Describing Methods of Manipulation

Some of the same concerns that I express about the True Woman Conference are also discussed in this video about manipulation, though the techniques discussed concern a different type of subject matter.

My concerns about the True Woman Manifesto center around “informed consent” and a lack of truthfulness about the absent fine print in the document. The conference culminated in the signing of this vague document yet did not speak to many aspects of the document or the specific definition of terms used in the document, magnifying my concerns. If you didn’t know how those terms were used elsewhere (by CBMW and other speakers), you would not suspect any problems. But by not giving you true and clear information about the details, you’re not really given a true option of choice.

The video also speaks about the perception that people carry away from messages delivered at the True Woman Conference: that the information presented represents the what is reflected in the Bible, something not really open to a free choice to reject what has been presented if one believes in the Authority of Scripture.

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Brain Versus Soul: Being Better Stewards of Our Minds

I recently mentioned in this post that sleep deprivation and emotional stimulation that extends for several days sets up a physical response in the brain that people identify as a spiritual experience. Some people have a greater predisposition for this experience than do others, depending on the unique structure of their individual brains. There is actually a type of personality that is more "religious," a personality that also overlaps with an interesting population: those with temporal lobe epilepsy. This brings up a sensitive issue for some Christians and one that I find very fascinating. Where are the boundaries between brain and mind and soul and spirit.

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Surviving a Conference Part V: Practical Tips for Resisting Influence

Anyone who attends any kind of conference should realize that their decision-making skills will be challenged by the process. The new environment, fatigue, social pressures, expectations, etc. all compromise an individual’s critical thought to some degree. All conferences promote this shift in perspective, potentially putting a person at risk.

Recognizing the dynamics involved with serve as the most powerful way to protect oneself from manipulation while at a conference. Make a decision prior to arriving about how much money you are willing to spend and choose to make no significant decisions until you’ve left the conference environment. I would not make any vows unless I had an opportunity to consider them before arriving at the conference, and I would wait to review them after I’d returned home before agreeing to them. One should consider that emotional environments and sleep deprivation can make things seem idealized, something that is not true of your regular, daily life, and this can cause you to put a great deal of significance on the conference experience.

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Surviving a Conference Part IV: Social Factors

True Woman '08. as a Prototype

Conferences like True Woman ‘08 influence attendees powerfully through social mentoring and context as well as through behavioral compliance. One means of gauging proper behavior comes through observing the behavior of others and context clues, a very human trait. Compliance and participation also increases when authority figures also comply and participate, as those who are held in high esteem are also viewed as a superior gauge for wise behavior. 

This social influence becomes a more powerful determinant of behavior when decisions are ambiguous, and human beings tend to place more significance on the social cues that they take from those who are similar to them in some way. We are social creatures, and our human need to belong influences our decisions in a powerful way. It is our created nature. (For more, review the Asch Experiments.)

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Surviving a Conference Part III: Slipping into Alpha States

True Woman ‘08 Conference as a Prototype

As mentioned in this previous prerequisite post, an alpha state of consciousness allows for the bypassing of critical thought. The alpha state facilitates the absorption of ideas and suggestions without the level of discernment that is present during the beta state of problem-solving. If a group or an individual desires to gain cooperation from someone or seeks to persuade an critic, inducing an alpha state of consciousness will greatly aid in accomplishing this objective.



Also, as mentioned previously, individuals move into and out of these states of consciousness while fully awake. If children experience normal growth and development, they remain in an alpha state until they begin to develop beta waves (and abstract discernment abilities) starting at about 8 years of age. However, this state of consciousness can be induced or promoted by a number of factors, according to what we’ve learned from scientific study and recent advances in neurophysiologic imaging techniques. A good conference promotes these effects, sometimes by chance and sometimes by design. In either case, awareness in the reduction in usual critical thinking resources serves as a defense against covert manipulation, should any arise.

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Surviving a Conference Part II: Examples of Building Anticipation

(Please read Part I and Prerequisites I and II for background information.)

As previously mentioned, conferences build up a sense of anticipation and hope concerning our desires, and when we attend them, we attend quite willingly and participate in the process. Generally the conference hosts communicate the general organization of activities as a basic description of not only what can be anticipated about the conference, but also what general behavior is expected of the attendee.

