human rights: "acoustic psycho-correction" and related technologies
Allen L. Barker
[Here are some press reports related to the Russian "acoustic
psycho-correction" technology. They are from the web site of the
Psychotechnology Research Institute, where the developer of the
methods, Dr. Igor Smirnov, works. The URL is http://int.psycor.ru/.
They claim to want to use the technology for therapeutic and ethical
purposes. To their credit, they are open with it and do not hide it
in complete secrecy, as is too common for such technologies in the US.
On the other hand, they have secretly collaborated with US
intelligence and other federal officials while citizens have been
complaining of exactly the sorts of harassment that the covert use of
this or similar US technology would cause. Compare also with Ewen
Cameron's CIA-sponsored medical abuses.
The first article below appeared in _Defense Electronics_ in 1993.
It concerns meetings with Smirnov and US federal officials. The FBI
was considering testing the device on Koresh during the Waco standoff.
More generally, intelligence officials were concerned about US
vulnerabilities to such devices. It is understated but obvious that
they were also interested in US offensive use of such devices and
techniques. The article also mentions possible use of the techniques
in military training. Note that the American rights to the technology
are owned by Psychotechnologies Corp., based in Richmond, Virginia.
In the arrangement, they get all the technology and expertise in
exchange for stock. The stated plan was for them to further develop
the system with US technologies and computer programmers.
The second article is from _Moscow News_ in March, 1994. It generally
discusses Smirnov and the psycho-correction technology. The claims
that the Russians are ahead of the CIA in such technology based on
published reports should be taken with a large grain of salt. What
*both* sides have in secret is likely far beyond this particular
technology or method.
The method consists, first of all, in a subliminal send technique.
Both visual subliminals flashed too quickly for conscious perception
and subliminal vocals hidden in acoustic white-noise signals are
discussed. The next step involves analyzing the subject's reactions
to these subliminal cues. It is essentially a subliminal
interrogation of the subject (compare with "brain fingerprinting").
Information is collected from biosensors and analyzed, to make
inferences about the person's thought process. This is often called
something like creating a brain model or a cognitive model of the
subject (compare with "psychological profiling"). The final step
involves sending specifically tailored subliminal "advice"
("direction," "commands," or "taunts") to the subject, to "help"
("influence," "control," "harass," or "harm") him or her. The
process might consist of three distinct steps, as presented in the
article, but in general it could also be a closed realtime feedback
loop "locked on" to the subject like a parasite. There may well be
important consensual therapeutic uses of such techniques. But clearly
serious unethical uses are also possible, as well as uses as a
torture device (compare with "Manchurian Candidate" and "AutoPIG").
The article contains some additional information about the Waco
situation. It reports that Smirnov "suggested that the voices of
children and relatives be coded into the noises emanating from the
loudspeakers of police cars (the building was surrounded with them.)"
After he guaranteed only a 70 percent chance of success -- an
arbitrary estimate -- the FBI reportedly decided against testing the
device in that situation and broadcast the same recordings openly on
the loudspeakers, without subliminal encoding.
The final article is a short _Newsweek_ article from Aug. 1994. It
reports on FBI plans to send subliminal signals to Koresh over the
phone lines during negotiations, rather than over loudspeakers. In
particular, it mentions plans to send the fake "voice of God" to him.
Presumably a device that hides subliminals in white-noise-like signals
could operate on either channel. The hidden voices could be hidden in
what seems like the hum and static of the loudspeakers or in what
appears to be hum and static on the telephone line. Certain
techniques even make use of dual sends, and encode the information in
the beat frequency between them.
It should be crystal clear from these reports and others, both
historical and contemporary, that the technology is real and exists
now. It *does* have an influence on people, though the extent to
which it does and the extent to which it remains subliminal are either
not known or not openly written about. Regardless of the level of
effectiveness, any testing on nonconsensual subjects would still be a
massive violation of their person and an extreme human rights abuse.
This is particularly true when the purpose is to covertly influence a
person's life without his or her consent, or where outright harassment
and torture are the intended aim from the beginning.
Human rights activists and workers need to wake up and smell the
coffee -- as do all citizens. Consider, for example, the sorts of
torture that could be inflicted on prisoners confined to "special"
cells (compare with "David Fratus"). It is just as bad if the person
never realizes what is happening (or falls for the cover story of
mental illness or whatever else). The technology has advanced beyond
just the prison walls, and now the prison can be taken to the
citizens. It can happen at levels of invasiveness far beyond just
what is known as "home incarceration" -- which is typically subject to
due process and judicial oversight. It can become a distributed
electronic concentration camp, and already has for some citizens.
There is no due process and very little recourse for the victims
because of phony claims that the technology "does not exist." That is
the veneer of deniability behind which advanced human rights abuses
are committed. It is that much sadder when the technologies clearly
*do* exist but even those who know it tend to go along with the lie
and allow torture to continue to occur with impunity.]
-----------------------------------
DOD, Intel Agencies Look at Russian Mind Control Technology, Claims
FBI Considered Testing on Koresh
http://int.psycor.ru/main.php?pubp01
By Mark Tapscott
Defense Electronics
July 1993
Federal law enforcement officials considered testing a Russian
scientist's acoustic mind control device on cultist David Koresh a few
weeks before the fiery conflagration that killed the Branch Davidian
leader and more than 70 of his followers in Waco, Texas, Defense
Electronic has learned.
In a series of closed meeting beginning March 17 in suburban Northern
Virginia with Dr. Igor Smirnov of the Moscow Medical Academy, FBI
officials were briefed on the Russian's decade-long research on a
computerized acoustic device allegedly capable of implanting thoughts
in a person's mind without that person being aware of the source of
the thought.
"It was suggested to us [by other federal officials] that they bring
in the FBI, which was looking for a viable option to deal with
Koresh," said a source who participated in the Smirnov meetings who
agreed to discussion the gathering only on condition of anonymity.
His account of the meeting was confirmed by an executive summary
memorandum prepared by official of Psychotechnologies Corp., a
Richmond, Virginia, based firm that owns the American rights to the
Russian technology. A copy of the Psychotechnologies summary, which
has been circulated among U.S. intelligence executives, was obtained
by DE.
