Warriorschool - Cult Deception of Jeff Prather

Guilt by Association with Jeff Prather

2009-08-18T23:19:00.001-07:00

Here is another great list of websites and names of people who have associated with Jeff Prather in the past or who continue to do so. Jeff Prather runs the cult called Warriorschool. Many of the people who claim to have trained with Prather in the past may not have known about his problems. But now they are easily discovered with a quick google search.

Thanks to Richard Van Donk Jeff Prather can sell his DVD courses online.

http://www.ninjutsustore.com/store/home.php?cat=137

VH1 lists Prathers film accomplishments

http://www.vh1.com/movies/person/443712/personmain.jhtml?personid=443712

Miracle at Sage Creek a movie with David Carradine.
http://www.vh1.com/movies/movie/273827/moviemain.jhtml

and Christmas Miracle at Sage Creek
http://www.vh1.com/movies/movie/354970/moviemain.jhtml

Also see an old school seminar Prather did in 2000.
http://www.winjutsu.com/seminars/prather_seminar.htm

http://www.fudomyodojo.com/
The Bujinkan Yamaneko

Fudo Myo Dojo

Dojo-Cho: Shihan Jeff Prather, 15th Dan

Shibu-Cho: Domonic Lees, 4th Dan

Mr. Domonic Lees is a true believer, if he is still affilliated with Mr. Prather. They appear to be one of Prather's franchise dojos in Albuquerque.

http://vegasbujinkan.com/DavidEstorga.html
Here is yet another Yamaneko Prather Dojo, but in Las Vegas of all places.

Bujinkan Yamaneko Dojo: Las Vegas Shibu
David Estorga, Yondan, shibucho

Go to the web site to see his happy clappy pictures.

Mr. Estorga is a Warrior and father with 16 Years experience in the martial arts. He has trained in judo and kenpo and has black belt rank in both. He has trained in the Bujinkan for 10 years. In 2006, he earned his Warrior bracelet under benefactor Tim Pinnow. Mr. Estorga is also contracted with Warrior School to help teach Close Quarter Combat to military personel.

Bujinkan Yamaneko Dojo: Las Vegas Shibu is a satelite dojo under Jeffery Prather, Jugodan, dojocho, and his Bujinkan Yamanenko Dojo in Tucson, AZ. Mr. Estorga is a student of Prather Shihan's and teaches with license from Prather Shihan.

E-mail Mr. Estorga: dav.ten@gmail.com

Tim Pinnow is definitely one of Prather's super cult members.

Yet another victim of Prather's indoctrination. I am surprised that these people advertise their affiliation with Mr. Prather. Don't they have access to Google. Don't they know his reputation. I guess they just don't care. Well then, here it is for all the world to see. All in one spot.

http://www.tacticalselfdefense.com/Bujinkan/YorkDojo/instruct.htm

Assistant Instructor - Martin Hucik III, 3rd Dan

Marty has been training in several different martial arts for over ten years. His primary interest has been under the guidance of Greg Stough and the fellow members of the York Bujinkan Dojo. In addition to training regularly at the York Dojo, Marty has trained in Japan with Hatsumi Sensei and many other Japanese Shihan. To continue his training in the warrior arts he has attended many seminars conducted by top Bujinkan Instructors. These instructors include Phil Legare, Mark O'Brien, Ed Martin, Charles Daniel and Jeff Prather to name a few.

In addition to martial arts training Marty has attended a variety of wilderness survival workshops offered by Larry Neubaum and Greg Stough, and he also finished the student version of Warriorship School headed by Jeff Prather, under the tutelage of Phil Legare.

Marty has been a self-employed construction contractor for over 15 years. He is also a certified Shiatsu Therapist. In addition to his martial arts training Marty's hobbies include nature identification, hiking, fishing, just hanging out with friends, and enjoying life.

http://dojo.freeshell.org/bios3.html

About the Instructors

The instructors of the Bujinkan Taka-Seigi Dojo Vancouver hold black-belt ranks of sandan (3rd degree black belt) or higher in the art of Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu and teach according to the philosophies, techniques, and guidelines of Soke Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi, Shihan Phillip Legare, Shidoshi Scott White, and many of the senior Bujinkan Instructors of Japan. In addition to ranks in Budo Taijutsu, all of the instructors have several years of training in other martial arts styles such as kung-fu, karate, kick boxing, etc., which helps them to better bridge and accommodate the previous training of students coming from those styles.

About Paul Mann

Dojo leader Paul Mann , Shidoshi-ho under Shidoshi Scott White, is a registered member of the Bujinkan Shidoshikai (Bujinkan Instructor's Organization) and has been studying the art of Budo Taijutsu since 1997.

Over the past five years, he has made three trips to Japan to go to the "source of Budo". In Japan, he has had the privilege of training under Soke Hatsumi and senior Japanese Shihans such as Nagato, Noguchi, Oguri, Shiraishi, Nagase, and Someya. Each of these Shihan have focused their training on different aspects of Budo Taijutsu and they are all phenomenal!!

In addition to training in Japan, Paul has attended many seminars by respected Bujinkan instructructors such as Phil Legare, Michael Pearce, Jeff Prather, Brin Morgan, Natasha Morgan, Bill Atkins, Ed Martin, Dale Seago, Jeff Mueller, Shawn Gray, Ed Lomex, and Tim Bathurst.

PLEASE CHECK BACK AT A LATER DATE TO see PICTURES & ARTICLES from the various trips.

http://www.freewebs.com/birminghambujinkandojo/shihanjayzimmerman.htm

Jay currently holds the rank of Judan (10th dan) in Budo Taijutsu; with 20 years of Budo training and 9 of them spent studying Budo Taijutsu. Jay has, in the last nine years, attended 55 seminars and TaiKai here in the USA with the likes of Shihan Dick Severance, Shihan Phil Legare, Shihan Joseph Adriance, Shihan Jack Hoban, Shihan Mike Pearce, Shiahn Larry Hamilton, Shihan Ed Martin, Shihan Jeff Prather and more. Jay has made 5 trips to Japan since 2003 and has trained with Soke Hatsumi Sensei, Nagato Sensei, Noguchi Sensei, Seno Sensei, Oguri Sensei and Someya Sensei. Jay and his wife Beth (also Shidoshi) travel to Japan twice a year for training; trying to understand Hatsumi Sensei’s budo. Jay has preformed seminars for the Fort Wayne, Indiana Army National Guard, Bluffton, Indiana Army Air Cavalry National Guard, performs seminars in the United States and host seminars for many high-ranking Shihan. Jay is head teacher at Bujinkan Goshin Budo Dojo in Garrett, Indiana (www.bushindojo.com). Jay is currently employed as an Industrial Maintenance Technician, owner of Midwest Blanks LLC (www.midwestblanks.com), and involved in real estate. Jay is involved with physical fitness via Crossfit (thanks Mike P.) and an avid handgun (trying long-gun) shooter, as well as a drummer.

http://www.bushindojo.com

http://dana.ucc.nau.edu/~jmh253/Who%20I%20am.htm

WHO I AM
(A Profile of John-Paul Michael Hodnett)

I've studied Budo Taijitsu, "the divine body arts", for about six years now. The pictures above are from the Bujinkan group I belonged to in Tucson Arizona (I'm third from the right in the back row) which happen to have me in them. This style has taught me much on how to be a better man, a warrior in modern times, and to have a broader awareness of my surroundings (which includes reading people and to walk softly with open eyes). This style, most commonly referred to Ninjitsu, is one of the most extreme fighting styles taught to today. My sensei, Shihan Jeff Prather (above picture: taking on his students. I'm the one facing right in front of him) has been one of my greatest teachers and his influence still is with me today. His discipline and experience harden both mind and body to take on any event in life. The biggest lesson I learned is that there are few true warriors in the world who help the common man. I try to live by the warrior code and help those in need.

More mentions of people training with Prather

http://www.livingvalues.com/archives.html

Jeff Prather Shinkengata
http://www.defend.net/deluxeforums/seminars-events/20400-shinkengata-summit-june-2006-a.html

Default Shinkengata Summit June 2006
The First Annual Shinkengata Summit

Shinkengata (real combat methods) was originally developed by Takamatsu Soke and then refined by Hatsumi Soke. Through Menkyo Kaiden, a Judan in Shinkengata was given to Phil Legare, Jeff Prather, and Michael Pearce for the purpose of further development into Shinken Taijutsu to be a relevant art in the 21st century. Shinken Taijutsu was formed from the Shinken of Shinkengata, the Taijutsu of the Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu and the modern application of many combat methods.

In the spirit of the Bujinkan honoring the tradition established by Dr. Massaki Hatsumi Soke

Featuring Shihans: Jeff Prather, Phil Legare & Michael Pearce
with special guest: Shihan Dick Severance

Saturday, June 24, 2006 & Sunday, June 25, 2006

Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs - Phoenix Arizona
602-866-7500 for lodging and reservations

Registration: 8:00 AM
Training times: 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM & 1:30pm - 4:00pm
Price: $125 - students of featured/guest Shihans (for those registered and PAID by June 10th, 2006)
$150 - all others and at the door
$80 - one day only

For more information, see http://www.bujinkanusa.com/seminars.htm

Jeff Prather Cult Leader Info Compiled By Another Web Page

2009-08-18T23:10:00.000-07:00

Here is a clever web site that keeps track of peoples names. It did a really good job of compiling negative data on Jeff Prather.

http://www.isthisyour.name/jeff_prather.htm

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Warriorschool - Cult Deception of Jeff Prather: Names associated ...
By: somebody121 on Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:12:00 GMT
Names associated with Jeff Prather and Darin Ashley. Here are three comment responses to an older post. Not sure if it has been prominently displayed before. Can't hurt to do it again. Blogger Kamereon said. ... ->

Warriorschool - Cult Deception of Jeff Prather: Negative Reports ...
By: somebody121 on Wed, 22 Jul 2009 07:21:00 GMT
Warriorschool - Cult Deception of Jeff Prather. Warriorschool Initiation Camp Warrior School Cult Analysis Recovery and Skepticism with Compassion. Wednesday, July 22, 2009. Negative Reports On Warriorschool Cult and Prather ... ->

Warriorschool - Cult Deception of Jeff Prather: Mike gives more ...
By: somebody121 on Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:18:00 GMT
Warriorschool - Cult Deception of Jeff Prather. Warriorschool Initiation Camp Warrior School Cult Analysis Recovery and Skepticism with Compassion. Monday, July 27, 2009. Mike gives more information on Warriorschool Prather Jeff and ... ->

BULLSHIT Detection Kit for Warriorschoolers
By: somebody121 on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 04:58:00 GMT
Here is something I learned about from Shermer's Skeptic Society. Sometimes called the Baloney Detection Kit, here it is the Bullshit detection kit. Read, learn and apply to liberate yourself from Jeff Prathers' Warrior Cult. ... ->

Dr Persinger and the God Helmet and God
By: somebody121 on Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:50:00 GMT
That is a video of a church service. You can see mob think and mass hysteria at work here. If you get the right leadership, the right followers and the right experiences you can give people outrageous feelings. ... ->

Science and Reason
By: somebody121 on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 05:20:00 GMT
If you want to improve the world and improve yourself then keep these quotes in mind. Russell’s Rule Try to convince people not to believe in things for which there is no evidence. Or It’s better not to believe in things for which there ... ->

Melvin Conner Review of Beyond Belief Lecture
By: somebody121 on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 05:09:00 GMT
I highly recommend you watch the video. The link is here. But for those of you who want to copy and paste the best points, look no further. Read, watch and weep at the brilliant analysis of God belief. Jf Prathr if only we had all known ... ->

Warriorschool - Cult Deception of Jeff Prather: Darin Ashley and ...
By: somebody121 on Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:49:00 GMT
If Jeff Prather is removing his bad name from Warriorschool, then Darin Ashley must be the next guy in line to expose. Here is a quick biography of him. Instructor Darin Ashley graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, ... ->

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Around the Web

Results are courtesy of Yahoo!

Jeff Prather
Stunts: Seven Mummies. Visit IMDb for Photos, Filmography, Discussions, Bio, News, Awards, Agent, Fan Sites. ... Jeff Prather has 1 in-development credit available on IMDbPro.com. To view these credits click here. Stunts: Seven Mummies (2006) (stunt coordinator: fights) (stunts) ...
At: www.imdb.com/name/nm0695365 -- last found on 2008/08/31 ->

Staff Bio Bo
Jeff Prather. With decades of experience in the food and wine business, Jeff Prather shares his wealth of knowledge through engaging, and often amusing, wine ... Having been an actor in his earlier years, Jeff is a natural as one of our entertaining tasting class instructors. ...
At: www.fpwm.com/about_us/jeff.html -- last found on 2009/02/24 ->

Elevation of Wine - Program
HOME FORUM PRESS / ARTICLES TRANSCRIPTS PHOTO GALLERY RESEARCH SPONSORS MAP / LODGING REGISTRATION PROGRAM. Jeff Prather. Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant. With decades of experience in the food and wine business, Jeff Prather shares his wealth of knowledge through engaging, and often amusing, wine ...
At: www.theelevationofwine.org/program/jeff_prather.shtml -- last found on 2009/06/12 ->

Jeff Prather: All About Jeff Prather - Moviefone
Jeff Prather - Associate Producer ... Enemies. Shrink. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The Ugly Truth. Up. Jeff Prather ... See All Jeff Prather Filmography. Netflix FREE Trial. Rent as many movies as you want! Start Your FREE Netflix Trial Today. New on Moviefone. Horror Squad ...
At: www.moviefone.com/celebrity/jeff-prather/453312/main -- last found on 2009/08/02 ->

Jeff Prather Filmography - Yahoo! Movies
Jeff Prather : find the latest news, photos, filmography and awards at Yahoo! Movies ... Jeff Prather. Main Page. Biography. Filmography. Photos. Awards & Nominations. Msg Boards & Groups. Web Sites. Often Works With... DJ Perry. Garret Dillahunt ...
At: movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1808905228 -- last found on 2009/08/13 ->

Science and Reason

2009-08-06T22:20:00.001-07:00

If you want to improve the world and improve yourself then keep these quotes in mind.

Russell’s Rule
Try to convince people not to believe in things for which there is no evidence.
Or
It’s better not to believe in things for which there is no evidence.
-Bertrand Russell

Bertolt Brecht
The aim of science is not to open the door to infinite wisdom, but to set some limit on infinite error
The Life of Gallilleo

Religion is humanities best effort to ease the fears and yearnings that remain after science has done all that it can do.
-Melvin Conner

Melvin Conner Review of Beyond Belief Lecture

2009-08-06T22:09:00.001-07:00

I highly recommend you watch the video. The link is here. But for those of you who want to copy and paste the best points, look no further. Read, watch and weep at the brilliant analysis of God belief. Jf Prathr if only we had all known this before we met you. We wouldn't have been such easy victims.

Melvin Conner Beyond Belief 2007
Arguments Against Belief
Thoughts on the God Belief / Lack of Belief

There is almost no evidence to support religious claims, and all testable claims fail.

Science has closed the “gaps”.

What is called the soul is just brain activity.

Religion has evolved just like any other trait.

Religion causes violence, hatred and war.

Religion is “the opium of the people”

God is the product of human yearnings for

A perfect parent

Reward and punishment

Companionship

Meaning

Life after death

And of the human penchants for agency-detection and imagining other minds.

Religion more generally is the product of human yearnings for

Identity

Belonging

A sense of superiority

Blameworthy enemies

Narrative

All sacred texts are characterized by…

Errors and lies

Internal contradictions

Mutual contradictions

“Supernatural” (i.e. highly implausible) origins

Silly or cruel behavior of gods and religious heroes

None of these objections in the slightest way are new

All have been heard or independently thought of by most intelligent people.

None has posed or is likely to pose a serious obstacle to belief in the minds of the vast majority of believers

Once upon a time there were major religious leaders who thought they could explain how the physical world works, they also cared a lot about proofs of God’s existence.

Thanks to Galileo, Newton et al. these people have been in retreat for four centuries.

But most religious people don’t care about proofs…

It is not news to them that religion has caused great harm.

Or that their sacred texts are flawed.

Or that science explains most things.

They have been meeting those objections with aplomb for centuries.

Most don’t care, they will proudly tell you about argument. They don’t care about evidence. They don’t even care that they can’t clearly define “God.”

Most think that all these conversations are silly.

So what do they care about?

Faith

The assurance of things hoped for the assurance of things not seen

Hebrews 11 1

Some aggressive critics of Religion say:

Religious faith forms a kind of perverse cultural singularity a vanishing point beyond which rational discourse proves impossible.
-Sam Harris (author of the controversial book The End of Faith)

Dr. Conner thinks it is futile to tell people not to believe in God and says if you don't understand that fact then....
If you don’t understand it then try this

When you present arguments against religion to a person of faith, you might as well tell her to care as much about other people’s children as about her own…

Or urge her to stop her ears, give up music, and learn sign language…

Or harangue an oenophile about the dangers of alcohol and try to enlist his support for a return to Prohibition.

BULLSHIT Detection Kit for Warriorschoolers

2009-08-06T21:58:00.000-07:00

Here is something I learned about from Shermer's Skeptic Society. Sometimes called the Baloney Detection Kit, here it is the Bullshit detection kit. Read, learn and apply to liberate yourself from Jeff Prathers' Warrior Cult.

How does science deal with such subjective biases? How do we
know when a claim is bogus or real? We want to be open-minded
enough to accept radical new ideas when they occasionally come
along, but we don’t want to be so open-minded that our brains
fall out. This problem led us at the Skeptics Society to create an
educational tool called the BULLSHIT Detection Kit, inspired by
Carl Sagan’s discussion of how to detect “BULLSHIT” in his marvelous
book The Demon-Haunted World. In this BULLSHIT Detection
Kit, we suggest ten questions to ask when encountering any
claim that can help us decide if we are being too open-minded in
accepting it or too closed-minded in rejecting it.

1. How reliable is the source of the claim? As Daniel Kevles
showed so effectively in his 1999 book The Baltimore Affair
investigating possible scientific fraud there is a boundary problem
in detecting a fraudulent signal within the background noise
of mistakes and sloppiness that is a normal part of the scientific
process. The investigation of research notes in a laboratory affiliated
with Nobel laureate David Baltimore by an independent
committee established by Congress to investigate potential fraud
revealed a surprising number of mistakes. But science is messier
than most people realize. Baltimore was exonerated when it
became clear that there was no purposeful data manipulation.

2. Does this source often make similar claims? Pseudoscientists
have a habit of going well beyond the facts, so when individuals
make numerous extraordinary claims, they may be more than
just iconoclasts. This is a matter of quantitative scaling, since
some great thinkers often go beyond the data in their creative
speculations. Cornell’s Thomas Gold is notorious for his radical
ideas, but he has been right often enough that other scientists
listen to what he has to say. Gold proposes, for example, that oil
is not a fossil fuel at all, but the by-product of a deep hot biosphere.
Hardly any earth scientists I have spoken with take this
thesis seriously, yet they do not consider Gold a crank. What we
are looking for here is a pattern of fringe thinking that consistently
ignores or distorts data.

3. Have the claims been verified by another source? Typically
pseudoscientists will make statements that are unverified, or
verified by a source within their own belief circle. We must ask
who is checking the claims, and even who is checking the checkers.
The biggest problem with the cold fusion debacle, for example,
was not that scientists Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischman
were wrong; it was that they announced their spectacular discovery
before it was verified by other laboratories (at a press
conference no less), and, worse, when cold fusion was not replicated,
they continued to cling to their claim.

4. How does the claim fit with what we know about how the
world works? An extraordinary claim must be placed into a
larger context to see how it fits. When people claim that the
pyramids and the Sphinx were built more than ten thousand
years ago by an advanced race of humans, they are not presenting
any context for that earlier civilization. Where are the rest of
the artifacts of those people? Where are their works of art, their
weapons, their clothing, their tools, their trash? This is simply
not how archaeology works.

5. Has anyone gone out of the way to disprove the claim, or has
only confirmatory evidence been sought? This is the confirmation
bias, or the tendency to seek confirmatory evidence and
reject or ignore disconfirmatory evidence. The confirmation bias
is powerful and pervasive and is almost impossible for any of us
to avoid. It is why the methods of science that emphasize checking
and rechecking, verification and replication, and especially
attempts to falsify a claim are so critical.

6. Does the preponderance of evidence converge to the
claimant’s conclusion, or a different one? The theory of evolution,
for example, is proven through a convergence of evidence
from a number of independent lines of inquiry. No one fossil, no
one piece of biological or paleontological evidence has “evolution”
written on it; instead there is a convergence of evidence
from tens of thousands of evidentiary bits that adds up to a
story of the evolution of life. Creationists conveniently ignore
this convergence, focusing instead on trivial anomalies or currently
unexplained phenomena in the history of life.

7. Is the claimant employing the accepted rules of reason and
tools of research, or have these been abandoned in favor of
others that lead to the desired conclusion? UFOlogists suffer
this fallacy in their continued focus on a handful of unexplained
atmospheric anomalies and visual misperceptions by eyewitnesses,
while conveniently ignoring the fact that the vast majority
(90 to 95 percent) of UFO sightings are fully explicable with
prosaic answers.

8. Has the claimant provided a different explanation for the
observed phenomena, or is it strictly a process of denying the
existing explanation? This is a classic debate strategy—criticize
your opponent and never affirm what you believe in order to
avoid criticism. But this stratagem is unacceptable in science. Big
Bang skeptics, for example, ignore the convergence of evidence of
this cosmological model, focus on the few flaws in the accepted
model, and have yet to offer a viable cosmological alternative that
carries a preponderance of evidence in favor of it.

9. If the claimant has proffered a new explanation, does it
account for as many phenomena as the old explanation? The
HIV-AIDS skeptics argue that lifestyle, not HIV, causes AIDS.
Yet, to make this argument they must ignore the convergence of
evidence in support of HIV as the causal vector in AIDS, and
simultaneously ignore such blatant evidence as the significant
correlation between the rise in AIDS among hemophiliacs
shortly after HIV was inadvertently introduced into the blood
supply. On top of this, their alternative theory does not explain
nearly as much of the data as the HIV theory.

10. Do the claimants’ personal beliefs and biases drive the conclusions,
or vice versa? All scientists hold social, political, and
ideological beliefs that could potentially slant their interpretations
of the data, but how do those biases and beliefs affect their
research? At some point, usually during the peer-review system,
such biases and beliefs are rooted out, or the paper or book is
rejected for publication. This is why one should not work in an
intellectual vacuum. If you don’t catch the biases in your
research, someone else will.
There is no definitive set of criteria we can apply in determining
how open-minded we should be when encountering new
claims and ideas, but with mathematical calculations on the
odds of weird things happening and with an analysis of the sorts
of questions we should ask when we encounter weird things, we
have made a start toward coming to grips with our weird and wonderful world.

God on the Brain Documentary BBC

2009-07-27T13:03:00.000-07:00

Another great BBC Documentary. Called "God on the Brain". They interview Dr. Ramachandran and the before mentioned Dr. Persinger and also Dr. Dawkins about the God experience in the Brain.

There is controversy regarding the research of Dr. Persinger.

Mike gives more information on Warriorschool Prather Jeff and Darin Ashley

2009-07-27T08:18:00.000-07:00

Yet more comments from posters. More prominently displayed.

"The Hidden Mountain Bujinkan Dojo"
1 Comment - Show Original Post

Blogger Mike said...

Go to Google and type in warriorschool manual torrent. The manual is out there. Download it and look at page 32 and 33. List of bracelets. Compare the list of bracelets to staff members (http://www.budosites.com/hmbd/index.cfm?page=4)

Check out these web sites:
http://reenchantplanetearth.com/pipermail/talkingstick/2009q1/000216.html
http://www.reenchantplanetearth.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=72
http://www.serveprotectheal.com/
http://www.reenchantplanetearth.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=76

March 15, 2009 8:02 PM

Names associated with Jeff Prather and Darin Ashley

2009-07-27T08:12:00.001-07:00

Here are three comment responses to an older post. Not sure if it has been prominently displayed before. Can't hurt to do it again.

Blogger Kamereon said...

You should also add the tags:

Attention to the Crisis (Prather's bogus charity)

Women's Fightback (Prather's intro to drinking kool-aid)

Passages (Karl Koch's offshoot branch of Prather's cult (see: http://www.budosites.com/hmbd/index.cfm?page=15))

You might also consider adding tags for his chief worshippers as well:

Amber Meesenburg
Jocelyn Meesenburg
Darrin Ashley
Christa Ashley
Amber Pinnow
Tim Pinnow
Rachel Prather (formerly Rachel Breton)
Louis Breton

Of course there are many others, but the above list are still active and have caused the most damage.

February 27, 2009 3:00 PM
Delete
Blogger somebody121 said...

Thanks Kamereon,

I will post up your information right now.

March 11, 2009 9:46 PM
Delete
Blogger Spuds said...

He used to use an alias of Jay Frazier or Frasier.

May 20, 2009 9:04 PM
Delete

Dr Persinger and the God Helmet and God

2009-07-27T07:50:00.000-07:00

That is a video of a church service. You can see mob think and mass hysteria at work here. If you get the right leadership, the right followers and the right experiences you can give people outrageous feelings.

I had already posted other videos that mentioned Dr. Persinger. Here is another quick and short video. Also at the bottom there will be small wiki article on him. He is the creator of the "God Helmet". There appears to be a slight controversy concerning his device and his research. But if you notice, the things he talks about and describes are very similar the other activities that bring about the same effects. Extreme stress, astronaut training, sleep deprivation, food deprivation, isolation chambers and all can bring about these mystical / alien experiences. In Dr. Persingers case he is proposing that electromagnetic fields can powerfully influence the most creative and suggestable people. Especially those with a tendency towards wishful thinking.

Early life

Persinger was born in Jacksonville, Florida and grew up primarily in Virginia, Maryland and Wisconsin. He attended Carroll College from 1963 to 1964, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1967. He then obtained an M.A. in physiological psychology from the University of Tennessee and a Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba in 1971.

[edit] Research and academic work

Persinger focuses much of his work on the commonalities that exist between the sciences, and aims to integrate fundamental concepts of various branches of science[citation needed]. He organized the Behavioral Neuroscience Program at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, which became one of the first to integrate chemistry, biology and psychology[citation needed].

During the 1980s Persinger stimulated people's temporal lobes artificially with a weak magnetic field to see if he could induce a religious state (see God helmet). He claimed that the field could produce the sensation of "an ethereal presence in the room".

Susan Blackmore, a former academic psychologist and parapsychology researcher: "When I went to Persinger's lab and underwent his procedures I had the most extraordinary experiences I've ever had." "I'll be surprised if it turns out to be a placebo effect." [1]

Michael Persinger has also contributed to research into the Miracle of the sun at Fatima and other Marian apparitions. He theorized that the stimulation of the cerebral-temporal lobe may have been the actual cause of the Marian apparition phenomenon. He believes the religious content of the experiences many have been a result of their obsession with religious themes and their lack of education. He has contributed to 2 papers about The Fatima UFO Hypothesis. [2]

The last video is probably the best of all. It offers testimonies of the test subjects.

Negative Reports On Warriorschool Cult and Prather

2009-07-22T00:21:00.000-07:00

Older Posts from February 2009

Not sure if I posted these before, but I reread them and they sounded interesting.

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=33265747&postID=6182672412436022587

I can see that, espically in this Warriorschool case. I also think that there is something going on in our (western/American) society where males feel as if their "normal lives" are not enough. I refrence an article on my blog about the "Suburban Warrior Syndrome":

http://tgace.wordpress.com/2008/10/26/suburban-warrior-syndrome/

The author there states:

"A friend of mine is dissatisfied with the modern world–its strip malls and ATM machines, its speed limits and mediated experiences. “I would rather try my luck at a horde of orcs with a broad sword,” he says, “than pay the Visa bill and look for parking.”"

Which I think illustrates part of the reason behind this phenomena. People (mostly males) long to be seen as brave, powerful, respected..and they dont seem to be finding it in their daily lives. People like this Prather character seem to be tapping into this.

Ive read your posts about the whole "lack of western rites of passage", and I agree with you. There are obvious rites of passage in our society but for some reason they do not seem to be enough for some.

26 October, 2008 20:03
Blogger JL said...

Hello everyone,

This is all fascinating to me. I trained in Tucson with Jeff, Todd, PJ, all the bracelets. I apprenticed and went through 2 initiations (one as "initiate" and one as "apprentice"). I went all the way thru Questing before that "uneasy feeling" I'd had since joining finally brought me to my senses. After Prather claimed he was "born, died, and resurrected," I came to my senses and got the hell out of there. This is the first I've heard of all these allegations and accusations albeit I have no doubt of there validity. I saw and heard many very questionable things during my time in WS. I spent many nights at the Prather home in Sonoita "training."

I started training in WS because I thought it would be a great melting-pot of disciplines: Native American, Christian, Japanese, etc. After some time as an apprentice, I was asked to help with "ceremonies" (aka exorcisms). Whenever I asked a question or somehow tried to bring up concerns that I didn't completely buy into the whole thing, I was reprimanded. I left with only a letter to my benefactor explaining my concerns. Since then I was deployed to Iraq with the army and now live and work near Phoenix for Homeland Security.

I hate to think of the people that have been hurt and continue to be hurt. I'm glad I got out when I did...

02 February, 2009 10:10
Blogger jarad said...

JL:

Thank you for writing. It is a relief to read your post. Very few people who get that far along...well, most of them are completely brainwashed.

It's nice to see that there are people who can still keep their wits about them. Glad you got out.

I would still love to speak with you if you get the time. You can find me over at www.myspace.com/warriorschool

02 February, 2009 13:51
Blogger Mike S. said...

Warriorschool is now called Passages. Only difference is that the name has changed and Karl Koch is the leader now. (URL http://www.budosites.com/hmbd/index.cfm?page=15 ). They practice all the same stuff that Warriorschool was doing; using the same Warriorschool manual. They practice the use of putting people in fear of something to control them. Then they use group to lie about and undermine people that do not believe in or practice the Passages program. People that practice Passages program, must be in the Bujinkan under a instructor that in Passages program. Jeff Skillman has been teaching and recruiting at various Bujinkan seminars for the Passages program. Jeff Skillman is one of higher ups in the organization. At dojos that run Passages, they rank people in Passages program real fast to increase there ego. Even if there very bad at doing the Bujinkan training.

13 February, 2009 21:04

Why people believe in Religions

2009-07-22T00:04:00.000-07:00

I will do an analysis of this movie as I get a chance. This man talks about all the reasons people follow religion or say they believe in God. What issues do people have with Religion and God, but do not affect them? Why do they not care?

Beyond Belief '06 - Melvin Konner (Part 3 of 4)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T8e465xzuA

This is 3/4 of the video. Feel free to watch all of them. I highly recommend you read all of his slides. They are very informative as to the nature of Religion. Once I saw it all laid out like this, I thought to myself: "I am reasonable, mature and intelligent. I don't need all this BS about God and Religion. I'm just going to give it up." Might help some of you.

Creepy Pictures of Prather Cult Disciples and Future Dojo Victims

2009-07-16T05:58:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from one of Prathers Dojos Bujinkan parties. Don't these people have access to Google? You'd think these people would do a quick search and realize that the people they are involved with are shady and troubled. Good luck people.

Darin Ashley and the Bujinkan Yamaneko Dojo Cult Leader Enabler - Prather Lite

2009-07-16T05:49:00.000-07:00

Darin Ashley
The Cult Leader Enabler

If Jeff Prather is removing his bad name from Warriorschool, then Darin Ashley must be the next guy in line to expose. Here is a quick biography of him.

Instructor
Darin Ashley graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD and received an M.S. from the University of Arizona in Tucson. He served in the active duty Marine Corps for five years and is a veteran of Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He also served in the Marine Corps Reserves where he was the commanding officer of a Reconnaissance unit. In the Marines he received certifications for dive, parachute, mountain leader, and combat swimmer. He is currently the Chief Operations Officer for Warriorschool in Tucson, AZ where he teaches tactical shooting, driving and fighting skills under contract to government and corporate personnel, as well as to private citizens. He began training in the Bujinkan in 1992 under Jeffrey Prather. He is currently a Yondan and teaches both adult and kids classes. He resides in Marana with his wife Christa.

Here are more people who are associated with Prather through the dojo:

Instructor
Amber Meesenburg is a Nidan (second degree black belt) and has been training under Shihan Jeffery Prather since 2004. Amber currently serves as the Shibu Liaison coordinating training opportunities between shibus (branches of the main dojo) around the country, and issuing the dojo newsletter. She is also an Assistant Instructor for both women's FightBack and children's Safe Kids courses through Warriorschool. She graduated with a B.A. in Art History in 2002 from New Mexico State University. She has a fourteen year background working with children and families in recreational and educational programs in the southwest. She is an artist, teacher, daughter, sister, and friend. Amber believes in "finding what is of real value to humanity and putting yourself in service to it", and it is that philosophy that leads her to dedicate so much of her time and attention to this dojo.

imgInstructor
James Webb first found out about the Bujinkan while attending the University of Arizona in 2003. Having been interested in Martial Arts for some time, but not wanting to learn a tournament or sport driven art the Bujinkan was a perfect fit due to its emphasis on natural, relaxed movement. James is a Nidan and received his black belt in January of 2008. In his spare time he enjoys, reading, painting, drawing, snowboarding, travel, studying Japanese and playing video games.

imgGuest Instructor
Mitch Hayes is the former Sempai of the dojo and started training in the Bujinkan in June of 1997. Mitch received his 1st dan (first degree blackbelt) in November of 1998. Since then he has achieved 4th dan and has been instructing for over 10 years. He has also taught courses for the military CQC (Close Quarter Combat) and Fightback (women's self-defense), both of which were developed by Shihan Jeffrey Prather from this art. In August of 2008 Mitch moved from Tucson and stepped down from being Sempei, he travels to Tucson and teaches as often as time permits. Mitch dedicates much of his time to the dojo because he loves the art and loves teaching. He also enjoys spending time with his wife and learning to play guitar.

Coming soonKids Instructor
Mike Delich is a Shodan and has been training in the Bujinkan for more than six years and is currently teaching the weekday kids classes. He enjoys working with young people and has extensive experience in coaching a number of sports, including at the junior Olympic level. Mike has three daughters, two of which graduated from the U of A. His hobbies include sailing, surfing, and Guitar.

And then of course, how could we forget these folks?

