These two threads will introduce you to a concept that other persons recovering from LGATs have found useful—meme theory--that is, that ideas can function as viruses of the mind.
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board.culteducation.com]
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board.culteducation.com]
If you combine mimetics with awareness of how certain problematic LGATs reportedly engineer their room set ups and in some cases, strategically use embarrassment, you’ll have a potent cocktail of information to assist you in recovery.
If you have not read Drew Kopp’s paper and are unfamiliar with mimetics, it will take you at least a day to make sense of this new information and apply it.
[i:8980b2d0d5]No matter how intelligent you are, you cannot accurately assess a situation if you are sleep deficient and not given full information about what you are in for.[/i:8980b2d0d5]
Elena said on thread
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board.culteducation.com]
‘You guys are very, very close to the live wire, the third rail, the most dangerous and deadly part of Landmarky-type or covert abusive manipulation, or, conversely, the most beneficial part of something like Cognitive Therapy or Logotherapy.
It is the examination of the malleability of perception or meaning people ascribe to events that can be useful in the hands of an ethical practitioner or deadly in the hands of an exploiter.
Reminds me of that saying about the most dangerous lie being only the slightest shade away from the truth. What Werner Erhard said to the lady who had been in a concentration camp was very, very close to what Victor Frankl says.’
Stages of Recovery
Recovery from a bad group or problematic LGAT takes place in several stages.
You cannot get a sense of existential meaning from your suffering until after you've fully traced the extent to which you were
1) manipulated
and 2) suffered -- and continue to suffer
only after completing steps 1 and 2 do we have sufficient foundation to go on to
3) seek a sense of meaning in the suffering and (where appropriate)
4) identify blind spots that enabled the cult meisters to hook us in.
***Recovery can be hampered if we prematurely seek to impose a sense of existential meaning on our suffering [i:8980b2d0d5]before [/i:8980b2d0d5]we have become fully conscious in relation to our suffering and have fully purged the meme viruses from our minds and emotions.
So, we have to do what Cosmo and Guy recommend, while remembering that these steps are done at different stages of recovery.
Whats 'right' at one stage of recovery will hamper you at another stage of recovery.
Again, both Guy and Cosmo are right
First identify your suffering & how you were manipulated and meme-infected/indoctrinated.
Purge yourself of the memes
Then, and only then, after purging yourself of the memes, look for existential meaning.
***Perhaps the more powerful an idea/meme is at freeing our minds, the more it can be used as a potent co-factor to a parasitic meme that puts us to sleep.
Carrying this speculation further, the 'meme buster' when it is used BY ITSELF, by a person with altruistic intentions, will help us wake up.
That same meme buster, when used as a cofactor for a parasitic meme, by a person with a bad agenda, will arouse our trust and interest, opening the gates for the parasitic meme to come in and infect us.
When you encounter an intellectully exciting set of memes, always, always ask if they're linked to something not in your best interests.