What are the reasons why groups like Jimmy Jones, or the Hale-Bopp Comet people, and others, take their own lives?
There is an interesting mechanism when it comes to some outward expressions of faith or belief, and that is, the more extreme its expression (often, the more absurd or ludicrous it is), the stronger a belief it is, and you get "believer points" for believing the most ludicrous aspects of any belief system. It's going all-in in a poker hand.
Heaven's Gate was like this, but it is also why people are so aggressive at believing the most outlandish things. A simple belief in, say, God, is fairly pedestrian on the "belief/faith" scale; anyone can do it. A belief in aliens passing by and a suicide to prove it, well, now that's an achievement. You're a "real believer," then. The elite. You took it to its furthest conclusion.
Jim Jones's situation was different; that was paranoia turned into a "they'll never take us alive" situation. Jones was, at least at first, nominally a Christian (he had a Pentecostal background), until he morphed into a belief system called "Apostolic socialism," and then he claimed to be God. Everything I've read on this subject suggests disagreement as to whether Jones believed his own hokum; it is the same with L. Ron Hubbard. Add drugs into the mix...well...
One thing I have learned in this life, is there are a whole lot of "one true religions" out there. Anyway, this all ends with a combination of his deluded, faithful flock drinking the proverbial Kool-Aid/Flavor-Aid, and the rest forced to drink it as a form of "revolutionary suicide," because, he insisted, there woule be some kind of US military attack on his socialist experiment.
More interesting than either of these is the Order of the Solar Temple, a neo-Templar movement, which is a sort of movement which normally is kind of goofy and very "based in Sedona," but isn't usually nuts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Solar_Temple
First a baby is killed, on account of being the antichrist because of course. Lot of antichrists and marks of the beast out there; I can't keep track (Fringe Christians: right hand or forehead. Right hand or forehead only, it isn't all of these other things, you keep insisting it is, like social security numbers or currency or ID cards or vaccines, you muppets. Right hand or forehead; it's really specific. Revelation 3:16 fever - Catch it.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmHNnCDvKf4
Then after the whole antichrist thing it was time to move on to Sirius, or something. I know that's what I focus on after killing the antichrist: somehow getting to the Dog Star.
Which is, importantly, way, waaaaaay past Saturn. At 8.6 light years, it's practical. It's in our stellar back yard.
Like if you could travel at the speed of light, it'd take you about the length of time the Bevery Hillbillies was on; a little less, even. Or Little House onf the Prairie. Or All in the Family (I wuv Wikipedia). Anyway, 8.6 years at the speed of light and be sure to use your Heinsenberg Compensator because time dilation's a bitch.
With the exception of Jim Jones, which wasn't really ritual suicide so much as a drug-induced freakout and psychological break, I suppose we can relate these cult suicides to the concept of liberation from the material or worldly realm, which is a pretty old drive in humanity.
Orthodox disciples of the Abrahamic religions want to go to heaven and be free of worldly burdens.
The gnostics wanted Knowledge of the divine spark within so they could escape the reincarnation cycle and mosey on back to the Pleroma.
Every occultist would like to be an Ascended Master. Ascended the hell out of here, that is. Especially if they are in, say, Camden, New Jersey or some place like that. Who wouldn't want to ascend, just to get above the smog?
For a lot of people, it's kind of miserable down here. I don't just mean the news. Hunger, lust, greed...all of these dumb things which drag us down as fleshy human beings, and make us feel guilty: a lot of people are tired of wrestling with it.
There are a million reasons to hate being here on planet Earth and to want to escape. Some people really like it here. Feel at home here. They love what's on the menu. They love what's on television, or the radio. They love their McReligion where they can punch a clock on Sunday (or Saturday) and be Saved, whether they're dicks to everyone in the church parking lot after the service or not. They "care about sports and have a favorite team." Everything is in its place and as it should be.
They think to themselves: What a wonderful woild.
And that's the way to be.
Then some others would just rather be elsewhere. With extra-terrestrials. Around another star. In heaven, a return to undifferentiated oneness; truly merging with All, free of carnal passions. Fighting yourself can be a bore (note Heaven's Gate and the testicle-chopping.)
Or, you can spend all of your waking hours in the salt mines rendering under Caesar what is Caesar's, because Caesar gets greedier with every passing year. And there's no time left for much of anything else. Decades go by in a blur. Nothing ever changes. Like an endless test pattern.
...
I dreamed I saw the silver spaceships flying
In the yellow haze of the sun
There were children crying and colors flying
All around the chosen ones
All in a dream, all in a dream
The loading had begun
Flying Mother Nature's silver seed
To a new home in the sun
--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Shipwrecks & Shibboleths [San Francisco, CA - USA] (700:100/72)