In Search Of... (2018) s01e07 Episode Script
Mind Control
For thousands of years, powerful forces, both good and evil, have sought ways to control the human brain.
Ancient tales have described bizarre rituals involving voodoo and brainwashing, designed to enslave the minds of thousands.
Today, recent advances in technology have made this fear all too real.
And no one knows this better than Kansas native, James Walbert.
In the year 2004, I had become a victim of mind control.
I had been drugged and implanted in my own home.
I experienced trembling and shaking, remote burning, jolts, shocks.
The implants have been inside of my body for 14 years.
I know who targeted me, and I know why.
There's 100% possibility that we are being recorded right now.
How is it possible for people like James to fall victim to mind control? Are dark forces enslaving people around the world? Can anyone's brain be manipulated by evil? My search begins now.
My Name is Zachary Quinto.
As an actor, I've played many supernatural characters that blurred the line between science and fiction.
I'm drawn to the unknown, the otherworldly, and those experiences so beyond belief, they call everything into question.
I'm exploring some of the most enduring mysteries that continue to haunt mankind in search of the truth wherever it leads me.
Since the dawn of early civilizations, when rival cultures waged bloody battles to advance their different ideologies, many have dreamed of controlling the minds of others, while preventing enemies from controlling theirs.
Ancient texts, such as the 15th century Malleus Maleficarum, reveal our dark appetite for torture, mysterious potions, and spells to enslave another's mind.
But these handbooks are only the beginning.
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union spent billions of dollars on its psychotronic program to control the minds of its adversaries and create real-life Manchurian Candidates brainwashed political assassins programmed to change the course of history.
These frightening historical accounts make me wonder: is mind control possible, and is it happening today? I've located a man named James Walbert, who claims he was surgically implanted by a business rival and placed under mind control against his will.
James is an entrepreneur and an inventor of antibacterial plastic products.
I woke up in my bed Right.
with blood coming out of my left ear, my jaw swollen, and my right shoulder was affected as well.
I had been drugged and implanted in my own home.
I started hearing, like, super high-pitched static sounds.
My body was being disrupted from a distance.
There was most certainly something there.
I could feel it on my nervous system.
My arm would jump.
Or my leg would jump.
Did you have testing done at all to see what was causing this stuff? I had an MRI done, and they had found a foreign body in my left ear and in my neck.
Oh, my God.
So, this is the actual That is the actual capsule in my right trapezia.
So, like, here, basically.
That's what they call a "tracker chip.
" I was under a constant state of mind control.
I'm staggered by this on so many levels.
First of all, that someone would be so diabolical to do this.
It sounds like something out of a spy movie.
So you were the first person in the history of the United States to win a court case that's based in a form of what's considered electromagnetic terrorism, in a way, right? Yes, that is correct.
Yes.
And how long did it take you to build a case? It took me a year and a half to build a solid case.
Uh-huh.
Hired two private investigators.
They both researched every single thing I said.
I presented all of my evidence, and the FBI immediately identified suspects.
Wow.
I took them to court and won.
Now there's 21 laws against illegal implantation in the United States.
Prior to that, if you'd ever even mention an implant, you were paranoid, you were delusional.
When you talk to someone like James, what seems farfetched and unbelievable then becomes really understandable.
Having these implants in his body it's a very real example of "mind control.
" Now I understand how something like that could actually happen.
But James is not alone.
The U.
S.
government has been conducting mind control experiments for decades.
In 1953, the CIA launched the MKUltra program in order to develop their own mind control methods.
But because MKUltra was top secret, the agency could use anyone as test subjects.
Experts, such as John Greenwald, Jr.
, an author who's been studying the secret inner workings of the U.
S.
government for over 20 years, used the Freedom of Information Act to uncover the fact that the CIA was targeting innocent civilians.
Back in 1953, the general public had no idea that the CIA was doing these really horrific experiments on prisoners and mental health patients, literally grabbing people off the streets and subjecting them to experiments with LSD and hypnosis.
They also started experimenting with physical torture, subjecting people to the lack of sleep for days at a time to really experiment with how far the human body would go until it snapped.
They had instances where they actually killed people.
People died because of their experiments.
To this day, the United States government has never fully disclosed all aspects of MKUltra, but many speculate the program rewrote the book on the use of mind control in war.
In the world of government research, if you do something for 20 years, you know darn well that they did something worthwhile and worth pursuing.
Could this still be happening today? If it is, how do you control someone's mind? At a laboratory called Backyard Brains neuroscientist Greg Gage is developing ways to override the brains of other humans.
When you're talking about mind control, you're talking about actually controlling something, and you're consciously aware of it, right? That's right.
Roll up your sleeve.
And I'm going to put some electrodes on your arm.
There's a little bit of gel inside of here, and that gel allows the ions to flow through your skin, into the metal.
Greg's technology allows me to send my brain signals to a machine And so, if I plug this into here like this prosthetic hand, to remotely move objects.
This is called a "neural prosthetic.
" It's so crazy.
You're controlling it through your nervous system.
This is a way that we can tap into your brain to make a computer do something.
What would happen now if, instead of controlling a robotic arm, nt your brain signal into my body? Then your brain will control not only your arm, but also my arm.
I would like to see how that works.
And I'll put some electrodes on me.
I'm gonna put one here, and I'll put another one here.
If I plug us together, you will take away my free will.
So when you're ready, go ahead and move your hand.
So, right now, you have complete control over that.
And I can try to fight it.
But I can also turn up the game so that I can't fight it anymore.
What level is this? I'm at 3, and it goes up to 8.
What happens if you turn it up? I'll turn it all the way up.
Ah! Okay.
It just But how amazing.
Yeah.
The electrical waves of my brain were controlling the computer, ultimately, which was stimulating the electrodes on his muscles that then led to his arm moving.
That's a pretty cool feeling.
Actually, it's a little bit painful.
I'm gonna turn it back down.
Don't hurt yourself, Greg.
It was the most evident version of control.
So we're gonna switch it up now.
So, I'm gonna take the electrodes off you.
And I will be in control of your free will.
You're gonna relax your hand here.
I'm gonna hook up on the other side.
And I'm gonna turn this on.
So, I have you on 2.
I can just turn it up a little bit more.
Now, you can look away.
Coming up I'm in Michigan, at a laboratory called Backyard Brains.
My search to uncover whether mind control is possible has led me to neuroscientist Greg Gage.
This is called a "neural prosthetic.
" With the help of a small computer, I seized control of Greg's body.
You want to see what it's like to be out of control? All right.
Yeah.
Now it's my turn.
I will be in control of your free will.
My only fear is, what is it gonna do to me? And I'm going to turn this on.
So, you're going to feel a little bit tingly.
I already feel something.
Your hand is going to naturally want to turn.
