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Electronic harassment

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This article is about purported harassment and torture with covert energy weapons. For the harming or harassing via the World Wide Web or similar, see Cyberbullying and Cyberstalking.

Electronic harassment, electromagnetic torture, or psychotronic torture is the delusional belief that malicious actors (often government agents or crime rings) 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" (TIs). Some claim they are victims of gang stalking and many have created or joined support and advocacy groups.[3][4]

Multiple medical professionals have concluded that these experiences are hallucinations, the result of delusional disorders, or psychosis.[1][2][5][6]


Psychotronic weapons were reportedly being studied by the Russian Federation during the 1990s[7][8] 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.[8] 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."[9]

In 2012, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin commented on plans to draft proposals for the development of psychotronic weapons.[10] 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."[10]

Mike Beck, a former NSA spy, believes his Parkinson's disease was caused by electronic harassment.[11] In 2014, the NSA gave Beck's attorney Mark Zaid a statement which said the agency had received "intelligence information from 2012 associating the hostile country to which Mr. Beck traveled in the late 1990s with a high-powered microwave system weapon", but added that "The National Security Agency has no evidence that such a weapon, if it existed and if it was associated with the hostile country in the late 1990s, was or was not used against Mr. Beck".[12][13] NSA general counsel Glenn Gerstell told The Washington Post that "the agency has not found any proof that Beck or his co-worker were attacked".[11]

Conspiracy theories

Mind control conspiracy advocates believe they have found references to secret weapons in government programs such as "Project Pandora," a DARPA research effort into biological and behavioral effects of microwave radiation commissioned after the Moscow Signal incident, when the U.S. embassy in Moscow was bombarded with microwaves by the Soviets beginning in 1953. It was discovered that the Soviets' intent was eavesdropping and electronic jamming rather than mind control.[1] Project Pandora studied the effects of occupational radiation exposure, and the project's scientific review committee concluded that microwave radiation could not be used for mind control.[14] 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 mind control using microwaves exists, 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."[15]

Psychotronic weapons were reportedly being studied by the Russian Federation during the 1990s[7][8] 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.[8] 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."[16]

In 2012, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin commented on plans to draft proposals for the development of psychotronic weapons.[10] 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."[10]

Mike Beck, a former NSA spy, believes his Parkinson's disease was caused by electronic harassment.[11] In 2014, the NSA gave Beck's attorney Mark Zaid a statement which said the agency had received "intelligence information from 2012 associating the hostile country to which Mr. Beck traveled in the late 1990s with a high-powered microwave system weapon", but added that "The National Security Agency has no evidence that such a weapon, if it existed and if it was associated with the hostile country in the late 1990s, was or was not used against Mr. Beck".[17][18] NSA general counsel Glenn Gerstell told The Washington Post that "the agency has not found any proof that Beck or his co-worker were attacked".[11]

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,[5] 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, the amount of content online about electronic harassment that suggests it is a fact without any debate on the subject, creates a harmful, ideological, platform for such behavior.[19]

As part of a 2006 British study by 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."[6] 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."[20]

Some people who describe themselves as undergoing electronic harassment have organized and campaigned 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. ^ a b c d e f Cite error: The named reference WaPo20070114 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b c d e Kershaw, Sarah (November 12, 2008). "Sharing Their Demons on the Web". The New York Times.
  3. ^ Brian A. Sharpless (15 November 2016). Unusual and Rare Psychological Disorders: A Handbook for Clinical Practice and Research. Oxford University Press. pp. 40–. ISBN 978-0-19-024586-3.
  4. ^ "Mind Games", The Washington Post, January 14, 2007
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference kmir20150212 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference PsychologyToday was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ a b Leigh Armistead autofilled (2004). Information Operations. Potomac Books, Inc. pp. 197–. ISBN 978-1-59797-355-7. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
  8. ^ a b c d The Mind Has No Firewall, Parameters, Spring 1998, pp. 84-92
  9. ^ Matthews, Owen (July 11, 1995). "Report: Soviets Used Top-Secret 'Psychotronic' Weapons". The Moscow Times. Retrieved March 5, 2014.
  10. ^ a b c d Boyle, Alan (April 2012). "Reality check on Russia's 'zombie ray gun' program". NBC News. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
  11. ^ a b c d Shapira, Ian (December 5, 2017). "Was a spy's Parkinson's disease caused by a secret microwave weapon attack?". The Washington Post. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  12. ^ "Legal, financial fights mount as 'Havana Syndrome' goes unsolved". 22 December 2021. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
  13. ^ Broad, William J. (2018-09-01). "Microwave Weapons Are Prime Suspect in Ills of U.S. Embassy Workers". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-01-06.
  14. ^ Sharon Weinberger (14 March 2017). The Imagineers of War: The Untold Story of DARPA, the Pentagon Agency That Changed the World. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. pp. 195–. ISBN 978-0-385-35180-5.
  15. ^ 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.
  16. ^ Matthews, Owen (July 11, 1995). "Report: Soviets Used Top-Secret 'Psychotronic' Weapons". The Moscow Times. Retrieved March 5, 2014.
  17. ^ "Legal, financial fights mount as 'Havana Syndrome' goes unsolved". 22 December 2021. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
  18. ^ Broad, William J. (2018-09-01). "Microwave Weapons Are Prime Suspect in Ills of U.S. Embassy Workers". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-01-06.
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference NYT3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ Bell, Vaughan; Maiden, Carla; Muñoz-Solomando, Antonio; Reddy, Venu (2006). "'Mind control' experiences on the internet: implications for the psychiatric diagnosis of delusions". Psychopathology. 39 (2). Psychopathology, 39(2), 87-91: 87–91. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.99.9838. doi:10.1159/000090598. PMID 16391510. S2CID 6362668.
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