THE CONTROLLERS: A New Hypothesis of Alien Abduction
Part 2 <-- | -->
ABDUCTEE IMPLANTS  If we are to take seriously abductee accounts of brain implants, we must consider the possibility that the implanters, properly perceived, DON'T look much like the "Greys" pictured on Strieber's dust jackets. Instead, the visitors may resemble Dr. Meyer and his brethren. We would thus have an explanation for both the reports of abductee brain implants and, as we shall see, the "scoop marks" and other scars visible on other parts of the abductees' bodies. We would also have an explanation for the reports of individuals suffering personality change after contact with the UFO phenomenon.
Skeptics might counter that the time factor of UFO abductions disallows this possibility. If estimates of "missing time" are correct, the abductions rarely take longer than one-to-three hours. Wouldn't a brain surgeon, operating under less-than-ideal conditions (perhaps in a mobile unit) need more time?
NO -- not if we accept the claims of a Florida doctor named Daniel Man. He recently proposed a draconian solution to the overblown "missing children problem," by suggesting a program wherein America's youngsters would be implanted with tiny transmitters in order to track the children continuously.
Man brags that the operation can be done right in the office -- and would take less than 20 minutes [45].
Conceivably, it might take a tad longer in the field.
A QUESTION OF TIMING
The history of brain implantation, as gleaned from the open literature, is certainly disquieting. Yet this history has almost certainly been censored, and the dates manipulated in a nigh-Orwellian fashion. When dealing with research funded by the engines of national security, one can never know the true origin date of any individual scientific advance. However, if we listen carefully to the scientists who have pioneered this research, we may hear whispers, faint but unmistakable, hinting that remotely applied ESB originated earlier than published studies would indicate.
In his autobiography THE SCIENTIST, John C. Lilly (who would later achieve a cultish renown for his work with dolphins, drugs and sensory deprivation) records a conversation he had with the director of the National Institute of Mental Health -- in 1953. The director asked Lilly to brief the CIA, FBI, NSA and the various military intelligence services on his work using electrodes to stimulate directly the pleasure and pain centers of the brain. Lilly refused, noting, in his reply:
Dr. Antoine Remond, using our techniques in Paris, has demonstrated that this method of stimulation of the brain can be applied to the human without the help of the neurosurgeon; he is doing it in his office in Paris without neurosurgical supervision. This means that anybody with the proper apparatus can carry this out on a person covertly, with no external signs that electrodes have been used on that person. I feel that if this technique got into the hands of a secret agency, they would have total control over a human being and be able to change his beliefs extremely quickly, leaving little evidence of what they had done [46].
Lilly's assertion of the moral high ground here is interesting. Despite his avowed phobia against secrecy, a careful reading of THE SCIENTIST reveals that he continued to do work useful to this country's national security apparatus. His sensory deprivation experiments expanded upon the work of ARTICHOKE's Maitland Baldwin, and even his dolphin research has -- perhaps inadvertently proved useful in naval warfare [47]. One should note that Lilly's work on monkeys carried a "secret" classification, and that NIMH was a common CIA funding conduit [48].
But the most important aspect of Lilly's statement is its date. 1953? How far back does radio-controlled ESB go? Alas, I have not yet seen Remond's work -- if it is available in the open literature. In the documents made available to Marks, the earliest reference to remotely applied ESB is a 1959 financial document pertaining to MKULTRA subproject 94. The general subproject descriptions sent to the CIA's financial department rarely contain much information, and rarely change from year to year, leaving us little idea as to when this subproject began.
Unfortunately, even the Freedom of Information Act couldn't pry loose much information on electronic mind control techniques, though we know a great deal of study was done in these areas. We have, for example, only four pages on subproject 94 -- by comparison, a veritable flood of documents were released on the use of drugs in mind control. (Whenever an author tells us that MKULTRA met with little success, the reference is to drug testing.) On this point, I must criticize John Marks: His book never mentions that roughly 20-25 percent of the subprojects are "dark" -- i.e., little or no information was ever made available, despite lawyers and FOIA requests. Marks seems to feel that the only information worth having is the information he received. We know, however, that research into psychoelectronics was extensive indeed, statements of project goals dating from ARTICHOKE and BLUEBIRD days clearly identify this area as a high priority. Marks' anonymous informant, jocularly named "Deep Trance," even told a previous interviewer that, beginning in 1963, CIA and the military's mind control efforts strongly emphasized electronics [49]. I therefore assume -- not rashly, I hope -- that the "dark" MKULTRA subprojects concerned matters such as brain implants, microwaves, ESB, and related technologies.
