Cult Smashers: Part Thirty Two

The next stop for Sally and Nate was the tailor’s shop where there was a final test fitting. After that, they went to the technology “boiler room” hidden in the building that used to house a bakery.

There really wasn’t anything for the two of them to do there, but the thin bearded man sat the two of them down in his office and spend a couple hours outlining what his team had been working on and how it fit into Nate and Sally’s work.

“We showed you how the ‘audio ketchup’ program worked last time you were here. Now I want to tell you about two other programs we’ve developed. The first one actually writes scripts based upon artificial intelligence analysis of existing successful influencer websites. We call it “the Word of God” because we’re all smart Alecs here, and, because---well, you’ll understand when you start reading them.”

Nate was startled. “I’ve done a lot of reading on AI and I find it hard to believe that you have a program that can write convincing scripts---”.

“That’s right. The AI doesn’t write the script, it ‘polishes’ our submissions to it and offers the odd suggestion. And the thing to remember is that an artificial intelligence is anything but ‘intelligent’. It’s not a human being who writes something out based on her beliefs and objectives. Instead, it is an enormous, brute force pattern recognition system. It looks at huge amounts of existing, proven-to-be-successful scripts (by ‘scripts’, I mean transcripts of shows we’ve downloaded off the Web), and comes up with patterns that wouldn’t be recognized by a human being. On the basis of that, we ask the program to write new scripts based on some specific theme. Usually that means we submit a list of ‘hot button’ words and the program ‘free associates’ around them.”

“The result is generally a ‘word salad’ that doesn’t really mean very much. But we use it as a starting point and then pull out individual phrases or sentences that we think sound ‘meaningful’ and resubmit this to the program to try again, with the saved bits as the starting point. We find that if we do this over and over again, we usually end up with something we can use.”

Nate pursed his lips. “So you’re actually using human intelligence to direct a process where the computer is following patterns?”

“Yes, exactly. Hmm. Let me give you an analogy. The existing AI program is spawning so-called ‘influencers’ based on the prime directive that the social media company has built into it. Mainly, that’s increase the clicks that increases the revenue for the company. Natural selection has tended to choose people who support conspiracy theories. That’s natural selection.”

“But if you’ve read Darwin, you’ll know that he spent a lot of time studying different breeds of fancy pigeons. These are created by breeders using the process known as ‘artificial selection’. That’s when a breeder decides that he wants a specific trait and then chooses which parents to breed with one another to create a new variety. That’s what we are attempting to do with the Word of God---we’re artificially selecting for scripts that will exert a specific type of influence on society, instead of just whatever will create the most money for a company selling advertising.”

At the same time, the AI is also learning to add together the patterns it finds on the transcripts to the ‘feedback’ we give it. Your trainer told me that you are a bright guy. You’ve zeroed in this not being a true AI and instead recognized that it’s really a pattern recognition tool that we use to help write a specific type of directed reasoning.”

“The reason why we’ve brought you in for this meeting is that we need you involved in this ‘back and forth’ with the Word of God program”

Nate was startled. “Why me? I’m no expert on any of this stuff.”

“No, you’re not. But you won’t be the only person involved. And you need to be familiar with the process. The role we’re grooming you for in all of this requires that the script be compatible with the way you see the world and your own personality quirks.”

“Who exactly am I going to be working with, S---?”

Sally jumped in at this point, “Now remember---no names here. We have to protect the organization at all costs.”

Nate was abashed, “Oh, right. I forgot.”

The thin man smiled. “It’s OK. None of us really started out on this path by choice. But circumstances have led us to believe that this weird life we lead is the best way we can minimize the climate crisis---and whatever else is threatening the human race.” He grimaced thinking about why he’d devoted so much of his life to this weird project. “Suffice it for now that the Old Ones have an expert on this sort of thing that will help us come up with scripts. Once we have something we can use, we’ll get you to read them, run the result through the Audio Ketchup program so you sound incredibly persuasive to gullible people. And that now brings me to the third program we’ve developed.”

(At this point Sally got up from the table and announced that she had heard this all before, so she was going to make some coffee for herself. If anyone else would like some, she asked them to place their orders and she’d bring them back. Both Nate and the thin man both asked for some and she left the room.)

&&&&

Moreover I say unto you, the Climate Emergency must be dealt with!

Cult Smashers: Part Thirty-One

Angus O’Flaherty was having a bad day.

The Republican-controlled state electoral commission had set up the voting districts in his state so that even though a small majority of state-wide votes usually went Democratic, there was always one Democrat Senator and one Republican---instead of two Dems. They did this by lumping all the safely-Republican districts into the ones that voted one year, and all the strongly-held Democrat districts into the next election. This meant that the Republican always won by a slight majority whereas the Democrats always got a super-majority. 

This meant that the key to winning elections was to get the Republican nomination, and Angus had built a primary vote coalition by adding together white nationalists, garden-variety racists, libertarians, small-government types, and evangelical Christians into a base that was large enough to dominate in nomination races. This was easier to do than naive people might think---since only about 25% (maximum) ever bothered to vote in the primaries.

O’Flaherty had put in decades to build-up his machine and it had re-elected him like clockwork for term after term. That’s why he had come to dominate the Senate Republicans and eventually the entire party. But now it was giving him hiccups. One of the nuttier leaders that had supported him over the years was starting to make a fuss, and he needed to tamp things down before they got out of control.

Pastor Ernesto Diaz didn’t have a formal title other than that of being the self-appointed head of the “Righteous Nation Ministry” or RNM. But he’d build a significant following both on-line and in bricks-and-mortar independent evangelical churchs all over O’Flaherty’s state. And the two groups had a real synergy. The boobs on line were too spread out to generally vote-in a politician in any specific district, but they were generous donors to Diaz’s ‘ministry’. And the money they gave allowed Ernesto to organize outreach campaigns that were able to unify all the independent churches that Diaz had been able to connect with. And the time and even money that he was able to commit to these small congregtions allowed him to organize them as well-oiled, very disciplined, local voting machines. The candidates that Diaz endorsed won nomination races!

But Diaz was a kook who believed that America was always meant to be Christian nation and that the government had a duty to force all atheists and adherents to another religion (plus, truth-be-told, liberal Christians too) into the status of second-class citizens. That meant mandatory Christian prayer at school, laws based on the Ten Commandments, abortion being totally illegal, refusal to accommodate any other religious observance, an end to gay rights, no more “women’s rights” legislation, etc.

In the past this hadn’t been much of a problem for O’Flaherty, because he’d always been able to keep enough distance from these folks that he never got tarred with this radical crap. That was because the base that Diaz brought in were disciplined enough to accept the notion that they had to hidden in order for their influence to work. They were patient people because they were generally outcasts in their own communities. Moreover, their own theology helped because it taught that they were a part of small “elect” or “remnant” of the faithful who were stuck in a irredeemably “fallen” world.

The problem came from the on-line community that Diaz was milking for funds. These people weren’t organized into disciplined, geographically-situated congregations. Instead, they were free-floating individuals who migrated to whatever group scratched their own particular itches. And Diaz had recently begun to learn how to motivate these folks for action. And that was a big problem!

