[extropy-chat] Cults/drugs

[Keith Henson]

At 04:17 PM 2/16/2006 +0000, Dirk wrote:

snip

>The difference being that pretty much all Elron's victims signed up for it.

That becomes a *very* tricky question as we understand more about the human 
mind/brain.

Were you ever given a flower in an airport by one of the Moonie cult members?

They were playing on a human psychological trait of reciprocation that is 
almost hardwired into us.

Scientology and other cults mostly use "attention-reward," love-bombing and 
scientology's "training routines."  Rewarding drugs hit the same brain areas.

There is also the fraud aspects.  Scientology promises virtually 
everything, power over matter, energy, space and time--verbally.  The 
papers you sign after high pressure sales pitches take it all away and then 
some.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~jeta/scn/scans/Introspection-Release.html

Scientology is a vicious organization run by a vicious little prick.  None 
the less, I can't really hate him any more than I can hate someone for 
being infected with HIV.

Worse than HIV, most people with HIV understand it's bad.  People in cults 
are blind to their situation.  The mechanisms were discussed recently here 
in the fMRI work of Drew Westen.

Cults, scientology only being an example, are the memetic equivalent of 
segregation distorters genes which can drive mouse populations to local 
extinction.  In fact, the Shaker cult did that to its group of humans.

People on this list really should have a better model of what humans 
are.  Depressing, but it's important at least till you are a few light 
years out.

Keith Henson