Jim Jones used mind control over his entire "Jonestown" cult to convince them to drink cyanide mixed with fruit punch, which would enable them to meet their maker. And the ones he could not control he shot. Most likely that is not what his followers had expected when they joined his ministry, but this is an extreme example of how cults can have negative effects on people's lives. Jones founded The People's Temple in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1958. Eventually he set up churches in Ukiah, California, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. They were well known for helping out the cities' homeless, elderly, drug addicts, and prostitutes (Dolan 10-11). In the 1970s the small amount of people who got out of the group told stories of how Jones thought he was the new "messiah". Jones would tell this during his sermons while he was under the influence of amphetamines. There were also reports that people were being forced to stay in the group against their will (Dolan 11-13). When these reports stared to become public, Jones took 800 of his followers to Guyana. There they built "Jonestown". When Congressman Leo Ryan came to check out the village, he and four people with him were shot when they tried to leave. The Guyanese army was eventually sent to infiltrate the compound and when they got there they found 912 dead bodies, 278 of which were infants (Dolan 14-15).
             Another extreme example is Charles Manson and his group of followers. Manson's group consisted of mostly females in their early to late twenties. In 1969, he and his followers murdered seven innocent people and one unborn child (Bardsley N.pag.). At the crime scenes they left the words "Helter Skelter on the walls written with blood. Manson twisted the words of the Beatles song "Helter Skelter" to fit his prophecies of the future. His "Helter Skelter" theory was that the black man was going to take over the white controlled world. Since his prophecy did not come true he had to do it himself ...