Posted by Me (207.75.180.129) on December 08, 2001 at 20:40:46:
In Reply to: Wishing someone could possibly help to explain weird experiences posted by L. McClure on August 09, 2001 at 14:06:54:
Your ability sounds very interesting and I'm sure is a great ability to develop,
nurture, and hone. Many times, these abilites arise out of great trauma and pain. Even
if you 'cannot recall' a painful experience. As a pecursor to what I have to tell you, I
would like to explain why I am so sure of myself and have fewer doubts than others. I know
for sure without a doubt that I was brainwashed. I know for sure that I have seen an alien
space craft at close range. I have a witness who was present when I saw the craft to verify
this. State troopers also reported seeing this craft on the same night. I was not able to
recall that I had seen a spaceship that night as I fell asleep nor the next morning.
In retrospect I can see much of what was done to my mind. I remember feeling as if my mind
was on fire as my friend drove me home that night. I can remember how as the burning
feeling persisted, I recalled the craft and the experience less and less until it faded
against my will.
You should under no circumstances feel that these aliens are your friends. You should not
believe that home is with them. Your home may truly be with stars and in space somewhere,
but definitely not with these aliens. After analyzing my feelings, I realized that I wanted
to just lay down on the ground, become limp and be carried away by 'someone' to a spaceship
and 'away'. I also realized that these thoughts were not the brainwashing used to
incapacitate me but rather the result of being incapacitated, carried away, and made to feel
happy about my own self-destruction. It's very complex, don't play 'tug a war' with it and
tug a war around everywhere, but don't believe that your present state of mind is necessarly
what you desire. It is important to realize that you most likely feel pretty good about
certain things in your life that you normally would not and deep within you may be
screaming for yourself to stop contradicting your own beliefs and convictions. These things
are most likely behaviors you feel you've accepted in your self as a result of your
hardships but would not stand for normally. What you have been through is something you can
just not come to imagine. You seek a reason why and deserve one, but this state of
helplessnes is what is desired. What I have done is looked up a site that tells of the
horrible results of brainwashing and examined how they apply to my own feelings and
experiences. I think it is very important for you to read all of this! I know it's a lot,
but give yourself some time, copy it from the website, and read the whole thing and apply
it to your own feelings and experiences. Get back to me on how this has helped!
Here's the Info and a List:
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has some articles online dealing with
torture. This article is titled "Torture and Its Consequences."
First, it must be emphasized that merely "listing methods", a practice all too often used in
the documentation of torture, is not an efficient way of dealing with the issue. Such
listings cannot convey the real horror of a situation, and tend to separate "physical
methods" from "psychological methods".
Second, it has to be underlined that visible and apparent lesions are only part of the
story, and may indeed not be the worst part at all. ICRC delegates are trained to see beyond
the mere scars or marks of torture they may initially see or be shown. "The worst scars
are in the mind" (quoted from Dr. Sten W. jakobsson, Stockholm) [5], and it is much easier
for torture victim to show the wounds on his back than to the about the wounds on the soul.
What could be called the "WYSIWYG" (term meaning "What You See Is What You Get") approach
to documentation should be avoided at a costs. Sequelae of torture have been widely
documented elsewhere [6,7]. Unfortunately, many health professionals who work with asylum
seekers, for example, have to produce "physical evidence" to prove that torture has taken
place. Psychological evidence of torture has yet to be accepted in most countries as valid
evidence.
Another informative article at the ICRC site is "How visits by the ICRC can help prisoners
cope with the effects of traumatic stress."
AND THE MAIN BODY OF THE INFO:
The most important aspect of the brainwashing process is the interrogation. The other pressures are designed primarily to help the interrogator achieve his goals. The following states are created systematically within the individual. These may vary in order, but all are necessary to the brainwashing process:
1. A feeling of helplessness in attempting to deal with the impersonal
machinery of control.
