Constructive Alternativism.

With his theory of constructive alternativism, George Kelly [1] posited that our experiences of the world around us, including events that take place or our understanding of people, including ourselves, are open to an immense variety of interpretations. Kelly argued that no one construct is a final or definitively accurate way of grasping the world. Instead, we can always create alternative constructs to better explain or represent that which we observe. A revised construct can increase our ability to comprehend the world around us and help us feel that we can predict or control it. Therapists can use constructive alternativism to help clients who are depressed or anxious live happier lives by reconsidering the way the clients have appraised their lives. Cognitive therapy, in fact, is based to some extent on this premise.

Viral Memetic Infection

A meme has been defined as an idea that replicates in the human brain and moves from brain to brain like a virus, much like a virus. The way a virus works is -- it can infect and do the most damage to someone who is emotionally vulnerable What happens is that circular logic takes over.The mind makes it true. It creates "us" and "them," "right" and "wrong," "good" and "evil." And it makes anything possible. Makes anything rationalizable.
Examples: Moonies, Jonestown, Conspiracy Theories, Cults, 2012 end times, New Age beliefs.
Anyone who uses critical thinking on a regular basis would see the situation very differently.

If you can make the reader believe anything no matter how absurd it is, he will prove it to be true by his experiments. This proves that our beliefs make us act and our acts are directed by our belief, for the wisdom or knowledge is in the belief. People are not aware of this. Quimby 1863

At 17, Diane Benscoter joined The Unification Church -- the religious cult whose members are commonly known as “Moonies.” After five long years, her distressed family arranged to have her deprogrammed. Benscoter then left The Unification Church, and was so affected by her experience that she became a deprogrammer herself. She devoted her time to extracting others from cults, until she was arrested for kidnapping. The shock of her arrest caused her to abandon her efforts for almost 20 years. Now, after decades of research and study, Diane has begun to speak about her experiences. She recently completed a memoir describing her years as a member of The Unification Church and as a deprogrammer. Furthermore, she has embarked on a new project to define “extremist viral memetic infections”. She believes that defining extremism as a memetic infection, from a cognitive neurological perspective, might allow us to develop better memes that would inoculate against the memes of extremist thought. These inoculating memes could prevent the spread of extremist viral memetic infections and their inherent dangers.

http://www.ted.com/talks/ex_moonie_diane_benscoter_how_cults_think.html

"Amaze your friends with your new found psychic powers!"

Ray Hyman (1928 - ) is a Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon, and a noted critic of parapsychology.

While attending Boston University as a young man, he also worked as a magician and mentalist, impressing the head of his department (among others) with his palmistry. Hyman at one point believed that 'reading' the lines on a person's palm could provide insights into their nature, but later discovered that the person's reaction to the reading had little to do with the actual lines on the palm. This led to his interest in psychology. He obtained a doctorate in psychology from Johns Hopkins University in 1953,

Aside from scholarly publications and consultations concerning psychic research, one of his most popular articles is thirteen points to help you "amaze your friends with your new found psychic powers!", a guide to cold reading. The guide exploits what fascinated him in his academic research in cognitive psychology, that much deception is self-deception. He has investigated dowsing in the United States and wrote a book on the subject.