Usually, those who attend are given some handouts and trinkets, and common items usually include a durable tote or portfolio of some type that can be used after the conference. Pens and note pads are often common items that are given out, displaying the logo of the group. These are a nice enhancement and an early gift of earnest that reciprocates the investment paid by the attendee for the conference experience. These are reasonable things to do and expect, but it does reinforce the sense of trust that one has in the value of the conference. It plays upon our expectation of reciprocity, one of Cialdini’s “weapons of social influence.”

Building of Expectation and Anticipation

At the True Woman '08 Conference, in the opening plenary session, John Piper stated something that added to the expectation to the already willing and committed conference attendees. He stated that women would be so moved and their lives would be so changed so that when the conference concluded on Saturday, many women would find themselves reluctant to leave the wonderful conference atmosphere. He effectively suggested that the conference would be so powerful that some women would prefer to say at the conference rather than return home to their families – quite a profound comparison because of the other expectations that these women are also taught to submit to and serve their families.

I also found it very interesting that this statement was accompanied by what I thought was an overt show of emotion, over and above the already overtly emotional style that characterized the rest of the message. I’m told by those who attended the conference and have read online that women were most moved by the “heartfelt” contrition and deep concern that Piper showed during this sermon, so I find this to be very significant. I believe by making this statement and stating it in the manner he did impressed the audience with this standard, that of expecting a very powerful experience at the conference, in a powerful manner.

Derren Brown often introduces suggestions like this to lead whole audiences of people to make choices that seem to be completely spontaneous. He will then set up a series of suggestions, all that seem completely spontaneous, throughout the evening of seemingly benign entertainment. At the conclusion of this session, he chooses a random people out of the audience and then “predicts” what that person will choose from among a seemingly large number of nearly limitless choices. It turns out that he has actually subtly and subliminally guided everyone in the audience to chose one single option of his own preference.

 In the preceding video clips that you can pull up yourselves, a woman is asked to choose one random word from over a possible 16,000 words. (I will not display the preceding clips here because of a foul expletive in the preceding clip, but you are welcome to view them on your own.) In this clip however, you can watch how Brown went to great effort to convey his own choice all throughout the evening theater show to the entire audience through subtle suggestion. Here is his explanation of how he subtly influenced the whole audience to select what is nearly an impossible choice, one that he describes as inevitable.

 

I am not suggesting that John Piper intentionally wove subliminal messages into his sermon, but I hope to demonstrate that his very open and emotive description of a standard encouraged women at the True Woman Conference to anticipate a deep and moving experience that would rival or exceed their desire to return home to their beloved families. I’m not even inclined that this was done with premeditated intent, but I think after years of experience, a pastor like John Piper has learned a few things. In a previous post I pointed out that manipulative individuals choose very dysfunctional behavior, not because it is right but because it is effective. It works.

I think that a man like John Piper has learned very well exactly what works to influence crowds to achieve a desired outcome. I heard other comments from various people on Friday throughout the day of the conference, and this is difficult for me to say because I have done this very same thing and believed these kind of statements by faith in the past (in Word of Faith). This was also far more subtle than Piper’s suggestion, but I did make serious note of several statements that these speakers made very clearly.

Several women speakers talked about how the music was better on Friday than it had been the day before because women’s hearts were more open. The music was better because worship was more intimate on the second day due to the change in dispositions of the women’s hearts. There were also overtures made to the conclusion of the conference as if this wonderful intimacy and sense of blessing would continue to build and would culminate in a peak experience at the end (with the signing of the manifesto). In other words, "The longer that the conference goes on, the better and better it gets."

It was presented as objective evidence that participation in the conference enhanced one’s intimacy with God. I don't doubt that for some that it was genuine or that it was the genuine experience of the conference's effect on the speakers, but I did note this as a statement that would naturally promote anticipation. It was odd because when one of these statements was made, I found the opposite to be true of the music. I wept during the Thursday night session via live webcast, worshiping with the music and song, but I actually struggled through the worship on the second night for several reasons related to my training in the music regarding the principles of leading worship. I was moved by the testimonies and became teary-eyed watching and listening to them, as is my typical response because there is little else as moving to me as a personal testimony. (So it wasn’t as if I’d turned hard-hearted that evening.)

 I believe that these kinds of statements definitely build anticipation in those who attend conferences of this type. Whether speakers make these powerful and subtle suggestions and standards purposefully, only they can say, but I believe that those experienced in conducting meetings like this have learned what works and what yields very positive results.

