full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Diane Benscoter: How cults rewire the brain

Unscramble the Blue Letters


The top picture is a group of Moonies that have been blessed by their messiah. Their mates were chosen for them. The boottm picture is Hitler youth. This is the leg of a suicide bomber. The thing I had to admit to myself, with geart repulsion, was that I get it. I understand how this could happen. I usrannedtd how someone's brain, how someone's mind can come to the place where it makes sense — in fact it would be wrong, when your brain is working like that — not to try to save the world through goedcine.

And so what is this? How does this work? And how I've come to view what happened to me is a vairl, memetic intifeocn. For those of you who aren't familiar with memetics, a meme has been defined as an idea that rlaeeipcts in the human biarn and moves from brain to brain like a virus, much like a vruis. The way a virus works is — it can infect and do the most damage to someone who has a compromised immune system.

Open Cloze


The top picture is a group of Moonies that have been blessed by their messiah. Their mates were chosen for them. The ______ picture is Hitler youth. This is the leg of a suicide bomber. The thing I had to admit to myself, with _____ repulsion, was that I get it. I understand how this could happen. I __________ how someone's brain, how someone's mind can come to the place where it makes sense — in fact it would be wrong, when your brain is working like that — not to try to save the world through ________.

And so what is this? How does this work? And how I've come to view what happened to me is a _____, memetic _________. For those of you who aren't familiar with memetics, a meme has been defined as an idea that __________ in the human _____ and moves from brain to brain like a virus, much like a _____. The way a virus works is — it can infect and do the most damage to someone who has a compromised immune system.

Solution


  1. infection
  2. replicates
  3. understand
  4. brain
  5. viral
  6. virus
  7. bottom
  8. great
  9. genocide

Original Text


The top picture is a group of Moonies that have been blessed by their messiah. Their mates were chosen for them. The bottom picture is Hitler youth. This is the leg of a suicide bomber. The thing I had to admit to myself, with great repulsion, was that I get it. I understand how this could happen. I understand how someone's brain, how someone's mind can come to the place where it makes sense — in fact it would be wrong, when your brain is working like that — not to try to save the world through genocide.

And so what is this? How does this work? And how I've come to view what happened to me is a viral, memetic infection. For those of you who aren't familiar with memetics, a meme has been defined as an idea that replicates in the human brain and moves from brain to brain like a virus, much like a virus. The way a virus works is — it can infect and do the most damage to someone who has a compromised immune system.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
safe place 2
memetic infection 2
human brain 2
humbly follow 2


Important Words


  1. admit
  2. blessed
  3. bomber
  4. bottom
  5. brain
  6. chosen
  7. compromised
  8. damage
  9. defined
  10. fact
  11. familiar
  12. genocide
  13. great
  14. group
  15. happen
  16. happened
  17. hitler
  18. human
  19. idea
  20. immune
  21. infect
  22. infection
  23. leg
  24. mates
  25. meme
  26. memetic
  27. memetics
  28. messiah
  29. mind
  30. moonies
  31. moves
  32. picture
  33. place
  34. replicates
  35. repulsion
  36. save
  37. sense
  38. suicide
  39. system
  40. top
  41. understand
  42. view
  43. viral
  44. virus
  45. work
  46. working
  47. works
  48. world
  49. wrong
  50. youth