Groups & Behaviour
Con-Tricks & Scams
Cult-Related Links

BELIEFS, THOUGHTS & BEHAVIOUR

WE ALL get persuaded on occasion, perhaps to buy something that we either do or don't need - the 'right' kind of advertising obviously does pay.  At least we know where to get hold of something should the inspiration or need arise.  Ever wonder where the inspiration or 'need' comes from?  Does it necessarily benefit you, apart from that buzz and the hole in your pocket.

RESEARCH shows how people in groups tend to be rather more willing to take risks.  That doesn't mean that everyone takes more risks, or even feels like it.  It is simply that there is a way of showing a reasonable statistical difference between one state of affairs (making a decision on one's own), and facing the same decision with a group of others people.

YOU MIGHT be surprised how much that appears in our newspapers is simply a press release or write-up about someone's research, which may or may not be applicable to normal daily life.  It could, by a small stretch of the imagination, be designed to influence you to a way of thinking.

DID YOU know that behaviour follows thought?  Whose thoughts - what you read, what someone whom you trust tells you, what everyone else in the workplace thinks, what your partner thinks?  This may sound like empty rhetoric and that is for you to decide.  But would you want constant party political broadcasts, rousing marches, football crowds?

DO YOU want sometimes to flop in front of the tv and let it all happen around you?  It lifts you out of your everyday life, the daily struggle to work when you don't feel like it, the chores, getting the car fixed.  It's like a holiday, and we all need a breather.  You're happy to let the show go on and that might just be when your defences are down (hence all those ads?).

FINE - because you know there's advertising.  But what if you're uneasy about something, on the tv/ off the tv, what your mate says, what your boss says?  Why do you think there is emphasis today on being assertive, standing up for yourself, getting advice because you don't fit a particular niche?  Indeed it could be good for you.  It could also be good for the people who are paid to promote ideas via books, seminars, group meetings to foster a feeling of support, and so on.

EVERYONE has to earn a living?  Everyone can do their own thing?  It's free and it's helpful?  Could there be a hidden agenda, getting your mates involved, giving a donation, getting you to buy books, encouraging you  to feel a need to seek help or comfort - at financial or human cost?  We are all human:  you may feel OK with yourself or at least you get by.  You can build on that by yourself or with friends you trust.

BE AWARE that some people may not be what they seem.  Some may simply want you to believe what they believe, or they say what you might want to hear.  Something to watch out for would be a double-standard (which can be deliberate or not) where the stated objective may be perhaps an ideal to follow, but the intent may be raising money or having a form of control over others.

AS A GUIDE, if you are in a relationship or a group and you feel like questioning something or changing your mind but you meet opposition, perhaps it is time to examine things further.  There is a natural amount of give-and-take in many situations.  We all have our various likes and dislikes, our comfort zones and our discomforts.

CON-TRICKS, Scams, Deception

BBC TV have been running 'The Real Hustle' in 2009, information at www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m8mf
If you can watch videos you can see the Top 30 voted Hustles at www.bbc.co.uk/realhustle/besthustles/

Books you might find useful are:

'Conned: Scams, Frauds & Swindles' by James Morton & Hilary Bateson
'The Con Artist Handbook, the Secrets of Hustles & Scams' by Joel Levy
'The Art of the Steal - How to Protect Yourself & your Business' by Frank W Abagnale
'The Art of Deception' by Kevin D Mitnick & William L Simon
'More Scams from the Great Beyond' by Peter Huston
'The Sting - True Stories of the World's greatest Conmen' by Nigel Blundell
'The Tourist Trap - when Holiday turns to Nightmare' by Patrick Blackden

'The Book of Tells' by Peter Collett
'The Call of the Weird - Travels in American Subcultures' by Louis Theroux
'The Dilbert Principle' by Scott Adams
'A Mind of its Own - How your Brain Distorts & Deceives' by Cordelia Fine
'The Psychology of Self-Deception' by Daniel Goleman
'Tricks of the Mind' by Derren Brown
'Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic'

'Decoding Advertisements - Ideology & Meaning in Advertising' by Judith Williamson
'Emotional Design - Why we love (or hate) everyday things' by Donald A Norman
'Stack & Sway - the new Science of Jury Consulting' by Neil J Kressel & Dorit F Kressel
'Techniques of Persuasion' by J.A.C. Brown
'We Know What You Want - How they change your Mind' by Martin Howard
'The Want Makers' by Eric Clark

'The Sociopath Next Door' by Martha Stout
'Without Conscience - the Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among us' by Robert D Hare
'Erased - Missing Women, Murdered Wives' by Marilee Strong

Some people may genuinely believe
in what they are telling you (top of Page)

Logical Fallacies - errors of reasoning or argument -
use a Search Engine or www.logicalfallacies.info/
which categorises fallacies of relevance, ambiguity, or presumption

Social Engineering for strategies from the computer environment, and used more generally,
to gain information or to manipulate - often via 'social compliance'

Ponerology - wickedness or evil

Psychohistory (more information below)

Nidotherapy - changing someone's environment rather than trying to change them

Dissing has become a part of life, whether that means discounting someone, disrespecting, discrediting,
disregarding, dismissing; or being rude or unsupportive

Look at Advertising, Public Relations, Salesmanship, Anthropology, Stage Magic

CULTS & GROUPS

GROUPS in general, including family relationships or work places, even interaction with an individual, can have a very strong effect, and it can be difficult to see things for what they are, and to get help and understanding.

