It’s not the word psychology, which gives already an idea of a vast and ever-developing subject, that is the one putting me in a dire situation. The real deal, the big monster to defeat is certainly the word manipulating. This audiobook will take you on a detailed journey about the world of manipulation, with all the implications this topic has on reality. We will see, before anything else, what it is about and how effectively it changes and influences our daily life as much as the course of our existences.

Manipulation per se does not hold a negative connotation, nor a negative ethical point of view. Think carefully; you manipulate objects every day, you manipulate data constantly and even words. You have probably at least once in your life played the telephone game, maybe as a child or as young teenager: an input word that is communicated whispering from a person to an other until the last one who tells it to everyone. That little game and funny experiment is nonetheless an immediate example of manipulation as something we do automatically, as easy as breathing or eating, it is the necessary passage of information in our own mind to bring us at it.

Legends and myths we loved so much to read when we were at school are the embodiment of possibly real stories manipulated to give a lesson, a moral teaching, or simply to better reflect a reality different from the one they started. A natural process after all that could become a voluntary action when we intentionally inject the changes we prefer. We inject these desired changes not just into reality, but also into other people. Information is, after all, the link between us and the reality of the world we live in, so manipulating it will certainly have an impact on this, and when dangerous individuals are performing this deliberate act, nefarious things are for sure on the horizon.

Manipulation is a complex process, something that can be used not just to change information but to hijack other people’s preferences and beliefs. And that is why, after writing about dark psychology and its impact on society and daily routine, I decided to go into the depths of this peculiar and very interesting topic. I bring you my knowledge and experience and give you a start to better understand and foresee manipulating attempts by other people or institutions. My idea is to give you a set of tools not just in the form of definitions, but also as examples taken by reality and history to analyze proper threats and therefore neutralize them, not just for your own mental safety, but also for your loved one’s sake.

In this context, be aware that this set of information I’m going to provide you will give you the possibility to not just prevent yourself from being manipulated, but also to be able to yourself do the manipulating. It will be up to you and to your own moral standard to decide what to do.