Girard's description of himself is matter-of-fact, until he explains what's in the bag: documents he believes prove that the government is attempting to control his mind. He carries that black, weathered bag everywhere he goes. "Every time I go out, I'm prepared to come home and find everything is stolen," he says.
The bag aside, Girard appears intelligent and coherent. At a table in front of Dunkin' Donuts inside the train station, Girard opens the bag and pulls out a thick stack of documents, carefully labeled and sorted with yellow sticky notes bearing neat block print. The documents are an authentic-looking mix of news stories, articles culled from military journals and even some declassified national security documents that do seem to show that the U.S. government has attempted to develop weapons that send voices into people's heads.
"It's undeniable that the technology exists," Girard says, "but if you go to the police and say, 'I'm hearing voices,' they're going to lock you up for psychiatric evaluation."
The thing that's missing from his bag -- the lack of which makes it hard to prove he isn't crazy -- is even a single document that would buttress the implausible notion that the government is currently targeting a large group of American citizens with mind-control technology. The only direct evidence for that, Girard admits, lies with alleged victims such as himself. And of those, there are many.
IT'S 9:01 P.M. WHEN THE FIRST PERSON SPEAKS during the Saturday conference call. Unsure whether anyone else is on the line yet, the female caller throws out the first question: "You got gang stalking or V2K?" she asks no one in particular. There's a short, uncomfortable pause:
"V2K, really bad. 24-7," a man replies.
"Gang stalking," another woman says.
"Oh, yeah, join the club," yet another man replies.
The members of this confessional "club" are not your usual victims. This isn't a group for alcoholics, drug addicts or survivors of childhood abuse; the people connecting on the call are self-described victims of mind control -- people who believe they have been targeted by a secret government program that tracks them around the clock, using technology to probe and control their minds.
The callers frequently refer to themselves as TIs, which is short for Targeted Individuals, and talk about V2K -- the official military abbreviation stands for "voice to skull" and denotes weapons that beam voices or sounds into the head. In their esoteric lexicon, "gang stalking" refers to the belief that they are being followed and harassed: by neighbors, strangers or colleagues who are agents for the government.
A few more "hellos" are exchanged, interrupted by beeps signaling late arrivals: Bill from Columbus, Barbara from Philadelphia, Jim from California and a dozen or so others.
Derrick Robinson, the conference call moderator, calls order.
"It's five after 9," says Robinson, with the sweetly reasonable intonation of a late-night radio host. "Maybe we should go ahead and start."
THE IDEA OF A GROUP OF PEOPLE CONVINCED THEY ARE TARGETED BY WEAPONS that can invade their minds has become a cultural joke, shorthanded by the image of solitary lunatics wearing tinfoil hats to deflect invisible mind beams. "Tinfoil hat," says Wikipedia, has become "a popular stereotype and term of derision; the phrase serves as a byword for paranoia and is associated with conspiracy theorists."
In 2005, a group of MIT students conducted a formal study using aluminum foil and radio signals. Their surprising finding: Tinfoil hats may actually amplify radio frequency signals. Of course, the tech students meant the study as a joke.
But during the Saturday conference call, the subject of aluminum foil is deadly serious. The MIT study had prompted renewed debate; while a few TIs realized it was a joke at their expense, some saw the findings as an explanation for why tinfoil didn't seem to stop the voices. Others vouched for the material.
"Tinfoil helps tremendously," reports one conference call participant, who describes wrapping it around her body underneath her clothing.
"Where do you put the tinfoil?" a man asks.
"Anywhere, everywhere," she replies. "I even put it in a hat."
A TI in an online mind-control forum recommends a Web site called "Block EMF" (as in electromagnetic frequencies), which advertises a full line of clothing, including aluminum-lined boxer shorts described as a "sheer, comfortable undergarment you can wear over your regular one to shield yourself from power lines and computer electric fields, and microwave, radar, and TV radiation." Similarly, a tinfoil hat disguised as a regular baseball cap is "smart and subtle."
For all the scorn, the ranks of victims -- or people who believe they are victims -- are speaking up. In the course of the evening, there are as many as 40 clicks from people joining the call, and much larger numbers participate in the online forum, which has 143 members. A note there mentioning interest from a journalist prompted more than 200 e-mail responses.
Until recently, people who believe the government is beaming voices into their heads would have added social isolation to their catalogue of woes. But now, many have discovered hundreds, possibly thousands, of others just like them all over the world. Web sites dedicated to electronic harassment and gang stalking have popped up in India, China, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Russia and elsewhere. Victims have begun to host support meetings in major cities, including Washington. Favorite topics at the meetings include lessons on how to build shields (the proverbial tinfoil hats), media and PR training, and possible legal strategies for outlawing mind control.
The biggest hurdle for TIs is getting people to take their concerns seriously. A proposal made in 2001 by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) to ban "psychotronic weapons" (another common term for mind-control technology) was hailed by TIs as a great step forward. But the bill was widely derided by bloggers and columnists and quickly dropped.
Doug Gordon, Kucinich's spokesman, would not discuss mind control other than to say the proposal was part of broader legislation outlawing weapons in space. The bill was later reintroduced, minus the mind control. "It was not the concentration of the legislation, which is why it was tightened up and redrafted," was all Gordon would say.
Unable to garner much support from their elected representatives, TIs have started their own PR campaign. And so, last spring, the Saturday conference calls centered on plans to hold a rally in Washington. A 2005 attempt at a rally drew a few dozen people and was ultimately rained out; the TIs were determined to make another go of it. Conversations focused around designing T-shirts, setting up congressional appointments, fundraising, creating a new Web site and formalizing a slogan. After some debate over whether to focus on gang stalking or mind control, the group came up with a compromise slogan that covered both: "Freedom From Covert Surveillance and Electronic Harassment."
Conference call moderator Robinson, who says his gang stalking began when he worked at the National Security Agency in the 1980s, offers his assessment of the group's prospects: Maybe this rally wouldn't produce much press, but it's a first step. "I see this as a movement," he says. "We're picking up people all the time."
HARLAN GIRARD SAYS HIS PROBLEMS BEGAN IN 1983, while he was a real estate developer in Los Angeles. The harassment was subtle at first: One day a woman pulled up in a car, wagged her finger at him, then sped away; he saw people running underneath his window at night; he noticed some of his neighbors seemed to be watching him; he heard someone moving in the crawl space under his apartment at night.
Girard sought advice from this then-girlfriend, a practicing psychologist, whom he declines to identify. He says she told him, "Nobody can become psychotic in their late 40s." She said he didn't seem to manifest other symptoms of psychotic behavior -- he dressed well, paid his bills -- and, besides his claims of surveillance, which sounded paranoid, he behaved normally. "People who are psychotic are socially isolated," he recalls her saying.
After a few months, Girard says, the harassment abruptly stopped. But the respite didn't last. In 1984, appropriately enough, things got seriously weird. He'd left his real estate career to return to school at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was studying for a master's degree in landscape architecture. He harbored dreams of designing parks and public spaces. Then, he says, he began to hear voices. Girard could distinguish several different male voices, which came complete with a mental image of how the voices were being generated: from a recording studio, with "four slops sitting around a card table drinking beer," he says.
The voices were crass but also strangely courteous, addressing him as "Mr. Girard."
They taunted him. They asked him if he thought he was normal; they suggested he was going crazy. They insulted his classmates: When an overweight student showed up for a field trip in a white raincoat, they said, "Hey, Mr. Girard, doesn't she look like a refrigerator?"
Six months after the voices began, they had another question for him: "Mr. Girard, Mr. Girard. Why aren't you dead yet?" At first, he recalls, the voices would speak just two or three times a day, but it escalated into a near-constant cacophony, often accompanied by severe pain all over his body -- which Girard now attributes to directed-energy weapons that can shoot invisible beams.
The voices even suggested how he could figure out what was happening to him. He says they told him to go to the electrical engineering department to "tell them you're writing science fiction and you don't want to write anything inconsistent with physical reality. Then tell them exactly what has happened."
