"Those who consider dreams a game of intellect are mistaken. No, dreams are the opposite; they are an escape from reason," noted Japanese writer Yukio Mishima in his novel "Confessions of a Mask."
A significant portion of consciousness manipulation is built on this division between fantasy and reality.
Scientists distinguish between two types of thinking – realistic and autistic.
According to E. Bleicher, who first described autistic thinking, this type of thinking is a complete opposite of realistic thinking. It is driven solely by desires.
In human consciousness, both types of thinking coexist, complementing each other, serving the construction of goals and their realization. It is important to maintain a balance between them.
The goal of realistic thinking is to create accurate perceptions of reality, while the goal of autistic thinking is to create pleasant perceptions of it, with any unpleasant aspects actively pushed away.
In the normal course, the interaction between these types of thinking looks like this: a person indulges in pleasant fantasies, for example, about a car – the comfort associated with having one's vehicle, speed, travel, elevating one's status in the eyes of others – this is the work of autistic thinking.
Next, realistic thinking comes into play: the person strives to earn more, saves money to buy a car, or takes a loan, carefully assessing the convenient balance between the car's price and their financial capacity.
They weigh all the pros and cons, acquire the car, and enjoy it, sequentially or even simultaneously realizing their fantasies about owning a car.
However, there are cases where immersion in a dream prevents a person from taking any actions to turn it into reality: they only indulge in fantasies, and sometimes even create a sort of "theater for themselves" – interested in the prices of expensive cars, visiting car showrooms without the intention to buy anything, just to play, and so on.
It cannot be said that they are doing anything criminal. After all, everyone has their ways to relax, and if they do not contradict the criminal code, do not hinder anyone, and primarily the person themselves in the fundamental aspects of their life, then why shouldn't they occasionally enjoy their own fantasies?
However, it is essential to remember that realistic and autistic thinking not only interact but also conflict, allowing individuals not to spoil their lives by yielding to unrealized dreams.
For example, buying a car within one's means rather than selling a property for the sake of buying the latest model of a "Mercedes."
It's an entirely different matter when manipulators connect to individual fantasies.
In this case, their main task becomes to "disable" or suppress realistic thinking and attempt to spread the fantasy itself, such as "everyone wants this," "everyone does this," to as many people and social groups as possible.
To achieve this, collective perceptions of "good," "convenient," "right" are created, exploiting traditionally attractive images and stereotypes, which, in practice, may turn out to be entirely different from what was initially claimed.
Exploiting Fantasies: A Tale of Deception
Allow me to recount the story of an elderly woman who fell victim to cunning, criminal entrepreneurs. They convinced her that it would be convenient for her to sell her massive apartment in the city center. In return, they promised to buy her a lovely house with a huge garden. She would live off the interest from the money left in the bank after the transaction.
According to the fraudsters, all "smart" elderly people are doing this nowadays. In the end, the protagonist finds herself in a rented cottage on a cemetery caretaker's property. While the cemetery does indeed have many green plantations, the remaining money promised to her was transferred from an account that never existed.
The housing promised as a replacement for valuable square meters in the city turned out to be unsuitable for living, and escaping from there was nearly impossible.
The manipulators successfully played on the fantasies generated by autistic thinking. They not only needed to understand the structure of desires in various layers of society but also had to excite these desires, making their fulfillment crucial for the targets of manipulation.
To achieve this, realistic thinking, and consequently, the perception of the world, is "blurred" through associations and metaphors. Let's delve into this further...
#Manipulation #society

Gestures, Sounds, Smells Pt.1
It is known that conveyed information can be embodied not only in words and numbers.
Posture and gestures can be much more eloquent and precise than words – this is what scientists call nonverbal texts, in which visible bodily actions are used to convey important messages either instead of speech or simultaneously with spoken words.
Gestures can include hand movements, facial expressions (facial gestures), and other parts of the body.
Understanding specific gestures varies across different cultures: the most well-known, almost textbook example is the head nod among Bulgarians. In Russia and most other countries, a nod indicates agreement, while Bulgarians, on the contrary, by nodding, seem to say "no."
Through gestures and their interpretation, on the one hand, much can be understood about a culture, and on the other hand, these differences can be easily exploited for manipulative purposes.
For example, during the era of perestroika, much was written about smiling people from the Western world and the seemingly never-smiling Soviet people.
