My wife and I are finishing reading an excellent book titled " Deep Healing " by Emmett E. Miller, M. D. The essence of this book is showing how our mind and body works in synchronicity with our mental health affecting our physical well being.
He also addresses the issue of how " group mentality " or peer pressure can influence seemingly " normal " people to totally ignore reality and allow a " group " of people to coerce them into believing an untruth. This experiment was conducted in a college by psychology professors . Called the " Red Hatted Thief " it went as follows :
" The degree to which our perceptions, beliefs, and behaviors can be distorted by environmental cues is truly breathtaking, as the following study demonstrates . Fifteen college students are assembled in the classroom on the first day of class. The professor comes in with a briefcase, sets it on the desk, scratches his head, then turns to the class and says, " I forgot my slides. I'll be right back. " Having said this, he leaves the room.
" About 30 seconds later, a man walks into the room wearing a red cowboy hat, casually picks up the professor's briefcase, and leaves. About a minute or two later , the professor returns, looks at the desk, then turns to the class and says, " What happened to my briefcase ? "
" In actuality, only one of those in the class is a student, the other 14 are working for the professor . They begin to describe to him how a man in a YELLOW cowboy hat came in and carried it off. At this point, the professor turns to the unwitting subject of the experiment and says, " Did you see him ? "
" After this question is answered in the affirmative , the professor continues, " And he had on a yellow hat ? " Profoundly influenced by the social setting, the answer is usually, " Yes, it was a yellow hat. "
" In fact - Unbelievable as it may seem, some 70 % of the subjects in these experiments agreed that the hat was yellow ! A few subjects qualified their response by " recalling " that it was a yellow hat with a red hatband or it had a red feather on it or something, but they ALL agreed that it was yellow. However, most felt completely comfortable about agreeing that the hat was yellow. "
The Doctor's book continues, " It turns out that not only perceptions, but also behavior, can be altered in fundamental ways by minor social cues. We sometimes talk about " mob psychology " , choosing that term because it makes us think we are talking about people who are different and somehow inferior to us. This, too, is a comfortable but erroneous assumption. "
So you ever wonder how Jehovah's Witnesses can believe the ridiculous new " generation overlap " theory ? This may be one reason. Wanting to fit in due to peer pressure and wanting the " group think " of the WT society leaders to make ALL their decisions for them and think for them. As JW's we never HAD to think independently- the WT society did it for us. In fact they CRITICIZED any one who thought on their own independently. ( One reason I never fit in with the JW's ) .
The scary part of this is that under cult mind control people have been led to their deaths by conforming to " group think " pressure, i.e. People's Temple Jonestown, David Koresh , the Nazi's , terrorist's , yes- even Jehovah's Witnesses in refusing blood transfusions, Malawi witnesses not signing a political party card , and observing insane doctrines of doomsday dates wasting entire lives waiting on Armageddon then dying unfulfilled due to Paradise never coming. All because of peer pressure and group think by the WT society.
So what about you here on the board ? Have you been able to break away from the " peer pressure" or " group mentality " which makes us followers or have you enjoyed the use of your free critical thinking mind after exiting the witnesses independently pursuing happiness in your life ? As always- I look forward to your takes and observations. Hope you all are having a great holiday weekend ! Peace out to all, Mr. Flipper