Is there such a thing as mind control?

There are some videos on this page that might be useful if you wish to explore this topic.

 

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

Joseph Goebbles

 

As a lead-in, initially it might be useful to explore how our choices are made for us when we do nothing more than explore the internet. Most of us in technologically orientated countries now do this. Here, Eli Pariser on TED takes a look how the internet is filtered by common search engines such as Google as well as Huffington News, Yahoo News, Amazon and Facebook, and many more – before we even get to see it. Filtering is useful under certain circumstances, but more importantly, we never get to know what’s been left out.

This one aspect flagged below is just the tip of the iceberg. The same thing is happening in the media, television, documentaries, newspapers, and almost every facet of life. Thus, a certain version of the truth is created by omission, or even deliberate deception. It creates a world view based on half truths, and is thus a form of mind control, by directing the mind in a certain direction:

 

Programmable human beings?

It’s frightening how easily we human beings are able to be programmed at an unconscious level. Every word we hear, every image we see, every action we watch influences us at a subtle, or not so subtle level.

Over in the UK, there is a stage magician known as Derren Brown, who has made considerable sums of money by fooling people into believing that he has some sort of power to read peoples minds and their actions. He frequently sets up tricks where it appears he can guess what people are thinking.

Without running the man down, as he has also brought quite a bit of useful knowledge to the public as well, the basis of much of what he does is just plain old suggestion. He ‘primes’ people with the right thought by a careful choice of words, or even uses his hands, body language etc, to suggest to the recipient what it is that he requires them to “think”.

Now, obviously he hasn’t taught people how to do this, so it is an innate ability we all possess to a greater or lesser degree, i.e., how to read others actions and responses like a book.

However, we aren’t normally trained to recognize this process in action, as it happens at a subliminal level and thus we can’t normally bring what is happening into consciousness.

Here is an early video of Derren Brown in action on a U.K. TV program hosted by Richard and Judy. Can you spot his triggers? Ah, the magic of modern technology with a rewind button!

 

Here’s a film that has strong parallels with our own Western culture of today. George Orwell wrote the book: “Nineteen Eighty Four” in 1949 in a Scottish farmhouse while desperately sick with TB. An interesting article from the British Guardian Newspaper says he was in a race to finish the book against his health. He died on 21st January 1950. Of course, a considerable number of people have now read the book, but as years go by, the uncanny truth in his book unfolds ever further.

The book is now out of copyright in Australia, so 1984 can be freely downloaded there. There are also versions of 1984 as a film available online.

The video shown here is an early version from the BBC produced in 1954, but there is a later version online by Metro Goldwyn Mayer which cannot be shown on this site due to copyright reasons. You may also want to consider the article “The NSA is building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center” to make a comparison with today’s trends, which are not restricted to just one part of the world:

 

In the following video, Dr Michael Mosley explores the brutal history of experimental psychology, and the ways this science has been used to try to control our minds. The pursuit of mind control has led to some truly horrific experiments and left many casualties in its path. Amazing archive footage captures what happened: changing the behavior of children; ordinary citizens giving fatal electric shocks; a gay man has electrodes implanted in an attempt to turn his sexuality.

Michael takes a hallucinogenic drug in a controlled experiment to try to understand how its mind-bending properties can change the brain. This is a journey that goes to the very heart of what we hold most dear – our own free will, and our abilities to control our own destiny: