Your Mind is Controlled by Others

HOW WE CONTROL YOUR THOUGHTS

OPEN

In August of 1990, Iraq invaded and occupied Kuwait, its neighbor to the South. Suddenly the independent nation of Kuwait was no longer independent - or a nation. It was forced to become the 16th province of Iraq, along with all its valuable oil resources.

The world would not let this stand. The answer was “Shock and Awe”. The U.S. Military launched 2,000 sorties a day for 38 days, crippling Iraq’s air defense and destroying it’s air force. Iraq went from flying 200 missions a day to zero. It’s ground forces were helpless without air cover. They suffered staggering losses. Iraq now had a choice: Retreat from Kuwait or face a complete loss of their military.

That’s when they made a strange — and suicidal - move. Iraq invaded a small, abandoned border town in Saudi Arabia. A town that was now home to a U.S. Marine outpost. Why would Iraq invade another country in the face of overwhelming force?

Because there was an FM transmitter there, broadcasting U.S. propaganda into Kuwait. To most it sounded like standard “Voices of America” stuff, American music and talk. Not a concern. But Iraq was convinced there were subliminal messages hidden in the transmission. In frequencies not audible by the human ear but absorbed by the mind. And the message was causing their troops to lose hope and give up the fight. So Iraq took the bold step of crossing the border and destroying the transmitter.

The Marines at Al-Khafji thought the attack was crazy. Of course, they had no idea they were guarding an active PSYOP weapon - and the Iraqi soldiers were exactly right.

EAT MORE POPCORN

Can humans be controlled subliminally? The answer, of course, is a big yes. And who was the first to do it? The answer, of course, is advertisers.

For six weeks in 1957, families in New Jersey went to the movies, had a fun night out, and went home. Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary happened. If you asked those moviegoers, it was just a normal night at the movies. They had no idea they were exposed to what Business Week later called “a startling kind of invisible advertising”.

Then the Wall Street Journal put it on the front page. And the whole world knew.

Turns out, a strange mechanism had been fitted onto the film projector. It flashed messages over the film as it was projected, once every five seconds. Each message only appeared for 1/3000th of a second - way too fast to be seen by the human eye. But that wasn’t the intent. The goal - by a new company called Subliminal Projection - was to have these messages bypass the conscious brain, and register directly in the subconscious.

The messages were calls to action. Not to make society better. But to EAT MORE POPCORN and DRINK MORE COKE. And this was no small test. Over 45,000 movie patrons were exposed, without their consent or knowledge.

But what lit up the advertising world and created a media frenzy wasn’t the ethics of controlling consumer minds. It was the fact that it worked.

Popcorn sales jumped 58 percent.

The press called it “the advertising shot heard round the world”.

Ad Agencies went into overdrive looking for ways to implement the technology.

Ad Age magazine’s 1956 issue proclaimed it was possible to shape buying behavior by external electrical penetration.

In June of that year, the BBC flashed a subliminal four-word message to five million viewers. The message was “Pirie Breaks World Record”. Pirie was a runner who, well, just broke a world record. The message was flashed during normal programming for one twenty-fifth of a second. Impossible to see by the conscious mind. The BBC asked viewers to write in if they saw anything. Astonishingly, 130 viewers wrote in with nearly the right four words. And 20 had it exactly right. There was something to this.

New companies were launched in the Subliminal space. Experimental Films announced they were building a marketing device for retail counters that flashed subliminal messages. Westin-Rush Productions began inserting subliminal scenes into their sci fi films to heighten dramatic effects.

Radio stations WAAF in Chicago and WCCO in Minneapolis tested subliminal perception commercials to see if they increased sales.

And American Television networks began figuring out how to implement the technology into their broadcasts.

That’s when the backlash hit.

Something about having your thoughts manipulated without your knowledge didn’t sit right.

An article in The Hollywood Reporter called it “rape of the mind”.

The Washington Post called it “Brainwashing”.

The LA Times warned we would all be hypnotized against our will.

By 1957, the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters banned subliminal advertising. And the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising did the same, calling subliminal ads “professionally unacceptable”.

Of course, banning flashing images wouldn’t stop consumers from being unconsciously manipulated. No one seemed to realize: this was already happening. And the fact that no one knew proved it was wildly successful.

