Science of the SpiritS


Cult

Cults, brainwashing, and mind control in America

Brainwashing
As a college junior in the mid 1970's Steve Hassan found himself recruited into the Unification Church. They were a cult that was also known as the "Moonies." It did not take long for him to become convinced that Armageddon and World War III would soon begin. At the time when he first became involved with them he believed that the groups sole purpose was to save the earth.

In a February article published by CNN Steve Hassan said, ""It only took a few weeks to get me convinced that the Messiah was on the Earth, even though I'm Jewish." Hassan has published a book called "Combatting Cult Mind Control" in an effort to help others who may fall victim to a cult and find themselves in its membership.

In his own words to CNN Hassan describes how he used to be when he was an active member of the cult when he said, "I was an off-the-charts, fly-a-plane-into-the-World-Trade-Center-if-Father-ordered-you-to Moonie. I was sure they wouldn't be able to make me betray Father. I wanted to prove to my parents that I was not brainwashed or mind-controlled." The man who he refers to as father in his description of himself was not his own father, but instead he is referring to the cult leader Sun Myung Moon.

It was only after he reluctantly met with former members of the group that Steve Hassan began to leave the group. Today He is a licensed mental health counselor who specializes in helping others like himself who have also parted ways with cults. It is his belief that anybody's mind can be controlled.

Question

Can narcissists be identified by looking at their eyebrows?

woman in makeup
Simon Cowell has them, so does Madonna. Audrey Hepburn's and Marilyn Monroe's have been emulated by millions of women.

But what do having thick and distinctive eyebrows reveal about our personality?

Psychologists have been combing through the evidence - and conclude that eye-catching eyebrows mean... you're probably a narcissist.

Researchers discovered that those with 'thicker and denser' brows are more likely to be self-centred than others.

A group of men and women who took part in a study were asked how much they agreed with statements such as 'If I ruled the world it would be a better place'.

Photos were then taken of them posing with neutral expressions. When the images were shown to another group, it was found that they could correctly identify the self-centred individuals from their more humble counterparts.

People

An inside look at a porn addiction clinic

man at window
© Humphrey Nemar‘It’s a secret, shameful world which people struggle to admit’
On the street outside his good looks and charming smile might catch the eyes of passersby, but in here he keeps his head down and avoids looking directly at the receptionist.

He is one of Britain's growing number of pornography addicts, whose shocking secret is one click away from destroying his life forever.

"What gives you a thrill one day doesn't do it for you the next," he later explains.

"You're always looking for a greater buzz and then it leads you into a darker place you never believed possible."

And one expert in the field now claims porn addiction is affecting children as young as eight. He knows, because he's treating them.

"This a physical dependency - people are self-medicating with porn and each time they need a greater, more hardcore hit," reveals Rob Watt, who has over 13 years experience treating addicts.

"It's a secret, shameful world which people struggle to admit - until it's too late.

"I'm currently working with kids as young as eight who are watching hardcore porn in the middle of the night and getting up first thing in the morning to watch it again before school. The effects are truly devastating and will only get worse.

"A school counsellor and a group of parents came to me because what they found on a child's phone wasn't even regular sex. We're talking necrophilia and bestiality. It had already gone that far.

Comment: See also:


SOTT Logo Radio

SOTT Focus: The Truth Perspective: Atheism vs. Religion: Does It Make Sense To Believe in God? - Part 1

religiones
© Desconocido
Why are humans religious? Is God just a metaphor? Why have we believed in gods? Are we just irrational? Or is there something else going on? In this first part of a two-part discussion, we take a look at the rise in atheism - even so-called Christian atheism - and whether their claims are worth taking seriously. The celebrity atheists argue that belief in God is not only wrong, it's irrational. But most of their targets are low-hanging fruit.

As philosopher R. G. Collingwood argued, atheist types are guilty of the same sin as the fundamentalists: they take the language of religion literally. By doing so, they have blocked off entire regions of fact and experience from being taken seriously and they don't end up explaining why humans are religious, or what the real meaning behind the religious imagery might be.

But even Collingwood doesn't go deep enough. Because what is the source of religious experience? What's the source of the objects of imagination? Maybe the religious worldview has something to say not only about the way we should act, but also about the nature of reality. Maybe materialism isn't the whole cosmological banana.

Tune in Saturday, 12:00 pm EDT.

Running Time: 01:10:38

Download: MP3


People 2

Reincarnation: Are some birthmarks past-life wounds?

Reincarnation
© edgarcayce.org
A birthmark may be defined as "a benign irregularity on the skin which can be caused by overgrowth of blood vessels, melanocytes, smooth muscles, fat fibroblasts or keratinocytes."

Every culture has its own beliefs about birthmarks. Some regard them as good luck, others consider them to be bad luck.

In the Philippines, a birthmark (or balat) indicates bad luck or misfortune. It is blamed when an anticipated journey or task does not push through.

Most birthmarks are benign or harmless. But a few birthmarks could have something to do with what happened to a person in a previous life, whether one believes in reincarnation or not.

Comment: For more information on Dr. Stevenson's work on reincarnation, see:


Arrow Down

Being in a group can lower your IQ

meeting
Meetings really can make people more stupid, research confirms.

People trying to solve problems in a group lost around 15% of their IQ.

