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Recovery from Mormonism (RfM) discussion forum.
When I was growing up, there were stories of religious cults that brainwashed people. Sometimes, there were intelligent people with good careers who ended up worshiping some dorky cult leader, handing over their wives and daughters as sex slaves to said leader, handing over all their money to said leader, and eventually dying for the cult.
I was in Tokyo the day the Aum doomsday cult murdered people on public transportation with Sarin gas. It was terrifying. After it all unravelled, I saw news report after news report of Japanese people talking about family members who had joined the cult.
It was baffling. They weren't just the lonely outsiders that I expected. Most were ivy league graduates; doctors, lawyers, and bankers. I think Japanese are extremely cynical and enjoy laughing openly at Westerners who believe in religion, a young earth, and creationism. They love to poke holes in everything. According to my Japanese friends, religion is a delusion that only the simple-minded get sucked in to.
So how could so many people get sucked into a cult where the leader has them drink his bathwater? How could they agree to give up their savings, work to earn money for the cult, go live in the country in dorms, eat nothing but boiled vegetables, and manufacture poison gas that was supposed to kill off everybody in Japan?
Recently, I saw a video about the Asch Conformity Experiment. Asch ran an experiment where he had a group of students act as collaborators and one student who was not in on the know. He showed them lines on cards and asked them which 2 lines were the same length. The collaborators all gave the same wrong answer. Eventually, the outsider student started to doubt his answers and give in to the group, even though the lines were obviously different lengths.
You can read more here:
Here's a link about the experiment:
http://mgto.org/inclass-experiments-deception-asch-conformity-group/
This reminds me of how Mormon church meetings are run. Fast and Testimony meetings, for example. Good grief. Take 200 people who all agree on something and put an investigator in the middle of the room. The investigator ends up doubting his/her beliefs and starts to go along with all the people in the room. After all, could 200 well-dressed, smiling people be wrong? Humans tend to work toward agreement with their surroundings. It's a survival mechanism.
This is why I can't judge people who end up joining Mormonism or another religious cult.
T-Bone
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/13/2018 09:31PM by T-Bone.
I was in Tokyo the day the Aum doomsday cult murdered people on public transportation with Sarin gas. It was terrifying. After it all unravelled, I saw news report after news report of Japanese people talking about family members who had joined the cult.
It was baffling. They weren't just the lonely outsiders that I expected. Most were ivy league graduates; doctors, lawyers, and bankers. I think Japanese are extremely cynical and enjoy laughing openly at Westerners who believe in religion, a young earth, and creationism. They love to poke holes in everything. According to my Japanese friends, religion is a delusion that only the simple-minded get sucked in to.
So how could so many people get sucked into a cult where the leader has them drink his bathwater? How could they agree to give up their savings, work to earn money for the cult, go live in the country in dorms, eat nothing but boiled vegetables, and manufacture poison gas that was supposed to kill off everybody in Japan?
Recently, I saw a video about the Asch Conformity Experiment. Asch ran an experiment where he had a group of students act as collaborators and one student who was not in on the know. He showed them lines on cards and asked them which 2 lines were the same length. The collaborators all gave the same wrong answer. Eventually, the outsider student started to doubt his answers and give in to the group, even though the lines were obviously different lengths.
You can read more here:
Here's a link about the experiment:
http://mgto.org/inclass-experiments-deception-asch-conformity-group/
This reminds me of how Mormon church meetings are run. Fast and Testimony meetings, for example. Good grief. Take 200 people who all agree on something and put an investigator in the middle of the room. The investigator ends up doubting his/her beliefs and starts to go along with all the people in the room. After all, could 200 well-dressed, smiling people be wrong? Humans tend to work toward agreement with their surroundings. It's a survival mechanism.
This is why I can't judge people who end up joining Mormonism or another religious cult.
T-Bone
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/13/2018 09:31PM by T-Bone.
I've often brought up the Solomon Asch experiment with people and
pointed out how the Church does various versions of it
repeatedly.
If you look into the main experiments of social psychology you
find that the Church's programs seem designed by a social
psychologist to inculcate belief.
pointed out how the Church does various versions of it
repeatedly.
If you look into the main experiments of social psychology you
find that the Church's programs seem designed by a social
psychologist to inculcate belief.
The torture protocols at Guantanamo bay were developed by Mormon psychologists. I guess they kind of grew into it.
I think it was Abu Ghraib actually. A former inmate sued them.