FREUDIAN SLIP

Neurologist Sigmund Freud popularized the idea we are motived by our unconscious. He made it famous in his 1899 book “The Interpretation of Dreams”.

And in the decades since, unconscious motivation became a staple of product marketing. Because it worked.

Ernest Dichter was a pioneer in this strategy. He was known by Advertisers as the “Messiah of Marketing”. After World War II he founded the “Institute for Research for Mass Motivation” and spent decades changing the face of consumer marketing. His trick? Use Freudian word association to test consumers. Find out from the subconscious not what they bought, but why.

Dichter discovered Moms saw candy as a way to be nice to their kids, so he had grocery stores move it from food aisles to displays next to the cash registers. Candy would become an impulse buy. Exactly as it remains today.

He found consumers ate M&M’s not because they tasted good, but as a reward for doing work they didn’t want to do. So the company changed its slogan from “Everybody likes ‘em” to “Make that tough job easier”. Sales of M&M’s doubled.

Sanka was a decaffeinated coffee brand that attacked regular coffee in its ads. But Dichter discovered consumers had a deep love of coffee - they felt Sanka was insulting a favorite beverage. Sanka changed its slogan to, “Now you can drink all the coffee you want”. Again, sales went through the roof.

But changing a slogan was still out in the open - consumers were aware it was happening.

It was Edward Bernays who took this to a new level.

He set out to manipulate public opinion in ways that were entirely unconscious. Consumers never realized they were being influenced.

It makes sense he was good at talking to the subconscious - Bernays was Sigmund Freud’s nephew.

INVISIBLE ADVERTISING

His first campaign was in 1929 - and no one knew it was even a campaign.

It was noon on New York’s Fifth Avenue. And it was packed with people dressed in their best. As the New York Times put it, “Modern, prosperous New York was celebrating Easter.” The traditional parade was packed, one of the best attended in history. The event marked a modern era - the cars were new, the fashion was cutting edge, and motion picture cameras filmed the scene for the first time.

As part of this modern feel, a group of young women made a scene “smashing tradition”. They strolled along the parade route puffing cigarettes as a gesture of freedom. Hard to imagine now, but in 1929 women smoking in public was taboo. No one did it. But these suffragettes didn’t care about the taboo. They cared about freedom and equality. They showed the world women could smoke in public, just like men. Suddenly, cigarettes were “torches of freedom”.

Just weeks later, corporations opened their smoking rooms to women. The demand for cigarettes surged among females. All from a subconscious belief that cigarettes made women independent and free.

The public had no idea the whole thing was staged.

This wasn’t the case of rebellious women showing off a love of cigarettes.

The event was orchestrated by Edward Bernays for the American Tobacco Company.

He successfully persuaded people to behave irrationally by linking products to subconscious emotion. He convinced buyers they’d feel better buying what he was selling. Even if they didn’t need it. Even if it might eventually kill them.

How good was Bernays at manipulating consumers? His messages are affecting you to this day.

***

If you were alive in America in 1920, you probably ate a light breakfast. Everybody did. Toast, juice, coffee — that was considered the right way to eat. Especially for what they called “brain workers” - folks who sat in offices all day.

Then, in August of 1922, an eye-catching article appeared in the New York Times. It was picked up by hundreds of papers around the country. The headline was “Pie for Breakfast”. The message? “Physicians in all parts of the United States have united in putting the OK upon pie as a breakfast food . . . They expressed belief that a heavy breakfast was more healthful than a light one.”

The report came from a respected journal, the American Medical Review of Reviews. And the article was pretty revolutionary.

The idea of a heavy breakfast being a good thing? Well, people loved it. A paper in Upland California put it: “Sometimes health advice is pleasant, requiring no work, no self denial. Interesting sample is offered in the Medical Review of Reviews. It queried doctors in 46 states. 3 out of 4 physicians advise eating a hearty breakfast.”

The report even gave the reasoning behind the theory: “One authority says the digestive apparatus is at its best after a nights sleep. The system like a furnace is low on fuel in the morning and needs a good sized meal. The head of the Illinois State Department of health says its even safe to have pie with our bacon and eggs.”

Every Doctor quoted in the articles gave a breakfast suggestion that included “bacon and eggs”.

Seems like a normal breakfast to us. But it wasn’t then. This was a new, decadent combination - bacon and eggs? Every day? Doctors were giving consumers permission to eat big.