Management or other techniques may include the concept of 'winning hearts & minds':  To get people to change how they behave, you first change how they think about something, perhaps by gaining their trust or dependence.   Coercive behaviour does not have to be obtrusive or jarring.  It can be subtle or desirable, or at worst seem harmless - which makes it harder to see or get others to see. 

Click HERE If you are in a situation of domestic violence or a coercive relationship, or are facing issues with bullying or harassment.

CULT-RELATED LINKS are provided as a possible starting point:

Please bear in mind that people working in this field may have different opinions and approaches, so just take on board what is useful:

http://www.freedomofmind.com  Steven Hassan's website, author of 'Combatting Cult Mind Control: Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults" (1988) and 'Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves' (2000).

http://www.rickross.com   Primary signs that a group might be a 'cult' and how to get out of one.
Book List on page http://www.rickross.com/reference/books/reading_list.html

International Cultic Studies Association site with much useful information on how cults operate and their effects:  http://www.icsahome.com

FECRIS European site with worldwide links:  http://www.fecris.org

'Cults and Families' by Doni Whitsett & Stephen A Kent: overview of cult-related issues: families in cults, parental roles, impact cult leaders have on families, destruction of family intimacy, child abuse, impact on cognitive, psychological and moral development, health issues.  Download from http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/~skent/cults.html

Cult Dynamics article at http://www.skeptictank.org/hs/cultdyn.htm

Cults, Sects & Heresies free downloadable course http://eomtc.com/cults/ (donations appreciated)

Cults & Sects Bibliography booklist http://www.robibrad.demon.co.uk/bibcult.htm

Social Identity Theory provides useful insights into groups and cult-like behaviours

'Doc Matrix' Flash animations on Cults, Beliefs, Social Pressures, Missing from Home/Runaways - http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/docmatrix

For aspects of coerciveness in counselling or psychotherapy visit Trubbles website at http://trubbles.t35.com

BOOKS & ARTICLES

'Cults, Secret Sects & Radical Religions' by Robert Schroeder

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

'Forensic Aspects of Dissociative Identity Disorder' Ed. Adah Sachs & Graeme Galton (Available from Amazon UK and Karnac Books)

Groups, Cults, Indoctrination, Exiting click HERE

'Misunderstanding Cults' by Benjamin Zablocki & Thomas Robbins

Out of Character Behaviour website http://toukanalia.blogspot.com

'Pointed Observations' by Kevin R D Shepherd

'Programmed to Kill' by David McGowan

'Ritual Abuse in the Twenty-First Century: Psychological, Forensic, Social & Political Considerations' (2008) Ed. Randy Noblitt & Pamela Perskin Noblitt

'Recovery from Cults' by Michael D Longone

'Secret Societies & Psychological Warfare' by Michael A Hoffman II

'Sinister Forces Book Three: The Manson Secret' by Peter Levenda

'Snapping' by Flo Conway & Jim Siegelman

Social Dynamics of Cult Ritual Abuse click HERE

'Speak of the Devil: Tales of satanic abuse in contemporary England' by J. S. La Fontaine

'Spiritual Warfare: The Politics of the Christian Right' by Sara Diamond

SRA and Cults comments click HERE

'The Complex' by John Duignan

'The Cult Files' by Chris Mikul

'The Dark Gods' by Anthony Roberts & Geoff Gilbertson

'The Occult Tradition' by David S Katz

'The Secret World of Cults'  by Jean Ritchie

'Today's Destructive Cults & Movements' by Rev. Lawrence J Gesy

From Website http://primal-page.com/psyhis.htm

The Social Alter By Lloyd deMause http://primal-page.com/psyalter.htm

Restaging Fetal Traumas in War and Social Violence Part 1 By Lloyd deMause http://primal-page.com/ldfetal1.htm
Restaging Fetal Traumas in War and Social Violence Part 2 By Lloyd deMause http://primal-page.com/ldfetal2.htm
Restaging Fetal Traumas in War and Social Violence Part 3 By Lloyd deMause http://primal-page.com/ldfetal3.htm
Restaging Fetal Traumas in War and Social Violence Part 4 By Lloyd deMause http://primal-page.com/ldfetal4.htm

Why Cults Terrorize and Kill Children LLOYD DEMAUSE The Journal of Psychohistory 21 (4) 1994 is on the SMART Website: http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/why-cults-terrorize-and-kill-children-lloyd-demause-the-journal-of-psychohistory/