2. An initial reaction of "surprise."
3. A feeling of uncertainty about what is required of him.
4. A developing feeling of dependence upon the interrogator .
5. A sense of doubt and loss of objectivity.
6. Feelings of guilt.
7. A questioning attitude toward his own value-system.
8. A feeling of potential "breakdown," i.e., that he might go crazy.
9. A need to defend his acquired principles.
10. A final sense of "belonging" (identification).
A feeling of helplessness in the face of the impersonal machinery of control is carefully
engendered within the prisoner. The individual who receives the preliminary treatment
described above not only begins to feel like an "animal" but also feels that nothing can
be done about it. No one pays any personal attention to him. His complaints fall on deaf
ears. His loss of communication, if he has been isolated, creates a feeling that he has
been "forgotten."
AND SOME MORE:
The report that follows is a condensation of a study by training
experts of the important classified and unclassified information
available on this subject.
BACKGROUND
Brainwashing, as a technique, has been used for centuries and
is no mystery to psychologists. In this sense, brainwashing means
involuntary re-education of basic beliefs and values.
All people are being re-educated continually. New information
changes one's beliefs. Everyone has experienced to some degree the
conflict that ensues when new information is not consistent with
prior belief.
The experience of the brainwashed individual differs in that the
in-consistent information is forced upon the individual under
controlled conditions after the possibility of critical judgment has
been removed by a variety of methods.
There is no question that an individual can be broken psycholog-
ically by captors with knowledge and willingness to persist in tech-
niques aimed at deliberately destroying the integration of a
personality.
Although it is probable that everyone reduced to such a confused,
disoriented state will respond to the introduction of new beliefs,
this cannot be stated dogmatically.
PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN CONTROL AND REACTION TO CONTROL
There are progressive steps in exercising control over an
individual and changing his behaviour and personality integration.
The following five steps are typical of behaviour changes in any
controlled individual:
1. Making the individual aware of control is the first stage
in changing his behaviour. A small child is made aware of
the physical and psychological control of his parents and
quickly recognizes that an overwhelming force must be
reckoned with.
So, a controlled adult comes to recognize the overwhelming
powers of the state and the impersonal, "incarcerative"
machinery in which he is enmeshed. The individual
recognizes that definite limits have been put upon the ways
he can respond.
2. Realization of his complete dependence upon the controlling
system is a major factor in the controlling of his behavior.
The controlled adult is forced to accept the fact that food,
tobacco,praise, and the only social contact that he will get
come from the very interrogator who exercises control over
him.
3. The awareness of control and recognition of dependence re
sult in causing internal conflict and breakdown of previous
patterns of behaviour.
Although this transition can be relatively mild in the case
of a child, it is almost invariably severe for the adult
undergoing brainwashing. Only an individual who holds his
values lightly can change them easily.
Since the brainwasher-interrogators aim to have the
individuals undergo profound emotional change, they force
their victims to seek out painfully what is desired by the
controlling individual.
During this period the victim is likely to have a mental
breakdown characterized by delusions and hallucinations.
4. Discovery that there is an acceptable solution to his
problem is the first stage of reducing the individual's
conflict.
It is characteristically reported by victims of brainwashing
that this discovery led to an overwhelming feeling of relief
that the horror of internal conflict would cease and that
perhaps they would not, after all, be driven insane.
It is at this point that they are prepared to make major
changes in their value-system. This is an automatic rather
than voluntary choice. They have lost their ability to be
critical.
5. Reintergration of values and identification with the cont-
rolling system is the final stage in changing the behaviour
of the controlled individual.
A child who has learned a new, socially desirable behaviour
demonstrates its importance by attempting to as apt the new
behaviour to a variety of other situations. Similar states
in the brainwashed adult are (SECTION DELETED BY CIA)
pitiful.
His new value-system, his manner of perceiving, organizing,
and giving meaning to events, is virtually independent of
his former value system. He is no longer capable of
thinking or speaking in concepts other than those he has
adopted.
He tends to identify by expressing thanks to
his captors for helping him see the light.
Brainwashing can be achieved without using illegal
means.
Anyone willing to use known principles of control and
reactions to control and capable of demonstrating the
patience needed in raising a child can probably achieve
successful brainwashing.
AND MORE:
A description of usual communist control techniques follows.
