Mind Control
The world today vastly differs from that of generations past. Humanity has coaxed out innovation at unprecedented rates and, consequently, enjoys a myriad of amenities never before offered to the forefathers of the twenty-first century. From cellular phones to nuclear energy, modern society has been graced with an unending number of technological advancements. Although in the midst of all this advancement, it is essential to remain cognizant of the plethora of underlying harms associated with progress.  After all, cellular phones have already become a medium for spying, and nuclear energy has led to the development of the most lethal weapons known to man. But even those nauseating developments appear minor in the face of the single most concerning threat to humanity in the modern world of improvement: mind control. Mind control is widely regarded as the most potent and viable hazard facing this twenty-first century society; without the control of one’s own mind, body, emotions, and wellbeing, there is absolutely nothing differentiating man from a caged animal or subhuman slave. And with anecdotes constantly emerging verifying the current use of mind control, the fears have never appeared more real. Ultimately, it is imperative to evaluate whether or not the real potential for modern mind control exists in order to assess the true danger hidden within the overwhelming progress of generations past.
Before plunging into the feasibility of mind control, it is vital to evaluate to the historical importance and context regarding the matter. Mind control first surfaced during the totalitarian rule of ancient chinese empires. When an empire captured new territories, it would also collect the people of these territories. However, many of these citizens would often attempt to resist their forced assimilation. As a result, the empires developed a wide array of tactics in order to manipulate citizens minds into conforming. By employing crude versions of modern hypnosis and by fooling the outsider through series of complex mind games, these empires were able to mold people psyches as early as 100 A.D.. Although, when the ancient Chinese empires came crashing down throughout the end of the first millennia, many of these methods were lost to history. It was not until the subject of mind control caught the attention of the Central Intelligence Agency in the early 1950s that mind control returned on a large scale. After intensively studying the archaic Chinese scrolls and other written records, the CIA constructed its own experiment designed to mimic the methods of the ancient Chinese in the modern world. Operation MKUltra had begun. Throughout their research, the agency underwent hundreds of illegal tests and broke scores of ethical guidelines. For instance, in one trial, forty human test subjects were given the psychedelic drug LSD for 77 straight days in hope that they would become easily susceptible to mind control. By the time this study was abandoned in the fall of 1953, it had ruined the lives of hundreds of subjects, obliterated the reputation of the agency, and, surprisingly, had found absolutely zero proof that mind control was possible. The plain inconsistencies in the history of mind control are very suspicious to say the least. Furthermore, the incongruence between history and public opinion is also quite astonishing. Though it would be fatuous to adhere only to this subjective anecdotal evidence.
In order to fully comprehend the complexity of mind control, one must assess the stance of the scientific community. But in order to do so, a fundamental grasp of the mental processes underlying basic human consciousness is key. The human brain is comprised of billions of microscopic cells called neurons. These neurons form hundreds of synapses, or connections, with one another in order to pass along signals from one part of the brain to the next, but these synapses appear to have an even more enthralling purpose. Dr. Aziz Sadir, a neurologist educated at the American University of Beirut, explains that, “Memories, thoughts, and actions all originate in the synapses between neurons.” Although the research remains surprisingly limited in this field, it appears that the orientations and direction of these billions of neurons facilitate the regular mental processes of all human beings. Furthermore, the ‘signals’ that pass through each of these synapses are actually just electrical currents, each with a voltage of roughly 70 mV or, to put it into perspective, two thousand times less energy than the electricity used when turning on a standard light bulb. Moreover, because of the brain’s neuroplasticity, each electric signal that passes through a person’s synapse permanently alters the structure of that synapse which, as stated earlier would alter the means by which an individual thinks and acts. Therefore, when discussing mind control, the real subject at hand, biologically speaking, would be the ability of an individual to remotely control the orientation of another human’s synapses and the firing rate of their neurons, and from that point of view, the likelihood of true mind control appears to be shockingly little. For one, neuroscience has been routinely eluded when attempting to map neurons and their functions thus in order to deliberately stimulate certain thoughts or actions, a ‘guess-and-check method’ would have to be standard, clearly inconsistent with the common image of mind control as subtle subconscious mental manipulation. But even if we were to somehow isolate a neuron responsible for a certain mental task, the physical limitations of electricity would inevitably limit a mind-controller’s ability to stimulate said neuron; an electrical current would have to pass through billions of neurons in order to reach the chosen target, unavoidably resulting in a plethora of unintended consequences. Though, the obstacles do not end there. The aforementioned property of neural plasticity also comes into play. Just as a new stimulus will leave a lasting mark on a neuron, so have the thousands of stimuli which have passed through that neuron in the past. Hence any attempt to alter the thinking of an individual would have to manage to not only stimulate the related neuron, but would have to extirpate that cell’s entire neural history. Evidently, there is a multitude of niceties distinguishing mainstream definition of mind control from reality. Though, why narrow the examination of the feasibility of mind control to only the conventional definition? Especially when many other unconventional alternatives equally retain the aptitude for destructing society. It is quite plain that in order to conduct a more thorough and conclusive exploration, one must broaden this inadequate description.
