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Epilepsy… Vagus Nerve Stimulation… And Mind Control…
The thought of possibly having to put Zachary on heavy medications one day weighed heavily on my heart. I had to know my options…
I now knew B6 vitamin supplementation was critical in preventing or minimizing seizures… but, “what else” was available as an alternative to prescribed medicines?
I stumbled upon a link on the Internet that provided a basic overview of epilepsy along with what appeared to be a rather new treatment option - much like a pacemaker - that may be an option/alternative to drugs for some. This new option was called vagus nerve stimulation!
Given this was an alternative to medication, in my opinion this was certainly one worth investigating. Interestingly, this "pacemaker thing" made use of a magnet and the scientists involved in this technology stated that they did not know "why it worked".
The following provided more information on vagus nerve stimulation:
http://www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/gen_info.html.
Not surprising to me, vagus nerve stimulation also seemed to have positive effects in the treatment of depression - another disorder, that in my opinion, was related to all of this.
NARSAD after all, was an organization called the “National Alliance For Research In Schizophrenia And Depression”! It was also a well-documented fact that up to forty percent of those with schizophrenia attempted suicide – with anywhere from ten to fifteen percent – “completing”. :o(
This brought me to an important point I wanted to mention. If the life of a child with autism was one of “living by reference” “negative references” or “thoughts” had to very much be minimized because frontal lobe damage resulted in “obsessive thoughts” and as such, I could certainly see how “negative thoughts” could send one into major depressive states. As such, in my opinion, it was critical to attend to children with autism right away when they were “feeling bad” in order to minimize this issue with depression. Again, control of emotion was co-located in the frontal lobe along with smell, motor activity, sense of self and word associations. Within these things had to be critical keys to helping loved ones.
By some estimates, up to eighteen million in the US suffered from “depression”[http://neuro-www.mgh.harvard.edu/forum_2/DepressionF/12.18.995.37PMVagusNerveS.html].
The numbers were becoming staggering indeed – eighteen million with diabetes, eighteen million with depression, four million with Alzheimer’s… millions and millions more with autism, schizophrenia, Parkinson’s, epilepsy, bipolar, and on and on and on – in the US alone!
Vagus nerve stimulation… helpful in epilepsy… and depression… how interesting indeed!
Note that this "pacemaker" in vagus nerve stimulation was an “implant” attached to the throat. Again, how very interesting - could this thing help with production of speech in children with autism by stimulating the vocal cords and those parts of the brain associated with speech? Again, I could not help but wonder!
Although this appeared to be a fairly recent therapy option, vagus nerve therapy certainly did show promise. Parents wanting to learn more about this therapy could go to one of many, many links that now existed on this subject.
Vagus nerve stimulation appeared to “stimulate” those parts of the brain most associated with the limbic system. The limbic system included those structures in the brain that impacted emotions, mood, motivation, alertness, appetite, sleep, etc. – all areas so clearly impacted in these autism, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s.
But, there was more that I found all very, very interesting in this... like the fact that the vagus nerve - the 10th cranial nerve - also was associated with motor and sensory functions as well as the digestive track - another huge problem area for children with autism!
Although considered a fairly “new therapy”, there were now thousands of sites on this subject of vagus nerve stimulation.
In looking at so many research articles, as with all studies, I reminded everyone to question who was behind “the study”... "their motives"/"conflicts of interest" in promoting or "slamming" this therapy... - both sides of the coin were equally important in evaluating the benefits/risks of this! Although this looked promising, nothing was without risk, and I reminded everyone that this appeared to be a fairly new option and as such, its risks were most likely not all known yet.
One of the concerns I had with vagus nerve stimulation had to do with "over-stimulation" of cells whereby cells were stimulated more than they should be – perhaps leading to early cell death. It was a known fact, for example, that children with autism had an "over-active immune system response" - and it appeared that this could also be the case in schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s.
