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Reading through email spam or the classified ads in a progressive newspaper, one may find offers for everything from assertiveness training to domination hypnosis to subliminal messages flashed on the computer screen to quit smoking and lose weight. These are just a few of the many household Mind Control products marketed today promising that their simple tricks will allow anyone to be master of their domain. The efficacy of these programs is debatable, but the science behind them is real.
The basics of Mind Control are as old as mankind itself. Convincing someone to adopt an idea or perform a task is commonplace in every family. Children begin learning the skills of persuasion at an early age. Kids may rationalize, beg, bribe, guilt, peer pressure, bully, or resort to any number of other tactics including blackmail and unadulterated violence in order to get their way. Growing numbers of people are honing these skills in order to control family, friends and coworkers.
Flicking through some of the saner sections of neuro-linguistic programming texts (minus the new age content) brings up the subtle use of language and body-language to influence other people, writes "Mom" in personal online correspondence. One method of this technique is through "mirroring" the actions and words of the other person. Mom explains how:
Mirroring fosters a sense of ease or trust. Courting couples tend to do this intuitively (watch dating couples and see how they mirror things like sipping coffee, taking a bite of food, etc.) but it can be used as a way of making the mirrored party susceptible to persuasion. By doing the opposite to mirroring, the other party can be made ill-at-ease and be less amenable to persuasion (basically it rubs them up the wrong way).
Mom points out entertainer Derren Brown whose website reveals that he can seemingly predict and control human behaviour. He doesn't claim to be a mind-reader, instead he describes his craft as a mixture of magic, suggestion, psychology, misdirection and showmanship. Brown "primes" his audience members using subtle clues to respond in predetermined ways. The effect is dramatic.
This phenomenon may be found in simpler form per a circulating email that has the reader calculate the number six several times then asks for a vegetable. It claims 98% of people will choose "carrot." Mom also notes a Mind Control game that primes players based on their personality. Conformists will end up visualizing one image (eg, an elephant in Denmark) while nonconformists will see another (eg, an emu in Dubai).
 Coaxing people to respond predictably hits to the core of advertising. The average American is bombarded with hundreds of advertisements a day, and the proficient use of social and psychological cues is crucial to grab and hold their attention. There is also the basic assumption that the audience will believe the ad to be true, a key component in "catapulting the propaganda," as former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director and President George H. W. Bush's son later put so eloquently as president himself while explaining Social Security to an audience of senior citizens.
Propaganda comes in three flavors — white, or true facts, gray, and black, or blatant lies — the purpose of which is to shape public opinion. For example, the US Military has long dropped propaganda fliers on enemy troops depicting death and destruction from superior firepower. On the home front, President George W. Bush's administration has been criticized for producing illegal, fake news announcements to sell its federal programs. Bush's people were even caught digitally inserting images of soldiers into an ad in order to inflate their perceived ranks.
"The Old Gray Man of the CIA," William Colby, known for exposing The Company's "family jewels" from the 1970s to his mysterious disappearance and death in late April 1996, let us know that "the Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media." As Mark Phillips restates in his presentation of Project Mind Kontrol Ultra (MKULTRA) victim Presidential Sex Slave Cathy O'Brien, "Information control is mind control."
Vance Packard, in his 1957 book The Hidden Persuaders , brought the concept of "subliminal advertising" to the attention of the general public. A classic example is that brief images of popcorn and Coke shown on the screen during a drive-in theater movie increased sales of said products by 57.8 percent and 18.1 percent respectively, according to Wikipedia.*
Using certain images and sounds to subconciously affect viewers' purchasing habits is a powerful tool available to the media giants. While businesses vehemently deny using covert and possibly illegal methods of product presentation, observers have claimed it common practice and appearing in numerous adverts.
Auditory and visual stimuli have long been used to set up a scene in media productions. Usually this involves playing "mood music" or showing something like a scenic background. Taken a step further, certain sounds elicit physiological changes such as rapid heart rate, and specific colors and images alter aggression levels. The mere act of seeing a picture of a handgun, for example on warning signs attached to high school entryways, is proven to increase violent tendencies in people.
The power of video became painfully apparent during the 1998 Japanese airing of the "Electric Soldier Porygon" episode from the popular children's animated cartoon television series Pokemon. Rapidly alternating red and blue flashing colors were responsible for causing hundereds of children and many adults to suffer photosensitive epilepetic seizures. Evening news coverage again triggered the response in susceptible viewers. The hit animated television series The Simpsons even spoofed the phenomenon.
Biology is a powerful tool for those practicing Mind Control. Throughout all of recorded history, drugs have long been used to alter mind and body. Societies have ingested a wide variety of plant and animal products with noticable side effects for medicinal, religious, and recreational use.
One intersting find is that marijuana is not condusive to Mind Control, according to Cathy O'Brien with Mark Phillips in Access Denied: For Reasons of National Security. Since it can render mind control uncontrollable by penetrating memory compartmentalization, marijuana is strictly forbidden in the military, special forces, among spies, etc.
A much sought after property of drugs is improved sex drive, but aphrodisiacs are only one market for those seeking sexual potency. Sedatives made headlines in 1996 due to a huge increase in people spiking drinks with so-called "date rape drugs." Predators surreptitiously lace victims' beverages to eliminate inhibitions and suppress memory. Whether to rob or rape, slipping someone a Mickey is "almost like the perfect crime," according to prosecutor Dennis Nicewander, "because they don't have to worry about a witness testifying against them."