Who are the Founders

imgBujinkan Founder
Grandmaster Hatsumi is the founder and International Director of the Bujinkan Dojo with it's Hombu Dojo residing in Noda City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, in an office attached to his home. Dr. Hatsumi is the inheritor of the three Ninjutsu and six Samurai traditions from the late Toshitsugu Takamatsu Soke in the early 1970's, just before Soke Takamatsu's passing in 1972. Hatsumi is an accomplished painter who's art has been presented to various leaders throughout the world. Hatsumi also has received Honorary Doctorates from the USA Human Sciences and Philosophy, Honorary Texas Ranger, Title of Knighthood from Germany, and Blackbelt magazine's Instructor of the Year, and the list continues. For more information on Hatsumi Soke's Dojo located in Japan, please visit his website at www.bujinkan.com.

imgYamaneko Dojo Founder
Jeffrey Prather has trained for over 35 years in Japanese martial arts and is one of a very few 15th-degree blackbelt Shihan (master or gentleman instructor) in the world. He is licensed by Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi, Bujinkan Soke, the grandmaster of Budo Taijutsu. The Yamaneko Dojo is an official branch of Hatsumi Soke's dojo. Shihan Prather is a double recipient of Hatsumi Soke's Gold Medal. The first was awarded for his development of the Close Quarter Combat course for the U.S. Marine Corps. and the Army Special Operations Forces, the second for hosting the 1995 Tai Kai, which he had the honor of hosting a second time in 99'. Shihan Prather also has a 10th degree blackbelt in Shinkengata (real life combat). He has written for publications such as Black Belt magazine and has taught the police and military all over the world. Documentation and references available.

Who are the Instructors

imgHead Instructor
David Petersmarck was introduced to the Bujinkan and Budo Taijutsu while living in Germany in 1988. After leaving Germany in 1991, he found it difficult to find a school teaching authentic Budo Taijutsu and continued to train in a variety of martial arts until arriving at the Yamaneko Dojo in 2004. David is currently a Yondan and in 2008 he stepped into the role of Sempai for the dojo. He has also taught courses in Special Weapons and Tactics, Law Enforcement Defensive Tactics, and Hand-to-Hand Combat, as-well-as the military CQC (Close Quarter Combat) Course, which was developed by Shihan Prather. David is an accomplished musician and enjoys playing guitar. Click here to email Dave Sempai.

Warriorschool Contact Info

2009-07-16T05:35:00.000-07:00

How do you like that retarded image of the Warriorschool training manual for Airline De-fence? Sweet.

https://www.fbo.gov/index?tab=ivl&s=opportunity&mode=form&id=76618ed7951d39e82d8eb437f2a35878&tabmode=list&cck=1&au=&ck=&_so_list_sort9a15dfc9a75119393533747dabcfae37=fname%3Aasc

Amazing what is disclosed on the internet.
I like how it says Woman-Owned Business
Maybe it is true that Prathers new wife owns the business. Clever. I wouldn't be surprised if their are benefits to this as well.

Ashley Darin WARRIORSCHOOL, LLC
8987 E TANQUE VERDE RD #309-245
TUCSON AZ 857499610 USA
Email: darin.ashley@warriorschool.com
Phone: 5208184510 Contracts, For-Profit Organization, Limited Liability Company, Service Provider, Woman-Owned Business 928110, 922120, 611430, 611519, 611699

Courses Registered

U--Weapons Handling Training
Solicitation Number: M0026409T0152
Agency: Department of the Navy
Office: United States Marine Corps
Location: Marine Corps RCO - Northeast Region/Quantico/National Capital Region

U--Defensive Driving Course
Solicitation Number: M0026409T0149
Agency: Department of the Navy
Office: United States Marine Corps
Location: Marine Corps RCO - Northeast Region/Quantico/National Capital Region

Leadership Structure of Prathers Warriorschool Cult

2009-07-16T05:16:00.000-07:00

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=381059536&blogId=442366336

Here is an article written by Jarad that I didn't recognize. Nicely put.

Monday, October 20, 2008

What Does It Take?
Current mood: awake
Category: News and Politics
I am agitated. Recently I have learned that an acquaintance of mine is still involved with WarriorCult (Warriorschool). This is the same guy that asked me if Prather had done anything harmful to his daughter (meaning: is Jeffrey Prather a pedophile). So, a year ago he is asking me if he needs to take action against Prather for harm against his daughter and now he is cool with training with Prather and co. Freakin' sick! To me this is a lot like saying "you know Hitler - crazy guy, he just isn't for me, but those Nazis...wow, what a gang!". Sounds nuts, but take a look. Yes, there was a mass exodus, but Prather still has a number of mindless followers. These automatons are roaming various campuses seeking new recruits. I can't stress enough how important it is to encourage Prather's worshipers to divest themselves of this lunacy. Recently I met with a former insider and heard of horrors that I hoped weren't true. I will expound on this later, but suffice to say Jeff is the homophobe racist and possible pedophile that I thought he was. We all should be looking at everyone involved in this. Anyone who is supporting Prather needs a serious evaluation. Prather has had rape charges filed against him. Prather has purposefully given third degree burns to one of his students. Really, we should consider anyone who helps somebody like Prather as aiding and abetting. Think about it, if you have heard that Prather had possibly raped a young girl and you go to a school and recruit a new young girl - what does that make you?! I have noticed that Prather has become aware that his name is a deficit. Darrin Ashley is in charge of all the military-wanabee aspect of WarriorCult and his borrowed wife (Rachel Breton-Prather) is in charge of the rest. All the leftovers have been relegated to the Meesenburgs (Amber and Jocelyn). I am kind of getting of on a tangent here. What I want to say is that any affiliation with Warriorschool (warriorcult) is detrimental to society at large. If you are training with Dominic Lees, Jeffrey Prather, Jocelyn Meesenburg, Amber Meesenburg, Christa Ashley, or Darrin Ashley - then your are headed down a very wrong road. My personal opinion is that you are evil. Please Take Care and contact me if you need help. God bless, Jarad (aka Kamereon)
9:58 AM

Quick review:

Nice exposition of who is in charge of what. As to Prather being a homophobe, I would say that sounds very unlikely. There were many homosexuals that were part of Warriorschool. Some of Prathers top people were gay. So I don't see how that could be true. I also clearly remember Prather talking about gay people, how he had seen their souls and there is no difference or damage between them and non-gay people.

Jarad Talks about Warriorschool on CNN Blog

2009-07-16T04:52:00.000-07:00

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2008/11/13/what-i%E2%80%99ve-always-remembered-the-children-were-killed-first/

Above is the link of an article written by James Polk CNN Senior Producer about cults. I have also pasted the actual article at the very bottom of the page.

One of our anti-Warriorschool activists, Jarad, makes a great post on this CNN blog. Nice promotion. I am surprised it is so hard to find with Google. Well no longer will that be the case. Your post will be presented here front and center. It can be read below.

Jarad November 13th, 2008 6:47 pm ET

A couple of years ago my wife left me for a cult – Warriorschool. It was quite traumatic on me when that happened…and even with that experience in my background, I can’t imagine what it must have been like to live through Jonestown. Every time I read about cults injurying people, it just tears me up. Koresh, Bent, Alamo, Prather – seems like there is no end to Christ wannabees exerting their influence over others.

November 13, 2008
What I’ve always remembered: the children were killed first
Posted: 03:52 PM ET

James Polk
CNN Senior Producer

Thirty years ago, I walked out on the doorstep to pick up the Sunday paper and learned NBC reporter Don Harris, a colleague and friend, had been shot to death on a Guyana air strip.

Like much of the rest of the world, that was the first I’d heard of Jonestown. As an NBC correspondent in those years, I flew to San Francisco to help dig into the background of the Peoples Temple. Soon I became aware it was the children who had been the first to die in Jonestown, and I profiled the unhappy past of one teenager who had been taken there as a welfare ward.

That’s what I’ve always remembered to this day: the children were killed first. To me, it is that unforgivable act which defines the tragedy that was Jonestown.

I’m now a senior documentary producer for CNN, and when I finished a two-hour project in April, “Eyewitness to Murder,” on the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., my boss came up to me and said this will be the 30th anniversary of the Jonestown suicides.

Frankly, I did not want to do the story. It always has been a very ugly event in anybody’s history. PBS’ Stanley Nelson did a great documentary only a couple years ago, and there was no reason to try to repeat his fine work.

But I flew out to San Diego to meet with the two dedicated individuals who run The Jonestown Institute out of their own house as the repository of all the worthwhile research, maintained quite objectively.

I was aware there were survivors of the airport ambush and I thought CNN might be able to tell a different story – one of human survival in the most trying of circumstances — by focusing on those who did manage to live.

By then, I had done enough reading that I also knew of the group who walked away separately that morning. With the Jonestown Institute’s help, I began looking for Leslie Wilson, then 21, who had carried her 3-year-old son to safety in a sheet on her back.

It took another month to find Leslie, not in California where I had been looking, but rather, living in the same suburban Atlanta county as I do, only a few miles away. Her story is remarkable. What’s more, she and my wife have become quite good friends.

The Parks family was the first family to ask to leave Jonestown with Congressman Leo Ryan the day he was murdered on the nearby air strip, and the only church member killed there was Patricia Parks, the mother in the family. I wanted to reach out to them. I kept finding wrong addresses. Finally, the right one popped up for the 12-year-old daughter who was the youngest survivor of that ambush. I wrote her – I don’t like to make cold phone calls, they come as a surprise and there’s no way to make it a personal conversation – and so I send letters first to explain what we’re trying to do.

Tracy Parks phoned me the very next morning, and said she had been praying for someone to take her back to Guyana to say goodbye, after 30 years, to her mother.

CNN’s Soledad O’Brien stood with Tracy at the side of that air strip as she left flowers, a cross and candles as a memorial to the mother whose funeral she had been unable to attend.

The moving moment for me, however, was seeing a network anchor down on her knees in the dirt, digging with her hands, to help Tracy bury a small memorial stone on the site.

Those are the glimpses one rarely gets into the true humanity of the people in television who work to bring stories like these to the public at large, and I do hope this humanity and concern does come through in our documentary, “Escape from Jonestown.”

Want to be “Warriors” for the power, fear and respect that they believe comes with it

2009-07-15T13:48:00.000-07:00

Here is an article that references our web sites. I got this picture from his page.

The guy makes a good point, that Prather very well could have lied about being in combat. I know that Prather supposedly was Shinkengata Certified by Hatsumi. Whatever the spelling is. It means that he has had real life combat experience. I don't know how he supposedly proved that to Hatsumi, but there were very few people in the Bujinkan that even advertised such a designation. Any one have any ideas how Prather proved this? Is it legit? I always figured it was.

Anyway read below for a guys opinion on his third party perspective on Warriorschool and Jeff Prather the cult master.

A site I stumbled across doing some research on “Warriorship” …do a google on that term and take a look at the results. It shows you what the problem is IMO.

http://warriorschool.blogspot.com/2008/07/reading-and-viewing-list.html
http://actionskeptics.blogspot.com/2007/04/my-brush-with-cult-part-1-background.html

This looks like the dark side of having a wanting and/or needing to be a warrior but taking the wrong path..into cultism. No offense meant to any Ninjutsu/Bujinkan folks out there, but they are amongst the biggest offenders of MY whole warrior rant here (again this is just MY OPINION…Im not implying that there is anything inherently wrong or Bad with emulating warriors, I just dont personally agree with it). The Ninjutsu folks really play up the whole “Warriorship” angle, some outright proclaiming themselves warriors. I grew up in the 80’s “ninja craze” days, which as a kid was great. I gobbled up all the Hayes/Hatsumi books I could find…still read them every once and a while…but :

“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I
thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish
things.” -1 Corinthians 13:11

Some people are apparently so invested in being “Warriors” that they can become victims of some unscrupulous instructors with “issues”. In those links the main offender is described as a former USArmy Officer with combat experience (claimed..people lie about that sort of stuff). If true, it only goes to show yet another issue with this whole topic. He could very well be a “True Warrior” (combat vet etc.) yet still be a slimy bastard. Being a Warrior and being a “good person” are not always necessarily the same issue. People..deep down..if they can be honest with themselves…want to be “Warriors” for the power, fear and respect that they believe comes with it. That desire is natural as I see it, but once recognized it has to be tempered with thought and reason. Most people just cloak those base desires with the “high minded” gobbledy gook rather than face the truth and deal with it.

Allergic to Critical Thinking

2009-07-15T13:27:00.000-07:00

http://www.bullshido.net/forums/showthread.php?t=55118

Excerpts from a Bullshido article

Warriorschool: The cult in the Bujinkan's backyard.
Warriorship. What is is, who is it and why is it? It's a cult based on pseudo-native American mythology set up by Jeffory Prather. The following blog articles deal with a personal brush with the cult by a former bujinkan member, and detail some of it's inner workings. Makes for interesting reading.

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

It's interesting how this cult has sprung up within the bujinkan. It's because it's a "martial art" and "martial arts" (especially one that claims to teach ninjitsu) are very cultish in the first place. Who's ever heard of a boxing cult?

LOL irony--did you see the part about how the WarriorSchool cult guys went way overboard with the table ceremony? They wanted people to pray and thank plants and stuff as if they were Apaches, when they should have been lovingly bowing to a table with a twig on it as if they were feudal Samurai.

Imagine the nerve of those people!

The type of chap drawn to the Bujinkan will always be susceptible to this crap. When I was young and naive I used to train in it. Some of the lads there effectivly worshipped Hatsumi and refused to see through the psuedo-yoda bit. Only a short step and boom you're praying to rocks next to Mr Prather.

I thought Hatsumi was the only 15th dan. But then he does give them out like candy, even my sensei thought so

I seriously need to start a cult. Who volunteers to be my "Cardinals?" (95% cut of your chapter's earning you keep, and I promise to visit once per year. Downside - LARPing.)

This stuff was going around a few years ago. It looks like Prather has toned things down a bit lately. At least publicly. The "Warriorschool" site look like a Blackwater wannabe now rather than some Native American based cult.

Prather apparently was an Army officer. His resume appears carefully worded to imply that he was a Green Beret in the 7th SFG, but there are some people claiming that while he worked at 7th he was not a Green Beret.

Theres a renewed interest for some reason now over on Budoseek.

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Apache Ninjas?
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Will this cult involve recruiting hot women and fornicating with them? If so I'm in as long as there's no Systema involved

Can I handle the money angle? You can have the women.....with money I can buy all of the hot women I want....

Wow. They are certainty out there aren't they?...Everyone wants your money....

Didn't Dale Gribble from King of the Hill attend this warrior school?

I knew a guy that was into this when I was in college (circa 2002). He used to advertise for it on campus and even spoke in front of some the anthropology classes about their initiation rituals.

He used to teach Bujinkan classes on campus that were totally ridiculous. I nearly choked him unconscious in front of about 10 people while he tried some lame defense. I finally let him go when he turned purple. Bear in mind, this wasn't a RNC or anything, I was just standing in front of him with my hands around his neck.

He was a nice enough guy, but he had just drank too much of the kool aid. He actually got his ass kicked one day after talking about how tough you had to be to do Bujinkan.
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Most people in the Buj are allergic to critical thinking. I don't remember the exact quote so I'll just paraphrase Hatsumi from one of his books (can't remember which one) 'Science should take second place to ninjutsu'.

Sometimes my soke embarasses me to no end.

btw which choke escape and gun disarms did they show? just curious

Yeah, sounds like he was trying to use an omote gyaku (outside wrist break) for the disarm. I'll take a guess at how the gaps filled in. The gun was held in the uke's right hand. After stepping to the left (and forward at a 45deg. angle of course)., the sensei's left hand covered the back of the gun hand while his right came up underneath like you said. The sensei then uses both his hands to twist the gun hand clockwise from the uke's perspective, during which the uke let's go of the gun for "safety reasons". That does sound like a pretty awful waza from what you describe.

Omote gyaku is generally a pretty low percentage technique if the uke can easily adjust their position, and is actively resisting/defending against the wrist lock specifically. It has been my experience that when you give a person a weapon their instinct is to focus entirely on the weapon, which would naturally mean they would be immediately aware of attempts to manipulate it into a joint lock.

Sounds shitty, I don't know why that instructor thought it would work. But like I said, lots of bujers are allergic to critical thinking.

Did they leave because of Prather, or do they still adhere to his wacky-ass teachings?
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Unread 01-22-2009, 03:23 PM #32
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I knew Jeff quite well when he and I were in law school together. He was one of the best black belts that I have met, very dedicated and very good. He had been a police officer and ended up heading for the military. He had a very good sense of humor and was the type of person that would stand beside you through thick or thin. Have not seen or heard of him since 1984 so I am glad he is doing well.
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Unread 01-24-2009, 01:41 PM #33
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Batsugan,
They left Jeff Prather, because of the way he was doing things and the things that he was doing to people. They still are using the same Warriorschool manual to teach with and the wacky-ass teachings. Jeff Skillman, one of the Warriorschools top people, has been with them. Jeff Skillman has been teaching Passages program and recruiting at various Bujinkan seminars for the Passages program.
Last edited by AWSP; 01-25-2009 at 08:38 AM.
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Unread 01-25-2009, 08:06 AM #34
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Sounds like a good way to make money.People will sign up to anything without looking into its background eg swan type groups etc
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Unread 03-17-2009, 08:23 PM #35
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Warriorschool Manual
Someone put the Warriorschool Manual, on some torrent web sites call isohunt.com. So if you need a manual to help you get started in the job of being a cult leader and/or what BS to watch out for. Download it and read.
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Unread 04-23-2009, 05:58 AM #36
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i wnet to a MA school that admitted they were a cult , i also discovered that they were using brainwashing tequniques on me. i found this out when i went to a conference in germany on cults and their recruitment tequniques .

vist - Trance institute ( trance abuse / scizophrenia and trance )

Lisa Warns that Warriorschool and Jeff Prather are a Destructive Cult

2009-06-23T10:17:00.000-07:00

A courageous new comment by Lisa on the Action Skeptics anti-Warriorschool Blog

http://actionskeptics.blogspot.com/2007/04/my-brush-with-cult-part-3-initiation.html

Lisa said...

If anyone ever actually reads to the end of these comments....

Let me just make some things very clear for those of you on the outer fringe of Warriorschool, or those of you in the "new" WS. It was and is very much a cult and something to be avoided at all costs. IT IS NOT WHAT IT SEEMS!!!

How can I make such a claim? Because I've been to hell and back and was personally responsible for writing and distributing all of the Devil's propaganda. Translation - I used to be Prather's PR manager.

Those of you still refuting WS as a cult: I published most of the WS tag lines you're quoting. These are not your free thoughts, these are seeds that were planted. Some of you may be too new to realize you're quoting Prather word for word, and he is more than "weird" He is destructive and has created this cult to prey upon the weak. He wants your money, your validation of his divinity and he will take it by force if necessary. He is a rapist, a liar, and a charming illusionist. And most importantly, very sane in his mission to create an army. He told us that even if we all left him, he would start all over from the ground up. As long as there are people willing to tell him he's right, he will keep abusing his brainwashed followers. He thinks he is Jesus reincarnated, but that little gem was reserved only for his "enlightened elite". To everyone else, he was just a guy trying to make the world a better place. Don't believe him! And don't let him near your loved ones.

I was in the cult for nearly 10 years and it took me nearly 3 more of being out to realize the full gravity of what I had been involved in. I barely survived WS. The cult and its followers took almost everything I had, and that is fact, not exaggeration.

I was so brainwashed by Prather's textbook cult practices that I took it on as my personal mission to spead his filth and poison. I put him on the radio (but he didn't use his real name, I wonder why), I wrote his brochures and websites (when they still contained the real truth of what actually went on before it went underground). And I recruited poor saps to come his Initiation. Please forgive me! I didn't know!

You poor, poor people have no idea that you are spreading the ideas of a sick, sick power hungry man. I won't judge you as being crazy or psychotic. But I will say that you are under the carefully crafted work of a mastermind that created a cult.

Everything that this blog has accused WS of being is hauntingly accurate. If you have been spared some of the disgusting events, then consider yourself lucky. These terrible events did go on, and yes, under the guise of a charitable organization.

There are horrors still not mentioned that I will attest to.

As a former top member, I can tell you, if evil does exist, then Prather embodied it.

If you're still involved, get out while you can. And if you know someone involved, stage an intervention, NOW!
12 June, 2008 06:19

Retardation of Warriorschool Videos Outdoes Itself Again

2009-06-23T10:02:00.000-07:00

I have to keep this website updated with new content so people can keep finding it easily. I just saw that Warriorschool released yet more videos. The retardation level becomes increasingly more substantial. Jeff Prather and his followers have published more ridiculous content. Watch it and be amazed.

Here is a supposed Tactical Medicine Video. It is 30 seconds worth of footage of random people leaning over dummies. It has zero teaching value.

This is also a great video. A woman shouts: "Noo" and easily pushes a man to the ground while entering her vehicle. I don't know what sort of robber or car jacker would be pushed over so easily, but obviously Warriorschool thought this was awesome enough to post for the world to see.

Deconvert from Religion or Spiritual Delusion

2009-05-07T12:32:00.001-07:00

Any of you who are part of Prathers' cult or may have been a part of the cult in the past probably have some questions floating around in your mind. You probably have some doubts and unanswered issues you were not able to resolve.

When I was part of Warriorschool I always wondered what was true? Was it what I had been taught? Was it what the majority did and believed? Was Prather right? Religion? Was it personal mystical experience? So on and so forth.

Having been part of Warriorschool was an inspiring and powerful experience. I still value many of the lessons to this day as extremely valuable. Prather taught us things and made us aware of things, most will never have the luxury of contemplating nor experiencing. But then again, many of the lessons were taught by using brainwashing methods and were designed to open you up to extreme manipulation and exploitation. That's what I have a problem with.

When it came to spiritual experiences, the 6th sense, god hand, psychic abilities, dreaming body, out of body experiences, void, connecting with god, visions, seeing auras, prophecies, revelation or whatever it may have been for you, I remember being fascinated by the possibility that these things existed and worked. It was intriguing and the more I practiced them and searched for them the more I found them. Well I don't believe in any of that garbage any more. At least I don't believe those experiences are supernatural, god related or anything like that.

Below I will post a video that I saw that changed my perspective on these things. It is a video of a man named Michael Shermer. He used to be a strong believer in all kinds of garbage, probably similar to us ex-Warriorschoolers. He is now the head of the skeptics society. He doesn't believe any supernatural stuff any more. Anyway, he was one of the first people to do a practically non-stop bike ride from the east coast of the USA to the west coast. It was extremely stressful, with barely any sleep and he was able to accomplish it in 10 1/2 days or so. His friend did it in 7 1/2 days or something like that. Well anyway, Michael Shermer started having the most bizarre experiences as he was pushing his human body and mind to limits most of us could never even dream of. He reports having psychotic delusions, in which he thought his friends were aliens from outer space, trying to keep him from finishing his bike race. He is aware that the beliefs were delusional, but the stress placed on him was so extreme that he could not really prevent the beliefs from taking root. Replace the words aliens, with God and replace bike race with Warriorschool apprenticeship. That is my conclusion. Jeff Prather and his apprenticeship Warriorschool program puts such a stress on people that they start having psychotic delusions under his care. Then Prather keeps directing people to associate those brain malfunctions with spiritual god experiences. Once he dupes them into believing that, and that Prather is the minister of those super powers, he becomes a god like cult super hero figure.

Here is the video that let me see that extreme stress can bring any human being to believe absolutely false, ridiculous and nonsensical things:

Also read his book called:
"Why people believe weird things"
Michael Shermer goes into great detail explaining the whole event

Ridiculous new Warriorschool Videos

2009-05-07T12:16:00.000-07:00

Alright, we have some more videos from Warrior School Cult. Wonderfully enough Jeff Prather himself stars in them. If anyone is unfamiliar with Jeff Prather then this first video will be a real treat. It actually shows his best side. A patriot, a charismatic, caring, gentle and strong guy teaching the troops how to survive in a combat environment. I especially liked what he said about winning hearts and minds in the middle east. The fact that he mentioned it is a war of ideas and that we need to respect the Iraqi's cultural differences pleasantly reminded me of the times I spent with Prather, before everything went absolutely insane. If you have never seen Prather at his best, then this is a decent example of what people are attracted to. But stay tuned, it gets better or dare I say much much worse.

Here is an advertisement they made for one of their products. I don't know if they designed it or are merely marketing it for profit. Nothing wrong with that. But I just remember watching it and thinking it was utterly ridiculous. Watch it for yourself. No major analysis here. Just check it out and see if you don't get some laughs out of it.

And now for the final video review. This one is just fantastically embarrassing. The video titled Air Defense will teach you how to rescue everyone on a hijacked airplane. The words fail me to express my initial reaction. Maybe later I can get into it a bit more. I don't know where they got those poor actors from. The ones sitting down in the airplane. Whenever Prather talks about slitting someones throat or however he puts it, the passengers have this look of shock and horror on their faces. I wonder how much he paid them to do the video. Where did he find them? I am sure they are embarrassed to be associated with something so cheesy. But for those of us who want to laugh at Warriorschool and Prather it is a great video.

Watch it and laugh.

WarriorSchool Manual

2009-03-30T20:21:00.000-07:00

There appears to be a WarriorSchool Manual online, but I was not able to retrieve it. Anyone know if it is the real deal? Is the cult manual interesting? Is it still available? I am not that savy with the torrent download stuff, so if anyone can give me some quick advice on the Warriorschool Manual I would appreciate it.

Here is the address of the torrent link.

http://www.mininova.org/tor/2328535

Books > Manuals - Mininova

Jarad Myspace Prather Expose

2009-03-11T22:36:00.000-07:00

Here is a guy named Jarad who has had a bad experience with Prather. I can't remember if I posted this before. It looks like there is some new content there. It is worth checking out.

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=171890392

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=171890392

Prather Warrior School and Karl Koch

2009-03-11T22:29:00.000-07:00

http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84944

aswp writes in a forum post:
Is the Bujinkan a Religion?

Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 1
“Bujinkan has never been a religion and is still not “ is correct. Problem is groups that train in the Bujinkan, that use it to recruit or force people into there religions and/or other things. Like Jeffrey Prather “Warrior School” and Karl Koch “PASSAGES” program (URL http://www.budosites.com/hmbd/index.cfm?page=15 ); That uses Native American religions at their dojos, but there are other dojos that are doing the same thing.

Ex Apprentice Escapes and Tells about It

2009-03-11T22:23:00.001-07:00

Here is some new activity from the ActionSkeptics Site:

JL said...

Hello everyone,

This is all fascinating to me. I trained in Tucson with Jeff, Todd, PJ, all the bracelets. I apprenticed and went through 2 initiations (one as "initiate" and one as "apprentice"). I went all the way thru Questing before that "uneasy feeling" I'd had since joining finally brought me to my senses. After Prather claimed he was "born, died, and resurrected," I came to my senses and got the hell out of there. This is the first I've heard of all these allegations and accusations albeit I have no doubt of there validity. I saw and heard many very questionable things during my time in WS. I spent many nights at the Prather home in Sonoita "training."

I started training in WS because I thought it would be a great melting-pot of disciplines: Native American, Christian, Japanese, etc. After some time as an apprentice, I was asked to help with "ceremonies" (aka exorcisms). Whenever I asked a question or somehow tried to bring up concerns that I didn't completely buy into the whole thing, I was reprimanded. I left with only a letter to my benefactor explaining my concerns. Since then I was deployed to Iraq with the army and now live and work near Phoenix for Homeland Security.

I hate to think of the people that have been hurt and continue to be hurt. I'm glad I got out when I did...
02 February, 2009 10:10
jarad said...

JL:

Thank you for writing. It is a relief to read your post. Very few people who get that far along...well, most of them are completely brainwashed.

It's nice to see that there are people who can still keep their wits about them. Glad you got out.

I would still love to speak with you if you get the time. You can find me over at www.myspace.com/warriorschool
02 February, 2009 13:51
Mike S. said...

Warriorschool is now called Passages. Only difference is that the name has changed and Karl Koch is the leader now. (URL http://www.budosites.com/hmbd/index.cfm?page=15 ). They practice all the same stuff that Warriorschool was doing; using the same Warriorschool manual. They practice the use of putting people in fear of something to control them. Then they use group to lie about and undermine people that do not believe in or practice the Passages program. People that practice Passages program, must be in the Bujinkan under a instructor that in Passages program. Jeff Skillman has been teaching and recruiting at various Bujinkan seminars for the Passages program. Jeff Skillman is one of higher ups in the organization. At dojos that run Passages, they rank people in Passages program real fast to increase there ego. Even if there very bad at doing the Bujinkan training.
13 February, 2009 21:04

Post a Comment

The Hidden Mountain Bujinkan Dojo

2009-03-11T21:52:00.000-07:00

The Hidden Mountain Bujinkan Dojo
Karl Koch's Dojo

Check out this link below

http://www.budosites.com/hmbd/index.cfm?page=4

Kamereon says that this site is

Passages (Karl Koch's offshoot branch of Prather's cult (see: http://www.budosites.com/hmbd/index.cfm?page=15))

Check out their schedule. They train two days a week. :) That doesn't sound very dedicated for a cult offshoot branch. How are you going to defend the world from a demonic super onslaught?

Well this hidden mountain bujinkan site doesn't seem too incriminating. It appears to be a 100% budo site and doesn't mention Warriorschool or Prather at all. I have never heard of Karl Koch so I can't really say anything about him.

I do however like the pictures of him being awesome, with his hair and mustache. There was of course the picture of Phil Legaire who was a total Warrior school cult member under Prather. I think he has since left the group on bad terms. I was never a fan of the guy myself, but he must have some wits about him if he has removed himself from Prather.

I love how these Budo sites always want to glorify their black belts and tell exactly how they accomplished their great feat. Ah, they paid money and just showed up for a lot of training sessions. You don't have to be a great athlete or genius to get your Budo black belt.

Also notice how it says on the left:

OUR MASTER (if you click on it it talks about Dr. Hatsumi)

That is always how you can sense a cult in the making if they actually refer to someone as 'My Master'. It is just asking to be brainwashed.

Can anyone else verify that this Karl Koch guy is directly linked to Prather? Got any links?

I want everyone and anyone who is associated with this stuff to be clearly linked. Information = power. I hope all the future victims of these people know how to use google and find this info before it is too late.

Ok, I just re read the Hidden Mountain site and found the incriminating info. It is totally linked to Warriorschool. Notice how they have all the same cycles and use the same terminology. Purification, empowerment etc etc.

http://www.budosites.com/hmbd/index.cfm?page=15

PASSAGES

In addition to the physical and spiritual development provided by traditional martial arts training, the Hidden Mountain Bujinkan Dojo is pleased to offer the intensives based on concepts transposed from Native American traditions for introduction into adulthood. These intensives are designed to introduce participants to the concepts of native chivalry provided by Native American cultures. Students ritually experience the cycles of childhood, youth, maturity, and old age. Each session is devoted to a cycle of life:

Purification - Discovering something worthwhile beyond just the physical, i.e. the non-physical -the spiritual.

Empowerment - Accessing and strengthening the spiritual through practical, physical training.

Impeccability - Deciding right and wrong. Knowing good and bad. Balancing the spiritual and physical in selfless service.

Quest (Boys)/Changing (Girls) - Integrating all of the training via rite of passage, to a defining moment of adulthood.

All are welcome. For further information on this program, contact Karl Koch.

CONNECTION INTENSIVES

For those having completed the Passages Intensives, Connection Intensives provide further training to enhance and improve skills obtained in the Passages Intensives. This training is held simultaneously with the Passages Intensives.

APPRENTICESHIP TRAINING

For those students desiring to go beyond the adulthood training offered in the Initiation Cycles, Apprenticeship programs are offered to provide further training as warriors or healers. This program is not to be entered lightly and all prospective apprentices must complete the Passages Intensives prior to being eligible for acceptance. It is recommended that they complete Connection Intensives prior to apprenticing, as well.

SOUTHEAST SCHEDULE

The Southeast Intensives are held on private property in Durham and Creedmoor, NC. To register for or receive information on Passages Programs in the Southeast region, contact Karl Koch at 919-384-1400 or email tengu1@msn.com.

Names and Class Titles

2009-03-11T21:46:00.000-07:00

A poster named Kamereon suggested I add some of this information to the blog.

New Comment Posted

Blogger Kamereon said...

You should also add the tags:

Attention to the Crisis (Prather's bogus charity)

Women's Fightback (Prather's intro to drinking kool-aid)

Passages (Karl Koch's offshoot branch of Prather's cult (see: http://www.budosites.com/hmbd/index.cfm?page=15))

You might also consider adding tags for his chief worshippers as well:

Amber Meesenburg
Jocelyn Meesenburg
Darrin Ashley
Christa Ashley
Amber Pinnow
Tim Pinnow
Rachel Prather (formerly Rachel Breton)
Louis Breton

Of course there are many others, but the above list are still active and have caused the most damage.

February 27, 2009 3:00 PM

I recognize 90% of the names you listed. I have never heard of Koch's website. Also make sure you check out the Official Warriorschool page. It looks like they have updated it. Looks interesting.

Take care

Jefferey Prather Update

2009-02-19T00:57:00.000-08:00

Jeff Prather has a simple name. Sometimes it is spelled differently. It could be written as Jeffrey Prather, Jefferey Prather or many other ways. I have posted many videos and pictures on this site so that you can conveniently de-convert yourself from the cult that he started called Warriorschool. Warrior school can be referred to in multiple ways as well. It can be abbreviated to WS or given nicknames like Warriorcult or Warrior Cult. I am including all the different spellings here so that the search engines will be able to find them. Good luck in your search to find out the truth about Prather, Religion, Cults, God, Spirituality or whatever it is you are seeking.

Introduction Speech to Skepticism TED

2009-01-11T00:22:00.000-08:00

Here is a quick explanation of what skepticism is in video format. Approximately 15 minutes long.

Critical Thinking What is it and why should you know about it

2009-01-10T02:08:00.000-08:00

http://www.criticalthinking.org/page.cfm?PageID=411&CategoryID=51

The tradition of research into critical thinking reflects the common perception that human thinking left to itself often gravitates toward prejudice, over-generalization, common fallacies, self-deception, rigidity, and narrowness.

The critical thinking tradition seeks ways of understanding the mind and then training the intellect so that such "errors", "blunders", and "distortions" of thought are minimized. It assumes that the capacity of humans for good reasoning can be nurtured and developed by an educational process aimed directly at that end.

The history of critical thinking documents the development of this insight in a variety of subject matter domains and in a variety of social situations. Each major dimension of critical thinking has been carved out in intellectual debate and dispute through 2400 years of intellectual history.

That history allows us to distinguish two contradictory intellectual tendencies: a tendency on the part of the large majority to uncritically accept whatever was presently believed as more or less eternal truth and a conflicting tendency on the part of a small minority — those who thought critically — to systematically question what was commonly accepted and seek, as a result, to establish sounder, more reflective criteria and standards for judging what it does and does not make sense to accept as true.

