Here's an account of someone who worked with him. These thought experiments are interesting. You can judge for yourself what they might be after:
To give you a picture of where the culture eventually ended up, here's a list of some things I experienced by the end of my time there:
1. 2-6hr long group debugging sessions in which we as a sub-faction(Alignment Group) would attempt to articulate a "demon" which had infiltrated our psyches from one of the rival groups, its nature and effects, and get it out of our systems using debugging tools.
2. People in my group commenting on a rival group having done "magic" that weekend and clearly having "powered up," and saying we needed to now go debug the effects of being around that powered-up group, which they said was attacking them or otherwise affecting their ability to trust their own perception
3. Accusations being thrown around about people leaving "objects" (similar to demons) in other people, and people trying to sort out where the bad "object" originated and if it had been left intentionally/malevolently or by accident/subconsciously.
4. People doing seances seriously. I was under the impression the purpose was to call on demonic energies and use their power to affect the practitioners' social standing.
5. Former rationalists clearing their homes of bad energy using crystals.
6. Much talk & theorizing on "intention reading," which was something like mind-reading.
7. I personally went through many months of near constant terror at being mentally invaded. S. I personally prayed for hours most nights for months to rid myself of specific "demons" I felt I'd picked up from other members of Leverage.
If this sounds insane, it's because it was. It was a crazy experience unlike any I've ever had. And there are many more weird anecdotes where that came from.
To give you a picture of where the culture eventually ended up, here's a list of some things I experienced by the end of my time there:
1. 2-6hr long group debugging sessions in which we as a sub-faction(Alignment Group) would attempt to articulate a "demon" which had infiltrated our psyches from one of the rival groups, its nature and effects, and get it out of our systems using debugging tools.
2. People in my group commenting on a rival group having done "magic" that weekend and clearly having "powered up," and saying we needed to now go debug the effects of being around that powered-up group, which they said was attacking them or otherwise affecting their ability to trust their own perception
3. Accusations being thrown around about people leaving "objects" (similar to demons) in other people, and people trying to sort out where the bad "object" originated and if it had been left intentionally/malevolently or by accident/subconsciously.
4. People doing seances seriously. I was under the impression the purpose was to call on demonic energies and use their power to affect the practitioners' social standing.
5. Former rationalists clearing their homes of bad energy using crystals.
6. Much talk & theorizing on "intention reading," which was something like mind-reading.
7. I personally went through many months of near constant terror at being mentally invaded. S. I personally prayed for hours most nights for months to rid myself of specific "demons" I felt I'd picked up from other members of Leverage.
If this sounds insane, it's because it was. It was a crazy experience unlike any I've ever had. And there are many more weird anecdotes where that came from.