'He sets up the bogus fake Permission Granting trick, that he might not take your 3 grand to attend his seminar, which is just a manipulation tactic.' I think this is really just about usurping the customer's own power of choice and keeping all power in the hands of the seller--or the leader who is bent on developing a cult following. I read 'On Bullshit' by Harr
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Just found a really useful quote on covert persuasion from L Ron: "THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN CONTROL PEOPLE IS TO LIE TO THEM. You can write that down in your book in great big letters. The only way you can control anybody is to lie to them." - L. Ron Hubbard, "Off the Time Track," lecture of June 1952, excerpted in JOURNAL OF SCIENTOLOGY issue 18-G, reprinted in TECHNICAL V
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

'And it's called BOOT CAMP. It could get rough in there.' That's probably a large part of the appeal, like the frightening shocks that Dave delivers, the disclosure of forbidden material, the death-defying exploits that James Ray promises----it's a new twist on what the fun fair or the carnival offers and why we enjoy horror movies---- we are being taken on a dramatic
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

'He made a SUGGESTION that torrents appeared after it was suggested in these threads that they be uploaded. That is actually a deliberate double-disinformation. Its applied propaganda, with the emphasis on app-LIED.' I think that became obvious from the minute he mentioned the torrents, he was unwilling to reread what was actually posted and continued to belabour the point that serv
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

'If your gut is acting up, or you are getting a headache, or getting dizzy, confused, dissociated, anxious, or even super-excited and manic, those are signals of self-protection and warning. This is because the professional persuader is targeting and affecting your core beliefs and mental concepts, and using emotional manipulation.' Yes indeedy. Something I had to learn step by st
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

'One can't believe anything they say, due to the constant stream of bullshit.' Way too many red flags already exposed for me. I did buy both Lakhani books (second-hand from Amazon, where they will be returned) and tried reading both of them. I have to agree with The Anticult that there is nothing of value in the books that cannot be learned from more reputable sources. My conc
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I tried the Exploring the Mind contact email again, after a short exchange with the blog owner, and it is now working. I speculated earlier on the reasons for having an invalid email address on the Contact page, and said that this might be a flog rather than a blog. In truth, I do not know what the purpose of the blog might be, not being omniscient. I am not against people selling stuff per
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

'And its not just about one particular person, that knowledge can be generalized to others who do the exact same techniques.' Indeed, seeing how this works in principle makes it more likely that when the next con-man tries it we will be more quickly aware that this is a dangerous ploy. That awareness gives us options, to back away, avoid the person completely, to take measures to pro
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

'How to Protect Yourself from Coercive Groups and Leaders Download MP3 (Length: 53:54) (Subscribe on iTunes) This interview was cut off a little short due to some technical issues, so we apologize for the abrupt ending. All you missed was the closing statements. Anyway, I apologize – Michael *Important: In the middle of the Interview Dave mentioned The Cult Awareness Network (CAN) as
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

James Ray--or his legal team-- has made a post on his blog saying that they have interviewed participants and witnesses and can conclusively state that DeathRay is much maligned and not responsible. Law enforcement investigators can all go home, then. DeathRay blog post
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

The given email address: help@hypnosisnetwork.com has returned as 'invalid email address' so this may be a flog rather than a blog--just set up to sell stuff. There is an real address given so I will snail mail that. If Dave was serious about correcting his oversight I t
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

It was my comment, the oversight remark was a bit tongue in cheek given his remarkable 14 year oversight of CAN as a Scientology front. I have emailed the blog owner asking for a mention of the issue next to the audio button. I can see that Dave does not want to draw attention to his performance here.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Glad to note that Dave has posted a retraction of his recommendation of CAN. It is unfortunate that it is at the end of a lengthy string of comments and not up by the original audio button at the top of the page--where the oversight is broadcast, but it is there. 'davelakhani 1 day ago Dave Lakhani here. In the interview I did that you listened to here, I mention the Cult Awarenes
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

