BATTLE FOR THE MIND

By William Sargant
Reviewed By Frank Fiore
I should know (the Messiah when I see him). I followed a few!
That funny line came from Monty Pythons movie, the Life of Brian, and shows our
ability to be manipulated into believing and acting in ways our common sense tells us not
to. Whats not funny is the more serious side of mental manipulation, or brainwashing,
that sends young men flying airliners into buildings, killing thousands of people for the
good of the cause.
This same phenomenon of brainwashing is at work when Evangelists, ancient Greek
oracles, Psychiatrists, Politicians, battlefield fatigue soldiers, Voodoo Priests, and even
rock and roll dancing are able to radically change an individuals belief and behavior.
The question then is why or is it?
In his book, Battle for the Mind, William Sargant rephrases the question and instead of
asking why, he asks how? That is, how can people be induced to believe in what may
contradict obvious fact? How can an evangelist convert a hardboiled sophisticate? Why
does a prisoner of war sign a confession that he knows is false? How is a criminal
pressured into admitting his guilt? Do the evangelist, the POWs captor, and the
policeman use similar methods to gain their ends?
These and other compelling questions are discussed in the book by Sargant, who, for
many years until his death in 1988, was a leading physician in psychological medicine.
Sargant spells out and illustrates the basic technique used by evangelists, psychiatrists
and brain-washers to disperse the patterns of belief and behavior already established in
the minds of their hearers and to substitute new patterns for them.
Sargant presents a model for the physiological processes behind dramatic religious or
political conversions and brainwashing based on the experiments of the Russian neuro-
physiologist I. P. Pavlov. Sargant gives us a clear picture of the process of conversion and
how, if the occasion calls for it, we can recognize and resist the re-programming.
Sargant begins his thesis with the near drowning of Pavlovs dogs in a 1924 Leningrad
flood. An assistant rescued the dogs, freed them from their cages, and led them to safety.
Though looking no worse for wear, a strange change came over them. They had forgotten
or reversed the training they had received before the traumatic experience. Keepers they
had shown affection towards now received their aggression. Keepers whom they disliked
were now the recipients of affection. The dogs had forgotten their recent learning and had
to be retrained.
This phenomenon interested Pavlov and lead him to his three-stage process of brain
conversion, which Sargant believes we all are capable of falling victim to under the
proper circumstances.
The first stage is the Equivalent phase, in which the brain gives the same response to both
strong and weak stimuli. This may be seen in people who have been deprived of sleep for
a day or two. They lose judgment and perspective and react to a slight question or a major
challenge with the same degree of irritability.
Second is the Paradoxical phase, in which the brain responds more actively to weak
stimuli than to strong. At this stage, judgment is further impaired. We almost never
observe people in this state in normal life. For example, they respond inappropriately to a
firecracker going off and may have no reaction to a real fire. This state may be seen in
soldiers and civilians subjected to the stress of war, and those in normal societies who are
subjected to rape and other horrible traumas.
Third is the Ultra-Paradoxical phase, in which conditioned responses and behavior
patterns turn from positive to negative or from negative to positive. An example is
Pavlovs dogs after the flood. They became friendly to keepers they formally disliked,
and turned on those they were formally close to. People manifest this stage with feelings
of possession, hypnotic states, and when new ideas and commands become imperative.
With each progression, the degree of conversion becomes more effective and complete.
But beyond the three stages is when true conversion takes place. This is called the state of
transmarginal collapse. In this stage, and after it, the person or animal seems to have
unlearned recent and longstanding routines. In this state of collapse, the person or animal
cannot function and has lost key markers by which they or it understood their world.
Basic beliefs and assumptions of the world have been challenged, and if they build a new
map of the world, a different world, they can function again.
Basically, the process can be defined in terms of D.O.R. Disorientation, Orientation,
Reorientation.
Pavlov believed that this overall process of rebuilding ones assumptions of the world
was the brains attempt to avoid complete destruction. It had to attempt to process trauma
so great that it called into question all that it had ever learned or believed to be true.
This, by the way, is a model of behavior quite different from the classical conditioning
theory for which Pavlov is usually remembered.
In what has come to be known today as brainwashing, the process is similar. First, a
person is subjected to an intense trauma. The trauma continues until a person behaves
very differently from what was normal for them. Their personality shows signs of
breaking down, and new ways of thinking, applied intentionally or by accident, could
then be easily accepted.
Sargants work stemmed from his experiences in treating shell-shock and other combat
neuroses in Allied soldiers during the Second World War. The technique they used
during that time was to drug the soldiers into a highly suggestible state in which an
endeavor would be made to make him re-live the episode that had caused his
breakdown. Sometimes the memories were suppressed. In cases like these, the repressed
memories had to be brought to the surface again. In other cases, the traumatic events
were fully remembered, but the strong emotions originally attached to [them] had since
been suppressed.
