Sharing their demons on the Web
By Sarah Kershaw

Thursday, November 13, 2008
FOR years they lived in solitary terror of the light beams that caused searing headaches, the technology that took control of their minds and bodies. They feared the stalkers, people whose voices shouted from the walls or screamed in their heads, "We found you" and "We want you dead."

When people who believe such things reported them to the police, doctors or family, they said they were often told they were crazy. Sometimes they were medicated or locked in hospital wards, or fired from jobs and isolated from the outside world.

But when they found one another on the Internet, everything changed. So many others were having the same experiences.

Type "mind control" or "gang stalking" into Google, and Web sites appear that describe cases of persecution, both psychological and physical, related with the same minute details — red and white cars following victims, vandalism of their homes, snickering by those around them.

Identified by some psychologists and psychiatrists as part of an "extreme community" on the Internet that appears to encourage delusional thinking, a growing number of such Web sites are filled with stories from people who say they are victims of mind control and stalking by gangs of government agents. The sites are drawing the concern of mental health professionals and the interest of researchers in psychology and psychiatry.

Although many Internet groups that offer peer support are considered helpful to the mentally ill, some experts say Web sites that amplify reports of mind control and group stalking represent a dark side of social networking. They may reinforce the troubled thinking of the mentally ill and impede treatment.

Dr. Ralph Hoffman, a psychiatry professor at Yale who studies delusions, said a growing number of his research subjects have told him of visiting mind-control sites, and finding in them confirmation of their own experiences.

"The views of these belief systems are like a shark that has to be constantly fed," Dr. Hoffman said. "If you don't feed the delusion, sooner or later it will die out or diminish on its own accord. The key thing is that it needs to be repetitively reinforced."

That is what the Web sites do, he said. Similar concerns have arisen about a proliferation of sites that describe how to commit suicide, or others that promote anorexia and bulimia, providing detailed instructions on restricting food and photographs of skeletal women meant to be "thinspiration."

For people who regularly visit and write on message boards on the mind-control sites, the idea that others would describe the sites as promoting delusional and psychotic thinking is simply evidence of a cover-up of the truth.

"It was a big relief to find the community," said Derrick Robinson, 55, a janitor in Cincinnati and president of Freedom from Covert Harassment and Surveillance, a group that claims several hundred regular users of its Web site. "I felt that maybe there were others, but I wasn't real sure until I did find this community," Robinson said.

There is no concise survey of mind-control sites or others describing gang stalking — whose users believe that groups of people are following and controlling them, as part of a test of neurological or other kinds of weapons likely conducted by the government — on the Net. But they are easy to find. Some have hundreds of postings, along with links to dozers of similar sties. One, Gangstalkingworld.com, welcomes visitors with this description: "Gang Stalking is a systemic form of control, which seeks to destroy every aspect of a Targeted Individual's life. The target is followed around and placed under surveillance by Civilian Spies/Snitches 24/7."

The site lists more than 71,000 visitors, and it has links to several other sites, including Harrassment101.com, which has 965 posts.

One poster to Gang Stalking World wrote in August: "It's insane that I daily have to come home and try to figure out if my Web sites will still be up or shut down. This week they have really been playing with me, and so it was my time to play back." The post directs readers to other gang-stalking sites should their favorite sites be shut down.

Robinson said in an interview that that he has been tortured and abused by gang stalkers and by "neurological weaponry" since leaving the Navy in 1982. "To read the stories and the similarity of the harassment techniques that were going on, to hear about the vandalism, appliance tampering and all the other things were designed to drive a person crazy, who do you go to with this?" he said. "People will say you are delusional."

For Robinson and several other Web site users interviewed for this article — all of whom insisted they were not delusional, including one man who said he had been hospitalized in psychiatric wards — the sites provide the powerful, unfamiliar experience of being understood by others.

"By and large, most people are sane and coherent and can relate exactly what's happening to them," Robinson said. "They can say the things that would otherwise get them labeled as delusional."

His group of self-described "targeted individuals" met offline in Los Angeles last month for their inaugural conference, he said, where they attended a meeting to share stories, including the humiliating experiences of being told they are insane.

Mental health experts who have closely looked at the Web sites are careful to say that there is no way to prove if someone posting on, say, Robinson's site, Freedomfchs.com, which says its mission is to seek justice for those singled out by "organized stalking and electromagnetic torture," is suffering from mental illness.

Vaughan Bell, a British psychologist who has researched the effect of the Internet on mental illness, first began tracking sites with reports of mind control in 2004. In 2006 he published a study concluding that there was an extensive Internet community around such beliefs, and he called 10 sites he studied "likely psychotic sites."

