now, as our hands are clasped, let us think upon the positive.
David Parker Wise: Welcome back to Transmissions from Jonestown.
This is episode 19: Sunday Service.
Hey God Almighty, hands clasped. Hums.
Q965 Jones: It is evident that with the noise we’re making, it is evident that though there are many here from every strata of society with all kinds of degrees and intellectual achievement, it is evident that we have seen something or we wouldn’t make so much noise. (Calls out) Hey spirit. Mighty God, mighty God, mighty God. Stick around, stick around. There’s something we’ve got that’ll get hold of you if you stick around. Praises be the name of our revolutionary Christ. Bless you, it’s beautiful. She not gonna fall off that balcony, no way. When she’s blessed with Pentecostal Socialism and shouting unto the Spirit she won’t fall off that balcony.
For Yulanda Williams, sleeping in on a Sunday was a rare luxury. Church services and family time usually filled her Sunday mornings, but on this particular day, Yulanda’s parents left home before sunrise so they could make it to Redwood Valley, nearly 3 hours from San Francisco, in time for Sunday service. It was their first trip to meet the prophet and experience his paranormal healing ministry firsthand. When Yulanda finally dragged herself out of bed, she enjoyed the novelty of an empty house as any 11-year-old would. Church services rarely last more than an hour and she expected her parents back in the early afternoon. As dusk approached Yulanda began to worry. Her father was in ill health, and as the hours ticked by, she wondered what they could be doing at this new church that took up an entire day. Shortly after dark, her parents arrived home brimming with excitement despite the long drive. As they told Yulanda all about the Peoples Temple and how much they looked forward to going again, she could hardly wait to see it for herself.
Yulanda Williams: It sounded so interesting, and so intriguing that as soon as they had told me all about it I wanted to go. And then they told me the most intriguing thing, which I still remember to this day, was that it was a church with a swimming pool. And I'm like “a swimming pool?” All I could imagine was a church that had a baptismal pool, but they said “no, this was a full size swimming pool.” So I was like, “I wanna go, I wanna go, when are we gonna go again, when are you gonna go again? So, there was excitement in my voice and the desires to really want to go with them to Redwood Valley, 'cause I'd never heard of Redwood Valley, never even really heard about Mendocino County or Clear Lake, I was just a city girl. One Sunday they said, “OK, we're not gonna go to our church,” which at the time we were Baptists, they said “no, what we're going to do instead is we're gonna go up to Redwood Valley.” So, I was excited, I mean you know I had to be excited if I got up like at, probably around 6:00 or 6:30 in the morning to get ready to go to a church.
The drive I recall was so long by the time we got probably to Santa Rosa, I kept saying “when are we gonna get there, when are we gonna get there, my God this is taking forever!” So, I went to sleep, and then the next thing I knew we were going around the mountains or whatnot, I’m like “God how much further do we have to go?” Finally, we got into Redwood Valley and I remember seeing like all of these country style homes and trees, mountains, vineyards; it was, it was just amazing, I mean things that I had not been exposed to. And then when we rolled up to Peoples Temple I'm looking at this building, and this building kinda looks like a lodge or some type of hall, it doesn't look like a traditional church, although it did have stained glass windows, roads with, they weren't really asphalt yet, it was kind of like dirt gravel, and then you saw dogs and cats and chickens and all this stuff, and I'm looking at the great vineyards and like, “wow, this is kind of cool,” and then I see this big old ranched out home and they say that that's the home of Jim Jones and his family, and I'm just looking all around in awe, like “wow, this is so cool,” and then the people came up to me and they were so friendly young people old people everybody wants to know who you are, where you're from, you’re giving your name and address and phone number and everything 'cause they want to stay in communications with you, and the greeting was just so overwhelming that there was no way you could say that I don't wanna be here. It was like the lure was just so strong, you couldn't pull away from it, and then when you got into the Church, it was just folding chairs out there, people just relaxed people wearing jeans, people wearing whatever they wanted; they want to wear shorts they could wear shorts, it was just like “woah, what kind of church this is? This is kinda cool!” And then you see a band. I'm used to being in church where the only thing you see is the organ and a piano, but I'm seeing a guitar, a drummer, I'm seeing a bass guitar, and electric guitar, somebody playing the horn, and there's an organ, there's a piano player. I’m like woah! And I mean they’re black, and they’re white. They're playing songs that I knew from just, you know, being around, and then they're also playing like songs that they have actually written on their own, but the music is kind of cool and good and relaxed, you know, and I'm just like, “oh I'm feeling this,” I'm like in awe, and then I look in the back of the Church and I see this huge swimming pool, and I'm like “whoa!” I said, “you guys got a swimming pool in your church?!” And they pulled me over in the next thing I knew I was sitting in the choir with them, I said “I’m not a choir member,” they said that's OK, you can sit with us, and so I'm sitting with them and their singing and stuff, and I'm just enjoying music, and I'm just clapping right with them and everything. I mean it was just absolutely phenomenal, breathtaking. It was just exactly what you needed in the early 70s to hear and to be a part of the momentum was and the energy was so high, you couldn’t be depressed, there was no room for depression.
Q964 Dale Parks: I can look around and see the years so many blessings, I can say very dear from the depths of my soul. I thank him all the days of my life. Sing it with us.
Sings: Thank you, thank you, thank you
Thank you, thank you, thank you
Oh, I thank you all the days of my life
Oh, yes, I thank you, thank you, thank you
Thank you, thank you, thank you
Oh, I thank you all the days of my life
When I was sick, my father, he healed me
When I was sick, my father, he healed me
I was sick, my father, he healed me
Oh, yes, I thank you all the days of my life
Backstage, Associate Pastor David Wise is preparing to go on stage and warm up the crowd. Singing songs and praising Father were important elements of the preshow, designed to energize the audience before Jim’s grand entrance.
