by David G on January 9, 2015

Table of Contents

• Fear responses can be conditioned
• John B Watson – “The driving force in society is not love, it’s fear” 
• BF Skinner – “Human behavior is predictable and therefore controllable”
• The use of fear in propaganda
• Creating moral panic to sway public opinion against the ‘shadowy stranger’
• What has all this got to do with spirituality and why should you care?
• Altruistic fear and the fear of crime in alternative spiritual groups
• The anti-cult movement and information-terrorism on the world wide web
• The role of the media in amplifying fear of alternative spirituality
• Fear of alternative spirituality as a governance tool
• Creating a fear feedback-loop that engineers consent for spiritual oppression
• What to do if you’d rather practice spirituality than be afraid of it

Fear responses can be conditioned

But fear can also be used as a mechanism to control us and scientists have long been fascinated by fear reactions, conducting many studies trying to understand how fear becomes conditioned.

The greatest developments in this field have been in the realm of ‘Behaviorism’; the theory that animal and human behavior can be explained through conditioning.

In the early 20th century, John B Watson began experimenting with fear-based conditioning.

John Broadus Watson (January 9, 1878 – September 25, 1958) was an American psychologist who popularized the scientific theory of behaviorism, establishing it as a psychological school. Watson advanced this change in the psychological discipline through his 1913 address at Columbia University, titled Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It. Through his behaviorist approach, Watson conducted research on animal behavior, child rearing, and advertising, as well as conducting the controversial "Little Albert" experiment and the Kerplunk experiment. He was also the editor of Psychological Review from 1910 to 1915. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Watson as the 17th most cited psychologist of the 20th century.

“The driving force in society is not love, it’s fear” – John B Watson

Watson conducted the “Little Albert” experiment, showing an emotionally stable baby:

• a fire
• a monkey
• a dog
• a rabbit

“Give me a baby and I can make any kind of man”

Burrhus Fredric Skinner felt that there is no such thing as free will and that all actions undertaken are pre-determined by our environment.

Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, inventor, and social philosopher. He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974. Considering free will to be an illusion, Skinner saw human action as dependent on consequences of previous actions, a theory he would articulate as the principle of reinforcement: If the consequences to an action are bad, there is a high chance the action will not be repeated; if the consequences are good, the probability of the action being repeated becomes stronger. Skinner developed behavior analysis, especially the philosophy of radical behaviorism, and founded the experimental analysis of behavior, a school of experimental research psychology. He also used operant conditioning to strengthen behavior, considering the rate of response to be the most effective measure of response strength. To study operant conditioning, he invented the operant conditioning chamber (aka the Skinner box), and to measure rate he invented the cumulative recorder. Using these tools, he and Charles Ferster produced Skinner's most influential experimental work, outlined in their 1957 book Schedules of Reinforcement. Skinner was a prolific author, publishing 21 books and 180 articles. He imagined the application of his ideas to the design of a human community in his 1948 utopian novel, Walden Two, while his analysis of human behavior culminated in his 1958 work, Verbal Behavior.  Skinner, John B. Watson and Ivan Pavlov, are considered to be the pioneers of modern behaviorism. Accordingly, a June 2002 survey listed Skinner as the most influential psychologist of the 20th century.

“Human behavior is predictable and therefore controllable.” – BF Skinner

The use of fear in propaganda

We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.

…In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses.

It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind. – Edward Bernays

Edward Louis Bernays (/bɜːrˈneɪz/ bur-NAYZ, German: [bɛʁˈnaɪs]; November 22, 1891 − March 9, 1995) was an American pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda and referred to in his obituary as "the father of public relations". While credited with advancing the profession of public relations, his techniques have been criticized for manipulating public opinion, often in ways that undermined individual autonomy and democratic values. His best-known campaigns include a 1929 effort to promote female smoking by branding cigarettes as feminist "Torches of Freedom", and his work for the United Fruit Company in the 1950s, connected with the CIA-orchestrated overthrow of the democratically elected Guatemalan government in 1954. Critics argue that his involvement in Guatemala facilitated U.S. imperialism and contributed to decades of civil unrest and repression, raising ethical concerns about his role in undermining democratic governance. He worked for dozens of major American corporations, including Procter & Gamble and General Electric, and for government agencies, politicians, and nonprofit organizations. His uncle was psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.  Of his many books, Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923) and Propaganda (1928) gained special attention as early efforts to define and theorize the field of public relations. Citing works of writers such as Gustave Le Bon, Wilfred Trotter, Walter Lippmann, and Sigmund Freud (his own double uncle), he described the masses as irrational and subject to herd instinct—and he outlined how skilled practitioners could use crowd psychology and psychoanalysis to control them in desired ways. Bernays later synthesized many of these ideas in his postwar book, Public Relations (1945), which outlines the science of managing information released to the public by an organization, in a manner most advantageous to the organization. He does this by first providing an overview of the history of public relations, and then provides insight into its application.  Bernays was named one of the 100 most influential Americans of the twentieth century by Life. Despite this recognition, his work has been linked to the rise of modern propaganda techniques that some argue have eroded democratic engagement and suppressed dissent. He was the subject of a full-length biography by Larry Tye entitled The Father of Spin (1999) and later an award-winning 2002 documentary for the BBC by Adam Curtis entitled The Century of the Self.

