Читать книгу Mind Manipulation - Dr. Haha Lung - Страница 6
Оглавление“Ethereal and subtle, the master strategist passes by without leaving a trace. Mysterious, like the way of Heaven, he passes by without a sound. In this way master an enemy’s fate.”
—Sun Tzu
Of all the various cadres down through history to use mind manipulation as a weapon, hands down the most adept were the ninja of Japan.
Drawing on ancient texts and tactics from East Indian strategists and Chinese spies, medieval Japanese ninja further refined these techniques of mind manipulation before passing them down to us today.
THE ASIAN MIND
Experts disagree as to when and where the craft of Japanese ninjutsu (art of the ninja) actually began.
It is known that many Japanese ninja practices, including their mind-manipulation tactics and techniques, can be found with the mysterious Thuggee cult of India.1
Ancient India, the “mother” of civilization, produced many classics of military strategy, most of which contained at least passing reference to the importance of discerning—and then destroying—an enemy’s mind-set. For example, the ancient Hindu text Arthasastra contained advice on the art of espionage and mind manipulation, as did the writings of Indian strategist Kautilya.
Other portions of Japanese ninja strategy can be traced back to ancient China’s Warring States Period (453-221 BCE) when ruthless rival princes routinely employed subterfuge, spies, and mind manipulation to further their ambitions.
It was during this tumultuous period that the greatest of Asian strategists Sun Tzu wrote his Ping Fa (Art of War).
Sun Tzu’s treatise is one of the first military books to carry a chapter devoted specifically to the use of secret agents. This masterpiece covers all aspects of warfare and includes extensive comments on how to gain insights into the strengths and weaknesses of an enemy’s mind and how to wield those revelations during psychological warfare.
Sun Tzu understood that discerning the mind-set and motivations of an enemy was the first step in overcoming that enemy:
“Know the enemy and know yourself and in a hundred battles you will never be in danger.”
So insightful were Sun Tzu’s observations that Art ofWar is more popular today than ever and has been applied to a wide variety of fields, not the least of which are Asian politics and finance.
China’s Warring States Period also saw the emergence of several groups of specialized secret agents and assassins, the most feared of which were magician-like spies known as moshuh nanren (often referred to in hindsight as “the ninja of China”).
Moshuh nanren were masters of espionage, assassination, and mind manipulation.
For example, moshuh nanren purposely cultivated an atmosphere of superstition and fear around themselves and their skullduggery. They did this through use of intimidation—their enemies disappearing in the middle of the night or found dead from the dim-mak (death touch) without any marks on them—and through encouraging the belief that moshuh nanren were descended from mythical lin kuei (forest demons).
Centuries later, Japanese ninja would use this same tactic, encouraging the belief that they were descended from mythical tengu demons.
Sun Tzu’s Art ofWar was first “officially” introduced into Japan in the 8th century CE.
However, many moshuh nanren espionage techniques filtered into Japan between the 1st and 5th centuries, a period that saw a large influx of Chinese Buddhists into Japan. Undoubtedly, Sun Tzu’s Art ofWar came along for the ride.
In addition to Sun Tzu, early Japanese strategists may have also studied other notable Chinese writers, for example Wu Ch’i (430-381 BCE):
“One man willing to throw away his life is enough to terrorize a thousand.”
Another influential Chinese strategist was Tu Mu (803-852 CE), who wrote extensively on the proper recruitment and employment of spies and double agents, especially individuals gleaned from an enemy’s own country. Tu Mu’s keen insight into the workings of the human mind detailed various ways disgruntled and disaffected individuals could be seduced into becoming traitors and double agents.
We can only speculate to what degree each of these Chinese, and to a lesser extent East Indian strategists, had on the development of the mind-manipulation tactics and techniques of medieval Japanese ninja. We do know for certain that, in short order, the ninja of Japan become quite adept at employing a myriad of mind-manipulation strategies, most of which remain valid today.
THE NINJA MIND
“A keen insight into human psychology and predictability has always proven the ninja’s greatest weapon. This remains true today.”
—Dirk Skinner
Japanese “ninja” techniques did not come into their own until the 6th century when Prince Shotoku, contestant for the imperial throne, recruited a yamabushi (mountain warrior-monk) by the name of Otomo-No-Saijin as a spy.
Where Otomo acquired his espionage skills and insight into human nature is not known. What is known is that Otomo was certainly adept at his craft, and instrumental in helping Shotoku outthink his enemies. Otomo’s alias was Shinobi (one who sneaks in). The word ninja comes from the Japanese written character for shinobi and refers generically to anyone who uses stealth and subterfuge techniques (e.g. mind-manipulation) to accomplish his goals.
