Avatar:Brainwashing
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"There is no war within the walls. Here we are safe. Here we are free."
Brainwashing is the alteration or control of someone's mind through various methods. It can have a variety of effects, ranging from the deletion or adaption of memories up to turning someone into a puppet-like slave.[1][2][3]
When exactly brainwashing was first discovered is unclear. It was already used during the era of Yangchen, though the techniques of the time were imperfect.[2] Centuries later, Long Feng developed a more effective brainwashing technique in order to incapacitate those who opposed him.[4] It was subsequently utilized by the Dai Li during the Conspiracy of Ba Sing Se to maintain cultural order and keep citizens from speaking of the Hundred Year War. The technique allowed the Dai Li to change attitudes, alter beliefs, augment personalities, and erase an individual's memories.[1][3] During the rise of the Earth Empire in 171 AG, Doctor Sheng combined the enhanced indoctrination techniques of the Dai Li with modern technology to create a more permanent way to control people's mind by using magnetic waves to alter their brain.[5]
History
Unanimity project
The first known usage of brainwashing took place as part of the Unanimity project during the era of Yangchen.[2] Having studied numerous ancient and little-known texts as well as conducted hands-on research, the project's overseers and instigators led by Chaisee were aware that brainwashing was possible. However, they were less certain how exactly it functioned. Accordingly, they used the failed recruits of the project, conducting murderous experiments on them in a bunker on the project's training island.[6] Ultimately, they discovered a brainwashing technique with adequate results, and used it on the three primary human weapons of "Unanimity", the combustionbenders Yingsu, Xiaoyun, and Thapa. While the mind control never fully functioned for Yingsu and Xiaoyun, it worked perfectly in Thapa's case.[2]
Months later, the implementation of the Unanimity project was derailed and the combustionbenders were imprisoned by Avatar Yangchen. Chaisee eventually organized a breakout, but Thapa decided to increase his own value by killing Yingsu and Xiaoyun during the escape.[2][7] He subsequently met with Chaisee, declaring that she now had to pay him thirty times his original pay, as he was now the only remaining combustionbender and could offer his services to any world leader. Chaisee disagreed, and triggered his brainwashing by using code words.[2] From this point until his eventual death, Thapa acted as a mindless slave solely focused on his mission.[2][8]
Use by the Dai Li
At some point, the Earth Kingdom's secret police, the Dai Li, began to use brainwashing. One agent of the organization, Long Feng, subsequently perfected the technique, using it widely after rising to leader of the Dai Li and Grand Secretariat of Ba Sing Se.[4] The method was used on all the Cultural Ambassadors so that they could be relied upon to neutralize outside influences in the capital.[9] It was also used to remove memories of certain "special" prisoners, often the loudest citizens or refugees who refused to adapt to Ba Sing Se's rules.[10][11]
In spring 100 AG, Jet was brainwashed after loudly claiming that Iroh and Zuko were secret firebenders.[1] Later, while chiding Team Avatar's downcast Joo Dee for falling behind in her duties, Long Feng induced a hypnotic state over her by reciting a special phrase, indicating that she had been brainwashed in the past. When Team Avatar infiltrated the Dai Li base underneath Lake Laogai, they saw a mass brainwashing session of the Joo Dees.[3]
Later, during a battle in the underground base, Long Feng managed to hypnotize Jet with the same phrase he used on Joo Dee, "the Earth King has invited you to Lake Laogai". This led Jet to respond with "I am honored to accept his invitation", and go on to attack Avatar Aang.[3]
Around the same time, Jin was disturbed to find that her friend, Susu, did not recognize her after taking a contract to work in the Upper Ring. She learned about the Dai Li's brainwashing plot from Smellerbee and Longshot, and resolved to free her friend.[12][11] She and her friends freed many other Joo Dees from the Dai Li base in Lake Laogai, and had General Sung destroy the base with the hopes of setting back the Joo Dee program.[13] She later snuck into the royal palace, where Susu was working as an Administrator.[14] While sitting in a jail cell, Jin managed to help Susu break free of her brainwashing, and got her out of the palace.[15][16]
Doctor Sheng's research
During the rise of Kuvira's Earth Empire, Doctor Sheng began to research more effective methods for reeducating the prisoners Kuvira sent to her reeducation camps, which culminated in the creation of a machine that used magnetic waves to alter a person's brain in a more permanent manner.[5] She and Commander Guan used this technology to influence the gubernatorial elections in the State of Gaoling by forcing the majority of its citizens to support Guan.[17] They also used this technique to turn Mako, Bolin, and Asami into loyal soldiers to be used against Korra,[5] and brainwashed King Wu into using his authority to speed up the election process, ensuring a landslide victory for Guan.[18]
Doctor Sheng and Guan attempted but failed to also brainwash Kuvira, who managed to escape to Zaofu,[5] where she and Baatar Jr. combined forces to create a machine capable of negating the effects of Sheng's magnetic waves. After a final showdown with the remnants of the Earth Empire, this machine was used to counter the brainwashing effects of everyone subjected to Sheng's machine, effectively releasing them from Guan's control.[18]
After Guan was imprisoned, well-meaning, enterprising inventors wanted to research the technology to elucidate if this brainwashing technique had any practical uses in society beyond mass population control. It was also rumored that those brainwashed during the Gaoling Crisis may experience possible unpredictable side effects in the future.[19]
Process
The Dai Li often brought victims to their secret headquarters beneath the surface of Lake Laogai where they would proceed to brainwash them. During the process of brainwashing, agents would repeatedly recite anything they wished for the victims to believe.[3]
When the Dai Li were brainwashing Jet, they used a dimly lit lantern that slowly traveled on a circular rail around the agent brainwashing him while stone cuffs prevented him from moving his arms, legs, or head. The agent repeated phrases to assure Jet he was safe, and that there was no war within the walls.