1. Interrogation. There are at least two ways in which "interro-
gation" is used:
a. Elicitation, which is designed to get the individual to
surrender protected information, is a form of
interrogation. One major difference between elicitation
and interrogation used to achieve brainwashing is that
the mind of the individual must be kept clear to permit
coherent, undistorted disclosure of protected
information.
b. Elicitation for the purpose of brainwashing consists of
questioning, argument, indoctrination, threats,
cajolery, praise, hostility, and a variety of other
pressures. The aim of this interrogation is to hasten
the breakdown of the individual's value system and to
encourage the substitution of a different value-system.
The procurement of protected information is secondary
and is used as a device to increase pressure upon the
individual. The term "interrogation" in this paper will
refer, in general, to this type. The "interrogator" is
the individual who conducts this type of interrogation
and who controls the administration of the other
pressures. He is the protagonist against whom the victim
develops his conflict, and upon whom the victim develops
a state of dependency as he seeks some solution to his
conflict.
2. Physical Torture and Threats of Torture. Two types of physical
torture are distinguishable more by their psychological effect
in inducing conflict than by the degree of painfulness:
a. The first type is one in which the victim has a passive
role in the pain inflicted on him (e.g.,beatings). His
conflict involves the decision of whether or not to give
in to demands in order to avoid further pain. Generally,
brutality of this type was not found to achieve the
desired results. Threats of torture were found more
effective, as fear of pain causes greater conflict
within the individual than does pain itself.
b. The second type of torture is represented by requiring
the individual to stand in one spot for several hours or
assume some other pain-inducing position. Such a
requirement often engenders in the individual a
determination to "stick it out." This internal act of
resistance provide a feeling of moral superiority at
first.
As time passes and his pain mounts, however, the
individual becomes aware that it is his own original
determination to resist that is causing the continuance
of pain.
A conflict develops within the individual between his
moral determination and his desire to collapse and
discontinue the pain. It is this extra internal
conflict, in addition to the conflict over whether or
not to give in to the demands made of him, that tends to
make this method of torture more effective in the
breakdown of the individual personality.
3. Isolation. Individual differences in reaction to isolation are
probably greater than to any other method.
Some individuals appear to be able to withstand prolonged
periods of isolation without deleterious effects, while a
relatively short period of isolation reduces others to the
verge of psychosis. Reaction varies with the conditions of
the isolation cell.
Some sources have indicated a strong reaction to filth and
vermin, although they had negligible reactions to the
isolation.
Others reacted violently to isolation in relatively clean
cells. The predominant cause of breakdown in such situations
is a lack of sensory stimulati n (i.e., grayness of walls,
lack of sound, absence of social contact, etc.).
Experimental subjects exposed to this condition have reported
vivid hallicinations and overwhelming fears of losing their
sanity.
4. Control of Communication. This is one of the most effective
methods for creating a sense of helplessness and despair. This
measure might well be considered the cornerstone of the
communist system of control.
It consists of strict regulation of the mail,reading
materials, broadcast materials, and social contact available
to the individual. The need to communicate is so great that
when the usual channels are blocked, the individual will
resort to any open channel, almost regardless of the
implications of using that particular channel.
Many POWs in Korea, whose only act of "collaboration" was to
sign petitions and "peace appeals," defended their actions on
the ground that this was the only method of letting the
outside world know they were still alive.
Many stated that their morale and fortitude would have been
increased immeasurably had leaflets of encouragement been
dropped to them.
When the only contact with the outside world is via the
interrogator, the prisoner comes to develop extreme dependency
on his interrogator and hence loses another prop to his
morale.
Another wrinkle in communication control is the informer
system. The recruitment of informers in POW camps discouraged
communication between inmates. POWs who feared that every act
or thought of resistance would be communicated to the camp
administrators, lost faith in their fellow man and were forced
to "untrusting individualism." Informers are also under
several stages of brainwashing and elicitation to develop and
maintain control over the victims.
5. Induction of Fatigue. This is a well-known device for breaking
will power and critical powers of judgment. Deprivation of
sleep results in more intense psychological debilitation than
does any other method of engendering fatigue. The communists
vary their methods.
