Influence & Suggestibility

Menu & Fee:

Sous-Vide Beef Picanha
$20

Payment can be either in cash or by bank deposit to the account 12-3150-0079141-00. Deposits should include your name as a reference.

Agenda:

6.15pm: 15 minute pre-meet. Those more than 15 minutes late will not be able to enter. This will be counted as a no-show, and will be refunded any pre-payments. Those with three no-shows will be blocked from joining these events for an indefinite time.

6.30pm: Meal & Discussion

8.00pm: Official ending; unofficial 'after-party' discussion.

Topic Briefing:

By the nature of how we perceive, we can often feel in control of our experience.

How firm is our grip, really, on the controls? Even in cultures that emphasise interdependence and social duties, precisely how we behave can still seem largely under each person's control. What forms can influence take? Do the institutions we create have influences the creators didn't anticipate? Is all propaganda intentional? What are some more subtle forms of influence?

Millennia before consumer culture, people have pondered persuasion. Placebo effects are decisive in medical research. The experience of foods and drugs takes strong cues from the social environment. Trance states feature in evangelical churches, mentalism performances, and on therapist couches.

Are these qualities related? Did the human species evolve them for a reason? Or are some merely byproducts of other social behaviours, just as visual illusions are a side-effect of the way our brains process what we see?

Claims of demonic influence don’t generally hold up in court, but are there more worldly phenomena that should diminish responsibility? At least for those more suggestible than others?

Let’s discuss