Its a shame that some are looking at James Ray tweets as being bizarre or crazy. They are not at all.
They are specific, technical persuasion techniques, being done very obviously to the trained-eye.

Please spread the links about what is going on, so people can do some reading and educate themselves how these covert persuaders use metaphors in their persuasion processes.

This is an education, and an important one. Thanks to all exposing what Ray's doing on Twitter, post-release.

"Aspirants to be noble clay under the Almighty effort let us advance on Chaos and the Dark" - Emerson

James Rays next twitter is a quote from Emerson, from Self-Reliance. [www.carrothers.com]


What a self-grandiose narcissist, James Ray is.
James Ray is an LGAT seminar leader, a direct copycat of many others, a reckless greedy manipulator, who's reckless exploitation has hurt many people.
Meanwhile, he is comparing the manslaughter charges to the origin of the universe from Genesis in the bible, and quotes from Emerson.

Who is the darkness?
James Ray is the darkness, his greed, his dishonesty and organized manipulation tactics and lies.
The malignant narcissism, that is the darkness.
Meanwhile, he is using a quote by Emerson about advancing on the Dark, which James Ray means are the charges against him. Those are not the Dark, those are the light. James Ray's greed and narcissism is the Dark.

James Ray is using his metaphors from his seminars, like Modern Magick.
Modern Magick LGAT seminar hypnosis persuasion [forum.culteducation.com]

Many of these Gurus try this tactic, to say there is no such thing as "good or bad" and no such thing as evil. Byron Katie does the exact same tactic.
No, you don't embrace evil and horrible behavior, like covering up deaths at seminars. You challenge evil directly, and try to stop it. When people do evil things, they need to be held accountable.

But these Gurus are always trying to passify and make their followers more accepting of how the Guru is exploiting them.
And when the Guru does evil and bad things to people, he then twists it to try to make himself appear as the victim.

James Ray is desperate to lure back his former followers that have drifted away, and to solidify himself with those followers he still has.
If anyone gets the James Ray emails or updates to the insiders, please post them, or link too them.
James Ray is going to work really hard on the followers he has left, and get some seminars going, as he's gotta get some OPM cash coming in to pay his expenses.

It will be intersting to analyze how he continues to use the Metaphors to persuade his followers, and modify their beliefs.

QUOTE: "Aspirants to be noble clay under the Almighty effort let us advance on Chaos and the Dark" - Emerson

and looking at the specific text, the James Ray message is clear.
Who are the "Aspirants to be noble CLAY"? Clay...that can be shaped, and moulded.
Byron Katie wants your mind to be like a flower vase, James Ray wants your mind to be like clay in his hands, like putty in his hands.

His followers minds are the clay, and James Ray is trying to shape their perceptions.

So James Ray is trying to recruit "aspirants" to to have their minds shaped by him like clay, and follow him and support him, and that is going to mean financial support to pay his bills.

Expect his next quotes to be from Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and Nelson Mandella as they also spent time in jail.

If James Ray gets wind his Tweets are being analyzed for what he is trying to do with his persuasion metaphors, he will likely take them private, to an email list for supporters only.
If that happens, someone needs to please post his messages here or on the Droid website, so they can be analyzed.


The remaining followers of James Ray really need to wake-up to reality right away, and not get lured any deeper into his system of deception and exploitation.

James Arthur Ray, so its still ok to SUFFER emotional, financial, other injuries?! [forum.culteducation.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/2010 08:16PM by The Anticult.

Comedian Richard Pryor did a live routine that became infamous. He spoke of going to prison to visit the oppressed.

Quote

Richard Pryor said once, "I went to the penitentiary to visit some of the Brothers.

'Thank God for penitentiaries."

Differences between Jesus and Todays Human Potential Entrepreneurs/uses.

[forum.culteducation.com]

Anticult discusses disclaimer forms. Then there was this:

Quote

also, its a great idea to use these Disclaimers.
When a salesperson, or "friend" is trying to convince you to go to a Byron Katie LGAT School, or Landmark, or Life Coaching, or anyone else...
one can just say...first, bring me copies of the full disclaimers.

So they have to go back to the org, and get that info.

Then tell them you are going to take it to your legal counsel first, for review.
Also, ask them to sign their full name stating why you should take the LGAT, even though it could be so damaging, as stated in the disclaimer. Ask them to print, date and sign it.
And get it done at a notary, at the mall.

Do any one of those things, and you'll never hear from any of them again.

Then, the matter of whether Jesus ever had anyone sign a disclaimer/release of liability form:

Quote

According to the accounts given in the Greek Scriptures, Jesus didnt make anyone sign disclaimers.

(Ha. Can you imagine how valuable one of those would be if a copy turned up amongst the Oxyrrhynchus papyi--and could be authenticated//?)

