Tristan Harris, an ex-Google guy who now warns about tech addiction, said some interesting things about cults in his recent podcast with Sam Harris which help me make sense of my own experience:
SH:
You also said in the setup for this interview that you have an interest in cults. What's that about, and to what degree have you looked at cults?
TH:
Well, I find cults fascinating because they're kind of like vertically integrated persuasive environments. Instead of just persuading someone's behaviour or being the design of a supermarket or the design of a technology product, you are designing the social relationships, the power dynamic between a person standing in front of an audience. You can control many more of the variables. And so I've done a little bit of undercover investigation of some of these things.
SH:
You mean actually joing a cult? Or showing up there physically?
TH:
No, not joining. Showing up physically. Many of these things are - none of these cults ever would call themselves cults. Many of them are simply workshops, new-agey style workshops. But you start seeing these parallels in the dynamics.
[...]
One of the interesting things is the way that people that I met in those cults who eventually left and later talked about their experience, and the confusion that you face - and I know this is an interest you've had - the confusion that you face when you've gotten many benefits from a cult. You've actually deprogrammed let's say early childhood traumas or identitites that you didn't know that you were holding, or different ways of seeing reality that they helped you, you know, get away from.
And you get these incredible benefits and you feel more free. But then you also realise that was all part of this larger persuasive game to get you to spend a lot of money on classes or courses or these kinds of things.
And so the confusion that I think people experience in knowing that they got all these benefits, but then also felt manipulated. And they don't know in the mind's natural black and white thinking how to reconcile those two facts.
I actually think there's something parallel there with technology. Because for example in my previous work on this, a lot of people expect you if you're criticising how technology is designed, you might say something like "Oh, you're saying Facebook is bad, but look, I get all these benefits from Facebook. Look at all these great things it does for me."
And it's because people's minds can't hold on to both truths: that we do derive lots of value from Facebook, and there's many manipulative design techniques across all these products that are not really on your team to help you live your life. And that distinction is very interesting when you start getting in to what ethical persuasion is."
[www.youtube.com]
I would add that Mooji retreats are not in the scheme of things expensive (they cost less than the European yoga retreat, fliers for which every yoga teacher hands out after class), and if you start going on retreats you are not going to be asked to donate your paycheque. But it's interesting that Mooji has risen to prominence on Facebook - like Facebook, what he demands of you is your time and attention.
SH:
You also said in the setup for this interview that you have an interest in cults. What's that about, and to what degree have you looked at cults?
TH:
Well, I find cults fascinating because they're kind of like vertically integrated persuasive environments. Instead of just persuading someone's behaviour or being the design of a supermarket or the design of a technology product, you are designing the social relationships, the power dynamic between a person standing in front of an audience. You can control many more of the variables. And so I've done a little bit of undercover investigation of some of these things.
SH:
You mean actually joing a cult? Or showing up there physically?
TH:
No, not joining. Showing up physically. Many of these things are - none of these cults ever would call themselves cults. Many of them are simply workshops, new-agey style workshops. But you start seeing these parallels in the dynamics.
[...]
One of the interesting things is the way that people that I met in those cults who eventually left and later talked about their experience, and the confusion that you face - and I know this is an interest you've had - the confusion that you face when you've gotten many benefits from a cult. You've actually deprogrammed let's say early childhood traumas or identitites that you didn't know that you were holding, or different ways of seeing reality that they helped you, you know, get away from.
And you get these incredible benefits and you feel more free. But then you also realise that was all part of this larger persuasive game to get you to spend a lot of money on classes or courses or these kinds of things.
And so the confusion that I think people experience in knowing that they got all these benefits, but then also felt manipulated. And they don't know in the mind's natural black and white thinking how to reconcile those two facts.
I actually think there's something parallel there with technology. Because for example in my previous work on this, a lot of people expect you if you're criticising how technology is designed, you might say something like "Oh, you're saying Facebook is bad, but look, I get all these benefits from Facebook. Look at all these great things it does for me."
And it's because people's minds can't hold on to both truths: that we do derive lots of value from Facebook, and there's many manipulative design techniques across all these products that are not really on your team to help you live your life. And that distinction is very interesting when you start getting in to what ethical persuasion is."
[www.youtube.com]
I would add that Mooji retreats are not in the scheme of things expensive (they cost less than the European yoga retreat, fliers for which every yoga teacher hands out after class), and if you start going on retreats you are not going to be asked to donate your paycheque. But it's interesting that Mooji has risen to prominence on Facebook - like Facebook, what he demands of you is your time and attention.