Influence

In college I had a professor who wanted to prove how easily influenced people could be. He asked for a volunteer and so I raised my hand. My professor asked me to stand outside in the hall way.

While I was outside, my professor placed two straws on the table in front of him. One straw was short, the other was long. The rest of the students were given the goal of convincing me both straws were the same length.

I came back into the class room and my professor asked me, “Which straw was longer?” I pointed to straw A, which was slightly, but obviously longer.

The class laughed at me.

I did a double take, leaning closer in, and said, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure. Straw A is slightly longer.”

The class chuckled again. Someone chimed in and asked, “Are you sure?” She informed me that they voted when I was outside and it was unanimous that straw B was longer. Someone else suggested I might need glasses.

In the end they didn’t convince me, but I did second guess, third guess, and was legitimately considering agreeing with the class. The professor confessed the student’s true objective. He went on to say a similar type of psychology is used all the time by those in power.

Majority is a powerful thing.

Majority can slowly and steadily convince the minority to do things they don’t want to do.

Looking back at my life in the church, I wonder if I was taken advantage of… Is it good to tell a ten year old they would go to hell if they don’t say a prayer? Was I blindly making decisions that would affect the rest of my life because of the house I grew up in, or the beliefs my parents held? Was I blindly following a false doctrine, a religion disguised as Christianity?

We are all desperately in need of love, and when we find ourselves facing greater times of need, it’s easy to cling to and believe in just about anything that will give us hope.

To me it was like clinging to a thorn bush for years on end, it’s all I knew, so I just accepted it for what it was. Being scared into staying, by this fear driven “gospel”.

Knowing that if I left, I’d be alone, that it’d be a hard rebuilding process.

I think that’s where I’m at now, I’m in the rebuilding process.

[This is an excerpt from a book I’m co-authoring with Andrew Steven – it is adapted for this blog]