“Knowing your own mind is only half the battle. The other half is discerning the mind-set of your enemy; his motivation and his weakness.”

      —Dirk Skinner,

       Street Ninja: Ancient Secrets for Surviving Today’s Mean Streets

      From fictional characters such as Svengali in George du Maurier’s 1884 Trilby and Dr. Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, to real life manipulators such as Russia’s Grigori Rasputin and America’s Charlie Manson, nothing is more frightening (and fascinating) than the image of an evil mastermind capable of controlling—and even killing—others by simply using the power of his mind. These people are mind-slayers—individuals who have studied the human psychology and use it against those they would dominate.

      From the 1950s up through the ’70s, the U.S. government spent millions for the secret CIA-directed programs known as MK (for mind control) and MK-ULTRA, both of which were designed to develop mind-control weapons and strategies. Out of these programs came mind-control weapons ranging from “psychotronic” brainwashing devices to human mind weapons —psychic assassins capable of reading the enemy’s mind and, ultimately, using their thoughts to kill the enemy from a distance.

      These experiments and expenditures were justified under the argument that the U.S. government had to keep pace with similar mind-manipulation research being done by communist governments.

      Don’t laugh. It is a matter of public record that your tax dollars went to pay for this research.

      Even now, years after these programs were acknowledged by our government and officially discontinued, stories continue to filter out of Washington about mind-manipulation schemes and scenarios still being hatched in corporate boardrooms and seedy backrooms; mind-manipulation experiments played out at cult compounds in such out of the way places as Guyana and Waco, Texas.

      To many Americans, the very idea of using mind manipulation goes against the chivalrous “Code of the West” and seems an affront to the memory of John Wayne standing tall, looking a bad guy in the eye.

      Other more realistic and perhaps less sadistic voices ask “What is more humane, the indiscriminate use of a sledgehammer war strategy like carpet bombing—resulting in the deaths of thousands of innocents—or a scalpel-like incision targeting a single evil dictator?”

      How much more effective and efficient, then, if we were somehow able to remove such a nemesis with a single thought?

      Down through the ages unscrupulous individuals, self-serving cults, and various cadres of killers—from ancient Chinese magician-spies to medieval Middle Eastern assassins to the infamous ninja of Japan—have experimented with and applied a multitude of methods for controlling and killing their enemies by attacking their foes not on a physical battleground, but on a mental killing field.

      These “mind-dancing” strategies and tactics range from the feasible to the far-fetched, from ancient voodoo to modern virtual reality.

      Why should we take the time out of our busy schedules to study these ancient and modern mind-manipulation techniques?

      Consider this:

      Today Madison Avenue spends billions to influence us to buy things we don’t need, to ensure our brand loyalty and, more insidious still, to lure us into supporting political candidates with slippery zippers.

      This latter campaign goes hand-in-hand with governments and megacorporations worldwide spending billions on psy-ops (psychological operations) designed to undermine the morale of their enemies while engendering patriotism and unquestioning obedience in their own people.

      When this sort of mind manipulation is done by rival governments or rival religions, we call it propaganda and cult indoctrination. When we do it we call it advertising and public service announcements.

      Studying traditional and current mind-manipulation strategies and techniques should not stem simply from our healthy paranoia about out-of-control government agencies constantly on the prowl for new ways to control people. Studying these techniques will help us guard ourselves and our loved ones against an endless array of criminal con men, crazed cult leaders, and opportunistic politicians.

      Any realistic modern survival and self-defense training must include strategies for defending our own mind castles against intrusion. Thus, it is vital we master the art of mind-dancing for both defense and offense—before our enemies do.

      Perhaps you believe yourself to be one of the favored few who don’t have any enemies. Someone once said that Satan’s greatest trick was convincing the world he doesn’t exist. Perhaps the enemy