MarijuanaNews.com : Hypnosis and “Reefer Madness” From the book Mind Control in America

From the book Mind Control in America by Steve
Jacobson
1985 Critique Publishing, P,O, Box 11451, Santa Rosa, California, 95406

(MarijuanaNews note: Unfortunately, neither Amazon.com nor BarnesandNoble.com
show the book to be available.)

“The exact contrary of what is general ly believed is often the truth.”
(Jean de La Bruyere (1645-1696)

Chapter 6. Hypnosis and “Reefer Madness” pp. 11-14.

The power of hypnosis is the power of suggestion. The power of suggestion is the power of
belief. It is an act of faith. The conscious mind cannot be controlled by the suggestions
of someone else when those suggestions are contrary to what you know from your own
experience. But the subconscious mind is susceptible to control by suggestion. (35) The
subconscious mind has absolute control of the functions, conditions, and sensations of the
body. Perfect anesthesia can be produced by suggestion. Hundreds of cases are recorded
where surgical operations have been performed without pain to patients under hypnosis.
Symptoms of almost any disease can be induced in hypnotic subjects by suggestions. Partial
or total paralysis can be produced; fever can be brought on, with all the attendant
symptoms such as rapid pulse and high temperature. (36)

In 1936, a movie used hypnotic suggestion to give the audience
instructions to do something. That movie was “Reefer Madness.” Shown widely on
college campuses and at midnight screenings across the country since 1972, “Reefer
Madness” uses sophisticated hypnotic techniques to both encourage marijuana use
and promote anti-marijuana use and promote anti-marijuana legislation.
(MarijuanaNews note: Much of the anti-marijuana
prohibitionist propaganda is counterproductive, in that it seems to encourage marijuana
use, and then the use of hard drugs.

See
An
Excellent Critique of DARE and “Drug Education” Misses One Key Point: Lying
About Marijuana Is Both Their Purpose and Their Undoing

If this had not been so well demonstrated for so long one might think that this was
unintended. However, the people behind these campaigns are – to use a word that they
like – very sophisticated. The objective is to make the substance abuse problems
worse so the public will be frightened into giving up their freedom. That is one of the
oldest games that tyrants play.)
Speaking to a PTA meeting, high school principal Dr. Carroll commands parents to stamp out
this “assassin of our youth”–marijuana. When Dr. Carroll begins to speak, he
raises a sheet of paper in front of him and reads certain “facts” from it. The
white sheet of paper prominent in the middle of the screen is a distraction for the eyes
to cause that state of
mind that is just like “day dreaming” while information is programmed to the
audience verbally. Dr. James Braid discovered that by placing a bright object before the
eyes of the subject, and causing him to gaze upon it with persistent attention, he could
be led into the hynotic state of mind. (37)

Dr. Carroll delivers his lines with a hypnotic rhythm that is punctuated by
changes in pacing, volume and tone (just like a hypnotist). Dr. Carroll speaks with
authority. This happens to be a technique used in hypnosis.

Authoritarian techniques, sometimes called paternal techniques, use a strong, commanding,
dominating approach. (38) Dr. Carroll looks into the camera and into the eyes of the
audience–another hypnotic technique. Picture yourself in a movie theatre, now imagine a
huge face on the screen staring at you.

Other hypnotic techniques used in “Reefer Madness” include two-frame flashes in
different places in the movie. These flash frames produce a corresponding wave in the
brain. These flash frames “anchor” information from the sound track to your
mind. These flash frames add emphasis to information on the sound track, making that
information more important.

Dr. Carroll slams his fist on the desk frequently to emphasize a point.

This sudden burst of sound “anchors” information to your mind. The added sound
cue makes the information important. There is even a scene with a swinging hypnotic
pendulum!

The stated intent of Reefer Madness “was to stamp out the
menace of marijuana because it leads to “acts of shocking violence, ending often in
incurable insanity.” In contrast, young people are shown having a good time smoking
marijuana, partying, dancing, kissing and retreating to the bedroom. By showing young
people having a good time smoking marijuana, Reefer Madness encourages young people to at
least try it. By confusing
marijuana with heroin and by telling the story of normal kids going berserk because of
marijuana, “Reefer Madness” scares older people into demanding that something be
done.

Why are there conflicting messages in the movie?

Why was hypnosis used in this movie and with such a high level of
sophistication? The answers are within the movie.

“You government men have got to find some way to put an end to it,” demands Dr.
Carroll. The government man replies: “Of course, I agree with you Dr. Carroll. But do
you realize that marihuana is not like other forms of DOPE. You see, it grows wild in
almost every state of the union.

Therefore, there is practically no inter-state commerce in
the drug. As a result, the government’s hands are tied. And frankly, the only sure cure is
a wide-spread campaign in education.” Some words trigger strong emotional responses
in people. The word DOPE is one of them. This word is emphasized on the sound track.
Though we are told that marijuana is not like other forms of “dope,” the
association is established.

Harry Anslinger was the first U.S. Commissioner of Narcotics, a position he held for 32
years; and was U.S. Representative on the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs. In
his book “The Murderers,” he wrote about his campaign against marijuana:
“By 1937, under my direction, the bureau launched two important steps: first, a
legislative plan to seek from Congress a new law that would place marihuana and its
distribution directly
under federal control. Secondly, on radio and at major forums…I told of this evil weed
of the fields and riverbeds and roadsides. I wrote articles for magazines; our agents gave
hundreds of lectures to parents, educators, social and civic leaders. In network
broadcasts I reported on the growing list of crime, including murder and rape.”

