88 said:
Just look around :]
This kind of conscious activity only happens every so often. This moment is special.
-
Members of the previous forum can retrieve their temporary password here, (login and check your PM).
MY NAME IS ANTROCLES
- Thread starter antrocles
- Start date
Just look around :]
This kind of conscious activity only happens every so often. This moment is special.
ThirdEyeVision
Rising Star
88 said:
That is the type of language I am referring to. A disciple of a comming of a new world, a paradise, get in now while you still can. Especially now that govenmental agencies are probably watching this board lookng for ammo for their BBB case, this can open a whole new pressure to investigate the dmt sources.
The talk about a new world, and follow me....
Not normal.
Then to see so called brothers and sisters support unhealthy thinking that can lead to a very dangerous outcome is sad. This forum was not set up to preach this pseudo relegion of a new world with aliens etc. I feel this has gone from a healthy exploration of the mind to a dangerous blur of reality that if coninued to manifest can go to a place no one on this board wants it too.
i completely understand your point 88 and i will actually use this as an opportunity to allay your worries (and anyone else who felt similar upon reading this).
i'm not trying to be evangelical at all. i suppose i have begun to feel a sense of certainty (or, at the very least, a much reduced sense of uncertainty) with DMT. the breakthroughs, their awesome power AND my absolute comfort with being so completely dissolved into them have shifted the experience as a whole for me. in flowing through creativity unrestrained, the role of fear has shown itself to be the one thing that can slow down any forward momentum. that's not to say that it isn't a necessary element of existence, but in learning to WORK with DMT, fear seems to be a form of heel dragging that once embraced and thus neutralized can create space for a transformation of perception. not just in hyperspce but in our here and now as well.
with that giant wad of personal opining out on the table, i return back to my original post and your concern with that block of quoted text...
my journeys are, as i'm really seeing more and more, quite special. not to say that all of ours aren't special in any way at all.... i'm simply saying that i seem to be having a recurrent relationship with an intelligence that insists on making itself known to me in the same way over and over. the world i go to, the things i do and the 'people' i interact with are like a family to me at this point and whether it is a truth beyond reproach, all pure archetypal symbolism or deep subconscious sceenwriting ...i simply don't know. so, in my best way possible (obviously still don't quite have the writing chops to do this exactly right) i try to convey the 'message' or the 'spirit' or the 'gyst' of what i am shown.
perhaps i tried to do this AND be as descriptive of my particular journey and the two bled together more than intended. it is crucial that i let everyone here on the nexus know that i am not a prophet. i am simply a guy like you who has a sharp mind and a strong desire to grow and help others do the same. i use DMT a lot. more than most. my journeys are profoundly communicative and interactive and i can't help but feel that i MUST share my lessons as i get them. many times even before i have necessarily fully understood them myself!
i do stand by my feelings that an age of growing and evolving is upon humanity. a great shift in our perception of this world and our relationship to it and one another. i also stand by my statement that i stand for the growth and evolution of all who would be so courageous as to look directly into themselves and see the connection to everyone and everything. this is a challenge for even the most spiritual-minded soul.
perhaps it just read funny in context, but the truth is that i DO feel that a wonderful new age is coming and that the great impetus for this shift in consciousness will be a departure from the fear-based, unhealthy models that society has endured with heavy hearts for the lion's share of this age. this world we live in CAN be a paradise with a few modifications to our ways of thinking. we don't 'need' anything more than that. our fundamental 'need' right now is to feel whole....to feel our connection to our world and one another.
if my statements in context to my report left you feeling as if i was heralding the arrival of alien beings and only those who consume, conform and obey will be saved.....you're RIGHT! ....juuuuust kidding..
i am just a fellow searcher. my experiences of late have been feeling like clear communications as opposed to random skull grenades. i thought it bore mentioning and examination....nothing more...
now let's get back to figuring out how to fit that 9-dimensional humming orb into a proper box for shipping.... don't the post offices in the u.k. have pan-dimensional plasmic converters? jeezus..you guys still in the dark ages over there?
