Brainwashing is a method of influencing people to change their beliefs and accept as true what they previously has considered false. The term was first used to refer to methods practiced by the Chinese Communist. Brainwashing described “thought reform” programs they developed after taking control of China in 1949. During the Korean War, the Chinese and North Koreans used similar techniques to convert Ame

Many relatively well-educated and wealthy young people have been involved with new religious movements called cults over the past two or three decades in America and other Western countries. Controversy has erupted about the meaning of this participation, as parents, friends, political leaders, and others have attempted to understand why this has occurred. One explanation for participation has been brainwashing, mind control, or thought reform theories. Young people have not joined the new religions willingly, but have been manipulated into participating by groups using powerful psychological techniques. These techniques supposedly trap people in new religions, allowing control of their behavior by the groups' leaders. Cults practice a more refined form of thought control than that used by the Chinese. Leading psychologist, Dr. Margaret Singer, said “Cults do it better than the Chinese because it is easier to get people to do what you want through manipulating them with guilt and anxiety. During this process the person is re-educated and will abandon the beliefs he or she has learned from life for the truth or enlightenment offered by the group. In some cults this is done over a long period of time, and other cults can bring this change within 48 hours. Whichever way the process takes place the results are the same.” One study found that seventy-eight percent of a randomly drawn sample of 383 individuals from an urban county in a western state said that they believed in brainwashing, and thirty percent agree, "brainwashing is required to make someone join a religious cult." A similar question asked of a random sample of one thousand New York residents prior to the tax evasion trial of Reverend Moon revealed that forty-three percent agreed that, "b

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