The CIA's "Alice in Wonderland Technique" Explained

 Monday Security Memo

Intellectual Firepower for Professionals

The CIA's "Alice in Wonderland Technique" Explained

“The aim of the Alice in Wonderland, or confusion, technique is to confound the expectations and conditioned reactions of the interrogatee... Now he is likely to make significant admissions, or even to pour out his story, just to stop the flow of babble which assails him.”

- KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation Manual

Dear A,

In the 1950s, L. Ron Hubbard - founder of Scientology - coined the "Alice in Wonderland Technique," a psychological ploy using contradictory statements, abrupt topic shifts, and disorienting nonsense. The goal? To fracture your sense of reality so completely that you’d grasp at any coherent cue, usually delivered by the person doing the confusing. It’s like throwing someone down a mental rabbit hole until they cling to any hand reaching out.

This very concept didn’t stay confined to fringe teachings. The CIA formalized it in its KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation Manual in 1963, describing how to “confound the expectations and conditioned reactions” of someone, replacing their familiar world with “weird, eerie meaninglessness.” It was less about brute force and more about collapsing certainty to create vulnerability.

That same year, Stanley Milgram’s landmark obedience study illustrated our fragility under pressure. Participants believed they were administering electric shocks to a “learner.” They faced a stark conflict: their conscience said, “Stop!”, while the lab authority said, “Continue!”. Despite the inner moral alarm, 65% delivered the maximum voltage. Milgram showed that even a mild disorienting environment and a seemingly legitimate authority can override personal ethics.

Decades later in 2009, Jerry Burger conducted a replication at Stanford with ethical safeguards - shocks capped at 150 volts, thorough consent, and early stopping points. However, now 70% of participants still agreed to proceed. Despite awareness of the original findings and societal skepticism, human predisposition to follow authority persists.

In the Alice in Wonderland Technique, confusion and pressure are used to scramble your mental clarity. Finally, when the first clear piece of coherent messaging is presented, it becomes a psychological life raft.

Today, marketers and social media influencers wield eerily similar tactics - urgency, scarcity, contradictory messaging - triggering a modern-day Wonderland. Think pop-ups shouting, “Only 2 left!” followed by refreshes that reset the countdown. Or feeds that oscillate between “You don’t need this” and “Life‑changing deal - act now!” This creates mental fog, pushes emotional cues, and triggers impulsive action.

I wrote about some of these techniques in my book, The CARVER Mindset: How to Think Like a Spy. I explained how certain online marketers, which were dubbed "Contraprenuers", used the influence techniques of Harvard professor and expert on influence, Dr. Robert Cialdini, to coax impulse purchases.

To protect yourself, aka think like a spy, you can use the following checklist to stay alert and avoid getting pulled under by scammers:

• Pause before acting on urgent claims.
• Question the logic—does it make sense, or is it just dramatic?
• Verify facts across multiple reliable sources.
• Ask who benefits if you act right now.

Whether it’s cult teachings, CIA manuals, obedience studies, or flashy online offers, the same psychological triggers are at play: when reality gets shaky, we chase the illusion of certainty. Stay grounded—and don’t let anyone hand you “clarity” when they’re the ones stirring the fog.

In my upcoming training course entitled, Thrown to the Wolves: The Art of Thinking Fast and Speaking Smart, offered by the University of South Florida's Office of Corporate Training and Professional Education, we dive deeper into these principles. It's a four-session, virtual course, where I walk you through mental models that prepare yourself against "wolf moments," such as the "Alice in Wonderland Technique" and other "gotcha" scenarios. Guest speakers will also share insights into how to handle media pressure, as well as engage in verbal judo. Email me with any questions.

Have a great week and, as always...

Stay safe and vigilant!

 Luke Bencie