full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Diane Benscoter: How cults rewire the brain
Unscramble the Blue Letters
In 1974, I was young, I was naive, and I was pretty lost in my wrlod. I was really idealistic. These easy ideas to complex questions are very appnelaig when you are emotionally vulnerable. What happens is that circular lgoic takes over. "Moon is one with God. God is going to fix all the problems in the world. All I have to do is humbly follow. Because God is going to stop war and hunger — all these things I wentad to do — all I have to do is hblumy follow. Because after all, God is [working through] the messiah. He's going to fix all this." It becomes impenetrable. And the most dangerous part of this is that is ceretas "us" and "them," "right" and "wrong," "good" and "evil." And it makes anything possible, makes anything rationalizable.
Open Cloze
In 1974, I was young, I was naive, and I was pretty lost in my _____. I was really idealistic. These easy ideas to complex questions are very _________ when you are emotionally vulnerable. What happens is that circular _____ takes over. "Moon is one with God. God is going to fix all the problems in the world. All I have to do is humbly follow. Because God is going to stop war and hunger — all these things I ______ to do — all I have to do is ______ follow. Because after all, God is [working through] the messiah. He's going to fix all this." It becomes impenetrable. And the most dangerous part of this is that is _______ "us" and "them," "right" and "wrong," "good" and "evil." And it makes anything possible, makes anything rationalizable.
Solution
- appealing
- creates
- humbly
- logic
- wanted
- world
Original Text
In 1974, I was young, I was naive, and I was pretty lost in my world. I was really idealistic. These easy ideas to complex questions are very appealing when you are emotionally vulnerable. What happens is that circular logic takes over. "Moon is one with God. God is going to fix all the problems in the world. All I have to do is humbly follow. Because God is going to stop war and hunger — all these things I wanted to do — all I have to do is humbly follow. Because after all, God is [working through] the messiah. He's going to fix all this." It becomes impenetrable. And the most dangerous part of this is that is creates "us" and "them," "right" and "wrong," "good" and "evil." And it makes anything possible, makes anything rationalizable.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
collocation |
frequency |
safe place |
2 |
memetic infection |
2 |
human brain |
2 |
humbly follow |
2 |
Important Words
- appealing
- circular
- complex
- creates
- dangerous
- easy
- emotionally
- fix
- follow
- god
- humbly
- hunger
- idealistic
- ideas
- impenetrable
- logic
- lost
- messiah
- naive
- part
- pretty
- problems
- questions
- rationalizable
- stop
- takes
- vulnerable
- wanted
- war
- working
- world
- young