Electronic harassment

Electronic harassment, or psychotronic torture, or electromagnetic torture is a conspiracy theory that government agents make use of electromagnetic radiation (such as the microwave auditory effect), radar, and surveillance techniques to transmit sounds and thoughts into people's heads, affect people's bodies, and harass people.[1][2] Individuals who claim to experience this call themselves "targeted individuals" and many have joined support and advocacy groups.

Medical consensus is that these experiences are hallucinations or the result of delusional disorders or psychosis,[3][4] the same sources from which arise religious delusions, accounts of alien abductions, and beliefs in visitations from dead relatives. It can be difficult to persuade people who experience them that their belief in an external influence is delusional.[1][2]

Experiences

The experiences of people who describe themselves as undergoing electronic harassment using esoteric technology, and who call themselves "Targeted Individuals" ("T.I.") varies, but includes hearing voices in their heads calling them by name, often mocking them or others around them, as well as physical sensations like burning.[1][2] They have also described being under physical surveillance by one or more people.[1] Many of these people act and function otherwise normally and included among them are people who are successful in their careers and lives otherwise, and who find these experiences confusing, upsetting, and sometimes shameful, but entirely real.[1] They use news stories, military journals and declassified national security documents to support their allegations that governments have developed technology that can send voices into people's heads and cause them to feel things.[1]

Psychologist Lorraine Sheridan co-authored a study of gang-stalking in the Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology. According to Sheridan, "One has to think of the T.I. phenomenon in terms of people with paranoid symptoms who have hit upon the gang-stalking idea as an explanation of what is happening to them".[5] Mental health professionals say that TIs can experience hallucinations and their explanations of being targeted or harassed arise from delusional disorders or psychosis.[1][4][6][3][7] Yale psychiatry professor Ralph Hoffman states 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.[1] Other experts compare these stories to accounts of alien abductions.[2]

Press accounts have documented individuals who apparently believed they were victims of electronic harassment, and in some cases persuaded courts to agree. In 2008, James Walbert went to court claiming that his former business associate had threatened him with "jolts of radiation" after a disagreement, and later claimed feeling symptoms such as electric shock sensations, and hearing generated tones and other strange sounds in his ears. The court decided to issue an order banning "electronic means" to further harass Walbert.[8]

Notable crimes

People who describe themselves as undergoing electronic harassment have committed crimes and mass shootings.

Fuaed Abdo Ahmed, a 20-year-old man, took two women and a man hostage at the St. Joseph branch of Tensas State Bank on August 13, 2013, eventually killing two of them and then himself. A subsequent police investigation officially concluded that Ahmed suffered from mental issues such as hearing voices and paranoid schizophrenia. Ahmed had accused the family of his ex-girlfriend of placing a "microphone device" of some kind in his head.[9]

On September 16, 2013, Aaron Alexis fatally shot twelve people and injured three others in the Washington Navy Yard using a shotgun on which he had written `my ELF weapon`, before being killed by responding police officers.[10][11][12] The FBI federal law enforcement agency concluded that Alexis suffered from "delusional beliefs" that he was being "controlled or influenced by extremely low frequency electromagnetic waves".[13]

On November 20, 2014, Myron May shot and injured three people on the campus of Florida State University and was killed by responding police officers. Before the event, he had become increasingly anxious that he was under government surveillance and heard voices.[14][15][16]

On February 20, 2016, Jason Brian Dalton, an Uber driver, was accused in a deadly shooting spree in which six people were killed and two others were injured in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. He blamed his actions on his Uber mobile app, which uses a symbol that he claims resembles the Order of the Eastern Star, and claimed it took over his body after he pressed the button of a new app resembling the Devil.[17]

Gavin Eugene Long, who killed three police officers and injured three others in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on July 17, 2016, believed in a number of anti-government movements and conspiracy theories, and was a member of a group dedicated to helping people suffering from "remote brain experimentation, remote neural monitoring of an entire humans body."[18]

Conspiracy theories

Mind control conspiracy advocates often cite rumors of a CIA file called "Operation Pandora" said to describe Soviet attempts to "brainwash Americans". In the 1960s, the US researched biological and behavioral effects of microwave radiation after detecting that the US embassy in Moscow was being bombarded by microwaves. They discovered that the Soviets' intent was eavesdropping and electronic jamming rather than mind control.[1][19] Conspiracy advocates also frequently cite the 2002 Air Force Research Laboratory patent for using microwaves to send spoken words into someone's head. Although there is no evidence that "non-thermal effects of microwaves" exist, rumors of continued classified research fuel the worries of people who believe they are being targeted.[1]

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".[20]

Psychotronic weapons were reportedly being studied by the Russian Federation during the 1990s[21][22] 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.[22] 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 "psychotronic" psychological warfare techniques during the early 1990s, with Vladimir 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."[23]

In 2012, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin commented on plans to draft proposals for the development of psychotronic weapons.[24] 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."[24]

Support and advocacy communities

There are extensive online support networks and numerous websites maintained by people fearing mind control. Palm Springs psychiatrist Alan Drucker has identified evidence of delusional disorders on many of these websites[3] and psychologists agree that such sites negatively reinforce mental troubles, while some say that the sharing and acceptance of a common delusion could function as a form of group cognitive therapy.[2]

