NLP in the mainstream media

Just what is Neuro-Linguistic Programming?

Well, it depends on who you ask.  Wikipedia defines NLP as:

Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is an approach to communication, personal development, and psychotherapy created by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in California, USA in the 1970s. Its creators claim a connection between the neurological processes (“neuro”), language (“linguistic”) and behavioral patterns learned through experience (“programming”) and that these can be changed to achieve specific goals in life

Another way of phrasing that would be that NLP is a tool similar to hypnosis that has the ability to manipulate our current beliefs and thought processes to align them with specific viewpoints or aims.

The method uses subtle body language and speech patterns that talk to our subconscious minds. This ranges from simple eye-contact, to specific gestures (known as anchors), and distraction techniques all used to guide our thought process in a particular direction.

Some NLP Techniques

Anchoring – Anchoring is a form of programming based on repetition. Repeating an action, word or phrase to induce a thought or feeling.  For instance, if you tug on your ear every time you are happy, eventually tugging on your ear will induce a feeling of happiness.

Pattern Interruption – Pattern Interruption involves creating a certain pattern of expected behaviour, and abruptly interrupting this created pattern which gives a jolt to the subconscious and leaves us in a state of limbo.  Confused, the subconscious mind carries out any further instruction as part of the expected pattern.  Ever seen a conman take someone’s watch or wallet?  This is usually how its done.

Swish – Swish is a form of emotion replacement, it is used to change your feelings. Turning a negative association in to a positive or vice versa.

Loop Break – Loop break is a distraction technique used to break your bodies natural emotion escalation.  If an argument is getting heated lets say, it can be used to diffuse the situation through distraction.

Presupposition – Presupposition is the subtle use of language to influence someone’s opinion.  For example, if I said to someone “Have you stopped beating your wife?”, it would give the impression to anybody listening that the person did/still does assault their spouse.

These techniques can be used in conjunction with one another, so carrying on from my last example…  The natural response would be “What are you talking about! I have never beaten my wife”.  If I happened to use a pre-implanted anchor or some pastern interruption to disrupt this sentence, the reply would never get said and the audience would believe the man to have not defended himself and hence does beat his wife.

Do the mainstream media actually use it?

Unfortunately, yes.  What’s worse, because its an art that deals with our subconscious, most people never realise that they’re being manipulated.

The following video has been made by Jonathan Adampants, who does an excellent job of pointing out Fox News using NLP in relation to 9/11.

Before we go on, at about the 15 minute mark, Adam proposes that the “issue at hand here” is really about the numbers 666.  I really don’t believe this to be the case.  What the anchor is doing, is telling the viewers at home that everything is OK, everything is fine re: 9/11, don’t look up from the newspaper its all ok.

In general though, it makes it pretty difficult to refute the argument that watching TV is akin to hypnotising yourself doesn’t it?  The implications here are huge.  Not only do we only get our world view from TV stations owned by 5 or 6 people, but those 5 or 6 people employ presenters who will directly influence our subconscious minds in line with whatever views those 5 or 6 people have, who usually happen to have the same views anyway.

Distrust in the media is right to be high, but the hypno-wheel goes round and round nonetheless.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

Obama’s NSA reform package announced

As previously reported President Obama has now announced changes to legislation regarding the NSA’s surveillance of call records, that first came to light seven months ago.

The NSA has been collecting masses of call metadata for quite some time now on citizens all over the world via the governments PRISM system.  Changes have now been made that mean a court order must be obtained to access this vast archive of metadata.

