Saturday 11 October 2008

BELIEFS, THOUGHTS and BEHAVIOUR

The following appears at http://tansal.50megs.com/groupscultsscams.html regarding Social and Group Aspects of Behaviour:

WE ALL
get persuaded on occasion, perhaps to buy something that we either do or don't need - the 'right' kind of advertising obviously does pay. At least we know where to get hold of something should the inspiration or need arise. Ever wonder where the inspiration or 'need' comes from? Does it necessarily benefit you, apart from that buzz and the hole in your pocket.
RESEARCH shows how people in groups tend to be rather more willing to take risks. That doesn't mean that everyone takes more risks, or even feels like it. It is simply that there is a way of showing a reasonable statistical difference between one state of affairs (making a decision on one's own), and facing the same decision with a group of others people.
YOU MIGHT be surprised how much that appears in our newspapers is simply a press release or write-up about someone's research, which may or may not be applicable to normal daily life. It could, by a small stretch of the imagination, be designed to influence you to a way of thinking.
DID YOU know that behaviour follows thought? Whose thoughts - what you read, what someone whom you trust tells you, what everyone else in the workplace thinks, what your partner thinks? This may sound like empty rhetoric and that is for you to decide. But would you want constant party political broadcasts, rousing marches, football crowds?
DO YOU want sometimes to flop in front of the tv and let it all happen around you? It lifts you out of your everyday life, the daily struggle to work when you don't feel like it, the chores, getting the car fixed. It's like a holiday, and we all need a breather. You're happy to let the show go on and that might just be when your defences are down (hence all those ads?).
FINE - because you know there's advertising. But what if you're uneasy about something, on the tv/ off the tv, what your mate says, what your boss says? Why do you think there is emphasis today on being assertive, standing up for yourself, getting advice because you don't fit a particular niche? Indeed it could be good for you. It could also be good for the people who are paid to promote ideas via books, seminars, group meetings to foster a feeling of support, and so on.
EVERYONE has to earn a living? Everyone can do their own thing? It's free and it's helpful? Could there be a hidden agenda, getting your mates involved, giving a donation, getting you to buy books, encouraging you to feel a need to seek help or comfort - at financial or human cost? We are all human: you may feel OK with yourself or at least you get by. You can build on that by yourself or with friends you trust.
BE AWARE that some people may not be what they seem. Some may simply want you to believe what they believe, or they say what you might want to hear. Something to watch out for would be a double-standard (which can be deliberate or not) where the stated objective may be perhaps an ideal to follow, but the intent may be raising money or having a form of control over others.
AS A GUIDE, if you are in a relationship or a group and you feel like questioning something or changing your mind but you meet opposition, perhaps it is time to examine things further. There is a natural amount of give-and-take in many situations. We all have our various likes and dislikes, our comfort zones and our discomforts.


DOC MATRIX - BELIEFS and MYTHS PAGE




Suppose I think that's a Dinosaur flying by, says Doc, then
I'll probably BEHAVE as if there IS one

Can I persuade YOU there's one?
Can someone convince ME there is?

Set the Scene right and I'm likely to BELIEVE Anything

Maybe I read stories when little, and Dinos were Good
Maybe someone said they were Scarey

It might seem Prudent to Believe something is Good
Or equally Prudent to Believe some things are Bad

We probably Forget where most of it began -
But we ACT as if they are True or Real

I might just Change my Mind about some of it
Someone might talk things over to Change my Mind
So Far So Good - That's Common Sense


WHAT IF one Person or a Group
can make Money out of changing
my Beliefs or changing my Behaviour?
(actually Either can work for Both)

SUPPOSE they studied Group Pressures,
Social situations, HOW to change a Belief

They could be £££'s-in or SIMPLY get some Power

When I say SIMPLY I mean it is quite SIMPLE to do

There will always be Leader Types
And People more likely to Follow a Lead

What I refer to is Something ELSE, call it Psycho-
Social Influence, Factors or What-Have-You?

Set the Scene right and I am likely to BELIEVE Anything

No-One can Blame YOU for getting SET-UP

Watch THE REAL HUSTLE on TV!

We can ALL Learn!


DOC MATRIX BOOKList on BELIEFS & BEHAVIOUR

'An Introduction to Social Anthropology: Other People's Worlds' by Joy Hendry
'A Reader in the Anthropology of Religion' ed. Michael Lambek
'Britain on the Couch' by Oliver James
'Cross-Cultural Psychology' by Berry, Poortinga, Segall, Dasen
'Eccentric & Bizarre Behaviours' by Franzini & Grossberg
'Extraordinary Popular Delusions' by Charles Mackay
'Fugitive Minds' by Antonio Melechi
'Messengers of Deception' by Jacques Vallee
'Phantoms of the Brain' by Blakeslee & Ramachandran
'Pointed Observations' by Kevin R D Shepherd
'Social Psychology' by M A Hogg & G M Vaughan
'Spying in Guru Land' by William Shaw
'The Anthropology of Religion' by Fiona Bowie
'The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat' by Oliver Sacks
'The Psychic Tourist' by William Little
'The Secret World of Cults' by Jean Ritchie
'The Stargate Conspiracy' by Lynn Picknett & Clive Prince
'The Supernatural' by Will Storr
'The Wayward Mind' by Guy Claxton
'Worldviews' by Ninian Smart


