Advanced Social Engineering: The Mind Hacks Behind Brainwashing

Brainwashing is something that happens to us every day, whether you believe it or not. It doesn't take fancy tools or space-age technology. Even if our country didn't intentionally brainwash people (believe me, they do), our country's media is brainwashing people nonstop. Just sit back and think about it for a second—about the way things work in the world and media. But before you do that, let's learn what brainwashing really is.

Brainwashing is when an outside influence, usually a person or group of people, systematically manipulate another person or group of people to conform to the thoughts and ideas of the "brainwasher(s)". This is accomplished by manipulating the human mind through methods it uses normally for learning and information reception. The whole process is done over an extended length of time... it's very gradual. Essentially, you're being molded at the neurological level to receive your manipulator's input, and to believe it's your own thought (sound familiar?).

Stop them from thinking—essentially reprogramming that organic CPU in your head—is the ultimate goal of brainwashers.

Prerequisites

• Confident demeanor
• Moderate degree of intelligence
• Friend to try the tactics on

Techniques Behind Brainwashing

Think of all of the examples you see in the media every day. Advertising companies are one of the biggest infringers, right along with major news networks like Fox. When you are being force-fed opinions and ideas from the news, like which groups of people you should label as "evil" or which shampoo works the best, you are being brainwashed. Just think about it. Did you do the research that came to those conclusions? Did you try that advertised shampoo? Probably not... but you likely already agree with those opinions, don't you. Brainwashing at its finest.

There are actually very few basic outlines to successfully brainwashing people. The funny part is, you'll recognize a lot of these tactics being used on you in your everyday life.

• Encouraging laziness - This promotes a passive lifestyle in which the person is a couch-locked bimbo, allowing easier manipulation.
• Manipulating choices - Leaving people with choices, but making sure that those choices give the same result no matter what, is a good way to get into someones head. For example, instead of asking someone "Would you like some dinner?", say "Would you like pizzas or eggs for dinner?" instead. When you do this over and over, it gives the person the illusion of choice and freedom, which brings us to the next tactic.
• Repetition - Repetition is key. The more you hear something, the more subliminal it becomes. If you were told day in and day out that your spouse was cheating, you would probably start to suspect something. So the same goes for other things, as well. If you are told your shoes smell daily, yet you don't believe it, eventually you will because you are inconveniencing another human, which is something humans don't like to do.
• Play emotions - Emotions allow easy manipulation, especially when the emotions are associated with fear and sadness. Making a person feel bad when they don't comply with wishes, or making someone scared to not do the "right" thing can coerce them into doing what is desired by the mind-hacker.
• Remove self-awareness and responsibility - Make people think their instinct is always wrong, and eventually they will believe it. Make them believe that they are powerless without the help of others, but stronger than anyone with it. Independence inspires intelligence and will, which inspires revolt.
• Children in advertising - Utilizing children to give flash vibes of innocence is common. If you show a funny commercial of a group of children pushing down an old lady for fruit rolls, it would go unquestioned because of the children and atmospheric music telling you that it's okay.
• Intense intelligence-dampening - When people are fed information, keep the information in small snippets about many subjects. Like a television. This actually induces ADD by promoting short-term learning, which will train your brain to have a short memory. Try to not even use rationale in your teachings to skew things even more, like the infamous "war is peace" idea. A stupid populace is a brainwashed one.
• Keep them scared - Making people think the world could explode under them at any moment is a great way to control someone. If you offer someone your wing, they will feel safe, making a manipulator's ideas seem like the correct ones.

Scary, isn't it? We're all under control...

If you'd like to learn more about brainwashing, I cannot recommend "Brain-Washing" by the Church of Scientology enough. Most, if not all of the content in this book was written by the late L. Ron Hubbard (according to his son), one of the ultimate masters of brainwashing.

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