HYPNOTISM AND CULT ORGANIZATIONS + BABA/GURU : Hilly Zeitlin, a counselor with the Berkeley-based Options for Personal Transition, began his fascinating and informative talk by distinguishing between classical authoritarian hypnosis and the communication patterns used by cults to induce trance states. He traced the development of hypnosis from the “animal magnetism” of Anton Mesmer, through Freud’s use of “free association” and directional trance induction, to Milton Erickson’s emphasis on the transactional, interactive basis of hypnotic communication. As Erickson stated, we all experience natural trance states, such as daydreams, when our attention is focused inside ourselves. But in our normal waking states, our attention is predominantly outer-directed. Hypnotic communication, however, tries by both verbal and nonverbal means to direct our attention inward to create a trance state. People resist authoritarian hypnosis, but cults use techniques that seem natural. The cult recruiters exaggerated friendliness quickly establishes rapport, and the repetition of obvious, universal statements (known as yes-sets) creates an atmosphere of agreement in which the indoctrination can take place. Zeitlin demonstrated a frequently used technique known as pacing, in which the subject’s attention is directed to what is happening at that moment. A recruiter describes to a group their own sensations, feelings, and thoughts as they sit listening to him. Then he gradually begins to direct those thoughts and feelings toward the cult’s belief system, all the while carefully pacing his words and gestures to his prospects own inner processes so as to make them feel that these beliefs are originating within themselves. Our natural limitations lead us to habitually choose what we pay attention to out of the available field of information. Cults twist this by saying, There is a part of you of which you are not aware, but which can become so much more ... you are using only a fraction of your brain ... just let go and feel. The recruit is urged to dissociate himself from his own thoughts and to experience these unfamiliar feelings in the light of the cult’s doctrine. (In deprogramming, one of the first tasks is to find out on what beliefs the victim’s inner absorption is based, and then to gain his attention in order to begin to affect that absorption.) brahmakumaris.info/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2957&p=36368#p36368&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 04:02:23 +0000
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