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Peoples Temple Collection; Box 24, Virtual Item 17, Q897- Healing service

 Digital Record
Identifier: ms-0183_24.17

Dates

  • Digitized: Undated

Creator

Summary Note

In this short, undated tape – the only reference to a date was a divorce from 1971 – Jim Jones performs a healing of a woman who had cancer. The healing is followed by a testimonial by another woman whom Jones healed as well. The tape begins with the preliminaries to the healing already underway. Jones is revealing “little things” about an elderly woman’s life, because they are important to build her faith. He reminds her how much she spent in an uncontested divorce and what the name of the law firm was that represented her. He also asks her to tell the congregation whether she had given him this information before, and she says she hasn’t. He invites her into his “aura,” then asks her to vomit up the cancer. As the music swells in the congregation, the woman reaches into her throat to dislodge the cancer. The blood and apparently vile-smelling growth spills on the floor, and Jones asks the “thousands of people” gathered as witnesses to “praise the name of Jesus Christ.” Full summary of the recording available at Alternative Considerations of Jonestown website, along with the tape transcript.

Rights Statement Note

The copyright interests in these materials have not been transferred to San Diego State University. Copyright resides with the creators of materials contained in the collection or their heirs. The nature of historical archival and manuscript collections is such that copyright status may be difficult or even impossible to determine.  Requests for permission to publish must be submitted to the Head of Special Collections, San Diego State University, Library and Information Access. When granted, permission is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical item and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder(s), which must also be obtained in order to publish. Materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials.

Physical Description Note

Original audiocassette tape recording digitized and made available as .mp3 audio file.

Publisher Note

Publisher: The Jonestown Institute

Repository Details

Part of the Special Collections & University Archives Repository

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