NIGE
----- Original Message -----
From: Terry Waitzkin <javabean4@hotmail.com>
To: <mil-veh@skylee.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 1999 3:50 PM
Subject: [MV] Coercive persuasion - a warning
> Excerpts from "Six Conditions for Thought Reform," by Margaret Thaler
Singer
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
>
> 1. Keep the person unaware of what is going on and how she or he is being
> changed a step at a time. Potential new members are led, step by step,
> through a behavioral-change program without being aware of the final
agenda
> or full content of the group. The goal may be to make them deployable
agents
> for the leadership, to get them to buy more courses, or get them to make a
> deeper commitment, depending on the leader's aim and desires.
> 2. Control the person's social and/or physical environment; especially
> control the person's time. Through various methods, newer members are kept
> busy and led to think about the group and its content during as much of
> their waking time as possible.
> 3. Systematically create a sense of powerlessness in the person. This is
> accomplished by getting members away from the normal social support group
> for a period of time and into an environment where the majority of people
> are already group members. The members serve as models of the attitudes
and
> behaviors of the group and speak an in-group language.
> 4. Manipulate a system of rewards, punishments and experiences in such a
way
> as to inhibit behavior that reflects the person's former social identity.
> Manipulation of experiences can be accomplished through various methods of
> trance induction, including leaders using such techniques as paced
speaking
> patterns, guided imagery, chanting, long prayer sessions or lectures, and
> lengthy meditation sessions.
> 5. Manipulate a system of rewards, punishments, and experiences in order
to
> promote learning the group's ideology or belief system and group-approved
> behaviors. Good behavior, demonstrating an understanding and acceptance of
> the group's beliefs, and compliance are rewarded while questioning,
> expressing doubts or criticizing are met with disapproval, redress and
> possible rejection. If one expresses a question, he or she is made to feel
> that there is something inherently wrong with them to be questioning.
> 6. Put forth a closed system of logic and an authoritarian structure that
> permits no feedback and refuses to be modified except by leadership
approval
> or executive order. The group has a top-down, pyramid structure. The
leaders
> must have verbal ways of never losing. (Singer, 1995)
>
> For more see:
>
> http://members.theglobe.com/bgross3
> http://members.xoom.com/bgross3
>
>
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