to Personal Choice was described in an article in Woman's Day,
"Why Kids Join Cults," by David Black [23]. Our own research
included in-depth interviews with one member of RPC and a number
of former cult members around the country who had worked with or
been treated by various members of the group.
101 Verifiable links have been discovered: Again, see Black [23].
103... animal response to the techniques of hypnosis is almost exactly
opposite: See Estabrooks [27], p. 43. "The accepted way to
hypnotize a sheep, for example, is suddenly to pull its legs out
from under it, hold the animal firmly on the ground, then gradually
relax the pressure. . . . [Man] simply does not respond to these
methods. . . . For example, that sheep will show no 'practice
effect.' It is just as easy to hypnotize him the first time as
it is the fiftieth time. . . . This is directly contrary to what
we would expect in human hypnotism."
The techniques employed by cult and group leaders bear no
resemblance to the classical induction of hypnosis: An excellent
example of the classical method of inducing hypnosis can be found
in Marcuse [37], p. 52.
Chapter 10: INFORMATION
110 Cybernetics, succinctly defined as the study of "communication
and control in the animal and the machine: See Wiener [85], p. 11,
for the derivation and definition of the term.
... the vital element of "feedback" . . . he identified as "information":
Wiener likened steering mechanisms, automatic antiaircraft guns,
and human and animal reflexes to "This method of control, which
we may call control by 'informative feedback.'" In Wiener [85],
p. 113.
... their British counterparts preferred . . . "variety": British
engineer W. Ross Ashby, in An Introduction to Cybernetics
[49], p. 126, defines "variety" in the same terms as Shannon
defines "information" in The Mathematical Theory of Communication
[79], p. 32. Both concepts leaned heavily upon earlier notions of
information introduced in the 1920s by two Bell Labs scientists,
H. Nyquist and R.V.L. Hartley.
... the simple on-off, heads-or-tails choice: It is important to note
that Wiener's concept of information appeared to be much less
discrete and more fluid than Shannon's. These varying views do
not necessarily contradict each other, however, but represent a
dualism which can be as helpful (and, at times, confusing) as the
complementary wave and particle models of light. Wiener's approach,
as described in his autobiography, has received little attention in
the engineering world, but his concept may be more applicable than
Shannon's as a model of information flow in living things. Wrote
Wiener, "I approached information theory from the point of
departure of the electric circuit carrying a continuous current,
or at least something which could be interpreted as continuous
current. At the same time, Claude Shannon . . . was developing a
parallel and largely equivalent theory from the point of view of
electrical switching systems. . . . As I have said before, Shannon
loves the discrete and eschews the continuum." Wiener [89], p. 263.
111 Wiener himself repeatedly voiced his concern over the impact of
this new technology on human beings: See Wiener's classic popular
works, The Human Use of Human Beings [88] and God & Golem,
Inc. [87], which received the National Book Award.
Even as the new sciences were developing: See Embodiments of Mind
[70] by McCulloch, a pioneer in the application of communication
principles to the workings of the nervous system. A concise
discussion of the subject appears in The Physical Foundation of
Biology [60] by Elsasser, beginning on p. 71.
112 "chunking": The notion of "chunks" of information (as opposed to
single "bits") was introduced by George A. Miller in a
now-famous article, "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus
Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information"
(in Psychological Review, March, 1956, and reprinted in The
Psychology of Communication [72]), which dealt with black box
experiments in memory and learning.
... by the early sixties, cybernetics and information theory were no
longer being acclaimed: See "Information Theory After Eighteen
Years," in Science [62].
113 Human beings . . . are not electrical circuits: This remark was
made to us in personal conversation with Dr. John R. Pierce, a
former director of Bell Labs known for his work in the development
of communication satellites.
114... the brain's only known function is one of information processing:
See Elsasser [60], p. 75, " . . . the only known function of the
nervous system and brain is the transmission and circulation of
messages containing information."
118... the 'hologram.' A recent invention of the science of optics:
Basic principles and recent advances in holography are covered
in Gabor [61], Leith and Upatnicks [68], and Pennington [73].
Pribram's application of the model is clearly explained in his
articles in Psychology Today [75] and Scientific American [77].
121 In 700 operations, Dr. Paul Pietsch: See Pietsch's article in
Harper's, "Shuffle Brain" (May, 1972).
122... introduced . . . by a mathematician named Dennis Gabor: See Gabor,
Holography, 1948-1971 [61].