The drop seems to come from the subtle social signals that people send and receive in groups.

Women are particularly vulnerable to an IQ drop from being in a group, the researchers found.

The study had people working in a group after they had received feedback about an earlier IQ test.

Comment: This study only seems to be comparing what their score was against another person. What they fail to mention is that in the study each person took their own test, as opposed to the group working on one single test. In other words this became a competitive situation where being in a group meant that there was pressure to perform against someone. Had it been a cooperative situation where they all focused their abilities on one problem instead separate ones they might have had a better result. See also: Social sensitivity trumps IQ in group intelligence


Music

Links found between Big 5 personality traits and taste in music

musica
People who like easy-listening music are likely to be talkative and energetic, while opera lovers are more insightful and imaginative, according to scientists.

Two major studies conducted by psychologists from Cambridge and top US universities have found your personality type can be accurately predicted from your musical tastes - and vice versa.

Those with extrovert personalities for instance - who are more comfortable making small talk than introverts - showed a preference for music categorised as "uncomplicated, relaxing, and acoustic."

Finding correlations in this field has been hampered in the past by respondents tending to be younger - and therefore more likely to share a narrow band of tastes - and because respondents used their own definitions of the genres they enjoy.

But in these worldwide, online studies of more than 20,000 respondents, more than half those surveyed were over 22, and they were presented with 25 unfamiliar musical excerpts pre-categorised by musicologists.

The surveys differentiated personality types on the "big five" model used by scientists for 50 years: openness, extroversion, agreeableness, neuroticism and conscientiousness.

Comment: The full paper is available on researchgate.net.

Oh, by the way, that leaves little doubt that the choice of songs you listen online is used to know your personality and send you suitable advertising messages and especially refine your digital profile. Stored somewhere in some NSA servers?


People 2

Two relationship patterns that are most harmful to couples

distressed couple
People who expect their partners to read their minds are harming their relationships, research finds.

It occurs when there are problems in the relationship and one person disengages and does not communicate their problems to the other.

It often happens when that person is anxious about the relationship and feels neglected.

Anger and negative communication often result from expecting the other person to be a mind-reader.

Dr Keith Sanford, who led the study, explained:
"You're worried about how much your partner loves you, and that's associated with neglect.

You feel sad, hurt and vulnerable."

Comment: See also:


Family

The Pygmalion Effect: How expectations influence performance

pygmalion effect

The Pygmalion Effect is a powerful secret weapon. Without even realizing it, we can nudge others towards success. In this article, discover how expectations can influence performance for better or worse.


How Expectations Influence Performance

Many people believe that their pets or children are of unusual intelligence or can understand everything they say. Some people have stories of abnormal feats. In the late 19th century, one man claimed that about his horse and appeared to have evidence. William Von Osten was a teacher and horse trainer. He believed that animals could learn to read or count. Von Osten's initial attempts with dogs and a bear were unsuccessful, but when he began working with an unusual horse, he changed our understanding of psychology. Known as Clever Hans, the animal could answer questions, with 90% accuracy, by tapping his hoof. He could add, subtract, multiply, divide, and tell the time and the date.

Clever Hans could also read and understand questions written or asked in German. Crowds flocked to see the horse, and the scientific community soon grew interested. Researchers studied the horse, looking for signs of trickery. Yet they found none. The horse could answer questions asked by anyone, even if Von Osten was absent. This indicated that no signaling was at play. For a while, the world believed the horse was truly clever.

Then psychologist Oskar Pfungst turned his attention to Clever Hans. Assisted by a team of researchers, he uncovered two anomalies. When blinkered or behind a screen, the horse could not answer questions. Likewise, he could respond only if the questioner knew the answer. From these observations, Pfungst deduced that Clever Hans was not making any mental calculations. Nor did he understand numbers or language in the human sense. Although Von Osten had intended no trickery, the act was false.

Instead, Clever Hans had learned to detect subtle, yet consistent nonverbal cues. When someone asked a question, Clever Hans responded to their body language with a degree of accuracy many poker players would envy. For example, when someone asked Clever Hans to make a calculation, he would begin tapping his hoof. Once he reached the correct answer, the questioner would show involuntary signs. Pfungst found that many people tilted their head at this point. Clever Hans would recognize this behavior and stop. When blinkered or when the questioner did not know the answer, the horse didn't have a clue. When he couldn't see the cues, he had no answer.

Book 2

The Spaces Between Us: The unconscious rules of personal space

space
© China Daily CDIC / Reuters
The distance you keep from others is an elaborate, instinctive dance.

President Trump has a signature handshake. It hit the world stage at the United Nations meeting last year when he grabbed Emmanuel Macron's hand and appeared to aggressively pull the French president closer. Ever since, he's shown a consistent tendency to loom into other people's personal space, or pull them toward him.

Everyone has a personal space, an instinctive protective zone. We're always jostling to maintain our own space and to navigate around others', and the honeycomb of abutting spaces forms the scaffold of our social world. Violating it as a means of social communication, a means of bullying, is common behavior. But we usually don't do it in a calculated way. The rules of personal space run deep under the surface of consciousness. We act and react in an elaborate, animal dance, and only extreme examples-like the Trump handshake-catch our conscious attention.