Re: hypnotherapy, I'd say the bigger problem is incompetence. But yea, buyer beware for sure. "Its sorta like a meat factory, once you know how a sausage is made, you lose your appetite for it, and prefer to cook your own meats." Funny analogy because I was a vegetarian for many years due to finding out how meat is made. :) Yea, I can understand the disgust once your eyes are
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Yea, the way I think about it is that there are people who deliberately and brazenly lie about their credentials and the tactics they use to manipulate people. Avoid those people completely! Then there are legit doctors and therapists for whom it is best to exercise a reasonable degree of caution, but probably not avoid entirely. Of course it is entirely up to the client which professional
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I agree when it comes to the big dogs, LGAT-trained seminar leaders, etc. But I also know many very decent and kind people who do hypnotherapy. Your warnings are good but don't apply to the folks I'm thinking of--folks who willingly undergo hypnosis and therapy from others regularly, who don't promise magic, who don't exhibit fits of narcissistic rage, who charge a reasonably
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I've been reading that article on L. Ron Hubbard and Malignant Narcissism and have to say that Lakhani's responding with such attacks on all criticism looks a whole lot like narcissistic rage--something a lot of these professional persuaders seem to share.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuotePenelopeJust like Bill Harris in response to McDufee's criticism, he resorts to threats and intimidation and personal insults. If these people were legit they would present real evidence to refute what they say is false information about who they are and what they (or their products) do. The problem is that they don't have any evidence, just a web of lies. QuotePenelopeI have s
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

It's impossible to know whether these guys were attacked by malware or installed it themselves, but I agree with Stoic that once they are seen as deceptive in one area they lose credibility in all other areas as well. For instance, Kevin Kelly's blog was also attacked by malware recently, but I find his report totally credible:
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

The last thing I would want as a corporate employee is for my boss to play God.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quotehelpme2timesMr. Mack made a little statement on Twitter (a "Tweet", for those who don't know the lingo) just yesterday, as if he's been reading our posts in this forum: they tease w/ "More to come on 'Dr.' Ben Mack...." i go by "Dr." Ben Mack. i swiped the Dr. tactic from Edward Bernays about 24 hours ago from web [twitter.com] J
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

The word "con man" is short for "confidence man." Wikipedia's article on the confidence trick is pretty interesting: QUOTE: "A confidence trick or confidence game (also known as a bunko, con, flim flam, gaffle, grift, hustle, scam, scheme, swindle or bamboozle) is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. The victim is known as the mark
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Irony can be a powerful persuasive technique used by professional persuaders. By saying "Join my cult" Lakhani is exaggerating for effect. It's hard to directly criticize such exaggeration because he isn't actually starting a cult (and no cult says "join my cult"), yet simultaneously he is using manipulative sales tactics. It's like Lakhani's friend Joe
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Another example of cult members switching gurus is when followers of Frederick Lenz were courted by Adi Da after Lenz committed suicide (with his girlfriend and his dog): I wouldn't be surprised if some of James Arthur Ray's followers leave Ray's camp and become followers of another guru, or even if various gurus target them specifically.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

@KaiserSoce "This is the guy that supposedly "taught" James Ray all that he knows." Do you have a source for this? Seems to me like James Ray stole a lot from Tony Robbins and other LGAT leaders, sampling widely and not just from one person. Also, I can't find the videos you mentioned--can you provide a specific link? Tad James was mentioned as an influence of Ja
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