Sexuality itself can be affected in a variety of ways. Hormones from mother and pre-natal siblings alter gender expression. Genetic engineering can change sexual orientation. Behavioral reinforcement goes a long way in determination of kinks and fetishes. And chemical castration is even an option for some convicted felons.
British news agencies reported in January 2005 of a $7.5 million 1994 US Military project to develop a "love bomb" that would make enemy troops sexually attractive to each other. Included were ideas for an "attack me" bomb to attract swarms of wasps or rats as well as a long-desired "Who? Me?" bomb that would produce a noxious odor. A substance to make the skin unbearably sensitive to sunlight was also pondered, reports BBC News.
Claims of the US using damaging radioactive particles as carriers for these chemical bombs were made by the late Stanford researcher cum multistalking victim Clare Louise Therese Wherle in numerous online forums. Clare was not often believed regarding what she knew about radiation and nano-tech ways of using it for abuse, writes unity4people in her 2006 obituary, but she did know her stuff.
 President Bill Clinton apologized in 1995 for unethical government-sponsored MKULTRA radiation experiments conducted at hospitals, universities, and military bases around our nation during previous administrations. Mind control experimentation is [also] known to have taken place,…but official American society almost completely denies it or even ridicules the notion, posts Allen L. Barker to the website bio.net in his article "Recent Supreme Court Ruling, and Prison Mind Control."
From getting people to admit guilt to driving them mad, alchemists strive to improve on their magic potions. In the late 1950s, chemists began experimenting with a poison found in the blood of schizophrenics. "Taraxein" induced psychotic behavior in normal subjects administered the compound. Early clinical studies were even conducted combining taraxein with the powerfully hallucinogenic drug LSD.1
Of all the technologies available for Mind Control, brain implants may be the most invasive. While there is little physical evidence of their diabolical use on the general population, studies have shown the technology to be very effective at controlling behavior. In 1965 the New York Times reported that Jose Delgado stopped a charging bull with radio controlled implants. Delgado was able to "play" monkeys and cats like "little electronic toys" that yawn, hide, fight, play, mate and go to sleep on command.
Delgado's 1971 Physical Control of the Mind: Toward a Psychocivilized Society is a one of a kind book looking at the power of brain implants.
Vance Packard in his 1977 book The People Shapers writes of Robert G. Heath, an early researcher into direct brain stimulation, who equipped dangerously aggressive mental patients with self-stimulators. A film shows a patient working himself out of a violent mood by pushing his stimulator button.
 Other brain implant studies have shown that animals having the ability to self-stimulate their brain's pleasure centers will starve to death rather than take time to eat. Steerable, remote-controlled animals have been created, and neural implants have allowed us to see through an animal's eyes. Brain cells have even been cultured on a computer chip that learned how to control a flight simulator.
 Mind Control links
"Propaganda" at Wikipedia.org
"Subliminal message" at Wikipedia.org
Links > Gadgets > Pokemon at CIA Tradecraft at SkewsMe.com
Chapter MKULTRA
Links > Gadgets > Taraxein at CIA Tradecraft at SkewsMe.com
LSD Testing at SkewsMe.com
"Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll" at Wikipedia.org
"Mickey Finn" at SkewsMe.com
Drink Detective detects gamma hydroxybuturate (GHB), Ketamine and the more than 60 drugs in the benzodiazepine group that includes Rohypnol®, Valium®, Xanax® and Clonopin®.
"Conditioning" at SkewsMe.com
"Misexpression of the white (w) gene triggers male-male courtship in Drosophila," Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, June 1995.
"Chemical castration" at Wikipedia.org
"US military pondered love not war," BBC News, 15 Jan 2005.
Michael Smith, "Pentagon planned love bomb," Telegraph, 15 Jan 2005.
"Remarks by President on Accepting Human Radiation Final Report," Clinton Foundation, 3 October 1995.
Allen L. Barker, "Recent Supreme Court Ruling, and Prison Mind Control," at bio.net
"Brain Implants" by SkewsMe.com
"Operation Paperclip" at SkewsMe.com
Thought Reform
"Thought reform" is the Orwellian vision in which people are programmed to think alike for the prosperity of the State. Unbeknownst to Orwell, China was subjecting students to this "reeducation" process to adopt Communism. Wikipedia reports that in Influence, Science and Practice, social psychology researcher Robert Caildini shows how mind control is possible through the covert exploitation of the unconscious rules that underlie and facilitate healthy human social interactions.
Influence, Science and Practice
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_control
[Robert Caildin] notes the most common social rules that can be used to prey upon the unwary and titles them as follows:
"Reciprocation: The Old Give and Take…and Take"
"Commitment and Consistency: Hobgoblins of the Mind"
"Social Proof: Truths Are Us"
"Liking: The Friendly Thief"
"Authority: Directed Deference"
"Scarcity: The Rule of the Few"
Using these six broad categories, he shows many specific examples of both mild and extreme mind control (both one on one and in groups), notes the conditions under which each social rule is most easily exploited for false ends, and offers suggestions on how to fight these insidious, and often unconscious mind control methods.
Robert Jay Lifton was an early Mind Control researcher. He used the term "thought reform" to include milieu control, mystical manipulation, confession, self-sanctification through purity, aura of sacred science, loaded language, doctrine over person, and dispensed existence.
