Hi, 

Because I'm concerned about him, I've been keeping up with my ex by reading one of the group leaders' blogs (for safety reasons I'm not going to provide a link).

I'm concerned that I'm being effected by the suggestions, even though I'm aware that this person is a hypnotherapist, and using Ericksonian-type techniques.  

Is it not enough to be aware that a person is using coercive persuasion to diffuse it's effect? 

Is there some way to protect oneself, other than avoiding it entirely? (which of course speaks to its use in Advertizing and Politics) 

Best, 

Questions_2.

Yes you can still be effected even if you know they are using techniques.

Don't go there too often. Avoid having strong emotions being drawn out of you from what you read (don't let it get you angry, etc.). Spend even more time in educating yourself on the opposing views to the clap trap being spouted. The more you know about the world the harder it is to fool you. Learn more about the techniques being used so you can spot them easily. Keep a sense of humor and be able to laugh at the cult leader, and never give them any respect or authority in your mind.

Thanks, Sol.

Wow what a trip this is.

I find it so difficult to not have any closure with my ex, and I think that reading the leader's blog posts at least gave me some idea of what was going on in his life.

That said, that evil sh*t is really none of my business. Now that I'm speaking with an exit counselor, I hope to be able to get some relief with respect to what I can do / whether I should try to get my message across to my ex that he's in a very strange relationship with the people closest to him.

As I work through this, I ran across the MKUltra program - I checked the dates and hospitals in Montreal, and realized that my mother, who spent the past year living in a mental institution, was an in patient at the time the abuses were going on. This would explain why growing up with her seemed so much like brainwashing...

I wouldn't say it was for the best that I fell in love with the person in the high demand group that I did, but I do find it interesting how one does seem to seek out that which brings us closer to the truth that we need to see.

Needless to say, I'm becoming more down to earth than I've ever been; I've been able to start letting go of certain superstitious attitudes that can be directly attributed to my mother having been subjected to brainwashing experiments, and in turn, using them on me growing up.

I don't know where this is all going to go, but I'm considering a change in careers. I realized that my mother had an agenda for me to enter the career I have; though I am naturally talented at it - is it really what I want to do? Seems superstition and placing importance on communion with the divine above all else was how I made choices for my adult life to date - this comes from my mother, I now realize.

I will add - I think one of the reasons I had such an intense relationship with my ex is because he is involved with people using thought reform techniques - I feel like I'm trying to save the brother I never had.

Phew!

I would say the first thing is to know yourself, know what you are vulnerable to. Secondly, you might want to start researching how to think rationally, rather than superstitiously.

It's been my experience that the more grounded I get in rational thinking the harder it is to fall for all the BS out there. However, a word of warning, this can be a danger to your faith. I find the older I get the harder it is for me to swallow religious reasoning. Maybe I'm being brainwashed by all the atheistic writers out there but --

I read over the various postings warning against this or that group or individual and I would say that 99% of them are what I'd call religious in nature. That doesn't mean that there aren't any dangerous atheistic groups or individuals out there; it's just not that common. Most of the people I know who are atheists or agnostic are not likely to fall for the kinds of things warned about on this forum, because they don't believe in any kind of supernatural or spirit or divinity, so anything that has that as a lure isn't going to interest them.

I know a bit about brainwashing because I was subjected to Skinnerian behavior modification growing up. Later, when I was in my teens I joined a Christian home church and got totally sucked in to the point where my parents had to intervene. It taught me a lot about the danger of religion. I think because religion (any religion) is tied to faith and not to rationality/reality there is a greater danger of people becoming "brainwashed" or willingly doing it to themselves because that is what everyone else around is doing. It really bothers me when I hear adults praising little children when those children say something precious about Jesus and God. Children don't know the difference between fantasy and reality and they want to please their elders. No one ever stops to think that maybe the reason these children are saying such things is because they have learned it makes adults happy. No one wants to go there.

So, if a person has never learned to think for him or herself, and is just parroting what older, supposedly more wiser people around him or her are saying, then he or she is in much greater danger of being taken in by dubious methods. They are more likely to unknowingly put themselves into a situation where coercive methods and trance inductions are being used. If a person never goes to such seminars or forums, they can't be affected. Thanks to this forum (and my prior experiences) I have learned to ask questions, and if I don't like the answers I either don't get involved or I walk away.

There are others here on this forum that can give you even more detailed advice. Corboy, for one, has done a lot of research on the subject and has a lot of valuable things to say.

Good luck.

You have to catch what they're trying implent in your mind before they implant it. For example you are watching a video, and you know that there are subliminal messages in it. So you just look for them very carefully and then you won't be influenced by them. Also think of the theme of the video and what kind of message it's trying to send so that you know before hand how it's trying to influence you.