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Mind control (or thought control) has the premise that an outside source can control an individual's thinking, behavior or consciousness (either directly or more subtly).
With the spread of mass electronic media like radio in the 1930s and later television, totalitarian régimes of the time capitalized on the new possibilities for manipulation and state propaganda. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda genius, pioneered most of the methods which modern spin doctors still use. Many people attribute the insightful claim: "A lie repeated many times becomes the Truth" to Goebbels. Ironically, spin doctors play a very important role in those democracies dependent on public opinion.
Totalitarian régimes use repression of freedom of speech to homogenize their population. Repression can range from simple censorship through character assassination to threats of outright state-sponsored murder. Stalin's purges offer examples.
Clearly, many influences from the outside world influence people's minds, such as advertising, media manipulation, and propaganda; however, people generally have a degree of conscious awareness of such influences.
Direct control without knowledge or consent
Mind control "technologies"
Hypothesized forms of mind control technology have included the use of drugs, hypnosis, Pavlovian conditioning, repetitive indoctrination, torture and subliminal stimuli. Government groups have actually experimented with all of these methods, with widely varying degrees of success.
Possible symptoms of schizophrenia (and sometimes of other forms of psychosis) include the belief that one is subject to external mind control, often by use of some form of technology. These often involve less plausible proposed mind-control technologies such as the use of microwave radiation or lasers to control thoughts, often by intelligence agencies and by secret societies.
However, others note that in fact these technologies do exist, in varying forms. ELF technology appears the most common and most well-documented. From the 1950s to the 1970s, both the Soviet Union and the United States carried out several experiments using ELF pulse transmissions to mimic human nerve impulses, in effect implanting certain states of consciousness -- particularly emotions -- by radiation. Scientists found that certain ELF frequencies, when transmitted in pulse mode, could induce emotions in subjects. Rauni-Leena Luukanen-Kilde, a former Finnish physician and a well-known ufologist and conspiracy theorist, sees many 'schizophrenics' as misdiagnosed victims of mind-control experiments. Physical implants discovered in the cerebral tissue of such 'schizophrenics' have allegedly substantiated such claims.
Some believers in mind control assert that no one has immunity to mind control: a person could just start talking to a someone on the street, and nearly instantly, he becomes a victim. Other sources believe that such mind control does not exist, and that attempts at mind control cannot subvert free will.
U.S. Government research into mind control
A CIA research program which included experiments on human participants, known principally by the codename MKULTRA, began in 1950, largely in response to alleged Soviet, Chinese, and North Korean uses of mind-control techniques (popularly known as "brainwashing") on U.S. prisoners of war in Korea.
The general consensus sees MKULTRA as a failure, although because most of the MKULTRA records were deliberately destroyed in 1973 by order of then-Director of Central Intelligence Richard Helms, it is impossible to have a complete understanding of the more than 150 individually-funded research projects sponsored by MKULTRA and the related CIA programs.
Subliminal advertising
Outline:
- James Vicary coined the term "subliminal advertising" .
- The publication in 1957 of Vance Packard's The Hidden Persuaders brought the term to the attention of the general public.
- In 1973 the book Subliminal Seduction claimed that advertising made widespread use of subliminal techiques.
Does control of brain processes amount to mind control?
With intense modern magnets and the technique of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) or repetitive TMS (rTMS), researchers have succeeded in transiently suppressing certain thought processes — such as the conjugation of verbs — with fleeting magnetic pulses to specific areas of the brain. The technique has proved a valuable tool for testing hypotheses about the role and interplay between brain regions in particular cognitive activities and psychiatric symptoms such as depression.
The extent and viability of these capabilities as "mind control" remain controversial and disputed.
For example, antidepressant drugs and mood stabilizers have a definite effect on mood, through what is believed to be a direct action on the chemistry of the brain. However, most people would not say that this constituted mind control, and people on these drugs do not feel "controlled". This raises the question: if outsiders can control brain processes at the electrical or chemical level without this amounting to "mind control", where does free will lie?
Cults and mind control controversies
The term "mind control" evolved from theories of brainwashing after these theories had been found not applicable and discredited with regard to cults. (Note that sociologists and other experts often dispute about what constitutes a "cult".)
In the anti-cult movement and Christian countercult movement mind control has the meaning of strong influence acquired and maintained by manipulation.
Instead of using the terms "brainwashing" or its modern variant of "mind control", the scientific community prefers to use terms like "influence", "deception", "propaganda" or "communal reinforcement" to describe the mechanisms and strategies of cults. In the 1990s, American courts stopped accepting "expert testimony" about people forced to join or remain in "cults" or as an excuse to commit crimes.
Sociologists David Bromley and Anson Shupe consider the idea that "cult"s are brainwashing American youth absurd.[1] (http://www.religioustolerance.org/brain_wa.htm)
American Psychological Association task force on mind control
The American Psychological Association (APA) in 1984 allowed Margaret Singer, the main proponent of anti-cult mind control theories, to set up a working group called Task Force on Deceptive and Indirect Methods of Persuasion and Control (DIMPAC).