The United States, like other nations, has gathered intelligence throughout its history to ensure that national security and foreign policy decision makers have access to timely, accurate,and insightful information.The collection of signals intelligence is necessary for the United States to advance its national security and foreign policy interests and to protect its citizens and the citizens of its allies and partners from harm. At the same time, signals intelligence activities and the possibility that such activities may be improperly disclosed to the public pose multiple risks. These include risks to: our relationships with other nations, including the cooperation we receive from other nations on law enforcement, counter terrorism, and other issues; our commercial,economic, and financial interests, including a potential loss of international trust in U.S. firms and the decreased willingness of other nations to participate in international data sharing,privacy, and regulatory regimes; the credibility of our commitment to an open, interoperable, and secure global Internet; and the protection of intelligence sources and methods. In addition, our signals intelligence activities must take into account that all persons should be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of their nationality or wherever they might reside, and that all persons have legitimate privacy interests in the handling of their personal information.In determining why, whether, when, and how the United States conducts signals intelligence activities, we must weigh all of these considerations in a context in which information and communications technologies are constantly changing. The evolution of technology has created a world where communications important to our national security and the communications all of us make as part of our daily lives are transmitted through the same channels. This presents new and diverse opportunities for,and challenges with respect to, the collection of intelligence and especially signals intelligence. The United States Intelligence Community (IC) has achieved remarkable success in developing enhanced capabilities to perform its signals intelligence mission in this rapidly changing world, and these enhanced capabilities are a major reason we have been able to adapt to a dynamic and challenging security environment.

The full press release can be found here

Obama ‘reforms’ NSA & Private smartphone to preview

President Obama is currently preparing a reform package in relation to the spying activities of his National Security Agency.  His aim is to legitimatise the NSA’s currently illegal spying programs, and protect them from future whistle-blowers like Edward Snowden.

President Obama is set to unveil his erosion of freedom reform plans at the US Justice Department later in the week, so watch this space.

Some people may see it as a good job then, that smartphone producer Geeksphone have teamed up with the encryption boffins at Silent Circle to offer the Blackphone.  A new smartphone that boasts secure and encrypted communications and web browsing and has been described as:

The world’s first smartphone placing privacy and control directly in the hands of its users

Blackphone is unlocked and works with any GSM carrier. Performance benchmarks put it among the top performers from any manufacturer.

It has the features necessary to do all the things you need, as well as all the things you want, while maintaining your privacy and security and giving you the freedom to choose your carrier, your apps, and your location.

The tools installed on Blackphone give you everything you need to take ownership of your mobile presence and digital footprints, and ensure nobody else can watch you without your knowledge.

You can make and receive secure phone calls; exchange secure texts; exchange and store secure files; have secure video chat; browse privately; and anonymize your activity through a VPN.

The phone is due to be previewed next month in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress tradeshow. Phil Zimmerman the company’s co-founder and inventor of PGP said:

I have spent my whole career working towards the launch of secure telephony products. Blackphone provides users with everything they need to ensure privacy and control of their communications, along with all the other high-end smartphone features they have come to expect.

I’m on the fence with this one to be honest, whilst in principal the concept is good, there are a couple of caveats, Firstly is the nature of the encryption, in order for it to work, you must be connected to the user of another Blackphone, so if you don’t know anybody else that’s going to get one, its pretty much useless to you.  I’m also not so sure that people may want to purchase a product that begs the question “Do you have something to hide?”.

Its a tricky situation, Obama cannot go on to continue eroding personal freedoms unchecked, yet it seems that encrypted communications may not be the answer.  How secure can these encryptions be, when the NSA is already talking of quantum computers capable of smashing today’s greatest privacy techniques within minutes?

US: Legalizing cannabis is reckless and irresponsible

Following Colorado’s move this month to become the second US state to completely legalise cannabis, James L. Capra, the chief of operations at the US Drug Enforcement agency had this to say in response to a question posed by a senator on Wednesday:

I have to say this…going down the path to legalization in this country is reckless and irresponsible, I’m talking about the long term impact of legalization in the United States. It scares us.

Despite the local laws of 23 US states which allow cannabis to be prescribed for medical use, it still remains a schedule 1 drug (illegal with no medicinal value) at a federal level.  President Obama seems to have given up on the cat & mouse game that was the DEA vs local states and no longer wishes to enforce the law in those states where cannabis use has been decriminalised.

That said it wants to make its position clear, and Capra went on to say this:

This is a bad experiment.It’s going to cost us in terms of social costs.

