Customer Reviews

Six Years With God: Life Inside Rev. Jim Jones's Peoples Temple

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Jeannie Mills was a big-hearted woman who would take people into her home at the drop of a hat. The People's Temple seemed to provide an avenue through which she could share her love of humanity. Needless to say, it was big mistake. Jones used her sterling qualities as he used the thousand or so others who joined his Temple. Mills tells a bizarre tale of cruelty, rip offs and insanity. Accepting the belief that self-sacrifice was more important than self-esteem, she and others gave up more and more to Jones' "cause" which turned out to be world domination for Jones (as he revealed to them). The book makes an interesting companion piece to Deborah Layton's book, "Seductive Poison." Too bad it's out of print.

I lived on the same street as Jim Jone's People's Temple, & I got a hell of a lot of warnings from relatives to steer well clear of the guy! Not like I cared--- I wasn't a Christian, a communist, or anyone even remotely susceptable to his message. Still, the warnings came. He seemed almost comedic in the news, in the Glide Church... then came the news of the deaths in Guyana. A week later a paperback was on the newstands in Safeway at Church St. & Market in SF. It was all very nuts. "Six Years With God" seems to be the most definative book... & the most lurid. What more can you ask for?

I liked this book very much. The way I choose to praise it is to write down the text on its front and back flaps. I think it will help the reader to know if this book is what he/she is looking for:

"To look at Jeannie Mills, you wouldn't think that for six incredible years her life went haywire. At 39, she's both smart and attractive, a good wife to a good man, mother to five terrific kids... the picture of everything that'se right - and possible - in America. But from 1970 to 1976, she and her entire family were bound to a cult that finally became the story of the decade - THE PEOPLES TEMPLE.
"In the autumm of 1976, Jeannie and Al Mills filed a statement with an attorney that was both a personal catharsis and a public plea. It said, in part, the following:

'Jones has a power that operates in fear, guilt and extreme fatigue. While we were in it we did many strange things. We signed over all our property. We wrote and signed false, self-incriminating statements. We had to admit that we were homosexuals and that we molested our children. We had to participate in painful punishments for such minor things as forgetting to call Jones 'Father', forgetting to pay a bill, or for giving a piece of candy to a child. Some of the punishments were beatings, humiliations and medications that made people appear to die (later to be ressurrected by Jones). We were so frightened of him and his power that we would have sworn to anything he asked. We believed that he would always take care of us and would never harm us, even though we witnessed daily atrocieties that should have convinced us otherwise. It is impossible to explain the effect of his brainwashing. We do know that it took months after we left to be able to think and act as normal, reasonable people.'

"While in the temple, Jeannie and All produced hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash revenues - seha as head of the Publications Office, he as official photographer. They belonged to the prestigious Planning Committee. In late 1975, they left the temple with many of its most important documents, and Jones began a siege of terror against them.
"Throughout 1976, 1977 and 1978, they crusaded to have Jones exposed. They pleaded with the press, with public officials, with the federal government. They worked unceasingly to warn a public that needed the deaths of 912 innocent persons before it would listen.
"This haunting document captures the sinister means by which Jones took advantage of intelligent, but vulnerable, people. In 32 pages of exclusive photographs and in tape-recorded conversations, the unbelievable is revealed. America has never seen anything like it. And - to use a quote that Jim Jones admired a lot - 'those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it'".

This book is astounding. I have been doing research on People's Temple for awhile now, and pretty much thought I understood the inside workings of this cult. I was very wrong. Six Years With God gives the reader a serious look at Jim Jones and Peoples Temple. I could not put this book down. Jeannie Mills (May she rest in peace)brings us into Peoples Temple like no other. You join the cult with her and her husband. You attend services, you approve of Jim Jones like they did, you question Peoples Temple the same way they do, and most of all you decide to leave with Jeannie Mills, realizing that like them you joined a lie.

I was shocked to read about the abuse, manipulation, and the ability of Jim Jones to make everyone believe what he was doing was for the Cause and Human Rights. When he stomped on the very Cause he was working towards. I was sadden to read about the murders and disappearance of some members. I was frightened to read that as a member there was a point in time when you just couldn't leave. How you would be tormented by others through letters, stalkings, and robbery. I was disheartened to learn that many were lied to about giving up their homes, insurances, and other property to Peoples Temple.

This book answered every question I had and I no longer wondered why and how. I understood that the motivation behind Peoples Temple was not about helping but about power. I was concerned to find out that Jeannie Mills and her husband and daughter were murdered a years after this book was published. I think they knew they were going to die anyway and needed to spread the word and let the truth out. Even former members who are teary eye on television speaking about they were sad it didn't work out. Thank God it did not.

The book reads like a wonderful film. I recommend this book to everyone who wants a real picture of Jim Jones and Peoples Temple.