For the first time, this opened the door for bacon and eggs to become the default American breakfast - and it still is to this day.

Only there was no science behind the claims. No study generated the report.

The whole thing was propaganda orchestrated by Edward Bernays.

Beech-Nut Packing Company wanted to increase bacon sales. So they hired Bernays.

The standard Ad Agency solution would be to put bacon on sale. Or take out expensive full page ads telling consumers to buy more bacon.

But Bernays wasn’t about standard solutions. He set out to change people’s subconscious idea of bacon. He surveyed 5,000 doctors and asked them if a hearty breakfast was better than a light breakfast. And he published the results, making sure bacon and eggs was mentioned every time Doctors described the ideal breakfast.

Bacon sales exploded. But more than that, American culture changed.

To this day, 70% of all bacon is eaten for breakfast.

Bernays proved he could influence the masses. It was a power that had a wide range of uses.

He should have stopped with consumer products.

When a new client approached him about toppling a foreign government, he should have passed.

But Bernays took the job. And he changed history again.

OPERATION SUCCESS

Jacobo Arbenz was elected president of Guatemala in 1951. His ideas for social reform and economic development were popular. Árbenz's government implemented land reform, labor rights legislation, and infrastructure improvements. He enjoyed support from labor unions, peasant organizations, and the middle class. The people felt hope and optimism for the future.

The United Fruit Company had a very different take.

They were an American company that owned vast tracts of land in Guatemala. The local banana plantations accounted for more than a quarter of all the company’s fruit production on the continent. Guatemala land was big money for them.

Now, it’s not like Arbenz was out to take all the company’s land. His plan was to take only uncultivated land - areas deemed more than United Fruit needed for its business - and give it back to the peasants.

United Fruit wasn’t having it.

The standard solution would be to lobby the Arbenz government. But United Fruit was not after standard solutions. They would only be satisfied with a win. So they hired Edward Bernays.

And Bernays went to work, doing what he did best. American media outlets were flooded with articles - orchestrated by Bernays - describing Arbenz as a dangerous communist. It was a complete lie.

But it worked.

In the 1950’s, a communist country just 1,300 miles from America was considered a genuine threat. The American people were convinced, at least enough that Congress had to take action.

That got the CIA involved. And Operation PBSUCCESS was born.

The entire focus of PBSUCCESS was to overthrow Arbenz and his government. The CIA funded anti-Árbenz rebel groups in Guatemala. They also recruited and trained a paramilitary force, the "Liberation Army," composed of Guatemalan exiles and dissidents.

On June 18,1954, this Liberation Army launched a coup against Árbenz's government. Árbenz went into exile. A military junta took over.

What followed was tragic for the people of Guatamala: Forty years of brutal terror, political instability, and social conflict.

But United Fruit’s profits were safe. Thanks to America’s master of propaganda.

Bernays proved you could subconsciously change a person’s opinion.

Of course, this wasn’t enough for the U.S. Military.

They wanted to subconsciously change a person’s actions.

The subliminal was about to become weaponized.

APOCALYPSE NOW

PSYOPS are a standard part of military operations in the United States. The Army Field manual even calls them “vital”. The term PSYOPS sounds mysterious, but most of the time the tactics are not. We’re talking about distributing leaflets, or broadcasting propaganda over the radio. The PSYOPS goal is always to influence enemy behavior using information instead of bullets. Win the battle without actually killing anyone.

Of course, in the heat of war, where thousands of American soldiers are dying, a leaflet doesn’t quite do the trick. The Army needs something more immediate - something they can target directly on enemy troops without fail.

During the brutal Vietnam conflict, the U.S. Army experimented with a more potent PSYOPS weapon. It was called the Squawk Box. It utilized sound waves. Really loud sound waves. The Squawk Box itself was a set of speakers mounted on armored vehicles or helicopters. Did I mention it was loud? A typical stereo at the time had 30 watts of power. The Squawk Box had 350. The human ear can suffer damaged from sounds over 85 decibels. The Squawk Box delivered a shriek that topped 120 decibels, heard up to two and a half miles away.

Viet Cong troops targeted were instantly disabled by the intense sound. They experienced physical discomfort, nausea, and - in many - permanent loss of hearing. But the effect wasn’t just physical. The Army proved sound waves could effect emotions. The Squawk Box induced feelings of giddiness, distress, and confusion in the enemy. How successful was it?

