TED2009
Diane Benscoter: How cults rewire the brain
Mantan Moonie, Diane Benscoter: Bagaimana aliran pemujaan mengubah cara berpikir
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Diane Benscoter berbicara tentang bagaimana dia bergabung dengan aliran pemujaan Moonie -- menjadi anggota mereka selama lima tahun. Dia membagikan pandangan orang dalam tentang aliran pemujaan dan gerakan ekstrimis, dan menawarkan cara berpikir baru untuk mengatasi masalah konflik yang ada saat ini.
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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Perjalanan saya hingga hadir di sini hari ini
00:22
started in 1974.
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dimulai tahun 1974.
00:24
That's me with the funny gloves.
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Itu saya dengan sarung tangan yang aneh.
00:27
I was 17 and going on a peace walk.
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Saya berumur 17 tahun dan mengikuti demonstrasi damai.
00:30
What I didn't know though, was most of those people, standing there
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Yang saya tidak tahu, sebagian besar orang yang berdiri di sana
00:33
with me, were Moonies.
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dengan saya, anggota Moonie.
00:35
(Laughter)
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(Suara tawa)
00:39
And within a week
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Dan dalam seminggu
00:41
I had come to believe
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saya menjadi percaya
00:43
that the second coming of Christ had occurred,
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bahwa Yesus datang kembali,
00:46
that it was Sun Myung Moon,
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sebagai Sun Myung Moon,
00:48
and that I had been specially chosen and prepared by God
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dan saya dipilih dan disiapkan secara khusus oleh Tuhan
00:52
to be his disciple.
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untuk menjadi pengikutnya.
00:54
Now as cool as that sounds,
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Meskipun ini kedengaran keren,
00:56
my family was not that thrilled with this.
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keluarga saya sama sekali tidak senang.
00:58
(Laughter)
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(Suara tawa)
01:00
And they tried everything they could to get me out of there.
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Mereka mencoba semuanya untuk mengeluarkan saya dari sana.
01:02
There was an underground railroad of sorts
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Ada semacam gerakan bawah tanah
01:04
that was going on during those years. Maybe some of you remember it.
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yang terjadi pada tahun-tahun itu. Mungkin Anda mengingatnya.
01:07
They were called deprogrammers.
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Mereka menyebutnya pemrogram ulang.
01:10
And after about five long years
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Setelah sekitar lima tahun yang panjang
01:16
my family had me deprogrammed.
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keluarga saya berhasil memprogram ulang saya.
01:18
And I then became a deprogrammer.
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Kemudian saya menjadi pemrogram ulang juga.
01:23
I started going out on cases.
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Saya mulai menangani kasus.
01:25
And after about five years of doing this,
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Dan setelah sekitar lima tahun melakukannya
01:29
I was arrested for kidnapping.
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Saya ditangkap karena melakukan penculikan.
01:33
Most of the cases I went out on
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Sebagian besar kasus yang saya tangani
01:35
were called involuntary.
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disebut non-sukarela.
01:37
What happened was that the family
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Yang terjadi ketika itu keluarga
01:39
had to get their loved ones some safe place somehow.
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harus membawa orang yang mereka sayangi ke tempat aman.
01:42
And so they took them to some safe place.
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Jadi mereka membawanya ke tempat aman.
01:46
And we would come in and talk to them, usually for about a week.
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Dan saya biasanya akan datang dan berbicara dengan mereka, sekitar satu minggu.
01:49
And so after this happened,
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Dan setelah itu terjadi
01:53
I decided it was a good time to turn my back on this work.
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Saya memutuskan bahwa itu saat yang tepat untuk keluar dari pekerjaan itu.
01:57
And about 20 years went by.
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Dan sekitar 20 tahun saya lewati.
02:02
There was a burning question though that would not leave me.
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Ada sebuah pertanyaan yang terus mengejar saya.
02:05
And that was, "How did this happen to me?"
