seminar psychology

Jon and I spent the weekend at a Millionaire Mind Intensive conference in Chicago. I will get into more details on my thoughts, insights, and more in other posts, but to start, I found some fascinating parallels between this and other seminars and conferences that I have been to.

I've attended a fair number of conferences over the last few years. During my early-early 20s, I was heavily involved in the religious/spiritual scene and attended numerous prophetic conferences, and have since attended other "secular" ones on topics such as internet marketing and developing a millionaire mind. I find the parallels fascinating - and in some cases disturbing. (Now don't get your knickers in a knot. I realize there is a fairly broad spectrum of people in my readership, and some of you will likely be offended - relax. Please. I am not attacking you or your beliefs. If need be, let's agree to disagree, okay?)

Most of these events are charged by hype and energy - which is not a bad thing. Where the problem comes in is when you get carried away by it. Energy is good - energy is GREAT. Energy is what gets you results, and you cannot and will not be successful without it! I love the energy at these things! But I am learning to also go in with a healthy amount of skepticism. Skepticism is also a good thing - as long as it doesn't develop into cynicism!

This event that we attended over the weekend contained some major hype and energy. The topic was about developing a millionaire mind - which included things such as recognizing and replacing un-supportive beliefs that you have about money, identifying opportunities to become wealthy (no matter what the economy is like), and learning how to make your money work hard for you - instead of you working hard for your money! The major focus was on changing the way you think and learning to think like a rich person instead of a poor person. Rather powerful, actually. There was some very good information presented, and I definitely learned some valuable things to apply in my own life.

What I found fascinating was the parallels between this conference and the christian/"prophetic" ones I used to attend. Guess what? There are some surprising similarities! Let's start with the "fear factor"...

Perhaps the most disturbing thing to me was this element of fear. This is a common thread at all of these things! The speaker/presenter uses fear very well to manipulate the crowd. It may be a fear of not having money, or working hard all your life only to find that you can't retire, or retirement isn't what you thought it would be. It may be a fear of darkness, demons, the devil, hell. It may be a fear of not being good enough, a fear of not measuring up to what others are doing (others around you, or the people in the examples they use). It may be a fear of sickness and disease, or a fear of poverty. It may even be a fear of being stuck in a boring religion, or a fear of spending the rest of your life just paying bills from paycheck to paycheck.

Or how about the fear of missing something at the conference itself? I've felt that one! They like that one. You are encouraged right from the beginning to be open, to not worry about what people around you think and to participate to the fullest degree that you can. You are told that if you don't, you won't get the most that you can out of it and you will miss something that could change your life. This may in fact be very true - whether it is true or not isn't the point. But it is a common theme at all of these things, and is used to get the response that the speaker wants, whether it be "coming to Jesus", signing up for another course, purchasing products, or whatever the case may be. The great evangelists wield it like a weapon, with their elaborations on hellfire and demonic possession. After all, who does want to go to hell, or be possessed by a subtle, yet deadly, demon?

I'm not quite sure where I stand on the tactic myself. I think it can be good to a point - after all, it is good to realize where we really stand, and to recognize problems or issues in our lives that we want to change. But how ethical is it to use that fear to manipulate people? Looking back on my experiences, I can recognize some of the ways that manipulation influenced me. The majority of the time, they provided a fix, or showed you the way to the fix, and things were great - for a while. But after coming down from the high of the conference, how often did I really hang on to that change? And how often did I give a donation, buy a product, or sign up for something as a result of that manipulation?

Another common theme is the testimonials, stories and examples. No one knows how many of them are even true, or how many have been embellished to make the point they want to make. The speaker has often been through some very trying time - a physical infirmity, a life of drug addiction, the loss of everything good in their life, or some such fantastic story and experience. Drastic and dramatic situations and stories suck people right in. We sympathize, empathize, feel sorry and want to help in any way we can. It gets our guard down and makes us much more likely to want to do what the person suggests or asks.

Or how about the speakers who have been where we are? The speaker at the conference this weekend mentioned many times how he started right where we were sitting. IN FACT, he sat in the very back row in the corner - sound familiar? In other words, he was the BIGGEST skeptic in the place - and he was convinced, so it must be the way to go! This follows suit in the other conferences as well. The speaker will tell how they were the biggest skeptic, the one who came in only for a few minutes, determined that they would leave before it had barely begun, or how they were dragged there by someone else. And of course, now they are up on the stage. They were convinced and sold on it. Or they will bring out their mentees, people who also sat where we are sitting and who decided they wanted to be trained by these people, and are now doing crusades all over the world, or are making $20,000 per weekend teaching seminars. Again, a common theme across the board!

Or, how many times have you been to some such big event where they DIDN'T ask you for money or try to sell you something? There is nothing wrong with selling, promoting, asking for donations. Don't get me wrong on that. Although it would be refreshing to attend an event where all they did was offer information, training, teaching and try to help you, without any promoting, selling or asking for donations. There are always people who want to buy the products, or donate to the cause, without being manipulated and pressured into doing so. And it is very possible to give them the opportunity, without promoting, selling, or asking for donations.

Which leads me to my last common theme: the pre-sell. We noticed it big time at this conference. They did provide some excellent teaching and information, but a lot of it was just "teasers", and you could always tell when they were leading up to another sale, because the information they promised was really good, something you really wanted to know - and it would turn into just a teaser, with more promised if you attended the particular course they were promoting. The pre-sells were always looong, they would spend about half the session talking about it - without really talking about it, trying to get you hooked. Now it's not always this bad, of course. But let's take a look at the christian version: the offering appeal. These can get incredibly flowery and drawn out at conferences! They will do a whole little mini-sermon before the offering, all about giving and how it is better to give than to receive (more about that in my next post) - and if you are paying attention, you can see it coming from a mile away! You can pick up on the clues and go, oh, look, here comes the offering, 30 minutes before they actually pass around the basket or bucket to collect. They will tie in some great points, some teaching, some "promises" of what you will or may get back. Their goal? To get everyone pumped up about it and wanting to give when the basket comes around. And how many of those people will later feel manipulated and "talked out" of their money?

Again, there's nothing wrong with giving, donating, buying, etc. But it seems to me that it would be much better to let people do so of their own accord, their own idea, and feel good about it much later, than to manipulate them, make them feel guilty about it, or tease them into it. In the long run, sure, you've got their money - but you sure don't have their trust!

Fascinating, isn't it? Perhaps a bit disturbing, as it was for me, to realize this. But here's the lesson I took away from it: don't check your mind at the door! Yes, do go into it with an open mind, ready and willing to learn everything you can to apply in your own life. Do participate, get excited, experience the energy. But don't leave your mind at the door! Don't be sucked into the hype. Realize that they do use these tactics, and don't make an impulse decision that you will later regret. Leave your money, credit card, etc outside, don't even take it in with you! You can always purchase or donate later, when your head is clear and you know that it is what you want, and what is right for you. With that out of that way, you can enjoy yourself and get everything that you can out of the meeting.