' He also uses his standard attempts at using FEAR and SHOCK. He then closes with his other technique of saying you are "perfectly safe", which is the same drum he beats when he says you can trust his unverified claims.' Reading the above made me think of James Ray and his fascination with death, harping on about death and playing death games with his customers, saying t
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Lawmaker wants to ban sweat lodges: banning sweatlodges
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

'This is why the greediest, most ambitious, and most aggressive and ruthless scammers go into that LGAT seminar business, as if they play their cards right, they can make a fortune and fast. Of course most of them don't get rich quick, as its not as easy as they say it is, and is very competitive. That is why only the most aggressive and clever rise to the top.' With the emphas
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

sweat lodge book As yet unconfirmed, but this writer has previously had some accurate inside information, James Ray has written a book on the sweat lodge deaths and is touting it around the publishers.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Well, I'm glad that Dave will no longer be directing anyone into the arms of CAN. Dave, you really should re-read the posts re the torrent, nobody here uploaded anything to a torrent or encouraged anyone to download anything from the torrent. A link was posted to an existing torrent in order to use the copy on the page as an example, the difference perhaps between a 'meta-model�
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

"personal development workshops" "transformative travel" "causes people to push their limits" "emergency staff" Add to that the previously admitted use of 'subliminal persuasion' which is 'targeting people for change without their conscious evaluation of the change'.......... and this is all starting to sound horribly f
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

A commenter on the Salty Droid Blog, Yakaru, has written a letter to San Diego Law Enforcement asking them to reopen the Colleen suicide case which was closed for lack of further evidence. salty droid.info (some ripe language) "Yakaru said: I don’t know how practical this suggestion is – someone with legal knowledge might correct me – but anyone wanting to do something positive mig
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

'I'm not threatening you but you need to not suggest that people commit crimes.' An artful bit of reframing, Dave. If you read what I wrote you will see that I was making an observation, as well as speculating as to what might have caused you to re-engage here. It was speculation, I accept that you may have very different reasons for returning here. However, at no time did I
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

'A cult expert who doesn't know that CAN became a Scientology front 14 years ago is a lot like a terrorism expert who doesn't know a significant act of terror occurred on September 11, 2001. Not someone I'd hire. Or trust.' My limited cult expertise comes only from my own experience, it seems to have innoculated me against being easily caught by Scientologists etc.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I introduced the subject of Dave Lakhani by posting a link to an article he had written on common thinking errors that I found useful. To be clear, it wasn't my intention to precipitate a personal witch-hunt. However, he has responded and the subsequent discussion is quite illuminating. I'm feeling quite torn, at the moment, between wanting to apologise for dragging the subject of Da
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Available as a free download for anyone wanting to read up on sociopathy, the classic text 'The Mask of Sanity' by Hervey Cleckley, M.D. Mask of Sanity
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Good commentary and comments on the newly released documents (links posted on previous page, 39, of this JAR thread) narrative 1 part 2 part 3 from Cassandra Yorgey Cassandra commentary
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Regarding behaviour, I have found through trial and error (the hard way) that it is a mistake to assume that what someone else means by 'ethics' is the same as what I mean by ethics. The word itself is another floating or empty signifier: empty signifier and lends itself to multiple interpretations. As a rule of thumb, if I find myself caught up in such an assumption--whic
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

A slight tangent, although still relevant, I read a very good book by Martha Stout called The Sociopath Next Door, amazon/sociopath which did a good job of debunking the notion that this sociopathic behaviour is the province of glassy-eyed psycho's, that it is in fact quite common in the population, estimated at an incidence of 4% of the total. I found the reading gave me a better
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

'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.' --Dave Lakhani without their conscious evaluation of the change, --which means without their consent, which m
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Links to the documents released on Tuesday, interviews by officers at the scene and in the hospital. Far from helping out with the injured and dying, Ray was found in his cabin having a meal while the emergency services worked on the injured and did not want to interrupt his meal to answer questions! narrative 1 part 2 part 3
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

JAR statement An official statement released on behalf of Ray.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"