In 1967 and 1968 alone, over 29,000 Veit Cong soldiers - the equivalent of 95 infantry battalions - surrendered to US Forces. The operation was a secret part of the Cheiu Hoi Amnesty program - Vietnamese for “Open Arms”.

The Sqauwk Box worked, but it was a WHITE level PSYOP. The enemy heard it coming, literally.

The Army wanted to disable troops using GREY level tactics - where they wouldn’t know what was hitting them.

Sound waves wouldn’t do it.

The answer was in the electromagnetic spectrum.

There was already evidence it was possible. In 1870, two German Doctors used electricity to turn living dogs into puppets.

THE MOTOR CORTEX

It wasn’t their goal. Doctors Hitzig and Fritsch were trying to figure out what was causing strange physical symptoms in a patient. That lead them to test the brains of live dogs to see if different parts of the cortex controlled different motor skills. They gave small levels of electrical stimulation to the dog’s exposed brain. Unexpectedly, they discovered different parts of the brain effected different muscles. Stimulate a spot in the right brain, and the doc would have muscle contractions in the left side of its face. Stimulate a different spot, the dog’s paw would move. Hitzig and Fritsch proved there was a discrete area of the cortex in charge of motor function. And logically, that meant there were other areas in charge of psychological powers.

The idea was revolutionary.

Of course, it would be unethical to do the same experiment on human brains.

That didn’t stop American Dr. Robert Bartholow, who did the same experiment on live humans four years later. And proved it was true.

By the turn of the century, Doctors had a complete electrical map of the human brain. By the 1940s, neurosurgeons discovered electric stimulation of the brain actually generated memories.

This new understanding was a tremendous benefit to patients with neurological issues.

But Dr. Russel Monroe had other plans. Because he didn’t work for patients - he was funded by the CIA and the US Military.

It wasn’t enough for Monroe to understand the brain. Beginning in 1950, he planted 125 electrodes into his subjects with the goal of stimulating different parts of the cortex on demand. He even added a pacemaker so the implants had their own power source.

The results were astounding.

Monroe went beyond making a hand move, or making subjects walk a certain direction. He could switch their emotions on and off, change their mental states, make them afraid, or deliver sexual sensations at will.

He even controlled memories and artificially induced hallucinations.

Doctor Jose Delgado at Yale perfected the process - again with funding from the CIA and the Office of Naval Intelligence. Delgado created the Stimociever - a tiny electronic device implanted in the brain that transmitted electrical impulses. He had monkeys running frantically in their cages because of electrodes stimulating their brains from a remote transmitter.

He even stopped a charging bull in its tracks through the use of an implanted radio receiver.

You’d think he would keep his work secret, but he wrote a book: Physical Control of the Mind - Toward a Psychocivilized Society.

Delgado said, “The brain is like an ocean we can navigate and reach a specific destination”.

Why did the CIA allow him to publicize his work?

Because as effective as it was at controlling minds, the Stimoceiver still had to be physically implanted.

The CIA was working on something much worse.

MICROWAVE ON HIGH

In 1961, biophysicist Alan Frey was researching the effects of microwaves on humans. At the time, the use of microwave radiation was new but growing more common. The microwave oven debuted in consumer kitchens just five years earlier. And low levels of microwaves were used in telecommunications, radar, and medical devices. Frey wanted to make sure there weren’t health risks with prolonged exposure.

Subjects were placed in a shielded room with microwave absorbing material. They sat in a chair with their back to a microwave pulse generator.

Frey exposed them to a range of microwave pulse widths, in sequences of three pulses 100 milliseconds apart.

When he reached 1310 MHz something odd happened. The subject asked, “what’s that clicking sound?”

But there was no sound in the room - it was shielded from the outside and there were no moving parts involved in the research.

Frey focused his testing on microwave auditory effects. He found subjects exposed to frequencies between 200 and 3000 MHz heard sounds. Clicks, knocking, or sometimes buzzing or chirping. And they perceived these sounds were coming from inside their own head.

Frey had accidentally uncovered a way to beam sounds into a target’s brain - with no implants at all.

Mainstream science utilized this new ability to train lab animals. They could signal a cat to cue a change direction without any electrified surface or surgical implant. It was all done through the air with microwave pulses.

