Re: Manipulating the room's environment
Posted by:
Stoic
()
Date: October 24, 2010 07:34PM
'Supermarket chains don't just encourage impulse buying'
Agreed.
I think the point that I am trying to illustrate, with the casino and supermarket examples, is that the process is entirely economically driven. The whole environment and everything that happens in it is minutely scrutinised and then controlled and scripted as much as is currently possible with the sole intention of getting the biggest possible slice of the customers cash.
The LGAT companies, to remain in business and competitive, must do much the same.
I had a long close-up aquaintance with the workings of casinos and was constantly astounded at the lengths to which they would go to try out and monitor some whacky new strategy if it promised a few pennies more return from the customer. There was absolutely no consideration given for what effects such repeated experiments might have on the customer or on those workers who were inadvertantly even more constantly exposed than the customers.
There was only one 'good' considered and that is the size of the bottom line. I have no reason to think that other sizeable business organisations, including LGAT's, operate to any other ethic.
At one time there was some consideration for the customer--something along the lines of not killing the golden goose, giving the customer a good experience in return for his cash in order to keep him as a repeat customer----but that got thrown out sometime in the early eighties when the bean-counters took control in a big way.
Agreed.
I think the point that I am trying to illustrate, with the casino and supermarket examples, is that the process is entirely economically driven. The whole environment and everything that happens in it is minutely scrutinised and then controlled and scripted as much as is currently possible with the sole intention of getting the biggest possible slice of the customers cash.
The LGAT companies, to remain in business and competitive, must do much the same.
I had a long close-up aquaintance with the workings of casinos and was constantly astounded at the lengths to which they would go to try out and monitor some whacky new strategy if it promised a few pennies more return from the customer. There was absolutely no consideration given for what effects such repeated experiments might have on the customer or on those workers who were inadvertantly even more constantly exposed than the customers.
There was only one 'good' considered and that is the size of the bottom line. I have no reason to think that other sizeable business organisations, including LGAT's, operate to any other ethic.
At one time there was some consideration for the customer--something along the lines of not killing the golden goose, giving the customer a good experience in return for his cash in order to keep him as a repeat customer----but that got thrown out sometime in the early eighties when the bean-counters took control in a big way.
Re: Manipulating the room's environment
Posted by:
Stoic
()
Date: October 24, 2010 08:40PM
As the link no longer works I googled the Drew Kopp article on room environment, mentioned at the beginning of this thread, and came across this intriguing site that posits a physiological conflict-- subliminal distraction--as the trigger for psychotic breaks in LGAT environments.
[www.visionandpsychosis.net]
I haven't read the whole site but the premise seems logical and the site provides substantial back-up evidence for this phenomenom which, though little advertised, seems to have some validity.
[www.visionandpsychosis.net]
I haven't read the whole site but the premise seems logical and the site provides substantial back-up evidence for this phenomenom which, though little advertised, seems to have some validity.
Re: Manipulating the room's environment
Posted by:
corboy
()
Date: October 24, 2010 11:15PM
Hmmm, that paper by Kopp is no longer available online.
(Smile)
Just make sure, whenever you find something that informative, to always make a copy.
(Smile)
Just make sure, whenever you find something that informative, to always make a copy.
Re: Manipulating the room's environment
Posted by:
OutofTransition
()
Date: December 20, 2010 03:49AM
I haven't had a whole lot of experience with LGAT's--when you don't have a lot of money to throw around, you tend not to sign up for these sort of things as they can be rather expensive, and frankly they don't sound like anything I'd go for anyway, but it is easy to jump to conclusions. Recently I attended a conference put out by Skillpath Seminars, which I found pretty useful other than the fact that they kept advertising their books and products every five minutes. (It was all about dealing with various workplace issues).
Anyway, I was reminded of this thread because the rooms had temperature problems. It was either too hot or too cold. Now, I could have gotten all paranoid and said, "They are trying to manipulate me," but since the speaker seemed to be just as annoyed as the rest of us, I figured it had to be due to bad design. Which it was. Apparently the conference rooms in this particular building are poorly designed and it has a reputation in the area for being difficult to keep warm/cool; if you find yourself having to attend something there, you just dress accordingly. That's all. No behind the scenes trickery.
