That's a fantastic question! I can't answer. But I'll definitely start injecting that question into what I read. I have run across those communities that talk about techniques for increasing one's charisma, mostly in the context of trying to understand the alt-right, involuntary celibates, pick-up-artists, and their intersection with the rationalists. That concept of installing new triggers was from the rationalists and, I think, enlightened by cognitive behavior therapy. Such conscious manipulation of other people must overlap with the tactics of narcissists.
But the inverse map is more interesting, I suppose. To what extent is there an innate charisma? And to what extent do people with innate charisma, as they grow up from babies, *learn* to be entitled and/or manipulative because their charisma facilitates such entitlement/manipulation? We've all heard that "beautiful people" have easier lives. To what extent is that folk psychology true, real, amenable to experimentation? There must be some science out there about that. On 4/29/20 5:36 PM, Prof David West wrote: > In early-mid 1970, I did a study of cults in California. It was an > ethnographic study and my methodology was participant observation which means > I spent a lot of time participating in cult activities as well as > interviewing and observing cult leaders cult rituals, and cult practices. > > I spent the summer interacting with about twenty cults including the > Raelians, Heaven's Gate, Peoples Temple, Eckanar, Children of God, Source > Family, Fellowship of Friends ... I met some Branch Davidians but did not > meet David Koresh. I did meet Jim Jones and attended several Peoples Temple > services in Oakland before they went to Guyana. > > The smallest, and strangest, cult was three people: two of the most beautiful > and sexual women I have ever met and I guy that put himself in suspended > animation — yogic style lowered respiration, heartbeat, and body temperature > — for period up to 13 consecutive days. The women would anoint his body with > oils, clean up his eliminations, and watch over him while "working on another > plane" then have non-stop 3-way Roman orgies (food, drink, drugs, sex) when > he was "awake." > > I never used the term or the description of narcissist to describe any of the > cult leaders I met. Charismatic was the most used descriptive term, followed > very closely with empathic. Empathic in the sense of being aware of the > psychic needs of the membership and able to cater to them. The same skill > used by Tarot readers and "psychics." > > I am looking for the paper - it is on a Zip drive somewhere in either Word > 1.0 or WordPerfect format. > > The question for this thread: what is the relationship, if any, between > narcissism and charisma? -- ☣ uǝlƃ .-. .- -. -.. --- -- -..-. -.. --- - ... -..-. .- -. -.. -..-. -.. .- ... .... . ... FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/
