“Almost all people are hypnotics. The proper authority saw to it that the proper belief should be induced, and the people believed properly.” ― Charles Fort
TV Propaganda and the Mind Control Culture Few subjects present an undisputable window into modern society than the electronic version of reality that is dispensed through television broadcasts. This technology does not require interactive skills or critical thinking acumen. Just watch and fall into a daydream trance. TV is the stealth killer that penetrates 114.7 million American households. According to Nielsen, the 2012 Universe Estimate (UE), reflects a reduction in the estimated percent of U.S. homes with a television set (TV penetration), which declined to 96.7 percent from 98.9 percent. Should this turn down suggest promise or is it merely a result of internet substitution? With the proliferation of cable channels and 24 hour programming, the landscape of TV addiction vastly impacts perception and dramatically excludes normal interpersonal relations. Melissa Melton cites the following in her article, TV: Your Mind. Controlled. "According to last year’s Nielsen report, the average American over the age of two years old watches more than 34 hours of television per week, plus at least three more hours of taped programming. The report also noted that the amount of time we spend watching television increases as we get older." This overwhelming intrusion into and over personal time and space are often called entertainment. Broadcasts that bill themselves as news or business shows claim to provide useful information. Sport coverage makes no pretense of presenting socially significant content. Yet, vast segments of the public are wrapped up in the childish exercise of false hero adoration.
Television’s reporting on politics is miserable by any coherent standard of journalism. The business of television has little to do with an accurate chronicle of events or the meaning of decisions and actions. In order to understand the objectives of the content producers and the basic purpose behind the cultural soothsayers, a review of Mind Control Theories and Techniques used by Mass Media, which is a well documented source that outlines how the mass media really operates, is useful. Examine the specifics and draw your own lessons. "Mass media is the most powerful tool used by the ruling class to manipulate the masses. It shapes and molds opinions and attitudes and defines what is normal and acceptable. This article looks at the workings of mass media through the theories of its major thinkers, its power structure and the techniques it uses, in order to understand its true role in society." The conclusion of this account is a valid summary. "Lippmann, Bernays and Lasswell have all declared that the public are not fit to decide their own fate, which is the inherent goal of democracy. Instead, they called for a cryptocracy, a hidden government, a ruling class in charge of the "bewildered herd." As their ideas continue to be applied to society, it is increasingly apparent that an ignorant population is not an obstacle that the rulers must deal with: It is something that is DESIRABLE and, indeed, necessary, to insure total leadership. An ignorant population does not know its rights, does not seek a greater understanding of issues and does not question authorities. It simply follows trends. Popular culture caters to and nurtures ignorance by continually serving up brain-numbing entertainment and spotlighting degenerate celebrities to be idolized. Many people ask me: "Is there a way to stop this?" Yes, there is. STOP BUYING THEIR CRAP AND READ A BOOK." Such a sensible solution as turning off the misinformation screen is not an option for most of the typical dullards that think of themselves as normal and informed citizens. Society is populated with marginally functional and enthusiastic compliant serfs. Contentment is judged by actions not merely by sentiment. An unquestioning and obedient populace perpetually distracted from serious issues and unaware of comprehending the linkage and ultimate aims behind world events, has always been the goal. The most profound use of these media techniques usually deal with War & Peace: Media and War. Stanford University publishes this account by Johnnie Manzaria & Jonathon Bruck, Media's Use of Propaganda to Persuade People's Attitude, Beliefs and Behaviors. "Propaganda is so powerful because everyone is susceptible to it. This is true as explained by Robert Cialdini, an expert in influence, because people exist in a rapidly moving and complex world. In order to deal with it, we need shortcuts. We cannot be expected to recognize and analyze all the aspects in each person, event, and situation we encounter in even one day. We do not have the time, energy, or capacity to process
the information; and instead we must very often use our stereotypes, our rules of thumb, to classify things according to a few key features and then to respond without thinking when one or another of these trigger feature are present (Cialdini 6). While this makes people highly susceptible to a propagandist who understands persuasion, in general it is the most efficient form of behaving, and in other cases it is simply necessary. Additionally, propaganda includes the reinforcement of societal myths and stereotypes that are so deeply embedded within a culture that it is often difficult to recognize the message as propaganda." The attitude that such practices are "most efficient form of behaving, and in other cases it is simply necessary", is most disturbing and certainly fits the mold of how TV operates. The examples cited in this case study deal with foreign policy issues. However, the summary on How to Defend Against Propaganda, is worth a look. "As a result of our increasing sophistication and to build our civilization, we have created and environment so complex, so fast-paced, and information-laden, that we must increasingly deal with it in the fashion of the animals we long ago transcended. Thus, from the case studies on how the media uses propaganda, we can understand that the media does more than presentation facts and information. The media has the ability to exploit persuasive tactics to the specific definition of propaganda: the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person." Now ponder the disclaimer from this academia project: "We are not advocating that propaganda is wrong; we have tried to show, that overall it is usually helpful to respond to messages mindlessly, and that the truly only way to defend against it is to be more aware of the tactics being used." Also referenced in this study is Phil Zimbardo. 