But the CIA looked into other, more frightening possibilities:

The effect of pulse-modulated radiation on heart rate. Could they induce a heart attack remotely?

Frey conducted studies using isolated frog hearts and pulse modulated radiation. He synchronized the microwaves with the electrical waves in the frog’s electrocardiogram. And was somewhat disturbed to find, he was able to significantly increase the frog’s heart rate. Nothing was attached to the frog - the animal would never know what caused its racing heart.

In 1964, scientists in the Soviet Union saw similar results. Researchers exposed twelve different areas on the bodies of rabbits to a series of short microwave pulses. They were able to cause a reduced heart rate in 60% of the animals.

By 1972, the Soviets moved their testing to human beings.

A declassified report from the Department of the Army that year confirmed it: Over 500 Russian studies were completed studying microwaves effect on human behavior. The report claimed “lethal and non lethal effects have been shown to exist.” The mention of “lethal” effects was a horrifying new wrinkle. They didn’t necessarily mean to kill their subjects. But they discovered they could. Those that survived exposure could be remotely controlled. According to the report, “In certain non lethal exposures definite behavioral changes have occured.”

A reasonable person might hear this and decide it all needs to stop immediately. The Army had a different take. They immediately upped their research in microwave radiation. They ordered trucks capable of carrying microwave broadcasting equipment. The goal was to irradiate and immobilize the enemy.

In 1976, the Naval Medical Research Institute discovered the reason Soviet Scientists had lethal outcomes. The Institute was only able to replicate the Soviet results when power densities were high enough to generate a dangerous amount of heat. Soviet Scientists called it “microthermal effects”. If you own a microwave oven, you might call it “cooking”.

The bottom line: at higher power, microwaves caused significant damage.

Soon the dangers became public. The Red Cross warned against the use of microwaves as weapons. In a review of new antipersonnel weapons, they reported, “electromagnetic radiation directed against the human body may produce heat and cause serious burns or even changes in the molecular structure of the tissues they reach”.

Used at this intensity, it was no longer a PSYOPS weapon - this was a torture device.

* * *

J.F. Schapitz, a scientist working for the Department of Defense, focused on the non-lethal power of microwaves: that radiated subjects heard sounds. And they swore the sounds came from inside their head.

Schapitz was curious if he could transmit more than just clicks and chirps. He attempted to broadcast actual words. Not just any words - but the commands of a hypnotist.

Schaptiz’s subjects would sit in a chair, with no devices for receiving or transcoding messages attached to them. He used low power electromagnetic pulses to broadcast test words directly into the subject’s subconscious.

After experiments with different frequencies, he found success. The subjects could “hear” the words. As far as they could tell, it was some ghost voice inside their head.

The military pushed Schaptiz to dig further.

In a second round of experiments, one subject was bombarded with microwave radiation. And something odd happened. He got up from his chair and left. He actually left the lab. This was allowed - the subjects weren’t prisoners. But it had never happened. Not long after, the subject returned with a can of soda. Schapitz asked the subject why he abruptly left in the middle of the experiment. The subject had a clear answer. He was thirsty. And he knew the store on the corner sold cold cans of soda.

Schapitz smiled. This was a huge success.

The subject had no idea Schapitz had programmed the suggestion to get up and go to the store. It was hypnosis via microwaves. But not every subject was a candidate for hypnosis. The military needed a sure thing.

And that’s exactly what they got.

SYNCHRONICITY

In 1980, Dr. Eldon Byrd had an idea. He was in charge of the Marine Corps Nonlethal Electromagnetic Weapons project. They were investigating how to weaponize safer frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum - outside of microwaves. Change the frequency of an electromagnetic wave, you go from microwaves to xrays, to radio waves, or even visible light.

Now, Byrd knew the human brain worked on similar frequencies.

Whenever you feel an emotion, or have a thought, it’s because of neurons firing in your brain. And this generates electrical activity - or brain waves. Change the frequency of brain waves, you get different thoughts and behaviors.

High frequency brain waves - called Beta waves - are generated during active problem solving. Lower frequency Alpha waves occur when you’re relaxed. Theta, delta, and gamma waves occur during other states - sleeping, or heightened fear for example.

What if you could sync up the electromagnetic waves sent into the brain? Could you effect specific thoughts and emotions, simply by matching the frequency and increasing the power?

The answer seemed to be yes.

