EXPOSED: The Government’s Patented Way to Put Voices in Your Head

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MYS425: What if the voice in your head isn’t imagined — and the government actually holds a patent for putting it there?

Thousands of people who call themselves targeted individuals believe federal agencies are beaming voices directly into their skulls using microwave weapons. It sounds like classic tinfoil-hat material — except the trope didn’t originate with government conspiracy theories at all: it comes from a 1926 science fiction story about telepathic priests. And the underlying technology is not fiction. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted real patents for voice to skull (V2K) devices, the Army once had an internal glossary entry for them, and the CIA’s MKUltra program proves the government really has run non-consensual mind-control research on American citizens before.

Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli trace the story from the real people at the center of it — recording engineer Timothy Trespas, profiled by the New York Times, and Harlan Girard, the self-described “dean” of the targeted-individual community — through the actual science: Allan Frey’s 1962 discovery of the Frey effect (the microwave auditory effect), the 1973 Walter Reed demonstration that first embedded recognizable speech in a microwave pulse, the Cold War-era Moscow Signal, and the classified Project Pandora investigation that followed it.

They walk through the three U.S. patents most often cited as evidence — including one filed by Air Force researchers explicitly for the “radio frequency hearing effect” — and explain why a granted patent isn’t proof a working weapon exists. They cover the government’s other documented non-lethal-weapon research, from the Medusa program to the Active Denial System to LRAD “voice of God” operations, including a proposal to use one against the Branch Davidians at Waco.

Then they weigh five competing theories for what targeted individuals are actually experiencing — from a real classified weapon to auditory hallucinations to reinforcement from online communities — including a 2015 forensic psychiatry study finding nearly every reported “gang stalking” case shows signs of delusion, and the tragic real-world cases of two men who committed violence while believing they were being attacked by directed-energy weapons.

Finally, they turn to faith and reason: is it ever morally permissible to put a message directly into someone’s mind, and how should a counselor, doctor, or priest respond when someone says they’re hearing voices they believe are a weapon?

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Chapters:

  • 0:00 – MYS425
  • 0:43 – Hook: what if the voice in your head is real?
  • 1:39 – The real origin of the tinfoil hat (Julian Huxley’s “The Tissue Culture King”)
  • 3:25 – Meet the targeted individuals (TIs)
  • 4:31 – Case study: Timothy Trespas (New York Times, 2016)
  • 6:02 – Case study: Harlan Girard and “the voices” (Washington Post Magazine, 2007)
  • 10:54 – More TI accounts: a Phoenix mother and Dr. John Hall
  • 12:54 – What is V2K, and where does the name come from?
  • 14:22 – Related terms: microwave auditory effect, synthetic telepathy, silent sound, LRAD
  • 15:59 – The Frey effect: Allan Frey’s 1962 discovery
  • 18:13 – From clicks to speech: the 1973 Walter Reed demonstration
  • 19:41 – The Moscow Signal and Project Pandora
  • 23:08 – MKUltra and the precedent for non-consensual research
  • 25:16 – Three key patents: Brunkan, O’Loughlin/Loree, and Lowery
  • 30:02 – The Army’s own “voice to skull” thesaurus entry
  • 32:00 – Other programs: BioEffects, Medusa, Active Denial System, and LRAD
  • 34:20 – “Voice of God” operations and the Waco proposal
  • 36:14 – Can the microwave auditory effect be weaponized? (Foster et al., 2021)
  • 38:16 – Thank you to Patrons
  • 38:47 – Sponsor: The Grady Group
  • 40:08 – Reason Perspective: five theories of what’s really happening
  • 41:17 – …what the physics actually permits
  • 43:22 – …what the documentary record does and doesn’t establish
  • 44:44 – …could silent sound technology explain it?
  • 45:56 – …could LRAD explain it?
  • 47:22 – …conventional medical and psychiatric explanations
  • 49:51 – …gang stalking and the Sheridan and James study
  • 52:08 – …when belief turns to violence: Aaron Alexis and Myron May
  • 54:14 – …how widespread is this really?
  • 57:23 – …why so many people believe it’s happening to them
  • 59:53 – Faith Perspective: is it ever moral to use V2K?
  • 1:03:14 – …how to respond when someone says they’re hearing voices
  • 1:04:44 – ★ – Bottom Line
  • 1:06:27 – ★ – Further Resources
  • 1:07:21 – ★ – Mysterious Feedback: #414 Ancient Christian Ghosts
  • 1:14:43 – ★ – Your mysterious feedback
  • 1:15:18 – ★ – Thank you to Oasis Studio 7
  • 1:15:32 – ★ – Jimmy’s YouTube channel
  • 1:16:19 – ★ – Next Time: Mark Twain, Super Psychic
  • 1:16:41 – ★ – Share the show, write a review
  • 1:16:55 – ★ – Get your Mysterious merch
  • 1:17:01 – ★ – Show notes
  • 1:17:04 – ★ – Become a Patron
  • 1:17:13 – ★ – Sponsor: Rosary Army and School of Mary
  • 1:17:38 – ★ – Outro

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