(NaturalNews) One of the more offensive duties of being an investigative journalist is
taking out the trash
-- exposing liars, fraudsters, con artists and scammers for the people
they truly are. Each time we investigate a sociopath, we find that they
always have a little cult group following of spellbound worshippers
who consider that particular sociopath to be a "guru" or "prophet."
Sociopaths
are masters at influence and deception. Very little of what they say
actually checks out in terms of facts or reality, but they're extremely
skillful at making the things they say
sound believable, even if they're just making them up out of thin air. Here, I'm going to present quotes and videos of some
legendary sociopaths who convinced everyday people to participate in
mass suicides. And then I'm going to demonstrate how and why similar sociopaths are operating right now... today.
Why
cover this subject? I've seen a lot of people get hoodwinked, scammed
or even harmed by sociopaths, and it bewilders me that people are so
easily sucked into their destructive influence. I want to share with
NaturalNews readers
the warning signs of sociopaths so that you can spot them, avoid them, and save yourself the trouble of being unduly influenced by them.
Much of this information is derived from the fascinating book,
The Sociopath Next Door (
http://www.amazon.com/Sociopath-Next-Door-Martha-Stout/dp/0767915828), which says that
4% of the population are sociopaths. The book is a fascinating read.
10 signs for spotting a sociopath
#1) Sociopaths are charming. Sociopaths have high
charisma and tend to attract a following just because people want to be
around them. They have a "glow" about them that attracts people who
typically seek guidance or direction. They often appear to be sexy or
have a strong sexual attraction. Not all sexy people are sociopaths,
obviously, but watch out for over-the-top sexual appetites and weird
fetishes.
#2) Sociopaths are more spontaneous and intense than other people.
They tend to do bizarre, sometimes erratic things that most regular
people wouldn't do. They are unbound by normal social contracts. Their
behavior often seems irrational or extremely risky.
#3) Sociopaths are incapable of feeling shame, guilt or remorse.
Their brains simply lack the circuitry to process such emotions. This
allows them to betray people, threaten people or harm people without
giving it a second thought. They pursue any action that serves their own
self interest even if it seriously harms others.
#4) Sociopaths invent outrageous lies about their experiences.
They wildly exaggerate things to the point of absurdity, but when they
describe it to you in a storytelling format, for some reason it sounds
believable at the time.
#5) Sociopaths seek to dominate others and "win" at all costs. They hate to lose any argument or fight and will viciously defend their web of lies, even to the point of logical absurdity.
#6) Sociopaths tend to be highly intelligent,
but they use their brainpower to deceive others rather than empower
them. Their high IQs often makes them dangerous. This is why many of the
best-known serial killers who successfully evaded law enforcement were
sociopaths.
#7) Sociopaths are incapable of love
and are entirely self-serving. They may feign love or compassion in
order to get what they want, but they don't actually FEEL love in the
way that you or I do.
#8) Sociopaths speak poetically.
They are master wordsmiths, able to deliver a running "stream of
consciousness" monologue that is both intriguing and hypnotic. They are
expert storytellers and even poets. As a great example of this in
action, watch this interview of Charles Manson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIfGj_55FHI#9) Sociopaths never apologize.
They are never wrong. They never feel guilt. They can never apologize.
Even if shown proof that they were wrong, they will refuse to apologize
and instead go on the attack.
#10) Sociopaths are delusional and literally believe that what they say becomes truth merely because they say it!
Charles Manson, the sociopathic murderer, is famous for saying, "I've
never killed anyone! I don't need to kill anyone! I THINK it! I have it
HERE! (Pointing to his temple.) I don't need to live in this physical
realm..."
Watch Charles Manson saying this at the 3:05 mark of this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIfGj_55FHI
How to dispel illusion and get to the truth
Sociopaths are masters at weaving elaborate fictional explanations
to justify their actions. When caught red-handed, they respond with
anger and threats, then weave new fabrications to explain away whatever
they were caught doing.
A sociopath caught red-handed with a suitcase full of cash he just stole, for example, might declare he had actually
rescued
the money from being stolen by someone else, and that he was attempting
to find its rightful owner. He's the hero, see? And yet, in reality,
he will simply pocket the money and keep it. If you question him about
the money, he will attack you for questioning his honesty.
Sociopaths
are masters are presenting themselves as heroes with high morals and
philosophy, yet underneath it they are the true criminal minds in
society who steal, undermine, deceive, and often incite emotional chaos
among entire communities. They are masters at turning one group of
people against another group while proclaiming themselves to be the one
true savior. Wherever they go, they create strife, argument and hatred,
yet they utterly fail to see their own role in creating it. They are
delusional at so many levels that their brains defy logical reasoning.
