…wars are fought and won or lost not
on battlefields but in the minds of men…
Continuing from the intro which I published here, note that Michael Aquino references Lieutenant Colonel John B. Alexander, “The New Mental Battlefield: Beam me up, Spock” Military Review, Vol LX, No. 12 December 1980 AD to the effect that “intelligence and operational employment of ESP – was decidedly provocative” with ESP, of course, referring to extra sensory perception. Aquino likens dismissive attitudes about ESP to “the laughter that greeted the Italian scientist Spallanzani in 1794 when he suggested that bats navigate in the dark means of what we now call sonar…I suspect that the U.S. Navy is glad someone took the idea seriously enough to pursue it.” Aquino notes that Alexander “was involved with ‘parapsychological’ ideas and experiments such as ESP and ‘remote viewing’. These have no connection whatever with either traditional PSYOP or MindWar.” He notes that “Psychological Operations (PS YOP)” is that which has already been in the possession of the US Army and already did that which Alexander sought via ESP as PSYOPs “uses existing communications media. It seeks to map the minds of neutral and enemy individuals and then to change them in accordance with U.S.
national interests. It does this on a wide scale, embracing military units, regions, nations, and blocs.”
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7th Psychological Operations Group emblem published at the header of the MindWar paper. Michael Aquino and wife Lilith (the name of a folkloric demoness). Yellow Pages ad for the Temple of Set stating,
“Intelligent and ethical initiation into the arts and sciences of the prince of darkness”
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As an example of the effectiveness of PSYOP, Aquino notes, “In 1967 and 1968 alone, a total of 29,276 armed Viet Cong/NVA (the equivalent of 95 enemy infantry battalions) surrendered to ARVN or MACV forces under the Chieu Hoi amnesty program – the major PSYOP effort in the Vietnam War.” He relates that “we lost the war” due to being “out-PSYOPed.”
He notes that even though “marginally effective ‘leaflet and loudspeaker’ applications…have their place…main effort…must originate at the national level…war which is fought on a far more subtle basis as well – in the minds of the national populations involved.” This is clearly an Art of War for the US, a war that is fought on many fronts and not solely on battlefields.
At this point, he recommends “We shall rid ourselves of the self-conscious, almost ‘embarrassed’ concept of ‘psychological operations’. In its place we shall create Mind War. The term is harsh and fear-inspiring, and so it should be: It is a term of attack and victory – not one of the rationalization and coaxing and conciliation.”
Michael Aquino asserts that “What the Army now considers to be the most effective PSYOP – tactical PSYOP – is actually the most limited and primitive effort, due to the difficulties of formulating and delivering messages under battlefield constraints…If we do not attack the enemy’s will until he reaches the battlefield, his nation will have strengthened it as best it can…it must strike at the nation’s potential soldiers before they put on their uniforms.”
He goes on for a few pages essentially reiterating manners of propagating that which “strengthens the United States by denying enemy propaganda” so as to set about “explaining and emphasizing to our people the rationale for our national interest in a specific war.”
He notes that “Under existing United States law, PSYOP units may not target American citizens” because of “the presumption that ‘propaganda’ is necessarily a lie or at least a misleading half-truth, and that the government has no right to lie to the people.”
However, he does emphasize that “no greater error could be made than to confuse MindWar with merely a greater and more unprincipled propaganda effort.”
Aquino’s point is that PSYOPs is not propaganda because the latter involves “psychological manipulations…a lie or at least a distortion of the truth” and need not be true. He notes that this does not work because, “we have convinced him to see the truth as we see it.” Thus, “propagandists are assumed to be liars and hypocrites, willing to paint anything attractive colors to dupe the gullible.” Well, even though Michael Aquino claims to receive inspiration from the same spirits which inspired the Nazi SS’s Heinrich Himmler, he does note, “The Propaganda Ministry of Goebbels must not be a part of the American way of life.”
Conversely, “MindWar has nothing to do with deception or even…misleading – truth. Rather it states a whole truth that, if it does not now exist, will be forced into existence by the will of the United States.” This is typical occultist magick terminology for the exercise of will towards creating real/physical change.
Thus, “the MindWar operative must know that he speaks the truth, and he must be personally committed to it. What he says is only a part of MindWar; the rest – and the test of its effectiveness – lies in the conviction he projects to his audience, in the rapport he establishes with it.” Have you ever noticed the oddity that politicians will tell the American people, “What the American people want is…”? Why tell us what we want if we know that we want it?
Michael Aquino then notes that “The theory behind ‘brainwashing’ was that physical torture and deprivation would weaken the mind’s resistance to suggestion, and this was true to a point. But in the long run brainwashing does not work, because intelligent minds later realize their suggestibility under such conditions and therefore discount impressions and options inculcated accordingly.” At this point, he cites John Marks, “The Search for the ‘Manchurian Candidate,’” New York Times Books, 1979 AD.
He emphasizes that “For the mind to believe in its own decisions, it must feel that it made those decisions without coercion” which is the very point made by the movie Inception (see my “Inception” the movie and the meme – the New Atheist cover is blown).
In once again juxtaposing PSYOPs and MindWar, he notes that “PSYOP identifies purely-sociological factors which suggest appropriate idioms for messages” and that “There are some purely natural conditions under which minds may become more or less receptive to ideas, and MindWar should take full advantage of such phenomena as atmospheric electromagnetic activity, air ionization, and extremely low frequency waves” which is when PSYOPs propaganda becomes high tech and the bio-chemical and electrical nature of the brain becomes weaponized.
He makes this clear via the footnotes to this last quoted statement: “Atmospheric electromagnetic (EM) activity: The Human body communicates internally by EM and electrochemical impulses…Atmospheric EM activity is regularly altered by such phenomena as sunspot eruptions and gravitational stresses which distort the Earth’s magnetic field. Under varying external EM conditions, humans are more or less disposed to the consideration of new ideas. MindWar should be timed accordingly…” Then, “Ionization of the air: An abundance of negative condensation nuclei (‘air ions’) in ingested air enhances alertness and exhilaration, while an excess of positive ions enhances drowsiness and depression. Calculation of the ionic balance of a target audience’s atmospheric environment will be correspondingly useful. Again this is a naturally-occurring condition – caused by such varying agents as solar ultraviolet light, lightning, and rapidly-moving water – rather than one which most be artificially created”
Also, “Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) waves: ELF waves up to 100 Hz are once more naturally occurring, but they can also be produced artificially…ELF-waves are not normally noticed by the unaided senses, yet their resonant effect upon the human body has been connected to both physiological disorders and emotional distortion. Infrasound vibration” can be employed for “inclining an audience toward everything from alertness to passivity. Infrasound could be used tactically, as ELF-waves endure for great distances; and it could be used in conjunction with media broadcasts as well.”
The paper basically ends by noting the essential nature of MindWar for minimizing loss of life, etc. It is interesting to think about that which has been followed up with specifically in regards to technology towards MindWar ends since the 1980s AD.