How to charm people

How to charm people

Humans often overlook the most obvious things about other humans—and I start with myself in making that judgment.So even though I know a fair amount about people, I can overlook basic things because I am caught up in the interplay that is humanity.

When average people run into a highly charismatic,what is it that they recall about the person? Everyone who has an encounter with a decidedly charismatic person recounts the story in very similar fashion, regardless of whether the encounter went well or ended in tragedy. Whether it was, “He made me feel as though I was the only person in the room,”or “He made me feel as though he was divine,”it is always about a feeling and not facts.

Followers of Charles Manson, David Koresh, and many other leaders of both cults and genuine religious sects have described their leaders as gods or godlike, just like this man who followed the Maharaji: “I believed he was the living incarnation of God,”said Joe Whalen in his posting.. And then, he went on to describe his feelings in detail: “…when I was allowed to enter the ashram, I was happy, excited, and I felt privileged for the opportunity he, the Perfect Master, gave me.”

I considered all of the cult leaders and how each has been described as charismatic. After I looked at Koresh, with his obvious facial display of emotional disturbance, Manson the raging madman, the paranoid Jim Jones, and Marshall Applewhite— who met the “Bo” half of his Bo-Peep cult leadership in a Houston psychiatric hospital— I asked myself again how is it that these people could be perceived as charismatic. Is there a skill set they were applying? Can it be codified? Is this intentional? Chemical? I also started to look for a good definition of the word charismatic.