If the results of Portugal’s stance on drugs is anything to go by, this won’t be the case. Taking away the ‘naughty’ factor of drugs saw a 50% reduction in drug addiction across the country, with current estimates at a below average addiction rate when compared to the rest of Europe.  As a result, drug related crime also fell dramatically.  Now of course I’m not comparing cannabis to harder drugs (that’d be silly, to classify cannabis in the same region as heroin and speed. Wouldn’t it, US & UK governments?), but what I am saying is that if you allow complete freedom of choice, the correct choice is usually made, as decriminalisation in Portugal has shown us.

Now with a name like SilvaRizla, I’m sure you can all guess what my stance is on cannabis.  This is just the DEA trying to save face and not admitting defeat.  They know full well the war on drugs has failed and is in direct opposition to public opinion, with even more states now considering decriminalisation. With a crippled economy, and an illegal, yet comparatively safe cash cow, there isn’t much of a decision to make.

Are you listening, Mr Cameron?

DWP staff suspended over Facebook attack

Get a job or hang yourself

Dawn Marie Sanders

This is Dawn Marie Sanders of Farnborough, Hants.  She has been suspended from her role at the DWP as ‘someone’ using her Facebook account launched an online attack on unemployed former handyman Scott Bignell, 44.  A meeting was set up through a mutual friend, and at some point during the conversation the following was posted:

You are a drain on society… start paying taxes or hang ­yourself. I have rope…

Of course Mrs Sanders denies being behind the abuse, claiming that either her account was hacked or her 14 year old son is responsible.

The DWP are currently investigating

David Icke & ‘The People’s Voice’

Until recently, I’d been a follower and supporter of David Icke for a few years now. That is until issues regarding a lack of transparency were raised by Sonia Poulton in relation to not-really-David’s new TV station The People’s Voice, which, on paper, is run by David’s webmaster, namely Sean Adl-Tabatabai.  As an initial supporter of the project, I was quick to allay fears of a lack of transparency from the donation funded project, but as stories of allegations of racism started to emerge along with a complete lack of professionalism and zero communication from the station to its supporters and funders I began to have doubts.

It then became apparent that the ‘not-content-with-£100k-so-we’ve-asked-for-£300k’ station were asking for another £400,000 after being on air for less than a month. Alarm bells began to ring.  Initial projections were that £100,000.00 was enough to set up a 24 hour internet TV and radio station, and the extra money raised would provide enhancements to the project and get it over the initial broadcasting period before advertising revenue kicked in.  A 7-fold increase in what is actually needed is a mighty big error, don’t you think?  That doesn’t account for any monthly or one off donations raised via an interim fundraiser either.

There have been numerous other blunders as well, not being informed enough to know you need an Ofcom license for the station to air being one of them.  Sort of throws a spanner in the works.  Not knowing how much broadcasting equipment actually costs would be another.  Now, I think its fair to say that before you take over a quarter of a million pounds of donated money to launch a TV station, you at least know how much it costs to run such a station and have a fairly solid business plan in place.

The more I heard (or didn’t as the case may be) from TPV, the less I liked it and the more I became aware that those in charge had absolutely no idea what they were doing.  Enter Sonia Poulton, with the following Facebook update:

Today I have left The People’s Voice. I didn’t want to. I have put my heart and soul into it but I have become aware that to stay there is very bad for the things I stand for and fight for. I will be issuing a statement soon. Thank you for all the wonderful support. New plans already underway.

Suceeded by the following statement from TPV, later confirmed to be from the man himself (who is apparently just a volunteer and has no say in TPV’s direction) David Icke.

Sonia Poulton has decided to leave The People’s Voice today after threatening to walk out in the middle of a live show if she didn’t get her way. This was the third time that she had threatened to walk out if her view did not prevail and she chose to leave after a discussion about her behaviour during the live show and other matters.

We thank Sonia for her efforts over the last few weeks since The People’s Voice has been on air.

If TPV is going to succeed everyone must work together for the common good and treat each other with equal respect.

