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The poster is right about a few things but if you want to start your own cult, you need to understand the science of it. I recommend reading "Age of Propaganda", a book about propaganda techniques.
http://www.amazon.com/Age-Propaganda-Everyday-Abuse-Persuasion/dp/0805074031
This book has a chapter "How to become a cult leader" that describes how a confluence of techniques can be used to create a cult.
You can read it partially here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=9LsuMoEtSV4C&pg=PA302&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3
These techniques include:
1 - create your own social reality, a view of the world.
2 - create a granfalloon, or group dynamic, group identity. create fear of the opposite group (infidels). Create a special group terminology where words have overridden meanings.
3 - use the rationalization trap, and the human desire for consistency.
4 - establish the leader credibility and attractiveness
5 - send your followers to proselytize. Not that they will convince anyone but they will brainwash themselves trying.
6 - distract followers from undesirable thoughts. Play doctrines on loud speakers, don't let novices alone, make them sing. Use repetition heavily.
7 - use the phantom technique: i.e. make them go after something that is highly desirable but scarce and difficult to attain. (afterlife, paradise etc) The key is that its very scarcity will fuel the desire for it.
At the end of the chapter, the authors note that these techniques are not only used in religion/cults. They are used in politics, in national propaganda, in companies, etc...
We are all parts of several social circles, starting with our families, companies, religious denomination (including atheists), political affiliations, countries, where these techniques or parts of them are used to some extent.
And there is a reason why they work. Humans evolved to live in tribes, and so we live in our various modern tribes around us.
I'm telling this to the pat net tribe members, and I let you judge what is our social reality, group dynamic, infidels, phantoms, rationalizations, how much proselytizing we are doing - and who is our cult leader.
Hera,
Great post. I guess humans have been manipulating their fellow humans since the beginning of time. Sad.
and who is our cult leader.
Well Patrick himself, of course!
(just joking) ;-)
Come visit with us Sunday,at the Church of the Prophet HEY YOU.
Don't forget your TITHE.
Think Henry Rollins has a good idea of how to start in the first verse.
From RationalWiki:
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Fun:Starting_a_new_religion
A *perfect* portrayal of what religion is really all about. Bravo!
Why did I ever fall for it myself?
I guess that's the power of groupthink (and constant brainwashing since I was a child).