&&&&

Moreover I say unto you, the Climate Emergency must be dealt with!

Cult Smashers: Part Thirty

Nate came back to the car about one hour later.

Nate started to talk, but Sally put up a finger to show he should remember the awareness exercise she’d taught him to try to make an automatic habit. She finished reading the paragraph she was on, placed the bookmark, closed the book, and, put it in her handbag. Then she centred herself, took three deep breaths while he did the same thing. At that point she asked the obvious question: “Well, how did it go?”

“Hmmm. It’s certainly an adrenaline rush to pull a stunt like this. So I can see the addictive stimulus-response that said hooks some people into the lifestyle. I did the mental ‘enthusiasm pump’ you taught me to do. Once that had started, I was able to focus my attention completely at the person in front of me---again as you taught me. Then I manifested the ‘confidence-speak’ attitude that allowed me to persuasively lie to the person in front of me.”

Sally interrupted “But was it a lie? Or did your confidence-speak convince you of the truth too? At least at that particular moment.”

“Right. That’s a more accurate way to express how I felt. Whether or not what I was saying was true---it was emotionally true to me.”

“How did you frame your con?”

“When I found out it was a laptop, I decided not to lay it on too thick. I just mentioned that there was nothing wrong with it, it had never been used, I’d bought it as a gift and then found out that my sister had just purchased one just like it. I wanted to act a little nervous about returning such a big ticket item without the paperwork.”

“The woman at the counter said ‘no problem’. But when she took my membership card and tried to read it, it wouldn’t work. She looked at the card, rubbed the barcode, tried again, and when that didn’t work, entered the numbers manually. When this didn’t do the job, she asked a co-worker over to see if he could get it going. He couldn’t, and mentioned that there wasn’t any problem with the terminal. They both said they’d never seen or heard of this type of error before.”

“Bye-the-way, do you know how the card manages to look totally valid on the company website but says that there’s a temporary systems problem with my account?”

Sally snorted, “Don’t ask me. The Old Ones have some pretty gnarly chipheads, though. I suspect that they not only made a fake card but also hacked into the membership data base on the CostCo server.”

“Anyway, at that point I started to act like I was in a real rush. I complained that I was on my lunch break and I had just enough time to get the refund and leave. Moreover, I said that I’d never had a problem with the card before and I really needed the money right that moment or else I wouldn’t be able to get my sister a present in time for her birthday.”

“The woman behind the terminal repeated that she’d never seen this happen before. She asked if I could come back later. But I looked her in the eye and just said ‘I told you I have a time problem. What are you going to do to help me out of this spot?’, I also said that Costco says on it’s website that they don’t care about the receipts, so I didn’t bother to bring them---although I could dig them up if I have to---but I had had such a good experience with the company over the years that it never occurred to me that there would be a problem’. I also looked at my wrist watch, looked concerned, and, started subtly fidgeting.”

“Good. I’m glad you remembered to add in the body language.”

“When she started making noises about a supervisor, I repeated that I was under a tight deadline, I asked her to take the item out of the box. I told her I wasn’t trying to rip anyone off. She could see it was an item that Costco sells and it was obviously immaculate. The original packing material was all there. And I hadn’t even used it---the security tapes were all still in place so it was good enough to put back on the shelf right now. I just didn’t need it and wanted the money so I could get something else for sis.”

“How completely did you believe in what you were saying? Did you have a specific person in mind when you talked about your sister?”

Nate smiled. “Yes I did. Happy birthday, Sally.”

“At that point she asked if I’d be happy with a gift card instead of a reimbursement on my credit card. She asked if my sister had a Costco membership. I said ‘yes’ and she suggested that she would ‘bend the rules a bit’ and give me a gift card worth the full price. She’d keep my membership card, they’d figure out what the problem was, and, then mail it back to me. That way I could get back to work and my sister could choose whatever she really wanted or needed.”

“At that point I sighed and thanked her. She gave me the gift card, kept my membership, and, I came back out here.”

Sally relaxed into her seat. “So if you had a stolen laptop and a very special counterfeit Costco membership card, you just fenced it at the retail rate instead of having to sell it for half price or less through Kijiji or a pawn broker. You can either use the gift card yourself, or, sell it at only a little less than face price to someone else. Actually it’s a really safe grift---especially as a ‘one off’. But it did test you and I imagine it was pretty scary none-the-less.”

Nate nodded in quick agreement.

“Consider that your first ride on a bike---with training wheels, no traffic, and, me running alongside you in case you started to wobble badly. You did OK. Next time you’ll have a little more confidence.”

&&&&

Moreover I say unto you, the Climate Emergency must be dealt with!

Cult Smashers: Part Twenty Nine

Sally told Nate that she had a day-long field trip planned for them with several stops. Once they got on the highway and could safely talk, she explained what the first stop was going to be.

“You’ve been working pretty hard the past two weeks on what we learned during our field trip to see the mentalist. Today I want to test one of the lessons in ‘real world conditions’. To that end, I’m going to see how well you can use ‘confidence speak’ to ‘buffalo’ someone.”

Sally paused to change lanes.

“I’ve got an expensive laptop in the trunk that was purchased at Costco and a fake membership card plus more fake ID in my pocket. I want you to go into the store with both and convince the person at the returns kiosk to give you a refund. The membership card won’t work, but it will look like a problem with your membership on the mainframe computer, not like it is a counterfeit.”

Nate sat bolt upright in his seat. “You want me to try to get a refund on an item that might be stolen using a fradulent card?”

Sally smiled, “Well, it’s not stolen---I have the receipts on me in case they call the cops. And the card is such a good fake that no one is going to give you a hard time over it once I produce the receipts. Moreover, the laptop is in perfect condition---which means nothing is going to happen if you get into the worst case situation.”

“But having said that, I’m asking you to go through the motions of being a thief who is selling stolen goods. I’ll explain why after the fact.”

By this point she had taken the turn off and was heading towards the parking lot. She shortly parked the car and popped the trunk. She pulled out one of those plastic card holders from a pocket in her vest and handed it to Nate. “There’s the Membership card plus a driver’s license and one of those prepaid credit cards. You can use them as back-up ID. The box in the trunk has the computer. (You’d best take a look at it before you go into the store.) I’ll be waiting here for you when you get back.”

Nate was a bit nervous at this point. “But what if things go sideways?”

“You have my cell phone number.”

She pulled a paperback out of her purse. “Now get cracking. We have other things to do today.”

&&&&

Moreover I say unto you, the Climate Emergency must be dealt with!

Cult Smashers: Part Twenty Eight

 

Chapter Six

Stella Dyck wasn’t someone who usually spent a lot of time on line. But she’d recently developed a medical condition that kept her at home more than she was used to. It was really boring. Luckily she had a computer and access to the web. She already had a Facebook account, but hadn’t done much with it except keep an eye on family and friends. But with time on her hands she’d started looking at the stories that got forwarded to her.

