Psychotronic weapons

Psychotronic weapons are an alleged technology researched during the Cold War by the U.S.S.R, relating to mind control. The types of weapons claimed to exist include debilitating high frequency radio waves, hypnotic computer-scrambled sounds and mind-bending electromagnetic fields, originally developed for medical purposes and allegedly adapted into weapons. The program came to the attention of such groups such as The National Security Agency and the Joint Forces Staff College. According to Russian writer N. Anisimov, psychotronic weapons are those used to “take away a part of the information which is stored in a man’s brain. It is sent to a computer, which reworks it to the level needed for those who need to control the man, and the modified information is then reinserted into the brain.” These weapons are used against used to "induce hallucinations, sickness, mutations in human cells, or even death." Underlying technologies studied included VHF generators, X-rays, ultrasound, and radio waves. Russian Army Major I. Chernishev, wrote in the military journal Orienteer in February 1997, that “psy” weapons were being researched and developed all over the world. In March of 2012, Russian Defense Minister, Anatoly Serdyukov said “The development of weaponry based on new physics principles; direct-energy weapons, geophysical weapons, wave-energy weapons, genetic weapons, psychotronic weapons, etc., is part of the state arms procurement program for 2011-2020."

United States interest

The United States appears to have taken an interest in the program in 1965, when the White House asked the Defense Department to investigate "behavioral and biological effects of low level microwaves," after discovering electromagnetic radiation being beamed into the Moscow embassy. From 1965, Project Pandora and a subproject, code named "Bizzare", conducted microwave research on animals, Navy personnel, achieving mixed results.

While there does not appear to be an unclassified parallel program currently in the United States, there is a significant amount of publicly available information from third parties, such as Lockheed Martin discussing similar or comparable technology. In 2000, U.S. News and World Report printed an interview with John Norseen, in which he states he had submitted a research and development plan to the Pentagon to identify a terrorist's mental profile. Norseen was a lead researcher at Lockheed Martin working on a project called BioFusion on contract with the Department of Defense. One year later, in SIGNAL Magazine, Norseen gave an update on his research: "By looking at the collective data, we know that when this person thinks of the number nine or says the number nine, this is how it appears in the brain, providing a fingerprint, or what we call a brainprint," Norseen offers. "We are at the point where this database has been developed enough that we can use a single electrode or something like an airport security system where there is a dome above your head to get enough information that we can know the number you're thinking," he adds.

Alleged use against civilians

In studying auditory hallucinions, Ralph Hoffman, a professor of psychiatry at Yale specializing in delusions, reports that people often ascribe voices in their heads to external sources including government harassment, God, and dead relatives. Hoffman said a growing number of subjects have informed him of mind control related sites that confirm their experiences. he says "the views of these belief systems are like a shark that has to be constantly fed, if you don't feed the delusion, sooner or later it will die out or diminish on its own." Other mental health experts have looked closely at these web sites, and are careful to note that there is no way to prove that posters are suffering from mental illness. Whether or not these sites and groups are beneficial is questionable, some believe it could be delusion reinforcing, and others note that social support can be beneficial. The Washington Post reported in 2007 that there are a growing number of US citizens who allege that the government is using "psychotronic torture" against them and who campaign to stop the use of psychotronic and other "mind control" weapons.

In 2001, Dennis Kucinich proposed legislation before the 107th Congress to ban space based and psychotronic weapons. This bill was withdrawn do to an unfavorable Executive Comment from the U.S. Department of Defense. In 2008, the New York Times reported that Representative Jim Guest was also working to investigate psychotronics. “I’ve had enough calls, some from credible people — professors — being targeted by nonlethal weapons,” Representative Guest said, adding that nothing came of his request for an investigation. He added: “I believe there are people who have been targeted by this."

Similar campaigns have occured in Russia with the "Victims of Psychotronic Experimentation" group attempting to recover damages from the Federal Security Service 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 pscyhological warfare during the early 1990s, with Lopatkin, a State Duma committee member in 1995, surmising "Something that was secret for so many years is the perfect breeding ground for conspiracy theories."