TED2009
Diane Benscoter: How cults rewire the brain
Diane Benscoter, ex-moonista: Cómo piensan los cultos.
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Diane Benscoter habla sobre su unión --y su permanencia durante cinco largos años-- al culto moonista. Nos expone su perspectiva "desde adentro" sobre los cultos y los movimientos extremistas, y propone una nueva forma de pensar los conflictos más complejos de la actualidad.
Diane Benscoter - Deprogrammer
Diane Benscoter, an ex-Moonie, is now invested in finding ways to battle extremist mentalities and their potentially deadly consequences. Full bio
Diane Benscoter, an ex-Moonie, is now invested in finding ways to battle extremist mentalities and their potentially deadly consequences. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:18
My journey to coming here today
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Mi camino para estar hoy aquí
00:22
started in 1974.
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comenzó en 1974.
00:24
That's me with the funny gloves.
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Esta soy yo, la de los guantes graciosos.
00:27
I was 17 and going on a peace walk.
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Tenía 17 años, y estaba en una caminata por la paz.
00:30
What I didn't know though, was most of those people, standing there
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Lo que no sabía entonces era que la mayoría de los que estaban allí
00:33
with me, were Moonies.
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conmigo, eran moonistas.
00:35
(Laughter)
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(Risas)
00:39
And within a week
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Y en la siguiente semana
00:41
I had come to believe
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Ya estaba convencida
00:43
that the second coming of Christ had occurred,
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de que la segunda venida de Cristo ya había ocurrido,
00:46
that it was Sun Myung Moon,
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que era Sun Myung Moon,
00:48
and that I had been specially chosen and prepared by God
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y que yo había sido seleccionada y preparada especialmente por Dios
00:52
to be his disciple.
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para ser su discípula.
00:54
Now as cool as that sounds,
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Ahora, a pesar de lo atractivo que suena,
00:56
my family was not that thrilled with this.
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mi familia no estaba tan emocionada con esto.
00:58
(Laughter)
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(Risas)
01:00
And they tried everything they could to get me out of there.
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E intentaron todo lo que creían que me sacaría de allí.
01:02
There was an underground railroad of sorts
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Había un movimiento underground
01:04
that was going on during those years. Maybe some of you remember it.
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durante esos años, tal vez algunos lo recuerden,
01:07
They were called deprogrammers.
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se llamaban "desprogramadores".
01:10
And after about five long years
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Y luego de cinco largos años
01:16
my family had me deprogrammed.
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mi familia me había desprogramado.
01:18
And I then became a deprogrammer.
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Entonces me convertí en desprogramadora.
01:23
I started going out on cases.
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Comencé a llevar casos,
01:25
And after about five years of doing this,
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y después de cinco años haciéndolo
01:29
I was arrested for kidnapping.
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fui arrestada por secuestro.
01:33
Most of the cases I went out on
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La mayoría de los casos que tuve
01:35
were called involuntary.
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fueron llamados involuntarios.
01:37
What happened was that the family
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Lo que pasaba era que la familia
01:39
had to get their loved ones some safe place somehow.
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debía llevar a sus parientes a algún lugar de algún modo seguro,
01:42
And so they took them to some safe place.
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los llevaban a algún lugar seguro
01:46
And we would come in and talk to them, usually for about a week.
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y nosotros debíamos ir y hablar con ellos, usualmente por una semana.
01:49
And so after this happened,
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Así que después de que esto ocurrió
01:53
I decided it was a good time to turn my back on this work.
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decidí que era hora de abandonar este trabajo.
01:57
And about 20 years went by.
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Y durante 20 años
02:02
There was a burning question though that would not leave me.
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hubo una pregunta mental que no me abandonaba.
02:05
And that was, "How did this happen to me?"
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Me preguntaba "¿Cómo me pasó esto a mí?"
02:08
And in fact, what did happen to my brain?
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y, de hecho, ¿Qué le había pasado a mi cerebro?
02:11
Because something did.
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Porque algo le había pasado.
