April 9, 2007
It’s a cold Monday night in San Francisco and I am in tears. I just watched a documentary on Jim Jones, and the People's Temple cult. Some call it mass suicide of some 900 people in Guyana, but no, that's not right at all—Jim Jones murdered them. Some, like Representative Leo Ryan, literally died in the cross-fire, but the majority were victims of the group insanity instigated by Jones.
The documentary forced me to remember that event as if it had happened yesterday. When I ride out Geary, I see the gap between buildings where the Peoples' Temple used to be. I see faces of people I knew and worked with in politics. I cannot remember their names. I had been very involved in the campaign to elect George Moscone mayor which put the People's Temple in the public eye. I had defended the Peoples' Temple in conversations with friends just because Jones's followers had worked for Moscone. And in fact, home-grown spiritual leaders were not uncommon so Jim Jones presented no obvious warning signs.
The spiritual landscape of those heady days allowed us to imagine California as a new Buddha field, while only giving lip service to, much less serious study of the rich meditative practices that spanned more than 2,000 years. And we because, or perhaps in spite of the fact that there were so many people engaging a spiritual exploration, we had plenty of anecdotal experience to bolster our claim.
The Hoffman Process itself has some of the hallmarks of a cult, and when I started to lead my own groups with Nancy Dannenberg, we tried to reduce the trappings psychic spirituality that Hoffman espoused, and of course to the best of our abilities to not engage in the bullying and manipulation that Hoffman favored. But any attempt to delve into a person’s family history, to unearth past events and relationships that color present day events, is not risk free. Some of the water will be muddied by transference.
In a previous post, I wrote about my experience with one man, a young African-American activist and a follower of Jones, who did the Fisher-Hoffman Process of Psychic Therapy.
". . . Early on, during the part of the Process called “the prosecution of Father,” the name Jim Jones kept coming up in our conversations—my client said that Jones was a remarkable psychic, a healer, a prophet, a seer.
‘I had never heard of Jones before even though the People’s Temple was only a few blocks from where I lived in San Francisco. I just kept encouraging my client to examine any transference he might have to Jones. After a few more weeks and the “prosecution of father,” I noticed that Jones’s name was not coming up. I asked how he was feeling towards Jones. He replied that Jones was just another fraud preying on the black community. He left the Peoples’ Temple before the exodus to Guyana and escaped the horrific aftermath.”
There is value and freedom available in working through the transfences that present themselves in our everyday lives. In this case, it might have been literally life saving.
Here are the pieces that I've written about Hoffman. Although I have tried to be objective, it is impossible to take a disinterested position with regard to the Process. Hoffman sexually abused me about 6 months after I finished my first process.
The Ontological Odd Couple, and the Origins of the Fisher-Hoffman Psychic Therapy
A Very Personal Question: Can I Forgive Bob Hoffman?
Forgive and Forget? Impossible. An inquiry into Victimization.
"Bob Hoffman was a criminal. Simple."
Why Do Cults Need to Rewrite History?
Jonestown and our Deliverance from Cults
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