Comments on: Q&A with Diane Benscoter: Joining, leaving and ultimately defeating the cult

By: Laura Grace

Laura Grace — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 14:59:28 +0000

Diane,

Thank you for your work and your boldness. You are on to something here about the Extremest brain and about the importance of critical reasoning.

Everyone else,

It doesn’t matter how peaceful or loving of a person you are or how nice of a group you belong to. Niceness and meanness are not what define extremism. There are lots of very pleasant extremists. No, I think it is more about the severity and depth of your belief and what you might do if you were asked. If the “loving leader” of a “peaceful” extremist group asked its lifetime members to commit violent crimes, many of them would. After 20 years of blind following, you will have a very limited, atrophied back-up system in your brain to tell you that the violence is not a good idea, and that somehow something has gone wrong in this organization that you trusted, and that you are NOT being influenced by Satan if you choose another path. Perhaps in a case such as this a percentage of lucky followers would have critical reasoning parts of their brain intact enough that, even after the years of indoctrination, they can still hear the words of their leader and interpret for themselves whether or not those words are truth, and they are the lucky ones.

Not all extremism ends in violence, but I do think that it all ends in a loss of original thought.

By: helpu MeGodu

helpu MeGodu — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 10:31:57 +0000

http://howwelldoyouknowyourmoon.tumblr.com/post/34332979544/hyo-jin-and-his-gun#notes

“It was 1989. The BCs used to gather every Sunday in Tarrytown. We loved being together. If Hyo Jin hyungnim was around we would follow him around and do whatever he wanted to do. He had a volatile temper and was often abusive but we were told that it was because we didn’t understand his and God’s heart. He was teaching us God’s heart. One day he had us lined up and he started raving and ranting waving his gun. One day he had us lined up and he started raving and ranting waving his gun. Suddenly he stopped. We had our heads bowed but I looked up. He had his gun pointed at Jin Seung Eu’s head and pulled the trigger. The bullet went into the wall behind Jin Seung Eu, 2 inches from his head.
”
Sounds like a religion with potential dangerous fanatacism from the founders children.

By: Janette Haugen

Janette Haugen — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 22:07:17 +0000

I think what some of you are missing is the “bigger picture” here. Diane was simply showing how easily she got caught up in the Moonies and brainwashed into believing she was a “chosen one”. It’s the same mind control techniques used on the Hitler Youth, Jonestown members and other extreme groups in history. This is “cookie cutter” brain washing / mind control techniques used on hundreds of thousands of people Right Now. It is a growing problem and I for one would love to hear TED feature more videos about this!

By: John Golden

John Golden — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 02:31:39 +0000

Stumbled on this by chance. I’m a big fan of TED but this one makes me realized I’ve been brainwashed. I think I’ve only been looking at the best talks. How this one got through the screening I don’t know.

Any idiot can see that terrorist groups, Hitler Youth and the rest are one thing and that small religious cults are simply one-offs that die with their founder or are future established religions in the making. If you pick on the Moonies, you have to man up and explain the Christianity and Islam were once the same – if not worse. the idea that Moon is the messiah is no more preposterous than the idea that Jesus is the messiah. Why can’t people get this? As I understand, the Moonies believe that religions should unify, that countries lay down their arms and the world should unify, and that this process begins with the individual improving themselves. Not for most, but hardly Jonestown. Seems like a late 20th century version of the Bahai’s to me.

This woman was a deprogrammer. She didn’t say what sentence she got, just that she decided depropgramming was not for her. Until the law got to them, these villains were worse than the cults – driven by conviction and presumably large sums of cash, they were the ones who kidnapped, incarcerated and manipulated people’s minds.

I’m so disappointed. I think I need TED exit counseling. Is there a similar thing to TED out there? Another speechifying cult I can join?

