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Arnold Markowitz
The Cult Information Centre (CIC) is a British anti-cult organisation that provides information and advice to members of what the organisation terms cults, as well as their affected family members, members of the press and scholarly researchers. The organisation also serves as a resource for information on controversial religious groups, therapy cults, and political cults. CIC gives educational talks about cults in schools around the United Kingdom to students about to start university education. History The Cult Information Centre was founded in 1987 by Ian Haworth, who had previously been involved with the Council on Mind Abuse, and gained charitable status in the United Kingdom in 1992. Haworth later stated that CIC received complaints in Britain about the actions of Landmark Education, which he described as being linked to Werner Erhard's est movement. Haworth also made similar statements about the Werner Erhard and Associates course "The Forum". Methodology ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This sense of the term is controversial and weakly defined—having divergent definitions both in popular culture and academia—and has also been an ongoing source of contention among scholars across several fields of study. Richardson, James T. 1993. "Definitions of Cult: From Sociological-Technical to Popular-Negative." ''Review of Religious Research'' 34(4):348–56. . . An older sense of the word involves a set of religious devotional practices that are conventional within their culture, related to a particular figure, and often associated with a particular place. References to the "cult" of a particular Catholic saint, or the imperial cult of ancient Rome, for example, use this sense of the word. While the literal and original sens ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Werner Erhard And Associates
Werner Erhard and Associates, also known as WE&A or as WEA, operated as a commercial entity from February 1981 until early 1991. It replaced Erhard Seminars Training, Inc. as the vehicle for delivering the ''est'' training, and offered what some people refer to as personal and professional development programs. Initially WE&A marketed and staged the ''est'' training (in the form of the ''est'' seminars and workshops), but in 1984 the est training was replaced by a more modern, briefer, rigorous and philosophical program based on Werner Erhard's teachings called "The Forum".Anthony Gottlieb: "Heidegger for Fun and Profit", in ''The New York Times'', January 7, 1990. https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/07/books/heidegger-for-fun-and-profit.html?ref=martinheidegger, retrieved 2011-10-29 In 1991 Erhard sold the assets of WE&A to a group of employees, who later formed Landmark Education. Erhard then retired [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fear
Fear is an intensely unpleasant emotion in response to perceiving or recognizing a danger or threat. Fear causes physiological changes that may produce behavioral reactions such as mounting an aggressive response or fleeing the threat. Fear in human beings may occur in response to a certain stimulus occurring in the present, or in anticipation or expectation of a future threat perceived as a risk to oneself. The fear response arises from the perception of danger leading to confrontation with or escape from/avoiding the threat (also known as the fight-or-flight response), which in extreme cases of fear (horror and terror) can be a freeze response or paralysis. In humans and other animals, fear is modulated by the process of cognition and learning. Thus, fear is judged as rational or appropriate and irrational or inappropriate. An irrational fear is called a phobia. Fear is closely related to the emotion anxiety, which occurs as the result of threats that are perceived to b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Confession (religion)
Confession, in many religions, is the acknowledgment of one's sins (sinfulness) or wrongs. Christianity Catholicism In Catholic teaching, the Sacrament of Penance is the method of the Church by which individual men and women confess sins committed after baptism and have them absolved by God through the administration of a priest. The Catholic rite, obligatory at least once a year for serious sin, is usually conducted within a confessional box, booth or reconciliation room. This sacrament is known by many names, including penance, reconciliation and confession. While official Church publications usually refer to the sacrament as "Penance", "Reconciliation" or "Penance and Reconciliation", many clergy and laypeople continue to use the term "Confession" in reference to the Sacrament. For the Catholic Church, the intent of this sacrament is to provide healing for the soul as well as to regain the grace of God, lost by sin. A perfect act of contrition, wherein the penitent ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diet (nutrition)
In nutrition, diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. The word diet often implies the use of specific intake of nutrition for health or weight-management reasons (with the two often being related). Although humans are omnivores, each culture and each person holds some food preferences or some food taboos. This may be due to personal tastes or ethical reasons. Individual dietary choices may be more or less healthy. Complete nutrition requires ingestion and absorption of vitamins, minerals, essential amino acids from protein and essential fatty acids from fat-containing food, also food energy in the form of carbohydrate, protein, and fat. Dietary habits and choices play a significant role in the quality of life, health and longevity. Health A healthy diet can improve and maintain health, which can include aspects of mental and physical health. Specific diets, such as the DASH diet, can be used in treatment and management of chronic conditions. Dietar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Disinhibition
In psychology, disinhibition is a lack of restraint manifested in disregard of social conventions, impulsivity, and poor risk assessment. Disinhibition affects motor, instinctual, emotional, cognitive, and perceptual aspects with signs and symptoms similar to the diagnostic criteria for mania. Hypersexuality, hyperphagia, and aggressive outbursts are indicative of disinhibited instinctual drives. Clinical concept According to Grafman, et al., "disinhibition" is a lack of restraint manifested in several ways, affecting motor, instinctual, emotional, cognitive, and perceptual aspects with signs and symptoms, e.g., impulsivity, disregard for others and social norms, aggressive outbursts, misconduct and oppositional behaviours, disinhibited instinctual drives including risk taking behaviours and hypersexuality. Disinhibition is a common symptom following brain injury, or lesions, particularly to the frontal lobe and primarily to the orbitofrontal cortex. The neuropsychiatric sequelae f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dress Code
