Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton described in his 1961 book Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of ''Brainwashing'' in China eight coercive methods which, he says, are able to change the minds of individuals without their knowledge and were used with this purpose on prisoners of war in Korea and China. These include:

Milieu control (controlled relations with the outer world)

Mystic manipulation (planned spontaneity - events are orchestrated or attributed to group's power or omniscience )

Confession (confess past and present sins)

Self-sanctification through purity (pushing the individual towards a not-attainable perfection)

Aura of sacred science (beliefs of the group are sacrosanct and perfect)

Loaded language (new meanings to words, encouraging black-white thinking)

Doctrine over person (the group is more important than the individual)

Dispensed existence (insiders are saved, outsiders are doomed).

In his 1999 book Destroying the world to save it: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence and the New Global Terrorism, he concluded, though, that thought reform was possible without violence or physical coercion. Edgar Schein, who investigated similar programs in China concluded in his book Coercive Persuasion that physical coercion was an important feature of brainwashing.

Margaret Singer's conditions for mind control...Psychologist Margaret Singer, using the work of Lifton, described in her book ''Cults in our Midst'' six conditions, which would, she says, create an atmosphere where thought reform is possible. Singer sees no need for physical coercion or violence.

...''Controlling a person's time and environment, leaving no time for thought
creating a sense of powerlessness, fear and dependency
manipulating rewards and punishments to suppress former social behaviour
manipulating rewards and punishments to elicit the desired behaviour
creating a closed system of logic which makes dissenters feel as if something was wrong with them
keeping recruits unaware about any agenda to control or change them.''

BITE model of Steven Hassan
Psychologist and cult counselor Steven Hassan, using the research of Singer and Lifton and the cognitive dissonance theory of Leon Festinger, describes in his 2000 book Releasing the Bonds the BITE (Behavior, Information, Thought, Emotion) model, which explains mind control as a combination of control over behavior, information, thought and emotions. According to Hassan, the BITE model dispenses with any required environment control, and its effects can be achieved when the control mechanisms create overall dependency and obedience to some leader or cause.

Hassan's critics argue that Steve Hassan uses the term ''mind control'' (for what they see as essentially a strong form of influence) only to justify the forcible extraction of believers from religious groups. They argue that Hassan does not merely say that fraudulent salesmanship persuaded the believers; he claims that these groups literally take away a victim's freedom of mind. For this reason an involuntary procedure must operate in order to ''rescue'' a ''victim'' from a ''destructive cult'', for ''victims'' may not realize their victimhood status and may resist rescuing.

Hassan, after taking part in a number of deprogrammings in the late 1970s, distances himself from this practice and the criminal activities associated with that occupation and refers to his method as the ''strategic interaction approach'' or SIA. He claims that this approach is a goal-oriented, therapeutic course of action that can be initiated and implemented by motivated relatives or friends, in which they learn how to work together to help ''awaken'' the cult member to the pervasiveness of the group's alleged control over a former member's life, after which the person can leave the cult, regaining a sense of personal power, integrity, and direction.

(Ask Questions: It is Psychologically Healthy!)i I don't see the Connection , between the Title and the Content of your posting Austin ?! Though interesting , and known about previously, good reference points !

I no longer feel the need to connect my points so explicitly for people. We are not in primary school where points have to highlighted with a big marker and underlined, are we? But just for you .....

Question, question and question...

Question the doctrine and it is harder to be indoctrinated!

Question the claims against the empirical (observable) evidence and it is harder to be controlled by in-group pressure!

Question societal norms as de facto good, true and right - think out side the box - as this can counter the pressures of authoritarian control. Example, if audience members questioned the truth of stage hypnosis and the authority of the hypnotist say, the hypnosis stage show would not work. The hypnotist would be rendered powerless!