The Psychotechnologies memo described the standoff between federal
agents and Koresh in Waco as "an ongoing domestic hostage situation."
After several meetings with Smirnov, FBI officials, who repeatedly
expressed fear during the discussions that Koresh and his followers
were suicidal, asked for a proposal describing requirements and
procedures for using the device in Waco, he said.
"They wanted the Russians to promise zero risk" in using the device on
Koresh, but the Russians wouldn't do that," the participant
said. Another obstacle was the fact Smirnov had only brought
"entry-level equipment" and more sophisticated hardware would have had
to be rushed over from Russia before the device could be used in an
attempt to end the standoff in Texas.
As a result, Koresh and his band were not used as test subjects for a
demonstration of a technology developed under the former Soviet Union
and apparently used against civilians in Afghanistan, which is why the
U.S. defense and intelligence communities were well-represented in the
March meeting in Virginia.
"There was a strong interest among the intelligence agencies because
they had been tracking Smirnov for years," the participant said, "and
because we know there is evidence the Soviet Army's Special Forces
used the technology during the conflict in Afghanistan."
Alcohol and drug abuse among Red Army soldiers was so pervasive during
the Afghan war that Soviet officials relied upon the technology in
preparing troops for missions involving atrocities against civilians.
Officials from the central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Defense
Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the Advance Research Project Agency
(ARPA) were also present, according to the source. Spokesmen for those
agencies did not return a reporter's telephone calls seeking to
confirm whether individuals from their organization attended the
Smirnov meetings.
Because the US has no known counter-measure to the technology,
intelligence community and ARPA officials are concerned that weaponize
versions of the device may still be in Russian military inventory, and
they expressed fear during the meetings that the technology could be
exported to Third World nations via growing black market in military
equipment from the former Soviet Union, he said.
The main purpose of the March meetings was described in the
Psychotechnologies memo as to "determine whether psycho-correction
technologies represent a present or future threat to the U.S. national
security in situation where inaudible command might be used to alter
behavior.
The memo went on to note that meeting attendees were also interested
in whether "psycho-correction detection decoding and counter-measures
programs should be undertaken by the US." An effective
psycho-correction device could be a military threat the memorandum
continued if it were deployed to "negatively affect morale of US
troops in combat" or to "affect judgement or opinions of decision
makers, key personnel or populaces" in a conflict.
Further, the memo said Department of Defense (DOD) official were
concerned that the technology could be used in protection of US
embassies, military training and in non-violently "clearing areas of
potential enemies, snipers, etc."
Non-military participants were also included in the Smirnov meetings
in Virginia, as well as a series of subsequent briefing by the two
Russians at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Topeka. The
non-military attendees included Dr. Richard Nakamura of the National
Institute of Mental Health and Dr. Christopher Green, director of
General Motors Corp. (GM) biomedical research department in Detroit.
Dr. Nakamura could not be reached for comment, but he was described in
the Psychotechnologies memo as being "familiar with US patents" in the
area and that "the Russian seemed to have solved" mathematical
problems "which had prevented development of US work beyond basic
stage."
Dr. Green said through a GM spokesman that he attended the Smirnov
briefing in his capacity as a member of a National Academy of Sciences
(NAS) panel on 21st Century Army technologies. "This has no connection
to anything being done by GM," the spokesman said.
"It looks promising but we don't have enough details yet to really
appraise it," Dr Fowler Jones of Univ. of Kansas Medical Center's
psychology division told DE. "It was really more of a presentation
than an actual demonstration because, unfortunately, a lot of the
software we couldn't get going." Jones said he and his colleagues at
the Kansas facility are looking for funding sources before search to
determine whether the Russian psycho-correction technology can be used
in treating alcoholism and other addiction.
The Psychotechnologies memo described an agreement company official
entered into with Smirnov in March in which "the Russian side agreed
to commit the psycho-correction technologies still in Russia and all
related know-how to the US. company in exchange for stock. The Russian
side has agreed to provide all support necessary to recreate current
[psycho-correction] capability in the US and to upgrade the capability
using US components and computer programmers. All necessary
developmental and existing algorithms will be provided by the Russian
side."
-----------------------------------
When asked noiselessly, answer silently
http://int.psycor.ru/main.php?pubp02
By Ninel Loginova
Moscow News
March 25, 1994
It is often said that we are being manipulated, that psychotronic
weapons are ready, and what remains is to drive in the last screw. It
only remains to be seen, who are these rulers of the world? And how
have they contrived to reach such heights amidst our dislocation?
Since the name of scientist Igor SMIRNOV, said to be the father of
this plague, keeps flashing in the press, I am going to take a look at
him to the laboratory of psychocorrection at the Moscow Medical
Academy.
A long time ago it was hammered home that psychotronic weapons were
being created "in the basements of the CIA". And it was clear that the
USSR would not sit idle waiting for a surprise. Medics, who dabbled in
psychodiagnostics and psychocorrection for purely scientific interest,
became objects of attention by the defence industry and the security
service. They were not apprehended, but their steps were closely
followed. The laboratory, its personnel (out of the same scientific
interest the physicians came to need physicists and programmers) and
all of its projects were classified and publications banned.
It was vexing to live in a vacuum, but Igor Smirnov recalls those
recent times as happy ones. There was as much financing as needed and
any orders are filled at once at secret plants and delivered to you
personally. I am looking at a computer plate made to order. It is used
to code the verbal command for the patient (or to decode it, i.e.,
decipher for the doctor, the psychologist). Who in this country made
such a plate? I asked Smirnov. But he ignores this question.
When the Americans published in 1987 their ideas on incomprehensible
psychodiagnostics, our people were jubilant - we are ahead. Most
importantly, there was now a crack in the wall of secrecy. Today he
has 80 scientific publications and 17 discoveries, four of which are
"pioneering", i.e., having no analogue. For instance, the method of
semantic psychoprosthetics was invented not "in the basements of the
CIA", as they write, but in these very basements. - (This must be
understood literally, for the temple of unique science exists on the
ground floor of a madhouse and occupies exactly three closets of 4 x
1.5 sq m each with broken tiles on the walls, leaking ceilings and
dirty little windows). And what is it - semantic psychoprosthetics?