All right.
So, that's that's the - Oh! - So You don't know when I'm going to do it, but I'm going to do it whenever I want.
So, you have lost your free will.
Isn't that weird? It felt like these snaps.
Like pebbles being thrown against my brain.
What if I try to resist? You can try to resist it.
You're gonna notice that this finger is gonna go first.
It makes me understand how technology exists to get into people's heads.
Is there anything about this work which has a dark side? I mean One of the biggest fears people have when they hear about brain control is, uh is the idea of someone surreptitiously recording from your brain or being able to read what you're doing.
All of your thoughts and desires are all held inside of here.
If you can control something with your mind, then someone might be able to read from your stuff.
You weren't controlling your arm, right? My brain was controlling your arm, and so that made You lost your free will.
Could that happen surreptitiously? Could someone all of a sudden command someone else to shoot somebody or do something evil, right? For example, the top neuroscientists in the world are implanting monkeys with electrodes inside their brain Wow.
and now humans as well.
That's the same thing James is talking about in terms of being targeted and having these implants and chips in his body that were interrupting his own motor function.
That gets back to the point of all the myth and mystery around brain function and how it comprises a human being.
But when you really break it down, it's able to be manipulated and interrupted as a result.
Greg's technology is one way to manipulate the brain of another human.
But what if this capability fell into the wrong hands? Recent reports have surfaced, describing how other nations are creating cutting-edge devices that allow humans to control the minds of others remotely, without their knowledge.
In 2017, reports began to surface that dozens of American diplomats stationed in Cuba were experiencing bizarre injuries, such as vertigo, hearing loss, and brain damage consistent with a concussion.
And in 2018, similar reports emerged from a U.
S.
official in China.
All medically confirmed cases have described some combination of symptoms beginning within minutes to hours of their exposure of the event.
An investigation by the FBI in the Cuban incident revealed the diplomats may have been the target of a sonic weapon capable of using sound waves to inflict brain injuries.
Do we know what they can do to protect themselves from these sorts of injuries? Senator, I don't think we can say categorically that we can guarantee that they would be safe from this.
Unexplained incidents like these are on the rise around the world, and I want to hear what it's like to be a victim of this strange phenomenon.
So I've located a man who survived a similar sonic attack while he was stationed in Cuba back in 2014.
It's nice to meet you.
Good to meet you.
- when he experienced something truly horrifying.
- Four years ago, Chris Allen was in Havana As I understand it, you were in Cuba in 2014? That's right.
Within five minutes of laying down on the bed to go to sleep, a weird sensation in my feet and my hands began to gradually grow, from the tip of the fingers, down through my hands, forearms, through the calves, that really woke me up.
I wasn't able to concentrate at that point.
So, it went into my face, ears, back of my neck.
Exact same story the next day.
At that point, I kind of freaked out and beelined to the airport.
To be clear, you were staying in the same hotel where these diplomats were experiencing similar symptoms that you had.
That's right.
I used the travel agent who recommended the hotel because the hotel had just come out of renovation.
Do you feel, from your experience, like this was something that was targeted? I'm not a conspiracy theorist by nature, but you got a hotel full of people for four years now, from other countries, that have no issues.
If you have a hotel in which hundreds of people are staying every night, and over the course of this time, 20-some people, all of whom are diplomats, are experiencing these physical symptoms I mean, there's nothing accidental about that.
Some people think that if there was some sonic attack, they were still testing out whatever the technology was when I was there.
I've never heard anything like this.
The idea that this could be a whole new branch of mind control You know, that's the darker side of what we're talking about in the applications of this kind of stuff.
If sound is being weaponized to damage or hijack the human mind, how does it work? There are sound waves that vibrate at such extreme frequencies, humans can't hear them.
Some believe these waves are powerful enough to penetrate the skull and interrupt millions of neuron connections inside the brain.
Could something as common as sound be the key to controlling the human mind? To find out, I'm heading to Arizona State University's Biological and Health Systems Engineering Lab, where Dr.
Jamie Tyler is exploring how high-frequency sound waves called "ultrasound" can be used to manipulate the brain.
The story that recently came out of Cuba.
Diplomats that were working in Cuba Rightwere experiencing unexplained physical symptoms, and it's been talked about in terms of a sonar attack.
There's lots of people around the world that have their own theories about what happened.
A lot of people say that ultrasound cannot affect brain activity.
That's wrong.
We can't hear the ultrasou frequencies.
Mm-hmm.
But what's really dangerous about it, when you can't hear it, is you don't know how loud it is.
Right.
And so, it can be 140 decibels so as loud as a jet engine but you cannot hear it.
But the air pressure is still 140 decibels.
I know that there was a kind of range of symptoms Yeahsome of which were auditory.
And headaches, which you can produce with ultrasound.
And headaches, yeah.
So, as soon as I heard about the story, to me, it was pretty obvious that ultrasound was one of the candidates that you would suspect at creating those types of problems, even if it was airborne.
But Dr.
Tyler and his team have been researching ways ultrasound can actually boost brain performance.
We're going to put you on a treadmill and see if we can make you fall.
Really? See if you can make me fall? Yeah.
Yeah.
It's a treadmill that's designed to trick your body and brain circuits, and get you to fall.
Okay.
I'll be put to the test to see how sound waves can control my mind.
We'll hook you up and get your brain stimulated with some transcranial-focused ultrasound.
Dr.
Tyler and his team will give me a dose of ultrasound at key areas of my brain That's the ultrasound now.
It transmits through your skin.
which should affect the neurons controlling balance and coordination.
This is so crazy.
Isn't it crazy? Dr.
Tyler has been conducting this type of research for over ten years.
In the majority of cases, when someone tries to walk the treadmill, they stumble and sometimes fall within seconds.
However, with a boost of ultrasound altering my mind, Dr.
Tyler believes I should be able to stay on the treadmill no matter what happens.
It's a quite advanced treadmill that allows us to do motion tracking of your body, and allow you to interact in a virtual environment.
You're good to step up there.
My brain has never been zapped with ultrasound.
And I've never been strapped into a jerry-rigged treadmill before.
All right.
Good.
My goal is to just walk normally? Just walk normally.
Will my mind be sharpened by the intense power of sound waves? Go for it.
Make him go faster.
Increasing the speed.
Increase the pitch and try to mess him up.
Whoa.
There you go.
What the hell? Aah! Recent reports indicate governments around the world may be developing top secret sonic weapons capable of controlling the human mind using only sound.
I want to understand how sound waves can manipulate our brains, so Dr.
Tyler is putting me through a revolutionary experiment.
Now what we're gonna do is we're gonna try to stimulate your brain.
After giving me a powerful dose of ultrasound to the part of my brain regulating balance, coordination, and motor function Make him go faster.
Whoa.
