Embedded Commands
Even though the Milgram experiment on Obedience and Individual Responsibility showed that humans possess the capacity to relinquish their autonomy, people find it difficult to accept that individuals can be hypnotized to perform an act which is against their moral principles. U.S. Army experiments suggest that this popular perception is untrue. On the contrary they concluded that people could be induced to commit acts contrary to their morality if their reality was distorted by hypnotic state control. One of the experiments involved trying to manipulate a normal, stable army private to attack a superior officer, a cardinal sin in the military. While in deep trance he was told that the officer sitting across from him was an enemy soldier who was going to attempt to kill him. In the private's mind, it was a "kill or be killed" situation. The private immediately jumped up and grabbed the officer by the throat. The experiment was repeated several times. Department of Psychology chairman at Colgate University, Dr. Estabrooks, one of the most authoritative sources stirring up fear of mind-controlled sixth columnists in wartime USA stated, "I can hypnotize a man without his knowledge or consent into committing treason".