Why Chromatica Matters
Disclaimer:
It has been brought to my attention that maybe I’m wrong in stating that the album is as subversive as I have claimed, and that it is possible that some people simply don’t care about about objectification and that they wouldn’t be humiliated by the lyric that I’ve said would be humiliating to those who would desire a microchipped individual, and maybe it is these people who made the album. As someone who values skepticism, I should have been more cautious about making this assertion, or indeed including historical examples that I am not ABSOLUTELY certain about. For all I know, this album could just be yet another trick designed to con people. I’ve never met Lady Gaga, I don’t know what her motives are, I don’t know if she is being manipulated, I don’t even know if she’s real. If OpenAI Sora and the Ameca Robot are real then I wonder what is actually possible. However, I had been doing research on many of the phenomenon that I touch upon in this article and I still feel that there are some serious issues here that I feel this album seems to be indicative of. This album may not be something I continue to support, but it’s I feel like it’s still something worth trying to understand.
Why Chromatica Matters — Part 1 March 23, 2023, Shayne Chrystian
Chromatica by Lady Gaga is a cyberpunk concept album, released in 2020. What is cyberpunk about it? Here is my analysis of some of the songs.
“Plastic Doll”1
“Plastic Doll” has a lyric in it, which is delivered in first-person, that refers to the idea of a state of being microchipped.
Apart from the surgical implantation of Radio Frequency Identification chips in humans, which can then be used to track them and potentially be hacked for private personal information, this could metaphorically refer to other types of biological augmentation. This is from DARPA’s official website:
“The White House announced the BRAIN initiative in April 2013. Today, the initiative is supported by several federal agencies as well as dozens of technology firms, academic institutions, scientists and other key contributors to the field of neuroscience. DARPA is supporting the BRAIN initiative through a number of programs, continuing a legacy of DARPA investment in neurotechnology that extends back to the 1970s. Electrical Prescriptions (ElectRx) The ElectRx program aims to help the human body heal itself through neuromodulation of organ functions using ultraminiaturized devices, approximately the size of individual nerve fibers, which could be delivered through minimally invasive injection. Next-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology (N3) The N3 program aims to develop a safe, portable neural interface system capable of reading from and writing to multiple points in the brain at once. Whereas the most advanced existing neurotechnology requires surgical implantation of electrodes, N3 is pursuing high-resolution technology that works without the requirement for surgery so that it can be used by able-bodied people. Neural Engineering System Design (NESD) The NESD program aims to develop an implantable neural interface able to provide unprecedented signal resolution and data-transfer bandwidth between the brain and the digital world”2
Not only do militaries have an incentive to develop technologies that could potentially allow them to directly manipulate brain function and chemistry, but military computer systems are vulnerable to security breaches by hackers. Hackers may have a variety of motives, but it may be worth considering the following:
Patrick Naughton is one of the creators of the Java programming language. He is also a convicted sex offender. He was arrested and convicted for arranging to meet with a minor for the purpose of sex, in this case what he thought was going to be a 13-year-old girl but which actually was an FBI agent.3
Andrew Alan Escher Auernheimer, also known as Weev, is a computer hacker and professional Internet troll. He has claimed responsibility for the online harassment of a game developer named Kathy Sierra, which included the charge that she was a former sex worker as well as the disclosure of her home address and social security number. The Southern Poverty Law Center has categorized him as a Neo-Nazi, white supremacist, and anti-semitic conspiracy theorist and it has also been reported that he has acted as webmaster for the Neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer.4
It’s also worth considering that about 1/3 of internet traffic involves pornography.5 These websites, both legal and illegal, are maintained by people with a certain amount of skill in computer programming. According to the New York Times in 2019, In 1998, there were over 3,000 reports of child sexual abuse imagery. In 2014, that number surpassed 1 million for the first time. In 2018, there were 18.4 million, more than one-third of the total ever reported.6 Pornography is about a $90 billion dollar annually business7 and a report by the International Labour Organization (ILO), Profits and Poverty: The Economics of Forced Labour, estimated in May 2014 that the illegal profits from exploiting forced labour total USD 150 billion each year.8 Also reported by the ILO, the internet was the most dominant business model sex traffickers used to solicit buyers of commercial sex and was also the most common method for luring victims.9
