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The truth about mind control

All you have to do to get someone to believe something is make them behave as if they do.

By Richard Wiseman Published 03 July 2012 9:28

An American soldier taking a communist prisoner in Korea

A US soldier taking a communist prisoner in Korea. A surprisingly large number of US service personnel were pro-communist when they returned from the war. Photograph: Getty Images

At the end of the Korean War, 21 American prisoners-of-war chose to remain in communist Korea and openly sided with an enemy that had killed thousands of their comrades. In addition, a surprisingly large number of the American service personnel who did return home enthusiastically expounded the strengths of communism. The family and friends of these servicemen were stunned, and the world’s media flocked to Korea to report the story. Some researchers suggested that the Koreans had brainwashed the American soldiers with flashing lights, hypnosis or mind-altering drugs.

They were all wrong.

My latest book, Rip It Up, examines the curious relationship between behaviour and thought. Your everyday experience tells you that your thoughts cause you to behave in certain ways. Feeling happy makes you smile, and feeling sad makes you frown. However, decades of research have revealed that the exact opposite is also true - behaviour creates thoughts. When you smile you feel happier, and when you frown you feel sad. The same effect applies to belief. Get people to behave as if they hold a certain belief and bingo, they start to actually believe.

Extensive interviews with prisoners-of-war who returned from Korea revealed that the Chinese authorities had employed this principle.

Shortly after capture, the Chinese guards asked servicemen to jot down a few short pro-communist statements ("Communism is wonderful", and "Communism is the way of the future"). Many of the Americans were happy to oblige because the request seemed so trivial. A few weeks later the guards upped the ante and asked the prisoners to read the statements aloud to themselves. A couple of weeks later the Americans were asked to read the statements out to their fellow prisoners, and to engage in mock debates arguing why they believed the statements to be correct. Finally, fresh fruit or sweets were offered to any soldiers who were prepared to write pro-communist essays for the camp newsletter. Once again, many of the prisoners were happy to oblige.

The Chinese did not have to resort to arcane brainwashing techniques. Instead, they simply ensured that the prisoners were encouraged repeatedly to support communism, and then leave them to develop beliefs that were consistent with their behaviour.

Researchers have seen the same effect in their laboratories. In some studies participants have completed questionnaires about their political beliefs, and then been asked to give a short speech in favour of a political party that they oppose. Two weeks later the participants had come to believe that perhaps the opposition party wasn’t so bad after all.

The same procedure has been used in many different contexts, with people presenting talks about abortion, smoking, drink-driving, and greater police powers. On each occasion, behaving as if they believed a certain argument achieves what a hundred rational reasons couldn’t, quickly changing their attitudes in favour of the position they were asked to support. Indeed, the depth of change is such that the participants often deny ever holding their original opinions, and if they are shown their original questionnaires they argue that the forms have been faked or claim that they misread the questions.

The same effect can be used to influence entire populations. Saying "Heil Hitler" every day would have encouraged many ordinary Germans to become more open to Nazi ideology. Having people repeatedly sing a national anthem will make them more patriotic. Making children pray every morning will increase the likelihood of them adopting religious beliefs.

Each time people may feel as if they are simply "playing along". In reality, their behaviour is having a deep and lasting effect on their thoughts and beliefs.

Professor Richard Wiseman is a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire. 'Rip It Up' is published by Macmillan on 5 July.

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26 comments

Wed, 2012-08-08 12:16 — Brett Simpson (not verified)

quite nice blog ! outstanding work.

see you,

antisylphid wishes you good day's picture

Thu, 2012-07-05 13:01 — antisylphid wishes you good day (not verified)

'All you have to do to get someone to believe something is make them behave as if they do.'

I don't think so :-)
They may 'behave as if' just for you to start believe you control their mind, but in fact you do not control their mind (and if you think you control somebody's mind you surely do not control enough your own mind).

Some of my fave author, Mr Dennett:
'Making a real but counterfeit coin is a child's play; making a simulated coin out of nothing but organized nerve simulations is beyond human technology now and probably forever.'

'[...] there is no way the brain as illusionist could store and manipulate enough false information to fool an inquiring mind',

although, if you lived for quite a time in an abusive environmen being fed with lies, you are never going to get what other people are trying to convey, this results with confusion. After brainwashing you don't know what's what. If you lie deliberately to others, certainly, you are not going to be believed; the more you lie 'to control others' the less credible you are and it's non-profitable to trust you again. This is how society isolates individuals who at first isolate themselves. And they isolate themselves because of trust issues and society isolates itself from liars because of trust issues as well. In the end, for brainwashing to work at all, you have to be young enough. Then it's (whatever that is) your reality/type of thinking and it's hardly reversible (Hitler proved it and multiplied it).

Thu, 2012-07-05 05:46 — Richard Franklin (not verified)

Is that how teachers teach kids that they are not responsible for their own actions
and personal responsibility should be shouldered by others.

Thu, 2012-07-05 04:53 — daily mail reader (not verified)

Sure explains that nut job Yvonne Ridley.Allah Akbar.

