“Mind control is a broad range of psychological tactics able to subvert an individual's control of his or her own thinking, behavior, emotions, or decisions. There are a number of controversial issues regarding mind control and the methods by which control might be attained (either direct or more subtle) are the focus of study among psychologists, neuroscientists, and sociologists.” Wikipedia, Mind Control.

Two distinct “first comments.” In a previous column, I wrote about cults and their real-life ability to influence people. The goal for that column was to help the GM find bad guys to throw at the players. However, any articles and books about cults and stage hypnotism are useful if you want to throw the PCs in a mind control situation; we have enough real-world examples of mind control that extrapolating it to fantasyland isn’t that difficult. I’m going to repeat the quote from McWilliams’ Life 102 book. “I was looking for one thing and I was sold something else before I even knew it. Once I bought it, it became a part of me: my ground of being shifted; my inner compass was recalibrated. I did not become a walking zombie selling flowers at the airport - I used every bit of my own intelligence, creativity, education, and common sense to follow the programmed direction”

Second, I’m thinking of Steve Jackson Games using a *blink* tag to separate the humorous / weird / dark versions of IOU. So, here it goes.

*blink*

Franz Mesmer treated perhaps a hundred people over the first five years of his career, and then started training others in his techniques. He never advertised in the open, relying on word of mouth to build his pyramid scheme of controlling people, then training them to control others. He moved from Europe to United States to Asia, dodging authorities with the use of lawyers and shifting goalposts. By the time a sufficient case was built, Dr. Mesmer was embedded in his complex in Northern Russia, untouchable, surrounded by his minions.

And minions was the correct term. He chose people who were detached from society, who were vulnerable. Through drugs, social pressure, and magic, he gave these people a purpose and isolated them from their former friends. By the time the subjects were in the complex, social pressure guaranteed that the people would not break their programming. The few that did break their programming were considered “infected” and forbidden to have contact with the complex, or hunted down and killed.

Dr. Mesmer was charged for slavery and rape in international courts, but he remains at large. Governments are hesitant to use military force, but some private mercenary forces have been hired to rescue the victims.

*blink*

Franz Mesmer went to the Washington DC, bothering department after department until someone listened. Mesmer said he didn’t need to charm anyone, he just let the results of his experiments speak for themselves. In interviews after the dust settled, Dr. Mesmer said he wanted to help society, and felt that working through the government was the best process.

Two years after the initial tests ended, Congress passed the Protect Freedom acts which allowed charm in the following conditions:

1. Military officials could order people under their command to be charmed. This allowed military operations to be executed from a central location, while keeping the soldier’s abilities intact.

2. Judges could order people charmed as part of their sentence. This technique was used for violent criminals and repeat offenders.

Both situations were challenged in court as violating the first and thirteenth amendment. The Supreme Court hedged its ruling, focusing on specific cases and refusing to rule on the general principle. They took the precedence of Military Expression to curtail the first amendment for soldiers in the military, and cited the fact that the thirteenth amendment explicitly excludes convicted criminals, the draft, and psychological duress (in most cases). For the military, the ability to charm (or as it was called, “troop organization”) was regulated closely by civilian oversight, and all charm techniques had an override to ensure that it was not abused.

Amendments to the Protect Freedom acts were consistently introduced and defeated for homosexuality; gay right supporters protested that sexuality should not be changed. A less controversial amendment was for the clinically insane; but this was bogged down into details on what is consider “insane.”

Despite these issues, rumors of people charmed to perform black ops ran rampant across the Internet. This crystallized in the Oliver Stone remake of the Manchurian Candidate, starring Denzel Washington, supposedly based on a true story about the failed Reagan assassination. More rumors of third-world countries finding mind control and enslaving their population also spread.

As for Dr. Mesmer, he was given a government job under the National Science Foundation, first as a trainer, then as a researcher to perfect his charm ability.

*blink*

Franz Mesmer never trusted the government, but he wanted to share what he knew. So, he modified the spell to restrict it to voluntary use and published it on the Internet. At first, people were skeptical, but the Mesmer meme as it was called took over, and people found creative uses for the self-hypnosis.

The first thing it was used for was vices, like smoking, drinking, and overeating. It wasn’t 100% effective because their subconscious needed to want to stop. Many people left themselves an “out”, to only drink or smoke when under stress, or eat fast food when there wasn’t time to go out or prepare a healthy meal. This made the self-hypnosis not effective, and a cottage industry sprung up as hypnosis coaches guided people to slowly remove these outs and “really mean” the oath.

Two years later, the “Internet Marriage” went on-line. Mark Beals and Jennifer Swanson of Phoenix Arizona stood in a hotel conference center and read the spells to charm themselves to each other. They vowed to always love each other, be honest with each other, and never cheat on each other. The furor around this lasted several days, with some saying that this was preserving the sanctity of marriage, and others saying it was demeaning and the couple was being pressured to make the oath from society. Despite the detractors, many other followed suit, and more refused to marry unless their partner gave an oath.

As this started to work, corporations tried to use this technique to their advantage, preventing people from stealing from the company or enforcing their non-compete clause. Dr. Mesmer tweaked the spell so no one could tell if the oath was successful; this didn’t prevent companies from requiring it anyway.

*blink*

President Franz Mesmer came from nowhere, first as a Californian Governor, then a Presidential candidate. Everyone said he had charm. During his presidency, his approval ratings stayed high despite a rocky economy and questionable laws curtailing personal freedom. Crime and dissent went down dramatically. During President Mesmer’s second term, the United States entered an era of peace and prosperity, and the typical partisan bickering temporarily halted. Into his second term, the twenty-eight amendment was ratified, immediately repealing the twenty-second amendment that limits the president to two terms. President Mesmer was seen as likely serving a third term.

Seven years into his presidency, he was assassinated by a small group of people led by Jessica Grant, a former campaign manager. She and her team were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison, but not before details on President Mesmer’s magical techniques to charm people via television. During the campaign, he forced people to vote for him, and then he directly controlled and guided people to be orderly model citizens.

A few people wanted this to continue, but the majority were deeply offended that they were taking advantage of in this manner. Notes from President Mesmer allowed the creation of the mind vaccine, a way to prevent people from being controlled. This was transmitted through television on a yearly basis, and it is estimated that 98% of the US population is inoculated with the vaccine.

*blink*

”In her immaculate kitchen she said, ‘Yes, I’ve changed. I’ve realized I was being awfully sloppy and self-indulgent. It’s no disgrace to be a good homemaker. I’ve decided to do my job conscientiously, the way Dave does his, and to be more careful about my appearance. Are you sure you don’t want a sandwich?’
Joanna shook her head. ‘Bobbie,’ she said, ‘I - Don’t you see what’s happened? Whatever’s around here - it’s got you, the way it got Charmaine?’
Bobbie smiled at her. ‘Nothing’s got me,’ she said.
— Stepford Wives, Ira Levin.

Yep, Stepford Wives is filed under horror. Fun, eh? Even if Franz Mesmer wants to do good, the mere fact that he’s controlling someone to do it makes his methods suspect. Next column is spell components.