         One such unconventional alternative was explored by a team of Washington University researchers in August of 2013. They wished to assess the ability of one subject to control another subject’s body through a series of neural wires. The researchers placed the three pairs of volunteers in two buildings roughly five hundred meters apart. They positioned one subject of each pair in front of a computer game and told him to think about playing the game, while the other subject’s hand was set to hover above a keypad and attached the one end of the wires to the first subject’s cerebral cortex and the other end to the second subject’s motor cortex. By the conclusion of the experiment, the second subject had clicked the key corresponding with the first subject’s thoughts an average of about 54% of the time. The researchers had successfully demonstrated the potential for ‘body control’. However, body control may be as far as these researchers ever get because, despite the researchers’ intentions to improve this technology to enable mind control, the possibility for this technology to be applied to mental functions appears to be slim. Dr. Sadir explains that, “The neural pathways involved in motor skills and thoughts are completely different. It is quite literally like comparing apples and oranges.” Moreover, an investigation conducted by the University of Chicago only three months later seems to grant to Dr. Sadir’s statement. They attempted to recreate the original researcher’s results except they tested the ability of one subject to control the mind of another during a mental challenge instead of a physical one. They failed. Thus, despite the impressive potential of this new research, the minds of humanity will remain sovereign from unwanted control, at least on this front.
A more outwardly sinister method of alternative mind control has also captivated the public’s attention in recent years. As mentally degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Dementia become more prevalent and powerful in communities across the country, concerned civilians have begun to ponder the possibility of a mentally degenerative disease being tinkered and deployed for more maniacal purposes like, for instance, fooling an infected global leader to turn against his own nation or tricking an opposing general to admit surrender. Interestingly enough, further scrutiny of such an idea appears to expose hundreds of eerily similar circumstances in many animal species. For example, Worchester Polytechnic Institute graduate students published an investigation on January 28, 2014, exploring the bacterial parasite Dicrocoelium. Dicrocoelium can invade and control the minds of its hosts to such an extent that the parasite often times will be able to direct its host, normally an insect of some kind, into the mouths of predators. Moreover, similar properties have been observed in thousands of parasite species with hosts ranging from rats to chimpanzees. At first glance, such evidence seems to indubitably indicate the terrifying potential for parasitic mind control, but one striking gap in this theory remains: how exactly would these parasitic capabilities be employed by intelligence agencies, authoritarian governments, and other evil entities? Fortunately, according to Dr. Sadir and many of his colleagues, this question will likely remain unanswerable. He explains that, “most parasites are designed for a specific purpose that is advantageous to their survival as a species. For instance, tapeworms alter your digestion in order to supplement their diet. Now that said, why would a parasite do the bidding of some malicious espionage agency? It does not assist them in survival in any way so they simply won’t.” Even the Dicrocoelium parasites were not ‘mind controlling’ insects to fulfill their own villainous agenda. They were simply using the insects as vehicles to enter the intestines of larger animals, where they tend thrive. So luckily, it appears that this type of alternative mind control is not going to become a tool of some international government, but rather it will safely remain in the hands (or cilia) of millions of ravenous microscopic parasites—clearly the lesser of two evils.
The concept of mind control has clearly been inflated within the people’s heads. Between the media and Hollywood, the public has been erroneously led along under dozens of false pretenses. Therefore, despite cries to the contrary, society may finally let down its guard because its mind is at least safe for now.