1) Be aware of the general perspective that others use to frame the problem or issue at hand, because accepting their frame on their terms gives them a powerful advantage. 2) Be sensitive to situational demands however trivial they may seem: group norms, group pressures, symbols of authority, slogans, and commitments. Don't believe in simple solutions to complex personal, social, and political problems. 3) In the end, it must be remembered that it is not enough to dissent vocally -- one must be willing to disobey, to defy, to challenge, and to suffer any ensuing consequences of these actions. Relate this thinking to the television broadcasts and series that occupy the gratuitous viewing of the general-public. It may be functionally realistic not to expect current event discernment from the mediocre crowd, but what motivates these distraction deprived viewers from absorbing the brainwashing message?
Escape from reality probably is the most adept answer. Nonetheless, the dependency on relinquishing individual responsibility and living under the principle of personal integrity is too difficult for most. The easy way out is to believe the junk fed from the TV screen. Newspeak has become the dominant culture and TV is the chief vehicle for spreading the lies and deceit. Jack Blood provides a succinct summary in, TV = Mind Control (Why do you think they call it Programming?) "Once again the system is at work, knowing how easy it is to control the minds of a dumbed down population that has been well trained, and some might say socially engineered, to never question authority, never think outside the box, never seek accountability and never think for itself. Easily manipulated, millions of people are conditioned to believe, from a very early age, that anything emanating from television is sacrosanct. Thus, everything they watch is reality and anything they hear is truth. Anchors and reporters become trusted personalities voicing reticent opinions whose veracity are seldom, if ever, questioned. The Establishment has perfected its machination of propaganda, creating the realities it wants into society, forming whatever truth that will be of the greatest benefit, not to society, but to itself. Whatever reality it wants to create and disseminate is quickly absorbed by a population eager to feed off the mammary glands of television. The Establishment, the corporate world and government have for years told us how and what to think, how to act, who to obey and where to follow, condemning our minds to obedience, our lives to conformism and silent acquiescence." Is it not time to make a clean break from this self-induced imprisonment of images and sounds that spills out of the television machine? SARTRE – February 10, 2014
TV: Your Mind. Controlled. By Melissa Melton on August 11, 2013
Related: 1960s Subliminal Video of National Anthem Hides MKULTRA Message to „Obey‟ Government (Truthstream Media.com) Are large segments of the American public literally walking around in a hypnotic trance? Michael Snyder, of The American Dream, wrote this almost two years ago: “Our society is rapidly coming apart at the seams and people are seriously starting to lose it… Way too many Americans seem to be losing all sense of what is right and what is wrong. Way too many Americans seem to be losing all sense of what it means to treat others with dignity and respect… It is almost as if some sort of mental illness is spreading throughout our society that is expressing itself in thousands of different ways. We are seeing anger, rage, malice and brutality rise to very dangerous levels. Our population has become way too greedy, proud,
selfish and hateful. America is on a very dangerous road and we need to wake up.” A general sense of apathy is spreading through the populace like a cancer and it begs the question: even if we wanted to “wake up,” could we? According to last year‟s Nielsen report, the average American over the age of two years old watches more than 34 hours of television per week, plus at least three more hours of taped programming. The report also noted that the amount of time we spend watching television increases as we get older. Back in 1969, a man named Herbert Krugman conducted a series of experiments regarding the effect of television on a person‟s brainwaves. What he found was pretty startling: “Krugman monitored a person through many trials and found that in less than one minute of television viewing, the person‟s brainwaves switched from Beta waves — brainwaves associated with active, logical thought — to primarily Alpha waves. When the subject stopped watching television and began reading a magazine, the brainwaves reverted to Beta waves.” „Beta‟ is considered a normal, awake state, while „Alpha‟ waves are experienced in a deep relaxation or „daydreaming‟ state. When in the Alpha state, a person is subjected to a passive learning experience with the right side of the brain at the wheel, leaving critical thinking skills behind. Type „television‟ and „low vibrational energy‟ into a search engine, and it‟ll quickly return the fact that watching a lot of TV is like undressing your mind and submerging it into a bath of negative energy. TV effectively numbs the left side of your brain and renders you helpless to your right brain which is incapable of decoding and critically analyzing the information being presented to you. Essentially, you go on „auto-pilot‟. Thus, everyone is put into a hypnotic state that author Wes Moore says, “produces highly functional, mobile „bio-survival robots.‟” There‟s a reason he dubbed television an “opiate of the masses“. TV programs us. We tune in, drop out and stop asking questions. Some of Krugman‟s more interesting conclusions from his 1969 TV brainwave research include:
“Internal Alpha responses can be stimulated by appropriate external rhythms or frequencies.” “The time may come when the mass media may create special programs to help people modify certain attitudes or behavior.”