She was amazed. At first she’d noticed the odd story about how immigration was damaging Western nations. For example, she’d read several in-depth articles about how badly Europe was suffering from the huge waves of immigration from the Middle East. Indeed, there were places in England where women couldn’t even walk down the sidewalk without wearing a veil and foreign men were raping German women with total impunity. At first she couldn’t believe what she was reading. But after a while there were so many stories coming to her through social media that she knew there couldn’t be all that smoke without at least some fire. Moreover, they all had links in support of what they were saying, and when she followed those to the sources she found out that it was all true.

Indeed, as she did more and more of this type of research, she found that things were worse and stranger than she’d ever thought possible. A Jewish billionaire was funding anti-democratic movements all over the world. The leadership of the major “liberal” parties seemed to all be involved in charitable organizations that were little more than scams. And things were so sordid! The Prime minister of Canada was actually the son of Fidel Castro! Hillary Clinton had one of her staffers murdered to stop him from blowing the whistle on her activities! A sinister Cabal of liberals was selling children through a popular on-line furniture website! The Centre for Disease control in Atlanta was working with the Chinese government to develop biological weapons! Possibly worst of all, the elites wanted to replace people like her with masses of immigrants from “shit-hole countries”, low-life that are only used to being controlled by an elite and would swamp the real citizens with their votes.

And only President Norbert Blunt was willing to stand up the “Deep State” types doing all these horrible things. That’s why the mainstream media were so opposed to him. She was so glad to have him on her side that she gladly sent her some of her pension cheque every month. But even he had been torpedoed by the cabal of evil-doers. He’d won the last election handily, but voting machines had been manipulated to steal it from him. That’s why he was working so hard to get people elected who would enforce the real election laws and only allow real Americans to vote in the next election.

Unfortunately, after January 6^th she found some of her most interesting sources of information were being censored. Luckily, an on-line friend walked her through how to use some of the social media systems that hadn’t been taken over by people like George Soros and Bill Gates. And what she found on these new sites was really an eye-opener. People were a lot more friendly, for example. That Blabber app was great! It was like being in a huge group phone call with other people interested in the same things as her.

And the really, really, wonderful thing was the people were so non-judgemental! When she’d started doing the on-line reasearch and began teaching herself about how the world really worked, she’d tried to talk to her friends and family about it. They’d been so cruel to her. They’d all be so quick to judge. They all asked the same questions “where did you hear that?” and so quickly pooh-poohed what she had to say. They talked to her like a child. Of course she couldn’t counter their criticism---she was new to all this stuff and they had all the goverment propaganda to throw at her. Besides, she was an old woman and only had a high-school education.

She got so mad at these people for being so arrogant. She was just as good a person as them. Why couldn’t they see how horribly things were going around us all? She’d been warned about “cancel culture” and the way the “socialists” and “libruls” had manipulated people into adopting “group think”. These people had been corrupted by their fancy university degrees and could no longer understand common sense.

Probably the worst had been her friend Jake. He’d originally been polite---she knew he really did care about her. He’d just asked for her to email her the links to where she’d heard about the new info. But he was so brainwashed by the system. He always had an answer---that person she quoted had been outed as a member of Russian Military Intelligence, ---she didn’t understand the statistical implications of some figures she quoted, ---that news site had been caught spreading disinformation so she shouldn’t ever pay any attention to it ever, ---he had that idea that ‘freedom’ should always be balanced by responsibility, etc. Eventually he’d told her that it took him a long time to hunt down the “facts” about the stories she was sending him and he just didn’t have the time to be trying to prove to her that what was obvious nonsense wasn’t true---why wouldn’t she just stop wasting her time with this stuff?

The real break with Jake happened when she complained about censorship on line. He said that what she was complaining about wasn’t censorship but rather editorial responsibility. After he’d made some song and dance about how people who publish newspapers and magazines have to be responsible for what they print---which is why there are libel laws---he asked why should anything on line be any different? At that point she knew that he really didn’t believe in free speech and was therefore one of the people who actively supported the cabal. At that point she knew that he really wasn’t her friend and that she shouldn’t talk to him about what she really believed. It was hard to admit, but she needed to face up to the truth---no matter where it led her.

&&&&

Moreover I say unto you, the Climate Emergency must be dealt with!

Cult Smashers: Part Twenty Seven

On the drive back Nate asked Sally the obvious question. “I get most of what was going on, but how did Randi know specific details? For example, how did he know Katy had her house listed for sale?”

“Remember when we signed in and I volunteered our fake names and email addresses? Katy was asked for her’s too. She gave the real ones. That allowed a helper to look up her up on line. That would have included a search for her picture---to ensure they had the right person. Then they could search for all sorts of things---including finding out where she lived. This would be cross-referenced with a Real Estate site that would have told Randi’s people it was up for sale. He used the cold reading techniques he started out with to paint a picture and get the audience thinking he was just going to use things like Barnum statements.”

Sally paused while she shifted lanes. Once she was back in a safe place for a few miles, she continued the conversation. “But because his minions had both figured she would be a good subject and that there was a specific factual statement that Randi could aim towards, she was selected to come up on stage. At that point, the people with the spot lights were given pictures of her and they picked her out of the crowd. Randi ‘warmed her up’ to the point where it wouldn’t seem too strange that he knew she was selling her home. That’s important, if a piece of information comes like a bolt out of the blue without any window-dressing aimed at diverting people’s attention from the obvious, it would be too easy to figure out what happened. Strictly speaking, this wasn’t a totally cold reading. The info that was found and fed to Randi would be called a ‘hot’ reading. And she was such an easy subject that he started out with her and then moved onto the others---some of whom were much more skeptical. She warmed up both the other people that had been selected and the audience too.”

Sally again changed lanes, and then took a turnoff that would bring them directly back to the Elder’s retreat centre. “Randi is just a ‘B’ class stage magician. But the influencers that we will be dealing with are pretty much cut from the same cloth. Since he was in town, I thought it would make things more ‘live’ for you if you could see the technique in action---without the distractions that come from it being more than just harmless entertainment.”

She paused while negotiating a stop light. “The key take-aways I want you to remember are the specific techniques of both a cold and hot reading, plus the strategic sense of how to manage individuals in order to control the entire audience.”

&&&&

Furthermore I say unto you, the Climate Emergency must be dealt with!

Cult Smashers: Part Twenty Six

When they came up from stairs on either side, two people came out of the wings and directed them to stand in the spotlights lined up next to the mentalist. He addressed both them and the audience at the same time. “None of you have ever met me before---have you?”

All six heads nodded in agreement.

“So you’re just six people picked at random---right?”

More nodding heads.

“And yet, what does ‘random mean’? Each of us is the product of a whole series of improbable actions---our parents meet once another and get married. Thousands of sperm cells converge on one of hundreds of eggs cells---and two of them connect to create a child. We come into the world and our personalities are formed by the accidents of our personal history. A specific teacher, relative, next door neighbour, etc, can have a huge influence on our lives---yet they could just as well be someone you’ve never met.”

You could see people nodding along both on stage and in the audience.

“Or could they? Teachers from other cultures have suggested that everything we see or do is ‘ordained’ by some sort of greater plan. Maybe each of us has a fate that we simply cannot escape.”

