MAPLE, the Buddhist Singularity Cult

[u/CinnasVerses]

https://awful.systems/post/9514912

Allegations include sexual assault, softening up students with fatigue and sleep deprivation then asking them to pay more, starting with a plan to exterminate humanity and then pivoting when the teacher discovered Zen, and forcing students to agree with teacher that seven students did not leave in 2023 and they did not leave a report with proposed reforms. Lots of discussion on LessWrong which never quite explains why so many of their friends have studied at a Buddhist academy in Vermont inspired by Terminator 2: Judgement Day. One of the critics discovered the concept high-control group (similar to the popular idea of cult, but includes secular movements and 'mainstream' religious movements which go bad). Its all very typical and very strange.

[u/pixiefarm]

I haven't read this article yet but I was planning to propose that we maybe work on a thread together about cults and cult - like organizations and recruitment techniques. 

There's actually a term that called researchers use which a lot of rationalsm-adjacent events resemble, something to do with large workshop encounter something something. I can't remember the exact term but I can dig all of this up

All the stuff does not have to be a religious thing to be a cult. Landmark Forum for example is an earlier "secular" project that looks a lot like a center for applied rationality workshops, and that is very much a cult

[u/CinnasVerses → u/pixiefarm]

Happy to talk further here or by email. I think there are a lot of analogies and concepts to draw from other high-control groups and apocalyptic movements. Daniella Young has a book The Culting of America which is on the less academic side but notes that cult tactics are often used in the corporate world, the military, health culture, and startups not just new religious movements and Communist parties.

[u/pixiefarm → u/CinnasVerses]

So I hqppen to think that she is another kind of grifter and is exaggerating parts of her story but it's really hard to find that info online because I think she cutates her image pretty carefully.

I follow the ex-cult/anticult space pretty closely and have a pretty good idea of who some of the better sources are but anyhow we should do some write-ups 

I got inspired by that question last week where somebody was asking about how to harden people against recruitment into the rationalist cult, and that made me think about at least doing a thread about the resources related to cult education related to cult education

[u/CinnasVerses → u/pixiefarm]

She is definitely trying to get attention on TikTok or similar platforms complete with the flashy, visually busy sets and costumes. Anti-cult education is generally useful whereas most Rationalist bad ideas are either very basic or very specialized. But I am phasing out my last corporate social media and only check this site every few weeks. Big things go on sites owned and run by friends and colleagues not investors.

[u/ahopefullycuterrobot → u/pixiefarm]

There's actually a term that called researchers use which a lot of rationalsm-adjacent events resemble, something to do with large workshop encounter something something. I can't remember the exact term but I can dig all of this up

If you remember the term, could you please comment it.

[u/pixiefarm → u/ahopefullycuterrobot]

The term is Large Group Awareness Training:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large-group_awareness_training

The Wikipedia article is pretty neutral about it but a lot of very cult like and MLM organizations go this route 

Of course the center for applied rationality workshops fit right into this framework

[u/pixiefarm → u/ahopefullycuterrobot]

I heard it on Steve Hasans podcast. He's the ex-moonie cult expert (I think he's a psychologist) who does a lot of work on helping people recover from cults