Lifton's Thought Reform
Source: www.changingminds.org/techniques/conversion/lifton_thought_reform.htm
Milieu control
All communication with outside world is limited, either being strictly filtered or completely cut off. Whether it is a monastery or a behind-closed-doors cult, isolation from the ideas, examples and distractions of the outside world turns the individuals attention to the only remaining form of stimulation, which is the ideology that is being inculcated in them.
This even works at the intrapersonal level, and individuals are discouraged from thinking incorrect thoughts, which may be termed evil, selfish, immoral and so on.
Mystical manipulation
A part of the teaching is that the group has a higher purpose than others outside the group. This may be altruistic, such as saving the world or helping people in need. It may also be selfish, for example that group members will be saved when others outside the group will perish.
All things are then attributed and linked to this higher purpose. Coincidences (which actually may be deliberately engineered) are portrayed as symbolic events. Attention is given to the problems of out-group people and attributed to their not being in the group. Revelations are attributed to spiritual causes.
This association of events is used as evidence that the group truly is special and exclusive.
Confession
Individuals are encouraged to confess past 'sins' (as defined by the group). This creates a tension between the person's actions and their stated belief that the action is bad, particularly if the statement is made publicly. The consistency principle thus leads the person to fully adopt the belief that the sin is bad and to distance themselves from repeating it.
Discussion of inner fears and anxieties, as well as confessing sins is exposing vulnerabilities and requires the person to place trust in the group and hence bond with them. When we bond with others, they become our friends, and we will tend to adopt their beliefs more easily.
This effect may be exaggerated with intense sessions where deep thoughts and feelings are regularly surfaced. This also has the effect of exhausting people, making them more open to suggestion.
Self-sanctification through purity
Individuals are encouraged to constantly push towards an ultimate and unattainable perfection. This may be rewarded with promotion within the group to higher levels, for example by giving them a new status name (acolyte, traveller, master, etc.) or by giving them new authority within the group.
The unattainability of the ultimate perfection is used to induce guilt and show the person to be sinful and hence sustain the requirement for confession and obedience to those higher than them in the groups order of perfection.
Not being perfect may be seen as deserving of punishment, which may be meted out by the higher members of the group or even by the person themselves, who are taught that such atonement and self-flagellation is a valuable method of reaching higher levels of perfection.
Aura of sacred science
The beliefs and regulations of the group are framed as perfect, absolute and non-negotiable. The dogma of the group is presented as scientifically correct or otherwise unquestionable.
Rules and processes are therefore to be followed without question, and any transgression is a sin and hence requires atonement or other forms of punishment, as does consideration of any alternative viewpoints.
Loaded language
New words and language are created to explain the new and profound meanings that have been discovered. Existing words are also hijacked and given new and different meaning.
This is particularly effective due to the way we think a lot though language. The consequence of this is that the person who controls the meaning of words also controls how people think. In this way, black-and-white thinking is embedded in the language, such that wrong-doers are framed as terrible and evil, whilst those who do right (as defined by the group) are perfect and marvellous.
The meaning of words are kept hidden both from the outside world, giving a sense of exclusivity. The meaning of special words may also be revealed in careful illuminatory rituals, where people who are being elevated within the order are given the power of understanding this new language.
Doctrine over person
The importance of the group is elevated over the importance of the individual in all ways. Along with this comes the importance of the the [sic] group's ideas and rules over personal beliefs and values.
Past experiences, beliefs and values can all thus be cast as being invalid if they conflict with group rules. In fact this conflict can be used as a reason for confession of sins. Likewise, the beliefs, values and words of those outside the group are equally invalid.
Dispensed existence
There is a very sharp line between the group and the outside world. Insiders are to be saved and elevated, whilst outsiders are doomed to failure and loss (which may be eternal).
Who is an outsider or insider is chosen by the group. Thus, any person within the group may be damned at any time. There are no rights of membership except, perhaps, for the leader.
People who leave the group are singled out as particularly evil, weak, lost or otherwise to be despised or pitied. Rather than being ignored or hidden, they are used as examples of how anyone who leaves will be looked down upon and publicly denigrated.
People thus have a constant fear of being cast out, and consequently work hard to be accepted and not be ejected from the group. Outsiders who try to persuade the person to leave are doubly feared.
Dispensation also goes into all aspects of living within the group. Any and all aspects of existence within the group is subject to scrutiny and control. There is no privacy and, ultimately, no free will.
Wikipedia notes that psychologist Margaret Singer, using the work of Lifton, described in her book "Cults in our Midst" six conditions, which would, she says, create an atmosphere where thought reform is possible. Singer sees no need for physical coercion or violence. She listed methods of "thought reform" to include controlling a person's time and environment, leaving no time for thought; creating a sense of powerlessness, fear and dependency; manipulating rewards and punishments to suppress former social behaviour; manipulating rewards and punishments to elicit the desired behaviour; creating a closed system of logic which makes dissenters feel as if something was wrong with them; and keeping recruits unaware about any agenda to control or change them.
Dr. Margaret T. Singer's 6 Conditions for Thought Reform
Source: www.refocus.org/singerne.html
These conditions create the atmosphere needed to put a thought reform system into place:
Keep the person unaware of what is going on and how she or he is being changed a step at a time.
Potential new members are led, step by step, through a behavioral-change program without being aware of the final agenda or full content of the group. The goal may be to make them deployable agents for the leadership, to get them to buy more courses, or get them to make a deeper commitment, depending on the leader's aim and desires.