David Parker Wise: In the backstage when everyone is getting ready for the service there was this moment with Stephan Jones, and I'm shaving. I'm shaving in the mirror and so Stephan Jones says why don't you ever pull the razor upward on your beard? He's slightly younger than me, and he's just coming into starting to grow whiskers, or starting to be a man. And Jim Jones is commenting, when he doesn't come down, about how much more Stephan is growing, and how Stephan is now taller than him, and all of this kind of thing, and so Stephan is in the backstage and he says “why do you pull the razor down? And why don't you ever pull it up, upward when you lean your head back and your shaving the whiskers in the bottom of your chin, and on your neck?” and I said because there's a grain, there's a direction that they grow and it like leaves me raw, and hurts, it's like they’re really thick, and what's, what's ironic about Stephan’s, Jim's only son, you know, asking me about grooming method habits, and you know it's like watching a father or a older brother in the bathroom, and finding out how people do things, and how you know, how do we shave, and, and then suddenly I found myself standing next to Jim Jones because we were talking and he was getting ready to go onstage, so he goes in the bathroom, and I'm still talking to him. He's standing in front, it's very narrow, narrow bathroom. I can't walk past him, it's quite narrow, so I'm standing there looking in the mirror with him as he's doing finishing his last consideration of what he looks like before going out on stage and we're talking business. And so right when his hair, when it's finished and everything and we're all, I figured you know we’re wearing our robes, we’re about to go out on stage, he takes a piece of his hair that he’s combed and pulls it loose and let it fall down on his forehead. And so I say to him, like his son innocently was asking me why, why did you pull that hair loose from your combed hair and let it fall down on your forehead? And he started to answer, and then caught himself ,and he said “Well one day you'll, you'll know,” And he looked over at me real fast and didn't answer anything back. We went out on stage.
Q964 Dale Parks: They said in times of old if you did not cry out, the rocks would cry out children, but yay I say unto you, I shall cry out for I know my savior is real, I have met him without a doubt in my heart, for that I am grateful. I’m grateful to declare that I am part of the Christ ministry that has saved my life, and saved so many standing here today, I said saved so many standing here today.
Q964 Jones: Now, now will each of you give a very fond embrace, a salutary greeting and kiss to your neighbor. Let’s fill this atmosphere with warmth and love. May we clasp our hands in warm and tender fashion. How much I love you, how much I love you. Let's begin our meditations.
Yulanda Williams: [“Walk a Mile in My Shoes” playing underneath] and then when Jim Jones came out, here he came out in just plain old black pants, or maybe a red shirt or was it a blue shirt, he came out with, and some old black shoes that you just lace up, some shades, and his hair was just black, parted over from the, from I think the left side, left side part. He just came out, and he just talked like regular folks, you know, it wasn't like he was the big almighty powerful man, it was just like he was just right there with us, just like, you know, you can just sit by his side and he gets it, then just talk to you like you was a friend that he knew all along. What impressed me most was when he said you know I wear all used clothes, my stuff comes from Goodwill, like he wears Goodwill clothes, is he crazy? He’d lift up his feet and he had a hole in the bottom of the shoes, he’d say “I just use cardboard in the bottom of these shoes, and yeah I wear shoes with a hole in the bottom, but I don't have time to spend money on these material things like this,” he says “there are far more important things that need to take place in this world. This is why we're able to have attorneys here to provide legal service to people when they need it. This is why we have a drug rehab program. This is why we have senior citizen's homes where we're taking care of all of our senior citizens, they got their medical treatments and things taken care of for them. We eat here together as one big happy family. You come here after church is over, we're gonna eat together, nobody has to go anywhere, we are family.” And he goes, “and I believe in and enjoy all the beautiful colors of the rainbow.” He says “I'm an American Indian.” And he just went on, it was just, he made himself so humanistic that once again you could not say anything negative about this man 'cause everything he was doing was right on point. It was exactly what was being talked about during that point in time in life, I mean he was talking positively about the Black Panthers movement, he was talking positively about Dennis Banks and the movement with the Indians. I mean everything, all the political things that involved young people he was in agreement with it, and this was so, it was not typical of churches to be in agreement with these type of movements and with this type of ideology, but Jim Jones was right on point. He said that oh, that was true Christianity, that's what was expected of us as Christians, I mean, and he spoke from that level. And then he could suddenly turn it to a level for someone who might have been on the fence as to whether or not they were religious or not, but he would pursue it in a zone where all of a sudden you felt like he was speaking directly to you. So, he knew exactly what to say to connect with every individual person that was in his aura.
Q964 Jones: I wish it were possible for me to move through this audience and give every– every one of you in a very warm embrace, because you are the most precious things, the most precious people to me, in all of this entire creation.
Jones: Now as we meditate–
Woman in crowd: Thank you father
Jones: God is love. Love is a healing remedy. We do not recommend ourselves as a panacea. But we recognize that all good things come down from the father of lights–in whom there is no shadow or variableness of turning. So God is in medical science. We believe in complete cooperation with all of the goodness and all of the scientific truth in the universe. Now as our hands are clasped, though we’re going to reach out to areas where man has seemed to have difficulty. As we concentrate that the gifts of the Holy Spirit might function or what the secularist might speak of as the paranormal. Let us believe, let us believe.
Yulanda: Well, my father was a Baptist minister and he had recently had sustained a mild heart attack. His physician, he told him he wouldn't be able to go back to work, and he just happened to run into one of his clergy friends who told him about Jim Jones, and that he was a prophet, he was able to heal the sick, and that he had a church up in Redwood Valley, California. He encouraged my father to go to the Church, and to take the one final, last option, as opposed to surgery, to try and correct what was medically wrong with him. They took the two-and-a-half-hour drive from San Francisco to Redwood Valley to go to Peoples Temple and meet Jim Jones, the so-called prophet.
Q612 Jones: You have been led by preachers that are empty cisterns. I have nine gifts. I’ve healed every disease. I raised the dead 518 times this year before your eyes. How many have seen me raise them, when they were stiff as a poker? Bowel movement, blood coming out of their face, blood coming out of their mouth, vomit all over them, eyes set, no pulse, no heartbeat, dead for two hours, this sister had her back and neck broken, took it and healed it. This sister next to her, five times operated when she was in holiness, no one could heal her, five times operated for cancer, the doctors sewed her up to die, but I, I said one day a year ago, your time has come, and she spit up the cancer. Her stomach had been cut away. Her bowels had been cut away, five times. Radium treatment, chemotherapy, surgery, the doctors said, I’m sorry, I’m sewing you up to send you home to do what you must, because you must die, but when I got through with her, when the Living Word got through with her, when the Spirit got through with her—she went back to the doctor over a year, nearly a year ago, and the doctor said, I don’t know what’s happened, but I know that whereas you were dying, now you don’t need me anymore. You’re healed!
Jim Jones’ reputation as a prophet and faith healer spread throughout California and attracted many new followers in search of a miracle. Yulanda’s father, Reverend Harry Williams had been warned by his doctors that after his heart attack he would need an expensive surgery. Without it, he may never work again. Out of concern for his family’s future and security Rev. Williams went to Redwood Valley hoping for a healing. Jim Jones promised that if he couldn’t fix your heart, he could grow you a new one.
Q920 Jones: I’ve come to break all the bonds that hold you.
Ethel Murphy: Yes.
Jones: To loose the heavy burdens.
Murphy: Yes.
Jones: I’ve come to set the captive free!
Murphy: Yes!
Jones: I’ve come to give you a new heart right now!
Murphy: Yes!
Jones: Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: Now it’s gone! Now it’s gone! Now you don’t have any heaviness, do you? The heaviness all gone now?
Murphy: Yes.
Jones: You got a new heart, child, so just rejoice! Praise God!
Murphy: (cries, moans)
According to a short-lived Peoples Temple publication called The Living Word, Rev. Harry Williams received the healing he had prayed for. He wrote:
Before I came to Pastor Jones, my heart was so bad that I couldn’t even work to support my family. After several heart attacks my doctors told me that if I tried to work, I would kill myself. I had nothing to look forward to in this life except to sit at home waiting to die! For me, as a minister and a naturally hard worker, this was the worst possible fate.
Q920 Jones: Now I lift your body, I reach out to touch you. I touch your chest through the Holy Spirit of God. I move the pain and the difficulty from your abdomen and your chest. I lift it now in the name of Jesus. Do you hear me, sister? I lift it in the name of Jesus. Because I come in the name of Jesus. I’m walking and talking in the name of Jesus, and I lift you! Lift your hands, sister. Breathe deeply. Now the difficulty should leave your body. It should leave your body. Is it gone, darlin’?
Rev. Williams testimony continued…
But I found The Great Physician working through this Prophet of God, Jim Jones. He found me an utterly broken man. Today, I am an active Christian campaigner. When Pastor Jones called me out, he told me things about my life which no man could have known but for the Holy Spirit’s presence. I told him nothing; he told me exactly where my pain was. He touched me while under the anointing and I was, praise God, instantly healed! Then he told me to run around the church and see how I felt. I knew that normally I wouldn’t be able to run around the aisle without being completely exhausted, but I stepped out in Faith! I ran and ran around that room and even did jumping jacks, and I felt myself filled with a most wonderful kind of strength and energy.
I can thank Jesus for my life because now, two years later, besides holding a regular job, I am a member of Pastor Jones’ staff. Just this last Sunday, I helped him baptize hundreds by immersion in our indoor heated pool. It seems like the harder I work, the more I’m blessed, and the better I feel. Praise God!
Q1015 Jones: But yes, you can get healed. You can get healed of anything. You can get healed of anything, just sitting there now. Just thinking on me now. Just thinking on the Christ in me, the Christ in you and the Christ in me can agree, and we can lift you out of the pain that’s in your head right now!
The Williams’ remained loyal Temple members for several years. Yulanda grew up, started a family and in 1977 she went to Jonestown. She managed to escape just months before the tragedy.
Like many families who joined Peoples Temple, the Williams’ entry involved a profound, life changing spiritual experience, of the paranormal variety. Rev Williams’ testimony is one of hundreds recorded by Temple members throughout its history.
Q357 Brother Crane: My friends, when I came here the first time, I was wheeled in in a wheelchair, but thank God I can walk now!
Q964 Eugene Chaikin: When I first came here to Pastor Jim Jones, I had an arthritic back. It was so bad that my life was a series of experiences of pain. Every day– It seemed to me to be in agony just to get through my day’s work. And I came to church one day, and Pastor Jim called me out, and he told me things that no human being in an ordinary state of consciousness could possibly know.
And even though I was a lawyer, and even though I’m a skeptic, I had to be convinced, because what’s real is real, and what I could see I could see. And then he told me about my back. and then he reached out his hand, and he said– he said– he said, in the name of Christ, you’re healed, and my pain was gone, and now a year and half later, it’s still gone, and I praise God for that.
Congregation: Applause.
Q1023 Maria Katsaris: Peace, everyone. I just want to tell you the wonderful miracle that happened right here in choir while we were singing. I don’t know if you can see ‘em, but there’s lights all up and down the stage here, and while we were singing, one of them exploded, and there’re sharp pieces of glass flew all over the choir, and not one person was hit. The glass is so sharp, and not one person was hurt. Thank you, Father, thank you.
Q1023 Man: And you know, we’ve been told once before, what we visualize, Jim Jones can materialize, and if we let him take over, if we become clay in his hands, he will mold and shape and develop us. But when we praise, things happen about us. That’s something to think about. When our level of consciousness is raised, glass can explode on our heads, and Jim Jones is there to make sure nothing happens.
Q964 Man: And everyday miracles are wrought and each service each day through the power of love
Man in crowd: Yes Amen
Man: I’ve seen the blind made to see, the deaf made to hear, cripples set aside their– their crutches and walk.
Congregation: Applause.
Man: The needy are clothed here, the hungry are fed. Life is so beautiful here.
Q974 Man: Because of your prayers, your kind wishes and thoughts, my young son who had both legs broken is walking again.
Congregation: Cheers and applause.
Q964 Lee Ingram: I would just like to testify to something incredible that happened in my life. I was driving along a four-lane highway at 65 miles an hour, and all of a sudden, my steering wheel started to jump around in my hand and began to boggle, and I began to lose control of my car. As I lost control, the tire blew out. And instantly, I thought of the Christ force of our Pastor Jim Jones, and a way was made. (Cries out) Thank you Jesus. A way was made!
