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Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change
 
 

Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change [Kindle Edition]

Flo Conway , Jim Siegelman
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Product Description

Product Description

In June, 1978, six months before the cult massacre in Jonestown, Guyana, Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman published SNAPPING, a groundbreaking investigation of the spreading epidemic of sudden, drastic personality changes that was bringing a frightening new era of personal loss and horrific human tragedies. SNAPPING went on to sell 100,000 hardcover and trade paperback copies and become a required text in high school and college classes in psychology, sociology, persuasion, mass communication, criminology, and comparative religion.
Now SNAPPING is back in a new Kindle edition of the expanded and updated 2nd Edition from Stillpoint Press. Today snapping is on the rise among zealous cult members, born-again Christians, anti-government ideologues, participants in popular self-help, professional training and “stress reduction” programs--and, increasingly, among people in everyday life situations. And the epidemic is spreading worldwide in the 21st century. In this Kindle edition, the authors show how powerful, mind-altering spiritual and personal growth practices found in all these domains may impair the brain’s living information-processing powers and lead to profound personal changes, altered awareness, thinking, feeling and free choice, post-traumatic stress disorders, grand delusions, and violent destructive acts. In exclusive interviews and fascinating science, Conway and Siegelman span the history of snapping--from the 1969 Manson Family murders, to the 1978 Peoples Temple massacre, to the disastrous 1993 siege and conflagration at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. Findings in their award-winning study of the effects of new spiritual and personal growth practices—the first of its kind—along with a special postscript on the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the Aum Shinrikyo poison gas attack in the Tokyo subway, and the global rise of extremist “terror cells” of many persuasions complete this seminal work that calls for new ways to counter a mushrooming threat to the mental health of America and every civilized society.

Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 2905 KB
  • Publisher: Stillpoint Press; 2 edition (1 Jan 2011)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language English
  • ASIN: B004K1EUOW
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #119,069 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
 
 
 
 
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Don't let them tell you what to think,, 2 Jan 2008
By 
robert campbell "bob" (ireland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
An interesting account of crazy gurus and mind altering cults, packed full of actual instances of people "snapping", and of the processes that might cause someone to fall into that abyss. I found the book fascinating but also quite negative and dark about spiritual things, perhaps deservedly so when you see the nature of these groups. The only light of optimism in the book being an interview with carl rogers, where he encourages spiritual processes which are balanced and allow complete freedom to those involved (or something to that effect). The book sent me into a kinda spin, overwhelming me with the sight of the empty abyss once more, and i'd advise people who might have been involved in mind altering groups to go lightly, and not to be consummed by the negativity. All that said, "snapping" is a fascinating read, of the strange beliefs that become believeable when the mind is pushed over the edge of reason, my particular favourite bit being about the moonies belief in sleep demons, those curious beings that overshadow people, and how their followers wore themselves down trying to resist the temptation of sleepiness. I think the ideas in the book are well thought out and researched, although it becomes a little implausible when the authors try to equate scientific formulae to the methods of brainwashing and cult hierarchies.
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Amazon.com: 4.6 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)

50 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars cults, personality change, and information disease, 30 Jun 2000
By New Age of Barbarism "zosimos" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change (Paperback)
This book provides an analysis of the techniques used by cults and certain "self help" agencies to alter the personality of the client. It presents a model, using catastrophe theory, in which the person is driven to a snapping point. After this snap, the personality is drastically changed, and often it requires another snap to rectify the situation. The theory presented here is very interesting. The cases discussed include those annoying cults and "self help" groups which roam college campuses (and its good to see that the authors do not bend to political correctness and include some of the more popular groups). In addition, the effects of stress are discussed in industrial settings. And, the governments royal botch-job at Waco is examined. Personally, I consider some of the "cult deprogrammers" as heroes who have tried to uphold a person's fundamental right to freedom of thought, against the sway of politicians. The only problem I have with this book is that there never is made a distinction between genuine religious conversion and cult conversion (snapping). I do not know how such a distinction could be made, but perhaps it would be an interesting area for further research.

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most important books of our time, 7 Jan 1999
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change (Paperback)
Understanding this book gives the reader the ability to comprehend why so many people who get into cults will stay despite obvious absurdities associated with the cult experience. The authors demonstrate that the ecstatic/illumination experience so often treasured by spiritual seekers may only be energy releases associated with the mind dealing with high stress. But when that sense of release occurs, people become wide-open to reprogramming. I gave this book to a friend who had a daughter in college who was actively being recruited by one of the more well-known cults, he gave it to her, and she in turn dropped all contact with the followers of the cult. She could see that the ecstatic experience that the cult followers were praising as a reward for all of their hard work and suffering was simply a psychological event.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An essential and enlightening book, for everyone to read!, 3 July 1999
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change (Paperback)
This is an excellently reasearched book. All people should be familiar with this information. For people who have been "snapped" in the past, it is healing. For those being enticed to snap, it can be a savior from doing so. For those with friends or loved ones that have snapped it gives insight. For others it gives awareness. My challenge to all therapist is to become educated and/or to further research this phenomenon in great depth.
 Go to Amazon.com to see all 14 reviews  4.6 out of 5 stars 
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Popular Highlights

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They destroy your ability to question things, and in destroying your ability to think, they also destroy your ability to feel. You have no desires, no emotion. You feel no pain, no joy, no nothing. &quote;
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individuals personality. Once these profound changes take place, as the new methods of deprogramming and rehabilitation make clear, the persons former sense of self &quote;
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new information coming into a communication system tends to destroy and replace earlier information of a similar nature. &quote;
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