Instead, going by the canonical gospel narratives, Jesus warned his Jewish followers that if they got involved with him, their families would reject them (which to this day is the worst thing imaginable if you're Jewish).

He also warned them their lives would be in danger.

So anyone thinking of following Jesus was given enough information to make an informed decision about the dire social consequences.

And...in the end, so the story goes, Jesus was the one who was betrayed--by his disciples.

They ran off and left him to face the danger, all alone. His accountant was the one who sold him to the Romans. Jesus didnt run off and leave the underlings to take the rap. He didnt go hide out in a luxury resort.

He took the rap, while his followers ran off.

To me this indicates that Jesus was very different from the people whose disclaimer forms and strategies are being discussed on RR.com.

If Jesus followed the example of many of today's entrepreneurs/euses, he'd be having people sign disclaimer forms.

[forum.culteducation.com]

Quote

cannot compare herself with Jesus Christ.

Christ did not boot disciples from his inner circle.

Nor did he work in real estate. He may have built houses, but sure didnt sell 'em.

Two...the biggest difference of all was, Christ was the one who was abandoned and betrayed by his inner circle. His own accountant sold him to the authorities.

If Christ had been anything like today's human potential entrepreneurs, he'd have made all the folks sign release of liablity forms.

And if Christ had been anything like todays human potential entrepreneurs, he'd have found a way to run off to a fancy resort on one of the Greek Islands, while persuading his beloved disciple to take the rap by being arrested and tortured in place of the Indispensible Leader who had to be protected at all costs.

I still think it would be a laugh riot if we could find a copy of one of Jesus of Nazareth's release-of-liablity-forms amongst the remaining Oxyrhynchus or Essene papyri that have not yet been translated.

Also too, according to the canonical narratives, Jesus Christ reportedly did very little teaching in controlled environments, such as hotel rooms, and he did not seem to arrange to have only a malleable and believing audience.

If you read the Gospel accounts Jesus, unlike BK, very often had skeptics and hecklers
in his audience. He had arguments with them, but---he did not arrange for disciples who were bullies to kick the skeptics out.

Jesus had zero way to pre-select an audience and then bin them up in a hotel suite for consecutive days at a time.

Jesus was the one who was left alone to face the authorities. And, he did not have an attorney at his side to help him. In that vital respect, he's totally different from today's for profit human potential entrepreneurs.

Christ took the consequences by himself, and in person. And he did this after being deserted by his entourage.

The HP entrepreneurs do all they can to get their entourages to shield them from the consequences. They live in fancy apartments and houses where one has to know the code before being buzzed in by the gatekeeper.

Christ never had a home, let alone a home with a gate and coded doorbell out front.

James Arthur Ray's quotation from Emerson's "Self-Reliance" is an essay about independence and free-thinking:
[www.carrothers.com]

(Link via "RayShouldPay" on Twitter, an alias of the Salty Droid: [twitter.com])

This is of course an utter inversion of Emerson's message in self-reliance. Ray is effectively saying "think for yourself--as long as what you think is that I am the savior of mankind and not in fact a homicidal sociopath LGAT guru professional manipulator."

A classic rhetorical trick is to ask your cult followers to "think for yourself" meanwhile telling them exactly what to think, and forcibly expelling dissenters. The apparent message is about independent, critical thinking, but the true message is about obedience and total conformity. A corollary is to frame your totally obedient non-thinking inner circle slaves as non-conformists, part of the elite who "get it."

Here are some other quotations from Self-Reliance with my commentary:

Quote

"To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,-that is genius."

Conversely, if you believe what James Arthur Ray tells you, you're an idiot.

Quote

"...the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato and Milton is that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men, but what they thought."

Say what you personally think, not just what James Arthur Ray or some other guru tells you to think.

Quote

"The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray. Bravely let him speak the utmost syllable of his confession."

Ray should fall indeed--he has fallen far from the light already. The witnesses to his crimes shall testify in court to his slimy, deceptive character. But no, Mr. James Arthur Ray has not confessed even one syllable of his guilt, not a single word of his responsibility in the deaths of the four and injury of the 18+ directly from his callous and ruthlessly manipulative behavior that he "attracted."

Quote

"God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. It needs a divine man to exhibit anything divine."

Indeed, such a fake "warrior" as James Arthur Ray who cannot even take the minimum of responsibility for his actions is indeed a Spiritual Coward and is not exhibiting anything divine.

Quote

"The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. ... Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist."

If are to be a man (or woman), you must rely on yourself and not conform to any LGAT guru professional manipulator plastic shaman sham artist like James Arthur Ray.

Quote

"Every decent and well spoken individual affects and sways me more than is right. I ought to go upright and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways...."