 Check back for an upcoming post about other factors that challenge the critical thinking of those who attend any kind of conference using the recent True Woman Conference as an example. . ,

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Prerequisite II for Surviving a Conference: Understanding Basic States of Consciousness

We experience the very same states of consciousness that hypnosis induces purposely quite spontaneously all throughout the day. Hypnosis takes place at about 8 - 12 cycles per second/Hertz or lower on EEG (an observing of the electrical patterns generated by the brain), and critical thought generates a faster oscillation, usually ranging from 15 to about 25 Hz.

These states of consciousness can be objectively assessed through a psychological assessment (both through observation and self-reported interview) though we can observe these same states through physical responses as well. The names of the Hz range that correspond to these characteristics are used to describe the corresponding states of consciousness, though I will only mention those that are pertinent to hypnosis.

Different brain structures generate different frequencies and patterns, and during normal consciousness, there is an ideal balance of these different brain wave patterns taking place all at once.

 But it makes sense that if the problem-solving centers of the brain that generate a particular waveform are not being utilized heavily, there will be an overall decrease in those patterns. So this description of consciousness based on one wave form describes the predominant and general, overall pattern described. (For example, some very logical, left-brained people will generate beta waves all throughout their sleep cycle when those patterns are nearly absent during sleep for the general population.) 

Waking hypnosis can then take place during normal consciousness, even though a person might not be in a completely relaxed state, the general state that allows for the bypassing of critical thought to introduce focused, selective thought. It may also tend to occur when the oscillations of the brain wave patterns vary just between critical thought and a state relaxed alertness at approximately 12 - 15 Hz, at the Beta-Alpha Border. Beta State: When engaged in critical thinking, discernment and decision-making, the brain generates a predominant pattern of Beta waves, generally ranging from no lower than 12 Hz, though they can speed along as fast as 40 Hz. Logic and sequential thought as well as stress correspond with the beta state, and it is most easily noted by cool or cold hand temperature and muscle tension. Headache patients benefit by learning to control this tension, using hand temperature as a gauge and a focus to slow these thought patterns as high beta states often accompany headache and migraine. Alpha State: A comfortable, relaxed posture accompanied by a mental state of relaxed awareness/alertness characterizes the Alpha state of consciousness on EEG. (It ranges from approximately 8 to 12 Hz.) Selective attention typifies this state, when engaged in a task that causes a person to loose track of the passage of time. This generally the state that one experiences when one is sitting restfully or doing something that one finds relaxing (which can include sports that one finds calming). Learning takes place at this state, and it is ideal for memorization. (Classical education capitalizes upon the enhanced ability to memorize associated with this state, as this is the general state of children until about 8-10 years of age when beta waves being to develop.)

Hypnotherapy seeks to induce an Alpha state so as to more easily refocus attention (or introduce new information), and it is also an ideal state of mind for reading comprehension. The brain absorbs and stores information uncritically in this state of consciousness. The body will shift into an alpha state in response to certain physiologic factors: eye movement and deep, rhythmic breathing. Note that when a person’s gaze is directed to 30 degrees above midline or when a person breathes deeply from the abdomen, the body cannot resist shifting into an alpha state of consciousness. This is a physiologic response to gazing upward (to see a speaker or to view a projection on a display screen). Theta State: Theta, just a little slower than the Alpha state (4 - 8 Hz), corresponds to intuition and daydreaming, and it is often experienced while doing repetitive tasks. Have you ever been unable to remember a name to have that name pop into your mind hours later? Or have you been driving on the highway to arrive at your destination to realize that you don’t actually remember making the drive? You’ve likely shifted into a Theta state. This is the state of consciousness that enhances creativity. Many people find that they have ideas come to them “out of the blue” and will have their most creative thoughts while doing repetitive, rhythmic tasks like driving on the highway or while vacuuming. Automatic tasks induce a theta state and may bring with them a flood of ideas. Because people report seeing cool, blue and teal colors while in this state of consciousness, I am told that this explains the “out of the blue” cliche. This state of consciousness sometimes enhances certain aspects of hypnosis but is not the most desired state of consciousness for post-hypnotic suggestion.