MUCH LOVE AND GRATITUDE!!
i'm not trying to be evangelical at all. i suppose i have begun to feel a sense of certainty (or, at the very least, a much reduced sense of uncertainty) with DMT. the breakthroughs, their awesome power AND my absolute comfort with being so completely dissolved into them have shifted the experience as a whole for me. in flowing through creativity unrestrained, the role of fear has shown itself to be the one thing that can slow down any forward momentum. that's not to say that it isn't a necessary element of existence, but in learning to WORK with DMT, fear seems to be a form of heel dragging that once embraced and thus neutralized can create space for a transformation of perception. not just in hyperspce but in our here and now as well.
with that giant wad of personal opining out on the table, i return back to my original post and your concern with that block of quoted text...
my journeys are, as i'm really seeing more and more, quite special. not to say that all of ours aren't special in any way at all.... i'm simply saying that i seem to be having a recurrent relationship with an intelligence that insists on making itself known to me in the same way over and over. the world i go to, the things i do and the 'people' i interact with are like a family to me at this point and whether it is a truth beyond reproach, all pure archetypal symbolism or deep subconscious sceenwriting ...i simply don't know. so, in my best way possible (obviously still don't quite have the writing chops to do this exactly right) i try to convey the 'message' or the 'spirit' or the 'gyst' of what i am shown.
perhaps i tried to do this AND be as descriptive of my particular journey and the two bled together more than intended. it is crucial that i let everyone here on the nexus know that i am not a prophet. i am simply a guy like you who has a sharp mind and a strong desire to grow and help others do the same. i use DMT a lot. more than most. my journeys are profoundly communicative and interactive and i can't help but feel that i MUST share my lessons as i get them. many times even before i have necessarily fully understood them myself!
i do stand by my feelings that an age of growing and evolving is upon humanity. a great shift in our perception of this world and our relationship to it and one another. i also stand by my statement that i stand for the growth and evolution of all who would be so courageous as to look directly into themselves and see the connection to everyone and everything. this is a challenge for even the most spiritual-minded soul.
perhaps it just read funny in context, but the truth is that i DO feel that a wonderful new age is coming and that the great impetus for this shift in consciousness will be a departure from the fear-based, unhealthy models that society has endured with heavy hearts for the lion's share of this age. this world we live in CAN be a paradise with a few modifications to our ways of thinking. we don't 'need' anything more than that. our fundamental 'need' right now is to feel whole....to feel our connection to our world and one another.
if my statements in context to my report left you feeling as if i was heralding the arrival of alien beings and only those who consume, conform and obey will be saved.....you're RIGHT! ....juuuuust kidding..
i am just a fellow searcher. my experiences of late have been feeling like clear communications as opposed to random skull grenades. i thought it bore mentioning and examination....nothing more...
now let's get back to figuring out how to fit that 9-dimensional humming orb into a proper box for shipping.... don't the post offices in the u.k. have pan-dimensional plasmic converters? jeezus..you guys still in the dark ages over there?
MUCH LOVE AND GRATITUDE!!
Well if you haven't seen THEM you haven't gone deep enough. I don't care who is reading these boards. Hyperspace is teeming with highly advanced life forms. No doubt about it! WTF is the government going to do about that??? The bulgarian government has already publicly announced direct contact with THEM! :]
ThirdEyeVision
Rising Star
۩ said:
I've been there, House. I guess I just have a different take on it, to each his own. I'm just trying to look out for the longevity of our nexus and members ability to explore. If I have offended anyone with my perspective, I'm sorry.
The reason I care what the governement thinks is obvious. They tell us what we can and can not purchase.
Please reference the bulgarian government contact with DMT beings, that is very interesting.
Nothing but love and respect guys.
Be safe.
