My name is Mark Vesente. I'm a director, producer, writer, and troublemaker. I'm most known as the director of the film What the Bleep Do We Know, and as one of the next-team whistleblowers featured in the HBO series, Aval. Let's just say, I know a thing or two about cults. I don't consider myself a cult expert, but I'm definitely an expert in being screwed over, waking up, and

knowing how to spot them.

And let me tell you, they're everywhere.

My mission is to help people see patterns of abuse across multiple contexts.

From personal to family, to group, to societal.

It's all the same pattern at every scale.

As you'll hear, I have a pretty salty approach to most things.

So there might be some blasphemy.

One or two sacred cows might get knocked over, and there'll likely be some foul language.

You never quite know what you're going to get, because it really does depend on what the

fuck is on my mind.

Hey, everyone, welcome back. So, what's on my mind today is on my mind. Hey everyone, welcome back.

So, what's on my mind today?

Fear, specifically fear-based manipulation and control.

Today, I want to dive into how fear and trauma are used to manipulate and control people,

binding them to leaders, ideologies, or movements. This tactic has been used

throughout history to create mass compliance and loyalty, and no surprise, it's still in play today.

I know you're shocked. I want to explore some real-world historical examples, and I want to dive

into the work of key thinkers like Matthias Desmit and

Hannah Arndt, and relate this to concepts like coercive control and trauma bonding. So, if you want to

understand how fear could be used to control you and society at large, stay tuned. Imagine you're

living in a time of crisis, some external threat, a looming disaster, a health scare, or internal social chaos.

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