War technologies have historically been kept secret by governments. During the development of the nuclear bomb, the Manhattan Project was kept very secret. A 1945 Life article said that before Hiroshima and Nagasaki, “probably no more than a few dozen men in the entire country knew the full meaning of the Manhattan Project, and perhaps only a thousand others even were aware that work on atoms was involved,” while the around 100,000 others working with the project did not have this information. Employees were warned that if they disclosed the secrets of the project, they would be punished with 10 years imprisonment or a fine of what in 2021 would amount to about $151,000.10 In 1945 the United States Army published a secret report that stated the Manhattan Project was “more drastically guarded than any other highly secret war development.”11
Here is some relevant information that is not secret. At the State University of New York, neuroscientist John Chapin and a team of colleagues have created a cyborg-animal, in this case, a rat. They implanted wires into the rat’s brain and had it connected to a circuit built on the animal’s back that consisted of a microprocessor, a receiver, and a battery. The researchers stimulated the medial forebrain bundle (MFB), which is an area of the brain involved in processing pleasure with electricity to reward and reinforce particular behaviours of the rats.12 Prior research by James Olds and Peter Milner have shown that rats allowed to stimulate their own brain’s areas associated with pleasure would do so, by pressing a lever, repeatedly, thousands of times an hour.13
In a study conducted by Chao Sun in 2012, rats were stimulated in the same way as stated in the previous paragraph while navigating a maze. Stimulation was discontinued when the rats chose incorrectly, in effect creating a punishment and negative reinforcement that led to the rats learning from their mistakes.14
Now, what happens when characters like Naughton and Auernheimer hack into military computer systems? (And military computer systems have been hacked by civilians.)15 Lady Gaga is warning people about a very serious problem. In my opinion, the previously mentioned lyric is what makes the album so subversive and critically important at this point in history. She demonstrates how humiliating it would be to desire such a woman (i.e., a microchipped woman). I also suspect that she knows how unlikely it is that mere legislation will prevent the misuse of these technologies, that their very existence presents a threat, and so is not simply deterring criminals through revealing the previously mentioned humiliation, but is also challenging men who would never consider using these technologies to abuse women, but who otherwise pursue the development of these technologies, assuming that legislation will be enough to keep people from hacking the system. Can you imagine if individuals like Naughton gained power through the hacking of brain-computer interfaces? Unless absolute security is somehow achieved*, as long as freedom and privacy exist, there will be a potential for hackers to find vulnerabilities. However, without freedom, there can be no justice. The argument that these technologies will solve crime is unsound for this reason. A Naughton hive queen sounds deeply undesirable. We are in great danger.
1Lady Gaga, BloodPop, Skrillex, Rami Yacoub, Jacob “Jkash” Hindlin “Plastic Doll” Chromatica Interscope Records 2020
2https://www.darpa.mil/program/our-research/darpa-and-the-brain-initiative
3Deane, Joel “The Rise and Fall of Patrick Naughton” ZDNET Mar. 17, 2000 https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-rise-and-fall-of-patrick-naughton https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Naughton
4McVeigh, Karen “Hacktivist anger over US Government’s ‘Ludicrous’ Cyber Crackdown” The Guardian Jan. 24, 2013 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jan/24/hacking-us-government-cyber-crackdown
Southern Poverty Law Center https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/Andrew-%E2%80%9Cweev%E2%80%9D-auernheimer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weev
5Anthony, Sebastian “Just how big are porn sites?” Extremetech April 4, 2012 http://www.extremetech.com/computing/123929-just-how-big-are-porn-sites.
6https://enough.org/stats_exploitation New York Times, Sept.30, 2019
7https://husbandhelphaven.com/porn-statistics/
8https://www.antitraffickingreview.org/index.php/atrjournal/article/view/62/72
9https://enough.org/stats-sex-trafficking 2018 Federal Human Trafficking Report
10Wickware, Francis Sill “Manhattan Project: Its Scientists Have Harnessed Nature’s Basic Force” Life Magazine Aug. 20, 1945 https://books.google.ca/books?id=hkgEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA91&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
11Roberts, Sam “The Difficulties of Nuclear Containment” The New York Times Sept. 29, 2014 https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/30/science/espionage-threatened-the-manhattan-project-declassified-report-says.html https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project
12https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/feb/17/race-to-create-insect-cyborgs (excerpt from Anthes, Emily Frankenstein’s Cat)
13Olds, James; Milner, Peter “Positive Reinforcement produced by electrical stimulation of septal area and other regions of rat brain” Journal of Comparative Psychology 1954 https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fh0058775
14Alcaro, Anthony; Huber, Robert; Panksepp, Jaak “Behavioral Functions of the Mesolimbic Dopaminergic System: an Affective Neuroethical Perspective” PMC 2008 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2238694/?report=reader#!po=0.0994036
15 Maev, Kennedy “Gary McKinnon will face no charges in UK” The Guardian Dec. 14, 2012 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/dec/14/gary-mckinnon-no-uk-charges
“911”1
This song makes a reference to the idea of “hearing voices.”
What does it mean to “hear voices”? Whose voices? From where?
The ICD-10 defines “thought insertion” as a delusion that one’s thoughts are not one’s own, but have been inserted into their minds by someone else. The DSM-V defines schizophrenia as,
A. Two (or more) of the following, each present for a significant portion of time during a 1-month period (or less if successfully treated). At least one of these must be (1), (2), or (3):
- Delusions
- Hallucinations
- Disorganized speech (e.g., frequent derailment or incoherence)
- Grossly disorganized or catatonic behaviour
- Negative symptoms (i.e., affective flattening, alogia, or avolition)
The idea that it may actually be possible to “insert thoughts” into others with external technological sources is here not considered. Audio spotlighting technology can focus sound like a laser using ultrasound. An advertisement for Fair Trade, using an audio spotlight loudspeaker, includes a female voice which says the following:
“Hi, you can hear me, can’t you? You’re the only one. Look around, no one else can. Know who I am? I’m your inner voice. Now I want to talk to you about something, something really important. Fair trade. Look at them all those bananas in front of you so many to choose from. Which should you buy? I know, and you do too. They’re all good bananas but they’re the only fair-trade ones. So now you know which ones to choose? Make a good choice.”2
Here is a quote from the Holosonics, the company who manufactures the loudspeakers used in the above advertisement, website:
“Audio Spotlight X-Series speakers create a tight, narrow beam of sound that can be controlled with the same precision as light, now with 2X more output, a wider range of lower frequencies and clearer sound! Flexible and self-powered, Audio Spotlight X-Series speakers are a powerful tool, ensuring isolated audio that captivates listeners with an immersive, personal experience, while keeping the surrounding area quiet.”3
And this is just one publicly known example of a potential means of accomplishing “thought insertion.”
According to the article for “electronic harassment” on Wikipedia, “mental health professionals say that T.I.s (Targeted Individuals) can experience hallucinations and their explanations of being targeted or harassed arise from delusional disorders or psychosis.”4 The preceding quote cites the two following examples. In 2015, Elizabeth E. Dietrich’s master’s thesis is entitled “Gang Stalking: internet connectivity as an emerging mental health concern.” She denies that these people could be the targets of organized efforts to harass them.5 Elias Aboujaoude MD, MA wrote an article for Psychology Today in 2009 entitled, “Psychotic Websites: Does the Internet encourage psychotic thinking?” In his article, Aboujaoude cites a study done in 2006 by Dr. Vaughan Bell in which 3 psychiatrists evaluated 10 online mind-control accounts identified by a Google search. Their task was “to determine whether the poster was psychotic based on his writing and to analyze the hyperlinks within each post to look for evidence of social organization among posters.” The three psychiatrists agreed that “signs of psychosis are strongly present” in the 10 accounts, “indicating that posters were very likely to be schizophrenic.” In his article, Elias suggests that people who claim to be “Targeted Individuals” experiencing “group stalking,” being attacked by “frequency weapons” are delusional.6 Maybe, maybe not. The idea that individuals could be targeted by organizations does not occur to him, or Dietrich, even though numerous occurrences have been documented throughout history, including Zersetzung, which was a set of operational procedures used by the Stasi, or the Ministry for State Security, in East Germany in the 1970’s and 80’s to combat political opponents, using personalized psychological attacks, including gaslighting, in order to bring about the fragmentation, paralysis, disorganization, and isolation of “hostile and negative forces…and if applicable to prepare the ground for a political and ideological reestablishment.”7 Zersetzung included a network of informal collaborators numbering from 170,0008 to 500,0009 and included youths as young as 1410 and targeted artists, religious opposition groups, and youth subculture groups.11
Another example would be COINTELPRO, which was an illegal covert operation undertaken by the FBI from 1956 to 1971 for the purpose of surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting domestic political organizations within the United States, which included feminist organizations.12 Martin Luther King Jr. was sent a “suicide package” by the FBI, encouraging him to commit suicide in a letter.13
