Sep 9, 2024 08:16 PM
(This post was last modified: Sep 9, 2024 09:45 PM by Magical Realist.)
I endured a psychosis of voices and extreme paranoia back in 2003 due to taking diet pills. The delusions and audio hallucinations were so intense I thought I was being spied on. I even called the police one day because I was sure my neighbor in the apt next to mine was watching me with video cameras. The police politely declined my request to ask them about it. I also could literally hear people talking about me in the distance when I was in public. The voices were always playing tricks on me that way. Eventually I got off the pills and over the years learned to live with and love my voices as companions. They don't seek to dominate or control so much, and we share many fulfilling moments. They are like feral creatures that have become domesticated as my pets. Was I targeted somehow? No.. but I'm not mentally ill either. People need to accept these quirks as just emergent side effects of being a human in a world of high tech surveillance and hypervigilant angst and cyber disembodiment.
https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-psychiatr...ear-voices
"In November 2020, the voices came. Luca didn’t know how many there were or how they managed to force themselves into his mind.
‘He’s only 20.’
‘We owe you money.’
‘[Pretending to be police] Another mind rape!’
‘You’re in hell.’
‘It’s a safe world.’
‘My little boy…’
Luca was 20. He was a musician living in London. He had taken some college courses but had to drop out to move out of his mother’s home. And now he appeared to be the target of a malicious experiment.
Over the months, he learned to distinguish the voices. There was a whole group of them, which he called ‘The Team’. The Team knew everything about him. They knew the names of his friends and family members. They knew about his musical aspirations. Sometimes they could be extremely cruel. They joked about the years of abuse he suffered under his mother – whom they named ‘Innocent’. They pretended to be his father, whom he scarcely knew. Yet they could show compassion. They celebrated his music. They promised to reveal their technologies to him. They said they would make him famous.
Eventually, the police brought Luca to a hospital against his will. A psychiatrist asked how long he had heard voices. Luca protested that he did not hear voices; he heard people. His doctors told him he was having hallucinations and delusions. They said these were symptoms of a disorder they could treat, or at least manage, with drugs.
Luca agreed to take the drugs, not because he thought he was mad, but because he hoped they would disrupt the signal between his brain and The Team. But the drugs made things worse. They made The Team angry – so they tortured him more. He thought constantly about suicide. Sometimes the voices were so overwhelming he had to lie down wherever he was. One day he found himself on the floor of a grocery store. He typed ‘mind rape’ into his phone. That’s when he discovered the targeted individual community.
Before about 2000, people with experiences like Luca’s had few options. They could turn to a psychiatrist, or spiral further into isolation, fear and paranoia. But the advent of the personal computer and the availability of the internet changed that. People like Luca were now communicating with each other, finding parallels between their experiences, and trying to track down who was doing this to them.
Hence was born the targeted individual (TI) community: a group of people who openly shared their experiences of high-tech harassment and organised stalking.
Among the first to come forth was a Canadian engineer, Eleanor White, who created a website called Multistalkervictims. A US Navy veteran, Derrick Robinson, started a non-profit, People Against Covert Torture and Surveillance, International (PACTS). A former analyst for the US National Security Agency, Karen Stewart, went public with her experiences of organised stalking.
Some TIs have sought refuge abroad. Many have the belief they’ve been microchipped
By the 2010s, a flood of people were sharing similar experiences. An Oxford-trained physicist, Katherine Horton, started a website on counter-technology called Stop007. A life coach in California, Cathy Meadows, wrote the book Hey Mom, I’m a Targeted Individual (2018) offering psychological support to TIs and their families. A physician from San Antonio in Texas, John Hall, speculated about the underlying technology in his book Guinea Pigs (2014). An ordained minister, the Rev Dr Millicent Black, started the online church Refuge from the Storm for other TIs, which sees the fulfilment of biblical prophecy in the harassment of TIs. Today the TI community is a loosely organised global network with regional and local support groups. In 2016, The New York Times estimated there were at least 10,000 people who identify as TIs.
TIs have a diverse range of experiences. Some involve electronic harassment. Voices projected into the mind. Crackling or popping sounds in the ears. Burning or pricking sensations on the skin. Migraines. Sleeplessness. Others centre around gang-stalking. Being followed in the streets. Several people wearing the same-coloured shirt, or driving the same-coloured car, as a coded threat. Strangers in public commenting on the TI’s private life. People breaking into their homes and damaging things. Some TIs have sought refuge abroad. Many have the belief they’ve been microchipped. Some implore surgeons to remove the implanted devices.
