I recently realized a pattern.

The pattern is

  1. You read something somewhere, probably on the internet.
  2. The text describes an emotional situation. Then it says, that this situation should not happen. And if it does, it will have life-long bad consequences for you.
  3. It adds that you will never have control over it.
  4. If you think, you did, your mind was just playing tricks with you.
  5. Your brain works - as it always does - and it finds an experience that matches.
  6. You feel bad, because what shouldn't have happened according to other people happened to you.

Now I realized some flaws in this:

They all have in common that without knowing you, they deny you any control.

Everybody, even professionals, make up stories. Therefore the story can be fake.

The conclusion is artificial.

This is very clear in proofs of a supernatural being.

They work by using a real life event and saying that because science cannot currently explain it, it must be caused by a human lookalike in the sky.

But they might be more subtle, as in "if you experience trauma, you won't get better, because people we know didn't".

All that means is that you should not get advice from them, because they have no working solution for trauma.

Basically what those writings do is they get a hold of your vulnerable self that needs reassurance that everything was okay, and that you can get control over it, and drag it into the mud with new limiting beliefs.

More examples:

  • "The trick the devil plays is that it pretends it doesn't exist.". Conclusion: if you don't believe in X, it serves X right. It is basically saying: "There are things that you don't understand, but I do and I implore you to trust me". Attack: give me verifyable proof that can only lead to this conclusion. You could also say "The trick church plays is that it demands trust without giving reason for it". In NLP they call this double bind.
  • "If you sometimes are not focused, you do have ADHD and you need the drug Speed because otherwise you will never be happy."
  • "If you have chronic pain, you need to take anti-depressants. Many people were cured by this. But we will not disclose their names for privacy reasons." aka "Believe us already, asshole, give us your money and take it so you will get addicted".
  • "If you contract what we call "the corona virus", you will die and everyone else will die a painful death 1 nanosecond after exposure". Attack: Does the corona virus exist? If so, is it dangerous for me personally? Is it dangerous for my surrounding? What are different scientific positions? You will realize that it's less harmful than the normal flu. In fact, the lockdowns are a perfect example of denying people control.

Which other examples do you know?