5 Psycho-Acoustics: Sound Control, Emotional Control, and Sonic Warfare

On September 29, 2017, two senior officials of the U.S. State Department held a press briefing about an incident that was gaining traction in the news. After hearing strange noises in their homes and hotel rooms, more than twenty U.S. government employees in Havana, Cuba, had mysteriously fallen ill. Their symptoms included hearing loss, dizziness, nausea, tinnitus, fatigue, headaches, memory loss, and difficulty sleeping. On balance the symptoms pointed to a mild brain injury. The word "concussion" made the rounds. In none of the cases, however, had there been any direct trauma to the head. Without giving any other details, the State Department officials suggested that the symptoms had been caused by "attacks." Nonemergency personnel in Havana were ordered to return to the United States, and a travel warning was issued advising U.S. citizens not to travel to Cuba. When a reporter asked what had caused the attacks, the reply was only that there were no definitive answers. The next question raised the specter of a sonic weapon: "there's obviously been a lot of speculation about [a] sonic device or acoustic device. … Do investigators still believe that that would be a plausible device related to these illnesses?” The State Department official replied, “the inves-tigation continues and we don't have any definitive conclusions regarding cause, source, or any kind of technologies that might be engaged” (U.S. Embassy in Cuba 2017).