Cults, Brainwashing, and Subliminal Distraction

Copyright 2003 -  Revision  Sunday March 16, 2008 20:07 -0600

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This site is about a conflict of human physiology that shaped history but was undetected  until the 1960's.

In the entire history of man on the planet Earth this phenomenon was discovered only once.

It caused mental breaks for office workers.

You will find this material hard to believe.

This phenomenon is explained in first semester psychology lectures where students don't believe it either.

For that reason I wrote a demonstration that will allow you to experience the phenomenon.

The Everquest Connection page has the explanation and assumes you have not taken basic psychology.

The solution for this problem was the office Cubicle.

This site argues that the this phenomenon causes College Suicides and Missing Students.

The phenomenon causes mental events around the world, Chaco Canyon.

If you use computers in unprotected workspace such as homes, dorms, student apartments, and small business offices read  ...Prevention... at the bottom of most pages.

Long  term exposure can cause severely altered mental states. Qi Gong  Kundalini Yoga

If you are visiting the site as part of a school project send the person responsible for controlling violence at your school to this site.

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Cults

Begun February 28th for search engines. The text is unfinished.

Unlike most cult awareness sites this page explains the physiological reason cults exist.

This is a first draft effort that is still being written and edited Sunday March 16, 2008.

Cults exist by definition of groups that oppose them. Within the cult they usually believe they have instructions from a superior or often supernatural source to convert non-believers to their cause. How does that belief arise? Is there a common source of the 'delusional belief set' that drives cults? The thesis of this page is that there may be such a common source. That source is Subliminal Distraction.

What causes normal people to adopt the bizarre often paranormal beliefs of cults? Inductees often donate their entire worth and sometimes share wives or abstain from sex as part of the accepted behavior expectation of the new group. Haven't you ever wondered what could cause the abrupt life changes?

The accidental naming of a rescue form as "deprogramming" gives us a hint to what is involved, operant conditioning.

Humans are aware of "self" and their surroundings so that a reward stimulus is normally recognized and thus will fail to achieve operant conditioning. But Subliminal Distraction involves the subliminal detection of threat movement in peripheral vision. Thus the victim is unaware anything is happening.

Where the 'special circumstances' for exposure from Subliminal Distraction exist, the frequently repeating detection of subliminal threat eventually colors thought and reason creating paranoia. In addition the brain's normal function of interpreting neural impulses to create consciousness and reality goes awry when the subliminal visual input is involved.

Victims begin to believe strange things and have thought processing problems resembling those of schizophrenia. They adopt beliefs that contradict testable reality or Newtonian physics and cannot be dissuaded by argument or proof.

The stimulus to the subconscious is intended to trigger a startle and vision reflex. We can all learn to ignore the detected movement so that the startle stops. We can then continue our concentration to complete our activity requiring mental investment or 'knowledge work' But we can't "stop seeing" anything in our vision field. We can't tell our brain to stop detecting the movement subliminally and attempting to force a vision reflex. When the detected movement and efforts to create the reflex are subconsciously understood as reinforcement of contemporaneous thought and activity Accidental Subliminal Operant Conditioning happens. (Although this explanation is unique to this site the facts of the physiology of sight, subliminal sight, and peripheral vision reflexes are part of the psychophysics lectures of first semester college level general psychology.)

Subliminal Distraction was discovered when it caused mental breaks for office workers in the 1960's. They were using newly designed prototypes of close-spaced office workstations. The cubicle was created to deal with this problem. So few people are aware of that accidental discovery that SD is never considered when there is a mass shooting, student suicide, or disappearance. Those who design Systems Furniture believe the phenomenon causes only a harmless temporary period of confusion and 'psychotic-like' behavior.

If you create the same 'special circumstances' for exposure from Subliminal Distraction the same outcomes can happen.

Two exercises show us the possible outcomes of exposure from Subliminal Distraction. Participants of Qi Gong and Kundalini Yoga are attempting to achieve enlightenment as well as medical and mental health improvements by performing the exercise. When performed in groups both exercises provide the mental investment through eyes-open meditation and stimulus as repeating detectable movement in peripheral vision to trigger the attempted vision reflex. They are replicating the same "special circumstances" of those 1960's workstation prototypes. When too many group sessions are done in a short time frame they have the same mental break.

But if exposure is low level and persistent, long term, fixed altered mental states are created. Users of both exercises may begin to believe they have superhuman or supernatural powers. Qi Gong masters begin to believe they can throw Chee energy from their fingertips to strike others. Yogis begin to believe they can levitate, become invisible, walk through solid objects unharmed, and that they can read your mind or control your actions through mental telepathy.

Think for a moment of what these people are doing to gain these powers.