So while it may be possible that some groups are using temperature and humidity to manipulate people, I would say that more than likely it is the design of the room. I would be far more concerned with what is being said and done rather than the environment.
Anyway, I was reminded of this thread because the rooms had temperature problems. It was either too hot or too cold. Now, I could have gotten all paranoid and said, "They are trying to manipulate me," but since the speaker seemed to be just as annoyed as the rest of us, I figured it had to be due to bad design. Which it was. Apparently the conference rooms in this particular building are poorly designed and it has a reputation in the area for being difficult to keep warm/cool; if you find yourself having to attend something there, you just dress accordingly. That's all. No behind the scenes trickery.
So while it may be possible that some groups are using temperature and humidity to manipulate people, I would say that more than likely it is the design of the room. I would be far more concerned with what is being said and done rather than the environment.
Re: Manipulating the room's environment
Posted by:
caligari
()
Date: December 20, 2010 04:42AM
Quote
corboy
Hmmm, that paper by Kopp is no longer available online.
(Smile)
Just make sure, whenever you find something that informative, to always make a copy.
Mr. Kopp looks to be at Rowan University and has taken the paper off the net:
[users.rowan.edu] :
=================
I wish to inform those of you in search of my 2003 paper “Invisible Bodies, the Disinherited, and the Production of Space in the Landmark Forum” that I have removed it from my website. The principle reason for doing so is that it no longer represents my thinking about Landmark Education, which has undergone significant development since I attempted this initial analysis of the spatial practices of arrangement Landmark employs toward effecting shifts in mood and understanding in its participants. Since it was allowing various people to promote a particular and one-sided agenda concerning this very complex phenomenon, I felt it best to elicit direct requests for the paper. I can be reached at adolphous1@hotmail.com
I am currently working through a significant revision of this paper, as I’m including it in a dissertation length study into the controversial value of rhetorical education, its aims and methods, and its effectiveness in developing subjectivities capable of engaging with the uncertainties of everyday life with practical wisdom.
Thank you,
Drew
Drew Kopp
PhD Candidate Rhetoric, Composition, and the Teaching of English
University of Arizona
=================
Re: Manipulating the room's environment
Posted by:
Stoic
()
Date: December 20, 2010 04:53AM
While I think it is all too easy to get paranoid and see a dastardly manipulative hand behind every temperature fluctuaction, there is no doubt that big money businesses such as LGAT's, with no product to exchange for the high cash investment, themselves invest a lot in controlling the environments and the customers to squeeze every last available cent from the customer.
They are, after all in the business to take your cash and with little overhead spent on a concrete product, can afford to research such esoteric subjects as environment manipulation. That can range from the choice of music played to number of customers squeezed into a hotel conference room to ensuring that the venue is off the beaten track so customers can't easily leave.
What else are they going to spend their profits on if not research and development to keep the show on the road and keep the cash registers ringing?
They are, after all in the business to take your cash and with little overhead spent on a concrete product, can afford to research such esoteric subjects as environment manipulation. That can range from the choice of music played to number of customers squeezed into a hotel conference room to ensuring that the venue is off the beaten track so customers can't easily leave.
What else are they going to spend their profits on if not research and development to keep the show on the road and keep the cash registers ringing?
Re: Manipulating the room's environment
Posted by:
corboy
()
Date: January 30, 2012 10:32PM
[webcache.googleusercontent.com]
Quote
The Rhetoric of Casino Architecture
Design for Service points out a page on casino design in this archeological history of slot machines (by William Choi and Antoine Sindhu).
Other features of the casino, including the music, carpeting, and even the air conditioning system, are manipulated to the casino’s advantage. Studies have shown that carpeting is often purposefully jarring to the eyes, which draws customers’ gaze upwards toward the machines on the gambling floor. Music is usually mild and soothing, and plays on a continuous loop rather than individual songs, contributing to a trance-like feeling of warmth and comfort in the gamblers. It has even been reported that casinos have attempted to manipulate the air circulation in order to affect the behavior of gamblers. They may add extra oxygen to the circulation to keep gamblers more alert, or even add pheromones that make people feel more relaxed and at ease.
All of which actually points to how common it is for us to be powerfully articulated by design and architecture. They work best by fooling us.