Girard went and got some rudimentary explanations of how technology could explain some of the things he was describing.
"Finally, I said: 'Look, I must come to the point, because I need answers. This is happening to me; it's not science fiction.'" They laughed.
He got the same response from friends, he says. "They regarded me as crazy, which is a humiliating experience."
When asked why he didn't consult a doctor about the voices and the pain, he says, "I don't dare start talking to people because of the potential stigma of it all. I don't want to be treated differently. Here I was in Philadelphia. Something was going on, I don't know any doctors . . . I know somebody's doing something to me."
It was a struggle to graduate, he says, but he was determined, and he persevered. In 1988, the same year he finished his degree, his father died, leaving Girard an inheritance large enough that he did not have to work.
So, instead of becoming a landscape architect, Girard began a full-time investigation of what was happening to him, often traveling to Washington in pursuit of government documents relating to mind control. He put an ad in a magazine seeking other victims. Only a few people responded. But over the years, as he met more and more people like himself, he grew convinced that he was part of what he calls an "electronic concentration camp."
What he was finding on his research trips also buttressed his belief: Girard learned that in the 1950s, the CIA had drugged unwitting victims with LSD as part of a rogue mind-control experiment called MK-ULTRA. He came across references to the CIA seeking to influence the mind with electromagnetic fields. Then he found references in an academic research book to work that military researchers at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research had done in the 1970s with pulsed microwaves to transmit words that a subject would hear in his head. Elsewhere, he came across references to attempts to use electromagnetic energy, sound waves or microwave beams to cause non-lethal pain to the body. For every symptom he experienced, he believed he found references to a weapon that could cause it.
How much of the research Girard cites checks out?
Concerns about microwaves and mind control date to the 1960s, when the U.S. government discovered that its embassy in Moscow was being bombarded by low-level electromagnetic radiation. In 1965, according to declassified Defense Department documents, the Pentagon, at the behest of the White House, launched Project Pandora, top-secret research to explore the behavioral and biological effects of low-level microwaves. For approximately four years, the Pentagon conducted secret research: zapping monkeys; exposing unwitting sailors to microwave radiation; and conducting a host of other unusual experiments (a sub-project of Project Pandora was titled Project Bizarre). The results were mixed, and the program was plagued by disagreements and scientific squabbles. The "Moscow signal," as it was called, was eventually attributed to eavesdropping, not mind control, and Pandora ended in 1970. And with it, the military's research into so-called non-thermal microwave effects seemed to die out, at least in the unclassified realm.
But there are hints of ongoing research: An academic paper written for the Air Force in the mid-1990s mentions the idea of a weapon that would use sound waves to send words into a person's head. "The signal can be a 'message from God' that can warn the enemy of impending doom, or encourage the enemy to surrender," the author concluded.
In 2002, the Air Force Research Laboratory patented precisely such a technology: using microwaves to send words into someone's head. That work is frequently cited on mind-control Web sites. Rich Garcia, a spokesman for the research laboratory's directed energy directorate, declined to discuss that patent or current or related research in the field, citing the lab's policy not to comment on its microwave work.
In response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed for this article, the Air Force released unclassified documents surrounding that 2002 patent -- records that note that the patent was based on human experimentation in October 1994 at the Air Force lab, where scientists were able to transmit phrases into the heads of human subjects, albeit with marginal intelligibility. Research appeared to continue at least through 2002. Where this work has gone since is unclear -- the research laboratory, citing classification, refused to discuss it or release other materials.
The official U.S. Air Force position is that there are no non-thermal effects of microwaves. Yet Dennis Bushnell, chief scientist at NASA's Langley Research Center, tagged microwave attacks against the human brain as part of future warfare in a 2001 presentation to the National Defense Industrial Association about "Future Strategic Issues."
"That work is exceedingly sensitive" and unlikely to be reported in any unclassified documents, he says.
Meanwhile, the military's use of weapons that employ electromagnetic radiation to create pain is well-known, as are some of the limitations of such weapons. In 2001, the Pentagon declassified one element of this research: the Active Denial System, a weapon that uses electromagnetic radiation to heat skin and create an intense burning sensation. So, yes, there is technology designed to beam painful invisible rays at humans, but the weapon seems to fall far short of what could account for many of the TIs' symptoms. While its exact range is classified, Doug Beason, an expert in directed-energy weapons, puts it at about 700 meters, and the beam cannot penetrate a number of materials, such as aluminum. Considering the size of the full-scale weapon, which resembles a satellite dish, and its operational limitations, the ability of the government or anyone else to shoot beams at hundreds of people -- on city streets, into their homes and while they travel in cars and planes -- is beyond improbable.
But, given the history of America's clandestine research, it's reasonable to assume that if the defense establishment could develop mind-control or long-distance ray weapons, it almost certainly would. And, once developed, the possibility that they might be tested on innocent civilians could not be categorically dismissed.
Girard, for his part, believes these weapons were not only developed but were also tested on him more than 20 years ago.
What would the government gain by torturing him? Again, Girard found what he believed to be an explanation, or at least a precedent: During the Cold War, the government conducted radiation experiments on scores of unwitting victims, essentially using them as human guinea pigs. Girard came to believe that he, too, was a walking experiment.
Not that Girard thinks his selection was totally random: He believes he was targeted because of a disparaging remark he made to a Republican fundraiser about George H.W. Bush in the early 1980s. Later, Girard says, the voices confirmed his suspicion.
"One night I was going to bed; the usual drivel was going on," he says. "The constant stream of drivel. I was just about to go to bed, and a voice says: 'Mr. Girard, do you know who was in our studio with us? That was George Bush, vice president of the United States.'"
GIRARD'S STORY, HOWEVER STRANGE, reflects what TIs around the world report: a chance encounter with a government agency or official, followed by surveillance and gang stalking, and then, in many cases, voices, and pain similar to electric shocks. Some in the community have taken it upon themselves to document as many cases as possible. One TI from California conducted about 50 interviews, narrowing the symptoms down to several major areas: "ringing in the ears," "manipulation of body parts," "hearing voices," "piercing sensation on skin," "sinus problems" and "sexual attacks." In fact, the TI continued, "many report the sensation of having their genitalia manipulated."
Both male and female TIs report a variety of "attacks" to their sexual organs. "My testicles became so sore I could barely walk," Girard says of his early experiences. Others, however, report the attacks in the form of sexual stimulation, including one TI who claims he dropped out of the seminary after constant sexual stimulation by directed-energy weapons. Susan Sayler, a TI in San Diego, says many women among the TIs suffer from attacks to their sexual organs but are often embarrassed to talk about it with outsiders.
"It's sporadic, you just never know when it will happen," she says. "A lot of the women say it's as soon as you lay down in bed -- that's when you would get hit the worst. It happened to me as I was driving, at odd times."
What made her think it was an electronic attack and not just in her head? "There was no sexual attraction to a man when it would happen. That's what was wrong. It did not feel like a muscle spasm or whatever," she says. "It's so . . . electronic."
GLORIA NAYLOR, a renowned African American writer, seems to defy many of the stereotypes of someone who believes in mind control. A winner of the National Book Award, Naylor is best known for her acclaimed novel, The Women of Brewster Place, which described a group of women living in a poor urban neighborhood and was later made into a miniseries by Oprah Winfrey.
But in 2005, she published a lesser-known work, 1996, a semi-autobiographical book describing her experience as a TI. "I didn't want to tell this story. It's going to take courage. Perhaps more courage than I possess, but they've left me no alternatives," Naylor writes at the beginning of her book. "I am in a battle for my mind. If I stop now, they'll have won, and I will lose myself." The book is coherent, if hard to believe. It's also marked by disturbing passages describing how Jewish American agents were responsible for Naylor's surveillance. "Of the many cars that kept coming and going down my road, most were driven by Jews," she writes in the book. When asked about that passage in a recent interview, she defended her logic: Being from New York, she claimed, she can recognize Jews.
