Out of Character

TOUKANALIA

2007-10-14T04:51:00.000-07:00

'To thine own self be true'

Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'

OUT OF CHARACTER BEHAVIOUR

2007-10-14T04:50:00.000-07:00

What is that?

Read on!

Problems in Context on Facebook
-a psychosocial approach

Often we feel critical of others for behaving as they do, or being as they are. And that approach gets applied to us by others, and more significantly by ourselves! If we are aware of some of the context it is easier to make allowances.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/202251256462161

INTRODUCTION

2007-10-14T04:49:00.000-07:00

With a longterm interest in human behaviour and the 'weird', I still find myself wondering what really sways a person or situation. Probably it's a combination of factors but do we really know? Do experts really know? They certainly don't agree. I recently watched a TV programme which was about scientific evidence. People on both sides of the argument put their case and were questioned. Nothing was clearcut by the end, and no-one said 'of course if I'm wrong about this aspect it could change some or all of the rest'.

What tends to happen with me is I find an author's perceptions very useful - up to a point - then they seem to go off on some idiosyncratic track that I can't agree with. Maybe I do the same! The trick is probably not to throw baby out with the bathwater, and to keep what is important.

A particular book or website can suddenly set us thinking about something, or feeling we've found an answer. Maybe that stays with us, maybe it changes the next time something useful comes along, maybe our views take a diametric turn.

The fact that we have an adversarial legal system throws up interesting questions about what is just, fair, appropriate. More importantly, it shows how some lawyers are able to sway a situation which looks hopeless for their client into an acquittal. But as the case proceeds, often the truth becomes so multi-faceted that 'reasonable doubt' enters the equation. How does that happen? How do a significant number of people get wrongfully accused and convicted? Surely our system should iron out these huge wrinkles.

Our jury system works on a principle of a group of people coming to some kind of consensus or majority about what they feel is the guilt or innocence of someone, based on the evidence available at the time. Why then is so much time and money spent in the United States on jury selection according to some kind of profiling, or information about potential jurors' lives? Why do marketing companies do likewise? It must pay off - for those on the winning side.

People say our modern businesses bear increasing similarities to religion, taking on more importance in our lives as we are expected to do more for 'the firm'. Businesses and organisations can have neuroses of their own, affecting how they interact with the world and within their grouping. Thus individuals who enter them can be affected, the more sensitive being the more affected.

The same apparently happens when people join a cult, or as they are often called these days 'new religious movement' or NRM. Views about a particular group or cult are likely to include what is in the 'eye of the beholder' but generally there's a concept of what the term means.

Could all beliefs simply be a matter of which memes get spread around the most or stay the longest?

Or is there something else at stake?

What!
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See also Like any normal day posted below and SUMMARY posted near the end, and anything that grabs your attention on the way.

Like any normal day

2007-10-14T04:48:00.000-07:00

It started off like any normal day’ is the gist of what someone was reported to say after going out with a rifle and shooting a courting couple in Wales (I believe). If anyone knows details of when, where and what was said, get in touch!

What was so different about that day? Do we all have moments that are totally ‘out of character’, changing our lives for ever with no explanation that fits the bill? Does a red mist descend, does a part of us kick in and take the reins, do we hear a voice or sense a compulsion? How do we rationalise it afterwards?

This is part of the basis of this Blog, and it’s showing on the front page so you see where it came from. And you can play a part in where it’s going if you want - just write a comment. If you don’t want it to appear for everyone to see you can make that clear.

This isn’t a lengthy academic exercise. Rather some ideas that are loosely strung together – maybe not even connected. My bookshelves overflow with books on serial killers and profiling and other stuff. The point here is that most of us tend to think of ourselves or others as ‘the sort of person who’ is likely or unlikely to do certain things. It’s a kind of shorthand or a comfort zone so we don’t have to countenance every possibility. We know what’s what, what we want, don’t want, or would never do …

There are books on Jung and ‘the shadow’, on the higher self and what can come out during hypnosis. I was looking for some rationale for what goes on in people’s lives, what goes wrong and why, and what can be done. This went round in a big cycle: from believing that, if something felt possible then it was likely, to rejecting great chunks, then back to the bookshelves for another re-think.

I looked at social systems, belief systems, religions, group behaviours including situations people refer to as Cults, at advertising, spin, hypnosis, hypnotherapy, stage magic, neuro-linguistic programming. I dipped into humanities courses, scouring booklists, visiting bookshops each time I went out, searched Amazon for anything that might answer my questions about ‘why people do what they do’. When I came across a book by John M. Doris ‘Lack of Character’ much of my thinking about profiling or likelihood of individual behaviour was thrown into disarray.

It seems we are creatures of circumstance more than we might think, having a wide repertoire of behaviours quite specific to the prevailing situation. Add or subtract a variable or rack up intensity and who knows what some of us might be capable of! I came to believe that extreme forms of behaviour – the ones we like to think we'd never do – are probably ‘do-able’ by a lot of us. It can be quite a small flip, turning on a pinhead, hanging on a thread, that makes for the next stage, almost as if inevitably. Catastrophe theory could be relevant here.

If something from another realm or reality layer is capable of affecting us, we may hypothesise and work something out. If I walk into a graveyard as my ‘normal self’ and come out full of doom & gloom, did something change me, a general sense of atmosphere, a specific haunting, what? When I write or speak, does it always come from just me? Am I inspired by art or nature or is some other realm or entity breaking through, sometimes helping, sometimes hindering?

Does it matter what hook we use as a belief system, so long as we behave ‘reasonably’ or within certain bounds? Or if we believe in something higher – or lower – than ourselves? Surely it could affect what we do, what we feel is appropriate or otherwise? What if people around us disagree totally with what we think and hold most dear? There would likely be a conflict of mind-sets on very sensitive issues. Maybe something will ‘blow’ and we act out.

Do actions simply continue on from natural events in our past, from family/work environment, or from wider society? Could we be affected by some ancestral influence, or rather something set in motion by people with intent - these days mostly called magick with a ‘k’, so that we too are saying ‘It started off like any normal day’? In other words, what if there is discontinuity, incongruity, dissociation, because we can’t trace a pattern or reason? Not knowing why, we may rationalise or confabulate, to reduce cognitive dissonance or save face.

Will we always parrot that ‘there is no evidence’ if we don’t wish to believe something? Or do we get too caught up in beliefs without regard to their validity? Human behaviour is so varied, how can we pin everything down neatly? What if something does not ‘fit’?

There’s a lot of interest these days in various aspects of shamanism, whether as practised in its natural environment or as brought over for what is loosely termed the West. People no longer shrug off as totally irrelevant all other realities that there could be. Here's a list of a few books, websites, blogs you might check out:

‘Blood Rites: the shocking expose of the ritual of human sacrifice – practiced today, and terrifying close to home’ by Jimmy Lee Shreeve
‘Multiple Man: explorations in possession and multiple personality’ by Adam Crabtree
‘Aleister Crowley and the Ouija Board’ by J. Edward Cornelius
‘Not in His Image: Gnostic vision, sacred ecology and the future of belief’ by John Lamb Lash
‘The Unquiet Dead: a psychologist treats spirit possession’ by Dr Edith Fiore
‘Spirit Releasement Therapy: a technique manual’ by William J Baldwin
‘Programmed to Kill: the politics of serial murder’ by David McGowan
‘Serial Killers: death and life in America’s Wound Culture’ by Mark Seltzer
‘Lack of Character: personality, moral behaviour’ by John M Doris
‘Going Postal: rage, murder and rebellion in America’ by Mark Ames
‘The Sociopath Next Door: 1 in 25 ordinary Americans secretly has no conscience and can do anything at all without feeling guilty’ by Martha Stout
‘The Dark Gods: do they haunt us still?’ by Anthony Roberts & Geoff Gilbertson
‘The Dark Worship’ by Toyne Newton

'Cultwise' at http://cultwise.blogspot.com

http://rigint.blogspot.com - Plenty to read and ponder but we suggest 'The Deep Ones and the Madness of Crowds'

‘Scapegoating, Abuse & One-upmanship’ article by Topaz Postline

'Scapegoating, Dissing, Abuse' see http://www.tansal.org.uk/scapegoatingabuse.html

'Unseen Aspects of Behaviour' at http://unseenaspects.blogspot.com - Including tides of thought or belief and counter-reaction. Articles on 'Urban legend and ritual abuse', 'Shamanism', and 'Symbols, Realities, the Unseen'

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Project Middle Ground was started in America by Dr Paul Simpson, a therapist who wrote 'Second Thoughts: Understanding the false memory crisis and how it could affect you'. Various academics at UK universities have written papers about bridging what might seem an impossible divide. Sadly people tend to fight a particular corner, but Dr Simpson showed that it is possible to try for a middle ground, with some considerable effect.

http://www.youtube.com/user/middlegroundable

More information on Project Middle Ground - Reconciliation
is at http://middlegroundable.blogspot.com
or www.middleground.me.uk

A Singular Yarn - A tale with a difference about ritual abuse

Was apparent ritual abuse basically an excuse for extreme social engineering and control, leading women - in particular - to think they had no rights, and behaving as if Hicktown was a veritable Stepford Life?
Read more at www.yarntangled.net/social.html

We are not naming this Hicktown and won't be confirming or denying anything. Don't be fooled that this must be happening in some tiny backwater with no outer signs of civilisation. It is the inner signs that are of concern, whatever the appearance of the place, or who is carrying out these things. You would not guess unless something clues you in.

See Book Two of A Singular Yarn for info on Fruitloop Therapy which lay behind so much of the control

The general principles behind getting fruitlooped

- anywhere - are the same

Written for
- those who wonder whether ritual abuse is ever real
- some who wonder if their therapist really helps

We hope it never happens to you!

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Fantasy role-playing by Drew

I was going to call this 'The Devil's Web' which is the title of a book written in 1990 by Pat Pulling and Kathy Cawthon about children who get involved in role-playing games or virtual realities. It is a long time since I read it, during which time some people have been critical of it, I believe along the lines of its exaggerating any risk involved.

Since then people are more aware of some of the issues around violent films that children watch, or sadistic games played on computers. There is general and governmental concern about increasing crime and violence among young people, and about spree killings occurring in colleges particularly in the United States.

What does seem to warrant attention, apart from anything else, is that fantasy enactments in violent role-playing games are along the lines that adults are trained in for combat - to desensitise them and reduce any qualms they may have about actually pulling the trigger on a gun with the aim, desire or compulsion to kill people.

I do not know the number of instances in the UK where there could be cause for concern, but recently read that the man responsible for the Hungerford murders had just prior to them been involved in a violent role-playing game and had seemed to be 'still in it'.

In the UK we used to be led to believe by researchers that there was no significant correlation between watching violence and engaging in it. Nowadays we like to listen to researchers or journalists saying that there are reasons why things occur in places like America and, by implication, reasons why they are hardly likely to occur in the UK.

There is a concept - dare I term it 'received wisdom'? - that people are only likely to be adversely affected by violent films or games if there is something a bit wrong with them already, with the oft repeated phrase about how many people are not affected and go on to 'live normal lives'.

Well, they may do, but those affected through no fault of their own, because they cannot overcome the conditioning or grooming process towards violence, or because they or a family member are a victim of such violence, do not go on to 'live normal lives'.
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Social engineering, scams; Scapegoating, projection

2007-10-14T04:47:00.002-07:00

These definitions of 'social engineering' and 'pretexting' appear at http://memes.org

Social engineering is a collection of techniques used to manipulate people into performing actions or divulging confidential information. While similar to a confidence trick or simple fraud, the term typically applies to trickery for information gathering or computer system access and in most cases the attacker never comes face-to-face with the victim.