Our basic concept of critical thinking is, at root, simple. We could define it as the art of taking charge of your own mind. Its value is also at root simple: if we can take charge of our own minds, we can take charge of our lives; we can improve them, bringing them under our self command and direction. Of course, this requires that we learn self-discipline and the art of self-examination. This involves becoming interested in how our minds work, how we can monitor, fine tune, and modify their operations for the better. It involves getting into the habit of reflectively examining our impulsive and accustomed ways of thinking and acting in every dimension of our lives.

http://www.criticalthinking.org/page.cfm?PageID=518&CategoryID=61

Developing as Rational Persons: Viewing Our Development in Stages

Humans are capable of developing into rational beings. This is our ultimate assumption. At some level all of us want to effectively analyze and solve our problems. We want to live significant, meaningful lives. We want to be persons of integrity. We did not consciously choose to be selfish and egocentric, any more than we consciously chose to think unclearly, inaccurately, irrelevantly, superficially, narrow-mindedly, or illogically. Nevertheless, we often think and behave egocentrically. We often think unclearly, inaccurately, irrelevantly, superficially, narrow-mindedly, and illogically.

In this paper, we focus on one multi-faceted tool — a theory of the stages required for rational development. We can use it to think less egocentrically and irrationally in our personal lives. If we can understand where we are in our own development, if we can envision a series of stages through which we can imagine ourselves moving, we will be more likely to develop along those lines. If we can more concretely and realistically conceptualize how to go about acquiring the knowledge, skills, and dispositions which characterize highly developed critical thinkers, then, we will more effectively gain that knowledge and acquire those skills and dispositions.

Stage One

We Begin as Unreflective Thinkers

We all begin as largely unreflective thinkers, fundamentally unaware of the determining role that thinking is playing in our lives. We don’t realize, at this stage, the many ways that problems in thinking are causing problems in our lives. We unconsciously think of ourselves as the source of truth. We assume our own beliefs to be true. We unreflectively take in many absurd beliefs merely because they are believed by those around us. We have no intellectual standards worthy of the name. Wish fulfillment plays a significant role in what we believe. Whatever we want, we believe we should have. We create and maintain pleasant illusions. If it feels good to believe something, we believe it.

At this stage, we may think well intuitively within certain domains of our lives. For example, we may have high quality thinking skills with respect to our work, or we may be good at balancing our personal budget, etc. But when there are problems in our thinking, we usually fail to recognize them as such. We have no knowledge of the "moves" our minds are making. Therefore, we cannot correct its errors.

We begin to move beyond this stage when we develop real insight into the "flawed" nature of our own thinking. This insight, to be effective, must be concrete and specific. Virtually everyone will agree in the abstract that they have some "prejudices" and that their thinking is "not perfect." But these unelaborated admissions have no functional value to those who concede them. They are not based on any real knowledge of the nature of thinking. They are not based on a realistic sense of the skills they would need to develop to improve. They are not based on an accurate appraisal of the kinds of motivation they would have to develop to improve over an extended period of time.

Stage Two

We Reach the Second Stage When We Are Faced with The Challenge
Of Recognizing the Low Level at Which We and Most Humans Function as Thinkers

We cannot solve a problem we do not admit to. We cannot deal with a condition we deny. Without some knowledge of our ignorance we cannot seek the knowledge we lack. Without some knowledge of the skills we need to develop, we cannot develop those skills. When we develop through this stage, we begin to become aware of the fact that as thinkers we routinely and inevitably make assumptions, use information, make inferences, generate implications, define problems, use concepts, reason within a point of view, and that, given that, we are capable of making many "mistakes" in thinking. For example, we are capable of making false assumptions, using erroneous information, or jumping to unjustifiable conclusions. This knowledge of our fallibility as thinkers is connected to the emerging awareness that somehow we must learn to routinely identify, analyze, and assess our thinking.

The hallmark of the second stage, then, is that we are faced with a crucial challenge to our development. We are confronted with the idea that our thinking is often flawed, and that if we are to improve the quality of our thinking and of our lives, we must become serious students of our minds and how they operate. The important question at this stage is: Will we take up, or back away from this challenge? Put another way, will we squarely face the fact that our thinking is often unsound. Will we take seriously the implications of that fact? Or will we retreat into that comfortable self-complacency that is "natural" to the human mind? Are we ready to begin the process of long-term development as thinkers? Or will we rationalize our way around it?

To fail to recognize the value of developing as rational persons, to deny the fact that our thinking is flawed in many directions, has the consequent that we remain at the unreflective thinker stage.

Stage Three

We Reach the Third Stage When We
Accept the Challenge and Begin to Explicitly Develop Our Thinking

Having actively decided to take up the challenge to grow and develop as thinkers, we become "beginning" thinkers, i.e., thinkers beginning to take thinking seriously. We are in the preparatory stage of taking explicit command of thinking. We realize that we know very little about the constituents of thinking, very little about how to analyze thinking for its soundness, very little about how to upgrade and improve thinking. Yet we have begun to see the necessity of learning how to take charge of our thinking.

As "beginning" thinkers, we recognize the egocentric nature of our thinking in one or more contexts of our lives. For example, we may sometimes catch ourselves trying to dominate others to get our way, or, alternatively, acting out the role of submitting to others (for the gains that submission will bring). We may begin to notice the powerful role that conformity to group norms and values plays in our lives.

As novices, we are beginning to analyze the logic of situations and problems we face, beginning to question our purposes and goals, beginning to struggle to express clear and precise questions when addressing a problem. We are beginning to see that whenever we gather information to address problems, we need to check that information for accuracy and relevance. We are beginning to understand the difference between raw information and our interpretation of it, beginning to question our conclusions, beginning to recognize assumptions guiding our inferences. We are beginning to recognize prejudicial and biased beliefs and how they lead us to unjustifiable conclusions about people. We are beginning to notice that we often misuse words and fail to follow out implications. We are beginning to recognize that whenever we reason, we think within a point of view, and that our viewpoint is often biased toward our selfish interests. We are beginning to recognize that we often think without giving due consideration to the rights and needs of others.

Thus, as beginning thinkers we are becoming aware of how to deal with the constituents of our thoughts (i.e. our purposes, questions, information, interpretations, etc.). We are beginning to appreciate the value of consistently applying intellectual standards––standards such as clarity, accuracy, relevance, precision, logicalness, justifiability, breadth and depth in reasoning.

To reach this stage, our values must begin to shift. We must experience some sense of the importance of intellectual humility. For if we do not come to value knowledge of our own ignorance, we will not be motivated to gain that "knowledge." What is more, as "beginning" thinkers we must find ourselves developing some confidence in reason. In other words, we must become persuaded that developing our skill in reasoning is crucial to solving our problems, and that we are capable of developing that skill. We notice ourselves talking more to others about the importance of reason and reasoning, and noticing more the negative consequences of those who fail to value them. We find ourselves struggling to develop some intellectual perseverance. We notice ourselves being quick to give up as soon as a problem becomes difficult. We have not yet found a way to systematically and successfully develop the skills and the dispositions that we now want to develop. Even though our ability to reason well may still be greatly limited, our values are beginning to shift. We are learning to want what is rational to want. In short, the foundation is beginning to form on which we can re-build our identity and character.

Stage Four

We Reach the Fourth Stage When We Begin to Develop
A Systematic Approach to Improving Our Ability to Think

If the hallmark of the third stage is beginning to take thinking seriously, although without a successful plan for achieving what we now want, the hallmark of the fourth stage is the development of just such a plan. In this stage, we move from an unorganized to an organized approach to the improvement of our thinking.

At this stage, we now know that simply wanting to change is not enough, nor is episodic and irregular "practice." We recognize now the need for real commitment, for some regular and consistent way to build improvement of thinking into the fabric of our lives. We realize now that a hit-and-miss approach to developing our thinking abilities will not result in our learning to live a rational life.

Although the manner in which regular practice designed to improve our thinking might take many different forms, it may be useful to look at some possible components of a reasonable plan. Consider the following strategies:

* Begin to ask yourself "fundamental" questions about the character and nature of your life. If someone were to follow you around for a year and knew absolutely everything that you were thinking, feeling, and doing, what would that person say are your fundamental values and beliefs? To what extent would that person conclude that you unconsciously conform to group-imposed values? To what extent would that person conclude that you pursue your desires at the expense of the rights and needs of others? To what extent would that person conclude that you fail to empathically enter the point of view of others? To what extent would that person conclude that you are committed to living your life as a rational person would? To what extent would that person conclude that you are often guided by irrational emotions?
* Begin to keep an "intellectual" journal in which you record your analysis in the following way. Describe only situations that are emotionally significant to you (that is, that you deeply care about). Describe only one situation at a time. Then describe (and keep this separate) what you did in response to that situation. Be specific and exact. Then analyze, in the light of what you have written, what precisely was going on in the situation. Dig beneath the surface. Then assess the implications of your analysis. What did you learn about yourself? What would you do differently if you could re-live the situation?
* Whenever you feel some negative emotion, systematically ask yourself: What, exactly, is the thinking leading to this emotion? How might this thinking be flawed?" What am I assuming? Should I? What information is my thinking based on? Is that information reliable? . . . and so on.
* Whenever you have a complex problem, a problem that you need to think seriously about, take the time to analyze the elements of thinking through the problem. Figure out your purpose for addressing the problem (be precise). Write out, clearly, the exact question you are trying to answer. Write down the information you need to address the problem rationally. Do you have that information? Where can you get it? Think of alternative ways a reasonable person might interpret that information. Restrain yourself from jumping to a conclusion. Identify the main assumptions you are making. Analyze and evaluate those assumptions. Focus on the key concepts you are using in your thinking. Explicitly state the point of view from which you are approaching the problem. Consider some alternative points of view. Examine the possible consequences that might follow if you make this or that decision. Check to see if you are considering all the plausible alternative possible decisions.
* Look closely at your behavior to determine how you use, and relate to, "power" in your life. See if you can isolate some common events in which you use egocentric thinking to get others to do what you want. For example, systematically analyze your behavior to determine whether, as a general rule, you tend to "dominate" others in order to get your way, or whether you tend to "submit" to them to get what you want.
* Notice how you react in situations when you don’’t get what you want. What exactly are your emotions? What exactly do you do? If you find that you act in a dominating or submissive way, you will be alerted to the fact that you are thinking egocentrically. You can then work to replace your egocentric thought with more rational thought through systematic self-reflection. What would a rational person feel in this or that situation? What would a rational person do? How does that compare with what you did? (Hint: If you find that you continually conclude that a rational person would behave just as you behaved you are probably engaging in self-deception.)
* Closely analyze the behavior that is encouraged, and discouraged, in the groups to which you belong. For any given group, what are you "required" to believe? What are you "forbidden" to do? If you conclude that your group does not require you to believe anything, or has no taboos, then conclude that you have not deeply analyzed that group. Review some introductory text in Sociology to gain insight into the process of socialization and group membership.
* Target the key areas in your life where you are experiencing difficulties or where you need to think through significant issues with potentially long-term implications. Ask yourself what "strategies" you are presently employing in those areas. How did you come up with those strategies? What strategies did you consider and reject? On what grounds? If you find that you have trouble answering these questions, entertain the hypothesis that your thinking about these areas of your life may not be very deep.

These are a few of the many things that we might do in seeking a systematic approach to the development of our thinking and rationality. We are not in the stage we call "the practicing thinker" until we are engaged in activities analogous to what is suggested above. When in the practicing thinker stage, we devise specific strategies which we believe will prove useful in cultivating our own development as a thinker. We act on those strategies and assess their viability for us. If one set of strategies does not work, we devise another. The key is that we devise some strategies, that we embody them for a reasonable time in our behavior, and we assess how well they are working. We continually monitor those strategies to make them more and more effective. When a given strategy proves ineffective we abandon it and seek another. In other words, we routinely re-evaluate the methods we are using, assessing them, and altering them when necessary so that we continue the slow but steady process of development.

Stage Five

We Reach the Fifth Stage When We Have Established
Good Habits of Thought Across the Domains of Our Lives

We know that we are reaching the stage we call the Advanced Thinker stage when we find that our regimen for rational living is paying off in significant ways. We are now routinely identifying problems in our thinking, and are working successfully to deal with those problems rationally. We have successfully identified the significant domains in our lives in which we need to improve (e.g. professional, parenting, husband, wife, consumer, etc.), and are making significant progress in all or most of them. We find that it is no longer a strain to aspire to reasonability. We continue to find evidence of egocentricity in our thoughts, emotions, and behavior, but we are also finding that we can often, if not usually, overcome those thoughts and emotions and shift our behavior accordingly. We no longer find it difficult to admit when we are wrong. We are attracted to people who give us constructive criticism.

We are now enjoying the process of observing our minds in action. We enjoy entering into the points of view of others. We take satisfaction from learning from the thinking of those with which we may have significant differences. We now see assumptions in our thinking in every direction we look. We are no longer concerned with the "image" we maintain, are largely indifferent to what others may think of us, are comfortable standing up in opposition to popular beliefs in the groups to which we belong.

We find the process of assessing our behavior, motivations, and feelings in order to determine the extent to which they result from faulty thinking a satisfying and fulfilling process. We continue to find many ways in which we need to "correct" our thinking and "shift" our feelings. We continue to make many mistakes, but we are rarely so ego-identified with those mistakes that we cannot "abandon" them and admit we were wrong. Since we have used our thinking as the leverage point for changing our feelings, desires and action on many occasions, we now find ourselves doing so intuitively, and without significant effort.

We have come to understand, through routine analysis of our behavior and thoughts, the havoc that egocentricity and sociocentricity play in human lives. We have personally experienced that havoc in our own lives. We find ourselves continually assessing our effectiveness in living in accordance with our deepest values. We now have deep insight into the fact that our development is directly dependent on the extent to which we are successful at decreasing the role of egocentric thinking in our daily lives. We have come to understand the conditions under which we tend to use "domination" or "submission" to get what we want.

We now know what types of behavior on the part of others tends to elicit our dominating or submissive ego. We know whether we tend to more predominantly rely upon submissive or dominating behavior. But most important, we recognize that egocentric thinking is never a reasonable mode of thinking--however "natural" it might be. Thus, at the advanced stage we become skilled in identifying our egocentric thoughts, and we refuse to make use of the rationalizations we could easily concoct to justify them.

We are now skilled not only in detecting egocentric thinking in ourselves, we are also skilled in identifying it in the behavior of others. We now routinely figure out the logic of the thinking of other people, and frequently recognize when others are operating from egocentric thinking. We recognize when others are attempting to inappropriately manipulate us into submission, or when they are trying to force us to back down through domination.

At the advanced stage, we are now skilled at monitoring the role in thinking of concepts, assumptions, inferences, implications, points of view, questions, purposes, and information. We routinely and often intuitively assess our thinking for clarity, accuracy, relevance, logicalness, depth and breadth. We often engage in dialogue with ourselves in an attempt to check our thinking and upgrade it. This type of internal dialogue might be "represented" in the following examples:

"I’m not clear about what this person is trying to communicate to me. I need to ask questions of clarification so that I can understand what she means. I should ask her to elaborate on her point. I think I need an example of what she is talking about to understand her better."

"I am trying to figure out whether what she is saying is relevant to the issue at hand, whether her information is relevant to the question we are trying to solve, whether her question is relevant to the question which is the focus of this meeting."

"It seems that there is something illogical about the way I have interpreted this situation. Perhaps I have jumped to some conclusions before gathering all the relevant information. Perhaps I have come to this conclusion based on inaccurate information. Perhaps my interpretation is based strictly on my self-interest. It could be that my egocentric mind does not want to rethink my conclusion because then I will be forced to consider another person’s feelings and desires and I will not get what I want in the situation."

"I am beginning to realize that I don’t want to hear what this other person is saying because then I will have to rethink my position. Whenever I feel this type of defensiveness I know that I am being egocentric, that my mind is not allowing me to enter the other person’s point of view because if I think within his or her view, I will have to alter my self-indulgent position. My mind will recognize its absurdity in pursuing its own desires at the expense of other’s needs and desires. I must force myself to rationally consider this opposing position, to operate in good faith rather than try to hide from something my egocentric mind doesn’t want to see."

I see what my mind is doing. Instead of trying to resolve a conflict, I am trying to force this other person to accept my views. I want to make him do exactly what I say, even if that means I must hurt him to do so. I detect my dominating ego at work, and I know that whenever I am thinking within this logic I am being irrational, and I am likely to hurt someone. I must recognize my dominating ego as a hurtful mode of thinking and reject it in any form."

"I wonder why I am allowing this person to intimidate me. I feel like I must submit to his will in order to function. Whenever I am being submissive, I need to ask myself what I am trying to achieve in the situation. What is it that I want from this other person? Why do I let him treat me like this? Why do I think I must be submissive, instead of being rational, in this circumstance? Perhaps I am not willing to admit that I am simply manipulating him to get what I want. If I told him the truth would I still be able to get what I want, or would I detect absurdity in my desires?

In the advanced stage we are becoming skilled at this sort of inner dialog, and we understand its value, although it is not yet completely intuitive to us. We recognize that we must give active voice to what is going on in our minds because of our natural tendency toward deception. We routine write down our thoughts so that we can better analyze them. We articulate our thoughts to other rational people as a check to ensure that we are not illogically interpreting the situation, to ensure against our unconsciously thinking in a self-centered manner.

Because the mind is tremendously complex, to reach this stage of development normally takes many years of practice. The more committed the person, the more active the practice, the more likely, and more quickly, we are to move to this advanced stage.

Stage Six

We Reach the Sixth Stage When We Intuitively Think Critically at a
Habitually High Level Across all the Significant Domains of Our Lives

The sixth stage of development, the Master Thinker Stage, is best described in the third person, since it is not clear that any humans living in this age of irrationality qualify as "master" thinkers. It may be that the degree of deep social conditioning that all of us experience renders it unlikely that any of us living today are "master" thinkers. Nevertheless, the concept is a useful one, for it sets out what we are striving for and is, in principle, a stage that some humans might reach.

To some extent, the emergence of "master" thinkers may require the emergence of a "critical" society, a society that so values critical thinking that it systematically rewards those who develop it, a society in which parenting, schooling, social groups, and the mass media cultivate and honor it. When persons must develop their rationality in the face of large-scale irrationality in virtually every domain of their lives, it is much less plausible that any one will achieve the highest possible stage of development.

With these qualifications in the background, we will characterize the master thinker in three ways. The first in terms of "defining feature," "principal challenge," knowledge of thinking," "skill in thinking," and "intellectual traits." The second in terms of most significant "qualities" of mind. The third in terms of inner logic.

Defining Feature: Master thinkers not only have a successful plan for taking charge of their thinking, but are also continually monitoring, revising, and re-thinking strategies for effective thinking. The basic skills of critical thinking have been deeply internalized so that critical thinking is highly intuitive at this level. Through extensive experience and practice in engaging in self-assessment, master thinkers are not only actively analyzing their thinking in all the significant domains of their lives, but are also continually developing new insights into problems at deeper levels of thought. Master thinkers are deeply committed to fair-minded thinking, and have a high level of control over their egocentric nature.

Principal Challenge: To make the highest levels of critical thinking intuitive in every domain of one’s life. To model highly effective critical thinking in an interdisciplinary and practical way.

Knowledge of Thinking: Master thinkers are not only actively and successfully engaged in systematically monitoring the role in their thinking of concepts, assumptions, inferences, implications, points of view, etc., but are also regularly improving that practice. Master thinkers have not only a high degree of knowledge of thinking, but a high degree of practical insight as well. Master thinkers intuitively assess their thinking for clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, logicalness, etc. Master thinkers have deep insights into the systematic internalization of critical thinking into their habits. Master thinkers deeply understand the role that egocentric and sociocentric thinking plays in the lives of human beings, as well as the complex relationship between thoughts, emotions, drives and behavior.

Skill in Thinking: Master thinkers regularly, effectively, and insightfully critique their own plan for systematic practice, and improve it thereby. Master thinkers consistently monitor their own thoughts. They effectively and insightfully articulate the strengths and weaknesses inherent in their thinking. Their knowledge of the qualities of their thinking is outstanding. Although, as humans they know they will always be fallible (because they must always battle their egocentrism, to some extent), they consistently perform effectively in every domain of their lives.

Intellectual Traits: Naturally inherent in master thinkers are all the essential intellectual characteristics, deeply integrated. Master thinkers have a high degree of intellectual humility, intellectual integrity, intellectual perseverance, intellectual courage, intellectual empathy, intellectual autonomy, intellectual responsibility and fair-mindedness. Egocentric and sociocentric thought is quite uncommon in the master thinker, especially with respect to matters of importance. There is a high degree of integration of basic values, beliefs, desires, emotions, and actions.

The Qualities of Mind of a "Master" Thinker

The most significant qualities of mind of a master thinker are as follows. Master thinkers are 1) conscious of the "workings" of their minds, 2) highly integrated, 3) powerful, 4) logical, 5) far-sighted, 6) deep, 7) self-correcting, and 8) emancipated. Let us spell out each in more detail now:

• Master thinkers are conscious of the workings of their minds.
- aware of their own patterns of thought and action
- deliberate in the intellectual moves they make
- give explicit assent to their inner logic

• Master thinkers minds are highly integrated.
- transfer knowledge between different categories of experience
- use insight into foundational concepts and principles to organize large bodies of information.

• Master thinkers minds are powerful.
- able to generalize knowledge
- in command of the logic of language
- function well with the logic of concepts and questions
- able to reason multi-logically
- using the mind so as to "multiply" comprehension and insight

• Master thinkers minds are logical.
- routinely analyze the logic of things
- committed to comprehensive principles of reason and evidence
- a keen sense of the need for deep consistency

• Master thinkers minds are far-sighted.
- take the long view
- plan their own development
- focus on ultimate values

• Master thinkers think deeply.
- have insight into their own foundational beliefs and values
- grasp the roots of their own thought & emotion
- make sure beliefs are rationally grounded
- consider the deep motives that guide thought, feeling, and action

• Master thinkers minds are self-correcting.
- apply intellectual criteria to their own thoughts, feelings, and behavior
- recognize and critique their own egocentrism & sociocentrism
- sensitive to their own contradictions

• Master thinkers minds are free.
- are energized by rational passions
- have a passion for clarity, accuracy, and other intellectual standards and for getting at root causes
- are able to make fundamental changes in own life patterns, habits, and
behavior

The Inner Logic of a Master Thinker

Since master thinkers achieve a high level of success in bringing their thoughts, emotions, and actions in line with their espoused ideals, it follows that they would function with a high level of fulfillment and sense of well being. Having formed their identities in terms of reasonability, not in terms of any particular belief or belief system, they are able to shift beliefs without trauma or self-doubt. Seeing through the strategies used by those who would intimidate them by status and external authority, they are able to quietly dissent where others shy away in fear. Being keenly aware of the brevity of human life, they are able to prize and savor ordinary pleasures of daily life. Being committed to growth and deep honesty, they are able to form intimate relationships without mutual self-deception, hidden agendas, or bad faith discontent. Being aware of their place in a much larger world, they act with a realistic sense of what one person can and cannot achieve. They can plan without being possessed by their plans, believe without being trapped in those beliefs, and act without being blind to mistakes implicit in those acts.

The Ideal Thinker

Whether there are or shall ever be master thinkers, and however successful they may come to be, they can never be "ideal" thinkers, for it is not possible for the human mind to function in an "ideal" way. All actual human development is in the context of an innate tendency toward imperfection. However much we develop our potential for rationality, our native egocentricity and conditioned sociocentricity will sometimes become activated. However much we develop our integrity, some contradictions and inconsistencies will escape our notice. However much we develop our insights, there will be other insights we will not develop.

However many points of view we internalize, there will be others that we have no time to enter, master, or profit from. However rich our experience, there will be experiences we shall never have the benefit of. Our minds, however well developed, will always be the minds of finite, fallible, potentially egocentric, potentially sociocentric, potentially prejudiced, potentially irrational creatures. Master thinkers would, as such, be keenly aware of these limitations in themselves and therefore of how far they were from becoming the "ideal" thinker. They would therefore never cease to appreciate the need to grow and learn, never cease to make mistakes but never cease to learn from those mistakes, never cease to discover dimensions of their minds in need of critique and re-thinking and never cease to develop those critiques and perform that re-thinking.

{Elder, L. with Paul, R. (1996). At website www.criticalthinking.org}

http://www.criticalthinking.org/page.cfm?PageID=487&CategoryID=73

Critical Thinking, Moral Integrity and Citizenship: Teaching for the Intellectual Virtues

Abstract

Many are tempted to separate affective and moral dimensions of learning from cognitive dimensions. They argue that the cognitive and affective are obviously separate since many intelligent, well-educated people lack moral insight or sensitivity and many less intelligent, poorly educated, or uneducated people are morally good. By distinguishing “strong” and “weak” senses of the terms ‘critical thinking’, ‘moral integrity’, and ‘citizenship’ Richard Paul suggests a novel answer to this objection.

Critical thinking, understood as skills alone separate from values, is often used to rationalize prejudice and vested interest. Moral integrity and responsible citizenship, understood merely as “good heartedness”, are themselves susceptible to manipulation by propaganda. The human mind, whatever its conscious good will, is subject to powerful, self-deceptive, unconscious egocentricity of mind. The full development of each characteristic — critical thought, moral integrity, and responsible citizenship — in its strong sense requires and develops the others, in a parallel strong sense. The three are developed together only in an atmosphere, which encourages the intellectual virtues: intellectual courage, intellectual empathy, intellectual good faith or integrity, intellectual perseverance, intellectual fair-mindedness, and faith in reason. The intellectual virtues themselves are interdependent.

Educators and theorists tend to approach the affective and moral dimensions of education as they approach all other dimensions of learning, as compartmentalized domains, and as a collection of learning more or less separate from other learning. As a result, they view moral development as more or less independent of cognitive development. “And why not!” one might imagine the reply. “Clearly there are highly educated, very intelligent people who habitually do evil and very simple, poorly-educated people who consistently do good. If moral development were so intimately connected to cognitive development, how could this be so?”In this paper, I provide the outlines of an answer to that objection by suggesting an intimate connection between critical thinking, moral integrity, and citizenship. Specifically, I distinguish a weak and a strong sense of each and hold that the strong sense ought to guide, not only our understanding of the nature of the educated person, but also our redesigning the curriculum.

There is little to recommend schooling that does not foster what I call intellectual virtues. These virtues include intellectual empathy, intellectual perseverance, intellectual confidence in reason, and an intellectual sense of justice (fair-mindedness). Without these characteristics, intellectual development is circumscribed and distorted, a caricature of what it could and should be. These same characteristics are essential to moral judgment. The “good-hearted” person who lacks intellectual virtues will act morally only when morally grasping a situation or problem does not presuppose intellectual insight. Many, if not most, moral problems and situations in the modern world are open to multiple interpretations and, hence, do presuppose these intellectual virtues.

We are now coming to see how far we are from curricula and teaching strategies that genuinely foster basic intellectual and moral development. Curricula is so highly compartmentalized and teaching so committed to “speed learning” (covering large chunks of content quickly) that it has little room for fostering what I call the intellectual virtues. Indeed, the present structure of curricula and teaching not only strongly discourages their development but also strongly encourages their opposites. Consequently, even the “best” students enter and leave college as largely mis-educated persons, with no real sense of what they do and do not understand, with little sense of the state of their prejudices or insights, with little command of their intellectual faculties — in short, with no intellectual virtues, properly so-called.

Superficially absorbed content, the inevitable by-product of extensive but shallow coverage, inevitably leads to intellectual arrogance. Such learning discourages intellectual perseverance and confidence in reason. It prevents the recognition of intellectual bad faith. It provides no foundation for intellectual empathy, nor for an intellectual sense of fair play. By taking in and giving back masses of detail, students come to believe that they know a lot about each subject — whether they understand or not.

By practicing applying rules and formulas to familiar tasks, they come to feel that getting the answer should always be easy — if you don’t know how to do something, don’t try to figure it out, ask. By hearing and reading only one perspective, they come to think that perspective has a monopoly on truth — any other view must be completely wrong. By accepting (without understanding) that their government’s past actions were all justified, they assume their government never would or could do wrong — if it doesn’t seem right, I must not understand.

The pedagogical implications of my position include these: cutting back on coverage to focus on depth of understanding, on foundational ideas, on intellectual synthesis, and on intellectual experiences that develop and deepen the most basic intellectual skills, abilities, concepts, and virtues. A similar viewpoint was expressed by Whitehead:

The result of teaching small parts of a large number of subjects is the passive reception of disconnected ideas, not illuminated with any spark of vitality. Let the main ideas which are introduced into a child’s education be few and important, and let them be thrown into every combination possible. The child should make them his own, and should understand their application here and now in the circumstances of his actual life. From the very beginning of his education, the child should experience the joy of discovery. The discovery which he has to make is that general ideas give an understanding of that stream of events which pours through his life. (The Aims of Education, p. 14)

To accomplish this re-orientation of curriculum and teaching, we need new criteria of what constitutes success and failure in school. We need to begin this re-orientation as early as possible. Integrating teaching for critical thinking, moral integrity, and citizenship is an essential part of this re-orientation.

Teaching for “Strong Sense” Skills

The term “critical thinking” can be used in either a weak or a strong sense, depending upon whether we think of critical thinking narrowly, as a list or collection of discrete intellectual skills, or, more broadly, as a mode of mental integration, as a synthesized complex of dispositions, values, and skills necessary to becoming a fair-minded, rational person. Teaching critical thinking in a strong sense is a powerful, and I believe necessary means to moral integrity and responsible citizenship.

Intellectual skills in and of themselves can be used either for good or ill, to enlighten or to propagandize, to gain narrow, self-serving ends, or to further the general and public good. The micro-skills themselves, for example, do not define fair-mindedness and could be used as easily by those who are highly prejudiced as those who are not. Those students not exposed to the challenge of strong sense critical thinking assignments (for example, assignments in which they must empathically reconstruct viewpoints that differ strikingly from their own) will not, as a matter of abstract morality or general good-heartedness, be fair to points of view they oppose, nor will they automatically develop a rationally defensible notion of what the public good is on the many issues they must decide as citizens.

Critical thinking, in its most defensible sense, is not simply a matter of cognitive skills. Moral integrity and responsible citizenship are, in turn, not simply a matter of good-heartedness or good intentions. Many good-hearted people cannot see through and critique propaganda and mass manipulation, and most good-hearted people fall prey at times to the powerful tendency to engage in self-deception, especially when their own egocentric interests and desires are at stake. One can be good-hearted and intellectually egocentric at the same time.

The problems of education for fair-minded independence of thought, for genuine moral integrity, and for responsible citizenship are not three separate issues but one complex task. If we succeed with one dimension of the problem, we succeed with all. If we fail with one, we fail with all. Now we are failing with all because we do not clearly understand the interrelated nature of the problem nor how to address it.

The Intellectual and Moral Virtues of the Critical Person

Our basic ways of knowing are inseparable from our basic ways of being. How we think reflects who we are. Intellectual and moral virtues or disabilities are intimately interconnected. To cultivate the kind of intellectual independence implied in the concept of strong sense critical thinking, we must recognize the need to foster intellectual (epistemological) humility, courage, integrity, perseverance, empathy, and fair-mindedness. A brief gloss on each will suggest how to translate these concepts into concrete examples. Intellectual humility will be my only extended illustration. I will leave to the reader’s imagination what sorts of concrete examples could be marshaled in amplifying the other intellectual virtues.

Intellectual Humility: Having a consciousness of the limits of one’s knowledge, including a sensitivity to circumstances in which one’s native egocentrism is likely to function self-deceptively; sensitivity to bias, prejudice, and limitations of one’s viewpoint. Intellectual humility depends on recognizing that one should not claim more than one actually knows. It does not imply spinelessness or submissiveness. It implies the lack of intellectual pretentiousness, boastfulness, or conceit, combined with insight into the logical foundations, or lack of such foundations, of one’s beliefs.
To illustrate, consider this letter from a teacher with a Master’s degree in Physics and Mathematics, with 20 years of high school teaching experience in physics:

After I started teaching, I realized that I had learned physics by rote and that I really did not understand all I knew about physics. My thinking students asked me questions for which I always had the standard textbook answers, but for the first time it made me start thinking for myself, and I realized that these canned answers were not justified by my own thinking and only confused my students who were showing some ability to think for themselves. To achieve my academic goals I had to memorize the thoughts of others, but I had never learned or been encouraged to learn to think for myself.

This is a good example of what I call intellectual humility and, like all intellectual humility, it arises from insight into the nature of knowing. It is reminiscent of the ancient Greek insight that Socrates was the wisest of the Greeks because only he knew how little he really understood. Socrates developed this insight as a result of extensive, in-depth questioning of the knowledge claims of others. He had to think his way to this insight.

If this insight and this humility is part of our goal, then most textbooks and curricula require extensive modification, for typically they discourage rather than encourage it. The extent and nature of “coverage” for most grade levels and subjects implies that bits and pieces of knowledge are easily attained, without any significant consideration of the basis for the knowledge claimed in the text or by the teacher.

The speed with which content is covered contradicts the notion that students must think in an extended way about content before giving assent to what is claimed. Most teaching and most texts are, in this sense, epistemologically unrealistic and hence foster intellectual arrogance in students, particularly in those with retentive memories who can repeat back what they have heard or read. Pretending to know is encouraged. Much standardized testing validates this pretense.

This led Alan Schoenfeld, for example, to conclude that “most instruction in mathematics is, in a very real sense, deceptive and possibly fraudulent”. He cites numerous examples including the following. He points out that much instruction on how to solve word problems in elementary math “… is based on the “key word” algorithm, where the student makes his choice of the appropriate arithmetic operation by looking for syntactic cues in the problem statement. For example, the word ‘left’ in the problem “John had eight apples. He gave three to Mary. How many does John have left?” … serves to tell the students that subtraction is the appropriate operation to perform. (p. 27).”

He further reports the following:

“In a widely used elementary text book series, 97 percent of the problems “solved” by the key-word method would yield (serendipitously?) the correct answer. Students are drilled in the key-word algorithm so well that they will use subtraction, for example, in almost any problem containing the word ‘left’. In the study from which this conclusion was drawn, problems were constructed in which appropriate operations were addition, multiplication, and division. Each used the word ‘left’ conspicuously in its statement and a large percentage of the students subtracted. In fact, the situation was so extreme that many students chose to subtract in a problem that began “Mr. Left . . .”

Schoenfeld then provides a couple of other examples, including the following:

I taught a problem-solving course for junior and senior mathematics majors at Berkeley in 1976. These students had already seen some remarkably sophisticated mathematics. Linear algebra and differential equations were old hat. Topology, Fourier transforms, and measure theory were familiar to some. I gave them a straightforward theorem from plane geometry (required when I was in the tenth grade). Only two of eight students made any progress on it, some of them by using arc length integrals to measure the circumference of a circle. (Schoenfeld,1979). Out of the context of normal course work these students could not do elementary mathematics.