Naylor lives on a quiet street in Brooklyn in a majestic brownstone with an interior featuring intricate woodwork and tasteful decorations that attest to a successful literary career. She speaks about her situation calmly, occasionally laughing at her own predicament and her struggle with what she originally thought was mental illness. "I would observe myself," she explains. "I would lie in bed while the conversations were going on, and I'd ask: Maybe it is schizophrenia?"
Like Girard, Naylor describes what she calls "street theater" -- incidents that might be dismissed by others as coincidental, but which Naylor believes were set up. She noticed suspicious cars driving by her isolated vacation home. On an airplane, fellow passengers mimicked her every movement -- like mimes on a street.
Voices similar to those in Girard's case followed -- taunting voices cursing her, telling her she was stupid, that she couldn't write. Expletive-laced language filled her head. Naylor sought help from a psychiatrist and received a prescription for an antipsychotic drug. But the medication failed to stop the voices, she says, which only added to her conviction that the harassment was real.
For almost four years, Naylor says, the voices prevented her from writing. In 2000, she says, around the time she discovered the mind-control forums, the voices stopped and the surveillance tapered off. It was then that she began writing 1996 as a "catharsis."
Colleagues urged Naylor not to publish the book, saying she would destroy her reputation. But she did publish, albeit with a small publishing house. The book was generally ignored by critics but embraced by TIs.
Naylor is not the first writer to describe such a personal descent. Evelyn Waugh, one of the great novelists of the 20th century, details similar experiences in The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold. Waugh's book, published in 1957, has eerie similarities to Naylor's.
Embarking on a recuperative cruise, Pinfold begins to hear voices on the ship that he believes are part of a wireless system capable of broadcasting into his head; he believes the instigator recruited fellow passengers to act as operatives; and he describes "performances" put on by passengers directed at him yet meant to look innocuous to others.
Waugh wrote his book several years after recovering from a similar episode and realizing that the voices and paranoia were the result of drug-induced hallucinations.
Naylor, who hasn't written a book since 1996, is now back at work on an historical novel she hopes will return her to the literary mainstream. She remains convinced that she was targeted by mind control. The many echoes of her ordeal she sees on the mind-control forums reassure her she's not crazy, she says.
Of course, some of the things she sees on the forum do strike her as crazy. "But who I am to say?" she says. "Maybe I sound crazy to somebody else."
SOME TIS, SUCH AS ED MOORE, A YOUNG MEDICAL DOCTOR, take a slightly more skeptical approach. He criticizes what he calls the "wacky claims" of TIs who blame various government agencies or groups of people without any proof. "I have yet to see a claim of who is behind this that has any data to support it," he writes.
Nonetheless, Moore still believes the voices in his head are the result of mind control and that the U.S. government is the most likely culprit. Moore started hearing voices in 2003, just as he completed his medical residency in anesthesiology; he was pulling an all-nighter studying for board exams when he heard voices coming from a nearby house commenting on him, on his abilities as a doctor, on his sanity. At first, he thought he was simply overhearing conversations through walls (much as Waugh's fictional alter ego first thought), but when no one else could hear the voices, he realized they were in his head. Moore went through a traumatic two years, including hospitalization for depression with auditory hallucinations.
"One tries to convince friends and family that you are being electronically harassed with voices that only you can hear," he writes in an e-mail. "You learn to stop doing that. They don't believe you, and they become sad and concerned, and it amplifies your own depression when you have voices screaming at you and your friends and family looking at you as a helpless, sick, mentally unbalanced wreck."
He says he grew frustrated with anti-psychotic medications meant to stop the voices, both because the treatments didn't work and because psychiatrists showed no interest in what the voices were telling him. He began to look for some other way to cope.
"In March of 2005, I started looking up support groups on the Internet," he wrote. "My wife would cry when she would see these sites, knowing I still heard voices, but I did not know what else to do." In 2006, he says, his wife, who had stood by him for three years, filed for divorce.
Moore, like other TIs, is cautious about sharing details of his life. He worries about looking foolish to friends and colleagues -- but he says that risk is ultimately worthwhile if he can bring attention to the issue.
With his father's financial help, Moore is now studying for an electrical engineering degree at the University of Texas at San Antonio, hoping to prove that V2K, the technology to send voices into people's heads, is real. Being in school, around other people, helps him cope, he writes, but the voices continue to taunt him.
Recently, he says, they told him: "We'll never stop [messing] with you."
A WEEK BEFORE THE TIS RALLY ON THE NATIONAL MALL, John Alexander, one of the people whom Harlan Girard holds personally responsible for the voices in his head, is at a Chili's restaurant in Crystal City explaining over a Philly cheese steak and fries why the United States needs mind-control weapons.
A former Green Beret who served in Vietnam, Alexander went on to a number of national security jobs, and rubbed shoulders with prominent military and political leaders. Long known for taking an interest in exotic weapons, his 1980 article, "The New Mental Battlefield," published in the Army journal Military Review, is cited by self-described victims as proof of his complicity in mind control. Now retired from the government and living in Las Vegas, Alexander continues to advise the military. He is in the Washington area that day for an official meeting.
Beneath a shock of white hair is the mind of a self-styled military thinker. Alexander belongs to a particular set of Pentagon advisers who consider themselves defense intellectuals, focusing on big-picture issues, future threats and new capabilities. Alexander's career led him from work on sticky foam that would stop an enemy in his or her tracks to dalliances in paranormal studies and psychics, which he still defends as operationally useful.
In an earlier phone conversation, Alexander said that in the 1990s, when he took part in briefings at the CIA, there was never any talk of "mind control, or mind-altering drugs or technologies, or anything like that."
According to Alexander, the military and intelligence agencies were still scared by the excesses of MK-ULTRA, the infamous CIA program that involved, in part, slipping LSD to unsuspecting victims. "Until recently, anything that smacked of [mind control] was extremely dangerous" because Congress would simply take the money away, he said.
Alexander acknowledged that "there were some abuses that took place," but added that, on the whole, "I would argue we threw the baby out with the bath water."
But September 11, 2001, changed the mood in Washington, and some in the national security community are again expressing interest in mind control, particularly a younger generation of officials who weren't around for MK-ULTRA. "It's interesting, that it's coming back," Alexander observed.
While Alexander scoffs at the notion that he is somehow part of an elaborate plot to control people's minds, he acknowledges support for learning how to tap into a potential enemy's brain. He gives as an example the possible use of functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, for lie detection. "Brain mapping" with fMRI theoretically could allow interrogators to know when someone is lying by watching for activity in particular parts of the brain. For interrogating terrorists, fMRI could come in handy, Alexander suggests. But any conceivable use of the technique would fall far short of the kind of mind-reading TIs complain about.
Alexander also is intrigued by the possibility of using electronic means to modify behavior. The dilemma of the war on terrorism, he notes, is that it never ends. So what do you do with enemies, such as those at Guantanamo: keep them there forever? That's impractical. Behavior modification could be an alternative, he says.
"Maybe I can fix you, or electronically neuter you, so it's safe to release you into society, so you won't come back and kill me," Alexander says. It's only a matter of time before technology allows that scenario to come true, he continues. "We're now getting to where we can do that." He pauses for a moment to take a bite of his sandwich. "Where does that fall in the ethics spectrum? That's a really tough question."
When Alexander encounters a query he doesn't want to answer, such as one about the ethics of mind control, he smiles and raises his hands level to his chest, as if balancing two imaginary weights. In one hand is mind control and the sanctity of free thought -- and in the other hand, a tad higher -- is the war on terrorism.
But none of this has anything to do with the TIs, he says. "Just because things are secret, people tend to extrapolate. Common sense does not prevail, and even when you point out huge leaps in logic that just cannot be true, they are not dissuaded."
WHAT IS IT THAT BRINGS SOMEONE, EVEN AN INTELLIGENT PERSON, to ascribe the experience of hearing disembodied voices to government weapons?