The extent of the community, Dr. Bell said, poses a paradox to the traditional way delusion is defined under the diagnostic guidelines of the American Psychiatric Association, which says that if a belief is held by a person's "culture or subculture," it is not a delusion. The exception accounts for rituals of religious faith, for example.

Dr. Bell, whose study was published in the journal Psychopathology, said that it does not suggest all people participating in mind-control sites are delusional, and that a firm diagnosis of psychosis could only be done in person.

For people who say they are the target of mind control or gang stalking, there may be enough evidence in the scientific literature to fan their beliefs. Many sites point to MK-ULTRA, the code name for a covert CIA mind-control and chemical interrogation program begun in the 1950s.

Recently the sites have linked to an article published in September in Time magazine, "The Army's Totally Serious Mind-Control Project," which described a $4 million contract given to the Army to develop "thought helmets" that would allow troops to communicate through brain waves on the battlefield.

And the users of some sites have found the support of Jim Guest, a Republican state representative in Missouri, who wrote last year to his fellow legislators calling for an investigation into the claims of those who say they are being tortured by mind control.

"I've had enough calls, some from credible people — professors — being targeted by nonlethal weapons," Guest said in a telephone interview, adding that nothing came of his request for a legislative investigation. "They become psychologically affected by it. They have trouble sleeping at night."

He added: "I believe there are people who have been targeted by this. With this equipment, you have to test it on somebody to see if it works."

Dr. Bell and some other mental health professionals say that even if the users of such sites are psychotic, forging an online connection to others and being told — perhaps for the first time — "you are not crazy" could actually have a positive effect on their illnesses.

"We know, for example, that things like social support, all of these positive social aspects are very good for people's mental illness," Dr. Bell said. "I wouldn't say it's entirely and completely positive, but it can be positive."

Some research has shown that when people with delusions undergo group cognitive therapy, the group process can be helpful in their treatment.

But the Web sites are not moderated by professionals, and many postings discuss the failure of medication and say that mental health professionals are part of the conspiracy against them.

"These people lead quietly desperate lives," said Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University. "And if they are reinforcing each other and pulling people toward something, if they are using the Internet and getting reinforcement, that's good."

The mind-control sites remind some experts of the accounts of those claiming to have been abducted by aliens in the 1970s and '80s. One person's story begat another until many insisted they had had virtually identical experiences of being taken onto space ships by silvery sloe-eyed creatures.

Some of those now posting on mind-control sites say they are being remotely "sexually stimulated" by their torturers. Some alien abductees had said similar things. Subsequent research generally showed that those who believed they had been abducted were not psychotic, but suffering from severe memory and sleep problems, or personal traumas, Dr. Bell said.

Psychiatrists and researchers say it is too soon to say whether communication on the Internet among people who may be psychotic will negatively effect their illnesses." This is a very complex little corner," said Dr. Ken Duckworth, the medical director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, an advocacy group. "Some people may find it's healing, but these are really hard questions. The Internet isn't a cause of mental illness, it's a complicating new variable."

The Truman Show Delusion: Real or Imagined?
A few delusional people are convinced they are stars of an imaginary reality show, but doctors disagree on whether it's only an act.
By Suzanne Wright
WebMD FeatureReviewed by Louise Chang, MDTwo doctor/brothers, Joel and Ian Gold, have identified symptoms of a mental illness unique to our times: the Truman Show delusion, named for the 1998 movie that starred Jim Carrey as a suburbanite whose movements were filmed 24/7 and broadcast to the world. The two say a handful of individuals are convinced they are stars of an imaginary reality show.

Though limited, their findings are creating a buzz in the media and the psychiatric community: Is it possible that reality TV is shaping delusions?

In an interview with WebMD, Joel Gold says, “The Truman Show delusion encompasses a patient’s entire life. They believe their family, friends, and co-workers are all reading from scripts and their home, workplace, and hospital are all sets. They believe they are being filmed for the whole world to see.”

Joel Gold, who is on the psychiatric faculty of New York’s Bellevue Hospital and serves as a clinical assistant professional of psychiatry at New York University's School of Medicine, first began to see the symptoms dubbed Truman Show delusion in 2002 with patients at Bellevue Hospital. He initially treated five white male patients with middle-class upbringing and education, all who likened themselves to actors on reality TV shows. Three specifically referenced the movie TheTruman Show, giving rise to the disorder’s name.

