Mind control

File:Merge.png

This page has been nominated for merging into Brainwashing Use the discussion page to start a debate about this.

Mind control link (Social control, Torture, Psychological warfare) Cavdef Sourcewatch
File:Mind control.jpg
Mind Control aims to gain domination over the victim by making them cede their autonomy to the controlling person or group. Methods include lying, isolation, manipulation, indoctrination, electroshock, operant conditioning, coding / programming and "brainwashing".

{{#subobject:

|Has superobject=Mind control |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=George Orwell|+sep=, |Has text=“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your choosing.” |Is about=Mind control,power, mind control, psychic driving|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate=1948 |Sourced from=Nineteen Eighty-Four |Has sourceDetails= |Has sourceTitle= |Has sourceName=Nineteen Eighty-Four |Has sourceURL=http://www.george-orwell.org/1984/19.html

}}

“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your choosing.”
George Orwell (1948) 

Mind control was the subject of many research projects immediately after World War II. One of the primary focuses was the extraction of information from prisoners, and another was the creation of "Manchurian Candidates" - i.e. programmed assassins who could be reliably used to carry out assassinations in a plausibly deniable fashion. The research projects are believed to be successful, but the extent of their success is hard to estimate since CIA Director Richard Helms ordered the destruction of all documents relating to MKUltra in 1973.

Definition

The goal of mind control is to gain total domination over the victim and to create dependency structures. To this end many techniques are used and combined, ie. isolation, manipulation, indoctrination, operant conditioning, coding / programming and "brainwashing".

{{#subobject: |Has superobject=Mind control |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=Steve Hassan|+sep=, |Has text=“Mind Control is a system of influences which break the identity of an individual (his/her beliefs, behavior, thoughts and feelings) and replace it with a new identity” |Is about=Mind control,Social control, Torture, Psychological warfare, Psyop, SRA, manipulation, thought reform, brainwashing, mental control, coercive persuasion, malignant use of group dynamics|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate=1993 |Sourced from=Steve Hassan (1988/2015) Combatting Cult Mind control. Freedom of Mind Press . |Has sourceDetails= |Has sourceTitle= |Has sourceName=Steve Hassan (1988/2015) Combatting Cult Mind control. Freedom of Mind Press . |Has sourceURL=

}}

“Mind Control is a system of influences which break the identity of an individual (his/her beliefs, behavior, thoughts and feelings) and replace it with a new identity”
Steve Hassan (1993) 
Deutsch: Ausbruch aus dem Bann der Sekten; Reinbek, 1993; p. 25

Philip Zimbardo defined mind control as "the process by which individual or collective freedom of choice and action is compromised by agents or agencies that modify or distort perception, motivation, affect, cognition or behavioral outcomes," and he suggested that any human being is susceptible to such manipulation.

{{#subobject: |Has superobject=Mind control |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=Ritualistic Abuse Consultancy, Sydney .|+sep=, |Has text=“The goal and end of Mind Control is to control and bondage the victim or survivor both during abuse and ritual and during 'normal life'” |Is about=Mind control,Social control, Torture, Psychological warfare, Psyop, SRA, manipulation, thought reform, brainwashing, mental control, coercive persuasion, malignant use of group dynamics|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate= |Sourced from=Convention handout, Ritualistic Abuse Consultancy, Sydney |Has sourceDetails= |Has sourceTitle= |Has sourceName=Convention handout, Ritualistic Abuse Consultancy, Sydney |Has sourceURL=

}}

“The goal and end of Mind Control is to control and bondage the victim or survivor both during abuse and ritual and during 'normal life'”
Ritualistic Abuse Consultancy, Sydney .

Techniques leading to such an effect were known for centuries by religious groups and cults. In the 19th century foster homes were built and techiques to break the will were perfected in order to keep a large number of inmates with as few personal as possible. These 'correction centers' were precursors to the Nazi concentration camps.