In her book, Abducted, Harvard psychologist Susan Clancy examines a group that has striking parallels to the TIs: people who believe they've been kidnapped by aliens. The similarities are often uncanny: Would-be abductees describe strange pains, and feelings of being watched or targeted. And although the alleged abductees don't generally have auditory hallucinations, they do sometimes believe that their thoughts are controlled by aliens, or that they've been implanted with advanced technology.
(On the online forum, some TIs posted vociferous objections to the parallel, concerned that the public finds UFOs even weirder than mind control. "It will keep us all marginalized and discredited," one griped.)
Clancy argues that the main reason people believe they've been abducted by aliens is that it provides them with a compelling narrative to explain their perception that strange things have happened to them, such as marks on their bodies (marks others would simply dismiss as bruises), stimulation to their sexual organs (as the TIs describe) or feelings of paranoia. "It's not just an explanation for your problems; it's a source of meaning for your life," Clancy says.
In the case of TIs, mind-control weapons are an explanation for the voices they hear in their head. Socrates heard a voice and thought it was a demon; Joan of Arc heard voices from God. As one TI noted in an e-mail: "Each person undergoing this harassment is looking for the solution to the problem. Each person analyzes it through his or her own particular spectrum of beliefs. If you are a scientific-minded person, then you will probably analyze the situation from that perspective and conclude it must be done with some kind of electronic devices. If you are a religious person, you will see it as a struggle between the elements of whatever religion you believe in. If you are maybe, perhaps more eccentric, you may think that it is alien in nature."
Or, if you happen to live in the United States in the early 21st century, you may fear the growing power of the NSA, CIA and FBI.
Being a victim of government surveillance is also, arguably, better than being insane. In Waugh's novella based on his own painful experience, when Pinfold concludes that hidden technology is being used to infiltrate his brain, he "felt nothing but gratitude in his discovery." Why? "He might be unpopular; he might be ridiculous; but he was not mad."
Ralph Hoffman, a professor of psychiatry at Yale who has studied auditory hallucinations, regularly sees people who believe the voices are a part of government harassment (others believe they are God, dead relatives or even ex-girlfriends). Not all people who hear voices are schizophrenic, he says, noting that people can hear voices episodically in highly emotional states. What exactly causes these voices is still unknown, but one thing is certain: People who think the voices are caused by some external force are rarely dissuaded from their delusional belief, he says. "These are highly emotional and gripping experiences that are so compelling for them that ordinary reality seems bland."
Perhaps because the experience is so vivid, he says, even some of those who improve through treatment merely decide the medical regimen somehow helped protect their brain from government weapons.
Scott Temple, a professor of psychiatry at Penn State University who has been involved in two recent studies of auditory hallucinations, notes that those who suffer such hallucinations frequently lack insight into their illness. Even among those who do understand they are sick, "that awareness comes and goes," he says. "People feel overwhelmed, and the delusional interpretations return."
BACK AT THE PHILADELPHIA TRAIN STATION, Girard seems more agitated. In a meeting the week before, his "handlers" had spoken to him only briefly -- they weren't in the right position to attack him, Girard surmises, based on the lack of voices. Today, his conversation jumps more rapidly from one subject to the next: victims of radiation experiments, his hatred of George H.W. Bush, MK-ULTRA, his personal experiences.
Asked about his studies at Penn, he replies by talking about his problems with reading: "I told you, everything I write they dictate to me," he says, referring again to the voices. "When I read, they're reading to me. My eyes go across; they're moving my eyes down the line. They're reading it to me. When I close the book, I can't remember a thing I read. That's why they do it."
The week before, Girard had pointed to only one person who appeared suspicious to him -- a young African American man reading a book; this time, however, he hears more voices, which leads him to believe the station is crawling with agents.
"Let's change our location," Girard says after a while. "I'm sure they have 40 or 50 people in here today. I escaped their surveillance last time -- they won't let that happen again."
Asked to explain the connection between mind control and the University of Pennsylvania, which Girard alleges is involved in the conspiracy, he begins to talk about defense contractors located near the Philadelphia campus: "
General Electric was right next to the parking garage; General Electric Space Systems occupies a huge building right over there. From that building, you could see into the studio where I was doing my work most of the time. I asked somebody what they were doing there. You know, it had to do with computers. GE Space Systems. They were supposed to be tracking missile debris from this location . . . pardon me. What was your question again?"
Yet many parts of Girard's life seem to reflect that of any affluent 70-year-old bachelor. He travels frequently to France for extended vacations and takes part in French cultural activities in Philadelphia. He has set up a travel scholarship at the Cleveland Institute of Art in the name of his late mother, who attended school there (he changed his last name 27 years ago for "personal reasons"), and he travels to meet the students who benefit from the fund. And while the bulk of his time is spent on his research and writing about mind control, he has other interests. He follows politics and describes outings with friends and family members with whom he doesn't talk about mind control, knowing they would view it skeptically.
Girard acknowledges that some of his experiences mirror symptoms of schizophrenia, but asked if he ever worried that the voices might in fact be caused by mental illness, he answers sharply with one word: "No."
How, then, does he know the voices are real?
"How do you know you know anything?" Girard replies. "How do you know I exist? How do you know this isn't a dream you're having, from which you'll wake up in a few minutes? I suppose that analogy is the closest thing: You know when you have a dream. Sometimes it could be perfectly lucid, but you know it's a dream."
The very "realness" of the voices is the issue -- how do you disbelieve something you perceive as real? That's precisely what Hoffman, the Yale psychiatrist, points out: So lucid are the voices that the sufferers -- regardless of their educational level or self-awareness -- are unable to see them as anything but real. "One thing I can assure you," Hoffman says, "is that for them, it feels real."
IT LOOKS ALMOST LIKE ANY OTHER SMALL POLITICAL RALLY IN WASHINGTON. Posters adorn the gate on the southwest side of the Capitol Reflecting Pool, as attendees set up a table with press materials, while volunteers test a loudspeaker and set out coolers filled with bottled water. The sun is out, the weather is perfect, and an eclectic collection of people from across the country has gathered to protest mind control.
There is not a tinfoil hat to be seen. Only the posters and paraphernalia hint at the unusual. "Stop USA electronic harassment," urges one poster. "Directed Energy Assaults," reads another. Smaller signs in the shape of tombstones say, "RIP MKULTRA." The main display, set in front of the speaker's lectern has a more extended message: "HELP STOP HI-TECH ASSAULT PSYCHOTRONIC TORTURE."
About 35 TIs show up for the June rally, in addition to a few friends and family members. Speakers alternate between giving personal testimonials and descriptions of research into mind-control technology. Most of the gawkers at the rally are foreign tourists. A few hecklers snicker at the signs, but mostly people are either confused or indifferent. The articles on mind control at the table -- from mainstream news magazines -- go untouched.
"How can you expect people to get worked up over this if they don't care about eavesdropping or eminent domain?" one man challenges after stopping to flip through the literature. Mary Ann Stratton, who is manning the table, merely shrugs and smiles sadly. There is no answer: Everyone at the rally acknowledges it is an uphill battle.
In general, the outlook for TIs is not good; many lose their jobs, houses and family. Depression is common. But for many at the rally, experiencing the community of mind-control victims seems to help. One TI, a man who had been a rescue swimmer in the Coast Guard before voices in his head sent him on a downward spiral, expressed the solace he found among fellow TIs in a long e-mail to another TI: "I think that the only people that can help are people going through the same thing. Everyone else will not believe you, or they are possibly involved."
In the end, though, nothing could help him enough. In August 2006, he would commit suicide.
But at least for the day, the rally is boosting TI spirits. Girard, in what for him is an ebullient mood, takes the microphone. A small crowd of tourists gathers at the sidelines, listening with casual interest. With the Capitol looming behind him, he reaches the crescendo of his speech, rallying the attendees to remember an important thing: They are part of a single community.
"I've heard it said, 'We can't get anywhere because everyone's story is different.' We are all the same," Girard booms. "You knew someone with the power to commit you to the electronic concentration camp system."