I make an issue of the timing and secrecy involved in this research to underscore three points: 1. We can never know with certainty the true origin dates of the various brainwashing methods -- often, we discover that techniques which seem impossibly futuristic actually originated in the 19th century. (Pioneering ESB research was conducted in 1898, by J.R. ("Bob" Dobbs) Ewald, professor of physiology at Straussbourg [50].) 2. The open literature almost certainly gives a bowdlerized view of the actual research. 3. Lavishly-funded clandestine researchers -- unrestrained by peer review or the need for strict controls -- can achieve far more rapid progress than scientists "on the outside."
Potential critics should keep these points in mind should they attempt to invalidate the "mind control" thesis of UFO abductions by citing an abduction account which antedates Delgado.
THE QUANDARY
We have amply demonstrated, then, that as far back as the 1960s -- and possibly earlier still -- scientists have had the capability to create implants similar to those now purportedly visible in abductee MRI scans. Indeed, we have no notion just how advanced this technology has become, since the popular press stopped reporting on brain implantation in the 1970s. The research has no doubt continued, albeit in a less public fashion. In fact, scientists such as Delgado have cast their eye far beyond the implants; ESB effects can now be elicited with microwaves and other forms of electromagnetic radiation, used with and without electrodes.
So why -- if we take UFO abduction accounts at face value -- are the "advanced aliens" using an old technology, an EARTH technology, a technology which may soon be rendered obsolescent, if it hasn't been so rendered already?
I am reminded of the charming anachronisms in the old Flash Gordon serials, where swords and spaceships clashed continually.
Do they also watch black-and-white television on Zeta Reticuli?
REMOTE HYPNOSIS
 Hypnosis provides the (highly controversial) key which opens the door to many abduction accounts [51]. And obviously, if my thesis is correct, hypnosis plays a large part in the abduction itself. One thing we know with certainty: Since the earliest days of project BLUEBIRD, the CIA's spy-chiatrists spent enormous sums mastering Mesmer's art.
I cannot here give even a brief summary of hypnosis, nor even of the CIA's studies in this area. (Fortunately, FOIA requests were rather more successful in shaking loose information on this topic than in the area of psycho-electronics.) Here, we will concentrate on a particularly intriguing allegation -- one heard faintly, but persistently, for the past twenty years by those who would investigate the shadow side of politics.
If this allegation proves true, hypnosis is NOT necessarily a person-to- person affair.
The abductee -- or the mind control victim -- need not have physical contact with a hypnotist for hypnotic suggestion to take effect; trance could be induced, and suggestions made, via the intracerebral transmitters described above. The concept sounds like something out of Huxley's or Orwell's most masochistic fantasies. Yet remote hypnosis was first reported -- using allegedly Para psychological means -- in the early 1930s, by L.L. Vasilev, Professor of Physiology in the University of Leningrad [52]. Later, other scientists attempted to accomplish the same goal, using less mystic means.
Over the years, certain journalists have asserted that the CIA has mastered a technology call RHIC-EDOM. RHIC means "Radio Hypnotic Intracerebral Control." EDOM stands for "Electronic Dissolution of Memory." Together, these techniques can -- allegedly -- remotely induce hypnotic trance, deliver suggestions to the subject, and erase all memory for both the instruction period and the act which the subject is asked to perform.
RHIC uses the stimoceiver, or a microminiaturized offspring of that technology to induce a hypnotic state. Interestingly, this technique is also reputed to involve the use of INTRAMUSCULAR implants, a detail strikingly reminiscent of the "scars" mentioned in Budd Hopkins MISSING TIME. Apparently, these implants are stimulated to induce a post-hypnotic suggestion.
EDOM is nothing more than missing time itself -- the erasure of memory from consciousness through the blockage of synaptic transmission in certain areas of the brain. By jamming the brain's synapses through a surfeit of acetocholine, neural transmission along selected pathways can be effectively stilled. According to the proponents of RHIC-EDOM, acetocholine production can be affected by electromagnetic means. (Modern research in the psycho-physiological effects of microwaves confirm this proposition.)
Does RHIC-EDOM exist? In our discussion of Delgado's work, I have already cited a strange little book (published in 1969) titled WERE WE CONTROLLED?, written by one Lincoln Lawrence, a former FBI agent turned journalist. (The name is a pseudonym; I know his real identity.) This work deals at length with RHIC-EDOM; a careful comparison of Lawrence's work with MKULTRA files declassified ten years later indicates a strong possibility that the writer did indeed have "inside" sources. Here is how Lawrence describes RHIC in action:
It is the ultra-sophisticated application of post-hypnotic suggestion TRIGGERED AT WILL [italics in original] by radio transmission. It is a recurring hypnotic state, re-induced automatically at intervals by the same radio control. An individual is brought under hypnosis. This can be done either with his knowledge -- or WITHOUT it by use of narco-hypnosis, which can be brought into play under many guises. He is then programmed to perform certain actions and maintain certain attitudes upon radio signal [53].