In 1987 the DIMPAC committee submitted its final report to the Board of Social and Ethical Responsibility for Psychology of the APA. On May 11, 1987 the Board rejected the report and concluded that its kind of mind control theories, used in order to distinguish "cults" from religions, did not form part of accepted psychological science (American Psychological Association 1987). Although the APA memorandum only dismissed the theories of brainwashing and mind control as presented in the DIMPAC report — without prejudice to theories of influence and control other than those advocated by the DIMPAC committee - the results of the APA document proved devastating for the anti-cult movement[6].
In fact, the DIMPAC theories rejected by APA largely corresponded to the anti-cult position as a whole. Starting from the Fishman case (1990) (where a defendant accused of commercial fraud raised as a defense that he was not fully responsible since he was under the mind control of Scientology) American courts consistently rejected testimonies about mind control and manipulation, stating that these were not part of accepted mainline science (Anthony & Robbins 1992: 5-29). Margaret Singer and her associate Richard Ofshe filed suits against the APA and the American Sociological Association (who had supported APA's 1987 statement) but they lost in 1993 and 1994.
In 2002 Dr. Philip Zimbardo commented on the request by former members of new religious movements (NRMs) to reconsider the APA's position on the possibility of mind control [2] (http://www.apa.org/monitor/nov02/pc.html)
Steve Hassan and his BITE model for cults
The term destructive mind control, as used by self-proclaimed expert on "destructive cults" and anti-cult activist Steve Hassan is part of his BITE model [3] (http://www.freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/articles/BITE.htm). The BITE model advances a theory that mind control is a set of techniques to get control over people by manipulation and deception.
Hassan's critics argue that Steve Hassan uses the term "mind control" (for what they see as essentially a strong form of influence) only to justify the forcible extraction of believers from religious groups. They argue that Hassan doesn't merely say that fraudulent salesmanship persuaded the believers; he claims that these groups literally take away a victim's freedom of mind. For this reason an involuntary procedure must operate in order to "rescue" a "victim" from a "destructive cult", for "victims" may not realize their victimhood status and may resist rescuing. Hassan, after taking part in a number of deprogrammings in the late 1970s, distances himself from this practice and the criminal activities associated with that occupation and refers to his method as "strategic interaction".
Mind control in fiction
Mind control has proven a popular subject in fiction, featuring in books and films such as The Ipcress File, and The Manchurian Candidate, which has the premise that controllers could hypnotized a person into murdering on command while retaining no memory of the killing.
The TV series The Prisoner featured mind control as a recurring plot element.
George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four features a description of mind control, both directly by torture, and indirectly, in the form of pervasive mind control by the use of Newspeak, a constructed language designed to remove the possibility, Sapir-Whorf-wise of articulating or of even thinking subversive thoughts.
In science fiction, fantasy and superhero fiction, mind control often appears as the means whereby a person literally seizes control of the minds of the victims to the point where not only their bodies come under direct control, but also their consciousnesses as well, so that they become puppets -- like slaves -- to the controller. Fiction often depicts this process taking place electronically; the trademark equipment of the Batman supervillain The Mad Hatter -- headgear designed to put victims under his control when placed in direct physical contact with the head -- furnishes one example of this. In addition, characters with powerful telepathic or psychic abilities, like Professor X and Jean Grey of the X-Men, can do the same with mental concentration against a target.
See also: mind uploading
Mind control as entertainment
Hypnotism has often been used by stage performers to make volunteers do strange things, such as clucking like a chicken, for the entertainment of audiences. The British psychological illusionist Derren Brown performs more sophisticated mental tricks in his television programmes, Derren Brown: Mind Control.
See also
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Mind control
References
- Bromley, D.B. , Shupe, A.D. , Strange Gods: The Great American Cult Scare, Beacon Press, Boston, (1981).
- Hadden, Jeffrey K. , The Brainwashing Controversy (http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/cultsect/brainwashing.htm).
- Introvigne. Massimo , “Liar, Liar”: Brainwashing, CESNUR and APA. (http://www.cesnur.org/testi/gandow_eng.htm) (Rebuttal to DIMPAC report)
- Keith, Jim, Experiments in Mind-Control
- Kilde, Rauni Leena, M.D., Former Chief Medical Officer of Finland Microwave Mind-Control (http://www.raven1.net/kilde1.htm)
- Lifton, Robert J. , Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism (1961);
- Schein, Edgar H. et al., Coercive Persuasion (1961)
- Shapiro,K. A. Pascual-Leone, A., Mottaghy, F. M. , Gangitano, M. , & Caramazza, A. (2001). Grammatical distinctions in the left frontal cortex (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Retrieve&list_uids=11564316&dopt=Citation). Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 13(6), 713-720.
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