A look inside Charlie's bag of tricks

[starviego]

A look inside Charlie's bag of tricks. Mentalism, Magic, Hypnotism, Psychology ...?

Chaos by Tom O'Neill, pg369
"The most puzzling question of all," Bugliosi wrote, was how Manson had turned his docile followers into remorseless killers. Even with the LSD, the sex, the isolation, the sleep deprivation, the social abandonment, there had to be "some intangible quality... It may be something that he learned from others."

Here are some other candidates for that 'intangible quality.'


MENTALISM

Death to Pigs, by Robert Hendrickson, c.2011 pg323
".. Phil Phillips was actually being played by the workings of a "mentalist" ..."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentalism
...mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. Performances may appear to include hypnosis, telepathy... mind control.... Mentalists perform a theatrical act that includes effects that may appear to employ psychic or supernatural forces but that are actually achieved by "ordinary conjuring means", natural human abilities (i.e. reading body language, refined intuition, subliminal communication, emotional intelligence), and an in-depth understanding of key principles from human psychology or other behavioral sciences....


Long Beach Independent, 10-28-70
"When I(Vern Plumlee) first met Charlie, he walked up and said 'Let me run your life down' and he did. It just kinda blew my mind. He said I had been in jail since I was 14; knew I was at McClaren (Juvenile) Hall; knew I was AWOL. I don't know how he knew."

Maybe Charlie was employing the mentalist tactic of 'cold reading.'

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_reading
Cold reading is a set of techniques used by mentalists, psychics, fortune-tellers, and mediums. Without prior knowledge, a practiced cold-reader can quickly obtain a great deal of information by analyzing the person's body language, age, clothing or fashion, hairstyle, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, level of education, manner of speech, place of origin, etc. during a line of questioning. Cold readings commonly employ high-probability guesses, quickly picking up on signals as to whether their guesses are in the right direction or not, then emphasizing and reinforcing chance connections and quickly moving on from missed guesses.

MAGIC

Manson also used simple magic tricks to impress his followers with his powers:

Lynette Fromme says in Reflexion, pg19, shortly after first meeting Charlie:
"Later that night I watched cards, coins, and cigarettes disappear and reappear, slipping through his(Manson's) fingers. Not only did the tricks capture my awe, but his showmanship and spirit did too. I had to remind myself that this person could barely read..."

www.vanishingincmagic.com/mentalism/articles/history-of-mentalism/
These talented mind manipulation artists combine their keen understanding of human psychology with excellent showmanship and theatrics to create the illusion of extraordinary powers.

Death to Pigs, pg461
Good: We've seen him do, you know, what people call supernatural things. We saw him bring a bird back to life. We've seen him jump over things that no human being could jump over, all kinds of things.

Bringing a bird back to life is actually a fairly common magic trick:

HYPNOSIS

Manson apparently had sophisticated hypnosis skills, too:

medium.com/@donallogue/before-helter-skelter-2b86c0d3d8d0
(Danny Trejo) said (Manson) had hypnotic powers.
“That was the dude’s trick,” Danny said. “He survived inside by getting people high just talking to them. If he wasn’t a career criminal he might have been one of those dudes who went to high schools and state fairs, the kind that brings people up on stage and gets them to do stupid things like pretend they’re a cat and sh**.”

Helter Skelter, pg162
Joseph Krenwinkel, father of Pat, re Manson:
"I am convinced he was some kind of hypnotist."

Death to Pigs, pg327
Interviewer: How could he control people like that?
Inyo County Deputy Sheriff Don Ward: Through suggestion--through mysticism--hypnosis if you wanna call it.

Shadow Over Santa Susanna, by Adam Gorightly, pg23
Most likely, Charlie employed various elements of hypnotism. It all had to do with the cadence of his voice, the intense look in his eyes, and the rhythmic movements he made with his hands and body.

Death to Pigs, pg244
Brooks: "Well, before when he put his motions in with it, all he had to do was start his motions and it's like, I would immediately turn on like a computer. Like, the button would be clicked and I'd become whatever machine or whatever tape was playing at the time."

www.woodstockjournal.com/pdf/RFK%27sFinalDayA.pdf
In late August of 1964 CIA off-oid Sydney Gottlieb
put into place a project called MK-SEARCH.
“A member of the American Society of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis was recruited for the purpose. The hypnotist was dubbed ‘Fingers’ by Dr. Gottlieb from the theatrical way he used his hands to put a patient into a trance.

ACTING

Amazing acting skills were also part of his repertoire:

Reflexion, pg88
"Charlie was full of characters who took our attention, among them a lounge singer, a cowboy crooner, and "Hyme Feinschleister," a nebbish."

Member of the Family by Dianne Lake
--He could change his voice, intonation, and accent depending upon who was on the receiving end.
--Charlie used the shape of his eyebrows and the muscles in his face to become different people. He must have practiced a lot in prison, because he could isolate parts of his face that I didn't realize could move separately from the whole, dropping his brows in unison and then raising up only one. Then he made a V with his brows that made him look like the devil. With every movement of his face, his eyes changed as well, like a shapeshifter creating the illusion of different people and personalities.