Chapter 11: THE LAW OF EXPERIENCE
126... information mixes freely: See Pribram [76], p. 16, " . . . finer
nerve fibers lack an insulating fatty coating (the myelin sheath)
which in large fibers prevents interaction among impulses. The
slow potentials which occur in fine fibers . . . find therefore
no obstacle for actual local interaction."
127... the brain can be said to metabolize experience: The concept of
the metabolism of information, which we think of as a holographic
process of distribution and reorganization, has been suggested
previously in more technical terms by a number of important
physicists and biologists. Perhaps the best known statement on the
subject was made by the eminent physicist Erwin Schrödinger in his
historic 1943 lecture, "What Is Life?" [78]. "How does the living
organism avoid decay?" asked Schrödinger (p. 75). "The obvious
answer is: By eating, drinking, breathing. . . . The technical term
is metabolism [his italics]. The Greek word . . . means change or
exchange. Exchange of what? Originally the underlying idea is, no
doubt, exchange of material. . . . That the exchange of material
should be the essential thing is absurd. Any atom of nitrogen,
oxygen, sulphur, etc., is as good as any other. . . . What then
is that precious something contained in our food that keeps us
from death? . . . What an organism feeds upon is negative entropy.
[Authors' note: Shannon, Wiener, et al. equate information, i.e.,
order, with the negative of randomness -- called "entropy" in
physics.] . . . Thus the device by which an organism maintains
itself stationary at a fairly high level of orderliness . . .
really consists in conti
nually sucking orderliness from its
environment."
In sensory deprivation tests: Toffler discusses the recognized
effects and dangers of sensory deprivation in Future Shock
[113], pp. 513-16. A more positive view is taken by Lilly in The
Center of the Cyclone [7] (chapter 3), although the duration
of his separate isolation tank experiments is not stated. (More
on sensory deprivation can be found in A Study of Thinking
by Jerome Bruner, with Goodnow and Austin [New York: Science
Editions, 1962]; in Sensory Deprivation: A Symposium, P. Solomon,
ed. [Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965]; and in Sensory
Deprivation, 15 Years of Research, John P. Zubek, ed. [New York:
Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1969].)
128 The fundamental workings of the mind . . . are determined by
experience: The precise role of experience in brain development
is still being researched and debated within the scientific
community. Many psychologists, among them Hebb [65], hold that
experience is essential for the proper development of even the
most elementary perceptual faculties. Our talks with a number
of bio-information scientists revealed that much of the latest
research in the field confirms and extends this point of view.
... genius has been shown to be as much as 90 percent a product of
experience: This figure, highly controversial in the continuing
"nature vs. nurture" debate, was established in a series of
experiments conducted during World War II and has been roughly
confirmed in more recent experiments involving identical twins
raised under separate circumstances.
129... fundamental patterns of thought and feeling . . . are forged in
the intimate relationships between parent and child: See Piaget,
The Construction of Reality in the Child [74]; also his
Psychology of Intelligence (Totowa, N.J.: Littlefield, Adams &
Co., 1966), p. 158: "During the sensori-motor period the infant
is, of course, already subject to manifold social influences
. . . people gather round him, smile at him, amuse him, calm him;
they inculcate habits and regular courses of conduct."
... this organic . . . shaping process is ongoing throughout the
lifelong course of personal growth: Most scientists agree that,
up to the age of five, the brain is in a particularly fluid and
adaptable state. In later years, however, significant portions
of the brain are constantly reforming themselves. At a recent
conference, even those scientists who hold that the brain is
as much as 90 percent "prewired" agreed that the remaining part
"never stays still but constantly changes its structure to meet
new stimuli and new perceptions." (From "4,000 Scientists in
California Find the Universe in the Brain," the New York Times,
November 13, 1977.)
131 "Perhaps something of this sort occurs . . . original individualities":
Ashby [49], p. 139.
... he acknowledged that consciousness was "the most fundamental fact
of all": See Design for a Brain [48], p. 12, "Vivid though
consciousness may be to its possessor, there is as yet no known
method by which he can demonstrate his experience to another. And
until such a method or its equivalent is found, the facts of
consciousness cannot be used in scientific method."
132 Science has only begun to understand . . . memory molecules:
A survey of the latest thinking on this subject can be found
in Pribram [76], chapter 2, Neural Modifiability and Memory
Mechanisms. See also Shepherd [80], p. 57, "Within the brain
itself, synapses are, of course, modifiable during the
differentiation and growth of neurons in embryonic and early life;
the processes concerned, however, remain among the most profound
unsolved problems of biology. In the adult brain, there is more
and more experimental evidence of the modifiability of synapses."
