Mass Formation WHAT?!

Mass Formation Psychosis

Mass Formation WHAT? 

Mass formation psychosis 

I remember going to a holiday dinner that was put on by an organization I used to belong to.  There were about 150 of us.  It was the usual sort of thing, in a rented hall in a hotel.  I don’t remember the meal, but I’m sure it was good.  What I do remember is the entertainment afterword.  It was a hypnotist.  Well, why not?  There’s nothing like a little lighthearted entertainment.  Before he really did anything, the hypnotist dispelled a few myths.  No, a person is not in a trance.  No, they will not do anything that violates their conscience.  The hypnotized person will in fact appear entirely normal, but in the hypnotized state, they will be exceedingly susceptible to suggestion.  We are all susceptible to suggestion, he said, but in the hypnotized state, the hypnotist can bypass some of the usual filters that we normally employ. 

Interesting.  He called ten of our assembled multitude up to the stage and had them line up side by side. He explained that he was not going do anything unusual, just talk to them in an assuring voice and bring them into the hypnotic state. I watched as he walked slowly back and forth among them, talking quite normally.  I thought he was getting ready to hypnotize them, but then he said he had done it.  He said that one of the ten could not be hypnotized and the hypnotist had him go back to his table.  But the other nine….I could hardly believe it.  They believed whatever he told them.  The one thing I especially remember is that he told them that all the others had BO.  You could see them act uncomfortable.  He asked one young woman what the problem was.  She pointed to the guy next to her and said, “He stinks!”  That brought a lot of laughter.  And I never forgot it.  How can some people be convinced of something that is clearly not true?   

I live my life by the scientific method. That is to say, everything is subject to review and reconsideration.  There are few things that I consider so absolute that I will not reconsider them.  And why would I, or anyone, not be willing to reconsider, to double check?  We all make mistakes.  We certainly all make errors of judgement.  

What does this have to do with hypnotism?  Well, I’m not exactly sure.  But I have always wondered how anyone could be so suggestible as to believe that someone had BO, just because someone told them so.  That is a huge contradiction to my method of continually double checking and evaluating, which is essentially the scientific method. Can I be so steeped in suggestion as to not see a reality that is right in front of me?  Or to see something that ISN’T there?  Can you?  Can you be sure?  Nine out of ten people in that group believed things that didn’t even resemble the truth.  When the show was over, the hypnotist had them sit down.  He didn’t need to snap his fingers or some such to bring them out of their trance.  They were never IN a trance. 

Can you see where I’m going with this?  Why are people sure of things that just don’t match observable facts?  Is it that they are so suggestable?  That they never double-check?  Check with who?  The guy next to them that also has been hypnotized?  Or the guy next to the guy who is next to the guy… 

How do we really know what is real, if we can be so easily fooled?  The Matrix comes to mind, of course.  But really, how can we know?  And when people are shown that their belief is factually incorrect, or at least suspect, why aren’t they willing to consider a readjustment to their belief, rather than doubling down and insisting they’re right.  Doubling down and insisting you’re right  is NOT a tenant of the scientific method.  So, what gives?  There are flat-earthers who insist that the earth is flat.  There is no reasoning, no pictures of a spherical earth, no math and no science that will convince them otherwise.  There are people who believe that man never set foot on the moon; that it was all staged.  Again, there are no facts and no logic that will convince them otherwise. 

Well, OK, but flat-earthers and moon landing deniers are harmless.  Let them be as they are.  But, what about you?  How sure are you in what you believe?  If you are sure, I’d say you are in the danger zone.  Nothing says flat-earther like someone who puts up defenses against an opposing view.  Scientists don’t do that. Scientists love, and I mean LOVE, demonstrating their knowledge and comprehension.  Scientists willingly tolerate doubters and deniers, and explain what they know.  People like me listen attentively to scientists, ask questions, and hope to become more knowledgeable.  Flat earthers, on the other hand, invent reasons why the other person must be wrong.   

And, I think, that’s how reality gets reduced to two simple-minded points of view, Us, and Them.  No in between.  No third and fourth possibilities.  Just, “We’re right, and they’re wrong.”  That’s nice and simple, and easy to believe.  That guy next to me has BO.  Of course, he’s thinking the same about me.  Which one of us is right?  Are either of us right?  As I frequently say, proving the other guy is wrong does not prove you are right.  That’s part of the scientific method. 

But, we can’t ALL be wrong!  My friends all agree that we’re right!  Does that belief need explaining?  Years ago, my daughter was in high school and had four or five friends who pretty much breathed in unison.  There was no individual thought, there was group think.  One day she came home, complaining that the math teacher had given them all zeroes on their math assignment, because they’d done the wrong assignment.  She said to me, there’s no way they could all have accidentally done the same wrong assignment.  In my fatherly way, I pointed out that, right or wrong, they would inevitably have done the SAME assignment.  She got my point. 

That illustrates why I never presume I’m right based merely on how much my friends agree with me.  Do you? 

So, how do we make sure we’re right? In most cases, we can’t be sure. We can only continually assess, and assess from a presumption of mistakenness, not of correctness.  Nothing guarantees failure like being sure you are right.  Even if all your friends agree with you.  That’s why I preach, “The more sure you’re right, the more likely you are to be wrong.” 

OK, so what about Mass Formation Psychosis?  I had never heard of it, but I was almost immediately aware of what it meant, once it was introduced to me.  It is, to use words more generally familiar, mass hypnosis.  It is when people agree that something is true, based on no significant facts, and even less reason.  In my experience, nine out of ten people can be told that their associates have BO, and if presented in the right way, they’ll believe it.  Oh, but not you.  Right?  Why not you?  If you’re sure not you, it’s probably you.  Never be too sure of anything.  And being a majority is poof of absolutely nothing.   

If you feel uncomfortable doubting yourself, well, THERE’S your problem.