Q357 Minister: The first time I ever saw him, he called me out and healed me and I’ve been following him ever since. It was some time before I could just make up my mind that I could just give up all that I’d been, that I’d had and been doing and follow this family, but at last, thank God, I made up in my mind that I would follow him til the end.
Q1023 Georgianne Brady: My name’s Georgianne Brady, and I’m from Redwood Valley, California, and I would like to thank our uncle Jim, because we were looking out the window and the window was open and it slammed on my finger and it was– my finger was in there about two minutes and when it happened you could– you could– you could see part of my blood vein, and I would like to thank our Father, ‘cause my finger could have been sliced right off.
Q1023 Tim Carter: His finger was completely, it was– it was just pinched like it was ready to fall off. It was totally smashed, completely smashed. In fact, when– the last time we had saw him, there was no hope whatsoever for him even to keep his– his finger on, outside of Jim Jones of course, but with Jim– Jim Jones there’s always hope.
Q357 Elder C.C. Hill: I love you, want you to know things that have happened to me since I’ve known Jim Jones. First, he healed me of a cancer. He also healed my sister. Healed my wife of heart trouble and her eyes – I don’t have to thread a needle, but knowing him as long as I have, I want you to know this. I have his spirit. Faith is the thing that you lack. We’ve been brainwashed so long that you just can’t get away from it.
Q1023 Woman: Peace, family. I’m so glad to be here with you tonight. I’m so glad to be here with you tonight!
Archie Ijames: Oh my God.
Woman: It’s wonderful. I’m here because of Jim Jones. There is no one else in the world that cares for us like Jim Jones. Nowhere, no one. The caring that you don’t even see. If you could see the love that he has for animals and plants and even weeds, you would see what he has for you. You can imagine the love he has for you. And he works constantly, and all you have to do is follow his teachings, and he will mentally take care of everything. Just think on what you need taken care of, and it’s taken care of. There is nowhere, no one like our Pastor Jim Jones. No one in the world like him.
Q1023 Jones: (Hums) We will receive our offering at this time. Our commitments– Nothing’s going to be handed on a silver platter. We must think about what we have to do. Do you know what we have to do? (Pause) Do you? (Hums) We are separating the loyal from the non-committed.
The Blind shall see, the deaf shall hear and the crippled shall walk. This is just a sampling of the elaborate claims found on an old Peoples Temple service flier. Jim Jones claimed to possess the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit. These charismatic gifts include but are not limited to discernments of spirits, speaking in tongues, miracles, healings, and the gift of prophecy.
Q1014 Jones: I know how to set up the energy field to do that. Now I’ve not pretended to be your cotton-pickin’ God. I pretended to be and maintain to be and declare to be and exhibit that I am, and manifest that I am, your only savior.
Any hardened skeptic will warn you that a self-proclaimed prophet or snake oil salesmen will only sell you empty promises before disappearing with the family silver. But whatever Jones was selling, people packed Temple services week after week wanting more of it. His prophecies and healings stood the test of time, every Sunday those who had been healed sang and danced with a healthy glow, giving testimony to Jim Jones's divinity.
Q956 Man: Oh, hallelujah!
Jones: Five years in a wheelchair til I spoke the word and now she can walk. Look at all those that have been healed, how many been healed of crippling diseases in this Temple. [Man: that’s beautiful] Good God! [Sings]: Ooh, yes, I will sing. Got something to sing about.
Jones: I’m going to tell you that if you’ve got any life in you tonight, I gave it to you. If you’ve got any health in your body, I put it there. If you have life instead of death, it was I that gave it to you. If you have salvation, I brought it [Jones: My people! Ghosting underneath]. So if I created the words, I can damn well use them. Say, the devil made those words. Well, you said God made the devil. Yes my God.
Peoples Temple members claimed to have been healed of brain tumors, cancers, and various terminal diseases. Even to this day, some former members believe in Jim Jones’ paranormal abilities. Though not many can agree how his powers worked. Could it be divine grace? Or manifestation through metaphysical consciousness? Maybe the intervention of interdimensional beings or forces? Or a kind of mass hypnosis? Perhaps, Jim Jones made a series of well-informed lucky guesses. However Jim Jones did it, he managed to convince a number of people that in his presence anything was possible.
Q962 Jones: I’m a savior not the creator, don’t confuse me, I’m the savior! There are many saviors come up out of Zion. I am a savior come up of Zion! Blessed, blessed. I have proven my work. I have proven my work. The last weekend that I was here, I called out dozens, because it wasn’t the time for preaching. It was a time to heal. Today, I’ve given you words that, if you will think on them, if you will just look at me, and think on what I am, you will spring up, wellsprings of glory will spring up within your soul. The growths that are there will begin to shrink up and die. The arthritis that is making you in aggravation and pain will– Suddenly, there’ll be warm flashes going up and down your back and into your shoulders and into your knees, (cries out) even now, while I’m sitting here. I’ve got the power. I’ve got the power.
A former Temple member wrote about his adopted son Danny, who died in Jonestown. Danny had been so badly neglected and abused prior to his adoption that he had lost most of his hearing and had trouble communicating. Doctors said his partial deafness was permanent. One summer Danny joined other Temple children for the church's annual summer bus trip. They spent a couple of weeks at a ranch in Oregon and swimming in Baja. Upon their return Jim Jones approached Danny’s father, he said, Danny is alright now and smiling, walked away. Danny ran up to his father laughing and talking a million miles an hour about the glorious two weeks of fun in the sun. For the first time since his adoption, Danny was speaking clearly and audibly. His father took him to have his hearing retested and the doctors confirmed that somehow, Danny’s hearing had almost completely returned.
Q919 Jones: Rachel?
Rachel: Yes.
Jones: You’ve been told that you have a tumor on your brain.
Rachel: Yes, my God, God.
Jones: Hands clasped. What has it done, caused a deterioration in your muscles?
Rachel: Oh, yes.
Jones: Your legs, and you can’t walk.
Rachel: So true.
Jones: -Progressively getting worse.
Rachel: Yes.
Jones: All right. Take your hands and clasp and believe. Believe. There’s a massive clot that has to be broken, has to be broken loose, in a matter of a few minutes. You got bad headache?
