Replication of Milgram's Shocking Experiments Proves 70 Percent of People will Torture Others if Ordered

Monday, December 22, 2008 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: authority, health news, Natural News

(NaturalNews) The Milgram experiments from the early 1960's are classic (but shocking) studies that demonstrated the "sheeple-ness" of people everywhere. In the experiments -- which have been replicated numerous times across multiple cultures, races and age ranges -- subjects willingly engaged in administering extremely painful electric shocks to other human beings for no reason other than the fact they were ordered to do so by an apparent authority figure.

These studies have long demonstrated the "do what I'm told" mentality of approximately 70 percent of the population. Only 30 percent of the study subjects refused to torture fellow human beings when so ordered.

Now, this famous study has been replicated at Santa Clara University in California. It's important to understand that in none of these studies were humans actually being tortured or given electric shocks, but the study subjects believed they were administering such torture because the apparent recipients of the electric shocks were actors who screamed in pain to coincide with the apparent delivery of the electric shocks.

The true "subjects" of the study were actually the people recruited to administer the electric shocks. But as is common in many psychological experiments, they were told they were simply taking part in the study of the other person (the person being shocked), and they had to administer electric shocks to that person if they answered questions incorrectly. Meanwhile, the study "enforcer" (one of the true researchers running the whole thing) would command the administration of such electric shocks at increasingly painful levels, starting at low voltage and increasing the voltage well beyond 150 volts (which can be lethal).

The real reason why most people are willing to do whatever they're told

What's amazing about these experiments is the astonishing willingness of people to deliver shocks above 150 volts to victims who are writhing in pain, screaming and begging for them to stop. Using nothing more than the application of verbal authority, these study subjects continued to torture and apparently cause great pain and suffering to another human being.

For many years, psychologists speculated the original studies must have somehow been flawed. Humans beings couldn't be so cruel and gullible, could they? But now this repeating of the study immediately clobbers any debate on the subject and forces us all to confront the terrible reality: Most human beings of all ages, races, religions, cultural upbringings and professions will actively torture, harm and even kill fellow human beings if ordered to do so.

Why is this important to understand? Because it explains the sheeple effect that's so dominant in society today. Why do consumers obey apparent authorities so blindly? Why do they do what they're told even when it goes against all common sense and their own ethics?

You might hear many scientists offer a conventional explanation for this phenomenon, where they're talking about the power and leverage of authority symbols (such as the study researcher wearing a white lab coat) or the transmission of implied authority through voice commands and body language, but I have a different explanation for what we're seeing here.

My explanation is far simpler: Modern society trains human beings to be mind slaves, not independent thinkers.

You were raised to be a mind slave

Think about it: From the very first day you go to kindergarten, you're punished for getting out of line (literally), talking out of place, expressing your own ideas or refusing to follow commands. This psychological brow-beating goes on for thirteen years, and it's enforced by most parents, counselors and other authority figures.

In fact, the primary point of school is not to teach children things that are really true (American history, for example, is a laughable collection of outrageous lies and distortions), but rather to create an obedient mind slave that can function in society. By the time the average child graduates from high school, they may not know how to read or write, but they sure know how to do what they're told.

For many, this continues through college and graduate school. Medical schools, for example, are advanced brainwashing institutions where independent thinkers are rejected from the system long before they can practice medicine.

Only the arts or the theoretical sciences encourage free thinking, and that's why you'll find the most free-minded people in areas like theoretical physics, fine arts, dance, music, poetry and so on. (There are exceptions in every area, of course. I'm just talking about general trends.)

The delusional behavior surrounding holidays

The cultural madness surrounding holidays is a perfect example of brainwashing en masse. On command, people all across America will obey their commercial masters and go Christmas shopping. They'll put up Christmas lights and props and trees. And a few days later, they'll take them all down again. Ten months later, the same yards that used to host symbols of Jesus, angels and religious symbols will be replaced with images of bloody skeletons, vampires, decapitated human bodies and supernatural spirits.

Apparently nobody thinks this is strange other than myself and a few other free thinkers. I watch may neighbors with amazement as they cart off the bloody vampire props, store them away in their garages, and light up their yards with angels and Biblical scenes. These people have no idea they are totally brainwashed into following a system of commercial exploitation called "holidays."

You name the holiday, and there's a whole different system of commercially-motivated brainwashing behind it: Easter, Valentine's day, Fourth of July, New Year's Day, etc. On each holiday, the people obediently buy what they're told, drink what they're told, put up the props in their yards that they're told, and even run around knocking on doors begging for candy because that's what they're told to do.

