Terms Other Than Mind Control
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This article is a re-edited version of an earlier mailing list
article. The subject is whether the term "mind control" does more
harm than good, as far as activism to educate the public and expose
the many abuses in that area. The nature of the crimes and abuses
is not at issue. The focus here is word usage. This version was
last revised on Jan. 22, 2003.
Connotational Baggage
One problem with the term "mind control" is the "kook" association.
This association/stereotype is reinforced in some of the popular
culture -- as well as by certain victims (or provocateurs) who sound
"crazy." [There are cointelpro-style provocateurs who want to keep
the real victims discredited, if possible, because they work as a
damage control unit for the victimizers.] Many other people
encountering the term "mind control" are just citizens who are
purposely kept ignorant of the known and documented history of mind
control -- as well as the state of the technology right now.
Because of the popular culture, some people may tend to want to
ridicule the term mind control. On the other hand, not all the
popular culture references to mind control are harmful to the victims;
there are some deeper and sharper popular culture references which
take it seriously and raise the ethical questions. Mind control also
has a built-in "name recognition" in the population, so perhaps
someone who once ridiculed it and learned that it all exists right now
would be able to grow up and consider the matter seriously.
Other Connotations
For some people the term "mind control" evokes the connotation that
the victim is *completely* controlled, like a high-tech zombie. In
most cases, though, it is more like a probabilistic control and
influencing. In less subtle cases it is just plain harassment and
aversive conditioning (punishment) for "unapproved" thoughts or
behaviors. In even less subtle cases it is just incessant harassment
intended to inflict psychological damage. The intention there is often
to cause the victim to suffer "discrediting" sequelae that can be labeled
a "psychotic break" -- or to just cause the person to commit suicide. To
be clear, the term "mind control" does not necessarily imply that the
victim is completely controlled like an automaton -- though that level of
control has surely been researched and experimented on.
A positive connotation of the term "mind control" is its similarity
to the mathematical field of control theory. If you were to interpret
the term "mind" to mean something like a dynamical system representing
the mind/body of a person, then in a very abstract sense what is being
attempted is described by control theory. Questions like
controllability then take on an "interesting" interpretation... Of
course with such high-level abstractions it is important to remember
that some of those "dynamical systems" are human beings with unalienable
human rights. And some of those "control variables" constitute torture.
Taking Back the Term
One can either move from term to term as they are worn out, or stick
to the usual term even with its connotational baggage. I tend to use
different terms in different situations, for example avoiding the term
"mind control" in official correspondence except with a caution to the
reader before the term is introduced. But normally I tend to stick to
the popular term "mind control" (don't let the disinfo agents have
it). There is a good argument for not using the term, and good people
can certainly disagree on that point. Obviously not all people have
to use the exact same term if we all know we are talking about the
same thing.
Is There a Single Term Better Than Mind Control?
If we are looking for a single term to use, or at least for the
primary term to use, what should such a term be based on? Should it
be based on science? Law? The poetry of human suffering? Or
something else?
Scientific Terms: Physical Vs. Psychophysical
If we want a scientific term we need to distinguish the physical from
the psychophysical. A physical term suggests a weapon or a means
(such as a microwave voice-to-skull device) while a psychophysical
term relates to the victim's subjective experience of what was done to
him or her. Let me digress a couple of paragraphs to be more
explicit.
In science and experimental psychology there are physical quantities
and there are psychophysical quantities. (This is the objective
versus the subjective.) The classic example is of the frequency of an
auditory signal versus its pitch. The frequency is what you measure
with a scientific instrument, while the pitch is the subjective
sensation you perceive. They are different things, but (due to the
long evolution of science) frequency is close enough to pitch when
measured physically versus psychophysically that people sometimes
ignore the distinction.
Many of the microwave hearing articles deal with the issues of "what
are the psychophysical correlates of the beam's physical parameters."
Knowing this one can then technologically create the *physical* event,
causing the corresponding *psychophysical* event in the person's
"mind." That is, you can modulate a microwave beam with the right
pulsed waveform so that if you "illuminate" a person with the beam he
or she perceives as sound whatever signal has been modulated onto it
-- including voice signals.
So should a single scientific term be a physical description or a
psychophysical one? Can you rigorously define a term that encompasses
both? In the world of soft sciences(?) there could perhaps be a new
DSM-manual entry for mind control victims. It would be similar to
Stasi persecution syndrome, but more general and not restricted to
East Germany.
