David Noebel (b1936) is an evangelical Christian leader and the founder of Summit Ministries. Ordained in 1961, he saw the rise of Beatlemania as the result of Communist indoctrination via hypnosis, a thesis he developed in his book, Rhythm, Riots, and Revolution: An Analysis of the Communist Use of Music & the Communist Master Music Plan (1964). The book transitioned from folk artists and their earlier influences, to my beloved Beatles. Considering the political leanings of the folk movement, with its explicit anti-racist, pro-labour lyrics, he argued the music was turning kids into gay, Communist, inter-breeders.
In the mid 1960s Noebel wrote several pamphlets that condemned rock and roll music and pop culture - as a Soviet plot to brainwash American teenagers. His pamphlet Communism, Hypnotism and The Beatles (1965) included some of these claims:
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Indoctrination began for American babies via Communist educational records with titles like Muffin in the Country, via the Children's Record Guild which was subsidised by Moscow. The history of rock and roll went still deeper, to the heart of Africa, where it was used to incite warriors to such a frenzy that neighbours were cooked to carnage in pots! The music was a designed reversion to savagery!
Thousands of rioting teenagers overran law enforcement. Beatles mania was a Communist conditioned response, mass-hypnotising thousands of American youth. The Beatles' anti-religion statement (“we are more popular than Jesus Christ”) showed how they incited juvenile delinquency, venereal diseases, teenage suicides and paganism.
Hot Jazz put people in mental hospitals; it very closely resembled the music of primitive savages, harsh, ear-splitting percussion music, which inflamed, intoxicated and brutalised. In a pitch for Christianity, he wanted to remove the offending "mentally contaminating products."
His pamphlet The Beatles: a Study in Drugs, Sex and Revolution (1969) followed. Here Noebel developed a theory that the backbeat in rock and roll has an effect on the cerebro-spinal fluid, causing a cessation of forebrain activity; thus the primal, animal parts of the brain could take over. Music like this would speed the downfall of America, by hypnotising the kids into having sex and eventually embracing Communism.
Leaving David Noebel aside, The Beatles would have broken up in 1969 anyhow. But Noebel made their group life in the USA so miserable, their final live foreign concert was in Aug 1966 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
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Did this extreme, religious subculture have any impact in the USA? Did anyone believe that the hysteria taking place among youth was playing right into the hands of America’s enemies? Yes! Noebel’s influence in conservative Christian circles was considerable: he had undesirable records banned from radio stations in the Deep South, had concerts disrupted and he was partially responsible for the later culture wars (against feminists and gay activists etc) after the Cold War faded. David Noebel and others defined the Worldview Construct. He has authored books and scholarly papers on the subject of Western Civilisation’s moral and spiritual decline, and integrated Biblical and scientific creationism in university text books.
In the mid 1960s Noebel wrote several pamphlets that condemned rock and roll music and pop culture - as a Soviet plot to brainwash American teenagers. His pamphlet Communism, Hypnotism and The Beatles (1965) included some of these claims:
David A Noebel
Communism, Hypnotism and The Beatles,
1965
“The Communists, through their scientists, educators and entertainers, have contrived an elaborate and scientific technique directed at rendering a generation of American youth useless, via mental deterioration. The plan involves conditioned reflexes, hypnotism and certain kinds of music. The results, destined to destroy our nation, are precise and exacting. Little wonder the Kremlin maintains it will not raise the Red flag over America — the Americans will raise it themselves. If the following scientific program destined to make our children mentally sick is not exposed, mentally degenerated Americans will indeed raise the Communist flag over their own nation.
Younger children are not the only ones being tampered with by Communists. Our teenagers are also being exploited: 1. To create in them mental illness through artificial neurosis; and 2. To prepare them for riot and ultimate revolution, to destroy our American form of government and the basic Christian principles governing our way of life.
Four young men, noted for their tonsils and tonsure, are helping to bring about this exploitation. When the Beatles conducted their “concert” in Vancouver, 100 persons were stomped, gouged, elbowed and otherwise assaulted during a 29-minute performance. 1,000 were injured in Melbourne. In Beirut, fire hoses were needed to disperse hysterical fans. In the grip of Beatle fever, the teenagers weep, wail and experience ecstasy-ridden hysteria that has to be seen to be believed. The Beatles’ ability to make teenagers take off their clothes and riot is laboratory tested and approved. It is scientifically labelled mass hypnosis and artificial neurosis…
The music isn’t an art form, but a very destructive process. Teenage mental breakdown is at an all-time high and juvenile delinquency is nearly destroying our society. Both are caused in part by emotional instability which in turn is caused in part by destructive music like rock and roll and certain kinds of jazz. But no matter what one might think about the Beatles, the results are the same: a generation of young people with sick minds, loose morals and little ability to defend themselves from those who would bury them
Throw your Beatles records in the city dump. We have been unashamed of being labelled a Christian nation; let’s make sure four mop-headed anti-Christ beatniks don’t destroy our children’s emotional and mental stability and ultimately destroy our nation.
Thousands of rioting teenagers overran law enforcement. Beatles mania was a Communist conditioned response, mass-hypnotising thousands of American youth. The Beatles' anti-religion statement (“we are more popular than Jesus Christ”) showed how they incited juvenile delinquency, venereal diseases, teenage suicides and paganism.
Hot Jazz put people in mental hospitals; it very closely resembled the music of primitive savages, harsh, ear-splitting percussion music, which inflamed, intoxicated and brutalised. In a pitch for Christianity, he wanted to remove the offending "mentally contaminating products."
His pamphlet The Beatles: a Study in Drugs, Sex and Revolution (1969) followed. Here Noebel developed a theory that the backbeat in rock and roll has an effect on the cerebro-spinal fluid, causing a cessation of forebrain activity; thus the primal, animal parts of the brain could take over. Music like this would speed the downfall of America, by hypnotising the kids into having sex and eventually embracing Communism.
Leaving David Noebel aside, The Beatles would have broken up in 1969 anyhow. But Noebel made their group life in the USA so miserable, their final live foreign concert was in Aug 1966 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
David A Noebel
Rhythm, Riots and Revolution,
1969
Did this extreme, religious subculture have any impact in the USA? Did anyone believe that the hysteria taking place among youth was playing right into the hands of America’s enemies? Yes! Noebel’s influence in conservative Christian circles was considerable: he had undesirable records banned from radio stations in the Deep South, had concerts disrupted and he was partially responsible for the later culture wars (against feminists and gay activists etc) after the Cold War faded. David Noebel and others defined the Worldview Construct. He has authored books and scholarly papers on the subject of Western Civilisation’s moral and spiritual decline, and integrated Biblical and scientific creationism in university text books.