individual autonomy
“Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted”
When you join a cult, whether its religous or otherwise, it’s not through the intellect.
They get to you emotionally.
In other words, through the limbic system, not the neocortex.
And the emotional truth is far stronger than the intellectual one.
You like the people there.
You have fun.
You listen to music.
You can suspend disbelief.
You don't have to think about anything.
They made all the decisions for you.
Your neocortex takes a vacation.
Cults often emphasize ritual chanting, meditation, or prayer. It is well known that repetition induces trancelike altered states of consciousness, but since the states are produced through the use of patterned, ritualized behavior, they appear to involve the reptilian brain more than the neocortex.
Many scholars who have studied the process of cult conversion note that the self-induced trances impair neocortical functioning.
In other words, trance states stop you from thinking.
A common technique called “love bombing,” affects you on an emotional level. Love bombing basically consists of telling people how wonderful they are. For example, one morning they might say to you, “You know, XXXXX, you're really one of the most open people I've ever met. You don't put up any defenses. You're really open. I think that's so great.”
With this type of discourse, a part of the mind goes on alert: love bombing, love bombing.
But the other part thinks, “Well, yes, but it really is true. S/he probably really means it.” In any case, it makes you feel good. Intellectually, You realize what s/he is doing; emotionally, you buy it.
Cult members’ relationships to each other are much more meaningful than the shallow ones of birth siblings.
Feelings are more important than anything else. Members are encouraged to feel, not to think.
There are problems faced by people coming out of cults. Among them is a severe inability to make decisions. This is not surprising. Cult members are not in the habit of making their own decisions: what to eat, when to eat, where to go, what to do, what to believe. All these and other decisions are made for them. Decision making involves the neocortex.
Perhaps it is like a muscle that is weakened after disuse and needs exercise to get back into shape.
Many members stay in the cult out of fear.
Cult doctrine teaches that the only path to salvation is through the cult. To leave is to risk eternal damnation. They were afraid of what would happen to them if they left. They were afraid of what would happen to their soul. Fear is a powerful emotion based in the R-complex.
So, cults hook you and hold you by using the lower brain centers.
Deprogramming/Exit Counseling
There is a process for deprogramming.
The key factor is getting yourself to see the contradictions in the cult doctrine and cult practices.
In other words, deprogramming is largely an intellectual process.
Today, exit counseling is distinguished from deprogramming by the lack of coercion. However, originally the term deprogramming referred to the process of countering the cults' “programming,” and did not imply the use of coercion.
In exit counseling, which has largely supplanted deprogramming, the emphasis is on information, again in an effort to reactivate your critical thinking abilities.
The occasional questioning of “authority” has always been a thorn in the side of those who would rule over others. Sound familiar?
The following example demonstrates how this is done. Many times, the inconsistencies are WAY MORE OBVIOUS THAN EVEN THIS!
Steve Dubrow-Eichel (1989) presents a near-transcript of a 5-day deprogramming.
The turning point for “Ken,” the Hare Krishna who was being deprogrammed, occurred on the second day:
“ It came when Curt, the deprogrammer, read from the official ISKCON version of the Gita. It stated that the true master's home “is not illuminated by the sun or moon, nor by electricity.” Curt pointed out that electricity did not exist when the Gita was written. This triggered a long-repressed doubt in Ken, who said he had wondered how the saints could have written about electricity centuries before it was discovered. Prabhupada was supposed to be perfect, and here he had made an error. This discovery led Ken to find other inconsistencies in the doctrine.”
You must realize that you must actually confronted the questions in your mind even if it would appear as a blasphemy.
In order to deprogram you must think again. Not feel, not react, but think.
The cult conversion process involves de-emphasizing the neocortex in favor of the R-complex and limbic system, while the de-conversion process emphasizes the neocortex.
Much of the power of cult conversion comes from its use of the lower brain centers. Both R-complex learning and emotional learning are closely associated with survival and thus much more powerful than intellectual learning. If I am betrayed by my lover, I may never trust him-or any man-again. However, it may take me several lessons to learn to use a computer. Emotional lessons are learned far more quickly than intellectual ones. I need be bit only once by a dog to be afraid of dogs ever after. Limbic and R-complex learning obviously aren't impossible to unlearn; if they were, psychotherapists would be out of business. Generally, however, it takes longer to unlearn such lessons than it does those of Anthropology 100 or Math 250.
Both cult conversion and cult participation emphasize the use of the lower brain centers; the R-complex and the limbic system. Deprogramming, on the other hand, is designed to stimulate the neocortex.
However, since the effects of R-complex and limbic system learning are so powerful, longer-term therapy is often needed to undo the emotional damage done during the process of cult conversion. Ideally, the result of deprogramming and counseling is a reintegration of all parts of the brain.
This is what I have learned, i'm not trying to tell you what to believe, Just think for yourself.
This is why I sleep in on Sundays.