ThirdEyeVision said:
SERIOUSLY!! come on now.....i am NOT in any way preaching any form of pseudo religion here. i shared some profound experiences i've been having and added my feelings on the matter. there is nothing more to it my brother.
i have referred to everyone on this forum as brother and sister since day one because i feel a truly familial connection to all who have shared this most profound of consciousness-expanding experiences.
the responses you are pointing out are simply fellow nexians communicating back to me in the way i communicate with them. there is no cult. no self-disciple. nothing of the sort. what there IS, however, is a compassion, love and respect built over a long time of giving exactly that to others. if it offends you that others choose to support and accept me as i go through this journey in the same way that i would support and accept them through theirs, then perhaps this is more of an opportunity for you to see what is truly golden about the dmt-nexus.
as much as you worry about me trying to establish some sort of sect, i would have to say that i am equally concerned by your constant insinuations that "the government agencies are probably watching this board looking for ammo for their BBB case". which idea, in reality, do you think is going to harm the spirit of this site more? guy sharing some incredible experiences he's been having using a powerful tryptamine or a notion that anything you might want to try and share with a community of like-minded explorers may be used against you in a court of law?
and, if big brother is watching our every word, what then do you suggest? should there be a particular format to our experiences room? should we all refrain from discussing anything that might make us sound "weird?" :lol:
for 16 months now i have shared reports that have been as amazing and wonderous, as impossible and infinite as the meaning of life itself. i have read many more than i have written. i have supported and questioned, opined and challenged. in short, i have been a member of this community. now, when things are getting truly incredible and i am beginning to have experiences that veer into a truly astounding realm of potential, i find something here that i never counted on....an indirect disapproval of my post using the government as your reasoning. not cool.
i have apologized and made myself more than clear on this. i pretend to be nothing. i never have and never would assert any of my experiences as fact or dogma.
i have always been and will forever continue to be here to help. myself and my community. period.
WITH THE DEEPEST LOVE AND GRATITUDE!!
antrocles said:
If you don’t know, if you don't know absolutely, that your experiences are real and true, then you aren’t going deep enough. There is a level of experience that is self-evidently true and real – no archetypes, no subconscious authoring, etc. When you reach this level, you’ll also see that there is no need to go back daily. In fact, it’s clear to me that daily travel to the deeper realms is disrespectful.
There is a level of experience beyond aliens, beyond spaceships and technology, far beyond such material realms.
antrocles said:
These feelings are not new. People from every generation since time immemorial have felt that they were on the cusp of revolutionary change, that a new age is dawning, that enlightenment and salvation are soon at hand. This is because a new age is dawning, and has always been. We are part of an ongoing unfolding that didn’t begin with us and won’t end with us.
ghostman
Rising Star
Hey Ant,
I appreciate the very cool reply to 88. It's good to see that your head has not left your body
It's great that we have members who can explore to that level, but I personally fear for some, and there are much younger people here, who quite frankly could get derailed.
I have seen a few incoherent threads about people running off to answer their call to the wild and become a shaman for example. The encouraging cries to such calls concern me, because let's face it, you're more likely to end up seeing your arse than your elbow. We're western monkeys.
Thankfully you're an articulate and coherent guy!
I think we have a responsibility to eachother, to watch eachother's backs and make sure noone falls into the abyss. Also, this is t'interwebs and people read the things we write and the thing about DMT is that it is so idiosyncratic. Antrocles might be able to breakthrough every day, several times a day for over a year, but there might be some who think that they can do that too, I'm sure there will be folks out there who want and think they can have Ant's journeys.... because they do rock! I would worry that younger, less experienced travelers might try to compete with that level of exploration, which takes a very special mind and soul to handle.
We have a good place here, with excellent people who are responsible to and for each other.
Peace.
I appreciate the very cool reply to 88. It's good to see that your head has not left your body
It's great that we have members who can explore to that level, but I personally fear for some, and there are much younger people here, who quite frankly could get derailed.
