From "Viruses of the Mind' by Dawkins, a contributor to meme theory.

[cscs.umich.edu]

Dawkins wrote with some asperity for he'd found that his ex-wife sent their 6 year old daughter for Roman Catholic instruction without her father's knowledge or consent. Dawkins used Catholicism as an example of a memetic 'virus of the mind'. Roman Catholics and devout Christians will probably find his article painful and offensive.

Despite his rancor, Dr Dawkins' paper offers us a powerful framework that some might find helpful in demystifying the process of LGAT recruitment and indoctrination.

Excerpts

'A human child is shaped by evolution to soak up the culture of her people...When you are pre-programmed to absorb useful information at a high rate, it is hard to shut out pernicious or damaging information at the same time...Like immune-deficient patients, children are wide open to mental infections that adults might brush off without effort.'

(This is analogous to formatting a computer's hard-drive, to free up 'disk space' so that a new set of programs can be rapidly installed. Sleep deprivation, music, lovebombing, shame, ridicule, peer pressure, NLP, trance induction can be used in various combinations to reduce a collection of adult minds to a state of regressed childlike receptivity.

Perhaps without full awareness of doing so, Leaders doing this profess to be your buddies while covertly acting from a position of power, refusing to be vulnerable and open minded themselves while demanding that YOU be vulnerable and 'open minded' relation to [i:023896db3c]them[/i:023896db3c].

They demand that you be open minded want to scrub your 'hard drive' clean so they can download LGAT viruses and reduce your inner life to dreary, robotic uniformity.

Remember: problematic LGATs are profit driven--these are not mental health professionals who are accountable to codes of ethics.

Do you let just anyone re-format your PC?

Yet there seems to be a strange bias in the New Age/Human Potential crowd: in the name of 'being spiritual' 'open-minded' 'enlightenment' or 'God' we are commanded to allow any and every Tom Dick and Harry to reformat our minds-and not check their credentials!

Back to Dr. Dawkins:

'Progressive evolution of more effective mind-parasites will have two aspects. New ``mutants'' (either random or designed by humans) that are better at spreading will become more numerous.

' And there will be a ganging up of ideas that flourish in one another's presence, ideas that mutually support one another just as genes do ...We expect that replicators will go around together from brain to brain in mutually compatible gangs. These gangs will come to constitute a package, which may be sufficiently stable to deserve a collective name such as Roman Catholicism or Voodoo....

'What matters is that minds are friendly environments to parasitic, self-replicating ideas or information, and that minds are typically massively infected.

'Like computer viruses, successful mind viruses will tend to be hard for their victims to detect. If you are the victim of one, the chances are that you won't know it, and may even vigorously deny it.

'Accepting that a virus might be difficult to detect in your own mind, what tell-tale signs might you look out for?

1. The patient typically finds himself impelled by some deep, inner conviction that something is true, or right, or virtuous: a conviction that doesn't seem to owe anything to evidence or reason, but which, nevertheless, he feels as totally compelling and convincing. We doctors refer to such a belief as ``faith.''

2. Patients typically make a positive virtue of faith's being strong and unshakable, in spite of not being based upon evidence. Indeed, they may feel that the less evidence there is, the more virtuous the belief . (!!!)

***This paradoxical idea that lack of evidence is a positive virtue where faith is concerned has something of the quality of a program that is self-sustaining, because it is self-referential (see the chapter ``On Viral Sentences and Self-Replicating Structures'' in Hofstadter, 1985).

***Once the proposition is believed, it automatically undermines opposition to itself. The ``lack of evidence is a virtue'' idea could be an admirable sidekick, ganging up with faith itself in a clique of mutually supportive viral programs.

3. A related symptom, which a faith-sufferer may also present, is the conviction that ``mystery,'' per se, is a good thing**. It is not a virtue to solve mysteries. Rather we should enjoy them, even revel in their insolubility.

***Any impulse to solve mysteries could be serious inimical to the spread of a mind virus. It would not, therefore, be surprising if the idea that ``mysteries are better not solved'' was a favored member of a mutually supporting gang of viruses.

Let us return to our list of symptoms that someone afflicted with the mental virus of faith, and its accompanying gang of secondary infections, may expect to experience.

