Parasites that manipulate the behaviour of their hosts represent striking examples of adaptation by natural selection. This text provides an authoritative review of host manipulation by parasites that assesses developments in the field and lays out a framework for future research.

There are many ways to handle manipulation by individuals, a group, or government. Firstly, we need to recognise and understand a manipulative act, how it works, its motives, and why we, in particular, are its victims. To this end, the author seeks to illuminate "Human Manipulation" at all levels. This analysis provides the reader with a detailed definition, an understanding of the history and morality of human manipulation and an insight into the psychology of the manipulator and victim. The book identifies and examines 450 manipulative techniques in detail and explains what a victim can do to recognise, avoid and counteract them. Manipulation generally relies on human ignorance. So the better informed we are, the better our chances of detecting and managing manipulation when it is directed at us. This handbook is probably the most comprehensive study of human manipulation anywhere. It is a "must have" for any serious student of the subject.

Do you think that no one can control you? Well, we sincerely feel sorry for you because it means that you do not know anything about natural manipulation modes. No one thought up manipulation modes, as it is a purely natural mechanism, which is built into psyche of every human being at the level of unconditioned reflexes and instincts. Therefore, no human being can resist their application. Using technological terms, manipulation modes are the "factory settings" of Mother Nature itself; they are built into the structure of psyche of Homo sapiens at the level of instincts and unconditioned reflexes—meaning, inborn reactions of an organism to certain influences of the external or the internal environment. Manipulation modes are implanted in the unconscious part of human psyche since birth. Any representative of the biological type Homo sapiens has three of these modes: suppressing, balancing and stimulating. Originally, they are modes of self-correction and self-regulation intended to ensure that a human could regulate the state of his psychophysiology and behavior from within himself. However, as it turned out, if you know natural manipulation modes of an individual, and transmit them towards him/her from the outside, then he/she becomes one hundred percent controllable like a robot-machine. It is a priori impossible to notice the influence of application of natural manipulation modes of a human. The influence bypasses consciousness and intellect of the subject of manipulation. No one is able to notice transmittance of natural manipulation modes towards him/her, regardless of his/her professional skills, educational level, life experience and intuition, as these modes are an inherent part of individual structure of human psyche. They are his/her own, native; what is called—"closer than skin." Probably, the unprecedented power of this tool and its effectiveness are due to that it is a nature’s creation. Nobody invented or developed manipulation modes. Information about this natural mechanism and practical tool for managing a human are of a very archaic origin. Both were accidentally found by a Russian researcher-sinologist Andrey Davydov, while he was studying one very ancient source. The title of this source is 山海經 Shan Hai Jing (translated from Chinese as the Catalog of Mountains and Seas). Authorship and the exact dating of Shan Hai Jing are still unknown. However, according to some experts, it dates back to XXIII century BC. The existence of this text has long been known. The ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius (IV-V centuries BC) was familiar with it, but prior to the discovery made by Andrey Davydov no one even supposed what kind of information is encrypted in this ancient source. However, despite that the researcher was able to uncover the secret of Shan Hai Jing and find out that this ancient Chinese monument is nothing other than the original "instruction to Homo sapiens," the description of a blueprint, pattern of human psyche—this source still remains mysterious. At least because it is still unknown who left the writings with this knowledge to people. We think that it is easy to conclude from everything stated above that your favorite mantra "It is impossible to manipulate me" will no longer help you. Despite that your fantasies about being unmanageable will remain with you and just like before you will feel absolute freedom, independence and randomness of all of your actions—if someone will want you to, then you will twitch like a puppet on invisible strings. All that now remains in your power it to decide whether to continue being a subject for someone's manipulations or to choose the position of a manipulator. There is no third option anymore. However, we are not suggesting to believe in that this is really the case. We never urge anyone to believe (including us) because we know that faith is one of the factors, which has a very harmful effect on human psychophysiology. We are offering a different life principle: knowledge. And, for this reason, we provided one of the 3 manipulation modes of people who were born on October 12th of leap years or October 13th of common years at the end of this book for free. This manipulation scenario is of their suppressing manipulation mode. Act out this scenario to people with these dates of birth and make certain that the Catalog of human population really exists.

In all groups -- from couples to nation-states -- people influence one another. Much of this influence is benign, for example giving advice to friends or serving as role models for our children and students. Some forms of influence, however, are clearly morally suspect, such as threats of violence and blackmail. A great deal of attention has been paid to one form of morally suspect influence, namely coercion. Less attention has been paid to what might be a more pervasive form of influence: manipulation. The essays in this volume address this relative imbalance by focusing on manipulation, examining its nature, moral status, and its significance in personal and social life. They address a number of central questions: What counts as manipulation? How is it distinguished from coercion and ordinary rational persuasion? Is it always wrong, or can it sometimes be justified, and if so, when? Is manipulative influence more benign than coercion? Can one manipulate unintentionally? How does being manipulated to act bear on one's moral responsibly for so acting? Given various answers to these questions, what should we think of practices such as advertising and seduction?

Why do parties and governments cheat in elections they cannot lose? This book documents the widespread use of blatant and excessive manipulation of elections and explains what drives this practice. Alberto Simpser shows that, in many instances, elections are about more than winning. Electoral manipulation is not only a tool used to gain votes, but also a means of transmitting or distorting information. This manipulation conveys an image of strength, shaping the behavior of citizens, bureaucrats, politicians, parties, unions and businesspeople to the benefit of the manipulators, increasing the scope for the manipulators to pursue their goals while in government and mitigating future challenges to their hold on power. Why Governments and Parties Manipulate Elections provides a general theory about what drives electoral manipulation and empirically documents global patterns of manipulation.

Parasites that manipulate the behaviour of their hosts represent striking examples of adaptation by natural selection. This field of study is now moving beyond its descriptive phase and into more exciting areas where the processes and patterns of such dramatic adaptations can be better understood. This innovative text provides an up-to-date, authoritative, and challenging review of host manipulation by parasites that assesses the current state of developments in the field and lays out a framework for future research. It also promotes a greater integration of behavioral ecology with studies of host manipulation (behavioral ecology has tended to concentrate mainly on behaviour expressed by free living organisms and is far less focused on the role of parasites in shaping behaviour). To help achieve this, the editors adopt a novel approach of having a prominent expert on behavioral ecology (but who does not work directly on parasites) to provide an afterword to each chapter.