I have seen a few incoherent threads about people running off to answer their call to the wild and become a shaman for example. The encouraging cries to such calls concern me, because let's face it, you're more likely to end up seeing your arse than your elbow. We're western monkeys.
Thankfully you're an articulate and coherent guy!
I think we have a responsibility to eachother, to watch eachother's backs and make sure noone falls into the abyss. Also, this is t'interwebs and people read the things we write and the thing about DMT is that it is so idiosyncratic. Antrocles might be able to breakthrough every day, several times a day for over a year, but there might be some who think that they can do that too, I'm sure there will be folks out there who want and think they can have Ant's journeys.... because they do rock! I would worry that younger, less experienced travelers might try to compete with that level of exploration, which takes a very special mind and soul to handle.
We have a good place here, with excellent people who are responsible to and for each other.
Peace.
I like the way this thread is unfolding itself.
I don't see how this could be interpreted as something wrong.
It is about him and his vision. I sincerely hope he wakes up in that Self he's dreaming about. If he manages to get out, he will be of immense help to those of us who are still in prison. Knowing an awakened one is a great privilege. I feel fortunate to hear his stories.
And anyway, why would I NOT believe? There is nothing to lose and everything to gain. (Remember again: it's not about Antrocles, it's about what Antrocles is pointing to.)
I don't see how this could be interpreted as something wrong.
It is about him and his vision. I sincerely hope he wakes up in that Self he's dreaming about. If he manages to get out, he will be of immense help to those of us who are still in prison. Knowing an awakened one is a great privilege. I feel fortunate to hear his stories.
And anyway, why would I NOT believe? There is nothing to lose and everything to gain. (Remember again: it's not about Antrocles, it's about what Antrocles is pointing to.)
gibran2 said:
:lol: :lol: :lol: !!!
wow.....i just don't even know where to begin with all this....
my statement was made to allay any concerns that i was trying to start a cult or preach dogma. even your statement above, as amusing as it is to me to read, is YOU preaching YOUR particular dogma.
i haven't gone deep enough, eh? hmmm....
clear to you that daily travel to the deeper realms is....
.....
disrespectful? :roll:
disrespectful to whom? and for what reason? too much understanding? too much love? :?
you are correct about this age of enlightenment being ever present throughout time. we ARE forever evolving and will be forever evolving...FOREVER! :lol: i just encourage you to remember exactly where you are having this particular conversation. and in case any of you have forgotten:
a forum based around the most powerful psychedelic tryptamine known to man. something that, when worked with even lightly, will profoundly expand your awareness of life in all of it's expressions.
you think i just throw around discussions about awakening on my cycling newgroups? hehehe.... :lol:
L&G!!
I found a reality in there, brought it back bit by bit, tried to share it with others, and slowly realized that our absolutes are only local absolutes: there is a separate reality for everyone. At first I thought this diminishes the importance of what I experienced - after all, the One that cannot be shared cannot be the real One. But nowadays I think otherwise. These realities we are living in are like colors on a palette, each as true as the other. Parallel multiverses, each one a unique configuration of God.
Well, other realities may have different laws.
That's cool. Perhaps this is an ancient wind that has been blowing in hyperspace for millennia. A wind that tends to evoke this story of imminent revolution in those who get deep enough to hear it. Just a misinterpretation. How beautiful.
So right.
88
Rising Star
antrocles said:
And I'm glad you did mention it, and open your experience to examination. Look at the excellent conversation we've all had as a result. That is what I love about this forum - that we explorers of this awesome mystery can share our experiences honestly, discuss them with others who are exploring the same strange lands, and try to understand and integrate what we see into our lives in a positive way.
But equally, I feel we have a responsibility to one another, and as ghostman says, the young turks who want to bust a hole in the sky - and that's why I had to say it. Thanks for taking the time to answer and unpack your thinking.
I am reassured that you appear to still have all your marbles. Well; most of them
antrocles said:
Since we got rid of the druids and burnt all the witches it's all gone to shit, frankly ...
much love
Espiridion
--who.??..ME??--
.
