CultNEWS101 Articles: 8/26/2019

Aug 26, 2019

CultNEWS101 Articles: 8/26/2019

Cult Leaders, Miracle Mineral Solutions, Mindfulness

Openingminds: Think Like A Cult Leader - Part Three Braggadocio

In this 14-part series, Jon and Sam discuss the fine art of how to be a cult leader. In part three, they talk about how braggadocio, or how to let everyone know just how fabulous you are.

Openingminds: Think Like A Cult Leader - Part Four - Conquering Anxiety and Fear

In this 14-part series, Jon and Sam discuss the fine art of how to be a cult leader. In part four, they talk about conquering anxiety and fear, an important part of just not giving a darn.

WNDU: FDA warns that Miracle Mineral Solution may have deadly side effects

"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is urging people not to drink a solution often promoted online as a remedy for autism, HIV, cancer and other conditions.

The products, known as Miracle Mineral Supplement, Miracle Mineral Solution, Master Mineral Solution, MMS, or chlorine dioxide protocol, are not approved by the FDA.

The agency says ingesting the solution, when mixed, is the same as drinking bleach, and it can have potentially life-threatening side effects.

The products were first promoted 20 years ago as a remedy for just about every ailment by a former scientologist.

This is not the first time that the FDA has issued such warnings about these products."

PsyPost: Study indicates a brief mindfulness meditation exercise results in blunted moral reactions.

"Mindfulness meditation appears to have beneficial effects on various aspects of life. But new research suggests that mindfulness doesn't automatically enhance only the good side of people."

" ... 'Practicing mindfulness may not automatically increase prosocial and moral behavior. Across five experiments, we found that a brief mindfulness exercise even attenuated moral reactions. Mindfulness — without being embedded in an ethical context — may thus have downsides regarding interpersonal and moral behavior that have been so far ignored by researchers and also practitioners,' Schindler told PsyPost.

In mindfulness meditation, practitioners learn to develop an accepting and nonjudgmental toward present moment thoughts and feelings. The authors of the study believe this may be responsible for blunting moral responses, but more research is needed to understand the underlying processes.

"Our findings raise a lot of questions and are far away from providing a final answer on this topic. It is important to investigate the robustness and the boundary conditions of the found effects. In the future, for example, we aim to apply long-term mindfulness interventions lasting several weeks instead of only ten minutes," Schindler said.

And, of course, the findings shouldn't be interpreted as suggesting that mindfulness meditation always promotes immoral behavior. "Practicing mindfulness can also certainly lead to stronger moral or less immoral reactions, for example, when the otherwise experienced feeling (e.g., feelings of vengeance or anger) would result in harming another person," the researchers noted in their study."