Rachel: Yes, I do.
Jones: And you can’t walk.
Rachel: Right.
Jones: Well, let’s start with the headache.
Rachel: (Whispers) Thank you. Thank you.
Jones: Mmm. Spirit. Spirit of God.
Rachel: (Faintly whispers) Thank you.
Jones: Spirit of God.
Congregation: (Begins to cheer)
Rachel: Thank you, Jesus.
Jones: Spirit of God.
Rachel: Oh, thank you, Jesus.
Jones: Sister, I say that I can dissolve that cancer. I say that you can walk. The pain’s gone now, isn’t it?
Rachel: Yes, it is.
Jones: (Calls out) Well then, stand on your feet. Stand on your feet. Stand on your feet. Get on up, get on up, get on. Quickly. Get up. Get up.
Announcer: She is struggling now to rise.
Jones: Get up, get up. Don’t- don’t touch her, brother, don’t touch her. Get up.
Announcer: She is struggling to rise.
Jones: Now, now, now, up, up, up, up.
Announcer: She’s coming up.
Jones: Now stand up. It’s done, if you’ll believe.
Congregation: (Cheers)
Announcer: (Excited) She’s coming up, she’s up, she’s up.
Jones: Up.
Announcer: She’s now on her feet.
Jones: Up.
Announcer: She’s standing erect.
Jones: Up.
Announcer: She is standing completely erect.
Jones: Up. Turn the light on her.
Announcer: She is completely erect.
Jones: Up. Stand up. Look up, sister. Keep your eyes focused on me. Keep your eyes focused on me.
Rebecca Moore wrote the book “Peoples Temple and Black Religion in America.”. She spent years studying religion and spiritual practices.
Rebecca Moore: If we talked to survivors today, even people who are atheists will say that Jim Jones had supernatural powers, or maybe I should say paranormal powers. That he knew things about them that no one else could have known, and I'm not talking about that they rooted around in someone's garbage, that these were things in people's heads that he knew, or that he healed them of illnesses that were verified by doctors. And so, I think that he did have paranormal ability. He also had a very well-developed ability to read people. He could, he could read people and understand pretty quickly what they wanted to hear. Now that's different from having paranormal ability, that's just kind of he was a quick study and could tell what people wanted and could use that and manipulate people with a talent. But that's not the same as saying that he was psychic or something like that, but I think that a number of people will say that yes, he healed them, he knew things about them that no one else could possibly have known.
Vera Washington left the Temple in 1973 with 7 other college students. She remembers how Jones seemed to know things about people that were buried deep in their psyche, or family history.
Vera Washington: Our great grandpa was a slave boy. His name was John McCracklin, and his job was, he was just a little boy. His job was to stand at the “missus” to keep any flies or anything off of her while she knitted, and so if she was in a good mood, she was nice to him, but if she was in a bad mood... he would fan her with Turkey feathers tied together in a bundle, and so the end of the turkey feathers had like the bony part that stuck in the skin, well she’d take that part and she’d whack him all over his little bald head, 'cause they shaved little boys heads, and it would hurt him! But anyway, I don't remember him, but my other sisters and brothers do, and he came to live with my mom, which would have been his granddaughter. He was blind he went blind that's when he came to live with us, but anyway, he had a dog, a white dog. I remember the dog, his name was Ponto, and I used to ride this dog, and I was like probably two years old but I remember the dog. Jim told my brother that there's a dog in your family, and he would spend a long time trying to bring these thoughts forward and he said “Ponto, Ponto.” He called that dog’s name. Nobody could have ever known that. This was in the backwoods of Alabama, don't nobody in that church know us, we had never even thought about Ponto forever, so I mean, he had a little bit, but don't we all do? And he probably had developed something.
Q919 Jones: humming and singing “What You Have Done for Me.”
Jones: Jim McElvane, or something of this sort. Do you have a sister that is- a young man that died of diabetes? Hmmm? You have a sister?
Announcer: He’s in the balcony and said this is so.
Jones: April. April the first.
Announcer: Yes, he said.
Jones: I gather you’re saying April the first.
Jones: You’ve not told me. I don’t know anything about your life. You’ve told no one else here. Is that correct?
McElvane: Correct.
Jones: You lose a brother also by an accident?
McElvane: That’s correct.
Jones: The car was burned up.
McElvane: That’s right.
Jones: There was no clues.
McElvane: That’s right.
Jones: Someone’s trying to do the same to you.
Congregation: (Murmurs)
Jones: You accept my teachings, and you will be of long health. Because he that keeps my sayings, Christ said, shall not die.
Associate Pastor David Wise was placed in charge of the Los Angeles Temple. Jim Jones traveled to LA every other week and in his absence one of Dave’s responsibilities was to conduct services. Dave studied Jones’ every move, hoping to emulate what he saw. One Sunday as Jones gave a sermon he dashed into the aisle and launched himself up onto the back of one of the pews, walking along in his socked feet like it was a balancing beam.
David Parker Wise: When Jim Jones walked across the pews, he demonstrated a very clear genius capability to do something that everybody can't do, and that's wear slippery socks on a shiny polished wax pews and walk across the entire thing standing up and balanced. I was a very talented physically. I started skydiving when I was 16, I could do lots of things, but I couldn't walk across the pews in my sock feet, like he did with everybody watching, the whole crowd, and he's concentrating, what he's saying, and doing these healings, walking across the pews on the top row, top edge of the pews from the back to the front and not falling off. I couldn't do it. So, you know people come in there and polish the pews, all the time, so they're like really slick. I’m telling you; it was impossible almost. It's worth a look-see, to kind of make a list of things that we saw Jim do that seem to have no explanation, so this is possible, you could have a person who is a freaking failure, nut that everything wasn't fake, that he manifested almost extraordinary or paranormal kind of abilities at the oddest times, and we don't know, are we inclined, are we looking for, because we believed, do we manifest what we believe in, and make it real, but I was really open minded, you know, I had my eye on him.
Even though Dave was only half Jones' age, no matter how many times he tried to walk across the pews in his socks, it just wasn’t physically possible. Gravity seemed to bend to Jones' will.