It's utterly amazing to observe. I'm not saying we can't celebrate the Christmas holiday for what it really stands for, or spend quality time with family, or bless each other in whatever religious tradition we hold true. Those are all legitimate times of gathering, or celebration, or giving thanks. What I'm talking about is the commercial massploitation of the sheeple and how willingly people go along with the whole thing of spending money and decorating their yards with the appropriate symbols that merely serve as signs that demand other people get in line and follow suit.

I seriously considered putting up Halloween decorations this Christmas, because my neighbors erected a carnival of flashing lights and motorized reindeer so obnoxious that, in my mind, it was just begging to be contrasted with a scene of decapitated human bodies and bloody zombies taken from somebody's stored Halloween props. But I couldn't bring myself to actually BUY any of that stuff, and I figured the whole message would be wasted on the mindless neighbors anyway. But I reserve the right to try this next year! In fact, I'd love to see somebody do this and post a video of it on YouTube.

Seriously, folks: Why is it okay to have symbols of dead bodies and supernatural spirits in your yard on October 31st but not December 31st? Free thinkers don't have to follow the commercial calendar, didn't you know? We can put holiday props in our yards whenever we want, and they don't have to match YOUR holiday expectations.

Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer. Had a very shiny... decapitated head? I'll bet 99% of the people on the 'net don't even know where Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer came from. He was invented by the Macy's department store as a clever story designed to sell more stuff! Every time we sing that song, it's like singing a commercial. Let's all go Christmas caroling and sing TV commercial jingles, shall we?

Truly, holiday behavior reveals the best examples of insanity in modern society. And it's all happening right in front of your (shiny?) nose, oblivious to the common man (and woman).

Are you a free thinker, or an "obedient worker?"

The Milgram experiments merely prove that America's brainwashing education system is very, very good at producing what George Carlin called obedient workers. These obedient workers do what they're told, pay their taxes and will even follow orders that make no sense -- like Bush and Obama urging people to go out and spend more money in order to "help the economy."

It's senseless advice for a nation where the savings rate is already zero, but the 70 percent who are obedient workers also turn out to be obedient spenders and consumers.

Needless to say, NaturalNews is only read by the 30 percent who would walk out of the Milgram experiment. We are the independent, free-minded thinkers who evaluate each situation on its own merits, paying no special attention to the mad ramblings of apparent authority figures. In fact, the typical NaturalNews reader would blatantly refuse to administer electric shocks to another human being in any experiment. Unless, of course, the recipients of those electric shocks happened to be drug company CEOs, but that's a different experiment altogether. (That's also a joke. I don't condone the use of violence against fellow human beings; even criminals.)

The upshot of all this is one, important realization: About 70 percent of the people around you are dangerously obedient to even the most insane directives given by apparent authority figures. And if properly motivated, they would even torture YOU as long as they were told to do so.

To invoke the philosophy of The Matrix, about 70 percent of the people are still plugged in to the system, and until their minds are freed, they are potentially a danger to the 30 percent who can actually think for themselves. A good rule of thumb is to never be caught with too many 70-percenters around you. Hang with the 30-percenters.

Most people greatly overestimate their mental independence

There's another fascinating element to all this: Virtually everyone thinks they would never administer the electric shocks if they took part in the Milgram experiments. But when faced with the aggressive verbal demands of the researcher, they give in and punch the shock button anyway.

Just like most authority figures in modern society, the study researchers use clever psychological tactics to try to convince people they have to push the button. They'll claim that if they don't cooperate, the study will be ruined, or thousands of dollars will be lost, or the apparent "patient" will be somehow harmed by not receiving the proper correction stimulus. The researchers use every verbal tactic they can think of.

It's a lot like President Bush standing at a podium and talking about yellow cake uranium, or issuing a "terr" threat, or using all kinds of verbal scare tactics that are completely fictitious. The point is not to inform you but rather to alter your behavior so you do what they want. Not coincidentally, about 70 percent of the American people were also strongly in favor of the War on Iraq following the 9/11 attacks.

I can't wait to read the haters and flamers post negative comments to this story, because what they're actually doing is demonstrating the depth of the brainwashing they have embraced as 70-percenters. People who are brainwashed into obeying orders will aggressively defend the very system that brainwashed them. Any person threatening to think for themselves gets slammed, criticized or verbally abused in much the same way that the Milgram experimenters verbally abused the study subjects to cajole them into obeying.

Authority is all in your head

The relevant point in all this is to realize that the whole scheme of authority in the modern world is artificially constructed. Authority exists only in your mind, not in the real world. For example, when people drive on the roads, they're afraid to cross the yellow lines (or white lines). Why? Because in their minds, the lines represent borders that cannot be crossed due to the fear of being reprimanded by authority. This is true even when crossing the lines makes sense!