Nate could see that some of people on stage were slightly frowning---wondering what exactly what was being said. But a couple others---including the woman who’d been sitting in front of them---couldn’t stop themselves from nodding along.

“If that is the case, then the spotlights stopped on each of these six people for some reason---and it couldn’t have stopped anywhere else. Isn’t that an interesting idea? Hmmm. Let’s take that idea a bit further---let me choose one individual person.”

He walked up and down the line and eventually stopped in front of the woman that Sally had zeroed in on at the door. She seemed happy he did and smiled somewhat manically.

“What’s your name?”

“Katy.”

“Well, Katy, how and or why did you end up in this auditorium this evening?”

“I’ve always been interested in psychics and when I found out that there was going to be one in town tonight, I had to get a ticket!”

At that point the Astounding Randi paused. “Hmmm. Well, I’m not sure that I would call myself a ‘psychic’---that’s a pretty big statement. Let’s say that I might have had a few insights that have led me to notice a few things that most people don’t.”

“Having said that, let’s see what I can notice now.” He stood to the side of Katy and placed both his hands at his temples. He rubbed them slowly and just as slowly gently rocked side to side. Then he held out his hands to Katy and she reciprocated---allowing him to hold hers.

----

At this point Nate realized that Sally had pulled out a small pair of binoculars from her purse. She had been carefully scrutinizing both Katy and the Astounding Randi. She leaned over close to Nate, handed him the glasses and whispered in his ear. “He’s feeling her hands for callouses or manicured nails---they will tell him something about her work or hobbies. Use the glasses to see if you can notice anything else about Randi.”

----

Randi started his patter again. “I’m sensing that you are connected to the soil in some way---it could be directly, it could be indirectly through someone else, it could be an on-going activity or something just recent.” He stepped back and looked at Katy for a while with his head slightly off vertical.

She instantly responded, “yes, that’s right. I have a huge garden in my back yard. I was working in it today!”

Randi quickly changed the focus of the conversation. He rocked a bit more sideways. “I’m sensing something else. You are associated with children too. You could be a parent, or maybe an aunt who is close to someone else’s children. There’re children in there somewhere---”.

“Oh, that’s right! I’m a kindergarden teacher and I also have a son. In fact, he recently graduated from university and now has his first job---in Montreal.” Katy was beaming at Randi’s uncanny ability.

----

Sally leaned over and whispered in Nate’s ear “Barnum statements plus deduction and volunteered information”.

----

Randi stopped and gazed absent-mindedly at Katy. “What more can I say---. Has there been some turmoil in your life recently? Something that you have had to think deeply about? Is it work? Or deeper---something that’s made you reassess your life choices?”

Katy gaped. “Yes. I’ve been thinking about retirement and selling my house---. How did you know?”

----

Sally whispered in Nate’s ear. “Notice how she’s never mentioned a husband. It’s safe to think that her son was the focus of her life. She’s also a school teacher, which means that she probably has a good pension. She also said that she has a big back yard. Probably her house is too big for her alone and is worth a fortune in today’s real-estate market. She volunteered that her son is out of school and has a job in another city. At her age just about everyone is thinking about retirement. All Randi did was make some shrewd guesses based on information she’d already volunteered.”

----

Randi looked at her deeply. Then he spoke. “Isn’t it true that you’ve gone a bit further than ‘thinking’, haven’t you already put your home up for sale?”

Katy gasped, “How do you know? You must be psychic!”

Randi stepped back and shook his head. “That’s what you say.” He smiled and moved onto another person. The show continued for another hour.

&&&&

Moreover I say unto you, the Climate Emergency must be dealt with!

Cult Smashers: Part Twenty Five

 

Sally choose a seat right behind the woman they’d seen at the entrance.

Before long the room filled, the lights went down to a spotlight on the stage, and, a single figure stepped into view. At that point an announcer came over the sound system and said “In town just this night and on a tour that includes Chicago, New York, Toronto, and, Montreal---let’s give a big round of applause to the Astounding Randi.”

“The Astounding Randi” was about five foot ten in height, had brown hair that was long enough to cover his ears and was combed-over to the point where it was lightly touching the over-sized, almost owlish-looking glasses. He had a prominent nose, somewhat protuding teeth, and a weak chin. He was dressed in a blue sports jacket, with a diagonal stripe tie, over jeans and wore expensive moccasin loafers. The spotlight made his especially pale white skin almost glow in the dark. When the applause began to tail off, he began to speak in a quiet voice---one that people had to strain to hear. This caused more and more people to quickly quiet-down. The audience quickly became silent.

“---the human mind is far greater than most of us imagine. If it is trained and harnessed to the will, people can see far more around them than they think they can. Does this mean that someone can read another person’s mind? I’ll let people make up their own minds on that score.”

“But first, let’s get the lighting crew to randomly select some people from the audience. These will be the folks I can talk to and pursue my investigations with.”

At that point other, other spotlights came on and started to play across the audience.

“As I look across the faces before me, I am trying to get a sense of what people are feeling. It’s like trying to sort through a beach to find a single grain of sand. It’s possible to do, but requires focus. It can be done, but I need to quiet my mind and centre it into a tighter and tighter beam.”

At this point the irises on the searching spotlights shrank a bit, leaving smaller, hotter lights playing across the audience.

“And at the same time that my focus becomes tighter, I can sense people’s feelings more clearly. There are people that come through a little better than others. I think I have them now. Stop the search!”

At that point the spotlights stopped moving and focused on six different individuals---one of which was the short woman in front of Sally and Nate.

“The six people that the spotlight has stopped at---I think that I might have a little better luck connecting with them. If you want, why not walk up to the stage so I can see if I can ‘read’ you?” The man on the stage smiled and gestured with his hands. At that point some pleasant music came out of the speakers that lined the stage and coloured spots formed a line with him in the middle. While this was happening, the six individuals---including the woman in front of Nate and Sally---got up and walked to the stage.

&&&&

Moreover I say unto you, the Climate Emergency must be dealt with!

Cult Smashers: Part Twenty Four

Eric had been a member of the Dancin Folz for several years before someone he’d never met before asked him what he was doing to make a living. He had finally gotten a job stocking shelves at the local Walmart, but that hardly paid for the gas he used to drive to work. As a result, he was a little reluctant to say. But when the local chapter leader walked over and suggested to him that the new guy was “worth talking to”, he opened up.

He never gave his name, and Eric thought he’d have been annoyed if anyone had asked him to say it. But there was something about him. He wore jeans like everyone else, but those snakeskin cowboy boots weren’t cheap. Neither was the hat on his head. No doubt about it, the guy had money. And he was interested in Eric. So he told him the truth.

“Have you ever thought about a job in law enforcement?”

“Not really, I always assumed that after being fired from the town I would never be able to get hired. I also figured those jobs all went to vets anyway.”

“There might have been problems, but with the right friends a bright guy like you shouldn’t have any trouble getting into the local force. There’s an opening and I’d be willing to pull some strings to get you hired. You see, the Dancin Folz likes to have some people on the inside of the police force. That allows us to know what’s going on before nasty surprises pop up---if you know what I mean.”

“I think I do. Are there any ‘catches’ I should know about?”