What the hell? Dr.
Tyler has placed me on a virtual reality treadmill that makes most people stumble and fall.
Aah! But he believes ultrasound waves can help sharpen my mind, allowing me to stay on my feet.
That's it.
Dr.
Tyler's data suggests I should have fallen when I navigated the course on the treadmill.
Okay.
But I didn't fall.
All right.
Goooo He believes the dose of ultrasound allowed my brain to maintain my balance and coordination better than it normally would.
In a sense, it is a way of interrupting someone's natural relationship with their own brain.
Yeah.
Are there any potential drawbacks or side effects that you've noticed in your studies that are concerning? You know, there are some ethical issues.
Before we got to the point where we were using ultrasound to modulate human brain activity, we did a lot of safety studies.
Ultrasound certainly can be used in a negative way, and that is a little concerning to me, 'cause when people are using sonic weapons, it kind of changes the landscape.
I feel like it is a version of mind control, and I think it's a very real example of how technology allows us to get inside someone's head.
If the incident involving American diplomats in Cuba was some form of mind control attack using a sonic weapon, I want to know who could be behind it.
And what does one of these weapons actually sound like? To find out, I'm meeting with Alex Berezow, a science writer who's been investigating the Cuban incident to see who could carry out such a bold attack.
You studied the sonic attacks that took place in Cuba last year.
Have you come up with any ideas about who did this and/or why they might've done this? What we do know is that in 2014, the Russians are back in Cuba.
They closed down one of their spy bases in 2001 because of financial reasons.
They reopened it in 2014.
We also know that they have a long penchant for poisoning people.
They've poisoned spies in Britain.
It's completely possible that Russians are behind it.
It's interesting that you say it was 2014 when the Russians came back, and the idea that maybe this was some kind of a Guinea pig? Exactly.
Some kind of a beta phase Yeahof the operation.
Correct.
It's U.
S.
diplomats being targeted.
People that have government affiliation.
It would seem to imply that it was on purpose and not accidental.
Right.
It's not common for people to have concussions and signs of some sort of severe distress, and for no one to have any idea what's causing it.
Do you have an example of what the people who heard something might have heard? I do.
Is it okay for us to listen to it? Uh, we might handle it for a few seconds.
Uh-huh.
Are you ready? I guess so.
That's really unsettling.
It's It feels, to me, like a form of brainwashing, in a way.
It's a form of psychological warfare.
If you know that you're going to be assaulted if you were just going to do your job, you may not want to do it if you know that "My goodness, "I might go to Cuba and come back with a concussion, and I don't know what caused it.
" That's scary.
I think this is a new form of terrorism that we will see more of.
Psychological warfare waged with 21st century sonic weapons may be the newest form of mind control.
But this kind of mental manipulation can trace its roots back to the ancient art of voodoo.
For centuries, voodoo priests would perform bizarre rituals and dismember dolls to unleash dark spirits many believed could penetrate an enemy's brain and inflict maximum psychological harm.
But in recent years, these psychological warfare techniques have given way to more modern methods of mind control, such as brainwashing.
There is evidence that they actually believe that Charles Manson is Jesus Christ.
Experts believe some of the most notorious cults and terrorist groups in history were formed by brainwashing.
In 1978, People's Temple founder, Jim Jones, brainwashed nearly 1,000 members of his cult to kill themselves because he believed U.
S.
intelligence agencies were planning to invade his Jonestown commune.
He convinced all of his members to drink Kool-Aid laced with cyanide.
Could this have been a case of mind control? In recent years, leaders of the ISIS terrorist group have brainwashed countless followers to blow themselves up in suicide missions around the world to advance their ideology.
David LaPorte believes these leaders force their followers to commit the ultimate sacrifice by relying on key brainwashing techniques refined by evil manipulators over the centuries.
Studies identified a number of elements that lead to better brainwashing.
You isolate the individuals.
You give them message repeatedly.
You deprive them of something.
So, you make them cold, or you don't feed them adequately, you don't give them enough water.
And you also induce high emotion.
The outside environment can exert a tremendous influence in very powerful ways.
So, how do evil individuals control the minds of vulnerable people around the world? To find out, I've located someone who mastered this mind control technique to recruit new members to join one of the most dangerous terrorist groups on earth.
I understand that you have a pretty unique background.
You know, in 1998, a previously unknown guy named Osama bin Laden emerged on the jihadist scene, calling on attacks against the Jews and the crusaders.
And we wanted to answer the call.
Mubin Shaikh was a recruiter for Al Qaeda from 1995 until the 9/11 attacks in 2001, when he deserted his terror cell and became a counterintelligence informant, sharing his insider knowledge to prevent future attacks.
With incidents on the rise worldwide, I want to know if Mubin can shed light on how brainwashing techniques are being used to control the actions of terrorists.
In terms of the mentality of a terrorist organization and how they recruit and condition people I mean, there has to be some kind of element of mind control or manipulation in that process.
Extremist groups of any kind far right, jihadists They look for certain people.
People who are searching for something.
Searching for meaning, belonging, a family.
Those were the people that we would target deliberately, because we knew that they were in that vulnerable state.
In terms of the mind control we've been exploring, it feels very much like what he both experienced and then perpetrated, in some ways, was a kind of brainwashing.
There's the psychology of terrorist acts.
How is it seen that destroying property and lives is furthering a cause? Media gives terrorism a longevity it might not otherwise enjoy.
That's the idea of terrorism as theater.
When we see these images, we are actually reinforcing that idea that extremist groups understand very well is that fear really motivates people.
And extremist groups know what the fear will do.
It works.
And it's as simple as that, and they know it.
It's not the number of people that are killed.
It's the number of people that are watching.
The group that I went with, their whole mantra, if you will, is "If you want to change the world, you do it with this," and he picked up the AK-47.
Right.
And what did it do to you in that moment? I was bit by the jihadi bug.
I'm in Austin, Texas, meeting with Mubin Shaikh, a former Islamic terrorist who fled his cell to become an informant for law enforcement.
Do you have any pictures of yourself when you were undercover? Yeah.
This is me for almost 15 years.
Yeah, you look like Look like the Taliban.
Black turban, long beard, long robes.
I've seen how mind control has been used by leaders throughout history to manipulate small groups of followers.
But while Mubin was with Al Qaeda, he used brainwashing methods which controlled thousands of terrorists.
I want to know the secrets behind these techniques, which are powerful enough to convince members to carry out heinous missions, even if it terminates their own lives.
So, I'm interested in the psychology of these acts of violence when they involve pushing someone past their normal instinct for survival.
To get them over that is difficult.
The number one thing you have to do is to convince the person, not necessarily that they want to die, but where they're gonna go after they die, playing on their insecurities and convincing them that, in fact, they're off to a better place.
