January 2011 Update

---

First, I'd like to thank all those who have contributed letters and comments to the Lessons website over the years.  I want you to know that your contributions have helped many, to this day, sort through their conflicted feelings as they free themselves from thought control influences.

---

For those in ACCREDITED positions of authority there is responsibility, there are standards and thus some type of accountability.  This increases our chance of receiving responsible service.  With self-appointed authorities and gurus, in whatever subject they take on, we are on our own.  The purpose here is not to debate freedom of speech or whether someone or group should or should not be regulated, there is a fine line there.  What we can examine here are the intricate symptoms of lack of accountability.  Recent incidents in the news demonstrate what can and does happen to people who are on a quest for help or knowledge and place blind trust in an 'authority':

Ex-NXIVM student: 'I think it's a cult'  Albany Times Union By James M. Odato.  Tuesday September 7, 2010  -  During most of her 25 months as a student of self-improvement programs run by the Colonie-based NXIVM organization, Becca Friedman felt like she was in a dream, but, she said, it became a dreadful nightmare.

Death in the Sweat Lodge  - “After all,” Longblackcat wrote of Ray’s sweat lodge tragedy, “We don’t go into a  Roman Catholic church, put on the Pope’s hat and take the Pope’s staff and call ourselves Pope.” 

Among other issues, this article brings up the question of regulation of the the $11 billion self-help industry with its self appointed gurus.  It states: "What does the terrorist’s failed attempt to blow up a jetliner have in common with James Ray’s Sweat Lodge Deaths?   While President Obama proposed looking at airline security and enacting regulations to protect Americans’ lives… a 11 billion dollar industry is “completely unregulated,” with “NO national organization, NO code of conduct, NO credentials, NO ethical standards, NO means to sanction, NO spokesperson…. (etc.)."

Poor Little Rich Girls: The Ballad of Sara and Clare Bronfman  By Maureen Tkacik August 10, 2010 - Insight aout the organization NXIVM (pronounced Nex-ee-um).

---

Lessons in Awareness

It is well known in crime circles and woven into politics, media, government, religion, self help groups and dysfunctional families, that people can easily be emotionally manipulated into Believing and  Obeying.  Our wonderful tendency to have faith and believe in Good can be used to our detriment by those with either conscious or unconscious design.  Some beliefs and thoughts we consider our own actually come from various forms of thought control, or thought reform.    

 

No matter how or where we took on beliefs, we can never know who we really are until we acknowledge this phenomenon and begin to choose our thoughts with conscious awareness.  This is a road less traveled, yet critically urgent in our current world environment.  Offered herein is food for thought to examine your own beliefs and where they came from, as well as to evaluate the people and world around you.    

"Neither mysterious methods nor arcane new techniques were involved; the effectiveness of thought reform programs did not depend on prison settings, physical abuse, or death threats. Programs used the application of guilt/shame/anxiety manipulation, combined with the production of strong emotional arousal in certain settings. The pressures could be reduced only by participants' accepting the belief system or adopting behaviors promulgated by the purveyors of the material.“

Any person, organization, religion, or government who does not welcome  questioning of ideas or behavior, who will not answer questions,  who manipulates  to have you believe only in their way, who does not assist your quest for understanding or evades truth and accountability, is abusive and does or will use thought control to maintain their position, at the cost of your freedom.  The Lessons in Awareness site began a few years ago with an examination of mind control within a particular organization, yet will apply to all levels of society as well.  The title "Lessons in Awareness" refers to lessons learned from experience about perceived experts and authority figures, and I'm sure you will have your own feelings as to where to apply this information to people or organizations you know or have known in your own life. 

Dr. Margaret T. Singer's 6 Conditions for Thought Reform (mind control)

These conditions create the atmosphere needed to put a thought reform system into place:

1. Keep the person unaware of what is going on and how she or he is being changed a step at a time

Potential new members are led, step by step, through a behavioral-change program without being aware of the final agenda or full content of the group. The goal may be to make them deployable agents for the leadership, to get them to buy more courses, or get them to make a deeper commitment, depending on the leader's aim and desires. 

 

2. Control the person's social and/or physical environment; especially control the person's time

Through various methods, newer members are kept busy and led to think about the group and its content during as much of their waking time as possible.

3. Systematically create a sense of powerlessness in the person.

This is accomplished by getting members away from the normal social support group for a period of time and into an environment where the majority of people are already group members.

The members serve as models of the attitudes and behaviors of the group and speak an in- group language.

 

Strip members of their main occupation (quit jobs, drop out of school) or source of income or have them turn over their income (or the majority of) to the group.  Once stripped of your usual support network, your confidence in your own perception erodes.

As your sense of powerlessness increases, your good judgment and understanding of the world are diminished.  Your ordinary view of reality is destabilized.

As the group attacks your previous worldview, it causes you distress and inner confusion; yet you are not allowed to speak about this confusion or object to it -- leadership suppresses questions and counters resistance.

This process is sped up if you are kept tired -- group activity will keep you constantly busy.

4. Manipulate a system of rewards, punishments and experiences in such a way as to inhibit behavior that reflects the person's former social identity

Manipulation of experiences can be accomplished through various methods of trance induction, including leaders using such techniques as paced speaking patterns, guided imagery, chanting, long prayer sessions or lectures, and lengthy meditation sessions.

