THE BATTLE FOR YOUR MIND

By Dick Sutphen

Persuasion & Brainwashing Techniques Being Used On The Public Today

SUMMARY OF CONTENTS

I'm Dick Sutphen and this tape is a studio-recorded, expanded version of a talk I delivered at the World Congress of Professional Hypnotists Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. Although the tape carries a copyright to protect it from unlawful duplication for sale by other companies, in this case, I invite individuals to make copies and give them to friends or anyone in a position to communicate this information. Although I've been interviewed about the subject on many local and regional radio and TV talk shows, large-scale mass communication appears to be blocked, since it could result in suspicion or investigation of the very media presenting it or the sponsors that support the media. Some government agencies do not want this information generally known. Nor do the Born-Again Christian movement, cults, and many human-potential trainings. Everything I will relate only exposes the surface of the problem. I don't know how the misuse of these techniques can be stopped. I don't think it is possible to legislate against that which often cannot be detected; and if those who legislate are using these techniques, there is little hope of effecting laws to govern usage. I do know that the first step to initiate change is to generate interest. In this case, that will probably only result from an underground effort. In talking about this subject, I am talking about my own business. I know it, and I know how effective it can be. I produce hypnosis and subliminal tapes and, in some of my seminars, I use conversion tactics to assist participants to become independent and self-sufficient. But, anytime I use these techniques, I point out that I am using them, and those attending have a choice to participate or not. They also know what the desired result of participation will be. So, to begin, I want to state the most basic of all facts about brainwashing:

IN THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF MAN, NO ONE HAS EVER BEEN BRAINWASHED AND REALIZED, OR BELIEVED, THAT S/HE HAD BEEN BRAINWASHED.

Those who have been brainwashed will usually passionately defend their manipulators, claiming they have simply been "shown the light" ... or have been transformed in miraculous ways. Before I go on, let's go back to the six tip-offs to conversion. I want to mention the United States Government and military boot camp. The Marine Corps talks about breaking men down before "rebuilding" them as new men -- as Marines! Well, that is exactly what they do, the same way a cult breaks its people down and rebuilds them as happy flower sellers on your local street corner. Every one of the six conversion techniques are used in boot camp.

[JD: If you are doubtful about this assertion, I can attest to its truthfulness. I was a Marine for four-and-a-half years, and I will NEVER forget the profound mind control that the drill instructors at Parris Island had practiced on me and my platoon members in 1961.]

Considering the needs of the military, I'm not making a judgement as to whether that is good or bad. IT IS A FACT that the men are effectively brainwashed. Those who won't submit must be discharged or spend much of their time in the brig.