Number two, the mission has to be a holy mission.
It has to transcend beyond this world.
They must be convinced that actually they are doing the right thing.
Because they know that this is actually the wrong thing.
Mubin has helped me uncover the secrets behind the mind control techniques used by Al Qaeda and other terrorist and cult organizations.
But I've also seen compelling evidence about how cutting-edge technology, such as implants I had been drugged and implanted in my own home.
Oh! computers, even sound waves, can control the human mind.
It went into my face, ears, back of my neck.
So all of this makes me wonder: is it possible for someone else to take control of my brain using nothing more than their mind and the power of suggestion? To find out, I'm going head-to-head with Matt Cooper, a mentalist who has spent decades mastering the dark art of manipulating other people's thoughts and reading their minds.
Matt's goal is to show me what it's like to experience total mind control.
He's going to attempt to control my thoughts.
You are a mentalist? Mentalist, mind reader, thought reader.
A mentalist replicates extraordinary mental powers using techniques of illusion and some psychology.
Do you believe in mind control? Oh, mind control? Absolutely.
I think that there are ways to manipulate people.
You are eliciting a feeling in someone through suggestion.
In your daily life, when you interact with people, are there ways that you can benefit from techniques like this? Yes, there are certain techniques that you can use that will allow you to have an edge to take advantage of people, which is a very powerful thing.
But we're talking about more nefarious applications of this stuff.
Do you look back at I don't know famous cult leaders and, say, like, you can see techniques that they've used? Uh, historical examples, with Hitler getting people to do atrocious acts and convince them that it's the right thing to do.
I mean, it's not really my area of expertise, because I have chosen the good side, I guess you could say, but The white magic version of it.
Yeah.
I suppose, yeah.
Should we put this into practice a little bit? Try something? Yeah, absolutely.
Matt will put his mind control powers to the test through a series of demonstrations.
I'm more interested in more specific information.
Things that come from your history.
All right? So I want you to think of anything you want.
Could be a person, a place, an object.
Whatever you want, but it has to have some meaning to you.
Does that make sense? Okay.
Mm-hmm.
You've got something? Okay.
Yeah.
Look at me and just picture this thing.
Maybe interact with it.
If it's a person, say hello to this person.
If it's a place, see yourself in this place.
Okay.
Hold on.
Just, you know, stand up for me.
Uh, right there is fine.
Shoulders back.
Take a deep breath in.
Let it out.
So you thinking of a place? Mm-hmm.
Yes? Mm-hmm.
Do palaces make any sense to you? Because that's the image I'm getting.
Like grand palaces, gardens, that kind of thing.
Sure.
Mosques, even? Sure.
So, we're talking about a location somewhere, um, with a Muslim-leaning side.
Mm-hmm.
Um, Morocco? Does that make sense? Yeah.
Sure.
Yes? I think I have it.
Okay.
Um, this is a place that you visited recently? Mm-hmm.
Yeah? Um I hope you had a good time in Marrakesh.
Yes? So weird.
You guys, it's so weird.
Like, he didn't tell me to choose a place.
He told me to choose anything.
I could've chosen my dog or a car or I mean, I could've chosen anything.
How would he have known that? Is a part of this about manipulating me to give the answers away? We're always giving up information, constantly.
Uh-huh.
Uh-huh.
It's in our nature to give up information.
Right.
Part of it is picking up on things that you're giving away.
But some of the time it's not.
Sometimes it's just a trick Mm-hmm.
designed to look like I'm picking up on things.
Mm-hmm.
I may be able to teach you how to read my thoughts, wherein, I'm kind of helping you, but you wouldn't be aware of it.
Matt has set up a test.
We'll each get a matching set of five cards.
We'll need to put down those cards one at a time him first, and then me.
You take those.
There's five there.
With Matt employing a form of mind control to get me to place cards on the table in the same order he does.
You can mix them up if you like.
If it works, all five of our cards should end up in the exact same order.
Three out of five would be considered psychic.
I'm with Matt Cooper, a mentalist who's perfected his ability to manipulate the thoughts of other people, not with computers and sound waves, but only his mind.
I'm gonna through these and kind of kind of choose them at random, and I'll try and send them to you.
Yeah.
So, don't think of one yet.
Okay.
I'll put one down first.
Okay.
Look at me.
Allow yourself to just see all the shapes in your mind.
I want just one of the symbols to kind of present itself to you.
You don't choose it, it just shows itself.
All right.
I can see that you have it.
Put it facedown.
I've already put mine down, so I can't change mine.
Have a look at them again.
Same feeling.
Just allow Okay.
Hold on.
Now, you thought of two.
But there's a sense of doubt with the first one.
I want you to go back to the first one you thought of.
Okay.
All right.
Put that one down.
All right? Three left.
Just jumble them up in your head.
Just kind of see them kind of jumbling up.
Look at me.
That one there.
Just put one down now.
Just put one down.
Don't think about it.
Put one down.
All right.
There's two left.
I'm trying to choose.
How about this one? All right.
Go ahead.
Put one down.
Stop.
You have to feel as if you know it to be true.
Okay? So don't worry about getting it wrong.
You already know what it is.
Uh-huh.
So put it down.
That's the last one.
Uh-huh.
The odds of getting all of them right is very unlikely.
Um, but just pick them up.
We're gonna deal them down from the top, okay? Same From the top.
Wait.
From here? Yeah, from the top.
Okay.
So the last one was a circle.
So far, so good.
So far, so good.
And then we had Square.
You You realize if this one's right, that's all five, right? Yeah.
I'll put mine down first.
That's all five.
Oh, dude, that's so crazy! There it is.
That is so crazy.
The thing that really threw me was the cards.
'Cause I'm sitting there like, if I'm looking for something, I don't know what I'm looking for.
And there were times when I just was like, "It's the cross.
It's the cross.
It's the cross.
" And I just went with it like he told me to, and I just believed that I could do it.
So, I mean, it was pretty impressive to me, I have to say.
It's a bit of a superpower, in a way.
You were somehow helping me to arrive at this order of cards.
Were there things that you were doing to trigger my unconscious mind Mm-hmmto know what shapes you were putting down? If you're thinking about mentalism, you don't really want to think in terms of magical thinking, and illusion, tricks like that, but you want to think psychologically.
Always just about reading signals.
Okay.
There are other things at play that allow me to gather information about you that isn't just about you communicating them unconsciously.
Obviously, there is something to it.
He's employing techniques suggesting and, like, planting seeds that I could feel him employing, even though I didn't know what they were.
The mystery of the human brain and how to manipulate it continues to perplex and terrify mankind to this day.
And while history has shown us that powerful forces of both good and evil may have already mastered the ability to control our minds, the future of our civilization may well depend on our ability to defend against these dark forces at all costs.
