Stuck In a Cup
In San Francisco, in 1983, two people sat at a small table in a walk-up flat on Post Street. The friends were having tea; he coffee, when suddenly the woman looked into her cup. Something was going on, and she began to talk as if a crowd had gathered there. It was odd. The man looked on with sympathy, when suddenly the tea leaves began dancing (or so she said). And then they spoke to her. They called out, and from across the table they found voice in a strange woman staring at a cup: “Help us,” they were shouting, she said, “Help Us!”
Suspended high in the air above Union Square images of the holiday dance in the sky next to the likes of Macy's, Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. Visitors marveled as they walk to the stores of downtown San Francisco. The holograms were festive; the streets filled with excitement.
It could be any year since holograms have filled the sky at Christmas, but during this year the crowds harbored missionaries armed with a new psychology called Neuro-Linguistic Programming.
Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NPL, is a registered trademark today, but in 1983 it was routinely taught in psychology classes, and perhaps is royalty free still.
Just a few miles north in Sonoma County, for example, “Frogs into Princes: Neuro-Linguistic Programming” had been required reading in the counseling department of Sonoma State University.
“Frogs into Princes” is believed to have started the Neuro-Linguistic Programming revolution. Joseph Riggio, a customer of Amazon.com, reviewed his copy of the book and said that “Frogs into Princes” was a “10,” and a hoot to read. “Even though it's now over 20 years old,” he wrote, “this is the first (and best-IMHO) book introducing the still cutting edge technology of human communication and cognition—Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP™).”
The book, according to Riggio, is an example of “doing” NLP™ as opposed to “describing” it. “You'll want to read it with your eyes open,” he cautioned, ”—sometimes more easily said then done—since what the authors are doing is often presented in hypnotically engaging language. … The material is written in such a way as to resolve itself as you read. This is an example of ‘nested loops’ a teaching technique Bandler and Grinder use extensively” (Riggio, 2000).
In San Francisco the holographic images and crowds hid the dispossessed, the hungry and underemployed who became easy marks for those seeking converts. Even the street-smart residents walking to get the newspaper, or resting in the park, could be fooled.
But this is not a story against NLP™, or missionaries. Helping psychologies have nothing to do with converts. And those offering a hot meal can have a good heart. The difference is between a Church and a cult, as both heed the call to converts.
At a banquet in San Francisco, hungry visitors ate salads, vegetables, bread and meat. Most had been approached by members of the Unification Church. All who had listened were invited to a meal and a lecture.
Competition for converts at this lecture was keen, and some assigned to work in San Francisco for the church deceitful. In a citation on the website, Wikipedia, the church is explained in far greater detail than would have been possible at the lectures that day. In fact, talk of the Heavenly Father did nothing to reveal what members truly believed about God.
“Unification Church beliefs,” the citation reports, “are summarized in the textbook ‘Divine Principle’ and include belief in a universal God…and that a man born in Korea in the early 20th century received from Jesus the mission to be the second coming of Christ. Members of the Unification Church believe this Messiah to be Sun Myung Moon.”
Regular folks in San Francisco could meet members of the Unification Church anywhere in the community, especially during those years of heavy recruitment. And in 1983, at least one recruiter in the church knew about “hypnotically engaging language.”
The details of NLP™ cannot be explored in any depth here, but the idea on one level is simple: nested loops explore communication and cognition—it is a teaching tool to help others learn new behaviors.
After an invitation to a meal, hungry guests heard about a retreat. They were offered more food, along with the opportunity to learn about the church.
O’ Connor and Seymour (1994) who wrote about NLP™, said that metaphors, cover stories, parables, similes and jokes “are more memorable than just information, for you can make a point much more deeply and effectively with a story than just relating facts” (O’Connor & Seymour, p. 75).
Although it can be argued that someone who sees dancing tea leaves is in serious need of help, for those who went to the retreat, and heard the lectures that followed, all would have experienced what O’Connor and Seymour called “training by nesting metaphors one inside another.”
Thus, O’ Connor and Seymour, advised “start with a story that you leave unfinished as you move into the course of the material. You can start another metaphor at any stage which you also leave unfinished…as it leads you to another part of the training material. You can do this a number of times: this sets up what are called ‘nested loops.’ Nested loops require unnesting in reverse order. So the structure is as follows:
“Start training
Story A . . . material A. . .
Story B . . . material B. . .
Story C . . . material C. . .
Story D . . . material D. . .
“Now come out by completing the loop by finishing story D. . .
(then) Finish story C. . .
Finish story B. . .
Finish story A. . .