And work they do, all the time and everywhere: Not just in casinos, but shopping malls, grocery stores, sports stadiums, fast food restaurants, clubs passé and trendy are designed in ways that help us forget our surroundings and participate in ways consistent with the goals of the space. Malls without clocks and exterior lights but with food courts, park benches, and piped-in bird songs, like casinos, attempt to take us out of the world and part of an isolated, fully contained environment. Fast food restaurant seating that's not quite comfortable urges us to eat quickly and leave, freeing up space for the next consumer. Crackdowns on loitering and visibly homeless people before high-profile city events like the Olympics or large conventions prevent visitors from seeing what real city life is like.
Sometimes they're designed that way intentionally—particularly when large markets are involved—but sometimes they just get that way in an evolutionary fashion, as different arrangements are tried out over and over again. Those that work get repeated, refined, and dispersed. That's how culture works.
Re: Manipulating the room's environment
Posted by:
corboy
()
Date: April 04, 2013 10:33PM
A great new word.
Zeitgeber.
Quote from the article.
"Because the internal clock relies on zeitgebers to set itself, a lack of such cues can be very disorienting, which explains why people have trouble sleeping in strange places, or experience a disruption of appetite or personality while traveling. Many such cues are so subtle that people don't realize how influential they are until they are gone."
"Time takes on malleable properties" -- visitor at Amma's ashram quoted in Rolling Stone magazine, below.
Corboy: It may be that the most important thing we can do for ourselves as adults is to examine our lives and identify what kinds of cues (zeitgebers) have helped us most. We dont have to hire anyone to do this for us. Identify times in your life when you know you have been the most effective, done the most good for others and felt a sense of belonging--even when under stress.
Then, pin pointing those times in your life, try identify what times you got up, went to bed, what your daily routine was. When did you get up. What woke you up?
When did you have breakfast? What time did you set for coffee? When and where do you get news reports? Do you stop and chat with the newspaper vendor before going in to work? Do you like it when you see the same person walking the dog and do you know them by name? Is patting that dog part of your day?
All these and much more, are zeitgebers.
Babies and tiny children need lots of tutoring learning to operate by zeitgeber.
If we are consciously aware of those zeitgebers that punctuate our day, month, year the ones that keep us balanced, tthat seem correlated with our own resourcefulness, the zeitgebers that seem to make us more resistant to stress-----those are the zeitgebers to preserve. Those are the zeitgebers that we should honor and not permit others to tamper with.
**Never tolerate someone who suggests that you are holding yourself back by your refusal to allow disruption of sleep hygeine.
It may be that part of what gives gurus and LGATs such a potent influence is the manipulation of multiple zeitgebers.
Same thing happens when people go on vacation and especially to Las Vegas (see casino architecture discussion above)
Zeitgeber.
Quote from the article.
"Because the internal clock relies on zeitgebers to set itself, a lack of such cues can be very disorienting, which explains why people have trouble sleeping in strange places, or experience a disruption of appetite or personality while traveling. Many such cues are so subtle that people don't realize how influential they are until they are gone."
"Time takes on malleable properties" -- visitor at Amma's ashram quoted in Rolling Stone magazine, below.
Corboy: It may be that the most important thing we can do for ourselves as adults is to examine our lives and identify what kinds of cues (zeitgebers) have helped us most. We dont have to hire anyone to do this for us. Identify times in your life when you know you have been the most effective, done the most good for others and felt a sense of belonging--even when under stress.
Then, pin pointing those times in your life, try identify what times you got up, went to bed, what your daily routine was. When did you get up. What woke you up?
When did you have breakfast? What time did you set for coffee? When and where do you get news reports? Do you stop and chat with the newspaper vendor before going in to work? Do you like it when you see the same person walking the dog and do you know them by name? Is patting that dog part of your day?
All these and much more, are zeitgebers.
Babies and tiny children need lots of tutoring learning to operate by zeitgeber.
If we are consciously aware of those zeitgebers that punctuate our day, month, year the ones that keep us balanced, tthat seem correlated with our own resourcefulness, the zeitgebers that seem to make us more resistant to stress-----those are the zeitgebers to preserve. Those are the zeitgebers that we should honor and not permit others to tamper with.
**Never tolerate someone who suggests that you are holding yourself back by your refusal to allow disruption of sleep hygeine.