.
Let me just place my vote for ~YES:Honest feelings can be freely expressed here without anyone thinking you are...insane.
You of course ARE insane if only by pressing the literal edge of collective reason and knowledge over and off the precipice of our consensual 'take' on 3D-land.
Please continue to pioneer and report. You have my support and hopefully, if you haven't left in a hot air ballon for 88 days by the end of summer, we may meet face to face.
INsanely yours,
Espiridion
.
Let me just place my vote for ~YES:Honest feelings can be freely expressed here without anyone thinking you are...insane.
You of course ARE insane if only by pressing the literal edge of collective reason and knowledge over and off the precipice of our consensual 'take' on 3D-land.
Please continue to pioneer and report. You have my support and hopefully, if you haven't left in a hot air ballon for 88 days by the end of summer, we may meet face to face.
INsanely yours,
Espiridion
Rgeular Dudess
Rising Star
gibran2 said:
Well, the revolution of consciousness is closer now than ever. Just think about the rate at which the technology is developing. I don´t know if Moore´s Law will break down but even if it does I believe the so-called singularity is not further than a few hundred years..
Observant
Nothing Stops The Void
) I also like how this thread unfolds ... ! It really has been a very good read so far .
Cult-Indoctrination techniques include (intensive) :
1) Subjection to stress and fatigue
2) Social disruption, isolation and pressure
3) Self criticism and humiliation
4) Fear, anxiety and paranoia
5) Control of information
6) Escalating commitment
7) Use of auto-hypnosis to induce 'peak' experiences
Totalism is defined by psychiatrist Robert Lifton as the tendency to view
the world in terms of 'all or nothing' alignments. Lifton details 8
'psychological themes' that can be found in totalist groups:
-- A 'sacred science' -- an ideology that is held to be true for all
people at all times. This ideology generally claims to be inspired
and scientific at the same time.
-- 'Milieu control,' the control of human communication, not only over
our communications with others, but also with ourselves.
-- 'Mystical manipulation' -- including deception and 'planned
spontaneity' which seeks limit self-expression and independent action.
-- The demand for purity, the notion that absolute purity exists, and
that anything done in the name of this purity is ultimately moral.
-- 'The cult of confession' -- "There is the demand that one confess to
crimes one has not committed, to sinfulness that artificially induced,
in the name of a cure that arbitrarily imposed." (Lifton, _Thought_
Reform_and_the_Psychology_of_Totalism")
-- 'Loading the language' -- redefinition of language, with an emphasis
on moral polarization, and thought terminating cliches.
-- 'Doctrine over person' -- the subordination of personal experiences
to the doctrines of the sacred science.
-- 'Dispensing of existance' -- the doctrine that the group can decide
who has the right to exist, and who does not.
In other words, the cult manipulates the environment to 'set up' the
recruit to trap him or herself in a black and white mindset.[/quote]
...and...