“This means that passively learned material has an important „advantage‟ which some have also associated with so called subliminal perception, extrasensory perception, or hypnotism.” “For early education there may be an opportunity to accept the fact that many children fidget in class, and that this interference with their attention is not to be blamed on parents, teachers, or the child. Mild drugging of these children, or training in relaxation through Alpha driving, may be dramatically helpful to their educational achievement.” [Emphasis Added] “For public television there may be an opportunity to accept without shame the fact that it has taught violence to an entire generation. The clear store of television violence is not that a new generation is more violent but that the new generation knows more violence. The political consequences of this may yet be what some would call „good‟ (e.g., pacifist).” [Emphasis Added] “It is possible that the relaxed and successful character of passive learning can be enhanced by the artificial induction of Alpha rhythm, this with the aid of a flickering light.” [Emphasis Added]
Your brain on TV, ladies and gentlemen. It’s a basic form of mind control. The bulk of Krugman‟s research sounds eerily reminiscent of the concept of „sleeplearning‟ (also known as sleep-teaching or hypnopaedia) — literally teaching someone something as they sleep — as portrayed in Aldous Huxley‟s 1932 novel Brave New World. Interestingly, two scientists were able to debunk sleep-learning on its face in 1956, unless Alpha waves were involved: “Researchers concluded that learning during sleep was „impractical and probably impossible.‟ They reported that stimulus material presented during sleep was not recalled later when the subject awoke unless alpha wave activity occurred at the same time the stimulus material was given.” It should be noted that Krugman has spent many decades at General Electric (GE) headquarters as corporate manager of public-opinion research, a job he took in 1967. The company had a few good reasons to get excited by Krugman‟s findings. After all, GE founded the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in 1919, and a few years later RCA would form the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in 1926. GE also bought a majority share of Universal Pictures in 2004. GE also has extensive ties to the military-industrial complex, resulting in propaganda campaigns straight from it‟s child company NBC. Here‟s just one example: “NBC‟s owner General Electric designed, manufactured or supplied parts or maintenance for nearly every major weapon system used by the U.S. during the Gulf War… In other words, when correspondents and paid consultants on NBC
television praised the performance of U.S. weapons, they were extolling equipment made by GE, the corporation that pays their salaries.” In other words, there‟s a very lucrative reason to sell war to the masses… and war, by far, is not the only thing the TV sells us. Krugman also wrote “The Impact of Television Advertising: Learning without Involvement,” in which he stated that people exposed to what they have seen on television never forget these images: “There is a myth in the advertising world that viewers will forget your message if you don‟t repeat your advertising often enough. It is this myth that supports many large advertising expenditures… I would rather say the public comes closer to forgetting nothing they have seen on TV. They just „put it out of their minds‟ until and unless it has some use… and [then] the response to the commercial continues.” [Emphasis Added] So once you have experienced something on television, your brain is effectively desensitized to it and you remember what you have seen forever.