It may be that part of what gives gurus and LGATs such a potent influence is the manipulation of multiple zeitgebers.
Same thing happens when people go on vacation and especially to Las Vegas (see casino architecture discussion above)
Quote
Here is a reference to an article in Rolling Stone about Amma the Hugging Guru. A disciple was quoted saying she had planned to travel with Amma for six months. She ended up staying six years.
Could it be that so many orienting cues (zeitgebers) were changed by living at the ashram that, cognitively, time slipped away for this person?Quote
"...it is impossible not to be reminded of how the line where devotion blurs into obsession, where faith morphs into fanaticism, can become so thin and porous that you can cross it without ever knowing it.
"When I first started traveling with Amma, I thought it would be, like, six months," a young woman tells me on my second day at the ashram. "That was six years ago." Indeed, I spend three days at the site, a sleepdeprived blur during which time takes on malleable properties.
[www.culteducation.com]
[www.wisegeek.com]
A zeitgeber is an external cue which influences the operations of the internal clock in an organism. The classical example of a zeitgeber is light, which leads some organisms to wake up, while others go to sleep. An interruption in such cues can confuse an organism, potentially causing health problems and functional difficulties, as demonstrated in numerous studies.
The term was coined in 1954 by Jürgen Aschoff, a German biologist who studied circadian rhythms. In German, “zeitgeber” means “time giver,” so in a sense, you could consider a zeitgeber to be like a natural alarm clock, triggering some sort of change in an organism's internal clock, like a cue to wake up, eat, or engage in various activities.
Light is such a powerful zeitgeber that numerous studies have been carried out on the influences of light over the lives of various organisms. Deprivation of light clearly has an influence on health, as does an excess of light, and many people struggle when they travel across time zones because they receive external cues to wake up or go to sleep at times which feel strange to the body.
Other natural and unnatural phenomena can act as zeitgebers. Many social interactions, for example, can provide cues to the internal clock, as can eating, drinking, using various medications, and taking drugs. In some instances, the body learns to respond to particular events, following patterns established in the past, and in other cases, the body can be tricked into responding, as is sometimes done with prescription medications.
In many cases, a zeitgeber is a naturally occurring cue, and it is part of a complex series of cues used to establish natural rhythms for an organism. For example, people who live with chickens often use roosters as a cue to get up, naturally rising earlier or later in the day throughout the year as roosters crow at different times, depending on when the sunrise is. Roosters actually crow before the sunrise, typically, which may come as a surprise to some people, and the birds have an uncanny ability to recognize the time of sunrise, tending to be very reliable clocks.
Because the internal clock relies on zeitgebers to set itself, a lack of such cues can be very disorienting, which explains why people have trouble sleeping in strange places, or experience a disruption of appetite or personality while traveling. Many such cues are so subtle that people don't realize how influential they are until they are gone.
jcraig
Post 4 @TreeMan - There are a lot of potential reasons you're having sleeping problems. I had a similar problem a while back.
Some of the first things to look for are whether there is anything new you started doing that might have caused you to get out of your rhythm. Are you under a lot of stress? Just changing the position of your bed or getting new pillows can trigger zeitgeber problems with some people. It's along the same lines as sleeping in a hotel.
What I would recommend, and what finally helped me get my clock back in sync was to make sure I didn't watch TV or get on the computer at least an hour before bed since these things can excite the brain. Don't drink caffeine during the day. Finally, read or do something relaxing for the hour before you go to bed. Most importantly: don't take naps! This will completely ruin your system. Good luck!
TreeMan
Post 3 I have been having a ton of problems with my biological rhythms lately. I don't know what has happened, but I have been having a lot of sleeping problems the last couple of months.
Before, I was pretty regular about when I went to sleep and got up. I never really had any problems. For some reason, that all changed, and now when I go to sleep, it takes me a couple hours to go to sleep sometimes, and when I wake up in the morning I am always still tired.
Since I'm not getting all the sleep I need, I start feeling tired earlier in the day, too. This might cause me to accidentally take a nap later on, which just compounds the problem.
Does anybody have any ideas why my internal clock might have gotten messed up, and what should I do to try to fix it?
cardsfan27
Post 2 At least for me, eating is probably my biggest zeitgeber. I always think it is interesting that every day I start to get hungry right around noon and 6 in the evening. Even if I have eaten a snack soon before my normal lunch time, I still feel hungry.
