25 Scary Facts
About Government Brainwashing

Although there are a lot of unfounded myths and conspiracy theories about brainwashing, it is still considered to be a very serious and scary mind control technique. As a student, you're used to analyzing problems from all angles and making your own deductions, independent of what anyone else tells you. But what if things didn't always work that way? Here are 25 scary and surprising facts about brainwashing.

Theory and Systems

These mind control and brainwashing theories tackle the history of brainwashing and different techniques used to control victims.

1. Repeated confrontation: The repeated confrontation method supposedly serves to "break down a person's resistance, expose poor habits, and allow the person to start over with correct methods and new goals," according to VisionandPsychosis.net.
2. Brainwashing has nothing to do with self-discipline: Even in situations involving obsessive compulsive behavior or corrupted thought processes, any new idea or practice brought about through self-discipline is not considered brainwashing. Brainwashing exclusively refers to manipulating a person's sensibilities and thought processes against their will.
3. The use of chemicals, drugs or physical tools isn't brainwashing: If someone is using chemicals, drugs, weapons or other physical devices to get desired results from a person, he or she is not brainwashing them. Brainwashing is mind control without the use of outside resources.
4. Education and re-education: Before the term brainwashing was introduced, the same techniques and effects were referred to as "re-education," in the U.S. in the Soviet Union especially.
5. Brainwashing is generally considered a form of torture: Because manipulators may use torture methods to achieve brainwashing their victims, brainwashing itself is referred to as a form of torture in some dictionaries.
6. The Chinese are the first official brainwashers: Brainwashing was coined in the early 1950s by journalist Edward Hunter, who wanted to describe the efforts of the Chinese Communists to control the minds and thought processes of the Chinese people after their takeover in 1949.
7. Brainwashing is especially effective during times of transition: During times of major social, political or personal transition, the brain is most vulnerable to brainwashing.
8. Guilt, confession and shaming techniques: Making victims feel guilty or shameful for putting faith in their original convictions, lifestyle, or family and friends is an effective technique for forcing them to accept new ideas.
9. Confinement and isolation: Keeping victims confined and away from the people and environments that are familiar to them breaks down resistance and is a technique often used to brainwash individuals.
10. Despite torture, victims often end up feeling a bond between themselves and their captors: After accepting the new ideals of the group, victims will also accept their treatment and even feel bonded and loyal to their captors.
11. Mystical Manipulation: This mind control technique is used to convince victims that their captors or leaders experience divine intervention. Supposedly spontaneous "magic" or spiritual-like experiences will occur, making the brainwashers seem more powerful and truthful, but it is actually an orchestrated plan designed to trick victims.

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July 23, 2009

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