When you join a cult, whether its religous or otherwise, it’s not through the intellect.
They get to you emotionally.
In other words, through the limbic system, not the neocortex.
And the emotional truth is far stronger than the intellectual one.
You like the people there.
You have fun.
You listen to music.
You can suspend disbelief.
You don't have to think about anything.
They made all the decisions for you.
Your neocortex takes a vacation.
Cults often emphasize ritual chanting, meditation, or prayer. It is well known that repetition induces trancelike altered states of consciousness, but since the states are produced through the use of patterned, ritualized behavior, they appear to involve the reptilian brain more than the neocortex.
Many scholars who have studied the process of cult conversion note that the self-induced trances impair neocortical functioning.
In other words, trance states stop you from thinking.
A common technique called “love bombing,” affects you on an emotional level. Love bombing basically consists of telling people how wonderful they are. For example, one morning they might say to you, “You know, XXXXX, you're really one of the most open people I've ever met. You don't put up any defenses. You're really open. I think that's so great.”
With this type of discourse, a part of the mind goes on alert: love bombing, love bombing.
But the other part thinks, “Well, yes, but it really is true. S/he probably really means it.” In any case, it makes you feel good. Intellectually, You realize what s/he is doing; emotionally, you buy it.
Cult members’ relationships to each other are much more meaningful than the shallow ones of birth siblings.
Feelings are more important than anything else. Members are encouraged to feel, not to think.
There are problems faced by people coming out of cults. Among them is a severe inability to make decisions. This is not surprising. Cult members are not in the habit of making their own decisions: what to eat, when to eat, where to go, what to do, what to believe. All these and other decisions are made for them. Decision making involves the neocortex.
Perhaps it is like a muscle that is weakened after disuse and needs exercise to get back into shape.
Many members stay in the cult out of fear.
Cult doctrine teaches that the only path to salvation is through the cult. To leave is to risk eternal damnation. They were afraid of what would happen to them if they left. They were afraid of what would happen to their soul. Fear is a powerful emotion based in the R-complex.
So, cults hook you and hold you by using the lower brain centers.
Deprogramming/Exit Counseling
There is a process for deprogramming.
The key factor is getting yourself to see the contradictions in the cult doctrine and cult practices.
In other words, deprogramming is largely an intellectual process.
Today, exit counseling is distinguished from deprogramming by the lack of coercion. However, originally the term deprogramming referred to the process of countering the cults' “programming,” and did not imply the use of coercion.
In exit counseling, which has largely supplanted deprogramming, the emphasis is on information, again in an effort to reactivate your critical thinking abilities.
The occasional questioning of “authority” has always been a thorn in the side of those who would rule over others. Sound familiar?
The following example demonstrates how this is done. Many times, the inconsistencies are WAY MORE OBVIOUS THAN EVEN THIS!
Steve Dubrow-Eichel (1989) presents a near-transcript of a 5-day deprogramming.
The turning point for “Ken,” the Hare Krishna who was being deprogrammed, occurred on the second day:
“ It came when Curt, the deprogrammer, read from the official ISKCON version of the Gita. It stated that the true master's home “is not illuminated by the sun or moon, nor by electricity.” Curt pointed out that electricity did not exist when the Gita was written. This triggered a long-repressed doubt in Ken, who said he had wondered how the saints could have written about electricity centuries before it was discovered. Prabhupada was supposed to be perfect, and here he had made an error. This discovery led Ken to find other inconsistencies in the doctrine.”
You must realize that you must actually confronted the questions in your mind even if it would appear as a blasphemy.
In order to deprogram you must think again. Not feel, not react, but think.
The cult conversion process involves de-emphasizing the neocortex in favor of the R-complex and limbic system, while the de-conversion process emphasizes the neocortex.
Much of the power of cult conversion comes from its use of the lower brain centers. Both R-complex learning and emotional learning are closely associated with survival and thus much more powerful than intellectual learning. If I am betrayed by my lover, I may never trust him-or any man-again. However, it may take me several lessons to learn to use a computer. Emotional lessons are learned far more quickly than intellectual ones. I need be bit only once by a dog to be afraid of dogs ever after. Limbic and R-complex learning obviously aren't impossible to unlearn; if they were, psychotherapists would be out of business. Generally, however, it takes longer to unlearn such lessons than it does those of Anthropology 100 or Math 250.
Both cult conversion and cult participation emphasize the use of the lower brain centers; the R-complex and the limbic system. Deprogramming, on the other hand, is designed to stimulate the neocortex.
However, since the effects of R-complex and limbic system learning are so powerful, longer-term therapy is often needed to undo the emotional damage done during the process of cult conversion. Ideally, the result of deprogramming and counseling is a reintegration of all parts of the brain.
This is what I have learned, i'm not trying to tell you what to believe, Just think for yourself.
This is why I sleep in on Sundays.