According to Smirnov: "You take a man and obliterate the desire for
alcohol..." I am in panic: what does it mean "you take" and how is it
"you obliterate"?
How zombies are made
The patient is seated in front of a computer, with graphics flickering
on the screen and pleasant noise resounding in the earphones. The
noise is not simple: it hides the questions addressed to the very
"soul" about the most important things - the family, the job, money,
profession, study, science, sex, politics, alcohol, crime and the
like. Sensors introduce into the computer the patient's reactions to
these silent questions. Moreover, the answers come from
subconsciousness, that is, the patient himself does not even suspect
anything about his partialities. And when he leaves, the scientists
will decipher the picture of his "soul" values: what he thinks about
the world and his place among people, what he wants, and what he is
afraid of. Diagnosis is half the job. The other half is
correction. The negative, asocial tendencies will be reduced, even
removed, whereas the positive ones will be amplified. The same
earphones, the same soft noise, but now instead of questions there are
"pieces of advice. "The patient does not hear or comprehends them. But
for some reason after the session he enters a college, stops drinking,
returns to the family, stops stealing. (This is a true story.) If he
is mentally deranged and aggressive, he quiets down. If at the
foundation of his trouble lies a family conflict or a bad childhood
experience, they will emerge from the depths of subconsciousness and
will be "forgotten", disavowed on the doctor's order. (It happened
that the gross psychiatric diagnosis which a person had endured for
years was cancelled after this kind of correction.) If he is
hopelessly ill and his time is running out, he will pass away without
shock-like pains and sufferings. Incidentally, it is impossible to
enumerate all the types and variants of correction. Here a free
individual program will be compiled for every patient, and free of
charge so that this work is priceless... Once two doctors requested to
be accustomed to commerce. No sooner said than done. Today both are
prospering in business having last any interest in medicine (which is
a blessing for their formed patients. "You like to call our patients
'zombies' - all well and good," Smirnov smiles. "We ourselves call
them so in jest. Although we deal with ordinary psychoanalysis: -
accelerated, it is true, with the help of a computer. Don't forget in
your slanderous article to specify our aims - to cure and teach. And
don't ascribe us with any other, inhumane objectives.
'Terrible' questions
I had already understood who was in front of me. He was admired by the
population and the press, a learned fanatic for whom it makes no
difference and what exploits they expect him to commit with time. At
the crucial moment he will say "no" in his soft voice. It is
improbable that this has been understood by both defence industry
people and people from the security committee. And hardly did they
begin growing poorer themselves when the gates to paradise were shut
and the laboratory thrown out into the street. However, work in the
development of new "psychotechnologies" was not interrupted. Recently,
already from the medical department, the collective was paid (for
November, it seems): three dozen staff members (many have two
diplomas: physicist and psychiatrist, programmer and psychologist) got
from 40,000 to 60,000 rubles each. Delighted, they threw a tea party
for themselves.
Out of fear that something might be stolen during the years of
surveillance, I ask a number of terrible questions. "Can they at the
plant repeat whatever they were doing for you - this time for
different, 'non-curative' purposes?". "No, they can't. The most
important thing, after all, is not the megaphone, but what you say
into it". "The other day you fired another four staffers who sold
themselves out to merchants, including those in the West. Will they be
able to fill an unethical order from their bosses to impress on the
crowd to buy such and such shares or to persuade a rival to take up
the job of a house manager?". "To begin with, I didn't say they 'sold
themselves out'. These people are impoverished. I didn't fire them but
let them go. If I could, I would gladly get someone back. Secondly, we
anticipated this turn of events. And I firmly say that nobody, except
myself, possesses complete information. Someone will be able to fulfil
some small and vile orders, say, from thieves, but only very small
ones. Yet you are interested in unrecognizable commands for the masses
of the population, that is, psychotronic weapons as such, aren't
you?". "Yes, I am. So that, say, they should vote for Rutskoi, should
quit the square or, conversely, should run to the square and get a
boulder in their hands...". "There are no such experts among those
dismissed."
I take a deep breath and ask the most terrible question: "And
you... can you?" I get a classical answer (fanatics' eyes always smile
in this case): "In principle the problem is soluble. And it is not
difficult. But neither is it interesting". "Will you name an
interesting problem? " Now a girl has been brought to
us... 31-year-old... Two attempts at suicide... There is a need to
convince her to live. " Because the "girl" will not consciously hear
the persuasions, she will believe that she has made the decision on
her own.
What they dream about
Having found themselves in the lunar landscape of the unknown world of
the soul, the subconsciousness, where it is possible to "go" in any
direction and everything around is new, they naturally want to be left
alone, not to be harrassed, and permitted to take a look around. It is
obvious (to me, and to you?) that their science will become the
dominent one in the 21st century. And they have barely opened the
sacred door, so let them in. Don't scare the population with
them. Don't threaten them themselves - scientific interest cannot be
thwarted. Suppose we hound them to death, then others, not so naive
ones, will immediately turn up. Says Igor Smirnov: "Ethics are the
substance of our profession. " The new ones will quickly understand
how much it costs to repair a character. Smirnov and his colleagues do
not understand the hullabaloo raised in the press: if it's an act
planned by someone, then what are its objectives? Political ones? But
in whose favor? Who stands to gain and how? No answers are yet clear.
