Wise Word About Hypnotism and Politics from the Father of MkUltra

Professor George Estabrooks is known mostly by reputation for being the hypnotic mastermind who conceived of some of the more disquieting things to come out of the Cold War, like MK Ultra and the Manchurian Candidate. But he was first and foremost a scientist, and was equally concerned with the inexplicable way dictators could turn sensible people into fanatics, and he wrote at length about it in his book “Hypnotism” (revised 1957, E.P.Dutton). This excerpt is WELL worth a read, and maybe a little self-reflection:

“How can we guarantee that our choice at the polls will be a wise one? Our previous discussion of hypnotism and mob psychology should help. Is this man you listened to on TV last night a genuine leader or is he a rabble rouser? Is he heading a battle of democratic principles or “a battle of the gravy bowl’? We may safely say that, in America, we have the world’s most intelligent electorate and that, on the whole, our politicians are a superior group, so we are not crying panic. On the other hand, as we have said, “when you stop being better, you stop being good,” and on this matter of electing a potential dictator, you will make that mistake once only. From then on, he will take care that your mistakes are always in his favor.

So play a little game with yourself. Sit down and think over that last spellbinder you heard on the platform, over the radio or on television. Behind every argument is someone’s ignorance. You probably are either for him or against him. Why? 

Was he appealing largely to your reason or was his appeal largely to your emotions?—especially on such matters as class privilege, the race issue, religious issues. These matters can be handled along the lines of reason, but the temptation to go over to the highly emotional appeal is very marked. In other words, were you listening to a man of reason or to a hypnotist who aimed to limit your field of consciousness? [earlier in the book, the author explains the hypnotic state as one where the subject is led to be hyperfocused on a single topic] You say you cannot be hypnotized against your will. Perhaps you were hypnotized last night as you listened to that political address over your TV. It might be well to give a little thought to this matter. Don’t worry about the hypnotist in his laboratory. You will probably never meet him. The most dangerous hypnotist may be the man you listened to last week over the radio. You were his subject. His appeal was emotional, inflammatory, an excellent example of prestige suggestion [“Prestige” refers to a kind of authoritarian hypnotic influence, and eliciting strong emotion as a way to create an altered state]. You came away determined that something drastic should be done – on, shall we say, the racial issue. As a matter of fact, you were a very excellent subject. Think it over.

And think about the nature of that kind of hypnotist. He may be, he often is, a man of great intelligence. You may have your own opinions about Hitler, Mussolini or Napoleon, but no one ever accused them of being morons. They could and did use the brains they had with great effect. Their outlook was purely selfish. They used their intelligence to further their own ends. But Hitler was excellent within these narrow limits.”

If you want a concrete example of this "mass hypnosis" effect, consider that in the year following the 1973 movie, "The Exorcist," there was an explosion of people believing they were possessed that persisted for years afterwards. Even during the movie, people passed out, vomited, and supposedly there were even a few heart attacks. But all those people did was sit down in a theater for an hour or so. 

Politics, Sure, but What the Heck are They Talking About?

I once had a dream that I went with a friend to the Gates of Hell. It was a huge crater in the Earth covered in sick green shrubs and centuries of wrecked and ruined structures all down the slopes leading into the darkness. It was unnaturally cold and quiet, and the misty air was filled with sadness. 

As we stared into the depths, we became aware of strange, wispy, ghostly forms, flying around and around in the depths. My friend asked me what they were, and I, apparently heir to occult knowledge, told him they were the hopes and dreams, loves and hates of people who had died before they ever had a chance to resolve them. They fly around and around like lost dogs looking for home. Over thousands and thousands of years, some take on enough power and intelligence to achieve lives of their own, and they escape from the pit as demons, often very, very different from the innocent feelings they started out as, and they go forth into the world to influence people and events in ways that no one can imagine.

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Here in the USA, we've got a presidential election coming up, and the internet is abuzz with all kinds of discussions. People with more common sense probably avoid political discussion like the plague, but I'm fascinated being able to learn the thinking of people with views very different from my own, and for me, the internet is an ideal place to learn. There's a lot of juvenile noise out there, but there are people representing all different kinds of politics who can have an intelligent, if heated, discussion, and that's where you'll find me.

However, there are these things I come across in discussion that confound and frustrate me, and, like the demons in my dream, seem to have a life and intelligence of their own, yet impose a powerful influence on people's thinking. And like those wispy spirits, they seem to have metamorphosed into something very different than their original incarnation. Stranger still, people possessed by these sprites assume that everyone else knows and understands them in the same way that they do. I guess you could call them memes, mind viruses, or even brain worms. NLP might refer to them as metaphors or nominalizations.

What I'm talking about are these catchphrases that people of a like mind all agree upon so insistently that they can no longer be broken down into their the component facts that once spawned them, and they have become an emotional hot-button, rather than information. In nearly all cases, these demons have wrapped deliberate disinformation around a core of fact.

Now, when I talk politics on line, I usually find myself in disagreements with people both on the left and on the right. What I see when these demons are at work is a normally thoughtful, rational individual will become emotionally charged and completely intractable when these demons are invoked. I always try to ask "what do you really mean?" or "can you define it better" or just, "I don't get it, explain it." But they never do.

Do you know what I'm talking about? Things like:
All the candidates are the same!
All Christians are hypocrites!
You don't want government involved!
All Southerners are racists!
All Muslims are a threat!
Benghazi!
Socialism!
Free stuff!

And so forth.

They're generalizations. They're false, but some evidence could be found to show they're occasionally or conditionally true. The people will fight before they stop to really examine them. My experience is that these demons are pretty intractable. When they come up in conversation they're usually embedded deeply into a person's belief structure --their map of the world-- and so, are very hard to approach objectively.

But like something from an old Vincent Price movie, these evil influences spread through entire groups of people who embrace them willingly, an the demons bend and twist otherwise intelligent people to do their bidding.

I wish a I knew a way to exorcise these conversational demons, but the people so possessed seem to love them and won't give them up for anything. But at least you can be vigilant against getting possessed! Don't get sucked into the emotion of it. Don't accept the generalizations, don't be afraid to examine your own beliefs and always be willing to change and correct yourself if you're wrong, even if you've invested a lot of time and feeling.

What do you think?