If they stand in groups and perform slow motion martial arts movements in unison they gain control of powerful life energy that controls the Universe. It's called Chee or Prana. That's bizarre on its face. Surprise, surprise, there are measurable outcomes. Research facilities such as Harvard Medical study Qi Gong or Kundalini Yoga and chart the physiological changes in blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing, but cannot find a cause. Investigators are torn by the participant's beliefs in magic, and their own scientific reasoning and purposeful doubt.

Simply by observation you must know something is at work to cause the physiological changes. But you also know it isn't the cause given by users of the exercise. No one has ever demonstrated the existence of Chee.

Video:

If you are having a hard time believing this problem exists there is video of someone with this belief system. National Geographics Channel has a program called "Is It Real?" and there is a segment on one episode called "Superhuman Powers." YouTube has a short video of that segment.

G. Dillman on National Geographics video link Time 8:13

At time mark 4:03 he claimed telepathic powers, being able to control the actions of people waiting in line at Starbuck's.  At time mark 5:30 he begins the demonstration of throwing Chee. Dillman explains the failure of a trial of his powers beginning at time mark, 7:35.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-x4iJM2aU4

"Martial Arts 'Dimmak' Fraud featuring George Dillman" Time 4:25

Fox Chicago TV news "The Bottom Line" segment. This segment features Seventh Degree Black Belt, Tom Cameron trained by Grand Master George Dillman. Dim Mak = death touch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar1yXYOsxQk&mode=related&search=

Understand that none of this is mental illness under the current definition used by the authors of the DSM, (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental illness of the American Psychiatric Association.) Mental illness under that definition has a cultural acceptability clause. Even though the beliefs and actions contradict common reality and provable laws of physics if there is a group of common cultural believers the behavior is not considered mental illness. This politically correct definition has prevented the mainstream mental health establishment from finding a cause for serious mental problems.

(Unfinished...)

Landmark Education:

One business that recognizes the mental breaks connected to their activity is Landmark Education, also called The Forum. Their sign-up page on the Internet contains a release form and warning that not only people with previous psychiatric symptoms but also those with no previous mental health problems have experienced psychotic mental events while undergoing the three or four day seminars. (LGATS = Large Group Awareness Training Seminar)

These people were just sitting in an audience while a speaker interrogates one volunteer about their reason for taking the seminar. (There is a concealed camera video of one Forum seminar from a French TV program available on the Internet.)

Not everyone benefits from these seminars. Some gain nothing and view their participation as a waste of time. Others have life changing experiences. There are a very few cases of mental breaks. (Landmark states the frequency of serious outcomes as 1/1000 of 1%. There should not be any. See quote below.)

That range of outcomes is determined by which participants dissociate slightly while sitting in the audience so that they subliminally detect the movements of those nearby.

Exposure is rare since several things must happen at the same time. If someone dissociates but there is no detectable movement in peripheral vision near them exposure does not happen!

Subliminal sight detects only movement and position, The object that moves is not identified if you have learned to consciously ignore that movement. Identification would have happened if you turned and looked at the movement. It is possible to be pre-exposed from other sources before the seminar.  It is the total accumulated exposure in a limited time that causes problems. Everyone will have a different level or threshold of exposure to cause the mental break.

Cults use a similar method of indoctrination. Smaller groups are used and shorter sessions but the situation is the same. Cult groups are not aware of what causes their outcomes. They have a successful method and continue to use it unaware of why it works. (Landmark is unaware of the reason for their negative outcomes, mental breaks.)

The intended outcome of Landmark Education is self improvement. The use of volunteers from seminar participants as free office labor and the insistence that participants must contact and sell the program to friends and relatives beings the accusation that the business is a cult. 

You will find that discussion on the French TV special

This quote is from that Landmark Education site page. Follow the link below right then scroll down to item #6.

"6. From time to time, during or shortly after participating in the Program, a very small number of people who have no personal or family history of mental illness or drug abuse have reported experiencing brief, temporary episodes of emotional upset ranging from heightened activity, irregular or diminished sleep, to mild psychotic-like behavior. An even smaller number of people have reported more serious symptoms ranging from mild psychotic behavior to psychosis occasionally requiring medical care and hospitalization. In less than 1/1000 of 1% of participants, there have been reports of unexplained suicide or other destructive behavior. While we know of no independent studies to suggest that people who are physically, emotionally and mentally healthy are at risk in the Program, certain persons have claimed that the Program has caused or triggered in them a psychosis or psychotic event".

Scroll down this page until your reach the quoted number "6" paragraph above. http://www.landmarkeducation.com/display_content.jsp?top=24&mid=343610

The outcomes noted, "suicides and other destructive behavior," are on different pages here.  

College Suicides  

Missing Students

Dissociative Fugue Cases

Definition of Cults:

List of cults: (These are added in no particular order but as data is researched.)

Heaven's Gate members committed group suicide under the delusional belief that they would be picked up by an alien space ship after casting aside their earthly vehicles, bodies. There is evidence that they had placed computers used in their web design business in living quarters. Those arrangements were similar to the  bunkhouses in remote 1880's Maine lumber camps where Jumping Frenchmen of Maine was discovered. This means that workers using those computers would have been exposed to Subliminal Distraction. They believed they could achieve a plane of existence beyond human life. In eastern beliefs this is called enlightenment.