The over-active immune system had been raised as a concern by many in the autism community and had been documented in what was now becoming one of the most well-known reports in the autism community, a report entitled: Autism: A Unique Type Of Mercury Poisoning by Sallie Bernard*, Albert Enayati, B.S., Ch.E., M.S.M.E.**, Teresa Binstock, Heidi Roger, Lyn Redwood, R.N., M.S.N., C.R.N.P., Woody McGinnis, M.D., available at: http://www.vaccinationnews.com/DailyNews/July2001/AutismUniqueMercPoison.htm.
Thus, the concern I had with vagus nerve stimulation the issue of "over-stimulation" of any individual cells – not just those of the immune system - and the possible pre-mature cell death that could be associated with that. There was no doubt that vagus nerve stimulation appeared to be a promising option, but as with everything, both the positives and negatives had to be taken into consideration.
There was no doubt that seizures also led to cell death... so it was a matter of "weighing" the options.
As I read more about vagus nerve stimulation, it occurred to me that this technology of vagus nerve stimulation, obviously, could be – potentially - applied to the stimulation of "other nerves" for specific dysfunctions in the body.
Given children with autism had such diverse symptoms would it not be possible to use such technology to target specific malfunctions in the brain? In my opinion, this technology was applicable to much more than epilepsy. Already, I knew it was being used in depression and bipolar, but I suspected it could also have benefits in Parkinson's, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, autism, and many, many other disorders that fell in the category of mental illness and physical illness also. Already nerve stimulation was also being used for matters relating to pain, migraines, etc.
As I continued to investigate nerve stimulation, I found links showing that the vagus nerve was involved in the innervation of the external ear! That meant that the vagus nerve was involved in the supply/distribution of nerve impulses to the external ear! Again, how very interesting given children with autism suffered from "deaf child syndrome" and close to fifty percent were non-verbal!
In Zachary’s case, providing him with “his name” – “his label” – had made all the difference in getting rid of the “deaf child” – but what about other children with autism? Why were so many still non-verbal? Could vagus nerve stimulation possibly – somehow - help these other children? Again, I truly wondered!
Although Vagus Nerve Stimulation appeared very promising indeed as a potential therapy for epilepsy, there was an issue, I felt needed to be addressed when it came to this therapy – because it was a very real issue - the potential for abuse.
If you thought about it, what this technology boiled down to was basically issues of "mind or brain control" – the ability to “at will” stimulate or “turn off” certain parts of the brain.
As I had mentioned earlier, to have a concept of self required a person have the ability to control his thoughts. Clearly, technology such as this had the potential – via the activation of certain parts of the brain – to do “something” to alter that all important “control” of one’s thoughts.
I thus decided to see what I could find in matters relating to issues of “mind control” or “thought control” – what I found left me speechless!
I had very much debated whether or not to even address this issue in this text. However, as a parent of a child with autism I felt that not only was I owed the truth in so many issues, but, if anything had the potential for abuse – and that could involve my child – or any other member of my family – I would want to know about it. And so, I therefore decided to include this discussion in this text – believing that all persons had to be aware of the many issues that now surrounded “autism” – especially, since in my opinion, these children were now among the most valuable to science – and with that – very much came the potential for abuse in many forms!
In 1973 the head of the CIA ordered the destruction of countless documents relating to "mind control" activities in which the CIA had been involved. This project was known as "MKultra" although it had many "subprojects".
I had selected what appeared to be one of the most “objective” sources discussing MKultra on the Internet – an online encyclopedia.
Below were a few “screenprints” – and hence – word for word quotes - from the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, [www.wikipedia.org] as it related to Mkultra. These screenprints – and hence word for word quotes – were taken from: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKULTRA.
Source: Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKULTRA.
and again, also from Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia available at www.wikipedia.org - another word for word quote from this resource:
Source: Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKULTRA.
This project was basically an "experiment" by the government in matters of "mind control". The important thing to note, however, was that many of the "subjects" were not aware they were "part of the experiment" during which they were given LSD by CIA members. In other words, they had not consented to being part of this and were given a powerful hallucinogenic drug with no knowledge that this had been done to them.