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"Bagaimana itu bisa terjadi kepada saya"?
02:08
And in fact, what did happen to my brain?
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Apa yang terjadi pada otak saya?
02:11
Because something did.
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Karena sesuatu pasti terjadi.
02:14
And so I decided to write a book, a memoir,
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Jadi saya memutuskan untuk menulis buku, memoar.
02:16
about this decade of my life.
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tetang tahun-tahun itu dalam hidup saya.
02:19
And toward the end of writing that book
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Dan ketika saya hampir selesai menulis buku itu
02:21
there was a documentary that came out.
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ada sebuah film dokumenter yang ditayangkan.
02:23
It was on Jonestown.
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Itu tentang Jonestown.
02:25
And it had a chilling effect on me.
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Dan itu membuat saya merinding.
02:30
These are the dead in Jonestown.
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Ini adalah korban tewas di Jonestown.
02:33
About 900 people died that day,
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Sekitar 900 orang mati hari itu.
02:35
most of them taking their own lives.
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Sebagian besar bunuh diri.
02:38
Women gave poison to their babies,
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Para ibu meracuni bayi-bayi mereka,
02:42
and watched foam come from their mouths as they died.
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dan menyaksikan busa keluar dari mulut mereka saat sekarat.
02:47
The top picture is a group of Moonies
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Gambar paling atas adalah grup Moonie
02:50
that have been blessed by their messiah.
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yang sudah diberkati oleh juru selamat mereka.
02:53
Their mates were chosen for them.
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Pasangan mereka dipilihkan.
02:56
The bottom picture is Hitler youth.
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Di bagian bawah Hitler youth.
03:00
This is the leg of a suicide bomber.
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Ini adalah kaki seorang pembom bunuh diri.
03:04
The thing I had to admit to myself,
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Masalahnya saya harus mengakui sendiri,
03:06
with great repulsion,
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meski sangat enggan,
03:09
was that I get it.
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bahwa saya memahaminya.
03:11
I understand how this could happen.
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Saya mengerti kenapa ini bisa terjadi.
03:14
I understand how someone's brain,
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Saya mengerti bagaimana otak seseorang,
03:17
how someone's mind can come to the place
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bagaimana otak seseorang bisa sampai pada
03:20
where it makes sense --
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kesimpulan yang masuk akal,
03:22
in fact it would be wrong, when your brain is working like that --
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bahkan mungkin salah, kalau otak kita bekerja seperti itu,
03:25
not to try to save the world through genocide.
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untuk tidak menyelamatkan dunia dengan pembunuhan massal.
03:31
And so what is this? How does this work?
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Jadi apa ini? Bagaimana cara kerjanya?
03:34
And how I've come to view what happened to me
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Saya melihat apa yang terjadi pada saya
03:38
is a viral, memetic infection.
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sebagai infeksi memetis viral.
03:41
For those of you who aren't familiar with memetics,
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Bagi Anda yang tidak terlalu tahu tentang memetika,
03:43
a meme has been defined as
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meme didefinisikan sebagai
03:45
an idea that replicates in the human brain
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ide yang berlipatganda di otak manusia
03:47
and moves from brain to brain like a virus,
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dan bergarak dari otak ke otak seperti virus,
03:52
much like a virus. The way a virus works is --
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persis seperti virus. Cara virus bekerja adalah --
03:55
it can infect and do the most damage to someone
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menginfeksi dan merusak paling parah
04:00
who has a compromised immune system.
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seseorang yang punya sistem kekebalan yang lemah.
04:04
In 1974, I was young, I was naive,
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Di tahun 1974, saya masih mudah, naif,
04:08
and I was pretty lost in my world.
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dan terjebak di dunia saya sendiri.
04:10
I was really idealistic.
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Saya sangat idealis.
04:13
These easy ideas to complex questions are very appealing
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Ide-ide sederhana tadi, yang menjawab pertanyaan yang rumit, tampak sangat menarik
04:17
when you are emotionally vulnerable.