Social engineering techniques and terms
All social engineering techniques are based on specific attributes of human decision-making known as cognitive biases. These biases, sometimes called "bugs in the human hardware," are exploited in various combinations to create attack techniques.

Pretexting
Pretexting is the act of creating and using an invented scenario (the pretext) to persuade a target to release information or perform an action and is typically done over the telephone. It's more than a simple lie as it most often involves some prior research or set up and the use of pieces of known information (e.g. for impersonation: date of birth, Social Security Number, last bill amount) to establish legitimacy in the mind of the target.

Search 'social engineering' etc. at Google or on Wikipedia
Basically this is any form of impression management or 'information' which is designed with the aim of creating a desired behaviour or outcome from a 'mark' or 'patsy' - which could be you!

Confidence Tricks & Scams
Some other relevant concepts are Con tricks or scams#

'Doc Matrix' website is at www.docmatrix.me.uk
Youtube channel 'theCojent'

See also the books mentioned below.

Social engineering etc. can be as simple as driving an expensive car, portraying an image, acting a role, or it can be elaborate with several co-conspirators setting up a convincing scene or skit. Social Psychology demonstrates how we tend to behave according to how we view or experience a particular setting, almost like acting out a part. It's easy to believe what is presented - how someone looks possibly using disguise, what they say which probably contains elements of truth, something to convince people known as a 'convincer', and they may also have found things out about you to make it easier.

Skit is a word sometimes used in the form of harassment known as Gangstalking or maybe Gaslighting where someone is targeted by a group to scare or demoralise them, but where anyone they confide in are likely to be disbelieving - that's part of the 'set-up' or design. See the link below:

Gangstalking or Gaslighting are an extreme form of psychological harassment see
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=psychological+harassment+gangstalking+gaslighting&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

Links on Gangstalking, Gaslighting, Harassment, Stalking

from website http://tansal.50megs.com/mediation/thread/addendum.html

Check out the following written from a psychoanalytical approach:
'On the Need for New Criteria of Diagnosis of Psychosis in the Light of Mind Invasive Technology' by Carole Smith www.btinternet.com/~psycho_social/Vol3/JPSS-CS2.html

'Hacking the Mind - Intrusive Brain Reading Surveillance Technology'
http://rinf.com/alt-news/sicence-technology/hacking-the-mind/2029/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting

More extreme still would be Psychotronics.

Check out some of the following Books
'The Blue Nowhere' by Jeffery Deaver
'Tourist Trap: when holiday turns to nightmare' by Patrick Blackden
'The Sting' by Nigel Blundell
'More Scams from the Great Beyond' by Peter Huston
'The Con Artist Handbook: the secrets of hustles and scams' by Joel Levy
'The Art of Deception' by Kevin D. Mitnick & William L. Simon
'Vital Lies, Simple Truths: the psychology of self-deception' by Daniel Goleman
'We Know What You Want: how they change your mind' by Martin Howard

BOOKS dealing more generally with themes on this Blog can be found HERE.

. . . . .

From ITV Channel 4 Website – Faith and Belief: Debates & Controversies

http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/C/can_you_believe_it/debates/derrenbrown.html

Derren Brown: Messiah
First shown on Channel 4 in January 2005

Derren Brown, mind-manipulator extraordinaire (who sparked the most ever complaints to Ofcom for his recreation of a séance on Channel 4 last year), has taken his latest debunking mission to America. In a country where his mind control skills are unknown, he sets out once again to show us, not that our beliefs are wrong, but just how easy it is to dupe people into believing 10 impossible things before breakfast.

Seal of approval
The five experiments he sets up vary from standard tests for psychic ability to physical methods of religious conversion. They cover all areas of belief, organised religion and purchasable salvation. In each case his stated aim is to get a reputable authority to endorse the results of the experiments in order to demonstrate the validity of people's experiences in the confusing world of belief. By securing this validation, he aims show how little such endorsements mean, even if they are genuinely motivated. After all, we know that he’s not a Messiah – he’s just very good as pretending to be one.

But there is another agenda in the programme: to encourage people to investigate what they believe more rigorously. Derren himself used to be an evangelical Christian until his mid-20s. Then he started to realise that his faith was just as vulnerable to suggestion as any of the New Age theories that annoyed him so much. His faith was rocked and he abandoned it. That could certainly be one response to this programme since, while we know that his amazing acts are done by suggestion, they are immediately endorsed by almost all the 'authority' figures he approaches.

Good questions
Derren Brown causes a lot of anger (and complaint!) through his experiments because he causes a lot of fear. Fear that your whole life has been based on a lie, that you have been manipulated, that there is no comfortable higher authority making sense of your world – or that there is. This is powerful stuff. But what, after all, is wrong with his questioning of people's beliefs? If you haven’t investigated what you believe independently and looked at the arguments standing against you, your beliefs have little validity. Investigation doesn’t have to mean the end of your world view, it can be a very constructive process, providing confirmation of what you already thought, or showing you new avenues for development.

Derren Brown is right. Many people are being duped, innocently maybe, and this programme exposes how easy it is to do that. However, it doesn’t necessarily follow that all the belief systems he investigates are fraudulent – just that a fraudster could use them. It is up to us to ensure that we approach our beliefs with an open mind; that we allow them to be challenged and perhaps through that learn more about what real truth is.

. . . . .

Comment by Norman

Derren Brown: Messiah has just been shown again on Channel 4 19th September 2008

He travelled to the United States in the guise of 5 different individuals with the aim of persuading people who are apparently knowledgeable in a particular field to endorse his own expertise, while admitting to the TV viewers that he did not have those specific abilities.

He began by saying it was not beliefs which were of interest, but people’s relationship to the beliefs. He wanted to demonstrate that it is quite easy for people to become convinced, by someone skilled, into a particular or different belief. In one exercise he demonstrated to a room of people who came ‘for a discussion about spirituality’, though with no religious belief, that they would change to admitting some. He said this would happen simply through his touching people. This seemed to happen with the first person, a girl who claimed not to have been drawn into any religious beliefs of her family. He talked to her gently, then slowly moved his hand to the right side of her head, holding it there and moving it a little, and the girl became deeply affected saying she now understood things her grandmother had said.

At some point after this, about half the people in the room were feeling uncomfortable and left. Showman style, Derren took time to connect and re-group with remaining members, with an appropriate display of diffidence underpinned by confidence that he could probably ‘wing it’ somehow. A young man came forward and Derren quietly reassured him while moving his hands around a lot, and the man fell backwards claiming he now had religious belief. Derren then worked on the whole audience in meditation or group relaxation, achieving much of the desired effect. So it seemed to be a step-by-step approach, gaining ground as and when he could.

The resident Minister for the locality said that he felt Derren had a personal energy that was connecting with people, and admitted that he himself forms a relationship before discussing religious matters with people because that’s how things work. Derren made some points about religious ceremonies, such as they might be either high energy, or monotonous and mesmerising.

His next assignment, in a different location, involved a silver box which he said contained crystals and recorded people’s dreams. This smacks even more of being of the nature of ‘convincer’, something to help people to think something will work. In all, quite a lot of social engineering! With the folks who seemed to get converted, the TV programme makers claimed that everyone had been through a process of reversion back to their original belief system.

While applauding Derren Brown for tackling some of these issues in his own style, I get uneasy about messing with important areas of people’s lives. Those people became very emotional, and it’s not so easy to take that element out, although some practitioners claim to be able to. That is sometimes carried out as part of management training. I have doubts about the ethics of that too!

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Click HERE or carry out your own searches for some issues relating to:

scapegoating
territorial behaviour
projection
status quo
one-upmanship
abuse
manic defence
denial or disbelief
. . . . .

Personality research & links

2007-10-14T04:47:00.001-07:00

Some Links are listed below. You might also search at www.google.com or any of the main search engines for:

Logical fallacies
Cognitive dissonance
Crowd behaviour
Group behaviour
Mental influence
Hypnosis
Subconscious
Hive Mind
Control freaks
Narcissism
Mind control
Cults
Cult dynamics
Egregor
Psychology
Sociology
Social Psychology
Critical Psychiatry
Psychological Reversal
Psychological Profiling
Obsession
Psychometric Testing
Catastrophe Theory
Systems Theory
Psychosynthesis
Dissociation or DID
Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)
Motivation

Follow where it leads you; see whether you change your mind on anything, or confirm your beliefs.

It is said that, in order to change one’s behaviour, one’s beliefs must change first.

Do they? HOW? Does one ALWAYS know about it?

. . . . .

Some of these lead to online personality testing - Don't believe it all!

http://library.stmarytx.edu/acadlib/subject/psych/prsnlty.htm
St Mary's University, Blume Library: Personality Tests & Resources

http://www.queendom.com/tests/personality/index.html
Online personality testing

http://www.ylcf.org/you/
Click on Personality Types for a list of tests, books, articles

http://www.issid.org/issid.html

http://heraclite.ens.fr/~roy/GDR/moral_significance.htm

http://www.philosophy.ucf.edu/pi.html
Site of Shaun Gallagher

http://www.socialpsychology.org/social.htm
Go to the Links Page

http://www.workingpsychology.com/intro.html
An Introduction to Social Influence

http://www.ctyme.com/bwash/bwash.htm
Dick Sutphen's 'The Battle for Your Mind'

http://intrepidsoftware.com/fallacy/welcome.php
Website of Stephen Downes on logical fallacies

http://www.apa.org/books/4318830s.html
Chapter of a book on cognitive dissonance, self-image, behavioural consistency etc.

http://www.reversaltheory.org
Reversal theory

www.enio.aaanet.ru/indexe.html
Downloadable chapters on Eniology
Main site http://www.eniology.org/E_Enibook/e_ebook00.htm

http://maxwell.lucifer.com/virus/alt.memetics
Memetics, memes

'Secrets of Stage Mindreading' by Ormond McGill
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1904424015/t/026-3367497-5893224
Crownhouse Publishing ISBN 1904424015
If you thought ALL stage mindreading or influence were trickery

http://www.tranceworks.com/stage.htm
List of books on stage hypnotism & magic

http://www.csj.org
AFF site with information & resources on cult influence

http://www.caic.org.au/zpsyche.htm
Cult Awareness & Information Centre, Australia.
Psychological issues of involvement in cults/general persuasive techniques; exit counselling.

http://www.apologeticsindex.org/e00.html
Apologetics Index searchable resources on cults

http://www.robibrad.demon.co.uk/bibcult.htm
Cults & sects bibliography

Article on 'Cults, groups, indoctrination, exiting' on next page, click on Older Posts

Why do you do what you do?

2007-10-14T04:46:00.001-07:00

Can YOU be manipulated?
Do you think you should be?
Do you always know if you are?
Can you manipulate others?
What do YOU think?

Why do you think you behave as you do? Is it always the same?

Perhaps it is because one of your parents behaved like that, or it was someone you admired, or even disliked!

Have you ever acted ‘out of character’? Or only when you’ve been to the pub?

Have you got home and wondered why you bought something, lost your temper and don’t know why, done something unusual or ridiculous – for you?

We all behave differently in different circumstances. The person who is hyper-serious at work may be a comic in private. They could be mean and miserable, yet a super-parent or spouse, or mean at home and jovial elsewhere.

Would you ever go to see a stage show of hypnosis? Would you go up on stage?

Would you go to a hypnotherapist if you had a problem, or a habit you wanted to break?

Do you feel you know more about yourself than anyone else does? Maybe your best mate knows you better than you know yourself.

Are there people you would trust with your life? Or let them persuade you to take a risk?

Could a stranger reach those hidden depths, by inspired guesswork or manipulation?

Do people get caught up in the heat of the moment, or in a group or crowd?

Would you join a cult or movement? What is one anyway?

In-Character/ Out-of-Character

Do you think politicians can put spin on things and make a difference?
Can you see the spin coming and deflect it?
Have you honestly never been influenced?

Do you think you can be manipulated?
Do you think you can manipulate others?
How do you think it works!

Can one ‘manipulate oneself’ to change behaviour etc?
How might that work?
Have you done it?

Make up a questionnaire for yourself or other people – you may be surprised at some of the answers

Are you an independent thinker?

Do you believe in character profiling?

Do you believe in astrological types?

Can you pigeonhole a person’s behaviour for all circumstances?
Does stress make a difference?

What effect might stereotyping or labelling have on you? Or on someone else?
Is it fair?

Can you copy someone’s behaviour?
Can you influence someone?
Do others colour your moods?

Do you believe in ghosts?
Do you believe in ESP?
Do you believe in past lives?

Are people responsible for all their actions?
Is there such a thing as ‘normal?

Any other questions?

Physiology/psychology and the brain

2007-10-14T04:34:00.002-07:00

From the end of July 2008 and through much of August ITV Channel 5 television in the UK showed a series of programmes, each showing about 4 people who had suffered some change in brain functioning through things such as accident, stroke, illness, being struck by lightning. I only saw the last few but pasted below is text from the Channel 5 website for the first episode.

The last episode was about OCD - Obsessional Compulsive Disorder. A moving section was about two men, one in the US and one in England, who each suffered a stroke after which they became compulsive painters of pictures. Each felt very alone but it was arranged for them to meet, it meant so much to them and it seemed like they were brothers and no longer alone. Another man became a compulsive piano player in middle life after (I think) being struck by lightning. None of these people had any inclination to these things beforehand.

Doctors working in the field described human behaviour as a mixture of activity and inhibition. If something happens to prevent the usual inhibitory processes, there is then a perpetual need to perform some activity or behave in a certain way with nothing to intervene. It may be possible to use some form of cognitive exercise to recognise better when a situation is likely arising. Some people manage to adapt to their 'new self' to some extent but it does seem clear there has been a fundamental change from the 'old self'. Some of those affected manage to work around it for themselves, or with expert help or support from friends and family.

I'll just mention Alzheimers Disease here. One of my uncles appears to have developed this at around age 45 and it can happen at any age. For the last few months at work he went in and fiddled with his pen. He was pretty clever and could still write a brilliant letter - but only when 'in the mood' for it. The rest of the time he just sat around, sometimes in mental hospitals and sometimes at home.

Hopefully one day there will be medication that is more helpful, and I believe breakthroughs are being made for this and other illnesses previously thought hopeless. For most families this is devastating and some people get by better than others. It is as if the soul has gone, leaving the body. With some illnesses it can seem as though the body or mind has been taken over, destroying relationships as well.

Some of the books on the Books section deal with this subject. Sometimes people's lives and personalities change dramatically with devastating effects for them and those around them. Dorothy Otnow Lewis in 'Guilty by Reason of Insanity' details her work with a colleague that physical examination of people who carry out murder or violent crime often shows they have suffered significant relevant brain trauma. (Note: See 'Battle for the Mind' article later in the Blog on some work by William Sarjant about how certain conditions, including whether someone has had food or drink, can have a significant effect on their mental condition, actions or memory.)

Work by Dorothy Otnow Lewis and her colleague also looks at the phenomenon of different personalities operating within the same individual and, in some States in the US, filmed episodes of personality 'switching' goes towards mitigating some of the sentence. The theory behind this is that the individual cannot be held responsible for certain periods in their lives when another personality part was uppermost to the exclusion of the 'real person' in court.

I think this has implications for all of us and takes me back to a point I made earlier about profiling. Obviously profiling can be very relevant and useful, the idea that certain types of personality or some experiences affect us so that perhaps much later on we carry out an extreme act. When we watch CSI or 'Criminal Minds' we see the loose ends being tied up in a meaningful way, like a children's story. But what if we can't see that and there is no apparent sense? Does that make it senseless? There's a lack of continuity or an incongruity - in our minds - but maybe there is not in the mind of the person affected and it makes good sense to them. Can we necessarily hold them 'responsible'? Would we be, if we could only see all the reasons for something we cannot explain?

We may think things like this only happen if someone is on certain medication or has taken hallucinatory or other drugs or just alcohol. People working with those who have suffered extreme psychological trauma in their developing years report this also has physical effects on parts of the brain with far-reaching consequences which these days can show on an MRI scan.

So we can't rule out brain trauma whether we know what actually happened or not. Nor can we rule out psychological trauma or PTSD. Nor can we rule out behaviour which we may see no valid reason for - because it may be that we literally just cannot see it.

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'Fiddles, Cheats & Scams'
ITV series of 3 programmes August/September 2008

Article from 'The Guardian' Monday January 19 2004:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2004/jan/19/insurance.business

Insurer introduces psychological tests to prevent fraud

Insurance giant AIG has become the latest group to introduce psychological testing in a bid to cut down on fraudulent claims, it emerged today.

The US group, which operates in 130 countries, is piloting the system on motor and travel insurance claims that it believes may be fraudulent.

It has employed Absolute Customer Management, which uses an interview technique developed by criminal psychologists in the US and used in Holland by psychologists working with children, to look into any suspicious claims.

Staff at Absolute ask claimants to talk them through the claim, analysing the language they use, the level of detail they give and the emotions they display.

The group's centre in East Grinstead, West Sussex, looks into claims for 15 insurers and banks, including Fortis and esure. It handles around 400 claims a month with a collective value of £1.5m, and estimates that 30% of the claims it looks into are potentially fraudulent.

An AIG spokeswoman said: "We are convinced that the vast majority of our policyholders are honest. We are evaluating this new method on less than 1% of the claims we receive."

Car insurer Admiral recently said the use of lie detectors had led to a quarter of policyholders withdrawing claims over vehicle theft.

Britain's biggest mortgage lender, HBOS, uses voice stress analysis technology to try to detect if people are lying when lodging claims under household insurance, while Highway Insurance a syndicate of Lloyds of London, has been using it to detect fraud on motor insurance claims for more than a year.

The Association of British Insurers estimates that fraud on motor and household insurance costs the industry more than £1bn a year.

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And taking things even further!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2003/nov/20/neuroscience.science

'The brain can't lie'

Brain scans can reveal how you think and feel, and even how you might behave. No wonder the CIA and big business are interested.

By Ian Sample and David Adam
The Guardian
Thursday November 20 2003

Earlier this year, a group of American students volunteered their brains for a cutting edge neuroscience project at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. The research used a technique that could watch their brains at work as they made decisions. At first glance, this seems nothing extraordinary: brain-imaging tools have been used routinely for years to assess damage caused by stroke, to hunt for brain tumours, and even identify the grey matter associated with language, love and memories. But this study was different. As each volunteer took their turn to slide into the coffin-like cylinder of the scanner, sticky fluids were squirted into their mouths. As unlikely as it sounds, the students were using multimillion pound medical equipment to take the Pepsi challenge.

Read Montague, the neuroscientist behind the Baylor experiment, is not alone in pushing the boundaries of neuroscience beyond the clinical. In recent years, a growing number of researchers have used brain-imaging equipment to try to reveal our innermost thoughts and feelings in less conventional "social neuroscience" experiments. As well as brand loyalty and consumer choice, neuroscientists are probing violent tendencies, moral reasoning, feelings of love and trust, and notions of justice. Just this week, researchers claimed to have used a technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify brain activity associated with racial prejudice.

While standard MRI machines like those still found in many hospitals take a snapshot of the brain, functional MRI is newer and more powerful because it takes lots of these snapshots one after the other, revealing how thoughts unfold over time. But the trend for using fMRI to probe social and behavioural issues is prompting some scientists to ask big questions about where this may all lead. Could it only be a matter of time before neuroscientists have techniques that can reveal secrets we would rather keep tucked under our skulls? According to some leading scientists, this isn't a paranoid over-reaction. "The CIA has been interested in fMRI for years as a means of doing lie-detection tests," says Bob Turner, an fMRI expert at University College London. After all, he says: "The brain can't lie."

As scientists unravel the links between how the brain looks and how it functions, some believe we will also be able to use images of the brain to see how people will behave. "There's no scientific distinction between prediction and understanding how the brain works," says Stephen Smith, associate director of the Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain at Oxford University.

The suggestion that brain scans could reveal not just our future health, but the intricacies of our personalities and how we might behave in a given situation, is unsettling enough to some scientists that they want legislation to stop brain-scan records falling into the wrong hands. "We're starting to get detailed information from these brain-scan experiments and soon people are going to be able to use it to predict an individual's behaviour," says Paul Glimcher at the Centre for Neuroscience at New York University. "That information has got to be proprietary to the individual."

The explosion in social neuroscience has been driven by the tumbling cost of scanning equipment. Brain scans used to be the preserve of medical and clinical experiments, because they relied on complex, expensive technology such as positron emission tomography (PET), which was only available in a handful of places. PET scanners, which rely on radioactive tracer materials, cost about £3m to buy and a single scan can cost as much as £2,000. In contrast, a new fMRI machine costs about £1.5m, and each scan works out at about £400.

The fMRI machines are essentially giant, powerful magnets that are used to detect the tiny magnetic fields carried by the hydrogen atoms in water (or blood). They allow a very detailed 3D map of blood flow to be built up, and in the head, blood flow means busy neurons. Studying which regions of the brain need the most blood tells scientists where the most thinking is going on. (The original MRI technique is identical to that used by chemists called nuclear magnetic resonance but the name was changed as it was thought nobody would want to be scanned by a machine with "nuclear" in its title).

As the scanners shifted from being an expensive piece of kit for specialist neuroscientists to a practical tool for anyone with the will to work it, the scientific questions the technique was used to investigate snowballed.

Three years ago, scientists at University College London used fMRI to investigate the essence of love. They recruited people who confessed to being hopelessly in love with their partners and showed them a series of photographs of people they knew, one of which was their partner. Although brain activity was different in each individual, the researchers found that in every case, four specific regions of the brain lit up each time they saw the one they loved. The researchers announced that they had discovered the brain's common denominator of romantic love.

A year later, Joshua Greene and colleagues at Princeton University in New Jersey studied how people solved moral dilemmas. In one test, volunteers were scanned while they were asked whether they would push a person in front of a speeding train if it meant saving the lives of five others. Unsurprisingly perhaps, the question caused a flurry of activity in parts of the brain linked with emotion, leading the researchers to conclude that such moral quandaries may not be solved purely by logical reasoning, but also by emotional reactions.

The technique has also been used to delve into the murky question of how we judge people. Last year, Ray Dolan's team at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in London used fMRI to see how people judged the trustworthiness of strangers. Volunteers were shown a series of faces and asked to judge whether the person was trustworthy. The researchers found that a region of the brain called the amygdala and two other parts of the brain flickered more intensely when people were shown the faces of people they thought would not be trustworthy.

But according to some scientists, such studies are the tip of the iceberg. The better fMRI systems become, and the more adept scientists get at extracting information from them, the more they will be able to piece together the neural circuits that make us who we are.

One emerging field is that of "neuro-economics". At the Center for Neuro-economics at Claremont Graduate University in California, Paul Zak is using fMRI to study how people assign value to certain products and make choices about what they buy. "If I ask you why you made a certain decision, you might not really be sure," he says. "But what if I can look directly into your brain and see how you reached that decision? That's what we want to be able to do."

Slowly, he says, researchers are homing in on the neural circuits that are activated when we make decisions - our likes and dislikes or, for example, how much different people value cigarettes over other items. Know that, and you can start feeding the data into policies such as how you tax products, says Zak. "If you know how much people value something, you can work out at what point a price hike will stop people buying it," he says.