He concludes:

In sum: all too often we focus on a narrow collection of well-defined tasks and train students to execute those tasks in a routine, if not algorithmic fashion. Then we test the students on tasks that are very close to the ones they have been taught. If they succeed on those problems, we and they congratulate each other on the fact that they have learned some powerful mathematical techniques. In fact, they may be able to use such techniques mechanically while lacking some rudimentary thinking skills. To allow them, and ourselves, to believe that they “understand” the mathematics is deceptive and fraudulent.

This approach to learning in math is paralleled in all other subjects. Most teachers got through their college classes mainly by “learning the standard textbook answers” and were neither given an opportunity nor encouraged to determine whether what the text or the professor said was “justified by their own thinking”. To move toward intellectual humility, most teachers need to question most of what they learned, as the teacher above did, but such questioning would require intellectual courage, perseverance, and confidence in their own capacity to reason and understand subject matter through their own thought. Most teachers have not done the kind of analytic thinking necessary for gaining such perspective.

I would generalize as follows: just as the development of intellectual humility is an essential goal of critical thinking instruction, so is the development of intellectual courage, integrity, empathy, perseverance, fair-mindedness, and confidence in reason. Furthermore, each intellectual (and moral) virtue in turn is richly developed only in conjunction with the others. Before we approach this point directly, however, a brief characterization of what I have in mind by each of these traits is in order:

Intellectual Courage: Having a consciousness of the need to face and fairly address ideas, beliefs, or viewpoints toward which we have strong negative emotions and to which we have not given a serious hearing. This courage is connected with the recognition that ideas considered dangerous or absurd are sometimes rationally justified (in whole or in part) and that conclusions and beliefs inculcated in us are sometimes false or misleading. To determine for ourselves which is which, we must not passively and uncritically “accept” what we have “learned”. Intellectual courage comes into play here, because inevitably we will come to see some truth in some ideas considered dangerous and absurd, and distortion or falsity in some ideas strongly held in our social group. We need courage to be true to our own thinking in such circumstances. The penalties for non-conformity can be severe.

Intellectual Empathy: Having a consciousness of the need to imaginatively put oneself in the place of others in order to genuinely understand them, which requires the consciousness of our egocentric tendency to identify truth with our immediate perceptions or long-standing thought or belief. This trait correlates with the ability to reconstruct accurately the viewpoints and reasoning of others and to reason from premises, assumptions, and ideas other than our own. This trait also correlates with the willingness to remember occasions when we were wrong in the past despite an intense conviction that we were right, and with the ability to imagine our being similarly deceived in a case-at-hand.

Intellectual Good Faith (Integrity): Recognition of the need to be true to one’s own thinking; to be consistent in the intellectual standards one applies; to hold one’s self to the same rigorous standards of evidence and proof to which one holds one’s antagonists; to practice what one advocates for others; and to honestly admit discrepancies and inconsistencies in one’s own thought and action.

Intellectual Perseverance: Willingness and consciousness of the need to pursue intellectual insights and truths in spite of difficulties, obstacles, and frustrations; firm adherence to rational principles despite the irrational opposition of others; a sense of the need to struggle with confusion and unsettled questions over an extended period of time to achieve deeper understanding or insight.

Faith in Reason: Confidence that, in the long run, one’s own higher interests and those of humankind at large will be best served by giving the freest play to reason, by encouraging people to come to their own conclusions by developing their own rational faculties; faith that, with proper encouragement and cultivation, people can learn to think for themselves, to form rational viewpoints, draw reasonable conclusions, think coherently and logically, persuade each other by reason and become reasonable persons, despite the deep-seated obstacles in the native character of the human mind and in society as we know it.

Fairmindedness: Willingness and consciousness of the need to treat all viewpoints alike, without reference to one’s own feelings or vested interests, or the feelings or vested interests of one’s friends, community, or nation; implies adherence to intellectual standards without reference to one’s own advantage or the advantage of one’s group.

The Interdependence of the Intellectual Virtues

Let us now consider the interdependence of these virtues, how hard it is to deeply develop any one of them without also developing the others. Consider intellectual humility. To become aware of the limits of our knowledge we need the courage to face our own prejudices and ignorance. To discover our own prejudices in turn we must often empathize with and reason within points of view toward which we are hostile. To do this, we must typically persevere over a period of time, for learning to empathically enter a point of view against which we are biased takes time and significant effort. That effort will not seem justified unless we have the faith in reason to believe we will not be “tainted” or “taken in” by whatever is false or misleading in the opposing viewpoint. Furthermore, merely believing we can survive serious consideration of an “alien” point of view is not enough to motivate most of us to consider them seriously. We must also be motivated by an intellectual sense of justice. We must recognize an intellectual responsibility to be fair to views we oppose. We must feel obliged to hear them in their strongest form to ensure that we do not condemn them out of our own ignorance or bias. At this point, we come full circle back to where we began: the need for intellectual humility.

Or let us begin at another point. Consider intellectual good faith or integrity. Intellectual integrity is clearly difficult to develop. We are often motivated — generally without admitting to or being aware of this motivation — to set up inconsistent intellectual standards. Our egocentric or sociocentric side readily believes positive information about those we like and negative information about those we dislike. We tend to believe what justifies our vested interest or validates our strongest desires. Hence, we all have some innate tendencies to use double standards, which is of course paradigmatic of intellectual bad faith. Such thought often helps us get ahead in the world, maximize our power or advantage, and get more of what we want.

Nevertheless, we cannot easily operate explicitly or overtly with a double standard. We must, therefore, avoid looking at the evidence too closely. We cannot scrutinize our own inferences and interpretations too carefully. Hence, a certain amount of intellectual arrogance is quite useful. I may assume, for example that I know just what you’re going to say (before you say it), precisely what you are really after (before the evidence demonstrates it), and what actually is going on (before I have studied the situation carefully). My intellectual arrogance makes it easier for me to avoid noticing the unjustifiable discrepancy in the standards I apply to you and those I apply to myself. Of course, if I don’t have to empathize with you, that too makes it easier to avoid seeing my duplicity. I am also better off if I don’t feel a keen need to be fair to your point of view. A little background fear of what I might discover if I seriously considered the consistency of my own judgments also helps. In this case, my lack of intellectual integrity is supported by my lack of intellectual humility, empathy, and fair-mindedness.

Going in the other direction, it will be difficult to maintain a double standard between us if I feel a distinct responsibility to be fair to your point of view, understand this responsibility to entail that I must view things from your perspective in an empathic fashion, and conduct this inner inquiry with some humility regarding the possibility of my being wrong and your being right. The more I dislike you personally or feel wronged in the past by you or by others who share your way of thinking, the more pronounced in my character must be the trait of intellectual integrity in order to provide the countervailing impetus to think my way to a fair conclusion.

Defense Mechanisms and the Intellectual Virtues

A major obstacle to developing intellectual virtues is the presence in the human egocentric mind of what Freud has called “defense mechanisms”. Each represents a way to falsify, distort, misconceive, twist, or deny reality. Their presence represents, therefore, the relative weakness or absence of the intellectual virtues. Since they operate in everyone to some degree, no one embodies the intellectual virtues purely or perfectly. In other words, we each have a side of us unwilling to face unpleasant truth, willing to distort, falsify, twist, and misrepresent.

We also know from a monumental mass of psychological research that this side can be powerful, can dominate our minds strikingly. We marvel at, and are often dumfounded by, others whom we consider clear-cut instances of these modes of thinking. What is truly “marvelous”, it seems to me, is how little we take ourselves to be victims of these falsifying thoughts, and how little we try to break them down. The vicious circle seems to be this: because we, by and large, lack the intellectual virtues, we do not have insight into them, but because we lack insight into them, we do not see ourselves as lacking them. They weren’t explicitly taught to us, so we don’t have to explicitly teach them to our children.

Insights, Analyzed Experiences, and Activated Ignorance

Schooling has generally ignored the need for insight or intellectual virtues. This deficiency is intimately connected with another one, the failure of the schools to show students they should not only test what they “learn” in school by their own experience, but also test what they experience by what they “learn” in school. This may seem a hopeless circle, but if we can see the distinction between a critically analyzed experience and an unanalyzed one, we can see the link between the former and insight, and the latter and prejudice, and will be well on our way to seeing how to fill these needs.

We subject little of our experience to critical analysis. We seldom take our experiences apart to judge their epistemological worth. We rarely sort the “lived” integrated experience into its component parts, raw data, our interpretation of the data, or ask ourselves how the interests, goals, and desires we brought to those data shaped and structured that interpretation. Similarly, we rarely seriously consider the possibility that our interpretation (and hence our experience) might be selective, biased, or misleading.

This is not to say that our unanalyzed experiences lack meaning or significance. Quite the contrary, in some sense we assess all experience. Our egocentric side never ceases to catalogue experiences in accord with its common and idiosyncratic fears, desires, prejudices, stereotypes, caricatures, hopes, dreams, and assorted irrational drives. We shouldn’t assume a priori that our rational side dominates the shaping of our experience. Our unanalyzed experiences are some combination of these dual contributors to thought, action, and being. Only through critical analysis can we hope to isolate the irrational dimensions of our experience. The ability to do so grows as we analyze more and more of our experience.

Of course, more important than the sheer number of analyzed experiences is their quality and significance. This quality and significance depends on how much our analyses embody the intellectual virtues. At the same time, the degree of our virtue depends upon the number and quality of experiences we have successfully critically analyzed. What links the virtues, as perfections of the mind, and the experiences, as analyzed products of the mind, is insight. Every critically analyzed experience to some extent produces one or more intellectual virtues. To become more rational it is not enough to have experiences nor even for those experiences to have meanings. Many experiences are more or less charged with irrational meanings. These important meanings produce stereotypes, prejudices, narrow-mindedness, delusions, and illusions of various kinds.

The process of developing intellectual virtues and insights is part and parcel of our developing an interest in taking apart our experiences to separate their rational from their irrational dimensions. These meta-experiences become important benchmarks and guides for future thought. They make possible modes of thinking and maneuvers in thinking closed to the irrational mind.

Some Thoughts on How to Teach for the Intellectual Virtues

To teach for the intellectual virtues, one must recognize the significant differences between the higher order critical thinking of a fair-minded critical thinker and that of a self-serving critical thinker. Though both share a certain command of the micro-skills of critical thinking and hence would, for example, score well on tests such as the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal or the Cornell Critical Thinking Tests, they are not equally good at tasks, which presuppose the intellectual virtues. The self-serving (weak sense) critical thinker would lack the insights that underlie and support these virtues.

I can reason well in domains in which I am prejudiced — hence, eventually, reason my way out of prejudices — only if I develop mental benchmarks for such reasoning. Of course one insight I need is that when I am prejudiced it will seem to me that I am not, and similarly, that those who are not prejudiced as I am will seem to me to be prejudiced. (To a prejudiced person, an unprejudiced person seems prejudiced.) I will come to this insight only insofar as I have analyzed experiences in which I was intensely convinced I was correct on an issue, judgment, or point of view, only to find, after a series of challenges, reconsiderations, and new reasonings, that my previous conviction was in fact prejudiced. I must take this experience apart in my mind, clearly understand its elements and how they fit together (how I became prejudiced; how I inwardly experienced that prejudice; how intensely that prejudice seemed true and insightful; how I progressively broke that prejudice down through serious consideration of opposing lines of reasoning; how I slowly came to new assumptions, new information, and ultimately new conceptualizations).

Only when one gains analyzed experiences of working and reasoning one’s way out of prejudice can one gain the higher order abilities of a fair-minded critical thinker. What one gains is somewhat “procedural” or sequential in that there is a process one must go through; but one also sees that the process cannot be followed out formulaically or algorithmically, it depends on principles. The somewhat abstract articulation of the intellectual virtues above will take on concrete meaning in the light of these analyzed experiences. Their true meaning to us will be given in and by these experiences. We will often return to them to recapture and rekindle the insights upon which the intellectual virtues depend.

Generally, to develop intellectual virtues, we must create a collection of analyzed experiences that represent to us intuitive models, not only of the pitfalls of our own previous thinking and experiencing but also processes for reasoning our way out of or around them. These model experiences must be charged with meaning for us. We cannot be indifferent to them. We must sustain them in our minds by our sense of their importance as they sustain and guide us in our thinking.

What does this imply for teaching? It implies a somewhat different content or material focus. Our own minds and experiences must become the subject of our study and learning. Indeed, only to the extent that the content of our own experiences becomes an essential part of study will the usual subject matter truly be learned. By the same token, the experiences of others must become part of what we study. But experiences of any kind should always be critically analyzed, and students must do their own analyses and clearly recognize what they are doing.

This entails that students become explicitly aware of the logic of experience. All experiences have three elements, each of which may require some special scrutiny in the analytic process: 1) something to be experienced (some actual situation or other); 2) an experiencing subject (with a point of view, framework of beliefs, attitudes, desires, and values); and 3) some interpretation or conceptualization of the situation. To take any experience apart, then, students must be sensitive to three distinctive sets of questions:

1. What are the raw facts, what is the most neutral description of the situation? If one describes the experience this way, and another disagrees, on what description can they agree?
2. What interests, attitudes, desires, or concerns do I bring to the situation? Am I always aware of them? Why or why not?
3. How am I conceptualizing or interpreting the situation in light of my point of view? How else might it be interpreted?

Students must also explore the interrelationships of these parts: How did my point of view, values, desires, etc., affect what I noticed about the situation? How did they prevent me from noticing other things? How would I have interpreted the situation had I noticed those other things? How did my point of view, desires, etc., affect my interpretation? How should I interpret the situation?

If students have many assignments that require them to analyze their experiences and the experiences of others along these lines, with ample opportunity to argue among themselves about which interpretations make the most sense and why, then they will begin to amass a catalogue of critically analyzed experiences. If the experiences illuminate the pitfalls of thought, the analysis and the models of thinking they suggest will be the foundation for their intellectual traits and character.

They will develop intellectual virtues because they had thought their way to them and internalized them as concrete understandings and insights, not because they took them up as slogans. Their basic values and their thinking processes will be in a symbiotic relationship to each other. Their intellectual and affective lives will become more integrated. Their standards for thinking will be implicit in their own thinking, rather than in texts, teachers, or the authority of a peer group.

Conclusion

We do not now teach for the intellectual virtues. If we did, not only would we have a basis for integrating the curriculum, we would also have a basis for integrating the cognitive and affective lives of students. Such integration is the basis for strong sense critical thinking, for moral development, and for citizenship. The moral, social, and political issues we face in everyday life are increasingly intellectually complex.

Their settlement relies on circumstances and events that are interpreted in a variety of (often conflicting) ways. For example, should our government publish misinformation to mislead another government or group that it considers terrorist? Is it ethical to tolerate a “racist” regime such as South Africa, or are we morally obligated to attempt to overthrow it? Is it ethical to support anti-communist groups that use, or have used, torture, rape, or murder as tools in their struggle? When, if ever, should the CIA attempt to overthrow a government it perceives as undemocratic? How can one distinguish “terrorists” from “freedom fighters”?

Or, consider issues that are more “domestic” or “personal”. Should deliberate polluters be considered “criminals”? How should we balance off “dollar losses” against “safety gains”? That is, how much money should we be willing to spend to save human lives? What is deliberate deception in advertising and business practices? Should one protect incompetent individuals within one’s profession from exposure? How should one reconcile or balance one’s personal vested interest against the public good? What moral or civic responsibility exists to devote time and energy to the public good as against one’s private interests and amusements?

These are just a few of the many complex moral, political, and social issues that virtually all citizens must face. The response of the citizenry to such issues defines the moral character of society. These issues challenge our intellectual honesty, courage, integrity, empathy, and fair-mindedness.

Given their complexity, they require perseverance and confidence in reason. People easily become cynical, intellectually lazy, or retreat into simplistic models of learning and the world they learned in school and see and hear on TV. On the other hand, it is doubtful that the fundamental conflicts and antagonisms in the world can be solved or resolved by sheer power or abstract good will. Good-heartedness and power are insufficient for creating a just world. Some modest development of the intellectual virtues seems essential for future human survival and well-being. Whether the energy, the resources, and the insights necessary for this development can be significantly mustered remains open. This is certain: we will never succeed in cultivating traits whose roots we do not understand and whose development we do not foster.

{Taken from Paul, R. (1993). Critical Thinking: What Every Student Needs to Survive in A Rapidly Changing World, Dillon Beach, CA: Foundation For Critical Thinking).

Stroke gives Spiritual Experiences

2009-01-05T18:03:00.000-08:00

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.

So this lady is a little bit foo foo, but what she says is very compelling. Notice how she had these mystical type experiences once her brain started taking damage. Warriorschool and all that stuff merely places extreme stress on people and facilitates such brain processes as well. The fact that the Warriorschool practitioners are open to mystical / magical beliefs makes it more likely that their experiences will be interpreted that way.

Ms Taylor does a good job differentiating between that conscious inner voice of our mind and that emotional and experiential part of us that keeps track of space and time. Once those barriers and boundaries are upset and erased all sorts of amazing things can happen.

I saw this video a long time ago. It was interesting the first time, but I don't like the lady's style enough to listen to the whole thing again. Watch it and gain some perspective.

Here is a quick outline of the parts I found especially interesting: The first set of numbers on the line indicates the number of minutes into the video

7 head ache - I think she starts describing things that could be construed as a sort of mystical / spiritual experience
8 20 no boundaries or at least mixing - definitely spiritual type
9 silent mind energy boundaries - kind of like mu shin and mysticism
10 20
9 50 not distracted by logic / mind - more like zen, where you ignore the constant chatter of your mind

no emotional 30 year baggage - look how excited she was about that. That is what can or did happen to those of us who did Warriorschool. If you got deep enough into it, you felt like you were getting set free, healed and reworking the junk from the past. It is very powerful.

15 nirvana - I am sure Prather would have loved to bring us all here. Then he could have taken credit for it and turned us into super-cult-zombies...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Virtues and Near Death Experiences

2008-12-24T17:08:00.000-08:00

Compassion, Serenity and a sense of Peace

I was reading some article that mentioned Near Death Experiences or N.D.E. It indicated that many people who experienced a near death event were profoundly changed by it. Many of the changes reported were the same things I was learning from Warriorschool and Jeff Prather. I got that sense, that the WS'ers had that compassion, serenity and peace that only a select few in history were aware of or even dreamed to achieve. That is what attracted me to them and held me there. Who would have thought, that these feelings and conditions can be replicated in a lab and do not require any sort of spiritual beliefs. Anyway, I still feel that these sort of virtues are some of the most valuable things people can obtain and I wish everyone could become aware of them and acquire them, but that is probably not possible. For now, just be aware that these experiences are merely brain processes, kicked in by extreme stress or by brain problems. Don't surrender your free will over to WS or Jeff Prather, just because they talk about awesome things and help you experience awesome things. They have no 'spiritual power' they are merely facilitating absolutely primal experiences. They do not have access to a deeper or higher reality. Read up, educate yourself. Free yourself from exploitation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-death_experience

Here are some excerpts

A near-death experience (NDE) refers to a broad range of personal experiences associated with impending death, encompassing multiple possible sensations ranging from detachment from the body, feelings of levitation, extreme fear, total serenity, security, or warmth, the experience of absolute dissolution, and the presence of a light, which some people interpret as a deity[1] Some see NDEs as a paranormal and spiritual glimpse into the afterlife.

Such cases are usually reported after an individual has been pronounced clinically dead, or otherwise very close to death, hence the entitlement near-death experience. Many NDE reports, however, originate from events that are not life threatening. With recent developments in cardiac resuscitation techniques, the number of NDEs reported has increased. Most of the scientific community regards such experiences as hallucinatory,[2][3][4] while paranormal specialists and some mainstream scientists claim them to be evidence of an afterlife.[5][6][7]

Characteristics

In some cases, a NDE any particular person experiences varies depending on the beliefs that the person held[citation needed]. Children, who typically do not have enough time to develop strongly towards one faith, had very limited NDEs. Examples of this include a boy simply having talked to his brother in his NDE and a daughter having a conversation with her mother.[12][13] The phenomenology of an NDE usually includes physiological, psychological and alleged transcendental aspects.[14] Typically, the experience follows a distinct progression:[15][16][17]

1. A very unpleasant sound/noise is the first sensory impression to be noticed (R. Moody: Life after Life);
2. A sense of being dead;
3. Pleasant emotions; calmness and serenity;
4. An out-of-body experience; a sensation of floating above one's own body and seeing the surrounding area;
5. Floating up a blue tunnel with a strong, bright light or garden at the end;
6. Meeting deceased relatives or spiritual figures;
7. Encountering a being of light, or a light (often interpreted as being the deity or deities they personally believe in);
8. Being given a life review (the "life-flashing-before-your-eyes" phenomenon);
9. Reaching a border or boundary;
10. A feeling of being returned to the body, often accompanied by a reluctance.
11. Feeling of warmth even though naked.

Some people have also experienced extremely distressing NDEs, which can manifest in forewarning of emptiness or a sense of dread towards the cessation of their life.

According to the Rasch model-validated NDE scale, a "core" near-death experience encompasses peace, joy, and harmony, followed by insight and mystical or religious experiences.[18] The most intense NDEs are reported to have an awareness of things occurring in a different place or time, and some of these observations are said to have been evidential.

Clinical circumstances that are thought to lead to an NDE include conditions such as: cardiac arrest, shock in postpartum loss of blood or in perioperative complications, septic or anaphylactic shock, electrocution, coma, intracerebral haemorrhage or cerebral infarction, attempted suicide, near-drowning or asphyxia, apnoea, and serious depression.[17] Many NDEs occur after a crucial experience (e.g. when a patient can hear that he or she is declared to be dead by a doctor or nurse), or when a person has the subjective impression to be in a fatal situation (e.g. during a close call automobile accident). In contrast to common belief, attempted suicides do not lead more often to unpleasant NDEs than unintended near-death situations.[19]

Effects

Near-death experiences can have tremendous effects on the people who have them, their families, and medical workers. Changes in values and beliefs often occur in the experiencer after a near-death experience, including changes in personality and outlook on life, such as a greater appreciation for life, higher self-esteem, greater compassion for others, a heightened sense of purpose and self-understanding, and a desire to learn. The changes may also include an increased physical sensitivity to and diminished tolerance of light, alcohol and drugs.

Matthew Dovel, author of "My Last Breath", having had two near-death experiences, discusses the side effects associated with having had a NDE (Empathic, telepathy, clairaudience, clairvoyance, precognition, remote viewing, animals, children, and timepieces). [33]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-death_experience

Steven Pinker on Science vs Folk Wisdom

2008-12-24T03:08:00.000-08:00

I thought I had posted this other mp3 that I found a long time ago, but I could not find it on the blog.

http://libsyn.com/media/pointofinquiry/POI_2007_10_26_Steven_Pinker.mp3

A world renowned Linguist is being interviewed about his thoughts on science. I remember him talking about the purpose of University and peoples natural tendencies to believe inaccurate information. The entire show is fascinating to listen to.

If I remember correctly he says something along the lines of:

"The purpose of the first few years of University is to un-teach students all the things they think they know, which are based often on faulty folk wisdom".

I am sure he had some other great nuggets in there, but I still need to look for my notes. It was a fascinating interview, because he explained so clearly, how easily we deceive ourselves. We need science and data to give us an accurate view of the world. He is a convincing speaker. Check it out.

Astrology Skeptics and View of Exploitation

2008-12-18T00:21:00.000-08:00

Watch how Michael Shermer, the skeptic tries to debunk astrology. Ex-astrologers admit that they were merely practicing psychology without a license.

1 minute into it, you will see how a man reads for a business woman. He brings up things like "plucking your eyebrows, or else they become bushy" in order to make the woman feel self conscious and embarrassed. It obviously worked, because you can totally see her reaction. Once the astrologer placed himself into an authority position and realized he was making a connection he kept pressing in. It's amazing to see how easy it is to throw out things, make contact, give the impression of a mystical sort of skill, watch the reaction and then capitalize on it. For most of us cult victims this is an amazing thing to watch. We were always on the receiving end. Now you can see it from the eyes of the cult masters and the predators. It is creepy.

The sad thing with this video, is that Michael Shermer actually fails to debunk the astrologer. He had a compelling victory in what seemed to be a well crafted scientifically designed test. Make of it what you want. Watch it and learn from it. I found the video very compelling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N1dIUTbZTo

Why do we see faces in things like clouds on 9/11?

2008-12-18T00:15:00.000-08:00

Do you remember how the bracelet showed the face of satan in the 9/11 WTC smoke clouds? Do you remember how you were supposed to see faces in the rocks and in other places? Well there is a scientifically based explanation for that. Don't let your basic human nature fool you. Find out what science and scientists have to say about this phenomenon.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=patternicity-finding-meaningful-patterns

November, 2008 in Mind & Brain
Patternicity: Finding Meaningful Patterns in Meaningless Noise
Why the brain believes something is real when it is not

By Michael Shermer

Why do people see faces in nature, interpret window stains as human figures, hear voices in random sounds generated by electronic devices or find conspiracies in the daily news? A proximate cause is the priming effect, in which our brain and senses are prepared to interpret stimuli according to an expected model. UFOlogists see a face on Mars. Religionists see the Virgin Mary on the side of a building. Paranormalists hear dead people speaking to them through a radio receiver. Conspiracy theorists think 9/11 was an inside job by the Bush administration. Is there a deeper ultimate cause for why people believe such weird things? There is. I call it “patternicity,” or the tendency to find meaningful patterns in meaningless noise.

Traditionally, scientists have treated patternicity as an error in cognition. A type I error, or a false positive, is believing something is real when it is not (finding a nonexistent pattern). A type II error, or a false negative, is not believing something is real when it is (not recognizing a real pattern—call it “apatternicity”). In my 2000 book How We Believe (Times Books), I argue that our brains are belief engines: evolved pattern-recognition machines that connect the dots and create meaning out of the patterns that we think we see in nature. Sometimes A really is connected to B; sometimes it is not. When it is, we have learned something valuable about the environment from which we can make predictions that aid in survival and reproduction. We are the ancestors of those most successful at finding patterns. This process is called association learning, and it is fundamental to all animal behavior, from the humble worm C. elegans to H. sapiens.

Unfortunately, we did not evolve a Baloney Detection Network in the brain to distinguish between true and false patterns. We have no error-detection governor to modulate the pattern-recognition engine. (Thus the need for science with its self-correcting mechanisms of replication and peer review.) But such erroneous cognition is not likely to remove us from the gene pool and would therefore not have been selected against by evolution.
Also in this issue of Scientific American

* Letters to the Editors Readers Respond on "Facing the Freshwater Crisis"
* News Scan Digging Ancient Iraq: How Mesopotamia Has Weathered the War
* News Scan The Science of Finding a Face in the Crowd

In a September paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, “The Evolution of Superstitious and Superstition-like Behaviour,” Harvard University biologist Kevin R. Foster and University of Helsinki biologist Hanna Kokko test my theory through evolutionary modeling and demonstrate that whenever the cost of believing a false pattern is real is less than the cost of not believing a real pattern, natural selection will favor patternicity. They begin with the formula pb > c, where a belief may be held when the cost (c) of doing so is less than the probability (p) of the benefit (b). For example, believing that the rustle in the grass is a dangerous predator when it is only the wind does not cost much, but believing that a dangerous predator is the wind may cost an animal its life.

The problem is that we are very poor at estimating such probabilities, so the cost of believing that the rustle in the grass is a dangerous predator when it is just the wind is relatively low compared with the opposite. Thus, there would have been a beneficial selection for believing that most patterns are real.

Through a series of complex formulas that include additional stimuli (wind in the trees) and prior events (past experience with predators and wind), the authors conclude that “the inability of individuals—human or otherwise—to assign causal probabilities to all sets of events that occur around them will often force them to lump causal associations with non-causal ones. From here, the evolutionary rationale for superstition is clear: natural selection will favour strategies that make many incorrect causal associations in order to establish those that are essential for survival and reproduction.”

In support of a genetic selection model, Foster and Kokko note that “predators only avoid nonpoisonous snakes that mimic a poisonous species in areas where the poisonous species is common” and that even such simple organisms as “Escherichia coli cells will swim towards physiologically inert methylated aspartate presumably owing to an adaptation to favour true aspartate.”

Such patternicities, then, mean that people believe weird things because of our evolved need to believe nonweird things.

Note: This article was originally published with the title, "Patternicity".

Temporal Lobe Seizures linked to Religious Experiences

2008-12-18T00:05:00.000-08:00

Wow, I found a great video tonight. Watch how a brain scientist Ramachandran displays how Temporal Lobe Seizures can lead to the most profound Religious Experiences. This should make you question any major spiritual experiences you may have had in Warriorschool. It is both an insightful, courageous and hilarious story.

Action Skeptics: My Brush With a Cult: Archive

2008-11-09T07:26:00.000-08:00

Action Skeptics: My Brush With a Cult: Archive

Comedic Relief "The God Warrior"

2008-10-31T21:07:00.000-07:00

Check out this lady from the Wife Swap television program. She is very much into the spiritual life. Watch how she flips out when she finds out that her new family are into dark spiritual practices. This is the kind of thing that can happen to your head if you get involved with groups like Warriorcult. Beware Warriorshippers, this could be you in a few years. The only difference is that you have guns!

Budoseek.net and Prather Warriorschool Cult

2008-10-31T20:59:00.000-07:00

Yet another web site talking about Prather and his cult

http://www.budoseek.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=24739

Here is a quick quote from one of the 3 pages

Well, after reading all of that, I wasn't sure I was going to reply-where to begin.

First off, my sometime affiliation/play/involvement with Bujinkan came from one thing and one thing only-the desire to continue to develop my hanbo skills. That said, I have found that some practitioners/teachers have substantial skills, and some only think they do. No matter. I wouldn't call the Bujinkan a cult, though, like a lot of martial arts organizations, it has some cultish elements, and like a lot of organizations that are spread away from any centralized control, these elements can and do blossom into something a little more malevolent, like all the political bickering about who's teaching the real stuff.

As for the "Warriorship" training of Jeff Prather, while I have no first hand experience with it, it sounds a little off, and a little okay. The okay parts, as far as Native American spirtual practice goes might be difficult for some of you to agree with, but here goes.

24 hrs. of fasting is no big deal, and the inipi (sweatlodge) is not particularly difficult-especially for only 45 minutes. Sundancers bind themselves to a tree and dance staring at the sun for four days without food or water . This ritual takes place every summer, all over the west, and a Sundancer typically commits to participating four times. Sundancers-the more pious ones, anyway- usually refrain from sex and alchohol in the four months leading up to Sundance-try explaining that to your white wife. (Never mind getting her to come support the vividly brutal thing that you're doing to yourself as a form of prayer.....)

And, typically, one does go about "asking for permission" and/or "saying thank you" for the elements used in ritual. One doesn't go digging into the earth without asking-and apologizing. That's just the way things are done.

The whole "females preparing and serving" thing is also pretty common to Indian cultures, and doesn't indicate the entire place of women in Indian society. It's worth pointing out that the "Supreme Court" of the Five Nations was composed entirely of women, and their word was final.

On the other hand, the co-option of these rituals and social constructs by various non-Native organizations and movements if troubling and dangerous-where did Mr. Prather learn to conduct the sweat? Was he given permission to pass it on to others? Do they have the necessary skills and training to conduct the ceremony in a physically and spiritually safe manner? What is the leadership role of these women? ALso, the stories of submitting to the leader's will are a big bell ringer-not very Native or denoting of "warriorship" at all.

So, yeah, it's probably a cult-I know nothing of the allegations against Mr. Prather, and have only heard good things about his skills. I don't necessarily think it's a dangerous cult-just not something for the already weak-minded to get involved with.

Mr. Prather might be another story altogether, though. What do I know?

Ad , while it seems kind of hokey, a lot of the statements the writers took issue with are accepted sociological observations: our larger society, while it posesses many avenues for rites of passage, typically lacks organized ones. While a rite of passage might be as simple as having a beer with the old man, taking one's first deer, or getting your driver's license, they aren't necessarily denoted as such.

I think the writers were right to get out, because it wasn't for them, and, as they found out, Mr. Prather might not be such a great guy. But I also think they're a little soft to confuse a 24 hour fast and 45 minute sweat with brainwashing-but hey, I'm a Sundancer, and I drink nobody's Kool-Aid.

As for the whole "warrior" thing, it's also overdone. Who wants to be a warrior? I'd rather just be able to tell a good story now and then.....of course, it depends upon how you define "warrior," and that's probably a whole other thread.
__________________
Aaron J. Cuffee

Mentalism Podcast Interview

2008-10-31T17:18:00.000-07:00

Project Alpha

Here is a short article I copied from Wikipedia about the project alpha. It was a project in which a magician and skeptic used two kids to fool scientists into believing they had supernatural powers.

Read below for an idea of what happened:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

For the military project, see Project Alpha (military).

Project Alpha was an elaborate hoax orchestrated by the stage magician and skeptic James Randi. It involved planting two fake psychics, Steve Shaw (known as Banachek) and Michael Edwards, into a paranormal research project. During the initial stages of the investigation, the researchers came to believe that the pair's psychic powers were real. However, more formal experiments, as well as criticism from both the parapsychology community and Mr. Randi himself, led them to dismiss their initial trust.[1] The hoax was later revealed publicly.

The success of Project Alpha led Randi to use variations of the technique on several other occasions. Perhaps the most famous example led to the downfall of TV evangelist and faith healer Peter Popoff, when Randi had a man pose as a woman with uterine cancer, which Popoff happily "cured". In another example, Randi hired a performance artist to pose as a channeller known as "Carlos", who was presented on Australian TV and soon had a wide following. After this hoax was exposed the artist was constantly approached by people who believed him to be genuine, even if he told them directly that he was an actor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Alpha

I listened to a podcast recently from Penn Jillettes radio show. He was interviewing the leading Mentalist and Alpha Project kid Banachek. They also had on another famous magician called Ian Swiss.

I will post the file later, but I just wanted to post some of my notes here really quickly.

3:59 - 5:30 Talking about Korean Yogic Flying Priminovin

6:00

8:00 The Alpha Project Kids were intended to fool the scientists. The hoax lasted 180 hours and was spread over 4 years. The scientists had the goal of performing various psychic tests on the kids and merely accepted the two kids into their program, because they applied for it. Neither of the two were trained by James Randi. Randi did however help the kids come up with their plan on how to organize the proceedings of the hoax. None of the scientist engaged in any sort of background check on the kids. Later though the scientists claimed that they had had other experts check on the kids. Randi had encouraged the kids to play up their abilities in their home town as best as they could, in case there ever was a background check, but all were surprised that the scientists were so unprofessional in their selection of subjects. Randi even joked that the scientists become arrogant when they receive their Ph. D.'s saying in their hearts: "I have a Ph. D. they can't fool me". Randi had offered his services as a magician to help scientists debunk those who claim to have paranormal powers, but the scientists would always reject his help. Well in this case Randi took advantage of their arrogance to show them a lesson that they need to be more weary of their own beliefs and of those making outrageous claims.

