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

  1. appealing
  2. creates
  3. humbly
  4. logic
  5. wanted
  6. 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

  1. appealing
  2. circular
  3. complex
  4. creates
  5. dangerous
  6. easy
  7. emotionally
  8. fix
  9. follow
  10. god
  11. humbly
  12. hunger
  13. idealistic
  14. ideas
  15. impenetrable
  16. logic
  17. lost
  18. messiah
  19. naive
  20. part
  21. pretty
  22. problems
  23. questions
  24. rationalizable
  25. stop
  26. takes
  27. vulnerable
  28. wanted
  29. war
  30. working
  31. world
  32. young