"Conveyor belt" interrogation that last 50-60 hours will make
almost any individual compromise, but there is danger that
this will kill the victim.
It is safer to conduct interrogations of 8-10 hours at night
while forcing the prisoner to remain awake during the day.
Additional interruptions in the remaining 2-3 hours of
allotted sleep quickly reduce the most resilient individual .
Alternate administration of drug stimulants and depressants
hastens the process of fatigue and sharpens the psychological
reactions of excitement and depression.
Fatigue, in addition to reducing the will to resist, also
produces irritation and fear that arise from increased "slips
of the tongue." forgetfulness, and decreased ability to
maintain orderly thought processes.
6. Control of Food, Water and Tobacco. The controlled individual
is made intensely aware of his dependence upon his
interrogator for the quality and quantity of his food and
tobacco. The exercise of this control usually follows a
pattern.
No food and little or no water is permitted the individual for
several days prior to interrogation. When the prisoner first
complains of this to the interrogator, the latter expresses
surprise at such inhumane treatment. He makes a demand of the
prisoner. If the latter complies,he receives a good meal. If
he does not, he gets a diet of unappetizing food containing
limited vitamins,minerals, and calories.
This diet is supplemented occasionally by the interrogator if
the prisoner "cooperates." Studies of controlled starvation
indicate that the whole value-system of the subjects underwent
a change. Their irritation increased as their ability to
think clearly decreased. The control of tobacco presented an
even greater source of conflict for heavy smokers. Because
tobacco is not necessary to life, being manipulated by his
craving for it can in the individual a strong sense of guilt.
7. Criticism and Self-Criticism. There are mechanisms of
communist thought control. Self-criticism gains its
effectiveness from the fact that although it is not a crime
for a man to be wrong, it is a major crime to be stubborn and
to refuse to learn. Many individuals feel intensely relieved
in being able to share their sense of guilt.
Those individuals however, who have adjusted to handling their
guilt internally have difficulty adapting to criticism and
self-criticism. In brainwashing, after a sufficient sense of
guilt has been created in the individual, sharing and self-
criticism permit relief. The price paid for this relief,
however, is loss of individuality and increased dependency.
8. Hypnosis and Drugs as Controls. There is no reliable evidence
that the communists are making widespread use of drugs or
hypnosis in brainwashing or elicitation. The exception to this
is the use of common stimulants or depressants in inducing
fatigue and "mood swings."
9. Other methods of control, which when used in conjunction with
the basic processes, hasten the deterioration of prisoners'
sense of values and resistance are:
a. Requiring a case history or autobiography of the
prisoner provides a mine of information for the
interrogator in establishing and "documenting"
accusations.
b. Friendliness of the interrogator, when least expected,
upsets the prisoner's ability to maintain a critical
attitude.
c. Petty demands, such as severely limiting the allotted
time for use of toilet facilities or requiring the POW
to kill hundreds of flies, are harassment methods.
d. Prisoners are often humiliated by refusing them the use
of toilet facilities during interrogator until they soil
themselves. Often prisoners were not permitted to bathe
for weeks until they felt contemptible.
e. Conviction as a war criminal appears to be a potent
factor in creating despair in the individual. One
official analysis of the pressures exerted by the
ChiComs on "confessors" and "non-confessors" to
participation in bacteriological warfare in Korea showed
that actual trial and conviction of "war crimes" was
overwhelmingly associated with breakdown and confession.
f. Attempted elicitation of protected information at
various times during the brainwashing process diverted
the individual from awareness of the deterioration of
his value-system.
The fact that, in most cases, the ChiComs did not want
or need such intelligence was not known to the prisoner.
His attempts to protect such information was made at the
expense of hastening his own breakdown.
THE EXERCISE OF CONTROL: A "SCHEDULE" FOR BRAINWASHING
--------------------------------------------------------------------
From the many fragmentary accounts reviewed, the following
appears to be the most likely description of what occurs during
brainwashing.