1953 MKUltra experiment record Seems rife for abuse by anyone who desires to peddle propaganda, doesn‟t it? Nothing about what I have written makes me feel anymore comfortable about the fact that our government spent billions subsidizing the switchover from analog to digital
broadcasting, a move that was meant to take full effect across the nation in 2009. (The United Kingdom followed suit in 2010, and so did Canada in 2011.) You know, because the government that is wholesale spying on us through the National Security Administration and other alphabet organizations cares so much about our television‟s picture quality. This is, after all, the same government who designed a despicable covert mind control research program called MKUltra that began after World War II which the Central Intelligence Agency admitted to on record but claims to have stopped in 1973. The program dealt in trauma-based mind control (The „MK‟ stands for „mind kontrolle‟ in German). Krugman wrote yet another article in 2000, “Memory Without Recall, Exposure Without Perception” where he posited: “I suspect that the classes are moving apart psychologically and culturally. Even if incomes were mandated to be equal, the left-brain people and the right-brain people have different communication patterns. We may, therefore, split into two cultures, two increasingly separate societies.” Some people cannot seem to break their trance, break their programming. They readily believe whatever the mainstream media tells them — a media beholden to the establishment agenda — without critical analysis and act accordingly. The breakdown appears to go beyond economic or political factors, but something effecting the very fabric of society itself. Others have „broken their programming‟, realized something is very very wrong here, and are asking questions. Think about what‟s going on in our country today and ask yourself: “What the hell happened?” “As real-life experience is increasingly replaced by the mediated „experience‟ of television-viewing, it becomes easy for politicians and market-researchers of all sorts to rely on a base of mediated mass experience that can be evoked by appropriate triggers. The TV „world‟ becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: the mass mind takes shape, its participants acting according to media-derived impulses and believing them to be their own personal volition arising out of their own desires and needs. In such a situation, whoever controls the screen controls the future, the past, and the present.” (Nelson, The Perfect Machine, p. 82)
1960s Subliminal Video of National Anthem Hides MKULTRA Message to ‘Obey’ Government By Melissa Melton on August 11, 2013
(Truthstream Media.com) It really is like the movie They Live. Government and television stations have been CAUGHT adding subliminal messages of actual government mind control in this archive footage from the 1960s which, on its face, appears to be an ordinary sign off of broadcasting for the day. INSTEAD, it‟s filled with commands to OBEY GOVERNMENT and regard it as GOD. We break this video down sent to us by someone else who is awake and can SEE (hat tip to Michele Miles Gardiner!): Some have tried to debunk this. We sincerely hope someone will. Unfortunately, no one has yet, and all the evidence points to the film being 100% legitimate. In fact, multiple viewers have already informed us they remember seeing this film on their televisions in not just the 1960s, but in the 1970s as well. While others have attempted to argue that this technique didn‟t really work so this video is therefore irrelevant, that is entirely NOT THE POINT.
The point is that the government DID THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE. The point is that the government was attempting to brainwash the American people, and they continued to do so long after the 1960s (and that‟s just what we know of on record). Whether or not this particular method failed is irrelevant, they were trying to master brainwashing and mind control and this video is by far just scratching the surface of that research. Think about how many times the average American may have seen this. Think about how many times this message was played on TVs throughout that time period, every night, night after night, when it‟s late and people are just beginning to fall asleep…for years. Not only did the government attempt to brainwash the public en masse through their television sets to be obedient to government, but there are two references in here to actual government-run mind control projects perpetrated against the American people that were not declassified until the 1970s: MKULTRA and MKNAOMI. On record, these programs were covert trauma-based mind control operations run by the Central Intelligence Agency‟s Scientific Intelligence Division starting after World War II. Former President Bill Clinton even apologized for these projects back in 1995. While the CIA claims these programs were „officially halted‟ in 1973, some say there is proof they have never stopped, but instead, have only gotten more sophisticated and gone deeper underground. Although the national anthem sign off film came out decades earlier, this is straight out of the 1988 movie They Live, the sci-fi film where an elite ruling class has been mass mind controlling the general public to stay obedient and asleep with a subliminal message broadcasted through television signals. The words “obey” and “consume” are used, along with the tagline “They live…we sleep.” In the movie, a man is able to get a pair of sunglasses that allow him to break the programming and see through advertisements and the junk on TV to what is really going on: a mass controlling of the populace. Are these programs really over? Good question. Consider the fact that, just last month, Activist Post broke a story on leaked documents from the government research arm DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) about a secret mind control program currently going on right now: “The aim of the program is to remotely disrupt political dissent and extremism by employing „Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation‟ (TMS) in tandem with sophisticated propaganda based on this technology. TMS stimulates the temporal lobe of the brain with electromagnetic fields.”