“Good question. I’m glad you asked first. You see we need someone who can do things on the QT. If we have you on the inside, you can’t go to any events or meetings like this anymore. Instead, you would just answer to me. Mostly, you’d just have a job in the police force---but if you see something that I want you to tell me about, you do. Similarly, there may come a time when I want you to do something for me.”

“What sort of things?”

“Well, if the police get a line on Black Lives Matter planning a protest, I’d like to hear about it too. And as for more active things---it’ll be like the secretary I’m going to ask to change your city personnel file to erase any mention of your being fired, fill out the form so you have the best grades on the aptitude test, and, then move your application to the top of the pile.”

“Oh!”

“The Dancin Folz are a team and I think it’s time to get you off the bench and onto the field.”

&&&&

Furthermore I say unto you, the Climate Emergency must be dealt with!

Cult Smashers: Part Twenty Three

When Nate and Sally got to the auditorium they were greeted at the door by some nice folks who sold them some tickets. They’d showed up a bit early, so there wasn’t much of a rush. That meant they had a little time to chat with the ticket people. They asked if they’d like to hear about other, similar shows? If so, they had a sign up list where they could leave their names and email addresses. Before Nate could say anything, Sally stepped right in. “That’d be swell, my name is Barbara Yatzy and my young nephew is named Fred Whitehand. My email is B.Yatz@operamail.com.” She looked over at Nate and asked “Why don’t you give them your email, Fred?” He tried to hide his initial surprise at the fake names and address, but he was quick on his feet, so he played along. “Yeah, it’s NotHereNow@gmail.com.”

There was a table with coffee and cookies near the ticket sellers, so Sally headed straight for it. Nate followed along. She whispered to him as she handed him a cup of coffee. “I gave you a shove and you didn’t lose your balance. Good. Now I want you to play along with your new identity all night. You are Fred Whitehand and nothing more. We are just local yokels here for a lark. Now I want to loiter here around the coffee and see if we can hear a little more about the other people who come in.”

Sally had the two of them indulge in fake chit chat until she saw a short, dark-haired woman show up. She wore a bright, embroidered vest, very ostentatious First Nation’s mukluks, a big silver celtic cross around her neck, and, a flashy gold ring with the zodaic sign for Aquarius on her left hand. Her face had a peculiar quality, almost like she had a smile permanently painted on it---like a child’s rag doll or an old-fashioned marionette puppet.

Nate noticed that she was very animated and spent a lot of time talking to the people selling tickets. It was obvious that she agreed to share her contact info, because the two ticket sellers wrote down her info on a clip board. After she’d left the two of them, she went straight to her seat up front. Sally noticed that the person with the clip board made a point of going back to the clip board, pulled out her cell phone, speed-dialed a number, and , left a text message.

She turned to Nate. “Let’s get seated. I want us to be directly behind that woman up front.”

&&&&

Furthermore I say unto you, the Climate Emergency must be dealt with!

Cult Smashers: Part Twenty-Two

Eric Bannerman thought he was a pretty ordinary guy who wanted pretty much the same as anyone else. He’d worked hard on his family farm until he was old enough to leave home, then his uncle had got him a job working for the town on the road crew. That had been OK until that dam n*gg*r supervisor had caught him syphoning diesel out of his grader into his pickup. Everyone else did it---or would if they were smart enough to think of it. It was practically one of the benefits of the job. That damn idjit should have known that. Would have known it if he’d been hired from the drivers instead of being transferred from city hall. He’d obviously been part of a quota hire---all he knew about was working spread sheets and enforcing the rules. Damn sp**r ch*ck*r had never gotten his hands dirty in his whole life---he always wore a suit and tie, for shit’s sake. Damn his black hide.

After he lost the job working for the township, he’d had a Hell of a time trying to find another one. The mine had closed down because the damn tree-huggers complained about the tailings killing all the fish downstream. Yeah, he missed being able to fish as much as anyone else---but “a job’s a job”. That was something both his mom and dad pounded into his head from a very young age. As long as the money comes in, you get’r done! He got the odd day or two of work helping out on farms and little moving jobs with his pickup, but that didn’t do much more than pay for beer and gas. He’d have been SOL if he hadn’t been able to stay at the parent’s place.

His older brother had taken over the family farm, and he helped out with the chores and such---but there really wasn’t enough coming in to support two families. That meant he was welcome to stay when he had too, and his help was appreciated---but it was no substitute for a job and place of his own.

The only thing that really kept it together for him was the Dancin Folz. He’d been at a flea market where a fellow selling guns out the trunk of his car got talking to him about hard times. When it came out that he blamed a n*gg*r for getting fired from his job, the fellow asked him “Why get upset about the n*gg*r in the road crew office when we had one in the White House and still have lots in Congress?” Eric admitted that the fellow had a point, but opined that there was bugger-all hard-working ‘fly over’ types like the two of them could ever do to change things. “The elites on the coasts run everything---people like us haven’t got a chance.” The fellow understood the sentiment, but asked if he’d be interested in learning how he could get involved in something that really could make difference? If he did, he wanted Bannerman’s name, address, and, cell phone number. The idea was that there were a group of people working on changing things for people like him, but they wanted to check him out. If he seemed OK, they’d text an invite to their next meeting.

On a whim, Eric said OK and gave him the contact info. He must have ‘checked out’, because a month later he got a text invite and met some other guys at an abandoned one-room school house off a back side road. There was a short talk about how the country was going down hill, but mostly there was just a rifle range out back that people used for a little target practice. After that, there were some burgers on a barbeque and a case of beer. After this first introduction, Eric decided that he liked these guys. The feeling was mutual. At the next meeting they told him that they were the local chapter of the Dancin Folz, and they’d be happy to have him join. Again, the feeling was mutual.

&&&&

Moreover I say unto you, the Climate Emergency must be dealt with!

Cult Smashers: Part Twenty-One

Silver O’Reilly had found a good source in the FBI who was feeding him information. The Bureau was usually pretty good at controlling leaks, which probably meant that the higher-ups wanted him to know about this stuff so he wouldn’t be surprised at future events. He couldn’t publish any of it without confirmation, and they knew he and his publisher were too professional to publish the story from “an anonymous source”. But they wanted O’Reilly to be able to publish first and “set the tone of reporting” once things became public knowledge. This was just one of the ways government bureaucrats were able to exert a little influence on the free press. But in this case it really did serve the public interest, so he wasn’t too upset about the obvious manipulation. Moreover, they didn’t know that he would pass on whatever he learned to the Elders—.

It was pretty explosive information. The FBI was committed to fighting a covert war against two far-right militias: the “Dancin Folz” and the “Smart Alecs”.

O’Reilly had vaguely heard about both groups. The Dancin Folz were a fixture at various protests and demonstrations---ranging from Black Lives Matter through union drives to Pride Parades. The membership generally came from what some people called “fly-over country” where right wing state governments had created a significant legal tolerance towards the public display of private weaponry. They wore bright floral-pattern shirts, semi-auto versions of military assault rifles, “tactical” vests, and hand guns. The word “dancing” in their name was a coded reference to a race war. And their armed presence was a show of force aimed at empowering fellow racists and intimidating minorities and their allies. The floral shirts were a sick---yet effective---joke aimed at ‘normalizing’ them in the eyes of the community.