DECOGNITION PROCESS

Once the initial conversion is effected, cults, armed services, and similar groups cannot have cynicism among their members. Members must respond to commands and do as they are told, otherwise they are dangerous to the organizational control. This is normally accomplished as a three-step Decognition Process. Step One is ALERTNESS REDUCTION: The controllers cause the nervous system to malfunction, making it difficult to distinguish between fantasy and reality. This can be accomplished in several ways. POOR DIET is one; watch out for Brownies and Kool-Aid. The sugar throws the nervous system off. More subtle is the "SPIRITUAL DIET" used by many cults. They eat only vegetables and fruits. Without the grounding of grains, nuts, seeds, dairy products or fish or meat, an individual becomes mentally "spacey." INADEQUATE SLEEP is another primary way to reduce alertness, especially when combined with long hours of work or intense physical activity. Also, being bombarded with intense and unique experiences achieves the same result. Step Two is PROGRAMMED CONFUSION: You are mentally assaulted while your alertness is being reduced as in Step One. This is accomplished with a deluge of new information, lectures, discussion groups, encounters or one-to-one processing, which usually amounts to the controller bombarding the individual with questions. During this phase of decognition, reality and illusion often merge and perverted logic is likely to be accepted. Step Three is THOUGHT STOPPING: Techniques are used to cause the mind to go "flat." These are altered-state-of-consciousness techniques that initially induce calmness by giving the mind something simple to deal with and focusing awareness. The continued use brings on a feeling of elation and eventually hallucination. The result is the reduction of thought and eventually, if used long enough, the cessation of all thought and withdrawal from everyone and everything except that which the controllers direct. The takeover is then complete. It is important to be aware that when members or participants are instructed to use "thought-stopping" techniques, they are told that they will benefit by so doing: they will become "better soldiers" or "find enlightenment." There are three primary techniques used for thought stopping. The first is MARCHING: the thump, thump, thump beat literally generates self-hypnosis and thus great susceptibility to suggestion. The second thought stopping technique is MEDITATION. If you spend an hour to an hour and a half a day in meditation, after a few weeks, there is a great probability that you will not return to full beta consciousness. You will remain in a fixed state of alpha for as long as you continue to meditate. I'm not saying this is bad -- if you do it yourself. It may be very beneficial. But it is a fact that you are causing your mind to go flat. I've worked with meditators on an EEG machine, and the results are conclusive: the more you meditate, the flatter your mind becomes until, eventually (and especially if used to excess or in combination with decognition) all thought ceases. Some spiritual groups see this as nirvana -- which is bullshit. It is simply a predictable physiological result. And if heaven on earth is non-thinking and non-involvement, I really question why we are here. The third thought-stopping technique is CHANTING, and often, chanting in meditation. "Speaking in tongues" could also be included in this category. All three STOPPING techniques produce an altered state of consciousness. This may be very good if YOU are controlling the process, for you also control the input. I personally use at least one self-hypnosis programming session every day and I know how beneficial it is for me. But you need to know if you use these techniques to the degree of remaining continually in alpha that, although you'll be very mellow, you'll also be more suggestible.

TRUE BELIEVERS & MASS MOVEMENTS

Before ending this section on conversion, I want to talk about the people who are most susceptible to it and about Mass Movements. I am convinced that at least a third of the population is what Eric Hoffer calls "true believers." They are joiners and followers ... people who want to give away their power. They look for answers, meaning, and enlightenment outside themselves. Hoffer, who wrote THE TRUE BELIEVER, a classic on mass movements, says:

"True believers are not intent on bolstering and advancing a cherished self, but are those craving to be rid of unwanted self. They are followers, not because of a desire for self-advancement, but because it can satisfy their passion for self-renunciation!"

Hoffer also says that true believers "are eternally incomplete and eternally insecure"! I know this from my own experience. In my years of communicating concepts and conducting trainings, I have run into them again and again. All I can do is attempt to show them that the only thing to seek is the True Self within. Their personal answers are to be found there and there alone. I communicate that the basics of spirituality are self-responsibility and self-actualization. But most of the true believers just tell me that I'm not spiritual and go looking for someone who will give them the dogma and structure they desire. Never underestimate the potential danger of these people. They can easily be molded into fanatics who will gladly work and die for their holy cause. It is a substitute for their lost faith in themselves and offers them as a substitute for individual hope. The Moral Majority is made up of true believers. All cults are composed of true believers. [It is upon a society's true believers] that any new order can be built.

PERSUASION TECHNIQUES

Persuasion isn't technically brainwashing, but it is the manipulation of the human mind by another individual, without the manipulated party being aware what caused his opinion shift. I only have time to very basically introduce you to a few of the thousands of techniques in use today, but the basis of persuasion is always to access your RIGHT BRAIN. The left half of your brain is analytical and rational. The right side is creative and imaginative. That is overly simplified but it makes my point. So, the idea is to distract the left brain and keep it busy. Ideally, the persuader generates an eyes-open altered state of consciousness, causing you to shift from beta awareness into alpha; this can be measured on an EEG machine. First, let me give you an example of distracting the left brain. Politicians use these powerful techniques all the time; lawyers use many variations which, I've been told, they call "tightening the noose." Assume for a moment that you are watching a politician give a speech. First, he might generate what is called a "YES SET." These are statements that will cause listeners to agree; they might even unknowingly nod their heads in agreement. Next come the TRUISMS. These are usually facts that could be debated but, once the politician has his audience agreeing, the odds are in the politician's favor that the audience won't stop to think for themselves, thus continuing to agree. Last comes the SUGGESTION. This is what the politician wants you to do and, since you have been agreeing all along, you could be persuaded to accept the suggestion. Now, if you'll listen closely to my political speech, you'll find that the first three are the "yes set," the next three are truisms and the last is the suggestion.