After a short article (e. g., in the March 6 issue of Pravda - "The
Art of Manipulating the Crowd?") the laboratory has been assailed by
tough guys wanting its personnel go on their pay-roll. Instead of the
old computers, nearly tied together with a string, they promise 586s
and in the long term even the Crey system (for Smirnov this is like a
Stradivari violin for a musician), and higher pay. They promise to
equip as soon as possible the vacant cottage belonging to the
collective, whose repairs it cannot yet afford. They vow that they
will not interfere with scientific plans, but simply... want to be
around. "Like a flock of crows, " says Smirnov and turns down their
request down. He is convinced that they should belong to the state, to
society as a whole, and preferebly under international control: too
dangerous is any secrecy in this sphere. But the forces for keeping
the collective intact are petering out. In a few days the group will
again go to the USA for a month, and Smirnov knows in advance that
some of the physicians and psychologists will not come back. The
Americans are ready to buy them as a group or individually. And I am
listening to them whisper among themselves: "They say, Burbulis
understands something about science... Or should we nevertheless
explain everything to Luzhkov?... " They are looking for
60,000-100,000 dollars with which to carry out the research program
they started. We are becoming a normal country of contrasts: the
pocket money of one kiosk clerk would be enough for scientists to
ascertain whether there exists such a thing as the innate "ethical"
trait which is predominant in the character. Smirnov already knows
that, yes, there is such a luxury, there are people who in their
dreams and subconsciousness do not accept crime - the spiritual
aristoctrats. It turns out that this is not a figurative expression,
but physiology, but there is still need for experiments on himself and
on all those willing. There is also a cherished dream: to develop a
semantic resonator. What is it? Well, let's say, a "mind-reader".
How Smirnov 'dodged'
It has been reported in the West that the FBI invited Igor Smirnov to
"persuade" Koresh's sect to leave the house and give up
self-immolation, but "the Russian started hedging", as one newspaper
put it, and the FBI gave up on him. I ask how it was in
actuality. Smirnov: "I suggested that the voices of children and
relatives be coded into the noises emanating from the loudspeakers of
police cars (the building was surrounded with them.) The FBI agreed,
but asked what percent of success I guarantee. Had I been a healer on
TV, I would say: all 100 percent (as I had thought). But I am an
ordinary and even very Soviet scientist: how can I give guarantees in
an experiment without preliminary tests? Not knowing the people I
address? What kind of boasting do they expect from me? I am, after
all, not a Chumak (a highly popular ESP expert in Russia - Ed.) The
very request to "give" a guarantee seemed tactless to me. I gave an
arbitrary figure - 70 percent.
They said "not good enough" and dismissed me. Whereupon they made a
gross mistake, switching on a loud recording of the same children and
relatives. This sparked panic and hysteria in the sect, and the end is
known to everyone".
I want to become a zombie
My memory has stored up a heap of rubbish, it would be good to throw
off a part, my character has host of defects owing to which many years
have been wasted. I wish for my remaining years to be spent with good
sense. And if there should appear among us the gods knowing how to
obliterate something from my soul, replacing it with something else -
on order - for goodness' sake. Kolya, our press photographer, and I
are looking at some other people's souls projected on the display. One
looks like crystal lattice, only an asymmetrical one, where the sector
"fear" is dominated by the cube named "Roma" (someone's juvenile son,
evidently) and there is another little brick named "Ivanov" (crearly
his boss has poisoned his life and does not even suspect this). What
is required is to climb into this substance (shaking up its content on
the display) and place the boxes and cubes in a different order. "I am
afraid, " says Kolya and hurries to the editorial office. I also feel
a little afraid, but I stay to look at how the soul is being
"composed" anew. Gods never misfire. Whomever they conceived will
surely walk out on his two legs from this fantastic workshop. So far
they do not accept me, referring to the queue of patients. But I will
nevertheless draw up a list of what must be subtracted and what added
if they still have time for me.
You are at your wit's end when you come to think of where the
laboratory's staff members have invaded and what they are operating
with. But listen to their soft voices: "Ordinary
psychoanalysis. Something that has long been commonplace in the
West. It is indecent to make a serious decision without the
doctor. And so they live married to their psychoanalysts. They spend a
wild amount of money on them. But we have accelerated the processes
and found their computer algorithms. Also deepened them... ". They
laugh.
Deepened - this has a soft ring. Therefore they are being dragged out
of the country. But Smirnov is too carried away with science, and the
latter, he believes, is being made here. "We are the mongrels of
humankind, " he murmurs to himself, looking at the display, "therefore
we are more quick-witted. But over there they have a refined
breed... At the vivarium they also stage intricate experiments on
mongrel rats, they are cleverer. But the so-called 'raised' ones lose
half of their qualities... "
Commodity-money-science
Commerce at Smirnov's group is at the zero mark. A bunch of giftless
people. Five times I asked them how they might pay off for society or
the city if suddenly (of all things!) Burbulis or Luzhkov get
frightened and understand who we are losing. Five times they answered
me embarrassingly: "Sleepy?" This is the kind of a cassette from which
you fall at once into so-called natural sleep, that is, for so long as
your organism needs. But the group's commercial brains are such that
even for this (for some, much longed-for) cassette they offer to
appoint a symbolic price. I feel really annoyed. I am as good a
merchant as they are, but I ask: and could you not earn enough for
your research by doing studies of the ethical dominant on alcoholics
alone? And won't the parents be eager to "sew in" the thirst for
studies in their lazy child? Or will not society as personified by the
Interior Ministry and the Procurator's Office want to check an
assassin on the "truth detector" (which does not err in contrast to
the "lie detector")? And won't there be anyone willing to learn a
foreign language, even Chinese, in the shortest possible time? Oremove
complexes or correct a defect? "Yes, of course, we can do that," they
reply, "but then there will be a need to open a center for the
reception of visitors, to enroll personnel, buy computers and
cassettes..."
About fools
In reply to my question what and whom they fear, they say just one
word: "Fools." This is the category of people, densely scattered in
society - whether in the pub or the Ministry of Public Health, in
parliament or above it - who ask about everything: "What the hell do I
need it for?" And on thinking a little, they add: "Who knows what they
will do to people?" Smirnov tells them in reply that a scalpel can
easily be used for killing, why won't they ban it? But it is not they
who "permitted" this object, yet here they are required to scribble
something in token of approval. That's why they swagger... They must
be spoken with in some newspeak which the laboratory does not
command. Something like: "Oh you are against the science of the 21st
century? Does it mean that you let people die when they can be
helped?" And so on. A dull talk but indispensable in our
life. Scientists try to evade it in every way, losing years in these
bare basements. That is also why they believe that science is being
made here.
