The Cult of Personal Development: Toxic Charisma with Bob Gower
The Unmistakable Creative Podcast
Srinivas Rao
4.8 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 23 June 2021
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, we're airing a special four-part series on THE CULT OF PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT. Tune-in every day for new episodes.
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Bob Gower is a writer, coach and consultant who, during a vulnerable period of his life, attended a workshop on communication. Welcomed with open arms and adoration, Bob found himself in what he refers to as a 'sex cult'. In this episode we discuss toxic charisma, the driving force behind most cults, as well as how to not let it fool you.
Bob Gower runs a company with his wife, The Alignment Company | https://alignmentco.com
Find out more about Bob and his work at his website | https://www.bobgower.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | There's an image that comes out in 12 steps sometimes where you're sitting in the back |
| 0:06.4 | seat and someone's driving erratically driving the car radically and what you're doing is rolling |
| 0:11.2 | the window up and down. |
| 0:12.2 | This is back when you know you had the hand crank for the window. |
| 0:14.6 | You're rolling the window up and down trying to control the car. |
| 0:17.5 | And that becomes kind of a metaphor for the rest of your life where you feel sort of out |
| 0:21.8 | of control and you're constantly grabbing for these things that will give you the illusion |
| 0:25.5 | of control. |
| 0:26.5 | But they don't actually give you any control because you're looking again, I think |
| 0:31.0 | as you at the point, you're looking outside of yourself, you're looking for someone to |
| 0:35.4 | kind of give you the right system, give you the right method, give you the right sense |
| 0:39.1 | of authority, the right air of mysticism or whatever it is. |
| 0:44.1 | And then if I do it the right way, then I will feel right, then things will be okay. |
| 0:49.1 | And the irony is that some of these things work. |
| 0:54.2 | This week on the podcast, we're earning a special four part series on the Cult of Personal |
| 0:57.5 | Development. |
| 0:58.5 | So many of us pick up books and go to seminars in the hopes of improving our lives. |
| 1:01.8 | And that's not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be when we're not aware of how it |
| 1:06.0 | can actually lead to a lot of bad things when we let charismatic leaders take advantage |
| 1:10.1 | of us and manipulate us. |
| 1:12.0 | So we decided to bring in former cult members to dissect this process and explain how |
| 1:16.6 | this actually happens so that you can avoid it. |
... |
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