You see this behavior all the time in modern society. At Costco, people just wait at the exit for some lame worker to check their receipt and mark it with a pen. People actually line up like cattle even after they paid for their stuff! I just walk out the door with the stuff I paid for, utterly ignoring the silly "receipt checkers" who keep screaming "Sir! Sir! Sir!" What I've learned is that after three or four screams, they just shut up and go back to the line of sheeple. Just slap on a pair of headphones, crank up your iPod and walk right out of the store, folks. Why are you giving up your Constitutional rights and submitting yourself to illegal search and seizure for a cart full of stuff you just paid for? (Moooooo!)

Same thing at Wal-Mart. If your bags set off the security device, don't be an idiot and actually stop and let them search your bags like you're some kind of criminal! And yet more than 90% of the people will do exactly that! (More Moooooo!)

Just keep walking. You didn't steal your stuff, did you? Then what are you stopping for? The fact that the security alert sounds off is Wal-Mart's problem, not your problem. You have nothing to do with their security glitches. Just pretend you're deaf and couldn't hear the thing anyway. If they accost you, use lots of sign language that emphasizes the use of the middle finger.

Behavioral psychologist Pavlov proved that he could make a dog drool by ringing a bell. Wal-Mart has proven that you can make a human being stop and turn around by sounding a similar bell at the exit door. Amazing!

You'll also find that most people tend to walk on the official pathways when they enter or leave buildings. They don't take the shortest path; they take the "official" path, which may be much longer.

And don't get me started talking about television commercials. There's a great example of highly-effective brainwashing that nobody even seems to notice. People who watch TV will swear up and down that the commercials don't affect them at all, and then they'll go to the store and buy exactly the same brand names advertised to them on television.

It's downright hilarious.

It's not hilarious that they're brainwashed. That's just sad. What's hilarious is that people have been brainwashed into thinking they're NOT brainwashed even while they are! "The terrorists hate freedom," we're told, which implies that we're all free. Oh really? Then why do all my neighbors do exactly the same thing on every holiday? Why are they as predictable as a line of puppets strung up to the same control device?

The Milgram experiments simply prove that the vast majority of people are really sheeple who will do what they're told, even with zero awareness of being influenced.

So if you're a true free thinker, consider yourself fortunate: You're already in the top 30 percent of all the people in the country.

By the way, standard IQ tests don't take into account anything resembling real-world intelligent that would involve thinking for yourself. A person can have an IQ of 170 and still be a total robot zombie that does exactly what they're told by anyone with sufficient authority status.

I'd rather hang with a high school dropout who has some real-world street smarts than an over-educated yes man who's little more than a puppet for the mind controllers.

People live their entire lives in a state of perpetual hypnosis

By the way, as a side note, every time we run a story on NaturalNews about hypnosis, we get a few pieces of hate mail from people who claim hypnosis is evil and based on some sort of occult witchcraft.

What they don't realize is that the very beliefs they are demonstrating in their emails to us are perfect examples of hypnosis! (The belief that "hypnosis is evil," for example, is a hypnotically-induced belief usually programmed into somebody by an authority figure in a competing belief system that sees hypnosis as a threat to their own authority.)

Most people walk through their whole lives hypnotized and rarely, if ever, snap out of it long enough to think for themselves. The Milgram experiments demonstrate a very effective form of command hypnosis, by the way, which has been proven again and again to work on 70 percent of the population.

Most people are running around hypnotized most of the time. And some of them are medicated at the same time, which makes for a rather psychotic combination: Medicated and hypnotized!

Needless to say (but I'm gonna say it anyway), typically the most easily hypnotized people end up finding career paths in law enforcement, the military or government jobs where following orders is readily accepted. Again, there are exceptions to this (in fact, we've got some awesome NaturalNews readers in the military stationed in Iraq right now), but generally speaking, the easily-brainwashed seek professions that are compatible with doing what you're told while disengaging your brain.

I don't know why people tend to get so uptight about this topic, by the way. I'm just telling you the way it is, and I'm not sugar-coating it. The majority of the people are actually sheeple in disguise. And that means the majority of the U.S. voters are, in fact, the very same people who would be willing to torture a fellow human being if ordered to do so!

Now you know why watching politicians seems to hurt so much.

By the way, I've authored a book that teaches you how to stop being a commercially-exploited mind slave and protect your mind from the seduction of consumerism. It's called Spam Filters for Your Brain and you can get it here: http://www.truthpublishing.com/spamfilters_p...

If you value the freedom of your own mind, you'll love this book. It's strictly for the 30-percenters who can think for themselves.