Other authors have mentioned this technique -- specifically Walter Bowart (in his book OPERATION MIND CONTROL) and journalist James Moore, who, in a 1975 issue of a periodical called MODERN PEOPLE, claimed to have secured a 350-page manual, prepared in 1963, on RHIC-EDOM [54]. He received the manual from CIA sources, although -- interestingly -- the technique is said to have originated in the military. The following quote by Moore on RHIC should prove especially intriguing to abduction researchers who have confronted odd "personality shifts" in abductees:
Medically, these radio signals are directed to certain parts of the brain. When a part of your brain receives a tiny electrical impulse from outside sources, such as vision, hearing, etc., an emotion is produced -- anger at the sight of a gang of boys beating an old woman, for example. The same emotion of anger can be created by artificial radio signals sent to your brain by a controller. You could instantly feel the same white-hot anger without any apparent reason [55].
Lawrence's sources imparted an even more tantalizing -- and frightening -- revelation:
...there is already in use a small EDOM generator-transmitter which can be concealed on the body of a person. Contact with this person -- a casual handshake or even just a touch -- transmits a tiny electronic charge plus an ultra-sonic signal tone which for a short while will disturb the time orientation of the person affected [56].
If RHIC-EDOM exists, it goes a long way toward providing an earthbound rationale for alien abductions -- or, at least, certain aspects of them. The phenomenon of "missing time" is no longer mysterious. Abductee implants, both intracerebral and otherwise, are explained. And note the reference to "recurring hypnotic state, re-induced automatically by the same radio command." This situation may account for "repeater" abductees who, after their initial encounter, have regular sessions of "missing time" and abduction -- even while a bed mate sleeps undisturbed.
At present, I cannot claim conclusively that RHIC-EDOM is real. To my knowledge, the only official questioning of a CIA representative concerning these techniques occurred in 1977, during Senate hearings on CIA drug testing. Senator Richard Schweicker had the following interchange with Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, an important MKULTRA administrator:
SCHWEICKER: Some of the projects under MKULTRA involved hypnosis, is that correct?
GOTTLIEB: Yes.
SCHWEICKER: Did any of these projects involve something called radio hypnotic intracerebral control, which is a combination, as I understand it, in layman's terms, of radio transmissions and hypnosis.
GOTTLIEB: My answer is "No."
SCHWEICKER: None whatsoever?
GOTTLIEB: Well, I am trying to be responsive to the terms you used. As I remember it, there was a current interest, running interest, all the time in what effects people's standing in the field of radio energy have, and it could easily have been that somewhere in many projects, someone was trying to see if you could hypnotize someone easier if he was standing in a radio beam. That would seem like a reasonable piece of research to do.
Schweicker went on to mention that he had heard testimony that radar (i.e., microwaves) had been used to wipe out memory in animals; Gottlieb responded, "I can believe that, Senator."[57]
Gottlieb's blandishments do not comfort much. For one thing, the good doctor did not always provide thoroughly candid testimony. (During the same hearing he averred that 99 percent on the CIA's research had been openly published; if so, why are so many MKULTRA subprojects still "dark," and why does the Agency still go to great lengths to protect the identities of its scientists?[58]) We should also recognize that the CIA's operations are compartmentalized on a "need-to-know" basis; Gottlieb may not have had access to the information requested by Schweicker. Note that the MKULTRA rubric circumscribed Gottlieb's statement: RHIC-EDOM might have been the focus of another program. (There were several others: MKNAOMI, MKACTION, MKSEARCH, etc.) Also keep in mind the revelation by "Deep Trance" that the CIA concentrated on psychoelectronics AFTER the termination of MKULTRA in 1963. Most significantly: RHIC-EDOM is described by both Lawrence and Moore as a product of MILITARY research; Gottlieb spoke only of matters pertaining to CIA. He may thus have spoken truthfully -- at least in a strictly technical sense -- while still misleading the Congressional interlocutors.
Personally, I believe that the RHIC-EDOM story deserves a great deal of further research. I find it significant that when Dr. Petter Lindstrom examined X-rays of Robert Naesland, a Swedish victim of brain-implantation, the doctor authoritatively cited WERE WE CONTROLLED? in his letter of response [59]. This is the same Dr. Lindstrom noted for his pioneering use of ultrasonic's in neurosurgery [60]. Lincoln Lawrence's book has received a strong endorsement indeed.
