Peter, my boss encouraged me to read one of Dispenza’s books, titled “You are the Placebo”. I guess my book purchase is now a “snake oil elixir” for “self-help” and not of any usefulness?
IDK... I think Scott Adams "how to fail at everything and still win big" is as good a self-help book as is out there. And at least Scott keeps his theosophy in a separate book… "God's Debris" so you don't have to mix self help with theosophy... there's a lot of good stuff in the New Testament.
Peter - Warn your young friend Run Do Not Walk away from that cult. I have personal experience with a similar version and it is nothing but destructive. In the late 1980’s, I was working for a Fortune 150 corporation. The management fad de jure was that big companies were losing the edge to fast moving, unbureaucratic entrepreneurs. So my Fortune 150 company decide to make independent business Pods.
These were small units dedicated to new business ideas located away from the main offices without normal protective corporate management features. I was put in charge of a new business operating unit, under an overall manager with a complimentary marketing manager. Even though, through my efforts, I was able to grow the business 2000%, my life was made a living hell because my weak kneed boss and the marketing manager who dominated him got into a similar “personal improvement” movement. It was called Transformational Technologies (TT) but it was really just another name for an EST cult. There spiel was that your mind was holding your body back so you needed to free your mind to dramatically enhance your performance.
Their business model was to rip off huge amounts of money from the individuals in the cult. They eventually did the same to my business unit when they brought in a ridiculously expensive 19 year old TT “transformation consultant” to enhance my part of the business. I am sure it was big part of the cult. Because virtually all the employees worked in operations for me, they viewed that area as red meat. I had to fight their nonsense on a daily basis. Their big scam was to get couples to go away to their Transformational Retreats.
Although I never went to one, I was told how TT worked. They would get the Retreat group isolated and after a series of lectures (hypnotic suggestion?), they would gather the entire group in a room. This may be the group meditation you mentioned. They would make one person at a time stand up and confess all their personal failings and how they were holding them back. They were encouraged to confess everything by the TT "guide”.
The group would then condemn the standing individual with increasing intensity, cheered on by a TT facilitator, as a way theoretically of “self cleansing” . Under increasing group pressure, the singled out individuals would often breakdown and confess all kinds of things, like infidelities and homosexualities. Some people even broke down and confessed crimes. Besides providing great blackmail opportunities for the TT people, the group would become implicit in their crimes by not reporting them. When the person was completely destroyed, they then had a mass group hug, reinforcing the programing. The technique was devastating to the individual and provided a dangerous lesson to all the other participants that their time was coming. The same techniques were used by ChiComs to breakdown captured American Korean War troops to get them to love Communist China and publicly denounce America. I am sure you can find references to this online.
The core precept that your mind was holding you back included some ridiculous Bafflegab. They would say ridiculous things like you could run a three minute mile if you let your mind get ahead of your feet. My favorite absurd statement was “you aren’t listening to the listening you are”. Because this was crap my boss would push on me and we still had the trappings of a corporation, including written annual performance targets and mission statements, they were trying to use it to get me out of their way. Since their goal was to get TT into the operations and I wouldn’t let them, they used the TT to distort the corporate procedures.
As an example I was called into my bosses office with the 19 year old TT expert to get me to commit in writing to absolutely impossible performance targets. The meeting started out friendly with coffee and donuts and sweet talk about the great job I was doing. Then it turned ugly. In addition to using the absurd “you aren’t listening to the listening you are“ crap, the tried to get me to sign off on the equivalent of three minutes mile performance targets which when unmet would justify firing me. They also tried to stop me from going to the bathroom, claiming my going to urinate after hours of badgering was a sign of my lack of commitment. When I told them I was going to pee either in the bathroom or in the garbage can in his office, calling their bluff, they folded. The technique of giving people lots to drink and not letting them pee, making them very uncomfortable, was part of their breakdown techniques. There is a movie called North Dallas Forty that has a similar scene in it I have been told.