Byrd used very low frequency electromagnetic radiation - waves below even radio frequencies. And he discovered he could entrain animal brains - meaning, sync up with their brain waves - and induce the release of behavior-regulating chemicals.

According to Byrd, "We could put animals into a stupor. We got chick brains to dump 80 percent of the natural opiods in their brains. We got rats to release histamine.” Your body releases histamine as a response to unwanted allergens - dust, pollen, mites. The forced release of histamine would result in a cascade of inflammatory reactions. Byrd was thrilled: “In humans, this would cause instant flulike symptoms and produce nausea. You would disable a person temporarily. It would have been like a stun gun.”

Byrd used the phrase “would have been” because he never got to finish the research. The project was approved for four years, but shut down after two. At least that’s what they told him. But Byrd knew better.

He was convinced the program “went black”. Meaning it would continue in total secret. Because he was actually onto something.

And of course, he was right.

The US Air Force published a report in 1982 that contained a stunning warning. It said, “understanding the brain as an electrically-mediated organ suggests that impressed electromagnetic fields are capable of directing behavior. Further, the passage of 100 milliamperes through the myocardium can lead to cardiac standstill and death.”

Ironically, the US Air Force was one of the major sponsors continuing Byrd’s work in secret. They hired Doctor Ross Adey, a trusted veteran of Black level science research. Adey had consulted with NASA and the Department of Energy. And he led the Microwave Exposure exchange program with the Soviets in 1976.

Now he was hired to make electromagnetic wave syncing a useful weapon.

Adey started by implanting transmitters into the brains of cats and chimpanzees. Sounds like a step backward - implants were not what the military wanted. But Adey was actually breaking new ground. Because he wasn’t implanting receivers. The brain implants were sending information out. Adey had receivers that would log the brain’s frequencies and note what physical and emotional states they represented. He compiled a library of frequencies, detailing how they affected the mind and nervous system of the subjects.

Then he used that data to turn the tables. He sent radio signals back into the brains of the animals based on their own brainwaves. And by exciting key frequencies over others, he was able to modify their behavior at will.

Once he had the patterns down, Adey no longer needed implants in the process. He could move on to live human beings.

He placed his subject’s head in an active electromagnetic field. And he modulated the amplitude to mimic a specific EEG - electroencephalogram - frequency. In one instance, he imposed a 4.5 cycles per second theta rhythm on his subject. Meaning they fell asleep.

And a weapon was born. Or the technology for a weapon.

The actual device came next.

CLONING EMOTIONS

The Holy Grail of subliminal mind weapons is manipulating emotion. It’s the stuff of science fiction. A device with this capability is impossible in real life. Except it was patented.

The schematics are classified by the US Government. But Georgia Patent #5159703 - dated October 27, 1992 - describes the device. It’s called a Silent Subliminal Presentation System. And it’s the culmination of all those decades experimenting with electromagnetic pulses.

The patent is attributed to a company called Silent Sounds, Incorporated. The device utilizes computer-enhanced EEGs stored on computer servers. Emotional signal clusters are identified and replicated. Human brainwaves are cloned and stored, turned into a dictionary of emotions.

You choose the emotion you want to trigger - fear, despair, hopelessness. And the transmission can begin. Electromagnetic waves travel on the patented subliminal carrier technology - the Silent Sound Spread Spectrum. S-Quad for short. This can be very low or very high frequency. The key is it’s inaudible.

The S-Quad with the emotional cluster is transmitted on a carrier frequency. This can be an ordinary radio or television signal.

The signal sends the modified EEG wave form to its intended target. The wave form syncs with the target’s brain triggering an occurrence of the desired emotion. The modulated carriers can be transmitted in real time or recorded for delayed transmission.

The patent insists this is not a weapon, stressing the “limitless positive applications”. But it does note the waves are subliminal and undetectable, making them dangerous to the general public.

And it promises when the cloned emotional signatures land on their target, the result is “overwhelming”.

Silent Sounds Inc insists it is only interested in positive emotions.

And the company suggests its invention could be used in security systems. Maybe as part of a subliminal broadcast in shopping malls discouraging shoplifting.

But in 1996, the President of Silent Sounds couldn’t stop himself from bragging a bit about the device’s true purpose. He said, “while the schematics are classified by the US Government, we are allowed to say we work with governments around the world. The Germans, even former Soviet Union countries.” Then he let it slip. “The system was used throughout Operation Desert Storm quite successfully."

