Human behaviour depends very much upon the clarity with which people perceive the boundaries, and the commitment with which they are committed to remain within the limits proper for them.

Since these boundaries exist primarily in human minds, anyone desiring to manipulate humans aims at controlling the mind. By doing this they can control the boundaries within which the person is willing to remain. As we discuss the principles and methods of mind control, it must be kept in mind that there would be some overlap between the different categories that we discuss. This is because man is not a machine with nuts and bolts, but a living creature with much spread in his desires, personality, and behaviour.

The results of mind-control methods are seen in different ways in different people. In some the results are achieved only gradually, while in others it is achieved in large leaps or even immediately and totally. This depends upon several factors which would be mentioned in another part of this discussion.


There are six basic principles using which mental barriers can be manipulated. They are:

1-Blinding
2-Imprinting
3-Desensitization
4-Expansion
5-Fear Creation
6-Value Shifting

The world uses numerous strategies for controlling human minds, but ultimately all of them use one or more of the above six principles. Thus a mastery of the six principles above, coupled with an exposure to some of their strategies would help concerned believers to quickly spot the occasions when mind-control methods are being used. The using proper leading-questions they can expose these attempts against truth. (Leading questions are a powerful set of tools for unmasking error. They are explained in detail in another place).

Meanwhile, it would be helpful to study the above principles in some detail:

1-Manipulating By Blinding: Mental barriers help people to behave properly, but they need clear perception of these barriers before they can remain within the limits. Continuous instruction by parents, Sunday-school teachers, Bible-teachers, and other who love truth, helps people to perceive the boundaries of life clearly. Just as lovers of truth can help clearer perception of the boundaries, enemies of truth can blind or dim the perception of people towards these boundaries. Once blinded, they cross the boundaries just as an unaided blind person falls into a pit. A person can be blinded in many ways, some of which are described below.

Every person should look at things objectively and without bias, and only this would ensure proper conclusion. However, if a person can be blinded or prejudice in some way or other, he evaluates things subjectively and with bias. Thus his conclusions would be wrong, and the actions that follow based upon the deductions would automatically be wrong.

The way in which David dealt with Absalom is a good example. Absalom indulged in many rebellious and disobedient practices. The Old Testament Law prescribed the actions that the father has to take in such situations. Further, David being the kind, it was his responsibility to keep his son in control lest it create civil unrest in his kingdom. Yet we see that due to his excess emotional attachment to Absalom he became blind to all these consequences and repeatedly sheltered Absalom.

Finally he became so biased towards his son that in a war David asked his people not to hurt Absalom. This was contrary to the principle of just warfare, where one enemy's life is not be esteemed over the other's. Then finally when Absalom was killed, David mourned for him so openly that everyone became depressed (2 Sam 18 and 19). The day of joy turned into a day of mourning. Finally Joab had to come and even warn the king to forsake his improper behaviour. All of this was because of his bias towards his son, and David became blind to the boundaries to observed by a king of Israel.

People can be blinded also with the help of lies and one-sided reports. Many things have a true as well as a false side. For example, when the advertisements ask people to "relax" with a cigarette, it looks true because smoking does give some relaxation to some people. At the same time, it is a one-sided reporting because relaxation is not the only thing a person gets through smoking. They also get lung cancer, foul breath, and loss of stamina. But often the power of one-sided reporting is so great, and the words used so charming, that people fall into the trap.

In Bible we notice this when Potipher's wife lied to her husband. He immediately imprisoned Joseph, without even pausing to consider the past record of Joseph. This is also seen in 1 Kings 13:18 where the false prophet came, claimed that he was a prophet, and that God had spoken to him. These two claims were enough to blind the true prophet to the fact that plenty of people try to beguile God's servants. Being a prophet himself, he should have inquired these things directly from the Lord.

In our generation several false-teachings have used one-sided reports and even white lies to propagate themselves. The Prajapati/Christ claim is one of them. A lot of Sanskrit quotations advanced by these people are outright fraud, but people blindly believe. The Occult-based healing systems like Pranic Healing is another example. These systems often talk about seeing an aura around the human body with the help of Kirilian photography. This is an outright lie because none has so far seen a human aura with the help of Kirilian photography. Yet when this falsehood is repeated, people become blind to truth.

Overpowering or wiping the information which a person has is another method of blinding. Thus though everyone knows that an embryo is a human being, many people have fallen into endorsing abortions. This is because they have been overpowered with the statement that an embryo is not a living person and that abortion is just a surgical process similar to removing infected tonsils. The other side is not shown, and blind people cross their boundaries and endorse or even support murder.