One of the articles Harry Anslinger wrote appeared in the July 1937 issue of “The
American Magazine” titled “Marihuana–Assassin of Youth.” There are
striking similarities between the content of this article and the content of the movie
Reefer Madness. For example, from the article: “In 1931, the marijuana file of the
United States Narcotic Bureau was less than two inches thick, while today the reports
crowd many large cabinets.” Now compare this to what appeared in the movie. Dr.
Carroll is with the government man who says: “Let me show you something. In 1930, the
records on marijuana in the Washington office of the Narcotics Division scarcely filled a
small folder like this (less than two inches thick). Today, they fill cabinets.” The
camera shows us a wall lined with file cabinets.

In the book “Outsiders,” Howard S. Becker describes how the Federal
Bureau of Narcotics under Harry Anslinger created the marijuana problem to cause the
public to demand legislation. (39)

A bill giving the federal government control over marijuana was introduced in
Congress by representative Robert L. Doughton of North Carolina, Chairman of the House
Ways and Means Committee. (40) On August 2, 1937, Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed int law
the Marijuana Tax Act, which became effective on
October 1, 1937. (41)

The purpose of propaganda is to direct public attention to certain “facts.”

“The whole art consists in doing this so skillfully that everyone will be
convinced that the fact is real,” writes Adolf Hitler in “Mein Kampf.” He
describes the principles of effective propaganda: it must repeat those points over and
over again until the public believes it. To be effective, propaganda must constantly
short-circuit all thought and decision. It must operate on the individual subconsciously.
(42) The principles behind “The Big Lie” of propaganda are the same principles
of mind control, hypnotic suggestion, mental programming: distraction and repetition. With
propaganda, distraction draws attention away from information that is true and directs
attention to information that is false. Repetition of the false information imbeds it in
your subconscious mind so that your
acceptance of its truth becomes a conditioned response. You accept this information as
true without thinking whenever it is presented to you again.

There is a vast amount of misinformation about marijuana, much of it
originating in the 1930’s with the so-called “educational campaign,” of the
Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Propaganda is not only meant to influence opinions and
attitudes but also to cause action. Government propaganda “suggests’ that public
opinion demands what the government has already decided to do. (43) The official reasons
given by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics for its opposition to the use of marijuana
shifted completely during 1949-1950 from the claim that use of marijuana led to crime and
violence to the claim that marijuana use led to heroin use. (44) When questioned by
Congressman John Dingell of Michigan during testimony before the House Ways and Means
Committee whether “the marijuana addict graduates into a heroin, an opium, or a
cocaine user,” Commissioner Anslinger replied: “No, Sir; I have not heard of a
case of that kind.” (45)

However, in 1955, Anslinger appeared before a Senate subcommittee investigating the
traffic in illicit drugs and testified that marijuana leads to heroin addiction. (46)

During Congressional hearings in 1937, Dr. C. W. Woodward, Legislative Counsel for the
American Medical Association, pointed out that there was no competent primary evidence to
support the claims against marijuana, only newspaper accounts about growing marijuana
addiction and that marijuana causes crime. (47).

These “news” accounts were “planted” by the Federal Bureau
of Narcotics. Of seventeen articles condemning marijuana that appeared in popular
magazines from July 1937 to June 1939, ten either acknowledged the help of the Bureau in
furnishing facts and figures or gave evidence of having received help by using facts and
figures that had appeared in Bureau publications or in testimony given during
Congressional hearings. An indication of the Bureau’s influence in these articles is found
in repeated “atrocity” stories that were first reported by the Bureau. (48)
These same stories appeared in “Reefer Madness.”
See

href=”http://marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=76″>The Editors Of The Washington Post Should Read
This Book Review. Well, Obviously They Have, But Just Didn’t Understand It. The
Context For Marijuana Prohibition.
and

href=”http://marijuananews.com/marijuananews/cowan/a_culture_is_not_healthy_when_it.htm”>”A
culture is not healthy when it is built upon a foundation of lies
and when it then preserves itself by systematically punishing the expression of truths
that all can see but are afraid to acknowledge.”

Footnotes
35. Thomsom Jay Hudson, Ph.D., LL.D., “The Law of Psychic Phenomena, (New
York: Samuel Weiser, 1968), p.30.
36. Ibid., pp. 151-152.
37. Ibid., p. 87.
38. Harry Arons, “The New Master Course In Hypnotism,” (Irvington, New
Jersey: Powers Publishers, 1961), p.31.
39. Howard S. Becker, “Outsiders,” (New York: The Free Press, 1963),
pp. 135-146.
40. “Marihuana: New Federal Tax Hits Dealings in Potent Weed,” Newsweek,
August 14, 1937, Science Section.
41. Lester Grinspoon, M.D., “Marihuana Reconsidered,”
(Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1971), p. 26.
42. Jacques Ellul, “Propaganda: the Formation of Men’s Attitudes,”
Translated by Konrad Kellen and Jean Lerner, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
1965), p. 27.
43. Ibid., p. 132.
44. Grinspoon, “Marihuana Reconsidered,” p. 301.
45. Ibid., p. 236.
46. Ibid., p. 241.
47. Ibid., p. 24.
48. Becker, “Outsiders,” pp. 141-142.