A Study of Brainwashing in China by Robert Jay Lifton
gordon_neufeld@hotmail.com
from Calgary, Alberta, July 30, 1999
There is such a thing as "mind control" and Lifton does examine it along with comparisons to totalitarian mind control methods used by oppressive governments. A major problem though is that this and other books like it are used to justify criticizing and attacking almost any belief system which is non-traditional or different than the mass-agreement of modern social belief mediocrity. Too often this type book is used to explain and justify actions to "force" family members to separate from alternative religions and groups (called cults). There are "cults", but whose to say whether the Catholic Church, the Jewish religion, or the Baptists are more of a "cult" than the Moonies, the Hare Krishnas, or Scientology. It seems that what primarily defines a "cult" is that it is smaller than the others, non-traditional and threatens the established larger, organized "cults". Still, Lifton does shed light on the nature of mind control, but one needs to keep in mind that the mechanics of "mind control" is probably, to a large degree, just as common with modern accepted traditional belief systems as with any of the so-called "cults". Psychologists and psychiatrists, in collusion with government agencies, are the main creators and instigators of "mind control" techniques. The CIA was directly involved in the Jonestown incident involving the People's Temple and Jim Jones. Apparently the CIA created and nurtured a cult to experiment with psychological theories about group control, and to ascertain just what they could get people to do in the name of "religion" and "belief" (including suicide and murder). There is evidence that some Satanic "cults", ritual murder, and off-the-wall occult practices are also in some cases similar experiments in "mind control" conducted by government agencies to bring about "multiple personality disorders" intentionally - to create "perfect spies" who can't remember who they are and what their missions are. Psychiatrists and psychologists on the payroll of the government secretly conduct human experimentation so they can figure out just what people can be "tricked" into believing and doing. One should therefore read anything by them which claims to understand and "solve" cults and "mind control" with a suspicious eye, since, in fact, they are the primary cause of many of these things. Lifton is a professor of psychiatry and psychology. The "Cult Awareness Network" (CAN), using "modern" psychological theories about "cults" and working with "psychological experts" routinely abducted, coerced and even tortured family members in an attempt to "break" them from their beliefs which the rest of the family members didn't like or agree with. The FBI and BATF based some of their decisions at Waco, Texas with David Koresh and the Branch Davidians on suggestions from the CAN resulting in a complete catastrophe. For the most part they don't know what they are talking about when attempting to generalize their analysis of "religious brainwashing" to the various modern "cults". There is a world of difference between the strict social control of the communist Chinese society and any "cult" which exists in a free country such as the USA. Read this book with that in mind.
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