Bowart's OPERATION MIND CONTROL contains a significant interview with an intelligence agent knowledgeable in these areas. Granted, the reader has every right to adopt a skeptical attitude toward information culled from anonymous sources; still, one should note that this operative's statements confirm, in pertinent part, Lawrence's thesis [61]. Most importantly: The open literature on brain-wave entrainment and the behavioral effects of electromagnetic radiation substantiates much of the RHIC-EDOM story -- as we shall see.
THAT'S ENTRAINMENT
Robert Anton Wilson, an author with a devoted cult following, recently has taken to promoting a new generation of "mind machines" designed to promote creativity, stimulate learning, and alter consciousness -- i.e., provide a drug-less high. Interestingly, these machines can also induce "Out-of-Body-Experiences," in which the percipient mentally "travels" to another location while his body remains at rest [62]. This rapidly developing technology has spawned a technological equivalent to the drug culture; indeed, the aficionados of the electronic buzz even have their own magazine, REALITY HACKERS. I strongly suspect that we will hear much of these machines in the future.
One such device is called the "hemi-synch." This headphone-like invention produces slightly different frequencies in each ear; the brain calculates the difference between these frequencies, resulting in a rhythm known as the "binaural beat." The brain "entrains" itself to this beat -- that is, the subject's EEG slows down or speeds up to keep pace with its electronic running partner [63].
 The brain has a "beat" of its own. This rhythm was first discovered in 1924 by the German psychiatrist Hans Berger, who recorded cerebral voltages as part of a telepathy study [64]. He noted two distinct frequencies: alpha (8-13 cycles per second), associated with a relaxed, alert state, and beta (14-30 cycles per second), produced during states of agitation and intense mental concentration. Later, other rhythms were noted, which are particularly important for our present purposes: theta (4-7 cycles per second), a hypnogogic state, and delta (.5 to 3.5 cycles per second), generally found in sleeping subjects [65]. The hemi-synch -- and related mind-machines -- can produce alpha or theta waves, on demand, according to the operator's wishes. A suitably entrained brain is much more responsive to suggestion, and is even likely to experience vivid hallucinations.
I have spoken to several UFO abductees who describe a "stereophonic sound" effect -- EXACTLY SIMILAR TO THAT PRODUCED BY THE HEMI-SYNCH -- preceding many "encounters." Of course, one usually administers the hemi-synch via headphones, but I see no reason why the effect cannot be transmitted via the above-described stimoceiver. Again, I remind the reader of the abductee with an implant just inside her ear canal. There's more than one way to entrain a brain. Michael Hutchison's excellent book MEGA BRAIN details the author's personal experiences with many such devices -- the Alphastim, TENS, the Synchro-energizer, Tranquilite, etc. He recounts dazzling, Dali-esque hallucinations, as a result of using this mind-expanding technology; moreover, he offers a seductive argument that these devices may represent a true breakthrough in consciousness-control, thereby fulfilling the dashed dream of the hallucinogenic '60s.
I wish to avoid a knee-jerk Luddite response to these fascinating wonder- boxes. At the same time, I recognize the dangers involved. What about the possibility of an outside operator literally "changing our minds" by altering our brainwaves without our knowledge or permission? If these machines can induce a hypnotic state, what's to stop a skilled hypnotist from making use of this state?
Granted, most of these devices require some physical interaction with the subject. But a tool called the Bio-Pacer can, according to its manufacturer, produce a number of mood altering frequencies -- WITHOUT attachment to the subject. Indeed, the Bio-Pacer III (a high-powered version) can affect an entire room. This device costs $275, according to the most recent price sheet available [66]. What sort of machine might $27,500 buy? Or $275,000? What effects, what ranges might a million-dollar machine be capable of?
The military certainly has that sort of money. And they're certainly interested in this sort of technology, according to Michael Hutchison. His interview with an informant named Joseph Light elicited some particularly provocative revelations. According to Light:
There are important elements in the scientific community, powerful people, who are very much interested in these areas... but they have to keep most of their work secret. Because as soon as they start to publish some of these sensitive things, they have problems in their lives. You see, they work on research grants, and if you follow the research being done, you find that as soon as these scientists publish something about this, their research funds are cut off. There are areas in bioelectric research where very simple techniques and devices can have mind-boggling effects. Conceivably, if you have a crazed person with a bit of a technical background, he can do a lot of damage [67].
This last statement is particularly evocative. In 1984, a violent neo-NAZI group called The Order (responsible for the murder of talk-show host Alan Berg) established contact with two government scientists engaged in clandestine research to project chemical imbalances and render targeted individuals docile via certain frequencies of electronic waves. For $100,000 the scientists were willing to deliver this information [68]. Thus, at least one group of crazed individuals almost got the goods.
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