September 2014

4 Ways to Protect Yourself From Emotional Manipulation

“Anything is better than lies and deceit!”
— Leo Tolstoy

How could anyone fall for that? How could I have been so foolish? Why do they believe such lies? How could we have been conned like that?

There are emotionally manipulative people of varying degrees all around us. When we are young we like to think that we are immune to the psychological pressures that confuse, manipulate and condition other people. We are not so gullible, are we? But part of truly maturing as an individual involves understanding how you too are led by the environment, influenced by others, and driven by the needs you have as a human being.

Human beings can be manipulated precisely because we share innate psychological characteristics that render us ALL susceptible, to a point. Although, like any other weakness, some people are naturally more prone to succumb, while others have higher levels of immunity to the external pressures that can make us do things we would normally never think of doing.

But assuming that we are already “immune” is naive and the surest path to being a victim of manipulation. Let me give you a powerful example:

Emotionally Manipulated to Death

The day is November 18, 1978, and you’re in Guyana. There you stand in the middle of Jonestown, a loyal member of Jim Jones’ cult known as “The People’s Temple”. He commands you to drink a cup of poisonous, cyanide-laced Kool-Aid and take your own life.

What do you do?

Well of course you don’t do it, right? Who is Jim Jones, or anyone for that matter, to tell you to end it all? You are not a robot that can be ordered to kill yourself against your own will! But an astounding 907 people simply followed his orders and died that fateful day. And many of these people poisoned their children before they took their own lives. People who wanted to live and wanted their children and spouses to live. [Read more…]