4. The sufferer may find himself behaving intolerantly towards vectors of rival faiths, in extreme cases even killing ... He may be similarly violent in his disposition towards apostates** (people who once held the faith but have renounced it); or towards heretics (people who espouse a different --- often, perhaps significantly, only very slightly different --- version of the faith). He may also feel hostile towards other modes of thought that are potentially inimical to his faith, such as the method of scientific reason which may function rather like a piece of anti-viral software.***

Further on, Dawkins notes

'The internal sensations of the patient may be startlingly reminiscent of those more ordinarily associated with sexual love. This is an extremely potent force in the brain, and it is not surprising that some viruses have evolved to exploit it.

Is Science a Virus (that is, is science just another meme?)

'No. (Dawkins replies) Not unless all computer programs are viruses. Good, useful programs spread because people evaluate them, recommend them and pass them on. Computer viruses spread solely because they embody the coded instructions:

``Spread me.''

'Scientific ideas, like all memes, are subject to a kind of natural selection, and this might look superficially virus-like. But the selective forces that scrutinize scientific ideas are not arbitrary and capricious. They are exacting, well-honed rules, and they do not favor pointless self-serving behavior. (AHEM!!!)

'They (the rules of science) favor all the virtues laid out in textbooks of standard methodology: testability, evidential support, precision, quantifiability, consistency, intersubjectivity, repeatability, universality, progressiveness, independence of cultural milieu, and so on. Faith spreads despite a total lack of every single one of these virtues.

'You may find elements of epidemiology in the spread of scientific ideas, but it will be largely descriptive epidemiology. The rapid spread of a good idea through the scientific community may even look like a description of a measles epidemic. But when you examine the underlying reasons you find that they are good ones, satisfying the demanding standards of scientific method.

'In the history of the spread of faith (or cults--my note) you will find little else but epidemiology, and causal epidemiology at that. The reason why person A believes one thing and B believes another is simply and solely that A was born on one continent and B on another. Testability, evidential support and the rest aren't even remotely considered. For scientific belief, epidemiology merely comes along afterwards and describes the history of its acceptance. For religious belief, epidemiology is the root cause.'

Today is Thanksgiving. I want to thank Rick Ross, Hope, elena, Adrienne, and all who contribute their wealth of experience to this board.

During my est phase I took a friend to a guest seminar and afterwards he said something I hadn't heard before. He said he didn't want to sign up for est because "I don't trust anything that spreads like a virus."

This was in the late seventies before 'meme' or 'thought virus' had entered the public discourse. I tucked that one away in my mind and when the 'meme' meme emerged I remembered what he had said.

Its very possible.

We are finding out that people who are already infected with certain micro-organisms are more likely to become infected with virulent micro-organisms. I am not a Christian and had no bone to pick with the 'New Age', but recently began to wonder whether certain mental habits that are common in New Age circles make people more vulnerable to induction into destructive groups.

For the past year, I have been in an offline conversation with a friend from this website. She was harmed in some very complex ways by a health care professional involved with an LGAT. The person was a practitioner of alternative medicine, and he preyed on people who were open to 'New Age' ways of thinking. Fortunately, he fled the country but left a trail of damage in his wake.

My friend and I used our research acumen and began posting warnings on various computer like Craigslist, whenever we found advertisements for persons and groups we knew had track records for harmful behavior.

Over the years, people used Craigslist.org to give warnings about unethical moving van companies, to alert people about sleazy billing practices by certain businesses. Their efforts seemed to be appreciated. No one accused the posters of having bad motives or inferior spiritual lives.

My buddy and I began giving warnings about bogus gurus, seedy workshops, or suggested that people research the bonafides and credentials of any yoga studio or spiritual teacher, before getting involved.

To our surprise, we got a reaction very different from the persons who warned about the unethical moving van firms. Our efforts met with cries of 'negativity' 'lack of compassion' 'closemindedness' For variety there were shrill accusations that were too unevolved to be capable of loving trustful 'surrender to the unknown' or that we were too cowardly to accept that spiritual practice requires 'acceptance of risk'.

The strangest thing was that even though the groups we were warning about had documented track records of negative behavior, no one acknowledged any of that. Instead, WE were the ones accused of negativity. One person who posted information about a new website for tracking unethical yoga teachers and studios (it wasnt us!) elicited a near psychotic series of posts.

It seemed that our efforts to introduce lucidity, adult reasoning, and a concern for evidence into the doman of spiritual practice seemed to 'spoil the mood' for many people.

It appears that long before people ever encounter a bogus guru or cult recruiter, they already have put themselves in a state of mind that they consider 'spiritual' 'trusting' and 'receptive' but places them them at terrible risk of exploitation and infection by memetic viruses.