And that‟s just one example of many government projects regarding the control of our brains. Who do we really pledge our allegiance to? Here‟s the subliminal message hidden in (ironically or not) our national anthem in the 1960s-era video above: TRUST THE US GOVERNMENT GOD IS REAL GOD IS WATCHING BELIEVE IN GOVERNMENT GOD REBELLION WILL NOT BE TOLERATED OBEY CONSUME OBEY CONSUME (These messages are repeated until the finale at the end.) BUY MKULTRA BUY MKNAOMI WORSHIP CONSUME OBEY BELIEVE …and finally… DO NOT QUESTION GOVERNMENT.
Project MKUltra Project MKUltra is the code name of a U.S. government human research operation experimenting in the behavioral engineering of humans through the CIA's Scientific Intelligence Division. The CIA project was coordinated with the Special Operations Division of the Army's Chemical Corps.[1] The program began in the early 1950s, was officially sanctioned in 1953, was reduced in scope in 1964, further curtailed in 1967 and officially halted in 1973.[2] The program engaged in many illegal activities;[3][4][5] in particular it used unwitting U.S. and Canadian citizens as its test subjects, which led to controversy regarding its legitimacy.[3](p74)[6][7][8] MKUltra used numerous methodologies to manipulate people's mental states and alter brain functions, including the surreptitious administration of drugs (especially LSD) and other chemicals, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, isolation, verbal and sexual abuse, as well as various forms of torture.[9] The scope of Project MKUltra was broad, with research undertaken at 80 institutions, including 44 colleges and universities, as well as hospitals, prisons and pharmaceutical companies.[10] The CIA operated through these institutions using front organizations, although sometimes top officials at these institutions were aware of the CIA's involvement.[11] As the Supreme Court later noted, MKULTRA was:
concerned with "the research and development of chemical, biological, and radiological materials capable of employment in clandestine operations to control human behavior." The program consisted of some 149 subprojects which the Agency contracted out to various universities, research foundations, and similar institutions. At least 80 institutions and 185 private researchers participated. Because the Agency funded MKULTRA indirectly, many of the participating individuals were unaware that they were dealing with the Agency.[12] Project MKUltra was first brought to public attention in 1975 by the Church Committee of the U.S. Congress, and a Gerald Ford commission to investigate CIA activities within the United States. Investigative efforts were hampered by the fact that CIA Director Richard Helms ordered all MKUltra files destroyed in 1973; the Church Committee and Rockefeller Commission investigations relied on the sworn testimony of direct participants and on the relatively small number of documents that survived Helms' destruction order.[13] In 1977, a Freedom of Information Act request uncovered a cache of 20,000 documents relating to project MKUltra, which led to Senate hearings later that same year.[3] In July 2001 some surviving information regarding MKUltra was officially declassified.
Television: Opiate of the Masses Wes Moore This article is from Vol. 2, Issue No. 2 pages 59-66 © 2001 CENTER FOR COGNITIVE LIBERTY AND ETHICS All rights reserved worldwide. ISSN: 1527-3946
T.V. It satellite links Our United States of Unconsciousness Apathetic therapeutic and extremely addictive The methadone metronome pumping out 150 channels 24 hours a day You can flip through all of them And still there's nothing worth watching — Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, Television, Drug of a Nation
Alright junkies, I know you don’t like staring at long strands of motionless text, and I know it’s a struggle for you to analyze and comprehend the meaning of complex sequences of words. But if you give me just a few minutes, I will let you in on a little secret that marketers and governments have been relying on for decades. That television
you watch every day, your secret best friend, is an addictive opiate, and not only that, it’s one of the most potent mind control devices ever produced. And I’m not just basing this on intuition. I have the neurological evidence to prove it. Although the definitions are vague and somewhat misleading, the word “addiction” usually refers to a psychological or physical dependence on a particular experience that must be repeated in order for a person to be comfortable. Usually, we think about this in terms of chemical addiction, which occurs when the addict’s chemical of choice reorganizes the nervous system so that it requires the presence of that chemical to operate smoothly. Of course, not all addictions are chemical. Any behavior that leads to a pleasurable experience will be repeated, especially if that behavior requires little work. Psychologists call this pattern “positive reinforcement.” This is what we mean, technically speaking, by addiction. In this sense, television certainly fits into the category of an addictive agent. When you watch TV, brain activity switches from the left to the right hemisphere. In fact, experiments conducted by researcher Herbert Krugman showed that while viewers are watching television, the right hemisphere is twice as active as the left, a neurological anomaly.1 The crossover from left to right releases a surge of the body’s natural opiates: endorphins, which include beta-endorphins and enkephalins. Endorphins are structurally