During those times, the reluctance to smile at everyone was explained by the difficult life in the USSR, where supposedly every stranger was perceived as an enemy, and in general, the unfriendliness of "Russian bears."
Even children in preschools were instructed during group photo sessions back then: "say cheese!" - it was assumed that this simple exercise would naturally stretch the lips into a joyful smile.
The stereotype of non-smiling Russians is still popular in the media, and from time to time, publications with detailed comments on this topic appear. While no one can count the exact number of gestures, it is impossible to deny their significance in propaganda and consciousness manipulation.
To exude the imperial grandeur inherent in an emperor, Napoleon took lessons in theatrical movement from the popular actor Talma of that time. The Minister of Culture of the USSR, Ekaterina Furtseva, learned to "carry herself" from the actress Vera Maretskaya.
"All of life is a gesture," said the Italian dictator and recognized master of propaganda, Benito Mussolini.
In modern times, the ability not only to control one's facial expressions and gestures but also to influence perception of one's message (emphasizing or disavowing spoken words) is a necessary skill not only for every political figure but also for any public figure in general.
Without this skill, embarrassments and awkward situations are inevitable – for example, let's recall the globally circulated 2008 video of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili chewing on his tie.
The importance of voice for politicians and public figures is also difficult to overstate.
The tone of voice, pronunciation, and speech manner of a politician constitute a crucial part of the politician's image and their ability to attract supporters. After all, a written and spoken text have completely different impacts.
In modern management, the voice is considered one of the most important tools for well-established communication: "A professional ailment of a modern manager is a kind of drying up of the personality, manifested through the voice. A person can excellently set tasks, reprimand, dismiss – their voice is heard. But when faced with a simple task, such as congratulating the women in their company on March 8th or simply praising a subordinate, they start to falter. If the boss clearly and confidently assigns a complex report to be done, and then reluctantly and without obvious interest listens to and comments on the results (i.e., cannot carry the entire 'tune' to the end) – this is more traumatizing than unpaid dollars," says a theatrical educator and business consultant, the CEO of the "World of Dialogue" center.
Acoustics – the world of sounds – is, in general, a crucial symbolic system. Its role in influencing the unconscious sphere, and consequently, in manipulating consciousness, is very significant…
To be continued…
#Manipulation #government

Images, like words, possess suggestive capabilities. Emerging in the human imagination through a multi-dimensional chain process (words, actions, other images, etc.), they initiate the next chain of processes, resulting in the creation of subsequent images with verbal and object embodiment.
Since the realms of words, images, and signs are intertwined, it is quite challenging to separate them from each other.
Many things with a purely functional nature are associated in our minds with self-perception and relationships with others.
For instance, a car is often perceived not only as a means of transportation but also as an indicator of achieving a certain life stage (adulthood, having a driver's license) and material status.
A home is not just a place where people sleep but also a symbol of shelter from the hustle and hardships of the world, a "home."
There are more specific connections between images and feelings: mother's cup, father's belt, grandmother's pastries, and so on.
«The essence of manipulation lies in the presence of a double impact. Alongside the message sent openly, the manipulator sends the recipient a hidden 'encoded' signal, hoping that this signal will awaken in the recipient's consciousness the images needed by the manipulator.
This hidden influence relies on the 'implicit knowledge' possessed by the recipient, on their ability to create images in their consciousness that influence their feelings, opinions, and behavior.
The art of manipulation lies in letting the imagination flow in the desired direction but in such a way that the person does not notice the hidden influence."
In everyone's consciousness, there are images of words and concepts, pictures that we see when someone informs us about something.
In interpersonal communication, the inconsistency of these pictures often leads to conflict, but it is usually not realized during the communication stage. For example, a grandmother gives her granddaughter a trendy dress, confident that the girl will like it. The grandmother judges in accordance with her image of "fashionable," while the granddaughter is disappointed and offended because that type of dress went out of style before her birth, thinking that her grandmother doesn't love her if she didn't bother to find out what the granddaughter really wanted.
The task of a professional manipulator is to ensure the emergence in the minds of the recipients of precisely the image of reality, things, etc., that will evoke the desired reaction.
For instance, this is how crime chronicle reports work, indicating the birthplace and/or ethnic origin of lawbreakers.
Many journalists and deputies note that emphasizing the nationality of criminals contributes to the incitement of xenophobic sentiments.
The primary tool for manipulating consciousness through images in our time is television – where the combination of text and image is most effective.
#Manipulation #Media