Several weeks after the rally, Girard shows up for a meeting with a reporter at the stately Mayflower Hotel in Washington, where he has stayed frequently over the two decades he has traveled to the capital to battle mind control. He walks in with a lit cigarette, which he apologetically puts out after a hotel employee tells him smoking isn't allowed anymore. He is half an hour late -- delayed, he says, by a meeting on Capitol Hill. Wearing a monogrammed dress shirt and tie, he looks, as always, serious and professional.
Girard declines to mention whom on Capitol Hill he'd met with, other than to say it was a congressional staffer. Embarrassment is likely a factor: Girard readily acknowledges that most people he meets with, ranging from scholars to politicians, ignore his entreaties or dismiss him as a lunatic.
Lately, his focus is on his Web site, which he sees as the culmination of nearly a quarter-century of research. When completed, it will contain more than 300 pages of documents. What next? Maybe he'll move to France (there are victims there, too), or maybe the U.S. government will finally just kill him, he says.
Meanwhile, he is always searching for absolute proof that the government has decoded the brain. His latest interest is LifeLog, a project once funded by the Pentagon that he read about in Wired News. The article described it this way: "The embryonic LifeLog program would dump everything an individual does into a giant database: every e-mail sent or received, every picture taken, every Web page surfed, every phone call made, every TV show watched, every magazine read. All of this -- and more -- would combine with information gleaned from a variety of sources: a GPS transmitter to keep tabs on where that person went, audiovisual sensors to capture what he or she sees or says, and biomedical monitors to keep track of the individual's health."
Girard suggests that the government, using similar technology, has "catalogued" his life over the past two years -- every sight and sound (Evelyn Waugh, in his mind-control book, writes about his character's similar fear that his harassers were creating a file of his entire life).
Girard thinks the government can control his movements, inject thoughts into his head, cause him pain day and night. He believes that he will die a victim of mind control.
Is there any reason for optimism?
Girard hesitates, then asks a rhetorical question.
"Why, despite all this, why am I the same person? Why am I Harlan Girard?"
For all his anguish, be it the result of mental illness or, as Girard contends, government mind control, the voices haven't managed to conquer the thing that makes him who he is: Call it his consciousness, his intellect or, perhaps, his soul.
"That's what they don't yet have," he says. After 22 years, "I'm still me."
Sharon Weinberger is a Washington writer and author of Imaginary Weapons: A Journey Through the Pentagon's Scientific Underworld. She will be fielding questions and comments about this article Tuesday at washingtonpost.com/liveonline.
The Cleveland Free Times
Insanity Defense,
Mental Illness Or Secret Weapons? and How Do You Tell the Difference When the News Is Crazy?
By Dan Harkins
SOUND, MIND AND BODY LeBoeuf says thoughts are beamed into her head.
Suz LeBoeuf claims the voices in her head are speaking louder than ever these days, hammering away at odd times — in the shower, in bed or as she walks down the street — with gratuitous sexual banter or terrifying threats of violence. Sometimes it's just meaningless words; other times, the voices seem to deliver stark clues leading her down a path toward understanding.
She blames the government.
At an Akron coffee shop a short walk from her tiny attic apartment, the 51-year-old sits behind stacks of paper and tapes of homemade TV segments she's recorded for public access in Youngstown, Warren and Wadsworth. Most of it is based on research by "scientists" of what the military calls influence technology, stories by nonaffiliated "journalists" uncovering ghastly plots. Chemtrails. Acoustic weaponry. Directed energy weapons. Weather control.
Some of the material appears to be connected to legitimate sources, though — a fact that emboldens her quest to discover what if any of this is true. Nevertheless, her claims sound like the ramblings of a wackjob, and therein lies her greatest hurdle: the crazy factor.
"I need help. I want to find helpful remedies, to think of ways to stop this," she says in her helium voice loud enough to elicit a few muted guffaws from nearby customers. "Why would I risk sounding like a complete lunatic?"
LeBoeuf is a seemingly educated woman with a checkered past. She's got a bachelor's degree in journalism from Sacramento State and an online master's degree in clinical psychology from National University. Currently, she's working toward an online Ph.D.
Since she arrived in Akron a year and a half ago after a short spell on the road, she's enrolled in master's classes at Akron University, using her loans to pay rent and utilities, and to purchase computer and video equipment for her show. She says it's not cost-effective to get a job because every time she does, the government takes most of her pay for back child support owed to her 18-year-old daughter in California, whom she hasn't seen in years. She doesn't want to get into all that. It's depressing. She says she hasn't seen a shrink in years but insists she's not crazy.
Back at her cluttered apartment, what she calls "the home studio of a torture victim," she brings up her Web site, electrowell.com, with links to her psychedelic-tinged TV segments. In one, she claims that the machinations of unseen technology (Acoustic sound projectors? Electromagnetic beams!) are yanking at her head with great force. She says she first started realizing that something other than nuttiness was involved when she heard the word "electromagnetic" broadcast across her neurons. That's when she hit the Internet and found gaggles of the similarly mind-warped.
"That's when I knew something was going on," she says. "It's like somebody got a hold of the acoustic equipment and was trying to help me. But nobody believes me. They refuse to believe the government would turn this technology on its own people, even though it's all over the news that they're logging everyone's phone calls. Nobody wants to do anything. It's totally cruel, totally heartbreaking."
Though behavioral experts say the most ubiquitous manifestation of paranoid schizophrenia is hearing commanding voices from a seemingly external source, many also admit the government has gone down this road before, using humans as guinea pigs for research into things as disparate as mind-control (known as MKULTRA per open records) and syphillis (Tuskegee Airmen).
Surely, having as pawns a legion of nutcases would make for the perfect cover. Or the perfect Tom Clancy novel, blending just the right amount of fiction and fact.
LeBeouf thought she had a sympathizer in U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich. Just after the terrorist attacks of 2001, he sponsored the Space Preservation Act (HR2977), which aimed to ban exotic weaponry like "chemtrails," "particle beams," "electromagnetic radiation," "plasmas," "extremely low frequency or ultra low frequency energy (psychotronics)," "radiation" or "mind-control technologies." The legislation went nowhere, and three months later, Kucinich resubmitted it as HR3616 with all the mentions of those weapons vaporized. Of course, the legislation still has gone nowhere, but Kucinich's deletions resonated with the conspiracy-minded.
At an Akron rally a few months ago with peace activist Cindy Sheehan, LeBeouf says she approached the congressman. "I said, 'I'm the bioelectric torture lady in Akron and I sent you that video,'" LeBeouf recalls. "He just sort of turned away, kind of like he definitely didn't want to be around me."
Kucinich spokesman Doug Gordon says the language changed with Kucinich's understanding.
"Since the bill was introduced, we've seen more evidence that the Air Force is seeking to weaponize space and the Congressman is strongly opposed to this," Gordon says. Referring to the exotic weaponry, he adds, "We have no current proof of such technology being used."
No current proof? Was there proof that can no longer be discussed? "I'm just going to leave it at that," Gordon answers. A request to discuss the legislation with Kucinich was ignored.
Green Party-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Bob Fitrakis, a Columbus lawyer, journalist, political science professor and author, believes much of what the government is up to is deep undercover. He points to the military's Joint Vision for 2020 program which describes preparation for aggressive war and total dominance of air, land, sea, space and information.
"There's a lot of unstable people out there, but it's also to the government's advantage if they can get enough unstable people, so when they legitimately get caught doing this stuff you have a cover," he says.
Nich Begich is focusing not on the victims but the alleged perpetrators. Begich is executive director of the Lay Institute for Technology, founded by the heiress to the Lay potato chip fortune to ferret out the truth behind government secrecy. He compiles evidence from patents, mainstream media articles and government disclosures.
His sources appear legit. Trade journal Defense News, as well as Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report, have reported on emerging technologies like directed energy and acoustic weaponry. Generals have gathered for conferences on directed-energy weaponry and other exotic technologies. Patents have been awarded for sound-throwing devices and microwave conductors that allegedly can alter states of being.