Over the next few centuries, Japanese techniques of espionage, subterfuge, and psychological warfare continued to be refined. In the 14th century, Japan was ripped end-to-end by savage internecine warfare between rival samurai clans. The savagery of this period stimulated an increase in “ninja” activity, as “ninja” criminal bands took advantage of the chaos to rob and plunder, and every freelance “ninja” spy peddled information on opposing forces. Any act of savagery or subterfuge occurring during this time was attributed to “ninja,” a catchall term not indicative of the later great organized ninja clans. However, the 14th century did see the scattering of seeds that would eventually grow into true ninja clans in central Japan.
Eventually more than 50 shinobi-ninja clans—including the powerful Hattori, the Momochis and the Fijibayashis—would forge an almost autonomous state in the central provinces of Iga and Koga.
Insulated by dense forests, these shinobi-ninja perfected their stealth and intelligence-gathering craft, their martial arts, and, most importantly, their satsujin-jutsu (insights into the minds of men), both their own and that of potential enemies. As they grew more powerful, many of these shinobi clans were content to be left to themselves.
Other ninja clans, however, openly defied and actively warred against local daimyo (samurai overlords). More often than not they played one samurai clan against the other. This was sound ninja strategy. The more the daimyo warred amongst themselves—thinning their samurai ranks—the less manpower they had on hand to devote to hunting down ninja.
In the mid-1500s, Shogun Oda Nobunago and his two generals, Ieyasu Tokugawa and Hideyoshi Toyotomi launched a campaign to wipe out defiant ninja clans in central Japan. In his zeal, Nobunago drew no distinction between defiant ninja clans and those shinobi folk merely wanting to be left to themselves. This indiscriminate slaughter by Nobunago alienated many of the shinobi clans that might have otherwise not actively warred against him.
In November 1581, Nobunago’s army invaded Iga province in force, decimating the shinobi clans. Those shinobi escaping immediate death during the intense fighting were hunted down and killed. A few clan leaders had read the writing on the wall and had made contingency plans for their people to escape to other parts of Japan, many to Kii province where still-defiant Buddhists had set up an enclave.
Not long after his invasion of Iga, Nobunago was assassinated by one of his own men, the Daimyo Akechi. Some say Akechi, a devout Buddhist, had simply had enough of Nobunago’s persecution of peaceful Buddhists. Others whispered that the daimyo had fallen under the spell of ninja mind-masters.
Following the death of Nobunago, his general Hideyoshi Toyotomi seized power.
By 1590, Toyotomi, a commoner, had succeeded where all the emperors, shoguns, and daimyo before him hadn’t, uniting the whole of Japan under his banner. Toyotomi began his rise to power as a juvenile henchman for a group of ruthless “ninja” highwaymen. From there, he manipulated his way into Nobunago’s confidence; first as a valuable spy, then as an accomplished strategist, and eventually co-commander of Nobunago’s forces.
Not surprisingly, the whispers were that “the ninja” Toyotomi had engineered Nobunago’s death.
How ironic that Toyotomi, a man who owed his rise to ultimate power to ninja mind-manipulation tactics and techniques, would be the same man who would spell the beginning of the end of the great ninja clans.
Just as warring between rival samurai clans in the 14th century helped foster the development of ninjutsu, conversely Toyotomi’s unification of Japan—and the resultant end to internecine fighting between lesser samurai lords—heralded the decline of overt ninja rebellion.
The emergence of a strong central government authority that local daimyo could call on for assistance against defiant clans helped spur the development of more covert methods of ninja craft, particularly in areas of mind manipulation.
As government, military, and law-enforcement became more centralized, most of the smaller, purely criminal “ninja” gangs dispersed. Others however remained defiant, forming larger criminal leagues and helping foster the emergence of the yakuza, Japan’s version of the Mafia.
Ironically, still other ninja became policemen or became operatives for the centralized military’s intelligence network. These converted operatives lent their ninja expertise (especially mind-manipulation techniques) to the creation of the Japanese military’s feared Kenpeitai (Thought Control Bureau) and to the national Tokko (Thought Police). Established in 1911 to suppress left-wing movements in Japan, the Tokko’s power continued to expand up through World War II when it specialized in enforcing thought-control policies of the pre-World War II militarist regime.
In the 17th century, the proper Tokugawa regime that succeeded Toyotomi’s reign made it a capital offense to even say the word “ninja” since merely acknowledging the existence of such rogues challenged the very nature of rigid Japanese social structure. In their enemies’ eyes, ninja had no honor because they used every manner of skullduggery to accomplish their goals. Where samurai fought face-to-face, adhering to the strict ideal of bushido chivalry, ninja were bound by no such rules of engagement, preferring instead to strike from behind or from afar.