The US Military had achieved subliminal mind control.

And the Iraqi troops were going to die stopping it.

THE BATTLE OF AL-KHAFJI

Saddam Hussein had a formidable army occupying Kuwait in 1991. Nearly 500,000 soldiers in 51 divisions - including eight of the infamous Republican Guard divisions. This was a battle tested force - they’s just been through eight years of war with Iran, after invading that country.

So it sounded like wishful thinking when the Bush Administration said they expected unconditional surrender of Iraqi forces. Doubling down, officials said they preferred “a rout of men fleeing without their weapons”. They were looking for Iraqi troops to simply “lay down their arms, walk home, and start complaining”.

Why would the White House openly state these pie-in-the-sky scenarios as their goal? Because along with their own formidable force, the US Military had a secret weapon on their side. The US PsyOps team set up an FM transmitter in the deserted city of Al Khafji. They overpowered the local Iraqi station. Along with patriotic and religious music, the S-Quad subliminal emotional clusters were going wide to Iraqi troops in Kuwait. Subliminally, Iraqi troops were receiving carefully modulated electromagnetic pulses geared to entrain hopelessness. Their will to fight was being drained by the second.

And it worked.

The first American troops that rolled into Kuwait had to drive around large groups of Iraqis looking to surrender. The surprised American soldiers shouted to the Iraqis that more forces would be by soon to pick them up.

Entire Iraqi battalions surrendered to coalition forces. American officers described the new prisoners as bewildered and demoralized. Of course from 38 days of bombing by allied air power. But even then, the numbers of troops surrendering was strange. US Troops would arrive in chemical protection gear expecting fierce combat only to find legions of Iraqi forces waiting patiently to give up.

Iraqi tanks across southern Kuwait displayed white flags in their gun turrets.

The biggest issue for American commanders was what to do with the sudden surge of captives. One Marine said, “they were surrendering in droves, almost too fast for us to keep up.”

The war seemed to be racing to an end.

That’s why it was a surprise to Marines at Observation Post 6 in Al-Khafji when - in the early evening of January 29, 1991 - Iraqi’s 5th mechanized division attacked.

The town was abandoned - all 15,000 Saudi citizens had long been evacuated. And it was in Saudi Arabia. Iraq had to invade another neighbor just to attack the tiny border town. It was a suicide mission.

Yet there they were.

The battle was fierce - a defining moment of Operation Desert Storm, and the only major Iraqi offensive of the war.

If the Marines were surprised and confused about the move, the Iraqi’s were encouraged. They accomplished their goal. They occupied the town and destroyed the FM transmitter subliminally sapping their army of hope. Iraq had a much needed propaganda victory. But it only lasted two days.

In the end, the town was taken back - American air power was overwhelming. Again, it was suicide for the Iraqi troops to be there. The 5th mechanized division was completely destroyed.

And the White House was left with a big mystery on their hands, knowing their Subliminal transmitter was taken down.

How did the Iraqi’s know?

END

The existence of a mysterious FM transmitter at Al-Khafji was reported by the ITV News Bureau in March of 1991. It claimed there was a “highly classified PsyOps program utilizing silent sound techniques”. But that was the only indication the transmitter existed. Was the Iraqi surrender surprisingly easy? Yes. But it didn’t require any PsyOps to make it happen. There were at least six significant battles over the six week war. Not to mention the 38 days of air bombardment that started things off. As many as 35,000 Iraqi soldiers lost their lives. The US reported 382 combat deaths. The fact is, coalition forces did more than enough to damage to motivate Iraqi surrender. Saddam Hussein famously called his ground engagement “the mother of all battles”. Just a month into facing the American military, his General requested permission to withdraw, adding “the mother was killing her children”.

And the reality of controlling human thoughts with electromagnetic waves remains outside the realm of mainstream science. There are non-invasive medical techniques that use electromagnetic fields. Like transcranial magnetic stimulation, used to treat anxiety or bipolar disorders. But these methods are a far cry from mind control.

What remains true is how easily our thoughts are manipulated by simple things.

Like a certain combination of food we just can’t get out of our head.

Who’s ready for some bacon and eggs?

I just controlled your mind - there is no way you are not thinking about bacon right now.