-----------------------------------
A Subliminal Dr. Strangelove
Mind: Using the power of hidden suggestions, this Russian scientist
tries to rewire the brain
http://int.psycor.ru/main.php?pubp03
By Dorinda Elliott in Moscow with John Barry in Washington
Newsweek
Aug. 22, 1994
When branch Davidian sect members hunkered down in their Waco compound
last year and threatened to commit suicide, the FBI turned to an
unlikely source. Experts from the FBI Counter-Terrorism Center
secretly met in Arlington, Va., with a long-haired Russian
Dr. Strangelove called Igor Smirnov. His plan: piping subliminal
messages from sect members' families through the phone lines during
negotiations. For David Koresh, the self-appointed prophet, the FBI
had a special voice in mind: God, as played by Charlton Heston.
The FBI backed out of Smirnov's Waco Strategy, and the crisis ended in
blazing disaster. But psychological-warfare experts on all sides still
dream that they will one day control the enemy's mind. And in a tiny,
dungeonlike lab in the basement of Moscow's ominously named Institute
of Psycho-Correction, Smirnov and other Russian psychiatrists are
already working on schizophrenics, drug addicts and cancer patients.
You've heard of subliminal advertising, right? The psychiatric
community generally agrees that subliminal perception exists; a
smaller fringe group believes it can be used to change the psyche. And
that could be bad as well as good. 'A knife can be used to cut
sausage,' Smirnov warns cryptically, 'or cut your throat.'
Using electroencephalographs, he measures brain waves, then uses
computers to create a map of the subconscious and various human
impulses, such as anger or the sex drive. Then, through taped
subliminal messages, he claims to physically alter that landscape with
the power of suggestion. At the University of Michigan, Howard Shevrin
has also studied the relationship between brain responses and the
unconscious, but he has doubts about therapeutic applications. 'I'm
not sure this should be tampered with. The effects could be harmful.'
In Smirnov's cluttered lab, Slava, a tattooed heroin addict, has
electrodes attached to his chest and shaved head. He has just watched
subliminal messages on a screen and listened through earphones to
other impulses disguised as noise. Smirnov says he's trying to
stimulate the child-rearing cluster of Slava's brain to encourage him
to care more for his soon-to-be born baby and less about his next hit
of heroin.
Smirnov says that in Soviet times, the government funded his lab
generously. Now that Russia's economy has collapsed, and with it
funding for the security forces and military, Smirnov gets only
$20.000 a year, he says. He hopes to attract Western
investment. Meanwhile, Smirnov says that Russian gangsters regularly
come to see him, looking, for example, for help in getting business
partners to sign contracts that are against their interest. He won't
do it, he says: 'That would be unethical.' In any case, there is no
doubt that somebody is watching him closely. Shortly after NEWSWEEK's
reporter visited his lab, two burly toughs in suits and diamond rings
showed up at NEWSWEEK'S Moscow office asking questions about
Smirnov. They claimed to be in business with him, but he says he
doesn't know them. KGB? Mafia? Smirnov shrugs them off, but, whoever
they are, the doctor of subliminal subversion might be wise to watch
his back
-----------------------------------
--
Mind Control: TT&P ==> http://www.datafilter.com/mc
Home page: http://www.datafilter.com/alb
Allen Barker
Allen L. Barker
[More information on Dr. Smirnov, his techniques, and his theories.
These are excerpts from the CAHRA Russian book translation project
results. Some tantalizing details of the subliminal audio encoding
techniques are given -- such as the ability to roughly invert the
transformation -- but not enough to know the method. Smirnov also
mentions hiding the signals in any low-frequency sound, including
sledge hammer sounds, beating heart sounds, music, etc. Apparently
the rhythm pattern of directly encoded speech is preserved. One
might guess that for hiding in repetitive "spike" sounds like a
sledge hammer the sounds might be time-compressed around peaks or
syllables in the audio, and that these peaks would then be
correlated with external noise peaks. Whatever the method, the
results sound very much like what many US mind control victims
report (if not always truly subliminal in practice, intended or
not). Presumably the Richmond company owning the rights to the
methods is keeping them proprietary, if not classified...
Smirnov's (consensual) drug treatment program described at the end
seems to have a lot of similarities to Cameron's psychic driving
theories, only subliminal and supposedly speeded up...]
Cahra
Russian Book Translation Project Results
With related background information on
Russian/U.S. mind control technology
http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/~welsh/russian.htm
--------------------------------------------------------------
[...]
3. New York Times Magazine, Aug. 31, 1997, "Atomic Guinea Pigs" by
Michael D'Antonio "At the Department of Energy, which oversees
America's nuclear-weapons research, these people [radiation experiment
victims] were referred to collectively as "the Crazies." But the
opening of the cold-war archives has brought the Crazies in from the
fringe."
[...]
--------------------------------------------------------------
"The Zombies of the Red Czars",
a documentary by Jerzy Sadkowski,
1998, shown on German TV channel ZDF
[...]
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY :
Jan Wiesemann
[...]
REPORTER (Different Speaker) :
Waco, Texas : Law enforcement authorities have surrounded the
compounds of a fanatic cult of David Koresh who did not want to
surrender. The negotiations have reached a stalemate. The FBI turns to
Moscow scientist Igor Smirnov. This respectable bureaucracy took his
ability to directly influence the subconscious of the cult members
very seriously. At the location Dr. Smirnov introduced a plan by which
the cult members were to be "softened up" before the final
confrontation.
DR. SMIRNOV :
I wanted to use an appeal by close relatives, from (the cult member's)
children and parents. Such as, "Mama come out. We love you very much
and are waiting for you." In this fashion I wanted to directly reach
[target] every known member of the cult individually in this
building. With the help of computer programs these appeals were to be
turned into a sound-like signal. While the conscious mind will not
recognize these signals the unconscious will react to it. This was to
minimize the danger of preventing extreme situations from developing,
including a tragic outcome.
SPEAKER :
Via radio, television and telephone lines, the cult of David Koresh
was to be subjected to subliminal psychological pressures. But the FBI
was also under pressure. Smirnov was not able to carry out the plan.
DR. SMIRNOV :
Three days after our agreement with the chief of the technical
services of the FBI, the Americans suddenly changed their decision to
wait for one week, which I had asked for so everything could be
installed. And they used only one of the agreed upon components, that
is, the appeals of close relatives. But in a completely open
manner. They installed loudspeakers and began to broadcast everything
openly [i.e., in the normal audio mode]. And then the tragedy
happened. [The burning of the David Koresh's compound in Waco, Texas,
is shown.]