In the period immediately following capture, the captors are
faced with the problem of deciding on best ways of exploitation of
the prisoners. Therefore, early treatment is similar both for those
who are to be exploited through elicitation and those who are to
undergo brainwashing. Concurrently with being interrogated and
required to write a detailed personal history, the prisoner
undergoes a physical and psychological "softening-up" which
includes: limited unpalatable food rations,withholding of
tobacco,possible work details, severely inadequate use of toilet
facilities, no use of facilities for personal cleanliness,
limitation of sleep such as requiring a subject to sleep with a
bright light in his eyes.
Apparently the interrogation and autobiographical ,material,
the reports of the prisoner's behaviour in confinement, and
tentative "personality typing" by the interrogators, provide the
basis upon which exploitation plans are made.
There is a major difference between preparation for elicitation
and for brainwashing .Prisoners exploited through elicitation must
retain sufficient clarity of thought to be able to give
coherent,factual accounts.
In brainwashing , on the other hand, the first thing attacked
is clarity of thought. To develop a strategy of defense, the
controlled individual must determine what plans have been made for
his exploitation. Perhaps the best cues he can get are internal
reactions to the pressures he undergoes.
The most important aspect of the brainwashing process is the
interrogation. The other pressures are designed primarily to help
the interrogator achieve his goals. The following states are created
systematically within the individual . These may vary in order, but
all are necessary to the brainwashing process:
1. A feeling of helplessness in attempting to deal with the
impersonal machinery of control.
2. An initial reaction of "surprise."
3. A feeling of uncertainty about what is required of him.
4. A developing feeling of dependence upon the interrogator .
5. A sense of doubt and loss of objectivity.
6. Feelings of guilt.
7. A questioning attitude toward his own value-system.
8. A feeling of potential "breakdown," i.e.,that he might go
crazy.
9. A need to defend his acquired principles.
10. A final sense of "belonging" (identification).
A feeling of helplessness in the face of the impersonal
machinery of control is carefully engendered within the
prisoner. The individual who receives the preliminary treatment
described above not only begins to feel like an "animal" but
also feels that nothing can be done about it. No one pays any
personal attention to him. His complaints fall on deaf ears.
His loss of communication, if he has been isolated, creates a
feeling that he has been "forgotten."
Everything that happens to him occurs according to an
impersonal time schedule that has nothing to do with his needs.
The voices and footsteps of the guards are muted. He notes many
contrasts,e.g.,his greasy,unpalatable food may be served on
battered tin dishes by guards immaculately dressed in white.
The first steps in "depersonalization" of the prisoner have
begun. He has no idea what to expect. Ample opportunity is
allotted for him to ruminate upon all the unpleasant or painful
things that could happen to him. He approaches the main
interrogator with mixed feelings of relief and fright.
Surprise is commonly used in the brainwashing process. The
prisoner is rarely prepared for the fact that the interrogators
are usually friendly and considerate at first. They make every
effort to demonstrate that they are reasonable human beings.
Often they apologize for bad treatment received by the prisoner
and promise to improve his lot if he, too, is reasonable. This
behaviour is not what he has steeled himself for. He lets down
some of his defenses and tries to take a reasonable attitude.
The first occasion he balks at satisfying a request of the
interrogator, however, he is in for another surprise. The
formerly reasonable interrogator unexpectedly turns into a
furious maniac.
The interrogator is likely to slap the prisoner or draw his
pistol and threaten to shoot him. Usually this storm of
emotion ceases as suddenly as it began and the interrogator
stalks from the room. These surprising changes create doubt in
the prisoner as to his very ability to perceive another
person's motivations correctly. His next interrogation probably
will be marked by impassivity in the interrogator 's mien.
A feeling of uncertainty about what is required of him is
likewise carefully engendered within the individual . Pleas of
the prisoner to learn specifically of what he is accused and by
whom are side-stepped by the interrogator.
Instead, the prisoner is asked to tell why he thinks he is held
and what he feels he is guilty of. If the prisoner fails to
come up with anything, he is accused in terms of broad
generalities (e.g., espionage, sabotage,acts of treason against
the "people").
