Ready to be extremely suspicious of everything to read and watch? Joel E. Dimsdale’s book Dark Persuasion: A History of Brainwashing from Pavlov to Social Media explores the evolution of techniques used for breaking down the brain. Starting with Pavlov’s discoveries, those supported by Lenin and Stalin, the book goes through the largest breakthroughs of techniques groups who wish to have social, political, and religious control use to breakdown someone and redefine their thinking. The book discusses torture, forced religious conversion, development of mind altering drugs, and changes to interrogation techniques. Dimsdale doesn’t just keep his research to cults and religions, but how these methods are used in war. This book is deeply fascinating, but equally depressing. He shares information about modern social media and how it can lead to changes in mental processing and belief. Pavlov would be thrilled.
Narrator Eric Jason Martin helms the audiobook and does a brilliant job. While I’d known quite a bit of the information in regards to MK Ultra and other CIA projects, its another thing to have someone explain the details to you while you’re trying to complete a document at your day job.
Dark Persuasion is available in print and audiobook form now.
