Brainwashing techniques are more common than you think. You may be brainwashed in your daily life.

Most of us associate brainwashing with Cold War covert espionage and old black-and-white movies. But brainwashing techniques are more common than you think, and in today’s modern world.

People who want to manipulate someone or a situation often use brainwashing to get the upper hand, but before we start examining what kind of brainwashing techniques they use, what exactly is brainwashing?

What is brainwashing

Brainwashing is a process by which a person or group uses deceptive methods to convince others of the will of the person who is manipulating them.

But where do honest persuasion stop and brainwashing begin? There are many forms of persuasion in use today, particularly in politics. For example, a simple way to get an audience to go along with your instructions is to first say a few things that elicit a “yes” response, then add things that are real facts, and finally suggest what you want them to do:

Tired of paying too much at gas stations? Tired of rising healthcare costs? Want to see an end to austerity? Second! If you want to change the Democratic vote.”

You wouldn’t call these brainwashing techniques, such as subtle persuasion, what methods do manipulators use?

Here are the most common things to look for:

isolation

Usually, the first tactic used in brainwashing is to isolate the victim away from her friends and family. The reason for doing this is that the victim only has the manipulator to talk to, get information and ideas from, and not have to worry about any third party coming in and wondering what’s going on.

Attacks on self-esteem

Now that the victim is isolated, it must be broken so that the manipulation can rebuild it in the image he wants. A person can only be brainwashed if his manipulator is in a higher position than he is. These attacks can be in the form of ridicule or mockery of the victim, or intimidation.

Psychological abuse

Another way the manipulator attempts to brainwash their victims is to mentally torture them. They can tell victims lies and then embarrass them with the truth in front of others, or they can bully their victims by nagging them and not allowing them any personal space.

Physical assault

Manipulators realize that there are many physical techniques by which the victim can be brainwashed.

These include depriving someone of sleep, keeping them cold and hungry, and actually physically harming them through violent behavior. There are also other, more subtle methods a manipulator can use, such as keeping noise levels high, having lights blink on and off all the time, and lowering or raising the temperature in the room.

Frequent music

Studies have shown that if you play a repetitive tempo, and even better, from 45 to 72 beats per minute, you can induce an intense hypnotic state. This is because this frequency is very close to the human heartbeat.

This rhythm can alter your consciousness until you reach what is known as an alpha state, where you are 25 times more suggestible as if you were in a beta state.

Only allowing contact with other brainwashed members
By allowing contact only with those who have already been brainwashed, the manipulator creates a situation where peer pressure comes into play. Everyone wants to be liked and accepted, especially if he’s the new member of the group. Commitment and promotion of what other members say and do means acceptance.

Us vs. them

Again, this is all about being accepted into a group, and the best group too. Saying that there is “us and them”, the manipulator immediately offers the victim the opportunity to choose which group to belong to. Their goal now is to achieve absolute obedience and loyalty.

Love bombing

This is a tactic whereby the victim is drawn into the group by physical touching, sharing intimate thoughts, and emotional bonding, all through excessive affection and constant validation.

These are just a few of the ways a person can be brainwashed, and if you think it’s easy to get them back to normal, you might be interested in one study by neuroscientist Kathleen Taylor. After reviewing the neurological effects of brainwashing victims, I discovered that they had more rigid neural pathways than others.