Your old beliefs and patterns of behavior are defined as irrelevant or evil. Leadership wants these old patterns eliminated, so the member must suppress them

Members get positive feedback for conforming to the group's beliefs and behaviors and negative feedback for old beliefs and behavior.

5. Manipulate a system of rewards, punishments, and experiences in order to promote learning the group's ideology or belief system and group-approved behaviors

Good behavior, demonstrating an understanding and acceptance of the group's beliefs, and compliance are rewarded while questioning, expressing doubts or criticizing are met with disapproval, redress and possible rejection. If one expresses a question, he or she is made to feel that there is something inherently wrong with them to be questioning.

The only feedback members get is from the group, they become totally dependent upon the rewards given by those who control the environment.

Members must learn varying amounts of new information about the beliefs of the group and the behaviors expected by the group.

The more complicated and filled with contradictions the new system is and the more difficult it is to learn, the more effective the conversion process will be.

Esteem and affection from peers is very important to new recruits. Approval comes from having the new member's behaviors and thought patterns conform to the models (members). Members' relationship with peers is threatened whenever they fail to learn or display new behaviors. Over time, the easy solution to the insecurity generated by the difficulties of learning the new system is to inhibit any display of doubts -- new members simply acquiesce, affirm and act as if they do understand and accept the new ideology.

6. Put forth a closed system of logic and an authoritarian structure that permits no feedback and refuses to be modified except by leadership approval or executive order

The group has a top-down, pyramid structure. The leaders must have verbal ways of never losing.

Members are not allowed to question, criticize or complain -- if they do, the leaders allege that the member is defective -- not the organization or the beliefs.

The individual is always wrong -- the system, its leaders and its belief are always right.

Conversion or remolding of the individual member happens in a closed system. As members learn to modify their behavior in order to be accepted in this closed system, they change -- begin to speak the language -- which serves to further isolate them from their prior beliefs and behaviors.

For news, awareness and exposure about our current economy & government please visit Creditors in Education. 

The following is the original Home page of Lessons in Awareness.  

Lessons in Awareness, a Training in Power Exposé raining in power

 

                         "If anyone can show me, and prove to me, that I am wrong in
                          thought or deed, I will gladly change. I seek the truth, which
                         never yet hurt anybody. It is only persistence in self-delusion
                                  and ignorance which does harm." -- Marcus Aurelius
 

On the self-help path we may seek an authority, a teacher or a group to learn, heal or advance our awareness. It's important to value and pursue all areas of health and especially to recognize the role mental health plays in the cycle of abuse of both children and adults.  It's also important to be aware that vulnerable, innocent, intelligent people can be fooled by the expert emotional manipulation of a teacher, counselor or loved one who claims to know the only truth.  Training in Power is a feel good experience; its grand and uplifting promises capture a natural hope and longing in students, while its classic thought control techniques slowly train each mind into the founder's particular and exacting story of truth. Emotional manipulation to embed this complex system in someone's mind is thought control.  Emotional punishment for resisting thought control is abuse. When it is embedded to extreme in a group, it is classical cult abuse. 

There is much information on this site.  It is offered to: 

     • Bring awareness about thought control in groups and relationships  
     • Examine thought control within the group Training in Power
     • Offer support

 

Thought control is ultimately spiritual abuse. Our spirit, or our aliveness loses its spunk, joy, energy and freedom when we are drawn in to rotely follow someone else's system rather than develop our own.  Hopefully the information on this site will help evaluate aspects of thought control and what it means to you.    

 

A heartfelt thank you to each of you who contributed letters and comments to this site. 
 

---

 

"And So It Ends....."

"Thank you for the information. I had already decided to stop my TIP practice, but your e-mail and links have served as a good confirmation of my feelings."

“I've been trying to figure out how to climb away from TIP for a while now... Their power is strong... having found this link online has helped considerably. And from what I can imagine, has saved me from serious damage. Thank you.”

"I appreciate your thoughts and your concern. I have plenty on my own. You're correct that I have enough other things going on in my life that Training has not become center stage (nor do I wish it to). I understand many of the issues you raise - they are not new to me. I went through level 6 last year, and don't really plan to involve myself much more as far as teaching or taking more levels..."

"Thank you so very much for your sincere, wise and inspired words. I am very grateful for your advice and agree on all accounts. I am only interested in energy work as another pathway and area of growth and healing. I, too, believe that life itself is the best teacher, but it sure is nice to hear it from someone as experienced as yourself. Thanks again. I'm glad we connected and hope that our paths will cross again. Be well.. “

"Thank you so much for putting your e-mail (online) ....I want to leave TIP and am not sure where to turn. I would like to join the Yahoo support group. Thank you for sharing your info on the Rick Ross' website. I do not want to leave my name at this time until I know its safe."

“THANK YOU for your courageous soul; for constructing and providing such an awesome site with a wealth of information and TRUTH! It's an invaluable support/reference system for those that are ready to see the truth of TIP, know within themselves that things just 'aren't right', but have nowhere to turn or look for substantiated truth. I know for me personally it has been a God send and has assisted in getting myself back! Thanks bunches and love/strength to you all as you take your true power/self back and become whole again!”

“I am so grateful for all the information that you have on this site, it is a relief to know that I was correct in my assessment and that I am not alone in the journey to walk away…. thank you for your willingness to share with the world the truth.”

"When I read your reply I felt so moved. Thank you…. I feel so relieved as though I am trying to come out of a nightmare...."

 

---