It appears that many 'Spiritual' and 'New Age' mental biases are not cultic, in themselves but pre-format people's minds, makign them vulnerable to infection by virulent mental viruses propagated by cults and predatory spiritual teachers. To be blunt, these mental biases will make people gullible and manipulable, no matter how well educated they are, no matter how intelligent they are. In this state of mind, your intelligence has been disabled--just as your computer cannot function when it's hard drive has been scrubbed clean in too many sectors.

It is noteworthy that before Tibetan monks are permitted to engage in the highest level practices of their traditions, they are expected to get their equivalent of a university education, where they are rigorously trained in logic, in debate, and have to train their minds to a high level of functioning. This is because they need to remaind steady and preserve their analytical capacities when they undergo spiritual experiences that are powerful and potentially dangerous for those who are unprepared. They are not told to make themselves gullible and to accept any weird bliss experience that comes along. Their training is designed to ehance thier spiritual and intellectual immune systems so that they will NOT be gullible or easily blown off center by what they encounter. They want to emerge from these practices better able to serve humanity, not spaced out and unable to function.

Lets look at Dawkin's observations again were he reviews signs that a person has been infected by a mental virus:

1. The patient typically finds himself impelled by some deep, inner conviction that something is true, or right, or virtuous: a conviction that doesn't seem to owe anything to evidence or reason, but which, nevertheless, he feels as totally compelling and convincing. We doctors refer to such a belief as ``faith.''

2. Patients typically make a positive virtue of faith's being strong and unshakable, in spite of not being based upon evidence. Indeed, they may feel that the less evidence there is, the more virtuous the belief (see below).

***This paradoxical idea that lack of evidence is a positive virtue where faith is concerned has something of the quality of a program that is self-sustaining, because it is self-referential (see the chapter ``On Viral Sentences and Self-Replicating Structures'' in Hofstadter, 1985). Once the proposition is believed, it automatically undermines opposition to itself. The ``lack of evidence is a virtue'' idea could be an admirable sidekick, ganging up with faith itself in a clique of mutually supportive viral programs.

3. A related symptom, which a faith-sufferer may also present, is the conviction that ``mystery,'' per se, is a good thing. It is not a virtue to solve mysteries. Rather we should enjoy them, even revel in their insolubility.

***Any impulse to solve mysteries could be serious inimical to the spread of a mind virus. It would not, therefore, be surprising if the idea that ``mysteries are better not solved'' was a favored member of a mutually supporting gang of viruses.


All of this sounds like the general state of mind fostered by irresponsible teachers and writers of spiritual books.

As my pal put it, 'What is so 'spiritual' about setting yourself up to be burned because you refuse to check the claims, qualifications and credentials of a guru or 'healer' you're thinking of studying with?'

We dont let just anyone come in and remodel our house, or re-format our computer hard drive. We make sure the person has a contractor's license, good references, or that the person has the right computing credentials and is affiliated with a reputable computer firm.

We read Consumer Reports before we buy a new car.

Yet, the minute we become spiritual seekers, we are told we will make no progress unless we become as gullible and heedless as small children. That only means we are vulnerable to any kind of mental virus that comes along.

No one can become healthy by compromising his or her immune system. And no one can save their soul by becoming manipulable.

If anyone demands that you reject compassion, ethics, common sense, if that person tries to reduce you to a state of confusion and disorientation, they're trying to make your mind receptive to whatever mental virus they want to infect you with.

One of the worst memes, or, what I would call an implanted idea that is locked in or gripped or held in place like a conviction or a belief once the person adopts it, is the "You create your own reality" one which, while true in many important regards, is also false in some more important ones and can also be used to lie, cheat. steal, and manipulate people with impunity. It's so silly, when you realize that, for instance, YOU, as a person, are nothing more than a prop, resource, or "creation" of someone's else's imagination when they have been induced to believe this kind of thing. In more philosophical terms, it turns, what Martin Buber referred to as the "other," or "thou," into an extension of one's own ego. "YOU" have no existance apart from the meme-infected believer's conception or perception of you in his own mind. The only thing important to him is his own reaction, feeling, or response to your existance. You quickly find out that if you displease this person, you can be "disappeared," in one of the scientological adaptations that Werner Erhard was so fond of, or obliterated from believer's consciousness. Or so he believes. "YOUR" existance is predicated on your usefulness to a victim of this thought virus, who has become a "user" of other people by virtue of the belief.



Ellen

To expand on this a little.....

