I went to the LA Times Festival of Books and, as always, sat in on a number of panel discussions: 8 to be exact. One of those 8 was listening to a panel discussion on Cults & Cultures.
Here's a short bio via the LA Times of the panelists:
Annie Jacobsen is a journalist and the author of the New York Times bestseller “Area 51” and “Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America.” . . . Her latest book is “Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis
Douglas Preston worked as a writer and editor for the American Museum of Natural History and taught writing at Princeton University. He has written for The New Yorker, Natural History, National Geographic, Harper's, Smithsonian, and The Atlantic . . His latest is “The Lost City of the Monkey God.”
Jeff Guinn is a former award-winning investigative journalist and the bestselling author of numerous books . . . His latest is “The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple.” Guinn lives in Fort Worth, Texas.
Here are my notes from the conversation, hopefully there aren't too many errors.
Jeff Guinn. What if Jim Jones were alive today? If Jim Jones were alive today he'd be a demigod who believed he was the only person who could solve problems. He'd try to shut off outside influences. He was a typical demigod, but also different. He was different in that he appealed to the best qualities in humanity. He wanted all to be treated equally.
How does he approach writing? "Don't drink the Kool-Aid." It wasn't Kool-Aid. It has taken on the meaning, "Don't follow a leader who is taking you down a wrong path." An author, when writing, should give you context and let the reader have the opportunity to come to his/her own conclusions.
We are bound by the past. Jim Jones said he was an incarnation of Lenin. Guinn brought in the past to bridge to today. When writing this book, he started at the beginning: how did Jim Jones grow up?
About Jonestown? Jonestown was was meant to treat all people equal. It did work for awhile. You can't make a judgement just on the last hours.
Annie Jacobsen: About her research? Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis is science vs. superstition. The Defense Department is researching the Sixth Sense via nano biology technology. This is a new era where technology can look into the body to see if this is fact or fiction.
Some believe this should never be financed. Others say you don't know what is out there.
How does she go about writing her books? When she writes books, she takes the approach that she doesn't know everything. It is important to approach a topic with an open mind and understand that she doesn't have all the knowledge.
When writing her books, she wants to report on the breath of things. She doesn't talk to just the key players.
Douglas Preston: About the Lost City of the Monkey God? For 20 years, Steve Elkins looked for the City of the Monkey God. He finally got his hands on technology that could see lost cities in the jungle. The technology is called LIDAR, it is a laser mapping system. They mapped 3 areas and found 2 lost cities. When they got there, they found magnificent artifacts. The cities weren't Mayan as the nearest Mayan city was 200 miles to the east. When the Mayan culture collapsed, there appears to have been a connection between the two cultures.
Two-thirds of the team came down with an incurable disease called Leishmaniasis. It is like leprosy. When Preston came down with this disease, his first thought as an author was, "This book will get a bigger advance!"
The Mayan collapse happened around the same time period for many of the city-states. Elite class took on a parasite role to those who did the actual work. Also, the Mayans decayed their environment. This is a lesson for today.
About cults? Cults can become culture so one shouldn't immediately come to a negative conclusion about cults. Christianity was considered a Roman cult.
