Military Applications
Allow me to first of all state that I do not work for any military power presently and therefore my access to classified information is limited to that of a regular citizen. Nevertheless I am aware that military applications of hypnosis have been considered. These are generally to the best of my knowledge linked to drug induced hypnosis, mind control and brainwashing. It is also apparently possible to create fractionated multiple personalities in one mind through ritual brutalisation and/or mechanistic means involving torture of some kind or other. The viable functionality of such persons under everyday conditions is questionable at best.
The idea of the possibility of a Manchurian Candidate is to my view in all probability merely a fantasy. Specifically I think it is particularly a fantasy without the use of mechanistic, brutalising, drug induced and torture induced hypnotic states.
Even then I would severely doubt the viability of such a creature as passably functional in everyday-life settings.
It is my personal opinion that the human spirit, immutable and indestructible, is naturally resistant to control by external forces. You can brutalise mind and body, however left alone both mind and body immediately begin the slow, inexorable, inevitable climb towards functionality and healing. Therefore a true Manchurian Candidate is I believe impossible to create in the real sense. On the other hand, one might wonder at suicide bombers, are these not people that have effectively been brainwashed into a set of values and beliefs so radical that it violates the prime directive of the unconscious mind (to maintain the survival of the body)? But once again, this is possible only through a long process of indoctrination.
