The simple techniques mentioned in the previous chapter can be combined with each other and also with some other methods to result in things highly harmful for the recipient. It would be good to look at some of them.


Our mind is the ultimate source of all our behavior. Here we will not go into an analysis of soul, spirit, the old sin nature, etc. Nor will we try to examine their precise nature. Rather, we will use the word "Mind" to represent the center of human thinking.

Further, we will remember that the human mind is not a simple entity isolated from other factors. Rather, the mind is a complex entity that is inseparably linked with human soul and spirit. The sin nature constantly interacts with it. Also, memory, intelligence, curiosity, and many other factors are so intimately interwoven with it that what affect one factor affects them all.

This means that if anyone can break into the human mind, he can successfully manipulate the whole person. Since all mental faculties are closely interwoven, one can break into human minds through anyone of them. Thus it is clearly a battle of wits.

The secular world has very clearly recognized that they need to control minds in order to control people, and they have invented and perfected many techniques. Many of these techniques are subtle because people do not recognize them as mind-altering forces, and powerful because they have not been seen to fail. One of these is mind-alteration by repeated exposure. The other is emotional manipulation by bypassing reason.


1. Mind Manipulation By Repeated Exposure To Propaganda: The human mind has a built-in resistance (or, at least a built-in hesitation) in doing things that are generally shocking or repulsive.

In fact human brain has an inhibition-center that inhibits people from indulgence in shameful activities. Alcohol and many other chemicals can suppress the activity of this center, and this is the reason why an otherwise self-controlled person becomes wild after taking in a certain dosage of these chemicals. One the restraint is gone, he becomes abusive, foul and even vulgar. But far more powerful are mind-alteration because they have long lasting effects. Once the human liver burns up alcohol, the person returns back to normally. But there is no corresponding recovery of the human mind after it falls into degenerate activities. This is because once mind degenerates, it effectively blocks the spiritual processes that could restore that person.

One way of defeating the built-in mental resistance and abhorrence to wrong activities is through repeated exposure. Repeated exposure alters human mind somewhat as follows:

First exposure
> Shock and recoil

Repeated exposure
> Reduction of shock --> Permitting further exposure

---

> Desensitization --> Complete elimination of shock

---

> Tolerance (because shock is gone)
> Condoning
> Endorsing
> Desiring
> Longing --> Doing it !!
It is a long chain, but once the first two or three steps are taken, the rest of the process automatically hastens up. The old sin nature gets an opportunity to raise its ugly head, and once it gets an upper hand the degeneration is fast.

Repeated exposure is one way in which advertisements invade minds, new and sinful behavior patterns popularized, sins made desirable, and the abnormal accepted as normal. This is a chain reaction, so that once it is set in motion it becomes almost irreversible and ever increasing in its deadly and destructive power.

Once a person is occupied with, and derives pleasure from, the abnormal and the sinful, the initial thrill and charm gradually decreases. This person then needs ever more increasing levels of deviation to satisfy his lust for the deviant behavior. This is one reason why the depiction of crime and sex keep increasing in their intensity in TV, Cinema, and the other media. This is how a sane society eventually starts endorsing things insane.


2. Mind Manipulation By Bypassing Reason: Whenever a person is given a piece of information, he analyzes it before taking any action. This the way things should go.

Information
> Reason
> Analysis
> Action

Here 'action' implies the action of acceptance or rejection.

But in real-life decisions another factor also enters the picture, and it is called emotion. Emotions have a legitimate function, but they can be manipulated in such a way that they take over reason.

The way emotions have been designed, they are supposed to play a supportive role to reason. They heighten joy in good situations, bring out sympathy on seeing others in pain, and intensify anger, hatred, excitement, and patriotism, etc.,, as the situation needs. In these matters the emotions function as a great accessory to reason. Just as proper tools make task easy, properly controlled emotions make life exciting by providing variation.

All is well as long as emotions remain subordinate to reason, both reason as well as emotions play their roles properly, adding to stability in life. However, if the emotions ever get out of control then neither they nor their reason is able to function properly and the result is utter chaos as seen in the result is utter chaos as seen in the life of emotional wrecks. Unfortunately the reason/emotion roles can be manipulated and reversed even in normal persons. That is exactly what we see in most reason-bypassing advertisements.