You cannot reason with a sociopath. Attempting to do so only wastes your time and annoys the sociopath.
Tip for exposing sociopaths: Start fact-checking something they claim
One simple method for dispelling sociopathic delusion is to
start fact checking their claims.
Do any of their claims actually check out? If you start digging, you
will usually find an inconsistency. Confront the suspected sociopath
with the inconsistency and see what happens:
Most sociopaths will become angry or aggressive when their integrity is questioned, whereas a sane person would simply be happy to help clear up any misinformation or misunderstanding.
Beware
of fact-checking the sociopath by asking other people under his or her
influence. A sociopath will usually have a small group of cult-like
followers who not only believe their fictional tales, but who actually
internalize those fictions
to the point where they rewrite their own memories to be consistent
with them. If a guru-style sociopath talks about his "levitation
sessions" over and over again, some of his believers will sooner or
later start to form
false memories in which they
imagine seeing him levitate off the floor. So if you ask those people,
"Did you actually ever see this person levitate?" They will
enthusiastically say, "Yes!" Because in their own minds, that illusion
has become something indistinguishable from a vivid memory.
That's why fact-checking a sociopath
requires evidence from outside his circle of influence.
Does anything he say actually check out in the real world, outside his
sphere of direct control? If not, you've probably spotted a sociopath.
Sociopaths never answer facts; they always attack the messenger
Another very valuable red flag to recognize when trying to spot a
sociopath is to see how they deal with attacks on their own integrity.
If a sociopath is presented with a collection of facts, documents and
evidence showing that he lied or deceived, he will refuse to address
the evidence and, instead, attack the messenger!
As an
investigative journalist who exposes some of the most despicable
sociopaths on the planet, I've been attacked on every front imaginable:
I'm a secret government agent, they say. Or I'm an alien from planet
Zorg. I've heard it all, and while the accusations vary wildly, the
pattern is the same: Attack the messenger but
refuse to answer the documented allegations.
If
you really try to nail a sociopath down to answering a documented
allegation, they will quickly turn on you, denounce you, and declare
that you too are secretly plotting against them. Anyone who does not
fall for the brainwashing of the sociopath is sooner or later kicked out
of the circle and then wildly disparaged by the remaining members of
the cult group.
Inventing bizarre tales
One of the easiest signs to spot is how sociopaths exaggerate things
to an irrational absurdity. In the sociopath's world, every
explanation is more intense and more heroic-sounding than the way it
really went down. Where a normal person might say, "I vomited last
night," a sociopath would say, "I vomited up a 27-foot tapeworm!"
And
a truly psychotic sociopath might even add details such as, "And then
the tapeworm climbed up the wall and jumped on me and tried to strangle
me!"
You might laugh at such an explanation, but I know lots of
similar examples that have been believed by irrational cult followers.
Every
story the sociopath weaves, often on the spur of the moment, is
impossible to either confirm or deny. No one can prove him wrong, since
they weren't there, so he can spin whatever details into the story he
wants. "After eating this, I had a three-hour ejaculation!" Or, "The
Dalai Lama wanted to anoint me as a spiritual leader, but I declined,
telling him that I only needed faith, not any official recognition."
How
can anyone disprove such a claim? They can't. So the sociopaths relies
on these un-provable, unsubstantiated claims to build up a false aura
of authority, spirituality or knowledge. This creeps up on followers
like a serpent, slithering into their brains and taking hold of their
belief systems before they realize what has happened.
As a
survivor of the Jim Jones "Jonestown" mass suicide says in a PBS
documentary video (see link below), "Everything was plausible [at the
time], except in retrospect the whole thing seems bizarre."
That's
how sociopaths operate. As they're speaking, they capture your
imagination and sound reasonable, even authoritative. But in the clear
light of day, what they are actually saying is absurd... even
dangerous.
But no matter what fictions are presented by the
sociopath, they always present him in the light of a hero -- sometimes
even a saint -- who sacrifices his life for the good of others. He
often talks of "healing" or "detoxification" or being "cleansed." When
he is exposed by truth-tellers, he merely accuses the truth-tellers of
being secret undercover agents. When he is accused of sexual assault by
one of his own followers (a common occurrence in these circles), he
denounces her as an enemy or a spy.
The ultimate destination of a
sociopath is to destroy himself and take as many willing victims with
him as possible. This is the Jim Jones scenario: Drink the Kool-Aid
laced with poison, and thereby prove your worth to your entire cult
group.
