The Weird Russian Mind-Control Research Behind a DHS Contract

[NashVegas]

Source: Wired


Elena Rusalkina, the silver-haired woman who runs the institute, gestured to the center of the claustrophobic room, where what looked like a dentist's chair sits in front of a glowing computer monitor. "We've had volunteers, a lot of them," she said, the thick concrete walls muffling the noise from the college campus outside. "We worked out a program with (a psychiatric facility) to study criminals. There's no way to falsify the results. There's no subjectivism."

...

What's gotten DHS' attention is the institute's work on a system called Semantic Stimuli Response Measurements Technology, or SSRM Tek, a software-based mind reader that supposedly tests a subject's involuntary response to subliminal messages.

...

All of the technology at the institute is based on the work of Rusalkina's late husband, Igor Smirnov, a controversial Russian scientist whose incredible tales of mind control attracted frequent press attention before his death several years ago.

Smirnov was a Rasputin-like character often portrayed in the media as having almost mystical powers of persuasion. Today, first-time visitors to the institute -- housed in a drab concrete building at the Peoples Friendship University of Russia -- are asked to watch a half-hour television program dedicated to Smirnov, who is called the father of "psychotronic weapons," the Russian term for mind control weapons. Bearded and confident, Smirnov in the video explains how subliminal sounds could alter a person's behavior. To the untrained ear, the demonstration sounds like squealing pigs.

Read more: http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2007/09/mind_reading

---

It's a four page article, very interesting.

[Barrett808]

1. Psychotronic weapons have been around for a long time

See, for example, The Search for the Manchurian Candidate:

http://www.amazon.com/Search-Manchurian-Candidate-Mind-Control/dp/0393307948/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-1376993-8601218?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190308845&sr=8-1

[Quantess]

2. Interesting.

[tanyev]

3. Kick.

[sarcasmo]

4. Kick and Bookmarked, for three day weekend off research.

I can't digest to much reality after 220 miles today and 240 yesterday driving a Taxi.

[tom_paine]

5. Wow. All the technology to create Orwell's 1984 nightmare now exists

or is vewry close to existance.

Coincidentally, I'm sure, Orwell's 1984 nightmare is now closer to the life of an Imperial Subject of Amerika than our lives in Old America (1776-2000, RIP).

[NashVegas]

6. It's Freaky To Me

Just how much certain quarters of our government are taking cues from the Soviets.

[AntiFascist]

9. Squealing pigs conjurs up "Animal Farm" n/t

[gulfcoastliberal]

7. Thoughtcrime legislation soon?

Smirnov's technology reappeared on the U.S. government's radar screen through Northam Psychotechnologies, a Canadian company that serves as North American distributor for the Psychotechnology Research Institute. About three years ago, Northam Psychotechnologies began seeking out U.S. partners to help it crack the DHS market. For companies claiming innovative technologies, the past few years have provided bountiful opportunities. In fiscal year 2007, DHS allocated $973 million for science and technology and recently announced Project Hostile Intent, which is designed to develop technologies to detect people with malicious intentions.

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2007/09/mind_reading?currentPage=3

[0rganism]

8. "You're in a desert walking along in the sand when all of a sudden you look down...."

"What one?"

"What?"

"What desert?"

"It doesn't make any difference what desert, it's completely hypothetical."

"But, how come I'd be there?"

"Maybe you're fed up. Maybe you want to be by yourself. Who knows? You look down and see a tortoise, Leon. It's crawling toward you..."

"Tortoise? What's that?"

"You know what a turtle is?"

"Of course!"

"Same thing."

"I've never seen a turtle. (pause) But I understand what you mean."

"You reach down and you flip the tortoise over on its back, Leon."

"Do you make up these questions, Mr. Holden? Or do they write 'em down for you?"

"The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over but it can't. Not without your help. But you're not helping."

"What do you mean, I'm not helping?"

"I mean you're not helping! Why is that, Leon? ... They're just questions, Leon. In answer to your query they're written down for me. It's a test, designed to provoke an emotional response.... Shall we continue?"