What frightened proper Japanese society in general, and pretentious samurai in particular, was that ninja did not stop at unconventional physical warfare. Ninja also used psychological attacks, targeting their enemy where that enemy was most vulnerable and least able to defend themselves—through their secret lusts, inner fears, and superstitions.
More insidious still, you never knew when a wily ninja mind manipulator might succeed in “overshadowing” your brother, your wife, even your priest—any one of whom could slip a dirk into your back or poison into your cup while under the control of an accomplished ninja mind-wizard!
Progressing through the nine training halls of ninjutsu craft, students are quick to learn that for every one physical way to attack an enemy, there are 10 ways to attack his mind.
The Nine Training Halls
Each of the traditional Nine Halls of Ninjutsu contains a distinct field of training. While complete in and of themselves, by necessity each training hall compliments the other eight.
Ninja students are first given an overall course of training to familiarize them with all nine training halls. Students showing aptitude in a particular hall of study are then encouraged to specialize in that hall. In general, this nine halls regimen progresses from purely physical skills toward more mental skills, and culminates in the development of mental strategies and tactics designed to defeat a ninja’s enemies without the danger of physical confrontation.
Even when the course of study appears to be purely physical in nature however, underlying the physical lesson is a valuable psychological principle to be mastered.
A brief overview of the nine halls:
Unarmed Combat
Teaches the student various systems of unarmed martial arts. Yet even this purely physical level of training contains a vital mental component. That is, hall instructors at this level are careful to note any psychological impediments or flaws in temperament in their students that might interfere with that student’s mastery of physical skills.
Combat with Wooden Weapons
Allows the ninja student to augment his unarmed combat skills with natural wooden weapons provided by his environment, such as the bo-staff, jo-fighting sticks, or nunchaku.
Combat with Bladed Weapons
Familiarizes the student with a wide variety of bladed weapons, such as swords, knives, kama-sickles, and shuriken throwing stars.
Combat with Flexible Weapons
Introduces students to weapons such as chains, ropes, and even the innocuous scarf. Psychologically, at this level students learn that most valuable of lessons: Flexible weapons and tactics often succeed where more rigid tactics fail.
Specialized Combat Training
Requires the student to integrate the weapons and tactics learned in the four preceding halls with the use of specially-crafted shinobi devices and tactics. Note: Most ninjutsu schools draw a distinction between the first five halls, viewed as primarily physical in nature, and the following four, which emphasize mental acuity.
The Art of Disguise
Requires a study of physical make-up (wigs, prosthetics, dress, etc.) as well as other skills designed to allow the ninja to insert themselves into various roles. More than any other, this hall of study demands that students understand the psychology of others (such as their mind-set and cultural and religious traditions) in order to successfully perfect their role-playing.
The Art of Espionage
This hall first concerns itself with gathering intelligence and insight into the movements and motivation of foes. Ninja then use this information to devise a strategy for removing any obstacles blocking the ninja’s objectives.
The traditional ninja way of thinking is that human obstacles can be overcome either through education or assassination. Despite their bloodthirsty reputation, shinobi-ninja always preferred “educating” an enemy (through the use of mental manipulation) rather than having to resort to physical methods of removing that enemy.
The Art of Escape and Evasion
Teaches the student taisavaki avoidance techniques ranging from physical skills (camouflage, locksmithing, escapology, etc.), to mind-manipulation ploys designed to help the ninja escape detection by clouding an enemy’s mind.
The Art of Mysticism
Teaches students a myriad of concentration and mediation techniques designed to focus and strengthen the student’s mind.
Advanced students are then taught techniques of mind manipulation (for example, evoking a foe’s emotions, the use of subliminal suggestion, or hypnotism) designed to give ninja an edge against foes.
Attacking an enemy’s mind is known as saimen-jutsu (storming the mind-gate. )
STORMING THE MIND-GATE
“Your greatest weapon is in your enemy’s mind.”
—Buddha
Ninja compared attacking another’s mind to invading an enemy fortress, literally overwhelming their mental defenses (either through direct attack or through entering by stealth). Other accomplished mind masters have used the metaphor of “The City of Nine Gates” when speaking of the mental vulnerabilities of the body.
These “nine gates” are the nine bodily openings (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, urethra, and anus) through which we interact with the world (that is, how we receive information, express ourselves, experience pleasure, etc.).