Q612a Jones: …hundreds of people that lifted their hands in pained and crippling conditions. I did not touch them. I just sent my word, and everyone in the room was healed. That’s all it takes. If you know what you’re dealing with, if you know that the magnetic force is here, if you know the electrifier, the deliverer, the revolutionary, the liberator, the savior has come, if you know it, all you have to do is just call.
Through the intensity of his speeches, Jones energized the audience triggering spontaneous outbursts of joy and support. His seemingly infinite supply of energy sustained itself by siphoning off the jubilation. The prophet’s message was urgent, and deliverance guaranteed. Jim Jones’ dazzling performances were a siren’s song for lost souls in search of salvation. For the children in the audience, Jones was the architect building a more perfect future.
Q1015 Jones: Cynics die always. They never find truth. Skeptics never get anything in the extra dimension. Because they’re only revealed to children. You must become as a little child or you will not enter into these more ascetic realms.
Former Temple member Jordan Vilchez remembers seeing Jones use his divine gifts through the eyes of a child.
Jordan Vilchez: When I observed him as a child, I was in awed really. He was dynamic, and when you're that young you really observe what other people are doing, and other people's reactions as well. And so, I saw people responding to him with adoration and enthusiasm, with everything that he said they would respond saying, “that's right,” and “right on,” and things like that. And so, he seemed to be able to inspire enthusiasm and a lot of respect. He was charismatic, a charismatic speaker. As time went on, I also came to sort of see him as superhuman, and I felt like he could read my mind, and that is something that a lot of the kids believed. Later on, that belief diminished. In the years that followed, I saw that he was really concerned about enemies and all kinds of other things. And I was also around him more, and so I could relax a little bit around that feeling of fear that someone could, you know your every thought. Over time I- I didn't really allow myself to think one way or another, which is one of the things that happens when, when you spend a lot of your formative time in anywhere where something is, you know, seen as normal, you don't really question it, whereas it, had I had more of an experience of life outside of the Temple, I would have had formed more of a frame of reference and more personal opinions about things, and so I trusted that what was happening around me was true and real. Whether or not it was real, just the intense excitement and passion alone was enough to kind of buoy you up into believing in miraculous possibilities and that unusual and abnormal things were possible.
Q1023 Irene Mason: He’s worthy to be praised. Oh yes, He is. Hallelujah! Oh, to His name, ‘cause we’ve got God in our midst now, children. Oh yes, He is. I want to thank him tonight, because He’s good to me, children. Oh yes, He is. Everything I undertake, He be there. I was at the doctor last Wednesday, and the doctor took examination of me. He said you was all right. You don’t have to come back under six weeks. He ask me one time, is Jim gonna take you from me? (Laughs) He’s all right, children, Oh yes, He is.
Thomas Ijames, the son of Victoria Ijames, and the grandson of Associate Pastor Archie Ijames grew up steeped in the mysticism of the Church. As a young child he had a near death experience that to this day, he cannot explain. Did you believe Jim Jones had paranormal powers when you were a kid?
Thomas Ijames: Yeah, I did, I did. Now I know there is such a thing as called estocasity. That's just basically random chance follows some very strange lines. if you believe something strongly enough, you begin to attribute just random luck to it. So for me, I'm, there was a time where I had an incident that, to this day, is very strange and it’s hard to explain. I was coming home from school and I was leaning over the rail of a bridge, and I fell over, and I'm not talking one or two stories, instead it was four or five stories, and I fell. I don't remember much other than waking up off the rock, that I was laying on my back, and I got up and I walked away. And I gave testimony in Church how Jim Jones saved me. I have no clue how I survived it, I don’t have any other witnesses around me, but I know I did it, I know what happened. And for me that was my proof that “oh yeah, Jim Jones can heal, he saved me.” There’s no way I should have did that. Well, let me put it this way, for anyone who cares to listen: I am the luckiest man alive. There are so many things that should have gotten me, could have got me, that shouldn’t have worked out, that did work out, that I am totally convinced I have a lucky gene, and you know what it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, so it works for me, but that doesn't make me a healer. So, you know belief is a strong thing.
Q1015 Jones: It happened to you. It didn’t happen to me. It happened to you, so it was meant for a sign to you of something you needed. Everyone in their level of consciousness needs something to further their soul or their psychic development. You needed to see this evidently, and no one else saw it. They were not supposed to see it. I can explain it in the terms of energy, because when I anoint each picture and the oil and the records or the candles, an actual flow goes out that people– workers say that things will feel warm after I touch them. And sometimes very warm. Well, there’s a life force naturally. I have to transmit a part of me to heal, and in Philadelphia, there were all kinds of healings. So I’m sure that aura goes out from me, vapor goes from me. They now show you that in the passing – scientists show you in the Soviet Union – that they can photograph the light– the light force that goes from the body at the time of death. They photographed it thousands of times, just as scientists also have weighed and found that our inner psyche, our soul, has an actual component of weight. It weighs a quarter of a pound. Those who follow me – and I’m sure you are one of them – who are in the highest consciousness follow me because of my works, not because I have a light or I have a healing or I can do miracles or I can walk on water which has been seen by many on one occasion when we took our vacation a year ago in Mexico, as we always take our vacation together. Or once when I’ve held up, when we were adopting babies and the sun was blocking the pictures, and I said I want something to go over the sun, the cloud appeared over the sun. People should not
The children were compelled to join the Temple by their parents. Thomas Beikman was healed by Jim Jones as a child. During our conversations Thomas is never shy to share that even as a kid he sensed something was off about Jim Jones.
Thomas Beikman: And you may or may not believe, doesn’t matter to me, I’m just wanting to tell you my experience. When I was a kid I had real bad ear trouble, and he would come up and put his hands over my ears, and he said “you believe you’ll be healed?” I said “yes.” Well, he took his hands away and my ear didn’t hurt no more, so I don't give credit to him I give it to the Lord. But you know that made me think all of it was real, but you know there's a lot to be said for praying for somebody, positive thought whatever, you want to call it in your terms. There's something to be said for that. I've never seen nobody else jump up and down on the Bible and ask God to strike him dead. You can draw your own conclusions. The only thing that meant anything to him was himself. He wanted to go down in history, he didn't give a damn whether it was good or bad, just spell the name right. That come out of his mouth.
