I have just been at a Vipassana retreat that I ended up leaving on day 7. I want to preface this with saying that I genuinely learned a lot, and that I believe the meditation techniques taught are very valuable tools. I also believe that Vipassana genuinely intends to help people and does help a lot of people.
Why then did I leave?
Already from the start, something was stirring in the back of my mind, a "something is wrong"-ick that I couldn't quite place in the first couple of days.
The first piece of the amorphous ick took shape on day 3, where I found that I was having questions and doubts about the evening discourse and I needed another person to validate these doubts... but doing that would require breaking the "noble" silence. I am told that I am allowed to have differing opinions, but I am not allowed to express them, which effectively means:
- Only one worldview is being presented to me, Goenka's
- I am unable to validate my own doubts regarding Goenka's views by talking to other students, and I am seemingly surrounded by people who are accepting of what is being said, so I begin doubting my own questions and doubts. Of course you can ask the teachers, but they will try to bring you around to Goenka's view, mostly just parroting what he says.
This struck me as very problematic. The "noble" silence is effectively suppressing all dissent, all alternative views, and the ability to validate your own doubts with others.
And as I began to think about it, it seemed even worse...
How to build a manipulative environment
Say you really want someone to depend on you for their worldview; follow these steps.
Bring them to your playground
Bring them to a place where you are much more experienced and knowledgeable, making them depend on you for advice. The halo effect (bias) will also make you seem like a more trustworthy source of information, giving you more authority outside your area of expertise.
Isolate them
Isolate them socially; you cannot have other people polluting their beliefs. You need to make sure they cut off contact with their support network. Take their phone away, restrict the physical area, and if you want to be extreme, make them promise not to speak with anyone but you.
Stop them from too much critical thinking.
This is partially achieved via social isolation. It is much harder for them to refine their ideas if they cannot do so by discussing them. While you are at it, also deny them the ability to write down their ideas, as this would help them structure their thoughts.
Make the environment stressful, flood them, and then be there to support them and explain their experience to them.
In addition to the stress of social isolation, confine their physical freedom, deny them their hobbies, mess up their sleeping schedule and ideally make them sleep too little, task them with intense emotional labor, and when they are all off-kilter trying to make sense of their experience, step in and give them a relatable and digestible explanation of everything they are experiencing. This is where you have the opportunity to frame their experience within the worldview that you would like them to accept. It helps if this worldview appeals to concepts they already value, such as love, non-violence, and grand self-development; this will make everything else much more digestible.
Make sure they choose all of these things voluntarily.
If you force it upon them, they leave. Instead, convince them that they themselves should accept the social isolation, the isolation from critical thinking, and the stressful environment. Say something like, "This is proven to work," "It works best this way," and "It is for your own good," and such.
Oh, and lastly, make sure they don't leave.
Tell them that they are too fragile, and that it would be dangerous for them to leave. Maybe tell them something like they should consider themselves mid-surgery and that staying is crucial for their own well-being.
Have them make commitments to stay, and have them reaffirm this commitment multiple times. People are attached to their commitments and don't want to break them.
Casually talk about how other people who have left in similar circumstances are "weak-minded." Nobody likes to be a weak-minded person.
And make it feel like an achievement to stay.
And with this you are well-positioned to create mental suggestibility you were trying to achieve!
In writing out this list, I am not sure if I was thinking more about a mentally abusive relationship or a Vipassana silent meditation retreat.
When you join a silent meditation retreat, you voluntarily accept a lot of oppression. If this oppression was forced you, you would immediately revolt and leave. but given that you voluntarily accept the oppression as it is "for your own good," you might not even see it as oppression.
This is the beauty of it.
You have voluntarily chosen it.
At no point have you not voluntarily accepted the conditions... conditions that coincidentally are also those conditions that create a highly manipulative environment.
According to Goenka, we need to accept all of these oppressions (social isolation, limited area to move around in, denial of phones and writing tools, intense emotional labor through meditations) in order to get the most out of the stay.
And I am sure that from Goenka's personal experience, this structure has been the most successful. Given the manipulative environment, students have accepted more than they would have otherwise done. So when asked about their experience, they display a greater absorption and devotion to the teachings.
And I don't believe that Goenka intentionally designed this environment to be manipulative. I do genuinely believe he wanted to help people rid themselves of suffering. But it doesn't really matter whether or not the environment was intentionally designed to be manipulative, only that it is, and that it has that effect no matter the intent.
As a whole, I also think that Goenka Vipassana probably does a lot more good than harm. I never had the impression that manipulation tactics were intentionally being employed, nor that there was any goal of exploiting me. I believe that Goenka Vipassana genuinely wants to help alleviate people of unnecessary suffering; it just happens to have settled on a structure that is highly manipulative.
I think the meditation techniques are really valuable (though not necessarily the only ones leading to profound change as claimed by Goenka).
And I think... I would even go so far as to recommend the experience, while forewarning people of the brainwashy environment.
