The EnlightenMeFree (EMF) Online Debate Forum

This may be a rehash but thought it might be a good point to ponder or reconsider:

Vocabulary seems to have a very large influence on cult activity, almost as if the dictionary has been recreated, making communicating with a cult member very difficult as the generally received meaning means something quite different to someone engaged in high demand activity.

I have read Joe's bio and he has been quite forthcoming with respect to his past spiritual adventures and engagement with high demand groups and I suspect, and Joe nail me if I am wrong. I will bet that during those times he used the vocabulary and idioms of the group he was engaged with. I will bet that it would have been very difficult to have a reasoned conversation with him because when someone would say "real" or "truth" or "reality" or "responsibility" or "path" or "level" or even "personality" it would take on some sort of esoteric new meaning that no one outside of the group could get a grasp on so it would be like an apple talking to an orange - a receding horizon so to speak where every step forward means two steps back. Somewhat of an impossible engagement. Without connection.

Vocabulary becomes a habit. We apply words in ways which we are accustomed. Often times inappropriately. A suggestion I would make to individuals who have left or are questioning involvement in a high demand group would be to carry a good dictionary around and when you find yourself using the dialogue of the group in your conversation, stop, look up the word and then consider how you are failing to communicate with the non group member. It may be an "eye opener".

Think about it:

I remain Leemar Supreme Commander Galactic Invasion Force and Astro's best friend

aka George, Astro's pooper picker upper,

for those who care

Elroy failed Anger Management - told the facilitator he didn't know what the bleep he was talking about
Judy is pissed at me because somehow it is my fault that Elroy failed Anger Management because all I ever do is pick up Astro's shit
and Judy is still on the run with this Jamaican guy Biglongodano

Life is a journey and then it's over

You could view is as - "realigning your vocabulary after too much TV, or too many courses in, say, Chemistry, Law or Engineering, or Psychology, or even, basket making or weaving"...there are few social groups I can think of that don't adopt their own Lingo.

I think you all, as a family, need to go on Dr. Phil, George. But not Jerry Springer - ouch.

Leemar, Lost is right:
"there are few social groups I can think of that don't adopt their own Lingo."

In-group jargon is not the problem but what kind of group it ties us to and how much the jargon constricts reason is the problem.

Robert Lifton in his analysis of Chinese Communist "thought reform" put it this way:
"The language of the totalist environment is characterized by the thought-terminating cliche. The most far-reaching and complex of human problems are compressed into brief, highly reductive, definitive sounding phrases, easily memorized and easily expressed. These become the start and finish of any ideological analysis."

eg, the KKK uses terms like the "n-word" or "mud people" to derisively characterize a class of humans, thus not having to think any further about them. Cults and their apologists generally write off critical ex-members as merely "disgruntled" or "failures" never thinking (much less testing) that the ex-member may have something valuable to report.

On the other hand, among my crowd of "anti-cultists" there is a misuse of jargon as well. "Cult" has become the "C-word" and too many people apply it without thought of what it means. I tell all my clients that labelling a group as a "cult" has no meaning in a court of law, and using that word without a thorough understanding and description of the group behaviors amounts to another thought-terminating cliche. So I tell them to stay away from the C-word when talking to cult members.

Whenever ex-members turn to ridicule of cult leaders or devotees, we tend to use jargon and catch phrases. When we do we are just as guilty of constricting our reason as we claim the cult members are. If we label something a cult, it should be in context [as on emf] or the beginning of a conversation and dialog, not the end of it.

Lifton goes on to say:
"Totalist language then is repetitiously centered on all-encompassing jargon, prematurely abstract, highly categorical, relentlessly judging, and to anyone but its most devoted advocate, deadly dull: in Lionel Trilling's phrase, 'the language of non-thought.'
To be sure, this kind of language exists to some degree in any cultural or organizational group, and all systems of belief depend on it. It is part of an expression of unity and exclusiveness: as Edward Sapir puts it, 'He talks like us' is equivalent to saying 'He is one of us.'"

see Chapter 22, "Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism" by Robert J Lifton (1961).
on "Loading the Language."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Jay_Lifton

I spent some time reading the chat room posts which, I believe, are still available on the RSE website. If you take some time reading them you will see that much of the vocabulary is way over the top and has very little meaning to the average George.

Read this:

LilliputBadu > I was just going over a beginning C&E where Ramtha is explaining
Bohm?s Implicate order theory.... with the glycerin experiment
LilliputBadu > And he talked about how stirring the glycerin smears the India ink spot
into a potential.
LilliputBadu > So I thought of your teaching then too.
LilliputBadu > But it would be an atom of immense proportion!
Zebra_aka_Z > NOW, PINK,.....NO, YOU ARE A HUMAN BEING,...SMILE,...BUT THE
CONSCIOUSNESS THAT YOU ARE WORKING WITH IS THE EXPANSIVE
CONSCIOUSNESS OF THIS PLANE AND ITS ENERGY.... BUT, WHEN YOU LEAVE
THIS REALM, YOU WILL BE SMALLER... WHEN YOU ARE IN THE LIGHT,...YOU
WILL HAVE A BODY OF QUANTA...SMILE
Zebra_aka_Z > AND PINK....YOUR 'ENERGY' WILL BE IONIZING PHOTONS...SMILE
LilliputBadu > Each level has its own distinct consciousness, but it expresses in 7
different frequencies.... is that right?
Zebra_aka_Z > LILLI....WHAT IS 'IT' THAT YOU ARE REFERRING TO..
LilliputBadu > Well, I know we all get confused about the consciousnesses and the
energies and the levels and the seals
LilliputBadu > Like Pink said that she was a photon if she was a third seal entity.
LilliputBadu > So everyone thinks if they are a fourth seal entity, at least that is what I
have heard people say, that they aren't going to really be here anymore.

This kind of crap goes on for pages and pages and pages and none of it makes any sense. This is what I am talking about, if you were speaking with someone and they engaged in this type of nonspeak, how could you possibly understand what they are talking about. I don't. I belong to the American Legion. A social group with common backgrounds. we may have a few structural idioms but I don't have to worry about "levels" and "consciousness" and "energies" and "ionizing photons" and "frequencies" while I'm shooting the bull with another legion member.

I return as

Leemar, Commander Galactic Invasion Force and Astro's best friend

LEEMAR -

But, you should have heard some of the conversations at my house!

-Blah blah blah Quazar blah blah Quark blah blah particular phospherescence blah blah blah isocelese blah blah AI blah blah...
-Excuse me, can I say something???? There's something burning on the stove...

RSE requires VISA

I remain

Leemar,

Simply, Astro's best friend and hey Joe I got a question for you on another new post a bit off topic but relevant, I think