In any case back to your young friend, and as you may remember a comment of mine that young people have to be extremely careful to avoid creating blackmail potential, tell him to stay far, far away from those people. Besides a great deal of psychological pain he will endure, he could ruin his life with a psychologically tortured confession. Feel free to share my story widely. It was an interesting learning experience for me because I was fighting it. But it wasn’t fun and I saw the techniques break people, which was tragic. Glad you brought it up.
Wow, it sounds like Clayton Christiansen's disruptive innovation theory, combined with Robert Lifton's "Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of 'Brainwashing' in China". I had a close friend who ran EST and Lifespring seminars. His career peaked, and he was the number one high definition camera salesman in the world (Arri Alexa) when his door got kicked in by the FBI for industrial espionage. He turned out to be a complete sociopath, and I had to cut off what I had perceived to be our "friendship." The thing that broke me was his insistence that what he did was not the problem, the problem was that he got caught… Complete sociopath... he was the son of a couple of psychologists who taught "a course in miracles." Go figure... 🤷🏻♂️
I unfortunately had a somewhat similar experience with a compulsive liar sociopath. They were incredibly good at hiding it and fooled me for a very long time. When finally confronted with their lying at first they strongly denied it. Then, when it was impossible to deny any longer, they said it was my fault they lied because l was wrong to call them out for their lies. After I ended that relationship i was both amazed at their sociopathy and at my stupidity for not seeing it. Hopefully your columns can help others avoid making similar mistakes.
Peter, I’m liking the word ‘bafflegab’ (reference my comment yesterday when you introduced it to us). Having just read this article (and the article ‘The Meta Method of Manipulation), it has dawned on me how restrictive language actually is in trying to explain what our thoughts are processing or actually are! I clearly see how manipulation and psy-op’s can influence and manipulate. Also, I realise that human artistic expression, be it music, art or theatre strive to express thoughts or elements of our consciousness that words just fail. The vast perception deception manipulation is becoming so clear. Thank you
Peter, my boss encouraged me to read one of Dispenza’s books, titled “You are the Placebo”. I guess my book purchase is now a “snake oil elixir” for “self-help” and not of any usefulness?
IDK... I think Scott Adams "how to fail at everything and still win big" is as good a self-help book as is out there. And at least Scott keeps his theosophy in a separate book… "God's Debris" so you don't have to mix self help with theosophy... there's a lot of good stuff in the New Testament.
Thank you🙂
Peter - Warn your young friend Run Do Not Walk away from that cult. I have personal experience with a similar version and it is nothing but destructive. In the late 1980’s, I was working for a Fortune 150 corporation. The management fad de jure was that big companies were losing the edge to fast moving, unbureaucratic entrepreneurs. So my Fortune 150 company decide to make independent business Pods.
These were small units dedicated to new business ideas located away from the main offices without normal protective corporate management features. I was put in charge of a new business operating unit, under an overall manager with a complimentary marketing manager. Even though, through my efforts, I was able to grow the business 2000%, my life was made a living hell because my weak kneed boss and the marketing manager who dominated him got into a similar “personal improvement” movement. It was called Transformational Technologies (TT) but it was really just another name for an EST cult. There spiel was that your mind was holding your body back so you needed to free your mind to dramatically enhance your performance.
Their business model was to rip off huge amounts of money from the individuals in the cult. They eventually did the same to my business unit when they brought in a ridiculously expensive 19 year old TT “transformation consultant” to enhance my part of the business. I am sure it was big part of the cult. Because virtually all the employees worked in operations for me, they viewed that area as red meat. I had to fight their nonsense on a daily basis. Their big scam was to get couples to go away to their Transformational Retreats.
Although I never went to one, I was told how TT worked. They would get the Retreat group isolated and after a series of lectures (hypnotic suggestion?), they would gather the entire group in a room. This may be the group meditation you mentioned. They would make one person at a time stand up and confess all their personal failings and how they were holding them back. They were encouraged to confess everything by the TT "guide”.