Using the techniques of propaganda mentioned in another place it is possible to bypass reason and touch emotions. In fact emotion-manipulation and propaganda techniques are so inseparably inter-linked with each other that one can not be understood without the other. Such techniques work somewhat as show in the line diagram:

Contrived Information --> Emotion-dominated Reasoning --> Emotion-dominated Analysis --> Emotion-controlled Action

Objective and emotion-free reason is bypassed and eventually insulated, but emotion is manipulated. This is achieved by using tricky and loaded words that bypass reason and directly manipulate emotions. Most propaganda related to population-control comes under this category. Using the fear of the unknown, they paint a horrifying picture of humans wiggling all over the globe like worms in future. Many other catchwords and phrases "why bring them to the earth if you can not give them security", "the more the children the more the interference with your career or ambitions" also belong to this category.

Once emotion is successfully manipulated directly, reason is eclipsed. There is near total mental black out on that particular issue, and that person will obediently follow the propagandist.

Men, women, teenagers and children all have specific areas of emotional vulnerability. These areas are well understood by psychologists. Propagandists always seek this information out while the average person remains in ignorant bliss about it all.

Some of the areas of vulnerability are as follows: Most men are worried and harbor secret fears about their looks, abilities, achievements, authority and the respect they command at home and abroad. Married men are closely watched by their mates, many of whom are quick to express their disapproval at the slightest and the stupidest issue. Consequently a good number of them are worried to death at their personal performance -- performance ranging from their sexual life to their social status. Thus many propagandists touch this nerve directly and get the job done, you can pick up any common social magazine and discover dozens of ads that play upon this theme. For example, a magazine that I picked up randomly describes men as "caring, loving, thoughtful, envied by others, in style, and in a class by themselves, etc.". And what exactly elevates them to this status? The answer is very simple (and stupid): these men owned the products advertised by these companies!

Women are vulnerable in areas of beauty, looks, things owned, the opinion of others about their household, cooking, and current fashions/trends. Since none of these things have permanence, it's a battle all life for women to maintain these things. Things is why ads aimed at women manipulate them in these matters. A popular hair-oil claims its users have "a look so smart, so new, your confidence comes shining through". It does not explain that looks, confidence, etc., depend upon numerous external as well as plenty of INTERNAL factors that no hair-oil, dress, perfume, or gadget can supply. Another ad says about using a lipstick that by it " I enchanted my man, for ever". Now, which woman does not want to enchant her man - and that also, for ever. However, the ad fails to tell that enchanting is a never-ending process on which she will have to work all her life. Further, it fails to l that if this company's lipstick is so enchanting then any other women using the same product also stands the chance of enchanting him ! Not a very pleasant prospect for any woman!

Young men and women have their own special areas of susceptibility and fear. Since they have not yet reached the mental or emotional stability of their parents, it is very easy to manipulate them. As I write this, an arbitrarily picked up social magazine is lying in front of me. One manipulate writing aimed at young men uses words like macho, toughies, ruggedness, sensuous, suave, bold, etc. The same magazine has plenty of ads directed at young women. These use words like beauty, splendor, pretty woman, style, enticing, etc.". Another one, meant for the young house-wife, says about their spices that this is "what keeps great families together". All the above ads touch the most tender human emotions, but all of them hide the fact that handsomeness or beauty is never on sale. They do not reveal that these desirable characteristics need a lot of nurturing.

Finally if, as the last ad quoted above says, spices could keep families together then human society would have been in a much better shape today.



Loaded words are used in many ways to create the bad-name effect. One method is to pick up something that is really bad or offensive and, using a little bit of free association, turn it to implicate something else. Galileo Galilee was forced to recant his views, primarily because of his political activities. This was mainly a sociological phenomena but since Church was the agent which executed it all, they are quick to use the free association technique: Galileo --> questioned by the Church --> sciences --> opposition by Church. Finally: "Church is always against science". A careful investigation will expose the baseless connection between the original event and the implications publicized these days.

Another method is to manipulate and redefine language in a way that makes good and desirable things look offensive. Words like discipline, self-control, temperance, abstinence etc. have undergone this process. Each of these words has been clubbed with certain carefully selected, offensive, incidents or word pictures to assign a bad taste to these words -- a meaning which is not actually there in the actual usage. After this, whenever this word is used by a cleaver person, the implied bad meaning automatically comes to the listeners' mind.

Censorship is another method. It is an act of suppression carried out from a position of power, sometimes for the common good (such as in a case that involves national security), but often out of fear of exposure to other ideas or plain self interest.

