Bad Men Do What Good Men Dream: A Forensic Psychiatrist Illuminates the Darker Side of Human Behavior

by Robert I. Simon

  However, when a cult goes into physical isolation, watch out. Such isolation allows deviant leaders and their teachings to fester. The Jim Jones group was relatively harmless when it was meeting regularly in a converted auditorium on Geary Street in San Francisco. But it became far more than that when its members retreated to a vastly different compound in the Guyana jungle. Similarly, when the Branch Davidians took up residence near Waco, Texas, where 77 acres had been purchased years earlier, more was changed than just their venue. The Heaven’s Gate group was not dangerous when they first met in a hotel on the Oregon coast, but when they moved to an isolated location in southern California, they were ready for death and transfiguration.

  Earthly Treasures

  In their locations, whether isolated or not, the cults promulgate rules and regulations that are rigidly applied and observed by cult members. Many of these are calculated to foster fund-raising activities. Money, seemingly so unimportant in the spiritual life of the cult, is really of the essence because it is needed for running day-to-day operations. Members may be exploited for their labor or may have their personal incomes expropriated for the benefit of the cult and of the leader. In several instances, cult leaders—who are generally excused from following the rules to which members must adhere—live in opulence, whereas members learn to do without basic comforts. Followers of the Bhagwan Rajneesh, of the Osho Foundational International, gave him a fleet of more than a hundred Rolls Royce automobiles so he could enjoy daily rides. David Koresh had his own private suite with electronic equipment, television, and air conditioning, whereas the other Davidians lived communally in a compound where toilets and running water were substandard. The cult leader, because of his divine connection, is exempted from the worldly restrictions and travails that are the lot of ordinary cult members. The indulged leader’s excesses are but a worldly metaphor for the spiritual rewards that await aspirants.

  In return for giving up the material and comfort rewards of this world, the cult members are promised salvation and healing. Many members even like the altruistic rewards of a stripped-down existence. Promised rewards in the hereafter, many say that they feel happy, content, and spiritually fulfilled. Focused on the group and its ideals, committed cult members come to believe that their own personal difficulties are insignificant and must be ignored.

  The Road to the Apocalypse

  Killer cults are not born, they are shaped over time. The leaders of killer cults are generally either psychopathic, psychotic, or both. As they sink into madness, they pull their followers down with them. Deviant leaders take a generally benign group of adherents and gradually transform them into followers of a self-fulfilling fatal vision in which, at least for them, the ultimate apocalypse occurs within the cult members’ lifetimes.

  How does a group or cult transform itself into a killing machine? Can cults, like individuals, become sick and die? Is there a way of identifying a cult that is beginning to show the early signs of becoming a killer cult?

  For the purposes of discussion, cults can be divided into two categories: nondeviant (“healthy”) and deviant (“sick”). This division is already arbitrary because, by definition, cults deviate from the mainstream of society. Moreover, the idea of anything being divided into baskets of healthy or sick is a fiction. For individuals, psychiatrists are fond of saying that normality does not exist. How, then, could it exist for a group? Nevertheless, using the healthy–sick distinction may help us understand some fundamental differences among cults and possibly identify those that are heading for trouble.

  The theoretical healthy cult is less authoritarian and more benevolent in style of leadership than the sick one. In it, humane and charitable practices flourish in harmony with the cult’s espoused ideals. In healthy cults, members feel a stronger allegiance to the ideals of the cult than to the personage of the leader. Such a cult maintains open communication with mainstream society. Honesty, candor, and benevolence mark the relationship of members with one another and with the outside world. The cult is not at war with the outside community or country, and a siege mentality does not exist within it. This cult’s spiritual message is universal, not idiosyncratic. Members seek, and possibly find, spiritual peace and fulfillment. Genuinely happy with their lives, they do not require coercion to remain within the cult. Members are free to leave at any time. Such a cult serves to empower its members personally and to facilitate their own journeys toward spiritual enlightenment. The healthy cult channels the dreams of good men and the acts of bad men into constructive outlets.