Zak says fMRI stands to make a big impact in what has been dubbed "neuro-marketing". As an example of how fMRI might be used, Zak proposes a company that wants to increase its sales of milk. One way it might is to gather a group of people who like milk and scan them as they drink a glass. Some of the regions of the brain that buzz with activity might be triggered by any drink, but others may be triggered only by milk. Find other stimuli that trigger these regions of the brain and it could help you work out what it is that makes milk enjoyable, says Zak. Suppose objects from your childhood made those regions of your brain flicker. It might be that milk was evoking a sense of nostalgia, reminding you of when you got milk at school.

"If it turned out that milk was pleasurable to drink because it evokes memories of your childhood, you could market it as 'good when you were a kid, great when you're an adult'," he says. It's just an idea, and we're not there yet, but Zak says this is not pie-in-the-sky stuff. "A couple of years ago there was a lot of hostility to this kind of research, but now people are realising there's potential in it. Of course there will be a lot of crappy studies, but done properly, it allows us to get answers to questions we could never get before."

At Glimcher's lab in New York, progress is being made into understanding how the brain allow us to make certain decisions. Using fMRI scans and another technique that measures the activity of single neurons, Glimcher has recreated in a computer the neural programs that monkeys use to make decisions in a simple financial game. "Their behaviour is quite erratic and very similar to that of humans, but the program predicts what they will do to about 95% accuracy. It's spooky," he says. Ultimately, says Glimcher, neuroscientists should be able to use techniques like this to work out what a person will do in a specific situation, such as what he or she might buy when they walk into a shop.

At least one company, the BrightHouse Institute for Thought Sciences, in Atlanta, has been set up to exploit brain scans to inform marketing strategies. Instead of using focus groups, it is trying to use scans to tell companies what people think of their products and commercials.

Not everyone is convinced of the approach though. Donald Kennedy, the Stanford University-based editor of the journal Science and one of America's most eminent scientists, says: "You could just ask people what they think."

While Glimcher concedes that using brain scans to predict behaviour is a long way off, the progress is such that we should think about the implications, he says. "It raises serious philosophical questions, because it reduces us to a machine, but there's also a huge moral issue." Who should be allowed access to our brain scans, if they can reveal so much about us, he asks. "Within 10 years, we will need legislation that protects brain-scan information in the same way genetic information is protected," he says.

If using brain scans to predict specific behaviour is not on the cards, using them to judge if we will suffer from mental disease later in life is. Studies have shown that fMRI scans can be used to reveal early signs of multiple sclerosis and even go some way to predicting who might be most susceptible to dementias such as Alzheimer's. "For severe mental illness and dementias it is a serious proposition," says Sean Spence, a psychiatry researcher at Sheffield University. "There are changes in their brain before they begin to lose their memory. It's quite conceivable people could use that."

Stanford's Kennedy says it is the potential to use scans to predict people's health that is a concern. "I'm worried about fMRI scans being preserved after they have been taken," he says. "There's a push to prevent genetic information being used by companies for adverse selection, and at least equal protection should be given to brain scan data."

Glimcher says legislation banning access to people's brain scans should be drawn up to keep the data private before it's too late. "It's only a matter of time before the insurance companies come calling," he says. "It is going to happen and it's a big issue. It has to be dealt with soon."

See the full article at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2003/nov/20/neuroscience.science

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From Channel Five website seach for 'My Strange Brain'

My Strange Brain - Tackling difficult neurological conditions

This new documentary series explores unusual neurological conditions. The first instalment profiles four people with different disorders that affect their memories and sleeping patterns. One woman was struck down by a virus that has erased all her recollections of the last 20 years, while another woman is unable to record new memories. The film also meets a man who loses his muscle tone every time he experiences heightened emotions.

You may also like...

. . . . .

Link added here for easy reference 12 Sept 2008:
www.spring.org.uk Jeremy Dean's Psyblog site about 'understanding how our minds work and why we think and act the way we do'.
Information & links to articles appearing in psychology journals:
social psychology, memory, non-verbal behaviour, emotions, neuroscience, persuasion, relationships. Other Psychology Blogs are listed on the site starting HERE.
Psyblog updates can be emailed to you.
. . . . .

TELL YOUR STORY

2007-10-14T04:34:00.001-07:00

If you've a story to get off your chest where you acted OUT-OF-CHARACTER write in. Make it clear if it is OK to publish here and elsewhere (see Contacting us)

You can comment on any post underneath it - Indicate if you don't want your comments to be published for people to read.
If you make an Anonymous post no-one including us will see your email address

. . . . .

Appearing below with permission are excerpts from people who contacted us

. . . . .

Shipwreck theory of personality
If a ship gets into difficulty it could jettison some stock or heavy equipment and put people into lifeboats where their future takes a different mode and direction. These things and more have the aim of survival of important players and aspects.

Do we do this with our personalities too? It would make sense. I think all theories are worth consideration, but cannot see why people:

a) get so wound up about them
b) try to make money out of them
c) seek fame through them

We're all in the same boat of life, whatever journey we have, and whether we think the same, use the same strategies as anyone/everyone when the boat sinks or personal narrative dashes to the rocks. Some theories can even be useful with a diametric approach.

If your ship (you) hits something and things get thrown overboard, come the dawn and calmer sea you could have lost or forgotten them. That's where the salvage operation of spirit or soul rescue could come in.

Conglomerate or variant personality
Some of this mixture of 'people' or parts that comprise each one of us, may remain dormant as we remain largely unaware of some of their potentialities. Different circumstances may bring some to the fore, such as danger where we go into survival mode, or having to protect someone young or vulnerable. I don't think we can sit in judgment on ourselves or others, although we often do!

What I am suggesting is that, with some people more than others, the mix or the variation is greater and more significant. I am going to use a term more often used with groups, that of a group-mind or an egregore. But in this context I apply it to people, a person, a personal group-mind or egregore, with much more to it than we see on the surface, the tip of a personal iceberg. Extend the concept of one iceberg to the surrounding icebergs, or to a continent of ice, land or sea, and one can see how we could be affecting each other at some deep level via something more universal than ourselves or those close or similar in some way.

It is particularly with some of the people that Ann Rule and others describe who present such complex and divergent behaviours, that I seem to see this egregore quality, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and has such enormous effect on the environment.

Myths to live by
Ask someone their favourite book or film and you tend to get an answer with a theme behind it, some hero or heroine who fought the odds or the world to come up trumps, or remain detached from horrendous things and get along just fine.

I spent some time reading what psychological profilers said about people like serial killers and I don't recall the details. But there was a recurrent theme about incidents in their past leading up to where the killers continue till they are caught - as if nothing else will do as a suitable end-piece. Are they 'responsible' for how the killing or activity began, can they change without getting caught, can they change after getting caught?

I feel we should not generalise too much, because each person or 'soul' is different. I do believe some killers and violent criminals gain significant insight either by their own efforts or with appropriate help. It's as if they can see into their own and other people's souls.

I've never been happy with a theory that, because some people suffer bad experiences in their formative years and do not proceed to commit atrocities, everyone with bad experiences should be able to avoid committing atrocities. Actually I don't feel that option is open to all: it is more like something greater having such a huge impact they can't control it.

We need our myths, fairy tales, heroes or whatever it is, so that we can latch our strange human brains onto them. We need a choice of role models to guide us through literally or mentally in our mind, some concept or construct which does the job for us, makes us more than we are as an individual acting alone.

Taking the tour
Suppose that we are all a bit of a mixture, various strands each representing some continuum of personality or behaviour or whatever. We weave our way through with some consistency or maybe not much at all. As other people don't see all of it all of the time, they either don't notice something that jars or they are much puzzled by it. We may be too, because we don't have the full story either. What tends to happen is we rationalise to ourselves if we do something unusual, finding plausible explanations so there's not so much dissonance or discrepancy with what we like to think or have always thought.

So this 'tour of personality' reminds me of a man-of-war fish that looks like an anomaly that gathered various flotsam and jetsam along the way. Maybe some parts are actually bigger than us, or cumulatively they change us beyond recognition.

Some of the people I mentioned in the books by Ann Rule, who are capable of varied and extreme behaviour, seem able to deny to themselves some things they have done. They then convince a lot of other people that 'what they see is what they get', and the other parts of themselves simply cannot be there - so therefore they did not do this particular thing. It works remarkably well.

There's a phrase about people re-inventing themselves, giving themselves a psychological makeover, which has relevance here. We accept it up to a point in others, use it up to a point ourselves to make headway, dropping off modes of behaviour which don't work so well or get us into trouble, finding something that works better. All of that seems fine so long as we don't shove something deep down that seeks expression and may find subversive ways to do that.

Tour of personality
I began reading books by Ann Rule who was initially a court reporter in the United States sometimes working on murder cases. She became intrigued and researched deeply into the lives and characters of some people involved and came up with amazing information and insights. What seemed to emerge was a phenomenon I am calling 'tour of personality'.

Some of the people involved in scenarios she describes are complex and the situations are naturally so. But some people seem to ride the waves no matter what happens and however bleak their future looks for being accused and convicted. Some play the legal system and key players against each other to get off the hook or get decisions overturned.

Some people are extremely complex and versatile, turning their hand or charm to a variety of situations and adapting along the way. Some are pillars of the community, much respected for their charity or humane work. One wonders how anyone could fit in a complex and turbulent private life, along with managing a family and home life, a business and public life. Then they face court or public scrutiny - and they keep on going. When the chips are down or there's no hope on the horizon, another rabbit comes blinking out of the hat and round it goes again with both supporters and detractors and the final 'truth' often hingeing on an apparently minor detail. So many variables come into play that some get away with it. Whether they can avoid sailing close to the wind for ever more is another theme.

Some job interviews
One of the first things that comes to my mind is going for a job interview, on reasonably best behaviour, showing willing to do the job and fit in. Get the job and it's too late! They realise you can't do the impossible or be totally sat upon; you realise they are nothing like they seemed.

One interviewer was affable and I was over the moon because I was redundant for the umpteenth time, not getting any younger. 'I bet you didn't think you'd walk straight into the job today' he said warmly. I don't think he ever spoke to me again even passing on the stairs. Another man seemed just the ticket and I was disappointed when the firm turned me down. A friend went there as a temp and said he was awful, he shouted and threw phones at people. I then went down the road to an innovative company working for a manager who did phone bit too. Within a week I applied for a transfer.

Several times I accepted a post, only to have nightmares the night before the start date and I'd phone them or the agency early on the day to say sorry but I wouldn't make it. Some people who hire and fire people or working in agencies know instinctively who will fit with whom or in what role. I know people with the gift of intuition, but it was not bestowed on me at birth so I learned the hard way, the long way round. Some of it may be to do with people's 'chosen camouflage' to coin a phrase from Transactional Analysis, that people may present themselves as opposite to how they really are.

Excerpted from 'A tour of personality' at http://xtrinsic.myblogsite.com

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The following comes from 'Speak of the Devil's blog at http://speakofthedevil.myblogsite.com

Trends & tendencies
Continuing on the theme of thoughtforms, what-have-you or who-are-you's: I read something on Henry Makow's site - someone who'd been in a particular form of religious practice said they knew they were worshipping or energising an egregore rather than something 'higher'. Egregore is a kind of energy entity, the theory being that energy or strength can pass both ways. That could be a reason why sacrifice is sometimes part of the ritual or process.

A huge book by Michael Bertiaux on Gnostic Voodoo suggests people can assimilate what other groups have built up. Someone else wrote about utilising other people's work rather than start from scratch with your own energy creation.

