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So, this is my 800th post! I saw that I got to this point and thought that I might as well utilize it for something I considered doing. I'll see how this works and act accordingly in the future.

My reason for doing this is that I sometimes randomly come up with a topic that I want to ramble - and discuss - about. I tried writing the ramblings as status updates, but it didn't produce any discussion. Perhaps here it'll end up similarly. Perhaps I should try writing shorter posts, or try something else, like a YouTube channel or a blog. Anyway, without further ado, let's start talking about the actual topic.

I came out with this topic after realizing that a relatively surprising amount of fictional works I touched lately - be it books (mostly) or a TV series (just this one, when I come to think of it... but I wanted to include it) - included some kind of manipulation that might be awfully close to mind control. I thought of sorting the types of manipulation on a scale from most forceful to most subtle. So, let's begin.

Spoiler alerts: first paragraph - extremely minor Animorphs, some InterWorld near the end. Second through forth paragraph - the Conch Bearer. Near the end of the forth paragraph - Divergent. Fifth paragraph - references to the Owl House, Mistborn and Inception.

First and foremost (and not much spoilery, I'm glad to say): the most forceful method of mind control I can currently think of is the Yeerks from the book series Animorphs (K. A. Applegate). Those are slug-like sapient alien parasites that enter the head of other sapient beings through the ear canals (yeah, it doesn't really work. Ignore it for the moment), and take control of their bodies by detaching the nervous system from the brain and attaching it to themselves. In addition, they wrap the whole brain and can read the mind of the victim at will. The victims themselves are prisoners in their own mind, unable to do anything but scream inside their heads. In this method, the Controller basically pushes the controlled aside. Technically, it can't be called mind control, since the mind is still intact; yet, I think it deserves a mention here. It should be mentioned that there were occasions, throughout the series, that a controlled person regained some control of his/her body, but it happens rarely and isn't referred to as much of an option. In addition, the heroes of the series, who have the power to acquire and morph any living creature with a DNA, sometimes consider morphing into sapient beings as mind control, which is basically just as forceful. I, personally, disagree with their point, but I digress. A method just as forceful, though enacted differently, is present in the book InterWorld (Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves), when Lady Indigo bewitches people to follow her every order. This method basically pushes the original personality to the corner and places instead an infinitely loyal to the witch personality. Thus, I believe it belongs to the same class as the Yeerks: forceful personality repression, or FPR (acronyms!).

If the most forceful method was overpowering the existing personality, the next one will be having a different personality in your head that don't necessarily overpower the existing one; namely, the method used in the Conch Bearer (Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni).

Now, it's been a while since I've read this book, so please forgive me if I misremember a thing or two. I was randomly reminded of it lately, and considering the fact that this kind of manipulation appeared there, I think it deserves a mention. 

In the book, the antagonist, Surbhanu, gets to have a few moments alone with the protagonists, Anand and Nisha, and as he says later in the book, builds a nest inside their minds. He tries to use it on Anand to trick him into killing his mentor, Abhaydatta, but Anand succeeds to overpower him and throw him out, with some help from the titular Conch (IIRC). Nisha, though, serves Surbhanu - up until he harms her pet, which actually was Abhaydatta all along... But never mind that. As it seems to me, this type of manipulation consists of putting a representation of the controller in the controlled mind, and suggesting actions from there - perhaps by simulating situations that'll cause the controlled to act the way you wish him/her to. Kind of reminds me of Divergent (Veronica Roth) and the way I assume the simulations worked there, though this method is probably more subtle. This'd be forceful suggestive alteration, or FSA, I guess. I'm writing it all messy, in case someone bothers reading this far and comment - help'd be appreciated.

And, you know what? I'll stop here, for now. I intend to talk about a couple of other thing, like memory alteration (which I believe was used in the recent episode of the Owl House), emotional manipulation (allomancy, which I see as relatively forceful, though Breeze uses it with amazing subtlety) and subconscious suggestion (hypnosis, plus inseption from the film Inception) and perhaps some other stuff that I might think of later. If you can think of a book/movie/TV series that touches this topic - feel free to mention it. Perhaps you'd better write inside spoilers in such cases - I don't have the willpower to do it here.