02:14
And so I decided to write a book, a memoir,
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Así que decidí escribir un libro, una memoria,
02:16
about this decade of my life.
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sobre esta década de mi vida,
02:19
And toward the end of writing that book
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y cuando estaba terminando de escribir el libro
02:21
there was a documentary that came out.
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hubo un documental
02:23
It was on Jonestown.
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Era en Jonestown,
02:25
And it had a chilling effect on me.
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tuvo un efecto escalofriante en mí.
02:30
These are the dead in Jonestown.
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Estos son los que murieron en Jonestown.
02:33
About 900 people died that day,
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Cerca de 900 personas murieron ese día,
02:35
most of them taking their own lives.
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la mayoría se quitaron la vida.
02:38
Women gave poison to their babies,
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Las mujeres dieron veneno a sus bebés
02:42
and watched foam come from their mouths as they died.
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y veían cómo la espuma salía por sus bocas mientras morían.
02:47
The top picture is a group of Moonies
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La imagen de arriba es de un grupo de moonistas
02:50
that have been blessed by their messiah.
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que han sido bendecidos por su mesías.
02:53
Their mates were chosen for them.
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Sus compañeros fueron elegidos por ellos.
02:56
The bottom picture is Hitler youth.
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La foto inferior es de las juventudes de Hitler
03:00
This is the leg of a suicide bomber.
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Esta es la pierna de un hombre-bomba.
03:04
The thing I had to admit to myself,
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Lo que tuve que admitir para mí misma,
03:06
with great repulsion,
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con gran repulsión,
03:09
was that I get it.
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es que lo entiendo.
03:11
I understand how this could happen.
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Entiendo cómo pasó esto.
03:14
I understand how someone's brain,
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Entiendo cómo el cerebro de alguien,
03:17
how someone's mind can come to the place
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la mente de alguien, llega a un punto
03:20
where it makes sense --
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en que tiene sentido.
03:22
in fact it would be wrong, when your brain is working like that --
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De hecho puede ser un error, cuando el cerebro funciona de esta manera,
03:25
not to try to save the world through genocide.
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no intentar salvar el mundo con un genocidio.
03:31
And so what is this? How does this work?
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¿Y qué es esto? ¿Cómo funciona?
03:34
And how I've come to view what happened to me
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Entonces veo que lo que paso conmigo
03:38
is a viral, memetic infection.
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es una infección viral memética.
03:41
For those of you who aren't familiar with memetics,
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Para quienes estén familiarizados con la memética,
03:43
a meme has been defined as
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un meme se define como
03:45
an idea that replicates in the human brain
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una idea que se replica en el cerebro humano
03:47
and moves from brain to brain like a virus,
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y se mueve de cerebro a cerebro como un virus,
03:52
much like a virus. The way a virus works is --
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muy parecido a un virus. La forma como un virus trabaja es --
03:55
it can infect and do the most damage to someone
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infectando y haciendo el mayor daño posible.
04:00
who has a compromised immune system.
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a quien tenga un compromiso en el sistema inmunológico
04:04
In 1974, I was young, I was naive,
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En 1974 yo era joven, era inocente,
04:08
and I was pretty lost in my world.
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y estaba muy perdida en mi mundo.
04:10
I was really idealistic.
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era realmente idealista.
04:13
These easy ideas to complex questions are very appealing
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Estas ideas fáciles para preguntas complejas son muy atractivas
04:17
when you are emotionally vulnerable.
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cuando uno es vulnerable emocionalmente.
04:20
What happens is that
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Lo que pasa es que
04:23
circular logic takes over.
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la lógica circular se impone:
04:25
"Moon is one with God.
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"Moon y Dios son uno solo
04:27
God is going to fix all the problems in the world.
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"Dios va a arreglar todos los problemas del mundo
04:31
All I have to do is humbly follow.
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"Todo lo que tengo que hacer es seguirlo con humildad
04:33
Because God is going to stop war and hunger --
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"Porque Dios va a detener la guerra y el hambre" --
04:35
all these things I wanted to do --
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Todas las cosas que yo quería hacer.
04:37
all I have to do is humbly follow.