By: Tigo Schauffler

Tigo Schauffler — Sat, 05 May 2012 16:35:39 +0000

response below

By: Tigo Schauffler

Tigo Schauffler — Sat, 05 May 2012 08:17:52 +0000

I have stumbled upon this post recently although it was posted a few years back. I am another person born and raised in the Unification church. I do not think if you analyzed her brain that you would find it looked any different than any others. That seemed to me like she was throwing out a scientific answer with no backup whatsoever. On the other hand, looking at the mentality she speaks about gets more to the problem. The point that I took from it is the theory that continually mentally telling yourself that “We have the right answers and they have the wrong ones” can end up with disturbing consequences. One can see this in a lot of politics and religion where the disturbed leader’s mentality is perpetuated by his followers. That is why everyone should truly think for themselves and not categorize themselves. Do we have to be a democrat or republican or Jewish, Muslim or Christian (or a Moonie for that matter) or country, goth, hipster, hippie or jock. I have no problems with people that would categorize themselves, as I see that is how society works, but an alternative that makes sense to me is to understand all categories and decide what is right and wrong on a very narrow basis rather than answering all questions with one answer.
In regards to Norbert’s post. He was a man that was involved in “workshops” while I was growing up. I knew him. He is not a bad man because he is Unificationist (proper term) and for any other reason. That being said I disagree with his reaction to Diane. To compare a Unification blessing, Hitler youth and suicide bombers is entirely extreme on its own merits. As she states extremism is the problem here. She does nothing for her argument by portraying it this way. She is essentially using deprogramming techniques on TED viewers, which in itself is extreme as I believe Monica was stating. None the less, within a social group structure based on the answer to all questions being “he has the answer”, it may lead to Jonestown or holocausts as both Hitler and Jim Jones essentially had “the answer”. The Unification movement is not that extreme and I beg that it does not become so, but the philosophical foundation of the movement is entirely the same.
Norbert also speaks of “FACTS and LOGIC” being absent in what Diane speaks of. I would ask Norbert this and any other Unificationist. Are there facts and logic that Rev. Moon is the messiah and that what he says is the one and only truth? I can see the dissatisfaction creep in to your train of thought the minute she proposes her opposing theory because the foundation of what you believe has trained you to have one answer. “You are wrong and I am right”.

By: Tigo Schauffler

Tigo Schauffler — Sat, 05 May 2012 07:25:54 +0000

The poster did not state that excultists are closed minded “out” as “in”. She stated that excultists SOMETIMES turn around and do the same thing with there post cult explorations. What she is suggesting is Diane has one answer to all questions (memes). That is the same thing as Rev. Moon would have you believe. He has all the answers, do as he says (I am the messiah).

By: Micheal Saviour

Micheal Saviour — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 16:04:44 +0000

It’s funny how you see it fit it to reduce to entire article on historical inaccuracies and incorrect labeling.
Of all the slurs and pejorative terms that religions themselves come out with, don’t get worked up on one that’s been made up for the movement that is supposed to react peacefully as it’s pacifist principles.

To answer your last question about whether or not we refer to Evangelical Republicans as Jingoes, my opinion is that we should.

By: Chestner D.

Chestner D. — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 06:08:10 +0000

Hi Diane and everyone,

I’m trying to offer some explanations for the manipulative tendencies used by cults and about what happens to one’s brain during the experience.

I believe it’s all dependent on the molecule ‘Oxytocin’ in our brains which is responsible for increasing trust, empathy, generosity, and even ethnocentrism ( the feeling of ‘Us’ and ‘Them’).

I really feel that understanding the effects Oxytocin has on the brain, and the techniques used by manipulative people to spike it in normal people will go a long way in understanding what really happens to victims of cults.

I also draw a link between ‘viral memes’, imitation and ‘mirror neurons’ in our brains, empathy and Oxytocin.

I also believe that deprogramming may become a matter of temporarily inhibiting the Oxytocin receptors (using drugs like Atosiban or hormones like progesterone) and letting members continue to attend ceremonies (to let them see the foolishness of their ways without the effects of Oxytocin flooding their judgement) and then maybe psychotherapy attacking the beliefs that have entered the long term memory.

I am not a neuro-scientist so that exact technical terminology may falter in places, but you might be able to see how the overall picture falls uncannily into place.

I invite you to read my submissions at: http://www.ted.com/conversations/6917/are_cults_abusing_oxytocin_is.html

Thanks.

By: Ken Stuczynski

Ken Stuczynski — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:33:02 +0000

No, the comparison is apt. It was not meant to be a comparison of degree of violence or scope of impact, but the conditions by which much worse things CAN and DO happen. these groups are capable of making their followers do ANYTHING. The fact they do not kill people (physically) is moot and irrelevant.