Reply #74: ~highly recommended~

[windoe]

This made my morning, thank you T.Ruthtopower for this post!!! This is why freedom of speech is the first amendment--the founding fathers had a clue. Thank you for presenting this subject in a clear and sane manner, it is very important.
I unplugged from cable in 2003, finally becoming very uncomfortable with the ticker tape across the bottom news format, especially the screens with at least 6 things going on at the same time, the bright flashinig light with faster and faster short bits of partial information--and headaches after watching for short periods of time. Now commercials seem to come less than every 5 minutes, I am old enough to remember them coming on in 15 or 20 minute intervals, all at once.
I came across an interesting article, written by Dick Sutphen, Battle for Your Mind, who is a professional hypnotist, online in the late 90's, giving a short history of brain washing techniques and hypnotism. I am not by any means anti religion, but have found the televangelical movement disturbing, since there is so much money involved. This article points out that there was a method of preaching, speaking at a certain (hypnotic) cadence, discovered in the 1700's by accident, that turned out to be very successful in gaining converts. Since this man is a hypnotist by trade, he recognizes the signs of trance, dialated pupils, slack jaw, ect. and says many people in these televangelical audiences have no doubt been hypnotized, making them 25 times more succeptable to suggestion. There is nothing wrong with being on a spiritual path, but the use of these methods seem to me a bit underhanded. Also I do not deny that other major religions use trance to alter their awareness and pray. It is just the lack of consent I have a problem with.
Brain washing techniques are more like being used in cults and boot camp-isolation, disruption of daily routines, sensory overload, ect.
People deny that they can be hypnotized, when they merely do not notice when they are, or have been. Just mentioning hypnotism evokes ridicule, since it is associated with magicians and side shows. But a hypnotic state is merely being triggered into a deeper alpha or theta state, which happens to us naturally at different times of the day, or while watching TV. It can be addictive since it feels so good. People feel high after spending time in alpha, after meditating, chanting, doing art or going to church. Trance is in itself not harmful if the experience did not involve gaining harmful information. But if someone were to, lets say, spend hours in a trance playing a game hunting humans with guns, or was being told how to vote or being encouraged to be more fearful and bigoted, this is different.
It is imperative in a time when screens and speakers are becoming larger and able to convey more information in a shorter amount of time, to at least detect when we are being manipulated. It seems that we have lost this ability, at our own peril. This is a serious subject, and not something to make fun of and dismiss.