Another method for blinding people (or even oneself) is through Emotion-induced blindness. Emotion is a powerful force, and it must always be kept under the control of human reason and wisdom. When this is not done, each dosage of emotion blinds the person further till he is totally blinded. This is how even spiritually mature people fall into lust and sexual impurity, bitterness, anger, malice, and all kinds of spiritual and moral evils. Each occasion of indulging makes the emotion stronger, and the reason is suppressed. Once a threshold is crossed, people become blinded to truth.

When Israelites demanded Aaron to make an idol, and when Aaron made it, all of them knew that this is not God. Yet they were blinded to truth. When Samson continued his involvement with Delilah, and when he finally revealed his secret to her, knowing the truth he was still ignoring it. He was playing with fire due to his emotion-induced blindness. When David got involved with Bethseba, he knew that it was sin. That is why he tried to pass the blame to Uriah. The whole story shows that he knew the truth, yet at the same time he was blind. The same is the case with

Solomon who, contrary to the commands in the Law, multiplied wives unto himself. His emotions had totally blinded him when he offered incense to idols. The Sons Of God marrying the Daughters of Men was a similar case. The Sons Of God were righteous people, but temporarily they became blind to the fact that they should not indulge in unholy alliances.

It takes a lot of wisdom, insight, honesty, and objectivity to distinguish truth from error. But once a person is blinded, he quickly forgets the boundaries and easily steps into error outside the boundaries that are proper for him.


2-Manipulation By Imprinting: The boundaries in our mind separate the right from the wrong. Now if a certain idea is taken and imprinted upon our minds as right, or proper, or desirable, then the mental boundaries automatically expand to take it also into all what is considered as right.

One tried-and-tested method of imprinting a message in human minds is "repetition". When the same idea or practice is repeated to a person or social group, sooner or later it becomes stamped upon their minds as something right. This is one way in which abortion has become common. For years people kept emphasizing that there is an overpopulation. Then they kept emphasizing that this would lead to deprivation and shortage of resources. Then the kept emphasizing that the population has to be controlled. These messages imprinted so successfully upon people's minds that today when they say that population should be controlled "at any cost", people simply accept even murder as a means for controlling population.

At the same time, repetition of the right message works in the opposite way. It imprints the message of truth and righteousness upon human minds. This is why parents should train up their children with repeated instruction. This is why family-worship and regular Bible-based discussions are important in families. This is why children should be given the right kind of books for reading. And this is why those who stand for truth should repeatedly proclaim the message, without tiring and without becoming discouraged. Their repetitive proclamation of truth would sprout sooner or later and grow into large trees that will bring forward truth as fruit.

Shock is another method for imprinting an idea in human mind. When the human mind is given a shock, the message often imprints itself firmly in the subconscious mind. The person might not even be aware of it, but when the right circumstances arise, this message would automatically come into his conscious mind.

Fantasy-creation is another method for imprinting an idea firmly in the human mind. This is the reason why people who spend all their time reading fairy tales, soft romance, pornography, and such stories, lose their resistance to lust. Western movies imported to India, and the dance/song programmes shown in TV programmes similar to Chitramala and Chitrahar create intense sexual fantasies in people.

The maximum speed with which a person thinks is not more than 250 words per minute. However, when a person indulges in sexual fantasy, his mind races at the speed of 1800 words per minute. Thus a few minutes of sexual fantasy per day is equivalent of hours of vulgar reading per day. Ideas have consequence, and such extended exposure to lust leaves a lasting impact upon the mind. This is why in Matt. 5:28 our Lord placed mental lust on the level of physical defilement. Fantasy eventually motivates the person to act. In Genesis 39 we notice that the invitation from Potipher's wife was not a sudden development. She had been watching and fantasizing about Joseph for quite some time. Eventually it broke down her boundaries of right and wrong. The same is the case of Amnon and Tamar found in 2 Samuel 13, where Amnon indulged for a prolonged period in fantasy. Thus eventually his mind was so impressed with lust that he did not listen to Tamar who asked him to wait and get her as his married wife.

People indulge in fantasy not only about sex, but also about money, power, position, honour, and a lot of other things. Continuous indulgence gradually wakens their boundaries and when the suitable circumstances arise the person falls into it.

Emotional manipulation by bypassing reason is another method for imprinting an idea in human minds. On receiving any kind of information, the human mind analyzes it using reason, and then takes action. The Information --> Reason --> Action is the correct sequence. Emotions should play only a subordinate role in this. But it is possible to manipulate human emotions in such a way that human reason it totally bypassed. The sequence looks like: Reason --> Emotion (Reason) --> Actions. Here reason is placed in parenthesis because when the human emotion is manipulated by a clever person, the reason is either suppressed, or is even totally bypassed.