The group would then condemn the standing individual with increasing intensity, cheered on by a TT facilitator, as a way theoretically of “self cleansing” . Under increasing group pressure, the singled out individuals would often breakdown and confess all kinds of things, like infidelities and homosexualities. Some people even broke down and confessed crimes. Besides providing great blackmail opportunities for the TT people, the group would become implicit in their crimes by not reporting them. When the person was completely destroyed, they then had a mass group hug, reinforcing the programing. The technique was devastating to the individual and provided a dangerous lesson to all the other participants that their time was coming. The same techniques were used by ChiComs to breakdown captured American Korean War troops to get them to love Communist China and publicly denounce America. I am sure you can find references to this online.
The core precept that your mind was holding you back included some ridiculous Bafflegab. They would say ridiculous things like you could run a three minute mile if you let your mind get ahead of your feet. My favorite absurd statement was “you aren’t listening to the listening you are”. Because this was crap my boss would push on me and we still had the trappings of a corporation, including written annual performance targets and mission statements, they were trying to use it to get me out of their way. Since their goal was to get TT into the operations and I wouldn’t let them, they used the TT to distort the corporate procedures.
As an example I was called into my bosses office with the 19 year old TT expert to get me to commit in writing to absolutely impossible performance targets. The meeting started out friendly with coffee and donuts and sweet talk about the great job I was doing. Then it turned ugly. In addition to using the absurd “you aren’t listening to the listening you are“ crap, the tried to get me to sign off on the equivalent of three minutes mile performance targets which when unmet would justify firing me. They also tried to stop me from going to the bathroom, claiming my going to urinate after hours of badgering was a sign of my lack of commitment. When I told them I was going to pee either in the bathroom or in the garbage can in his office, calling their bluff, they folded. The technique of giving people lots to drink and not letting them pee, making them very uncomfortable, was part of their breakdown techniques. There is a movie called North Dallas Forty that has a similar scene in it I have been told.
In any case back to your young friend, and as you may remember a comment of mine that young people have to be extremely careful to avoid creating blackmail potential, tell him to stay far, far away from those people. Besides a great deal of psychological pain he will endure, he could ruin his life with a psychologically tortured confession. Feel free to share my story widely. It was an interesting learning experience for me because I was fighting it. But it wasn’t fun and I saw the techniques break people, which was tragic. Glad you brought it up.
Wow, it sounds like Clayton Christiansen's disruptive innovation theory, combined with Robert Lifton's "Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of 'Brainwashing' in China". I had a close friend who ran EST and Lifespring seminars. His career peaked, and he was the number one high definition camera salesman in the world (Arri Alexa) when his door got kicked in by the FBI for industrial espionage. He turned out to be a complete sociopath, and I had to cut off what I had perceived to be our "friendship." The thing that broke me was his insistence that what he did was not the problem, the problem was that he got caught… Complete sociopath... he was the son of a couple of psychologists who taught "a course in miracles." Go figure... 🤷🏻♂️
I unfortunately had a somewhat similar experience with a compulsive liar sociopath. They were incredibly good at hiding it and fooled me for a very long time. When finally confronted with their lying at first they strongly denied it. Then, when it was impossible to deny any longer, they said it was my fault they lied because l was wrong to call them out for their lies. After I ended that relationship i was both amazed at their sociopathy and at my stupidity for not seeing it. Hopefully your columns can help others avoid making similar mistakes.
Peter, I’m liking the word ‘bafflegab’ (reference my comment yesterday when you introduced it to us). Having just read this article (and the article ‘The Meta Method of Manipulation), it has dawned on me how restrictive language actually is in trying to explain what our thoughts are processing or actually are! I clearly see how manipulation and psy-op’s can influence and manipulate. Also, I realise that human artistic expression, be it music, art or theatre strive to express thoughts or elements of our consciousness that words just fail. The vast perception deception manipulation is becoming so clear. Thank you
Idioms of Bafflegab
'Set remote control, automatic'.
'Cancelled senses of boundary. '
'Row to hoe.'