David Ruben -- Social Engineering, Brainwashing and Hypnosis

In the entire history of man, no one has ever been brainwashed and realized, or believed, that he (or she) had been brainwashed. Inevitably all those who have been brainwashed will usually passionately defend their manipulators, claiming they have "seen the light" ...or have been transformed by recently discovered scientific knowledge. The question is how is it possible to brainwash (or induce mental illness in) an entire country? If we look at the former Soviet Union and Communist China to name just 2 examples, we see that it has been done successfully to the masses for hundreds of years.

Conversion is a "gentle" word for brainwashing...and any study of brainwashing has to include a study of the use of the technique by Jonathan Edwards in early America. Apparently, Jonathan Edwards accidentally discovered the techniques during a religious crusade in 1735 in Northampton, Massachusetts. By inducing guilt and acute apprehension, and by increasing emotional tension, "sinners" (today’s equivalent of being persecuted for being politically incorrect) attending his revival meetings would completely break down and submit to their accuser.

Technically, what Edwards was doing was creating conditions that wipe clean the “chalk board of the brain” so that the mind was then susceptible to new programming. The problem was that the new input was negative. He would tell them, "You're a sinner! You're destined for hell!" As a result, one person committed suicide and another attempted suicide. And the neighbors of the suicidal converts related that they, too, were affected so deeply that, although they had found "eternal salvation," they were obsessed with a diabolical temptation to end their own lives.

Once a cult leader (Jim Jones), manipulator or authority figure creates the right mental conditions to wipe the chalk board clean, his unwitting subjects are wide open to any replacement idea. New input, in the form of suggestion, can be substituted for their all previous ideas. “Personality Change” was modeled by Kurt Lewin as a three stage process: Unfreezing the current worldview, changing the worldview, and refreezing the new worldview (Schein, 1961).

Stage 1 - involves reducing our alertness (awareness) and forcing on us various kinds of sensory or information overload, confusion, or distraction. This builds a tremendous psychological and physiological tension that needs to be released (this is roughly analogous to the first step in a stage hypnosis induction, creating confusion or distraction by means of a sudden shock). When longer-term effects are desired, the means of destabilizing people include inducing anxiety and terror.

Stage 2 - involves reducing the tension and anxiety generated in the first stage, and providing something to focus on. This is the step where we enter "trance," as our welcome relief. The person temporarily becomes weak, with no strong convictions or standards about what is logical, and begins thinking in a magical, wishful way (Holt, 1964). They become unable to distinguish fantasy from reality, dependent upon authority, basically to regress to a childlike state. In some ways, hypnosis is similar to regression to a childlike state. In fact, some psychoanalytic theorists have claimed that hypnosis is a kind of regression. This provides a distinct relief from the psychological stresses imposed in the first stage. By controlling behavior, information, thought, and emotions to some extent, experience both within and outside of hypnosis will begin to be interpreted in a new way, causing a shift to the new belief system (Hassan, 1990). Personality change is made possible by the extension of the "trance" (by imposing more severe stresses), and the use of the "trance" to help create additional changes that will be reinforced by the environment.

Stage 3 - involves reinforcing the new beliefs and new sense of identification with the group/belief. This involves continuing and systematic control of thought, information and emotions. Personality factors which allow some people to be influenced more permanently than others by these kinds of pressures include:

• Lack of assertiveness
• Low intelligence
• Reliance on external supports for perception and belief
• Lack of self-confidence
• Valuing conformity above independence
• Black and white thinking
• Identity confusion
• History of embracing outside influences in unconditional surrender ("True Believer")
• Other-directedness vs. Inner-directedness

Did you know? CSPI's Secret Brainwashing Campaign

Published by the Center For Consumer Freedom November 1, 1998 - Local school boards and superintendents screen most organizations that try to reach our children, but some sneak their agendas through by flying under the boards' radar screens - and directly into the classrooms. Take the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which boasts that it will get its message "into classrooms from Bakersfield to Bangor."

CSPI's current crusade is its "1% or less" campaign, aimed at getting kids to drink only skim or 1% milk. This from a group with no educational training, no government authority and typically no permission from local boards to be anywhere near the classroom. Their goal? To change your children's behavior to suit their agendas. Once indoctrinated, they urge kids to become little missionaries who bring the group's propaganda home.

To be continued…

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