How cults rewire the brain | Diane Benscoter

Translator: Rok Vidmar Reviewer: Matej Divjak

My journey to coming here today

Potovanje, ki me je danes pripeljalo sem,

started in 1974.

se je začelo 1974.

That's me with the funny gloves.

Tu sem s smešnimi rokavicami.

I was 17 and going on a peace walk.

Stara sem bila 17 in šla sem na mirovni pohod.

What I didn't know though, was most of those people, standing there

Nisem pa vedela, da večina ljudi, ki so tam stali, pripada Moonijem.

with me, were Moonies.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

And within a week

In čez en teden

I had come to believe

sem že verjela,

that the second coming of Christ had occurred,

da je Kristus drugič že prišel,

that it was Sun Myung Moon,

da je Sun Myung Moon

and that I had been specially chosen and prepared by God

in da me je Bog posebej izbral in pripravil

to be his disciple.

za njegovo učenko.

Now as cool as that sounds,

No, tako super, kot se to sliši,

my family was not that thrilled with this.

moja družina nad tem ni bila navdušena.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

And they tried everything they could to get me out of there.

In poskusili so vse, da bi me izvlekli od tam.

There was an underground railroad of sorts

Odvijala se je nekakšna podtalna prisila v tistih letih. Morda se je kdo še spomni.

that was going on during those years. Maybe some of you remember it.

They were called deprogrammers.

Imenovali so se deprogramerji.

And after about five long years

In po petih dolgih letih

my family had me deprogrammed.

me je moja družina deprogramirala.

And I then became a deprogrammer.

Potem sem pa postala deprogramerka.

I started going out on cases.

Začela sem sprejemati primere.

And after about five years of doing this,

In po petih letih tega početja

I was arrested for kidnapping.

sem bila aretirana zaradi ugrabitve.

Most of the cases I went out on

Večina primerov, ki sem jih prevzela,

were called involuntary.

se je imenovala neprostovoljni.

What happened was that the family

Družina je morala svoje ljubljene nekako spraviti nekam na varno.

had to get their loved ones some safe place somehow.

And so they took them to some safe place.

In tako so jih spravljali na varno.

And we would come in and talk to them, usually for about a week.

Potem smo prišli mi in govorili z njimi, običajno kak teden.

And so after this happened,

Ko se mi je dogodilo to,

I decided it was a good time to turn my back on this work.

sem sklenila, da je pravi čas, da neham s tem delom.

And about 20 years went by.

Preteklo je kakih 20 let.

There was a burning question though that would not leave me.

Žrlo me je pa vprašanje, ki me ni zapustilo.

And that was, "How did this happen to me?"

Bilo je: "Kako se je to zgodilo meni?"

And in fact, what did happen to my brain?

Dejansko, kaj se je zgodilo z mojimi možgani?

Because something did.

Kajti nekaj se je.

And so I decided to write a book, a memoir,

Tako sem sklenila, da napišem knjigo, spomine,

about this decade of my life.

o tem desetletju mojega življenja

And toward the end of writing that book

Proti koncu pisanja te knjige je bil narejen dokumentarec.

there was a documentary that came out.

It was on Jonestown.

Prikazoval je Jonestown.

And it had a chilling effect on me.

Zmrazilo me je.

These are the dead in Jonestown.

To so mrtvi v Jonestownu.

About 900 people died that day,

Okoli 900 ljudi je umrlo tistega dne, večina si je življenje vzela sama.

most of them taking their own lives.

Women gave poison to their babies,

Ženske so dale strup svojim otrokom

and watched foam come from their mouths as they died.

in gledale, kako jim je iz ust prihajala pena, ko so umirali.

The top picture is a group of Moonies

Na zgornji sliki je skupina Moonijev,

that have been blessed by their messiah.

ki jih je bil blagoslovil njihov prerok.

Their mates were chosen for them.

Družice so bile izbrane za njih.

The bottom picture is Hitler youth.

Na spodnji sliki je Hitlerjeva mladina.

This is the leg of a suicide bomber.

To je noga samomorilskega bombaša.

The thing I had to admit to myself,

Kar sem si morala priznati,

with great repulsion,

s hudim odporom,

was that I get it.

je, da razumem.

I understand how this could happen.

Zdaj razumem, kako je do tega lahko prišlo.

I understand how someone's brain,

Razumem, kako lahko možgani,

how someone's mind can come to the place

razum, pride do tega,

where it makes sense --

da je prav -

dejansko bi bilo narobe, če bi vaši možgani tako delali -

in fact it would be wrong, when your brain is working like that --

not to try to save the world through genocide.

ne rešiti sveta z genocidom.

And so what is this? How does this work?

Kaj je to? Kako deluje?

And how I've come to view what happened to me

In kako sem prišla do spoznanja, da sem doživela

is a viral, memetic infection.

virusno, memetično okužbo.

For those of you who aren't familiar with memetics,

Za tiste, ki ne veste, kaj je memetika,

a meme has been defined as

mem je definiran kot zamisel, ki se razmnožuje v človeškem umu

an idea that replicates in the human brain

and moves from brain to brain like a virus,

in prehaja z uma na um kot virus,

much like a virus. The way a virus works is --

zelo podobno kot virus.

Virus dela tako - lahko okuži in povzroči hudo škodo nekomu,

it can infect and do the most damage to someone

who has a compromised immune system.

ki ima oslabljen imunski sistem.

In 1974, I was young, I was naive,

Leta 1974 sem bila mlada, bila sem lahkoverna,

and I was pretty lost in my world.

in v svojem svetu sem bila precej izgubljena.

I was really idealistic.

Res sem bila idealistična.

These easy ideas to complex questions are very appealing

Preproste zamisli k zapletenim vprašanjem so zelo privlačne,

when you are emotionally vulnerable.

ko si čustveno ranljiv.

What happens is that

Tako se zgodi,

da prevlada krožna logika.

circular logic takes over.

"Moon is one with God.

"Moon je eno z Bogom.

God is going to fix all the problems in the world.

Bog bo popravil vse težave na svetu.

All I have to do is humbly follow.

Moram samo ponižno slediti.

Because God is going to stop war and hunger --

Kajti Bog bo ustavil vojne in lakoto -

all these things I wanted to do --

vse tisto, kar sem hotela sama -

all I have to do is humbly follow.

le skromno moram slediti.

Because after all, God is [working through] the messiah. He's going to fix all this."

Navsezadnje, Bog je [dejaven skozi] Mesijo. On bo popraviti vse to."

It becomes impenetrable.

To postane nepremostljivo.

And the most dangerous part of this

In najbolj nevaren del tega je,

is that is creates "us" and "them,"

da ustvari "nas" in "njih",

"right" and "wrong,"

"prav" in "narobe",

"good" and "evil."

"dobro" in "zlo".

And it makes anything possible,

To naredi, da je vse mogoče,

makes anything rationalizable.

da se da vse upravičevati.

And the thing is, though,

Ampak,

if you looked at my brain

če bi pogledali moje možgane

during those years in the Moonies --

v letih, ko sem bila Moonijevka -

neuroscience is expanding exponentially,

nevroznanost napreduje eksponencialno,

as Ray Kurzweil said yesterday. Science is expanding.

kot je včeraj povedal Ray Kurzweil. Znanost napreduje.

We're beginning to look inside the brain.

Začenjamo gledati v notranjost možganov.

And so if you looked at my brain, or any brain that's infected with

Če bi pogledali v moje možgane ali katerekoli možgane,

a viral memetic infection like this,

okužene z virusno memetično okužbo, kot je ta,

and compared it to anyone in this room,

in primerjal s komerkoli v tem prostoru,

or anyone who uses critical thinking on a regular basis,

ali komerkoli, ki redno kritično razmišlja,

I am convinced it would look very, very different.

sem prepričana, da bi izgledali zelo, zelo drugačni.

And that, strange as it may sound,

In to, naj bo še tako čudno,

gives me hope.

mi daje upanje.

And the reason that gives me hope

Razlog, da mi to daje upanje

is that the first thing is to admit

je, da si je najprej treba priznati,

that we have a problem.

da imamo problem.

But it's a human problem. It's a scientific problem, if you will.

Toda problem je človeški, je znanstveni problem, če hočete.

It happens in the human brain. There is no evil force out there to get us.

Dogaja se človeškim možganom. Ni zunanje zle sile, ki bi vplivala na nas.

And so this is something that, through research and education,

Zato verjamem, da bomo, z raziskavami in vzgojo to lahko rešili.

I believe that we can solve.

And so the first step is to realize

Prvi korak je, da se zavedamo,

that we can do this together,

da to lahko naredimo skupaj,

and that there is no "us" and "them."

da ni "nas" in "njih".

Thank you very much. (Applause)

Hvala lepa. (Aplavz)