Cult ideals - The way cults work and everyday manipulations explained

title: Cult ideals - The way cults work and everyday incarnations of manipulation through dopamine behaviour and addiction

This is somthing ive been working on for a while.

How does addiction work?
How do cults get people so attached to ideas through behaviour?
Why do stupid games get people to empty their wallets?
How does the ABC agency's get people to betray their alliances with their own kind (spys/informants?)
Why does advertising and marketing work?

The brain is a marvellous thing.
However its not so clever as to realise its own short comings.

We as an animal with basic reactions on the chemical level, are susceptible to not obvious methods of control. Often this control is very hard to connect, its stealthy and the goal is never truly understood by anyone - which is why its deadly to our most basic human morals.

Ive studied addiction through my own journey of alcohol and drug dependency, i have overcome my addictions through what i can only refer to as enlightenment - something which until recently i had written off as garbage. That was a mistake and wasted a lot of my life for which im ashamed.

The real truth of control and "manageability" is being widely miss'sold as faith, hope and direction.

Our brains interpret the 'right' thing to do on our belief that our soul is touched and encouraged to make the right choices based on our feeling of right and wrong - this is a false interpretation.

We are a slave to our chemical reactions and the way we are programmed to perceive life, morals and family. Animal instincts are the base of all things we feel, sometimes they are corrupt from birth, sometimes they are implied by environment.

We feel a good thing is just that by a reaction in a pathway that creates a sense of well being, of justice, pride and self worth.

Those things are being manipulated.

Take the simple 'gamble', you place an expectation on luck, defined only as your personal perception of an outcome - the truth is random, but you attach any number of reasons to the possible result. Yet simply playing any game creates a feeling of anticipation regardless of chance, including another's response or even realistic outcome.

*please to not respond yet*

Our brains are a simple yet complex construction, we have ideas we solve problems and attach feeling or comfort to any given input, then contemplate our understanding - this is real intelligence.

But we are open to manipulation, through challenges to our thoughts or understanding and these things can be ATTACKED.

When a person bets on a situation he or she feels a thrill of our prediction vs or outcome, this is the base of all gambles.

That guess is based on two things, the unknown random answer and the idea that a person will do something based off the data we think we have of that person and its effect on the random outcome.

What im finding very hard to see is how people throw themselves at outcomes that logic and reason do not predict.

The ones i want to talk about are cults and AA (alcoholics anonymous) gambling and drugs. Addiction.

They are all related.

We are all really addicted to dopamine.

We cant control it, any good idea, feeling, gamble, prediction EVERYTHING makes this strange chemical our slave.

Recent research has shown that when a gambler makes a bet with the tense moment of the result in the balance (the roulette wheel spinning, the dealer dealing, the drug dealer conforming a sale) dopamine gets released - even though the REAL reward has not yet been determined! This is extremely important.

This reaction can translate to all forms of addiction.

Helping someone, getting a fix, winning a bet - all do the same thing, make the brain seem happy.

I might go into more detail about this if you ask, but thing about this absolutely provable phenomena and just think, is this ME wanting it or is this my brain telling me i'll feel satisfied if i do?

Thoughts?

One last thing: i mentioned AA and cults! Okay sorry i will address this.

When a random human soul is lacking in direction the AA book and many cult ideals say that through a breakdown of ones own problem through sharing is observed, and the realisation of salvation is true for that program.

Yet all these examples of PURE result create a notion that the program works with this one element, the IDEA to spread the working solution, a self perpetuating idea that works and that one is encouraged to spread like a helpful virus - its hard to argue such a thing is a virus when it helps so many otherwise lost souls.

Scientology and AA are amazing results of non drug induced proof this mind control WORKS.

Amazing isnt it

DRUGS are much easier to explain.

They make you feel good, that feeling that a Drug addict (or cult member) gets through spreading 'the word' is instead a chemical providing a false feeling of 'goodness'. A herone addict will help another inject even though the local results maybe detrimental, they do it because they believe in the "healing" power to a tormented soul the answer.

This strange psychology can be applied to so many ideas that it makes you extremely sad, and if you get what im saying im sorry, but at least your eyes are open to it.

CULTs: explained.

How does a cult work, why does it get people to join, how do they recruit?


We have established why dopamine makes you do things, a cult is no different.

When you help somone out you feel good, we watch superman on tv and we feel a sense of satisfaction from that, thats dopamine in action. Somthing happens, you do XYZ and the outcome is good, so you get your reward. This is dopamine!

when a cult's practices enable a person to do what is deemed good and worthy of reward in its ranks the legend chemical dopamine is released, the person feels they are good, positive, doing the right thing. this is how cults and religions like Scientology work and how older cults used to work.

Think about it.

The last war is convincing you the vote you make, the things you do, the tings you say are the "right thing" to do because your brain is saying "this is good" and releasing a bunch of dopamine.

Many people will say F-you, im me, i cant be controlled, but let me say this, DOPAMINE is in charge and those that are in control of this knowledge KNOW this and are MASTERS of its control - you cant control the way you feel, all our media tells us this.

Get used to it, your a puppet to your chemicals.

If you read this far, well done. I dont expect many S+F if any, this kinda proves my point, no reward -> move on. This is the best thread ive ever made and yet its too long to hold the average persons focus. Get funked ATS you are blinder than i wished, hoped even prayed for.