<<<Jeannie Mills, who with her husband, Al, defected from the temple in the fall of 1975. Jeannie Mills, her husband Al, and daughter Daphne were found murdered in their Berkeley home in 1980. Their murders are still unsolved."When you meet the friendliest people you have ever known, who introduce you to the most loving group of people you've ever encountered, and you find the leader to be the most inspired, caring, compassionate and understanding person you've ever met, and then you learn the cause of the group is something you never dared hope could be accomplished, and all of this sounds too good to be true-it probably is too good to be true! Don't give up your education, your hopes and ambitions to follow a rainbow."
Jeannie Mills>>>

Just as I got through reading this story, and posting my first review, I searched just a bit further, and found out that this woman and her family were mysteriously murdered. How horrible this is!! It may have been a ex-member of the cult that certainly was not deprogrammed. Please, let us protect ourselves and our families from such a horrible experience!

I couldn't stop reading this book.Mrs.Mills gave a detailed account of her six years in the People's Temple.It was sad to hear her personal stories of some of the children that died at Jonestown.If you ever find this book, buy it!
I can't understand why its out of print. Sadly in early 1980, several months after the book was released,Mrs.Mills and her husband Al were found shot to death in their home.Their daughter Daphne was also shot.Daphne lived a few days in the hospital and then died.All 3 had been members of the Temple .Their murders are still unsolved.
I wish the book would be reprinted so it would be easier for people to find and buy.

Al and Jeannie Mills were initially Elmer and Deanna Mertle before they legally changed their names. This book will help explain how the Mills/Mertles became two of the defectors of the People's Temple and it wasn't easy. Like so many of the members, they became entranced into a community of people. Most of the members joined because of the community spirit. During their six years with Jones and the People's Temple, the Mills were privy to many secrets and behind the scenes but Jones was diabolical in using children against defection. During their six years, the Mills opened their home to several children from the temple which made it difficult to leave. I agree that this book is a must read for anybody interested in the history of Jonestown and what happened on November 18, 1978. Only two years later would Al, Jeannie, and their daughter Daphene be found murdered in their Berkeley home in California.

Al and Jeannie Mills and their family had spent six years in the People's Temple under Rev. Jim Jones (1969-1975). They didn't enter willingly but they were indoctrinated unconsciously by their first meeting with Jim Jones. They were a blended family trying to solve their family's problems when the church came into their lives. At first, the church helped find them jobs and housing when they moved to Redwood Valley, California from Hayward. The Mills were just your ordinary family who got mixed up with the wrong guy. Now, we know what Jim Jones was all about and it was horrifying that he was responsible for the loss of over 900 lives. As we approach the thirtieth anniversary of the Jonestown massacre, I found that Al and Jeannie's story helps explain the attraction, lure, and the appeal of JOnes and the People's Temple. They were searching for an answer to their problems and only encountered the People's Temple. They were fooled by the fake healings and the false prophecies of Jim Jones. Jonestown would have worked without Jim Jones in it and sadly nobody could stop him before it's too late. The Mills write and explain how they too got carried away with the church and how much it took from them. Of course, they felt the People's Temple was like a large, happy, functioning family but it wasn't at all. Behind the scenes, Jones had a darker agenda and he became more tyrannical as powerful as he got. The Mills like other concerned relatives and parents faulted the press for not being more vigilant and Jones had made powerful friends as well. In the end, Al and Jeannie's warnings with the concerned relatives' went unheeded and unnoticed by the media or the world. Nobody appeared to care for the doom that waited Jonestown in Guyana known as the promised land. When it did happen, there jokes about the kool-aid drinks but many didn't go quietly. Some had fought back and tried to escape but it was difficult since there were armed soldiers there to force the poison in their veins. Only a few made it to the jungle. To imagine that many of the people in this book died in the Jonestown result. We shouldn't forget the lessons of Jonestown as well.
A sad footnote is that the authors were murdered in their own home in 1980. The case remains unsolved to this day.

I have been doing a lot of reading and research on Peoples Temple and Jonestown since the story sort of resurfaced as Rob Jones (Jim Jones' grandson) began his freshman season at the University San Diego. I've found most of what I've read amazing, but most of the information sort of glosses over the Temple's stints in the states and tends to focus more on Jonestown and the tragedy that took place in the jungles of Guyana.

Jeannie Mills, however, gives us a first-hand look at the goings on of Peoples Temple during their years in Ukiah, Calif., what promted her to join and what eventually made her leave. This unique look inside Peoples Temple and the nightmare the Mills family went through after they decided to leave the church is one of the most insightful pieces I've read about the movement, and I'm including Debbie Layton's "Seductive Poison" in the mix. I've read both books and this one goes much deeper into the operations of the Temple and the tactics they used to gain power in the community, keep the naysayers off their backs and in the recruitment of new members.

I hate to make light of anything, but this book reads like a page-turning, action/adventure novel. The facts in this book are too bizarre to be made up and still be believable. Sometimes, the truth really is stranger than fiction.

If anyone is interested in learning more on Peoples Temple, this is a great purchase. But hey, that's just my humble opinion.

I Stumbled upon this book in a local library and decided to check it out.it is an excellent overview of Jim Jones and the People's Temple.am going to buy at Amazon.Based on my studies on The People's Temple it was an excellent humanitarian movement in theory, but in practice it failed due to Jim Jones Destructive Personalty,Paranoia and his use of Drugs.Highly recommended Reading!!