Control the person's social and/or physical environment; especially control the person's time.
Through various methods, newer members are kept busy and led to think about the group and its content during as much of their waking time as possible.
Systematically create a sense of powerlessness in the person.
This is accomplished by getting members away from the normal social support group for a period of time and into an environment where the majority of people are already group members. The members serve as models of the attitudes and behaviors of the group and speak an in- group language. Strip members of their main occupation (quit jobs, drop out of school) or source of income or have them turn over their income (or the majority of) to the group. Once stripped of your usual support network, your confidence in your own perception erodes. As your sense of powerlessness increases, your good judgment and understanding of the world are diminished. (ordinary view of reality is destabilized) As group attacks your previous worldview, it causes you distress and inner confusion; yet you are not allowed to speak about this confusion or object to it — leadership suppresses questions and counters resistance. This process is speeded up if you are kept tired — the cult will keep you constantly busy.
Manipulate a system of rewards, punishments and experiences in such a way as to inhibit behavior that reflects the person's former social identity.
Manipulation of experiences can be accomplished through various methods of trance induction, including leaders using such techniques as paced speaking patterns, guided imagery, chanting, long prayer sessions or lectures, and lengthy meditation sessions. Your old beliefs and patterns of behavior are defined as irrelevant or evil. Leadership wants these old patterns eliminated, so the member must suppress them. Members get positive feedback for conforming to the group's beliefs and behaviors and negative feedback for old beliefs and behavior.
Manipulate a system of rewards, punishments, and experiences in order to promote learning the group's ideology or belief system and group-approved behaviors.
Good behavior, demonstrating an understanding and acceptance of the group's beliefs, and compliance are rewarded while questioning, expressing doubts or criticizing are met with disapproval, redress and possible rejection. If one expresses a question, he or she is made to feel that there is something inherently wrong with them to be questioning. The only feedback members get is from the group, they become totally dependent upon the rewards given by those who control the environment. Members must learn varying amounts of new information about the beliefs of the group and the behaviors expected by the group. The more complicated and filled with contradictions the new system in and the more difficult it is to learn, the more effective the conversion process will be. Esteem and affection from peers is very important to new recruits. Approval comes from having the new member's behaviors and thought patterns conform to the models (members). Members' relationship with peers is threatened whenever they fail to learn or display new behaviors. Over time, the easy solution to the insecurity generated by the difficulties of learning the new system is to inhibit any display of doubts -- new recruits simply acquiesce, affirm and act as if they do understand and accept the new ideology.
Put forth a closed system of logic and an authoritarian structure that permits no feedback and refuses to be modified except by leadership approval or executive order.
The group has a top-down, pyramid structure. The leaders must have verbal ways of never losing. Members are not allowed to question, criticize or complain — if they do, the leaders allege that the member is defective — not the organization or the beliefs. The individual is always wrong — the system, its leaders and its belief are always right. Conversion or remolding of the individual member happens in a closed system. As members learn to modify their behavior in order to be accepted in this closed system, they change — begin to speak the language — which serves to further isolate them from their prior beliefs and behaviors.
Wikipedia writes of psychologist and cult counselor Steven Hassan:
Using the research of Singer and Lifton and the cognitive dissonance theory of Leon Festinger, [Hassan] describes in his 2000 book Releasing the Bonds the BITE (Behavior, Information, Thought, Emotion) model, which explains mind control as a combination of control over behavior, information, thought and emotions. According to Hassan, the BITE model dispenses with any required environment control, and its effects can be achieved when the control mechanisms create overall dependency and obedience to some leader or cause.… However, many scholars in the field of new religious movements do not accept Hassan's Bite model for understanding cults.
Mind Control - The BITE Model
Source: www.freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/articles/BITE.htm
From chapter two of Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves © 2000 by Steven Hassan; published by Freedom of Mind Press, Somerville MA
Destructive mind control can be understood in terms of four basic components, which form the acronym BITE:
I. Behavior Control
II. Information Control
III. Thought Control
IV. Emotional Control
It is important to understand that destructive mind control can be determined when the overall effect of these four components promotes dependency and obedience to some leader or cause. It is not necessary for every single item on the list to be present. Mind controlled cult members can live in their own apartments, have nine-to-five jobs, be married with children, and still be unable to think for themselves and act independently.
I. Behavior Control
- Regulation of individual's physical reality
- Where, how and with whom the member lives and associates with
- What clothes, colors, hairstyles the person wears
- What food the person eats, drinks, adopts, and rejects
- How much sleep the person is able to have
- Financial dependence
- Little or no time spent on leisure, entertainment, vacations
- Major time commitment required for indoctrination sessions and group rituals
- Need to ask permission for major decisions
- Need to report thoughts, feelings and activities to superiors
- Rewards and punishments (behavior modification techniques- positive and negative).
- Individualism discouraged; group think prevails
- Rigid rules and regulations
- Need for obedience and dependency
II. Information Control
- Use of deception
- Deliberately holding back information
- Distorting information to make it acceptable
- Outright lying
- Access to non-cult sources of information minimized or discouraged
- Books, articles, newspapers, magazines, TV, radio
- Critical information
- Former members
- Keep members so busy they don't have time to think
- Compartmentalization of information; Outsider vs. Insider doctrines
- Information is not freely accessible
- Information varies at different levels and missions within pyramid
- Leadership decides who "needs to know" what
- Spying on other members is encouraged
- Pairing up with "buddy" system to monitor and control
- Reporting deviant thoughts, feelings, and actions to leadership
- Extensive use of cult generated information and propaganda
- Newsletters, magazines, journals, audio tapes, videotapes, etc.