The Smart Alecs were a more urban group that had been started by a media personality in Canada and spread to American “blue states” and urban settings. Generally, they filled the gap in Dancing Folz coverage because more restrictive state gun laws prevented their attendance in full armament. This didn’t mean that the Smart Alecs were any less dangerous as they’d been responsible for a fair number of vicious assaults with clubs and knives. Indeed, to even get beyond being just a “pledge” individual Smart Aleks had to prove that they’d been in an actually fight that drew blood with someone who could be at least loosely described as being “Antifa”. They’d been declared an actual terrorist organization in their home country, but were still thriving in America because the relevant statutes had been specifically written to make it hard to label any group espousing right-wing opinions “terrorist”.

The FBI had become quite concerned about how much the Dancin Folz and Smart Alecs had been involved in the January 6^th coup attempt. After some deep research, they became absolutely terrified when they found out how much support both groups had within municipal and state police forces, as well as prison guards. In some quarters it looked like front-line police were actively co-ordinating campaigns with these groups to stymie attempts at progressive organizing. One example that illustrated this problem was a Black Lives Matter protest where a teenager had brought a rifle where the police were letting the Dancin Folz act as unofficial help. Feeling empowered, the boy had gotten in over his head in a confrontation and shot several protesters dead. Because it was an open carry and stand your ground state, the child had been declared not guilty and had since become a darling of the right-wing talk circuit.

The Bureau was terrified about the collusion between municipal police and neo-facist organizations, because there was a direct parallel between this activity and the creation of the Brown Shirts in NAZI Germany and the Squadristi in Fascist Italy. Their theorists explained to the higher ups that the creation of private political militias is an unmistakable sign of a democracy at risk of being over-thrown by a dictatorship. The fact that local police were willing to turn a blind eye to this sort of activity showed that the rot had set in a lot deeper than they had believed possible.

While gathering as much information as possible, the FBI had also set up a secret task force plan for a “decapitation campaign” against these organizations. Until the January 6^th coup attempt, their hands had been tied by the Republicans in Congress, simply because the GOP considered any racist or authoritarian organizations to be “natural allies” in electoral politics. This alliance had been done mostly through dog whistles, winks, and, nods for decades---but during the Blunt presidency these attempts at camouflage were increasingly done away with as lawmakers contested with one another to show more subservience to “punkin head”. Now that Blunt was in prison, the Bureau felt it was safe to pursue the sort of ambitious disruptive campaigns that had previously been used against unions, socialists, native Americans, blacks, etc.

&&&&

Furthermore I say unto you, the Climate Emergency must be dealt with!

Cult Smashers: Part Twenty

“The second item on the list is ‘deduction’. The best way to understand this is to think about Sherlock Holmes. He’s the guy everyone knows who uses it to solve his crimes. It’s very simple, really. You just pay attention to all the little details that you can notice about the person you are talking with. Do they have soft, clean hands? Or are they calloused, stained, and hard? If they are former, odds are they don’t do physical labour to make a living---if the latter, they probably do. If you are observent enough, you can often deduce a fair amount of information about a person simply by paying attention and figuring out what they imply. Since most people never do this, it can make you look like you have access to some sort of occult power.”

“Choosing the right person simply means that you try to figure out exactly what sort of person is in front of you and making a quick decision about whether or not they would be succeptible to being cold read. There’s a big difference between cold reading someone with a tendency towards New Age beliefs versus someone who’s a card-carrying member of the American Skeptics society.”

“A good stage mentalist can help sort things out in a variety of ways. It can be as simple as having ‘helpers’ in the audience listen to the conversations of the people around them and recommend people that sound susceptible to go up on the stage. Or they can use deduction and decide based on people’s clothing---someone wearing an New Age symbol---like a Yin Yang---might be assumed to be a ‘soft target’.”

(Nate was suddenly acutely aware of the taiji ring on his left hand.)

“Barnum statements” are vague statements that can apply to most of the human population but get directed to a specific individual. This is where good deduction and choosing the right person can give the mentalist some general ideas about the person in front of them, and then seeing how they respond to a Barnum statement will help then zero in more. Newspaper horoscopes generally consist of Barnum statements such as It could be easy to get offended or take something personally today. Before you react, take a moment to cool off. The issue might not be that serious.”

Sally harumpffed and opined “I don’t know about you, but it’s easy for me to ‘get offended or take something personally’ just about every day. And taking moment to cool off is pretty good advice all the time. And that’s the point, Barnum statements apply to everyone---which means they are of real value to no one. But the naive person can totally miss this fact.”

“The next items in the toolbox are recapitulation and regurgitation. People will often tell you things about themselves and forget that they did it. All you have to do is keep track of what they tell you, and give it back to them later on. Lots of time that’s enough to sound like a psychic to some folks. This is especially true to someone who is used to not being listened to. And let me tell you, that includes a LOT of people, including most women.”

“Ouch!”, Nate visibly winced.

“The next tool is ‘changing your meaning’. That involves making words ‘plastic’ or ‘rubbery’ when necessary. This is dramatically helped when you use ‘weasel words’ on a regular basis. For example, I once read an air-quality brochure for a photocopier that said ‘this machine doesn’t affect air quality for normal usuage with adequate ventilation’. What the heck is ‘normal usuage’ and ‘adequate ventilation’? Pretty much whatever management wants it to mean, I’d suggest. Mentalists doing cold reading use this sort of ‘vague speak’ all the time.”

“It really goes a long way to reinforce the credibility of a cold reading if the mentalist can toss in a ‘guaranteed statement’. This is a dangerous maneuvor, but if he or she is absolutely sure about something and can drop it at the right time, it can pretty much wipe away all skepticism. This is the sort of thing that having helpers doing research ahead of time can really make or break. For example, if someone mentions to the person next to them that they just went to a friend’s funeral, and that person died of a stroke---a helper who overhears can tell the mentalist. Then the mentalist can then ask the question ‘has someone close to you died recently of something like a heart attack---no, maybe a stroke?”

“This leads to the final technique: never taking full responsibility. People doing cold readings are going to have misfires. When this happens they have to have some sort of “out” that will allow them to keep the support of the crowd. The standard way of doing this is to have some sort of ‘wiggle room’. One way of doing this is to say that there is a disturbance in the ‘vibes’ of the audience---which creates a sort of psychic ‘static’ or ‘degraded receptivity’. Another would be to say that the usual spirit who speaks to her is missing, and she’s working with someone new who isn’t as good at communication with the living. That sort of thing. If she makes a mistake, then, it boils down to a communication error. Then she can come up with something on the fly---like ‘oh it’s difficult for spirits to understand the lower dimensions because they live in ‘non-linear time’ or ‘multi-dimensional space’.”

At this point Sally changed lanes. “I want a cup of coffee and a donut. I suggest you have something too. It’s going to be a long night.” She signaled and turned on an En Route. They go out of the car and headed for a local chain restaurant with abysmal coffee and terrible confectionary bombs---but clean toilets.

