AssemblyBoard

Hi all,

Today I read an article that was highlighted on the AOL front page.  The gist of the article was that a researcher has shown that social rejection "lights up" the same brain centers as physical pain does.

Thirteen student volunteers were placed in MRI machines.   They then played a video game with two computer generated "people".

At first, they watched the others play, then their controls became active and they played some kind of ball game with the two other "people".  Then the fake players slowly began to shut the subject out of the game, and finally shut them out altogether.

All the time this was going on their brains were being scanned by the MRI machine.  When the subjects realized that they had been shut out of the game, the pain centers in their brains "lit up".  

The conclusion of the study was that pain caused by social situations travels the same neural paths in the brain that actual physical pain does!

One of the primary controls on members of cultic groups is the threat of rejection.  Members understand that breaking the group's rules, or "crossing" its authority structure will have the result of criticism, ridicule, loss of status or outright expulsion.  All of these are forms of rejection.

The point is, these things HURT. They hurt in a real, physical way.  No wonder cult members develop ways of coping, ways to avoid attracting these consequences.

This goes a long way to explain why people in the GG assembly endure, or endured as the case may be, so much.

Interesting, what?

God bless,
Thomas Maddux