Brainwashing is more common than you think.There is brainwashing in politics, in marketing and even in all non-islam religions.There is brainwashing in science too, especially in modern physics but very little in classical/newtonian physics. However, there is no brainwashing in logic, common sense, islam and nature.
Its hard to have a wrong belief without brainwashing. Once the brainwashing is removed, its like sun shining when clouds go away, the person can see the matter in clear and then is very likely to discard the wrong believes and accept the right believes.
Brainwashing has nothing to do with the validity of the belief itself, you can brainwash a person on both right and wrong believes. Brainwashing however is bad for both wrong and right believes. The reason for the first is obvious and for second is that the brainwashed gets in such a mental state that would not be able to identify pollutions/additions/subtractions from the right belief and would very likely believe the once-right-but-now-wrongly-edited-belief.
What Is Brainwashing? Believing Without Thinking
Brainwashing is when a person is so much impressed by an idea or the person behind that idea, that he start believing it without giving it any thought. The person has just accepted it without questioning, inquiry or even explanation.
How To Identify A Brainwashed Person? Parroting, Avoidance-Of-Questions, Inconsistent answers, Agitation.
The most common and easy to identify trait of a brainwashed person is parroting. When asked about the belief, the person mindlessly repeat the exact words said to him. Since the person is not thinking deeply about the belief, he has not came up with alternate words or phrases to explain his belief.
Another way to find is to ask what-if questions. The immediate reaction of the brainwashed would be a surprise. Since he has never given the idea any logical thought, he has never thought about the questions before. Actually he has not even know that such questions can exist. Whether or not that person can answer the question is an entirely different thing and do not depend on whether the person is brainwashed. Even a brainwashed person when start thinking logically can answer all the questions about the belief if the belief is right and the person is intelligent enough.
The third way to identify brainwashing is that the brainwashed would try to avoid the questions. Since in a conversation, the answer is expected immediately, and since the brainwashed is thinking about these questions the first time, it can be a great mental work to think depending on the validity of belief, the intelligence of person and the complexity of question, that the first thing the brainwashed try to do is to dodge the questions altogether. When pushed, the next thing the brainwashed try to do is to say that he has not enough information to answer the question. Not having enough information to believe something, yet believing it, is by definition brainwashing. When pushed still, the person try to excuse by saying that he is too busy in routine life that he do not have enough time or energy to answer the question. This again is a wrong excuse, because belief is the most important thing for a person, more important than family, work, money, fun etc.
The fourth way of identification is an inconsistent answer. Inconsistency is when one part of a thing is opposite of another part so much that both cannot coexist. Inconsistency is not invalidity. A fantasy fairy tale can be very consistent internally but is still invalid, false and wrong because fairies don't exist. Inconsistency is when for example it is claimed that certain character in story cannot do certain action and later on that character do that action without any change in power or outside help. Human mind is remarkably tilted towards consistency, even in our dreams when we see inconsistent things our mind come up with some reason or extra images to fulfill the gaps.
The fifth sign is overly respect of the person who originated the idea. You might hear sentences like "How can Einstein be wrong?", "Mr. X is more qualified to speak on this matter than me or you.", "How on earth can you question saint Y?" etc.
Cure Of Brainwashing
Like in other things in life, the best approach is direct approach. Its best both in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. Ofcourse the direct approach comes with its price. The price is that you have to bear the full impact of reaction. So you must be strong enough to handle it.
The direct approach is to tell the person straightforwardly and immediately that he is brainwashed. Then go on to explain why you think so. If you took the opposite sequence of steps, then when you were trying to explain why he is brainwashed, the brainwashed would start arguing and when you push would stop listening to you entirely. It may happen that the conversation get lost in arguments so much that the message that "you are brainwashed" never go through.
As warned earlier, be prepare to pay the price of direct approach. Since in direct approach you bravely go in front and attack directly in broad daylight with no hiding you must be strong enough to handle the impact of counter-attack. The brainwashed would probably say that its you who are brainwashed, be prepare to answer that. The brainwashed may get violent, even physically attack you, even in absence of an outright physical attack your relation with the person is likely to suffer. Still in long run the benefits of direct approach are immense. After this initial setback to your relation with that person, once that person stop arguing and fighting and go home and think about it, you are very likely to win. The person may come back with an apology and great admiration towards you, making the relation many orders of magnitude stronger than what it used to.