Begich says sound-transfer equipment is already developed. In the late '90s, he showed the European Parliament how it's done. He also presented his case about weather manipulation technology as well as non-lethal microwave and electromagnetic weapons, which he says could be developed to cause not just burning sensations in targets but also lethargy or even death. In 1999, the parliament passed a resolution calling for an international ban on weapons that would enable the manipulation of the human brain.
"Our intention is to look for ways to address problems with advancing technologies at least through disclosure and education," he says. "A lot of this knowledge holds keys to human physiology. We could develop that technology, for instance, for the deaf [or] in other ways much more productive than what it's being used for now. But to do it safely and responsibly, you have to open the door."
The military takes the what-the-hell-are-you-talking-about stance.
Defense Department spokeswoman Eileen Lainez goes right for the jugular: "We get calls from people saying they know who killed J.F.K., too. It sounds like that movie … what was it? With Julia Roberts and Mel Gibson. That was really good."
In a statement, Lainez is less antagonistic: "We cannot speak for the Department of Homeland Security. The DoD Defense Research & Engineering office knows of no technologies currently in use or planned by the Department of Defense to read or control people's minds."
Marines Capt. Jay Delarosa at the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, which tests emerging technologies, claims he's never heard of most of these exotic weapons either. "Sounds very odd, like they've been watching too much SciFi Channel," he says.
He acknowledges the development of long-range acoustic devices, which can direct sound to deafen the enemy or mimic bombings to disorient. Radiowave technology, he says, is still far from battlefield ready, though.
"Laboratory curiosities," is how John Pike, former director of the Space Policy Project for the Federation of American Scientists, characterizes much of the technology in question. People like LeBeouf, he says, are trying like everyone to make sense of the world, and with an undercurrent of distrust in government and legitimate reports on some emerging technology, it isn't hard to drift into a nightmare: "This administration is of the view that no one is above suspicion and that everyone is potentially a suspect. It's very Orwellian. I call it America 2.0."
Still, Pike adds, "You have to wonder, before all this technology came along, how did people explain it, the voices in their heads?"
LeBeouf has heard it before. She'll be at a Washington D.C. rally on June 16 and 17 with like-minded Americans who believe the government is up to no good. Call her crazy. A long-used, conspiracy-buff mantra rolls off her tongue: "Just because we're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after us."
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From the January 2007 Idaho Observer:
The "Current" state of Mind Control
by Hari Heath
Mind control can be many things. Disciplining a child; selling a product through effective advertising; managing public education; imposing a coercive legal system; programming a given population with repetitive media information while excluding or diminishing alternative sources; torturing a prisoner until they confess to a crime they did not commit; or, more positively, engaging in a spiritual or mental practice which puts the mind in a peaceful, harmonious state.
For good or ill, mind control is the act of causing the mind to function according to a desired outcome.
In the history of human governance, almost everything has been tried to bring the will of the people in line with the will of the governing class. Fear or trauma-based conditioning from wars, public executions, to prisons has brought on the consequences of non-compliance. Feudal systems, from the more ancient overlords and serfs, to our current tax-and-regulate schemes, have laid humanity's essential productivity, hearth and home, quite profitably at the feet of the feudal governors. Benevolence, whether promised or actual, is the more placid avenue of control. From medieval breadlines to welfare, tax credits and research grants, the direction of society has been controlled by those who hand out the dole.
Ultimately in this age, the goal of upper echelon government operators is to control the mind and achieve "consent of the governed." Wars are fought to bend the will of the opponent. Eventually, war is terminated by either annihilation or treaty-a formal consent of the survivors.
New technology now offers tools to bend the will and the consequences for humanity are as far-reaching and serious as the use of the atomic bomb. Early research began over a century ago on devices to manipulate the mind. In the last few decades the "current" state of mind control has become well developed and is potentially devastating, considering who the primary holder of this new technology is: the military, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and their minions in the police state.
The recently released book, Controlling the Human Mind: The Technologies of Political Control or Tools for Peak Performance, by Dr. Nick Begich, the co-author of Angels Don't Play This HAARP, gives a telling report on electronic and frequency warfare.
What it reveals is shocking enough, but what is most shocking is what it doesn't reveal. Dr. Begich's book is largely a compilation of excerpts and analyses of two-and- three-decades old military and government documents, patents and similarly aged research reports. This is the unclassified stuff. Much of the current state of government's mind control apparatus is classified and is likely to remain so until well after it has achieved antiquity.
Chemistry and bioenergetics
Dr. Begich's work begins with a simple observation: Much of what we know about human health is chemistry, or the biochemical side of the human equation. Present medicine is focused on drug therapies. The emerging science of bioenergetics-the neural, magnetic and bioelectric component of our organism-has not received the same funding and focus as the more profitable pharmaceutical approach to health.
A relative handful of bioenergetic scientists have diligently applied themselves over the decades and can now produce some amazing results. Much of this new science is based on the recognition that various organs produce or respond to certain resonant frequencies. Detection can be accomplished by determining the body's frequency codes. The application of certain frequencies with specific modulation and pulsation can cause effects in the many bio-circuits of the body. The effects depend on many details that are naturally present in the realm of bioenergetic science, the devices used to achieve those effects and the intent of the device's operator.
Much of bioenergetic science has been focused on understanding the operation of the mind and healing the body. But the discoveries of those in the healing arts have not gone unnoticed by those engaged in the warfare and social control professions. The practical difference between these disparate interests is only a matter frequency choices, delivery systems and intent.
At the core
The level at which these effects begin are described by Dr. Begich: "Within living cells proteins exist that have specific three dimensional physical characteristics and forms. The form of proteins arise out of their unique order of amino acids, electrical charge and polarity. Sequences of amino acids have been found to coil or wind themselves into a helical spiraling shape called an alpha-helix. In electrical terms, coils and helices are inductors, transducers and antennas. These can change shape and act as on/off switches or perform binary functions, which are required for any computer to work whether it is your desktop or the human body functioning as a super computer. These coils and helixes are biological circuits serving the same kinds of functions as inorganic, nonliving electrical circuits...the use of light, sound, microwave, radio, television networks, computer systems or power grids, all of through which a pulse-modulated signal can be introduced, can be used to create a deliberate effect, or a side effect, impacting living organisms in neutral, positive or negative ways."
Brain states
Dr. Begich describes the brain states and their frequencies: "The first, beta waves, (13-35 Hertz, or pulses-per-second) are associated with normal activity. The high end of this range is associated with stress or agitated states, which can impair thinking or reasoning skills. The second group, alpha waves (8-12 Hertz), can indicate relaxation. Alpha frequencies are ideal for learning and focused mental functioning.
"The third, theta waves (4-7 Hertz), indicate mental imagery, access to memories and internal mental focus. This state is often associated with young children, behavioral modification and sleep/dream states.
"The last, ultra slow, delta waves (.5-3 Hertz), are found when a person is in deep sleep. The general rule is that the brain's predominant wave frequency will be lowest, in terms of pulses per second, when relaxed and highest when people are most alert or agitated."
As a simple explanation of the mind alteration process, Dr. Begich offers the following: "External stimulation of the brain by electromagnetic means can cause the brain to be entrained or locked into phase with an external signal generator. Predominant waves can be driven or pushed into new frequency patterns by external stimulation. In other words, the signal driver or impulse driver entrains the brain, overriding the normal frequency codes, and causing changes in the brain waves; which then cause changes in brain chemistry; which then cause changes in brain outputs in the form of thoughts, emotions or physical conditions. As you are driven, so you arrive..."
How far will they go?
Dr. Begich quotes John Alexander, author of Psychic Warrior, who worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory, "There are weapons systems that operate on the power of the mind and whose lethal capacity has already been demonstrated...The psychotronic weapon would be silent, difficult to detect, and would require only a human operator as a power source."