DOC MATRIX's X-Files BOOKList

'Ancient Energies of the Earth' by David Cowan & Anne Silk
'Archaeology of the Mind: the Social History of the Unconscious'
by George Frankl
'Beyond the Occult' by Colin Wilson
'Borderlands' by Mike Dash
'Daimonic Reality' by Patrick Harpur
'Disneyland of the Gods' by John Keel
'Earth Harmony' by Nigel Pennick
'Environmental Psychology' by Robert Gifford
'ESP Beyond Time & Distance' by T.C. Lethbridge
'Games of the Gods - The Origin of Board Games'' by Nigel Pennick
'Hidden Meanings' by Laird Scranton
'Hungry Ghosts' by Joe Fisher
'Labyrinths: Ancient Myths & Modern Uses' by Sig Lonegren
'Ley Lines' by Danny Sullivan
'Messengers of Deception' by Jacques Vallee
'Missing Pieces' by Robert A Baker & Joe Nickell
'Mysteries of the Hopewell' by William F. Romain
'Natural Symbols' by Mary Douglas
'Needles of Stone' by Tom Graves
'Out of Character Behaviour' http://toukanalia.blogspot.com
'Places of Power' by Paul Devereux
'Revelations' by Jacques Vallee
'Shamanism & The Mystery Lines' by Paul Devereux
'Space, Time & Medicine' by Larry Dossey
'Strange Creatures from Time & Space' by John Keel
'Symbols & Meaning' by Mari Womack
'The Phantom World' by Augustin Calmet (written in 1746)
'The Power of Coincidence' by Frank Joseph
'The Stargate Conspiracy' by Lynn Picknett & Clive Prince
'The System in which we Live' by Arthur Oram
'The Way of the Shaman' by Michael Harner
'True Life Encounters' by John & Anne Spencer
'Unseen Aspects of Behaviour' HERE


DOC MATRIX BOOKList on CON-TRICKS, SCAMS & DECEPTION

BBC TV have been running 'The Real Hustle' in 2009, information at www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m8mf
If you can watch videos you can see the Top 30 voted Hustles at
www.bbc.co.uk/realhustle/besthustles/

& see YOUTUBE

BOOKS you may find useful are:

'Conned: Scams, Frauds & Swindles' by James Morton & Hilary Bateson
'The Con Artist Handbook, the Secrets of Hustles & Scams' by Joel Levy
'The Art of Deception' by Kevin D Mitnick & William L Simon
'More Scams from the Great Beyond' by Peter Huston
'The Art of the Steal' by Frank Abagnale
'The Sting - True Stories of the World's greatest Conmen' by Nigel Blundell
'The Tourist Trap - when Holiday turns to Nightmare' by Patrick Blackden

'The Body Language Bible' by Judi James
'The Book of Tells' by Peter Collett
'The Call of the Weird - Travels in American Subcultures' by Louis Theroux
'The Dilbert Principle' by Scott Adams
'A Mind of its Own - How your Brain Distorts & Deceives' by Cordelia Fine
'The Psychology of Self-Deception' by Daniel Goleman

'Buy-ology' by Martin Lindstrom
'Decoding Advertisements - Ideology & Meaning in Advertising' by Judith Williamson
'Emotional Design - Why we love (or hate) everyday things' by Donald A Norman
'Of Cigarettes, High Heels, & Other Interesting Things' by Marcel Danesi
'Predictably Irrational' by Dan Ariely
'Stack & Sway - the new Science of Jury Consulting'
by Neil J Kressel & Dorit F Kressel
'Techniques of Persuasion' by J.A.C. Brown
'We Know What You Want - How they change your Mind' by Martin Howard
'The Want Makers' by Eric Clark

'Body Magic' by John Fisher
'Building Blocks' by Luke Jermay
Cold Reading/Barnum Effect article
'Hiding the Elephant' by Jim Steinmeyer
'Hoffmann's Modern Magic' by Hoffmann
'Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic'
'The Psychic Mafia' by M. Lamar Keene
'Secrets of Stage Mindreading' by Ormond McGill
'Self-Working Mental Magic' by Karl Fulves
'Sleight of Hand' by Edwin Sachs
'Tricks of the Mind' by Derren Brown


WARNING !

'The Sociopath Next Door' by Martha Stout
'Without Conscience - the Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among us' by Robert D Hare
'Erased - Missing Women, Murdered Wives' by Marilee Strong



Remember that some people may genuinely believe in what they are telling you

Logical Fallacies - errors of reasoning or argument -use a Search Engine or www.logicalfallacies.info/
which categorises fallacies of relevance, ambiguity, or presumption

Multiple Intelligences/ Aptitudes

Nidotherapy - changing someone's environment rather than trying to change them

Ponerology - wickedness or evil

Psychohistory website of Lloyd deMause at www.psychohistory.com - the 'science of historical motivations'; the 'emotional origin of social/political behavior of groups & nations'

Social Engineering for strategies from the computer environment and used more generally, to gain information or to manipulate - often via Social Compliance

See Public Relations, 'Spin', Salesmanship, Anthropology, Memes - or start from your own interests

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