One of the directives of the Alpha Project Kids was to answer honestly that they are using tricks and deceptions, but only if they are directly asked and confronted. Otherwise they were to continue. The scientists sadly never directly asked or questioned the kids. They were true believers and never even questioned nor catalogued their own belief systems.

17:00 Spit on Camera = ghosts

19:30 stop

28:12 Being set up by Howard Stern as magic geniuses

30:47

31:20

32:59 Tricks, easy cheat, 36 seances, mentalists are able to deceive people because they are always one step ahead and know how you will think. People who come to the show are already primed. Synchronicity and coincidences will always give the mentalist an opportunity to connect dots and seem to have supernatural and magical abilities.

This is a rough draft post. You will have to listen to the entire 1 hour podcast once I post it. It will be worth it. It was fascinating to hear how these amateur magicians were able to fool scientists for so long under controlled circumstances.

At one point the two kids actually broke into the lab and bent all sorts of silverware that was inside of an aquarium. In the morning the scientist called them and the kids talked about a strange 'dream' he had had. He told the scientist that he had bent all the silverwear and the scientist exclaimed: "Your dream came true!". He totally believed the kid had psychically bent the silverwear.

Those of us who have been deceived by Warriorschool most likely didn't approach it with a scientific perspective. We weren't skeptical or suspicious enough and therefore we were duped. But even the most sophisticated of people can be fooled so easily as well. In the end it boils down to the fact that you either have a skeptical toolbox and can sort through all the frauds and lies or you don't.

http://www.pennfans.net/radio_show_archive/The.Penn.Jillette.Radio.Show.2007.02.28.mp3

If you click the link directly above this line, it should take you to the Jillette Podcast site where you can listen to the full podcast.

Rape Victim of Warriorschool

2008-10-20T23:24:00.000-07:00

I was just reading some more of the Action Skeptics web site today and found a few comments I wanted to highlight. They are an account of a woman who says she suffered from rape while she was in Warriorschool. Read below.

http://actionskeptics.blogspot.com/2007/04/my-brush-with-cult-part-1-background.html

Post on

Lisa said...

Yael et. all,
I have done some research not on cults, but on cult recovery due to my deep involvement with Warriorschool. A cult is a wolf in sheep's clothing. The sweat lodge and all the nice people you met, including me (I gave you a ride to the airport after one Initiation I think) are the sheep part - all soft, fluffy and non threatening. "We're all free to graze or not." The wolf part comes out during the apprenticeship part that you narrowly missed. That is when you have committed yourself to the organization. I lost everything because of Warriorschool. I was raped by the founder and told it was a healing. I was asked to lie to other bracelets and simple folks who just came for the "free sweat". You should consider yourself lucky. Anything else is just mincing words. Call it a cult or call it just plain wrong, Warriorschool was more than it claimed to be. The best lie is sandwiched between two truths. Yeah there was some good stuff, but that was just the bait. And the good stuff was nothing new or unique. The bad stuff was really bad, I am (barely) living proof. And anyway, even if you're not convinced it was a cult, you should have a little more respect for those that have been hurt by this group. I'm glad you're out. You seemed like a nice girl when I met you.
12 June, 2008 04:13

Sensitivity Training and Brainwashing like Warriorship Cult

2008-09-29T07:39:00.000-07:00

Penn &Teller Bullshit Sensitivity Training Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HrDzfo0n2Y

0:30 to 1:43

In this article I recorded as many quotes and explanations as I could. Just watch the video. I will try to re edit my writing in the future. This is a rough draft.

Penn and Teller explain how sensitivity training in the workplace is bullshit. I don't totally agree with them, but they do an analysis of the process and show that a large part of it is based on financial gain and law suit prevention. I am sure that it teaches people how to be more courteous, understanding and respectful of others and I don't mind that. There are some seriously offensive and rude individuals out there, and no one should have to put up with their crap in the workplace. Penn and Teller however want to expose the manipulative and brain washing aspects of this training and I found it compelling and similar to Warriorship.

My favorite part was of Kurt Lewins who is considered the father of modern psychology. He had escaped Germany while it was controlled by the nazi's. His goal was to understand group dynamics that the Germans had so successfully used. He wanted to develop a similar system that could be used for good rather than evil. He was the original professional manipulator, before it became the thing to do.

His formula for achieving this goal of cohesive group dynamics involved a manipulation process of 3 stages. All parts were directed at changing the mindset of the people.

1. Unfreezing - in which the persons mindset is opened up
2. Change - in which the persons mindset is modified
3. Freezing - in which the mindset is crystallized, so that it will function in a solid fashion without being compromised to its original and flawed position. The goal is to make the mindset function in a subconscious way. Ideally the subject would become aware of their own mindset and continue to modify it to match the indoctrination philosophy. This would be the ideal stage.

In Warriorship all of these stages were pretty clear. The power of any cult or mind control organization is that the standards and beliefs are raised to such a high level, that the members are constantly putting themselves in stages where they unfreeze themselves, change their mindset to conform to the philosophies or books of the organization and then radically cling to the new mindset.

In Warriorship I wasn't being forced by my 'Job' or some lame ass 'Corporation' to change my mindset in order to be a better 'employee'. In Warriorship and Budo Taijutsu I had accidentally found some great people who had far more wisdom than I did. My passion led me to them, their lives were much more sophisticated, I wanted that life and therefore I was willing to do anything to join them. The warrior mindset allowed them to overcome fears, weaknesses and develop boldness that is unheard of in the civilian realm. That was such a powerful concept to me, that I wanted to scrap my own mindset and take on that of people with real experience and knowledge of the wisodom of the past. Once I had made that realization and commitment I lowered my guard and became an easy victim.

I have been to some political trainings and stock market investment trainings which were not as powerful, sexy or interesting as Warriorship. They didn't capture my heart, nor inspire me to an equivalent degree. I was very skeptical of the politicians and the stock market guys who were trying to sell me $45,000 worth of training and I never even expected that they would try to brainwash me. But after 3 x 8 hour days of listening to these groups I noticed that they had put me under a spell. That spell was the exact same that Warriorship had put on me. I became enthralled and mesmerized by the charismatic leader. I became exceptionally happy, because my mindset had been favorably changed to prepare me for greatness and opportunities I had never before considered. I had powerfully and practically performed actions that gave me tantalizing social feedback (expanding my credit line and performing speeches in front of the groups). The training also exhausted my attention to such a degree that my mind was silenced so that I wasn't even able to intellectually or critically analyze things. I was also often confused and the teachers could not sufficiently explain simple topics to me. In other words, my brain started shutting down. By the end of the 'trainings' I was ready to be taken advantage of. I knew that I should just avoid doing anything and watched how others paid $45,000 for bullshit training or became convinced and dedicated to this political party.

The facilitator is a professional change agent and she will start with affection and then move people around to a preconceived opinion that has already been ordained.

The change agent wants to achieve homogenized thought

These manipulations are considered horribly unethical and anybody can use these techniques.

according to Beverly Eckman
Author Lecturer Speechwriter and Columnist

Their training will yoke every individual to the collective dog sled

Carrot = a better way to treat people that is more respectful, compassionate or virtuous. Better identity and wise world view and framework. Bringing everyone onto the same page and avoiding unnecessary or accidental conflicts.

Trap = surrender of individuality, personal defensive mental framework and ability to guide your own identity.

They don't want people who will think outside of the box.

They want people who won't make waves.

Mentalism Magic and how Human Nature Leads us to Superstition and Exploitation

2008-09-09T01:28:00.000-07:00

Mentalism is a form of magic. Instead of using objects or slight of hand, mentalism seeks to trick, deceive and lead the mind. Ideally it is meant for entertainment and can be a very fun thing to watch.

Some people get carried away with the craft of mentalism however and get caught up in the power, fame and status it bestows on them. Those people then use that power to exploit others. Mentalism is possible, because most of us are extremely unaware of ourselves, life or liars and can't anticipate exceptional deceptions which might be perpetrated upon us by predators. Most of us who watch mentalism for entertainment can walk away from the experience more aware of ourselves and possible scams we might encounter in the future, but there are others who are not so fortunate. Some people can't watch magic or mentalism and learn from it. There is a part of the population that can not separate reality from fantasy. They will be fascinated by the show and want to believe in 'magical' and 'mystical' things no matter what. These people will be convinced that all the tricks were spiritual and supernatural paranormal events, even if you tell them otherwise. It is our human nature to be amazed and believe in spiritual things, even if they are not logical, real or provable.

I recently listened to a science podcast which discussed this very aspect of our human nature.

MP3
http://media.libsyn.com/media/pointofinquiry/POI_2008_07_25_Lewis_Wolpert_a.mp3

Web Page
http://www.pointofinquiry.org/lewis_wolpert_the_evolutionary_origins_of_belief/

"Lewis Wolpert - The Evolutionary Origins of Belief"

In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Lewis Wolpert explores the evolutionary origins of belief, and argues that atheism is unnatural while belief in gods is not. He details the relationship between tool-making and belief in God, and shows how human primates are unique in this regard. He explains why he thinks it is so hard for people to give up their unbelievable beliefs. He shares his views on organized religion, including how it benefits believers, and examines if the same tools of science and reason can equally be applied to beliefs about the paranormal. He also debates the usefulness of argumentation with believers.

We are hard wired to believe in God and supernatural explanations which might prevent us from discovering the true causes of events. If indeed this is our default behavior as humans, then it follows from this, that those humans who can restrain their human nature, think, study, research and test their beliefs will learn more about 'true reality' than the untrained humans. Those who can restrain their silly human nature will then easily be able to manipulate and control those people who are less knowledgeable and undisciplined.

Lewis Wolpert is Professor of Biology as Applied to Medicine in the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology of University College, London, focusing his research on the mechanisms involved in the development of the embryo. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the Royal Society of Literature. So feel free to listen to the expert discuss the matter on his MP3 interview.

Below is a six part video from the BBC which will explain mentalism and how it works. All of the experts admit that tricks and deception can be used to bring about any sort of belief, worship or devotion. Reality and fact are of no issue, but only the audiences perception plays a role. If you can anticipate peoples thoughts or make them believe that you are doing things in an extrasensory sort of impossible way, then you will blow them away and fascinate them. Some people will be entertained and amazed, but others will be convinced you have supernatural powers. Once people start believing you have supernatural powers, anything could really happen. One lady explained how the press began wildly exaggerating stories about her skills and her credibility kept growing and growing beyond what she had truly done. Yuri Geller happened to pawn himself off as a sort of Miracle Worker (through tricks and deception) in a time of chaotic turmoil in the world and gained a nearly instantaneous and world wide following overnight. People wanted and needed to believe in a person with a supernatural and 'non-human' ability to solve problems. Later it is explained how 2 women started the spiritualism movement in the USA through simple deception and trickery, and people wouldn't believe them when they explained how they conned everyone. There is an inner nature inside of us that wants to believe these things. Once a person is exposed to something like magic, mentalism or powerful 'spiritual experiences' like they happen in Warriorschool it can short circuit our logic and reason and we can fall into a sort of mindless devotion. It is spooky, but once you see it at work you might be able to gain some perspective or wake up a little. When Jeff Prather was teaching us martial arts, meditation, or Warriorschool stuff he was 20, 30 or 40 years ahead of us. He knew a lot about human nature that most of us were ignorant of. He could anticipate our thoughts and behavior. He didn't have to read minds, he just had to recognize the conclusions we would be coming to. Those conclusions would be obvious if you had enough experience. Just like the mentalist he would have been able to use this 'wisdom' or knowledge to his advantage. Jeff Prather and Budo Taijutsu both claim that we have supernatural psychic powers and that played into his hands as well, giving him the credibility of a mystical spiritual authority. He become a sort of miracle worker to us and his abilities were wildly exaggerated. He received all the feedback that a scam artist and fraudster can elicit through tricks. That should make you suspicious right there.

Watch and learn:

If you notice in the last few videos Derren Brown is on the train and makes a man forget where he is headed. Then he touches his head and helps him remember. These are types of things that Jeff Prather would do to us during martial arts or with the God Hand exercises. He showed us he had abilities we never knew were truly possible. He would tell us things and show us things that would absolutely fascinate us and that takes you out of the boring and mundane. His teachings transported you back to that time when you were a child and you were utterly amazed by life. The person who can do that to you, becomes immediately powerful in your eyes. If you can't explain what is going on, but enjoy the experience, then that person can then take advantage of you, which is what Jeff Prather is doing.

Some people accuse the astrologers, psychics and religious/spiritual hypocrites of this world for being complete frauds, scammers and without a conscience. Although it might be absolutely true for some it might not be true for others. I know when I was heavily involved with the spiritual life, I actually was convinced that spiritual realities were at play. I engaged others on this level and truly believed I was bringing these spiritual treasures to them. Looking back on it all, I don't hold it against myself. It was absolutely natural, absolutely convincing and absolutely exhilarating. Although I was wrong, I am glad I went through this whole experience. It was worth it. Now that I know better I am glad I came out the other end free and intact.

Here is a quote from Michael Shermer who is explaining what Skepticism and Science are:

"The default position in science is that: whatever it is you think you believe in, it is not true, unless you prove it otherwise"

In other words, humans are stupid and wrong. Their natural tendencies will lead them astray. Only science is a true guide in separating superstition from truth, and reality from fantasy.

Steven Pinker said:

"The first few years of college are designed to merely unteach everything the students think they know from personal experience, feeling and folk wisdom, because it is most likely completely wrong". That is a paraphrase.

I wish I had learned more about mentalism, magic, science and skepticism as a kid. It would have saved me a lot of trouble. It isn't too late. We can keep educating ourselves.

Warriorschool Negative Conditions Analysis

2008-09-04T10:50:00.000-07:00

If you consider Warriorschool and all of the things it offers you, you might be astonished. But consider what might be its dark side, that you would leave it all for, if you found out about it. Let's analize the darker side of Warriorschool. If you knew these things were going on personally would you still stay? Would it still be worth all the fellowship or teaching?

Child Molestation - I have not heard of anything like this happening in Warriorschool.

Rape - There are allegations and a possible lawsuit related to this. Considering the vulnerability of people, the spiritual and sexual healing component, this is a real serious possibility.

Murder - I know for a fact that one of the most senior 'englightened' guys has absolutely undoubtedly murdered people. This guy ended up leaving the organization, because Prather kept trying to get him to break up with his girlfriend who is now his wife. Long story short, this guy was out drinking one night with a bunch of friends and they encountered a group of men who were armed. The murderer told the story as if he defended himself from the attackers, but I believe that he and his buddies did something to bring the situation on themselves. In the fight this guy ended up killing at least one person. I always found this story so suspicious, but when you are with an organization like Warriorschool you give your friends the benefit of the doubt. You figure, well he just defended himself from a bunch of thugs and robbers. Now I think different. Anyway, once I had left Warriorschool I happened to be invited to this guys place of work and met some people that used to work with him. They said he was a 'scary and dangerous guy'. I asked for clarification and the ex-coworker told me about a conversation they had had at one time. The Warriorschooler had said: "Do you know how to tell if you killed a man?" And his ex-coworker said 'No'. Then the Warriorschooler replied: "You can smell it, when he shits his pants after you snap his neck". The way the guy told the story was so sick. I was disgusted to think I admired this guy and thought he was enlightened at one time. The other thing I remember tripping me out about this guy, was the fact that he visited a prostitute while he was engaged to the woman he actually ended up marrying. How retarded, and to talk about it. That didn't win any respect from me. All of these things just kept adding up.

Serious bodily injury (ill willed) - I know for a fact that Jeff Prather seriously lost his temper one day and gave a student third degree burns on his hand with an AR-15 rifle.

Brainwashing - If you study cults and brainwashing you will absolutely confirm that this is going on.

Illegal activity that could get people arrested - I know of one guy who was a bracelet who ended up leaving the organization in deep fear. He was afraid of retaliation and was convinced that Jeff Prather had asked him to commit or do something that could possibly get him put into a dangerous prison. He kept saying: "I have visited prisons and I told myself 'I will never be locked up with those animals! They are animals in there". The same guy would get into fights with his wife and beat her. She may have hit him too. Another top bracelet would beat his wife, punch her in the stomach is what I heard. And another guy at the very top supposedly would beat his wife as well. That is criminal behavior and if it is true, then some of those guys who work for the government are endangering their careers. Some law enforcement careers will actually possibly fire you or at least take away your weapon if you are convicted of a crime or domestic violence.

Enslavement of trainees - Ok not full blown enslavement, but something kind of like it.

Illogical and unverifiable teachings - The worldview of Warriorschool is illogical. They try to say that all religions are practically the same, or that is the message I got. If you know anything about world religions you will know that they completely contradict and are at odds with each other on many levels. Also I can't verify if Jeff Prather was supposedly resuscitated or resurrected.

Finding out the leader is a 'bad' person - yes, he cheated on his wife, seriously injured students in bad will and is taking sexual liberties with students.

Anti-Bible, Anti-Christian, Anti-Jesus Christ beliefs or teachings - they will yell at you if you quote the bible and talk bad about you if you are committed to the real Jesus Christ of the gospels.

Drunkenness - I have also seen Jeff Prather wasted off of alcohol and arguing with people about driving home drunk. What morons, putting other peoples lives at risk. That was one of the last things I needed to see them do.

Warriorschool Should I Stay or Should I Go?

2008-09-04T10:35:00.000-07:00

If you are taking some time out to think about staying in Warriorschool or leaving it, consider this.

1. Why did you join Warriorschool? What exactly was your own personal reason?
To experience a richer life?
To be like the bracelets whom you admire?
To challenge yourself and get to know yourself? To live with purpose and at your full potential?

2. Warriorschool is a powerful organization, teaching powerful things. There could be accidents, disgruntled detractors and basic human weaknesses that become visible. All these elements can be overlooked. What sort of conditions need to exist in the group, in the leaders, in the trainees or in your own life that would make you leave for good?

Child Molestation

Rape

Murder

Serious bodily injury (ill willed)

Brainwashing

Illegal activity that could get people arrested

Enslavement of trainees

Illogical and unverifiable teachings

Finding out the leader is a 'bad' person

Anti-Bible, Anti-Christian, Anti-Jesus Christ beliefs or teachings

3. If any of these conditions exist, then how would you be able to find out about it, before it is too late? What would you do, if these conditions start popping up? Will you maintain enough of a support network outside of Warriorschool to fall back on if indeed things go seriously wrong?

If you consider these questions and spend enough time with Jeff Prather or Warriorschool you will learn a lot. See if you can ask these questions and what sort of answers you get. If you keep these parameters in mind you will be able to stay, leave or keep enough of your individuality to maintain your free will. None of us want bad things to happen to us. None of us want to support bad people or organizations. Most people join Warriorschool and Jeff Prather, because they are teaching a quality of life we otherwise never would have learned. Just ask yourself how much this 'good life' is ultimately worth. What are you willing to sacrifice for it? Your autonomy, freedom, money, sex, marriage, friends?

Warriorschool Cult Prather Myspace Page

2008-09-03T01:07:00.001-07:00

More Prather Cult Warriorschool Info

Here is a guy named Jarad who seems to have lost his wife to the "Warriorcult" as he cleverly calls it. Follow the web link immediately below for more information. You can also read some excerpts from his blog farther below.

http://profile.myspace.com/warriorschool

Blog Excerpts

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Clockwise
Current mood: luminous
Category: Dreams and the Supernatural

It is amazing that it is so difficult to find what category to place these blogs in. One would think that dealing with a cult would call for the category - Philosophy/Religion. Yet I worry that it somehow gives credence to Jeffrey's little cult by calling it Philosophy/Religion. So, I opted for "Dreams and Supernatural", why?...because "complete idiocy and fallacy" isn't available as a category.

Clockwise. Prather once instructed my ex that she must turn clockwise four times each morning and then bow to the sun. This is part of the sun ceremony. I asked her about clockwise. Her response was that Prather said that counter-clockwise is evil and clockwise is good. I asked her to elaborate; she got upset. Not her fault, Prather's teachings lack explanation and historical reference. He is really good at the "Karate Kid" kind of teaching, but when asked for references...well, he can't really back things up.

Before we go any further, I want you to do something for me; spin you finger clockwise - as your looking down upon you finger. Continue spinning your finger. Make sure that you are indeed spinning your finger clockwise. Slowly move your head under your finger that is continuing to spin clockwise. When your head is completely under you finger, you may notice that your finger is actually spinning counter-clockwise - oh my God, have you suddenly become evil?! No, it is just a matter of perspective. If you listened to, umm. how shall we say, those less informed, somebody like Prather, then the entire Southern hemisphere is evil. How did this happen?!

Clockwise developed due to the observation of a gnomon's shadow as caused by the Sun. A gnomon is the vertical part of a sundial. In the Northern hemisphere the shadow travels clockwise, and in the Southern hemisphere the shadow travels counter-clockwise. The tracking of time really took off in the Northern hemisphere, in fact, we still tell official time based on the Greenwich Mean Time. Prather hasn't grasped this fact. So unfortunately for those of you in Australia who are currently worshipping Prather - he thinks you are evil. The problem comes in that Prather isn't very well studied, he kind of makes stuff up as he goes. He bastardized Apache traditions where they turn in the four cardinal directions prior to a number of their ceremonies.

I have to get going - past my bedtime. To sum up - everything depends on perspective. If you have reduced ability to be aware of your surroundings, maybe you have a limited capacity to reason, then maybe you can be forgiven for making such an audacious statement as "counter-clockwise is evil". For the rest of the thinking world, we know BS when we hear it.

Again, take care of yourself, take care of others, God bless,

Jarad

PS: Reading back through this, I may add some more to this, but you get the genereal idea.

Friday, August 22, 2008

The End is Near
Current mood: blessed
Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes

Mornin' All,

I have been continuously asked by friends and family why I am blogging about Warriorcult (aka warriorschool). Giving this inquiry serious thought has led to my decision to wrap this up. I will post the blogs that I have been writing in my brain over the last year and after that...I will check in monthly to keep this page alive and I will always respond to any email that is sent my way.

Why have I been doing this? Hatred of Prather? Haranguing my ex-wife? No. While it may have had ominous beginnings, my bloggin became altruistic all too soon. I freely admit that I was just venting in the first couple of months. I very much loved my ex-wife, part of me continues to love her. So, yes, I was upset at losing her to something as ludicrous as a cult. ...then the emails came. One or two emails at first, and then I was getting a couple of emails a month. All of these emails had roughly the same refrain. I received questions like: can you help me get my fiancé out of this cult, can you save my spouse, what can I do to get my family member out of this cult, and so on and so on. I didn't know what to do. I didn't have answers for any of these people. I wrote them back and told them what happened to me, and maybe try something different because obviously what I tried didn't work.

Then other rather disturbing emails came in: the DEA asking if I knew anything about "sexual healings" or any other "bizarre cult behavior", Jeffrey Prather's ex-wife asking me for information about Jeffrey's downward spiral, had I heard about Jeff burning one of his students, rape allegations, etc. Almost weekly was I receiving emails about horrible accusations against Prather - all the way from blasphemy, adultery, and assault. I just couldn't turn my back against that.

The fact is that Prather has already taken so much from me, not just time and money, something more, something priceless.... I cannot allow him to take any more than what he already has. In the next couple of months, I will roll out my remaining research into Prather's inadequacies, after that - I'm done.

At present I have three more blogs planned. I do have a few other requests out there for interviews - if those come to fruition, I will blog those as well.

I apologize if I am letting anybody down. I feel that I have said enough and demonstrated enough to leave no excuse for anyone to associate with Jeffrey Prather or any of his various levels of cult. At this point, if your not in Warriorcult to save a loved one, then as far as I am concerned you are aiding and abetting Prather. There are so many other outlets for exploration - go back to church, join a community center, volunteer at a charity, give something back to the community instead of just taking.

Thank you to everybody who has supported me in the last two years and please allow me this opportunity to completely get Prather out of my life.

God Bless,

Jarad

Derren Brown Tricking People

2008-08-19T17:07:00.001-07:00

Here is a light hearted video of Derren Brown the mentalist tricking people. It is amazing how vulnerable people become when they are confronted by a stranger and asked to give directions. For most people directions can be a very difficult thing to think about. Watch how Derren exploits this weakness for fun and pleasure.

These are the same kind of principles cult masters use on their subjects to see what the members will far for and what they will not.

Warriorschool Cult Persuasion

2008-08-19T13:45:00.000-07:00

I found that the most powerful form of persuasion in my own life was 'discovering' and 'learning' things on my very own. That is what Warriorschool encouraged through meditation, martial arts and questing. I found the lessons to be deeply moving, profound and empowering. I felt liberated, real and alive. I was convinced in my own mind, in my heart and with my emotions that the things I was learning and the people I was with were good.

Watch Derren Brown describe such an un-scientific approach:

Dog Training Psychology vs Warriorschool

2008-08-19T03:04:00.000-07:00

In order to have a healthy Human to Dog relationship you need to realize a few things and then train your dog in the correct way.

1. Offer Exercise, Discipline and then Affection to the dog (in that order)

2. Remember: "You are the dogs pack leader, not his parent, nor his friend", "The dog is a pack 'animal' and you need to treat him as such"

3. Always exert Calm and Assertive Energy when dealing with your dog (the dog will mirror you and only respects grounded and stable leaders)

Most people do not know these rules and do not treat their dog accordingly. If dogs do not have these principals guiding their life, they can become insecure, display problem behaviors, be disobedient and irritating. All of these things are signs that the dog is confused and does not know what it is he should do. It is up to the human to provide the dog with the proper understanding and outlets for his nature. These principals and formulas will offer that to him. These principals are exactly how alpha dogs would treat each other if humans were not involved, and they are the guide on how we should treat them as well, if we want them to be healthy and truly happy.

Once you train your dog according to these principals he will take a submissive role in relation to you. Since he is domesticated and relies on you to provide his food and shelter he will now be psychologically ready to work together with you in exceptional harmony. This should be your goal and it will be enjoyable for you and your dog. The dog deeply desires to be calm, peaceful, obedient and submissive to a strong leader and you need to provide that for him. It is a wonderful thing to see a dog and master work together, because as a team they can both accomplish so much. If there was deep miscommunication, lack of understanding, confusion or bad leadership there could be many negative consequences.

The sad thing is that most humans live their entire life feeling insecure, lost and displaying problem behaviors for the same reason a dog does. They don't know themselves, their place and they don't have a leader who knows their nature. Because of this, they don't know what to do with themselves. Unlike dogs however, we can prevent ourselves from acting out and often drown out the depths of our true feelings with activity and entertainment. Most people will never truly develop those very qualities a dog will display through good dog training, because they are unambitious, afraid or unwilling to submit themselves to others the way a dog would. Most people might exercise, but it is in the form of sports and its purpose is to entertain, not to fulfill their primal nature. They may discipline themselves, but not in a militaristic fashion. They may share superficial affection with others, but they don't push themselves to achieve profound spiritual connections with others. This would all require humbling themselves to a way of life, a teacher or principals the same way a dog would humble himself to an alpha dog. Most people are unwilling to do this when it comes to the essence of their nature, and therefore will never truly experience the benefits and life available to them. Warriorschool offered this and built on this.

Most people will never admit that some people are above us and better than us. They will not acknowledge, that another person or God or principals are their pack leader. Jeff Prather used to say: "I am not your friend, I am your teacher". He was saying essentially that he was our pack leader. I never felt like he was bringing glory to himself, but merely saying that he had principals he was teaching us and in order to learn them we needed to follow him in an intense way. If indeed such a thing as the good life exists, or virtues or justice they are rare, and in order to develop them it will take work. The work is difficult and most people will never achieve it. Because of the average persons unwillingness to submit to principals or a teacher they cut themselves short. They are stubborn towards submitting and like an untrained dog, they relegate themselves to an imperfect and flawed life. They probably will fail to enjoy the deep interactions and possibilities life has to offer. By purposely pursuing and developing these qualities a new world opens up to us, the same way an obedient dog opens himself up to more extravagant adventures with his master.

The other thing most people will never experience is to be around people who exert 'Calm and Assertive' energy at all times. This builds peace and trust that allows us to come together and accomplish things like never before. Warriorschool taught this and brought this to us. It was like a breath of fresh air amongst the worlds polluted winds of death and vice. Most people expect their teachers and fellow humans to be upset, angry, frustrated, irritated, dismissive, judgemental, impatient, retaliatory or rude at any given time, especially when unfavorable or dangerous circumstances arise. Like a good master of a dog, Warriorschoolers learned to always project this calm and assertive energy towards others, even lighthearted, gentle and graceful energy when life threatening situations occurred. This virtue made them highly respectable and credible. We all fed off each others calm and assertive power and it developed a safe environment where everyone could freely learn and advance. Most people will never experience this. They may want it, but they only want to receive such love and affection. Most people absolutely do not want to act this way, or be expected to act this way. It is too hard. They don't think they can do it, because they are convinced that they have the right to act that way themselves. Because they are so committed to their own vices, they will never submit themselves to such rigorous training which cultivates such virtues. Again, that is why I loved Warriorschool, because they brought such primal, simple and awesome principals to us in such an awesome way.

Another thing I learned from Warriorschool is that deep down inside humans are wild animals as well. Dogs used to be wild animals, until humans domesticated them thousands of years ago. They no longer hunt for food, because humans feed them. Instead of roaming the wild with other dogs, they now live with humans and support them as if they were their own wild pack of dogs. Humans also no longer live as wild animals, and because of the advances of civilization and technology humans have been domesticated themselves. The dog has been forced into his new environment, but his nature stays the same. A clever human will recognize the dogs nature and train him to appropriately express his nature in an acceptable way. Humans are so severely domesticated that many never learn about their wild nature. Most will never discover it, most will never become aware of it and most will never find a master so to speak who will help them properly unleash it and channel it into the appropriate and acceptable channels. The same way a dog will never feel completely happy and complete without the right master and context for his life, humans will also never feel complete without the proper guidance to live the truly human life. Jeff Prather and Warriorschool tried to teach this. That is why I joined and stayed, because I felt like I was gaining and learning something that was so powerful, any price was worth paying for it. I felt truly real, calm, peaceful and powerful around the Warriorschool people, the same way my dog feels when he has the right environment around him.

Warriorschool, like a good dog trainer offered a similar sort of formula for its students. Dogs are wild animals with sharp teeth and their nature is to defend, attack and alert their pack to danger. They desire to know their role, because they have needed to violently defend themselves from predators and have had to violently attack their prey to survive. In order to accomplish this, dogs have needed to develop a clear and simple militaristic sort of authority structure for their social interactions. They need a clear pack leader, and that leader needs to display specific qualities for them to be convinced that they can live together as a group and survive. Once they have this structure in place they can live together with harmony that wouldn't otherwise be possible.

Dogs know instinctually how to provide this structure for each other, but humans who have been domesticated for hundreds of years by modern society don't necessarily know this. Because of sports, which are merely sophisticated childrens games, entertainment and work, humans are able to ignore their primal nature and can live together in some sort of harmony. I am convinced that deep down inside humans have a void and a longing, that is silenced from all the distractions of life. We truly desire to unleash the oppressed primal nature of our humanity, but usually die without ever doing so.

Warriorschool gave us that primal, raw and wild experience that allowed us to know our selves and be ourselves in an acceptable way. Warriorschool's goal was to turn us into truly whole human beings who weren't domesticated or enslaved to the system of today. We were to learn skills that were true to our essential human nature, and encouraged to avoid deceptive entertainment, drugs or childrens games like sports. We were supposed to prepare ourselves to offer something back to society that only the most sophisticated of people could do. In order to do that, we needed the right leader and teachings. That leader and those teachings were based on indiginous and militaristic principals which were designed to help us be who we were meant to be.

Proper dog training brings about these qualities in a dog which are qualities and virtues most people would say are missing in their own lives

Through effective dog training
I have developed a deep connection, bond and sense of respect in the dog.
I can calmly and assertively order and guide his behavior. I have confidence and am able to use finesse to bring about his cooperation.
I have disciplined and trained him to work in harmony with the family.
He knows the proper forms of play, and feels powerful when I allow him to guard the house as I have trained him to do.
He now receives and shows the proper affection that calms him and puts him at ease.
He knows that we are his masters, that we have authority over him and that we are his leaders which helps him find his proper role.
I have built trust in the dog for us as owners and removed his need to fill the void of indecision and ignorance.
I have prepared him through training to calmly encounter danger or scary situations.
I am able to unravel and untrain old and bad habits.
I am able to challenge the dog in a healthy way and teach him how to be a better part of the family, so that everything runs more smoothly for all of us.

Because Warriorschool was similar to effective dog training it brought about many of these qualities. When I noticed these in others and realized I could share in them and partake in them I was determined to do anything it took to accomplish this. What made Warriorschool so sophisticated was the fact that it addressed the primal nature of training, but also helped us develop a sense of justice and holiness. Now I am not talking about it in a way that you read a book about it, but in a primitive way. In the sense that you embody those principals in a non-verbal way, that you do it in your life and don't just talk about it. Because of the militaristic approach and the clear pack leader and context for our life, we were able to develop these virtues that usually remain elusive to most.

Now below I have included some excerpts from the Dog Whisperer and other dog training sites. I hope you get an idea of what it is like to effectively train a dog. I think it is a great metaphor for life and shows the basic foundational level of Warriorschool. Warriorschool ultimately brought us all together like a master brings together a dog pack. The master being Jeff Prather. Too bad he turned out to be such a deluded and bad guy. Check out the dog training advice.

Dr. Frank Beach performed a 30-year study on dogs at Yale and UC Berkeley. Nineteen years of the study was devoted to social behavior of a dog pack. (Not a wolf pack. A DOG pack.) Some of his findings:
Male dogs have a rigid hierarchy.
Female dogs have a hierarchy, but it's more variable.
When you mix the sexes, the rules get mixed up. Males try to follow their constitution, but the females have "amendments."
Young puppies have what's called "puppy license." Basically, that license to do most anything. Bitches are more tolerant of puppy license than males are.
The puppy license is revoked at approximately four months of age. At that time, the older middle-ranked dogs literally give the puppy hell -- psychologically torturing it until it offers all of the appropriate appeasement behaviors and takes its place at the bottom of the social hierarchy. The top-ranked dogs ignore the whole thing.
There is NO physical domination. Everything is accomplished through psychological harassment. It's all ritualistic.
A small minority of "alpha" dogs assumed their position by bullying and force. Those that did were quickly deposed. No one likes a dictator.
The vast majority of alpha dogs rule benevolently. They are confident in their position. They do not stoop to squabbling to prove their point. To do so would lower their status because...
Middle-ranked animals squabble. They are insecure in their positions and want to advance over other middle-ranked animals.
Low-ranked animals do not squabble. They know they would lose. They know their position, and they accept it.
"Alpha" does not mean physically dominant. It means "in control of resources." Many, many alpha dogs are too small or too physically frail to physically dominate. But they have earned the right to control the valued resources. An individual dog determines which resources he considers important. Thus an alpha dog may give up a prime sleeping place because he simply couldn't care less.
So what does this mean for the dog-human relationship?

