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Brainwashing is a lot like getting knocked unconscious with one punch the way it happens in the movies. That is, not nearly as easy as you have been led (brainwashed?) to believe.

Since I've been knocked unconscious with one kick, is it okay for me to believe it? BTW, no matter what you've heard, getting knocked out doesn't hurt a bit. That waking up, though, is a sumb!tch.

Young people, particularly sheltered young teens, can be relatively easy to control. Check out the Marine basic training, etc.

I can take young people and completely change their mental makeup. It's okay, that's what they pay me to do. Eliminate outside influences, break them down as individuals, build them back up in the image you want. The first thing to do is demonstrate complete control over them. Kidnappers, etc, can use sensory deprivation, which can be as simple as locking a tied up individual in a closet for a day, and then combine it with some other simple techniques to get complete compliance.

If I recall correctly, Patricia Hearst was locked in a closet with no one speaking to her for several days. She was tied up and blindfolded. She urinated and defecated on herself, and was kept blindfolded while being fed, usually food designed to make her go to the bathroom quickly. The controllers never spoke to her. Simple techniques, like tying hands behind the back and feeding the individual in a dog dish can quickly break down barriers. The point is to destroy the lines that the individual has determined they will never cross. Probably the most effective brainwashing technique is sensory deprivation. In addition, psychogenic drugs can be used to increase compliance. The point is to break the individual to the point where they feel there is nothing left to defend. At that point, they become totally malleable.

The point with Patricia Hearst, and probably Ms. Smart, is that they had never been put through fire. While they were restricted, they were also protected. They'd never been hungry, never felt real pain, never been exposed and humiliated.

If you take a young individual who has a basic respect for authority, put them through sensory deprivation, humiliation, and then careful positive reinforcement of the paradigm you want them to adopt, you can completely control their thought process.

The kidnapper would have also had the advantage of having already taken her out of an area she thought was totally safe. If he can pull her out of her bedroom, where would she be safe? BTW, when I was in Haiti, I learned a little about the process of creating a "zombie". The witch doctors would first subject the individual to psychotropic drugs. Don't underestimate the power of these drugs. They would then bury them for periods from 24 to 48 hours with nothing but a breathing tube. Then they would dig them up, and tell them that if they didn't do what they were told, the witch doctor would bury them again, and leave them to die.

If you haven't been exposed to someone good using brainwashing techniques, don't underestimate them.

I got whacked in the temple once by a steel bar at work. I went out cold. And I had the worst grinding, burning headache for a week afterward.

Good post explaining brainwashing. Who knows, the psycho could have been telling that little girl from Day 1 that her parents didn't care where she was. After a few months of no one finding her, she could have believed it, and psycho creep could easily twist her mind around anything else.

Regarding sensory depravation, that seems like it would be the easiest for the kidnappers (in Patty Hearst's case) By the time they did talk to her, she was probably thankful to hear anything.

I hope everyone reads your post, he could have said we are married and called that a "marriage"

Good information in that post.

Now go back and look carefully at what you've written, think about all the things you've said there, and think about them in the context of this case (the younger sister's recollection of the guy's description months later, the confusion about whether Elizabeth was abducted with a knife or a gun, the fact that Elizabeth was out in public on numerous occasions and never sought help, her repeated denials to the police that she was Elizabeth Smart, etc.).

I don't know about anyone else here, but I'm thinking there's no way in hell anyone could ever be convicted of "abducting" her.

The point with Patricia Hearst, and probably Ms. Smart, is that they had never been put through fire. While they were restricted, they were also protected. They'd never been hungry, never felt real pain, never been exposed and humiliated.

If you take a young individual who has a basic respect for authority, put them through sensory deprivation, humiliation, and then careful positive reinforcement of the paradigm you want them to adopt, you can completely control their thought process.

Well said. And most times far less effort is required to "break" a person. I knew someone from a good family who was "brainwashed." Knowing a victim well gives you a different perspective on it.

If you haven't been exposed to someone good using brainwashing techniques...

No such animal.

In fact, it seems that some of these techniques have been used in governor's schools. While they don't tie kids up or deprive them physically, they do keep them away from parents and friends and chip away at their old belief system, rebuilding it into what the controllers want their subjects to believe. The Gov. School in Arkansas had some subsequent suicides from otherwise normal kids.