Behind the Folklore - Simon Said

by Sian

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MIND CONTROL

(Please note the term mind control is a general term)

Mind control is the term for numerous techniques and theories, controversial and otherwise, for the subversion of another’s behaviour, emotions and thinking. Often associated with one individuals assertion of their will over another’s in order to achieve their means. The exact definition of ability, control and effect of such a thing as mind control is widely debated among psychologists, neuroscientists, and sociologists and has been debated in a legal implication through the use of psychology to influence another for personal gain and even murder. It was an issue in the court case of Patty Hearst, Richmond v k, and several court cases regarding New Religious Movements. Subliminal advertising is also thought of as an unproven method of mind control in which messages are relayed to the public by being hidden in broadcasted advertisements. This is mainly believed to be more a subtext of brainwashing a loose connection to the scientific definition of mind control.

Mind control has been documented as early as the 14th-15th Century with the burning of witches who were believed to of been capable of forcing their neighbours to commit sin against God in the name of their Lord Satan.

With the end of the witch hunting mind control was all but pushed to the back of humanity’s mind, (bar those with the belief they were capable practitioners. Such people were often committed to the local Asylum), mind control would come back in to focus with the turn of the 1930's and the evolution of science and the establishment of neurotechnology. It was established by a group of German scientists during Stalin's, Hitler's and other totalitarian regimes that a potential field across a neural cell membrane could cause it to fire artificially. Experiments upon large numbers of ocean squid showed such artificial stimulation possible. With the evolvement of the understanding of the brain and the possibilities of neurological abilities over the last 70 years, justifying if not substantiating much of their theories for the substantial possibility of mind control and brain washing.

These techniques are a popular debate point among conspiritists, cult critics and even the subject of speculative fiction writers due to the consequences and real working mind control applications such as the use by religious cults, governments as torture techniques used to obtain confessions, by dictators to break resistance movements, by the advertising industry to manipulate consumer habits, and public relations to manufacture consent or remediate corporate image in the event of a crisis. Not to mention those that wish to take over the world with mind control and use it to wipe out free will. The question of mind control has been discussed in conjunction with religion, politics, prisoners of war, totalitarianism, neural cell manipulation, cults, terrorism, torture, parental alienation, and even battered person syndrome. Yet nobody is willing to state whether it is just purely scientific, whether it is to become part of our future as we and the power of our minds evolve or whether the power to assert your will over another is already a supernatural phenomenon that humanity is already capable of but practitioners will not come forward due to fear of peoples reactions and the more than likely possibility of government agents carting you of experimenting on you then cutting your mind open in order to define how it is possible for their own means.


HYPNOSIS

Hypnosis is a psychological condition that prompts people to commit various actions differing from their every day behaviour and thinking through suggestibility and subjective feelings to create an altered state of consciousness. Not eveyone is capable of hyponsis or being influenced by it.
Some supposed hypnotic indicators and subjective changes can be achieved without relaxation or a lengthy induction, a fact that increases the controversy around hypnosis. Hypnotic procedures and suggestions differ depending on the goals of the practitioner. Procedures traditionally involve suggestions to relax, though relaxation is not necessary for hypnosis and a wide variety of suggestions can be used including those to become more alert.


By Sian Howarth (thanks Dee Dee for your extract)