I wondered why LSD “became the focus” of these experiments – did that mean that LSD had “desirable properties” form a “mind control” aspect? LSD was an acid!
Although not classified as “an acid”, as I recalled that University of Calgary video on neural degeneration and how the mercury simply “ate away” at neurons, it certainly appeared that mercury had many similar properties since it too “ate away” at the brain or “burned neurons”, much in the way I suspected “an acid” would “burn” the brain were neurons exposed to “acid”.
Also important, at least in my opinion, was the fact that “mental patients” were also abused in this experiment. It was a well-known fact that patients with schizophrenia often reported “thought broadcasting” – that their thoughts were being “broadcasted”. It certainly did appear to be the case that “thought broadcasting” was very much part of this CIA “experiment” as clearly indicated in the third paragraph above. Perhaps matters of brain dysfunction alone could explain “thought broadcasting”, in terms of “database retrieval issues” involving the memory of “things said” but certainly especially when speaking of older patients with schizophrenia, clearly, this “experiment” could – potentially – explain a great deal!
And, this screen print – another word for word quote from Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia at www.wikipedia.org – note especially the first paragraph:
Source: Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKULTRA.
Obviously, the government felt the need to “order the destruction” of the bulk of documents relating to MKultra for a reason. This particular CIA project - having close to one hundred and fifty projects - only came to light because of the very public death of this CIA agent. Of course, one can not help but wonder why the CIA would have made a “biological weapons researcher” part of a CIA experiment that could obviously damage his brain. Did that not seem rather “odd”? Would you not want persons in such roles “thinking clearly”?
This was abuse of a nation's citizens at its worse!
The family of this agent would very much question his death and apparent suicide as very much indicated in the “External Reference” materials provided by the online encyclopedia – Wikipedia.
Again – a word for word quote – in the form of a “screenprint” from a search done at www.Wikipedia.org:
Source: Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKULTRA.
Had it not been for the controversy ignited by this man’s death – who could tell how long this “project” would have continued! Then again, I suppose that was the true question in all this – were there still ongoing “shades of MKultra”?
There were many online sites discussing “MKultra”. Many of them appeared to indicate that Eli Lilly had been the company to provide the government with untold amounts of LSD. Whether or not that was true, I did not know but a search on “MKultra Eli Lilly” returned numerous matches..
What I did know for a fact was that Eli Lilly had been the first company to put mercury in vaccines. I also knew that George Bush, Sr. had been CIA Director (1976 – 1977). And, finally, I also knew that George Bush, Sr. had sat on the Board Of Directors at Eli Lilly from 1977 – 1979.
As such, seeing the name “Eli Lilly” – in any way – associated with references to Mkultra – a CIA project in matters of “mind control” - certainly did – again – give me reason for concern. It would certainly be interesting to know what "other projects" the CIA and pharmaceuticals were involved in – today.
I, personally, as the mother of a child with autism, and taxpayer, was not "very comfortable" with the "cozy" relationship I was seeing between the government and the pharmaceutical industry - both past and present – because many currently sitting in the White House definitely had ties to the CIA!
There was no denying that just the discussion of matters relating to experiments of "mind control" as described above could easily make people become "almost paranoid". It was not my intent to make people “paranoid”, but rather to simply show that there were valuable lessons to be learned from history – lessons that, perhaps, helped explain why the government – today – so firmly backed the pharmaceutical industry – to the point of having that “relationship” between the pharmaceuticals and the government – take precedence over issues relating to getting to the truth about the potential vaccine-autism link and other matters of public health and safety.
I could not help but ask the obvious question. If the government truly wanted to get to the truth in these matters of the possible autism-vaccine link, I questioned why government reform hearings looking into this issue had not required subpoenas be served on the pharmaceutical industry and those government agencies involved in vaccination programs. With so many disorders potentially tied to vaccinations, one, truly, could not help but ask:
Where were the subpoenas?
The lack of subpoenas, in my opinion, was the best indication of the government’s true desire to get to the bottom of these issues – to get to the truth!
