Electronic harassment
Electronic harassment, electromagnetic torture, or psychotronic torture are terms used by individuals holding 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]
Experiences
The experiences of people who describe themselves as undergoing electronic harassment using esoteric technology, and who call themselves "targeted individuals" ("T.I."), vary, but experiences often include 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] The New York Times estimated that there are more than 10,000 people who self-identify as targeted individuals.[7][8]
Psychologist Lorraine Sheridan co-authored a study of gang-stalking in the
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 strange sounds in his ears. The court decided to issue an order banning "electronic means" to further harass Walbert.[11]
Notable crimes
Various people who describe themselves as undergoing electronic harassment have committed crimes; among those crimes are mass shootings.
Fuaed Abdo Ahmed, a 20-year-old man, held a man and two women hostage at the Tensas State Bank in St. Joseph, Louisiana on August 13, 2013, eventually killing two of the hostages and himself. A subsequent police investigation officially concluded that Ahmed had paranoid schizophrenia and was hearing voices. Ahmed had accused the family of his ex-girlfriend of implanting a "microphone device" of some kind in his head.[12]
On September 16, 2013, Aaron Alexis
On November 20, 2014,
Gavin Eugene Long, who killed three police officers and injured three others in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on July 17, 2016, was a believer in numerous anti-government movements and conspiracy theories, but he was most notably a member of a group dedicated to helping people with "remote brain experimentation, remote neural monitoring of an entire human's body."[20]
Matthew Choi, a 30-year-old
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.[23] 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.
Psychotronic weapons were reportedly being studied by the Russian Federation during the 1990s[25][26] 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.[26] 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."[27]
In 2012, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin commented on plans to draft proposals for the development of psychotronic weapons.[28] 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."[28]
Mike Beck, a former NSA spy, believes his
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.[7]
As part of a 2006 British study by
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
- "Air Loom"
- Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura
- Directed-energy weapon
- Electronic warfare
- Havana syndrome
- Tin foil hat
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Weinberger, Sharon (January 14, 2007). "Mind Games". The Washington Post. Retrieved 12 January 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f g Kershaw, Sarah (November 12, 2008). "Sharing Their Demons on the Web". The New York Times.
- ISBN 978-0-19-024586-3.
- ^ "Mind Games", The Washington Post, January 14, 2007
- ^ a b c 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
- ^ a b c Aboujaoude, Elias. "Psychotic Websites. Does the Internet encourage psychotic thinking?". Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers, LLC, HealthProfs.com. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
- ^ a b c McPhate, Mike (10 June 2016). "United States of Paranoia: They See Gangs of Stalkers". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
- ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2019-01-21.
- ^ Dietrich, Elizabeth E (January 2015). Gang stalking : internet connectivity as an emerging mental health concern (Master's thesis). Smith College. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
- ^ Aldax, Mike. "Space weapons resolution 'embarrassed' city and negatively impacted mentally ill, vice mayor says". Richmond Standard. Chevron Richmond. Archived from the original on 21 June 2016. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
- ^ Court to Defendant: Stop Blasting That Man's Mind! Wired magazine BY DAVID HAMBLING July 1, 2009
- Baton Rouge Morning Advocate. Archived from the originalon March 13, 2014.
- ^ 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.
- ^ BBC News (September 25, 2013). "Profile: Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis". BBC News. Retrieved September 25, 2013.
- ^ McDonald, Ian (2013-09-26). "FBI: Navy Yard Shooter 'Delusional,' said 'Low Frequency Attacks' Drove Him to Kill". FOX40. Retrieved 2018-02-12.
- ^ Holley, Peter; Larimer, Sarah (November 20, 2014). "FSU gunman was in 'state of crisis' during shooting, investigators say". The Washington Post.
- ^ Southall, Ashley; Williams, Timothy (November 20, 2014). "Gunman at Florida State Spoke of Being Watched". The New York Times.
- ^ Queally, James (November 21, 2014). "FSU gunman mailed 10 packages before shooting, contents not dangerous". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Berlinger, Joshua (July 18, 2016). "Gavin Long: Who is Baton Rouge cop killer?". CNN. Retrieved July 18, 2016.
- ^ "Hong Kong police on the lookout for man who killed taxi driver on Tuesday morning". South China Morning Post. October 12, 2021. Retrieved October 13, 2021.
- ^ "Manhunt for cabbie killer continues as police provide more info". The Standard. October 13, 2021. Retrieved October 13, 2021.
- ISBN 978-0-385-35180-5.
- ISBN 978-1-61592-401-1. Retrieved 4 May 2013.
- ISBN 978-1-59797-355-7. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
- ^ a b The Mind Has No Firewall, Parameters, Spring 1998, pp. 84-92
- ^ Matthews, Owen (July 11, 1995). "Report: Soviets Used Top-Secret 'Psychotronic' Weapons". The Moscow Times. Retrieved March 5, 2014.
- ^ a b Boyle, Alan (April 2012). "Reality check on Russia's 'zombie ray gun' program". NBC News. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ "Legal, financial fights mount as 'Havana Syndrome' goes unsolved". 22 December 2021. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-01-06.
- S2CID 6362668.
External links
- Eric Tucker, 18 September 2013. Aaron Alexis, Navy Yard Shooting Suspect, Thought People Followed Him With Microwave Machine, The Huffington Post
- Profile: Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis, BBC News, 25 September 2013
- FSU Shooter Myron May Left Message: 'I Do Not Want to Die in vain', Tracy Connor, NBC News, 21 November 2014
- "United States of Paranoia: They See Gangs of Stalkers", The New York Times, 10 June 2016