"Ladies and Gentlemen: Are you angry about high food prices? Are you tired of astronomical gas prices? Are you sick of out-of-control inflation? Well, you know the Other Party allowed 18 percent inflation last year; you know crime has increased 50 percent nationwide in the last 12 months, and you know your paycheck hardly covers your expenses any more. Well, the answer to resolving these problems is to elect me, John Jones, to the U.S. Senate."

And I think you've heard all that before. But you might also watch for what are called Imbedded Commands. As an example: On key words, the speaker would make a gesture with his left hand, which research has shown is more apt to access your right brain. Today's media-oriented politicians and spellbinders are often carefully trained by a whole new breed of specialist who are using every trick in the book -- both old and new -- to manipulate you into accepting their candidate. The concepts and techniques of Neuro-Linguistics are so heavily protected that I found out the hard way that to even talk about them publicly or in print results in threatened legal action. Yet Neuro-Linguistic training is readily available to anyone willing to devote the time and pay the price. It is some of the most subtle and powerful manipulation I have yet been exposed to. A good friend who recently attended a two-week seminar on Neuro-Linguistics found that many of those she talked to during the breaks were Government people. Another technique that I'm just learning about is unbelievably slippery. It is called an INTERSPERSAL TECHNIQUE, and the idea is to say one thing with words, but plant a subconscious impression of something else in the minds of the listeners and/or watchers. Let me give you an example. Assume you are watching a television commentator make the following statement:

"SENATOR JOHNSON is assisting local authorities to clear up the stupid mistakes of companies contributing to the nuclear waste problems."

It sounds like a statement of fact, but, if the speaker emphasizes the right word, and especially if he makes the proper hand gestures on the key words, you could be left with the subconscious impression that Senator Johnson is stupid. That was the subliminal goal of the statement, and the speaker cannot be called to account for anything. Persuasion techniques are also frequently used on a much smaller scale with just as much effectiveness. The insurance salesman knows his pitch is likely to be much more effective if he can get you to visualize something in your mind. This is right-brain communication. For instance, he might pause in his conversation, look slowly around your livingroom and say, "Can you just imagine this beautiful home burning to the ground?" Of course you can! It is one of your unconscious fears and, when he forces you to visualize it, you are more likely to be manipulated into signing his insurance policy. The Hari Krishnas, operating in every airport, use what I call SHOCK AND CONFUSION techniques to distract the left brain and communicate directly with the right brain. While waiting for a plane, I once watched one operate for over an hour. He had a technique of almost jumping in front of someone. Initially, his voice was loud, then it dropped as he made his pitch to take a book and contribute money to the cause. Usually, when people are shocked, they immediately withdraw. In this case they were shocked by the strange appearance, sudden materialization and loud voice of the Hari Krishna devotee. In other words, the people went into an alpha state for security because they didn't want to confront the reality before them. In alpha, they were highly suggestible, so they responded to the suggestion of taking the book. The moment they took the book, they felt guilty and responded to the second suggestion: "give money". We are all conditioned that if someone gives us something, we have to give them something in return. In that case, it was money. While watching this hustler, I was close enough to notice that many of the people he stopped exhibited an outward sign of alpha; their eyes were actually dilated.