According to psychologist Sheridan, "page after page" of internet search results about electronic harassment "that regard it as fact" and the absence of counter-information creates a harmful "closed ideology echo chamber" for TI's.[5]

As part of a 2006 British study by Dr. Vaughan Bell, independent psychiatrists determined "signs of psychosis are strongly present" based on evaluation of a sample of online mind-control accounts whose posters were "very likely to be schizophrenic".[4] Psychologists have identified many examples of people reporting 'mind control experiences' (MCEs) on self-published web pages that are "highly likely to be influenced by delusional beliefs". Common themes include "Bad Guys" using "psychotronics" and "microwaves", frequent mention of the CIA's MKULTRA project and frequent citing of a scientific paper entitled "Human auditory system response to modulated electromagnetic energy".[25]

People who describe themselves as undergoing electronic harassment have organized and campaign to stop the use of alleged psychotronic and other mind control weapons.[1][2] These campaigns have received some support from public figures, including former U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who included a provision banning "psychotronic weapons" in a 2001 bill that was later dropped,[1] and former Missouri State Representative Jim Guest.[2]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Weinberger, Sharon (January 14, 2007). "Mind Games". Washington Post. Retrieved 12 January 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Kershaw, Sarah (November 12, 2008). "Sharing Their Demons on the Web". New York Times.
  3. 1 2 3 Monroe, Angela (13 November 2012), Electronic Harassment: Voices in My Mind, KMIR News, archived from the original on 2015-08-29, retrieved 2016-03-10
  4. 1 2 3 Aboujaoude, Elias. "Psychotic Websites. Does the Internet encourage psychotic thinking?". Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers, LLC, HealthProfs.com. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
  5. 1 2 McPhate, Mike. "United States of Paranoia: They See Gangs of Stalkers". New York Times. New York Times. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  6. ↑ Dietrich, Elizabeth E. "Gang stalking : internet connectivity as an emerging mental health concern". Smith College Libraries. Smith College School for Social Work Theses 2007. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  7. ↑ Aldax, Mike. "Space weapons resolution ’embarrassed’ city and negatively impacted mentally ill, vice mayor says". Richmond Standard. Chevron Richmond. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  8. ↑ Court to Defendant: Stop Blasting That Man’s Mind! Wired magazine BY DAVID HAMBLING July 1, 2009
  9. ↑ "Jim Mustian, Man who killed hostages in north Louisiana bank had mental illness, March 12". Baton Rouge Morning Advocate. Archived from the original on March 13, 2014.
  10. ↑ Greg Botelho and Joe Sterling (September 26, 2013). FBI: Navy Yard shooter 'delusional,' said 'low frequency attacks' drove him to kill. CNN Retrieved: 26 September 2013.
  11. ↑ BBC News (September 25, 2013). "Profile: Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis". BBC News. Retrieved September 25, 2013.
  12. ↑ Tom Vanden Brook (March 18, 2014). "Report: Concerns about Navy Yard shooter never reported". USA TODAY. Retrieved October 19, 2014.
  13. ↑ FBI: Navy Yard Shooter ‘Delusional,’ said ‘Low Frequency Attacks’ Drove Him to Kill SEPTEMBER 26, 2013, BY IAN MCDONALD
  14. ↑ Holley, Peter; Larimer, Sarah (November 20, 2014). "FSU gunman was in 'state of crisis' during shooting, investigators say". Washington Post.
  15. ↑ Southall, Ashley; Williams, Timothy (November 20, 2014). "Gunman at Florida State Spoke of Being Watched". New York Times.
  16. ↑ Queally, James (November 21, 2014). "FSU gunman mailed 10 packages before shooting, contents not dangerous". Los Angeles Times.
  17. ↑ Felton, Ryan (March 14, 2016). "Kalamazoo shooter saw 'devil' on Uber app and blames visions for killing spree". The Guardian. Retrieved March 15, 2016.
  18. ↑ Berlinger, Joshua (July 18, 2016). "Gavin Long: Who is Baton Rouge cop killer?". CNN. Retrieved July 18, 2016.
  19. ↑ "Moments in U.S. Diplomatic History Microwaving Embassy Moscow". Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. ADST. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
  20. ↑ Kendrick Frazier (1991). The Hundredth Monkey: And Other Paradigms of the Paranormal. Prometheus Books, Publishers. pp. 153–. ISBN 978-1-61592-401-1. Retrieved 4 May 2013.
  21. ↑ Leigh Armistead autofilled (2004). Information Operations. Potomac Books, Inc. pp. 197–. ISBN 978-1-59797-355-7. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
  22. 1 2 The Mind Has No Firewall, Parameters, Spring 1998, pp. 84-92
  23. ↑ Matthews, Owen (July 11, 1995). "Report: Soviets Used Top-Secret 'Psychotronic' Weapons". The Moscow Times. Retrieved March 5, 2014.
  24. 1 2 Boyle, Alan (April 2012). "Reality check on Russia's 'zombie ray gun' program". NBC News. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
  25. ↑ Bell, Vaughan; Maiden, Carla; Muñoz-Solomando, Antonio; Reddy, Venu. "'Mind control' experiences on the internet: implications for the psychiatric diagnosis of delusions.". Psychopathology. School of Psychology, Cardiff University. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
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