SPEAKER :
This is when the public found out for the first time what the
mysterious professor occupies himself with. In addition to hundreds of
new patients from all over Russia, clients with completely different
needs also started to contact him.
INTERVIEWER (asks Dr. Smirnov) :
Are you or have you ever been contacted by politicians to help them
get elected ?
DR. SMIRNOV :
But of course. Just now a new wave of approaches has began. There are
going to be presidential elections soon. Our Russian politicians are
uneducated and uncivilized. That's why they are such a ruthless and
manipulative pack. They don't recoil from attempting to exploit the
entire population with technical means, such as ours, only to reach
the desired office. I do not advocate supporting this pack. I will
never do that under any circumstances.
INTERVIEWER (asks Dr. Smirnov) :
Is this even possible technically ?
DR. SMIRNOV :
Yes. We have conducted experiments with groups of young volunteers. In
situations where an immediate decision has to be reached, the group
behavior can be changed with a high degree of probability.
[...]
[CUT TO DR. SMIRNOV'S LABORATORY : Closeup of a computer monitor upon
which a harmless appearing film of a Buddhist ceremony is shown]
SPEAKER :
This film was produced for demonstration purposes by Russian
scientists for top government officials of North Korea. One of those
[Russian] scientists was Dr. Smirnov. Today he unveils in our presence
the secret of the manipulation. To make it visible in this innocent
picture, you have to know the correct [computer] code [of the computer
software which encrypted the unseen subliminal message/picture and hid
it in the visible picture of the Buddhist temple.]
DR. SMIRNOV :
This film was produced in order to demonstrate how to insert a
thought, a picture, a suggestion, into a totally different
context. Someone who looks at such material will consciously only
notice the disguising picture, such as, for example, any given TV show
or commercial.
DR. SMIRNOV (continued) :
In fact, however [at the same time the viewer] also receives a secret
information [which is] not accessible to the conscious. Let me [now]
show you the picture which has been inserted by code into this video.
[Smirnov punches a code into his computer which makes the picture
visible]
DR. SMIRNOV :
There it is. [Now we see a photo of U.S. President Bill Clinton with
the message : "YANKEE GO HOME !" ]
SPEAKER :
We are no longer dealing with a briefly inserted, unencrypted film
picture, a technique which had been tested and prohibited years ago in
[for] American commercials. The difference [between the older
subliminal technique of briefly inserting an unencrypted picture into
a commercial and Dr. Smirnov's new technique] is that the
[subliminally] encrypted technique demonstrated here is almost
impossible to prove.
DR. SMIRNOV :
Try to comprehend the danger if this were to be produced by a
government-controlled television [station] so that millions of people
would be repeatedly exposed to the [subliminal] message for, let's
say, each day for at least a month. Slowly but ever so gradually it
[the subliminal message] would penetrate the brains.
[...]
CUT TO :
[A diagram of numbers and figures flashing on a computer screen is
shown]
SPEAKER :
What remains of the Russian soul once it has gone through such a
container in which a computer programmed for the cleaning of the
subconscious changes feelings and human excitements into numbers and
[mathematical] diagrams, which can then be "corrected". [A diagram of
wavy lines is shown]
SPEAKER (continued) :
This is one of Professor Smirnov's recorded computer displays of a
human subconscious, a graphic illustration of the [human] soul. Every
one who has access to the computer and knows the [software] program
has access to this soul. To rule the [human] souls, one only has to
put them into the area of effective vicinity of the apparatus. Or,
there is already a method to transmit hidden information over long
distances. According to Smirnov [such a method] does exist :
DR. SMIRNOV :
You can input a suggestive "equation", a "consciously not noticeable
fable", as we like to call it, into every conceivable low-frequency
sound, for example, into the background sound you can hear in the
telephone, even into the sound of a sledge hammer, not to mention the
fact that this can be even more easily done with the radio or pieces
of music. It works like this :
[Dr. Smirnov speaks into a microphone which is hooked up to his
computer]
DR. SMIRNOV :
[Into the microphone :] "Attention. Attention. This is Germany. In
five minutes, Hitler will be finished." [To the TV audience :] We now
have recorded an audio database which can then be played back from the
computer.
[Dr. Smirnov plays his own voice back : "Attention. Attention. This is
Germany. In five minutes, Hitler will be finished."]
There is nothing special about this. But now we change this [audio]
database into an undecipherable format. We receive a database which
produces a sound. [Dr. Smirnov plays the changed database of his voice
back which now sounds only like background noise rushings].
Only the rhythm is the same as that of the originally recorded
database, but my words are no longer recognizable, right ?! Still, the
brain will not rest until it has decoded [the message]. We too can
decode [the message] if we change it back [to its original form]. I
have recorded this changed-back database. Now we'll open
it. [Dr. Smirnov does this on the computer]. There it is. Let us
listen to it again. [The same rustle-rushing sound is heard]. Yes,
there is that sound [again]. And now we'll decode it. Even if my voice
will [now] be a little distorted, I hope that it can [still] be
recognized.
[The recording of Dr. Smirnov's voice is played once more :
"Attention. Attention. This is Germany. In five minutes, Hitler will
be finished." ]
If a great number of people would be exposed to all of this, for
example through the TV, or the movie theatres, or radios, then, I
believe, that there exists a certain danger for our security.
[...]
SPEAKER :
Nobody knows in how many homes in Moscow, or [even] in all of Russia,
there are people who up until today are afraid to talk freely. People
who are afraid of their own shadow. And nobody knows how many of them
are really the victims of dubious [psychological] experiments with
[on] the human psyches. And how many are victims of the fear of such
manipulations.