SUBLIMINAL PROGRAMMING

Subliminals are hidden suggestions that only your subconscious perceives. They can be audio, hidden behind music, or visual, airbrushed into a picture, flashed on a screen so fast that you don't consciously see them, or cleverly incorporated into a picture or design. Most audio subliminal reprogramming tapes offer verbal suggestions recorded at a low volume. I question the efficacy of this technique. If subliminals are not perceptible, they cannot be effective; and subliminals recorded below the audible threshold are therefore useless. The oldest audio subliminal technique uses a voice that follows the volume of the music. So, subliminals are impossible to detect without a parametric equalizer. But this technique is patented and, when I wanted to develop my own line of subliminal audiocassettes, negotiations with the patent holder proved to be unsatisfactory. My attorney obtained copies of the patents which I gave to some talented Hollywood sound engineers, asking them to create a new technique. They found a way to psycho-acoustically modify and synthesize the suggestions so that they are projected in the same chord and frequency as the music, thus giving them the effect of being part of the music. But we found that, in using this technique, there is no way to reduce various frequencies to detect the subliminals. In other words, although the suggestions are being heard by the subconscious mind, they cannot be monitored with even the most sophisticated equipment. If we were able to come up with this technique as easily as we did, I can only imagine how sophisticated the technology has become, with unlimited U.S. Government and [corporate] advertising funding. And I shudder to think about the propaganda and commercial manipulation that we are exposed to on a daily basis. There is simply no way to know what is behind the music you hear. It may even be possible to hide a second voice behind the voice to which you are listening. The series, by Wilson Bryan Key, Ph.D., on subliminals in advertising and political campaigns, well documents the misuse in many areas, especially printed advertising in newspapers, magazines and posters. The big question about subliminals is: Do they work? And I guarantee you that they do -- not only from the response of those who have used my tapes, but from the results of such programs as the subliminals behind the music in department stores. SUPPOSEDLY, the only message is instructions to not steal. One East Coast department store chain reported a 37 percent reduction in thefts in the first nine months of testing. A 1984 article in the technical newsletter, "BRAIN-MIND BULLETIN" states that as much as 99 percent of our cognitive activity may be "non-conscious," according to the director of the Laboratory for Cognitive Psychophysiology at the University of Illinois. The lengthy report ends with the statement:

"These findings support the use of subliminal approaches such as taped suggestions for weight-loss and the therapeutic use of hypnosis and Neuro-Linguistic Programming [NLP]."

MASS MISUSE

I could relate many stories that support subliminal programming, but I'd rather use my time to make you aware of even more subtle uses of such programming. I have personally experienced sitting in a Los Angeles auditorium with over ten thousand people who were gathered to listen to a current charismatic figure. Twenty minutes after entering the auditorium, I became aware that I was going in and out of an altered state. Those accompanying me experienced the same thing. Since it is our business, we were aware of what was happening, but those around us were not. By careful observation, what appeared to be spontaneous demonstrations were, in fact, artful manipulations. The only way I could figure that the "eyes-open trance" had been induced was that a 6-to-7-cycle-per-second vibration was being piped into the room behind the air conditioner sound. That particular vibration generates alpha [brain wave activity], which would render the audience highly susceptible. Ten to 25 percent of the population is capable of a somnambulistic [sleep-walking] level of altered state of consciousness. For these people, the suggestions of the speaker -- if non-threatening -- could potentially be accepted as "commands."

VIBRATO

This leads to the mention of VIBRATO. Vibrato is the tremulous effect imparted in some vocal or instrumental music, and the cycle-per-second range causes people to go into an altered state of consciousness. At one period of English history, singers whose voices contained pronounced vibrato were not allowed to perform publicly because listeners would go into an altered state and have fantasies, often sexual in nature. People who attend opera or enjoy listening to singers like Mario Lanza are familiar with this altered state induced by the performers.