A dress code is a set of rules, often written, with regard to what clothing groups of people must wear. Dress codes are created out of social perceptions and norms, and vary based on purpose, circumstances, and occasions. Different societies and cultures are likely to have different dress codes, Western dress codes being a prominent example. Dress codes are symbolic indications of different social ideas, including social class, cultural identity, attitude towards comfort, tradition, and political or religious affiliations. Dress code also allows individuals to read others' behavior as good, or bad by the way they express themselves with their choice of apparel. History Europe From the seventh through the ninth centuries, the European royalty and nobility used a dress code to differentiate themselves from other people. All classes generally wore the same clothing, although distinctions among the social hierarchy began to become more noticeable through ornamented garments. Com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Time Perception
The study of time perception or chronoception is a field within psychology, cognitive linguistics and neuroscience that refers to the subjective experience, or sense, of time, which is measured by someone's own perception of the duration of the indefinite and unfolding of events. The perceived time interval between two successive events is referred to as perceived duration. Though directly experiencing or understanding another person's perception of time is not possible, perception can be objectively studied and inference, inferred through a number of scientific experiments. Some temporal illusions help to expose the underlying neural mechanisms of time perception. Pioneering work, emphasizing species-specific differences, was conducted by Karl Ernst von Baer. Theories Time perception is typically categorized in three distinct ranges, because different ranges of duration are processed in different areas of the brain: * Sub-second timing or millisecond timing * Interval timing o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Subliminal Messages
Subliminal stimuli (; the prefix ' literally means "below" or "less than") are any sensory stimuli below an individual's threshold for conscious perception, in contrast to stimuli (above threshold). A 2012 review of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies showed that subliminal stimuli activate specific regions of the brain despite participants' unawareness. Visual stimuli may be quickly flashed before an individual can process them, or flashed and then masked to interrupt processing. Audio stimuli may be played below audible volumes or masked by other stimuli. Effectiveness Applications of subliminal stimuli are often based on the persuasiveness of a message. Research on action priming has shown that subliminal stimuli can only trigger actions a receiver of the message plans to perform anyway. However, consensus of subliminal messaging remains unsubstantiated by other research. Most actions can be triggered subliminally only if the person is already prepared to per ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doctrine
Doctrine (from la, doctrina, meaning "teaching, instruction") is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the essence of teachings in a given branch of knowledge or in a belief system. The etymological Greek analogue is " catechism". Often the word ''doctrine'' specifically suggests a body of religious principles as promulgated by a church. ''Doctrine'' may also refer to a principle of law, in the common-law traditions, established through a history of past decisions. Religious usage Examples of religious doctrines include: * Christian theology: ** Doctrines such as the Trinity, the virgin birth and atonement ** The Salvation Army ''Handbook of Doctrine'' **Transubstantiation and Marian teachings in Roman Catholic theology. The department of the Roman Curia which deals with questions of doctrine is called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. ** The distinctive Calvinist doctrine of "double" predesti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Love Bombing
Love bombing is an attempt to influence a person by demonstrations of attention and affection. It can be used in different ways and for either positive or negative purposes. Psychologists have identified love bombing as a possible part of a cycle of abuse and have warned against it. It has also been described as psychological manipulation in order to create a feeling of unity within a group against a society perceived as hostile. In 2011, clinical psychologist Oliver James advocated love bombing in his book ''Love Bombing: Reset Your Child's Emotional Thermostat'', as a means for parents to rectify emotional problems in their children. Definition and analysis The expression "love bombing" was coined by members of the Unification Church of the United States during the 1970s and was also used by members of the Family International. Psychology professor Margaret Singer reported on the concept. In her 1996 book, ''Cults in Our Midst,'' she writes: Abusive relationships Modern soc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Groupthink
Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Cohesiveness, or the desire for cohesiveness, in a group may produce a tendency among its members to agree at all costs. This causes the group to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation. Groupthink is a construct of social psychology, but has an extensive reach and influences literature in the fields of communication studies, political science, management, and organizational theory, as well as important aspects of deviant religious cult behaviour. Overview Groupthink is sometimes stated to occur (more broadly) within natural groups within the community, for example to explain the lifelong different mindsets of those with differing political views (such as "conservatism" and "liberalism" in the U.S. political context or the purported benefits ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
