The Battle for Your Mind by Dick Sutphen

• So, to begin, I want to state the most basic of all facts about brainwashing: In the entire history of man, no one has ever been brainwashed and realized, or believed, that he had been brainwashed.
• What who have been brainwashed will usually passionately defend their manipulators, claiming they have simply been "shown the light"... or have been transformed in miraculous ways.
• Conversion is a "nice" word for brainwashing ... and any study of brainwashing has to begin with a study of Christian revivalism in eighteenth century America.
• The techniques are still being used today by Christian revivalists, cults, human-potential trainings, some business rallies, and the United States Armed Services ... to name just a few.
• Let me point out here that I don't think most revivalist preachers realize or know they are using brainwashing techniques.
• Three distinct and progressive states of trans-marginal inhibition were identified by Pavlov. The first is the equivalent phase, in which the brain gives the same response to both strong and weak stimuli. The second is the paradoxical phase, in which the brain responds more actively to weak stimuli then to strong. And the third is the ultra-paradoxical phase, in which conditioned response and behavior patterns turn from positive to negative or from negative to positive.
• The way to achieve conversion are many and varied, but the usual first step in religious or political brainwashing is to work on the emotions of an individual or group until they reach an abnormal level or anger, fear, excitement, or nervous tension.
• The progressive result of this mental condition is to impair judgement and increase suggestibility. The more this condition can be maintain or intensified, the more it compounds.
• Other often-used physiological weapon to modify normal brain functions are fasting, radical or high sugar diets, physical discomforts, regulation of breathing, mantra chanting in mediation, the disclosure of awesome mysteries, special lighting and sound effects, programmed response to incense, or intoxicating drugs.
• A repetitive beat, ideally ranging from 45 to 72 beats per minute (a rhythm close to the beat of the human heart), is very hypnotic and can generate an eyes-open altered state of consciousness in a very high percentage of people. And, one you are in an alpha state, you are at least 25 times as suggestible as you would be in full beta consciousness.
• A "voice roll" is a patterned, paced style used by hypnotists when inducing a trance.
• A voice roll can sound as if the speaker were talking to the beat of a metronome or it may sound as though he were emphasizing every word in a monotonous, patterned style. The words will usually be delivered at the rate of 45 to 60 beats per minute, maximizing the hypnotic effect.
• The power of suggestion given to hundreds of people in hypnosis assures that at least 10 to 25 percent would see whatever he suggested they see.
• It is  a psychological manipulation that works.
• Catharsis is a purging of repressed emotions.
• In catharsis (one of the three brain phases mentioned earlier), the brain-slate is temporarily wiped clean and the new suggestion is accepted.
• Powerful sound and the proper use of lighting are of primary importance in inducing an altered state of consciousness.
• Cults and human-potential organizations are always looking for new converts. To attain them, they must also create a brain-phase.
• The following are the six primary techniques used to generate the conversion:
• The meeting or training takes place in an area where participants are cut off from the outside world.
• Now, let's look at the second tip-off that indicated conversion tactics are being used. A schedule is maintain that causes physical and mental fatigue. This is primarily accomplished by long hours in which the participants are given no opportunity for relaxation or reflection.
•  The third tip-off: techniques used to increase the tension in the room or environment
• Number four: Uncertainty.
• The fifth clue that conversion tactics are being used is the introduction of jargon--new terms that have meaning only to the "insiders" who participate. Viscous language is also frequently used, purposefully, to make participants uncomfortable.
• The final tip-off is that there is no humor in the communications ... at least until the participants are converted. Then, merry-making and humor are highly desirable as symbols of the now joy the participants have supposedly "found".
• In human-potential training, the controllers will give a lengthy talk about the importance of "keeping agreements" in life.
• The participants vow to themselves and their trainer that they will keep their agreements. Anyone who does not will be intimidated into agreement or forced to leave.
• Before the gathering is complete, the agreements will be used to ensure that the new converts go out and find new participants.
• Be wary of an organization of this type that offers follow-up sessions after the seminar.
• As the early Christian revivalists found, long-term control is dependent upon a good followup system.
• Basically, the participants are concerned about being "put on the spot" or encountered by the trainers, guilt feelings are played upon, participants are tempted to verbally relate their innermost secrets to the other participants or forced to take part in activities that emphasize removing their masks.
• One of the most successful human-potential seminars forces the participants to stand on a stage in front of the entire audience while being verbally attacked by the trainers.
• Many faint, but most cope with the stress by mentally going away. They literally go into an alpha state, which automatically makes them many times as suggestible as they normally are.
• The sad truth is that a high percentage of people want to give away their power--they are true "believers"!
• Cult gatherings or human-potential training are an ideal environment to observe first-hand what is technically called the "Stockholm Syndrome." This is a situation in which those who are intimidated, controlled, or made to suffer, begin to love, admire, and even sometimes sexually desire their controllers or captors.
• But let me inject a word of warning here: If you think you can attend such gatherings and not be affected, you are probably wrong.
• Anger or resistance almost always assures conversion.
• The only hope of attending such gatherings without being affected is to be a Buddha and allow no positive or negative emotions to surface. Few people are capable of such detachment.
• I want to mention the United Sates Government and military boot camp. The Marine Corps talks about breaking men down before "rebuilding" them as new men--as marines! Well, that is exactly what they do, the same way a cult breaks its people down and rebuilds them as happy flower sellers on your local street corner. Every one of the six conversion techniques are used in boot camp.