Current Groups of Victim
What groups of victims are included under the term "mind control" right
now? Let me assume a "John Marks" sort of definition, such as the
techniques he described in his book _The Search for the Manchurian
Candidate_. There are different sorts of mind control, yet we all
basically know what we mean by "mind control victim" in that sense. It
is a specific case of torture victim -- which is a legal term in addition
to being understood in common language.
Can we talk about mind control without talking about victims? Not
really, because we are assuming the nonconsensual application of the
technology in the fashion of rape. But in a larger sense we are
dealing with "mind rape" as the violent crime committed with the
nonconsensual use of brain interface technology. Of course brain
interface technology is only one aspect, i.e., covers one class of
victims. It might not apply to some victims of, say, PANDORA-style
nonconsensual behavior and conditioning experiments with microwaves of
all sorts. And what about all the mind control drugging victims like
in the LSD experiments? What about the victims of abusive and
intentionally harmful hypnosis techniques? These techniques can also
used in combination. For example, voice-to-skull technology is often
used as an implement for inducing trauma as a part of trauma
conditioning a victim. Politically there are few enough direct,
witting victims who are willing to talk about it -- and few enough
people who care about domestic torture -- that all mind control
victims need to stick together.
Political Terms
In the spy business, the Inspector General of the CIA called mind
control operations "clandestine operations to control human behavior"
in a report from the early 1960s. Another term is "technologies of
political control," as in the STOA report to the European Parliament.
Abuses of such technologies and methods are a subset of the more
general classes of crimes known as torture and human rights
violations. In the US, at least, they are also civil rights
violations and abrogations of almost the entire Bill of Rights. That
over and above various stalking, assault, battery, harassment, and]
intellectual property theft laws.
Poetic Terms
Finally, would Frederick Douglass have preferred a scientific term in
his powerful speeches for human dignity? This is another area, the
real human experience of the torture victims crying out for freedom
and justice.
Decide For Yourself
I don't think we're going to find a single common term that meets our
needs. We might be able to create or choose one and *imbue* it with
the same meaning which those on this list already know for the term
mind control. Perhaps in the spirit of science we could do a taxonomy
of all the sorts of mind control and the descriptive term for each,
all under the common root node of an overarching term. A cluster
analysis of victim survey reports might provide some useful info
there, for example. But *good* experimental studies are hard to do,
cost money, are subject to co-optation by victimizers, and victims are
not exactly in the best positions carry them out or trust those
claiming to.
Remember this is not just a "scientific" problem. The abuses have
been purposely inflicted and purposely covered up. There are archives
of data about *known* victims in the population which are still ignored.
Rather than forcing victims and activists to have to externally piece
together what all has been done, a legitimate government (of, by, and
for the people) would investigate, end any abuses, bring justice to the
vicious abusers, and provide redress for the victims.
Alternative Terms
There was a thread on some mailing lists a while back about whether
the term "mind control" is the right one for activists to use. These
are all the terms suggested by various people there, plus a few more.
Remember the target audience in letter writing, etc.
acoustic weapons
active physical surveillance
aggravated assault and battery with microwave weapons
assaults with improvised electronic and non-electronic weapons
assaults with classified weapons
behavior modification torture victims
biological process control
brain assault
brain bugging
brain rape
braintapping
clandestine operations to control human behavior
clandestine domestic terrorization
conspicuous surveillance
defamation of character
directed energy weapons
electromagnetic harassment victim
electromagnetic pulse weapons
electromagnetic weapons
electronic mind control
electronic torture
high-tech menticide
high-tech surveillance and harassment
high-tech political surveillance and harassment
human biological process control
mind control
mind control torture
mind influencing
mind rape
neuroinfluencing weapon
nonconsensual behavior control operation
nonconsensual behavior modification operation
nonconsensual behavior modification
nonconsensual brain interface
nonconsensual brain-computer interface
nonconsensual brain interrogation
non-lethal weapons
performance-degrading weapons
political control technologies
psycho-correction technology
psycho-electronics
psychological deception operations
psychological warfare
psychotronics
radio-frequency weapons
remote aversive conditioning torture
remote monitoring of EEG
sleep deprivation
sleep-disrupting weapons
targeted individual
technological enslavement operations
thought inference via sensor data analysis
thought control/influencing
thought police
torture
torture-level surveillance and harassment operation
torture-level surveillance and harassment
torture victims
ultrasonic weapons
voice-to-skull assault
voice-to-skull covert operation victim
zapping victim
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Mind Control: TT&P ==> http://www.datafilter.com/mc
A USA Today Hot Site: http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/2002/04/29/hotsites.htm
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Home page: http://www.datafilter.com/alb
Allen Barker