The Wave: A Thought Control Experiment Involving High School Students

AN EXPERIMENT SHOWS POWER OF THOUGHT CONTROL
The following movie depicts an experiment done by a teacher in Palo Alto, California in 1967 to demonstrate that the "group think" as seen during Hitler's reign in Nazi Germany could easily happen again. This was a powerful experiment with chilling results.

As you watch this short movie, see if you can spot the techniques used to condition the students to embrace and get caught up in "The Wave."

 

Many have wondered how one man, Hitler, could influence so many people or, as was expressed by a student in the movie, how people claimed they weren't aware of what was happening in Nazi Germany and did nothing to stop it; but thought control is an effective tool in the hands of those who know how to use it to deceive, condition, program, and maneuver large numbers of people to obey and to become part of an exclusive/elitist group, to the point of severing important relationships with friends, loved ones, or even to the point of harming others.

And it plays out in modern cults that micromanage members, insist on loyalty and obedience to leaders, do not allow for questioning or free thought, encourage members to report other members, and that penalize and shun dissenters. 

Did You Catch the Parallels in This Movie to Modern-Day Cults?

• Personal discipline is required to accomplish great things and to receive a reward.
• Behavior has to change and students are told this will benefit them. It is called the "proper" way to do things. They are told what to do when asked and are soon doing it without question.
• More rules are implemented that they are told they must obey. They are praised when they comply.
• Unity and community are stressed. The students are told they are part of something that is more important than themselves, a movement, a cause. They are told that in order to understand community, they have to fully participate.
• Catch phrases are introduced.
• A symbol is adopted for "this class only."
• The symbol is "The Wave." 
• Hand movements, salutes, and membership cards are introduced.
• Students are to report those who question or who don't obey the rules.
• They are to pledge strict obedience.
• They are to recruit others.

Lessons For Students And For The Rest of Us
The movie ends with the teacher telling the students that they would have allowed their friends and neighbors to have been persecuted and destroyed (just as people today will cut off and shun friends/family and accept that non-group members will be destroyed) but with the lessons they've learned, the students will never again allow group will to usurp individual rights. In other words,  a powerful defense against ensnarement to high-control/extremist groups is to learn how thought control works.