How many followers did Gurmeet Singh reportedly persuade to castrate themselves?

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TJ WALKER - THE HABIT INFLUENCER - Personal Development | LIVE STREAM

2 Mar 2015 · 3 min

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TJ Walker warns that persuasive speaking skill and truth are separate things. He cites Gurmeet Singh, who convinced 400 followers in India to castrate themselves through effective communication alone. Good speakers can lie, bad speakers can be right. Judge the claim, not the delivery.

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Gurmeet Singh in India has persuaded 400 followers of his to castrate themselves in order to get closer to God. That's what I call persuasive public speaking. Now, folks, I don't want to seem too glib here. It's not a joking matter, although there is some humor to this. But a religious leader in India has apparently talked 400 men into castrating themselves because he convinced them that this would get them closer to God. Now, I'll leave it to others to figure out what the exact steps are to get closer to anyone. But I see this, and it's a constant reminder that people have to learn to differentiate between great speaking skills and the truth. Because here's the thing. Great political leaders, great leaders of all sorts of aspects of society are often great communicators. Great speakers. That's how they accomplish wonderful things. However, there are demagogues in the world. There are genocidal maniacs. There are cult leaders who are also effective at what they do. And they are great speakers. So just because someone is a persuasive speaker doesn't mean you should do what they ask you to do. You've got to continue to scrutinize, analyze. What is it, this message? What is this person saying in this message? Does it stand up to truth, logic, facts? If not, you need to discard it. I realize it sounds obvious, but. But it is one of the things that is a constant reminder in my field, anyone can learn to be a great speaker. Now, I try not to work with demagogues and cult leaders, but if they want to find a good public speaking coach, they can find one. So buyer beware. When you hear someone who's a great speaker and a great communicator, don't just get sucked in. You've got to really be vigilant and scrutinize their ideas. On the other hand, you may hear someone who's a horrible speaker, but they may have great ideas. Now, as much as I want to say they're awful or shame on them for not learning public speaking skills, it doesn't mean you can't still learn from them. So please, buyer beware. How good someone is as a speaker doesn't necessarily correlate to how truthful or helpful their ideas are. I'm T.J. walker.