Brainwashing and Religious Belief
by
Charles Graves
What is our perspective on ‘brainwashing’ of persons – leading to the type of terrorism of 9/11 or of the January 6th attack on the US Congress? It begins with the attraction of an authority – an individual who appeals to our brain as an authority, in other words he or she asks us to be a follower. And if the proposition seems to us to be positive, we accept the proposition and make the individual our catch-all of authority. It means that we have adopted a leader. This may seem innocuous at the time but if the leader appeals to us again with his/her proposition for action, we decide to ‘see what happens’ by agreeing to follow the authority’s idea. If this continues over a certain time, we become accustomed to this ‘leadership’ and begin to accept more and more of its ideas. At the end, when we are fully brainwashed, we will begin to accept the authority’s opinions even if they appear to be dangerous, believing them (because we are already brainwashed) to be ‘necessary’.
This is what occurred in 9/11 and 1/6 in both cases brainwashed people were unable to see ‘reality’ because their leader had little by little dragged the followers into action through infecting their brains with his or her aspirations and ideas.
An earlier example of brainwashing took place under Hitler when millions of persons, through a simple desire for an authority-figure who might satisfy their emotional hunger, learned stories about politics and life and, wishing to hear these stories, ended up believing them. In the USA today this experience is flourishing among many people who want to believe in an authority-figure and have lost their common sense because of a desire for a leader and inspiring stories.
It is very difficult to de-brainwash people particularly those who have taken up their leader’s call to do something dangerous or unusual. Only at the very beginning of dependance they might be convinced that they will ‘lose their souls’ if they continue following and acting.
How to prevent this phenomenon? It is difficult to force any individual to resist an approach to him or her by some authoritarian person, or to prevent the authoritarian person from approaching possible followers, but if the authoritarian person publicly announces what he /or she wants from the general population, others can criticize him/her and point out the dangers of following such a person. The media or political leaders can take this role, and today it is especially important since these authority persons are very active in ‘social media’ influencing minds of people who are complete strangers to them. In the case of social media, individuals can be ‘hooked’ by ideas as well as persons – an idea may appeal to a user of this media and it can be spread in the social media system by the users.
So, both in public and social media those persons who are against brainwashing must emphasize that there are many opinions and ideas available for consumption and it is best to consume the ones which follow general norms of using our intelligence and moral sense as deeply as possible and at the same time allowing others to contradict us. In the end we should follow opinions which tend to be against authority-figures leading us by our unconscious desires and thus brainwashing us.
How can the church and religions, in the best expressions of these institutions, fight against brainwashing? Although religions have often been used to support bad leaders who use their faiths for anti-social ends, to make God the Creator of the universe on the other hand as an ‘authority person’ may help combat unscrupulous authority-persons on earth. It is difficult to be captured or brainwashed by God since the Divine Creator has no need to be authoritarian. If we do not wish to consider God as an authority, he or she - i.e. the Divine Person - isn’t really affected by our refusal and probably when we ‘get into trouble’ he/she already knows that this might happen.
Almighty God doesn’t need our dependance, but it is helpful if we believe in our dependence upon God. Thus, God is an alternative to an authoritarian personality who may present himself / herself to us as someone we can depend upon. Almighty God has offered us certain religions we might depend upon but these religions are, at their best, only means of contacting God and they should not violate our independence. Religions in a good sense are valuable alternatives to earthly authoritarian figures. But without good religion, authoritarian figures may present themselves as alternatives in satisfying our emotional needs.
Authority figures are always available to persons who are empty and desirous to be filled. Those filled with good religion are not desirous for having an unknown human authority figure. Thus, in this sense, religion is against brainwashing.
Does Christianity have a special means of combating brainwashing? If we promote the Christian religion are we combatting brainwashing at the same time? There are aspects of ‘fundamentalist’ Christianity which appear to support a form of brainwashing related to ‘faith’. But, in general, a belief in God usually gives a believer an antipathy to being brainwashed by an authority figure. One of the key criteria of having the kind of religion which prevents brainwashing is the Christian and secular idea of ‘love your neighbour’. Brainwashed people find this difficult to do – they tend to love only those who agree with them and who follow the authority. Hence, ‘love your neighbour’ is a phenomenon which usually demonstrates that we are not fully brainwashed. We freely ‘love’ someone outside ourselves and such ‘love’ can only occur when we are not impeded in giving it. Christianity and other religions claim that God’s love is flowing through us to others. But a brainwashed person cannot have this flow of love because the emotion of love is limited to those ‘who follow the same leader as we do’. So, both believing in God and showing love to neighbour – both are good alternatives to becoming brainwashed by following some authoritarian leader.
Let us look at ‘emptiness of soul’ which often affects people and perhaps makes individuals yearn for some authority figure to fill the emptiness. A person can be empty because of various reasons but in general it is related to lack of love in that person’s experience, since ‘love’ usually fills the soul and answers the desires of the soul. Psychiatrists are concerned with this problem, and try to help their patients have some loving and forgiving relationships. Psychiatrists are also concerned about authoritarian persons who try to gain followers and fill their souls with something favorable to the authoritarian personality himself or herself. The psychiatrists see this as a perversion of the need of humans to grow emotionally and mentally and to be able to use all their capabilities, not letting themselves be stunted by some authoritarian belief or person. The individual must become his/her ‘true self’ – something innate to each person and not to be interfered with by an outsider.
But what is it that the psychiatrist or doctor can suggest to heal the empty soul yearning for some authority? And what will prevent self-ambitious authority figures and his or her ideas from filling this soul? Some psychiatrists might use the patient’s religious belonging to find something to fill the soul, or use the idea of ‘forgiveness’ in such a context to bring the soul into new human relationships. (1) An appeal to the patient’s reason in order to help him/her find an answer for their problem is the usual healing method. And a reasonable person would not want to fall under the spell of an authoritarian person or idea since reason tells them that there are several alternatives to that.
So, to combat brainwashing there are a number of remedies: the public and media de-masking of authoritarian persons and ideas; religious belief; love for the neighbour; psychiatry and psychology; human reason: All of these can help us and others avoid being brainwashed.
What about the present-day problem of the proliferation of ‘conspiracy theories’ which, for example, try to prove that there are hidden groups of persons – perhaps even ‘bad sort of people’ - who are secretly manipulating us in our daily lives as citizens, and that we must try to ‘unmask’ such evil forces?
Good religion supports the truth and if a conspiracy theory is based upon falsehood then religions and all sensible people must combat them. The problem is that the adherents of these theories are often brainwashed in believing the theories. To simply combat this with words is insufficient because the theory will be protected by the person professing it because the person may be brainwashed vis à vis this theory. So, there is a complex problem here – it being both personal and at the same time ideological. Moreover, if you try to argue the case against the conspiracy theory you also seem to be attacking the person whose perhaps brainwashed mind believes in it.
I can see only one solution – we must fill the empty soul which has fallen into these aberrations by love and consideration. It is a sickly mind and soul that has fallen into such a pit of mis- calculation, misunderstanding and misdirection and such can only be banished if the adherent grows into ‘normality’ within himself / herself. We should try to provide a context in which such normality can grow if we have such a possibility within our power or reach. Argumentation will hardly suffice for this - only an environment where the person becomes more filled with something other than authoritarian false security. And a new security could be based on the passage of time, the opening of space or the reception of love. Brainwashed persons habitually express conspiracy theories to give themselves justification, and when ‘life’ proves such ideas unreasonable perhaps they might open to a new reality of ‘truth-seeking’. Meanwhile, we the un-brainwashed, have to be doing our own variety of truth-seeking, in order to make such a profession seem normal, and this, too, may have an influence upon others.
This is what occurred in 9/11 and 1/6 in both cases brainwashed people were unable to see ‘reality’ because their leader had little by little dragged the followers into action through infecting their brains with his or her aspirations and ideas.
An earlier example of brainwashing took place under Hitler when millions of persons, through a simple desire for an authority-figure who might satisfy their emotional hunger, learned stories about politics and life and, wishing to hear these stories, ended up believing them. In the USA today this experience is flourishing among many people who want to believe in an authority-figure and have lost their common sense because of a desire for a leader and inspiring stories.
It is very difficult to de-brainwash people particularly those who have taken up their leader’s call to do something dangerous or unusual. Only at the very beginning of dependance they might be convinced that they will ‘lose their souls’ if they continue following and acting.
How to prevent this phenomenon? It is difficult to force any individual to resist an approach to him or her by some authoritarian person, or to prevent the authoritarian person from approaching possible followers, but if the authoritarian person publicly announces what he /or she wants from the general population, others can criticize him/her and point out the dangers of following such a person. The media or political leaders can take this role, and today it is especially important since these authority persons are very active in ‘social media’ influencing minds of people who are complete strangers to them. In the case of social media, individuals can be ‘hooked’ by ideas as well as persons – an idea may appeal to a user of this media and it can be spread in the social media system by the users.
So, both in public and social media those persons who are against brainwashing must emphasize that there are many opinions and ideas available for consumption and it is best to consume the ones which follow general norms of using our intelligence and moral sense as deeply as possible and at the same time allowing others to contradict us. In the end we should follow opinions which tend to be against authority-figures leading us by our unconscious desires and thus brainwashing us.
How can the church and religions, in the best expressions of these institutions, fight against brainwashing? Although religions have often been used to support bad leaders who use their faiths for anti-social ends, to make God the Creator of the universe on the other hand as an ‘authority person’ may help combat unscrupulous authority-persons on earth. It is difficult to be captured or brainwashed by God since the Divine Creator has no need to be authoritarian. If we do not wish to consider God as an authority, he or she - i.e. the Divine Person - isn’t really affected by our refusal and probably when we ‘get into trouble’ he/she already knows that this might happen.