A common theme of poison, sainthood, redemption
Interestingly, many sociopaths do indeed center their actions around
a bizarre food or drink theme, often demanding their members eat or
drink poisonous or highly offensive substances that no rational person
would otherwise consume. The
Heaven's Gate cult, for example,
was led by a classic sociopath named Marshall Applewhite. He managed to
convince 38 followers to kill themselves by eating applesauce laced
with phenobarbital.
Watch the fascinating video of Applewhite
here and ask yourself: Would you follow this man to your own grave?
(Other people did!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqSZhwu1RwoNotice
how Applewhite speaks with authority, clarity and some level of
charisma. Notice the intensity of his eyes? This is another common trait
among sociopaths (including Manson, above). Remember, this man gained
such influence over his followers that they voluntarily killed
themselves in order to maintain his approval!
As Wikipedia explains: (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven%27s_Gate_%28religious_group%29#Ma...)
On
March 19–20, 1997, Marshall Applewhite taped himself speaking of mass
suicide and asserted "it was the only way to evacuate this Earth." The
Heaven's Gate group was against suicide but they believed they had no
choice but to leave Earth as quickly as possible. After claiming that a
space craft was trailing the comet Hale-Bopp, Applewhite convinced 38
followers to commit suicide so that their souls could board the supposed
craft. Applewhite believed that after their deaths, a UFO would take
their souls to another "level of existence above human," which
Applewhite described as being both physical and spiritual. This and
other UFO-related beliefs held by the group have led some observers to
characterize the group as a type of UFO religion. In October 1996, the
group purchased alien abduction insurance to cover up to 50 members at a
cost of $10,000.
The cult rented a 9,200-sq.-ft. mansion,
located at 18241 Colina Norte (later changed to Paseo Victoria), in a
gated community of upscale homes in the San Diego-area community of
Rancho Santa Fe, California from Sam Koutchesfahani, paying $7,000 per
month in cash. The thirty-eight Heaven's Gate members, plus group leader
Applewhite, were found dead in the home on March 26, 1997. In the heat
of the California spring, many of the bodies had begun to decompose by
the time they were discovered. The corpses underwent autopsies, where
cyanide and arsenic were found. The bodies were later cremated.
The
suicide was accomplished by ingestion of phenobarbital mixed with
applesauce or pudding, washed down with vodka. Additionally, plastic
bags were secured around their heads after ingesting the mix to induce
asphyxiation. Authorities found the dead lying neatly in their own bunk
beds, faces and torsos covered by a square, purple cloth. Each member
carried a five-dollar bill and three quarters in their pockets. All 39
were dressed in identical black shirts and sweat pants, brand new
black-and-white Nike Decades athletic shoes, and armband patches reading
"Heaven's Gate Away Team" (one of many instances of the group's use of
the Star Trek fictional universe's nomenclature). The adherents,
between the ages of 26 and 72, are believed to have died in three
groups over three successive days, with remaining participants cleaning
up after each prior group's death.This episode speaks directly to the mind-altering power of sociopaths.
Their
delusions can be so convincing that followers will even kill
themselves in order to stay in alignment with the expectations of the
group. I know of a fringe health sociopath operating right now
who has killed several of his own followers, but of course he always
blames them for their own deaths. It's never his fault, you see.
Sadly,
even when one sociopath kills himself (and takes a few of his
followers with him), there is always another sociopath waiting to take
his place, seeking power, influence, and sometimes fame. It is common
for sociopaths to strongly desire to be on television shows or to
desperately seek out opportunities for short-term fame, often from
engaging in bizarre acts or staging strange events. This is one of the
ways in which they recruit followers to join their cult.
Jim Jones and drinking the Kool-Aid
The most horrifying master of sociopathic delusion was, of course,
Jim Jones who convinced 900+ people to kill themselves by drinking poisoned Kool-Aid.
And
people loved him for it!
They felt inspired, excited, healed and guided. Jim Jones was their
savior, their prophet. They believed his every word, and they paid for
their foolish belief with their lives.
Watch this powerful PBD documentary video about Jonestown:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7IxGGfpSWkAs
Jim Jones proved, people can be easily swept up into an irrational
belief in a guru or prophet who quite literally plans to murder them. (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown)
This
is the other dominant factor we see in dangerous sociopaths: An odd
obsession with dead things, rotting things, putrid things... things that
would cause a normal, mentally balanced person to shrink away in
horror. Jim Jones, for example, was fascinated with death and would
reportedly murder small animals and then hold funerals for them.
Jones
was a master at invoking spiritual concepts and presenting himself as
spiritually evolved. This is another common theme among sociopaths, and
you see it among Applewhite, Manson, Jones and even present-day
sociopaths who are operating in America right now.