A censor who is acting merely to defend his viewpoint suppresses all information that is favorable to the other side. At the same time, he encourages the spread of all that information that brings a bad name or disadvantage to the other side.

There is no scarcity of people who would like to use Archeology, Physics, Chemistry, Social sciences or the evolution model to attack the Christian faith. They pile up evidence after evidence that seems to refute the Christian faith, but fail consistently to present the other side. As a consequence, the reader sees only that side of the picture that has nothing that is desirable and therefore he avoids getting associated with that subject or person.

Recently when I was lecturing on Bible and Science, some of my listeners pointed out this kind censoring. Their Zoology textbook attacks the reliability of the Bible by saying that according to Moses (Leviticus 11:4-6 and Deuteronomy 14:7) rabbits chew the cud, but that this false. The aim of this statement is to show that the Bible is unreliable in matters related to Zoology. Once this bad name is there, very few people would venture to associate their name with Bible.

Most people do not know that Christian Scientists have thoroughly researched this reference. They have identified the animal, and have pointed out that the confusion is due to a faulty translation. This information is widely available in Bible dictionaries and handbooks, but none of the attackers seems to be interested in acknowledging this information.

Further, there are hundreds of instances where the information given in the Bible is cent percent accurate, and was recorded thousands of years before scientists actually discovered these things. Secular books (that would like to attack the Bible) find it only convenient to omit this information. Clearly these people are not interested in presenting the other side even though it is significant to get the whole picture about the Bible. This is censorship, and the result is a bad name for Bible.
Propaganda Techniques And The
Theological Radicals

The rise of the so-called liberals among Christians is a living testimony to the power of propaganda. The name "liberal" itself is an advertisement trick. Actually a liberal is a person who tolerates all points of view. But, on the contrary, these people who label themselves as "liberal" Christians are not willing to listen to, or tolerate, any other viewpoint. Such people should properly be labeled "radicals". But since this name immediately betrays their identity, and since it clearly reveals their theological non-accommodation and narrow mindedness, they propagate the nice-sounding word "liberal" for themselves. This is the power of propaganda.

The radicals have been able to gain foothold in a wide range of churches and institutions by using propaganda techniques. If you count the magazines and other mass-media outlets among Christians, you will discover that a good proportion of them are controlled by radicals. They know the power of propaganda and they exploit all the available communication channels to spread their viewpoints.

The more aspiring students of apologetics are encouraged to pick up and critically read any radical magazine or writer. They will observe that many of them use nothing except propaganda techniques to attack the Bible. Their writings have no solid evidence or logic to back their claims.

Two notable examples come to my mind. The first is a "Christian" journal now titled "Verdict". It started as an almost fundamentalist (conservative evangelical) publication but eventually turned into a heretical publication. Any article picked up from this periodical illustrates the above contention.

Another example is the great writer/teacher Bernard Ramm. He started as an evangelical scholar but ended up, in the last decades of his life, a near heretic. His supposedly evangelical book "The Christian view of science and scripture" demonstrates powerful usage of propaganda techniques to attack Bible believing Christians. His latter books openly deviated from the word of God, and any of them would illustrate the contention that propaganda methods are used by radicals to turn people away from their faith in Bible.

Both the journal as well as the books mentioned above use some very nasty words, phrases, and implications against God's people, yet these enjoy wide distribution. What more demonstration does anyone need to understand the power of propaganda to attack the Christian faith.

---

All contrived propaganda is war -- a battle to control and manipulate minds. One comes under its attack whether or not one wants to participate. This means that every person living in the modern society must necessarily take precautionary steps if he has to win his share of the imposed battle.

A mere awareness about the existence or circulation of propaganda is not enough preparation to come out as a winner in this war of wits. Rather, for achieving an unambiguous victory one should be in a position to analyze propaganda. One a person analyzes it, he knows what is what and can escape from falling into the verbal/emotional trap.

The best thing to do in such a case is to ask appropriate leading questions. A leading question is one that leads the discussion in a definite direction in an unambiguous way. The purpose is to distill the exact meaning of what has been said by the propagandist or, for that matter, by anyone.

The following are some important leading questions. With time and experience you will be able to develop more such questions so as to meet the needs that might arise in future.

1. Who is the propagandist ?

2. Whom is he serving ? Or, in other words, to whom is his loyalty ? To you, to himself, or to his bread-givers ?

3. What's his aim for indulging in this propaganda. Is it to benefit you or someone else ?

4. To what human interests, desires emotions, or fears is he appealing ?

5. What techniques of propaganda does he use,

6. Are these techniques ethical or unethical. If unethical, is he a person of integrity ?

7. Is the propagandist objective, and does he present the whole truth ? If not, why is he subjective and what motivates him to hide or suppress part of the truth ?