Books on the scene

'The Black Alchemist' Andrew Collins
'Out of the Shadows' J J Coughlin
'Spiritual Warfare: the Politics of the Christian Right' Sara Diamond
'Magic, Witchcraft & the Otherworld' Susan Greenwood
'The Occult Tradition' David S Katz
'Persuasions of the Witch's Craft' T M Luhrmann
'Witchcraft & Sorcery' ed Max Marwick
'The Dark Worship' Toyne Newton
'At the Heart of Darkness' John Parker
'The Dark Gods' A Roberts & G Gilbertson
'Witchcraft, Sorcery, Rumors & Gossip' P J Stewart & A Strathern
'The Philosophy of Magic' Versluis

Hissing & splitting
More reading on witchcraft, paganism, satanism, countries, cultures, allegations, counter-allegations. People will never agree! Some people are vociferous in demonstrating something doesn't happen. How can you demonstrate something does not, nay cannot happen? From around 1988 some writers have beavered away on 'it' from various standpoints. If more people checked more themes, more could come out than mere 'hissing and splitting'.

There are books on dark magick, creating entities, servitors, thoughtforms. Whether you accept those beliefs & practices, some people go to great lengths over them, no matter what they claim to believe, practise or deny.

So it's not good to be splitting hairs. A 'reflection' or 'splitting' process refers to the stances people take in describing a situation as if there is a vital or virulent need to fixate on one side. Needs must as the devil drives?

Something wicked this way comes
In the late 80's/early 90's came the 'satanism scare'. I was not directly involved in social work at that time but people with training/ experience were needed to talk to children who were affected. Living in the middle of nowhere I knew little about this. What were people talking about? Why was it not heard of before? Or was it? Should I get involved?

People tend to get, or be put onto one side of any argument or the other. One either 'believes' or is a 'sceptic'. The label doesn't matter so long as one can be categorised, dismissed, denigrated. Sometimes a viable explanation can make two end-points not mutually exclusive. I've met aggro that my view is left-wing or right - concepts meaningless to me.

Is there some thesis or unwritten law that something must be valid or not valid - for everyone rather than for an individual or a situation?

Changes afoot
There did seem an atmosphere of accepting other lifestyles and outlooks. In some parts of the world people ask 'Who is your God?' and the answer is no big deal. It'll either be the same or different. But books came along to change my sunny-side mental twist and I dug deeper.

Did magic work 'in olden times'? Did people 'not know any better'? Did they know better, abstaining from sticking spanners of disbelief in the works'?

Kick-off 1988
It started around 1988. When referring to any particular person, people or group, book or belief system, it is not meant to be detrimental or definitive.

There was renewed interest in the occult at the time and books were becoming available. The big Festivals of Mind-Body-Spirit were around mainly in London. It all seemed a step in the right direction, people free to look at what suited them and let others do the same. It didn't seem to work out like that - and this was 10 years before the Internet when we became used to people sounding off about everything to no-one & everyone.

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Post received Anonymously

Some people form opinions or make careers in a way that suits them longterm - which isn't so easy in a changing world or when one changes in oneself. Getting fired from a job for 'not fitting in', I drifted into a museum I'd always walked past before, and happened across something that took me in a totally different direction. I couldn't have done it so well had I been trying to.

People tend to recognise a fellow traveller, a faller from the communal boat. The personnel manager for a large local company found my CV funny. 'When you see one like this' he said 'it means someone is searching for something that they're not going to find in a job'.

A summary of what followed is that strange things happen in mundane and unexpected places. I found that one's face can actually 'fit' sometimes with no rhyme or reason, even when inexperienced or making some huge mistake.

Luck? Swings and roundabouts? Or poetic justice, like when the aforementioned boss got fired himself soon after. But what did I ever do wrong!

The personnel bloke said I should look into astrology and graphology. Am not sure if he would get it in the neck these days for not being politically correct.
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NOTES ABOUT THIS PAGE

2007-10-14T04:32:00.001-07:00

Without prejudicing what anyone might wish to say about themselves or times that they or someone else acted 'out-of-character', there often does seem an interpersonal or group aspect although obviously there can be plenty of other factors.

This page reflects some of that approach towards considering 'why we do what we do' - even if it's only sometimes or just a one-off. And it implies it might make sense to watch some of the company we keep!

TELL YOUR STORY and some Excerpts are now at the bottom of Page 1 the Home Page.

Profiling - the company we keep?

2007-10-14T04:31:00.001-07:00

Although there does seem validity in personality profiling or evaluation for some people, some actions, some situations, or just sometimes - sociological or environmental factors may overtake the individual approach or need consideration as playing a potentially significant part.

That's a sweeping statement which I'll draw in a little by mentioning a book 'Profiling the Criminal Mind: Behavioral Science & Criminal Investigative Analysis' by Dr Robert J Girod Sr. It is an introductory book outlining main themes and theories about profiling and investigation of crime from the author's experience, also mentioning the work of many others with wide-ranging views, experience and expertise.

Several chapters mention the kind of situation that people are in, such as groups they belong to where the 'group cause' could be a motivating factor in criminal or other activity. Some of the subtitles from the CONTENTS list are:

Gang motivated murder
Criminal competition homicide
Group cause homicide:
Cult murder
Extremist murder
Group excitement murder
Peer/group pressure
Group retaliation
Child/adolescent pornography
Historical child/adolescent sex rings
Multidimensional sex rings
Group cause sexual assault

The Nature of Cults:
Attributes
Attitudes
Characteristics
What are Cults

The list continues and some aspects clearly may also come under individual behaviour.

Another useful book is 'Profiling Violent Crimes: An Investigative Tool' by Ronald M. Holmes & Stephen T. Holmes. There are many more, some quite expensive and some intended more for academics or for those working in the field.

My point (lest you think I wander or wonder aimlessly) is I am strongly inclined to think that sadistic, violent or extreme behaviours are probably things that most people are capable of, especially when under extreme stress or in extreme circumstances. That includes the company we keep, or are somehow inveigled into keeping.

In other words I suggest almost a continuum of behaviour, the extremity of which is shocking but where other factors can sometimes render the shock factor insufficient to prevent our involvement, willing or unwilling, witting or unwitting.

Those extreme behaviours could therefore be like an extension of 'normal people's normal behaviour'.

That is some sobering thought. Maybe I got it all wrong ...

But then I came across John Sweeney's book 'Purple Homicide: Fear and loathing on Knutsford Heath' where in the Epilogue he outlines some theories of cult behaviour and extremes such as suicide by members of a group or cult:

Page 260:
"Ashley Grossman is Professor of Neuro-endocrinology at Bart's Hospital in London. He saw a comparison between those who build and reinforce a system of lies and mass suicide cults. 'All of us from time to time tell lies. If the lie is outside the structure, then we can handle that. But if we construct a house around that lie, with eaves and guttering and drainpipes, then we are in trouble. There is a psychological theory that is called cognitive dissonance, which implies that everything must be reasonably congruent. So there comes a certain stage where you start living in that house because there isn't too much else outside. Then even the most reasonably balanced person will find it quite difficult to distinguish between truth and non-truth. They do literally live that lie and it becomes part of their self-structure. It will be hard then to say that someone is deliberately lying because, by that stage, the lie becomes self-reinforcing. The power of the lie is enhanced if there is a folie a deux, if two people are in on the lie together. At its most extreme, the lie can lead to a mass suicide, like the Heaven's Gate suicides..... Within the structure it was congruent, it made sense, they understood it, everybody said the same thing. It was the rest of the world that was living the lie.' "

. . . . .

Does that explain why some couples or families have an elaborate system of reinforcing each other's statements and beliefs, in the face of just about everything going on around them? I've often wondered when keeping my ears open on trains & buses. No doubt I am no different when push comes to shove.

Returning to a book mentioned in another article here, 'More Scams from the Great Beyond: How to make even more money off of creationism, evolution, environmentalism, fringe politics, weird science, the occult and other strange beliefs' Peter Huston:

He comments on various hoaxers or what some people call 'true believers' and comes up with some interesting ideas about dynamics. In particular he writes of rather earnest campaigners that there can be in some fields - any field really. Maybe a lot of us are basically rebels seeking a cause or something 'meaningful' to work on with other people.

In Chapter 4 on the subject of 'Environmentalism' Huston takes the mick out of the seriousness with which some people take the issues, and I'm not saying that should be an object of fun. But there's many a true word spoken in jest, as the saying goes, and he illustrates it with this on p.86 under a title of 'Canvassing' he writes:

'Choose one particular issue and declare it your cause of the day... Next get a group of well-meaning, idealistic people together... one way is to run a newspaper classified ad... 'Save the Environment' etc... The key elements are an appeal to idealism, greed, and people with lack of experience.

'Collect these well-meaning, idealistic people. Keep them in one place together for a period of time. This serves several psychological purposes. First they will enjoy one another's company and form a group of some sort. Second they will reinforce each other's willingness to do the humiliating and morally questionable work that comes later.'
. . . . .

I was fortunate to attend a talk by an author on cults, hypnosis, brainwashing and so on, who was not afraid to mince words, many of which were above my head. But something stuck in my mind and was worth the visit. He used the term 'deployable agents' to describe what some people turn, or get turned, into. In his context of cults and influence (My note: I feel it could be a group or workplace situation) he suggested that the 'deal is done' when the individual can be relied on to act on the cult philosophy without now being watched or told what to do.

Some companies openly use the words 'company indoctrination' and there's an increasing trend towards teamwork, building a group-mind, de-individualising the individual, 'you can't do enough for a good firm', 'we need 100 per cent of you' and so on. Hang on, if they get 100 percent, what's left for the individual? We are naturally affected by people we are in contact with, and perhaps the influence is benign or most of it disappears over a period of time.

Perhaps it sometimes works in favour of individuals, a group-mind or team-spirit which can be nourishing too and which they can draw from. Some suggest that we need to mix with a variety of other people to stay sane and healthy. However I guess one man's meat is another's poison so one can't generalise.

So long as no-one is manipulating a group for their own purposes, perhaps there is no need to worry too much, and there could actually be benefits to others involved. I think unease about cults in general comes in when, to the person outside looking in, there seems an agenda which only a few at the top layer know of or can do anything about, and is detrimental to the members.

Somewhere I read that people like Charles Manson were like an orchestrator or conductor of the personalities of people in his group, so that they were effectively acting out the roles of his subpersonalities or dissociations like in a DID system.

More videos in this series at www.youtube.com/user/scillaholmes

Dr William Sargant wrote on the phenomenon of conversion to religion or way of thought, and suggested it occurred a lot easier if there was high excitation of an area in the brain. In a TV interview some years ago he joked that he would not wish to attend a particular ritual or event as he 'did not want to get converted'.

Does this have relevance for large crowds, rallies, congregations, pop concerts, or even some individual or small-group practices like meditation or ritual? Can we change our own psychological reality? Can reality really get changed, or does how we perceive things change? Can someone else change us against our inclination? How would they benefit? Would we!

If about half of us have a 'religious gene' and half not, where does that leave half of us? any of us? all of us? 'in real terms'?

Will there always be some split in belief or perception which divides us humans into camps, as if somehow we have to seek differentiation? Maybe this is where the 'hissing & splitting' comes in, mentioned by Speakofthedevil in his Blog.

If someone goes in for meditation, or has a feverish illness and senses things differently, do they actually become different? If tragedy knocks harshly on your door, are you necessarily the same person afterwards? I feel we can get changed by things, sometimes so that there is no 'going back' completely. The speaker on cults and 'deployable agents' mentioned above, suggested a need to accept that people may not be able to go right back as they were before joining.

Before closing, a note about a public lecture that was held at the London School of Economics on 'Why is it Always 'Us' and 'Them': on the natural history of thinking through groups' by Professor Lawrence Hirschfeld. I couldn't make it to the lecture so looked his name up and with luck and a fair wind this Link will take you to some information on his work. The LSE holds free public lectures in term-time, see www.lse.ac.uk/events

Over to you - What do you think?

. . . . .