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saat kita secara emosional lemah.
04:20
What happens is that
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Yang terjadi adalah
04:23
circular logic takes over.
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logika sirkuler mengambil alih.
04:25
"Moon is one with God.
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"Bulan jadi satu dengan Tuhan.
04:27
God is going to fix all the problems in the world.
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Tuhan akan memperbaiki semua masalah di dunia.
04:31
All I have to do is humbly follow.
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Yang harus saya lakukan hanya mengikuti.
04:33
Because God is going to stop war and hunger --
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Karena Tuhan akan menghentikan perang dan kelaparan --
04:35
all these things I wanted to do --
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semua hal yang ingin saya lakukan.
04:37
all I have to do is humbly follow.
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Yang harus saya lakukan hanya mengikuti.
04:39
Because after all, God is [working through] the messiah. He's going to fix all this."
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Karena Tuhan bekerja melalui juru selamat. Dialah yang akan memperbaiki semua ini."
04:42
It becomes impenetrable.
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Ini pun menjadi susah ditembus.
04:45
And the most dangerous part of this
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Dan yang paling bahaya adalah
04:48
is that is creates "us" and "them,"
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ini menciptakan "kami" dan "mereka,"
04:51
"right" and "wrong,"
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"benar" dan "salah,"
04:53
"good" and "evil."
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"baik" dan "buruk."
04:57
And it makes anything possible,
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Dan itu membuat segalanya mungkin.
05:01
makes anything rationalizable.
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Membuat segalanya masuk akal.
05:08
And the thing is, though,
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Masalahnya di sini,
05:10
if you looked at my brain
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kalau Anda melihat otak saya
05:12
during those years in the Moonies --
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saat masa-masa itu di Moonie --
05:14
neuroscience is expanding exponentially,
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Neurosains berkembang sangat pesat,
05:17
as Ray Kurzweil said yesterday. Science is expanding.
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seperti disebutkan Ray Kurzweil kemarin. Ilmu pengetahuan berkembang.
05:19
We're beginning to look inside the brain.
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Kita mulai melihat ke dalam otak.
05:22
And so if you looked at my brain, or any brain that's infected with
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Jadi kalau Anda melihat otak saya, atau otak siapa pun yang terpengaruh
05:24
a viral memetic infection like this,
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oleh infeksi memetis viral seperti ini,
05:27
and compared it to anyone in this room,
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dan membandingkannya dengan siapa pun di ruangan ini,
05:29
or anyone who uses critical thinking on a regular basis,
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atau siapa pun yang terbiasa berpikir kritis,
05:31
I am convinced it would look very, very different.
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saya yakin keduanya akan terlihat sangat berbeda.
05:36
And that, strange as it may sound,
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Meskipun ini terdengar aneh, hal itu
05:39
gives me hope.
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memberikan saya harapan.
05:41
And the reason that gives me hope
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Dan alasan mengapa itu memberi saya harapan
05:43
is that the first thing is to admit
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karena yang pertama adalah kita harus
05:46
that we have a problem.
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mengakui bahwa kita punya masalah.
05:49
But it's a human problem. It's a scientific problem, if you will.
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Masalah manusia. Masalah ilmu pengetahuan.
05:52
It happens in the human brain. There is no evil force out there to get us.
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Itu terjadi di otak manusia. Tidak ada kekuatan jahat di luar sana yang mengejar kita.
05:56
And so this is something that, through research and education,
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Ini sesuatu yang melalui riset dan pendidikan,
06:00
I believe that we can solve.
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saya percaya bisa kita pecahkan.
06:03
And so the first step is to realize
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Jadi langkah pertama, kita harus menyadari
06:11
that we can do this together,
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kita bisa melakukan ini bersama,
06:13
and that there is no "us" and "them."
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tidak ada istilah "kami" atau "mereka."
06:16
Thank you very much. (Applause)
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Terima kasih banyak. (Tepuk tangan)
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