End of training” (O’Connor & Seymour, p.75).
At the Unification Church in 1983, the lectures were looped in such a way that the stories were never finished. Many people who attended never got the answers to the stories presented during the first meal, the first weekend retreat and presumably the entirety of the week-long retreat.
In fact, in 1983, the Church’s loops went on and on, until perhaps someone joined, when the stories might gradually be finished.
How guests learned the Revered Sun Myung Moon was the messiah is still unknown. A reporter left in frustration. But no doubt somewhere in NLP™ training there is a cautionary tale against the rejection of too many nested loops. For even after a chilling cry for help, the posthypnotic command of a “medium” voicing dire need in dancing tea leaves, a visitor could not overcome the nested loops of frustration. Simply, the “aha” moment never came, and a would-be disciple left a cry for help to dishwashers in the church.
References
O'Connor, J., & Seymour, J. (1994). Training with nlp. Hammersmith, London. Thorsons.
Riggio, J. (2000, August 2). Customer review. An nlp trainer’s review of the book that began nlp. Retrieved July 27, 2010, from http://www.amazon.com/review/R323YYVFW63IOB/
ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R323YYVFW63IOB
Suspended high in the air above Union Square images of the holiday dance in the sky next to the likes of Macy's, Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. Visitors marveled as they walk to the stores of downtown San Francisco. The holograms were festive; the streets filled with excitement.
It could be any year since holograms have filled the sky at Christmas, but during this year the crowds harbored missionaries armed with a new psychology called Neuro-Linguistic Programming.
Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NPL, is a registered trademark today, but in 1983 it was routinely taught in psychology classes, and perhaps is royalty free still.
Just a few miles north in Sonoma County, for example, “Frogs into Princes: Neuro-Linguistic Programming” had been required reading in the counseling department of Sonoma State University.
“Frogs into Princes” is believed to have started the Neuro-Linguistic Programming revolution. Joseph Riggio, a customer of Amazon.com, reviewed his copy of the book and said that “Frogs into Princes” was a “10,” and a hoot to read. “Even though it's now over 20 years old,” he wrote, “this is the first (and best-IMHO) book introducing the still cutting edge technology of human communication and cognition—Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP™).”
The book, according to Riggio, is an example of “doing” NLP™ as opposed to “describing” it. “You'll want to read it with your eyes open,” he cautioned, ”—sometimes more easily said then done—since what the authors are doing is often presented in hypnotically engaging language. … The material is written in such a way as to resolve itself as you read. This is an example of ‘nested loops’ a teaching technique Bandler and Grinder use extensively” (Riggio, 2000).
In San Francisco the holographic images and crowds hid the dispossessed, the hungry and underemployed who became easy marks for those seeking converts. Even the street-smart residents walking to get the newspaper, or resting in the park, could be fooled.
But this is not a story against NLP™, or missionaries. Helping psychologies have nothing to do with converts. And those offering a hot meal can have a good heart. The difference is between a Church and a cult, as both heed the call to converts.
At a banquet in San Francisco, hungry visitors ate salads, vegetables, bread and meat. Most had been approached by members of the Unification Church. All who had listened were invited to a meal and a lecture.
Competition for converts at this lecture was keen, and some assigned to work in San Francisco for the church deceitful. In a citation on the website, Wikipedia, the church is explained in far greater detail than would have been possible at the lectures that day. In fact, talk of the Heavenly Father did nothing to reveal what members truly believed about God.
“Unification Church beliefs,” the citation reports, “are summarized in the textbook ‘Divine Principle’ and include belief in a universal God…and that a man born in Korea in the early 20th century received from Jesus the mission to be the second coming of Christ. Members of the Unification Church believe this Messiah to be Sun Myung Moon.”
Regular folks in San Francisco could meet members of the Unification Church anywhere in the community, especially during those years of heavy recruitment. And in 1983, at least one recruiter in the church knew about “hypnotically engaging language.”
The details of NLP™ cannot be explored in any depth here, but the idea on one level is simple: nested loops explore communication and cognition—it is a teaching tool to help others learn new behaviors.
After an invitation to a meal, hungry guests heard about a retreat. They were offered more food, along with the opportunity to learn about the church.
O’ Connor and Seymour (1994) who wrote about NLP™, said that metaphors, cover stories, parables, similes and jokes “are more memorable than just information, for you can make a point much more deeply and effectively with a story than just relating facts” (O’Connor & Seymour, p. 75).
Although it can be argued that someone who sees dancing tea leaves is in serious need of help, for those who went to the retreat, and heard the lectures that followed, all would have experienced what O’Connor and Seymour called “training by nesting metaphors one inside another.”