Otherwise, we may be entering an era where are thoughts may never again be entirely our own.
Ancient tales have described bizarre rituals involving voodoo and brainwashing, designed to enslave the minds of thousands.
Today, recent advances in technology have made this fear all too real.
And no one knows this better than Kansas native, James Walbert.
In the year 2004, I had become a victim of mind control.
I had been drugged and implanted in my own home.
I experienced trembling and shaking, remote burning, jolts, shocks.
The implants have been inside of my body for 14 years.
I know who targeted me, and I know why.
There's 100% possibility that we are being recorded right now.
How is it possible for people like James to fall victim to mind control? Are dark forces enslaving people around the world? Can anyone's brain be manipulated by evil? My search begins now.
My Name is Zachary Quinto.
As an actor, I've played many supernatural characters that blurred the line between science and fiction.
I'm drawn to the unknown, the otherworldly, and those experiences so beyond belief, they call everything into question.
I'm exploring some of the most enduring mysteries that continue to haunt mankind in search of the truth wherever it leads me.
Since the dawn of early civilizations, when rival cultures waged bloody battles to advance their different ideologies, many have dreamed of controlling the minds of others, while preventing enemies from controlling theirs.
Ancient texts, such as the 15th century Malleus Maleficarum, reveal our dark appetite for torture, mysterious potions, and spells to enslave another's mind.
But these handbooks are only the beginning.
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union spent billions of dollars on its psychotronic program to control the minds of its adversaries and create real-life Manchurian Candidates brainwashed political assassins programmed to change the course of history.
These frightening historical accounts make me wonder: is mind control possible, and is it happening today? I've located a man named James Walbert, who claims he was surgically implanted by a business rival and placed under mind control against his will.
James is an entrepreneur and an inventor of antibacterial plastic products.
I woke up in my bed Right.
with blood coming out of my left ear, my jaw swollen, and my right shoulder was affected as well.
I had been drugged and implanted in my own home.
I started hearing, like, super high-pitched static sounds.
My body was being disrupted from a distance.
There was most certainly something there.
I could feel it on my nervous system.
My arm would jump.
Or my leg would jump.
Did you have testing done at all to see what was causing this stuff? I had an MRI done, and they had found a foreign body in my left ear and in my neck.
Oh, my God.
So, this is the actual That is the actual capsule in my right trapezia.
So, like, here, basically.
That's what they call a "tracker chip.
" I was under a constant state of mind control.
I'm staggered by this on so many levels.
First of all, that someone would be so diabolical to do this.
It sounds like something out of a spy movie.
So you were the first person in the history of the United States to win a court case that's based in a form of what's considered electromagnetic terrorism, in a way, right? Yes, that is correct.
Yes.
And how long did it take you to build a case? It took me a year and a half to build a solid case.
Uh-huh.
Hired two private investigators.
They both researched every single thing I said.
I presented all of my evidence, and the FBI immediately identified suspects.
Wow.
I took them to court and won.
Now there's 21 laws against illegal implantation in the United States.
Prior to that, if you'd ever even mention an implant, you were paranoid, you were delusional.
When you talk to someone like James, what seems farfetched and unbelievable then becomes really understandable.
Having these implants in his body it's a very real example of "mind control.
" Now I understand how something like that could actually happen.
But James is not alone.
The U.
S.
government has been conducting mind control experiments for decades.
In 1953, the CIA launched the MKUltra program in order to develop their own mind control methods.
But because MKUltra was top secret, the agency could use anyone as test subjects.
Experts, such as John Greenwald, Jr.
, an author who's been studying the secret inner workings of the U.
S.
government for over 20 years, used the Freedom of Information Act to uncover the fact that the CIA was targeting innocent civilians.
Back in 1953, the general public had no idea that the CIA was doing these really horrific experiments on prisoners and mental health patients, literally grabbing people off the streets and subjecting them to experiments with LSD and hypnosis.
They also started experimenting with physical torture, subjecting people to the lack of sleep for days at a time to really experiment with how far the human body would go until it snapped.
They had instances where they actually killed people.
People died because of their experiments.
To this day, the United States government has never fully disclosed all aspects of MKUltra, but many speculate the program rewrote the book on the use of mind control in war.
In the world of government research, if you do something for 20 years, you know darn well that they did something worthwhile and worth pursuing.
Could this still be happening today? If it is, how do you control someone's mind? At a laboratory called Backyard Brains neuroscientist Greg Gage is developing ways to override the brains of other humans.
When you're talking about mind control, you're talking about actually controlling something, and you're consciously aware of it, right? That's right.
Roll up your sleeve.
And I'm going to put some electrodes on your arm.
There's a little bit of gel inside of here, and that gel allows the ions to flow through your skin, into the metal.
Greg's technology allows me to send my brain signals to a machine And so, if I plug this into here like this prosthetic hand, to remotely move objects.
This is called a "neural prosthetic.
" It's so crazy.
You're controlling it through your nervous system.
This is a way that we can tap into your brain to make a computer do something.
What would happen now if, instead of controlling a robotic arm, nt your brain signal into my body? Then your brain will control not only your arm, but also my arm.
I would like to see how that works.
And I'll put some electrodes on me.
I'm gonna put one here, and I'll put another one here.
If I plug us together, you will take away my free will.
So when you're ready, go ahead and move your hand.
So, right now, you have complete control over that.
And I can try to fight it.
But I can also turn up the game so that I can't fight it anymore.
What level is this? I'm at 3, and it goes up to 8.
What happens if you turn it up? I'll turn it all the way up.
Ah! Okay.
It just But how amazing.
Yeah.
The electrical waves of my brain were controlling the computer, ultimately, which was stimulating the electrodes on his muscles that then led to his arm moving.
That's a pretty cool feeling.
Actually, it's a little bit painful.
I'm gonna turn it back down.
Don't hurt yourself, Greg.
It was the most evident version of control.
So we're gonna switch it up now.
So, I'm gonna take the electrodes off you.
And I will be in control of your free will.
You're gonna relax your hand here.
I'm gonna hook up on the other side.
And I'm gonna turn this on.
So, I have you on 2.
I can just turn it up a little bit more.
Now, you can look away.
Coming up I'm in Michigan, at a laboratory called Backyard Brains.
My search to uncover whether mind control is possible has led me to neuroscientist Greg Gage.
This is called a "neural prosthetic.
" With the help of a small computer, I seized control of Greg's body.
You want to see what it's like to be out of control? All right.
Yeah.
Now it's my turn.
I will be in control of your free will.
My only fear is, what is it gonna do to me? And I'm going to turn this on.
So, you're going to feel a little bit tingly.
I already feel something.
Your hand is going to naturally want to turn.
All right.
So, that's that's the - Oh! - So You don't know when I'm going to do it, but I'm going to do it whenever I want.