Researchers have collated a range of theories about why TIs believe these evils are happening to them. Some think it’s payback from an ex-spouse, or retaliation for being a whistleblower at work. Others think they were just unlucky to be chosen for the experiment. Many share the belief that their tormenters want others to ‘think they’re crazy’ to discredit them. Cathy Meadows urges TIs not to share their experiences too openly as ‘it serves [the stalkers’] ultimate purpose of making the target look crazy’. Instead, she offers TIs practical advice: find love, look great, don’t act paranoid..."
https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-psychiatr...ear-voices
"In November 2020, the voices came. Luca didn’t know how many there were or how they managed to force themselves into his mind.
‘He’s only 20.’
‘We owe you money.’
‘[Pretending to be police] Another mind rape!’
‘You’re in hell.’
‘It’s a safe world.’
‘My little boy…’
Luca was 20. He was a musician living in London. He had taken some college courses but had to drop out to move out of his mother’s home. And now he appeared to be the target of a malicious experiment.
Over the months, he learned to distinguish the voices. There was a whole group of them, which he called ‘The Team’. The Team knew everything about him. They knew the names of his friends and family members. They knew about his musical aspirations. Sometimes they could be extremely cruel. They joked about the years of abuse he suffered under his mother – whom they named ‘Innocent’. They pretended to be his father, whom he scarcely knew. Yet they could show compassion. They celebrated his music. They promised to reveal their technologies to him. They said they would make him famous.
Eventually, the police brought Luca to a hospital against his will. A psychiatrist asked how long he had heard voices. Luca protested that he did not hear voices; he heard people. His doctors told him he was having hallucinations and delusions. They said these were symptoms of a disorder they could treat, or at least manage, with drugs.
Luca agreed to take the drugs, not because he thought he was mad, but because he hoped they would disrupt the signal between his brain and The Team. But the drugs made things worse. They made The Team angry – so they tortured him more. He thought constantly about suicide. Sometimes the voices were so overwhelming he had to lie down wherever he was. One day he found himself on the floor of a grocery store. He typed ‘mind rape’ into his phone. That’s when he discovered the targeted individual community.
Before about 2000, people with experiences like Luca’s had few options. They could turn to a psychiatrist, or spiral further into isolation, fear and paranoia. But the advent of the personal computer and the availability of the internet changed that. People like Luca were now communicating with each other, finding parallels between their experiences, and trying to track down who was doing this to them.
Hence was born the targeted individual (TI) community: a group of people who openly shared their experiences of high-tech harassment and organised stalking.
Among the first to come forth was a Canadian engineer, Eleanor White, who created a website called Multistalkervictims. A US Navy veteran, Derrick Robinson, started a non-profit, People Against Covert Torture and Surveillance, International (PACTS). A former analyst for the US National Security Agency, Karen Stewart, went public with her experiences of organised stalking.
Some TIs have sought refuge abroad. Many have the belief they’ve been microchipped
By the 2010s, a flood of people were sharing similar experiences. An Oxford-trained physicist, Katherine Horton, started a website on counter-technology called Stop007. A life coach in California, Cathy Meadows, wrote the book Hey Mom, I’m a Targeted Individual (2018) offering psychological support to TIs and their families. A physician from San Antonio in Texas, John Hall, speculated about the underlying technology in his book Guinea Pigs (2014). An ordained minister, the Rev Dr Millicent Black, started the online church Refuge from the Storm for other TIs, which sees the fulfilment of biblical prophecy in the harassment of TIs. Today the TI community is a loosely organised global network with regional and local support groups. In 2016, The New York Times estimated there were at least 10,000 people who identify as TIs.
TIs have a diverse range of experiences. Some involve electronic harassment. Voices projected into the mind. Crackling or popping sounds in the ears. Burning or pricking sensations on the skin. Migraines. Sleeplessness. Others centre around gang-stalking. Being followed in the streets. Several people wearing the same-coloured shirt, or driving the same-coloured car, as a coded threat. Strangers in public commenting on the TI’s private life. People breaking into their homes and damaging things. Some TIs have sought refuge abroad. Many have the belief they’ve been microchipped. Some implore surgeons to remove the implanted devices.
Researchers have collated a range of theories about why TIs believe these evils are happening to them. Some think it’s payback from an ex-spouse, or retaliation for being a whistleblower at work. Others think they were just unlucky to be chosen for the experiment. Many share the belief that their tormenters want others to ‘think they’re crazy’ to discredit them. Cathy Meadows urges TIs not to share their experiences too openly as ‘it serves [the stalkers’] ultimate purpose of making the target look crazy’. Instead, she offers TIs practical advice: find love, look great, don’t act paranoid..."
