
The Havana Embassy Mystery: Conversion Disorder - amaccuish
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/01/the-real-story-behind-the-havana-embassy-mystery
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lvs
This article reads as irresponsible gaslighting, and the magazine should have
known better than to publish it in this snarky voice. The referenced reports
that raise the possibility of psychosis are maintaining a scientific voice:
that one must keep an open mind to alternative explanations for an observation
so long as they remain viable and not falsified. The writer was wrong to read
psychological illness as the _most_ viable explanation -- and surely wrong to
assert to readers that this is the case.

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boomboomsubban
Given the currently known evidence, conversion disorder is the most viable
explanation. While new evidence could change that, there's nothing wrong with
reporting on what currently seems to be correct. The referenced reports do the
same thing, state what they find most likely and say that further evidence
could change this. They aren't just printing their guess.

~~~
lvs
The only team who has published results based on direct examination of
patients did not draw that conclusion. You can read the JAMA paper yourself.
The rest of the peanut gallery is simply speculating off that single report.

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boomboomsubban
That report's stated objective does not include diagnosis, just to describe
the neurological manifestations of the people involved. Other teams used that
report as evidence to make reports, they don't need more direct examination of
the patients.

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herostratus101
The New Yorker story is still the most thorough and best reported story I have
read on this subject:

>> Smith rejected this explanation [of mass hysteria]. “To artificially
display all of these symptoms, you’d have to actually go and research,
practice, be the most consummate actor ever, and convince one expert after
another,” he said. But he acknowledged that more data were needed to convince
skeptics that the syndrome was real. He said his team was awaiting “potential
tangible evidence” from a new neuroimaging study involving the victims. In
addition, experts from the National Institutes of Health were examining the
JAMA results. “Let the scientific process play out,” Smith said.

It is also suspicious to me that the Cuban government has refused to provide
surveillance footage from the alleged scenes of the attacks:

>> Investigators, arriving months after the incidents, had to contend with the
fact that such attacks would leave no physical evidence at the scene: no shell
casings, no burn marks, no chemical residue. There might have been video
evidence, however. Agents visiting the two hotels saw surveillance cameras in
the lobbies and hallways, which might help determine if anyone was outside the
rooms during the incidents. The F.B.I. asked for access to footage from the
hotels, and from cameras near the Americans’ residences. According to U.S.
officials, the Cubans have yet to provide it.

It's kind of pathetic and lazy for an article like this to assume that this is
some elaborate Trump-fueled plot against Cuba.

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herostratus101
(link here: [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/19/the-mystery-
of...](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/19/the-mystery-of-the-
havana-syndrome))

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2Ccltvcm
It seems microwave frequencies can travel through the dermal layer of the head
and into the cochlear of the inner ear, where transduction can then occur.
It's similar to how hearing implants work.

Reference:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17495664](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17495664)

\---

[https://patents.google.com/patent/US4877027A/](https://patents.google.com/patent/US4877027A/)

Abstract: "Sound is induced in the head of a person by radiating the head with
microwaves (...) The bursts are frequency modulated by the audio input _to
create the sensation of hearing in the person whose head is irradiated._ "

\---

[https://patents.google.com/patent/US6470214B1](https://patents.google.com/patent/US6470214B1)

Abstract: "(...) intelligible subjective sound is produced when the encoded
signal is demodulated using the RF Hearing Effect (...)"

\---

Voices or harsh music carried by microwave signals can be transmitted into
your head, bypassing your ears going directly into the center of the brain so
that they can be much louder than ordinary sound can be and last until they
turn it off. There is no time limit. You won't sleep until they let you sleep.
If this ultra insistent voice demands you do something, you will do it.

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ipunchghosts
So all the brain imaging scans that showed concussions were nothing?

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boomboomsubban
Those don't exist. The workers displayed concussion like symptoms, but most of
the MRIs reported conventional findings in the normal ranges.

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srge
The subject is interesting but man this article is so long! It could have been
a tenth of its current size and still give us more than enough information.