identical to opium and its derivatives (morphine, codeine, heroin, etc.). Activities that release endorphins (also called opioid peptides) are usually habit-forming (we rarely call them addictive). These include cracking knuckles, strenuous exercise, and orgasm. External opiates act on the same receptor sites (opioid receptors) as endorphins, so there is little difference between the two. In fact, strenuous exercise, which produces the nominal “runner's high”—a release of endorphins that flood the system, can be highly addictive, to the point where “addicts” who abruptly stop exercising experience opiate-withdrawal symptoms, namely migraine headaches. These migraines are caused by a dysfunction in opioid receptors, which are accustomed to the steady influx of endorphins. Indeed, even casual television viewers experience such opiate-withdrawal symptoms if they stop watching TV for a prolonged period of time. An article from South Africa’s Eastern Province Herald (October 1975) described two experiments in which people from various socio-economic milieus were asked to stop watching television. In one experiment, several families volunteered to turn off their TV’s for just one month. The poorest family gave in after one week, and the others suffered from depression, saying they felt as though they had “lost a friend.” In the other experiment, 182 West Germans agreed to kick their television viewing habit for a year, with the added bonus of payment. None could resist the urge longer than six months, and over time all of the participants showed the symptoms of opiate withdrawal: increased anxiety, frustration, and depression. The signs of addiction are all around us. The average American watches over four hours of television every day, and 49% of those continue to watch despite admitting to doing it
excessively. These are the classic indicators of an addict in denial: addicts know they're doing harm to themselves, but continue to use the drug regardless. Recent studies on laboratory rats show that opioid-receptor stimulants induce addictive behaviors. The evidence is conclusive: all opioids are addictive! Even the ones your body produces naturally. The television set works as a high-tech drug delivery system, and we all feel its effects. The question is, can an addiction to television be destructive? The answer we receive from modern science is a resounding “Yes!” First of all, when you're watching television the higher brain regions (like the midbrain and the neo-cortex) are shut down, and most activity shifts to the lower brain regions (like the limbic system). The neurological processes that take place in these regions cannot accurately be called “cognitive.” The lower or reptile brain simply stands poised to react to the environment using deeply embedded “fight or flight” response programs. Moreover, these lower brain regions cannot distinguish reality from fabricated images (a job performed by the neo-cortex), so they react to television content as though it were real, releasing appropriate hormones and so on. Studies have proven that, in the long run, too much activity in the lower brain leads to atrophy in the higher brain regions. It is interesting to note that the lower/reptile/limbic brain correlates to the bio-survival circuit of the Leary/Wilson 8 Circuit Model of Consciousness. This is our primal circuit, the base “presence” that we normally associate with consciousness. This is the circuit where we receive our first neurological imprint (the oral imprint), which conditions us to advance toward anything warm, pleasurable and/or protective in the environment. The bio-survival circuit is our most infantile, our most primal way of dealing with reality. A person obsessed with the pursuit of physical pleasure is probably fixated on this circuit; in fact the Freudians believed an opium addiction was an attempt to return to the womb. We could logically deduce that such addictions occur when higher brain functions are anesthetized and the newly dominant lower brain seeks out pleasure at any cost. Taking this into account, television is like a double edged sword: not only does it cause the endocrine system to release the body’s natural opiates (endorphins), but it also concentrates neurological activity in the lower brain regions where we are motivated by nothing but the pursuit of pleasure. Television produces highly functional, mobile “bio-survival robots.” Herbert Krugman’s research proved that watching television numbs the left brain and leaves the right brain to perform all cognitive duties. This has some harrowing implications for the effects of television on brain development and health. For one, the left hemisphere is the critical region for organizing, analyzing, and judging incoming data. The right brain treats incoming data uncritically, and it does not decode or divide information into its component parts. The right brain processes information in wholes, leading to emotional rather than intelligent responses. We cannot rationally attend to the content presented on television because that part of our brain is not in operation. It is therefore unsurprising that