Not particularly professional if you ask me.  It seems I’m not the only one either, as TPV presenter Barrie Sharpe aired his concerns over the statement, which has led to his show being cancelled.  So much for free speech eh David? (Who’s just a volunteer and has no say over TPV’s direction)

This debacle saw my donation to TPV cancelled, and a colossal ban hammer smiting of supporters on DIF who were now asking questions.  ‘The People’s Voice Indeed.  One quote in particular seemed to cause quite a stir:

Rightfully so too.  Definitely not the sort of voice I want speaking for me.

Sonia Poulton responded to David Icke by issuing her own statement, here.  What was Icke’s response to these allegations?  A completely transparent breakdown of all income and expenditure, or so Icke & Co would have you believe.  What we actually got was this:

Department	Bank	Float
I.T./Editing equipment	£5,012.41	£781.47
Website (Servers, bandwidth, set-up)	£15,150.00	–
Repairs/Maintenance	£226.61	–
Travel – Volunteer	£2,069.25	£1,384.79
Travel – Other (Guests and Staff)	£2,255.03	£142.11
Accommodation Hotels & Hostels	£2,440.14	–
Food & Catering	£589.09	£211.54
Studio Maintenance	£1,055.93	–
Office Rent	£1,200.00	–
Music Licences	£1,456.80	–
Merchandise	£700.00	–
General Office Overheads	£2,590.34	£228.91
Utilities (Water, gas, electric)	£1,407.97
Direct Wages	£75,530.54
Video Streaming	£18,109.63
Accounting/Book-keeping	£1,957.50
Set-Up Costs (Studio equipment)	£142,302.64	£365.98
Total	£274,053.88	£3,114.80

Everything is so much clearer now.  A TV station run by volunteers with only one paid presenter who has monthly wages of over £75,000.00.  Where’s the rest of your income? David stated he put his own money in to this, I know I did and that’s not listed either.  What about your sponsors and advertisers?  You know, these ones, who paid £1000 each after the first campaign?

They seem like a perfectly transparent, donation funded,  somehow not for profit, yet in actual fact private ltd company to me.

Then there’s the whole Fear & Clothing issue.

Now, as near as I can gather, an arrangement was made between Fear & Clothing and The People’s Voice for Fear & Clothing to provide promotional wear on behalf of TPV.  New designs were made by this company and shown to TPV, who then informed their donators that the merchandise would be produced by Fear & Clothing.

Then, TPV dropped Fear & Clothing and decided to print their own goods. This in itself wouldn’t have been a problem had TPV informed buyers that the merchandise will no longer be made by Fear & Clothing.  But that didn’t happen.  Still, not such a big deal.  Well, until this came to light that is:

Fear & Clothing shirt

TPV shirt

Fear & Clothing

TPV

Fear & Clothing

TPV

I don’t know about you, but that seems an awful lot like copyright infringement to me. Fear & Clothing claims to of raised around £20,000.00 on behalf of TPV by promoting his wares.  What a way to repay him eh?

Voice of the people indeed.  Not the sort of people I want speaking for me, that’s for sure.

That said, what of the programming?

Not the best to be honest.  Though, you can discount Ken O’Keefe from that statement as he is excellent, and unpaid I might add.  Constant downtime from either power cuts or broadcast issues always put down to the station being under attack from some evil force or other.  Cringe-worthy “psychics”, and David Ick flicking through the morning papers. Then you have Richie Allen, with whom Edwina Currie completely wiped the floor here.  Richie Allen also makes statements like this re the Jimmy Saville investigation:

The idea that former (and current) BBC, ITV and MTV staff would be party to any impropriety is frankly ludicrous.

Call me a cynic, but I would have thought the probability of somebody figuring out what was going on to be highly likely.

Apologies, as I can’t find the exact quote, but he also said that he agrees with education ministers that parents should not be allowed to take their children out of school during term time.  Now that doesn’t sound like the voice of any people I’ve been speaking to on the matter.

Careful folks.  Here be dragons
.