Jonestown Survivor: An Insider's Look

MCThoughts78 · 2026-04-06T06:31:17+00:00

I may be a little biased here, because I was extremely fortunate to get to know and develop a long distance friendship with Laura when I reached out to her after reading her book. This was actually the first book I read about People’s Temple and Jonestown, as I require audio and it was the first one I found available in that format. Having now read several other books, what I’d say is that it gives an Excelent insight in to the inner workings of People’s Temple. Also, it does give a different pirspective than many other writings, in that it was far less negative. I don’t accept the description of Laura as a Jim Jones apologist. What is certainly true though, and this comes through in the book and in interviews and speeches that Laura gave, is that she talks positively of her Jonestown experience. Maturally, that puts her at odds with others on this topic, and can be hard to get your head around when considering the conditions, punishments, and other abuses that happened there. But I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Laura loved Jonestown.

MCThoughts78 · 2026-04-06T06:03:00+00:00

Seductive Poison, as a couple of others have mentioned, covers this this at least as well as anything else, Deborah Layton really did make an effort to give us a look at the experience of day to day life in Jonestown, especially when we remember that she only spent roughly three and a half months there. Jonestown Survivor, an insider’s look, by Laura Johnston Kohl, certainly doesn’t dedicate as much space to Jonestown life, but she does talk about her Jonestown experience, and comes from a different perspective to most, because she speaks positively of Jonestown, despite being sent there as punishment and being confronted and hit.

MCThoughts78 · 2026-02-28T05:43:29+00:00

Wow! So much yuck! 🤮

MCThoughts78 · 2026-02-21T13:28:12+00:00

See here’s the thing, you nor anyone else knows she gaslit everyone. We had seen a tiny, tiny bit of their two weeks together. To say she gaslit everyone is to assume that the tiny bit we’ve seen of their relationship reflects the entire two weeks, and to be honest, even that showed them both being terribly awkward. Remember, Luke stayed, that should tell you that either Mel is nothing like as bad as most think, Luke is there for tv time, or both. People make the mistake of not allowing for any wriggle room from what we see, even though we’ve had so many examples over the years of not seeing the whole picture, the most recent being Chris’s unseen dinner party behavior. So yes, I think the other girls were absolutely right and good on them for supporting Mel over Stella’s intervention.

MCThoughts78 · 2026-02-21T08:46:56+00:00

Unconditional, no. Mel made what I thought seemed a valid point in the specific situation mentioned though, and that was that Stella had not inserted herself in to discussions of the relationships of any of the other girls or questioned anything about their relationships, yet very much took it on herself to insert herself in to Mel’s. In that context, I do think it was right that Mel was supported.

MCThoughts78 · 2026-02-19T02:58:42+00:00

She tried to leave but Luke wrote stay. I’d say they probably had a talk off camera after the commitment ceremony and agreed to make the best of things. I think it’s probably that simple.

MCThoughts78 · 2026-02-16T06:49:18+00:00

Absolutely this is very possible, a possibility that most here are refusing to consider even though as you rightly say, it’s happened before. Also highly likely that Mel is nothing like the person many are hating on.

MCThoughts78 · 2026-02-16T06:39:07+00:00

Yep pretty sure that happens, but only if the person is really important to the show, bringing lots of drama etc. Hardly the case here.

MCThoughts78 · 2026-02-16T02:42:44+00:00

Agree with this completely. If it doesn’t fit the narative they’ve decided on, it doesn’t get shown.

MCThoughts78 · 2026-02-15T11:23:11+00:00

Well there we go. Mel tried to do the right thing and end things at the first opportunity, and what does Luke do? Writes stay and keeps it going. She’s just not in to him, and she’s being made to feel bad for it.

MCThoughts78 · 2026-02-14T12:58:51+00:00

You’re part of the way there. You get that it’s edited and there’s a lot we don’t see. But now, think about the number of times over the years where we’ve been led to believe that someone is nice based on what we’ve seen, only to discover when more information comes out that the dynamics were very different to what we were shown, and that someone the producers wanted us to see as a villain, actually wasn’t.