people rarely comprehend what they see on television, as was shown by a study conducted by researcher Jacob Jacoby. Jacoby found that, out of 2,700 people tested, 90% misunderstood what they watched on television only minutes before. As yet there is no explanation as to why we switch to the right brain while viewing television, but we do know this phenomenon is immune to content. For a brain to comprehend and communicate complex meaning, it must be in a state of “chaotic disequilibrium.” This means that there must be a dynamic flow of communication between all of the regions of the brain, which facilitates the comprehension of higher levels of order (breaking conceptual thresholds), and leads to the formation of complex ideas. High levels of chaotic brain activity are present during challenging tasks like reading, writing, and working mathematical equations in your head. They are not present while watching TV. Levels of brain activity are measured by an electroencenograph (EEG) machine. While watching television, the brain appears to slow to a halt, registering low alpha wave readings on the EEG. This is caused by the radiant light produced by cathode ray technology within the television set. Even if you're reading text on a television screen the brain registers low levels of activity. Once again, regardless of the content being presented, television essentially turns off your nervous system. In addition to its devastating neurological effects, television can be harmful to your sense of self-worth, your perception of your environment, and your physical health. Recent surveys have shown that 75% of American women think they are overweight, likely the result of watching chronically thin actresses and models four hours a day. Television has also spawned a “culture of fear” in the U.S. and beyond, with its focus on the limbic brain-friendly sensationalism of violent programming. Studies have shown that people of all generations greatly overestimate the threat of violence in real life. This is no shock because their brains cannot discern reality from fiction while watching TV. Television is bad for your body as well. Obesity, sleep deprivation, and stunted sensory development are all common among television addicts. So I hope we’ve firmly established that television is an addictive drug, one that is no better than opium, heroin, or any other opiate. Television is just as (and possibly even more) harmful to the body-brain as every other drug. But there’s one big difference. All other drugs apparently pose a threat to the established social order. Television, however, is a drug that is actually essential to maintaining the social infrastructure. Why? Because it brainwashes consumers to throw money at the gaping void of their meaningless, terror-filled lives. And by brainwashed, I mean they’ve been hypnotized using very subtle and established techniques which, when coupled with television’s natural effects on brain waves, make for the most ambitious psychological engineering ruse ever concocted. Psychophysiologist Thomas Mulholland found that after just 30 seconds of watching television the brain begins to produce alpha waves, which indicates torpid (almost comatose) rates of activity. Alpha brain waves are associated with unfocused, overly
receptive states of consciousness. A high frequency alpha waves does not occur normally when the eyes are open. In fact, Mulholland’s research implies that watching television is neurologically analogous to staring at a blank wall. I should note that the goal of hypnotists is to induce slow brain wave states. Alpha waves are present during the “light hypnotic” state used by hypno-therapists for suggestion therapy. When Mulholland’s research was published it greatly impacted the television industry, at least in the marketing and advertising sector. Realizing viewers automatically enter a trance state while watching television, marketers began designing commercials that produce unconscious emotional states or moods within the viewer. The aim of commercials is not to appeal to the rational or conscious mind (which usually dismisses advertisements) but rather to implant moods that the consumer will associate with the product when it is encountered in real life. When we see product displays at a store, for instance, those positive emotions are triggered. Endorsements from beloved athletes and other celebrities evoke the same associations. If you’ve ever doubted the power of television advertising, bear this in mind: commercials work better if you’re not paying attention to them! An addictive mind control device . . . what more could a government or profit-driven corporation ask for? But the really sad thing about television is that it turns everyone into a zombie, no one is immune. There is no higher order of super-intelligent, nefarious beings behind this. It’s the product of our very human desire to alter our state of consciousness and escape the hardships of reality. While AdBusters has their highly ineffectual “TV Turnoff Week,” I’d like to announce a campaign of my own. Starting next week, we will celebrate what I like to call TV PawnOff Week. I encourage you all to sell your televisions, and use the money to buy some books. We’re living in a Brave New World, only it’s not so brave, or even that new. In fact, it’s starting to look more and more like the Dark Ages, with the preliterate zombie masses obeying the authority of the new clergy: Regis Philbin and Jerry Springer.
Notes 1. Krugman, Herbert E. “Brain wave Measures of Media Involvement,” Journal of Advertising Research 11.1 (1971): 3-9. Krugman later became manager of public opinion research at General Electric. For more on brain state changes occasioned by watching television, see: Emery, Merrelyn, The Social and Neurophysiological Effects of Television and their Implications for Marketing Practice. Doctoral dissertation. Australian National
University. Canberra, 1985; Nelson, Joyce, The Perfect Machine (New Society Pub: 1992).