Even quite imaginary situations [were used] to abreact the emotions of fear or anger.
For example, It might be suggested, under drugs, to a patient who had broken down, as
the result of a tank battle, that he was now trapped in a burning tank and must fight his
way out. Even though this situation never occurred, the fear that it might happen could
have contributed to his eventual collapse.
Sargant reasoned that the emotional release of the patient was critical to his getting better.
If little emotion had been released, and he only had his intellectual memory of some
horrible episode refreshed, little benefit could be expected. It was during the course of
Sargants developing this technique that he encountered Pavlovs work on inducing
neuroses in dogs, and then John Wesleys Journal, in which he found detailed reports ...
of almost identical states of emotional excitement, often leading to temporary emotional
collapse, which he induced by a particular sort of preaching. The fear of burning in hell
induced by his graphic preaching could be compared to the suggestion we might force on
a returned soldier, during treatment, that he was in danger of being burned alive in his
tank and must fight his way out. The two techniques seemed startlingly similar.
The techniques of religious conversion and revivalism are particularly interesting,
especially in this day and age of the religious fanatic and how it is achieved. Sargant
writes, Methods of religious conversion have hitherto been considered more from
psychological and metaphysical angles than from physiologic and mechanistic ones; but
techniques employed often approximate so closely to modern political techniques of
brainwashing and thought control that each throws light on the mechanics of the other.
In his chapter on religious conversion, Sargant speaks of the preliminary use of rhythmic
sounds or beats to influence brain patterns. It is easier to disorganize the normal function
of the brain by attacking it simultaneously with several strong rhythms played in different
tempos. Revivalists have known for ages that repetitive music with a repetitive beat,
ideally ranging from 45 to 72 beats per minute (a rhythm close to the beat of a human
heart), played while people come in for the service, is very hypnotic and can generate an
eyes-open altered state of consciousness in a high percentage of people. Once in an alpha
state, people are at least 25 times as suggestible as they would be in full Beta
consciousness. Many will exhibit external signs of trance like a very relaxed body and
slightly dilated eyes. They often begin swaying back and forth with their hands in the air
while sitting in their chairs.
Once the preacher has his congregation in this hypnotic state, the fire-and-brimstone
sermon begins. He induces fear and increases the tension by talking about the devil,
going to Hell, or the forthcoming Second coming of Christ. In most revivalist
gatherings, testifying or witnessing usually follow the fear-based sermon. People
from the audience come up on stage and relate their stories of being healed. This type of
psychological manipulation works, and after listening to numerous case histories of
miraculous healings and promises of eternal damnation, the room is charged with fear,
guilt, intense excitement, and expectations.
The technique of rhythmic beats or drumming is not the only province of the revivalist.
Rhythmic drumming is found in the ceremonies of many primitive religions all over the
world. Alcohol and drugs are often used to heighten the excitement of religious dancing
and this too hastens the breakdown, after which feelings of being free from sin, and
starting life anew, may occur. Believing that one has been divinely possessed is
common, and so is the initiation of a mystical trance. The Voodoo ceremonies in Haiti
easily show the susceptibility of the human brain to severe physiological stresses.
The objective of the Voodoo ceremony is to become possessed by one of their deities, or
loa. The loa are believed to take possession of a person, usually while he or she is
dancing to the rhythmic drums. The possessed person then behaves as that particular
deity would behave. Worked up by the Voodoo ceremony, the possessed carry out all
the detailed behavior of that expected deity. A Voodoo priest increases excitement and
suggestibility by altering the loudness and rhythms of the drums just as in a religious
snake handling cult [where] the preacher used tempo and volume of singing and hand
clapping to intensify the religious enthusiasm and emotional disruption induced by
thrusting live poisonous snakes into their hands. After a terminal collapse into stupor,
both groups of participants may awake with a sense of spiritual rebirth.
This sort of brainwashing phenomena is not limited to shell-shocked soldiers, sudden
religious conversions, Voodoo ceremonies or Russian dogs. Ideological and political
conversion and even petitioning an ancient oracle are other examples of Pavlovs three-
stage process of the physiological mechanism for brain conversion.
The techniques of religious and political indoctrination are sometimes identical. Sargant
states, some of the most obvious similarities are often ignored for either the religious
approach (as in Western Europe and the United States today) or the political (as in
eastern Europe and China) is accorded official respect at the others expense. Often the
activities of these two have been inspired by the highest and noblest of motives. The
most kindly, generous and humane of men have in fact been conditioned, throughout
history, to commit acts that appear horrifying in retrospect to those who have been
differently conditioned. Many otherwise sensible people cling to strange and cruel views
merely because these have been firmly implanted in their brains [and] they can no more
be disabused of them by argument than could the generation that still insisted on the
flatness of the earth, though it had been circumnavigated on several occasions.