The rude truth about LGAT gurus like James Arthur Ray is that they are phonies out solely to get your money and your obedience. They will push you to the edge and way beyond, inducing psychosis, suicide, or death, and take 0% responsibility. Many decent and well spoken individuals are now speaking out about these individuals and groups.

Quote

"What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. ... the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."

No matter how many people are going along with a dangerous LGAT exercise like a deadly sweat lodge, you must do what concerns you and take care of yourself, get the hell out of there, etc.

Quote

"A man must consider what a blindman's buff is this game of conformity."

Conforming to James Arthur Ray or any other LGAT guru plastic shaman is to be a blindman, to be literally in the dark--especially if the LGAT in question keeps it's schedule secret "as to not spoil the exercises for you."

Quote

"If I know your sect I anticipate your argument. I hear a preacher announce for his text and topic the expediency of one of the institutions of his church. Do I not know beforehand that not possibly can he say a new and spontaneous word?"

These LGAT gurus are entirely predictable, as Anticult and others have demonstrated. James Arthur Ray is incapable of "a spontaneous word" for he simply copies the manipulative tactics of others. All his arguments can be anticipated to be framing him as the victim, the light of the world, etc. instead of what he is, a ruthless sociopath who is facing a homicide trial for the deaths of three (should be four) people.

Quote

"...most men have bound their eyes with one or another handkerchief, and attached themselves to some one of these communities of opinion."

This is especially true if you are a member of a cult or LGAT like James Arthur Ray's.

Quote

"This conformity makes them not false in a few particulars, authors of a few lies, but false in all particulars. Their every truth is not quite true. Their two is not the real two, their four not the real four: so that every word they say chagrins us and we know not where to begin to set them right."

You can see this kind of distorted thinking both in James Arthur Ray as well as in his inner circle, like Josh and Megan Frederickson's "immunity" testimony.

Quote

"Meantime nature is not slow to equip us in the prison uniform of the party to which we adhere."

James Arthur Ray's prison uniform is traffic cone orange, representing the party to which he adheres--the party of those who are on trial for murder.

Quote

"We come to wear one cut of face and figure, and acquire by degrees the gentlest asinine expression."

James Arthur Ray's asinine expression: [www.washingtonpost.com]

Quote

"the forced smile which we put on in company where we do not feel at ease"

See Megan Frederickson's manic forced smile: [saltydroid.info]

Quote

"The other terror that scares us from self trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or word because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them."

Trying to be consistent keeps James Arthur Ray from just admitting his wrongdoing. It also is the cause of the cognitive dissonance cult insiders often feel.

Quote

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall."

James Arthur Ray is a little philosopher/divine, a plastic shaman, a phony who must maintain consistency to keep up the appearance of having his shit together, to cover up the lies and injuries and death that follow him like the cart following the horse.

Quote

"To be great is to be misunderstood...."

Yet it is easy to understand James Arthur Ray. He is an entirely predictable copycat LGAT guru, having stolen everything he does from telemarketing sales techniques, Tony Robbins, and various LGATs. It is easy to understand exactly what he is doing and has done.

I read Emmerson's essay on Self-Reliance and found it instructive. Thanks Buffman for pointing out how DeathRay has twisted such sound advice to his own nefarious ends.

The yawning chasm between Death Rays speech (attempts at inspirational loftiness) and his behaviour (cowardly and taking no responsibility at all) just undelines what a fraud this excuse-for-a-person really is.

Death Ray's latest tv appearance, clearly scared out of his wits.

[rumorrat.com]

Some fascinating responses at the Droid website on this!
Its sometimes very easy to forget that many of these processes like using Metaphors in conversational persuasion are very counterintuitive, and that accurate good training in them is expensive and hard to come by, and is hard work.

So in fact, it should not be surprising at all that those who have not been able to have decent training in these areas for YEARS, can't see what is going on. That is to be expected.
Even worse, the persuader knows how to create Inattentional Blindness, where people literally can't see what is right before their eyes, by flooding the conscious mind with deliberate MISDIRECTION and distraction.

James Arthur Ray, conscious misdirection, Inattentional blindness [forum.culteducation.com]


There are even now some known NLP persuasion people who are beginning to chime in on this issue. Of course, some of those same NLP persuaders use the same techniques, and are themselves very controversial.
But at even a controversial NLP persuader can confirm that yes, James Ray is attempting to use metaphors in his persuasive imagery and language patterns, to modify his followers beliefs and perceptions in those Twitter posts.

One other thing about James Ray and other Gurus sometimes appearing "stupid".
Its also in many training seminar and manuals, that a seminar leader should NOT show off their intellect, as that can alienate people and put them on guard. So they deliberately dumb down their public image, to try to make themselves more likable by dumbing down how they speak and act in public. (meet them in a board room and its very different).