Possibly no one has been as influential in changing public opinion by understanding and manipulating the human psyche than the ‘father’ of public relations and propaganda. – Edward Bernays.

Bernays was the double nephew of Sigmund Freud, who theorized that the driving force behind people’s actions was their:

• inner turmoil
• instincts
• unconscious desires

He was responsible for (among many other things):

• Making it acceptable for women to smoke – backed by the tobacco industry.
• Making bacon and eggs a staple breakfast food in America – backed by a meat packing company.
• Causing a consciousness harming chemical to be added to water supplies – backed by a company producing aluminum.
• The overthrow of a democratic regime by US forces – backed by a company that grew bananas.

Bernays paved the way for some of the greatest human rights violations in history, and was later quoted as an inspiration by Joseph Goebbels, the infamous propaganda minister of Nazi Germany.

Paul Joseph Goebbels (German: [ˈpaʊ̯l ˈjoːzɛf ˈɡœbl̩s] ⓘ; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician and philologist who was the Gauleiter (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 1945. He was one of Adolf Hitler's closest and most devoted followers, known for his skills in public speaking and his deeply virulent antisemitism which was evident in his publicly voiced views. He advocated progressively harsher discrimination, including the extermination of the Jews in the Holocaust.  Goebbels, who aspired to be an author, obtained a doctorate in philology from the University of Heidelberg in 1921. He joined the Nazi Party in 1924, and worked with Gregor Strasser in its northern branch. He was appointed Gauleiter of Berlin in 1926, where he began to take an interest in the use of propaganda to promote the party and its programme. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Goebbels's Propaganda Ministry quickly gained control over the news media, arts and information in Nazi Germany. He was particularly adept at using the relatively new media of radio and film for propaganda purposes. Topics for party propaganda included antisemitism, attacks on Christian churches, and (after the start of the Second World War) attempts to shape morale.  In 1943, Goebbels began to pressure Hitler to introduce measures that would produce "total war", including closing businesses not essential to the war effort, conscripting women into the labour force, and enlisting men in previously exempt occupations into the Wehrmacht. Hitler finally appointed him as Reich Plenipotentiary for Total War on 23 July 1944, whereby Goebbels undertook largely unsuccessful measures to increase the number of people available for armaments manufacture and the Wehrmacht.  As the war drew to a close and Nazi Germany faced defeat, Magda Goebbels and the Goebbels children joined Hitler in Berlin. They moved into the underground Vorbunker, part of Hitler's underground bunker complex, on 22 April 1945. Hitler committed suicide on 30 April. In accordance with Hitler's will, Goebbels succeeded him as Chancellor of Germany; he served one day in this post. The following day, Goebbels and his wife Magda committed suicide, after having poisoned their six children with a cyanide compound.

He was a master of fear-based manipulation.

Creating moral panic to sway public opinion against the ‘shadowy stranger’

In 1951, the CIA staged a coup to overthrow President Arbenz, the head of a democratic government in Guatemala.