Thus when the report about loss in war was given to king David, everyone knew that he would get angry. After-all the defeat and deaths were the result of clumsy war strategy. Further, many of the dead were brave and loyal soldiers. Knowing this, the captain of the army told the messenger that in case the king got angry, just mention Uriah. No sooner Uriah's death was mentioned, king's dormant emotions were touched and he lost balance, becoming philosophical. He asked them not to worry on the pretext that death is no respector of persons. This is not the way a brave commander speaks or thinks. Instead, a commander in his right mind sits and analyzes how he could win next time. David failed to do so because of the emotional bullet that was fired upon him, and that effectively bypassed his reason.


3-Manipulation Through Desensitization: God-fearing people are quite sensitive to good as well as evil. They rejoice on seeing good, while they sorrow on witnessing evil. Such a person recoils with horror and dismay when he is invited to be part of an evil activity. He is just not willing to step out of the boundaries. This is why children brought up in God-fearing families generally shiver at the thought of stealing, drinking, cursing, using profanity, or indulgence in vulgarity.

Just as people recoil on accidentally touching a hot frying-pan, a sensitive person forcibly removes himself from things that are not right for him. He knows that here is something outside the boundaries of good. This sensitivity is a very important part of godliness and right thinking. However, just as sensitivity to heat can be reduced considerably by continuous and deliberate handling hot vessels, it is possible to reduce one's mental sensitivity by continuous exposure to sin and evil.

The company of friends, society with loose moral values, hostels, and TV programmes are some channels that desensitize people. Gossip, juicy stories, and vulgar jokes are another medium. This is how often very sensitive and even touch-me-not Christian young boys and girls eventually become brazen and shameless beyond anyone's belief. Once the sensitivity is gone, they have nothing to recoil from and nothing to fear about. What was outside the boundary of proper things, and what was seen as improper in the past, has now been incorporated into the boundaries of the acceptable things.

The sequence is something like this:

First Exposure --> Recoil and revulsion

Repeated Exposure In Small Doses --> Removal Of Shock --> Desensitization --> Overlooking The Evil --> Tolerance Of The Evil --> Condoning The Evil --> Liking The Evil --> Desiring The Evil --> Justifying The Evil --> Eventual Indulgence In Evil --> Further Justification Of The Evil

The secret of desensitization is continuous exposure in SMALL doses. Like a slow poison, small amount of evil often fools people into thinking that nothing is amiss. It gives them a false confidence that they can jump out of it any time that they want, without ever realizing that each occasion of exposure is making them insensitive to yet more evil. Finally a critical stage is reached where there insensitivity makes them to even love evil.

In Genesis we notice the way in which Lot's daughters indulged in incest that was totally repulsive to children of God. They were people who had seen God face to face, and His deliverance with their own eyes. Having known God this intimately, they ought to have trusted in that omnipotent God to solve their problems. It was not difficult for the creator of the entire Universe to grant them a match and a progeny in time. Yet the vulgar and oversexed society in which they lived, they took recourse not only to human wisdom, but also to a repulsive activity. The reason is not very far. Their continuous exposure to the degenerate morality of Sodom and Gomorrah from their childhood had made them totally insensitive to what is right and what is wrong !! Such is the result of desensitization.

Some of the practices that have gained popularity at the dawn of the twenty-first century are cadaver-eating by medical students, drinking fetus-soups by medical doctors, eating corpses by Tantriks, thanatophilia by undertakers, and indulgence Sado-Masochism and bestiality by educated people. There is ample documentation to show that these things are taking place from India to America and from Africa to China.

There is even a principle called Mike's Law to express the results of desensitization. According to law, continuous indulgence in forbidden activities increases one's desire and boldness while it diminishes the thrill. This in turn motivates the person to greater thrill, and to increased carelessness.
What it means that one a person continually indulges in a forbidden activity or in a violation, the excitement and thrill received from it begins to decrease. This is due to desensitization. Meanwhile this person's desire for this activity increases and he indulges in yet greater violation. Initially the person indulges in violation with fear and trembling. Since most people are not caught in the beginning, they become bolder and gradually abandon their caution. This is the reason why God-fearing young people eventually become brazen and do not care even if their parents, elders, or society watches their misdeeds.

4-Manipulation Through Expansion: There is no boundary for human desires if they are left to themselves. Thus every God-fearing person has to learn to control his desires so that they never cross the boundaries appropriate for a believer. The Ten Commandments and other Biblical commands remind believers not to desire what belongs to others -- neither their wealth, nor sexual gratification through them.