Are the signals that describe a zeitgeber physical in some way, or are they purely mental? When my body starts to feel hungry at meal times, is it because my stomach starts to produce gastric juices like it has every day for weeks before, or does my brain just start telling me that it is time to eat and then I feel hungry?
Izzy78
Post 1 I read something a while ago that looking at a computer screen at night can have interesting effects on your circadian clock.
Since the light that comes from a computer screen is mostly white light like the light that comes from the sun, it can stop some people from going to sleep when they need to.
I have seen a few programs that are able to change the type of light that comes from your computer screen to more blues. I'm not sure whether it really works or if it is just an idea at this point.
Personally, I don't think I have ever noticed a problem with sleeping after I have been looking at a computer screen for a while, but maybe I am one of the people the article mentions that don't realize the influence since it has been a gradual change
Re: Manipulating the room's environment
Posted by:
corboy
()
Date: April 04, 2013 10:50PM
Zeitgebers are being investigated in relation to bipolar affective disorder.
[www.google.com]
[webcache.googleusercontent.com]
And in this same article, the author notes many are already short on sleep. This would enhance vulnerability for anyone put in some workshop where they are made short on sleep.
Finally, the author lists these interventions. Note the high protein diet--- a contrast to the low protein diets one hears about in many high demand groups.
Corboy: 'slow release' carbohydrates are those that digest slowly and produce slow rises in blood sugar. Old fashioned steel cut oats, barley, beans are all 'low glycemic index' slow carbohydrates.
This contrasts with the diets high in refined starches one hears about in many groups--sugar, white rice, white flour breads, etc, without enough concentrated protein to offset the fast release of carbohydrate. Indian and Chinese vegetarian/vegan[www.google.com]
cooking tends to fit this profile.
[www.google.com]
[webcache.googleusercontent.com]
Quote
In subjects who work, it is common to observe a worsening of depressive mood at the beginning of the week, when social rhythms have been lost during the weekend and have not yet been retrained by professional constraints (Monday mornings).
Quote
A certain number of other arguments highlight the clear link between emotional control and sleeping time. It suffices to spend a night without sleep to understand the degree to which a simple reduction in sleeping time can cause moodiness, aggressiveness, episodes of crying, explosions of rage, and other emotional reactions. All these symptoms are directly linked to the most archaic parts of our brains, collectively called the limbic zone. Under normal circumstances, these areas are linked to the prefrontal lobe, which is the “adult” and reasonable area responsible for our intelligence. Indeed, many authors think that human beings are above all a “prefrontal animal.”
It was in order to allow the development of the prefrontal lobe that our ancestors experienced a gradual diminution of the supraorbital ridge and disappearance of the receding forehead characteristic of most large apes. This part of our brain, capable of controlling instinctive and affective movements, is probably the anatomical seat of what differentiates humans from other animals. Indeed, it has been shown that experimental conditions of sleep deprivation will “disconnect” the prefrontal lobe from the limbic zone. This disconnection deprives the conscious and reasonable part of our brain of any control over emotions, hence an increase in emotiveness and ultimately in violence and aggressiveness. It is therefore possible to hypothesize fromthesemechanisms that chronic sleep deprivation favors depression, which would help to explain the increased incidence of this condition at a general epidemiological level.6
And in this same article, the author notes many are already short on sleep. This would enhance vulnerability for anyone put in some workshop where they are made short on sleep.
Quote
A certain number of other arguments highlight the clear link between emotional control and sleeping time. It suffices to spend a night without sleep to understand the degree to which a simple reduction in sleeping time can cause moodiness, aggressiveness, episodes of crying, explosions of rage, and other emotional reactions. All these symptoms are directly linked to the most archaic parts of our brains, collectively called the limbic zone. Under normal circumstances, these areas are linked to the prefrontal lobe, which is the “adult” and reasonable area responsible for our intelligence. Indeed, many authors think that human beings are above all a “prefrontal animal.”