Q134 Jones: All this ballyhoo about healing — and I certainly can heal, and would be glad to take polytaph, polygraph
Suspension of disbelief, or a child’s ability to believe in something simply because they want to usually decreases as they develop critical thinking skills. Adults harness the power of a child’s imagination to create magical experiences for them. Like the white bearded immortal clad in red velvet who flies around the world every year delivering gifts. A dark childhood can be illuminated by such stories. But the fine line between fantasy and reality has to be defined at some point, no matter how unpleasant it might be to reveal that the jolly fat man is only a myth.
Q943 Jones: Do you know how much I love you? You don’t know. They said Jesus died for you. Shit on Jesus. He was a miserable failure. Because I would sell my eyes, and I’d sell everything I could sell, so I could keep using my mind for you as long as I could. And I’d sell myself piece by piece that you might live. Say“well, you’re mutation, Jim Jones, there nobody like you.” Well, child, I feel just like you do. I came from an insecure home that you didn’t have, many of you. I had a cruel father who never gave me any love, and a mother who was not too affectionate, and never knew where the next meal was coming from, but I managed to give of myself to others. Please listen to me and don’t be watching other things and bugs and other things at this particularly serious, sensitive time. I’d be very suspicious of you, if you continue to do that. Yet out of all that agony of insecurity, I’ve managed to make myself controlled.
There is evidence in the writings of Jim Jones’s mother Lynetta, that she thought a little magic, a mock church in the garage, and a grandiose sense of his place in the universe was all little Jimba needed to shine a little light into the dark corners of his childhood. She resented the cruel realities of the post-Depression world in which she raised Jim and so, emphasized the fantastical, ascribing deeper meaning to the mundane. Trapped in the dregs of her situation, Jimba was Lynetta’s greatest achievement, and she never failed to remind him that he was more than the world would ever deserve. She wrote:
Young Jim skipped past me, a sprite in the night. I was often caught up, rather sadly too, in the thought that he was not of this world, and that neither world held mystery for him. Where learned churchmen expounded upon profundity, his wisdom was so unusual, so apart from the reasoning of this world. At those times I would vow within myself to live forever to safeguard him from all harshness and harm at the hands of the unlearned.
Years before giving birth to Jim Jones, when Lynetta was a teenager, she contracted typhoid fever. She collapsed while picking blackberries in a swamp and had vivid fever dreams as she drifted in and out of consciousness. She dreamt she was lying in the swamp covered by roots and vines and surrounded by snakes. She watched as baby snakes hatched out of eggs. Fond of snakes she scooped them up and filled her pockets with them to keep them safe. She dreamt she was in Hades about to cross the River Styx when her mother approached her, dressed in animal skins, and said “Legends are always false, it is the way of humankind to seek to evade the truth of things.”. When Lynetta’s fever finally broke, these psychedelic visions culminated in the knowledge that she would one day have a son with brown eyes. It isn’t clear in her writings if she willed Jim Jones into existence, or simply embraced her destiny, but his coming was foretold in the swamp of snakes.
Lynetta goes on to describe the world of Jim’s childhood, where she and Jim had an understanding and knowing of things they shared like a secret language. Lynetta quipped that the townspeople thought she had supernatural powers and were afraid of her. When her brother-in-law, Jim’s uncle Bill was hunted down and later murdered over a debt, Lynetta’s housekeeper Mrs. Hackett resorted to black magic, placing bones and feathers around the garden. According to Lynetta, Mrs. Hackett said, “Beelzebub, if God ain't done it maybe you had better try it”.
Q1022 Jones: You go talk to my mother. I wouldn’t’ve been here, if she hadn’t set her mind to lift above this ordinary planetary consciousness, attune her mind that she wanted a savior, that she wanted a liberator, and her mind made contact with another planet. That’s the truth. Her mind made contact with another planet. My mother decided she didn’t want to live in mortality. She wanted to see somebody bring liberation, someone bring freedom, and she set her mind, and she wanted a black child, she wanted a black-eyed child, she wanted a black-haired child, not that that means anything, but she was a blue-eyed parent and he was a blue-eyed parent, and it’s impossible. Any medical person here will tell you, it’s impossible. She made a contact with a vibration that’s out here. (Calls out) Hey!
Sometimes little Jimba appears in Lynetta’s writings as a kind of Christopher Robin, searching for lost animal friends and having adventures. Other stories take on a darker tone. In one particular story Lynetta describes how Jim’s father, after being wounded by mustard gas in World War I, spent most of his time at the local pool hall gambling. His penchant for games of chance was a habit both she and Jim despised. One evening, when Jim was still very little, she found him sitting on the ground behind the pool hall surrounded by rats as big as cats. Startled, she watched from out of sight as little Jimba summoned them from their hiding places in the ally. He seemed to be communicating with them, as if he was controlling them with his mind. Not long after, Jim's father was injured at the pool hall when the chair he sat in day after day crashed through the floor. It was as if a sinkhole magically appeared. Upon further inspection it was apparent by the tiny teeth marks in the wood, that Jimba’s rats had chewed through the floor, exacting revenge for his father’s idle behavior, much to the amusement of his mother.
Q1023 Jones: It’s important to believe in mind, mind control. If you have trouble with the universe, you know that mind has evolved to the point where it can do great miracles. The power of mind. Now tonight, if you think positively through the emphasis of a positive aura, to one who has that positivism metabolized to such a degree that it’s a part of their very being, like it is mine, it can stir up a creativity in you that will save you from things that everyone else in the whole human race will have to undergo. If you think positively and unselfishly, then you come to the nature of God, you come to the sweet garden of Eden, you come to the holiness of an advanced utopia. Without love, you just have a positive experience – and that’s good – but with love or with apostolic socialism as they had it on the day of Pentecost, combining the power of mind with that, you have peace of mind and power.