- Misquotations, statements taken out of context from non-cult sources
- Unethical use of confession
- Information about "sins" used to abolish identity boundaries
- Past "sins" used to manipulate and control; no forgiveness or absolution
III. Thought Control
- Need to internalize the group's doctrine as "Truth"
- Map = Reality
- Black and White thinking
- Good vs. evil
- Us vs. them (inside vs. outside)
- Adopt "loaded" language (characterized by "thought-terminating clichés"). Words are the tools we use to think with. These "special" words constrict rather than expand understanding. They function to reduce complexities of experience into trite, platitudinous "buzz words".
- Only "good" and "proper" thoughts are encouraged.
- Thought-stopping techniques (to shut down "reality testing" by stopping "negative" thoughts and allowing only "good" thoughts); rejection of rational analysis, critical thinking, constructive criticism.
- Denial, rationalization, justification, wishful thinking
- Chanting
- Meditating
- Praying
- Speaking in "tongues"
- Singing or humming
- No critical questions about leader, doctrine, or policy seen as legitimate
- No alternative belief systems viewed as legitimate, good, or useful
IV. Emotional Control
- Manipulate and narrow the range of a person's feelings.
- Make the person feel like if there are ever any problems it is always their fault, never the leader's or the group's.
- Excessive use of guilt
- Who you are (not living up to your potential)
- Your family
- Your past
- Your affiliations
- Your thoughts, feelings, actions
- Social guilt
- Historical guilt
- Excessive use of fear
- Fear of thinking independently
- Fear of the "outside" world
- Fear of enemies
- Fear of losing one's "salvation"
- Fear of leaving the group or being shunned by group
- Fear of disapproval
- Extremes of emotional highs and lows.
- Ritual and often public confession of "sins".
- Phobia indoctrination : programming of irrational fears of ever leaving the group or even questioning the leader's authority. The person under mind control cannot visualize a positive, fulfilled future without being in the group.
- No happiness or fulfillment "outside"of the group
- Terrible consequences will take place if you leave: "hell"; "demon possession"; "incurable diseases"; "accidents"; "suicide"; "insanity"; "10,000 reincarnations"; etc.
- Shunning of leave takers. Fear of being rejected by friends, peers, and family.
- Never a legitimate reason to leave. From the group's perspective, people who leave are: "weak;" "undisciplined;" "unspiritual;" "worldly;" "brainwashed by family, counselors;" seduced by money, sex, rock and roll.
Thought Reform links
Dumbed Down
One means of bringing about thought reform is by "dumbing down" the population so it has less experience from which to draw. Throughout the 1980s and into the mid-1990s, the reading level of textbooks…dropped by two grade levels. That is, what used to be third-grade material is now fifth-grade material, writes Nancy Montgomery in her 1996 article "Dumbed-down texts too easy, too simple, too boring, critics say" for The Seattle Times.
According to Literacy Volunteers of America, the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey discovered that up to 51 percent of American adults lack a sufficient foundation of basic skills to function successfully in our society. Carl Sagan, whose television series "Cosmos" popularized science, warned that people must know the workings of science in order to be less easily manipulated. A 2002 Seattle Times article entitled "What we don't know about science could fill books" reported the National Science Foundation discovering that only about a third of adults showed a good understanding of the scientific process.
Jim Keith writes in Mass Control: Engineering Human Consciousness that since the advent of "progressive education" schools have not been intended to educate, but simply to regiment. Today's schools are producing young adults primed to follow orders rather than think critically. According to Alvin Toffler in his landmark 1970 book Future Shock, nothing could be better calculated to produce people uncertain of their goals, people incapable of effective decision-making under conditions of overchoice.
Dumbed Down links
Brainwashing
'Brainwashing' was popularized in September 1950 when Edward Hunter coined the term as a translation of hsi-nao meaning "to cleanse the mind" in an article on Communist Mind Control. China was using new psychological techniques to convert people to their way of thinking, including American prisoners of war.
Robert Lifton defined the "brainwashing processes" to include assault on identity, guilt, self-betrayal, breaking point, leniency, the compulsion to confess, the channeling of guilt, reeducation: logical dishonoring, progress and harmony, and final confession and rebirth.
Lifton's Brainwashing Processes
Source: www.changingminds.org/techniques/conversion/lifton_brainwashing.htm
Assault on identity
Aspects of self-identity are systematically attacked. For example the priests were told that they were not real Fathers. This has a serious destabilizing effect as people lose a sense of who they are. Losing the self also leads to weakening of beliefs and values, which are then easier to change.
Guilt
Constant arguments that cast the person as guilty of any kind of wrong-doing leads them to eventually feel shame about most things and even feel that they deserve punishment. This is another piece of the jigsaw puzzle of breakdown.
Self-betrayal
When the person is forced to denounce friends and family, it both destroys their sense of identity and reinforces feelings of guilt. This helps to separates them from their past, building the ground for a new personality to be built.
Breaking point
The constant assault on identity, guilt and self-betrayal eventually leads to them breaking down, much as the manner of the 'nervous breakdown' that people experience for other reasons. They may cry inconsolably, have convulsive fits and fall into deep depression. Psychologically, they may effectively be losing a sense of who they are and hence fearing total annihilation of the self.