When you saw the relationship that existed and continued to exist between government agencies and the pharmaceutical industry take precedence over getting to the truth in these matters, as government agencies tried to shield the pharmaceuticals from any liability, and attempted - though unsuccessfully - to seal records having to do with vaccination injury lawsuits from the public, well, let us just say that - trust - once violated - was not easily regained.
My intent here was not to make people "paranoid", but rather, to simply seek the truth and show that history had provided valuable lessons that should not be forgotten.
As such, knowing that projects such as MKultra had existed, I also very much saw the potential for abuse in a project such as vagus nerve stimulation – or any other “brain stimulation” resulting from technology. The simple fact was that none of us had any way of knowing if “shades of MKultra” continued to exist today. With one hundred and fifty projects involved, obviously, this had been an area of great interest within the CIA.
As such, as a parent, I wanted to be very much aware of potential issues and potential abuses in matters relating to any technology because – in everything – a decision to try new technology could truly only be made once both the positives and negatives were weighed – and for me – that meant becoming as informed as possible in all potential areas of abuse! I had trusted blindly once – but never again! If there was – any – chance of abuse of my child – or any child or other person – mentally ill or not – I wanted to be aware of that – and indeed – all members of society needed to be aware of that!
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free… it expects what never was and never will be”. Thomas Jefferson
Granted, there was tremendous potential for therapy of those suffering from epilepsy – but along with that tremendous therapeutic potential came tremendous potential – for abuse! Within this technology, in my opinion – potentially - there existed a means for the actual creation of hallucinations and/or delusions within an individual and perhaps, in time, the ability to actually control another person’s thoughts!
Thus, given that this technology allowed for "controlling" of brain functions, and given past history lessons this medical technology needed to be closely monitored – not by government bodies or agencies that could very much abuse this technology but rather by independent citizens who had no affiliation whatsoever – financially or professionally – with this technology.
I certainly never would have imagined that my journey with autism would take me into so many directions…
Autism… schizophrenia… Alzheimer’s… diabetes… epilepsy… and… now… matters of mind control…
As such, I very much cautioned all parents and families to be very, very, careful in determining who they allowed to “study” their children or loved ones with autism and in determining “what studies” these persons should be allowed to participate in. In my opinion, more than ever, these children with autism and indeed – all members of society - needed to be protected because the potential for abuse and/or “government experiments” certainly was there! I had no doubt that children with autism were truly the most precious of all subject for science and I very much suspected that they could leap science forward in its understanding of man himself but I also had no doubt that the potential for abuse was very real!
Children, once believed by so many to be un-teachable now had within them the potential to teach the world so much – about man himself. How very ironic indeed that those children – believed by so many parents to have been damaged by the pharmaceutical industry and government agencies involved in vaccination programs – should now be – potentially – their most valuable subjects of all!
In my second book I had stated that if my theory were correct, the child with autism truly provided for science the ability to understand the functioning of the human brain – and hence – body – like never before. If indeed the child with autism had a brain whereby the various parts of the brain functioned almost independently from one another, truly, these children had become science’s most valuable subjects, perhaps allowing man to see how the various parts of the brain worked by removing so many variables. Again – this - like vagus nerve stimulation provided for potentially great opportunities – and potentially great abuses as well.
The autistic child – once the forgotten child – now the key to so much!
As my search into understanding delusions continued, it became evident to me that it was quite easy to fool the senses. Indeed, when the eyes lied and the senses distorted reality, one easily slipped into the world of illusions and delusions.
In studying matters relating to sensory perception and how easily the senses could be "tricked" into believing something, one of the best examples to use was probably that of pilots and instrumentation flight. Astronauts underwent massive amounts of training in order to have their senses adjust to distortions - and likewise, so did instrumentation pilots. Instrumentation pilots were trained to fly “without looking at the world about them” but based solely on information provided on their instrument panel. Indeed, to be an instrumentation pilot, you had to train yourself to ignore certain sensory input because of how easily sensory input could be distorted.