@helpme2times, People who are experts of persuasion in person are often terrible at persuasion in other mediums, like writing or website design. But if you truly earn $30k/day, you could afford one heck of a great web design firm! Perhaps he does, perhaps he doesn't earn that much--but still an interesting choice. His home page does have an impressive Google pagerank of 5.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteChristaPeople who leave cults and do not complete the recovery process often wind up drifting from cult to cult. Less often, they visit upon others what their guru visited upon them. I think this is likely what James Arthur Ray did (repeat the cycle of abuse from abusive LGATs), and perhaps also what Mr. Lakhani is doing. You are absolutely right that his story about being someone who help
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Dave, I don't know all the content of what you are teaching so I can't say which things I object to and which I do not (I don't intend to spend $3000 to find out). However, I do object to misleading marketing copy that plays on people's greed and fear to sell things high above market-prices. I consider calling sales techniques "cult mind control tactics" dangerous
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I will say specifically that I don't support posting torrent links to copyright protected materials, but I understand that people do use torrents to engage in illegal file sharing and there is a debate over whether this should or shouldn't be illegal.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Dave, While I don't particularly like what I understand that you sell nor how you sell it, I appreciate that you are going to correct your error in pointing to CAN as an anti-cult resource. I think this shows character--thank you. In general, you appear to me to be somewhat different than your cohorts in the professional persuasion business in your willingness to acknowledge your mistakes
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Excellent point regarding Toastmasters, helpme2times. According to Toastmasters International, fees for joining Toastmasters are a $20 new member fee and $27 twice a year, with additional fees charged by the local group which vary from group to group: For instance, the total fees for TCU Toastmasters are $57 initially, then $37 every six months thereafter. In other words, for $3000 one
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Thank you Christa.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Dave, I'm still waiting for a response to the specific feedback I gave to you, in which you said you would "address my concerns" (referring specifically to both me and anticult), as you had time. I am patiently awaiting your response if you so choose. Your most recent post here does not address the specific concerns as stated previously including your ongoing business associa
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quackdave, I found this book useful years ago in helping me to learn about logical fallacies and argumentation: Informal logic: a handbook for critical argumentation By Douglas N. Walton And no upsells to expensive LGATs! :)
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Stoic, I don't see it as a witch hunt, just rational skepticism of someone who says he teaches "cult mind control tactics." I appreciate what Lakhani has written about James Arthur Ray in helping exposing Ray's coercive persuasion techniques. I also appreciate what Anticult mentioned which is that Lakhani teaches such methods explicitly instead of hidden with content like &
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Nice work discovering that Alex Benzer/Ali Binazir and Dave Lakhani are "colleagues." Makes perfect sense.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Hi Dave, I'll be curious to hear you address my concerns, since the reply below didn't address any of them. "your observations...are off base and filtered through what frankly appears to be some paranoia. Not everyone is out to get you or manipulate you. Some people actually do have others best interests in mind." I think it is perfectly reasonable to be skeptical FOR
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Hi Dave, Thank you for sharing your opinion. You certainly are an interesting fellow. In common parlance, there are two senses of the word manipulation, one of which implies coercion against one's will. If we instead say all communication is manipulation, then we must distinguish between good and bad manipulation--and bad manipulation involves coercion (unless we dispense with ethics a
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Two long new "white papers" have been released to the public by James Arthur Ray's lawyers:
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I have to give Larry King more credit than Oprah though. Both promoted Ray around the time of The Secret, but only Larry King has covered the Death Lodge.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteStoicThe way these internet marketing rings seem to work, I should imagine that having your name on the list of any of these "Transformational Leaders" would mean that your details are passed around (for a price) to all the others as a qualified lead. For 'qualified lead' perhaps 'sucker ripe for picking' would be a better synonym in this case. By buying once
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Lakhani's home page says he specializes in marketing "start ups, small business and especially micro-enterprises (businesses under $250,000 in revenue)." In other words, the sucker market--people who don't understand business and haven't yet been ripped off by marketing consultants, haven't attended business school, and are ripe for the scamming. The sucker mark
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Here's a direct quote from Lakhani's book Subliminal Persuasion, viewable on Amazon: QUOTE: "Subliminal persuasion occurs when you are able to successfully implant a message in the mind of a person or group of people whom you target for change without their conscious evaluation of the change, and encourage them to spread the idea organically to their associates." ~p2 of
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"