Wed, 2012-07-04 10:42 — linzhands (not verified)

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Tue, 2012-07-03 23:49 — Bill Painter (not verified)

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-cs...

Wed, 2012-07-04 00:15 — Bill Painter (not verified)

http://bscw.rediris.es/pub/bscw.cgi/d4502484/Orne-Hypnotized_subject_com...

What most publications and books do not mention is the effects of clandestine hypnosis applied to an individual (including those close to the individual) over years and decades where the individual is not aware of the hidden handlers. Combine the sustained long duration handling period with the resources that are available to government employees (handlers) to affect where an individual works, sleeps, and plays, and you begin to see how much control government employees can have over people and the events we read about. The young are especially susceptible to subtle clandestine handling influences. These publications almost never talk about 'long duration handling', which is obviously what empowers the government employee to create some of the events we see that shape our political opinions. A single hypnotic session is not where the real power of 'mind control' resides.

Wed, 2012-07-04 00:36 — Bill Painter (not verified)

The CIA article above tries to dismiss the use of mind technology, but here is a recent example of its use :
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-256925-court-rejects-appeal-to-transfer-...

Of course superstition is problem in our world.
Below is an interesting link about religion and hypnosis (or mind control) at Battlemind. Some of his contents have doubtful topics, but most are interesting.
http://www.dicksutphen.com/html/battlemind.html
Excerpt: "Some government agencies don't want this information generally known, for the techniques are used in armed forces basic training. Some Christian Fundamentalists, cults, and human-potential trainings would also prefer that the public remain unaware of how they are recruiting new members."

And Marx Howell and Associates has some information.
http://www.marxhowell.com/Hypnosis.html

Tue, 2012-07-03 22:20 — Liz11 (not verified)

We are naturally defensive of our beliefs - they are what define us and to have them questioned is a threat to our self-esteem. That's why it's so difficult to change or even to temper someone's opinion by debate, despite the fact that most belief systems have both merits and flaws.
In the Korean case, for example, is it not simply that the Americans were presented with an alternative truth in a non-threatening way and thus absorbed the arguments in favour of communism without employing their natural defence mechanisms? Something that wouldn't have happened using more traditional methods of persuasion.
Prof. Wiseman doesn't mention how many soldiers were subjected to this approach so it is difficult to know what proportion 21 represents - it seems a fairly small number. If it were possible to take a sample of people with no preconceived ideas about different social structures (i.e. no existing view to defend) and present them with a series of arguments in favour of each - I wonder would a similar proportion choose communism anyway?

Tue, 2012-07-03 19:28 — ms Catholic state (not verified)

Ah.....I see the atheist totalitarians are coming out of their shell. As always. They want to rule the world you see. Well so too do the Islamists I suppose. Hmmm.....I wonder who shall win. No contest. Islamists will....they have the higher birthrates and are prepared to suffer for their cause.

Thu, 2012-07-05 13:15 — antisylphid wishes you good day (not verified)

'the atheist totalitarians are coming out of their shell. As always.' LOL :-)))
'who shall win. No contest. Islamists will....they have the higher birthrates and are prepared to suffer for their cause.', and what's their quantity, regarding that you have at least 20% of atheists in Britain?
:-)

LoL
You make my day Tim.

Wed, 2012-07-04 02:14 — Bill Painter (not verified)

Yes the birthrate is higher, but know disease can holocaust undesirables. Christians are dangerous to many who are not in their image, and they are very powerful.
In the summer of 1972 a Tulsa Oklahoma policeman told me "a virus would be killing homosexuals". You see, I was an young atheist at the time and I had a problem with an unnatural number of homosexuals, pro-drug users, and political misfits coming my way. The local police must of liked me and confided what was happening with homosexuals and disease. Clandestine hypnotic suggestion can create romantic interludes and spread the disease, both then and now.
If you were godless, or homosexual, an economic lefty, or illegal in some way, or any other 'undesirable' trait, then you had a higher probability of repeated strings of stressors in your life. They killed openly using death squads outside the U.S., but inside the U.S. they covertly defeated those not in their image slowly using sustained applied mind technology and they weaponized diseases (Including drugs, alcohol, smoking, criminals, dangerous workplaces, hypno-scripted accidents,et cetera).
The Christian voter in the U.S. has been politicized to fight 'godless communism' (for the economic conservatives?) during the cold war, and they again are being used to fight 'Muslim terrorists'. The oil poor countries must control the Middle Eastern countries because the free flow of oil is needed for the world's economy. So the Christians have been and are currently empowered in the U.S. for national security reasons.
These dangerous Christians have a history of using disease, so pestilence and plague is not beneath them. Muslims should fear the Christians, not the atheists.

Sun, 2012-07-08 09:21 — mjazz (not verified)

So how does Obama nixing the Canada pipeline fit into this?

Tue, 2012-07-03 18:36 — Brian Champness (not verified)

This all helps to explain why Karen Armstrong in her recent "The Case for God" argues so strongly that the most important behaviour to teach your little children is regular, ritual prayer. Belief and understanding will come later. First get them to pray, and pray.