Now comes the hard part of explaining why the person is brainwashed. Start with telling him that he is just parroting what he heard, and you know this because you have talked with people of same belief before. Say that you are not saying anything about the validity of the belief. You are just worried that the person is brainwashed and you want the person to start thinking. Ask the person politely to just rephrase what the belief actually is in his own words. Nobody can object this simple request of yours to rephrase his beliefs in his own words, after all if the person do truely believe it then must have his own words to describe it.
Now once the person has rephrased the belief, and answered the what-if questions, link those answers to see inconsistency. If the person is brainwashed there have to be inconsistencies even if the belief is right. This is because the person is thinking about the belief logically for the first time. Make sure that the scenarios in the questions are extreme ones so you have enough ground to play on. Note that if the person is not brainwashed but the belief is wrong then also there would be inconsistencies.
Show those inconsistencies to the person. The person is very likely to say that he has not understood the questions or you have not understood the answers. Ask the questions again. This time he would be careful to have consistent answers. If the answers are consistent with each other and also with the belief, stop there. You have achieved your goal. The person is no more brainwashed but is thinking logically about the belief. Do no more effort. If the answers are not consistent with themselves or with the belief then ask that person to try harder. The person may never be able to come up with consistent answers (within themselves and with the belief) if the person is not intelligent enough or the belief is wrong.
The target here is to make the person think. Start with asking about the belief, the person may or may not parrot the exact words that he has heard somewhere, depending on whether or not the person is brainwashed. Since people like to talk about themselves, its very unlikely that the person deny this simple and polite request to know what the person's belief is. If the person is not parroting then leave the person there, the person is not brainwashed. If the person is parroting then ask the person to rephrase the belief in simple words. Again seeing your interest, the person is unlikely to deny that request and would attempt to use his own words. There, you have started the process of thinking in the mind of the person.
Now ask what-if questions. The person may think that you are questioning the beliefs, say that you just want to know the beliefs more clearly and elaborately. Again its very unlikely that seeing your interest the person deny this request. Whether you agree with the answers or not, whether the answers are right or wrong, you have achieved your target, the person is now thinking logically about the belief. There, you have sown the seed. The person's mind can take over from there.
If you find that the person is not giving you enough attention, or not doing enough effort to answer the what-if questions, or is parroting the answers (this may happen if somebody else has used the technique I am telling you on the person before) then show the person the inconsistencies and ask for more explanation in simple and original words.
The final hit is to ask a simple question of the format: Can in X situation Y happen? This is the extreme that you can go in any logical conversation. Beyond that is outside the realm of logic.
Remember to first make the person state the belief. This ensures that you do not waste your effort attacking a strawman.
Also remember to attack the heart of the belief, not the periphery. March your forces directly to the capital.
Try to be as much brief, direct, polite and listening as you can be without breaking the core of your mission.
Examples Of "Can in X situation Y happen" Questions
(1) All non-muslims have one belief in common, they do not believe in one God. Either they believe that there is no God or they believe that there are multiple ones.
Lets talk about an approach to deal with those who believe in multiple ones. This technique is told by God Himself in quran. Ofcourse you have to first ask them to tell their belief including what they think is definition of God. Then after they have said that they believe that God has absolute power, ask them that if there are multiple then each of them trying to have complete control would try to terminate the other and since none of them can harm the other this would be an eternal war, with no start and no end, and in this war nothing could exist except them. It is because if any of them create anything the other in jealousy would destroy it immediately and totally even from past. Then how come the universe exist?
(2) If length really contract while traveling close to speed of light, that is, is not just an optical illusion, then if an alien launch a spaceship towards us with rest length of 20 m and in-motion length of 10 m and when it reach near earth, say in the orbit of moon, while still in motion, can we capture it in a cage of length 10.1 m?
(3) If universe is infinite having infinite stars, then why gravity is not infinite or why night sky don't have infinite intensity of stars-light?
(4) If I must answer to two equal-level bosses, and they give contradictory orders, which one I should follow and why, why not the other one?
(5) If democracy is assuming that whatever majority of people says is right, then why not discard the democracy itself if majority of people decline to vote (the suicide-of-democracy question)?
(6) How can a certain actress I been watching on tv and in films since 10 years, can be right when claiming that she is beautiful because of a certain fairness cream that is invented just one month ago, what was she using 10 years ago when also she was beautiful?
(7) Why should I believe that you are honest with me when you are literally showing me a false face made up of a thick layer of makeup? What else are you lieing about?
(8) How can I believe that you really care about me or even know what condition I am living in as an ordinary citizen when you the politician is living in a thousand acres house with one hundred servants and one billion dollars in bank?