Cults, groups, indoctrination, exiting

2007-10-14T04:29:00.000-07:00

Post by Kaytrin

During life we go through periods of being a part of some grouping, in a family, at work, in the neighbourhood. Sometimes it works well, sometimes not! But we gain knowledge about ourselves and others, and have a tendency to seek situations which offer us something meaningful. Perhaps that is a role we can play, or a general feeling of being accepted.

Without that, we can feel alone in the world, and some groups take advantage of that. They may home in on people, offering what they want to hear, that they will be liked or taken care of, that the group provides answers of a philosophical or religious nature. We won’t be just zizzing around without a clue or a base, because there’ll be someone to act as friend or family.

This can work to mutual advantage. I recently ordered a book written by someone who spent 20 years living in different communal settings, and await that with interest. However, books and advisory centres range in their attitude about particular groups, or on the phenomenon of cults as a general principle and how harmful they are likely to be.

I think it’s good to have an enquiring approach, but recently I came across a book in an Oxfam shop where the author had joined some groups or cults that he found strange, amusing, stupid, awful. He seemingly implied that neither he nor anyone else actually got hurt in the process. How can he know that? That is an interesting phenomenon in itself. It would be interesting to undertake research into how groups such as juries come to a consensus opinion - or not.

If we are on our own in the world, to some extent we can make up our own minds and not get swayed into something different by another person, or in a group setting of a natural or contrived kind. Once we are involved with other people, there has to be some give-and-take or negotiation, and there are likely to be subtle changes that can be built on or further altered, becoming quite profound. Some businesses work on this in terms of team-work, company ethos and so on. It always used to be like that up to a point, but I can’t help thinking it has become more deliberate and invasive. One may find oneself not fitting in – and not being able to do much about it!

Bullying in the workplace (and elsewhere besides) has become an issue to the extent that both the Samaritans and Joseph Rowntree Foundation have prepared information on it. Without harping on about ‘the old days’, perhaps we had more respect for each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and the boundaries surrounding another person’s job, and personal or working space. Perhaps the decrease in physical area around someone’s workstation plays a part in how things have changed. In many places there isn’t even a personal desk with a little drawer one can lock or that no-one would think of going through!

A couple of other observations and I will aim to wrap this up. Firstly, if you’re in a supermarket and there are say 20 other shoppers and trolleys, maybe you don’t cross paths too closely too often. Increase the number to 40 and maybe it’s a bit harder. Increase it to 60 and the shopping process doesn’t work so well. Walk around a small town during a weekday and you might not meet many people. You may recognise some faces and even greet a few. Walk around a large town or city when people are heading to work or leaving, or racing around in their lunch break, and people are much less likely to stand back and smile. It becomes a survival situation – they need their job or to catch a train, and pit their survival against anyone else’s.

So we tend to think we’d rather be in a group than on our own, in this maelstrom of humanity, because there’s safety in numbers plus we’d like some personal recognition. Personal recognition can indeed still come with a job situation, but perhaps less than years ago, and less when job security is so decreased. Perhaps this is why workplace bullying increases, but it seems to have spread wider through society and neighbourhoods. It’s not as cosy and supportive as ‘Coronation Street’, although there’s plenty of that around.

I caught a comment by a psychiatrist on a radio show some years ago. He was of the opinion that his work would be reduced by 80 per cent, if people had another person they could confide in. The fact that Samaritans and other organisations have helped so many people through difficult times in their lives seems to bear this out. Sometimes people ‘go it alone’ either because they need to or have to, but at other times they need contact. They may seek it in a close personal relationship or in more of a group setting.

One of the things about groups is that we like to identify with certain things about them, or some of the people in them, at the same time as needing to retain some of our individuality. Unless that can be negotiated there can be difficulties.

In a cult-type setting, people may find their days mapped out and may be told what to believe, how to behave with their partner – even if that is allowed, children may be cared for by others, and contact with the outside world is restricted. If someone tries to buck the system and do their own thing, pressures are brought to bear on them to conform. If they want to leave, some cults will allow this and some don’t. However one of the main problems is that, living in a situation which is isolating in some way, members may not see the invisible walls around them, and that they even could still access the outside world.

This is why it is important, if you can, to maintain some form of contact with someone you know who has joined a group or cult, so that a part of their reality is that there is someone who knows them and will talk to them. And if the person manages to leave, depending on how they have been affected, it can take several years for their thinking to gradually get back onto other tracks. That process may never completely ‘undo’ all the changes, so one does need to be realistic and do what one can.

Sometimes people have attempted to 'rescue' someone from a cult and forcibly change their attitude and beliefs back. This was called deprogramming and it fell into disrepute, sometimes involving legal battles for kidnap. The term now used is exiting a cult with perhaps the facility of some exit counselling. As is often the way of things though, this has also been called into disrepute by those who say it's just a euphemism for the deprogramming of the past that could be quite a violent process.

Find out what form the exit counselling will take and see what options there may be. It is tempting sometimes to want to extract someone from a group which seems harmful, but it may not be possible or advisable.

Something you could perhaps explore is the concept of what is termed intervention, and this approach sometimes gets used with an addiction or other problem. Family or friends arrange to meet in a neutral setting like a hotel room, and invite the individual to join them, along with a professional who takes control of the interaction. The dynamic seems to be that the individual with the problem is faced with an irrevocable choice: to give up their problematic behaviour, or never to see their family and friends again.

It can be highly emotional, but the tug of family and friends and their promise of continuing support can just swing the balance.

Intervention can also be taken more generally to describe anything which breaks, or might break, into a cycle, pattern, or mode of thought or behaviour. It may be a matter of waiting until the person starts to question for themselves.

Certainly battering your own reality up against theirs is unlikely to be productive, and they have rights about leading their lives as they feel they want. The problems are more that we have known the person when they were very different, or we believe what has happened to them is wrong. 'Someone else' has entered the scene and had a devastating effect so the individual does not seem in control - and may in fact not be in control because 'someone else' or some other 'reality of belief' is.

. . . . .

Posts by Kaytrin and others on similar subjects are now all located on 'Unseen Aspects of Behaviour' at http://unseenaspects.blogspot.com to make space for newer articles here.

Norman's article 'Profiling - the company we keep?' (about groups) is here on this Blog.

For more on Cults and groups in general click HERE

Also see 'Doc Matrix' - A fun site with a serious purpose in mind - YOU!

Problems are not all Your Fault! : Outline Questions on Help
Pressures Outside or Within : P-Y-O Personality Parts
Groups & Cults : Dissing, Dissonance, Splits & Divides
Doc’s X-Files or WHY? : Beliefs & Myths We Live By
Con-Tricks, Hustles, Scams, Deception - BookList

Dissociation/ DID; Memes; Garden analogy

2007-10-14T04:28:00.000-07:00

Post by Kaytrin

I wanted to add a few ideas in here because they seem relevant. Norman mentioned a book by Adam Crabtree entitled 'Multiple Man' which I won't go into in detail here but the full title is 'Multiple Man: Explorations in Possession and Multiple Personality'. It was published in paperback in 1988 by Grafton Books but you may be able to pick up a copy.

Whether one feels there is any validity to the concept of possession, or of multiple personality (which now gets called DID indicating dissociation) the author makes an interesting point about his experiences taking groups through a technique called Psychodrama where people act out different roles in a scene. He found that, not only did people with little acting ability or inclination often do well at it, but they managed with little information on the personality and role they were asked to play.

He says (p.337) 'There seems to be within people a natural ability to take on a personality other than their own and to act from within that assumed personality. They appear to actually become that personality and to some extent, leave their own personality behind. The English word which most closely expresses this phenomenon is 'personation'. My experience with psychodrama shows me that human beings may be said to have the innate capacity to 'personate', to take on full-blown personalities and act from within them.'

He goes on to describe personality as a tool (p.339) concluding 'I think there is reason to believe that the whole of man's emotional life is centred around the invention and utilization of those tools that we call 'personalities'.'

---

Psychosynthesis and various broadly similar approaches use working with parts of the personality, or subpersonalities, perhaps giving each one a name and looking at how useful or otherwise they are for our overall functioning.

Another theme which could have relevance is the concept of the 'shadow', or darker side of ourselves which we may be disinclined to acknowledge - but which others can sometimes see perhaps because of their own acknowledged or unacknowledged parts. It's a strange old world and that includes humans!

I think it's fair to say though that most of us, much of the time, have some idea what happened in our lives this week, last week, this year, last year, going further back with some chain of connection. For people who tend to dissociate to a significant degree as part of their psychological make-up, it doesn't happen that way, and they may literally be unaware of things which happened while they were in quite a different state of mind.

I've known people who are naturally like that anyway, but it can happen too if they have been through bad experiences that they need to keep mostly shut away, or if someone encouraged or forced them to be like that. It can make it hard to plan things properly if they can't remember a bad outcome to something and take steps to avoid it again. And it can be hard for those around them if they don't know enough of the circumstances to understand.

It would be inappropriate of me not to say that I have doubts about some of the therapeutic approaches used with people who have been severely traumatised. No-one can know all the answers for each situation, and care needs to be taken so that a process which is aimed at helping someone does not cause unnecessary problems - for them, for you, for others close to the situation. If we take on board Adam Crabtree's work mentioned above on Psychodrama, and work undertaken on 'confabulation' we need to be careful that expectations or some other factors don't come into play as being factual, which doesn't mean people are deliberate liars either!

Often we can only get nearer to the truth without having a bias, and it does damage to vulnerable people to impose a bias on them in any direction, and whether it is subconsciously passing from us to them, or is somehow more tangible.

On a similar theme is 'A garden analogy of personality' (now pasted in at the end of this piece) which could have relevance for the way ordinary people we know can change, or appear to change. Certainly I have known people who became quite different over the years, as if some parts or modes fell away for a time and others came to the fore. Perhaps that is due to specific events or circumstances, perhaps due to chemical changes in the brain, or perhaps we do indeed use personality modes as vital 'tools' to get us through.

I won't list any other particular books but you can search on Amazon, Google etc. and find something which suits the kind of questions you may have.

- - - - - - -

Other, better theories about DID, MPD?

by Harlan

Reading your site, and with some interest in all this, I wonder whether there are other factors or explanations not necessarily exclusive to some of the views or theories, but could they complement them somehow if we let them?

In some quarters, Freudian theories have been completely thrown out or drastically questioned. Some detractors claim that nothing from anyone with a psychoanalytic approach has validity. The inference can get drawn by writers - or readers - that what people feel happened to them regarding abuse is simply the mind telling them what to think.

It does seem likely that some approaches to therapy can encourage this tendency without perhaps intending to, but I will not get into those aspects just now.

Richard Webster makes some interesting points on his website. I also read around the subject of 'anti-therapy' and so on, and admit to a sneaky feeling that some therapy spiel plays into a need that people feel for something to 'make sense' in their hour of need. I do believe we can work on a societal approach that marginalises less people, a type of society that does not make people think themselves inadequate because of what is put forward that suggests they are.

Moving on ...

Looking for something specific about MPD or DID, I came across mention of a book by Ralph Allison and his model for dissociation of different parts of the personality occurring more in some people or circumstances than the rest of the population. An expensive book but there's always background information on Google etc. so one doesn't have to purchase everything!

That led to the subject of memes and schemas, which I do not know a great deal about, only what I've read previously and now. One can search around the concepts and the term 'SocioPsychology' would clue the search engine in also. I wish I had the time to look into this more.

It all seems to take in concepts relating to social environment and even genes, along with ideas/memes having a life of their own, with a basic need to survive and propagate themselves independently of their human hosts - us or our brains.

There is a concept of 'selfplexes', a hypothetical grid of the various ways people can behave. Theoretically one could place a person's behaviour or tendencies into an area or areas, a bit like repertory grid theory for plotting attitudes or behaviour.

