quote: Paw - thanks for having this site, and for doing all the work that is involved in maintaining it. By the way, the blue plate special is GREAT! but the coffee...?
If you don't like the coffee, try the pear water! ;)-->
I’m going for my masters in communication arts at the same school from which I got my undergraduate degree. The course was called Communication Research, and really had nothing to do with cults. It is just the second course in the program, the first one was communication theory, which is where I first got interested in the Symbolic Convergence Theory (see Bormann, Ernest) – especially in light of cult/Way Brain. The assignment was to put together a Research Proposal. It could have been about anything, but I find it easier to write about things that personally interest me.
Within the proposal, I had to state the method(s) of research I would use, and part of what I listed was participant observation, which freaked me out. Can you imagine attending twig again? Shudder to think!
COOL! I just did a bit of googling on Symbolic Convergence Theory and read about how a group coheres when it shares fantasies. I don't think folks in the way were even allowed to have fantasies - everything like that was told to them (us). No wonder they (we) "shared" so much. And no wonder the sharing was so devoid of real heart.
The way Bormann uses the term “fantasy” is not as “imagination, fancy or product of imagination: illusion” but more as a shared narrative/story. Something the group all has heard a million times, and shares…such as the snow on the gas pumps, or the man with the withered hand, or the fire engine red curtains, or the woman with the fear in her heart that ultimately led to her son’s demise…perhaps? Maybe it could also include the themes we were privy to such as the proliferation of devil spirits running rampant in people’s minds.
So, I think people in the way did share “fantasies.” More thought on this would probably reveal even more fantasies – and probably ones that caused or at least contributed to the shared twi social reality to be revealed more clearly as a product of these shared fantasies? I dunno…thus the research.
My proposal was to conduct research into: “What role does cultic narrative play as a rhetorical strategy to create a social reality in which followers are persuaded to succumb to things they would ordinarily avoid or even lead to the group-think mentality that ultimately results in mass suicide – as in the case of the Rev. Jim Jones group or the Solar Temple cult?” I don’t for a minute think there is one answer to the question, but I had to narrow down the research to a communication topic – this is not a sociology or psychology course I’m taking.
Below are two excerpts from juried journals which I used to support my idea regarding convergence in cults leading to groupthink
This general theory assumes that “human beings are social storytellers who share fantasies and thus build group consciousnesses and create social realities.” (Bormann 1985).
Bormann, Ernest G., (1972) Fantasy and rhetorical vision: The rhetorical criticism of social reality, Quarterly Journal of Speech, 58, 396-408.
"Equally important in Durkheim’s method is his hypothesis that social states of mind and morality are qualitatively different from individual ones—that group or society is not merely a summation of meanings or beliefs of individuals, but a new reality produced through combination and community interaction. Collective society is therefore a reality exterior to the individual but exercising coercive effect upon him, and this social influence exerts an effect most profoundly in the moral sphere, as evidenced by the sometimes striking difference between publicly professed ethics and behavior as actually practiced."
Funk, Alfred A. (1974) A Durkheimian analysis of the event at Masada, Speech Monographs, 41, 339-347.
What happed at Masada was 964 or so Jews committed mass suicide.
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dmiller
If you don't like the coffee, try the pear water!
;)-->
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dmiller
(I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds much better than the kool-aid offered by other outfits).
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Shellon
Congratulations on a great paper!
:)-->
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JustThinking
DM
parsley,
Congratulations! By the way, is that a family name?
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JT
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My3Cents
Congrats. Can you tell us what course and what school this was for?
I wish I'd been taught this stuff when I was in school - might not have spent as much time in the way.
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parsley
I’m going for my masters in communication arts at the same school from which I got my undergraduate degree. The course was called Communication Research, and really had nothing to do with cults. It is just the second course in the program, the first one was communication theory, which is where I first got interested in the Symbolic Convergence Theory (see Bormann, Ernest) – especially in light of cult/Way Brain. The assignment was to put together a Research Proposal. It could have been about anything, but I find it easier to write about things that personally interest me.
Within the proposal, I had to state the method(s) of research I would use, and part of what I listed was participant observation, which freaked me out. Can you imagine attending twig again? Shudder to think!
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My3Cents
COOL! I just did a bit of googling on Symbolic Convergence Theory and read about how a group coheres when it shares fantasies. I don't think folks in the way were even allowed to have fantasies - everything like that was told to them (us). No wonder they (we) "shared" so much. And no wonder the sharing was so devoid of real heart.
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oenophile
Hey Parsley,
Your topic sounds interesting. Would you consider emailing your paper to me?
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parsley
The way Bormann uses the term “fantasy” is not as “imagination, fancy or product of imagination: illusion” but more as a shared narrative/story. Something the group all has heard a million times, and shares…such as the snow on the gas pumps, or the man with the withered hand, or the fire engine red curtains, or the woman with the fear in her heart that ultimately led to her son’s demise…perhaps? Maybe it could also include the themes we were privy to such as the proliferation of devil spirits running rampant in people’s minds.
So, I think people in the way did share “fantasies.” More thought on this would probably reveal even more fantasies – and probably ones that caused or at least contributed to the shared twi social reality to be revealed more clearly as a product of these shared fantasies? I dunno…thus the research.
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parsley
Oenophile,
About the paper…
My proposal was to conduct research into: “What role does cultic narrative play as a rhetorical strategy to create a social reality in which followers are persuaded to succumb to things they would ordinarily avoid or even lead to the group-think mentality that ultimately results in mass suicide – as in the case of the Rev. Jim Jones group or the Solar Temple cult?” I don’t for a minute think there is one answer to the question, but I had to narrow down the research to a communication topic – this is not a sociology or psychology course I’m taking.
Below are two excerpts from juried journals which I used to support my idea regarding convergence in cults leading to groupthink
This general theory assumes that “human beings are social storytellers who share fantasies and thus build group consciousnesses and create social realities.” (Bormann 1985).
Bormann, Ernest G., (1972) Fantasy and rhetorical vision: The rhetorical criticism of social reality, Quarterly Journal of Speech, 58, 396-408.
"Equally important in Durkheim’s method is his hypothesis that social states of mind and morality are qualitatively different from individual ones—that group or society is not merely a summation of meanings or beliefs of individuals, but a new reality produced through combination and community interaction. Collective society is therefore a reality exterior to the individual but exercising coercive effect upon him, and this social influence exerts an effect most profoundly in the moral sphere, as evidenced by the sometimes striking difference between publicly professed ethics and behavior as actually practiced."
Funk, Alfred A. (1974) A Durkheimian analysis of the event at Masada, Speech Monographs, 41, 339-347.
What happed at Masada was 964 or so Jews committed mass suicide.
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