In reality, brainwashing does not necessarily have to be done in Voodoo ceremonies or
religious revivals. There are less crude and less spectacular methods which can be very
effective. Brainwashers use a technique of conversion that doesnt depend on
heightening a groups suggestibility. It can also be accomplished by creating in an
individual a sense of anxiety, or a sense of real or imaginary guilt. This could lead to a
conflict of loyalties, strong and prolonged enough to create the necessary collapse.
In traditional brainwashing, as experienced by American POWs in the Korean War, the
trauma is applied through sleep deprivation, relentless pressure from an alternative
ideology, and even physical abuse. In religious conversion the trauma is internalized,
creating an intense conflict between the acceptance of the new religion and salvation, and
the fear of the hell fires of damnation. In spirit possession, like in the case of Voodoo
ceremonies, there is no trauma, but the pressure of heightened emotional pitch can come
from repetitive drum beating, chanting, dancing, and drug or alcohol use. The mental set,
environmental setting, expectation and observation of others being possessed suggest to
people how they should act.
Even consulting an oracle in the ancient world wasnt a rational process. It seemed the
ancient Greeks knew something of the effects of physiological stress on changing ones
perception of the world. Just as we visit a psychiatrist today when we need advice or
psychological treatment, the ancient Greeks consulted oracles for the same purpose.
Before meeting the oracle, the seeker would have experienced sleep deprivation,
chanting, drug use, and solitary passage through dark tunnels and down pits a long and
exhausting struggle that would place one under much physiological stress, which could
last for days. When the oracle announced a revelation, it would be seen with new eyes or
mental set, and perceived as having great importance.
The common key to this shift of mental set in all of these cases is the severe trauma an
individual experiences, self-induced or otherwise. Even traumatic emotional events we
acknowledge today as acceptable can lead groups of people to conversion. Case in point
is the practice of college hazing or pledging a fraternity. Though this is a milder form of
brainwashing, the end result is similar. They lead to life-long attachments to friends and
their alma mater. Boot camp and sport training exercises to create team sprit and
corporate training sessions are powerful techniques that lead to allegiances that last a
lifetime, not that these milder forms of conversion are necessarily evil. In some cases, it
is a social necessity as in allowing young adults to separate from their parents, form their
own social units, and become parents themselves.
It is one thing to make the mind of a normal person break down under intolerable
stress, Sargant writes. It is quite another to make these new ideas take firm root. The
work of the brainwasher is now of use if after the experience the subject forgets his recent
conversion and slips back into the beliefs and routines that he had before. In the case of
religious conversion, the Methodists under John Wesley had a means to keep the
suddenly converted in line. He consolidated his gains with highly efficient follow-up
methods.
Wesley divided his converts into groups of not more than twelve persons, who met each
week under an appointed leader; problems of an intimate nature relating to their
conversion and their future mode of life were then discussed in agreed secrecy. Under
the auspices of collecting money each week for the church, the leader of the group would
visit each home and was able to see if a conversion was genuine or not. He later tested
any conclusions he made at the following weekly class meeting. Members who were
found not to be sincerely repentant, and set upon leading a new life, would be expelled
both from the class and the Methodist Society in general.
The Communist Party had always understood the power of dividing converts into small
groups, or cells, for follow-up and consolidation. Even primitive societies used such
consolidation methods. They would have periodic group meetings where the emotions
were aroused by dancing and drumming to maintain the beliefs of the converted. The
ceremony of excitement may go on and on until mental and physical exhaustion sets in, at
which time the leader or priest would more easily implant or reinforce in a state of high
suggestibility.
And how susceptible are people to the kind of physiological stress and conversion
described by Sargant? Can a decent rational person with a strong will deter such assaults
on his mind? Sadly, Sargant says no; every person has his or her breaking point. Some
statesmen and Service chiefs seem to believe that given the necessary patriotism and
training, a decent man can resist every assault made on the fortress of his integrity
whether by Fascists, Communists, or any other delude outlaws: which is quit untrue. We
are continuously paying the price of such mistaken judgments.
The trick, according to Sargant, is to be aware of the conversion process and to be able to
make rational and valid choices for oneself. In that way, the conversion does not lead one
into surrendering all to a cult. Sargant gives an example of a strategy for resistance in
Colonel R.H. Stevens, ambushed by the Gestapo in 1940 while on special duties in
Holland. He was arrested and chained to his prison cell wall like a dog for two whole
years in an attempt to break him. Stevens discovered that adopting a cold, dignified sort
of air, rather than expressing certain contempt for everything helped him survive not only
his period of being chained to a wall, but three further years in Dachau. The raising of
emotions is the main tool of the brainwasher. Whoever can be roused either to fear or
anger by a politician, priest or policeman, is more easily led to accept the desired pattern
of co-operation, even though this may violate his normal judgment.
Understanding Sargant and Pavlovs mechanism of conversion can give us insight into
the formation of social bonds, the development of gangs and groups, and allow us to
make more informed choices as individuals, a society and a culture.