Although that may seem in direct contrast to some ideas about MPD or DID, and some people might take it that way, it could tie in. Someone on here mentioned Psychodrama with people showing a natural capacity to draw more things out of a scene or situation than they actually know of. There was a mention on here about people using personality or subpersonalities as tools in different situations. That would tie in with some ideas and research in Social Psychology.

I can't help feeling it could/ would/ should tie in somehow with ideas about mythology, fairy tales or nursery rhymes having an unseen but significant influence on people's lives, like the heading for your Blog maybe?

Thanks for the opportunity. I hope someone makes sense out of this and can take it further. All I'd like to add is I don't think 'truth' or the search for it, should be a money-making venture or an attempt to put-one-over on anyone else.

- - - - - - -

Included below with permission -

'A garden analogy of personality'

It seems to me that higher cult members regard the cult as their territory, and each cult member as a small garden for them to manipulate or harvest in some way according to some overall plan. Picture a garden with some indigenous plants, personae, of one person. Decide which ones you want to nurture, cut back, dig up, and which ones you actually want to implant. You have an overall garden plan, which needs to be adaptable to how plants develop, and outside circumstances such as the weather, the neighbouring gardens and their influence. In any garden, some plants tend to grow and obscure or kill other plants. You work with what you have according to what you want to achieve. It becomes ‘yours’.

One could also use an analogy of a house. It was built in a certain way, different inhabitants altering it, with the concept that they own it and it is an extension of themselves with some character of its own. The colours and shapes and utilities in the rooms are set to complement the owner and purpose of the room, and how the owner wants to present to themselves, and to others who may visit.

Another useful concept is that of the family or tribe or nation. Fred West said that he owned his children so he could do what he wanted with them. Many cultures have a strong sense of extended family and behave in an adaptive and congenial way towards each other’s needs. I believe in Ireland the culture exists that one not only belongs to a family but is owned by it. Nations have certain national identities and traits which may come into conflict with other nations for any real or inferred reason. The English system of manors and farm-workers meant that during the First World War, the lord of the manor could feel he had the right to enlist the men ‘under him’ to war because they were his to command. The concept of the feudal system is also relevant here.

According to theories of Jung, psychosynthesis, parts therapy and others, we all have several personae or alters, partly influenced by the social or other circumstances at the time, how we feel, or which someone else can evoke in us. Cults build on all these to suit their own purposes, also using psycho-analytic theory, not to help people, but to control them, and behavioural techniques such as positive and negative reinforcement.

To return to the garden concept, imagine it has a wall around it with a gate, although probably places where someone can enter the garden and have their way with it. This is how most of us are, with a general concept of personal boundaries and free will where possible. Cults have a very different notion, that the person belongs more to them than to themselves as individuals, and that members must follow the cult’s will both overall, and of the specific moment. One could also use the analogy of communist culture where the individual is said to exist for the purpose of the state, rather than the state being there to assist them.

Being in contact with a cult member can be like any other interaction up to a point. One forms a relationship with a particular part or parts of the personality, and regards them as being the main ‘owners’ there. When other parts surface with different ways and needs, we do what we can with those too, but obviously there can be conflicts where it is hard to know what is appropriate overall. Cults induce and encourage conflicts to suit their purposes.

So the garden gets modified, certain personae come and go or remain dormant, some are cut back perhaps to allow others to grow or spread, or because there is too much of them to suit the purpose. Some plants will seed themselves naturally, and some will be deliberately planted. Some get weeded out although may re-seed themselves somewhere. Some personae may be grafted onto others. Some get totally extinguished. If the cult decide to extinguish the main persona or personae, eventually there is nothing substantial left of the original person, i.e. it is totally theirs, the cult’s.

I think the cult get into difficulties when links are forged with people who are not cult-oriented, such as in therapy or a friendship or partnership. The cult does all it can to break that link, and it may be that they cannot use the ‘garden’ as their own and actually harvest it, or whatever it is that they do.

- - - - - - -

A Singular Yarn

Was apparent ritual abuse basically an excuse for extreme social engineering and control, leading women - in particular - to think they had no rights, and behaving as if Hicktown was a veritable Stepford Life?
Read more at www.yarntangled.net/social.html

If you arrived here from another website

2007-10-14T04:26:00.000-07:00

If you arrived on this page from another site
this is part of Toukanalia Blog on
'Out-of-Character Behaviour' main page HERE
~ ~ ~

'Unseen Aspects of Behaviour' Blog with various articles
now all at http://unseenaspects.blogspot.com
Includes: Symbols, realities, the unseen; Shamanism
Ritual abuse - see the trigger warning
Urban legend and ritual abuse
Groups, cults, indoctrination, exiting
Supporting a survivor of cult ritual abuse
Dissociation or DID
A garden analogy of personality
Other or better models for DID, MPD?
Social dynamics of cult or satanic ritual abuse
More dynamics, by Magentine
Fantasy role-playing

Battle for the Mind

2007-10-14T04:25:00.000-07:00

Article by Norman

The above is the title of a book by William Sargant whom I've mentioned briefly in relation to 'conversion syndrome' referring to a state of mind where beliefs can radically alter - or be altered. I was thinking of another book 'The Mind Possessed: from Ecstacy to Exorcism' which he wrote long before Ecstacy had any relevance for social drugtaking and mass dancing. Interestingly he writes of shamanic practices, drumming, frenetic dance etc. in relation to ecstatic conversion of beliefs. Some people have been critical of his work and I don't want to get into that controversy here. The back cover blurb for 'Battle for the Mind' reads

'The object of this remarkable book is twofold: To explain how people can be switched to arbitrary beliefs absolutely opposed to those previously held - the science of brainwashing! In detail, and with the aid of fascinating photographs, the author describes the methods used to achieve these ends by politicians, priests, psychiatrists and police forces the world over.' There's no mincing words there, neither does William Sargant in the book. He could easily have played down how effective the methods can be.

He knew what he was talking about from a clinical point of view, and also as an anthropological observer through visiting many countries observing customs and rituals. Briefly at this stage I quote from p.79:

'... those who wish to disperse wrong beliefs and undesirable behaviour patterns and afterwards implant saner beliefs and attitudes are more likely to achieve success if they can first induce some degree of nervous tension or stir up sufficient feelings of anger or anxiety to secure the person's undivided attention and possibly increase his suggestibility.' He goes on to explain that, although one might use a model of slow and reasoned belief change, the reality is that it happens a lot faster which suggests a different dynamic.

He goes on to explain how questioning or interrogation can work subtly with the outcome that eventually the person being questioned feeds back to the questioners the theories swimming round and about him.

Sargant was writing from the late 1950's to early 1970's, which explains some of his attitude and terminology.

See also the previous article on 'Physiology/psychology and the brain' regarding work by Dorothy Otnow Lewis and a colleague into some effects of brain damage on mental functioning
. . . . .

Next to arrive on my bookshelf was 'The Unquiet Mind' with William Sargant describing various approaches he attempted with patients, the research of the time, and his own search to find what was appropriate, 'real' or 'right' within his role.

He describes the dilemma that he and colleagues faced over the McNaughton Rules relating to criminal responsibility, and the state of mind of some people accused of violent crime. He writes of a young man who stabbed his mother while mentally confused. Extensive testing revealed abnormal brainwaves from very low blood sugar through his not recently having eaten. The jury took his mental state into account.

Other people in the legal system did not fare so well and some were sentenced to death. Severe abnormalities in brain functioning and behaviour can occur in people with a pre-existing condition who drink large quantities - not necessarily alcohol. Plain water in sufficient quantity can put someone over the edge, and brainwaves can be tested before and after taking in liquid.

There is much more and Sargant's books are inexpensive and easily obtainable.

In the following section 'Are you a skeptic?' I mention the inefficacy (or worse) of certain medication for instance for schizophrenia and depression. William Sargant points out that in some cases people would probably not have survived without some appropriate medication.

I believe I am right in thinking that he felt medication would eventually help with many more kinds of problem, rather than people becoming involved in psychotherapy. I can't help thinking that environment and the way people are treated matter a great deal.

Are you a skeptic?

2007-10-14T04:23:00.001-07:00

by Norman

Video by Lexicomic
More videos at www.youtube.com/user/lexicomic

Generally I avoid publications which are openly sceptikal or skeptical or how it goes. But that is to throw the baby out with the bathwater just as much as they could be.

A recent publication of 'Skeptical Inquirer' dated September/October 2008 caught my attention and I'm glad. There is an article on stimulating the vagus nerve with an expensive gadget supposedly to relieve depression (but tests do not support that); an article on bipolar disorder/manic depression where diagnosis rate has shot up out of all proportion to the reality of the situation, in other words criteria for diagnosis have 'softened'.

Medication can produce significant side-effects, and may actually decrease the likelihood of recovery. On page 43 the article states (in relation to mood stabilising drugs) 'Indeed, these findings indicate that not receiving treatment works better than pharmaceutical intervention. Similarly, University of Illinois researchers recently found that only 5 percent of medicated schizophrenia patients recover, but 40 percent of non-medicated patients recover (Harrow, Grossman, Jobe, and Herbener 2005; also see Harrow and Jobe 2007). In other words, schizophrenia patients are eight times more likely to recover if they are not on medications!'

In the late 1960's I attended classes at a London college taught by a psychiatrist on the subject of mental health. I recall him saying that 'spontaneous remission' occurred in about 50 percent of schizophrenia cases, i.e. without drugs or therapy. There seems to be some general consistency with the more recent research figure of 40 percent.

Along with some other volunteers I became involved with a research project at a large Victorian mental hospital with a progressive approach. Each volunteer visited one patient assigned to them with the aim of forming a relationship to see whether there was significant improvement. I did not look up the results - we all knew that there was an improvement, and even some staff who were sceptical could see for themselves.

I think we need to look more to sociological and human approaches rather than thinking the cure necessarily comes from a medicine bottle. Having said that, I will add a proviso that people bear in mind the previous article 'Battle for the Mind' on the work and views of William Sargant.

SUMMARY 'Out-of-Character Behaviour'

2007-10-14T04:22:00.001-07:00

Written by Norman

This Blog has been on a back-burner and is presented as it comes and incomplete but hopefully it will give some ideas.

Everyone has their own ways of seeing the world and seeking truth or meaning. All this is trying to do is see whether something important has got missed along the way, so that things are not really as they seem, perhaps not at all.

Some people proclaim emphatically that all belief systems are due to things called memes. Certainly the approach seems worthy of consideration. We might extend it to memes that can't be analysed from a printed page such as musical, pictures or visions.

Perhaps interpersonal problems occur if our own meme-types don't fit other people's and we wander in quandary seeking better memes or meaning.

We wonder about things like servitors, magical entities, thoughtforms designed with purpose to affect the thinking or behaviour of someone else. Does it work? Would it worry us too much if it did? Should we go round protecting ourselves as if there is something over our shoulder or round the corner? Does Voodoo work for good as well as ill?

For sure, we act in accordance with our own beliefs. But might we also be acting in accordance with someone else's? You may or may not believe that magic or 'magick' works. After all, look at stage magicians and how we know that what they do is illusion. But people have been interested in magic of the other kind and things occult down the ages. Perhaps they knew a thing or two! Perhaps they just did not allow scepticism to act as a resistor and get in the way.

Or is it a natural phenomenon, that atmospheres build up in a place over time, which may get triggered by certain times, cycles, events, individuals or practices such as ritual, or a psychic tuning, or meditation?

Can we say the same applies to a group, that it has qualities which build up naturally over time - a group mind? Or does it get built by design with strong emotion and intent, so we might use the term egregor to describe it? Some might say that is not a totally correct use of the word egregor, but does that matter? A little flexibility and things can go a long way. Phenomena do not necessarily fall into a mutually exclusive Either/Or argument.