&&&&

Moreover I say unto you, the Climate Emergency must be dealt with!

Cult Smashers: Part Nineteen

Sally sent Nate Kunstler an email asking him to be available for an “excursion” at 7:00 in the evening on Friday. She told him to dress “nice”---but not too formal---and meet him at the entrance of the community. She said he should have a meal at the regular time.

He was there at the time required. She drove up to him in a very conventional Toyota sedan. He got in the car and asked the obvious question. “No Jag?”

“Nah. That’s just for training or ‘showtime’. This is my regular ride. We’re just tourists tonight. I’m taking you to a magic show. Think of it as a field trip. Tonight you get your first lesson in how to be a psychic!”

Nate could see from the side of her face she was smirking. She added a question, “Do you remember in the martial arts class where Kelly told us about ‘circus tricks’?”

“Yeah, they are things that ‘qi Masters’ and teachers of ‘bullshido’ do to wow naive students. They are either out-and-out trickery, or, the use of simple physical laws to do things that most folk think are impossible.”

“Exactly. Well tonight we’re off to see a type of magician known as a ‘mentalist’. He’ll give you an example of a ‘cold reading’ getting done. It’s important to understand how they do this because this is often how ‘charismatic influencers’ convince their followers that they have some sort of secret powers or a direct pipeline to the divine.”

“You’ve mentioned a ‘cold reading’ before. What are they? How do they work?”

Sally took the time to double-check where they were on the GPS to ensure she didn’t miss a turn-off, decided it was safe to talk for a while, and, launched into a mini-lecture.

“A cold reading is a specific type of manipulative conversation where a person sets out to convince another person that they have some sort of psychic ability that either allows them to read minds, or, converse with some sort of metaphysical entity that has super-human knowledge. They do this by using the following techniques:

1. Confidence speak

2. Deduction

3. Choosing the right person

4. ‘Barnum’ statements

5. Recap and regurgitation

6. Changing their meaning

7. Guaranteed statements

8. Never taking full responsibility”

Nate could see that Sally’s face was taking on special look, as if she was accessing some sort of special ability.

“You sound like you’ve memorized that list, are you an expert yourself?”

She smiled “No, I’ve read up on the subject and been schooled in the science of memory. It allows me to remember large amounts of information using techniques that stretch way back into antiquity. It’s a useful skill to have in the sort of work I do for the Elders. Now back to cold readings---.”

“Confidence speak is something like the ‘Voice’ from Dune or ‘Jedi mind tricks’ from Star Wars. It’s simply the ability to always project total confidence in what you say. It’s based on the idea that great deal of our everyday judgement of whether or not someone knows what they are talking about comes down to how confident they are about what they are saying. People who’ve managed confidence speak never have the ‘nerves’ or look to others for validation. They speak as if they know with absolute certainty whatever lie or half-truth they are selling to someone else.”

“There’s nothing magical about confidence speak, it’s something that lots of salespeople and politicians have mastered in order to be successful at their jobs.”

&&&&

Moreover I say unto you, the Climate Emergency must be dealt with!

Cults Smashers: Part Sixteen

Stephen decided that he wanted to ensure his status as a “saint” by being the first to pull off something spectacular that hadn’t been done before. He thought that the path to this sort of fame would be by successfully using a technology that no one else had. The road to this would be by leveraging what he’d learned in chemistry classes, what he’d found in old books, and, what he’d learned playing around with Arduino controllers at the local “hacker space”.

The Anarchist Cookbook had a recipe for making cyanide gas. It was dangerous to make, but it gave instructions about how to minimize the risk. Basically, you did it outside and wore a gas mask (surprisingly easy to find on-line at military surplus businesses). If you were careful, you ended up with a clear liquid that the book suggested you could put in sealed, glass bottles and which burst into flames when you smashed the bottle---and gave off poisonous smoke.

Jeffries did some tests and decided that he would “upgrade” the delivery system. He’d put the liquid in opaque, re-usable plastic water bottles and put wifi-controlled chemical detonators in the lids. That way, he’d be able to send a coded message over the internet from anywhere in the world. Once he’d filled the bottles, he glued the bottle tops with “miracle glue” so no one could unscrew a bottle and set the gas off prematurely.

He had a target in mind. At the local university one of the student groups---the local chapter of Ralph Nader’s Public Interest Research Groups---was putting on a weekend symposium to do with “Women’s Issues”. Steven thought that he would declare his status as an Incel saint by striking a blow against the femnoids. This way, he would be remembered as a “supreme gentlemen”.

&&&&

Moreover I say unto you, the Climate Emergency must be dealt with!

Cult Smashers: Part Fourteen

Sally turned onto a back street, went down it a couple blocks, and, ended up parking in totally average industrial mall. She came to a place with dirty windows and a “For Lease” sign on the window. She had a key that let her open the front door.

Inside, the place was grubby. It looked like the last occupant had been an ethnic bakery. The floor was filthy, but there was still the faint whiff of bread. She locked the door behind them, then went to a mirror behind the counter. She pulled out a hankie and used it to push on the mirror without leaving finger marks---it popped out an inch. She pulled it open all the way on a hinge, which revealed a steel door with a keypad. She tapped out a code into it, turned the knob, and, the two went in. She pulled the mirror behind her closed, then shut the steel fire door.

“The Old Ones own a couple places like this in Toronto. It suits their purposes to have real estate that can be used as ‘pop ups’ whenever they start a special project and need to create a workspace.” The room was clean and had workbenches with stools around most of the periphery. There were various computers plus what seemed to be a small, but well-supported video studio with a large green wall sitting at one side.

A couple people were working at terminals. One of them came over. He was tall and thin, had a short, full-face black beard, dark heavy-framed glasses, a thick head of curly dark hair. He was wearing birkenstocks with socks, khaki slacks, a denim shirt, and, a grey, unbuttoned cardigan. “Hey, good to see you. Is this your protege?”

Sally pre-empted Nate’s response with a brief statement directed at him, “We don’t use names here for security reasons.”

She turned back to the tall, thin man. “Yeah. I brought him here so he could learn a bit about what you are doing. Fill him in on the project---no picky details, just the broad over-view.”

The thin man turned to Nate and gave him a spiel that had obviously been given enough times before to come naturally. “OK. One of the big intermediate-level problems our society is facing is the decline in civic cohesion. We have increasing numbers of people who don’t believe in science, journalism, anything the government says, etc. That in itself would be a problem, but they do believe in some pretty nonsensical things instead---and that leads to behaviour that is a big problem for everyone else.”

“They don’t get vaccinated because they think that it’s conspiracy by Bill Gates or lizards from space or something else to inject them with chips that track their every movement or make you sterile or cause autism or whatever. As a result, diseases that should be relatively easy to control have become more and more difficult to deal with.”

“Even worse, small, but significant numbers of people are becoming radicalized to the point where they are willing to commit violence. We have people shooting up synagogues, driving trucks into crowds, planting bombs in public areas, etc. We have been studying what sort of people are most susceptible to this sort of radicalization, how it’s done, and, trying to come up with a way we can inoculate them to prevent this from happening.”