After ten to twenty years of training in a Christian atmosphere people automatically restrict and control their desires most of the times. However, those who oppose the Christian faith can still attack these people. In ways that look very innocent, these people can induce people to expand these boundaries. Thus by cleverly expanding the needs, desires, and expectations of a person, it is possible to motivate him to desire things that are outside their proper boundaries. Once the desire is kindled, the boundaries automatically enlarge and adjust. This way the person becomes mentally ready to indulge in things that actually he ought to avoid.

Fantasies are a powerful tool for expanding the boundaries. Fantasies obey no boundaries, and given an opportunity they would break all barriers of decency. Consequently, continuous exposure to fantasy expands the barriers so much that the distinction between right and wrong is lost. This is one reason why fantasy-provoking novels, stories, TV programmes, and conversation should be avoided by believers.

Things (that are not moral sins) in life can be placed into the following categories: Essentials, Pleasurable, Luxuries. A right- thinking person should desire only the essentials of life. He understands that there is nothing wrong if he gets the pleasurable of life, but he is not supposed to crave for them. Further, he should see as sinful all craving for the luxuries of life. This balanced thinking helps a person to remain within his boundaries. However, the balance can be destroyed with the help of contrived desire-creation.

Desire-creation is another method for expanding the boundaries. The world has numerous methods for creating desires in human hearts, and these are mentioned in the discussion on Propaganda Techniques. For example, if the world can motivate a person to dwell for some time on the joys of luxury, it creates a craving for it in his heart. This breaks down his perception about the distinction between the essentials, the pleasures, and the luxuries of life.

Thus the boundaries of desires are expanded. It works something like the following:

Attraction To Luxuries --> Meditation Upon The Pleasures Of Luxury --> Viewing Luxuries Of Life As Desirables Of Life --> Viewing Them As Essentials Of Life --> Seeking For Forbidden Or Improper Luxuries --> Changed boundaries.

Once a person slides into this kind of thinking, the mental boundaries are easily trespassed.

Another method for expanding the boundaries is through lust-creation. Lust can be for sexual gratification, for things of life, or for name, fame, and positions. By creating a lust for any possible combination of sin, believers are motivated to crave for what is not proper for them. This to erodes the boundaries. The examples of Samson, Solomon, and Amnon can help to understand the consequences of lust. Proverbs 5 and 7 also speak in detail on this subject.

The Word of God reminds that believers should seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness first, and then all things shall be added unto a believer (Matt. 6:33). Fantasies, desire-creation, and lust-creation motivate the believer to reverse the order found in this verse.


5-Manipulation Through Fear-Creation: Making the right decisions and taking right actions often requires a lot of mental alertness. An attitude of combat and self-defense against evil is essential. However, these attitudes can be paralyzed by creating fear.

Thieves and robbers depend upon the surprise factor to rob people. Often people can resist and even overpower the robbers, as is seen occasionally, but the sudden shock of seeing a weapon and the consequent fear paralyze them for few moments. This is enough time for the robbers to take the loot and flee. In spiritual and moral matters also, once there is fear in the human heart, people fail to take timely and right actions. Rather, most people just flee from the scene or compromise and conform to the demands.

Usually the intimidation comes from one's own friends or coworkers, therefore fleeing does not usually work. Since they belong to the same school, office, or society, they would have to face the enemies continually. Thus the path of conformity to their expectations is the most common practice. This is seen most commonly in the results of Peer Pressure.

No man is an island. Everyone needs the fellowship, acceptance and approval of many others. But often such things come only when this individual fulfills certain stipulations placed by this group. Often these requirements place tremendous pressure upon individuals. This is called Peer Pressure. Though the Bible speaks repeatedly about the influence of one's peers, very few people realize that it is one of the strongest social forces. The capacity of Peer Pressure to intimidate people is unbelievable.

Most of the time Peer Pressure is for doing things outside one's boundaries. It comes when the person is most energetic, most prone to the attractions of sins, and least able to resist others. Great is the fear of rejection by one's peers, thus most people just conform to the demands. The way Peter avoided eating with gentiles because of fear on the arrival of certain Jewish believers from Jerusalem is an example of how even an adult can be pressurized by his peers.

Surveys of promiscuous people in many parts of the world have shown that Peer Pressure plays a great part in breaking down moral restraints. Even in the most promiscuous countries a large number young people prefer to remain chaste, but are not able to. The reason cited most often is Peer Pressure. In surveys many of these young people said that they regret having bowed in to Peer Pressure, and that given a second life they would prefer to resist it rather than fall into immorality.