  Cults become sick when their leaders become deviant or mentally ill. The worst problems often surface because a deviant or mentally troubled cult leader may attract equally dysfunctional cult members. Jim Jones of the Peoples Temple recruited many who were disadvantaged psychologically, socially, and economically. These members’ personal needs were so great that it was relatively easy for them to hand over their lives—and eventually, their deaths—to the deviant whims of a mentally disturbed leader.

  It is possible for a cult to be chronically ill without the illness becoming terminal. Some cults remain in this sick condition. The leadership of a sick cult is authoritarian and harsh. The real value system of such a cult, hidden behind an idealistic cover, is guided by the leader’s pursuit of power, money, and sex. Rather than seeking spiritual enrichment of its members through humane, charitable practices, the cult demonstrates to the astute observer that such practices are only superficially espoused and that the leader seeks only self-aggrandizement. In such a cult, the spiritual message is frighteningly apocalyptic and promises unique benefits only to people who are and remain members of the cult. Members are exploited rather than enlightened. They are subject to mind control. Information coming into the cult and going out of it is censored. Sharply drawn boundaries hide the cult’s secrets from the outside world. A siege mentality is induced by the leader’s “sick” mind, and the cult may arm itself for the final battle. In the sick cult, the dreams of good men and the acts of bad men are inflamed, and both are harnessed to the nefarious purposes of the deviant cult leader.

  MOVE was a cult in Philadelphia that preached a poorly defined mix of primitivism and anarchy. Armed and dangerous, MOVE had bad relations with its inner-city neighbors and city authorities for years in the early 1980s. In a final, tragic confrontation in 1985, the city decided to try and dislodge cult members from their barricaded row houses. The police used several hundred thousand gallons of water, shot through high pressure hoses, and 7,000 rounds of ammunition in the attempt, which failed. It was then decided that the police ought to “neutralize” the bunker on top of the building. A helicopter dropped a bomb containing an incendiary blasting substance. The fire that erupted destroyed 61 adjoining homes and left 250 families homeless. In the conflagration, 11 MOVE members, including 4 children, died.

  A Tale of Two Killer Cults

  For a cult to become a killer of its own members, as with the Peoples Temple and the Branch Davidians, the leader must become deviant and deranged in the extreme. Jim Jones constantly preached an apocalyptic end for his followers at the hands of the FB I, CIA, Ku Klux Klan, and through nuclear war. Toward that end, he had the members practice the “white night” ritual of mass suicide by poisoning. Nearing the time when that end actually came about, Jones could not separate reality from fantasy. He believed that he was the reincarnation of Christ, Lenin, and other historical figures. David Koresh also spoke repeatedly of an apocalyptic finale to his ministry. He referred specifically to the seven seals of God’s prophecy for the unfolding of the Apocalypse. There was eyewitness testimony at the trial of the Branch Davidians that this cult, too, had rehearsed and prepared for mass suicide.

  A misunderstanding of several important factors about the mentality of killer cults contributed to the terrible ends of both the followers of Jim Jones and of David Koresh. The power of apocalyptic prophecy was not properly weighed. Nor was the fact that the more a group perceives itself to be under the t
hreat of persecution, the stronger the group bonds become. Cult cohesion under conflict ought to be expected, as well as the paranoia that accompanies and is part of a siege mentality. Then, too, the suspiciousness, isolation, and “us-versusthem” perception of reality further create a self-fulfilling prophecy of inevitable destruction. It waits only for the trigger event.

  Reports filtered out of Guyana about secretive activities of the Peoples Temple—extensive firearms acquisitions, abuse of members, keeping members in virtual captivity. Such reports brought U.S. House of Representatives member Leo Ryan and a group of reporters to Guyana to investigate. Jim Jones viewed the appearance of Representative Ryan and his group as a confirmation of his own belief that the Peoples Temple was about to be attacked by U.S. government forces. Cult members killed Ryan and two reporters and wounded 16 others at the Jonestown airstrip. When news of this reached Jones, he activated the mass suicide procedure.

