Read this! Scientology autopsy
I went to a Scientology open day in Manchester one afternoon. Myself, Roma and Kam were walking into town together and were stopped by a pretty young thing asking if we were interested in the free exhibition. I'd wanted to find out more about this for a long time and was really pleased when the others agreed that we should go inside and check it out.
I wasn't disappointed..
To begin with they had a selection of bulletin-boards around the room with statements written on describing some of the broad beliefs and theories of the scientology religion. This was very vague and commandment-y and I didn't much like it. Watching Kam try to work out how to fool an e-machine (for seeing his thoughts) brought a smile to my face though and feeling extremely condesending at the time I asked how the machine actually measured these 'thoughts' - needless to say I didn't get a satisfactory answer.
Then we were ushered into a seated area and handed our questionnaires for the 'free' (i.e. pressure sale) personality test.
This bollocks is designed purely for the sales person who you are about to meet and works on the simple premise that if you tell them the things that are wrong with you - they can tell you that the book will solve them.
Basically they take a few simple character types and their opposites. e.g. organised & disorganised.
Then they take 200 questions and base five questions on each of the pairings they have decided upon then ask the participant in slightly more disguised ways - 'Are you organised?'
Your answers are stuck in a computer which simply charts the results and when the participants get back this complicated looking graph and the salesman tells them 'I can see from this you arn't organised' the participant is shocked.
Obviously they're allowed to do this as it's not directly manipulative but it's an interesting sales trick that I thought I should write about because it made me smile how simple and yet effective it can be and mirrors the types of techniques that I feel are present in so much of todays advertising.
Anyway, I didn't buy the book but I did watch quite a bit of the video which accompanies the book and that was VERY interesting.
I'll write about that some other time..I'm tired now and going to bed.
Maslow but without the hierarchy.
Engrams and the reactive brain.