So, you have lost your free will.
Isn't that weird? It felt like these snaps.
Like pebbles being thrown against my brain.
What if I try to resist? You can try to resist it.
You're gonna notice that this finger is gonna go first.
It makes me understand how technology exists to get into people's heads.
Is there anything about this work which has a dark side? I mean One of the biggest fears people have when they hear about brain control is, uh is the idea of someone surreptitiously recording from your brain or being able to read what you're doing.
All of your thoughts and desires are all held inside of here.
If you can control something with your mind, then someone might be able to read from your stuff.
You weren't controlling your arm, right? My brain was controlling your arm, and so that made You lost your free will.
Could that happen surreptitiously? Could someone all of a sudden command someone else to shoot somebody or do something evil, right? For example, the top neuroscientists in the world are implanting monkeys with electrodes inside their brain Wow.
and now humans as well.
That's the same thing James is talking about in terms of being targeted and having these implants and chips in his body that were interrupting his own motor function.
That gets back to the point of all the myth and mystery around brain function and how it comprises a human being.
But when you really break it down, it's able to be manipulated and interrupted as a result.
Greg's technology is one way to manipulate the brain of another human.
But what if this capability fell into the wrong hands? Recent reports have surfaced, describing how other nations are creating cutting-edge devices that allow humans to control the minds of others remotely, without their knowledge.
In 2017, reports began to surface that dozens of American diplomats stationed in Cuba were experiencing bizarre injuries, such as vertigo, hearing loss, and brain damage consistent with a concussion.
And in 2018, similar reports emerged from a U.
S.
official in China.
All medically confirmed cases have described some combination of symptoms beginning within minutes to hours of their exposure of the event.
An investigation by the FBI in the Cuban incident revealed the diplomats may have been the target of a sonic weapon capable of using sound waves to inflict brain injuries.
Do we know what they can do to protect themselves from these sorts of injuries? Senator, I don't think we can say categorically that we can guarantee that they would be safe from this.
Unexplained incidents like these are on the rise around the world, and I want to hear what it's like to be a victim of this strange phenomenon.
So I've located a man who survived a similar sonic attack while he was stationed in Cuba back in 2014.
It's nice to meet you.
Good to meet you.
- when he experienced something truly horrifying.
- Four years ago, Chris Allen was in Havana As I understand it, you were in Cuba in 2014? That's right.
Within five minutes of laying down on the bed to go to sleep, a weird sensation in my feet and my hands began to gradually grow, from the tip of the fingers, down through my hands, forearms, through the calves, that really woke me up.
I wasn't able to concentrate at that point.
So, it went into my face, ears, back of my neck.
Exact same story the next day.
At that point, I kind of freaked out and beelined to the airport.
To be clear, you were staying in the same hotel where these diplomats were experiencing similar symptoms that you had.
That's right.
I used the travel agent who recommended the hotel because the hotel had just come out of renovation.
Do you feel, from your experience, like this was something that was targeted? I'm not a conspiracy theorist by nature, but you got a hotel full of people for four years now, from other countries, that have no issues.
If you have a hotel in which hundreds of people are staying every night, and over the course of this time, 20-some people, all of whom are diplomats, are experiencing these physical symptoms I mean, there's nothing accidental about that.
Some people think that if there was some sonic attack, they were still testing out whatever the technology was when I was there.
I've never heard anything like this.
The idea that this could be a whole new branch of mind control You know, that's the darker side of what we're talking about in the applications of this kind of stuff.
If sound is being weaponized to damage or hijack the human mind, how does it work? There are sound waves that vibrate at such extreme frequencies, humans can't hear them.
Some believe these waves are powerful enough to penetrate the skull and interrupt millions of neuron connections inside the brain.
Could something as common as sound be the key to controlling the human mind? To find out, I'm heading to Arizona State University's Biological and Health Systems Engineering Lab, where Dr.
Jamie Tyler is exploring how high-frequency sound waves called "ultrasound" can be used to manipulate the brain.
The story that recently came out of Cuba.
Diplomats that were working in Cuba Rightwere experiencing unexplained physical symptoms, and it's been talked about in terms of a sonar attack.
There's lots of people around the world that have their own theories about what happened.
A lot of people say that ultrasound cannot affect brain activity.
That's wrong.
We can't hear the ultrasou frequencies.
Mm-hmm.
But what's really dangerous about it, when you can't hear it, is you don't know how loud it is.
Right.
And so, it can be 140 decibels so as loud as a jet engine but you cannot hear it.
But the air pressure is still 140 decibels.
I know that there was a kind of range of symptoms Yeahsome of which were auditory.
And headaches, which you can produce with ultrasound.
And headaches, yeah.
So, as soon as I heard about the story, to me, it was pretty obvious that ultrasound was one of the candidates that you would suspect at creating those types of problems, even if it was airborne.
But Dr.
Tyler and his team have been researching ways ultrasound can actually boost brain performance.
We're going to put you on a treadmill and see if we can make you fall.
Really? See if you can make me fall? Yeah.
Yeah.
It's a treadmill that's designed to trick your body and brain circuits, and get you to fall.
Okay.
I'll be put to the test to see how sound waves can control my mind.
We'll hook you up and get your brain stimulated with some transcranial-focused ultrasound.
Dr.
Tyler and his team will give me a dose of ultrasound at key areas of my brain That's the ultrasound now.
It transmits through your skin.
which should affect the neurons controlling balance and coordination.
This is so crazy.
Isn't it crazy? Dr.
Tyler has been conducting this type of research for over ten years.
In the majority of cases, when someone tries to walk the treadmill, they stumble and sometimes fall within seconds.
However, with a boost of ultrasound altering my mind, Dr.
Tyler believes I should be able to stay on the treadmill no matter what happens.
It's a quite advanced treadmill that allows us to do motion tracking of your body, and allow you to interact in a virtual environment.
You're good to step up there.
My brain has never been zapped with ultrasound.
And I've never been strapped into a jerry-rigged treadmill before.
All right.
Good.
My goal is to just walk normally? Just walk normally.
Will my mind be sharpened by the intense power of sound waves? Go for it.
Make him go faster.
Increasing the speed.
Increase the pitch and try to mess him up.
Whoa.
There you go.
What the hell? Aah! Recent reports indicate governments around the world may be developing top secret sonic weapons capable of controlling the human mind using only sound.
I want to understand how sound waves can manipulate our brains, so Dr.
Tyler is putting me through a revolutionary experiment.
Now what we're gonna do is we're gonna try to stimulate your brain.
After giving me a powerful dose of ultrasound to the part of my brain regulating balance, coordination, and motor function Make him go faster.
Whoa.
What the hell? Dr.
Tyler has placed me on a virtual reality treadmill that makes most people stumble and fall.