  The accumulation of sophisticated weaponry began at Ranch Apocalypse long before ATF agents approached its gate. Driven by paranoid expectations of an apocalyptic ending, Koresh decreed military-type drills and construction of bunkers. When the ATF agents tried to force their way into Ranch Apocalypse to confiscate the weapons, the event triggered Koresh’s self-fulfilling prophecy of apocalyptic destruction.

  Both Koresh and Jones had declared that they were God. When a cult leader makes such a statement, it is evidence of a serious mental disorder. Gods do not have to abide by the rules of mere mortals. Thus, Koresh and Jones had numerous sexual partners among the cult members. Koresh was alleged to have had sex with many girls in his sect, some as young as 12 years old. He is also alleged to have sired most of the young children in the compound—12 of the 17 who died, by one account. Jones reportedly had sex with both males and females in his cult. Both men had sex with the wives of cult members. They broke up existing families so there would be no other groups competing within the cult. Jones ordered some marriages ended and arranged new ones. All the while, Jones ordered cult members to abstain from sex, which was considered evil except when he engaged in it. It was reported about Ranch Apocalypse that Koresh freely took whichever woman caught his fancy, whereas the other men of the cult lived in “anguished celibacy.” In other words, in both cults, sex was used along with many other matters as a way of controlling cult members.

  Sexual activities were an integral part of a gradual, general regression of the cult and its members toward primitive functioning and thinking. In each instance, the signs of this regression were clearly present. In 1987, Koresh was charged with the attempted murder of a competing cult leader but was acquitted. Jim Jones had been involved in a paternity suit brought by a cult member. He had also been arrested for making lewd advances to an undercover officer in an adult movie theater.

  As the leader becomes more and more tyrannical, demanding allegiance to himself rather than to cult ideals, serious encounters with the law occur. Suspiciousness and paranoia grow. The wagons are drawn into a circle. In Guyana, armed guards patrolled the Peoples Temple commune. Access to Ranch Apocalypse in Waco was also carefully controlled. The paranoia spills over into observation of cult members, too, for any sign of possible betrayal. Spying was rife inside the Waco and Guyana compounds. Jim Jones had his members sign undated suicide notes, which would be used as part of cover stories should he later need to eliminate those members.

  Inside the compounds, violence escalates. Child beatings become more brutal and frequent. In Jim Jones’s last days, he had little children dunked into deep wells on the end of a rope for even minor infractions of his rules. Children present serious problems for cult leaders. Although they are seen as those who will carry on the life of the cult, they are also perceived as burdens by “sick” leaders. They require considerable time and effort, they bring in no money, and they detract attention from the leaders. Rebellious children may challenge the leader’s authority when adults have long since stopped doing so. Moreover, during times of crisis, children react to stress with disruptive, acting-out behavior. One reason to break up families is to render children vulnerable and then to raise them communally, so that their only allegiance is to the group.

  In the last phases, Jones and Koresh gave endless sermons and harangues. Members were exhausted by their leaders’ incoherent, emotional exhortations to prepare for the Apocalypse. Jones spent an average of 6 hours per day on the loudspeaker, calling attention to the “fascists” who were coming. Koresh drew attention to the ATF agents, who were sure to attack again and prove his prophesied cosmic conclusion.

  As the leader’s mental state deteriorates, paranoia and a siege mentality escalate. Cult members are worked to exhaustion, made to make do with a subsistence diet. They are once again deprived of sleep, this time by the endless harangues. The whole idea of escape is made to seem impossible. No one could escape the sound of Jones’s loudspeaker-amplified voice in Guyana, telling the cult members that although everyone must die, they would all soon be resurrected and given the means to remain together, rather than being hounded, persecuted, and dispersed here on earth. In Waco, Koresh decided who could leave and who must stay. During the first 4 weeks of the siege, 34 cult members, including 21 children, came out voluntarily. But in the last 2 weeks, no one was allowed to leave. Later, after it was all over, the FBI believed it had evidence that 20 Davidians who had wanted to leave had been shot as a warning to others.

