A SUBLIMINAL DR. STRANGELOVE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00792R000600150002-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 25, 2003
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: August 22, 1994
• Content Type: OPEN

Approved For Release 2a
A Subliminal Dr. Strangelove
Mind: Using the power of hidden suggestions, this
Russian scientist tries to rewire the brain
HEN_BRANCH DAVIDIAN SECT MEM-
bers hunkered down in their Waco
compound last year and threatened to
commit suicide, the FBI turned to an unlikely
source. Experts from the FBI Counter-Ter-
rorism Center secretly met in Arlington, Va.,
with a long-haired Russian Dr. Strangelove
calledjgor Smirnov His Ian: i in sublim-
inal messages from sect mem ers' ami ies
through the phone lines durin ne otiations.
For David Koresh, the self-appointed proph-
et, the FBI had a special voice in mind: God,
as played by Charlton Heston.
your throat." In the wrong ands, he ex
_ plains, his techniques could push people
into violent acts.
Using electroencephalographs he meas
ures brain waves, then uses computers to
create a map of the subconscious and various
human impulses, such as anger or the sex
drive. Then, through taped subliminal mes-
sages, he claims to physica y a ter t_ at an
scape with thuower of suggestion. At the
University of Michigan Howard Shevrin has
also studied the relationship between brain
responses and the unconscious, but he has
L101 101s a out t erapeutic app i-
cations. "I'm not sure this should
be tampered with, The effects
could be harmful."
In Smirnov's cluttered lab,
Slava, a tattooed heroin addict,
has electrodes attached to his
chest and shaved head. He has
just watched subliminal mes-
sages on a screen and listened
through earphones to other im-
pulses disguised as noise. Smir-
nov says he's trying to stimulate
the child-rearing cluster of Sla-
va's brain to encourage him to
care more for his soon-to-be-
born baby and less about his next
hit of heroin.
Smirnov says that in Soviet
times, the government funded
an d with it funding for the securi-
ty forces and military Smirnov
ets only $20,000 a year he says.
He hopes to attract Western in-
vestment. Meanwhile, Smirnov
says that Russian gangsters regu-
The FBI backed out of Smirnov's Waco
strate and the crisis ended in blazing disas-
ter. But psychological-warfare experts on all
Sides still dream that theywill one day control
the enemy's mind. And ink, dun eonlike
lab in the basement of Moscow's ominous y
named Institute of Ps cho-Correction, Smir-
nov and other Russian psychiatrists are -
readv working. on schizophrenics, drug ad-
dicts and cancer patients.
You've heard of subliminal advertising,
right? The psychiatric community generally
agrees that subliminal perception exists; a
smaller fringe group e it eves it can e use
to change the psyche. And that could be bad
as well as good. "A knife can be used to cut
sausage," Smirnov warns cryptically, "or cut
larly come to see him looking for example,
for help in getting business partners to sign
contracts that are against their interest. He
won't do it, he says: at would be unethi-
c~In an case, there is no doubt that some-
body is watt 'ng im c ose v S ort y after
NEWSWEEK's reporter visited his lab, two
burly toughs in suits and diamond rings
showed u at NEWSWEEK'S Moscow office
asking questions about Smirnov. T ey
claimed to be in business with him, but he
says he doesn't know them. KGB? Mafia?
Smirnov shrugs them off, but, whoever they
are, the doctor of subliminal subversion
might be wise to watch his back.
DoRINDA ELLIOTT inMoscow with
Jo[IN BARRY in Washington
Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00792R000600150002-4