That was a dozen years ago. From a similar era: An "RF weapon currently under development is the high-powered, very low frequency (VLF) modulator. Working in the 20-35 KHz spectrum, the frequency emits from a 1-2 meter antenna dish to form a type of acoustic bullet. The weapon is especially convenient because the power level is easily adjustable. At its low setting, the acoustic bullet causes physical discomfort-enough to deter most approaching threats. Incrementally increasing the power nets an effect of nausea, vomiting and abdominal pains. The highest settings can cause a person's bones to literally explode internally. Aimed at the head, the resonating skull bones have caused persons to hear 'voices'. Researched by the Russian military more extensively than the U. S., the Russians actually offered the use of such a weapon to the FBI in the Branch Davidian standoff to make them think that 'God' was talking to them. Concerned with the unpredictability of what the voices might actually say to the followers, the FBI declined the offer."
The 1987 Report on the Attorney General's Conference on Less Than Lethal Weapons stated, "participants also discussed the use of various wavelengths and forms of administration of electromagnetic energy as a non-lethal weapon. A substantial amount of preliminary research has been conducted in this area...One conference participant noted that scientific knowledge of human physiology is progressing to the point where it may soon be possible to target specific physiologic systems with specific frequencies of electromagnetic radiation to produce much more subtle and fine-tuned effects than those produced by photic driving [using frequency pulsed light]...there is some evidence that sustained, extremely low frequency (ELF) radiation can produce nausea or disorientation."
Dr. Begich revealed, "In November, 1993, about 400 scientists gathered at John Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab to discuss their work in developing non-lethal weapons technologies, including radio frequency radiation (RF), electromagnetic pulse (EMP), ELF fields, lasers and chemicals. The meeting was classified, and no detailed reports were ever publicly released. According to the press statements and the conference agenda (which was released) the programs developing the technologies had made significant advances. Enough advancement had been made to establish a secrecy veil and classify the conference. This conference took the whole program of non-lethal weapons a step forward by bringing the leading experts together for this event. The conference was sponsored by Los Alamos National Laboratory and focused on both military and law enforcement uses for these technologies."
What will we ever know?
How far has the federal government departed from the six articles in the Constitution and its two-dozen or so grants of federal power? Dr. Begich presents some telling details:
"In 2004 the United States government spent $7.2 billion to classify 15.6 million documents, which is almost double the 8.6 million records so classified in 2001. On the other end of the spectrum, in 2004, there were 28.4 million documents declassified down from 100 million in 2001, and the 204 million documents declassified in 1997. In 2006 even more significant information is held and never released while piles of files are classified, further limiting government accountability."
When will we ever know what government has done to us in our lifetimes? What kind of bureaucratic army handles millions of documents a year and how does a government that classifies millions of documents a year "establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty?"
Domestic "policy" for "adversaries?"
"On July 21, 1994, Dr. Christopher Lamb, Director of Policy Planning, issued a draft Department of Defense directive which would establish a policy for non-lethal weapons. The policy was to have taken effect January 1, 1995, and formally connected the military's non-lethal research to civilian law enforcement agencies.
"In interviews with members of the Defense Department, the development of this policy was confirmed. In those February 1995 discussions, it was discovered that these policies were internal and not subject to any public review process. In its current draft form, the policy gives highest priority to development of those technologies most likely to get dual use, i.e. law enforcement and military uses. According to this document, non-lethal weapons are to be used on the government's domestic 'adversaries'. The definition of 'adversary' has been significantly enlarged in the policy:
"The term 'adversary' is used above in its broadest sense, including those who are not declared enemies but who are engaged in activities we wish to stop. This policy does not preclude legally authorized domestic use of the non-lethal weapons by United States military forces in support of law enforcement."
The policy also clarifies that, "it is important that the public understand that just as lethal weapons do not achieve perfect lethality, neither will 'non-lethal' weapons always be capable of precluding fatalities and undesired collateral damage."
Early reports
A 1986 USAF report suggests, "The potential applications of artificial electromagnetic fields are wide ranging and can be used in many military or quasi-military situations... Some of these potential uses include dealing with terrorist groups, crowd control, controlling breaches of security at military installations, and antipersonnel techniques in tactical warfare. In all of these cases the EM systems would be used to produce mild to severe physiological disruption or perceptual distortion or disorientation. In addition, the ability of individuals to function could be degraded to such a point that they would be combat ineffective. Another advantage of electromagnetic systems is that they can provide coverage over large areas with a single system. They are silent and countermeasures to them may be difficult to develop..."
A Southwest Research Institute report stated in 1982 that: "Biotechnology research must consider the significant advances that can be made in electromagnetic radiation weapons and defenses that could be in place by the year 2000... Research is first needed to develop and apply methods for assessing pulsed RFR (radio frequency radiation) effects. Techniques are needed for depositing RFR at selected organ sites. Mathematical models and physical measurement capabilities must be developed to track, real time, RFR energy distributions within these organ sites as a function of physiological processes such as diffusion and blood flow. These studies will require prudent extrapolation of physical and physiological data obtained from laboratory animals to humans in operational environments."
And this was four and a score years ago!
The LIDA machine
In the mid-1960s, the LIDA machine used by the Soviets to interrogate U. S. POWs during the Vietnam War was captured. A powerful technology for its time, it advanced the U.S. government's interest in such devices. The LIDA machine's oscillating electromagnetic signals used a strobe light and auditory signals to entrain the prisoner's brain, putting them in a highly suggestive state where they were more willing to give up information.
Progress?
Dr. Begich presents a number of research reports and patents which detail methods to: Deliver subliminal signals using very low or very high (inaudible) audio frequencies; reduce pain using pulsed electromagnetic signals; develop hearing with microwave energy; remotely monitor and alter brain waves; pulsed ultrasound to create sensory experiences; and beam focused Hypersonic Sound (HSS) which can directly target individuals up to 500 yards away, disabling them with decibels.
One of the more astounding elements of "progress" that Dr. Begich reports is that, "Researchers said they took a key first step toward creating electronic microchips that use living brain cells. The researchers said they had learned how to place embryonic brain cells in desired spots on silicone or glass chips and then induce the brain cells to grow along the desired path."
Another report, also from the early 1990s, states, "Scientists have succeeded for the first time in establishing a colony of human brain cells that divide and grow in laboratory dishes." This may pave the way to the "possibility that both brain cells and computer hardware could be built in the laboratories creating, perhaps, the first biologically augmented computers."
Who are these people?
Dr. Herman P. Schwan, a Nazi scientist during World War II, was brought into this country under "Operation Paperclip" and put to use at the Biological Warfare Laboratories at Fort Detrick, Maryland. As late as 1995, he was working at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a principle reviewer and primary contributor to the Air Force's Radiofrequency Radiation Dosimetry Handbook from 1986. The handbook compiles five decades of research on mostly electromedical healing devices with the mathematics for calculating the RF radiation dosage effects in animals and humans. Two pages of the 29-page bibliography in the handbook cite Schwan's work. The difference between electromedical healing and warfare is only a matter of frequency and dosimetry.
Mankind Research Unlimited, Inc. (MRU) was a company involved in psychic and mind control research from the 1960s to the 80s. MRU and its affiliates "were researching psychic warfare, bioenergetic fields and the manipulation of energy in order to affect people."
They officially disavowed any connection with the CIA but much of their research, if not connected, was a parallel effort. The over 30 research subject areas for MRU listed by Dr. Begich are largely positive, healthy and enhancing of the human being, but the same information, in the wrong hands, can also be used to devastate and destroy.
Professor Michael Persinger conducted research for over 20 years in Ontario, using magnetic resonance to produce mystical experiences, out-of-body sensations and paranormal phenomena. He also studied the effects of ELF on memory and brain function. His research reveals that, "the brain can be altered with very little power, including that which is released from the natural geomagnetic activity of the Earth or via contemporary communications networks...within a very narrow set of variables, we can stimulate the sense of smell, taste, touch, sight or hearing in a manner that would not permit us to see the difference between the laboratory created experience and reality...by using the Earth's natural energy fields a signal could be generated at power levels consistent with the Earth's and would be hidden in the 'noise' created by the many manmade background radiating sources of energy."
