The Margaret Singer Tapes

Margaret Singer, who built her reputation on the subject of “mind control,” had contact with the Concerned Relatives, as evidenced by more than 50 audiotapes she gathered from the group. Most of the tapes in this collection comprise shortwave radio conversations between Peoples Temple members in Jonestown, Georgetown, and San Francisco, but there are also recordings of telephone conversations and a few meetings.

These tapes were made by members of the Concerned Relatives, an oppositional group that met informally in 1976 and became more organized in 1977. Dr. Singer was asked to work with these members at the Human Freedom Center, an organization established to help people leave the Temple.

There are 53 tapes in this collection. While in sequential numerical order, the contents and dates of recording are random. In addition, several tapes are missing, comprising Tapes 34, 39, 44, 49, 55, and 58. The tapes come from the estate of Margaret Singer and are duplicated and reproduced with permission.

Short descriptions of each tape appears in the Notes below, which were prepared by the Special Collections & University Archives Repository of San Diego State University. The tapes also appear in sequential order through the Special Collections & University Archives Finding Aid Database, beginning with Tape 1.