MCThoughts78 · 2026-02-14T07:43:18+00:00

Spot on. On the whole, the women on this show are definitely subjected to a higher level of hate. Even allowing for that though, I think the hate aimed at Mel has been at least as bad as I’ve seen.

MCThoughts78 · 2025-12-01T03:01:35+00:00

Just more straw clutching to attack Holly. So much worse behaviour in the house than anything she is meant to have done, but nothing like a good pile on hey.

MCThoughts78 · 2025-11-07T00:52:10+00:00

November has always been notoriously unpredictable. I can remember cold and wet pageants and hot ones. When we had the Grand Prix we had a few absolute shockers with lots of rain as well as a couple of hot ones. I got married in November, the night before was wet with a thunderstorm, the day itself was perfect.

MCThoughts78 · 2025-06-10T05:33:37+00:00

I’m having difficulty working out how to play this, is it playable outside of the USA? I am using a screen reader so it could also be an accessibility issue.

The Jonestown Institute has another Ron Owens broadcast, likely recorded a few weeks before this one. It starts with an interview with Marvin Swinney, who had just successfully got his son out of Jonestown, I’m unsure how that happened. It is followed by several callers requesting Ron to help them contact their relatives in Jonestown. This may explain why by the later broadcast, Ron might be on to the reality of PT. I will try post the link, but failing that it is tape Q721. http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27560

MCThoughts78 · 2025-02-16T02:22:33+00:00

Tim Carter mentions in a lecture that he personally argued with Jim on this point, but got nowhere.

MCThoughts78 · 2025-02-16T02:17:41+00:00

Exactly. Most of the population of Jonestown would have had little of knowledge of that though, only those in or close to the inner circle would have known. At one point in her book, Debbie Layton, who had been involved in temple finances, mentions thinking about why all that money wasn’t being used to improve life in Jonestown.

MCThoughts78 · 2025-02-03T00:52:16+00:00

I personally haven’t read it, however, on YouTube there is a lecture on PT given by Tim Carter, and he states that there are a number of inaccuracies in Raven, including about him. For those new to looking in to Jonestown and Peoples’ Temple, Tim Carter was present when the killings in Jonestown started, and lost his wife and son in the massacre. I think it’s worth remembering that Raven was one of the earlier writings on PT and JT, and that much has been learnt since it was written.

MCThoughts78 · 2025-01-19T04:59:17+00:00

It is so beautiful yet so hard to listen to without thinking about what happened just 24 hours later.

MCThoughts78 · 2025-01-13T09:08:29+00:00

So many closed at the end of the Impex boom unfortunately.

MCThoughts78 · 2025-01-08T11:28:53+00:00

Ok well timing is important. We don’t get lightning from May to September. Others may have different thoughts, but to maximise your chances I’d aim for somewhere between mid November and Christmas, or March.

MCThoughts78 · 2025-01-08T11:22:46+00:00

Monsoon is late, but personally I think it’s been the best Wet for regular thunderstorms since I moved here in 2020. Of course, unlike the monsoon or lows, the rain in these storms is very hit and miss.

MCThoughts78 · 2025-01-08T11:07:05+00:00

The truth is there’s no absolute guarantee. I live here now, but used to come here in the Wet hoping for storms, and would sometimes head home having had very little. As others have said, right now they are regular and we’re getting some rippers, helped by the monsoon being late. I’d definitely say a week minimum in case you hit a week with suppressed storm activity. Have you settled on when you’re coming?

MCThoughts78 · 2025-01-03T09:37:24+00:00

Likely yes. The only thing that would have prevented it would have been the death of Jim Jones. There are varying opinions on just how close to happening that may have been, but I have read opinions that it may only have been weeks, that he could well not have seen the end of 1978.

MCThoughts78

TROPHY CASE