Leniency
Just at the point when the person is fearing annihilation of the self, they are offered a small kindness, a brief respite from the assault on their identity, a cigarette or a drink. In those moments of light amongst the darkness, they may well feel a deep sense of gratitude, even though it is their torturer who is offering the 'kindness'. This is another form of Hurt and Rescue, albeit extreme.
The compulsion to confess
Having being pulled back from the edge of breakdown, they are then faced with the contrast of the hurt of potential further identity assault against the rescue of leniency. They may also feel the obligation of exchange in a need to repay the kindness of leniency. There also may be exposed to them the opportunity to assuage themselves of their guilt through confession.
The channeling of guilt
The overwhelming sense of guilty and shame that the person is feeling will be so confused by the multiple accusations and assaults on their identity, that the person will lose the sense of what, specifically, they are guilty of, and just feel the heavy burden of being wrong.
This confusion allows the captors to redirect the guilt towards what ever they please, which will typically be having lived a life of wrong and bad action due to living under an ideology which itself is wrong and bad.
Reeducation: logical dishonoring
The notion that the root cause of their guilt is an externally imposed ideology is a straw at which the confused and exhausted person grasps. If they were taught wrongly, then it is their teachers and the ideology that is more at fault. Thus to assuage their guilt, further confession about all acts under the ideology are brought out. By mentally throwing away these acts (in the act of confession) they also are now completing the act of rejecting the whole ideology.
Progress and harmony
The rejection of the old ideology leaves a vacuum into which the new ideology can be introduced. As the antithesis of the old ideology, it forms a perfect attraction point as the person flees the old in search of a contrasting replacement.
This progress is accelerated as the new ideology is portrayed as harmonious and ideally suited to the person's needs. Collegiality and calm replaces pain and punishment. The captors thus contrast in visible and visceral ways how wonderful the new ideology is as compared to the sins and the pain of the old ideology.
Final confession and rebirth
Faced with the stark contrast of the pain of the past with the rosy glow of the future that the new ideology presents, the person sheds any the final allegiance to the old ideology, confessing any remaining deep secrets, and takes on the full mantle of the new ideology.
This often feels, and has been described by many, as a form of rebirth. It may be accompanied by rites of passage as the person is accepted and cemented into the new order. The rituals will typically include strong statements made by the person about accepting the new ideology fully and completely, swearing allegiance to its leaders. Saluting flags, kissing other artefacts and other symbolic acts, all solemnly performed, all anchor them firmly in the new ground.
Wikipedia reports on sociologist Benjamin Zablocki:
[Zablocki] sees brainwashing as "term for a concept that stands for a form of influence manifested in a deliberately and systematically applied traumatizing and obedience-producing process of ideological resocializations" and states this same concept had historically also been called thought reform and coercive persuasion.
FACTNet uses "coercive psychological systems" as an umbrella term for all mind control including brainwashing, thought reform, destructive and coercive persuasion. They list tactics that include increasing suggestibility, establishing control over the person's social environment, prohibiting disconfirming information, making the person re-evaluate the most central aspects of his or her experience, creating a sense of powerlessness, creating strong aversive emotional arousals, and intimidation.
FACTNet's Coercive Mind Control Tactics
Source: www.factnet.org/coercivemindcontrol.html
TACTIC 1
Increase suggestibility and "soften up" the individual through specific hypnotic or other suggestibility-increasing techniques such as:Extended audio, visual, verbal, or tactile fixation drills, Excessive exact repetition of routine activities, Sleep restriction and/or Nutritional restriction.
TACTIC 2
Establish control over the person's social environment, time and sources of social support by a system of often-excessive rewards and punishments. Social isolation is promoted. Contact with family and friends is abridged, as is contact with persons who do not share group-approved attitudes. Economic and other dependence on the group is fostered.
TACTIC 3
Prohibit disconfirming information and non supporting opinions in group communication. Rules exist about permissible topics to discuss with outsiders. Communication is highly controlled. An "in-group" language is usually constructed.
TACTIC 4
Make the person re-evaluate the most central aspects of his or her experience of self and prior conduct in negative ways. Efforts are designed to destabilize and undermine the subject's basic consciousness, reality awareness, world view, emotional control and defense mechanisms. The subject is guided to reinterpret his or her life's history and adopt a new version of causality.
TACTIC 5
Create a sense of powerlessness by subjecting the person to intense and frequent actions and situations which undermine the person's confidence in himself and his judgment.
TACTIC 6
Create strong aversive emotional arousals in the subject by use of nonphysical punishments such as intense humiliation, loss of privilege, social isolation, social status changes, intense guilt, anxiety, manipulation and other techniques.
TACTIC 7
Intimidate the person with the force of group-sanctioned secular psychological threats. For example, it may be suggested or implied that failure to adopt the approved attitude, belief or consequent behavior will lead to severe punishment or dire consequences such as physical or mental illness, the reappearance of a prior physical illness, drug dependence, economic collapse, social failure, divorce, disintegration, failure to find a mate, etc.
These tactics of psychological force are applied to such a severe degree that the individual's capacity to make informed or free choices becomes inhibited. The victims become unable to make the normal, wise or balanced decisions which they most likely or normally would have made, had they not been unknowingly manipulated by these coordinated technical processes. The cumulative effect of these processes can be an even more effective form of undue influence than pain, torture, drugs or the use of physical force and physical and legal threats.