Why is any of this important? Our activities determine our states of consciousness, but it is critical to note that conditions in our environment and certain stimuli and activities can enhance our tendency to one state or another. If you are in a situation when you need all of your “Beta” functions, anything that causes a natural, physiologic slowing of these brain wave patterns will make you vulnerable. Florescent lighting slows brain wave patterns as do the radiant light patterns of a television screen. If you know that you are going into a situation where you find yourself at a disadvantage, you might wish to do things to keep your Beta functions active and engaged. You can accomplish this through self awareness and through knowledge of how these states of consciousness can work against you.

Recognizing the characteristics of each state can help bring you back into healthy balance and a state of mind that is most appropriate for your circumstances. For instance, if you are a Christian and you sit down to debate with a person of a very different faith about these matters, you would definitely not want to slip into a state of consciousness that made you prone to accepting ideas without discernment. People with problems like ADD tend to fall into a particular brainwave pattern, so this of interest to them if they wish to improve their attention by avoiding any environmental factors that work against them. In an upcoming post, read more about factors that promote alpha and theta activity, especially when attending a conference.

  Single brainwave formation graphics noted above: An EEG (electroencephalograph) 1 second sample. The signal is filtered to present only the brain wave patterns of interest. The signal was acquired in the Oz position processed with scipy and saved with matplolib. Created by Hugo Gamboa Dec 2005
Comparison graphic by Intelegen, Inc.

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Prerequisite I for Surviving a Conference: Understanding Christianity, Hypnosis and Anticipation

Do you know where I first learned about hypnosis? The church. Throughout the early and mid ‘70s, there was actually a movement within the Baptist church promoting hypnosis. We were Pentecostal in the seventies, and we also visited a local chiropractor who embraced mind science and holistic healing, Norman Vincent Peale style.

 These ideologies bear similarities, overlap and complement one another for good reason which we will soon discover. In an attempt to help me with nightmares (related to a few childhood traumas), my mother (a Pentecostal Christian of only a few years of maturity at the time) introduced me to the writings about hypnosis that came out of this movement when I was as young as eight years of age. I’m most familiar with the writings of CS Lovett and Paul Adams, both Baptist ministers who interwove mind science into evangelical Christianity. Actually, having been through the Word of Faith (WoF) mill, I now know that the two ideologies, mind science and WoF share common roots. Were it not for study of and obedience to the Word of God along with my disappointing experience with these systems, I would still likely still be of that same school of thought.

When E.W. Kenyon discovered Mary Baker Eddy’s works, he identified some principles of faith that were true but not Christian, and he sought to “correct” her work and improve upon it by injecting Christian principle into it. But where did Mary Baker get her foundational ideas concerning divine health and faith healing, developing the foundations of New Thought Christianity? She studied with a European mesmerist named Phineas Parkhurst Quimby. In that sense, when Kenyon introduced mind science principles into Pentecostal ideology, he joined hypnosis and Christianity. 

What took me many years of experience and much investigation to learn was that true divine healing (miracles) and healing through hypnosis are actually what I believe to be two unrelated types of healing. I believe that hypnosis reflects principles of truth that are clearly noted in the New Testament (“Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word”.... “Your faith has made you whole”) and diverts faith in God away from God and into faith in the “process of faith” as a work of the mind.

 Note the subtlety there: a primary work (of the mind/flesh) and not a primary fruit of the Spirit. Essentially, New Thought took Christian principles and developed techniques, and then Eddy and Kenyon reintroduced their attenuated faith principles (by then, mixed with pantheistic Eastern ideas and humanistic freewillism) back into Christianity. Though I studied medical applications of hypnotherapy for chronic pain management as nursing continuing education, I was surprised to realize how much insight I also gained regarding the process of spiritual abuse that I’d experienced and how WoF practices actually primed me for spiritual abuse.

I took a fascinating cinematography class in college one semester because I had such a heavy science load, and I also did not expect to learn what these two areas, hypnosis and cinematography, had in common: techniques that could be used to bypass an individual’s critical thinking in order to establish selective thinking. The process needs no unconscious state but can be accomplished while an individual remains completely awake by simply refocusing attention.

A person who wants to advance an agenda needs only to develop skill in the process of shifting and manipulating attention, something we all experience when watching a good film, just one example of waking hypnosis (as I believe it was named by Dave Elman, a pioneer in modern medical and dental applications of hypnotherapy). Elman offers many examples of how waking hypnosis can and does work well by directing the vital element needed for any hypnosis of any type: anticipation. He offers an example of a radiologist who must perform a barium swallow exam which he was taught to preface to patients as an uncomfortable procedure that was unavoidable but vitally necessary. Barium, if retained in the GI tract becomes like concrete, so it is important to cleanse the body from the Barium after the procedure.

