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courtney galli

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE CULT EXPERIENCE - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...gy-of-the-cult-experience.html

shared by courtney galli on 01 May 13 - No Cached
  • negative characteristics exhibited by the former cult members studied, said Dr. Clark, are depression, guilt, fear, paranoia, slow speech, rigidity of facial expression and body posture, indifference to physical appearance, passivity and memory impairment.
  • The techniques of many cults fall under the general rubric of brainwashing
  • Dr. Singer, ''cult leaders and their trainers exert a systematic social influence that can produce great behavioral changes.''
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • 'have taken techniques from the human-potential movement, from the encounter, sensitivitytraining and humanistic-psychology movements, and combined them with cult ideology and persuasive sales methods - and packaged them in various combinations.''
  • nationally is variously estimated at 300,000 to three million.
  • Dr. Singer estimates that there are 2,500 to 3,000 cults in the United States
  • United
  • Dr. Singer estimates that there are 2,500 to 3,000 cults in the United States
  • Whether or not a cult is destructive is determined by the morality of the cult leader and the nature of the leader's charismatic dream,
  • Not all cults are destructive, the researchers said, and many of those who join and remain in cults do so out of a sincere quest for religious connection.
  • Dr. Cath defined a cult as a group of people joined together by a common ideological system fostered by a charismatic leader
    • courtney galli
      courtney galli on 01 May 13
       
      Temporal lobe epilepsy is a form of focal epilepsy, a chronic neurological condition characterized by recurrent seizures.
  • ''the expectation is that they can transcend the imperfections and finitude of life.''
  • ''Often they set up a we-they philosophy: We have the truth and you do not.
  • ''Under the force of the conversion experience, people disappeared from their families and changed, sometimes after only a few days.''
  • More are male than female.
  • involves a vulnerable person
  • ''Cult recruiters frequent bus stations, airports, campuses, libraries, rallies, anywhere that unattached persons are likely to be passing through,''
  • Dr. Cath defined a cult as a group of people joined together by a common ideological system fostered by a charismatic leader
  • The symptoms of temporal lobe epilepsy,'' said Dr. Clark, ''are similar to those seen or reported as resulting from cult conversions: increased irritability, loss of libido or altered sexual interest; ritualism, compulsive attention to detail, mystical states, humorlessness and sobriety, heightened paranoia.''
  • Dr. Cath said: ''Keeping devotees constantly fatigued, deprived of sensory input and suffering protein deprivation, working extremely long hours in street solicitation or in cult-owned businesses, engaging in monotonous chanting and rhythmical singing, may induce psychophysiological changes in the brain. The rhythmical movement of the body can lead to altered states of consciousness, and changes in the pressure or vibration pattern of the brain may affect the temporal lobe.''
  • ''cult-conversion syndrome'' represents an overload of the brain's ability to process information.
courtney galli

Cult Formation - 0 views

www.rickross.com/...brainwashing1.html

shared by courtney galli on 01 May 13 - No Cached
  • ideological totalism,
  • Cults can be identified by three characteristics: a charismatic leader who increasingly becomes an object of worship as the general principles that may have originally sustained the group lose their power; a process I call coercive persuasion or thought reform; economic, sexual, and other exploitation of group members by the leader and the ruling coterie.
  • milieu control: the control of all communication within a given environment. In such an environment individual autonomy becomes a threat to the group. There is an attempt to manage an individual's inner communication. Milieu control is maintained and expressed by intense group process, continuous psychological pressure, and isolation by geographical distance, unavailability of transportation, or even physical restraint. Often the group creates an increasingly intense sequence of events such as seminars, lectures and encounters which makes leaving extremely difficult, both physically and psychologically.
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  • Intense milieu control can contribute to a dramatic change of identity which I call doubling: the formation of a second self which lives side by side with the former one, often for a considerable time. When the milieu control is lifted, elements of the earlier self may be reasserted.
  • Three further aspects of ideological totalism are "sacred science," "loading of the language," and the principle of "doctrine over person."
  • Perhaps the most significant characteristic of totalistic movements is what I ca
  • Sacred science is important because a claim of being scientific is often needed to gain plausibility and influence in the modern age.
  • language
  • The principle of doctrine over person' is invoked when cult members sense a conflict between what they are experiencing and what dogma says they should experience.
  • The term loading the language' refers to literalism and a tendency to deify words or images.
  • l "dispensing of existence." Those who have not seen the light and embraced the truth are wedded to evil, tainted, and therefore in some sense, usually metaphorical, lack the right to exist.
  • That is one reason why a cult member threatened with being cast into outer darkness may experience a fear of extinction or collapse.
    • courtney galli
      courtney galli on 01 May 13
       
