Author: V N Binhi
Publisher: Nova Publishers, 2009
Price: £57.50 (hardback)
Isbn: 9781607414315

This is a real rarity: a detailed look at mind control from a serious scientist without preconcept­ions. Vladimir Binhi, a physicist at the General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, knows a lot about the interaction of magnetic fields with living things. You might say he wrote the book on it, Magnetobiology by V Binhi being a standard text.

Binhi starts off with some history which will be familiar to fans of forteana – the infamous CIA MK-ULTRA programme and Project Pandora. He then looks at brain control, with good explan­ations of the uses and limitations of MRI, magnetoencephalo­graphy, transcranial magnetic stimulat­ion and the microwave auditory effect. He looks at the experimental basis for mind control, the patents that supposedly prove it, and the possible effects of ‘superweak’ fields.

This goes deeply into fortean territory, pointing out where there are significant and (sometimes) repeatable effects that cannot be readily explained. Some of these relate to the effect of fluctuations on the Earth’s magnetic field and how it influences living things, even having a measurable impact on memory, heart attacks and the suicide rate.

The hand-waving arguments that are all too common in other discussions of mind control are given the third degree here, and Binhi makes it clear that brain control is beset with practical diffi­culties. He has plenty of experience with fringe physics, including the Russian work on “torsion fields”, and he emphas­ises the dangers of uncritical belief.

He also gives a rare insider view on Russian research into psychotronic weapons, remarking dryly: “Far too much attention has been drawn to the fact itself that such studies took place and nothing was said about the result of these studies. However, the results were more disappointing than satisfying, at least to the author of the present book, who was one of the top researchers at these institutions.”

Binhi concludes that the techno­logy to remotely read or control minds does not currently exist. However, he also notes that there are no fundamental constraints to this technology being developed: all that is needed are more advanced versions of the tools that already exist.

If electromagnetic mind control is not a current threat, it will cert­ainly be a future one.

The book needs some editing; the English used is not that of a native speaker and there are many obvious errors. When Binhi calls torsion fields a “bright example of pseudoscience” we know what he means, but it would be better not to have to translate from Borat-speak. It’s short at just 132 pages, and is priced beyond the reach of the mass market. If pirate copies are not already circ­ulating, they soon will be.