  Members who might want to leave are at war with themselves. The anxiety and fear that has arisen in the cult member is denied, displaced onto other cult members who are suspiciously perceived as possible defectors. The image of the all-powerful, all-knowing leader is preserved through increased acts of devotion and submission. Cult members often project their anger and disappointment at the leader onto the outside world, increasing their own paranoia. Such psychological defenses paradoxically lead cult members to rely even more on the cult leader. Though the emperor has no clothes, none of his subjects is psychologically able to admit it.

  In the final weeks, the prospect of death may be welcomed by cult members, for whom life has become so wretched. Deprived of food and sleep, working grueling schedules with no time for relaxation or even spiritual refreshment, cult members may believe that a permanent rest is desirable. They fear the wrath of their now-deranged leader and his certain punishment should they deviate from his instructions. Cut off from the rest of the world and from former family ties, they are hardly able to resist the prospect of mass suicide. Deborah Leighton, a confidant of Jim Jones in Guyana, managed to escape the Peoples Temple but explained that in the last days there, “The concept of mass suicide for socialisms arose. Because our lives were so wretched anyway, and because we were so afraid to contradict Reverend Jones, the concept was not challenged.”

  Near the end, the minds of cult members have fallen totally under the tyrannical control of the leader. Members have become wholly dependent and have long ago stopped thinking for themselves. When the call to die is given, most of the members go unflinchingly to their deaths by poison, fire, or gunshot, self-inflicted or given by others. The Apocalypse has arrived.

  The Lethal Leader: Inside the Deviant Psyche

  Throughout the history of mankind, lethal leaders have led their groups to destruction. In our century, Adolf Hitler charismatically enthralled an entire nation in the cultist pursuit of Aryan supremacy. In the process, he plunged the world into war and ordered the murders of millions of innocent people. Joseph Stalin, whose reign was later labeled by his successor, Nikita Khrushchev, as “the cult of personality,” murdered more than 20 million of his country’s people. Jim Jones and David Koresh led their followers to murder and suicide. Charles Manson’s domination of his “family” led to the grisly bludgeoning, stabbing, and shooting of seven people. The nation was appalled that Manson’s young men and women would murder repeatedly at his command. Cult leaders who cause death have variously been considered psychopaths, psychotics, or, at best, borderline personalities. It is li
kely that the above-named lethal leaders have manifested all of these conditions at various times (see Table 10–1), or all at one time, especially as the end neared.

  Diagnostic certainty is hard to achieve because most cult leaders were never examined psychiatrically. Adding to the difficulties of making a proper diagnosis are the special circumstances under which their

  TABLE 10–1. Typical psychological characteristics of killer cult leaders

  • Mentally disordered

  • Deity complex (Christ)

  • Sexually deviant/exploitative

  • Persecutory beliefs

  • Primitive psychological defenses (splitting, projection, denial, regression under stress)

  •Charismatic

  • Apocalyptic vision (suicide)

  • Attracts dysfunctional cult members

  • Seeks isolation and control

  • Childhood abuse history

  • Materialistic

  mental aberrations occurred. Even people on the outside can appreciate the mind-warping effects of having to function under extreme stress.

  When cult leaders are isolated from the normalizing influences of other communities, they are subject to mutual validation between themselves and their members. The leader’s grandiose conception of self, and the fears, paranoia, and sense of an apocalyptic vision waiting to be fulfilled, are all mirrored back to him and further distort the mental processes. When the cult is actually under siege, as the Branch Davidians were in Waco, fact and fantasy begin to merge. All the deviant mental processes are heightened. As the end approached, Koresh’s behavior became more erratic. He slept until mid-afternoon while cult members worked. At night, when cult members were exhausted and ready for sleep, he raced through the dormitories, ringing a loud bell as a signal for beginning marathon Bible study sessions. During these sessions, Koresh frequently made no sense. It is always possible that the leader, when dealing with elements outside of this cataclysmic pressure cooker, may appear quite normal and may seem to behave rationally.