It was in order to allow the development of the prefrontal lobe that our ancestors experienced a gradual diminution of the supraorbital ridge and disappearance of the receding forehead characteristic of most large apes. This part of our brain, capable of controlling instinctive and affective movements, is probably the anatomical seat of what differentiates humans from other animals. Indeed, it has been shown that experimental conditions of sleep deprivation will “disconnect” the prefrontal lobe from the limbic zone. This disconnection deprives the conscious and reasonable part of our brain of any control over emotions, hence an increase in emotiveness and ultimately in violence and aggressiveness. It is therefore possible to hypothesize fromthesemechanisms that chronic sleep deprivation favors depression, which would help to explain the increased incidence of this condition at a general epidemiological level.6
Finally, the author lists these interventions. Note the high protein diet--- a contrast to the low protein diets one hears about in many high demand groups.
Quote
Therapy involving adjustment of rhythms must be considered as supplementary to the therapies referred to above. It is thus necessary to reinforce the circadian rhythms through behavioral measures: getting up earlier in the morning (always at the same time), physical exercise immediately on rising, a long hot shower, a relatively high-protein breakfast, and exposure to brilliant white light at 10 000 lux.
In the evening, no intensive physical exercise or excessively stimulating or stressful activities, an evening meal containing slow-release carbohydrates*, a warm bath, and low lighting to encourage the release of endogenous melatonin.
When these recommendations regarding healthy rhythms are respected, a rapid improvement can be observed in general wellbeing and a reduction in residual symptoms: morning tiredness, insomnia, morning gloominess. Although there is a dearth of studies in this area, it is possible that rigorous compliance with this chronotherapy may to some extent reduce the risk of recurrence. _
Corboy: 'slow release' carbohydrates are those that digest slowly and produce slow rises in blood sugar. Old fashioned steel cut oats, barley, beans are all 'low glycemic index' slow carbohydrates.
This contrasts with the diets high in refined starches one hears about in many groups--sugar, white rice, white flour breads, etc, without enough concentrated protein to offset the fast release of carbohydrate. Indian and Chinese vegetarian/vegan[www.google.com]
cooking tends to fit this profile.
Quote
Why Indians are Stressed and Unhealthy | TheSouthAsianIdea ...Jan 27, 2009 ... A Learning Resource for College Students in South Asia ... Indian food is
assumed to be strongly vegetarian, but it is actually lacking in vegetables. ......
less healthy than Indians in India – given lifestyles, adapting unhealthy ...
thesouthasianidea.wordpress.com/.../why-indians-are-stressed-and-unhealthy/ - 159k - Cached - Similar pages
Is South Asian vegetarian diet bad for immigrants' hearts?Chicago: Ranjana Bhargava's kitchen embodies the flavors of South Asia.
Rainbows of ... Eating a healthy diet: Despite proven health benefits of
vegetarianism, such as cancer prevention, vegetarians can still be unhealthy
eaters. Focusing on ...
www.indiatribune.com/index.php?...south-asian-vegetarian... - 47k - Cached - Similar pages
IMPROVING SOUTH ASIAN HEALTH - EPPICIMPROVING SOUTH ASIAN. HEALTH. By. Ronesh Sinha, M.D.. Palo Alto
Medical ... He is vegetarian ..... Helps distinguish healthy and unhealthy carbs ...
www.eppicglobal.org/Presentations/EPPIC_Presentation_Sinha.pdf - - Cached - Similar pages
10 tips for a healthy south Asian diet - Live Well - NHS ChoicesThe term 'south Asian' refers here to anyone of Indian, Bangladeshi, ... about
eating pulses as part of a balanced vegetarian diet, read about vegetarian health.
www.nhs.uk/Livewell/SouthAsianhealth/.../10healthyeatingtips.aspx - 109k - Cached - Similar pages
Re: Manipulating the room's environment
Posted by:
corboy
()
Date: August 26, 2013 10:40AM
A free paper in a cover story, Punishment by Design: The Power of Architecture Over the Human Mind, contains an interview of an architect who wants the American Institute of Architecture (AIA) to make a statement against its members assisting to design prisons.
This article offers some insights on how physical setting affects human relationships in subtle but powerful ways.
Most of us are not aware of this. But those who arrange Large Group Awareness Training Programs arrange rooms and settings to create multiple pressure points that throw subjects off balance.
"Physical space is a profound thing, Sperry says, and it structures our relationships in small, unseen ways. Architects build our spaces for physical reasons, but also for practical ones.