THOUGHT REFORM = LANGUAGE + SOCIAL & PSYCHOLOGICAL INFLUENCE
In a thought reform program:
the self concept is destabilized
the group/leaders attack one's evaluation of self
SELF: 2 Elements in one's self-concept
Peripheral Sense: adequacy of public & judgmental aspects, social
status, role performance, conformity to social norms
Central Sense of Self: adequacy of intimate life, confidence in
perception of reality, relations w/family, goals, sexual
experiences, traumatic life events, religious beliefs, basic
consciousness and emotional control
When you attack a person's self-concept, aversive emotional
arousal is created
6 CONDITIONS THAT NEED TO BE PRESENT IN ORDER TO CONSTITUTE MIND
CONTROL:
1. CONTROL OVER TIME
Especially thinking time
Use techniques to get a person to think about:
. the group
. beliefs of the group
as much of their waking time as possible
2. CREATE A SENSE OF POWERLESSNESS
Get people away from normal support systems for a period of time
Provide models of behavior (cult members)
Use in-group language
Use of songs, games, stories the person is unfamiliar with or they are
modified so that they're unfamiliar
New people tend to want to be like others (acceptance, feeling part
of a group)
3. MANIPULATE REWARDS, PUNISHMENTS, EXPERIENCES IN ORDER TO
SUPPRESS OLD SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
Manipulate: social rewards
intellectual rewards
REWARDS: support positive self-concept for conformity to new
thought system
PUNISHMENTS: attack person's self-concept for non-conformity
Effects of behavioral modification (reward/punishment):
DEPLOYABLE AGENT:
1. accept a particular world view
2. procedures for peer monitoring w/feedback to group
3. psychological, social & material sanctions to influence the
target's behavior
When there is control of external feedback, the group becomes the
only source
-- there are no reality checks
BEHAVIORS REWARDED: participation, conformity to ideas/behavior,
zeal, personal changes
BEHAVIORS PUNISHED: criticalness, independent thinking,
non-conformity to ideas/behavior
PUNISHMENTS: peer/group criticism, withdrawal of support/affection,
isolation, negative feedback
THE PERSON IS DEPENDENT UPON THE GROUP FOR EXTERNAL
VALIDATION OF SOCIAL IDENTITY
RESULTS: confusion, disorientation, psychological disturbances
Manipulate experience:
altered states of consciousness (trance)
hypnosis
Hypnosis: (see Ericksonian hypnosis)
speaking patterns
guided imagery
pacing of voice to breathing patterns
parables, stories with imbedded messages
repetition
boredom
stop paying attention to distractions, focus
inwardly to what's going on inside you
the use of one's voice to get people's attention
focused
Chanting, Meditation
Teach thought-stopping techniques
Work them up emotionally to a negative state:
re-experience past painful events
recall negative actions/sin in past life
Then rescue them from negative emotion by giving them a new
way to live
4. MANIPULATE REWARDS, PUNISHMENTS, EXPERIENCES IN ORDER TO
ELICIT NEW BEHAVIOR
Models will demonstrate new behavior
Conformity: dress, language, behavior
Using group language will eventually still the thinking mind
5. MUST BE A TIGHTLY CONTROLLED SYSTEM OF LOGIC
No complaints from the floor
Pyramid shaped operation with leader at the top
Top leaders must maintain absolute control/authority
Persons in charge must have verbal ways of never losing
Anyone who questions is made to think there is something
inherently wrong with them to even question
Phobia induction:
something bad will happen if you leave the group
if you leave this group, you're leaving God
Guilt manipulation
6. PERSONS BEING THOUGHT REFORMED MUST BE UNAWARE THAT THEY
ARE BEING MOVED THROUGH A PROGRAM TO MAKE THEM DEPLOYABLE
AGENTS, TO BUY MORE COURSES, SIGN UP FOR THE DURATION, ETC.
You can't be thought reformed with full capacity, informed
consent
You don't know the agenda of the group at the beginning or the
full content of the ideology
THOUGHT REFORM SYSTEM:
Coordinated programs of coercive influence and behavior
control
Use of pop psychology techniques found in sensitivity training
and encounters groups
2nd Generation Thought Reform Systems (attacks on central elements of
self):
1. enlist recruit's cooperation, offer something they want (personal
growth, salvation, etc.)