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Todo lo que debo hacer es seguirlo humildemente.
04:39
Because after all, God is [working through] the messiah. He's going to fix all this."
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"Porque después de todo, Dios es el mesías. Él va a resolver todo".
04:42
It becomes impenetrable.
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Se torna impenetrable.
04:45
And the most dangerous part of this
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Y la parte más peligrosa de esto
04:48
is that is creates "us" and "them,"
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es que crea un "nosotros" y un "ellos"
04:51
"right" and "wrong,"
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"cierto" y "errado"
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"good" and "evil."
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"bueno" y "malo"
04:57
And it makes anything possible,
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Y hace que cualquier cosa sea posible.
05:01
makes anything rationalizable.
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Todo lo hace racionalizable
05:08
And the thing is, though,
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Y el asunto es que,
05:10
if you looked at my brain
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si vieran dentro de mi cerebro
05:12
during those years in the Moonies --
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durante esos años con los moonistas --
05:14
neuroscience is expanding exponentially,
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Las neurociencias se expanden exponencialmente
05:17
as Ray Kurzweil said yesterday. Science is expanding.
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como dijo ayer Ray Kurzweil, la ciencia se está expandiendo.
05:19
We're beginning to look inside the brain.
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Estamos comenzando a ojear dentro de nuestro cerebro.
05:22
And so if you looked at my brain, or any brain that's infected with
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Bien, si vieran dentro de mi cerebro, o de cualquiera infectado con
05:24
a viral memetic infection like this,
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una infección memética como esta,
05:27
and compared it to anyone in this room,
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y lo comparase cualquiera en esta sala,
05:29
or anyone who uses critical thinking on a regular basis,
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o con cualquiera que use el pensamiento crítico regularmente
05:31
I am convinced it would look very, very different.
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Estoy segura de que se verían muy, muy diferentes.
05:36
And that, strange as it may sound,
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Y que, aunque suene extraño,
05:39
gives me hope.
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me da esperanza.
05:41
And the reason that gives me hope
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Y la razón por la que me da esperanza
05:43
is that the first thing is to admit
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es porque lo primero es admitir
05:46
that we have a problem.
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que se tiene un problema.
05:49
But it's a human problem. It's a scientific problem, if you will.
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Pero es un problema humano. Es un problema científico, si quieren.
05:52
It happens in the human brain. There is no evil force out there to get us.
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Le ocurre al cerebro humano. No hay una fuerza maligna ahí afuera lista a atraparnos.
05:56
And so this is something that, through research and education,
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Y por eso, esto es algo que, a través de la investigación y la educación,
06:00
I believe that we can solve.
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creo que se puede resolver.
06:03
And so the first step is to realize
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Y el primer paso es comprender
06:11
that we can do this together,
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que podemos hacerlo juntos,
06:13
and that there is no "us" and "them."
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y que no hay "nosotros" ni "ellos".
06:16
Thank you very much. (Applause)
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Muchas gracias. (Aplausos)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Diane Benscoter - DeprogrammerDiane Benscoter, an ex-Moonie, is now invested in finding ways to battle extremist mentalities and their potentially deadly consequences.
Why you should listen
At 17, Diane Benscoter joined The Unification Church -- the religious cult whose members are commonly known as “Moonies.” After five long years, her distressed family arranged to have her deprogrammed. Benscoter then left The Unification Church, and was so affected by her experience that she became a deprogrammer herself. She devoted her time to extracting others from cults, until she was arrested for kidnapping. The shock of her arrest caused her to abandon her efforts for almost 20 years.
Now, after decades of research and study, Diane has begun to speak about her experiences. She recently completed a memoir describing her years as a member of The Unification Church and as a deprogrammer.
Furthermore, she has embarked on a new project to define “extremist viral memetic infections”. She believes that defining extremism as a memetic infection, from a cognitive neurological perspective, might allow us to develop better memes that would inoculate against the memes of extremist thought. These inoculating memes could prevent the spread of extremist viral memetic infections and their inherent dangers.
Diane Benscoter | Speaker | TED.com