ELFs

Now, let's carry this awareness a little further. There are also inaudible ELFs (extra-low frequency waves). These are electromagnetic in nature. One of the primary uses of ELFs is to communicate with our submarines. Dr. Andrija Puharich, a highly respected researcher, in an attempt to warn U.S. officials about Russian use of ELFs, set up an experiment. Volunteers were wired so their brain waves could be measured on an EEG [electro- encephalograph]. They were sealed in a metal room that could not be penetrated by a normal signal. Puharich then beamed ELF waves at the volunteers. ELFs go right through the Earth and, of course, right through metal walls. Those inside couldn't know if the signal was or was not being sent. And Puharich watched the reactions on the technical equipment: Thirty percent of those inside the room were taken over by the ELF signal in six to ten seconds. When I say "taken over," I mean that their behavior followed the changes anticipated at very precise frequencies. Waves below six cycles-per-second caused the subjects to become very emotionally upset, and even disrupted bodily functions. At 8.2 cycles-per-second, they felt very high -- an elevated feeling, as though they had been in masterful meditation, learned over a period of years. Eleven to 11.3 cycles-per-second induced waves of depressed agitation leading to riotous behavior.

THE NEUROPHONE

Dr. Patrick Flanagan is a personal friend of mine. In the early 1960s, as a teenager, Pat was listed as one of the top scientists in the world by LIFE Magazine. Among his many inventions was a device he called the Neurophone -- an electronic instrument that can successfully program suggestions directly through contact with the skin. When he attempted to patent the device, the United States Government demanded that he prove that it worked. When he did, the National Security Agency confiscated the neurophone. It took Pat two years of legal battle to get his invention back. In using the device, you don't hear or see a thing. It is applied to the skin, which Pat claims is the source of special senses. The skin contains more sensors for heat, touch, pain, vibration, and electrical fields than any other part of the human anatomy. In one of his recent tests, Pat conducted two identical seminars for a military audience -- one seminar one night and one the next night, because the size of the room was not large enough to accommodate all of them at one time. When the first group proved to be very cool and unwilling to respond, Patrick spent the next day making a special tape to play at the second seminar. The tape instructed the audience to be extremely warm and responsive and for their hands to become "tingly." The tape was played through the neurophone, which was connected to a wire he placed along the ceiling of the room. There were no speakers, so no sound could be heard, yet the message was successfully transmitted from that wire directly into the brains of the audience. They were warm and receptive, their hands tingled and they responded, according to programming, in other ways that I cannot mention here. The more we find out about how human beings work through today's highly advanced technological research, the more we learn to control human beings. And what probably scares me the most is that the medium for takeover is already in place! That television set in your livingroom and bedroom is doing a lot more than just entertaining you! Before I continue, let me point out something else about an altered state of consciousness. When you go into an altered state, you transfer into right brain, which results in the internal release of the body's own opiates: enkephalins and beta-endorphines, chemically almost identical to opium. In other words, it feels good -- and you want to come back for more. Recent tests by researcher Herbert Krugman showed that, while viewers were watching television, right-brain activity outnumbered left-brain activity by a ratio of two to one. Put more simply, the viewers were in an altered state ... in trance more often than not. They were getting their beta-endorphine "fix." To measure attention spans, psychophysiologist Thomas Mulholland of the Veterans Hospital in Bedford, Massachusetts, attached young viewers to an EEG [electroencephalograph] machine that was wired to shut the TV set off whenever the children's brains produced a majority of alpha brain waves. Although the children were told to concentrate, only a few could keep the set on for more than thirty seconds! Most viewers are ALREADY hypnotized! To deepen the trance is easy. One simple way is to place a blank, black frame every 32 frames in the film that is being projected. This creates a 45-beat-per-minute pulsation, perceived ONLY by the subconscious mind -- the ideal pace at which to generate deep hypnosis. The commercials or suggestions presented following this alpha-inducing broadcast are much more likely to be accepted by the viewer. The high percentage of the viewing audience that has somnambulistic-depth ability could very well accept the suggestions as commands -- as long as those commands did not ask the viewer to do something contrary to his morals, religion, or self-preservation. The medium for takeover is here ! By the age of 16, children have spent ten thousand to fifteen thousand hours watching television! That is MORE time than they spend in school! In the average home, the television set is on for six hours and 44 minutes per day -- an increase of nine minutes from last year, and three times the average rate of increase during the 1970s. It obviously isn't getting better. We are rapidly moving into an alpha-level world -- very possibly, the Orwellian world of "1984": placid, glassy-eyed, and responding obediently to instructions. A research project by Jacob Jacoby, a Purdue University psychologist, found that of 2,700 people tested, NINETY PERCENT misunderstood even such simple viewing fare as commercials and "Barnaby Jones." Only minutes after watching, the typical viewer missed 23 to 36 percent of the questions about what he or she had seen. Of course they did ! They were going in and out of trance! If you go into a deep trance, you MUST be instructed to remember; otherwise you automatically forget. I have just touched the tip of the iceberg. When you start to combine subliminal messages behind the music, subliminal visuals projected on the screen, hypnotically produced visual effects, sustained musical beats at a trance-inducing pace ... then you have extremely effective brainwashing! Every hour that you spend watching that television set, you become more conditioned. And, in case you thought there was a law against any of these things -- guess again. There isn't! There are a lot of powerful people who obviously prefer things exactly the way they are. Maybe they have plans for ..... ?

