Dr Mel Siff Blog

An article that I wrote a while ago on the use of persuasive techniques and
propaganda in sport and fitness may still be of interest.

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There are regular comments about why so many folk manage to be taken in by
self-appointed fitness and health gurus who make a fortune out of selling
dubious ideas and devices, despite lack of scientific validity or honest
disclosure of their limitations or qualifications.

However, we all know by now that making money, grasping power or achieving
fame frequently have nothing to do with correctness, morals, etiquette,
education, honesty or any other such qualities that exemplify the ideal or
well-qualified human.

If we examine history, we can wonder equally well how so many dictators,
despots, entrepreneurs, politicians and religious leaders ever managed to
become as influential and powerful as they did. In fact, the frequently
quoted maxim of big business today is do anything you like to achieve
success, but don’t get caught doing what you shouldn’t be doing!

On the other hand, history has produced some wonderful examples of the most
saintly and exemplary people from all walks of life.

So what did all of these heroes and anti-heroes (like Hitler, Stalin, Caesar,
Genghis Khan, Idi Amin and so on) have in common? Superficially, it would
appear as if the answer to this question is “nothing”. However, it is not
too difficult to conclude that they all had highly effective powers of
persuasion, propaganda and mass communication.

Interestingly, the evolution of modern marketing and advertising techniques
had a lot to do with the American experts who were called upon to counter the
massive onslaught of the Nazi propaganda machine led by Josef Goebbels and
his henchmen appointed by Hitler to sell Nazi philosophy via all the mass
means at their disposal. The Nazis were very familiar with the ancient
Grecian methods of rhetoric, logic and persuasion, so they set about adapting
and applying it to achieve their own nefarious ends.

Hitler is even credited with saying: “If you say something often enough and
loud enough, people will begin to believe you.” And that is precisely what
happened in Germany. He made great efforts to orchestrate those horrendously
successful mass rallies and overpowering speeches surrounded by all the
symbols, stages and sounds of persuasive communication, as you will have seen
on movies of the last War.

Thank goodness for the civilised world, American experts and others like
Winston Churchill developed their own very powerful counter-propaganda
machine.

Some examples of these methods of wartime persuasion may be seen on the
following website:

<http://www.nara.gov/exhall/powers/powers.html >

Today, techniques of persuasion that evolved from the ancient Greeks and
propaganda methods from World War II are used to market ideas, courses,
religions and products with an unprecedented degree of success, largely
because the mass media now reach the outermost edges of what McLuhan called
the ‘Global Village’ in a way that few people ever imagined was possible.

The following websites give information on techniques of persuasion and
marketing:

<http://www.pertinent.com/pertinfo/business/persuasion/index.html>
<http://www.dcd.net/NBP/persuasn.html >
<http://encarta.msn.com/find/Concise.asp?ti=05CCD000 > (Marketing)

See if you recognise any techniques being used by fitness, health and food
supplement gurus and entrepreneurs and learn how to immunise yourself against
them by applying the information in the above website and the following one
on recognising tricks and fallacies of argumentation:

< http://shell.rmi.net/~mhartwig/falla.htm >

In the realm of practical training, Ch 3 of “Facts & Fallacies of Fitness”
(Siff M C) summarises the major methods of persuasion, while later chapters
apply this information to help one distinguish sense from nonsense and fact
from fallacy in the lucrative world of general and sports training, as well
as in the mass market of medical and alternative therapy.

Who was it who said that you cannot fool all of the people all of the time?
A quick look around the world of fitness, health and nutrition reveals to us
that competent persuaders can fool most of the people most of the time!

Mel Siff

Dr Siff responding to a question from his Supertraining group on mental training and entering the zone!

<< Just wondering if anyone knew anything about this, using EEG to measure
brain activity and help a person, enter ‘the zone’ (that’s the mental one not
the diet one!!) and whether you need this expensive machinery to do this? >>

*** During my MSc days when I was researching the role of mathematical
modelling of the EEG, I came into contact with some interesting folk working
in this field and I ended up using various signal generators from our
electrical engineering laboratory at my former university in S Africa to
“entrain” my brain rhythms to the frequency of the various dominant brain
rhythms (delta, theta, alpha and beta).

Some interesting changes in mental state occurred that were similar to the
deep relaxation state induced by methods such as Jacobsen’s progressive
relaxation, raj yoga, hatha yoga and similar strategies for manipulating
consciousness. Other patterns of externally applied small currents
(microamps) induced sleep and recovery from stress. Dr Robert Becker did a
considerable amount of research into electroanalgesia and electronarcosis via
the use of (mainly DC) electrical fields across the brain. Some of his work
appears in popularised form in his book “The Body Electric”.

Later I came across commercial devices being sold to facilitate entrainment
of ‘desirable’ brain rhythms, such as HemiSync, Alpha Stim and
ElectroAcuscope. Later a few companies combined these devices with sound
generators (through headphones) to further enhance the entrainment process.
The following book gives a most readable account of such devices: Michael
Hutchison “MegaBrain”. You will also find intriguing snippets of information
in Ostrander & Schröder’s books “Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain”
and “Superlearning”.

Another source of information on entering the psychological “Zone” appears in
the recent edition of the Online Athletic Insight journal on the following
website:

http://www.athleticinsight.com/ZoneIssueFrame1Source1_1.htm

Spontaneous entries into the Mind Zone are recounted in Murphy & White, “The
Psychic Side of Sports”.

Enjoy entering that Zone, David.

Dr Mel C Siff