Aah! But he believes ultrasound waves can help sharpen my mind, allowing me to stay on my feet.
That's it.
Dr.
Tyler's data suggests I should have fallen when I navigated the course on the treadmill.
Okay.
But I didn't fall.
All right.
Goooo He believes the dose of ultrasound allowed my brain to maintain my balance and coordination better than it normally would.
In a sense, it is a way of interrupting someone's natural relationship with their own brain.
Yeah.
Are there any potential drawbacks or side effects that you've noticed in your studies that are concerning? You know, there are some ethical issues.
Before we got to the point where we were using ultrasound to modulate human brain activity, we did a lot of safety studies.
Ultrasound certainly can be used in a negative way, and that is a little concerning to me, 'cause when people are using sonic weapons, it kind of changes the landscape.
I feel like it is a version of mind control, and I think it's a very real example of how technology allows us to get inside someone's head.
If the incident involving American diplomats in Cuba was some form of mind control attack using a sonic weapon, I want to know who could be behind it.
And what does one of these weapons actually sound like? To find out, I'm meeting with Alex Berezow, a science writer who's been investigating the Cuban incident to see who could carry out such a bold attack.
You studied the sonic attacks that took place in Cuba last year.
Have you come up with any ideas about who did this and/or why they might've done this? What we do know is that in 2014, the Russians are back in Cuba.
They closed down one of their spy bases in 2001 because of financial reasons.
They reopened it in 2014.
We also know that they have a long penchant for poisoning people.
They've poisoned spies in Britain.
It's completely possible that Russians are behind it.
It's interesting that you say it was 2014 when the Russians came back, and the idea that maybe this was some kind of a Guinea pig? Exactly.
Some kind of a beta phase Yeahof the operation.
Correct.
It's U.
S.
diplomats being targeted.
People that have government affiliation.
It would seem to imply that it was on purpose and not accidental.
Right.
It's not common for people to have concussions and signs of some sort of severe distress, and for no one to have any idea what's causing it.
Do you have an example of what the people who heard something might have heard? I do.
Is it okay for us to listen to it? Uh, we might handle it for a few seconds.
Uh-huh.
Are you ready? I guess so.
That's really unsettling.
It's It feels, to me, like a form of brainwashing, in a way.
It's a form of psychological warfare.
If you know that you're going to be assaulted if you were just going to do your job, you may not want to do it if you know that "My goodness, "I might go to Cuba and come back with a concussion, and I don't know what caused it.
" That's scary.
I think this is a new form of terrorism that we will see more of.
Psychological warfare waged with 21st century sonic weapons may be the newest form of mind control.
But this kind of mental manipulation can trace its roots back to the ancient art of voodoo.
For centuries, voodoo priests would perform bizarre rituals and dismember dolls to unleash dark spirits many believed could penetrate an enemy's brain and inflict maximum psychological harm.
But in recent years, these psychological warfare techniques have given way to more modern methods of mind control, such as brainwashing.
There is evidence that they actually believe that Charles Manson is Jesus Christ.
Experts believe some of the most notorious cults and terrorist groups in history were formed by brainwashing.
In 1978, People's Temple founder, Jim Jones, brainwashed nearly 1,000 members of his cult to kill themselves because he believed U.
S.
intelligence agencies were planning to invade his Jonestown commune.
He convinced all of his members to drink Kool-Aid laced with cyanide.
Could this have been a case of mind control? In recent years, leaders of the ISIS terrorist group have brainwashed countless followers to blow themselves up in suicide missions around the world to advance their ideology.
David LaPorte believes these leaders force their followers to commit the ultimate sacrifice by relying on key brainwashing techniques refined by evil manipulators over the centuries.
Studies identified a number of elements that lead to better brainwashing.
You isolate the individuals.
You give them message repeatedly.
You deprive them of something.
So, you make them cold, or you don't feed them adequately, you don't give them enough water.
And you also induce high emotion.
The outside environment can exert a tremendous influence in very powerful ways.
So, how do evil individuals control the minds of vulnerable people around the world? To find out, I've located someone who mastered this mind control technique to recruit new members to join one of the most dangerous terrorist groups on earth.
I understand that you have a pretty unique background.
You know, in 1998, a previously unknown guy named Osama bin Laden emerged on the jihadist scene, calling on attacks against the Jews and the crusaders.
And we wanted to answer the call.
Mubin Shaikh was a recruiter for Al Qaeda from 1995 until the 9/11 attacks in 2001, when he deserted his terror cell and became a counterintelligence informant, sharing his insider knowledge to prevent future attacks.
With incidents on the rise worldwide, I want to know if Mubin can shed light on how brainwashing techniques are being used to control the actions of terrorists.
In terms of the mentality of a terrorist organization and how they recruit and condition people I mean, there has to be some kind of element of mind control or manipulation in that process.
Extremist groups of any kind far right, jihadists They look for certain people.
People who are searching for something.
Searching for meaning, belonging, a family.
Those were the people that we would target deliberately, because we knew that they were in that vulnerable state.
In terms of the mind control we've been exploring, it feels very much like what he both experienced and then perpetrated, in some ways, was a kind of brainwashing.
There's the psychology of terrorist acts.
How is it seen that destroying property and lives is furthering a cause? Media gives terrorism a longevity it might not otherwise enjoy.
That's the idea of terrorism as theater.
When we see these images, we are actually reinforcing that idea that extremist groups understand very well is that fear really motivates people.
And extremist groups know what the fear will do.
It works.
And it's as simple as that, and they know it.
It's not the number of people that are killed.
It's the number of people that are watching.
The group that I went with, their whole mantra, if you will, is "If you want to change the world, you do it with this," and he picked up the AK-47.
Right.
And what did it do to you in that moment? I was bit by the jihadi bug.
I'm in Austin, Texas, meeting with Mubin Shaikh, a former Islamic terrorist who fled his cell to become an informant for law enforcement.
Do you have any pictures of yourself when you were undercover? Yeah.
This is me for almost 15 years.
Yeah, you look like Look like the Taliban.
Black turban, long beard, long robes.
I've seen how mind control has been used by leaders throughout history to manipulate small groups of followers.
But while Mubin was with Al Qaeda, he used brainwashing methods which controlled thousands of terrorists.
I want to know the secrets behind these techniques, which are powerful enough to convince members to carry out heinous missions, even if it terminates their own lives.
So, I'm interested in the psychology of these acts of violence when they involve pushing someone past their normal instinct for survival.
To get them over that is difficult.
The number one thing you have to do is to convince the person, not necessarily that they want to die, but where they're gonna go after they die, playing on their insecurities and convincing them that, in fact, they're off to a better place.
Number two, the mission has to be a holy mission.
It has to transcend beyond this world.
