Grade 5 Syndrome.

[The Wizard]

Fair enough.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

He was actually studying hypnosis.  The grade fives are the ultra sensitive, essentially hypnotizing themselves.

WHY?  THE TEEVEE DOES THAT SHIT FOR YOU!

[Adios]

Hmm. Possible. I didn't mean that everyone I know was like that, but I know a fair number of people who make it a rule to follow the group. Or at least that I observed. But you might be right.

I think you're mistaking the hardwired conformity in all people with being abnormally susceptible to influence. Everyone follows the group doggedly in some situations.

Incorrect.

[The Wizard]

WHY?  THE TEEVEE DOES THAT SHIT FOR YOU!

I think he means that these people don't even need tv to be controlled. It's just who they are. Meat puppets, sort of.

[Requia ☣]

I think he might be too narrow, not everyone who does the self hypnosis thing is going to be conformist.  I know a few 'rebels' *cough*pagans*cough* who seem to fit aside from the bits about compliance.  they have their own damn fantasies they need to create false memories about.

[Reginald Ret]

I think he might be too narrow, not everyone who does the self hypnosis thing is going to be conformist.  I know a few 'rebels' *cough*pagans*cough* who seem to fit aside from the bits about compliance.  they have their own damn fantasies they need to create false memories about.

I LOL'd

[LMNO]

Hmm. Possible. I didn't mean that everyone I know was like that, but I know a fair number of people who make it a rule to follow the group. Or at least that I observed. But you might be right.

I think you're mistaking the hardwired conformity in all people with being abnormally susceptible to influence. Everyone follows the group doggedly in some situations.

Incorrect.

Disagree, for certain definitions of "group" and "follow".

Not everyone follows the same group in the same way under the same circumstances; but in everyone will, in some situation, behave in a way that is in accord with a group of some sort or other.

[Sheered Völva]

But surely no fathers or First .. Gentlemen (?)

it seemed an accurate description of bush in many ways..

I know there was a book called "Bush's Brain," which was about Bush's long-time advisor Karl Rove. A lot of people think Bush was a puppet. But I suspect he'd have too much freedom of thought to fit in that five percent. He may not have been much of a political leader, but he did know sports.

[Sheered Völva]

I finally got around to reading and old Journal of Psychohistory I picked up at a yard sale, and I found this gem:

Spiegel (1974) Identifies a pattern of personality traits which he calls the Grade Five Syndrom.  These are people who are very highly hypnotizable.  He estimates their natural occurance in the population at just under 5%.  Others have suggested that the frequency is somewhat higher, between 5 and 10% of the population.

These individuals are described as exhibiting a posture of trust that can border on a pathological level of compliance with the wishes and beliefs of those in their environment.  They frequently demonstrate trance logic (Orne 1959), which is the capacity to act as if one is unaware of even extreme logical incongruities, and an ease in suspending normal levels of judgment.

Am I the only one who's thinking, "Where are these people? Maybe we could use them for something...."