2

Using physical force of any kind reduces your "rank." Only middle-ranked animals insecure in their place squabble.
To be "alpha," control the resources. I don't mean hokey stuff like not allowing dogs on beds or preceding them through doorways. I mean making resources contingent on behavior. Does the dog want to be fed. Great -- ask him to sit first. Does the dog want to go outside?
Sit first. Dog want to greet people? Sit first. Want to play a game? Sit first. Or whatever. If you are proactive enough to control the things your dogs want, *you* are alpha by definition.
Train your dog. This is the dog-human equivalent of the "revoking of puppy license" phase in dog development. Children, women, elderly people, handicapped people -- all are capable of training a dog. Very few people are capable of physical domination.
Reward deferential behavior, rather than pushy behavior. I have two dogs. If one pushes in front of the other, the other gets the attention, the food, whatever the first dog wanted. The first dog to sit gets treated. Pulling on lead goes nowhere. Doors don't open until dogs are seated and I say they may go out. Reward pushy, and you get pushy.
Your job is to be a leader, not a boss, not a dictator. Leadership is a huge responsibility. Your job is to provide for all of your dog's needs... food, water, vet care, social needs, security, etc. If you fail to provide what your dog needs, your dog will try to satisfy those needs on his own.

3

What do you mean by “pack mentality”?
A dog’s pack mentality is its natural way of relating to other dogs. A family unit can also be a dog’s pack. Even a single person and a dog is the dog’s pack. It is important that the human be the dominant member of the pack. This is not achieved through violence or bullying, but with calm, assertive energy. The dog isn’t threatened; it just knows its place in the pack.
How do you get dogs to change?
People humanize dogs and don’t understand their psychology as pack animals. I begin by showing the dog that I am the pack leader. I fulfill the dog’s need through exercise, which is walking the dog in the correct way. I give the dog rules, boundaries and limitations … and then affection.
What is the most common mistake people make with dogs?
They don’t establish a leadership role. Almost all dog problems come from two things: lack of exercise and lack of leadership. Additionally, especially in America, owners tend to give affection, affection, and more affection, when what the dog really needs is exercise, discipline … and then affection.
What is the most important thing to do for your dog?
Take your dog on a 45-minute power walk every morning. BUT, you must use the proper method in walking your dog – when leaving the house, make sure you always walk out the door ahead of your dog to demonstrate who is the leader, and make sure the dog is not in front of you on the walk.

Unspoken Rules
The mom or pack leader also uses calm-assertive energy to set rules, boundaries and limitations for how the dog interacts with his surroundings. The pack leader enforces these laws in a quiet way; maybe the mom picks up the puppy if he strays outside the den.
The pack leader doesn’t project emotional or nervous energy and neither should you. If you don’t set rules, boundaries and limitations in calm-assertive ways, your dog will not respect you.
Waiting is another way that pack leaders assert their position. Puppies wait to eat; dogs wait until the pack leader wants them to travel. Waiting is a form of psychological work for the dog. Domestication means dogs don’t need to hunt for food, but they can still work for food.
Establish your position as pack leader by asking your dog to work. Take him on a walk before you feed him. And just as you don’t give affection without your dog being in a calm-submissive state, don’t give food until your dog acts calm and submissive. (Exercise will help the dog, especially a high-energy one, to achieve this state.)
Try this: To further achieve a calm and submissive state before feeding, ask your dog to sit and wait a moment while you place his meal in his bowl. When he has sat patiently, give him the okay to eat.
Interact as canine parents interact with their puppies. Begin your day with calm-assertive energy before you share emotions or excitement. Establish rules, limitations and boundaries to create a healthy state of mind in the dog. Finally, enjoy a simple walk - a primal activity for dogs accustomed to following pack leaders over hundreds of miles. It will say more than any word ever could.

Most dogs that live in this country have shelter, food, and lots of love. These are the dogs that often become unstable because they’re not working for food and water. Dogs need a pack leader to feel balanced and connected. They need to be told every day what to do.

Leadership is forever, and love is forever. But sometimes we get lazy and only share love and no leadership. Once you share calm-assertive energy and the dog goes into a submissive state, then you can share love and affection.

Position matters; walking in front of a dog allows you to be seen as the pack leader. Conversely, if your dog controls you on the walk, he’s the pack leader. Master the walk, and your dog will relate to you as a pack leader.
During the walk, you will feel the highest level of connection with your dog. My clients are often surprised by this, because they think dogs only crave love and affection. This is not so. Dogs crave rules, boundaries and limitations from their pack leader. This allows them to relax and accept their role within the pack.

Dogs as Animals
Dogs don’t follow emotional leaders or lovable leaders; they follow calm-assertive leaders. This is the same for all animals in the animal kingdom. Humans are the only animals that follow unstable, emotional leaders around the world.

The pack leader, often the mom or a male, controls everything: when the pack eats, when they play and how far they can walk. The key to earning your dog’s respect as the pack leader is to understand the nature of the pack and to duplicate the action and attitude of the pack leader. The pack instinct is the dog’s strongest natural motivator.

The dog’s mom sets these rules from day one: where they can sleep, how far they can walk, and when they can eat. These rules, boundaries and limitations nurture a healthy state of mind.
As adults, dogs look to their pack leader to set these rules. They don’t question the pack leader’s position, and the pack leader doesn’t look to the dogs to affirm his position. This is the natural balance of the pack.
Without rules, boundaries and limitations, your dog will not respect you as the pack leader.

Make feeding a ritual. When puppies are little, they wait to be fed by their mother. This waiting is a form of work. When feeding, we ask the pack to work for food and water. This is why we walk the pack before they eat.
Dogs don’t get fed when their mind is excited, nervous, tense or aggressive. They get fed when their mind is calm and submissive.
Walk the walk. If we study dogs in their natural habitat, walking is how they earn food and water and experience the world. Dogs would rather walk than do anything else, because they get to work their body and their mind.
A big back yard is no substitute for a primal activity like a walk. A dog with a big back yard can still develop frustration because the physical energy needs to go somewhere. That is why daily walks are so important.
When walking, make sure that you are in front of your dog. This allows you to be seen as the pack leader. Remember, dogs always follow the pack leader.
When your dog recognizes you as the pack leader, you will enjoy the connection that you have sought all along.

4

Funny

How Humans Create Behavioral Issues for Dogs
Tips for Retraining Humans
Your dog will set the rules if you don’t learn how.
The number one mistake people make in their relationships with dogs is treating them like people. You wouldn’t interact with a horse like you interact with your sister. So why do humans insist on treating dogs like people?
I see it every day with my clients; they think that their dogs will stop tearing up the couch if they just love them more or show them more affection. These strategies might work in the structure of human relationships, but, in the animal world, Nature didn’t hard-wire dogs to interact this way. Instead, Nature instilled dogs with a powerful pack instinct. This way of being is how dogs communicate and experience the world.
If you love your dog, treat him like a dog. A dog needs a stable pack leader to lead a balanced and happy life. The recipe is really that simple. Humans are the ones that make these relations complicated.
Retrain Your Brain
I realize this turns upside down most thinking about the human-dog relationship. But think about it, if your husband mistook your needs for the needs of a chimpanzee, where would that leave you? Confused and disoriented.
It’s the same for dogs. But their confusion and disorientation manifest in bad behavior such as tearing up the couch or barking constantly. Most of these dogs are probably loved and well cared for by their owners but feel lost in a vast ocean without a life raft. Think of the life raft as the strong, stable pack leader. S/he provides a source of strength and guidance to help the dog navigate through a complex world

Barking and Jumping

Behavior Rehabilitation
Discovering the Cause of Barking
If nuisance barking is a problem, consider these issues to find a solution.
Some clients tell me that they love coming home because their dog greets them excitedly by jumping and barking. They feel this proves their dogs love for and bond with the family.
But look at a dog in a natural setting; she doesn’t bark and yelp and jump on her pack mates in a burst of affection.
So what are my clients’ dogs trying to say?
Looking Deeper for Answers
Dogs that greet their owners in this way are trying to communicate. But rather than professing undying love, they are probably trying to tell you that they are lonely and bored and that their needs as a dog are not being met. The excitement that you see is your dog’s way of burning off the excess energy that has been building throughout the day.
People shouldn’t be disappointed by this revelation. This just means that dogs don’t use emotions like people do. Remember, they’re dogs. To love a dog means you must treat him like an animal, which means fulfilling him as Nature intended him to be fulfilled.
Now, let’s get back to our barking dog. So-called nuisance barking, which is often ongoing and not in response to a particular stimulus like a jogger running by the house, is your dog’s way of sending you a distress signal.
Somewhere his needs as an animal are not being met. Is his world anchored by a pack leader who projects calm-assertive energy? Are you walking with him every day, which exercises his body and his mind? Is he living a balanced life?
If nuisance barking is a problem, consider these issues to find a solution. It’s the best way to show real love for your dog.

Who is the pack leader??????

If your dog jumps on you when you arrive home, she's the pack leader.
How can you tell if your dog is the pack leader? It’s simple: If she jumps on you when you arrive home, she is the pack leader. If she jumps on your guests, she is making sure that these new arrivals also know she is in charge.
What can you do to stop this unwanted behavior? Most importantly, you need to establish yourself as pack leader. When a dog doesn’t have a clear pack leader who projects calm- assertive energy, she tries to fill the vacant role, usually to disastrous results (for the owner and for the dog).
Set Some Rules-For You and Your Dog
Don’t shower your dog with affection when you walk through the door. This kind of attention is wonderful for a human child, but not for a dog. Remember dogs are animals, and the kindest thing you can do is to treat your dog like a dog by communicating in a way he’ll understand.
The dog’s mom, the ultimate pack leader, would never tolerate inappropriate activity. If she sees something she doesn’t like, she stops the activity by moving the puppy out of the way in her calm-assertive manner. The puppy learns an important boundary from the lesson, and her firm and unambiguous leadership balances the puppy’s submissive role in the pack.
When your guests arrive, ask your dog to sit patiently. Your dog will follow your commands when he respects you as his pack leader. Remember, the animal pack leader doesn’t negotiate to get what he or she wants. The pack leader leads by projecting a calm-assertive energy, the language dogs use to communicate.
The most important thing to remember is that you can’t be a leader only some of the time. Leadership is forever; inconsistency triggers confusion and anxiety in a dog. Animal pack leaders never waver from their leadership role, and neither should you.

In their natural habitat, dogs earn food and water by walking and they get to experience the world. If a dog does not walk, she does not eat. You can see how this activity exists deep within a dog’s DNA, but too few dog owners recognize its importance.

I also explain to the owners the importance of exercise. Physical activity burns the dog’s excess energy and maintains his healthy state of mind. This is important because, in order to talk to the mind, you need to remove the energy from the body.

remember: the golden rule is “once the dog is done, remove the plate.” Once the dog is finished eating, the meal is over. You will be the one that determines this. Eventually, the dog will settle into the new structure, and you will see an end to this problem behavior. The dog will eat what you give her, and there should be nothing left to horde.

Challenge Your Dog Psychologically
The canine pack leader requires his followers to work for food and water. This work is mostly psychological and comes in the form of waiting, for example, waiting to eat or waiting to travel.
A good way to refocus your dog’s behavior is to ask him to wait a moment before he eats. Only when he achieves a calm-submissive state, do you put down the bowl of food.
The same is true for daily walks. Put the leash on your dog and have him sit and wait a moment. Only when you say OK is it time to begin your journey out into the world.
These simple exercises provide excellent mental stimulation and help your dog ease into a calm-submissive state of being.

American Pimp vs Warriorschool Comparison

2008-08-19T01:46:00.000-07:00

Random unedited ideas comparing Pimping in the United States of America to the experience of being in Warriorschool and a student of Jeff Prather.

I just watched a documentary by the Hughes Brothers tonight called

"American Pimp"

and I must say it was one of the best documentaries I have seen in a long time. As soon as I heard the Pimp's describe their line of work and their mindset I felt like I was recognizing something. Once I heard the prostitutes verbalize their experiences I noticed another familiar pattern. The first thing that came to mind was that this movie was explaining things in a profound way, similar to the way that Warriorschool and Jeff Prather had explained things. The sex, drugs, violence and money involved with Pimping made those who were involved constantly aware of the dangers of life. In order to survive they had to live like soldiers. Sure their goals might not have been virtuous, nor righteous, but they were putting their lives literally on the line for what they wanted and/or believed in. For that we have to respect them. Or at least I do. I don't condone pimping or prostitution, but after watching this documentary my attitude towards that lifestyle was severely altered. It seemed like the inherent dangers involved in the life of pimping cut out all the fluff and bullshit most of us experience in our mundane daily existence. These Pimps, although they might be immoral or even criminal, had an attitude and approach to life that was raw and real. The pimp's were accomplished, sophisticated, charismatic and no-nonsense type people who dealt with reality as it was and not how it was supposed to be. These pimps had a mission to make money and get sex and they didn't care what laws or obstacles might stand in their way. They were going to do what they wanted to do and they just didn't care what the consequences were going to be. In their minds they didn't really think they were doing anything wrong. Rich and successful people want access to good sex at a moments notice, and the pimp provides the service in an efficient manner. They know sex is legal, selling things is legal, so in their minds selling sex is 'legal', the government just doesn't know it yet. While it is 'illegal' it is scarce. Basic economics tell us that when demand is high and supply is low the commodity in question can command a high price. The pimps and prostitutes want to provide that service and reap the rewards.

You can probably watch the whole movie on YouTube. Here is at least one part of the video.

Some of the similarities between the pimping and warriorschool that stuck out to me were the elements of danger.

The Pimps controlled the sex, they carefully managed the money, avoided violence as much as they could and definitely didn't want drugs involved. Their goal was to make money over the long term. In Warriorschool they also had a goal to spiritually advance people, train them to be empowered citizens, develop a business or whatever. In order to attain their goal they also controlled the sex, the spending of money, avoided violence and discouraged drugs. Instead of using sex as their product, warriorschool used violence and war training to engage people. Same shit different toilet.

I always wondered why a prostitute would even ever want a pimp. Why doesn't she just prostitute herself? Or in the case of Warriorschool why did we need a cult leader, why did we want a master? Why didn't we just take care of ourselves? It's because the pimp offers the prostitute a number of services that she can't very easily provide for herself. I guess women don't just part-time prostitute. If they are going to prostitute themselves, they are probably pretty committed to it, because of desperation, lack of other options or the love of it (if that exists). Prostitutes are probably doing it full time and often times they are showing up late to the game and don't know everything that is going on. The pimp knows the streets, he knows the clients, he knows the legal system, he knows the money, he knows how to get clients and knows how to train the girls on how to stay safe. Almost all pimps interviewed said that they give the girls 0% of the income. They give the girls, nothing, nada, zilch, zero! The pimp provides 100% of the girls housing, food, medical bills, phone, protection, transportation and bail money. All the woman has to provide is her clean/healthy body and the time on the street. The pimp is providing her with a valuable, consistent, developed and powerful service. He is in essence the entrepreneur and she is the commodity. If the women involved in prostitution were very sophisticated, educated, ambitious, well balanced and independent they might not be involved in the "illegal" lifestyle of prostitution. But maybe due to desperation, inability, laziness or as victims of manipulation and exploitation they allow the pimp to be their boss. By allowing the pimp to control the very foundations of their existence, they indefinitely and completely bind themselves to him. Part of the pimps success depends on his level of absolute control over the womens bodies, minds, hearts and lives. Giving the women extra money and/or a savings account would erode the very control the pimp seeks over her life. Jeff Prather and Warriorschool were also providing a service to those of us who were a part of it. Jeff Prathers experience was far reaching and far more intricate than I ever imagined. He taught us things, most people will never have a chance to learn. It was liberating to face your fears, find your weaknesses, push yourself to the limit and connect with others who were doing the same. Learning about the very extremes of life gave me a great sense of calm, peace and relief. I felt like I had a compass and map for life, whereas most others around me were slaves, zombies and lost souls. That was exceptionally satisfying and Jeff Prather was predominantly responsible for that wisdom. Unlike the pimp, Jeff Prather was encouraging us to take all of the powerful matters of life into our own hands and allowed us to network with others who would help empower us. He called himself the 'anti-cult' and he really did try to liberate us. But sadly human nature is retarded, weak and stupid. Because of the great things he taught us, the power he made us feel within ourselves we naturally surrendered ourselves to him and his teaching, similar to the prostitutes surrendering to their pimp. When the prostitutes talk about their pimp, you can see an appreciation and satisfaction in them. They are grateful for their pimp, even if he hits them or is mean to them. They figure it is for their own good and success in their dangerous life and business. You can tell that the pimp is fulfilling a deep psychological need and void in the prostitutes life. The prostitutes get attached to their pimp and some even fall in love with him in a unique kind of way. Even though they share sex, money and companionship the pimp made it very clear that he doesn't date his prostitutes as girlfriends. Pimping and prostitution are pure business and that cuts out a lot of bullshit. That way a lot can get done. Jeff Prather also took our money, shared companionship, teaching and training with us. He also used to say: "I am not your friend, I am your teacher", "I am not your equal, I am teaching you respect and manners". The atmosphere he created was a militaristic one and it allowed us also to cut out the bullshit and get a lot of stuff done.

There seemed to be a number of different type of pimps. There are the drug addict abusive pimps, the aggressive and threatening pimps and the fair business minded pimps. Depending on what caliber of a woman you are and what type of boss you want, women in America generally can choose what type of pimp they want. Working together seemed to be a synergistic relationship for both parties. Together they both could accomplish more, and it seemed like the Pimp enjoyed the womens money and sex, and the woman enjoyed the man's companionship, power and provision. They were each fulfilling roles for the other that the other didn't feel they could do alone. There was a deep level of trust, commitment and bonding that developed between the two. The fact that they were defying the system, risking imprisonment, serving the rich and powerful was intriguing to both of them. In their minds they were both achieving things together that they couldn't do on their own. I knew of myself that I could choose to live many different lifestyles and could hang out with many different groups. I wanted to push myself to the max, learn as much about different types of living and hang out with the most radical people. I found that in Warriorschool and therefore threw myself into that full force. Sure occasionally it was awkward, uncomfortable or hard, but I also felt like I was doing things and experiencing things I never could have on my own. Like the prostitutes I also formed a deep bond with the warriorschoolers and Prather in the face of the dangerous training we were engaging in and the challenges we were preparing for. Psychologically I also became very attached to him and the organization, similarly to the prostitutes. The fact that it might turn bad or be slightly bad for me at the time, was not a major factor. The benefits far outweighed the negative and like the prostitutes I was willing to stick in there and do what needed to be done.

Being part of Warriorschool and seeing Jeff Prather do things and teach us things we never knew was possible was amazing. He had experience, skills and stories that many of us knew we couldn't nor wouldn't ever replicate. Just to be in his presence was awesome. I knew I could never do what he did and I didn't have the skills to apply all of his lessons to the degree that it was possible. All I knew was that he was opening up my perception of reality, that I could trust him, that being around him was hard, but it was worth it. I was willing to give up meat, sex, friends, family, personal autonomy, old habits, money, time and travel to learn what it was he had to teach. I was also willing to do things that were against my nature, because I felt that his goal was to help me overcome obstacles. I am sure many others felt the same way, and truly I don't regret having given up those things to learn from the man. I'd say it was worth it. I am just glad I didn't get ultimately destroyed in the end. Watching American Pimp showed me that the prostitutes had the exact same attitude I did. Their Pimp offered them shelter, food and a lifestyle they didn't think they could achieve on their own. Their Pimp would be a boyfriend/father substitute that they otherwise wouldn't be able to get. They felt that they could trust him (more than anyone else) and that he was opening their perception of reality by introducing them to stars and other successful people and taking them on trips around the world. In the end the prostitutes would end up in jail or in the mental institution, but they probably knew that and were willing to pay the price for that. I was just amazed how the psychology somewhat overlapped.

One of the prostitutes said that this was her attitude towards being beaten:
"He'll kick my ass, but that is only if I fuck up." I am paraphrasing, but what she is saying to me is that he is correcting me and keeping me out of jail, out of the homeless shelters and in this life style, he listens to me and helps me and I appreciate him)

Those women want and need someone to dominate and encapsulate their mind and life. They need a strong person around them, to shelter them, make them feel safe, allow them to do what it is they know how to do, so they can relax and be a woman. They don't want to do a million things they don't know how to do all at once. They just want to work and live. They have found that they know how to do prostitution and how to live, but they don't know how to do any other work that pays as well. I am not saying all women are like this or even that all prostitutes are like this. I am just writing this out to get into their minds and to understand them. My goal is to find parallels to my own life within Warriorschool.

Men feel powerful when they have a faithful woman and/or companion. We enjoy sex, influence and control. We like being somebody, we like respect, we like control. It is satisfying to us. Or at least it is to me and I can't speak for women. I think Jeff Prather found all those things in Warriorschool. People believed he was the 'Neo Christo' and they treated him like that. He played the role of a mystic and a general. Cult leaders seek to gain complete control over their cult subjects and although Jeff Prather maybe didn't set out to do that, it began to cultivate itself. Human psychology tends towards hero worship and Jeff Prather may have begun to play into it more and more as time went on. As the organization picked up more momentum, the delusions had more time to intensify and now the dynamics of the organization have become very cultish and Jeff Prather has become very much a cult leader. I think Jeff Prather really believes in his own delusions and his subjects have fallen into the most primal psychological traps and feed his delusions. It all takes on a life of its own and people loose perspective. Jeff Prather had the ultimate impact on those of us in Warriorschool and I imagine it must have been very satisfying and edifying for him. I know being around him was satisfying and edifying for me, and I was mainly receiving. I wasn't known as the one dishing out all the wisdom.

There were some definitely primal psychology lessons contained in the movie. For instance one Pimp discussed how important it was to choose your words carefully when you are dealing with a prostitute. Her whole lifestyle involves the continued seduction, manipulation and repeated exploitation of men. Therefore when she is dealing with her Pimp it is only natural for her to try to do the same things to him. The pimp said that you have to be careful when you say to a prostitute "I am going to kill you", because the prostitute will test you and your word. She will do something that will be so bad, that you really should follow through on your word. He said that you "Just beat her so bad, that she thinks you are going to kill her" that way she gets the point and you can keep her around to keep making you money. He said: "You have to beat her so bad that she believes you are going to kill her and she says 'Oh, don't kill me. I won't do that again, I will change. Please let me live. I promise I am changed.' and from that point on you have yourself a good 'ho'." Another guy said that "Everyone needs to get slapped at some point in their lives" and that it was necessary for him to hit his women for them to respect him. Sometimes I lay down the boom hand he said. Jeff Prather would also talk about 'thumping people' and 'giving them major course corrections that were uncomfortable'. He would also take people to that psychological edge. He hit me on numerous occasions to make a point to me, and I thought it was great. I really admired him for it and respected him for it. It was amazing for a pimp to explain those dynamics so clearly and for me to see how it affected my own life. In the end it all boils down to basic human psychology. I think most 'lost souls' in the civilian world learn about these things through osmosis and chance, but some of us learn the full context of life because of intense teachers. Whoever brings these lessons to you will have that power over you, if they request it or not, it is our tendency as humans to give it.

Jeff Prather Terrible Cult Leader As A Person

2008-08-16T11:40:00.000-07:00

Here is a comment post I left on one of the fellow blogs that are trying to expose Jeff Prather and his Warriorschool organization. It seems that most people who post comments on the internet were not deeply connected to Jeff Prather. Most everyone has had contact with some of Jeff Prathers' unprofessional idiot bracelets or apprentices. Others met Prather in an unfavorable way or whatever. It seems like people are immediately certain that he is such a terrible person. This is no defense of Jeff Prather or Warriorschool, I am sure as a whole and in the end they are both doing severe damage, but I just wanted people to know that if you sincerely spent time with Jeff Prather to learn and study under him that he was a great guy personally. Sure that is how cults are built, the leader is charismatic and love bombs you, then indoctrinates you and then owns you as a cult slave. But isn't that the danger with any group, movement or leader? This was a very extreme organization so the possible danger was extreme. I am sure he is possibly a very bad and sad person, but the side I met was awesome. Sure it may have been a sugar coated, manipulating, deceptive side, but it was great. After disassociating myself from him and the organization I have continued with the benefits I gained from that experience and have continued to cultivate myself. This experience has been priceless to me and I appreciate him and others in the organization for those lessons. I just wanted to make that clear, because painting Jeff Prather as an absolutely obvious scum bag is just not true as I saw it.

Here is what I wrote:

You might think this is stupid and censor this comment, but I only ever saw Jeff Prather loose his temper once in 4 years. Personally I always appreciated his intensity and boldness. He was always courteous, kind and respectful to me. Sure he may have lied to people about some bullshit stuff here and there, but you had to be a fairly 'true believer' to hear that stuff first hand. I know for certain that he injured a few of his students, but I can't say for certain that he meant it all in a malicious and evil egotistical way. When you do dangerous training for 10+ years, someone is bound to get hurt. I don't remember him as a rude, mean, confrontational or disrespectful person. I never saw him argue with anyone in a bad way either. My main problem with Jeff Prather is that he has built an organization that is and will go further out of control as a cult and people will be severely injured on every level. You can see where it will be going.

But as a person I remember him as an awesome guy. I can't speak to physical abuse, rape, retaliation, financial exploitation or whatever. Any of those could be true, but I had no major ability to see or hear about those things. Even when he injured the students it really seemed like a fluke and a possible accident. From my interactions with him he was overwhelmingly professional, exceptionally virtuous and profoundly insightful. I never understood the advanced hokus pokus bullshit, nor was I able to clearly corroborate it, so I never got the idea that he was a hypocrite or a liar. But as a human being he was amazing. Now don't get me wrong, he is delusional, and since 2001 or so on the madness has become evident, but while I was around it was all still pretty cool. Remember there had only been a few Bracelets published and people didn't talk about advanced stuff. It was all designed for you to experience things on your own.

I guess that is why I liked Jeff Prather so much and I was willing to go along with the organization for so long. He tried to teach us how to be independent, free and empowered. I have to say that it worked for me and the organization didn't end up tricking me into being a warriorschool/jeff prather slave. I have hung out with some other outrageous people like Jeff Prather and no one taught nor encouraged freedom and the development of virtues like he did. No one was as consistently professional as he was over those 4 years and no one since or to come will probably be offering such an unbelievable combination of experiences.

I just wanted to put that out there, because a lot of people on the internet only know what they have read about Jeff Prather or maybe they confronted him in a skeptical/challenging way and he defended himself. Of course that would paint a terrible picture of him. Some people on the internet lost a family member to the organization or read the Bracelets and know right away he is a 'terrible guy'.

Anyway, I am concerned about the people Jeff Prather is enslaving in his cult and or hurting, but as a person I can't say he ever 'really' pissed me off. Now when I hang out with Joe Shmoe off the street they consistently can piss me off to the max. Within warriorschool 90% of the people including Jeff Prather were exceptional compared to Joe Shmoe off the street. That's why I consider Prather part of the 23 awesome people I met in warriorschool. That doesn't mean he isn't immoral or a criminal. It just means that he has something right, that most people never will get, nor will experience. Maybe my perspective is skewed, because I sincerely wanted to learn from him. In the end I am glad I met him, I just hope that the organization doesn't destroy too many peoples lives.

New Blog about Warriorschool

2008-08-15T10:25:00.000-07:00

http://dikkiisdiatribe.blogspot.com/2007/04/all-on-for-young-and-old.html

Here is another short blog with comments about Warriorschool. It was started back in 2007, but I just found it on a google search.

Jeff Prather other Cult Master Bio

2008-07-28T11:38:00.001-07:00

Jeff Prather Bio Found

Jeffery Prather

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Jeffrey Prather has trained for over 35 years in Japanese martial arts and is one of a very few 15th-degree blackbelt Shihan (master or gentleman instructor) in the world. He is licensed by Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi, Bujinkan Soke, the grandmaster of Budo Taijutsu. The Yamaneko Dojo is an official branch of Hatsumi Soke's dojo. Shihan Prather is a double recipient of Hatsumi Soke's Gold Medal. The first was awarded for his development of the Close Quarter Combat course for the U.S. Marine Corps. and the Army Special Operations Forces, the second for hosting the 1995 Tai Kai, which he had the honor of hosting a second time in 99'. Shihan Prather also has a 10th degree blackbelt in Shinkengata (real life combat). He has written for publications such as Black Belt magazine and has taught the police and military all over the world.

He has taught US and allied, police, military and civilians throughout the world, and unlike many civilian instructors, he has employed what he teaches in real operations, here and abroad. After an extensive career of public service and a near death experience, he recognized that only the symptoms of society's problems were being addressed by his government service. He founded Initiation, http://initiation.warriorschool.com/, to address these problems at the source, and change the world, one person at a time.

Initiation founder Jeffrey Prather is a son, father, husband, warrior, artist, author, actor, soldier, special agent, student, and teacher. A US Martial Arts Hall of Fame member, he holds 15th-degree black belt, master rankings in Budo Taijutsu (Body Skills), and Shinken Gata (Real Combat), from Grandmaster Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi. He also apprenticed under the late N'dee (Apache) holy man Phillip Cassadore Besh Koon singing in the Naiies (Sunrise) ceremony.

Prather served on active duty with the 7th Special Forces as well as domestically and abroad as a federal Special Agent and national government Intelligence Officer. He is rescue team qualified, a Federal Firearms Instructor, Distinguished Pistol Expert, and a member of the International Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors IALEF.

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Teacher Bio From Old Warriorship school Page

2008-07-28T10:25:00.000-07:00

Teacher Bios

http://web.archive.org/web/20001030110017/http://warriorship.com/

Warriorship founder Jeffrey Nadza, BA, BFA, MA, Captain, USAR, 11th-degree Bujinkan black belt Shihan in both Budo Taijutsu and Shinken Gata, N'dee (Apache) Sunrise Ceremony Singer, Dakota Pipeholder, member National American Indian Enrollment Agency, is an artist, writer, and teacher with over thirty years of intimate experience in both eastern and western warrior traditions. As a child his adoptive father introduced him to the N'dee warrior path, and took him to reservations in Arizona and Oklahoma. As a boy he was schooled by the Jesuits, the priest-warrior order of the Catholic Church. At nine he began training at the prestigious Yoseikan Karate Headquarters (US) and Soto Zen Temple. By eighteen he was a licensed black belt holder and meditation teacher. As a young US Army officer, he regularly traveled to Arizona and Japan, where he apprenticed under the late, famous N'dee medicine man Phillp Cassadore (Besh Koon), and the acclaimed Japanese Kobudo (Warrior Way) Grandmaster Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi (Hisamune). As a Special Forces (Green Beret) officer he lived with and learned from many native peoples: the Aymara in the Andes, the Kuna in the San Blas Islands, and the Misquito on the Honduran-Nicaraguan frontier. He was given a pipe and blessed to pray with it by Dakota pipeman Asa Primo (Pejuta Okshina). Upon request, in 1984 at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, he began teaching fellow officers what would become WARRIORSHIP. References available.

Robert Geyer (Nakayen-Warrior/Warrior Benefactor) , BS, MA, writer, college instructor, 5th-degree Bujinkan black belt, warrior benefactor/teacher, has over fifteen years experience in Warriorship and other Eastern and Western mystic traditions. The martial arts led Geyer to the founder in the mid-1980s. He completed his apprenticeship 1992, his first apprentice achieved warriorhood in 1994, and in 1995 he became the first after Nadza to teach Warriorship Initiation Cycles. He lives in Alabama, with his wife and two sons.

Michael Pearce (Dashte-Warrior/Warrior Benefactor) is a husband and father, 8th degree black belt in the Bujinkan, and warrior teacher/benefactor with over six years in Warriorship. He has been studying the Martial arts in the Bujinkan for over ten years, over seven in Japan with Masaaki Hatsumi the 34th grandmaster. He was accepted as an apprentice in 1996 by founder Jeffery Nadza and completed his apprenticeship in 1997, and now teaches with full licensing and certification Warriorship Initiation Cycles. He lives in Japan where he teaches Warriorship. He has also been given permission from the founder Jeffery Nadza to teach in Europe and Australia as well. References available.

Nathan Paris(Yaa'itso-Warrior) BS, is a husband and father , 5th degree Bujinkan black belt, and a warrior teacher. He was introduced to Warriorship through the Martial Arts in 1992, completing his own warrior apprenticeship in 1995. From 1997-2000, he studied Bujinkan in Japan with Masaaki Hatsumi, the 34th Grandmaster, as well as taught Warriorship with full licensing from Warriorship founder Jeffrey Nadza. He is currently living and teaching in Colorado.

Sean Waters (Tsee Peneh-Warrior) is a current graduate student in astrophysics and martial arts teacher with over six years experience in Warriorship and meditation. A black belt for over a decade, he was introduced to Warriorship through the martial arts. Mr. Waters has trained with both police and the US Army Special Forces. He completed his own warrior apprenticeship in 1996, and now teaches with full licensing from Warriorship founder Jeffrey Nadza. References available.

Theresa Zortman (Warrior), BS, 2nd-degree Bujinkan black belt is a warrior with over five years experience in Warriorship. She finished her warrior apprenticeship in 1997 under the warrior benefactor-teacher Robert Geyer. Navigato is finishing her Masters (Enviromental Engineering) in Boulder, Colorado, where she teaches Warriorship with full license and certification from the founder. References available.

Eric Stearns (Tandinbil jee' -Warrior/ Warrior Benefactor), became acquainted with Warriorship in 1984 through the Bujinkan Martial Arts, in which he has been awarded a 3rd degree black belt. Completing his apprenticeship in 1997, he now serves as a Warrior benefactor by license of founder Jeffrey Nadza. References available.

Todd Luethjohann (Ntliz -Warrior/Warrior Benefactor), BS, CIS, MBA, was introduced to Warriorship in 1996 through the Bujinkan Martial Arts, in which he has been awarded a 5th degree black belt. He currently serves in hospital healthcare administration. He completed his apprenticeship directly under founder Jeffrey Nadza in 1997, and is now jointly licensed with other Tucson Intensive instructors to teach Warriorship intensives. References available.

David Frye (Nogutline-Warrior), BS, MS. is a husband and father. Frye has been awarded the rank of forth degree black belt in the Bujinkan Martial Arts. Introduced to Warriorship in 1993, he completed his apprenticeship with founder Jeffrey Nadza in 1997. He is jointly licensed with other Tucson Intensive instructors by Jeffrey Nadza to teach Warriorship intensives. References available.