The point is, does something like this affect more than just that grouping? Affect us, for instance, like a kind of broadcast - this time of invisible memes, symbols, something?

Could there be some physical or tangible method of increasing the effect - see Appendix 1.

Is it possible?
Is it there?
What is it aimed to achieve?
What should we do about it?

We already mentioned Adam Crabtree's 'Multiple Man' which makes fascinating reading whatever one thinks.

There is a book by journalist Jimmy Lee Shreeve (whose name comes up on a Google search) entitled 'Bloodrites' about human sacrifice. Chapter 7 at the end is worth a read where he mentions work by Julian Jaynes on the so-called bicameral mind. Shreeve says on p.324:

'Jaynes argued that each hemisphere of the brain in prehistoric people worked on a separate track and that the thinking of the right brain was heard as 'voices'. He said these auditory hallucinations, which were taken to be the voices of the ancestral dead, and later the gods, had an aura of enormous authority, and if they gave instructions to the left hemisphere - the waking, daily consciousness - it would obey. Jaynes called this condition the 'bicameral mind'. These voices, he said, were not necessarily heard as if 'in the head'; they could have seemed to emanate from a point in the environment such as a tree, standing stone or waterfall (hence the belief that spirits haunted such places). Jaynes also maintained that such hallucinations are still experienced today during various forms of artistic creativity (such as automatic or 'channelled' writing), religious frenzy, hypnotic states or in unmedicated cases of schizophrenia.'

On p.325 under a heading of 'The Bicameral Mind and Ritual Slaying' Shreeve says:
'The idea that ancient cultures perceived their gods as a literal reality, their voices appearing to come from 'outside' the human mind, would explain why it was many societies performed human sacrifice - sometimes on a mass scale. The gods demanded that ancient peoples offered up sacrifices to them.'

Society naturally tends to favour some people more than others, or rather to exclude some people more than others, to marginalise. It is shocking to see how people with disabilities face more difficulties than they have to, despite measures taken to improve shopping access, living conditions and understanding. We tend to be less accepting than we should of mental problems, homelessness etc. in our own society, and may not often think of poverty and hardship in other parts of the world.

Sometimes there's an improvement, often followed by greater discrimination - whatever it is that causes us to draw some line between what we actually do something about, think we should, or simply put on the other side.

This Blog has been partly to pull some ideas together that may make some sense or warrant a further look. Why adhere to a one-and-only philosophy when people are different, experiencing things differently, making sense of things their own way - which may change according to time and circumstance?

It should be possible to create a climate encouraging flexibility of approach, making life easier for people who feel they don't fit in. Where does one draw the line? What line would that be, and why? I have been fortunate to work in places employing people who were vulnerable through their physical or mental health. My dream was to see more of this approach and sadly this seems less likely in economic downturn.

I believe attitudes and atmospheres can be more accepting and supportive as a general 'culture', decreasing stress and marginalisation, which needs an approach of at least considering views different from our usual ones. How else would we learn anyway? The saying goes that 'travel broadens the mind' and that would be good as a mental strategy too.

For me, the 'something important missed along the way' could run like this, combining some off-the-cuff remarks recalled from years back, with situations that lodged or circled in my brain waiting to find a niche or connection. University courses, TV programmes, the Internet, have all increased the amount and variety of information available to people. Before 'CSI', 'Criminal Minds' etc. I asked a friend what she meant by forensic psychology and her reply was interesting and unorthodox: 'It's the theory that whatever happens to you makes an impression on the brain like a fingerprint' she said. That's not generally how people describe it though it probably comes into it somewhere. It gives an inkling similar to the idea in forensic science that wherever one goes one leaves a trace of oneself and also leaves with something from the scene, an exchange of some sort. Taking my friend's definition, we exchange something every time we interact with someone - we are changed and so are they.

During a course I took involving group-work, a girl was distressed saying she felt she could disintegrate. Quick as a flash the facilitator replied 'If you do, you will re-integrate with parts from all of us here'. This was not a New Age training or remark; it was further back and psychodynamically based though I didn't realise how much. (Actually I did not realise it was a psychodynamic course till near the end, which shows how I jumped or got drawn into things.)

If we are picking up sensations and ideas from other people at times and also affecting some of those we meet, it suggests we are not each some closed-off system. I question whether a group of people or an organisation are closed-off either, so have trouble with systems theory.

If we may lose parts of our sensation or memories, move away from some people, get involved with others, does that not suggest we are likely to change in some measure sometimes? I am aware of regression techniques where people experience an earlier time in their life as if it is current, but these concepts do not need to be mutually exclusive.

Some people talk about soul loss or theft and retrieval, and therapy as we know it in the West is not very different taken in a broad view, but I will leave my comments there.

Searching on the Internet with something specific in mind or just following where things lead, there are so many people pounding away at the truth, their truth, and I am no different. History shows a lot of splits or great divides, and these days it gets ever more complex. Deep down there are the same things: matriarchal systems, patriarchal systems, the kind of God or Gods, the swiping at the opposite view, the Celtic versus Christian approach, the believer versus the sceptic, and on and round it goes. Maybe that's what it is all about then, this being human lark - but sometimes it doesn't seem very human.

What happens to one person today can happen to us
or to someone we know tomorrow

We may not know the reason
. . . . .

BOOK LIST for 'Out-of-Character Behaviour'

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‘Going Postal’ by Mark Ames
'Critical Mass: How one thing leads to another' by Philip Ball
‘Phantoms in the Brain’ by Blakeslee & Ramachandran
‘The Eternal Child’ by Clive Bromhall
‘The Wayward Mind’ by Guy Claxton
‘Multiple Man’ by Adam Crabtree
‘Lack of Character: Personality, Moral Behaviour’ by John M. Doris

‘Eccentric & Bizarre Behaviours’ by Franzini & Grossberg
‘Nature’s Mind’ by Michael S. Gazzaniga
'The Tipping Point: How little things can make a difference' by Malcolm Gladwell
‘Vital Lies, Simple Truths: The Psychology of Self-Deception’ by Daniel Goleman
‘The Human Brain’ by Susan Greenfield
'The Psyche in Medicine' by Dr Arthur Guirdham

‘Cows, Pigs, Wars & Witches’ by Marvin Harris
‘Mega Brain’ by Michael Hutchinson
‘Britain on the Coach’ by Oliver James
‘Transcultural Psychiatry’ by Ari Kiev
'Freakonomics' by Steven D Levitt & Stephen J Dubner

'Healing the Family Tree' by Dr Kenneth McAll
‘Programmed to Kill’ by David McGowan
‘Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds’ by Charles Mackay
‘The Sickening Mind’ by Paul Martin
‘Fugitive Minds’ by Antonio Melechi

'Guilty by Reason of Insanity' by Dorothy Otnow Lewis MD
‘From the Edge of the Couch’ by Dr Raj Persaud
‘The Psychology of Judgment & Decision Making’ by Scott Plous
‘Amusing Ourselves to Death’ by Neil Postman
‘A User’s Guide to the Brain’ by John Ratey
'The KC Factor' by D.H.S. Reid
‘Genome’ by Matt Ridley

‘The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat’ by Oliver Sacks
‘Remotely Controlled’ by Dr Aric Sigman
‘Opening Skinner’s Box’ by Lauren Slater
‘The Sociopath Next Door’ by Martha Stout
‘The Wisdom of Crowds’ by James Surowiecki

‘The Call of the Weird’ by Louis Theroux
'Thirty Years Among the Dead' by Carl A. Wickland
'Misunderstanding Cults' edited by Benjamin Zablocki & Thomas Robbins
‘Soul Made Flesh’ by Carl Zimmer

‘Scapegoating, Abuse & One-upmanship’ article by Topaz Postline includes some social psychological and psychoanalytical concepts

ALSO try Books by -
Ann Rule, Louise Hay, Eric Berne, Anthony Robins, Eric de Bono, Tony Buzan

BOOKS & ARTICLES on -
Hypnosis; Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)
Advertising; Propaganda
Persuasion techniques; Mind control
True crime; Criminal profiling
Psychological profiling; Psychometric tests
Serial crime; Social control
Problem solving; Lateral thinking

ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER ?
ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME?
WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Continue to Appendices, Contacting Us, Seeking Help
by clicking on Older Posts

Appendix 1 - Psychotronics

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The following is a partial quote from pages 87 & 88 of a book by 'Commander X' entitled 'Incredible Technologies of the New World Order: UFOs - Tesla - Area 51' Chapter 12 under sub-heading 'Psychotronics':

'The so-called 'Secret Government' will not allow mainstream media to speak or write the truth about the matter, and will deny this is the case at every turn. Masers are LPM (low power microwave) directed energy weapons which are capable of causing the projection of auditory effects (either hearing 'voices' or subliminal suggestion) into the occipital cortex... One's only hope of protection is to be aware of the abuse as external to self, i.e. not coming from one's own imagination or delusions, but invasive projections designed to effect mind control.

False Memory Syndrome is a scapegoat created by a consortium of Federal 'spin doctors' bent on negating the believability and viability of the more than 12,000 unwitting citizens who have been on the receiving end of this technology. Since most persons on the receiving end have also been the types the government considers 'enemies of the State' to begin with, the perpetrators have been allowed to use their victims sexually as well. That's right, rape, but a form of rape that is not available to the average rapist who hasn't access to the so-called 'psychotronic' novelty effects weapons...

The mental health professions are currently swallowing this bogus media barrage on False Memory hook, line and sinker - and are preparing to ban all repressed memory therapies (hypnotherapies) as the main cause of these so-called 'Lies of the Mind'... The media planted stories about False Memory syndrome will help 'explain away' the memories of Alien Abduction/Ritual Satanic Abuse which are so prevalent in case of government psychotronic abuse... One of the main reasons that this form of atrocity is being so deftly covered up is due to the consistent abuse, sexual and otherwise, of the persons involved in the government's long standing 'genetics vs. heredity' eugenics and genetics experiments...

These same covert arms of government are the ones who have coined the term 'screen memories' to describe the obfuscational memories impressed by the abusers themselves! They must at all costs disguise their abuse in order to continue enforced amnesia which is designed to disguise abuse during domestic operations. Allowing the perpetrators their sexual reward is part and parcel of payment to the covert operatives in the field. Again, screen memories are enforced amnesia... they use alien abduction as a screen memory, inspiring terror in the populace they abuse... '

Appendix 2 - Theatre Earth

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Books by Alder are listed at:

http://www.conspiracytheorybook.co.uk

Appendix 3 - Hidden Truth

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Book by Steven M. Greer M.D. 'Hidden Truth - Forbidden Knowledge'

Contacting us

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You can comment on anything underneath the specific post

Say who your comments are intended for

Make it clear if it is OK for your post to appear publicly on this Blog and elsewhere, or if it is to be kept private

We don't check emails every day

Seeking help

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Some Guidelines for Seeking Help in a general sense are HERE.

Links relevant to childhood and other abuse are at TANSAL Abuse & Rights Pages http://www.tansal.org.uk
Includes bullying, harassment, stalking, coercive behaviour, domestic violence.

You may prefer keeping your own counsel for a while -

Once you tell someone, it cannot be un-said again!

Although it can be helpful, talking things through can be quite stressful

Reactions or input from others to sensitive issues may not be what you would like

For thoughts on how therapy may sometimes be unsuitable or even damaging, go to 'Doc Matrix' Trubbles site at www.docmatrix.me.uk/reduceabuse.html

Videos on emotional self-help, self-sufficiency, mental health at Cynthialysis
www.youtube.com/user/cynthialysis

Problems in Context on Facebook
-a psychosocial approach

Often we feel critical of others for behaving as they do, or being as they are. And that approach gets applied to us by others, and more significantly by ourselves! If we are aware of some of the context it is easier to make allowances.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/202251256462161