# Mind Control **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 6, 2004, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-control/273404 "2004-11-06T22:02:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ninetypercent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9de0a6/32.png) [@ninetypercent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ninetypercent)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2004, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-control/273404/1 "2004-11-06T22:02:09Z")
What is the state of mind control? Is it even possible? ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2004, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-control/273404/2 "2004-11-06T22:07:09Z")
Your own, or someone elses? ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2004, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-control/273404/3 "2004-11-06T22:16:33Z")
Define your terms. Are we talking about seizing remote motor control of your body? Yeah, it’s possible. Your brain controls your voluntary nervous system, so theoretically, by way of some sort of hookup, it is theoretically possible to take over and make you write bad checks or something. Perhaps we are talking about brainwashing, making you believe things you don’t believe now? Yeah, it’s possible. Lots of documented evidence. It’s just not very dependable, that’s all, and requires some pretty extreme measures, be it cult programming or totally-over-the-top torture combined with slick psychiatric tricks. Maybe we’re talking about psychic powers, by which you may force an attractive member of the opposite sex to do weird things that will later crop up in someone’s online blog of erotic fiction? No evidence to back this one up, unfortunately… ---
**Author:** ![ninetypercent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9de0a6/32.png) [@ninetypercent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ninetypercent)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2004, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-control/273404/4 "2004-11-06T22:33:26Z")
> [@Master Wang-Ka](#): > > Define your terms. > > Are we talking about seizing remote motor control of your body? Yeah, it’s possible. Your brain controls your voluntary nervous system, so theoretically, by way of some sort of hookup, it is theoretically possible to take over and make you write bad checks or something. > > Perhaps we are talking about brainwashing, making you believe things you don’t believe now? Yeah, it’s possible. Lots of documented evidence. It’s just not very dependable, that’s all, and requires some pretty extreme measures, be it cult programming or totally-over-the-top torture combined with slick psychiatric tricks. > > Maybe we’re talking about psychic powers, by which you may force an attractive member of the opposite sex to do weird things that will later crop up in someone’s online blog of erotic fiction? No evidence to back this one up, unfortunately… Do we have technology that can stimulate specific emotions? If the government hooked me up to their newest mind control device, could they cause me to hate who I am staring at? ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2004, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-control/273404/5 "2004-11-06T22:46:02Z")
> [@ninetypercent](#): > > Do we have technology that can stimulate specific emotions? Music. Widely used in propaganda films. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-control/273404/6 "2004-11-07T02:02:53Z")
> [@ninetypercent](#): > > Do we have technology that can stimulate specific emotions? If the government hooked me up to their newest mind control device, could they cause me to hate who I am staring at? Um… well… not quickly, conveniently, or easily. I mean, to my knowledge, no one’s actually invented the hate ray, the love potion, or the horniness gun or anything. Researchers can evoke specific emotional reactions in test animals, sure… but this involves opening the critter’s cranium and actually probing the brain matter. Seems like this’d be kind of extreme for use on actual people. We do have technology that takes advantage of human psychology and our knowledge of it, sure. Propaganda can make you hate, if used effectively. It can also make you love, to some extent – after all, we reelected Bush, and I can think of no other reason for that other than some really effective propaganda. And we don’t have the horniness gun, but we’ve got more ways of presenting more forms of porn than any other civilization that’s ever existed. Is this of any help? ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-control/273404/7 "2004-11-07T02:47:37Z")
Google: Russian, Woodpecker, Scalar. Have a nice day. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-control/273404/8 "2004-11-07T03:03:05Z")
_Discover_ magazine’s Octobor 2004 issue addressed the feasibility of brain-chip interfaces, and concluded that decoding how thoughts are generated in the brain may be an impossibly complex problem… ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-control/273404/9 "2004-11-07T03:18:35Z")
> [@Master Wang-Ka](#): > > Um… well… not quickly, conveniently, or easily. Pointing a loaded AK-47 at someone is a quick, convenient, easy way to induce fear. **Lumpy** , there are some interesting things being done in brain interfacing. A decade ago people were impressed with brainwave controlled cursors. Now there are things like this: [Monkey controls robotic arm using brain signals sent over Internet](http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2000/monkeys-1206.html) ---
**Author:** ![davenportavenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-control/273404/10 "2004-11-07T03:22:36Z")
You don’t need technology to brainwash or use mind control on somebody, you can do it with good old fashioned negative and positive reinforcement, giving somebody a slap in the face when they see the “bad” image and a piece of candy when they see the “good” one. Though in that case, it helps if the person is young; older people are less pliable that way and would just lash out at their programmer. ---
**Author:** ![ninetypercent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9de0a6/32.png) [@ninetypercent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ninetypercent)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-control/273404/11 "2004-11-07T03:31:18Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > Pointing a loaded AK-47 at someone is a quick, convenient, easy way to induce fear. > ] This is, sort of, what I mean. There is a basic ‘fear’ mechanism that we can influence. ---
**Author:** ![ninetypercent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9de0a6/32.png) [@ninetypercent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ninetypercent)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-control/273404/12 "2004-11-07T03:38:57Z")
> [@continuity eror](#): > > You don’t need technology to brainwash or use mind control on somebody, you can do it with good old fashioned negative and positive reinforcement, giving somebody a slap in the face when they see the “bad” image and a piece of candy when they see the “good” one. Though in that case, it helps if the person is young; older people are less pliable that way and would just lash out at their programmer. We would be stimulating their neurological reward systems at or beyond a youthful level. ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-control/273404/13 "2004-11-07T03:47:12Z")
I found a book that mentions the class of drugs of choice that yield a mind-control effect on the brain. Then, the collective wisdom of the SDoper can decide if it’s real or hooey. Will post later…the book is at the public library. I know right where to find it, too. …And, I’m not afraid to use it! 😉 Will tell all shortly! - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-control/273404/14 "2004-11-07T15:16:53Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > Pointing a loaded AK-47 at someone is a quick, convenient, easy way to induce fear. True; and showing most men porn is a quick, convenient, easy way to induce horniness. I do not regard this as “mind control,” though, so much as simply taking advantage of known quantities in human psychology. Rig me a gadget where I can be in a locked room miles away, and simply push a button, and you will suddenly be terrified out of your wits, in your own living room, for no apparent reason, no apparent fear-stimulus … and THAT, I might regard as “mind control.”