Brian Kowalski (Nata'tsay-Warrior), BS,MS, is a husband and father. He served 15 years in the US Army. He now serves as a Police Officer and has been awarded a forth degree black belt through the Bujinkan dojo. A student of Warriorship since 1992, he completed his apprenticeship directly under founder Jeffrey Nadza in 1996 and is now jointly licensed with other Tucson Intensive instructors by Jeffrey Nadza to teach Warriorship intensives. References available.

Phillip Legare, (Deleecho-Warrior), BS, MSgt, USMC Retired, combat veteran, and Warrior. He is a Shihan (11th degree black belt) in Budo Taijutsu and Shinken Gata under Soke Masaaki Hatsumi, and recipient of three Bujinkan Gold Dragon Medals. Phillip is fully licensed to teach Warriorship and accept apprentices by founder Jeffrey Nadza. Together, he and licensed Healer, Penny Telfer (Itzaa'niyaa) teach Warriorship in the U.S. and British Columbia, Canada.

Gregory Heeg (Dilhil Ba'cho-Warrior), started Warriorship in 1986 and apprenticed under founder Jeffrey Nadza. He is a 7th dan in the Bujinkan dojo and has trained in Japan with Grandmaster Masaaki Hatsumi. A sacred prayer pipe was blessed and gifted to him by Dakota pipe-bearer Jack Waterman. He has devoted over eighteen years with the Sisters of Notre Dame. He is fully licensed to teach Warriorship. References available

Cary Irvin (Yil Dah'nldoh-Warrior) BA, 3rd degree black belt Budo Taijutsu, black belt Shinkin Gata. His interest in Psychology and Martial Arts led him to mystic studies that culminated in his Warrior Certification by Jeffrey Nadza in 1998. He is a husband and father, and is currently serving as a Non-Commissioned Officer for the United States Air Force at Ramstein, A.B. Germany.

Timothy Pinnow (Dahyogeel-Warrior) BA, MfA is a warrior, professional actor, director and college professor with over 15 years martial experience in Eastern and Western styles. He is a Bujinkan black belt and licensed Fight Director and Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors. He completed apprenticeship in 1999 under Nantan Robert Geyer and teaches with the endorsement of Founder Jeffrey Nadza. He lives in New Mexico with his wife, Jennifer.

Will Zortman (Ndocho-Warrior) BS, Captain, USAFR, 2nd degree Bujinkan Black Belt, Close Quarter Combat Instructor, Member, American Meteorological Society, is a husband and warrior. He has traveled in Asia and the Middle East as an Air Force Special Tactics Officer and taught Warriorship across the US. He completed his Warrior Apprenticeship under Jeffrey Nadza in 1996. Zortman currently works in the semiconductor industry and teaches Warriorship in California with full license from the founder.

As far as I know many of these people have begun to disassociate themselves with Jeff Prather and Warriorschool.

I was told that Mike Pearce, and Phil Legaire are no longer on good terms with Jeff Prather. Mike Pierce was one of the very top 3 guys and wrote an independent account of Jeff Prather dead, floating in the air and then resurrected. Robert Geyer wrote the same sort of thing, but I think he is still heavily involved. I heard Eric Stearns had modified his relation to WS and to Jeff Prather although I don't recall in what capacity. I heard Todd Luethjohann has maybe quit doing Budo Taijutsu with Jeff Prather, but I find it hard to believe he has split away from him completely or quit Warriorschool. David Fry has probably also stopped training with Jeff Prather, but I don't know all the details. Brian Kowalski? I don't know how much he is still connected with everything. That's a toss up.

Also reading all these names again brings back memories. I remember Sean Waters was a cool guy and he had a pretty wife who was also training in Warriorschool, probably as a healer. Well anyway, Jeff Prather was always a cool guy and mentioned the fact once that there was a pattern that developed in martial arts that you can pick up on after a while. I had never even considered the thing he mentioned, but it made sense once he spoke about it plainly. Jeff Prather said: "You know that every woman that trains in the dojo will at one time or another fall in love with the instructor and want to sleep with him. The black belts need to be aware of this, and not let their ego get in the way. The women come here for safety and to learn, we can't take advantage of them. We need to help them get strong". He said something like that. Anyway Jeff Prather was always professional and well mannered and I never noticed anything about him that made me think he was promiscuous or anything. How does all this connect to Sean Waters? Well he would visit Jeff Prather a few times a year with his wife and kids. I remember very clearly one day, that Sean Waters wife was practicing with a 6 foot long bo staff and Jeff Prather went over towards her, and pulled her about 15 to 20 feet away from the rest of us. He stepped up behind her and moved the bo staff for her while she was holding on to it. Ok, I am sure you can piture this, his crotch was up against her ass and they were rhythmically swinging this obvious 6 foot long phallic symbol of a bo staff. It went on long enough for me to look around for Sean Waters to see if he was watching this. He must have seen it, because it was so obvious. I also imagine that his wife told him about it. I remember thinking to myself that that was definately suspicious behavior.

Other than that, oh this is a good one too. This kind of relates to other sort of sexualized behavior that isn't the norm for society at large as I know it. For empowerment the bracelets would recommend the apprentices not to wear underwear. The idea was to make you feel more manly, free and natural or something like that. Well anyway Jeff Prather and a few of his top people would often stand around and grab their nut sack, lift it up with their right hand and then let it drop. It was a weird habit, but they seemed to have picked it up and developed it. I had never seen it before and I have never seen it since. It was a strange thing, I tried it, I recommend you try it, just to see what it is like. Anyway it is a pretty retarded habit, and I remember at least one of the top women in the whole WS would complain about it.

Oh and here is some more random weird naked sex stuff I heard in passing while I was with all these folks. I remember hearing this stuff and thinking to myself that is kind of weird, I don't have to participate with this, I might give it a shot, but we'll just see what happens. Thank God it never came to that. Ok so I heard that somehow warriors and healers would dance around naked with each other at Initiations etc. I never confirmed this, it just sounded too weird. Oh right, and I guess they would get naked, get painted by Jeff Prather and then run together. Something like that.

Also there was some guy that had left Warriorschool and was apprenticing some lady. She realized that he was 'enlightened' and she wanted that teaching from him. She asked him what she needed to do to become enlightened and he said she should give him a blow job. Personally I never understood all that stuff so well, but somehow you were able to open people's chakras or something with sex. The retardation is amazing. I remember one woman telling me that it is definately possible to give a woman enlightenment while she is giving you a blow job, but somehow it wasn't right. Don't ask me how she became convinced of this.

Oh yea, here is another one. I guess they used to have their black belt meetings at the strip clubs. Occasionally some of the guys would go to the strip clubs and would invite me along. I wasn't into that, but now that I write about it it shows that there was definately a sort of sexual element to this group and it is no surprise that it started to go overboard eventually. No offense to you strip club conosseurs, the only reason I bring it up is because Warriorschool was supposed to honor women and respect them etc and be about holiness and purity blah blah blah, but then they would go to strip clubs. I never quite got that one. Also I remember one guy who was one of the top guys told me that he had been traveling recently and visited a prostitute who might have had a demon and was giving him seriously hateful looks. I thought to myself "maybe she hates you, because you are screwing her and she doesn't want to have sex with you, maybe she is being forced by her pimp to have sex with you". Anyway he told me how he had sex with her 'impeccably' and he thought he had helped her out. Good one buddy.

Reading and Viewing List

2008-07-28T10:17:00.000-07:00

Warriorship / Warriorschool Recommended Reading and Viewing List

These books and movies have one are more points in them that relate to the teachings in the Warriorship training.
Title Author
Any of the Carlos Castaneda books
The Three Pillars Of Zen Roshi Philip Kapleau
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind Shunryu Suzuki
I Heard The Owl Call My Name Margaret Craven
A Stranger In A Strange Land Robert A. Heinlein
Shane Jack Schaefer
Nine Stories J.D. Salinger
Franny And Zooey J.D. Salinger
The World Bible
The Way of the Shaman Michael Harner
The Code Of The Warrior Rick Fields
Seven Arrows Hyemeyohsts Storm
In Search of the Warrior Spirit Richard Strozzi Heckler
The Art Of War Sun Tzu
A Book Of Five Rings Miyamoto Musashi
The Secrets of the Samurai Oscar Ratti and Adele Westbrook
The Tao of Physics Fritjof Capra
Fools Crow Thomas E. Mails
The Awakened Warrior Rick Fields
Illusions Richard Bach
Jonathan Livingston Seagull Richard Bach
Shambhala: The Sacred Path Of The Warrior Chogyam Trungpa

Movies:
The Magnificent Seven The Seven Samurai
Hombre Little Big Man
Little Buddha Ulzana's Raid
Brainstorm Prophecy
Gandhi High Lander
Black Robe Ben-Hur
Braveheart Excalibur
Glory The Warlord
The Razor's Edge Manhunter
My Life The Big Blue
The Nun's Story Star Wars trilogy
The Longest Day Broken Arrow with James Stuart
Emerald Forest A Bridge Too Far
Exorcist Blade Runner
The Seventh Sign Forrest Gump
The Mission

This might be a little old and incomplete.

I am sure they would have added The Matrix and the Lord of the Rings.
They would also include the "Hostage to the Devil" and "God at War" books which deal with spiritual warfare and exorcism.

http://web.archive.org/web/19991010170412/www2.gol.com/users/mpearce/warriorship/recommended.htm

Warrior School Warriorship Way Back Machine Old Pages

2008-07-28T10:13:00.000-07:00

Here are some old pages from the Warrior sites a few years back. I hope to post some of the pictures in the future. There are a few synopsis of the Bracelet, which are just awesome to read.

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THE FEMINIST LIE!
By Jeffrey Prather

Today's girls suffer the absurdities of liberal, pop culture no less than boys. The lie is just different. This is the great feminist lie of equivalency, that except for plumbing, men and women are essentially the same. ...

SUBTLETY OF ATTACK
By Kevin Eddy

I just awoke from a dream. In the dream, after Taijutsu class, Nantancha'an asked if I remembered "last night." I said no, why? He said something about coming over to arrest my wife, that being without my protection, she had succumbed to evil and her organs of love, creation, and healing had become a "spiraling vortex of blackness and death."...

AMERICA'S PATRIOT CHAMPIONS
By William Zortman

The usual response when someone tries to talk sports to a bracelet is politeness, but complete lack of understanding. Although play, as in the hunt game, is common if not brutal, being a bracelet just doesn't incline one to sports and other competition. We're too serious. ...

The full articles are available online as well as in print for Bracelet subscribers.
The Bracelet � 2001 is published quarterly by Warriorschool Press, Box 40775, Tuscaloosa, AL 35404. All rights Reserved. Photocopying, reproduction, or quotation strictly prohibited without written permission from the publisher. Unsolicited material cannot be acknowledged or returned.

Home | Courses | Calendar | Services | Products | Founder | Donations | Contact Us

Warriorschool empowers you with the life skills and inner technologies to become a physically, mentally, and spiritually whole human being, and win the battles of life. Today there is little training on how to be a real man or true woman, much less a Warrior or Healer. As a result, our modern society is a chaos of crime, drugs, divorce, and despair.

Warriorschool provides the training to change you and to change the world! A vital person, by his very presence, enlivens the world around him. Warriorschool can help you create that presence and take you farther than you ever imagined!

Warriorschool has been featured on television, in documentaries, and in news and magazines.

.
.
INITIATION CAMP

WITH FOUNDER
JEFFREY PRATHER

. .
.

Don't miss Initiation's largest and most important event, Initiation Camp 2002. This is an unique opportunity to train with the founder of Warriorschool and Initiation. Initiation students and teachers from America, Europe, Japan, and all over the world will attend. Much of the training is one-on-one and highly personal.

Be sure to check the calendar for all upcoming Warriorschool seminars.

You can be ignorant, But become educated.

You can be arrogant, Yet humble yourself.

You can be stupid, Then learn wisdom.

But if you choose to remain Ignorant, arrogant, and stupid, You are lost.

- Jeffrey Prather .

The official journal of Initiation, Warriorship and Healership is now online!

The Bracelet Online
.

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WARRIOR AND HEALER SERVICES
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, here I am. Send Me.
Isiah 6:8

Well-meaning and dedicated legal and medical professionals can treat only the symptoms of society's ills. Warriors and Healers go to the source.

We deal with souls.

After intense training, through selfless service, allowing the God force to flow through them, Warriors oppose evil and Healers rescue those ravaged by it.

If you feel oppressed or under attack, or find your loved ones in need, call us.

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Videos

1)

Close Quarter Combat (CQC) Video
by Captain Jeffrey Prather , USAR
Price: $39.95 *

2)

1999 Tucson Tai Kai Video
Kukishinden Ryu
Price: $29.95 *

* All items have an additional cost of $4.00 domestic for postage.

Books\Journals

1)

Close Quarter Combat (CQC)
For U.S. Special Forces
by Captain Jeffrey Prather , USAR
Price: $19.95 *

2) The Bracelet
The Official Journal of Warriorship, Initiation, and Healership
Price: $25.00 (1 year subscription)

* All items have an additional cost of $4.00 for postage.

Warriorschool Shirts

1)
Size
Color
Warriorschool T-Shirt
"Boys and Girls are born. Women and Men are trained at WARRIORSCHOOL"
Price: $20.00 *

Click on T-Shirt to enlarge.

2)
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Warriorschool Polo
Price: $40.00 *

Click on Polo to enlarge.

* All items have an additional cost of $4.00 for postage

If you would like to purchase any of the above items by mail, please send a check (please include postage) addressed to Jeff Prather to:

Warriorschool
P.O. Box 14502
Tucson, AZ 85732-4502
USA

For any more details please contact us.

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When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, and I acted as a child. But when I became a man I put away childish things.
1 Corinthians 13:11

Society is in crisis because grown males and females still act like irresponsible boys and girls!

Unlike all indigenous societies throughout the history of the world, our modern society is the first ever, to not train our youth for the rigors of adult life through rites of passage.

Gangs have sprung up to fill the void, but they are shallow caricatures of the real thing. Not knowing any better, they mistake violence for bravery and replace compassion with callousness. The result is a spiral into despair, domestic violence and divorce that drags society downward.

INITIATION is the answer to the crisis!

INITIATION was founded to restore the tradition of a rite of passage to adulthood in modern society. There is no modern training for man and womanhood -until now!

INITIATION is a unique, intense, training camp that teaches the lost, but vital skills of physical and spiritual adulthood. While open to all ages, the training is traditionally conducted at puberty.

INITIATION draws upon practical, proven, techniques from traditional Native American culture, and allows boys, girls, and often grown adults, passage to adulthood through training and ceremony.

Boys and girls are born, but men and women are trained!

Native cultures have long known that that their children must be formally trained for their roles as responsible adults in society. Society offers driver's licenses, voting rights, and abortions, but no adulthood training, and no defining moment of transition to adulthood. INITIATION does.

INITIATION channels and refines the naturally aggressive male energy of boyhood into the maturity of manhood. INITIATION directs and cultivates the often misunderstood and abused power of girlhood into the true femininity of womanhood. Boys become men, who become protectors instead of aggressors. Girls become women, who in turn become healers instead of dividers.

Men and women are vital to each other, the family, and society!

Both then learn that what native cultures have always known: The roles of men and women are unique and different, and both are essential to the well being of the family. The family, now endangered by symptoms of popular culture, is the basic building block vital to a free, healthy, society. INITIATION is rebuilding it.

No one tells another what to do!

A common thread through Native American culture is individual freedom and responsibility. INITIATION has no dogma and does not preach. Instead, students are offered a series of training experiences through which they discover, and decide for themselves.

Students ritually experience the cycles of childhood, youth, maturity, and old age. Each session is devoted to cycle of life:

Purification - Discovering something worthwhile beyond just the physical, i.e. the non-physical -the spiritual.

Empowerment - Accessing and strengthening the spiritual through practical, physical training.

Impeccibility - Deciding right and wrong. Knowing good and bad. Balancing the spiritual and physical in selfless service.

Quest(Boys)/Vigil Girls) - Integrating all of the training via rite of passage, to a defining moment of adulthood.

All ceremonies are free. All are welcome. INITIATION opposes Evil in all forms.

(Top of page)

Purification

The Purification training cycle provides the opportunity to experience the luminous realm and establish a solid grounding in the fundamentals of Initiation. Prepare to discover worlds of untapped potential. Most likely you will learn to see electromagnetic bioluminescence--auras--your first night of training!

The seminar perspective orients from the southwestern American Indian warrior tradition, and while specific sacred rituals will remain inviolate, we will transpose ceremonies as vehicles to approach the inner and outer other worlds, and later their initial integration.

Warriorschool

Student's Comments:

"The training has changed me so much. I am so much stronger. I feel as though I can handle more spiritually, and that I am able to help others and myself in a positive way."

"It would have a wonderful impact on society. We would have people who would be able to help others and themselves. I think society needs this."

"I am feeling renewed physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I thought it would fade after a couple of days, but the feeling just continues."

"This training can have a positive growth impact on society."
.

INITIATION CAMP

WITH FOUNDER
JEFFREY PRATHER

.

The official journal of Initiation, Warriorship and Healership is now online!

The Bracelet Online

.

Empowerment

The second training cycle is called Empowerment. A warrior is defined by his power and its use. Since time immemorial, the warrior has been most easily recognized by his physical skill and the arms he bore. But any well trained soldier can match such abilities. The true, whole warrior is known for his unique prowess in the spiritual, or luminous realm as well.

During the first intensive you literally saw this luminous power. In this second intensive, you will actually access and utilize this phenomenon. Only by impeccably balancing body and spirit in selfless service does the warrior empty ego and become a ready vessel for God's power to pour through.

The seminar perspective orients from the southwest American Indian traditions. Various indigenous ceremonies will be transposed as vehicles to empowerment. This training is in no way associated with New Age, Wicca, magic, witchcraft, or the worship or fostering of evil. The warrior's sole reason for existence is to oppose evil--everywhere and always!

Impeccability

The third training intensive is Impeccability. This third intensive focuses on beginning to obtain the unobtainable--the elusive impeccability of enlightenment! At your first training intensive, you discovered inner technologies, literally seeing and feeling your own electromagnetic bioluminescence. During your second intensive, you learned to use this new wisdom, strengthening and directing this energy. Now you will begin to distill and combine your gains from purification and empowerment training, and approach the perfect poise of the warrior, balanced between physical and spiritual worlds, on the razor's edge!

Quest/Vigil

The fourth and final Intensive and the conclusion of the Intensive Cycle: Quest/Vigil. Modern society, in spite of its technological advancements, lacks the cultural indices and understanding to mark adulthood and spiritual accomplishment. Through formal rights of passage such as questing, tribal peoples found direction for their lives and the power once considered requisite to marry, to hold office, and to live as an adult. At your first Intensive, you discovered inner technologies, learned to use your newfound wisdom, strengthening and directing these etheric energies. Through spiritual worlds. Now, in this final and most personal venture, you will combine all the skills you have learned throughout the cycle, and challenge yourself as never before!

How Exorcism Works

2008-07-28T09:56:00.000-07:00

http://science.howstuffworks.com/exorcism.htm

This page very generally talks about 'Catholic Exorcism' as far as I can tell. It is worth checking out.

I have a friend who spent quite a bit of time with Christian Exorcists traveling the world and even interviewed the mother of Annelise Michel after whom the movie 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose' was based. He also spent a lot of time with Christian Missionaries and Christian 'Cults'. I will try to relay his story and info as time goes on.

The main reason I wanted to post some quick info about this subject has to do with some of the books Warriorschool recommends for reading. One such book is called
"Hostage to the Devil". It is briefly mentioned here in this How Stuff Works article.

Malachi Martin, a former Jesuit priest and self-proclaimed (but not official) exorcist, offers additional information on exorcism -- information not endorsed by the Church. A controversial figure in the Catholic world, Martin reveals in the book "Hostage to the Devil" what he considers to be the typical stages of an exorcism (Cuneo 19-20):

1. Pretense - The demon is hiding its true identity.
2. Breakpoint - The demon reveals itself.
3. Clash - The exorcist and the demon fight for the soul of the possessed.
4. Expulsion - If the exorcist wins the battle, the demon leaves the body of the possessed.

"Hostage to the Devil" created quite a stir in the Church. The book details supposedly factual exorcisms that Martin claims to have performed, assisted with or witnessed. The exorcisms Martin describes are on the level with "The Exorcism" in terms of action and violence. It has been criticized by believers, who think Martin has sensationalized and therefore belittled the power of the devil. But if Martin's vivid scenes don't ring true to the Church and its supporters, what does a real exorcism look like?

Personally I have not been able to analyze all the books Warriorschool recommends for reading, but I wouldn't be surprised if most of them are just complete bullshit. Any help with this analysis would be appreciated.

One of my good friends was telling me that the 'Carlos Castaneda' books were a complete fraud and fiction.

I found that 'World Bible' they advocated to be really retarded. Essentially the guy who wrote it tried to summarize the world religions and made a point that somehow ll religions are seeking God in their own way or some nonsense like that. This was part of the foundation of Warriorschool. This allowed them to recruit people from all belief systems, but anyone who has any clue of the major world religions will see that this book is merely the opinion of a small group of people who have their own agenda.

I was also recommended to read "Stranger in a strange land" when I was apprenticing. That book was super retarded. Essentially an alien comes to earth and has a human body, which he quickly controls to the maximum. Then he understands things on a super profound level, called Groking. I think he teaches other people how to do this, and it is supposed to give you some sort of new perspective on things. I must say reading this book, probably was one of the most unenjoyable parts of my apprenticeship.

I also need help analyzing all the movies and video clips they showed and/or recommended. Some of them were definately awesome.

How Cults Work

2008-07-28T09:31:00.000-07:00

How Cults Work

http://people.howstuffworks.com/cult.htm

When most of us hear the word "cult," we see a bunch of brainwashed zombies feeding their children cyanide-laced fruit drink, mass murders, a burning compound in Waco, Texas -- it's not a pretty picture. But is it a true picture? What exactly is a "cult," and how is it different from a "religion"? Are all cults dangerous? Are people who join destructive cults mentally disturbed, or are all of us equally susceptible?
In this article, we'll separate fact from propaganda and learn what a cult actually is, what practices characterize a destructive cult and look at some of the more notable cult incidents in recent history.
What's a "Cult"?
Courtesy Getty ImagesShelly Katz / LiaisonThe Branch Davidian compound explodes in April 1993 following a standoff between the cult and the FBI. See more pictures of cults.
The cults that make the news and drive fear through the hearts of parents sending their kids to college are the exception, not the rule. At its most basic, a cult is simply a small, unestablished, non-mainstream religious group that typically revolves around a single leader. The American Heritage Dictionary defines "cult" this way:
1. A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader.
2. A system or community of religious worship and ritual.
If You Need HelpIf you think you may be involved in a destructive cult, or you've recently left one, there are a lot of resources out there ready to help you. They can assist you in understanding the situation and taking action. Here are just a few organizations that specialize in helping people recover from cult involvement: · reFOCUS· Support Group Locations· Post-Cult Trauma· Cult Information Service
The first definition is closer to the common usage of the term today, but you'll notice there's no mention of brainwashing, murder or mass suicide. There is no meaningful difference between a cult and a religion in terms of faith, morality or spirituality. The primary differences are that a "cult" operates outside of mainstream society, often calls on its followers to make an absolute commitment to the group and typically has a single leader, whereas a "religion" usually operates within mainstream culture, requires varying levels of commitment from its members and typically has a leadership hierarchy that, in practice, can serve as a series of checks and balances.
But destructive cults are a different story. There is a big difference between a destructive cult and a non-destructive religion (or a non-destructive cult). A destructive (or totalist) cult exploits its members' vulnerability in order to gain complete control over them, often using unethical psychological techniques to bring about thought reform. It can be said that a non-destructive religion or cult attempts to alleviate its members' vulnerability through spiritual guidance in an effort to help them exercise control over their own lives.
While most small, non-mainstream religions are harmless, certain circumstances do make them an easy breeding ground for destructive practices. The People's Temple began as a charitable organization in the United States that ran a free medical clinic and drug rehabilitation program. But you probably know it as the doomsday cult whose Kool-Aid mass suicide/murders took more than 900 lives in Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978. How can something that began with so much hope go so very wrong? There's a lot of speculation about what happened to the members of The People's Temple, but for the most part, what went wrong is what goes wrong with most destructive cults: the leadership.
Photo courtesy Getty ImagesDon Hogan Charles / New York Times Co.Reverend Jim Jones, leader of The People's Temple, and his family in 1976
Photo courtesy Getty ImagesDavid Hume KennerlyNine-hundred members of The People's Temple (including more than 200 children) dead after Jones ordered a mass murder/suicide in 1978
It's really a two-part problem. First, many of these religions are founded by a single person who retains a position of exclusive power within the organization, and power tends to corrupt even the most ethical among us. In the case of The People's Temple, there is evidence that its leader, Reverend James Warren Jones, was abusing prescription drugs and becoming increasingly paranoid through the 1970s. Next, because these groups operate outside the mainstream, there is usually no one checking up on their operating procedures, so a corrupt or mentally unstable leader is free to exploit his followers to his heart's content. In addition to this authoritarian leadership structure, some primary characteristics of a destructive cult include:
· Charismatic leadership
· Deception in recruiting
· Use of thought-reform methods
· Isolation (physical and/or psychological)
· Demand for absolute, unquestioning devotion and loyalty
· Sharp, unsurpassable distinction between "us" (good, saved) and "them" (bad, going to Hell)
· "Inside language" that only members fully understand
· Strict control over members' daily routines
For the remainder of this article, when we refer to techniques employed by "cults," we're talking about destructive cults, not the small religious groups that keep to themselves and don't hurt anybody. In the following sections, we'll examine destructive cults more closely and find out how they function. Let's start with the leadership structure.
It Takes All KindsNot all destructive cults are religious in nature. They can be driven by political or financial goals as well. In the end, it's all about subjugating members' individuality to achieve the desires of the leader(s), whether that means reinforcing a self-proclaimed messianic status, participating in destructive activities in the name of political revolution or simply filling the leader's pockets with their hard-earned money. There are radical political groups, commercial pyramid schemes and self-help seminars that employ similar recruiting and indoctrinating techniques as destructive religious cults, targeting people with certain vulnerabilities and then playing on those vulnerabilities to keep them "in the fold." The end result is a "convert" who will blow himself up in the name of destroying capitalism, try to get all of his loved ones to buy into the same business deal that he is losing his life savings on, or keep signing up for an unending series of lectures, seminars and retreats that promise psychological and spiritual healing but really only drain his bank account.

The Leadership Structure
Photo courtesy Getty ImagesDon Hogan Charles / New York Times Co.Jim Jones, leader of The People's Temple
There is no cult without a powerful, charismatic leader. A charismatic leader has the uncanny ability to get people to follow him unquestioningly. The phrase "cult of personality" refers to this type of group dynamic. Cult members are devoted to the leader, not to the leader's ideas. The leader has complete control over his followers -- there is no questioning of his decisions, and he is accountable to no one within the group.
It's possible for a cult to have more than one leader, but that's atypical. Most destructive religious cults demand absolute devotion to a single person who is considered to be God or connected to God, the Messiah, a prophet or possessing some other holy status. This is a critical component in maintaining absolute devotion: To the members of a cult, only this single person can lead them to salvation. Without this single person, they will spend eternity in Hell.
Courtesy Getty Images; Nine Network AustraliaDavid Koresh
How does a person fall into a role like this? One common scenario is the preacher or church member who gets "banished" from a mainstream church for preaching extreme or unconventional ideas or showing signs of corruption or instability. When he leaves, his followers go with him, or else he joins an already existing cult and eventually vies for control. David Koresh, leader of the Branch Davidian cult that was destroyed during a U.S. government siege in 1993, was active in a mainstream Christian church before he was thrown out for "negatively influencing" some of the church's younger members. Reverend James (Jim) Warren Jones, who ordered hundreds of members of The People's Temple to drink poisoned punch in Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978, was ordained a mainstream Christian pastor.
But not everybody starts out in mainstream religion. Some cult leaders are simply anti-social, destructive individuals who find out they have a knack for manipulation. Charles Manson fits this description.
Photo courtesy Getty Images; Fotos InternationalCharles Manson (center) surrounded by his "Family" in the early 1970s
Manson was the charismatic leader of a doomsday cult (which the media would eventually dub "The Family") with more than 100 members near Los Angeles, Calif. He spent most of his youth on the streets and in and out of prison. At one institution, Manson was described as "a very emotionally upset youth who is definitely in need of some psychiatric orientation." He was also described as violent and manipulative. After the age of 18, his crimes grew from robbery and car theft to pimping, rape and fraud. In 1967, Manson was paroled from one of his prison stints and landed in San Francisco, where he slipped into the hippie scene and developed a following -- mostly young women who were generally troubled and disillusioned with America. "Charlie" became their guru. He preached that the world would end in a racial war. Blacks would destroy wealthy whites and win a position of dominance, but the black power structure would quickly collapse due to inexperience. And then, the Manson Family would come out of hiding in the desert and rule the world.
Photo courtesy Getty ImagesSahm Doherty / Time & Life PicturesManson being led from a courthouse in 1969
Manson referred to himself as the reincarnation of Jesus. His followers called him "God" and "Satan" seemingly interchangeably. Manson and the members of his cult brutally slaughtered people, committing what is probably the most famous cult mass murder -- the shooting and stabbing of seven people over two days, including actress Sharon Tate (wife of director Roman Polanski), who was eight months pregnant when she was killed. Most reports conclude that Manson ordered his followers to brutally kill their victims, but he never killed any of them himself. His power over his cult family was absolute. While Manson was on trial for murder, one of his followers, Lynette Fromme, protested the trial by carving an "X" into her forehead on the courthouse steps. Fromme would later attempt to assassinate President Gerald Ford in order to bring attention back to Manson's cause. As of March 2006, Charles Manson is still in prison, receiving tens of thousands of letters every year from people hoping to become members of The Manson Family.
While Manson found his followers in the drugged, anti-establishment haze of 1960s San Francisco, not all cult leaders have such a ready-made base of potential recruits. Cult recruiting is a controversial topic, in that some believe active recruiting has died down since its heyday in the '70s, and others think it has only gotten quieter. Whatever the degree of the problem, there are people out there looking for potential cult members. In the next section, we'll learn about cult recruiting techniques.

