Big Think: The Guru Effect

A very interesting read.
Especially considering.

Four years ago a paper by Dan Sperber published in the Review of Philosophy and Psychology coined the term: The Guru Effect - the tendency for people to "judge profound what they have failed to grasp." The paper examines how self-professed Gurus have a knack for inspiring devotion through speaking in a way that confers profound understanding but in reality fails to deliver anything of actual substance.

SOURCE@ Big Think

Why is this even a thing that needed a paper? There is nothing surprising about people being able to BS their way through things to look more important and capable than they are. So many people do that every day.

a reply to: HarbingerOfShadows


Politicians do this well too.

Personally, I do see a benefit to this. It allows for the listener to form their own interpretation, their own perception or philosophical structure... which ultimately, is what creates a self structure. Though they may project that upon the "guru" in the moment (imagining that he/she meant something) IF they can come to a phase of realization that they filled in all those blanks themself, they might eventually reintegrate that projection of a master, and become their own master instead.

This is where separation would be a necessary component of the process, and why I think religions could have a benefit as a passage or phase which one "graduates" from or rejects at some moment in their life.

a reply to: Bluesma

So in others words build substance where there is none surpassing the faker.

a reply to: Aural

I guess you could say that. I just feel that self mastership entails creating your own perception and meaning, which arises from your own collection of memories and internal processes. As long as meaning is fed to you by someone else it isn't completely reflective of your own state of being.

Like an inkblot- if someone tells you what it is supposed to be illustrating, then you learn nothing about your own subconscious.

-Of course, for it to be helpful, the moment must come when you realize- it was all you, all along.......