CarlShulman comments on Mind Control and Me - Less Wrong

10 Post author: Patrick 21 March 2009 05:31PM

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Comment author: CarlShulman 22 March 2009 06:53:09AM 1 point [-]

"a sort of cult," But not a cult, full stop. Multi-level-marketers? I have seen some hideous zombification in that context.

Comment author: AnneC 22 March 2009 03:38:15PM *  4 points [-]

It was some kind of "neurolinguistic programming" thing. This particular incarnation of it entailed my first being yelled at until "[my] defenses were stripped away", at which point I was supposed to accept this guy as a "master". Later on it supposedly involved attending weird summer-camp type sessions where I was told people would undergo things that "felt like torture" but which they'd "come to appreciate".

I didn't go to any camp sessions and probably wouldn't have attended them anyway for sheer lack of logistical finesse, but I am glad I had a co-worker point out to me that what was happening to me was emotional abuse at the very least.

Comment author: pjeby 22 March 2009 09:01:04PM 2 points [-]

That sounds more like est or Landmark/Forum or even Scientology... but nonetheless a LGAT (large-group awareness training -- basically a synonym for cult indoctrination).

Legitimate NLP training doesn't involve students getting yelled at, even offhandedly, let alone in any sort of systematic way. Anybody who claims to be teaching NLP in such a fashion needs to be reported to the organization that issued their certification, and then to the Society of NLP (so the organization's trainer-training certification can be revoked, if they don't revoke the trainer's cert).

(That link goes to a particular training organization, but I don't have any connection to them or offer any particular endorsement; it's just a page with good buyers' guidelines for ANY sort of training, let alone NLP. I'd also add that a legitimate NLP trainer will generally have enough work teaching paying customers, to have neither time nor reason to subject people to unsolicited "training".)