A survivor, Bruno Bettelheim, who has spent one year in two German concentration camps for political prisoners — Dachau and Buchenwald — reports his psychological observations: {{#subobject: |Has superobject=Mind control |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=Grotjahn, M.|+sep=, |Has text=“The aims of the concentration camp as an institution are to break the prisoners as individuals, to spread terror among the rest of the population, and to provide the Gestapo with a training ground and an experimental laboratory. [...] The typical initial reactions are feelings of detachment: 'this can't be true … things like this just don't happen'.

The first few weeks are the worst; persons who manage to live through the transportation to camp and the first three months thereafter, have a fair chance of surviving. If the tortures become too intense, indifference takes the place of anxiety. Prisoners are particularly sensitive to punishments resembling those a parent might inflict upon a child. Prisoners' dreams rarely deal with situations of extreme torture but instead with comparatively smaller maltreatment. Group formation, especially around a hero or martyr, is very effectively prohibited by means of group punishments. For only a short time do the new prisoners direct their hostility primarily against their real enemy; in many cases it is soon turned against former friends or members of the family by whom the prisoners feel deserted. Old prisoners come to direct their hostility mostly against themselves. Gradually a regression to infantile levels take place, turning many prisoners into willing tools in the hands of the Gestapo.

In the phase of 'final adjustment', the strangest phenomenon of all could be observed: the prisoners' identification with the guards. Certain prisoners even tried to imitate the guards' uniforms, became cruel to their fellow-prisoners, partly accepted Nazi ideology. The author's conclusion is: What thus happens in an extreme fashion to the prisoners in concentration camps, happens also, in a somewhat less exaggerated form, to the inhabitants of the great concentration camp called 'Greater Germany'.” |Is about=Mind control,Social control, Torture, Psychological warfare, Psyop, SRA, manipulation, thought reform, brainwashing, mental control, coercive persuasion, malignant use of group dynamics|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate=1945 |Sourced from=Grotjahn, M. (1945). Individual and Mass Behavior in Extreme Situations: Bruno Bettelheim. J. of Abnormal and Social Psychology, XXXVIII, 1943, pp. 417–452.. Psychoanal Q., 14:143-144. |Has sourceDetails= |Has sourceTitle= |Has sourceName=Grotjahn, M. (1945). Individual and Mass Behavior in Extreme Situations: Bruno Bettelheim. J. of Abnormal and Social Psychology, XXXVIII, 1943, pp. 417–452.. Psychoanal Q., 14:143-144. |Has sourceURL=http://www.brown.uk.com/brownlibrary/BET.htm

}}

“The aims of the concentration camp as an institution are to break the prisoners as individuals, to spread terror among the rest of the population, and to provide the Gestapo with a training ground and an experimental laboratory. [...] The typical initial reactions are feelings of detachment: 'this can't be true … things like this just don't happen'.

The first few weeks are the worst; persons who manage to live through the transportation to camp and the first three months thereafter, have a fair chance of surviving. If the tortures become too intense, indifference takes the place of anxiety. Prisoners are particularly sensitive to punishments resembling those a parent might inflict upon a child. Prisoners' dreams rarely deal with situations of extreme torture but instead with comparatively smaller maltreatment. Group formation, especially around a hero or martyr, is very effectively prohibited by means of group punishments. For only a short time do the new prisoners direct their hostility primarily against their real enemy; in many cases it is soon turned against former friends or members of the family by whom the prisoners feel deserted. Old prisoners come to direct their hostility mostly against themselves. Gradually a regression to infantile levels take place, turning many prisoners into willing tools in the hands of the Gestapo.

In the phase of 'final adjustment', the strangest phenomenon of all could be observed: the prisoners' identification with the guards. Certain prisoners even tried to imitate the guards' uniforms, became cruel to their fellow-prisoners, partly accepted Nazi ideology. The author's conclusion is: What thus happens in an extreme fashion to the prisoners in concentration camps, happens also, in a somewhat less exaggerated form, to the inhabitants of the great concentration camp called 'Greater Germany'.”
Grotjahn, M. (1945) 

History

Mind Control was subject to intensive research post WW2, by the CIA and similar agencies such as the ONI. Through Operation Paperclip the CIA imported Nazi doctors, whom it allowed to continue their research.

