The Manchurian Candidate
The Manchurian Candidate was a great movie from the early 60’s depicting the horrors of brainwashing on American troops by Chinese scientists. The story goes like this:
A group of soldiers are captured during the Korean war. They are brought in and brainwashed using very experimental treatments. The brainwashing is so complete that one US soldier shoots another US soldier simply because he was asked to. There was no remorse, no thought, no conscience in the act.
The soldiers were brainwashed to believe that they were not in fact captured. Rather, one member of their group, Raymond Shaw, personally saved the lives of the men. The men were programmed, that when asked, that Raymond Shaw was the best person they ever knew. The problem was that the guys didn’t really like Raymond. Yet the programming was complete that they couldn’t help but respond with what a great guy Raymond was. The brainwashing so successful that there was no doubt about what happened. They had no recollection whatsoever about being captured and brainwashed.
Psychological warfare has been around for hundreds, if not thousands of years. The battle with the mind takes many forms. Common examples used today include solitary confinement, severe and prolonged interrogations, and denial of any outside stimuli (like reading materials, TV, or radio). These techniques alone can often times create false memories of events.
During the Cold War however, the experiments became more sinister. Suddenly, breaking down a person wasn’t about extracting information, it was changing the reality that the individual felt. Much like the fictional Manchurian Candidate, the CIA, KGB and other intelligence agencies toyed with people’s memories through indoctrination, drugs, and intense therapy.
Official information from these programs is scarce. However, there is some agreement that the experiments never proved effective enough to implement on a broad scale. There was no “full-proof” way to create false memories.
Getting back to Lost … is it possible that the Hanso Foundation was also interested in the potential of altering someone’s memory? It appears that Hanso made his money selling weapons to NATO. Is it also possible that his scientific team resumed earlier attempts at this mind control? Let’s just say that they have unlocked the mystery about memory control. What are some potential ramifications?
Take Locke as an example. So far, from what we know from his flashbacks he was orphaned, raised in a modest environment. By his early 30’s (just a guess on my part) we see him working in a toy store. A little later he is working in a box company as a low level employee. He was involved in an accident or suffered from a disease that limited his ability to walk. He sounds depressed, unstable, and definitely a social outcast.
Now meet the Locke of the island. He can walk. He is a leader. He is a master hunter including an expert in knife throwing. He is wise. He is upbeat. He also cleans assualt weapons found in the hatch and knows how to use one. Without his flashback sequences there would be little doubt that Locke is ex-military/law enforcement, etc. There are allusions to the fact that Locke kind of knows what is going on. Like he has been on the island before.
So, what if Locke’s flashbacks are all implanted memories? What if he had been on the island, trained by the military? What if he could always walk? Would his character now seem more consistent?
You could go down the list of people on the island. Did Kate really kill anyone? Is Hurley really a muti-millionare by playing those crazy numbers on the state lotto. Did Claire’s psychic really see into the future?
There are clues that everyone on the island is brainwashed about what really happened. See the plane crash post for an example of this. Later posts will also point out potential areas of where brainwashing could have taken place.