Sorry if it's a little messy. I'm not completely concentrated on this while typing, so that might explain that. Maybe I'll do better another day.

Thank you for reading! Hope you enjoyed it (at least a little)!

Happy Equinox! (I don't celebrate it, not do I know of anyone who does, but it still is a special occasion!)

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I don't know that any stories actually dive into the social ramifications of mind control. Like there are a lot of things that could go wrong if it was even remotly possible, and there are a lot of precautions that would be taken but most stories seem to just ignore it.

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9 hours ago, Frustration said:

I don't know that any stories actually dive into the social ramifications of mind control. Like there are a lot of things that could go wrong if it was even remotly possible, and there are a lot of precautions that would be taken but most stories seem to just ignore it.

Care to elaborate? I can try to figure out your meaning, but I'm not sure that I quite understand.

7 hours ago, Oltux72 said:
  Reveal hidden contents

That is what Jessica Jones in the MCU is all about.

(Futurama)

  Reveal hidden contents

Brainslugs and the Hypnotoad

 

I didn't watch any of those shows and still read the spoilers... Well, that's completely my issue. I might watch the first one, though. From the sound of it, the second is similar to what I called FPR in the OP.

Spoiler alert: Inheritance Cycle and Archer's Goon (both relatively minor), some Owl House, Mistborn and Inception mentions. Nothing all too elaborate.

Now, to somewhat continue what I started in the OP (though I'll try making it shorter): we have a couple of directly invasive methods. The first of which immediately overpowers the will of the patient, which is kind of weird. The second is more subtly manipulative - probably because it's a little weaker. There's another method that should be added to the first category, that is just as forceful yet less powerful: pitting will against will. It's exemplified in the Inheritance Cycle - wizards' duels there basically work like that, IIRC - and in Archer's Goon, where it's described as mental arm-wrestling. 

Now, I just want to mention: for every forceful method, there could be ways to use it more slyly and subtly. Surprisingly, it's true for pitting will against will; if the patient has no idea what you're doing, it might very well feel like it's you thinking that. Actually, as far as I know, every inner debate I had was with a malicious entity external to me that's trying to control my actions. Oh, well.

Anyway, I think memory alteration can be something of a middle ground - not all too subtle, but not too forceful and not necessarily directly invasive. The more subtle methods are also somewhat less effective - it's hard to completely control one's actions without applying raw force. They mainly consist of subconscious planting - hypnosis is one of the more forceful ones, idea planting from Inception is the more subtle. Soothing and Rioting can be somewhat in the middle ground, too, like memory alteration, but the way Breeze uses it it's far more subtle than hypnosis. I might've missed a few methods, and though I wanted to orderly classify them I'm not sure that I can right now. Anyway, that's it for now, thank you for reading.

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5 hours ago, Trutharchivist said:

Care to elaborate? I can try to figure out your meaning, but I'm not sure that I quite understand.

If mind control is a thing how are you able to trust anyone, ever.

Gpvernments would spend trillions just trying to find a way to ptrvent it. 

It would vause the most totalitarian states to bevome more tyrannical, etc.

If it was just one person who could do it they would likely be executed before they could cause any harm.

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23 hours ago, Frustration said:

If mind control is a thing how are you able to trust anyone, ever.

Governments would spend trillions just trying to find a way to prevent it. 

It would cause the most totalitarian states to become more tyrannical, etc.

If it was just one person who could do it they would likely be executed before they could cause any harm.

You could say that public reaction in Scadrial to Soothing and Rioting partly covers that, I think. Though not all. Some of the books I mentioned ignore it with the excuse that most people don't know about that - though in Animorphs some of those issues are faced. The heroes can trust no one, for example. Weirdly (spoiler alert for the last book in this series)

Spoiler

Visser One doesn't seem to be accused of depriving people of their free will. I guess that the reason for that is that Earth doesn't have rules against that, since we assume it's impossible, but still. This should've become a crime.

I guess, though, that I don't really know of any book that deals with a whole world that has to knowingly deal with such abilities.

I'm sorry for my belated and not very complete response. Truth is, I just randomly started a thread on this subject, even though it's my worst fear and I pretty much literally had panic attacks because of one of the series I mentioned when I was in elementary school.

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