I really enjoy ITV's Wire in the Blood drama series, it is my favourite TV programme, and last nights episode was brilliant as usual. Full of witchcraft and a lot of discussion about the power of the subconscious mind and our beliefs. The main character, Tony Hill, was arguing that witchcraft only exists because some people believe it exists. The show was focusing on the power of suggestion and how that suggestion can take actual effect.

The main villain of the piece was a woman who was an expert manipulator who used speech and body language to make people do her bidding including making one person attempt to kill another, making someone believe that they were dying because they couldn't breathe and made a police officer believe that her voice was male.

This did make great TV but I say yet again that no-one can be "made" to do anything that they don't want to do. If this were possible I would be the richest man in the world (financially). But, some people can be influenced to do some things, some of the time, if it fits in with their belief system. Politicians, advertisers, marketing/PR companies spend fortunes on manipulation through words and images trying to change our beliefs about a product, political party or company.

Last night's Wire in the Blood was absolutely spot on with the process behind verbal and non-verbal manipulation, top marks to the writers and researchers, and anyone watching the ITV News that immediately followed would have been treated to a real life example of verbal manipulation in action.

The main item was about the BBC inventing winners of competitions where entries had been made by the general public using premium rate phone numbers. One of their charity programmes featured the announcement of a winner whose name and location was completely made up.

I'm pretty certain that it was a member of the BBC trustees who was interviewed and said "This mistake...blah, blah." Mistake? Someone at the BBC or on behalf of the BBC decided to create a fictional winner which deceived the audience & entrants and allowed the announcing of the fictitious winner on the TV! It wasn't a mistake, it was deliberate. The BBC Trustee could have said "This scam...." or "This fraud...." or "This deception..." or "This deceit..." I bet you a pound to a penny that the use of the word "Mistake" was deliberate, it was used to manipulate and influence some of the viewers of the interview that things were not as bad as they seemed to be.

Next time you read a newspaper or watch the TV news, consciously spot the difference between fact and opinion. I hope the next two words after this sentence manipulate and influence you in some way.

Be happy,

Dave.