Psychotronics

Psychotronics is a term coined in 1967 by Zdeněk Rejdák for the study of parapsychology. Extensive research programmes and numerous conferences into the field during the 1970s and 80s sparked Cold War fears of mind control and other psychotronic weaponry being developed by Eastern Bloc countries which led to popularisation of the term in the West.

Since the mid-1990s, rumors of secret research into psychological warfare have led to a number of conspiracy theories. Campaign groups in Russia and the US have alleged that their governments are using psychotronic weapons against them to torture them, track their movements or control their minds. These campaigns are typically dismissed by psychologists as being a delusional response to auditory hallucinations similar to accounts of alien abductions.

The word has also been used to describe some medical therapies for helping patients suffering from psychosomatic illnesses and stress.

Early parapsychological research

As part of a surge in research into parapsychology during the 1970s, regular conferences were held in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union[1] although the word parapsychology was discarded in favour of the term psychotronics.[2] The stated objectives of psychotronics were to verify telepathy, clairvoyance and psychokinesis in order to discover new principles of nature.[3][4] One significant promoter of psychotronics was Czech scientist Zdeněk Rejdák, who promoted psychotronics as a physical science on the world-wide scale for many years, organizing conferences and presiding over the International Association for Psychotronic Research.[5]

Against the background of the Cold War, this research sparked concerns in the US that Eastern Bloc countries were successfully developing mind control technology and other psychotronic weaponry, with one report studying so-called "psychotronic generators" developed by the Czech researcher Robert Pavlita.[5] Pavlita created devices which were "allegedly able to amass human mental energy and release it mechanically or electromagnetically".[5] A report from 1975 the United States' Defense Intelligence Agency took the device seriously as a potential weapon, reporting that "when flies were placed in the gap of a circular generator, they died instantly" and that Pavlita's daughter had become dizzy when the device was pointed at her from a distance of "several yards".[5] These fears diminished as it proved impossible to replicate Pavlita's machines and he died in 1991 without revealing how they had worked.[5]

Conspiracy theories and research into psychological warfare

In Russia, a group called "Victims of Psychotronic Experimentation" attempted to recover damages from the Federal Security Service during the mid-1990s for alleged infringement of their civil liberties including "beaming rays" at them, putting chemicals in the water, and using magnets to alter their minds. These fears may have been inspired by revelations of secret research into psychological warfare during the early 1990s, with Lopatkin, a State Duma committee member in 1995, surmising "Something that was secret for so many years is the perfect breeding ground for conspiracy theories."[6]

In the US, there are a growing number of people who hear voices in their heads that claim the government is using "psychotronic torture" against them, and who campaign to stop the use of alleged psychotronic and other mind control weapons.[7][8] These campaigns have received some support from government representatives including Dennis Kucinich[7] and Jim Guest.[8] Yale psychiatry professor Ralph Hoffman notes that people often ascribe voices in their heads to external sources such as government harassment, God, and dead relatives, and it can be difficult to persuade them that their belief in an external influence is delusional.[7] Other experts compare these stories with accounts of alien abductions.[8]

The campaign groups use news stories, military journals and declassified national security documents to support their allegations that governments are developing weapons intended to send voices into people's heads.[7] For example, psychotronic weapons were reportedly being studied by the Russian Federation during the 1990s[9][10] with military analyst Lieutenant Colonel Timothy L. Thomas saying in 1998 that there was a strong belief in Russia that weapons for attacking the mind of a soldier were a possibility, although no working devices were reported.[10]

In 1987, a U.S. National Academy of Sciences report commissioned by the Army Research Institute noted psychotronics as one of the "colorful examples" of claims of psychic warfare that first surfaced in anecdotal descriptions, newspapers, and books during the 1980s. The report cited alleged psychotronic weapons such as a "hyperspatial nuclear howitzer" and beliefs that Russian psychotronic weapons were responsible for Legionnaire's disease and the sinking of the USS Thresher among claims that "range from incredible to the outrageously incredible". The committee observed that although reports and stories as well as imagined potential uses for such weapons by military decision makers exist, "Nothing approaching scientific literature supports the claims of psychotronic weaponry".[11]