8. Are you, or are you not, going to permit yourself to be influenced, manipulated, and exploited by the tactics of the propagandist.

As you consciously apply these questions to propaganda, minor and major, a frame of reference will be created in your conscious and it will gradually imprint itself into your subconscious and unconscious mind. This will then automatically come into play whenever your are voluntarily or involuntarily exposed to propaganda. The more you do this analysis consciously, the more will it imprint itself on your unconscious mind, helping you to protect from propaganda even without being consciously aware of it.



Unfortunately most people do not realize the awesome power of repeated exposure either for good or for bad. This is one reason why many parents ignore family prayers and related home-based instruction in scriptural truths. This then works as a vicious circle. The lack of instruction makes them prone to indulge in evil, and this indulgence creates an aversion towards all spiritual instruction. Clearly, the most important parented activity in this field is to give repeated exposure to spiritual matters from the earliest possible age. This will definitely serve to build a wall of resistance in their souls that will not crumble easily or quickly under exposure to evil. But at the same time you should take preventive steps also.

Your children should know the difference between good and evil, and also where to place the boundaries. They should also be taught the necessity to feel even from the appearance of evil.

Television, Video and Cinema are powerful tools for inducing people to sin. So is a good amount of modern music that glorifies immorality and violence. Repeated exposure to these first desensitizes people towards perversion and the way sin is glamorized creates a strong attraction towards it.

Everyone should develop a set of leading questions to analyze this kind of conditioning. These questions should constantly be refined so as to make the analysis accurate and penetrating.

Here are a few leading, questions to help you, but do not restrict yourself to these alone. Try to develop more questions of your own that are more suited for your situation.

1--Do the TV or video programs I watch, the music I hear, and the books/magazines that I read contain passages that can not be narrated when I sit with my family?

2--What kind of a passage is that? Description of sex, sexual passions, or any kind of perverted activity?

3--Books on medicine contain some intimate details of human body, while books dealing with law and crime contain description of crime. Neither of these can be read in front of a family, but still they are not wrong because their purpose is education. Do the passages under scrutiny in question to have a similar justification, or are they there just to arouse passions?

4--What kind of passions come up in your hear when you are exposed to these audio/video/printed stories and descriptions.

5--Do they help you to become a better, cleaner, and more mature person.

The above guidelines are for those people who have not yet come under the influence of manipulation by repeated exposure. If a person is already under such an influence, a different strategy has to be adopted.

A blind and harsh negation from indulgence may not work on that person now that he has already tasted the forbidden fruit. More so if the indulgent person is a rebellious young person.

Since the forbidden fruit is very tasty (stolen waters are tasty according to proverbs), a blind and harsh negation might even provide the "thrill" that is necessary to continue his/her indulgence in the abnormal.

The best prevention would be loving negation before a person gets involved in these things. But should you be called to handle the situation too late, even in that situation the best course will be an informed or admonition-based negation.


The way in which propaganda techniques influence humans is summarized in the outline below:

Human Desires And Aspirations --> Desire For Joy, Fear Of Pain --> Desire For Security, Fear Due To Insecurity --> Propaganda That Promises Joy And Security --> Promise Of Alleviation Of Pain And Insecurity --> Falling Into The Trap Of The Propagandist !!

All humans have certain common desires and aspirations. They all desire joy and security while they all fear pain and insecurity. There is nothing unusual in these things till the propagandist enters.

The propagandist exaggerates the possible joys and securities, and at the same time he highlights probable pain and insecurity. Once the audience is captivated, they promise joy and security coupled with alleviation of pain and insecurity.

The web of deception is so powerful that most people fall easily into the trap. Worse, the techniques are used liberally by motivated people to attack the Bible and the Christian faith.

---

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

You are welcome to correct, revise, and expand this article. Add your name at the end of "Revised By" after you work on this article. All revisions will be monitored by the EditAlls. CRG Wiki is dedicated to conservative theology, and it is essential for all submissions to conform to this position. You need to be a registered user before you can edit any of these articles.

New articles should be sent to DrJCP@hotpop.com and should not be added directly. We welcome articles on all aspects of theology and apologetics.

You are welcome to freely reuse this article under GPL. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (see Copyrights∞ for details).