The physician was trained to stress this also, but he did so in a manner that had patients anticipate the complications of retained Barium, something that could well never happen to them. He changed his approach to his patients who needed informed consent to participate so that he did not teach them to anticipate discomfort before the procedure. His modified description of the process was entirely true, but he reframed the information so that it did not include anticipation of discomfort. He told patients that the liquid would soothingly coat the GI tract, as the Barium liquid is rather benign and does coat the mucosa. And he told patients that the Barium had to be removed from the body and that there were unpleasant complications, but he prefaced this process as a simple one, focusing more on the cleansing of the substance from the GI tract rather than the complications.

Elman reports that this radiologist reportedly had no problems with patient discomfort after he taught his patients to anticipate a good outcome. The radiologist still obtained informed consent from his patients, but he did so in a wiser way that improved the experience of his patients. He diverted focus away from the molehill (a foreign substance in the GI tract) onto the mountain (the many positive benefits of the procedure).

Redirecting of focus and attention to establish selective thinking serves us as a normal part of the human experience. 

We all know how powerful this selective focus can be, as we all can relate to watching a film or becoming engrossed in a book or a work project so that we loose an active sense of the rest of the world around us. “Time sure flies when you’re having fun.” (Loss of an accurate sense of the passage of time is an effect of hypnosis and of certain states of consciousness.)

The same mechanisms that allow for us to be able to spontaneously redirect our focus can be directed or manipulated by factors in our environment. Teaching a person in chronic pain to turn down their attention to physical pain represents just one of many positive applications of this kind of redirected focus, but not all such manipulations or redirection of our focus can be for our benefit. Both desire and anticipation play a very significant role in this process, as we generally find it easy to anticipate those things which we desire. Manipulators can capitalize on those desires, deceive us, and exploit our good desires in order for their own personal gain (when that gain requires our compliance). A salesman who wants to sell a security system can find ways to redirect our focus through things like fear mongering in order to exploit our desires to keep our family safe and well-protected, for example.


I imagine that there was not one person who attended the True Woman ‘08 Conference without some sense of anticipation. There is a special excitement that comes though a planned event for which one prepares in advance. One technique that nearly guarantees some anticipation of receiving something valuable comes when one pays money in exchange for something like a conference. It is natural, expected consequence, very much like a contract. If I pay money for service or to receive information at a conference, it is quite natural for me to expect reciprocation for that money, and I anticipate that reciprocation. (One certainly would not pay money for something if they did not expect to receive something in exchange.)

This is also very much a behavior that indicates and reinforces that one is willing and cooperative, another element of hypnosis that strengthens the effectiveness of the power of suggestion. (Hypnotherapy clients should always be asked directly if they want and agree to be hypnotized prior to each session.) Payment is another means of reinforcing the desire to cooperate with a behavior which enhances the process, much like the direct question of "Do you want to be hypnotized" should be employed in some way in every session of hypnotherapy. This anticipation, desire and cooperation that one experiences as a conference attendee also create the environment conducive to hypnosis.

Remember that effective hypnosis takes place only when willing participants experience anticipation for a desired outcome, willingly cooperating with the process. The conditions that enhance hypnosis also coincide with the conditions that most conference attendees experience as well, so it behooves any conference attendee to be aware that their critical decision-making skills will inevitably be challenge. (An upcoming "prerequisite post" about states of consciousness or brain wave states will follow this post.)

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Surviving a Conference Part I: Making Memories

Every conference, even the True Woman ‘08 Conference, has a powerful effect on the mind of the person who attends. Before I delve into the effect that a conference environment has on a person too deeply, I would like to describe a little bit about how the mind works to help you better understand how conferences challenge your critical thinking.

As the old theory goes and what we now know from brain imaging, memory is quite a complex thing. First a stimulus is introduced to a person, and they experience that stimulus. If one hears a sound, along with the sound, the mind also remembers what the person is also experiencing beyond the sound: sights, tactile sensations, taste, smell, emotions, old associated memory, etc. The memory becomes like a snapshot that is stored, but the sound becomes bound to all the other things that the person experienced at that time. All areas of the brain become involved in that memory, creating a circuit. If a stimulus is repeated many times, that circuit is strengthened.

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