Since at least 1963 when the TV show "The Outer Limits" declared "we're taking control of your television set", conspiracy theories about the evil Idiot Box in the center of our lives slowly but surely seducing us into slavish servitude to our corporate masters have dotted the landscape. It turns out that--like Area 51--those stories are only a little true!

Following there are brief discussions of the most common themes of mind-control theories.

In 1973, Vance Packard published Subliminal Seduction, a book in which he claimed advertisers were using hidden messages to seduce readers of magazines. He "showed" the word "sex" airbrushed on models' bodies, secret erotic symbols in ice cubes, etc. The book was a huge success and spawned a lot of imitators.

Here are the problems:
There is no scientific evidence that our brains see these hidden images then trigger choices subconsciously.
In 1973, airbrushing such tiny complex patterns would have cost much more money than the increase in sales would have paid for.
People began reporting hidden messages in every image they saw--even images from churches and charities.
Pariadolia: the psychological act of finding patterns in random images. Related to the audio version Apophenia (watch one of those ghost chaser shows for examples of both).

The best conspiracy theories are those that draw huge conclusions from incidental facts. This one says that TV puts us into a suggestible trance state by dampening beta waves and heightening alpha wave, then ones that are present in closed-eyed rest states. Beta waves, associated with normal waking consciousness, are suppressed. There ARE alpha and beta waves (and delta, theta, mu and gamma waves). They all work in complicated patterns. To say alpha waves take over your brain would be like saying the hands are the body part that can choke you. We shake hands. Shaking hands could choke you. It is a bunch of fancy terms misapplied to make claims that the true believer accepts because "you can't prove it isn't true!" (Even though you can, they have).

Brainwashing (made popular by movies like A Clockwork Orange, The Manchurian Candidate and ... well ... er ... uh ... Zoolander) is the act of imprinting secret commands into a person's mind that can be triggered by some key. Let's say for the sake of discussion that brainwashing is even possible (there is little evidence to support that claim except in the general realms of cult behavior and like situations). It requires prolonged isolation, intense pressure and usually results in severe side-effects. Spending hours watching television "with the blank stare of a television zombie" [rense.com] would not be enough. In addition, studies we will be to later in huge semester show that we do not watch TV passively. We do so actively and with our own agendas. Therefore, so-called brainwashing is at most a light rinse.

That stage magician who seemed to be able to get members of the audience to make fools of themselves on stage aside, there is no--repeat no...repeat with with me...look into my eyes... Oh! Sorry. There is not evidence of the existence of any device and/or medium of communication that allows one or more individuals to take over another individual's thoughts and actions. "The Wave" the MTV Awards and new iPhones aside, thought control that goes beyond the easily explainable dynamics of persuasion just does not exist.