The whole or core of all of Landmark and similar groups that are weird mutations of the even weirder scientololy is based on this "conception" from the megalomaniacal mind of L. Ron Hubbard that he coded as "responsibility" and was/is stated or chanted or repeated in a trance or heightened state of suggestibility as something like: "You are 100% responsible for anything and everything that exists in your life," or "You are the ~creator~ or ~source~ of everything that happens to you," or "Everything that happens or exists for you is your choice," or some other such nonsense. I mean, can you imagine being told under hypnosis that 'You are God of your own planet," or "You are God of this planet?" No wonder so few scientologists or Landmarkers seem to have much of any sense of humor. It's a lot to worry about. What seems so silly to an outsider is a matter of grave consequences to a "believer."

As an aside, both L. Ron Hubbard and Werner Erhard used to brag that they didn't have to worry about being sued because their followers were programmed to believe that everything bad that happened to them was entirely 100% their own fault. And, paradoxically, everything good that happened to them was a direct result of their involvement with the group. (Hey, who said a cult had to make sense?) They both must have had a good laugh at pulling this one over on so many people. Diabolical, I would say....



Ellen

Both my doctor 's and LE's consistent reference to "responsibility" is the most deeply embedded meme for me. After the "love-bomb" phase of my visits with the doctor, he started slipping in the suggestion that I was the "common denominator" in any and all problems, but at the same time, and I didn't put 2 + 2 together at the time, he would say that people have very little control over their lives. He really stressed his perception of me being a control freak when I first declined an invitation to go to an Intro night at LE and when I declined the use of Ecstasy to uncover suppressed emotions.

I did LF 12/00 and what lingers in the back of my mind is how everything is my fault. I'm at least aware of this and have read some good articles about how some new age ideas about responsibility perpetuate evil by letting the bad guy off the hook. But it's a constant internal conflict about where I have to reason with myself about external factors, how I perceive them, and my own thoughts about being inadequate, my blind spots and plain old human fears.

To GC4062,
I haven't gotten their shit out of my head yet. Sorry, I wish I could tell you differently. It makes me want to blow my head off. Some days are spent wrestling the voices I here internally from the programming.
This shit has ruined countless friendships, relationships with family and my career. My reputation is forever smeared with their filth.
I wish I could say I was more powerful than their programming and could just whisk it away. If I did I would be lying.
The LEC lie.

Elena-
At LEC it's being "Source". A slight word switch from "god". A puerile leftover from Jack and Ron's narcissistic meglomania.

Being the "anti-religion," of course scientology admits to no "God" as that would imply a being greater than one's self which no megalimaniac would accept or "submit" to.

What cracks me up is the idea of all these minor "dieties" (junior Forum leaders) all running around thinking *THEY* are in charge and wondering why all the rest of their ~creations~ are so disobedient or resistant to their commands.

Funnily enough, Werner Erhard had lots of people running around convinced that HE, not they, was the head honcho, and that while they may have been 100% in charge of their own lives, their own lives were mere extensions or reflections of his.

Do you think he himself crossed over the line into believing his own shtick when he made the remark about his "footsteps in the snow?"


Hope:

It's not for nothing that lots of troubled people have to "anchor" each morning with the serenity prayer. Even if you're not religious, it's still a giant puzzle to figure out where your responsibility ends and someone or something else's begins.



Ellen

Not forgotten, eh, gc?

So all the talk about the "kinder, gentler Landmark," (as opposed to est), is just another PR manoeuver and Werner's ghost or spirit-of-Werner with the screaming, profanity-laced temper tantrums is directing things yet? (Sounds like the newer, "kinder and gentler" torture and interrogation techniques that have evolved and leave no marks or visible scars to implicate the abusers.)

Many people don't know about the hours and hours in front of the mirror perfecting the delivery, which was supposed to be an exact replica of ole Werner himself. Methinks they must still be doing this. No?

I haven't heard anyone mention the "no victims" thing recently. In the est days, and I think this also came from scientology, it was used to humiliate or embarrass or shame anyone with a complaint, grievance, or admission that they had been harmed in some way. Having a complaint or criticism meant you were not following proper "tech" and not "being at cause" or some other such nonsense. "Being a victim" was like being a "loser." What have they replaced this with? (Funny thing, just about everyone in the whole organisation is a "victim" excepting Werner, and he was a "victim" of his own ego, his own stupidity, greed, and arrogance, and his own silly ~creation.~)



Ellen

I have to reread everything too.
The memes are screaming so loud that I can't remember what I was thinking or writing for very long.
It's hard for me to read Corboy's posts because of that. Too long for me to retain the thoughts.