A grand scale
The HAARP project in Alaska, which Dr. Begich has previously written about, can be exactly what Dr. Persinger suggested on a very large scale. Dr. Begich reports, "This capability exists today through the use of systems which can stimulate the ionosphere to return a pulsed signal, which at the right frequency, can override normal brain functions...energies used in HAARP were controllable and in some applications would be pulsed in the 1-20 Hertz range."
A chemical/RFR interface
Among the proposed military applications is the idea that biological or chemical agents could be used in conjunction with RFR techniques on targeted groups (see adversary definition above). "The idea expressed here is that depositing small amounts of chemicals in a person's body, in amounts below normal levels where negative effects are known to occur, will ensure they have no perceivable effect until radio frequency radiation (RFR) is introduced. Once introduced, the RFR creates physiological reactions, which are detrimental to the individual host. This would allow individuals who are not exposed to the chemicals to then enter the area of the RFR without harm to their own bodies. When an operator tunes the RFR in just the right way, changes are caused in the energy state of atoms, which cause chemical reactions in the body, which in turn manifest physiological or psychological changes, all based on frequency codes."
Hearing without ears
From hypersonic sound beams where the targeted person reports "voices in their head" from hundreds of yards away, to pulse-modulating microwaves to carry a "voice" directly to the auditory cortex, hearing without ears is not only possible, but patented. Dr. Begich explains, "This area is one of the most important because it points to the ultimate weapons of political control-the ability to place information directly into the human brain, bypassing all normal filtering mechanisms. Electronic telepathy."
In 1961, Dr. Allen Frey wrote, "Our data to date indicates that the human auditory system can respond to electromagnetic energy in at least a portion of the radio frequency spectrum. Further, this response is instantaneous and occurs at low power densities....for example....with power densities 1/60 of the standard maximum safe level for continuous exposure."
By 1962 Dr. Frey reported that, "Using extremely low average power densities of electromagnetic energy, the perception of sounds was induced in normal and deaf humans."
Dr. Begich's chapter "Auditory Effects" reveals this is a well developed area with numerous patents, which have long since expired. Where are we today?
Possibilities
There are useful sides to this area of technology, depending on how it is used. World-class athletes push the envelope of their particular area of endeavor by small percentage points of performance. The exceptional physical abilities of our humanness have, for the most part, already been reached. But it is estimated that most of us will never use more than five per cent of our brain's potential and the exceptionally gifted may use as much as 15 percent. Dr. Begich offers some insight to the practical and moral possibilities:
"If we begin to think about things like a direct download of information into the brain for learning subjects like mathematics and languages these new technologies will be very useful. These kinds of subjects do not require that value judgments or belief systems be applied to the information being retained and learned."
"Using a direct download of information would be a fantastic way to learn certain subjects. Other subjects would not be suggested using these methods because these other study areas are not formula driven. These subjects require value judgments that conform to existing belief systems being applied to reasoning. These new technologies, in some cases, bypass the conscious mind and deliver the information so it is accepted without question by the subconscious and acted upon. This is a very important point when we consider how much value-filled information comes to us in public education systems [including the media]. State controlled curriculums and compulsory education present real problems because these systems design programs that they 'believe' represent the state of knowledge and activity of culture. The question is: 'Who will control the input for our children?' Do we even have the right to use these technologies before we are 'adults' and able to make our own value judgments based on what our conscious minds create? We must each be in total control of our inputs, experiences, and our personal belief systems, free of any interference. This is called liberty."
The positive side
Part Two of Dr. Begich's book discusses "Increasing Our Human Potentials"-the positive uses of this emerging technology. This was the basis of such research until the warfare world commandeered it with massive funding and the "CLASSIFIED" stamp.
Biofeedback, kinesiology, chemical interactions, Schumann's Resonance, electro-acupuncture, light and sound techniques, electro-cranial stimulation, Hemi-sync (r) and the Earthpulse Soundwave TM , are but some of the promising technologies detailed in the latter part of Dr. Begich's book.
Unlike the military/police state's high-powered dish array delivery systems, the healing/enhancement side is very low power-often from 5 to 200 microamperes. And the ways the brain can be affected can be very subtle. Robert Monroe's Hemi-sync uses beat frequencies to entrain the brain. Using stereo headphones, if you apply, for example, 15,000 cycles per second sound waves in one ear and 15,007 in the other ear they cancel within the brain, leaving a beat frequency of 7 Hertz and create an Alpha brain wave state-the ideal state for learning.
The Minneapolis School District set up a charter school for attention deficit disorder children. Using biofeedback apparatus for 30-40 one-hour sessions, the children were able to learn to put themselves into a productive Alpha learning state, eventually without using the apparatus. Most of the children were on Ritalin, which became no longer necessary. Can you see why bioenergetic solutions are not well funded except for warfare? The Pharma-cartel can lose a lot of business when this technology replaces their chemical approach with reusable hardware.
Nothing new
The antiquity of bioenergetic technology was revealed by the "Iceman," discovered in the German/Italian Alps some years back. The "autopsy" on this 5,000-year-old man discovered that he had tattoos that directly correlated with acupuncture points and meridians. Acupuncture is generally considered to have originated with the ancient Chinese. How did it appear 5,000 years ago in the Alps?
Pointer Plus
From 5,000 years ago to today, Pointer Plus is a no needles electro-acupuncture with two functions. First it locates acupuncture points accurately by measuring the differences in the electrical properties of the skin. Then it can be used to send energy into the body to stimulate the point it has located. Dr. Begich explains: "When a point is found the device makes a beeping sound and a flashing light. The more rapid the flash and even the sound, the more balanced is the detected point. By depressing a trigger mechanism, energy is sent into that point. It is perceived very lightly, almost like the dusting of a feather on the surface of the skin. It is a slight pulsating sensation. If it's more than that, the power is too high and it becomes uncomfortable. Once treated, the flashing light appears to be on, rather than flashing and the sound is steady."
Is Dr. Crusher's technology from Star Trek here today?
Earth pulse
Schumann's Resonance, discovered in the 1950s, reveals that the Earth has an oscillation or pulse of 7.83 hertz, an alpha state frequency ideal for human learning and creativity. In our natural and barefoot state we could tune into this frequency just by being here. Now we are often insulated by our footwear and subject to the 60 Hertz waves of the AC electrical power that pulses into the appliances and lighting of our modern world. Is it any wonder that we appear to have so many cognitively comatose but otherwise "functional" humans surrounding us?
Light and sound
Light and sound devices such as the Sirius are not much more than a Walkman with headphones and glasses that you can use to program your brain state for learning or other enhancement. Electro-Cranial devices produce similar results, but require actual contact points and contact gels-slightly messy.
The Hemi-sync uses sound to create the binaural beat which balances the brain hemispheres and induces the desired brain state. There are over 200 versions on CD to affect attention deficit disorders, stress, enhanced learning, meditation, speed learning, hypertension, pain management, out-of-body-experiences and vivid imagery, to name a few.
The Holophon and Earthpulse Soundwave technologies use piezoelectric transducers to create the binaural beat when placed on the head. Rather than using the ears directly, the transducers effect bioenergetic energy transfer directly, or they can be combined with a headset for "full range audio."
Get the book!
Get the book; read it, and stop laughing at all those people with the tin foil hats. Maybe they knew something we just couldn't or wouldn't conceive of at the time. This already lengthy article only begins to detail what Dr. Begich has compiled in Controlling the Human Mind. It is extensively documented with footnotes on nearly every page. Those serious about the subject can launch their inquiries from there.
As Dr. Begich says, "This is the century of the brain, which ultimately is about the mind and consciousness itself. We are opening the gateway to a deeper understanding of the essence of who we are, who we will choose to be and who future generations will become." To obtain copies of Controlling the H |
