Our experiences of life are mediated by our nervous systems. Culture further restricts available perceptual experiences by defining, however loosely, an acceptable set of parameters in which a healthy-functioning member may exist without getting ostracized by the group (I believe community is vitally essential to the well-being of individual human animals).

As our bodies grow and develop, our nervous system reaches a number of open-imprint points. A physiological chemical shift occurs, which cascades into perceptual changes and modulation. Joseph Campbell talked at length about healthy communities having coming of age and other transformational rituals. What these rituals do is re-imprint the human animal nervous system to respond in a particular way to culturally/socially-determined cues, the secrets and sources of which are controlled by the dominant pack members within a particular culture or community.

Through intense self-work - drugs, analysis, meditation, yogic & other practices - an individual can actively undo old cultural imprints formed originally around vulnerable nervous system states. This is the essence of Scientology and NLP, from what I can tell without having actively participated in either system to any real degree. This is also what Dr. John Lilly talked about as “meta-programming” (I think he’s responsible for that term), the notion that you can essentially go back in and re-imprint yourself. Brain-washing, cults, and so on. Remember though: that culture consists of *nothing* but cults who have risen to power and established some kind of continuing authority and transmission through time.