They must be convinced that actually they are doing the right thing.
Because they know that this is actually the wrong thing.
Mubin has helped me uncover the secrets behind the mind control techniques used by Al Qaeda and other terrorist and cult organizations.
But I've also seen compelling evidence about how cutting-edge technology, such as implants I had been drugged and implanted in my own home.
Oh! computers, even sound waves, can control the human mind.
It went into my face, ears, back of my neck.
So all of this makes me wonder: is it possible for someone else to take control of my brain using nothing more than their mind and the power of suggestion? To find out, I'm going head-to-head with Matt Cooper, a mentalist who has spent decades mastering the dark art of manipulating other people's thoughts and reading their minds.
Matt's goal is to show me what it's like to experience total mind control.
He's going to attempt to control my thoughts.
You are a mentalist? Mentalist, mind reader, thought reader.
A mentalist replicates extraordinary mental powers using techniques of illusion and some psychology.
Do you believe in mind control? Oh, mind control? Absolutely.
I think that there are ways to manipulate people.
You are eliciting a feeling in someone through suggestion.
In your daily life, when you interact with people, are there ways that you can benefit from techniques like this? Yes, there are certain techniques that you can use that will allow you to have an edge to take advantage of people, which is a very powerful thing.
But we're talking about more nefarious applications of this stuff.
Do you look back at I don't know famous cult leaders and, say, like, you can see techniques that they've used? Uh, historical examples, with Hitler getting people to do atrocious acts and convince them that it's the right thing to do.
I mean, it's not really my area of expertise, because I have chosen the good side, I guess you could say, but The white magic version of it.
Yeah.
I suppose, yeah.
Should we put this into practice a little bit? Try something? Yeah, absolutely.
Matt will put his mind control powers to the test through a series of demonstrations.
I'm more interested in more specific information.
Things that come from your history.
All right? So I want you to think of anything you want.
Could be a person, a place, an object.
Whatever you want, but it has to have some meaning to you.
Does that make sense? Okay.
Mm-hmm.
You've got something? Okay.
Yeah.
Look at me and just picture this thing.
Maybe interact with it.
If it's a person, say hello to this person.
If it's a place, see yourself in this place.
Okay.
Hold on.
Just, you know, stand up for me.
Uh, right there is fine.
Shoulders back.
Take a deep breath in.
Let it out.
So you thinking of a place? Mm-hmm.
Yes? Mm-hmm.
Do palaces make any sense to you? Because that's the image I'm getting.
Like grand palaces, gardens, that kind of thing.
Sure.
Mosques, even? Sure.
So, we're talking about a location somewhere, um, with a Muslim-leaning side.
Mm-hmm.
Um, Morocco? Does that make sense? Yeah.
Sure.
Yes? I think I have it.
Okay.
Um, this is a place that you visited recently? Mm-hmm.
Yeah? Um I hope you had a good time in Marrakesh.
Yes? So weird.
You guys, it's so weird.
Like, he didn't tell me to choose a place.
He told me to choose anything.
I could've chosen my dog or a car or I mean, I could've chosen anything.
How would he have known that? Is a part of this about manipulating me to give the answers away? We're always giving up information, constantly.
Uh-huh.
Uh-huh.
It's in our nature to give up information.
Right.
Part of it is picking up on things that you're giving away.
But some of the time it's not.
Sometimes it's just a trick Mm-hmm.
designed to look like I'm picking up on things.
Mm-hmm.
I may be able to teach you how to read my thoughts, wherein, I'm kind of helping you, but you wouldn't be aware of it.
Matt has set up a test.
We'll each get a matching set of five cards.
We'll need to put down those cards one at a time him first, and then me.
You take those.
There's five there.
With Matt employing a form of mind control to get me to place cards on the table in the same order he does.
You can mix them up if you like.
If it works, all five of our cards should end up in the exact same order.
Three out of five would be considered psychic.
I'm with Matt Cooper, a mentalist who's perfected his ability to manipulate the thoughts of other people, not with computers and sound waves, but only his mind.
I'm gonna through these and kind of kind of choose them at random, and I'll try and send them to you.
Yeah.
So, don't think of one yet.
Okay.
I'll put one down first.
Okay.
Look at me.
Allow yourself to just see all the shapes in your mind.
I want just one of the symbols to kind of present itself to you.
You don't choose it, it just shows itself.
All right.
I can see that you have it.
Put it facedown.
I've already put mine down, so I can't change mine.
Have a look at them again.
Same feeling.
Just allow Okay.
Hold on.
Now, you thought of two.
But there's a sense of doubt with the first one.
I want you to go back to the first one you thought of.
Okay.
All right.
Put that one down.
All right? Three left.
Just jumble them up in your head.
Just kind of see them kind of jumbling up.
Look at me.
That one there.
Just put one down now.
Just put one down.
Don't think about it.
Put one down.
All right.
There's two left.
I'm trying to choose.
How about this one? All right.
Go ahead.
Put one down.
Stop.
You have to feel as if you know it to be true.
Okay? So don't worry about getting it wrong.
You already know what it is.
Uh-huh.
So put it down.
That's the last one.
Uh-huh.
The odds of getting all of them right is very unlikely.
Um, but just pick them up.
We're gonna deal them down from the top, okay? Same From the top.
Wait.
From here? Yeah, from the top.
Okay.
So the last one was a circle.
So far, so good.
So far, so good.
And then we had Square.
You You realize if this one's right, that's all five, right? Yeah.
I'll put mine down first.
That's all five.
Oh, dude, that's so crazy! There it is.
That is so crazy.
The thing that really threw me was the cards.
'Cause I'm sitting there like, if I'm looking for something, I don't know what I'm looking for.
And there were times when I just was like, "It's the cross.
It's the cross.
It's the cross.
" And I just went with it like he told me to, and I just believed that I could do it.
So, I mean, it was pretty impressive to me, I have to say.
It's a bit of a superpower, in a way.
You were somehow helping me to arrive at this order of cards.
Were there things that you were doing to trigger my unconscious mind Mm-hmmto know what shapes you were putting down? If you're thinking about mentalism, you don't really want to think in terms of magical thinking, and illusion, tricks like that, but you want to think psychologically.
Always just about reading signals.
Okay.
There are other things at play that allow me to gather information about you that isn't just about you communicating them unconsciously.
Obviously, there is something to it.
He's employing techniques suggesting and, like, planting seeds that I could feel him employing, even though I didn't know what they were.
The mystery of the human brain and how to manipulate it continues to perplex and terrify mankind to this day.
And while history has shown us that powerful forces of both good and evil may have already mastered the ability to control our minds, the future of our civilization may well depend on our ability to defend against these dark forces at all costs.
Otherwise, we may be entering an era where are thoughts may never again be entirely our own.