Description: The parallels with David Koresh are too obious to need underlining: the megalomania, the obsessive need to possess female followers and humilitate the males, and the steadily increasing paranoia. The parallels with Hitler and other dictators are even more relevant, for Jim Jones actually gained some degree of political power before his own excesses began to work against him. But the most interesting insight to emerge from Jeannie Mertle's Six Years With God is why normal, sensible people could come to accept a paranoid maniac as a messiah. The answer obviously lies in the sense of love and kinship that the Mertles first experienced when they joined the Temple. It seemed a haven of security, an extended family under the wise guidance of a "Father" who possessed supernatural powers.

Then why did it go so wrong? The answer obviously lies in the character of Jones himself. Born in May 1931 into a poor farming family in Ohio, he was fascinated by preachers in local churches and enjoyed playing the preacher with his friends, making them listen while he delivered long sermons. By the time he was in his early twenties, Jones was already a mesmeric preacher who demanded total loyalty. As church members began to contribute money, Jones bought a fleet of buses and announced they were moving to Redwood Valley, California where they would be safe from atomic radiation when the nuclear war came. Jones was already claiming divine revelation and powers of faith healing.

This is an important point, for it would be a mistake to assume messiahs depend simply on their powers of deception. The influence they exert over their followers seems to create a build-up of some psychic (or psychological) force,which can cause strange things to happen.

What does seem perfectly clear, from the careers of David Koresh and Jim Jones, is that their decline into a form of insanity was inevitable. The rogue messiah sets out to convince his disciples that he knows far better than they do; he demands total belief, total subjugation to his will. But as we have seen, in adopting this role, he is giving free reign to the worst elements in his nature.

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