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Psychotronic weapons are a technology researched during the Cold War by the U.S.S.R, relating to mind control. The class of weapons are used to modify the thought process of humans, with the use of electromagnetic radiation and the assistance of advanced computers in order 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." The program came to the attention of groups such as The National Security Agency and the Joint Forces Staff College who have analyzed Russian research into this subject.

United States analyst interest

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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. This irradiation spanned from 1953 to 1976, after the White House Request, Project Pandora (and "Bizarre") conducted microwave research on animals and Navy personnel, achieving mixed results. This research was carried out by the psychology division within the psychiatry research section of Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

In an article from 1998 published by the U.S. Army War College, military analyst Timothy Thomas examined psychotronic weapons, noting that up until that time most American military analysts had only looked at "simple deception" as a way to modify the enemy's rational thought. He notes that neuroscience has reliably proven that electromagnetic and energy waves, like data originating from the endogenous processes of the mind and body are subject to change in a similar manner to computers.

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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."

References

1. Thomas, Timothy (Spring 1998). . Parameters. pp. "82-92". {{cite news}}: Check |url= value (help)
2. . "RIA Novosti". "March 22, 2012". {{cite news}}: Check |url= value (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
3. Owen Matthews (July 11, 1995). "Report: Soviets Used Top-Secret ' Psychotronic' Weapons". The Moscow Times.
4. Armistead, Leigh in conjunction with the Joint Forces Staff College and the National Security Agency. Information Operations: Warfare and the Hard Reality of Soft Power. p. 198.
5. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19760321&id=vboqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=LmcEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6828,2196986
6. Sharon Weinberger (January 14, 2007). "Mind Games". Washington Post.
7. "Lynch, Zach" ("July 21, 2009"). "The Neuro Revolution: How Brain Science is Changing the World". "Macmillan". {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
8. "Lynch, Zach" ("July 21, 2009"). "The Neuro Revolution: How Brain Science is Changing the World". "Macmillan". {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
9. Thomas, Timothy (Spring 1998). "The Mind has No Firewall". Parameters. pp. 82–92.
10. "U.S. News and World Report". . {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
11. "SIGNAL Magazine". . {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
12. ^ Weinberger, Sharon (January 14, 2007). "Mind Games". Washington Post. Retrieved 2010-08-01.
13. ^ "Kershaw", "Sarah" ("November 12, 2008"). . "The New York Times". {{cite news}}: Check |url= value (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
14. Matthews, Owen (July 11, 1995). "Report: Soviets Used Top-Secret 'Psychotronic' Weapons". The Moscow Times.

• Microwave technology
• Cold War weapons of the Soviet Union