An video showing just how easily our senses could be fooled was one dealing with the very issue of instrument flight. The video was called “Signposts Aloft” and was produced by the Moody Institute. It truly showed how if one did not have faith in his instruments, death could easily result as the senses were tricked into providing false information and a distorted sense of reality!
In this video, a professional gymnast - a person who always needed to be aware of his body as it related to space and motion - was simply put in a chair with his feet off the floor and blindfolded. He was asked to describe "what was going on". The person standing next to him began to spin the chair to the left - slowly, then accelerating “the spin” a little. This was a very controlled "spin". It did not get “wild” like the spinning you would see a child do in a chair. It was just a constant, controlled spin. The spin was then slowly reduced in terms of velocity. Again, the gymnast was asked to describe what he was sensing. He perceived the chair slowing down at first. But, within no time at all, he stated that he had stopped spinning when in fact, the chair was still spinning! As the person next to him stopped the chair, the gymnast obviously "felt" the small jolt of the stop in motion. The blindfold was removed. Amazingly, the eyes were shown by the camera to be very active in order to compensate for the vertigo effect now being experienced while stationary.
The video then went on to describe how this simple experiment showed how the workings of 1) the ear, 2) the eyes and 3) the body's somatosensory perception worked together to provide sensory input as it related to one's sense of reality as it related to "body positioning", sight, and motion! No test was made of the sense of "hearing" in this experiment, but obviously, if the workings of the ear were impacted, it would stand to reason that hearing could somehow be impacted also!
In this simple experiment, one's sense of reality was easily altered to provide inaccurate information. It was because of such issues that instrument pilots had to rely one hundred percent on their instruments - as opposed to their senses - when they flew in bad weather or were involved in "spins/loss of controls" during flight. Indeed, many a pilot and passenger had been lost/killed because man had depended on his senses and reality perception had been so easily distorted!
Children’s virtual reality games also had the same effects on the senses. In the above scenario, a person was sitting in a chair and it was the somatosensory perception that had been impacted in terms of reality perception – and then the eyes – as the blindfold had been removed. In this particular experiment one's sense of motion, perception of "position" and reality were distorted when the eyes were blindfolded - but, obviously, as in the case of instrumentation flight or virtual reality games, one’s sense of reality could easily be distorted while the eyes were open, too!
Perhaps a great deal could be learned from what pilots experienced as the senses were distorted during flight and applied to the study of mental illness.
It was known that blood flow was impacted in flight - and, even a brief interruption in blood flow to the eyes could impact vision. Given persons with autism were known to have heightened sight and sound sensitivities, I could not help but wonder what could be learned from flight/aviation and applied to research into mental illness and vice versa. Aviation studied matters of visual and motion perception, night vision, influence of light/glare, etc. on the vision of pilots - surely, some of that knowledge could be used in the study of sensory impairment as well as it related to these many disorders. Clearly, the study of flight and the senses could help us understand a great deal in terms of how all these system were related not only from a physical approach but in terms of mental dysfunction also.
It was also known that speech was distorted in flight due to many issues (i.e., g force, background noises, etc.). What "background noises" impacted speech in the mentally ill? How were they processed as opposed to “those noises one was supposed to pay attention to”? Again, could flight give us clues that could be applied to brain dysfunction?
There were literally thousands of links on sensory distortions and how easy it was to “fool the senses”.
Truly, aviation had shown us that the senses could be very easily fooled and in my opinion, that wealth of knowledge had to be of some value in the study of delusions and hallucinations and various dysfunctions. How could the study of children with autism, for example, help our understanding of sensory distortions given that these children had so many issues with sensitivity to sensory input as it related to vision, hearing, touch, smell, taste, motion, etc.?
There could be no denying that the child with autism could move science forward at lightning speed – but – there could also be in my opinion, no denying that the potential for abuse of these children or any other member of society in “government experiments” was also very much there! These were issues, I, personally, had a very difficult time reconciling.