In 1957, sociologist Albert D. Biderman published "Communist Coercive Methods For Eliciting Individual Compliance" in the Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine. Biderman's Chart of Coercion includes isolation, monopolization of perception, induced debility and exhaustion, occasional indulgences, and devaluing of the individual.
Biderman's Chart of Coercion
Source: www.refocus.org/coerchrt.html
Isolation
Deprives individual of social support, effectively rendering him unable to resist
Makes individual dependent upon interrogator
Develops an intense concern with self
Once a person is away from longstanding emotional support and thus reality checks, it is fairly easy to set a stage for brainwashing. Spiritually abusive groups work to isolate individuals from friends and family, whether directly, by requiring the individuals to forsake friends and family for the sake of the "Kingdom" (group membership), or indirectly, by preaching the necessity to demonstrate one's love for God by "hating" one's father, mother, family, friends.
Abusive groups are not outward-looking, but inward-looking, insisting that members find all comfort and support and a replacement family within the group. Cut off from friends, relatives, previous relationships, abusive groups surround the recruits and hammer rigid ideologies into their consciousnesses, saturating their senses with specific doctrines and requirements of the group.
Isolated from everyone but those within the group, recruits become dependent upon group members and leaders and find it difficult if not impossible to offer resistance to group teachings. They become self-interested and hyper-vigilant, very fearful should they incur the disapproval of the group, which now offers the only support available to them which has group approval.
Warning signs:
The seed of extremism exists wherever a group demands all the free time of a member, insisting he be in church every time the doors are open and calling him to account if he isn't, is critical or disapproving of involvements with friends and family outside the group, encourages secrecy by asking that members not share what they have seen or heard in meetings or about church affairs with outsiders, is openly, publicly, and repeatedly critical of other churches or groups (especially if the group claims to be the only one which speaks for God), is critical when members attend conferences, workshops or services at other churches, checks up on members in any way, i.e., to determine that the reason they gave for missing a meeting was valid, or makes attendance at all church functions mandatory for participating in church ministry or enjoying other benefits of church fellowship.
Once a member stops interacting openly with others, the group's influence is all that matters. He is bombarded with group values and information and there is no one outside the group with whom to share thoughts or who will offer reinforcement or affirmation if the member disagrees with or doubts the values of the group. The process of isolation and the self-doubt it creates allow the group and its leaders to gain power over the members. Leaders may criticize major and minor flaws of members, sometimes publically, or remind them of present or past sins. They may call members names, insult them or ignore them, or practice a combination of ignoring members at some times and receiving them warmly at others, thus maintaining a position of power (i.e., the leaders call the shots.)
The sense of humiliation makes members feel they deserve the poor treatment they are receiving and may cause them to allow themselves to be subjected to any and all indignities out of gratefulness that one as unworthy as they feel is allowed to participate in the group at all. When leaders treat the member well occasionally, they accept any and all crumbs gratefully. Eventually, awareness of how dependent they are on the group and gratitude for the smallest attention contributes to an increasing sense of shame and degradation on the part of the members, who begin to abuse themselves with "litanies of self-blame," i.e., "No matter what they do to me, I deserve it, as sinful and wretched as I am. I deserve no better. I have no rights but to go to hell. I should be grateful for everything I receive, even punishment."
Monopolization of Perception
Fixes attention upon immediate predicament; fosters introspection
Eliminates stimuli competing with those controlled by captor
Frustrates all actions not consistent with compliance
Abusive groups insist on compliance with trival demands related to all facets of life: food, clothing, money, household arrangements, children, conversation. They monitor members' appearances, criticize language and childcare practices. They insist on precise schedules and routines, which may change and be contradictory from day to day or moment to moment, depending on the whims of group leaders.
At first, new members may think these expectations are unreasonable and may dispute them, but later, either because they want to be at peace or because they are afraid, or because everyone else is complying, they attempt to comply. After all, what real difference does it make if a member is not allowed to wear a certain color, or to wear his hair in a certain way, to eat certain foods, or say certain words, to go certain places, watch certain things, or associate with certain individuals. In the overall scheme of things, does it really matter? In fact, in the long run, the member begins to reason, it is probably good to learn these disciplines, and after all, as they have frequently been reminded, they are to submit to spiritual authority as unto the Lord.. Soon it becomes apparent that the demands will be unending, and increasing time and energy are focused on avoiding group disapproval by doing something "wrong." There is a feeling of walking on eggs. Everything becomes important in terms of how the group or its leaders will respond, and members' desires, feelings and ideas become insignificant. Eventually, members may no longer even know what they want, feel or think. The group has so monopolized all of the members' perceptions with trivial demands that members lose their perspective as to the enormity of the situation they are in.
The leaders may also persuade the members that they have the inside track with God and therefore know how everything should be done. When their behavior results in disastrous consequences, as it often does, the members are blamed. Sometimes the leaders may have moments, especially after abusive episodes, when they appear to humble themselves and confess their faults, and the contrast of these moments of vulnerability with their usual pose of being all-powerful endears them to members and gives hope for some open communication.
Threats sometimes accompany all of these methods. Members are told they will be under God's judgment, under a curse, punished, chastised, chastened if they leave the group or disobey group leaders. Sometimes the leaders, themselves, punish the members, and so members can never be sure when leaders will make good on the threats which they say are God's idea. The members begin to focus on what they can do to meet any and all group demands and how to preserve peace in the short run. Abusive groups may remove children from their parents, control all the money in the group, arrange marriages, destroy personal items of members or hide personal items.