“It’s important to state that Truman Show delusion is a symptom of psychosis,” Joel Gold says. “People who choose to be the center of attention, have concerns about social standing, or who may fear being in public eye or seek it out, may be more drawn to identify with this delusion. I don’t think people are making it up or choosing it.”

Both Golds are careful to say that the Truman Show delusion is not a new diagnosis, but rather, as Ian Gold says, “a variance on known persecutory and grandiose delusions.” Ian Gold, PhD, holds a Canada Research Chair in philosophy and psychiatry at McGill University in Montreal.

Although some psychologists scoff at the notion that cultural Zeitgeist can shape delusions, the phenomenon has precedence.

Joseph Weiner, MD, PhD, chief of consultation psychiatry at North Shore University Hospital/Manhasset and associate professor of clinical psychiatry and medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, weighed in via email about what he saw during his psychiatry residency.

“I recall two patients in one week who stated that they were Elizabeth Taylor; in the 1940s, psychotic patients would express delusions about their brains being controlled by radio waves; now delusional patients commonly complain about implanted computer chips,” Weiner says. “Because reality shows are so visible, it is an area that a patient can easily incorporate into a delusional system. Such a person would believe they are constantly being videotaped, watched, and commented upon by a large TV audience.”

Among the skeptics are Jill P. Weber, PhD, a licensed clinical psychologist in Vienna, Va. “The idea that more people are becoming delusional due to reality TV or The Truman Show phenomenon is tenuous, as it is likely that these people would have become psychotic with or without these influences, but the content of the delusion would be different. If we lived in a world of no TV, and entertainment was in the form of tribal dance, someone who is psychotic may begin to believe that the dance is only for them.”

Still, other experts acknowledge the possibility.

Simon Rego, PsyD, associate director of psychology training at New York’s Montefiore Medical Center, is intrigued by the notion but wants to see if more patients emerge in other cities and countries over time.

“We know that although core themes are quite stable, shifts take place,” he says. “For example, after 9/11, we saw a lot of delusional content about terrorists. With the exponential growth of reality TV and the use of personal web cams and Facebook, some people may be susceptible to developing Truman Show delusion. The danger is self-labeling -- that we are creating a phenomenon -- not discovering one. There’s a difference.”

Carole Lieberman, MD, a Beverly Hills-based media psychiatrist, says, “There is no question that reality TV is dangerous to our nation’s psyche. The Truman Show delusion has not been incorporated into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, and it is unlikely that it will be anytime soon. However, this doesn’t necessarily negate the clinical experiences of the Drs. Gold.”

Ian Gold says that although TheTruman Show film was played as for laughs, “there was an undercurrent of horror that was really powerful, that captures something of what this artificial environment would be like. Imagine if nobody was authentic [in your life], if every encounter you had was watched and you were utterly alone. The emails I have received since the story broke have brought home to me how terrifying this experience is.”

His brother concurs with the seriousness of the subject matter. Joel Gold has been bothered by some bloggers who have dismissed the Truman Show delusion as frivolous.

“This is a serious mental illness, it’s not silly or a form of narcissism. It’s a severe and persisting mental illness and we don’t want to make light of it. If you think the entire world is fraudulent, that is incredibly distressing.”

Is Pop Culture to Blame?
Does the pervasiveness of reality TV and cultural phenomena like YouTube predict more Truman Show delusion diagnoses in the future? Joel Gold thinks so.

“We’ve got the ‘perfect storm’ of reality TV and the Internet. These are powerful influences in the culture we live in and for some people who are predisposed, it might be overwhelming and trigger a [psychotic] episode. The pressure of living in a large, connected community can bring out the unstable side of more vulnerable people.”

Both doctors deny seeking “fame or glory” and say they are a bit overwhelmed by the media attention. They have been inundated with “wonderful and unexpected” emails and calls from clinicians, patients, and colleagues who are willing to share their stories. They now have worked on about 20 cases.

“The upside of publicity is the chance to study this properly and learn something about it,” Ian Gold says. His brother adds, “The Truman Show delusion asks more questions than it answers.”

The Golds are working on a medical paper that will provide a series of illustrative cases. “Given the recent feedback about our work, Truman Show delusion may be more widespread than we know,” Joel Gold says.

Ian Gold adds, “Reality TV doesn’t cause delusion, but is there something about reality TV that is particularly appropriate for expressing delusion once it has developed? We don’t know yet, but it’s fascinating to explore. There’s something about fame that people respond to. My hypothesis is that delusions have to do with our relationships with other people and the new media creates a larger community with more threats and opportunities.”