In the case of brainwashing the Cultural Ambassadors, the women would simultaneously repeat the words of a single agent. The Joo Dees were mentally conditioned to the point that their original personalities and identities were suppressed beneath a carefree, compliant facade. The process could also give the subject a secondary task, to be accomplished after saying the trigger-phrase "The Earth King has invited you to Lake Laogai." Long Feng used this code phrase on both Jet and on Team Avatar's Joo Dee.[3]
With the advancement of technology, Doctor Sheng was able to greatly improve the reliability and permanence of brainwashing, as people subjected to the method of the Dai Li would more often than not return to their normal selves over time. She did so by combining the ancient techniques with modern technology to create a machine capable of altering a person's brainwaves by subjecting them to magnetic waves: the victim would be strapped to a chair, and a metal cap with wires connected to the machine was placed on their head.[5] While subjecting the victim to electromagnetic shocks, the instructor would give them their orders, which could be malicious in nature and instruct them to hurt someone, or benevolent to reverse the effect of the initial brainwashing.[18]
Instructor
One Dai Li agent was specifically assigned as the Cultural Ambassadors' "instructor" by Long Feng, brainwashing them into becoming the Dai Li's reliable propaganda machine. He was responsible for teaching the Joo Dees "charm, poise, and the dissemination of the Dai Li party line." This particular Dai Li agent was assigned this task entirely on account of his smile, which became the "perma-grin" worn by every Joo Dee.[20]
Effects
When brainwashed, people's minds are rewritten into believing anything the brainwasher states or forgetting information the brainwasher wishes to erase from their mind. They will also obey any commands given to them by their handler.
Long Feng was able to activate a subject's secondary task with the code phrase. When this was done, the subject entered a trance state and answered the code with "I am honored to accept his invitation." In Jet's case, the task was to attack Aang. In Joo Dee's case, she was told to wait for specific orders.[3]
Sheng's machine altered its victims brainwaves to the point where they were placed under complete control of the instructor. The electromagnetic pulses used to recalibrate a person's mind do have the side effect that the victim suffers from complete amnesia for the time they have been subjected to the brainwashing technique.[18]
Cures
There are four known methods of curing brainwashing.
Healing
The waterbending technique of healing has been known to be capable of bringing a subject out of their hypnotic state. Jet's brainwashed state was broken when Katara used her healing abilities to help him recall his memories, but he retained the effects of trigger phrases.[3]
Recreation of key memories
Oftentimes, memories such as familiar surroundings are able to slowly regenerate the memory of a brainwashed victim or even completely reverse the effects of brainwashing. Visiting the Dai Li's secret underground base evidently revived Jet's memory of being captured and brought there by Dai Li agents. After a brief duel ensued with Long Feng battling Aang and Jet, Long Feng was able to bring Jet under his control by reciting the code phrase, which prompted Jet to attack Aang. However, when Aang reminded Jet that he was a Freedom Fighter, his brainwashed state was once again broken.[3]
Susu started to have a small amount of doubt about her handlers after Jin tried to save her from the palace.[21] Jin tried to remind her of more and more important memories, and several of them started to flood back to Susu as soon as they shared a meal of egg tarts and roast duck, just as they had previously fantasized about doing in the palace. Susu immediately started to remember knowing Jin, having a baby sister, and started to ask about her grandmother. More and more memories slowly trickled back after this.[15]
Magnetic waves
Modern brainwashing is based on magnetic waves set on a specific frequency to alter the brainwaves of its victim. By reverse engineering the process and figuring out the specific settings used to alter the brainwaves, the brainwashing effect can be lifted by subjecting them to the machine again.[5][18]
Passage of time
The intense form of brainwashing used on the Joo Dees was not perfect, and required recalibration every month. Some memories had naturally returned to the Joo Dees left in the Lake Laogai base after the coup of Ba Sing Se.[13][22]
Known victims
By the Unanimity project
By the Dai Li
- Cultural Ambassadors
- "Special" prisoners
By the Earth Empire
- Asami Sato
- Bolin
- Mako
- Royal Earthbender Guards
- Voters during the election for governor in Gaoling[17]
- Wu
Trivia
- Doctor Sheng's method to control people is similar to the technology used in transcranial magnetic stimulation therapy in the field of neuropsychiatry, which similarly uses electromagnetic waves to manipulate the neural pathways of a human brain.
References
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