I can't say anything about addiction as I have no experience with it (or trying to best it at least) but I can say some things about gambling and possibly cults if I can find a relation between the two in my exploration

As a magician who specialises on Gambling effects I think I might be able to speak a little about this via my own expieriences. I know in terms of logic and reasoning gambling doesn't really make any sense as the idea of a gamble basically contradicts anything to do with logic or reasoning as it's either a con (my line of work) or it is based of the probability of numbers therefore not logical to play as the reasoning behind your logical decision would be to give yourself the best chance of winning or taking no chance at losing so I see it as there must be no logic or reason in a gamble otherwise it wouldn't be a ganble. Unless of course you are someone like myself where gambling is completely logical because the odds are always rigged in my favour as long as in the one controlling the outcome.

I can therefore only say that it must be the thrill of the unknown or the rush of a potential 'lucky' win I would imagine it's a similar principal with cults or maybe that could be down to an innate need to be part of something bigger than yourself or being part of something that plays to a particular personality trait of a person I don't know

Back to gambling something I don't understand is why people love to try their hand at a rigged game in the hope of winning which is almost impossible. A classic example of this is an old con/card game called the Three Card Monte more commonly called find the lady the of the game is simple you have to find the queen in a group of 3 cards after they have been moved around and you place money on your ability to be observant enough to catch to dealer, ofcourse you can never win because the dealer is constantly using sleight of hand to deceive you a good con will be able to do this multiple times to you without you catching the moves but still keep you willing to basiccslly donate money to them in an entertainment environment a good magician can remove the queen all together whilst convincing you to look for it.
I don't understand how people still play even though they know they won't win it defies logic and all reason and its no longer a gamble because there are no odds in your favour therefore no chance of a 'lucky' win.

It really does baffle me haha

a reply to: Darkman258

You and me when it comes to gambling agree. It is illogical.

Yet some people, some you mind describe as genetically inferior (aka with a lack of defensive to logical chance) will shun this obvious tactic is stupid. Yet there are totally lost people addicted to it.

Put this down to brain imperfections, over sized areas of the brain active to winning (and therefore the risk, gamble, chance of winning).

Their pleasure zones are larger, if it wasnt gambling it would be sex, drugs even rock and roll.

a reply to: Biigs

Is there any scientific evidence to suggest this happen in people's brajns? I mean is it down to a personality trait does it differ between people is it naturally there when we are born or is it a learned thing concept?

Could it have possibly been that we were all brought into the world with the disposition to be dull to these things and later learn scepticism or are we born with the scepticism and abandon it later in life? I've never really looked for actual studies of this I would love to read about it if there is its a fascinating subject to chat about and I would love to learn more on it that and it might help me be a better card cheat haha

The proof Darkman258 is plentiful.

MRI scans confirm which parts of the brain are active when a gambler or drug addict gets their reward, and its the very same part that lights up when the patient gets news of an impending win or fix even though they dont actually have a drug or win in their system - which explains why the addict does what he or she does. Simply having the knowledge that a win or fix is on the way is enough to start feeling that pleasure, then when its confirmed that a win or fix is NOT on the way (aka the player loses or the drugs are lost or delivery interrupted) the patient suddenly loses that good feeling and feels the need to replace it immediately, feeding the beast so to speak.

This is true for any addiction in any addict.

The simplest things can be treated like this, its just much more apparent in drug addicts, sex addicts and gamblers. But the same process happens with any good reward.

Take 'doing the right thing', if you are in a club that promotes 'dong the right thing' and pushes it very hard like the 12 step program in AA (alcoholics anonymous) the last step is very interesting.

"Step 12: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to
carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our
affairs."

At first this simple step sounds pretty reasonable and it is! Having got through the 12 steps with an AA sponsor the individual is compelled to rescue other victims of alcohol abuse. People who have been clean for multiple decades still go to rescue others. This is rewarding and telling others about their strength and hope is further reassurement to them and others, constantly rewarding the addict and getting a good feeling - its simply replacing one bad unhealthy addiction with another - but in this case a GOOD MORAL FEELING for the vulnerable addict.

This is the same way cults like Scientology and other 'religions' operate. And its not always a bad thing! Only in the case of Scientology alot of money is involved making its good message and rescuing of vulnerable victims dubious.

EDIT, not that this means anything but this was my 6,666 post!

Scientology and AA are related again in the way they involve psychology to repair a hopeless or vulnerable individual.

They both incorporate a method of breaking down a person mentally, not far from a military method of drilling a new recruit. They break down a persons problems by way of getting the individual to admit all their wrongs, all those things that are holding a persons psyche back and then talking them out, making their peace and moving forward by rebuilding more healthy morals and making that person feel like they are finally at peace with their past. Their past is still their past but they are trained to deal with it, this is the basics of CBT or Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, something L. Ron Hubbard (the founder of Scientology) was quite aware of, since he was friends with a psychologist and learned of this scientific way to approach the mind - L. Ron Hubbard was also in the marines!!!

Isnt that interesting!

This article is really interesting. Thanks for going to the effort of writing this and I think your right.

a reply to: Biigs

I feel better after having read this thread

Good job. I don't know how I missed this thread before.