Terms Other Than Mind Control
Allen Barker, Jan. 30, 2003
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. 30, 2003.
Connotational Baggage
One problem with the term "mind control" is a certain "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 of 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 should first 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 (IG) 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
The following is a list of various alternatives to the term "mind control." The list also contains some closely-related terms. Many of the terms were suggested in threads on some mailing lists and newsgroups a while back. 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
- coercive persuasion
- conspicuous surveillance
- covert direction of human behavior
- defamation of character
- directed energy weapons
- electromagnetic harassment victim
- electromagnetic pulse weapons
- electromagnetic weapons
- electronic concentration camps
- electronic mind control
- electronic torture
- fake "psychic" deception operation/psyop
- high-tech cointelpro
- high-tech menticide
- high-tech surveillance and harassment
- high-tech political surveillance and harassment
- human biological process control
- human guinea pigs
- 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
- playing "God"
- 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
- secret domestic warfare on the population
- sleep deprivation
- sleep-disrupting weapons
- synthetic telepathy attack
- targeted individual
- technological enslavement operations
- techno-manipulation
- 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