The Lucifer Effect

Okay, so today, we're going to talk about:

"The Lucifer Effect"

DEF - Environments and situations that cause good people to do bad things

This is a very FASCINATING phenomenon.

Basically, the gist of it is that if you can control someone's environment or situation…

… you can CONTROL THEM.

A lot of this research started in the form of the "Stanford Prison Experiment" in the 1970's where a fellow named Zimbardo set up an interesting study where random volunteers were selected to participate and the acute psychological effects of being imprisoned where being examined.

(initially, the study was supposed to help determine if the traditional prison set up was actually rehabbing prisoners)

Volunteers were given thorough psych evaluations.  Everyone was deemed normal by all accounts.

In the experiment, subjects were randomly assigned to be either INMATES or GUARDS.

Inmates were given numbers and prison dress and guards were given guard uniforms, shades, hats, etc… typical guard uniforms.

The study was supposed to last for a few weeks…

… it only lasted ONE.

Prisoners revolted.  Many showed signs of heavy psych stress and a few actually had psychological breakdowns.

Guards hazed inmates (on their own) and basically treated them like dirt in order to keep "control"

No one was told to do any of these things.  

Upon completion of the study, during debriefing, both guards and inmates gave their accounts of why they did what they did.

Guards siting how putting on the uniform (and especially shades) actually removed their own personal identify and was replaced by a "guard"  identify.

Inmates reported similar identity shifts.

The thing to note is that ONLY the environment and the situation was  changed.  These REGULAR college aged kids REACTED this way.

(and as the environment morphed to being more hostile, the worse it got)

And after only 1 week… 1 week.  The study had to be put to a halt.

So what does this have to do with you and getting results with your target?

Simple.

Your environment controls you.  You react to it.

You need to understand this next point.

YOUR NUMBER ONE RESPONSIBOILITY AND HOPE FOR GETTING  THE RESULTS YOU WANT INVOLVES YOU  CONTROLLING  THE ENVIRONMENT THAT CONTROLS YOU…

Whew, that's a mouthful.

Let me give you an example.

(and this will lead into the next lesson as well)

Lets say you start out wanting to get in shape.  Maybe you've found Herbalife and you're interested in looking really good.

So you start working out and instead of taking advantage of our community, you start to hang out in another community.

The next thing you know, you're learning about all these supposed "intolerances" that you MAY have, so you start to modify your food intake dramatically, cutting all all the supposed bad foods until you literally CREATE the intolerance that you thought you had in the first place.

Kind of like a self fulfilling prophesy.

But here's the funny thing:

"YOU NEVER HAD AN INTOLERANCE IN THE FIRST PLACE!"

Yet, by hanging out in this environment, you've come to believe  that clearing out these pseudo intolerances is "the way to go" to shortcut your results and get  "hot".

A couple of grand later in strange supplements (that don't do anything aside from contributing to the Placebo Effect), and weird food…

… you're the same or even worse off than you were before

This is goal hijacking in action.

However, here's something very important to remember:

"Goal hijacking only happens when you immerse yourself  in environments and situations that go AGAINST what you  were originally after"

You can't get goal hijacked without the passive peer pressure  attached to different environments.

And passive peer pressure is SNEAKY.

Surround yourself with the same environment long enough,  and ANYTHING can seem okay.

And this isn't the only example by far, I'm sure you can think  of more.

But it illustrates how all of this works.

I GUARANTEE you've fallen victim to this before.

I know I have.

Nowadays, I am VERY cognizant of the environments and situations  I'm a part of.  I know how much of a slippery slope it is.

And yes, I've done some very bad stuff because of this effect.

We all have.

Pay very special attention to the "Lucifer Effect" - it can get you in a   ton of trouble sure, but the big kicker is that it can completely derail  your efforts and results.