This usually provokes the prisoner to make some statement about
his activities. If this take the form of a denial, he is
usually sent to isolation on further decreased food rations to
"think over" his crimes. This process can be repeated again and
again.
As soon as the prisoner can think of something that might be
considered self-incriminating, the interrogator appears
momentarily satisfied. The prisoner is asked to write down his
statement in his own words and sign it.
Meanwhile a strong sense of dependence upon the interrogator is
developed. It does not take long for the prisoner to realize
that the interrogator is the source of all punishment , all
gratification, and all communication. The interrogator,
meanwhile, demonstrates his unpredictbility. He is perceived by
the prisoner as a creature of whim.
At times, the interrogator can be pleased very easily and at
other times no effort on the part of the prisoner will placate
him. The prisoner may begin to channel so much energy into
trying to predict the behaviour of the unpredictable
interrogator that he loses track of what is happening inside
himself.
After the prisoner has developed the above psychological and
emotional reactions to a sufficient degree, the brainwashing
begins in earnest.
First, the prisoner's remaining critical faculties must be
destroyed. He undergoes long, fatiguing interrogations while
looking at a bright light. He is called back again and again
for interrogations after minimal sleep.
He may undergo torture that tends to create internal conflict.
Drugs may be used to accentuate his "mood swings." He develops
depression when the interrogator is being kind and becomes
euphoric when the interrogator is threatening the direst
penalties.
Then the cycle is reversed. The prisoner finds himself in a
constant state of anxiety which prevents him from relaxing even
when he is permitted to sleep. Short periods of isolation now
bring on visual and auditory hallucinations.
The prisoner feels himself losing his objectivity. It is in
this state that the prisoner must keep up an endless argument
with the interrogator. He may be faced with the confessions of
other individuals who "collaborated" with him in his crimes.
The prisoner seriously begins to doubts his own memory. This
feeling is heightened by his inability to recall little things
like the names of the people he knows very well or the date of
his birth. The interrogator patiently sharpens this feeling of
doubt by more questioning. This tends to create a serious state
of uncertainty when the individual has lost most of his
critical faculties.
The prisoner must undergo additional internal conflict when
strong feelings of guilt are aroused within him. As any
clinical psychologist is aware, it is not at all difficult to
create such feelings. Military servicemen are particularly
vulnerable.
No one can morally justify killing even in wartime. The usual
justification is on the grounds of necessity or self-defense.
The interrogator is careful to circumvent such justification.
He keeps the interrogation directed toward the prisoner's moral
code.
Every moral vulnerability is exploited by incessant questioning
along this line until the prisoner begins to question the very
fundamentals of his own value-system.
The prisoner must constantly fight a potential breakdown. He
finds that his mind is "going blank" for longer and longer
periods of time. He can not think constructively. If he is to
maintain any semblance of psychological integrity, he must
bring to an end this state of interminable internal conflict.
He signifies a willingness to write a confession.
If this were truly the end, no brainwashing would have
occurred. The individual would simply have given in to
intolerable pressure. Actually, the final stage of the
brainwashing process has just begun. No matter what the
prisoner writes in his confession the interrogator is not
satisfied.
The interrogator questions every sentence of the confession. He
begins to edit it with the prisoner. The prisoner is forced to
argue against every change. This is the essence of
brainwashing.
Every time that he gives in on a point to the interrogator, he
must rewrite his whole confession. Still the interrogator is
not satisfied. In a desperate attempt to maintain some
semblance of integrity and to avoid further brainwashing, the
prisoner must begin to argue that what he has already confessed
to is true.
He begins to accept as his own the statements he has written.
He uses many of the interrogator's earlier arguments to
buttress his position. By this process,identification with the
interrogator's value-system becomes complete.
It is extremely important to recognize that a qualitative
change has taken place within the prisoner. The brainwashed
victim does not consciously change his value-system; rather the
change occurs despite his efforts. He is no more responsible
for this change than is an individual who "snaps" and becomes
psychotic. And like the psychotic, the prisoner is not even
aware of the transition.
From Me.