Fear is a paralyzing force, and it can effectively force many people to cross boundaries. Another technique used to create fear is Social Pressure. As said before, every person needs the benefits of social relations. If not, such person becomes a social outcast. Using this need, the degenerate human society puts considerable pressure upon all people to conform to the norms and standards laid by the society. These would often be contrary to the will of God, and often lie outside the proper boundaries. However, the fear of isolation and rejection forces even grown-up people to conform.

Social Pressure lays intimidating guidelines for clothing, manners, speech, conduct, and even the spiritual activities. This can be seen in the effect of TV and video, which is reducing the commitment and fear which people have for things divine. Gradually this fear is replaced with contempt to spirituals, followed by adoption of worldly systems within even the church of God. Dancing, mimicry, mono acting, women-led church services, etc. are some examples.

Today's Mass Media plays a significant part in exerting social pressure. There was no Mass Media in the past centuries, and thus social pressure was confined to smaller geographical regions. However, the introduction of radio, TV, other audio and video media, cheap paperbacks, computers, and the Internet have now made it possible to reach millions of people very economically. This marriage of technology and economy has made it possible for a few selfish and perverted individuals to control large segments of population.

Worse, social radical were the first to understand the deep and wide-ranging impact of Mass Media, thus radicals control as much as ninety per cent of the Mass Media. Thus the message which comes out of all these media today is meant to pressurize the audience and condition them gradually. Not surprisingly, the breakdown of morality, decency, and fear of God has decreased in developed societies in proportion to TV viewing. Divorces, rape, marital infidelity, and sexual impurity has increased in proportion to TV viewing.

Only very knowledgeable or insightful people can escape the consequences of Fear Creation through Peer and Social Pressure.


6-Manipulation Through Value Shifting: A shift in the mental and moral barriers change the values, and a shift in the values changes the barriers. This is a two-way effect, thus extreme care is needed to counter the effects of shifts. Else, this can turn into a vicious cycle with barriers changing the values and values in turn changing the barriers, and so on.

Consider, or example, the very high value that people place (because of their training) upon protecting the helpless people. People brought up in a Judeo-Christian background consider it a virtue to shelter and protect widows, orphans, destitute, infirm, handicapped, weak, and unborn people. However, these values can gradually be shifted by continuous exposure to people who do not honour them. This shift can be perceived in the lives of many godly young people after they spend a few years in a hostel, in a bad company, or with selfish people.

Doubt Creation is one tool for shifting the values cherished by a person. Once a doubt about the things or persons highly esteemed by this person is directly or indirectly planted in the heart of this person, the respect he had is gone. Jesus Christ was the most highly esteemed human in all history for almost two thousand year of history, but then in the later half of the twentieth century many writers, artists, and cinema-makers started portraying Him as an imperfect and lustful man. This very soon destroyed the high esteem that even many Christians had for Lord Jesus Christ.

The same is the tactic used to create doubts about the historicity, accuracy, and reliability of Scriptures. The same is the tactic used for creating doubts about the authority of parents, church, faith, and even the moral values common among middle-class people. This is another reason why Lord Jesus Christ should never be equated with another person in history or in Myth. No sooner this is done, the high esteem in which Jesus is held reduces to the level at which this other person is esteemed.

Subversion is another method used for shifting values. Spiritual and moral values received from parents and from the Bible are a very complex set of interdependent truths. Destroying a seemingly innocent part of this complex system might often do great damage, somewhat like removing a simple, but crucial, part from a complex machine. People experienced in mind-control usually work at changing hidden and seemingly innocent values, to which almost nobody pays any attention. However, the end result is the destruction of a lot of important values.

Consider the example of societies where even elder join the unruly children in mocking and teasing mad people, and where stoning a helpless dog is considered fun. These things look very simple on the surface, but they are ultimately interconnected with values like mercy, pity, care, and joy. Thus the simple-looking act eventually affects all these major values. The same is the reason why ragging prevalent in our colleges does not die by itself.

Every student who undergoes ragging should have his or her conscience awakened to this torture. Every victim should be filled with pity for the next generation of victims. But by the time their ragging is over, the way in which their seniors seem to enjoy it, and their feeling of revenge, wipes out their own sense of balance and mercy. Thus ragging has become, among other things, an effective method to change the values of young people through subversion.


SUMMARY: Much more could be said about the six principles of Mind Control mentioned above, but that is not necessary. Nor is an exhaustive description possible in a book of limited length. Once the reader understands the basic principles, it becomes possible for him to identify these principles at work in any situation, provided he is willing to spend a little time in analysis.

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Original article contributed by Dr. Johnson C. Philip & Dr. Saneesh Cherian. Revised by:

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