All the more vital, then, to ban prayer in schools, as the Wiseman says.

Tue, 2012-07-03 17:51 — Bill Painter (not verified)

"All you have to do to get someone to believe something is make them behave as if they do."
There is a little truth to this, but it is an insignificant observation and simplistic.
And,
"They were all wrong."
No they were not all wrong.

Tue, 2012-07-03 17:12 — Per (not verified)

I believe the scientist Pascal said that the best way to become a Christian is simply to act as a Christian.

Tue, 2012-07-03 15:53 — george zook (not verified)

perhaps unfortunately believing something is true doesn't make it so ... perhaps more pleasant but I don't believe thinking alone will alter reality .. despite the cat in the box theory.

Tue, 2012-07-03 15:35 — Des Demona (not verified)

Ahhhh so this is why the Tories keep repeating 'the mess we inherited from Labour'?

Tue, 2012-07-03 14:27 — Jimbo1977 (not verified)

It would seem to me that the Americans understood this every bit as much as the Communist Koreans. The pledge of allegiance, all that flag flying hokum etc. Personally I'd have a problem with my children being forced to say the pledge of allegiance with or without the "under god" part.

Tue, 2012-07-03 13:43 — Amelia (not verified)

This is exactly the format Jehovah's Witnesses use at their meetings. Sunday is a 45 minute talk extolling the virtues of the Governing Body who lead the ordinary members and how salvation is dependant on being obedient to them even if you think they are wrong. The talk usually includes how the rest of the world, people, religions and governments are all evil and lie and are under Satan's control so don't listen to anything they say as they will be trying to take you away from "God's Organisation". Then the Watchtower study will include more of the same but the format is: read a paragraph and then individuals raise their hand to answer a pre-formed question from the paragraph extolling the virtues of the Governing Body and how salvation is dependant on being obedient to them and how everyone else is evil. Then midweek are 2 more meetings which include women and children role playing situations on how to indoctrinate people they meet when they go door knocking because they truly believe that armageddon is coming and anyone not JW will die! Its an evil mind controlling cult.

Wed, 2012-07-04 05:41 — caanderson (not verified)

I don't know were you get your information but almost everything said is twisted to try to take what was said out of context. NEVER Do Jehovah's Witnesses call others evil! Jehovah's Witnesses also never clam that they are the only ones to survive when God brings destruction on this godless world. There is only 1 meeting during the week. That means you must have left many years ago.
Jehovah's Witnesses follow God's Word the Bible, not a man.

Thu, 2012-07-12 11:40 — Mike Hooper (not verified)

Jehovahs witnesses hold 2 double meetings per week. They did away with their regular group study a while back.
Their magazine says this as to who will survive armageddon:
"But Jehovah's servants already belong to the only organization that will survive the end of this wicked system of things." Watchtower 2007 Dec 15 p.14
They believe they are exclusive:
"If we stop actively supporting Jehovah's work, then we start following Satan. There is no middle ground." Watchtower 2011 Jul 15 p.18

Thu, 2012-07-12 10:28 — Nicolaou (not verified)

Let's take your two main points.
[1] JW's do not call others evil.
[2] JW's do not claim to be the only ones who will survive Gods Judgement.

On your first point;
I do not sit with wicked men of lies.
I hate the company of those who truth despise.
With evil men, take not away my life;
My soul, with those whose hands are full of bribes and strife.
Song 29 - "Walking in Integrity" from the JW Songbook "Sing To Jehovah"

On your second point;
"7 Only Jehovah’s Witnesses, those of the anointed remnant and the “great crowd,” as a united organization under the protection of the Supreme Organizer, have any Scriptural hope of surviving the impending end of this doomed system dominated by Satan the Devil." The Watchtower, September 1st 1989 p. 19 Remaining Organized for Survival Into the Millennium.

Sat, 2012-07-14 07:08 — Bill R Painter (not verified)

"However, when Eve and then Adam chose to rebel against God, they lost the ability to produce sinless children."
WILL GOOD TRIUMPH OVER EVIL? Found at http://www.watchtower.org/e/20060101/article_02.htm
(The word evil is used almost 30 times, but of course the article is about evil.)

Tue, 2012-07-03 13:26 — Jessica Hewitt (not verified)

I can understand how this worked because it has happened to me before(not that extreme though). We were taught in college to write different people's beliefs down like Muslims, Jews, Hindu's etc. After doing this I became more understanding and accepting of them, however I still remained Atheist. I can see how repeating this over time may of changed my beliefs.

Tue, 2012-07-03 13:18 — Daibhid (not verified)

Interesting stuff. It reminds me of a bit in the forward to "The Selfish Gene", where Richard Dawkins says he once attended a school debate on evolution, and afterwards asked the speaker against it why she held those views. She replied that she didn't; she found it more challenging to argue something she didn't believe.

Dawkins felt that this was just an annoying waste of everyone's time. It turns out it could also have been making her more open to those beliefs.