Functioning community can't succumb to a cult By LISA McCRACKEN My friends know that as a psych nerd, I’m fascinated by cults. This passion began as a child watching the Jonestown Massacre unfold on Thanksgiving weekend of 1978, claiming 918 souls. At the time, we were in transit from Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey, to Tucson, Arizona. It was momentous for me, as the two events were unfolding simultaneously, making each one stick all the better. Later, we moved on to San Diego, where 39 perished in the mass Heaven’s Gate suicide in 1997. But those two cult catastrophes both occurred on a localized scale. We had an awareness of the two cults beforehand, but it was strictly an outside awareness.