There are many examples of this, Byron Katie being one of them. Byron Katie is highly intelligent (and very messed up), but play-acts she is an "idiot savant", and she gets away with it.
James Ray certainly also play-acts on TV that he is unaware of the processes he is doing, when in fact James Ray knows the "New Age content" of his seminars is not even relevant, and concentrates on the persuasion meta-processes.
So for example, James Ray attempting to use his pre-established metaphors to persuade his flock, shows he is not crazy or dumb, but just trying to use various techniques on his remaining followers. When caught, they always PLAY-DUMB, everytime.


Of course, each person has to use their own judgement on these issues.
But put it this way, from someone who has studied these types of techniques for quite some time, they are not easy to learn, and very difficult to apply. Its not easy.
And James Ray has been able to abuse these techniques and make MILLIONS, and many people have gotten terribly hurt. So it would be a very dangerous error to misunderestimate James Ray in any way. Someone might say an ocean shark is not very "intelligent" either, but a shark does what it does very well, and can be very dangerous when wounded, and they know how to survive.
Just because hurting people "physically" would be violating bail conditions, does not mean people cannot be terribly hurt and exploited financially and psychologically, especially with soft-targets.


Lastly, the talk that using these types of metaphors to covertly persuade can be used for "good", is very dubious in this context. Of course all communication is a type of metaphor, and our media and society is full of this to various degrees.
But there is a terrible arrogance in many NLPers and professional persuaders that they know what's best for people, and are going to do it TO them, using these types of covert tactics. But frankly, that is a lot of self-rationalizing bullshit.

If they really wanted to help people, they would carefully write some websites/books/texts based on very specific factual information, done in a way that is easy to understand, to EDUCATE the general public on EXACTLY how these techniques work. That is the way to help people. (and not upsell them to their own rip-off programs!)

And metaphors should be used in a way that are as accurate as possible, not as psychological warfare and propaganda. But probably the only way to combat these types of abuses are by educating the general public in every way possible.
Trying to find an honest reliable source of information for this type of advanced persasion, is incredibly difficult. It seems the only way to learn it is from the sharks themselves, and then carefully sort the facts, from the lies, BS and upselling, which is very difficult to do.

And of course James Ray continues on with his Twitter propaganda persuasion.

----------------
QUOTE: "Many misunderstand "If you know the laws of the universe you'll never have challenges, difficulties, upsets" yet no tradition teaches this"
----------------
James Ray is telling a brazen bald-faced whopper of a lie, right there. The book The Secret which made him famous, says EXACTLY that. Its based on New Thought [www.skepdic.com] and it says you bring EVERYTHING on yourself with your Consciousness, including cancer and hurricanes.
That, is a bald-faced, brazen whopper of a lie, told with total self-consciousness, as an attempt to CONFUSE. Inducing Confusion is a primary technique.

------------------------------
QUOTE: "In this world are many tribulations, BUT be of good cheer I (the awakened consciousness) have overcome the world" - Jesus, gospel of John"
--------------------------------
Next, James Ray shows he is selling the Christ Consciousness New Thought idea (awakened consciousness..overcome the world) which is code for having supernatural powers like those attributed to Christ in the bible.
The problem when people start to seriously believe they can have supernatural powers like Christ Consciousness, is that they might try to walk on water, or fly-levitate by jumping off a ledge, or make their body overcome fire, and they can die in the process.



Then he goes into manipulation using words about alleged Buddhist and "suffering" concepts, which of course he is perverting to his own uses.
You see what James Ray is doing here? He knows that the DEEPEST BELIEFS of most of his followers are the beliefs in the "spiritual" area, that are overgeneralized and vague.
So he is setting the table, by open up those belief systems, and trying to modify them to his own purposes.

These are the GLOBAL BELIEFS in his followers about the largest frame one can think of, reality itself. Beliefs can be generally sorted into beliefs about self, others, and the world.
So James Ray is working on his followers beliefs about REALITY (external world), and using metaphors to try to reframe what they are believing about James Ray (others).

He is going to work, over and over, to try to modify his followers beliefs, until they start to perceive the situation the way James Ray wants them to perceive it.
But he knows if he starts with more specific details, it won't work as well, as it might meet resistance.
So instead he starts at the top, with overgeneralized global beliefs, and once those get accepted by the subjects, then he will become more specific, and relate it to his situation with more specificity.

One also can assume, if James Ray keeps it to "religion" then he has more protections to say anything he wants. So it looks like he is going to use religious language and metaphors, to modify and reframe what his followers think about his current situation, without actually saying it directly.
James Ray was taught that its often more effective to use global metaphors to modify beliefs in people, as there is less resistance from the subject on a conscious level.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2010 05:59PM by The Anticult.