Visit the VPN site page Bizarre Behavior for additional links.

Jehovah's Witnesses are classed as a cult because they isolate members to associate only with other JW's. They do not vote, celebrate Christmas or Easter, and have predicted the end of the world several times. That end was computed to happen in 1914, 1918, 1925, 1942, and 1975. You would be most familiar with the JW ban on blood transfusion. Accepting blood or allowing your child to have a blood transfusion would mean "disfellowshipment" from the group. Husbands and wives or children would be prohibited from contact with the guilty party. (I am searching for a second source for this information.  See Wikipedia quote below.)

Long article and history. http://libertyunbound.com/archive/2003_10/cox-truth.html

Official site.               http://www.watchtower.org/

Quote from Wikipedia "disfellowshipment"

"Even family interaction is restricted to the barest of minimums such as presence at the reading of wills and providing essential elder care. The exception is if the disfellowshipped one is a minor and living at home, wherein such cases the parents are allowed to continue to attempt to convince the child of the value of the religion's ways and share in family activities."

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

The People's Temple was the invention of Jim Jones. Most people remember the November 18, 1978 mass death of almost all members at the direction of Jones after a visit by Congressman Leo Ryan. Ryan and other members of the visiting team were killed in the episode. Jones then ordered the deaths of nine hundred members at Jonestown. The group had left the United States for Guyana just as a tell all article was to be published. The group purported to be organized for social justice and was a political force supporting candidates in California.

Kept in  isolation the members were fed a continual story of how their enemies, governments, would capture and torture them. Jones taped his voice and played it through the night denying sleep to the few who might resist. There had been drills of mass suicide suggesting that early deaths that day were believed to be part of another drill.

Jones exhibited increasing paranoia. His mental condition is attributed to drug use.

University of Virginia project. http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/Jonestwn.html

Links for Cults Page:

Watchman Fellowship Index of Cults

"Watchman Fellowship is actively involved in counseling and witnessing to those involved in cults. This is accomplished by a variety of methods such as mission projects, pre-recorded telephone messages, warning ads in local newspapers, and by one-on-one or small group visits."

http://www.wfial.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=archives.index&#top

Links for peripheral vision:

I recommend this site.  But you will have to browse several pages.

"Early in evolution, human ancestors had only peripheral vision. The role of this early vision system (still preserved in our eyes) was to detect motion and set off protective reflexes."

http://www.wayfinding.net/vsionsys.htm

Peripheral vision Lego tester

Adobe file with tester construction and data results sample

http://www.edex.com.au/lego/support/activities/032_peripheral_vision.pdf

Nightwalking

"In The Book of Five Rings, Miyamoto Musashi, the legendary swordsman of 16th century Japan, implies that he fought his greatest duels with his eyes crossed, and goes into considerable detail about developing and using this strange abitlity."

The method suggested to engage peripheral vision is to suspend an object from the bill of a baseball cap and practice staring at it rather than looking straight ahead as we all normally do.

The site has a page on the physiology of the eye and sight. It describes the normal field of vision.

http://www.navaching.com/hawkeen/nwalk.html#Anchor-The-59125

Institute for Innovative Blind Navigation

Don't let the site name put you off. This site has several pages which explain sight and how the brain deals with two vision systems.

http://www.wayfinding.net/index.htm

This page has the vision material.    http://www.wayfinding.net/vsionsys.htm#four

Speed Reading (peripheral vision)

http://www.ababasoft.com/wider_eye_span/

Vision, is a set of brain level subsystems

This page explains the M & P pathways and vision processing.

http://www.wayfinding.net/visanal.htm

The Red Myth

Color in Vision

http://stlplaces.com/night_vision.html

University of Missouri

The first paragraph on this page refers to psychological factors effecting pupil dilation.

"Interestingly, the pupil/iris combination also changes in response to psychological factors. One sign of activation of the sympathetic nervous system, which is a system important in arousal, fight, and flight, is dilated pupils. For example, sexual interest results in pupil dilation. (This piece of information may come in handy some time.)"

http://web.umr.edu/~psyworld/eye.htm

 University of Utah

John Moran Eye Center --  Anatomy

http://webvision.med.utah.edu/

Kimball's Biology Pages 

A simple explanation of the eye and sight.

http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/V/Vision.html

Understanding Human Vision

This site deals with color.

http://www.pitir.com/pentile/Human_Vision.html

Vision and the Brain

Block diagrams of vision paths through the brain explain the M and P channels.

 http://www.thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/i/i_02/i_02_cr/i_02_cr_vis/i_02_cr_vis.html#2

Study Notes Vision

http://www.utmed.com/studynotes/neuro/VisualProcessing.pdf

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