2. obtain psychological dominace by making the target's continuing
relations contingent upon continuing membership
3. use seduction by developing bonds and encouraging targets to
believe the group can provide something
4. develop dependency by direct social pressure to influence a
decision that the group has special power or knowledge or
can solve a problem; the people in the group are made to seem
interested in what is best for the target -- then they "up
the commitment level"
5. shift the target's social and emotional attachments to individuals
who have already accepted high commitment and are conforming to
the behavior
WHILE
decreasing the target's outside relationships
6. increase the CHANGES in the target's:
income
employment
personal friends/social life
finances
sexuality
THIS INCREASES THE THREAT TO THE PERSON IF THEY WANT TO
LEAVE
THREATS: ARE TO THE INDIVIDUAL'S
stability of identity
emotional well-being
7. the community standards become the ONLY standards available for
self-evaluation
CULTS AND CULTIC RELATIONSHIPS
CULT - the political and power STRUCTURE of a group
CULTIC RELATIONSHIP - those relationships in which a person intentionally
induces others to become totally or nearly totally dependent on him/her for
almost all major life decisions and inculcates in these followers a belief
that he has some special talent, gift or knowledge
1) Subjection to stress and fatigue
2) Social disruption, isolation and pressure
3) Self criticism and humiliation
4) Fear, anxiety and paranoia
5) Control of information
6) Escalating commitment
7) Use of auto-hypnosis to induce 'peak' experiences
Totalism is defined by psychiatrist Robert Lifton as the tendency to view
the world in terms of 'all or nothing' alignments. Lifton details 8
'psychological themes' that can be found in totalist groups:
-- A 'sacred science' -- an ideology that is held to be true for all
people at all times. This ideology generally claims to be inspired
and scientific at the same time.
-- 'Milieu control,' the control of human communication, not only over
our communications with others, but also with ourselves.
-- 'Mystical manipulation' -- including deception and 'planned
spontaneity' which seeks limit self-expression and independent action.
-- The demand for purity, the notion that absolute purity exists, and
that anything done in the name of this purity is ultimately moral.
-- 'The cult of confession' -- "There is the demand that one confess to
crimes one has not committed, to sinfulness that artificially induced,
in the name of a cure that arbitrarily imposed." (Lifton, _Thought_
Reform_and_the_Psychology_of_Totalism")
-- 'Loading the language' -- redefinition of language, with an emphasis
on moral polarization, and thought terminating cliches.
-- 'Doctrine over person' -- the subordination of personal experiences
to the doctrines of the sacred science.
-- 'Dispensing of existance' -- the doctrine that the group can decide
who has the right to exist, and who does not.
In other words, the cult manipulates the environment to 'set up' the
recruit to trap him or herself in a black and white mindset.[/quote]
...and...
THOUGHT REFORM = LANGUAGE + SOCIAL & PSYCHOLOGICAL INFLUENCE
In a thought reform program:
the self concept is destabilized
the group/leaders attack one's evaluation of self
SELF: 2 Elements in one's self-concept
Peripheral Sense: adequacy of public & judgmental aspects, social
status, role performance, conformity to social norms
Central Sense of Self: adequacy of intimate life, confidence in
perception of reality, relations w/family, goals, sexual
experiences, traumatic life events, religious beliefs, basic
consciousness and emotional control
When you attack a person's self-concept, aversive emotional
arousal is created
6 CONDITIONS THAT NEED TO BE PRESENT IN ORDER TO CONSTITUTE MIND
CONTROL:
1. CONTROL OVER TIME
Especially thinking time
Use techniques to get a person to think about:
. the group
. beliefs of the group
as much of their waking time as possible
2. CREATE A SENSE OF POWERLESSNESS
Get people away from normal support systems for a period of time
Provide models of behavior (cult members)
Use in-group language
Use of songs, games, stories the person is unfamiliar with or they are
modified so that they're unfamiliar
New people tend to want to be like others (acceptance, feeling part
of a group)
3. MANIPULATE REWARDS, PUNISHMENTS, EXPERIENCES IN ORDER TO
SUPPRESS OLD SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
Manipulate: social rewards
