CIA-RDP96-00792R000600150002-4

Aug 22, 1994
Newsweek
não
Approved For Release 200
A Subliminal Dr. Strangelove
Mind: Using the power of hidden suggestions, this
Russian scientist tries to rewire the brain
W
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
called Igor Smirnov. His plan: piping sublim-
inal messages from sect members' families
through the phone lines during negotiations.
For David Koresh, the self-appointed proph-
et, the FBI had a special voice in mind: God,
as played by Charlton Heston.
ANDY HERNANDEZ FOR NEWSWEEK
Virtual reality it's not: Smirnov in his lab
The FBI backed out of Smirnov's Waco
strategy, and the crisis ended in blazing disas-
ter. But psychological-warfare experts on all
sides still dream that they will one day control
the enemy's mind. And in a tiny, dungeonlike
lab in the basement of Moscow's ominously
named Institute of Psycho-Correction, Smir-
nov and other Russian psychiatrists are al-
ready 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 believes it can be used
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
your throat." In the wrong hands, 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 physically alter that land-
scape with the power of suggestion. At the
University of Michigan, Howard Shevrin has
also studied the relationship between brain
responses and the unconscious, but he has
doubts about therapeutic appli-
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
his lab generously. Now that
Russia's economy has collapsed,
and with it funding for the securi-
ty forces and military, Smirnov
gets only $20,000 a year, he says.
He hopes to attract Western in-
vestment. Meanwhile, Smirnov
says that Russian gangsters regu-
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: "That would be unethi-
cal." In any case, there is no doubt that some-
body is watching him closely. Shortly after
NEWSWEEK's reporter visited his lab, two
burly toughs in suits and diamond rings
showed up at NEWSWEEK's Moscow office
asking questions about Smirnov. They
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 in Moscow with
JOHN BARRY in Washington
Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00792R000600150002-4
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