Lynetta engaged and encouraged magical thinking to add some color to Jim’s somewhat monochrome childhood and give her life more meaning. Jones practiced deception in his little mock church to his mother’s delight and encouragement. Society alienated Lynetta by rejecting her keen mind and failing to present her with better opportunities. Jim would have to grow up knowing how to take what he wanted and create his own opportunities, no matter the cost. Lynetta understood the consequences of mediocrity and the captivity of conformity all too well. She hoped her son would one day spit in the face of society and transcend beyond it. Lynetta worried when Jimba neglected his pretend church or menagerie of animals to play baseball with the other children. He belonged in the world she made for him, safe from the conditions of an inhumane world.
Q1055-1 Jones: Yes, God Almighty. He said you’d never be without a temple, so you’re his temple because I’m his temple. I know what it is to go through death. I know what it is, seventeen years ago when Dr. O’Thomas said I had to die with cancer. I said this is the Temple of the Holy Ghost. I’ve got a black child [Jim Jones, Jr.] I wanted to adopt. I’ve got children I want to rear. I had an Indian child [Agnes Jones] I wanted to grow up. I said all these babies, I didn’t bring ‘em to the world to leave them fatherless, and so I said doctor, give me another test. He wouldn’t let me out. He told my wife who’s a registered nurse, to expect me to die. I said, put those tubes down again and you’ll find the hydrochloric acid is there. Take those x-rays again and he said it’s amazing. He said, the acid’s flowing– The, all that thickening that was an inch thick around your stomach wall is (cries out) gone! He said the cancer’s gone! Because I saw my body, my body as a Temple of the Holy Ghost.
Marceline Jones wrote that as Jim’s faith healing ministry grew people would wait in line for hours to get a seat. She carried a paper bag, ready to collect the cancerous tumors expelled during services as people crowded into the church, slipping through windows, and pushing their way to the front. Marceline had been skeptical the first time Jones called people out to be healed. When he took the stage and called out people’s names and social security numbers, she was astonished. She watched as he diagnosed and cured diseases with a growing sense of concern. This divine gift came with an enormous amount of responsibility and religious authority, people were going to seek out her husband in enormous numbers to witness a miracle for themselves. Could he keep this up? Marceline’s sense of awe and wonder superseded any fears she had about her husband’s godlike abilities. Her proximity to the divine was intoxicating and she felt like she was floating on air.
Q1032 Jones: Only reason I mention healings is ‘cause some of you folk wouldn’t sit here five minutes for the truth. Mmm-mmm. You wouldn’t come across the street to hear the truth. I know I don’t have enough polish to draw you. Honesty is not enough polish. Straight ol’ truth’s not enough. It’s the fact that I have got an extraordinary gift of healing. That’s why you’re here. And some of you going to endure it, hopin’ that I’ll be finished pretty soon, so that I can come up and down the aisle, and somebody can pull on me here and pull on me there, and I’ll be just like a piece of beef, pulled out, pulled in, pulled on—
Marceline wrote that when Jim was 21 years old, he attended a church convention and watched as famous evangelists called out the sick and made psychic discernments. Jim would focus in on the person being called out and began to have visions of his own, only his were more detailed and coming from somewhere beyond space and time. He became acutely aware that these famous evangelists were all tricksters, and their healings were fake or ineffective. He held his tongue, but by doing so caused an outbreak of hives that made his face so puffy his eyes and mouth became swollen shut. When Jones was finally given the opportunity to take the podium the hives disappeared, and he delivered psychic predictions and healings unlike the world had ever seen. He decided then and there he could never again share the stage with false prophets. If he didn’t go out on his own and use his divine gifts, there would be consequences to his health. Marceline wrote that Jim introduced the supernatural into her life. She believed that if Jones had been content as an evangelist, he would have traveled the world and been the best there ever was.
Q919 Jones: Now, you have trouble in your chest.
Catherine: I sure do.
Jones: You spit up blood.
Catherine: Sure do.
Jones: Can’t get your breath.
Catherine: Sure can’t.
Jones: Well, I’m going to take care of- the last you are going to spit up. We’re going to get rid of the problem. You can’t hardly walk, can’t hardly get around.
Catherine: I sure can’t.
Jones: (Glossolalia- Voice climbs) Now, my child, one of the nurses or- there’s a couple of them will assist you. You have cancer that is blocking you. Not only this bonical problem is developed into cancer, and it’s going to be eliminated now. And you are going to be able to move. Your heart is bad, also.
Catherine: (Sobs) Oh, thank you.
Jones: Crippled in your back, but we’re going to see the Spirit move you as easy as it would be for a breeze to move a feather.
Congregation: (Applause) (Music begins)
Jones: Hands clasped. Let the spirit move, let the spirit move. Sister, you get- I think you’re close enough to me. Now if you will just begin to try to regurgitate, that is, to vomit. Get this up here. (Uses glossolalia) Spirit, let it go, let it go, just come on up. Come on up. It is a privilege that God is here to deal in your affairs.
Jones: And I am moving, I’m condescending in your body now and loosening, I’m loosening those- those roots now, they’re coming. Now- They- They’re free. They’re free. Just spit them on up, spit them on up. The simplest thing is not impossible, but the impossible thing is just simple for God. Just let the spirit- just let it move on out- There it is. There it is. There it is.
Congregation: (Cheers and applause)
Jones: There’s the growth. There’s the growth all over the floor, all over the floor, and all over the cloth. Spit it all up.
Music and singing
Jones: It’s a- terrible, these- They smell horribly and they taste horribly as they loose often. Nearly always they do. Now child- now child, even though you’ve got artificial knees, even though you’ve been put plates, you’re going to be able to move, move fast. Now you’re going to be able to move fast, and not feel any shortage. Not feel any shortage now. It’s wonderful. Go with it, go with it, go in there, go with it, go with it. She was unable to get around. She- You understand, she’s walking on artificial knees. She’s walking on artificial knees. God Almighty.
The Attention Span Recovery Project would like to thank our special guests for this episode. We would also like to thank the Jonestown institute otherwise known as the alternative condisera…
Lee Ingram: No one should be on the floor watching the bout right now. Everyone should find a seat and be quiet. Now is anyone here still smoking or drinking? Just a reminder we are having a Los Angeles meeting this weekend and everyone is to go and everyone that misses is to be brought up on this floor.
End Transmission