• I'm not making a judgement as to whether that is good or bad. It is a fact that the men are effectively brainwashed. Those who won't submit must be discharged or spend much of their time in the brig.
• Once the initial conversion is effected, cults, armed services, and similar groups cannot have cynicism among their members. Members must responds to commands and do as they are told, otherwise they are dangerous to the organizational control. This is normally accomplished as a three-step De-cognition Process.
• Step One is Alertness Reduction: The controllers cause the nervous system to malfunction, making it difficult to distinguish between fantasy and reality. This can be accomplished in several ways. Poor diet is one; watch out for brownies and koolaid. The sugar throws the nervous system off. More subtle is the "spiritual diet" used by many cults.
• Inadequate sleep is another primary way to reduce alertness, especially when combined with long hours of work or intense physical activity. Also, being bombarded with intense and unique experiences achieves the same result.
• Step two is Programmed Confusion: You are mentally assaulted while your alertness is being reduced as in step one.
• During this phase of de-cognition, reality and illusion often merge and perverted logic is likely to be accepted.
• Step three is thought stopping: Techniques are used to cause the mind to go "flat." These are altered-state-of-consciousness techniques that initially induce calmness by giving the mind something simple to deal with and focusing awareness.
• It is important to be aware that when members or participants are instructed to use "thought-stopping" techniques, they are told that they will benefit by so doing: they will become "better soldiers" or "find enlightenment."
• There are three primary techniques used for thought stopping.
• The first is marching: the thump, thump, thump beat literally generates self-hypnosis and thus great susceptibility to suggestion.
• The second thought stopping techniques is meditation. If you spend an hour to an hour and a half a day in mediation, after a few weeks, there is a great probability that you will not return to full beta consciousness. You will remain in a fixed state of alpha for as long as you continue to mediate.
• The third thought-stopping technique is chanting, and often chanting in mediation. "Speaking in tongues" could also be included in this category.
• All three stopping techniques produce an altered state of consciousness.
• I am convinced that at least a third of the population is what Eric Hoffer calls "true believers." They are joiners and followers ... people who want to give away their power. They look for answers, meaning, and enlightenment outside themselves.
• In my years of communicating concepts and conducting training, I have run into them again and again. All I can do is attempt to show them that they only thing to seek is the True Self within. Their personal answers are to be found there and there alone. I communicate that the basics of spirituality are self-responsibility and self-actualization. But most of the true believers just tell me that I'm not spiritual and go looking for someone who will give them the dogma and structure they desire.
• Never underestimate the potential danger of these people. They can easily be molded into fanatics who will gladly work and die for their holy cause.
• The Moral Majority is made u of true believers. All cults are composed of true believers.
• Mass Movements will usually have a charismatic leader. The followers want to convert others to their way of living or impose a new way of life--if necessary, by legislating laws forcing others to their view, as evidenced by the activities of the Moral Majority. This means enforcement by guns or punishment, for that is the bottom line in law enforcement.
• A common hatred, enemy, or devil is essential to the success of a mass movement.
• The True Believers are mentally unbalanced or insecure people, or those without hope or friends. People don't look for allies when they love, but they do when they hate or become obsessed with a cause.
• Persuasion isn't technically brainwashing but it is the manipulation of the human mind by another individual, without the manipulated party being aware what caused his opinion to shift.
• The basis of persuasion is always to access your right brain. The left half of your brain is analytical and rational. The right side is creative and imaginative. That is overly simplified but it makes my point. So, the idea is to distract the left brain and keep it busy.
• Assume for a moment that you are watching a politician give a speech. First, he might generate what is called a "yes set." These are statements that will cause listeners to agree; they might even unknowingly nod their heads in agreement. Next come the truisms. These are usually facts that could be debated but, once the politician has his audience agreeing, the odds are in the politician's favor that the audience won't stop to think for themselves, thus continuing to agree. Last comes the suggestion. This is what the politician wants you to do and, since you have been agreeing all along, you could be persuaded to accept the suggestion.
• But you might also watch for what are called embedded commands.
• Today's media-oriented politicians and spellbinders are often carefully trained by a whole new breed of specialist who are using every trick in the book--both old and new--to manipulate you into accepting their candidate.
• Neuro-linguistic training is readily available to anyone willing to devote the time and pay the price. It is some of the most subtle and powerful manipulation I have yet been exposed to.
• Another technique that I'm just learning about is unbelievable slippery; it is called an interspersal technique and the idea is to say one thing with words but plant a subconscious impression of something else in the minds of the listeners and/or watchers.
• Usually, when people are shocked, they immediately withdraw.
• We are all conditioned that if someone s gives us something, we have to give them something in return.
• Subliminals are hidden suggestions that only your subconscious perceives.
• If subliminals are not perceptible, they cannot be effective, and subliminals recorded below the audible threshold are therefore useless.
• 10 to 25 percent of the population is capable of a somnambulistic level of altered states of consciousness.
• Vibrato is the tremulous effect imparted in some vocal or instrumental music, and the cycle-per-second range causes people to go into an altered state of consciousness.
• The more we find out about how human beings work through today's highly advanced technological research, the more we learn to control human beings. And what probably scares me the most is that the medium for takeover is already in place! The television set in your living room and bedroom is doing a lot more than just entertaining you.
• When you go into an altered state, you transfer into right brain, which results in the internal release of the body's own opiates: enkephalins and beta-endorphins, chemically almost identical to opium. In other words, it feels good...and you want to come back for more.
• Most viewers are already hypnotized. To deepen the trance is easy.
• Every hour that you spend watching the TV set you become more conditioned.