How Brainwashing Works And How We Experience It Every Day

It’s easy to assume that you make decisions with your free will. In truth, you are largely influenced by friends, family, media and other influences existent where you live. Most people don’t think, they just react to what they hear or see. This makes them largely susceptible to the influences of anyone interested in controlling them.

I know the title of this post may sound a bit over the top, but that’s what is really happening with most of us – we are being brainwashed every day. The less you are aware of the impact of everyday influences, the more you will be affected by them.

Fortunately there are ways to eliminate negative influences that affect our behaviour. But before I address this topic, let me explain what brainwashing really is and how it works.

How brainwashing works

Brainwashing is not as esoteric as most people think. Yes, it can be done with the use of NLP and hypnosis, but these are not necessary for the brainwashing to take place. People are purposely brainwashed by media, however friends and parents may not even realize that they are brainwashing you.

Brainwashing takes place when you are exposed to the same influences over and over again until you accept them as normal. This makes you change your mind about them and accept them as a natural part of who you are or what you value.

I read once that if person is regularly exposed to crime (e.g. if a person moves to a crime-ridden neighbourhood), she firstly despises the crime. If she is further exposed to the crime, she starts to tolerate it and then she accepts it as normal. So you can say that this person has been brainwashed into thinking that crime is acceptable.

How people are brainwashed by media

The producers of commercials and shows know very well how brainwashing works and use it all the time although they will never call it this way. With the use of persuasion, fear and ego-pleasing methods they influence people into buying the stuff they sell. The regular exposure of the stuff is essential to brainwash people into believing that the products/services the company sells are the best.

It’s obvious that the more people see something, the more they are likely to accept it and prefer it. That’s why the commercials that you see over and over again convince you that the stuff that is advertised is somehow superior to other products you don’t see on TV – even if you dislike the commercials.

How people are brainwashed by friends/relatives

If you were born in a poor family and you are poor although you no longer live with your parents, it means you’ve been brainwashed by them to the degree that you accept their view of the world. Your family, of course, did not intentionally brainwash you into thinking the way they think. It happened naturally because you accepted their opinions as truth.

Some parents, however, intentionally brainwash their kids into their way of thinking. This mostly happens with religious parents who want their children to overtake their beliefs. If children are forced to read the same religious material every day, they will of course form the same opinions that their parents who read the same religious books have. Such children, when they grow up, will find it hard to think independently of what they were continuously taught as kids.

The same applies to friends. Your friends, if you knew them for a while, have a major impact on who you are. It’s very likely that you are very similar to your friends because you accept their values and opinions. You accept their behaviour as normal because you’ve been exposed to it for so many times that it became natural to you. This is yet another example of you being brainwashed without your slightest suspicion about it.

Is brainwashing bad?

When people hear the word “brainwashing” they naturally assume that it’s negative. This is not always so. Sometimes brainwashing can actually help you. Some sick people brainwash themselves into thinking that they are healthy, and they actually become healthy. Some people brainwash themselves into believing that they are successful and they indeed become successful.

Brainwashing is basically convincing yourself of something that may or may not be true. Thinking about it this way you can easily see that brainwashing can be either positive or negative. You can brainwash yourself into success, but you can also brainwash yourself (or let someone else brainwash you) into failure.

How to get rid of negative influences

If you now realize that you’ve been surrounded by negative influences and thus brainwashed by them, you can eliminate such influences to some degree. Stop watching TV, do less shopping and read less magazines/newspapers. If you have friends who have different opinions to yours, avoid them. Be only with people who don’t try to change you and who have similar opinions to yours. If, however, you want to change who you are, you should find new friends who look /behave the way you want to look/behave.

Daily media influence made us prefer material possessions to experiences. To achieve real happiness, you should be less concerned with the stuff that you own and more interested in what you can do to become happy. So avoid the influences that brainwash you into thinking that if you own many things, you will be happy.

Try to identify the causes of your certain way of thinking that displeases you. Once you clearly know who/what brainwashed you into the certain way of thinking, you will come up with ways of how to eliminate/reduce your exposure to such influences.

In general, the more you are aware of the impact of the outside influences, the less they will be able to negatively affect you. People who are most brainwashed are those who don’t understand the impact that frequent exposure to something (opinions, commercials, people) has on them. So awareness here is the key – the more you are aware of what’s surrounding you and its/their impact, the less you will be affected by the outside influences.

Related posts:

1. How Beliefs Color Your Experience
2. The Loop Of Struggle And How To Get Out Of It
3. The Difference Between Love And Fear Based Actions
4. Raise Your Standards