Thus, O’ Connor and Seymour, advised “start with a story that you leave unfinished as you move into the course of the material. You can start another metaphor at any stage which you also leave unfinished…as it leads you to another part of the training material. You can do this a number of times: this sets up what are called ‘nested loops.’ Nested loops require unnesting in reverse order. So the structure is as follows:
“Start training
Story A . . . material A. . .
Story B . . . material B. . .
Story C . . . material C. . .
Story D . . . material D. . .
“Now come out by completing the loop by finishing story D. . .
(then) Finish story C. . .
Finish story B. . .
Finish story A. . .
End of training” (O’Connor & Seymour, p.75).
At the Unification Church in 1983, the lectures were looped in such a way that the stories were never finished. Many people who attended never got the answers to the stories presented during the first meal, the first weekend retreat and presumably the entirety of the week-long retreat.
In fact, in 1983, the Church’s loops went on and on, until perhaps someone joined, when the stories might gradually be finished.
How guests learned the Revered Sun Myung Moon was the messiah is still unknown. A reporter left in frustration. But no doubt somewhere in NLP™ training there is a cautionary tale against the rejection of too many nested loops. For even after a chilling cry for help, the posthypnotic command of a “medium” voicing dire need in dancing tea leaves, a visitor could not overcome the nested loops of frustration. Simply, the “aha” moment never came, and a would-be disciple left a cry for help to dishwashers in the church.
O'Connor, J., & Seymour, J. (1994). Training with nlp. Hammersmith, London. Thorsons.
Riggio, J. (2000, August 2). Customer review. An nlp trainer’s review of the book that began nlp. Retrieved July 27, 2010, from http://www.amazon.com/review/R323YYVFW63IOB/
ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R323YYVFW63IOB
posted by C. DeForest Switzer | 5:51 PM
3 Comments:
It's interesting that you quote Joseph Riggio in an article about cults/sects.
Riggio and Moon have several things in common. Riggio too is a self appointed leader with a special message for his followers. And he is always recruiting for potential converts, especially those who need to make significant decisions at important points in their lives... (i.e., those who are vulnerable and who are susceptible to manipulation and mind control)
It seems there is deceit involved as well as the initial offerings of the group - finding out who you really are (no really, this is different!!) - hide what actually goes on... an endless series of expensive courses that have left people in a position of bankruptcy or having to sell their homes.
And yes, the adepts in his group adore him. Seems like there is nothing he can't do... And they are prepared to defend him above anything... often by attacking the critic instead of his criticism and/or blaming the critic himself of doing/being what he is criticizing.
The followers think they are learning how to make independent decisions but the process is designed to keep them within the bounded reality of the doctrine, dependent and obedient.
He claims that hypnosis is his mistress and he uses 'hypnotically engaging language' in his classes to produce what seem like clones of himself.
Nested loops? He goes 'beyond metaphor' and uses mythological language to weave an ideology, a never ending story, that ensnares the adepts... an ideology that is offered as a model but treated as the TRUTH... in fact, a doctrine that any psychopath would be proud of!
Ex-member
You forgot one thing that Moon and that fat f**k Joseph Riggio have in common. Both cult leaders have lost court cases over financial things.
Moon was caught for filing false tax returns.
Riggio was sued for fraud or embezzlement or something in 2006 and lost. Had to sell his house to cover his fine of $1,000,000.
Just a thought!
Yes, egoists often seek power, and can do hurtful things, but slander does not help, please.
I studied with the Unification Church, in part, because of a professor at Sonoma State University. He singlehandedly destroyed two years of postgraduate study that threw me into depression.
Even so, I was able to escape the church because of a favored professor at Chico State. He made us read Paul Ricoeur. This study helped me become a writer and critical thinker; the other textbook, one that talked about imbedding metaphors in posthypnotic suggestions is lost to me, and this is okay. I rarely think about Sonoma State (where I read it), except to remember my professor at Chico State questioning the wisdom of my study there.
Putting it all together, however, I was able to recognize what was going on when a Unification Church member began talking to me in the bottom of a teacup. But even after understanding the manipulations, had it not been for an older person I became friends with in an advanced psychology group, they probably would have gotten me (or would have kept trying, anyway). When they called her home where I was renting a room, she told them to get lost.
I remember being somewhat angry. One member of the church had been my girlfriend (had it been allowed), and it is possible she had called to escape, or be close to me again, but who knows? Knowledge and experience is key; I moved back to Chico.
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