[Punishment by Design: The Power of Architecture Over ... - SF Weekly5 days ago ... Punishment by Design: The Power of Architecture Over the Human Mind ... wide
hallways that allow people to see the windows at the end, "so ...
www.sfweekly.com/2013-08-21/news/security-housing.../2/ - 100k - Cached - Similar pages
Now, lets look at the situations we discuss here on Cult Education.com
These are often conducted in environments in which, unlike large airports, there is a lack of orienting cues.
The seminar leader or guru is often up high on a chair onstage, just as a judge is on an elevated podium or a priest at an elevated altar, establishing hierarchy.
*You may be required to remove your watches, turn off or even give over your phones and ID.
*Some events take place in foreign countries or out in the countryside. Leaving is rendered more difficult.
Many times events take place in rented rooms where windows are blocked and doors are shut.
Chairs may be placed close together, pushing people closer than normal social boundaries allow.
In some cases, care may be taken to clean bathrooms and spilled messes, re-arrange chairs while subjects are out of the room. All this keeps people from marking their places and also obliterates evidence that time has passed, creating an illusion of eternal present.
People may be given assignments that keep them up past normal bedtimes, which may lead to cumulative sleep deprivation.
None of this may seem like much, but cumulatively, the effect can be quite potent.
On top of this, some persons may, without knowing it, have genetic predisposition to various forms of bipolar affective disorder.
[webcache.googleusercontent.com]
This article offers some insights on how physical setting affects human relationships in subtle but powerful ways.
Most of us are not aware of this. But those who arrange Large Group Awareness Training Programs arrange rooms and settings to create multiple pressure points that throw subjects off balance.
"Physical space is a profound thing, Sperry says, and it structures our relationships in small, unseen ways. Architects build our spaces for physical reasons, but also for practical ones.
Quote
Once you start considering the unconscious effects of design, the architectural features of many institutional structures begin to offer clues about their intended purpose.
Big airports, such as SFO, often require large, wide hallways that allow people to see the windows at the end, "so that they get a sense of orientation — they know where they're going, and that they're going to get there," Sperry says.
American courthouses are designed hierarchically, in that the judge is always two steps up, while the witness stand and jury boxes are one step up. "It creates this kind of power relationship where everyone looks up at the judge, because the judge is supposed to be this unquestioned authority," Sperry says.
"But I saw a picture of a court in the Netherlands, and it looked more like a conference room. There was a big table, and there were seats all around it, and one of those seats was for the judge." He smiles conspiratorially. "I was like, 'Huh. Can you really do that?'"
"
[Punishment by Design: The Power of Architecture Over ... - SF Weekly5 days ago ... Punishment by Design: The Power of Architecture Over the Human Mind ... wide
hallways that allow people to see the windows at the end, "so ...
www.sfweekly.com/2013-08-21/news/security-housing.../2/ - 100k - Cached - Similar pages
Now, lets look at the situations we discuss here on Cult Education.com
These are often conducted in environments in which, unlike large airports, there is a lack of orienting cues.
The seminar leader or guru is often up high on a chair onstage, just as a judge is on an elevated podium or a priest at an elevated altar, establishing hierarchy.
*You may be required to remove your watches, turn off or even give over your phones and ID.
*Some events take place in foreign countries or out in the countryside. Leaving is rendered more difficult.
Many times events take place in rented rooms where windows are blocked and doors are shut.
Chairs may be placed close together, pushing people closer than normal social boundaries allow.
In some cases, care may be taken to clean bathrooms and spilled messes, re-arrange chairs while subjects are out of the room. All this keeps people from marking their places and also obliterates evidence that time has passed, creating an illusion of eternal present.
People may be given assignments that keep them up past normal bedtimes, which may lead to cumulative sleep deprivation.
None of this may seem like much, but cumulatively, the effect can be quite potent.
On top of this, some persons may, without knowing it, have genetic predisposition to various forms of bipolar affective disorder.
Quote
"In a combined sample of 61,392 adults from 11 countries, the total lifetime prevalences were 0.6 percent for BP-I, 0.4 percent for BP-II, and 1.4 percent for sub-threshold BP, yielding a total BPS prevalence estimate of 2.4 percent worldwide," the authors report.
Science Daily
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