Editor’s Note: Originally this post was rife with links and sources documenting the phenomena described from both mainstream and fringe sources. Those links are over a decade old and mostly no longer active, so I have removed them. If you are curious about them you could likely dig them up with a Search Engine.
Well, I completed reading 1996 by Gloria Naylor. I described the gist of it in a previous entry, and my general impression of the book is that it’s a light read, rather amateurish, and obviously a chronicle of mental illness — but because of my previous history, compelling at the same time. I read through the entire 200 page book in one day because I couldn’t put it down.
Afterward, I did some research on “Targeted Individuals” (as such victims describe themselves) and found a wealth of information on the subject. The most outlandish belief such people hold is that the government can beam thoughts into their heads using Microwave and Electromagnetic Technology, as well as profoundly affect their physical bodies by causing them to move involuntarily, receive sexual stimulation as well as sudden, inexplicable pain, and so forth. A (slightly) more rational belief is that they are subject to “gang stalking,” which involves people frequently passing their house, cars with similar features intersecting them on the road, continuous noise disturbances such as hammering and slamming doors, and in some cases, pedestrians making snide comments or referring to private conversations or thoughts as they pass by.
You can find articles on the subject from the Washington Post, the New York Times and ABC News. If you have the stomach for it, you can read testimonials at the Mind Control Forums, mindjustice.org (both favorites of Naylor’s), and Gang Stalking World, although most of them haven’t been updated in over a year (maybe the maintainers got psychiatric help). There are several YouTube videos supposedly documenting the “Gang Stalking Phenomenon.” (Most of the Events in these videos wouldn’t be even remotely threatening to a normal person.)
I have to admit, all of this made me wonder if such things were possible. There is supposedly documentation dating back to the 60’s at attempts to develop Mind Control Technology, although most of the mainstream sources say that it has been abandoned as ineffective. Sites which use this documentation blow their capabilities way out of proportion, as most of the text refers to the ability to detect “general thoughts” or “disrupt the nervous system,” not actually read minds and insert voices. I don’t so much believe that that could happen (although some crazy things are in development), but the reports of Gang Stalking seem somewhat plausible.
What if the government targets extremely minor individuals just for the hell of it, or to test their techniques? What if innocuous deviations from the “norms” of society (extremely Liberal or Conservative writings or activism, for example) can get you put on a “watch list?” The budget for our National Security is so huge, and evidence of surveillance on unimportant subjects so prevalent (consider how the NYPD sent Undercover Operatives to spy on protesters before the RNC Convention in 2006), that it makes me suspect that it could happen.
Of course, my thoughts then turned to what could happen to me one day. It was brought about by the Naylor book, in which she is targeted due simply to being a Black Author who appreciated the Million Man March. Of course, I immediately remembered the articles on the massive data collection on American Citizens (beyond terrorism subjects) and it made me wonder: what information has been collected about me?
I’d warrant almost every American citizen has something about them on record, given the size of the program. (Check out the blog “Panopticonic”.) I believe now that no Government Agent has had reason to look up my file, but what if they did one day? What if I got targeted for innocuous reasons like the war protesters? It almost sent me into a raving fit, but I calmed down as I read through the rest of the book and Naylor’s accusations grew ever more outrageous, exhibiting obvious signs of mental illness.
What disturbs me is that few people in America care about such invasions of privacy. It’s not so much that people are being repressed now, but the data will be available for future Government Officials, and what if the Country takes a dark turn and Law Enforcement starts using it for repression of individuals with non-traditional views? What’s more, why is anyone who brings up such a topic immediately labeled as a Wacko or Terrorist-Lover? The stock response is that “if you haven’t done anything wrong, you don’t need to worry about it” but hasn’t everyone done something wrong? Downloaded an MP3, ran a red light, had an affair, smoked pot in college? How would you like all that information recorded digitally, accessible by anyone with the proper Security Clearance? Consider the so-called “behavioral recognition” programs being developed for airports. I’ve read these things are based on the same Bayesian Algorithms in Spam Filters, and we know how accurate those are. Do you want to be grilled by a Security Officer simply because you’re nervous or having a bad day? People should be up in arms about it, but they aren’t. It’s like nobody cares about their rights anymore.
I take solace in the fact that if this ever happened to me, I probably wouldn’t know about it. Every other resident in my neighborhood could be a Government Agent watching me for all I care, so long as I never noticed it. My true fear, however, is that my Paranoid Delusions about the Government will return even worse than before one day, since mental illness is cyclical most of the time. When I’m in the depths of a Delusion, it seems as real to me as the trees behind my house. If that ever happened to me it would be horrifying.