Memory manipulation as base mechanism for limited mind control

[LupusDei]

Our memories aren't as immutable as we would like to believe. In fact, there's opinion that each time a memory is accessed and reassembled for reliving from scattered impulses and "database" objects, it is also rewritten, at least slightly. Afterwards, memories of remembering may even overwhelm and overwrite the original memory. Changes in worldview and shifting paradigms may significantly alter the interpretation of a memory. New information may be seamlessly incorporated, retrofitting the original memory to be more inline with the new state of personal beliefs. That also has power to explain the "grass was greener then" effect, as frequently accessed memories morph into well rounded coherent stories with little controversy, with all possible unpleasantness explained away, one way or another, contrasting against the incomprehensible chaos if the present.

Memories in turn, are the premises for current decisions, directly shaping the future; selecting possible futures.

Frankly, I'm not a big fan of mind control, it's mostly "cheap" way for sudden status changes, more often than not problematic to the ridiculous, and implemented with no care. But thinking about something else entirely I caught this on an aside thread:

What if someone got power to actively guide this memory morphing process more directly that should be possible by simple conversation, taking it to the extreme, up to and including implanting wholly made up events eventually?

Obviously, it involves need for at a slightest bit of rudimentary telepathy, as there's just that much that can be communicated by language, with is, if anything, extremely slow; for this to work at least limited abilities to project images and concepts above and beyond words as integrated gestalt would be if not absolutely necessary then at least very handily, but still could be very limited, even unconscious to the manipulator themselves at least at first. Unlike "real" fully developed telepathy, subtle, unreliable, but also subversive, inherently stealthy. And yes, potentially dangerous to the victim's sanity (but isn't all flavors of mind control so?), and the manipulator's too probably, especially if they lose track of all the manipulation, and that's easy as they have to make-believe, and do believe the new versions in effect for those to stick with the victim.

Little more than extremely persuasive lies on the face, it still has potential of near limitless possibilities.

The requirements obviously include the need for the target to access the memory of interest, and the manipulator to have as much knowledge as possible about the current state of that memory, preferably -- but not strictly necessary -- about the underlying true evnt as well. While strictly there's no obvious reason for that, I would also limit the effect to only in-person communication.

They can't make someone do something directly, the influence over decisions is more roundabout, but they may be unusually persuasive in showing a potential decision as reasonable. The victim in turn has to cooperate to certain extent, it's them who are composing and incorporating the new versions of their memories, and may, at least in theory detect lies if those are too blunt, they may question and double check facts, even afterwards. Alerted and attentive victim may not only escape but unmask the manipulation, easily.

 

[LupusDei]

For a possible example

... [a couple is sitting on a secluded riverbank] ...

"Who said you need a swimsuit?"

"What do you mean?" Alice looked at my nonchalant smile, then around, over the river.

"We could go skinny dipping."

"John!" She chastised me shaking her head, "I wouldn't... I have never..."

"Never, really? I thought you all did when Becky took you and Mandy to her place last summer," I tried, knowing at least Mandy had gone topless at some point. I had been at that place, and had seen both girls at the beach, so it wasn't that hard to compose their nude images with the right scenery in my imagination, together with sensations of water splashing against skin.

"Um, no... we're not like that," she claimed, rapidly losing confidence, even looked away slightly blushing at the end.

"If you say so." Of course, I couldn't know how water was supposed to feel against uncovered pussy, lacking that set of organs myself, but she should, from bathtub if not otherwise. Was my sketch of the situation vivid enough to prompt it?

"How did you know?"

"You told me yourself."

"I didn't tell you that!"

"Well, maybe not directly. Maybe I just inferred... three girls alone in a secluded place, and so."

"And it was just that, just girls."

"Right, as if we haven't done it together already."

She looked at me dumbfounded, "When?"

"Remember that hike, which your aunt Nancy? The second day at the lake?" I used my imagination to remove our swimsuits from that scene. With little hesitation I removed Nancy's one piece too, although I had little desire to detail how her fat folds would look over her abdomen uncovered. A blur of skin tone should do for now, maybe even safer that way to not get something wrong, as there was a fair chance Alice had seen Nancy's body at some point, sharing locker rooms or what not.

"You must be dreaming! Uncle Dave would..."

Oh yes, I forgot about Dave. There's no way anything like that could have happened in his presence. "Not right away the first time, later in the evening. He was already in the tent, asleep, I think." We had gone swimming twice that day, was this now the third, or should I move the second time around? I quickly made light the sunset amber and shadows long, not sure I got their direction right, but did it matter, probably not, even if she could indeed see my imagination's images directly. I had doubts about that; it was the feelings that mattered, impressions, or so I believed.

"Yes, it was a beautiful sunset," she sounded dreamy all of a sudden.

I wasn't so sure, but recalled some images of truly magnificent sunsets just for a good measure, "yes, it was."

"Oh my! Auntie Nancy too? How...?"

"Yes. I think there was something about wet swimsuits, uncomfortable to wear. As if they wouldn't get wetter shortly... not that I objected, you know."

She chuckled quietly. "She... and in your presence?"

"And she joked about that."

"Yes, something about... about..."

I had no idea what she was trying to invent all of her own, but quickly confirmed anyway, "yes, that!" And we both laughed although for different reasons. How far I could push this? It was the first time I was basically made up an event wholesale. Could I claim we shared a sleeping bag with her that night, both naked, and she would believe? I decided not to push my luck any further, this was complex enough already.

"I can't believe we did..." Her cheeks burned, color washing down her neck into the collar of her blouse, still tightly buttoned up to the very top. "How... how I could have forgotten something like that?"

"I don't know. Maybe it didn't feel all that important at the time." Or too embarrassing, I allowed, but didn't say, moreover, quickly suppressed the thought.

Still, she looked up in my eyes as if I had said exactly that, or had she thought that herself, but she smiled. And what a smile a naughty smile I haven't ever seen on her before, although I couldn't quite say how exactly it differed.

"Alright," she said, stood up and stretched, "are you sure nobody could see us here?"

"As humanly possible," I confirmed, shifting slightly, to better conceal my rapidly hardening dick, well, for a moment still at least. Was I really about to see Alice naked? Wow.

 

[Thalius]

Wow.

I suspect it would be very difficult for the author to write such a story with all the necessary background and character relationships so well and thought out.

But your example.... please tell more

 

[Hypoxia]

A mental-master sexual psychopath guy regularly entices virgin women to his bed and then wipes their direct memories of fuckings, leaving many pregnant with 'miracle' babies. Thus, a mechanism for virgin births. By a twist of "mad science", the resultant offspring retain their mothers' cherry-popped memories and glorify their rapist father as divine. Many go on to rape and be raped when they reach adulthood, but without the memory wipes. New religions ensue.

 

[SimonDoom]

I could see this as a good sci fi/mind control concept. Person A is part of a company that offers software that implants memories/provides some kind of virtual reality. Person A uses this software for illicit purposes -- seducing and sexually controlling people. Person B plays the game and comes into contact with Person A and is drawn into Person A's web through Person A's manipulation of Person B's memory online. Person A manipulates Person B into meeting Person A in real life and becoming Person A's sexual plaything.

This is a concept that would require a really great twist at the end of the story, which reveals that what seemed to be true up to that point was not really true -- there are multiple layers of implanted memory.