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The term "brainwashing" was first used in a 1950 article in New Leader magazine. A journalist was recounting the methods he learned about mind control techniques used in the early years of the Maoist regime in China and subsequently in the Korean War. Using various methods such as sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation, group coercion, and others, it was believed that several American POWs were actually forced to make statements that suggested they switched allegiances. Some of those claims have since been disputed. However, the effect of brainwashing has been seen in cults and paramilitary organizations over the years, such as the Symbionese Liberation Army in the 1970s and the mass suicides of the People's Temple and the Heaven's Gate cults.
While the notion of brainwashing is relatively new, all of humanity has suffered from a form of "spiritual brainwashing" as a result of sin. Our nature has been reprogrammed to tend toward sinfulness rather than righteousness. Paul himself gives a clear, disturbing picture of the struggle we now face to be "deprogrammed": "For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing" (v. 19). Thankfully, he also gives the remedy to this predicament: "Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (vv. 24-25).
While the notion of brainwashing is relatively new, all of humanity has suffered from a form of "spiritual brainwashing" as a result of sin. Our nature has been reprogrammed to tend toward sinfulness rather than righteousness. Paul himself gives a clear, disturbing picture of the struggle we now face to be "deprogrammed": "For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing" (v. 19). Thankfully, he also gives the remedy to this predicament: "Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (vv. 24-25).