WE CUT BACK TO DR. SMIRNOV WHO IS SEATED BEHIND A DESK :
DR. SMIRNOV :
What, in my opinion correctly, is feared the most in the entire world,
is an invasion into the soul. This couldn't be any other way. After
all, it is better to lose the body than [to lose] the immortal
soul. It is easily conceivable that some Russian "Satan", or, let's
say an Iranian or any other [Satan], as long as he owns the
appropriate means and finances, can [could] inject himself [intrude]
into every conceivable computer network, into every conceivable radio
or tv broadcast with relative technological ease, even without
disconnecting [any] cables. You can intercept the [radio]waves in the
aether and then [subliminally] modulate every conceivable suggestion
into it. If this transpires over a long enough time period, it
accumulates in the heads of the people. And eventually, they can be
artificially manipulated with other additional measurements to do
[exactly] that which this perpetrator wants [them to do]. This is why
[such technology] is rightfully [correctly] feared.
[...]
WE CUT TO OUTSIDE, RUSSIA, EVENING
SPEAKER :
We are driving to the Bolsheia Pirogovka, Russia's oldest psychiatry,
the Korsakov clinic. Here is also the Institute for Psycho Technology
which Dr. Smirnov founded ten years ago. Since then, more than ten
thousand people have contacted him to volunteer for the technique he
developed, an operation on the "open subconscious". One of them was
also Olga.
OLGA :
I took drugs for approximately three years, and tried in the past one
and a half years exceedingly to stop. I've been in all kinds of [drug
abuse] hospitals for rehabilitation [purposes]. But none of the
therapies [I tried out] were successful. This [Dr. Smirnov's]
treatment applies a medication which does not directly produce
hallucinations, but you somehow "see" your subconscious, your own life
from beginning to the end. [After completing Dr. Smirnov's treatment
(and taking the medication)] I had a genuine feeling that I could not
possibly return, as if, although I'm not dying, but nevertheless am
removing myself to someplace. The procedure takes only approximately
one minute. But it feels like three to four hours. I subjected myself
to this treatment about a month and a half ago. And since then, I feel
good. I can say that today I feel like a free person, because I can
[now] say "no" to the drugs.
[WE NOW CUT TO THE CLINIC OF DR. SMIRNOV: A YOUNG MAN IS BEING
PREPARED FOR AN OPERATION ON HIS SUBCONSCIOUS]
SPEAKER :
In the clinic of Dr. Smirnov : This narcotized young man also has
been a drug addict for four years. Soon he will begin a unique,
unbloody operation after which he will wake up cured of his fateful
drug addiction. [CLOSE-UP of the patient as he watches a sequence of
numbers flashing on a computer screen]. From the computer
loudspeakers, coded instructions are intruding into the subconscious
of the patient which force him to confront the worst experiences of
his life. Therein lies the hidden cause of his drug addiction. The
sensations [emotions ?] [the patient experiences] during [this
procedure] are so strong that sometimes the heart stops beating. This
is the reason for the narcosis and the [presence of] a specialized
team of doctors which is able to revive the patient in case of [an]
emergency. The [subliminal] instructions are being encrypted into the
sound of the [patient's] heartbeat. The operation lasts only a few
minutes. Usually the patient continues to repeat one word which for
him has a [personal] key meaning.
PATIENT :
Mama. Mama. Mama.
SPEAKER :
The subconscious, the soul of the young man, now lies exposed to the
surgeon. Only Smirnov practices such procedures on the subconscious
today. Sergei's [the patient's] pulse increases to two hundred beats
per minute. In this moment, the drug addiction is literally being
surgically removed.
[A noise of an increasing pulse beat is heard]
SPEAKER
Brainwashing per computer !
[The sound of the pulse becomes louder and faster]
PATIENT
Mama. Mama. Mama. Mama. Mama. Mama. Mama. Mama.
DR. SMIRNOV :
Finished ?
SPEAKER :
Now the pulse frequency decreases again. The "cavity" [hole] created
in his subconscious is now being replaced ["filled"] with positive
motivation. It [the positive motivation] will help him to live without
the [drug] addiction.
[The patient sighs and breathes deeply.]
One could feel enthusiastic. Would there not be a [rather] disturbing
thought : If it is possible to remove "evil" from the soul of a human
being, and have it replaced with "good", is this also possible the
other way around ? Can anyone in Russia today guarantee that this is
never going to happen ?
DR. SMIRNOV :
There is a famous bible verse which is [usually] interpreted
incorrectly :
"I am the Lord." [ alternative translation : "I am the Master."]
Everyone assumes automatically that this is a word of God, right ? He
is the Lord [Master]. In fact, "I am the Lord [Master]", means "I am
God", "She is God", or "They are God". "God", this is the Holy Spirit,
this is us. The general population does not realize this second
meaning. And although we psychiatrists operate with relative material
objects, computers, programs, semantic structures and such, which can
be measured, weighted, and be understood and expressed in numbers, we
treat this [Holy] Spirit in a pretty mediocre way. Because this is not
something so metaphysical, immaterial and irrational as [was] once
thought.
[...]
eccliesiastes-JamesRose
If you will now imagine a communication system, you will realize
that there is a great deal of variability about what goes into the
system and also a great deal of variability about what comes out. The
input and the output can therefore be described in terms of their
variance (or their information). If it is a good communication system,
however, there must be some systematic relation between what goes in
and what comes out. That is to say, the output will depend upon the
input, or will be correlated with the input. If we measure this
correlation, then we can say how much of the output variance is
attributable to the input and how much is due to random fluctuations
or "noise" introduced by the system during transmission. So we see
that the measure of transmitted information is simply a measure of the
input-output correlation.
eccliesiastes-JamesRose
Chemical and Electrical Sensitivity
in the Production of "Environmental Disease"
Jay W. Seastrunk II, M.D.