Nowadays black sites such as Guantanamo Bay or Abu Ghraib offer a similar off-the-books chance to carry out destructive research into forceful attempts to reshaping the human psyche . A new goal of what President Bush jr. called a "CIA program" he wanted to "allow to go forward" was to tailor mind control tactics for exploiting individual and cultural weaknesses: {{#subobject: |Has superobject=Mind control |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=Alfred W. McCoy|+sep=, |Has text=“In late 2002, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld appointed General Geoffrey Miller to command Guantanamo with wide latitude for interrogation, making this prison an ad hoc behavioral laboratory. Moving beyond the CIA’s original attack on sensory receptors universal to all humans, Guantanamo’s interrogators stiffened the psychological assault by exploring Arab “cultural sensitivity” to sexuality, gender identity, and fear of dogs. General Miller also formed Behavioral Science Consultation teams of military psychologists who probed each detainee for individual phobias[...].” |Is about=Mind control,Social control, Torture, Psychological warfare, Psyop, Mind control, manipulation, Guantanamo|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate=2006 |Sourced from= |Has sourceDetails= |Has sourceTitle=The History of U.S. Torture |Has sourceName= |Has sourceURL=http://apjjf.org/-Alfred-W--McCoy/2291/article.pdf

}}

“In late 2002, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld appointed General Geoffrey Miller to command Guantanamo with wide latitude for interrogation, making this prison an ad hoc behavioral laboratory. Moving beyond the CIA’s original attack on sensory receptors universal to all humans, Guantanamo’s interrogators stiffened the psychological assault by exploring Arab “cultural sensitivity” to sexuality, gender identity, and fear of dogs. General Miller also formed Behavioral Science Consultation teams of military psychologists who probed each detainee for individual phobias[...].”
Alfred W. McCoy (2006)  The History of U.S. Torture

Mind control and operation Gladio

A victim of Monarch programming, Dr. Hans Ulrich Gresch said that the primary goal of his programming was to create "sleepers" - agents used to infiltrate partisan organizations to be used as "terrorists". He suggests that victims of Mind control might be placed in stay behind armies such as Gladio.

In his book , he also suggests that on 9/11 Mind Control victims might have been used. They might have been recruited as children, drugged and programmed to be suicide bombers in so called Jihad academies run by Mind Control specialists posing as spiritual leaders.

Effects on witnesses

Witnessing torture has traumatizing effects. Naomi Klein notes:

{{#subobject: |Has superobject=Mind control |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=Naomi Klein|+sep=, |Has text=“When torture is covertly practiced but officially and legally repudiated, there is still hope that if atrocities are exposed, justice could prevail. When torture is pseudo-legal and those responsible deny that it is torture, what dies is what Hannah Arendt called "the juridical person in man".” |Is about=Mind control,Social control, Torture, Psychological warfare, Psyop, manipulation, thought reform, brainwashing, mental control, coercive persuasion|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate=2005 |Sourced from=The Guardian, The US has used torture for decades. All that's new is the openness about it |Has sourceDetails= |Has sourceTitle= |Has sourceName=The Guardian, The US has used torture for decades. All that's new is the openness about it |Has sourceURL=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/dec/10/usa.comment

}}

“When torture is covertly practiced but officially and legally repudiated, there is still hope that if atrocities are exposed, justice could prevail. When torture is pseudo-legal and those responsible deny that it is torture, what dies is what Hannah Arendt called "the juridical person in man".”
Naomi Klein (2005) 

Practicing torture violates the human right of dignity. But it is also an assault on identity for those who learn about the policy of democratic leaders to use it as a scare tactic and for human experimentation. Denying it's effects is a particularly malignant betrayal of the widespread belief that a democracy protects human rights and the state should be a protective institution. ^{[relevance to mind control?]}

Recent Developments

Mind control research is ongoing.

Cultural references

George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four includes narration of the main character's imprisonment, isolation, and torture in an effort to control his his thoughts and emotions to the wishes of the rulers of Orwell's fictional future totalitarian society.

References