15:25
Dianne Lake 2022 interview
"He (Manson)just had this uncanny ability to morph into these different personalities and people... He had an uncanny ability to read people...

LSD

Charlie's employment of LSD to influence his recruits is well known, using some well placed props:

Shadow Over Santa Susanna,  pg17
On the wall of Manson's pad was a picture of Jesus, and below it Charlie often sat, sending out heavy vibes. ... Brockman was stunned by the realization that, if one dropped enough acid, then--like a psychelic alchemist--Charlie could manipulate the elements, turning himself into Jesus at will. "Charlie as Jesus was branded into my thoughts.... .. I knew I couldn't submit to whatever it was the idea of Charlie as Jesus expected of me. I only knew the man was playing heavy games. Charlie could plant that in a person's head, or create it, the same way a magician creates a bunch of flowers in the air.."

PSYCHOLOGY

Charlie also used his knowledge of human nature to exploit people's vulnerablities:

www.stlmag.com/news/years-of-chat-with-charles-manson/
Ken Dickerson, 20 in 2017, Manson pen pal 2005 to 2012
"He always wanted people to get rid of their ego..

--“He would make sure that any weirdness you had inside you, he found it.” Manson used that knowledge two ways: “He’d make you feel good about yourself, always make sure that you were happy in one way or another, give you compliments. If you didn’t feel comfortable with your body, he’d always say, ‘You are perfect. There’s nothing wrong with you. What’s wrong is other people judging.’” On the other hand, he also knew how to “make you as uncomfortable as possible.” Suggest homosexuality to someone who was totally straight. Keep people off base."

The success Charlie had conning people out of their property is a testament to his powers:

Death to Pigs, pg230
Watkins: "Charlie could go into some guy's house and talk him out of a ten thousand dollar piano."

The Family, pg50
-"Manson.. gave to Melba(Cronkite) a 1967 Red Ford Mustang which a New Yorker named Michael... had given to Manson."

Death to Pigs, pg258
Watkins: When a guy goes off the ranch and comes back thirty minutes later and has a car and two hundred dollars and says somebody gave it to him. you know. He used to do that...

Conclusion

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentalism
Like any performing art, mentalism requires years of dedication, extensive study, practice, and skill to perform well and perfect.

Charlie developed a high degree of competence in the use of these mental techniques. The question is, where did Charlie acquire these skills? He didn't get it from reading a book on magic tricks or hypnosis. Someone must have taught him.

We have all know that Alvin Creepy Karpis schooled Charlie in prison on the rudiments of playing the steel guitar. So why don't we know the names of these other teachers?

[starviego]

Another big weapon that Charlie used to bastardize the minds of his followers was his relentless promotion of amorality--the absence of any morality at all.


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amorality

Amorality (also known as amoralism) is an absence of, indifference towards, disregard for, or incapacity for morality. ... Amoral should not be confused with immoral, which refers to an agent doing or thinking something they know or believe to be wrong.

Witness to Evil, by George Bishop c.1971 pg352
Manson told Jacobson, through the course of many conversations, that he believed there was no such thing as right or wrong and that he personally could do no right or wrong.
Q: (Bugliosi) He told you that it was not wrong to kill?
A: Yes

Alone with the Devil by Ronald Markman and Dominick Bosco, c.1989 pg205
...a major part of the Family program planned by Manson was their fear and resistance to killing. Manson led the Family in "visualizations" where they were imagined they were killing people. Manson told them there was no such thing as bad and no such thing as wrong Also, Tex recounted, "there was no such thing as death, so it was not wrong to kill a fellow human being." ... And then they would go through exercises in which they would kill "imaginary people,' who were visualized sitting on chairs in the middle of the group. "He'd tell us that they were already dead, and that the only people that were, were at the ranch."

The Manson Women, a "Family" Portrait, by Clara Livsey MD, c.1980 pg196
She(Lynette) was admired and respected by Manson, unconditionally. ...she felt that according to Manson she could do no wrong.

Will You Die for Me? by Tex Watson pg67
I quoted Charlie and told her(Kasabian) that there was no wrong, no sin; everything anyone had was meant to be shared.

Witness to Evil, by George Bishop c.1971 pg7
I asked if they have any sense of remorse for anything they might have done.

"No guilt feelings at all," Fitzgerald replied. "They've been conditioned away from society's generally accepted mores."

Death to Pigs, by Robert Hendrickson, c.2011 pg367
Ronnie Howard: " ...they really don't see that they've done anything wrong. ... if you wanna call it a religion or cult or whatever, that's the way they believe. They do not believe they have done anything wrong. After all, they haven't killed the soul, they've only killed the body or bodies. ... So they were doing people a favor."


IMO, it was this, rather than any inherent coldness or callousness, that caused all the inappropriate behavior by the girls in the courts--the singing, the giggling, etc.