A foe can thus be overcome by breaching one of these gates. For example, false gossip and propaganda attacks his ear gate; a sexual ploy can be used to attack his (urethra) sex gate.2
Ninja mind-manipulation experts employed a two-step strategy when attacking the mind of an enemy—first discerning and discovering, then distorting and destroying.
Step 1: Discerning an enemy’s mind-set (overall attitude toward life, personal beliefs, etc.) and then discovering the inherent weaknesses they carry through the use of satsujin-jutsu allows us to prepare a mind strategy for invading a foe’s mind castle.3
Step 2: After discerning an enemy’s mind-set and discovering his inherent weaknesses, we then set about distorting our enemy’s version of reality, figuratively and literally destroying his trust in the world and his confidence in himself.
Techniques designed to distort an enemy’s view of the world around him (destroying his trust of others, undermining his self-confidence, etc.) are collectively known as kiai-shin-jutsu (shouting into another’s mind).
Satsujin-Jutsu
In order to gain insight into another’s mind (indeed, into our own minds) we must examine two factors:
First, we must explore the role nature (genetics, gender, the time and circumstance of our birth) plays in our overall make-up.
Second, we must examine the nurture factors in our lives (such as our birth order, our family relationships, and childhood trauma).
Master manipulators—from medieval ninja to modern cult leaders—are adroit at discerning and then distorting the part nature and nurture play in the overall make-up of their victims. Ninja sennin (mind masters) adopted mind-manipulation tactics from a variety of sources in addition to developing many unique mind-bending techniques of their own, each of which will be discussed at length later in this book.
However, at this point, a brief introduction to these tactics and techniques is in order:
Jujushin
A concept shinobi sennin adapted from Shingon Buddhism. Jujushin identifies “10 minds,” 10 levels of understanding and functioning into which human beings can be categorized.
Discerning the jujushin level at which another person is operating at any given time gives us great insight into the mind and motivations of that person.
Ekkyo
These are divination methods that allow us to determine a victim’s birth order and examine his interactions with others, especially close relatives. This allows us to attack an enemy by psychologically “cutting at the edges” of his world, that is,undermining his confidence by eroding his comfort zone.
Junishi-Do-Jutsu
Employs the ancient art of Chinese astrology to determine a person’s overall temperament as well as his weakest time of the day, when he is most susceptible to physical attack and mental manipulation.
Having discerned an individual’s overall modus operandi, having discovered his innate weaknesses, ninja sennin then deployed a variety of kiai-shin-jutsu tactics and techniques designed to distort the victim’s world and eventually destroy him.
Kiai-Shin-Jutsu
Kiai-shin-jutsu tactics and techniques directly attack the intended victim psychologically by “shouting” into his mind. Examples include:
In-Yo-Jutsu
These tactics are designed to unbalance an opponent, to sow doubt and distrust in his mind.
In-yo is the Japanese version of the Taoist concept of yin-yang (balance). The theory behind all in-yo tactics is to throw an opponent off balance by making him doubt himself and distrust others and to pull him from a sure-footed black-and-white way of looking at the world into a slippery-slope “gray area” where his trust in others and confidence in self begin to falter and flag.
Amettori-Jutsu (A Man of Straw)
Encompasses all tactics and techniques of deception. The name comes from the ploy of dressing up a scarecrow to make an enemy think it is a real sentry or soldier.
Gojo-Goyoku (Five Element Theory)
This was derived from the Chinese pseudo-science of wu-hsing, which teaches that all reality (including actions and attitudes) is composed of five basic forces: earth, air, fire, water, and void. In all things and all times, one of these elements is dominant. Each element has a corresponding element in opposition to it. When gojo-goyoku is specifically applied to emotions it is referred to as The Five Weaknesses or The Five Feelings.
Jomon-Jutsu
Consists of the use of special words and phrases designed to affect an individual’s emotional stability, such as words evoking fear, lust, or patriotism.
Yugen-Shin-Jutsu (Mysterious Mind)
Uses various methods of hypnotism and subliminal suggestion to influence and control the minds of others.
Kyonin-No-Jutsu
Plays upon a person’s superstitions, ranging from his belief in voodoo to believing that getting caught out in the rain causes illness.
ENDNOTES
1
Lung, Haha. The Ancient Art of Strangulation. Boulder, Colorado: Paladin Press, 1995.
2
Lung, Haha. Assassin! Secrets of the Cult of Assassins. Boulder, Colorado: Paladin Press, 1997.
3
If you think of yourself as a castle, the physical walls are your actual body and its innermost locked and guarded rooms are your mind. The gates, windows, and other openings allow others to spy on what is going on inside the castle and to enter that stronghold by stealth.