MALCOLM X:

"...If you don't think that they [the Government and the Press] are in cahoots -- watch! They are ALL interested, or NONE of them are interested! It's not a staggering thing. They're not going to say anything in advance that's being given by any Black people who believe in functioning beyond the scope of the ground rules that are laid down by the liberal element of the power structure. When you begin thinking for yourself, you frighten them. And they try to block your getting to the Public for fear that if the Public listens to you, then the Public won't listen to them anymore. "They've got certain Negroes whom they have to keep pumping up in the newspapers to make them look like leaders, so that the People will keep on following them no matter how many knots they get on the head following him. This is how "the man" does it. And if you don't wake up and find out HOW he does it -- I tell you -- they'll be building gas chambers and gas ovens pretty soon. I don't mean those kinds you got at home in your kitchen. "Another example, at the international level, of how skillfully they use this trickery, was in the Congo. In the Congo, airplanes were dropping bombs on African villages. African villages don't have a defense against bombs. And the pilot can't tell who the bomb is being dropped upon. When a bomb hits the village, EVERYTHING goes. These pilots -- flying planes filled with bombs, dropping these bombs on African villages -- were destroying women, were destroying children, were destroying babies. You never heard any outcry over here about that! And it had started way back in June. They would drop bombs on African villages that would blow that village apart, and everything in it: man, woman child and baby. "No outcry! No sympathy! No support! No concern! Because the PRESS didn't project it in such a way that it would be designed to GET your sympathy. They know how to put something so that you will sympathize with it, and they know how to put it so that you'll be against it. I'm telling you, they are MASTERS at it. And if you don't develop the analytical ability to read between the lines of what they're saying -- I'm telling you again -- they'll be building those gas ovens. And before you wake up, you'll be in one of them, just like the Jews ended up in gas ovens over there in Germany. "You are in a society that is just as capable of building gas ovens for Black people as Hitler's society was. "This was mass murder, in the Congo, of women and children. But there was no outcry, not even from the White liberals -- not even from your friends. Why? Because they made it appear that it was a humanitarian project. They said that the planes were being flown by American-trained, anti-Castro, Cuban pilots. This is propaganda, too. As soon as you hear that they're American-trained, you say: 'Oh, that's alright. That's us.' And of the anti-Castro Cubans, you say: 'Oh, that's alright, too, because if they're against Castro, whoever else they're against, that's good, because Castro is a monster.' "Do you see how, step-by-step, they grab your mind? "These pilots are hired ... their salaries are paid by the United States Government. These pilots are called 'mercenaries.' A mercenary is not someone who kills you because he is patriotic. He kills you for blood money. He is a hired killer! This is what is meant by 'a mercenary.' And they are able to take these HIRED KILLERS, put them in AMERICAN planes, with AMERICAN bombs, and drop them on African villages, blowing to bits Black men, Black women, Black children, Black babies. And you Black people are sitting over here, cool, like it doesn't even involve you. You're a FOOL !! "They'll do it to them today. They'll do it to you tomorrow."