Nerve cells rely on electricity, they and the genes they contain may also be affected by electromagnetic emissions.

Neurons, and therefore brains are electrochemical entities. They can be influenced both by many kinds of molecules and by electrochemical stimuli. Physical influences include radioactivity, electromagnetic radiation (encompassing visual images, temperature changes, magnetic fields...) and quantum effects.

Until someone comes up with an empirically testable counter-claim, the assumption that all brain changing influences act, at base, by changing brain electrochemistry is likely to remain secure.

Possible future technologies may use electromagnetic radiation to affect, or even burn out, the neurons involved in implementing certain cogwebs or hitherto untapped techniques from the quantum world.

As we come to understand which genes control synaptic plasticity - a project already underway - we may be able to control which beliefs are held, and how strongly, which memories are kept and which forgotten, which actions conceived and which remain beyond imagining. Perhaps we may even work out how to trigger genes remotely, without unduly toxic side-effects and with greater accuracy in time and space. We may be able not only to generate a certain belief, but also then to 'fix' it so that no further modification occurs, creating the ultimate impervious dogmatic.

Our sense of freedom may be a basic emotional reaction, but its associations with particular abilities (to speak our minds, go where we please, and so on) are learned connections. The trick is to disable the brain's alarm signal by breaking the connections (or preventing them form forming in the first place) so that reactance is no longer triggered when, for example, the right to free speech is infringed. Then there will be no emotional reaction, no fire to be damped down - or stamped out by force. At present, our methods are slow and imprecise: repeatedly playing down the value of the freedom in question, emphasising potential threats which make the freedom unsustainable, offering enjoyable distractions, and so on. In the future we may possess alternative methods giving us - or those who control us - the power to pinpoint an association's neural source and tidily remove it from our minds.

Glossary:

Cogweb - cognitive web of mental thoughts, hopes, beliefs, desires, assumptions

Reactance - a negative emotional state triggered by a perceived threat to personal freedom which can motivate extremely vigorous defensive action.

Selected quotes from Brainwashing, by Kathleen Taylor, Oxford University Press 2004

Michael Persinger:
By applying complex magnetic fields to the right temporal lobe Michael Persinger was able to induce spiritual experiences.