THe term "con artist" comes from confidence.
https://www.quora.com/Where-does-the-term-con-man-artist-come-from
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/01/can-you-spot-a-liar/423588/
"Konnikova: Emotional vulnerability is one of the things that unites victims of cons, in the sense that it’s not so much a personality trait, as where you are in your life. Because what happens when you’re down, when you’re vulnerable, there’s change going on, and your world no longer makes sense the way that it used to, so you’re particularly vulnerable to people who make sense of it for you. You want that meaning. You want that sense of connection and con artists are very happy to supply it for you. One of the things that I found really interesting is that it transfers across domains. So, for instance, if you lose your job, you’re not just more vulnerable to finance frauds, you’re more vulnerable to romance frauds, you’re more vulnerable to every single thing even if it has nothing to do with money, just because you’re in an emotionally susceptible position.
Khazan: One thing I found surprising was that cons are underreported. Why is that?
Konnikova: Part of it is that people really value their reputations, so they don’t want others to know that they fell victim. The other thing is that they value their reputation so much is that they don’t want
themselves to know. They would much rather believe that they were the victims of bad luck than that they were victims of a con artist. Our self-deception is incredibly powerful, because we have this very strong protective mechanism where we want to think of ourselves in the best possible light. No one wants to think of themselves as a sucker or as someone who falls for some con artist, who to someone else might seem obvious.
You want to think of yourself as someone who’s smart, as someone who’s savvy, as someone who would know better, and so that’s exactly what you do, you say, “Oh, bad luck, luck of the draw, it was just a bad investment decision or this person just wasn’t ready for a serious relationship,” whatever it is. So the funny thing is, most people don’t learn from their mistakes because they don’t acknowledge that they made them. One thing that I learned while I was researching the book, which I had no idea existed, was that there are sucker lists out there that con artists buy and sell of people who’ve already fallen for a scam. Those are the best victims, the ones who have already been victimized once, because they’ve done such a good job rationalizing that they’ll do it again.
Khazan: That’s sad, because that means it's more likely to happen to those people over and over again.
"
Italics added.
I have no issues with someone talking about NDEs and such. I very much have issues with a story that starts with deception be it an honest mistake or involuntarily delusional.
When people hear the term 'cancer' many don't have the knowledge to differentiate between the different kinds under that umbrella term.
AGAIN, she had Hodgekin's disease/lymphoma. Big deal relatively speaking, it is among the very easiest cancers to treat. It will confuse and fool others (lung/pancreatic) into making bad choices they and their families will regret.
Why she went untreated until stage 4 is a mystery but she survived because of chemo. Someone with a different cancer would not.
She is making money from this through books, courses and speaking fees, donations... Giving some away for free is all just a part of building the "confidence" in the victim.
There is a beautiful world full of wonder and joy. I love this life, I care for my loved ones, I'm no 'Grinch' really. But I do reject charismatic self-profiting liars as they have caused harm to many I know.
This lady again has some wise words from her own experience investigating people who start a lovely story with a lie. We simply can't block them all however that does not mean we stop trying.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...iew-new-book-the-confidence-game-review-scams
"Konnikova says she became extremely cynical while working on The Confidence Game. She was confronted over and over again by people who would readily take advantage of others when given the chance. Eventually, she had to force herself to remember that she really was operating among very specific company. The majority of people, she reminded herself, still don’t get conned.
“I really had to go back and remind myself that trusting makes society function on an individual level related to health and on a social level related to economic growth and development,” Konnikova said. “So I said, ‘you know what? trust is good, even if that means that one day I’m going to be conned, so be it. I will give myself permission to be a victim.’”
"