Historically,
perhaps the best example of a delusional sociopath was none other than
Adolf Hitler. He showed all the classic signs: A brilliant orator, a
congenital liar, a complete lack of compassion for others, a dominant,
aggressive personality, and the invoking of spirituality to justify his
actions. The Nazi Swastika symbol, in fact, is a derivation of the
Flower of Life symbol derived from sacred geometry. (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KMxmJVtp2Y)
The modern sociopath: A threat to us all
Sociopaths aren't just a relic of history; I see their kind
operating today, in 2012. A surprising number of people continue to
fall for the delusional (but convincing) web of lies spun by
wordsmithing sociopaths who may operate in almost any area of society:
Science and physics, New Age circles, fringe health, self improvement
and even "pop" spiritual development.
People from all walks of
life allow themselves to be fooled by these sociopaths, buying into
their false narratives, toxic products and destructive behavioral
patterns, all driven into their heads through a complex web of social
engineering, linguistics and emotional influence. Most people are
completely unaware they have been mesmerized into these cult groups,
just like the Jonestown people were completely unaware... or the
Heaven's Gate crowd.
There are people today, right now, who are
zealous members of fringe cults that advocate drinking toxic metals
dissolved in sulfuric acid, eating rotten meat festering with deadly
bacteria, playing with poisonous snakes or even dehydrating yourself in
a sweat lodge to the point where you suffer hallucinations that are
then interpreted as "spiritual guidance."
These cults are
operating right here in America, and they are led by sociopaths who
follow in the footsteps of monsters like Jim Jones and Marshall
Applewhite. Some of today's cult followers will pay for their misplaced
faith with their lives. Others will eventually come to their senses
and wonder how they could have been so completely blinded by a false
prophet.
Seven rules for personal empowerment (without joining a cult)
The most shocking realization to take home from all this is that
people who live under the spell of a sociopath almost never realize it
until after the spell has been broken. Just as the worshippers of Jim
Jones believed his organization to be based in love, life and light,
people today who worship sociopathic, charismatic leaders usually have
no idea they have already surrendered their will to someone who does not
have their best interests at heart.
This is why, here at NaturalNews, I have always taught people the following authentic principles of responsibility and power:
#1)
Think for yourself. Be skeptical of everything. Most people,
corporations, governments and institutions are lying to you. There is
much good in the world, but there is far more selfishness and greed
which is falsely presented as that which is good.
#2) Follow your
inner truth, not some external guru. Any guru who demands your
obedience is a false prophet. A real teacher is one who empowers you and
sets you free to explore your life experience with complete freedom
tempered by a code of morals and personal responsibility.
#3)
Serve in the protection of life, with or without a church or spiritual
group. You can protect life every day in your own garden. Resist the
seduction of profit and power that comes from serving darkness (i.e.
working for Big Pharma). Seek to protect life, which is sacred and
precious.
#4) Value all living things, including animals and
plants. You are their shepherd. Protect the diversity of life and the
integrity of the continuation of life. (For example, resist GMO and
plant only non-hybrid seeds.)
#5) Live an authentic life.
Practice what you teach. Walk your talk. Do not speak with one face and
then secretly act out another. Spiritual strength comes from spiritual
authenticity, and even if the world isn't aware of what you do when no
one is looking, God and the universe most certainly are. Karma counts.
#6)
Defend the innocent. Stand your ground against bullies. Resist
tyranny. Promote freedom, liberty and justice. Help others when you
can, and seek to empower others with the skills and knowledge they can
use to support themselves rather than creating dependency.
#7)
Tell the truth. It is powerful... perhaps the most powerful thing in
the universe. The truth unfailingly outshines lies and deceptions. And
even when the people around you may not see the truth, the greater
universe does. By telling the truth, you empower yourself in all areas
of your life, and you bring yourself closer to true spiritual
understanding.
The
Law Center informed Attorney General Schuette that “a fog of
corruption has indeed enveloped the Farmington Public Schools relating
to its 2011 agreement to sell Eagle Elementary School to the Islamic
Cultural Association, and that this fog of corruption can only be
pierced by a grand jury investigation and the use of other
investigative tools in the law enforcement arsenal of the Attorney
General’s Office.” 
In
creating a new Public Integrity Unit last year, Attorney General
Schuette stated: "[e]nriching yourself at public expense is not only
shameful, but compromises the integrity of government and violates the
public trust. Weeding out corruption is top priority.” Information
compiled through various sources indicates that the Farmington Public
Schools (FPS) secretly negotiated a No-Bid, below-market, sale of
valuable district property against the recommendations of its legal
counsel, a specially-convened internal committee, and district
residents. 