Almighty God doesn’t need our dependance, but it is helpful if we believe in our dependence upon God. Thus, God is an alternative to an authoritarian personality who may present himself / herself to us as someone we can depend upon. Almighty God has offered us certain religions we might depend upon but these religions are, at their best, only means of contacting God and they should not violate our independence. Religions in a good sense are valuable alternatives to earthly authoritarian figures. But without good religion, authoritarian figures may present themselves as alternatives in satisfying our emotional needs.
Authority figures are always available to persons who are empty and desirous to be filled. Those filled with good religion are not desirous for having an unknown human authority figure. Thus, in this sense, religion is against brainwashing.
Does Christianity have a special means of combating brainwashing? If we promote the Christian religion are we combatting brainwashing at the same time? There are aspects of ‘fundamentalist’ Christianity which appear to support a form of brainwashing related to ‘faith’. But, in general, a belief in God usually gives a believer an antipathy to being brainwashed by an authority figure. One of the key criteria of having the kind of religion which prevents brainwashing is the Christian and secular idea of ‘love your neighbour’. Brainwashed people find this difficult to do – they tend to love only those who agree with them and who follow the authority. Hence, ‘love your neighbour’ is a phenomenon which usually demonstrates that we are not fully brainwashed. We freely ‘love’ someone outside ourselves and such ‘love’ can only occur when we are not impeded in giving it. Christianity and other religions claim that God’s love is flowing through us to others. But a brainwashed person cannot have this flow of love because the emotion of love is limited to those ‘who follow the same leader as we do’. So, both believing in God and showing love to neighbour – both are good alternatives to becoming brainwashed by following some authoritarian leader.
Let us look at ‘emptiness of soul’ which often affects people and perhaps makes individuals yearn for some authority figure to fill the emptiness. A person can be empty because of various reasons but in general it is related to lack of love in that person’s experience, since ‘love’ usually fills the soul and answers the desires of the soul. Psychiatrists are concerned with this problem, and try to help their patients have some loving and forgiving relationships. Psychiatrists are also concerned about authoritarian persons who try to gain followers and fill their souls with something favorable to the authoritarian personality himself or herself. The psychiatrists see this as a perversion of the need of humans to grow emotionally and mentally and to be able to use all their capabilities, not letting themselves be stunted by some authoritarian belief or person. The individual must become his/her ‘true self’ – something innate to each person and not to be interfered with by an outsider.
But what is it that the psychiatrist or doctor can suggest to heal the empty soul yearning for some authority? And what will prevent self-ambitious authority figures and his or her ideas from filling this soul? Some psychiatrists might use the patient’s religious belonging to find something to fill the soul, or use the idea of ‘forgiveness’ in such a context to bring the soul into new human relationships. (1) An appeal to the patient’s reason in order to help him/her find an answer for their problem is the usual healing method. And a reasonable person would not want to fall under the spell of an authoritarian person or idea since reason tells them that there are several alternatives to that.
So, to combat brainwashing there are a number of remedies: the public and media de-masking of authoritarian persons and ideas; religious belief; love for the neighbour; psychiatry and psychology; human reason: All of these can help us and others avoid being brainwashed.
What about the present-day problem of the proliferation of ‘conspiracy theories’ which, for example, try to prove that there are hidden groups of persons – perhaps even ‘bad sort of people’ - who are secretly manipulating us in our daily lives as citizens, and that we must try to ‘unmask’ such evil forces?
Good religion supports the truth and if a conspiracy theory is based upon falsehood then religions and all sensible people must combat them. The problem is that the adherents of these theories are often brainwashed in believing the theories. To simply combat this with words is insufficient because the theory will be protected by the person professing it because the person may be brainwashed vis à vis this theory. So, there is a complex problem here – it being both personal and at the same time ideological. Moreover, if you try to argue the case against the conspiracy theory you also seem to be attacking the person whose perhaps brainwashed mind believes in it.
I can see only one solution – we must fill the empty soul which has fallen into these aberrations by love and consideration. It is a sickly mind and soul that has fallen into such a pit of mis- calculation, misunderstanding and misdirection and such can only be banished if the adherent grows into ‘normality’ within himself / herself. We should try to provide a context in which such normality can grow if we have such a possibility within our power or reach. Argumentation will hardly suffice for this - only an environment where the person becomes more filled with something other than authoritarian false security. And a new security could be based on the passage of time, the opening of space or the reception of love. Brainwashed persons habitually express conspiracy theories to give themselves justification, and when ‘life’ proves such ideas unreasonable perhaps they might open to a new reality of ‘truth-seeking’. Meanwhile, we the un-brainwashed, have to be doing our own variety of truth-seeking, in order to make such a profession seem normal, and this, too, may have an influence upon others.
- See John S. Graves, MD, Lessons on the Road to Hope. A Psychiatrist’s Journey 2020, 249 pp. (Amazon.com)
Photograph: ‘rock painting’ in Australia photographed by Graeme Churchard, Bristol (UK)