Juan Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán (Spanish: [xwaŋ xaˈkoβo ˈaɾβens ɣusˈman]; 14 September 1913 – 27 January 1971) was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as the 25th president of Guatemala. He was Minister of National Defense from 1944 to 1950, before he became the second democratically elected President of Guatemala, from 1951 to 1954. He was a major figure in the ten-year Guatemalan Revolution, which represented some of the few years of representative democracy in Guatemalan history. The landmark program of agrarian reform Árbenz enacted as president was very influential across Latin America.  Árbenz was born in 1913 to a wealthy family, son of a Swiss German father and a Guatemalan mother. He graduated with high honors from a military academy in 1935, and served in the army until 1944, quickly rising through the ranks. During this period, he witnessed the violent repression of agrarian laborers by the United States-backed dictator Jorge Ubico, and was personally required to escort chain-gangs of prisoners, an experience that contributed to his progressive views. In 1938, he met and married María Vilanova, who was a great ideological influence on him, as was José Manuel Fortuny, a Guatemalan communist. In October 1944, several civilian groups and progressive military factions led by Árbenz and Francisco Arana rebelled against Ubico's repressive policies. In the elections that followed, Juan José Arévalo was elected president, and began a highly popular program of social reform. Árbenz was appointed Minister of Defense and played a crucial role in putting down a military coup in 1949. After the death of Arana, Árbenz ran in the presidential elections that were held in 1950 and without significant opposition defeated Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes, his nearest challenger, by a margin of over 50%. He took office on 15 March 1951, and continued the social reform policies of his predecessor. These reforms included an expanded right to vote, the ability of workers to organize, legitimizing political parties, and allowing public debate. The centerpiece of his policy was an agrarian reform law under which uncultivated portions of large landholdings were expropriated in return for compensation and redistributed to poverty-stricken agricultural laborers. Approximately 500,000 people benefited from the decree. The majority of them were indigenous people, whose forebears had been dispossessed after the Spanish invasion.  His policies ran afoul of the United Fruit Company, which lobbied the United States government to have him overthrown. The U.S. was also concerned by the presence of communists in the Guatemalan government, and Árbenz was ousted in the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état engineered by the government of U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower through the U.S. Department of State and the Central Intelligence Agency. Árbenz went into exile through several countries, where his family gradually fell apart, and his daughter committed suicide. He died in Mexico in 1971. In October 2011, the Guatemalan government issued an apology for Árbenz's overthrow.

The events that led to this coup were engineered by Bernays and backed by the United Fruit company who were using masses of land in Guatemala to grow bananas.

What if I told you that the same techniques used to:

• make Little Albert afraid of rats.
• reinforce avoidance learning in animals.
• garner support in the Guatemalan overthrow.

Altruistic fear and the fear of crime in alternative spiritual groups

Key influencers in a spiritually fear-full society

The world today is a web of disinformation about alternative spirituality promoted and sustained (whether consciously or not) by vested interests in many areas of society including:

• the anti-cult movement and moral entrepreneurs;
• some religious organizations (others are pro-freedom of spiritual choice)
• mass media journalists, news and current affairs programs
• celebrities
• governments.

Where to start?

The anti-cult movement and information-terrorism on the world wide web

It is a place of:

• debunked theories (e.g. “mind control”)
• a criteria for defining cults that is so broad it could apply to Alcoholics Anonymous and most mainstream religions
• the strongly religious who have a vested interest in keeping people away from alternative spirituality
• moral entrepreneurs; psychologists and self-proclaimed “cult experts” that have made a living out of “cult” deprogramming (sometimes known to be done in an illegal manner on unwilling participants).

“Repository of information for the public, the press, and governmental agencies […] aim[ing] to put pressure on ‘cults’ by enlisting the support of political, economic, religious, media, and educational institutions which have access to greater resources and sanctioning power. (Chryssides, 1999, quoted in Possamaï & Murray Lee, 2004).“

The role of the media in amplifying fear of alternative spirituality

Rather you might see something like this highly emotive current affairs piece:

“…it is clear that there is a campaign ongoing to sensitize public opinion against minority religions by labeling them indiscriminately as ‘dangerous sects’ thus marginalizing and attempting to criminalize them.

This manipulation of public opinion is done almost daily at the moment with press, radio and television articles centering on the supposed dubious activities of sects whilst interviewing the main opponents of minority (and majority) religious movements.” – quote from the human rights office of a large alternative spiritual group in the late 1990s

“It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition and a psychological understanding of the people concerned that a square is in fact a circle.

They are mere words, and words can be molded until they clothe ideas and disguise.” ― Joseph Goebbels

Fear of alternative spirituality as a governance tool

Despite there being many pressing issues to tackle including:

• health
• education
• the environment
• the economy

Creating a fear feedback-loop that engineers consent for spiritual oppression

As a result:

1. Alternative spirituality and NRMs are shown as harmful in the mainstream media and on the internet.
2. People are bombarded with so many negative depictions that they naturally begin to fear alternative spirituality and project their concerns onto harmless groups.
3. Being afraid, people develop avoidance conditioning, restricting their own interest in spirituality, and often the interest of those close to them.

1. Governments take an interest in censoring and legislating alternative spirituality.
2. Individuals unknowingly consent to the oppression of spirituality as they feel it is in their best interests.
3. Without ever seeing the beneficial side of alternative spirituality, continued negative. depictions of NRMS from authority figures throughout society reinforces the perception that the public is justified in their fear.

“The crisis need not have ended tragically if only the FBI had been more open to Religious Studies and better able to distinguish between the dubious ideas of [anti-cult activist] Ross and the scholarly expertise” – Wikipedia

Unfortunately it appears that lessons are not learned and the media are as biased against NRMS as ever; here’s an article from a year ago who’s title says it all:

What to do if you’d rather practice spirituality than be afraid of it

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