New Religious Movements

New Religious Movements Of the myriad new religious movements which have arisen over the course of the twentieth century, only a few have resorted to violence and mass suicide as a course of action. Perhaps the most famous of these, the so-called Jonestown Massacre, resulted in the deaths of over nine hundred people, and serves as the basis for John Hall's examination of the particular preconditions and precipitating factors which lead one cult or new religion to violence instead of another.

Hall's theory is applicable beyond the case of Jonestown, and in fact may be used to better understand the motivating factor behind the mass murder/suicides committed by the Order of the Solar Temple in the 1990s. In particular, by considering Hall's theory in conjunction with the analysis of the Solar Temple deaths given by Jean-Francois Mayer, it will become clear that each of the six preconditions and three precipitating factors defined by Hall as necessary for the outbreak of large-scale violence.

Before examining the case of the Order of the Solar Temple, it will be useful to briefly address Hall's consideration of the Jonestown deaths in his essay "The Apocalypse at Jonestown," in order to explicate the necessary preconditions and precipitating factors which may lead to this kind of violence.

The six necessary preconditions are "a charismatic religious social movement; an apocalyptical ideology; a form of social organization adequate to maintain solidarity; legitimacy enough among followers to exercise collective social control over the affairs of the community; sufficient economic and political viability; [and] life within strong social boundaries in cognitive isolation from society at large" (Hall 203).

In addition to the internal preconditions necessary as part of the group, there are three external precipitating factors which help to catalyze a preconditioned group into actually committing violence, because as Hall notes, even if "the preconditions are particularly conducive to violence, they are hardly sufficient" (Hall 203).

These three precipitating factors which may be observed to have instigated the kind of violence seen in Jonestown and with the Order of the Solar Temple are the "mobilization of a group of cultural opponents who possess a high degree of solidarity; the shaping of news media coverage through the cultural opponents' frame of interpretation about "cults"; [and] the exercise of state authority" (Hall 203).

Before attempting to locate these preconditions and precipitating factors in the case of the Order of the Solar Temple, a look at how Hall demonstrates their presence in the events surrounding the Jonestown deaths will make the subsequent analysis of the Order of the Solar Temple a little clearer.

Hall notes that "this general causal explanation" is clearly exemplified by the murders and suicides at Jonestown, because each of the preconditions were met by Jim Jones and the People's Temple, and Congressman Ryan's fact-finding mission provided the perfect combination of all three precipitating factors; the combination of the Concerned Relatives (factor one), the news media (factor two), and the appearance of Ryan himself (factor three) served to catalyze Jim Jones and his preconditioned group, so that "rather than submit to external powers that they regarded as illegitimate, they chose to stage the airstrip murders as revenge and shut out their opponents by ending their own lives" (Hall 203).

In much the same way, one may view the history of the Order of the Solar Temple as a process of establishing the necessary preconditions within the group before the mounting external pressure in the form of any state action and the defection of key members led the core group to enact the apocalyptic narrative they had previously envisioned.

In her essay "Our terrestrial journey is coming to an end": the last voyage of the Solar Temple," Jean-Francoise Mayer analyzes the murders and suicides of the Order of the Solar Temple, which began in 1994 but continued through 1997.

Almost immediately her analysis demonstrates that the first two of Hall's preconditions were met by the group, when she notes the details of the group's beliefs, including the fact that "the core members of the group understood themselves as an elect people who had incarnated periodically on Earth since ancient times in order to fulfill a cosmic mission [….] and were ready to sacrifice their lives for its sake" (Mayer 208).

The truly charismatic aspect of the Order was provided by Luc Jouret, because "Jouret had charisma and, being a physician, would be taken seriously; therefore, he should be pushed into the limelight," such that after his initial introduction to the Order in 1982, "from that moment on, Luc Jouret became the propagandist for the group," giving lectures and talks (Mayer 210).

The Order was tightly-knit and sustained itself through the contribution of members, with individuals sharing ownership over the community such that "collective social control over the affairs of the community; sufficient economic and political viability; [and] life within strong social boundaries in cognitive isolation from society at large" were all possible (Mayer 209-210, Hall 203). However, the group did not simply come into being having met all six of Hall's preconditions, but rather evolved over time.

For example, perhaps the most important precondition, at least relating to violence, is an apocalyptic ideology, something Mayer suggests only developed over time in response to certain internal and external factors affecting the group. Nonetheless, "throughout the 1980s, the Solar Temple's doctrine had grown increasingly apocalyptic," so that by the early 1990s, "[Order of the Solar Temple founder Joseph] Di Mambro had gathered around him a group that lent an appearance of reality to the fictions he created" (Mayer 212).

The preconditions for violence were all present by the early 1990s, and all that was needed to set them off was the precipitating factors that might lead the group to give up on outside society altogether. As Mayer notes, "compared with other controversial groups, the Solar Temple encountered very modest opposition; it would be excessive to use the term "persecution" (Mayer 217).

Nonetheless, the core members believed "themselves the object of omnipresent police control and the victims of traitors who had infiltrated the movement," so that any mishap with an officially authority or internal dissent was ultimately taken as an attack on the movement. Thus, in the form of police investigations and the desertion and denunciation of former members (including internal dissent in the form of Di Mambro's own son, Elie), Hall's precipitating factors acted upon the group already preconditioned for their "transit" (Mayer 212, 217).

Not only does the case of the Order of the Solar Temple fit with Hall's theory of apocalyptic violence, but the ample recordings and recollections left behind by the Order.