Chapter 12: THE SNAPPING MOMENT AND CATASTROPHE THEORY
136... in the aftermath of this shattering break, the brain's
information-processing capacities may literally become
"disorganized": Although there is at present no scientific data
available on the snapping moment, we know from studies of epilepsy
and electroshock therapy that an intense electrical "experience"
may cause the complete severing of synaptic connections in the
brain. "When strong electric currents are sent through the brain,
momentarily all neural activity is disrupted and disorganized. When
the excess currents stop at the end of the convulsion, there is
a tendency for the old and normal neuronal interconnections to
be reestablished because of their greater stability" (Wooldridge
[90], p. 111 ).
... may become firmly convinced that he is a chicken: The annals of
hypnosis abound with stories of the feats of imagination the
mind can perform -- and rationalize -- in even ordinary states
of vulnerability and suggestibility. "The operator hypnotized a
subject and told him that when the cuckoo clock struck he was to
walk up to Mr. White, put a lamp shade on his head, kneel on the
floor in front of him and 'cuckoo' three times . . . when the
cuckoo clock struck, the subject carried out the suggestion to
the letter.
" 'What in the world are you doing?' he was asked.
" 'Well, I'll tell you. It sounds queer but it's just a little
experiment in psychology. I've been reading on the psychology
of humor and I thought i'd see how you reacted to a joke in
very bad taste'" (Estabrooks [27], pp. 80-81).
143 The most ambitious and promising applications . . . have been made
by Professor E. Christopher Zeeman: Some of Zeeman's other
applications of catastrophe theory include models of stock market
crashes, prison riots, barking-dog attacks, and buckling steel
girders. In contrast to the application we present here, many of
these catastrophe representations have come under heavy criticism
from the mathematical community, particularly where they have been
used as tools of prediction, as they have in some British prisons.
144 In an article in Scientific American: See Zeeman [91].
147 Thom's theory has come under heavy fire: See "Catastrophe Theory:
The Emperor Has No Clothes" (Science, April 15, 1977), Kolata [67].
148 Bremermann . . . in his review of Thom's book: See Bremermann [54].
Chapter 13: VARIETIES OF INFORMATION DISEASE
153 "Psychopathology has been rather a disappointment . . . secondary
disturbances of traffic": Wiener [85], pp. 146-47.
156... the Love Family or Love Israel: Ted Patrick discusses the Love Family
at length in "Let Our Children Go!" [40], beginning on p. 127.
161... the "applied philosophy" . . . It now claims to be the largest
"self-betterment organization" in the world": See Hubbard [31], p. 165.
... an estimated 3.5 million followers: In Time magazine, April 5, 1976.
... Dianetics, employs a technique called "auditing" ostensibly to
raise an individual to higher levels of being: The theory and
practice of Dianetics and the auditing process have been fully
expounded upon b
y Hubbard in his voluminous printed works,
most of which have been published in the United States by the
American Saint Hill Organization in Los Angeles. See Hubbard
[30], Dianetics Today; also Dianetics: The Modern Science of
Mental Health (1950); Dianetics: The Original Thesis (1970);
Handbook for Preclears, 7th ed. (1974); Introduction to
Scientology Ethics (1974); Scientology 0-8: The Book of Basics
(1970); and Advanced Procedure and Axioms, 3rd ed. (1957).
168 Psychodrama takes the imagination one step further than fantasy:
See Moreno [10] for the original thinking behind this technique.
There have been documented instances of est graduates . . . feats
in defiance of nature: See the New York Times, April 24, 1977,
and the article in American Journal of Psychiatry, March, 1977,
cited earlier.
169... the Jews of Europe wanted to die: Marin discusses this famous est
claim in The New Narcissism, Harper's, October, 1975 [38].
176 Perhaps most disturbing of all . . . TM called on alleged scientific
facts to prove . . . "severely deleterious effects": See, for
example, Harold H. Bloomfield, M.D., Michael P. Cain, Dennis
T. Jaffe, Robert B. Kory, TM: Discovering Inner Energy and
Overcoming Stress [24]. In chapter 2, "Transcendental Meditation:
The Technique of Contacting Pure Awareness," on p. 19, the authors
(two of whom are expressly connected with the TM organization)
write that: "some self-styled 'experts' of relaxation or other
meditative techniques have been indiscriminately advocating their
own makeshift mantras, unaware that severely deleterious effects
can be experienced by their unsuspecting practitioners."
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