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05/17/26 7:47:19am [ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, [3] ]

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Date Posted: 19:06:07 04/18/04 Sun
Author: Orlando
Subject: Initiation and Brain Washing

Initiation and Brain Washing


http://members.cox.net/xocxoc/philosophy/initiation.htm

The last major source of false information disguised as true information comes from initiation ceremonies and brain washing techniques. Both are not very common sources, but are probably more common than you think. Although they are different, I have lumped the two together because they use the same basic techniques. They both involve controlling thoughts and emotions in some way.

Any form of controlling of thought, whether it be a small cult, or a totalitarian regime, involves some form of brain washing. The last few millennia this took the form of some sort of initiation rites. Here is a list of common initiation mechanisms that comes from the excellent book "The History of Secret Societies" by Arkon Daraul:

An expectancy that something great is about to happen.
Isolation, vigils, hunger or abstinence, that cause debilitation and reflection.
Noise (usually loud, constant, and repetitive).
Real or symbolic potions to drink (sometimes narcotic or hypnotic in nature).
Threats of frightening or dangerous situations, generally staged and not really genuine perils.
A symbolic death and resurrection, probably with a renaming ceremony.
The use of special signs, signals, handshakes, and "key phrases" which will help awaken whatever conditioning was given for special or general purposes at different times.
More than just a trace of these practices can be found in the ceremonies of most of the worlds great religions. The purpose of such ceremonies is to condition the member into the group. These initiation rites are almost never done to just one person at a time, it is usually in a group. This prevents individual thought, as the group majority will usually strike down unworthy ideas before they ruin the initiation.

It is mystical orders that follow these rites most often. But, the effect of conditioning and group feeling can be felt without an appeal to the supernatural. Armed forces basic training and fraternity hazing rites follow these patterns as well without any mystical overtones.

Patriotic words and advertising slogans are forms of conditioning, and it is also well known that a shared crisis will bring people closer, even if the crisis is staged. The crisis does not have to be unexpected or natural, anything that exhausts the body and overwhelms the mind will do.

For the last 40 years or so these techniques have been adapted by totalitarian regimes to control the masses. Brain washing (or technically called "psychological conditioning") is the initiation technique specifically designed to change moral attitudes. These special techniques involve:

Emotional stress, shock, or desensitization, to break down both intellectual and emotional resistance.
Isolation, whether physical or emotional, from familiar sources of emotional support in resistance.
Cross examination of preconsisting values, often by manipulating peer pressure.
Stripping the individual of normal defenses, such as reserve, dignity, a sense of privacy, or the ability to decline to participate.
Rewarding the acceptance of new attitudes, values, and beliefs -- a reward which can simply be a release from pressures inflicted on those who resist -- or it may take a more tangible or symbolic form.
While these techniques can be used to teach good values and attitudes, they can be used to teach any values.

Do not think that these are rare and limited to totalitarian governments. So called "Affective Education" programs in schools have been used in elementary schools, often without parental knowledge or permission and often undermining the values that parents have been teaching their children. Corporate weekend getaways, both in the public and private sector, often use these techniques to instill new attitudes in their workers. Most "sensitivity training" classes use these techniques. Some of these techniques have been adapted by advertisers, media, and advocacy groups of all political persuasions.

The consequences of constant psychological conditioning is a growing inability to believe in anything. It is an easy step to conclude that all religious conversions are some sort of conditioning, but that would deny the whole purpose of religion.

There is an easy defense. It is recognition. When one recognizes that they are being set up to be conditioned, the conditioning will be unsuccessful.

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