People who believe they have been targeted by mind control technologies have often been met with skepticism or outright disbelief. However, recent revelations concerning very real ongoing scientific research by the government, coupled with technologies under development in the private sector, make it harder than ever to completely dismiss these claims. Reliable information accessible on the Internet suggests that what they think is happening to them may actually be possible, either now or in the near future.
Many of us already have devices inside us — from pacemakers and artificial hearts to replacement joints. Now there is technology under development that could affect the mind and body from the outside, in disturbing, even maddening, ways — from putting sounds in people’s heads to microwaving them from within. The limits of thought and human physiology have been much extended.
There are also many documented cases of government abuse of unsuspecting citizens, often in the name of research. Political activists and others who upset the status quo have long known that government surveillance, at least under certain circumstances, is a reality.
Against this background, a subculture of individuals claim that sinister devices are being used on them, possibly by the government. If these machines are real, it would be difficult to separate the people who are mentally troubled from those who have been victimized. Few weapons, once developed, have not been abused. Even the “non-lethal” ones designed to incapacitate, like tasers, have been used to kill. Mind/body devices sometimes fall under this heading and can change a subject’s very concept of reality, which can be uneasy at the best of times.
Does the proliferation of new technologies and new complaints of harm indicate the spread of a large-scale form of mass paranoia? Or is reality catching up to what used to be called madness?