Warning signs:
Preoccupation with trivial demands of daily life, demanding strict compliance with standards of appearance, dress codes, what foods are or are not to be eaten and when, schedules, threats of God's wrath if group rules are not obeyed, a feeling of being monitored, watched constantly by those in the group or by leaders. In other words, what the church wants, believes and thinks its members should do becomes everything, and you feel preoccupied with making sure you are meeting the standards. It no longer matters whether you agree that the standards are correct, only that you follow them and thus keep the peace and in the good graces of leaders.
Induced Debility and Exhaustion
People subjected to this type of spiritual abuse become worn out by tension, fear and continual rushing about in an effort to meet group standards. They must often avoid displays of fear, sorrow or rage, since these may result in ridicule or punishment. Rigid ministry demands and requirements that members attend unreasonable numbers of meetings and events makes the exhaustion and ability to resist group pressure even worse.
Warning Signs: Feelings of being overwhelmed by demands, close to tears, guilty if one says no to a request or goes against a church standards. Being intimidated or pressured into volunteering for church duties and subjected to scorn or ridicule when one does not "volunteer." Being rebuked or reproved when family or work responsibilities intrude on church responsibilities.
Occasional Indulgences
Provides motivation for compliance
Leaders of abusive groups often sense when members are making plans to leave and may suddenly offer some kind of indulgence, perhaps just love or affection, attention where there was none before, a note or a gesture of concern. Hope that the situation in the church will change or self doubt ("Maybe I'm just imagining it's this bad,") then replace fear or despair and the members decide to stay a while longer. Other groups practice sporadic demonstrations of compassion or affection right in the middle of desperate conflict or abusive episodes. This keeps members off guard and doubting their own perceptions of what is happening.
Some of the brainwashing techniques described are extreme, some groups may use them in a disciplined, regular manner while others use them more sporadically. But even mild, occasional use of these techniques is effective in gaining power.
Warning Signs:
Be concerned if you have had an ongoing desire to leave a church or group you believe may be abusive, but find yourself repeatedly drawn back in just at the moment you are ready to leave, by a call, a comment or moment of compassion. These moments, infrequent as they may be, are enough to keep hope in change alive and thus you sacrifice years and years to an abusive group.
Devaluing the Individual
Creates fear of freedom and dependence upon captors
Creates feelings of helplessness
Develops lack of faith in individual capabilities
Abusive leaders are frequently uncannily able to pick out traits church members are proud of and to use those very traits against the members. Those with natural gifts in the areas of music may be told they are proud or puffed up or "anxious to be up front" if they want to use their talents and denied that opportunity. Those with discernment are called judgmental or critical, the merciful are lacking in holiness or good judgment, the peacemakers are reminded the Lord came to bring a sword, not peace. Sometimes efforts are made to convince members that they really are not gifted teachers or musically talented or prophetically inclined as they believed they were. When members begin to doubt the one or two special gifts they possess which they have always been sure were God-given, they begin to doubt everything else they have ever believed about themselves, to feel dependent upon church leaders and afraid to leave the group. ("If I've been wrong about even *that*, how can I ever trust myself to make right decisions ever again?").
Warning Signs:
Unwillingness to allow members to use their gifts. Establishing rigid boot camp-like requirements for the sake of proving commitment to the group before gifts may be exercised. Repeatedly criticizing natural giftedness by reminding members they must die to their natural gifts, that Paul, after all, said, "When I'm weak, I'm strong," and that they should expect God to use them in areas other than their areas of giftedness. Emphasizing helps or service to the group as a prerequisite to church ministry. This might take the form of requiring that anyone wanting to serve in any way first have the responsibility of cleaning toilets or cleaning the church for a specified time, that anyone wanting to sing in the worship band must first sing to the children in Sunday School, or that before exercising any gifts at all, members must demonstrate loyalty to the group by faithful attendance at all functions and such things as tithing. No consideration is given to the length of time a new member has been a Christian or to his age or station in life or his unique talents or abilities. The rules apply to everyone alike. This has the effect of reducing everyone to some kind of lowest common denominator where no one's gifts or natural abilities are valued or appreciated, where the individual is not cherished for the unique blessing he or she is to the body of Christ, where what is most highly valued is service, obedience, submission to authority, and performance without regard to gifts or abilities or, for that matter, individual limitations.
Apart from describing the average workday, businesses are also exploiting their power by secretly investing in their workforce through so-called "dead peasant" life insurance. Companies including Disney and Wal-Mart2 have taken out these tax exempt policies on their employees, often illegally without the person's knowledge or consent. Working someone to death has become highly profitable.
Brainwashing links
Terror Cults
Death plays a critical role in Mind Control that promises Allah's grace for becoming an assassin. From at least as far back as 11th Century Persia (Iran), beautiful virgins have been promised to terrorists who enter the afterlife participating in a jihad. The First Grand Master of the Order of Assassins Hasan ibn-al-Sabbah struck fear into Middle Eastern leaders from his hideout at Alamut Castle. According to Edgar O'Ballance in Language of Violence: The Blood Politics of Terrorism:
His method of indoctrination was unique. He constructed a secret garden and furnished it with all the delights promised in the Koran…to the faithful when they reached paradise. The chosen were drugged, one or two at a time, and taken to this garden by night. When they woke up in the morning they were surrounded by beautiful and scantily clad [women] who would minister to their |