“We think that the problem is what are called ‘charismatic influencers’. That is, there are a small number of people who have the ability to inspire significant numbers of very committed individuals to do what they say. Mostly they do this just to raise money. But among the people with these abilities is another smaller set who---for one reason or another---are trying to get their followers to do acts of terrorism.”

“We believe that what makes someone an influencer is a specific type of behaviour that works on a specifically susceptible subset of the human population. The people we’ve been studying do this sort of thing subconsciously, but we think we can train individuals and use technology to do it pretty much on command.”

Sally joined in at this point. “We want you to learn how to use this technique to make you an influencer too. The hope is that if you are good enough at it, you might be able to ‘counter attack’ those specific influencers that seem to be most interested in programming lone wolf terrorist attacks.”

“Why don’t you take us into the studio booth to show us where you are at with your technology?”

&&&&

Furthermore I say unto you, the Climate Emergency must be dealt with!

Cult Smashers: Part Twelve

Sally called Nate and told him that the next day they’d be going on a road trip to meet some people. She said to dress like usual and be ready by 7:00 am at the front of the dorm where he slept with the other live-in staff. She showed up right on time, and in a late model Jaguar. Nate was amazed at her ride. When he got in, he asked about it.

“It’s just part of the image. The Elders helped a guy with a luxury car business a while back. He lets us borrow his cars when useful. Today, I’m just getting a little used to the Jag so I can look like it’s my “daily driver” in the future.”

“More James Bond stuff?”, Nate was increasingly aware that Sally was whomever Sally wanted to be, when she wanted to be.

“More likely, I’ll be James Bond’s chauffeur. Either way, it’s the details that allow you to paint a picture so well that the mark doesn’t question anything.”

“So what’s on today?” Nate was getting more comfortable with the idea that Sally was a spymaster for the Old Ones. It was kinda cool, once he got over the surprise that they were into stuff like this---and that Sally was one of the experts they relied upon to do it.

“I’m trying to help you relax a bit about this by letting you tag along. We’ll be visiting a tailor. More importantly, I want to introduce you to something that we want you to do. While we’re getting there, I’ll introduce you to some of the theory. First of all, I want you to listen to a recorded message that I got off the Web a few days ago. Luckily, the sound system is so good on this car that I think you can get something of the feel that this would have on a person at home with a good stereo or ear-buds to listen.”

It started with some spacey electronic music and a subtle, yet obvious, recording of a heart-beat behind it. Then there was a voice over: “Sit back, relax, close your eyes and take deep breaths. Still your mind, and let what follows flow over you.” This instruction repeated several times, then stopped---leaving the music and heart beat.

Moments later, another voice came on. It was calm and eased slowly into a rhythm.

“I started into this with an experience that is probably pretty common. I had an intuition that what we are told is ‘normal’ and ‘real’ just isn’t that at all. ‘Normal’---as I’d been offered it---wasn’t quite right-- and, ‘life’----as I’d been offered it---wasn’t quite right, and, ‘reality’---as I’d been offered it---wasn’t quite right. I intuited that that there is a ‘wrongness’ in the world and as a result I was reluctant to participate in the world.”

“Different people express that reluctance in different ways. Some by lashing out and acting up. Some through depression and with-drawl. Some through self-sabotage---or it could be laziness and procrastination. Getting drunk, getting fucked-up on drugs. Different ways of diverting some of your life energy away from ‘The Program’---let’s call it ‘The Quest’.”

“The Quest” is learning what is wrong with the world, why we feel alienated. It’s the intuition that niggles away at the base of your being and leaves your life---as we’ve been offered it---as not being just quite enough.”

At that point Sally shut off the recording. “That’s enough of that nonsense.” Then she asked Nate what he thought about what he’d just heard.

“I don’t know. Somebody who doesn’t understand what life is about and is honestly searching for the truth?”

Sally sighed. “Yeah, that’s what it’s supposed to sound like. But think about this. He sounds like he doesn’t understand what life is about, but if so, why is he broadcasting on the Web? Don’t seekers seek?”

“Well, it is just an intro and you shut off the recording before he could have gone on to say that he’d found some big thing that he was going to share with us.”

“Good. You are still skeptical of my narrative. Let’s let that question hang in mid air. We’ll get back to it---but not right now.”

She paused as she changed lanes, merged into the collector, and, then made the transition from the 401 to the street that would get them where they were going in Toronto.

“Let’s get back to the clip I shared with you. Think about the intro and the words that he uses: ‘experience’, ‘intuition’, and the repetition of that phrase ‘as I’d been offered it---wasn’t quite right’. He’s being intentionally vague so the listener can ‘fill in the gaps’ with his or her own words. That’s similar to how a stage magician conducts a ‘cold reading’. Do you know what that is?”

“Not really. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the term before.”

“We’ll get into this in more depth some time in the future, but a cold reading is something like that game ‘20 Questions’. You ask vague, open-ended questions, one after another, and invite a person to fill in the blanks. After a while, a skilled practitioner can hone-in on information that the subject has given him, repackage it in a new way, and it looks like he’s just read their mind.”

“If you are too specific in your language, you cannot cast your net very wide because it gives listeners an opportunity to say to themselves ‘Oh that doesn’t apply to me. My experience is different’. That’s why this fellow uses vague, open-ended terms so much---such as ‘intuition’ and ‘wrongness’”.

“Beyond the content of the words, think about the form. Do you notice all the repetition? This isn’t a standard talk about a factual subject. Instead, it’s more akin to a magical incantation. Or the patter of a hypnotist who is suggesting to a subject that it’s OK to feel, believe, or, do something that they would never ordinarily do because they think it might be foolish. Think back to the introduction: ‘---relax, close your eyes and take deep breaths. Still your mind, and let what follows flow over you---’. Isn’t that ultimately nothing more than a suggestion to turn off your critical faculties?”

“One last thing. Think about those last words where the Voice is suggesting that people ‘act up’, or get depressed, drink too much, are depressed, or procrastinate, etc. What exactly is going on here? It sounds to me like he’s trying to appeal directly to people who have significant problems and who might be particularly vulnerable and susceptible to someone who wants to gain some control over them.”

Nate was kinda freaked by what Sally was suggesting. “Why would you say that about this talk? What you say could be true, I supposed, but that’s a pretty negative spin to put on something that just sounds like an intro to harmless, New Age crud.”

“Well, I’d agree with you except I happen to know the ‘back-story’ to the fellow you hear blabbing. He’s a pretty prominent on-line influencer who’s been pretty instrumental in convincing a lot of people that the US government has been taken over by a conspiracy from outer space. He’s convinced a lot of people that vaccination against childhood disease is a conspiracy by Bill Gates to control the birth rate. This has led to a significant number of children dying of things like mumps, measles, lockjaw, etc. Oh, and in the process, he’s made a very good living off leading various ‘spiritual workshops’, selling books, recordings of lectures, etc. He also makes a ton off advertising on his podcasts. It’s true that this is empty, New Age crud. But I’d hardly say it’s harmless.”

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Moreover I say unto you, the Climate Emergency must be dealt with!