Incidentally, although there are an infinite variety of con games and tricks, as well as an infinite variety of con men and women, the dynamic behind the operation of the trick is always the same:

[en.wikipedia.org]

"Confidence tricks exploit typical human qualities such as greed, dishonesty, vanity, honesty, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility and naïveté. The common factor is that the mark relies on the good faith of the con artist."

A really good conman will have a repertoire of manipulations to deal with whatever qualities the mark presents him with. Good conmen like all good professionals work hard at polishing and adding to their skills, the objective is to establish the marks trust and confidence in the perpetrator. Most conmen are constantly reading people to establish which approach to take with which mark.

Which is why in attempting to protect yourself from the myriad cons abroad in the world you are far better off learning to understand and control yourself rather than attempting to understand and control the conmen.

Quote
Stoic
Incidentally, although there are an infinite variety of con games and tricks, as well as an infinite variety of con men and women, the dynamic behind the operation of the trick is always the same:

[en.wikipedia.org]

"Confidence tricks exploit typical human qualities such as greed, dishonesty, vanity, honesty, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility and naïveté. The common factor is that the mark relies on the good faith of the con artist."

A really good conman will have a repertoire of manipulations to deal with whatever qualities the mark presents him with. Good conmen like all good professionals work hard at polishing and adding to their skills, the objective is to establish the marks trust and confidence in the perpetrator. Most conmen are constantly reading people to establish which approach to take with which mark.

Which is why in attempting to protect yourself from the myriad cons abroad in the world you are far better off learning to understand and control yourself rather than attempting to understand and control the conmen.

Obviously I disagree with this. Knowledge is power, and power is itself a form of protection. It's important to understand other people, even bad people, and to learn what motivates them. It's possible to learn about exploiters without excusing or minimizing their behavior. And while I certainly like Wikipedia, I'm not sure it's the best source of psychological guidance.

I strongly recommend books like "Snakes in Suits", by Robert Hare, "The Sociopath Next Door", by Martha Stout, and Herve Cleckley's "The Mask of Sanity". All of these books give valuable insights into the minds of people who become scammers, conmen, and cult leaders.

Also, books about various cult leaders, such as the ones about L. Ron Hubbard, Andrew Cohen, John-Roger, and Werner Erhard, are extremely enlightening. And for the anatomy of a recent scam, both the books and the documentaries about the Enron fiasco are superb. Much of the information in these books can provide insight to anyone who's recovering from a cultic experience, and insight was an important part of my healing and moving on.

If you are in a place in your recovery where learning about your exploiter leads you to sympathize with him, excuse him, minimize yourself, or lose focus on your own process, information about his/her psychopathology probably wouldn't help, and might well hurt. I trust people to make those determinations on their own. But I'm convinced, and know from personal experience, that understanding everything about a cultic experience, including as much as possible about the psychology of the guru and his/her motivations, can be extremely helpful.

Christa, all the books that you recommend are good and helpful reading and I gave wikipedia as a source of general knowledge not psychological guidance.

However, I have earned my living for several decades spotting and catching conmen in the act. It is a career path peculiarly suited to my hypervigilant and fundamentally untrusting nature and I can assure you that knowledge and power, although helpful, provide little protection.

But I will leave you to discover that for yourself.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/2010 10:40PM by Stoic.

Salty Droid has an excellent (to put it mildly) piece on Ray's lawyer, Brad Brian's appearance on on Larry King. He spells out clearly the many ways in which Brian's statements breached the 'California Rule of Professional Conduct', and provides a pdf of the relevant complaint form which can be filled out by any US citizen.

I am not a US citizen, so all I can do is encourage anyone with an understanding of this case to read the article and fill out the form if you agree with it.

I understand there have been lawyerly and threatening words spoken to Brian Neuman about his anti-Ray tweets. And I assume that this article from the Droid is an attempt to put the situation into perspective and make it clear who exactly is acting unjustly.

There are three documents posted on the Arizona court website that comprise the state's answer to JAR's request to suppress any mention of 'prior bad acts.'
As a summation of the case against Ray they make interesting reading and also show what a good grasp the prosecution has on the various ploys that Ray routinely used in his business.
I believe that there will shortly be a decision on whether or not these prior bad acts are admissable.

[apps.supremecourt.az.gov]

[apps.supremecourt.az.gov]

[apps.supremecourt.az.gov]

And just posted, the replies from James Ray's defence team to the above three documents :

[apps.supremecourt.az.gov]

[apps.supremecourt.az.gov]

[apps.supremecourt.az.gov]

This thing drags on, a mid November date a further hearing on the motions before the court:

[cvbugle.com]

Hello. I was in the midst of reading this fascinating thread p25 - (second post down & very long which is why I haven't quoted).

I checked out the link for Michael Shermer who is promoted by Anticult as a good critical thinker (in the comments about Oprah) and was surprised to see that his banner advert is for Scientology. I found that a little alarming. I thought you'd all like to know. Are you surprised by this?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/05/2010 05:06AM by GloriaG.

If you sign up for google ads, as this site (Shermers) clearly has, the google displays ads relevant to the content, although sometimes only very obliquely relevant. You will notice a sidebar ad box on the right of the page displaying some kind of UFO/alien recommended meditation tech--the google has a twisted sense of humour.
There will be something equally bizarre advertised there tomorrow.

@GloriaG

Do you mean at the Micheal Shermer homepage? [www.michaelshermer.com]
The ads on the right are Google ads, which are automatic. Right now they are for Alien Abduction and QUOTE: "Human Condition Solved Finally the breakthrough biological explanation of the human condition!"

Websites that discuss crazy quackery, ironically get automatic Google ads on those crazy subjects, due to the keywords.

That being said, Shermer does make interesting comments about Anonymous for how they targeted Scientology. [www.michaelshermer.com]

Shermer also makes a strange statement about Anthony Robbins, but LGAT seminars are not really Shermer's area, he deals more with the wider "skeptical" method.
More here. [www.skepdic.com]

With the more mainstream skeptics like Shermer, they often take a more calm, detached position, at least in public.

Ironically, when some of the same skeptics are "off the record", they are like anyone else and say things like...
"person ______ is a freaking crooked scam artist!".

But their public position is usually more measured and "objective". They try to stay away from the Angry Skeptic position.