Kindling
In the 1960's, while doing research at Tulane medical School, I became
interested in the correlation between the electrical manifestation of
brain activity and behavior. I was fortunate enough to be able to
participate in deep electrode long term implant studies in
non-psychotic individuals. This experience strongly imprinted in me
the connection between brain activity and behavior. In reviewing the
literature for Dr. R.G. Heath, my department chairman, I came across
the "mirror focus" literature. In 1949, Pope et.al., described the
僧irror focus" phenomenon, while working with Penfield on man and
monkeys. In "mirror focus" development, an epileptic focus (a mirror
focus) is found to develop in the hemisphere opposite to an original
epileptic focus, even though there has never been an injury in that
hemisphere. This developed focus takes ten to fifteen years to emerge
in humans. In 1969, Goddard and two other researchers in the field of
epilepsy published an article entitled, "A Permanent Change in Brain
Function Resulting from Daily Electrical Stimulation." They were
curious as to why an incubation period often elapsed between a
traumatic brain injury, and the occurrence of a first seizure, months
to years after the injury. What they discovered was that repeated
applications of either chemical or electrical irritants to the brains
of animals eventually produce intense seizure discharges, even if each
one of the irritating stimulations themselves is incapable of
producing a seizure. They discovered that a stimulus to the brain,
that ordinarily would produce no change in either the animal's
behavior or in the electrical activity of its brain, did produce
significant changes in both behavior and electrical activity, if it
were repeated and repeated. They called the repeated stimulus "a
chronic irritant," and the resulting effect "kindling." In Vietnam
veterans, psychosis took fifteen years to emerge following brain
injury, illustrating that the limbic and/or more subtle behavioral
manifestations of brain injury take a long time to emerge perhaps
related to the "kindling" phenomena.
http://www.citlink.net/citlink/b/bhima/kindling.htm
eccliesi...@yahoo.com (eccliesiastes-JamesRose) wrote in message news:<10ac1ac7.03091...@posting.google.com>...
eccliesiastes-JamesRose
Musical sound is the name we give this seemingly
simple feeling which is clearly resolvable into
simpler feelings. Well known experiments prove that
when equal blows or tapps are made one after another
at a rate not exceeding some sixteen per second, the
effect of each is percieved as a seperate noise; but
when the rapidity with which the blows follow one
another exceeds this, the noises are no longer
identified in seperate states of concsciousness, and
there arises in place of them a continuous state of
consciousness, called a tone.
In further increasing the rapidity of the blows the
tone undergoes the change of quality distinguished as
rise in pitch; and it continues to rise in pitch as
the blows continue to increase in rapidity until it
reaches an acuteness beyond which it is no longer
appreciable as a tone.
http://eccliesiastes.homestead.com/Untitled10.html
eccliesi...@yahoo.com (eccliesiastes-JamesRose) wrote in message news:<10ac1ac7.03091...@posting.google.com>...
> Kindling, Focal Brain Injury,
> Chemical and Electrical Sensitivity
> in the Production of "Environmental Disease"
> Jay W. Seastrunk II, M.D.
>
> Kindling
> In the 1960's, while doing research at Tulane medical School, I became
> interested in the correlation between the electrical manifestation of
> brain activity and behavior. I was fortunate enough to be able to
> participate in deep electrode long term implant studies in
> non-psychotic individuals. This experience strongly imprinted in me
> the connection between brain activity and behavior. In reviewing the
> literature for Dr. R.G. Heath, my department chairman, I came across
> the "mirror focus" literature. In 1949, Pope et.al., described the
> ?mirror focus" phenomenon, while working with Penfield on man and
Allen L. Barker
> Kindling, Focal Brain Injury,
> Chemical and Electrical Sensitivity
> in the Production of "Environmental Disease"
> Jay W. Seastrunk II, M.D.
>
> Kindling
> In the 1960's, while doing research at Tulane medical School, I became
> interested in the correlation between the electrical manifestation of
> brain activity and behavior. I was fortunate enough to be able to
> participate in deep electrode long term implant studies in
> non-psychotic individuals. This experience strongly imprinted in me
> the connection between brain activity and behavior.
> What they discovered was that repeated
> applications of either chemical or electrical irritants to the brains
> of animals eventually produce intense seizure discharges, even if each
> one of the irritating stimulations themselves is incapable of
> producing a seizure. They discovered that a stimulus to the brain,
> that ordinarily would produce no change in either the animal's
> behavior or in the electrical activity of its brain, did produce
> significant changes in both behavior and electrical activity, if it
> were repeated and repeated. They called the repeated stimulus "a
> chronic irritant," and the resulting effect "kindling." In Vietnam
> veterans, psychosis took fifteen years to emerge following brain
> injury, illustrating that the limbic and/or more subtle behavioral
> manifestations of brain injury take a long time to emerge perhaps
> related to the "kindling" phenomena.
>
> http://www.citlink.net/citlink/b/bhima/kindling.htm
The link above is broken, but the article is still online at:
http://home.tampabay.rr.com/lymecfs/kindling.htm
Here is another excerpt:
[...]
Time-Dependent Sensitization
A second mechanism, called time-dependent sensitization, is
almost identical to kindling. According to Bell, et. al.
(1992), time-dependent sensitization is very similar to
kindling in that an external substance, e.g. a chemical,
that has no effect at first on an animal’s brain will later
produce a major reaction. This sounds almost like kindling,
except for a few minor differences. By definition, kindling
eventually leads to seizures, whereas time-dependent
sensitization does not necessarily lead to seizures.
Instead, it can lead to changes in the animal’s behavior,
its sensations, cognitions, autonomic nervous system
responses, vestibular (balance) responses, motion responses,
and/or in its immune or hormonal function. Another
difference is that time-dependent sensitization can occur
after a single intense exposure, rather than a few small,
repeated ones. After a passage of time, and without further
exposure, a new exposure will suddenly produce the altered
experience an/or behavior, or alter the immune function.
Finally, time-dependent sensitization shows
cross-sensitization, which means that after a given
individual is sensitized, other substances, different from
the one causing the initial exposure, will now, produce
the altered experience, and/or behavior or function in a
stereotyped way for each individual.
[...]
These results show one way that mind control methods which directly
affect the brain can slowly inflict damage that is cumulatively
greater than the sum of the "small insults" repeated and repeated.
They also makes me wonder if a similar neurological effect can be
evoked by repeated acoustic irritants, such as with "psychic driving,"
or tactile irritants, as in Chinese water torture. This might be a part
of the neurophysiology behind how "triggers" are instilled in people
and how they work...
Of course real people subjected to mind control operations suffer for
more reasons than just the purely physiological effects of that form
of torture. There are also all the psychological sequelae, as a
recently posted article described. Just knowing that your fellow
countrymen are purposely inflicting such things on you, and having
your home, family, and person so terribly violated are difficult
enough to deal with in themselves.