      History of the person
  • Totalism should always be considered within a specific historical context.
Daryl Bambic

The Psychology of Cults - All In The Mind - ABC Radio National (Australian Broadcasting... - 1 views

www.abc.net.au/...4392444

cults psychology

shared by Daryl Bambic on 02 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • participating without informed consent or proper screening
  • ulnerable state
  • Kenja
  • ...37 more annotations...
  • e suicided after being unable to cope, particularly when they leave the groups.
  • They consisted of two people sitting opposite each other silently looking at the other person’s eye and the recipient in session was able to have a look at the experiences and emotions and things in their life that they had not fully come to terms with, and that were unconsciously stopping them from being who they wanted to be. It was very emotional.
  • new pathway
  • ideas as much as the man that I found attractive.
  • Klowning was based on the idea that we are not who we think we are.
  • ble to find out the really human part of us.
  • here’s a whole language that goes with this group, isn’t there, and processing is one thing that you would go through
  • charismatic, he did have that capacity to have a group of people in front of him and hold their attention.
  • nudity has no significance other than what you give it, and if you think that this is in any way inappropriate that’s your dirty mind.
  • ut of research done by the CIA and the KGB after the Second World War in trying to understand how Hitler was able to persuade a whole population to a particular way of thinking and particular behaviour, and that research got out into the wider community
  • on Hubbard used a lot of these techniques in his organisation and then a lot of people who had been in Scientology
  • ocial animals,
  • emotional right-brain
  • Hypnotic states are nothing magical but in fact natural hypnotic states occur on a regular basis if we allow them to, about every two hours during the day. There’s a natural down time when our left-brain sort of quietens and our right-brain and our body is able to do a bit of a tune-up of physical processes like blood-pressure and heart-rate and cortisol levels.
  • dissociative state
  • driving somewhere
  • ay-dreamy
  • o when people use techniques that are going to help induce this state it’s not something you’re necessarily going to resist if you don’t realise that perhaps there is an ulterior motive.
  • ocus their attention
  • charismatic leader,
  • behaviour was right or wrong
  • It’s very interesting studying some of the gurus or the charismatic figures you say you often find that they are often people who have actually started out with very good intentions and just find they have this natural ability to attract people to them, or because they may be good listeners, people feel that they’ve got something to offer
  • hallucinate. I
  • en Dyers, was facing 22 charges of sexual assault on two 12-year-old girls
  • Before they were heard in court he took his own life.
  • ersonality definitely changed
  • almost layered by the group norm
  • staying as connected
  • learn all they can about the group and continue to just ask questions to try and find our more
  • But there are some positive things about some groups and it’s likely that some people live happier lives being part of some groups than they would on their own.
  • groups are often filling desperate needs in people that are not being filled by the way we now live. The way we are now is very isolating, people are often expected to work very long hours, or have very long commutes. More and more families are living apart, so we do not live in a community that is kind to people or respects people. So anybody really is vulnerable, it’s not just, you know, the weak-willed, it’s anybody at a particular time in their life, and particularly if they’re isolated from family and friends.
  • Some of the factors that are most important in human wellbeing are a sense of connectedness and a sense of control over your life now and in the future. So what often these organisations do is offer a whole list of very simple rules, if you just follow these rules then you’ll feel okay. If you just remove yourself from that world and you just mix with us everything will be okay. So they often offer a sort of a way of getting back some feeling of control.
  • describe some of the techniques, not necessarily the abuse that may have occurred, and then to help them understand that they were involved in quite a deliberate psychological process.
  • validate their humanity
  • what was missing before and helping them create a life now that is healthier and more balanced and does meet all their needs as a human being.
  • people who grow up in these organisations and really are trapped, and for those that grow up and then start to rebel as teenagers or as young adults and leave, it is very, very difficult because that’s been their reality.
  • recognition by the courts and by particularly the Family Law Court and we need education of the legal profession and I think the professional organisations, particularly the professional health organisations need to be more pro-active in first of all educating themselves about what these issues are and then making it very clear in their code of ethics of these different professional groups how the codes of ethics dovetail with belief systems.
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