intellectual rewards
REWARDS: support positive self-concept for conformity to new
thought system
PUNISHMENTS: attack person's self-concept for non-conformity
Effects of behavioral modification (reward/punishment):
DEPLOYABLE AGENT:
1. accept a particular world view
2. procedures for peer monitoring w/feedback to group
3. psychological, social & material sanctions to influence the
target's behavior
When there is control of external feedback, the group becomes the
only source
-- there are no reality checks
BEHAVIORS REWARDED: participation, conformity to ideas/behavior,
zeal, personal changes
BEHAVIORS PUNISHED: criticalness, independent thinking,
non-conformity to ideas/behavior
PUNISHMENTS: peer/group criticism, withdrawal of support/affection,
isolation, negative feedback
THE PERSON IS DEPENDENT UPON THE GROUP FOR EXTERNAL
VALIDATION OF SOCIAL IDENTITY
RESULTS: confusion, disorientation, psychological disturbances
Manipulate experience:
altered states of consciousness (trance)
hypnosis
Hypnosis: (see Ericksonian hypnosis)
speaking patterns
guided imagery
pacing of voice to breathing patterns
parables, stories with imbedded messages
repetition
boredom
stop paying attention to distractions, focus
inwardly to what's going on inside you
the use of one's voice to get people's attention
focused
Chanting, Meditation
Teach thought-stopping techniques
Work them up emotionally to a negative state:
re-experience past painful events
recall negative actions/sin in past life
Then rescue them from negative emotion by giving them a new
way to live
4. MANIPULATE REWARDS, PUNISHMENTS, EXPERIENCES IN ORDER TO
ELICIT NEW BEHAVIOR
Models will demonstrate new behavior
Conformity: dress, language, behavior
Using group language will eventually still the thinking mind
5. MUST BE A TIGHTLY CONTROLLED SYSTEM OF LOGIC
No complaints from the floor
Pyramid shaped operation with leader at the top
Top leaders must maintain absolute control/authority
Persons in charge must have verbal ways of never losing
Anyone who questions is made to think there is something
inherently wrong with them to even question
Phobia induction:
something bad will happen if you leave the group
if you leave this group, you're leaving God
Guilt manipulation
6. PERSONS BEING THOUGHT REFORMED MUST BE UNAWARE THAT THEY
ARE BEING MOVED THROUGH A PROGRAM TO MAKE THEM DEPLOYABLE
AGENTS, TO BUY MORE COURSES, SIGN UP FOR THE DURATION, ETC.
You can't be thought reformed with full capacity, informed
consent
You don't know the agenda of the group at the beginning or the
full content of the ideology
THOUGHT REFORM SYSTEM:
Coordinated programs of coercive influence and behavior
control
Use of pop psychology techniques found in sensitivity training
and encounters groups
2nd Generation Thought Reform Systems (attacks on central elements of
self):
1. enlist recruit's cooperation, offer something they want (personal
growth, salvation, etc.)
2. obtain psychological dominace by making the target's continuing
relations contingent upon continuing membership
3. use seduction by developing bonds and encouraging targets to
believe the group can provide something
4. develop dependency by direct social pressure to influence a
decision that the group has special power or knowledge or
can solve a problem; the people in the group are made to seem
interested in what is best for the target -- then they "up
the commitment level"
5. shift the target's social and emotional attachments to individuals
who have already accepted high commitment and are conforming to
the behavior
WHILE
decreasing the target's outside relationships
6. increase the CHANGES in the target's:
income
employment
personal friends/social life
finances
sexuality
THIS INCREASES THE THREAT TO THE PERSON IF THEY WANT TO
LEAVE
THREATS: ARE TO THE INDIVIDUAL'S
stability of identity
emotional well-being
7. the community standards become the ONLY standards available for
self-evaluation
CULTS AND CULTIC RELATIONSHIPS
CULT - the political and power STRUCTURE of a group
CULTIC RELATIONSHIP - those relationships in which a person intentionally
induces others to become totally or nearly totally dependent on him/her for
almost all major life decisions and inculcates in these followers a belief
that he has some special talent, gift or knowledge
Observant ,for the Eternal Family of Freedom and Fearlessness
EDIT:corrected
Rgeular Dudess
Rising Star
Observant: Are we supposed to be able to read the second quote? At least for me the font is way too small.