+1 for using "to-the-tits" as a modifier of degree.
The Man Who Saves You from Yourself (2013)
11–20 of 143 posts
Re: The Man Who Saves You from Yourself (2013)
#12"The FBI hired him because he claimed to be a Vietnam veteran, but Sullivan discovered that this was a lie — during the war Nivette had been a student at UCLA." This baffles me and lets me question the sincerity of the article. Can this possibly be the case?
Why couldn't it be? I doubt he needed an actual security clearance to do the work he was doing. The stated "FBI Clearance" probably just amounted to being given access to some confidential records regarding the people he was treating which probably aren't classified.
Re: The Man Who Saves You from Yourself (2013)
#13I remember this article when if first came out. Of all the weirdness outlined, one item, which wasn't even part of the main story and added as a bit of color detail, stated: "Sullivan first worked with Singer in the early Nineties. One case involved a woman posing as a psychologist, who had persuaded several of her male clients to undergo sex-reassignment surgery. (The men later alleged that they had been brainwashed…
The human brain can be very susceptible to hacking, especially if its trust channels are open.
Re: The Man Who Saves You from Yourself (2013)
#14this:
“Forget about their philosophy,” he said. “Let’s focus instead on who is really in power.”
Re: The Man Who Saves You from Yourself (2013)
#15This ends at a climatic moment prompting you to spend 40$ to continue reading. Fuck everything about this dishonest baiting. It's a shame because I enjoyed reading this up to that point. Don't waste your time with this cliffhanger.
I was invited to support the publication, or click a button to continue reading. Clicking 'continue reading' revealed the rest of the article with no further prompts.
Worked for me as well.
Re: The Man Who Saves You from Yourself (2013)
#16"Get it wrong, and we call it a cult. Get it right, in the right time and the right place, and maybe, for the next few millennia, people won't have to go to work on your birthday." - Dr. Robert Sapolsky http://youtu.be/4WwAQqWUkpI
Yeah, that is a very resounding quote but it does not take into account that there have been few incentives to remain a Cristian and people have, despite not being "pressed".
Unless you think millions of people can be brainwashed by priests and pastors.
And it is remarkable how "Science" was born in those countries where they do not work on that date.
Re: The Man Who Saves You from Yourself (2013)
#17this: “Forget about their philosophy,” he said. “Let’s focus instead on who is really in power.”
Although not precisely related, I always say 'follow the money' to find out why you see certain political ads, or certain magazine articles, or anything like to figure out who is really in power. Find out who benefits from people believing certain things and it will be like magically being able to understand a language you don't currently speak.
Re: The Man Who Saves You from Yourself (2013)
#18The 'print' button opens a very readable version: http://harpers.org/print/?pid=243068
there is a PDF version too.
Re: The Man Who Saves You from Yourself (2013)
#19I remember this article when if first came out. Of all the weirdness outlined, one item, which wasn't even part of the main story and added as a bit of color detail, stated: "Sullivan first worked with Singer in the early Nineties. One case involved a woman posing as a psychologist, who had persuaded several of her male clients to undergo sex-reassignment surgery. (The men later alleged that they had been brainwashed…
The human brain can be very susceptible to hacking, especially if its trust channels are open.
I would never grant such lever of trust to anyone.
Hell i don't trust myself so there's no way in hell I'll grant someone else that level of trust.
Re: The Man Who Saves You from Yourself (2013)
#20This is a long article with a lot of items to discuss, but my take is that its "easy" to "brainwash" people because a lot of what's being offered is actually good, but, of course, used cynically and for social control.
The Hare Krishna kid didn't know it before, but he now realizes that meditation helps with his social anxiety. Except now, he's in bed with the Krishna's, instead of finding a personal and secular path to meditation. The girl in the Christian cult discovered the power of community and forgiveness. Funny how white centric these articles are. If a kid becomes a Krishna its suddenly a bewildering thing, but if a kid joins a gang on the south side of Chicago, we just shrug. Both these things have a lot in common; society, family, etc not providing what they should and not projecting those values to kids.
I think religiosity and cults rise when secular society fails at something. We're not telling kids that meditation can help them. We've not telling them that maintaining personal relationships is actually hard work and forgiveness even harder. Perhaps nowadays we are. I see a lot of what religion offers distilled into non-faith based practices. You can meditate without knowing the first thing about the buddha. You can engage in a personal spirituality without feeling guilted to show up for social functions (that only seem to empower the leaders of congregations). You can explore consciousness with drugs, lucid dreaming, or just via one's informed imagination, etc.
Empowering individuals to discover information on a personal basis is what the information age is all about. There aren't anymore gatekeepers. I imagine this keeps cult activity low, not to mention a lot of cult stereotypes are from the 60s and built upon mindless baby boomer excess and dramatic parent attention baiting like 'dropping out of society.' Not only are we in the post-cult age, we are entering the post-religion age. I don't see too many gen-x'ers and gen-y's dying to get up early to go to church to be sermonized by the ravings of 1st century zealots. I don't see how that's remotely in their interests.