Recruitment
If You Need HelpIf you think you may be involved in a destructive cult, or you've recently left one, there are a lot of resources out there ready to help you. They can assist you in understanding the situation and taking action. Here are just a few organizations that specialize in helping people recover from cult involvement: · reFOCUS· Support Group Locations· Post-Cult Trauma· Cult Information Service
You may have an idea of a "cult recruit" as an obviously troubled young person, maybe "mentally ill," easily exploited by unethical cultists. But studies show that people who join cults have only a slightly higher incidence of psychiatric disorders than the general population.
Cult members come from all walks of life, all age groups and all personality types. However, one common thread among most cult recruits is heightened stress: Research indicates that a majority of people who end up joining a cult were recruited during a particularly stressful period. This could be the stress associated with adolescence, leaving home for the first time, a bad breakup, losing a job or the death of a loved one. People undergoing significant stress can be more susceptible when a person or group claims to have the answer to all of their problems. Michael Langone, Ph.D., a psychologist who specializes in cults, also identifies some psychological traits that can make a person more likely to be successfully recruited, including:
· dependency - an intense desire to belong, stemming from a lack of self-confidence
· unassertiveness - a reluctance to say no or question authority
· gullibility - a tendency to believe what someone says without really thinking about it
· low tolerance for uncertainty - a need to have any question answered immediately in black-and-white terms
· disillusionment with the status quo - a feeling of marginalization within one's own culture and a desire to see that culture change
· naive idealism - a blind belief that everyone is good
· desire for spiritual meaning - a need to believe that life has a "higher purpose"
Cult recruiters hang out in places where you might find people in a period of extreme stress or possessing the above personality traits -- which is anywhere. Some particularly fruitful recruiting locations might include college campuses, religious gatherings, self-help and support groups, seminars related to spirituality or social change and the unemployment office. In a 1990 article in the San Francisco Examiner, an unnamed ex-cult member commented on how easy it is to get sucked in: "People don't realize how susceptible we all are. Those smiling faces lead you to buy it when you're naive and accepting." She was recruited on the UC San Diego campus when she was 19. Her parents arranged for her to be "deprogrammed" eight years later (more on deprogramming in the "Getting Out" section).
The main methods of cult recruitment revolve around deception and manipulation. Potential recruits are not told the true nature or intentions of the group. Instead, recruiters portray it as something mainstream, low-pressure and benign. They may tell people at a church gathering that their group meets once a week to brainstorm ways to raise money for a new homeless shelter. They might invite a high school student to a talk about how public service can enhance a college application. Recruiters identity the specific needs or desires of their targets and play to them. They learn to pick up on a person's fears and vulnerabilities and portray the cult accordingly. For instance, if a young woman just went through a bad breakup, and she's feeling depressed and alone, a cult member might tell her that his group helps people to overcome interpersonal problems and rebuild their confidence for a fresh start. If a man just lost his wife in a car accident, and he can't bear that he didn't get to say goodbye to her, a recruiter might claim that his group helps people reach peace in the wake of sudden death.
It might seem strange that someone would accept these types of invitations, but there are a couple of factors that make it seem more palatable. First, the recruiter might be someone these people know. He could be in that young woman's college dorm or that man's survivors' support group. And someone who is sad, lonely or desperate might be more inclined to trust someone who claims to know the path back to happiness. Also, cults typically isolate recruits so they can't get a "reality check." They may hold meetings or services at times that would normally be spent with family and friends; they may hold "retreats" that submerge the recruit in the group's message for days at a time; and they may ask recruits not to discuss the group with others until they know more about it, so they don't mislead people or give them only part of the story. This kind of isolation narrows a person's feedback structure drastically for a period of time, to the point that the only people they're really communicating with are the members of the cult they're being invited to join. Their doubts about the group, therefore, are never reinforced, and they end up turning into self-doubt, instead. Looking around them at all of the smiling, friendly people who have obviously found peace and happiness by following this path, it appears that it must be the right way.
Once a person attends one meeting or service or lecture, he's invited to another, and another and another. He's welcomed into the cult family and invited to commit himself to the group. From day one, it's a process of manipulation and deception. And for those who stay on, the recruiting process culminates in the submission of their own personalities to the "will of the group." In the next section, we'll see what cult indoctrination entails.
Is My Loved One in a Cult?If you suspect someone you love is in a destructive cult, the first thing to do is remain calm and rational. Temporarily discard the whole "cult" thing and ask yourself why you're worried -- what behaviors are causing you concern? Write them down. Are these behaviors dangerous? Destructive? If so, the next step is to try to find out if they might be a result of your loved one's involvement with the group in question. There are no absolute, scientifically proven checklists for involvement in a totalist cult, but here are a couple of sources that can help: · Cult Concern FAQ· Cult Influence & PersuasionIf your research leads you to believe that your loved one's behavior can in fact be attributed to her involvement with a destructive cult, your next step is the same as your first step: remain calm and rational. Talk to your loved one about your concerns and listen to her responses. If your fears appear to be valid, consult a psychologist or exit counselor to find out how you can help your loved one without causing further damage. There are lots of organizations out there dedicated to educating and assisting the concerned families of cult members. See the following links for more information: · ex-Cult Resource Center· Cult Information Service· reFOCUS

Indoctrination
Sounds Like Boot CampWhile some people may see similarities between the mind-control practices used by cults and the training that goes on in military organizations, there are significant differences. For one thing, military recruits know from day one that being in the military means giving up some of their autonomy -- that's how the military hierarchy works. A person who joins the military makes an informed decision to relinquish that autonomy, whereas a cult recruit does not know that total submission is a requirement of membership. Also, a person who joins the military does so for a definite period of time -- he is a party to a legal contract that states how long he will be a soldier and what he will get in return. A person who joins a cult thinks he can leave whenever he wants, but in reality, his commitment to the group is supposed to be indefinite. Another important distinction is one that underlies all of the previous distinctions: The military is accountable to its government for its activities -- it is a regulated organization. A cult answers to no one.
A destructive cult uses countless techniques to get its members to stay, commit themselves and take part in what may be harmful activities. The sum of these techniques constitutes what some people call "mind control." It's also known as "thought reform," "brainwashing" and "coercive persuasion," and it involves the systematic breakdown of a person's sense of self.
Patty Hearst, heiress to the Hearst publishing fortune, became famous in the 1970s after she was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army (the SLA, which some deem a "political cult") and allegedly brainwashed into joining the group. There are reports that Hearst was locked in a dark closet for several days after her kidnapping and was kept hungry, tired, brutalized and afraid for her life while SLA members bombarded her with their anti-capitalist political ideology. Within two months of her kidnapping, Patty had changed her name, issued a statement in which she referred to her family as the "pig-Hearsts" and appeared on a security tape robbing a bank with her kidnappers.
Thought reform is an umbrella term for any number of manipulative techniques used to get people to do something they wouldn't otherwise do. The concept of thought reform itself is a controversial one -- some say it's mere propaganda designed to scare people away from new religions and political movements. But most psychologists believe that cult brainwashing techniques, which are similar to techniques used in prisoner interrogation, do change a person's thought processes. In cult recruiting and indoctrination, these techniques include:
· Deception - Cults trick new recruits into joining the group and committing themselves to a cause or lifestyle they don't fully understand.
§ Cults mislead new recruits/members as to the true expectations and activities of the group.
§ Cults may hide any signs of illegal, immoral or hyper-controlling practices until the recruit has fully immersed himself in the group.
§ A cult leader may use members' altered consciousness, induced by activities like meditation, chanting or drug use, to increase vulnerability to suggestion.
· Isolation - Cults cut off members from the outside world (and even each other) to produce intense introspection, confusion, loss of perspective and a distorted sense of reality. The members of the cult become the person's only social contact and feedback mechanism.
§ Cults may keep new recruits from talking to other new recruits. They may only be allowed to speak with long-committed members for a period of time.
§ Cults may not allow unsupervised contact with the "outside world." In this way, there is no chance for a "reality check" or validation of a new member's concerns regarding the group.
§ Cults typically instill the belief that "outsiders" (non-cult members) are dangerous and wrong.
· Induced Dependency - Cults demand absolute, unquestioning devotion, loyalty and submission. A cult member's sense of self is systematically destroyed. Ultimately, feelings of worthlessness and "evil" become associated with independence and critical thinking, and feelings of warmth and love become associated with unquestioning submission.
§ The leader typically controls every minute of a member's waking time. There is no free time to think or analyze.
§ Members are told what to eat, what to wear, how to feed their children, when to sleep ... the member is removed from all decision-making.
§ Any special talents the member has are immediately devalued and criticized in order to confuse the member's sense of self-worth.
§ Any doubts, assertiveness or remaining ties to the outside world are punished by the group through criticism, guilt and alienation. Questions and doubts are systematically "turned around" so that the doubter feels wrong, worthless, "evil" for questioning. The member is loved again when he renounces those doubts and submits to the will of the leader.
§ The member may be deprived of adequate sustenance and/or sleep so the mind becomes muddled.
§ The leader may randomly alternate praise and love with scorn and punishment to keep the member off-balance and confused and instill immense self-doubt. The leader may offer occasional gifts and special privileges to encourage continued submission.
§ The member may be pressured to publicly confess sins, after which he is viciously ridiculed by the group for being evil and unworthy. He is loved again when he acknowledges that his devotion to the cult is the only thing that will bring him salvation.
· Dread - Once complete dependence is established, the member must retain the leader's good favor or else his life falls apart.
§ The leader may punish doubt or insubordination with physical or emotional trauma.
§ Once all ties to the outside world have been cut, the member feels like his only family is the group, and he has nowhere else to go.
§ Access to necessities depends on the leader's favor. The member must "behave" or he may not get food, water, social interaction or protection from the outside world.
§ The member may believe that only group members are "saved," so if he leaves, he will face eternal damnation.
Indoctrination, or thought reform, is a long process that never really ends. Members are continually subjected to these techniques -- it's part of daily life in a cult. Some adjust well to it after a period of time, embracing their new role as "group member" and casting aside their old sense of independence. For others, it's a perpetually stressful existence. In the next section, we'll take a look at what it's like to live within the confines of a destructive cult.

Cult Life (and Death)
Photo courtesy Getty ImagesDavid Hume Kennerly900 dead bodies at The People's Temple compound in Jonestown, Guyana
There is no single description that fits the lifestyle of every destructive cult out there. But there are some common themes. Many ex-cult members depict a type of insulated, moment-to-moment existence in which repressing fear and anxiety is job one. Chanting and meditation become prime coping mechanisms in this regard. Cut off from family, old friends and the outside world, their old life becomes like a dream. In their new life, psychological growth just stops -- cult members are caught in a static life that depends on not thinking, not questioning, not wondering, not remembering. Children raised in a destructive cult are stunted early. They do not usually attend school, and the cult may or may not provide its children with an education.
Cults need food, shelter and clothing like everyone else, and unless they have a wealthy benefactor or they're truly isolated, living in a jungle and growing their own food, that means they need money. Some cults make money to sustain themselves by legitimate means. The Heaven's Gate cult in San Diego, Calif., had been running a successful Web design business before they committed mass suicide in 1997. Some cults commit crimes like fraud and tax evasion to help support themselves. They may use deceptive fundraising techniques or require that new recruits make significant financial contributions to support the rest of the cult.
Above all else, life in a totalist cult is typically characterized by tight control. There is very little freedom in daily life: The leader prescribes what a member can and cannot do for every minute of the day. This includes what food he can eat, what books he can read, whom he can talk to, what he can wear, where he can go and how long he can sleep. The leader makes decisions, and the followers do as they're told.
For some people, living this way is a relief -- life is simple. There are no unanswered questions, no uncertainty, no worrying about the future or managing conflicting desires. Some people's lives on the outside were so bad that the cult is in reality a safe, happy place. But in a lot of cases, this type of lifestyle causes intense psychological distress. Many people experience a persistent fear of angering the leader or losing group approval. They must constantly avoid the tension between their cult world and their former life and stifle any doubts or longings that arise. In some cases, there is also the possibility of physical harm. Punishments for disobedience might be physical, and cult members are typically cut off from hospitals and regular medical care. Some studies show that children in destructive cults are more likely to be abused or neglected than in the general population.
This level of stress can lead to chronic anxiety, physical illness or even a complete mental breakdown in which a cult member may become unable to function in daily life. It's the people who experience cult life as stressful who are most likely to leave voluntarily. In the next section, we'll find out what options people have when it comes to getting out of a destructive cult.
Notable Cult Incidents· 1997, San Diego, Calif.: Heaven's Gate39 members commit suicide by overdose and suffocation. · 1994-1995, Canada, Switzerland, France: Order of the Solar TempleMore than 65 members and former members die in a series of mass murders and suicides. · 1993, Waco, Texas: Branch Davidians80 members die by fire and gunshots during a confrontation with the FBI and ATF. · 1978, Jonestown, Guyana: The People's TempleCult leader Jim Jones and more than 900 members die in a mass murder/suicide by poison and gunshots. · 1969, Los Angeles, Calif.: The Manson FamilyCharles Manson and his followers commit mass murders that leave nine people brutally slaughtered over the course of two weeks.

Getting Out
People might voluntarily leave a cult for any number of reasons. Some cult members become disillusioned and just walk out. This was the case with the Davidians, a precursor group to the Branch Davidians. The leader of the Davidians predicted the end of the world on a particular date. When that date came and went, some members were disappointed. The leader predicted a new date, and that date came and went with the world intact as well. By the time the leader died and his wife took over and predicted a new series of dates that failed to see the destruction of the world, there were very few members left in the group.
For some people, it's not that difficult to leave a cult. Some individuals are just less susceptible to mind-control techniques than others, and they may have retained enough of a sense of self to make an informed decision to walk out. But it's usually not that simple. There are ex-cultists who say they spent years working up the nerve to get out. A true convert is completely dependent on the cult for every aspect of life and consciousness -- to the truly indoctrinated cult member, leaving means being alone and starting over. His sense of self has been completely broken down to the point that he doesn't even know who he is without his cult family. He may not have made a decision in years. Gathering the confidence to voluntarily leave a totalist cult requires a tremendous act of will and doesn't come easily. It might result from renewed contact with the outside world, such as a cult member speaking with her parents for the first time in a decade. It might happen when a cult member has a psychological breakdown and believes she is simply too worthless to meet the expectations of the group, so she leaves to spare her cult family the weariness of her presence. Or it might come about following a particularly traumatic experience that jolts the cult member into consciousness, such as witnessing the sexual assault of a child or a murder within the cult.
But making the decision to leave is only part of the process. The cult has to unlock the door, so to speak, in order for the member to get out. Some destructive cults do let people leave. Usually, they'll put a lot of pressure on a member to stay; but in the end, a person can choose to go and not have to climb a barbed-wire fence in the dead of night or sneak past any armed guards. In the mildest cases, a member who leaves may be "disowned" by the cult, forbidden any contact with the people that have been her family for months, years or decades, but the member won't suffer any physical harm when she walks out. In the most severe cases, though, a cult may stop at nothing to maintain control over its members, and a person may fear for her life if she tries to leave. When 16 members of The People's Temple in Jonestown, Guyana, decided they wanted to leave the cult in 1978 following a visit from a U.S. government group, several armed cult members followed them to the airport and opened fire. They injured 11 people and killed a U.S. Congressman, three reporters and one member who was trying to leave. Fear of the consequences of this incident is what triggered leader Jim Jones to initiate the mass suicide and murder of 900 members of the cult.
While a peaceful, voluntary exit is certainly the preferred method of leaving a cult, it doesn't always happen that way. There are those who don't want to escape at all but are grabbed from their beds at three in the morning and dragged back into the outside world. This is typically the first stage in what is known as "deprogramming," which is an extreme method of removing someone from a cult against his will.
It's not easy to get someone to leave a destructive cult. Talking is always the first step. But sometimes, the cultist is too well indoctrinated to really hear anything an outsider has to say, and other times there's no opportunity to talk at all. A cult member may have severed all ties to the outside world. Family members who fear for a loved one who's deeply involved in a totalist cult have to find another option if simple talking is impossible or doesn't work. At this point, they can go one of two ways: deprogramming or exit counseling.
Deprogramming is the more drastic of the two approaches because it usually involves an initial kidnapping to get the cult member away from the cult. For this reason, deprogramming is a very expensive service. It can cost in the tens of thousands of dollars. After the forced removal, deprogramming mostly involves hours and hours of intense "debriefing," during which a team of deprogrammers hold the cult member against his will and use ethical psychological techniques to try to counter the unethical psychological techniques used by the cult. The goal is to get the cult member to think for himself and re-evaluate his situation. Debriefing methods can include:
· educating the cult member on thought-reform techniques and helping him to recognize those methods in his own cult experience
· asking questions that encourage the cult member to think in a critical, independent way, helping him to recognize that type of thinking and praising him for it
· attempting to produce an emotional connection to his former life by introducing objects from his past and having family members share their memories of his pre-cult existence
Deprogramming was relatively common in the 1970s, but has fallen out of favor as an acceptable cult-removal method, partly because it's so expensive, partly because it involves kidnapping and imprisonment and partly because that kidnapping and imprisonment led to a lot of lawsuits over the years. Now, most families turn to "exit counselors." Exit counseling leaves out the kidnapping and focuses instead on employing psychological techniques that might get the cult member to voluntarily submit to debriefing. Exit counselors guide the family in the most effective ways to get a cult member to communicate with "outsiders." Family members must be non-judgmental, calm and loving, or else they'll only reinforce the belief that all outsiders are "bad" and dangerous. If they succeed, and the cult member agrees to participate in the process, what happens next is essentially the same debriefing that occurs during deprogramming, with long sessions that take place over a number of days, but the cult member is free to leave.
There's is no guarantee that any cult-removal technique will work. Some sources say that at least one-third of deprogrammings fail, and there are no definitive statistics on the success rate of exit counseling. But when it does work, the cult member finds himself back in the outside world -- with a whole new set of problems. People who leave a totalist cult can suffer from a laundry list of psychological problems. Some common ones include depression, anxiety, paranoia, guilt, rage and constant fear. They may have difficulty thinking clearly, making decisions, analyzing situations and performing everyday activities like picking out something to wear or going to the store to buy groceries. Psychologist Michael Langone describes a common post-cult state he calls "floating," in which the former member goes back and forth from "cult to non-cult ways of viewing the world ... stalled in a foggy, 'in-between' state of consciousness."
Not everybody is psychologically damaged by a cult experience. Some go on with their lives after a relatively short adjustment period. But most people who have undergone thought reform suffer negative consequences when they leave the insulated environment of the cult. It can take years for a former cult member to readjust to life on the outside. Some people never completely return to their pre-cult level of functioning. But in most cases, counseling and family support can go a long way toward recovery.
For more information on destructive cults and related topics, including links to organizations that help people who've been hurt by cult involvement, check out the links on the next page.

Lots More Information
Related HowStuffWorks Articles
· How Exorcism Works
· How Fear Works
· How Hypnosis Works
· How Nostradamus Works
· How Urban Legends Work
· How Witness Protection Works
More Great Links
· Court TV Crime Library: Cult Murders
· Cult Concern FAQ
· ex-Cult Resource Center
· International Cultic Studies Association - Cults: Questions and Answers
· reFOCUS - includes phone numbers and contact information for support groups and ex-cult members who want to help
Sources
· "Biderman's Chart of Coercion." reFOCUS.
http://www.refocus.org/coerchrt.html
· "Characteristics of a Destructive Cult." International Cultic Studies Association.
http://www.csj.org/infoserv_articles/refocus.htm
· "Cults." WorkingPsychology.com.
http://www.workingpsychology.com/cult.html
· "Cults: a.k.a. New Religious Movements." ReligiousTolerance.org.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/cultintro.htm
· Enroth, Ronald, Ph.D. "Dysfunctional Churches." Cult Observer, 1992, Vol. 9, No. 4
http://www.csj.org/infoserv_articles/enroth_ronald_dysfunctional_churches.htm
· Groenveld, Jan. "Identifying a Cult." ex-cult Resource Center.
http://www.ex-cult.org/General/identifying-a-cult
· Hassan, Steven. "Mind Control - The BITE Model." ex-cult Resource Center.
http://www.ex-cult.org/bite.html
· Irving, Carl. "One who got away: Cult recruiting flourishing quietly on college campuses." San Francisco Examiner, March 4, 1990,
http://www.rickross.com/reference/srichinmoy/srichinmoy13.html
· "Destructive Cults: The Family (Charles Manson)." ReligiousTolerance.org.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/dc_charl.htm
· "Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst." American Experience. PBS.org.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/guerrilla/peopleevents/p_p_hearst.html
· Jacobsen, Jeff. "A Short Review of Academic Research into Cults." ex-cult Resource Center.
http://www.ex-cult.org/General/review.academic.research
· Langone, Michael D., Ph.D. "Cults: Questions and Answers." International Cultic Studies Association.
http://www.csj.org/infoserv_articles/langone_michael_cultsqa.htm
· Lifton, Robert J., Ph.D. "Thought Reform: The Psychology of Totalism." ex-cult Resource Center.
http://www.ex-cult.org/General/lifton-criteria
· "The People's Temple." Religious Tolerance.org.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/dc_jones.htm
· Rosedale, Herbert H., Esq. and Michael D. Langone, Ph.D. "On Using the Term 'Cult.'"
International Cultic Studies Association. http://www.csj.org/infoserv_articles/langone_michael_term_cult.htm
· Ryan, Patrick. "Mass Suicides Timeline." International Cultic Studies Association.
http://www.csj.org/infoserv_articles/ryan_patrick_suicide_timeline.htm
· Singer, Margaret T., Ph. D. "Conditions for Mind Control." ex-cult Resource Center.
http://www.ex-cult.org/General/singer-conditions
· Troy, Carol. "Behind Suicide Cult Lay Thriving Web Business." The New York Times, Mar. 28, 1997.
http://partners.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/032897cult.html
· "Waco: The Inside Story." PBS.org.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/waco/topten.html

How Brainwashing Works

2008-07-28T09:15:00.000-07:00

How Brainwashing Works
by Julia Layton

http://people.howstuffworks.com/brainwashing.htm

Layton, Julia. "How Brainwashing Works." 10 May 2006. HowStuffWorks.com. 28 July 2008.
Inside this Article
1. Introduction to How Brainwashing Works
2. Brainwashing Techniques
3. The Possibility of Salvation
4. Rebuilding the Self
5. Brainwashing Then and Now
6. The Lee Boyd Malvo Case
7. See more »

During the Korean War, Korean and Chinese captors reportedly brainwashed American POWs held in prison camps. Several prisoners ultimately confessed to waging germ warfare -- which they hadn't -- and pledged allegiance to communism by the end of their captivity. At least 21 soldiers refused to come back to the United States when they were set free. It sounds impressive, but skeptics point

out that it was 21 out of more than 20,000 prisoners in communist countries. Does brainwashing really work in any reliable way?
In psychology, the study of brainwashing, often referred to as thought reform, falls into the sphere of "social influence." Social influence happens every minute of every day. It's the collection of ways in which people can change other people's attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. For instance, the compliance method aims to produce a change in a person's behavior and is not concerned with his attitudes or beliefs. It's the "Just do it" approach. Persuasion, on the other hand, aims for a change in attitude, or "Do it because it'll make you feel good/happy/healthy/successful." The education method (which is called the "propaganda method" when you don't believe in what's being taught) goes for the social-influence gold, trying to affect a change in the person's beliefs, along the lines of "Do it because you know it's the right thing to do." Brainwashing is a severe form of social influence that combines all of these approaches to cause changes in someone's way of thinking without that person's consent and often against his will.
Because brainwashing is such an invasive form of influence, it requires the complete isolation and dependency of the subject, which is why you mostly hear of brainwashing occurring in prison camps or totalist cults. The agent (the brainwasher) must have complete control over the target (the brainwashee) so that sleep patterns, eating, using the bathroom and the fulfillment of other basic human needs depend on the will of the agent. In the brainwashing process, the agent systematically breaks down the target's identity to the point that it doesn't work anymore. The agent then replaces it with another set of behaviors, attitudes and beliefs that work in the target's current environment.
While most psychologists believe that brainwashing is possible under the right conditions, some see it as improbable or at least as a less severe form of influence than the media portrays it to be. Some definitions of brainwashing require the presence of the threat of physical harm, and under these definitions most extremist cults do not practice true brainwashing since they typically do not physically abuse recruits. Other definitions rely on "nonphysical coercion and control" as an equally effective means of asserting influence. Regardless of which definition you use, many experts believe that even under ideal brainwashing conditions, the effects of the process are most often short-term -- the brainwashing victim's old identity is not in fact eradicated by the process, but instead is in hiding, and once the "new identity" stops being reinforced the person's old attitudes and beliefs will start to return.
There are psychologists who say the apparent conversion of American POWs during the Korean War was the result of plain-old torture, not "brainwashing." And in fact, most POWs in the Korean War were not converted to communism at all, which leads to the question of reliability: Is brainwashing a system that produces similar results across cultures and personality types, or does it hinge primarily on the target's susceptibility to influence? In the next section, we'll examine one expert's description of the brainwashing process and find out what makes an easy target.

Fictional Brainwashing

Modern literature and film use the brainwashing scenario pretty liberally. It gets to the very nature of humanity: Are we all ultimately reducible to puppets? The protagonist in George Orwell's "1984" undergoes a classic case of brainwashing that ends with the famous concession to his tormentors: "two plus two equals five." In 1962's "The Manchurian Candidate," brainwashing produces a robot-like assassin incapable of overriding the control commands he's been programmed with. "A Clockwork Orange" (1971) positions institutional brainwashing as an option for violent convicts looking to shorten their sentences, and in 1997's "Conspiracy Theory," a mentally unstable, government-brainwashed assassin seeks to prove that some very powerful people have been tampering with his mind.

Brainwashing Techniques
Photo courtesy U.S. ArmyAmerican POWs in theKorean War
In the late 1950s, psychologist Robert Jay Lifton studied former prisoners of Korean War and Chinese war camps. He determined that they'd undergone a multistep process that began with attacks on the prisoner's sense of self and ended with what appeared to be a change in beliefs. Lifton ultimately defined a set of steps involved in the brainwashing cases he studied:
1. Assault on identity
2. Guilt
3. Self-betrayal
4. Breaking point
5. Leniency
6. Compulsion to confess
7. Channeling of guilt
8. Releasing of guilt
9. Progress and harmony
10. Final confession and rebirth
Each of these stages takes place in an environment of isolation, meaning all "normal" social reference points are unavailable, and mind-clouding techniques like sleep deprivation and malnutrition are typically part of the process. There is often the presence or constant threat of physical harm, which adds to the target's difficulty in thinking critically and independently.
We can roughly divide the process Lifton identified into three stages: breaking down the self, introducing the possibility of salvation, and rebuilding the self.
Breaking down the self
· Assault on identity: You are not who you think you are.
This is a systematic attack on a target's sense of self (also called his identity or ego) and his core belief system. The agent denies everything that makes the target who he is: "You are not a soldier." "You are not a man." "You are not defending freedom." The target is under constant attack for days, weeks or months, to the point that he becomes exhausted, confused and disoriented. In this state, his beliefs seem less solid.
· Guilt: You are bad.
While the identity crisis is setting in, the agent is simultaneously creating an overwhelming sense of guilt in the target. He repeatedly and mercilessly attacks the subject for any "sin" the target has committed, large or small. He may criticize the target for everything from the "evilness" of his beliefs to the way he eats too slowly. The target begins to feel a general sense of shame, that everything he does is wrong.
· Self-betrayal: Agree with me that you are bad.
Once the subject is disoriented and drowning in guilt, the agent forces him (either with the threat of physical harm or of continuance of the mental attack) to denounce his family, friends and peers who share the same "wrong" belief system that he holds. This betrayal of his own beliefs and of people he feels a sense of loyalty to increases the shame and loss of identity the target is already experiencing.
· Breaking point: Who am I, where am I and what am I supposed to do?
With his identity in crisis, experiencing deep shame and having betrayed what he has always believed in, the target may undergo what in the lay community is referred to as a "nervous breakdown." In psychology, "nervous breakdown" is really just a collection of severe symptoms that can indicate any number of psychological disturbances. It may involve uncontrollable sobbing, deep depression and general disorientation. The target may have lost his grip on reality and have the feeling of being completely lost and alone.
When the target reaches his breaking point, his sense of self is pretty much up for grabs -- he has no clear understanding of who he is or what is happening to him. At this point, the agent sets up the temptation to convert to another belief system that will save the target from his misery.

The Possibility of Salvation
· Leniency: I can help you.
With the target in a state of crisis, the agent offers some small kindness or reprieve from the abuse. He may offer the target a drink of water, or take a moment to ask the target what he misses about home. In a state of breakdown resulting from an endless psychological attack, the small kindness seems huge, and the target may experience a sense of relief and gratitude completely out of proportion to the offering, as if the agent has saved his life.
· Compulsion to confession: You can help yourself.
For the first time in the brainwashing process, the target is faced with the contrast between the guilt and pain of identity assault and the sudden relief of leniency. The target may feel a desire to reciprocate the kindness offered to him, and at this point, the agent may present the possibility of confession as a means to relieving guilt and pain.
· Channeling of guilt: This is why you're in pain.
After weeks or months of assault, confusion, breakdown and moments of leniency, the target's guilt has lost all meaning -- he's not sure what he has done wrong, he just knows he is wrong. This creates something of a blank slate that lets the agent fill in the blanks: He can attach that guilt, that sense of "wrongness," to whatever he wants. The agent attaches the target's guilt to the belief system the agent is trying to replace. The target comes to believe it is his belief system that is the cause of his shame. The contrast between old and new has been established: The old belief system is associated with psychological (and usually physical) agony; and the new belief system is associated with the possibility of escaping that agony.
· Releasing of guilt: It's not me; it's my beliefs.
The embattled target is relieved to learn there is an external cause of his wrongness, that it is not he himself that is inescapably bad -- this means he can escape his wrongness by escaping the wrong belief system. All he has to do is denounce the people and institutions associated with that belief system, and he won't be in pain anymore. The target has the power to release himself from wrongness by confessing to acts associated with his old belief system.
With his full confessions, the target has completed his psychological rejection of his former identity. It is now up to the agent to offer the target a new one.

Rebuilding the Self
· Progress and harmony: If you want, you can choose good.
The agent introduces a new belief system as the path to "good." At this stage, the agent stops the abuse, offering the target physical comfort and mental calm in conjunction with the new belief system. The target is made to feel that it is he who must choose between old and new, giving the target the sense that his fate is in his own hands. The target has already denounced his old belief system in response to leniency and torment, and making a "conscious choice" in favor of the contrasting belief system helps to further relieve his guilt: If he truly believes, then he really didn't betray anyone. The choice is not a difficult one: The new identity is safe and desirable because it is nothing like the one that led to his breakdown.
· Final confession and rebirth: I choose good.
Contrasting the agony of the old with the peacefulness of the new, the target chooses the new identity, clinging to it like a life preserver. He rejects his old belief system and pledges allegiance to the new one that is going to make his life better. At this final stage, there are often rituals or ceremonies to induct the converted target into his new community. This stage has been described by some brainwashing victims as a feeling of "rebirth."
(See How Cults Work: Indoctrination for details on the thought-reform process that takes place specifically in destructive cults.)
A brainwashing process like the one discussed above has not been tested in a modern laboratory setting, because it's damaging to the target and would therefore be an unethical scientific experiment. Lifton created this description from first-hand accounts of the techniques used by captors in the Korean War and other instances of "brainwashing" around the same time. Since Lifton and other psychologists have identified variations on what appears to be a distinct set of steps leading to a profound state of suggestibility, an interesting question is why some people end up brainwashed and others don't.
Certain personality traits of the brainwashing targets can determine the effectiveness of the process. People who commonly experience great self doubt, have a weak sense of identity, and show a tendency toward guilt and absolutism (black-and-white thinking) are more likely to be successfully brainwashed, while a strong sense of identity and self-confidence can make a target more resistant to brainwashing. Some accounts show that faith in a higher power can assist a target in mentally detaching from the process. Mental detachment is one of the POW-survival techniques now taught to soldiers as part of their training. It involves the target psychologically removing himself from his actual surroundings through visualization, the constant repetition of a mantra and various other meditative techniques. The military also teaches soldiers about the methods used in brainwashing, because a target's knowledge of the process tends to make it less effective.
While the U.S. consciousness was turned to brainwashing in the 1950s in the aftermath of the Korean War, brainwashing has been around for longer than that. Scholars have traced the roots of systematic thought reform to the prison camps of communist Russia in the early 1900s, when political prisoners were routinely "re-educated" to the communist view of the world. But it was when the practice spread to China and the writings of Chairman Mao Tse-tung ("The Little Red Book") that the world started to take notice.

Brainwashing Then and Now
In 1929, Mao Tse-tung, who would later lead the Chinese Communist Party, used the phrase ssu-hsiang tou-cheng (translated as "thought struggle") to describe a process of brainwashing. Political prisoners in China and Korea were reportedly subjected to communist-conversion techniques as a matter of course. The modern concept and the term "brainwashing" was first used by journalist Edward Hunter in 1951 to describe what had happened to American POWs during the Korean War. Hunter introduced the concept at a time when Americans were already afraid: It was the Cold War, and America panicked at the idea of mass communist indoctrination through "brainwashing" -- they might be converted and not even know it!
In the wake of the Korean War revelations, the U.S. government seemed to fear it was falling behind in the weapons race, because it began its own mind-control research. In 1953, the CIA began a program called MKULTRA. In one study, the CIA supposedly gave subjects (including the famed Timothy Leary) LSD in order to study the effects of mind-altering drugs and gauge the effectiveness of psychedelics at inducing a brainwashing-friendly state of mind. The results were not that encouraging, and subjects were supposedly harmed by the experiments. Drug experimentation by the CIA was officially cancelled by Congress in the 1970s, although some claim it still happens under the radar. Public interest in brainwashing briefly subsided after the Cold War but resurfaced in the 1960s and 1970s with the emergence of countless non-mainstream political and religious groups during that era. Parents who were horrified by their children's new beliefs and activities were sure they'd been brainwashed by a "cult." The mass suicides and killing sprees committed by a small percentage of those cults seemed to validate the brainwashing fears, and some parents went so far as to have their children kidnapped by "deprogrammers" to remove them from the influence of cult leaders.
Photo courtesy Keystone/Consolidated News Pictures/Getty ImagesPatty Hearst is caught on surveillance camera during a bank robbery in San Francisco.
One supposed victim of brainwashing at that time was Patty Hearst, heiress to the Hearst publishing fortune, who would later use a brainwashing defense when she was on trial for bank robbery. Hearst became famous in the early 1970s after she was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army (the SLA, which some deem a "political cult") and ended up joining the group. Hearst reports that she was locked in a dark closet for several days after her kidnapping and was kept hungry, tired, brutalized and afraid for her life while SLA members bombarded her with their anti-capitalist political ideology. Within two months of her kidnapping, Patty had changed her name, issued a statement in which she referred to her family as the "pig-Hearsts" and appeared on a security tape robbing a bank with her kidnappers.
Patty Hearst stood trial for bank robbery in 1976, defended by the famous F. Lee Bailey. The defense claimed that Hearst was brainwashed by the SLA and would not have committed the crime otherwise. In her mental state, she could not tell right from wrong. Hearst was found guilty and sentenced to seven years in prison. She only served two -- in 1979, President Carter commuted her sentence.
In the next section we'll look at the Lee Boyd Malvo case.

The Lee Boyd Malvo Case
Photo courtesy Davis Turner/AFP/Getty ImagesLee Boyd Malvo is escorted by deputies as he is brought into court to be identified by a witness.
Another "insanity by brainwashing" defense hit the courtroom 30 years later, when Lee Boyd Malvo stood trial for his role in the 2002 sniper attacks in and around Washington, D.C. The 17-year-old Malvo and 42-year-old John Allen Muhammad killed 10 people and wounded three in a killing spree. The defense claimed that the teenaged Malvo was brainwashed by Muhammad into committing the crimes, which he would not have committed if he weren't under Muhammad's control. According to "The Brainwashing Defense" in Psychology Today:
Muhammad plucked 15-year-old Malvo from the Caribbean island of Antigua, where his mother had abandoned him, and brought him to the U.S. in 2001. An army veteran, Muhammad filled the teen's head with visions of an impending race war and trained Malvo in marksmanship. He isolated Malvo, steeped him to his own idiosyncratic, vitriolic brand of Islam and imposed a strict diet and exercise regimen on his "adopted" son.
The argument was that Malvo was brainwashed, and because he was brainwashed he could not tell right from wrong. Malvo was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole. (Muhammad was sentenced to death in a separate trial.)
There seems to be a contrast between an underlying fear of brainwashing in modern society, as seen in contemporary films and literature, and the apparent belief of many people who sit on juries that brainwashing is hogwash. Maybe it's the "it could never happen to me" reaction, or maybe it's just a general reluctance to absolve a criminal of responsibility for his or her crime. Whatever the cause, people seem to distinguish between brainwashing now and brainwashing in the future, the latter of which appears to be the more fearsome of the two. The future of brainwashing, if Hollywood and the conspiracy theorists are to be trusted, involves much more high-tech approaches. And yes, brain implants are arguably a lot scarier than verbal or physical "assaults on identity." If some evil branch of neurosurgery can get it right, we're all doomed to be puppets of the state. Combined with hypnosis techniques, a brain implant might be all that's needed to control a human being's thoughts, actions and beliefs. But most scientists agree that the field of neurology is nowhere close to that level of understanding of the human brain. Likewise, many psychologists believe that large-scale brainwashing -- via the mass media and subliminal messages, for instance -- is not possible, because the thought-reform process requires isolation and absolute dependence of the subject in order to be effective. It's just not that easy to change a person's core personality and belief system.
For more information on brainwashing and related topics, check out the links on the next page.

Lots More Information
Related HowStuffWorks Articles
· How the Brain Works
· How Cults Work
· How Exorcism Works
· How Fear Works
· How Hypnosis Works
· The Korean War
More Great Links
· ChangingMinds: Lifton's Brainwashing Processes.
· Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology: Brainwashing
· PsychologyToday: The Brainwashing Defense
· The Skeptic's Dictionary: Mind Control (Brainwashing)
· Working Psychology: Introduction to Influence
Sources
· Adams, Cecil. "Is brainwashing possible?" The Straight Dope.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/050318.html
· "Brainwashing." ChangingMinds.
http://changingminds.org/techniques/conversion/brainwashing.htm
· "Brainwashing." Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g2699/is_0000/ai_2699000045/print
· Flora, Carlin. "The Brainwashing Defense." PsychologyToday.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20031209-000001.html
· "Introduction to Influence." Working Psychology.
http://www.workingpsychology.com/definit.html
· "Lifton's Brainwashing Processes." ChangingMinds.
http://changingminds.org/techniques/conversion/lifton_brainwashing.htm
· "Positive Psychology of POW Survival." International Network on Personal Meaning.
http://www.meaning.ca/articles/pow_survival_april03.htm
· "Schein's stages of conversion." ChangingMinds.
http://changingminds.org/techniques/conversion/schein_conversion.htm
· "Sniper Malvo sentenced to life without parole." CNN.com. May 5, 2004.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/03/10/sniper.malvo/index.html