In 2012, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin commented on plans to draft proposals for the development of psychotronic weapons.[12] NBC News Science Editor Alan Boyle dismissed notions that such weapons actually existed, saying, "there's nothing in the comments from Putin and Serdyukov to suggest that the Russians are anywhere close to having psychotronic weapons."[12]

Psychotronics in therapy

Psychotronics was popularized in Canada by family physician Terry Burrows. According to an article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Burrows' version of psychotronics "is concerned with the energy exchange capacities of a mind-body-environment relationship; in other words explaining by technology something that, until recently, was the preserve of Eastern philosophers - how the mind relates to the body in sickness and health"[13] Suggestions that it was a psychic effect or related to mind control were explicitly rejected.[13] Instead, some research was conducted into biofeedback and whether the relationship between the human mind and body could be used in medical treatment of patients, including those suffering from psychosomatic illnesses.[13]

Burrows joined with engineer Henry Evering, who had been experimenting with changing work-environments to improve the mental health of workers. Burrows and Evering created techniques of biofeedback which were further developed by Dr. Bob James. James described his biofeedback as "the relating of body changes to thinking".[13] According to James, patients hook themselves up to a "galvanic skin response (GSR) biofeedback instrument", which alters the sounds it makes according to levels of stress. Thus they learn to control their own breathing and heart-rate. James then encouraged patients to externalise their own mental imagery, by drawing anything that came into their heads and discussing it.

Psychotronics in popular culture

A low-budget film dealing with mind control, The Psychotronic Man, was released in 1980. This film itself inspired the creation of Psychotronic Video magazine which covered films traditionally ignored or ridiculed by mainstream critics, and the UK punk-band Revenge of the Psychotronic Man was named in reference to it.[14][15]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Melton, J. G. (1996). Parapsychology. In Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology. Thomson Gale. ISBN 978-0-8103-9487-2.
  2. ↑ Beloff, John (1993). Parapsychology: A Concise History. St Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-17376-0.
  3. ↑ Sborník I. Konference o výzkumu v psychotronice (symposium, 1st Conference on Psychotronics Research), Prague, 1973
  4. ↑ Sborník V. Mezinárodní konference o výzkumu v psychotronice (symposium, 5. International Conference of Psychotronics Research), Bratislava 1983
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 German, Erik (July 5, 2000). "Is Czech Mind Control Equipment Science-Fiction or Science-Fact?". The Prague Post. Retrieved 16 December 2012.
  6. ↑ Matthews, Owen (July 11, 1995). "Report: Soviets Used Top-Secret 'Psychotronic' Weapons". The Moscow Times. Retrieved March 5, 2014.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Weinberger, Sharon (January 14, 2007). "Mind Games". Washington Post. Retrieved 2010-08-01.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Kershaw, Sarah (November 12, 2008). "Sharing Their Demons on the Web". New York Times.
  9. ↑ Leigh Armistead autofilled (2004). Information Operations. Potomac Books, Inc. pp. 197–. ISBN 978-1-59797-355-7. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 The Mind Has No Firewall, Parameters, Spring 1998, pp. 84-92
  11. ↑ Kendrick Frazier. The Hundredth Monkey: And Other Paradigms of the Paranormal. Prometheus Books, Publishers. pp. 153–. ISBN 978-1-61592-401-1. Retrieved 4 May 2013.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Boyle, Alan (April 2012). "Reality check on Russia's 'zombie ray gun' program". NBC News. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Woods, David (1976). "Psychotronics: the new science once the preserve of ancient Eastern philosophy". Can Med Assoc J. 114 (9): 844–847. PMC 1957128. PMID 773526.
  14. ↑ Revenge of the Psychotronic Man official site
  15. ↑ Robert G. Weiner; John Cline (17 July 2010), Cinema Inferno: Celluloid Explosions from the Cultural Margins, Scarecrow Press, pp. 30–, ISBN 978-0-8108-7657-6