What has been called “Havana Syndrome” comes from reports of US diplomats in Cuba experiencing hearing “buzzing, squealing, and clicking noises, and feeling pressure” in their heads, and experiencing symptoms including “dizziness, nausea, headaches, balance problems, ringing in their ears, visual disturbances, nosebleeds, difficulty concentrating, hearing loss, and speech problems.”14 These symptoms are similar to the effects of ultrasound described in the article for “sound from ultrasound” on Wikipedia,
“Exposure to more intense ultrasound over 140 dB near the audible range (20–40 kHz) can lead to a syndrome involving manifestations of nausea, headache, tinnitus, pain, dizziness and fatigue,15 but this is around 100 times the 100 dB level cited above and is generally not a concern. Dr. Joseph Pompeii of Audio Spotlight has published data showing that their product generates ultrasonic sound pressure levels around 130 dB (at 60 kHz) measured at 3 meters.”16
The last example I’ll give here is Project MKUltra, which was an illegal human experimentation program which used U.S. and Canadian citizens as unwitting test subjects from 1953 to 1973, for the purposes of attempting to develop novel means of interrogation and behavior modification, which included psychological torture. From “Project MKUltra, the CIA’s Program of Research in Behavioral Modification Joint Hearing before the Select Committee on Intelligence and the Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research of the Committee on Human Resources United States Senate Ninety-fifth Congress First Session, August 3, 1977”:
“[Senator Kennedy] Some 2 years ago, the Senate Health Subcommittee heard chilling testimony about the human experimentation activities of the Central Intelligence Agency. The Deputy Director of the CIA revealed that over 30 universities and institutions were involved in an “extensive testing and experimentation” program which included covert drug tests on unwitting citizens “at all social levels, high and low, native Americans and foreign” Several of these tests involved the administration of LSD to “unwitting subjects in social situations.”… These are issues, are questions that happened in the fifties and sixties, and go back some 15, 20 years ago, but they are front page news today, as we see in the major newspapers and on the television and in the media of this country; and the reason they are, I think, is because it just continuously begins to trickle out, sort of, month after month, and the best way to put this period behind us, obviously, is to have the full information, and I think that is the desire of Admiral Turner and of the members of this committee.
The Central Intelligence Agency drugged American citizens without their knowledge or consent. It used university facilities and personnel without their knowledge. It funded leading researchers, often without their knowledge.
[from prepared statement of Admiral Turner] In 1953, Dr. (Frank) Olson, a civilian employee of the Army at Fort Detrick, leaped to his death from a hotel room window in New York City about a week after having unwittingly consumed LSD administered to him as an experiment at a meeting of LSD researchers called by CIA.”17
There were also subprojects that involved: research on hypnosis, both alone and combined with drugs; aspects of magicians’ art useful in covert operations such as surreptitious delivery of drugs; research on human behaviour, sleep, and behavioral changes during psychotherapy; research in areas including effects of electroshock, harassment techniques, and analysis of extrasensory perception; and the control of animals. Involved were 44 colleges or universities, 12 hospitals or clinics, 3 penal institutions and 15 research foundations or chemical or pharmaceutical companies.17
Based on the preceding examples, I would say that it is actually very possible that individuals are being subjected to organized abuse, which may involve “thought insertion.” Would anyone care to speculate on the possible uses of these technologies or techniques by organized crime? And none of this even touches on the uses of obvious means of media manipulation and propaganda by various organizations to influence public opinion through radio and public announcement speaker systems that send disembodied voices down on people in public spaces like grocery stores, clothing stores, and gas stations.
The repetitious nature of much broadcasted music is very similar to the idea of “psychic driving,” a psychiatric procedure introduced by Dr. D. Ewan Cameron of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, in which people were subjected to looping audio messages that repeated single phrases for behaviour modification. Cameron, who was funded by the CIA as part of, again, MKUltra, in what was referred to as Subproject 68, also implemented what he called “depatterning”, which involved electroshocks, and was intended to bring about the “breaking down of ongoing patterns of the patient’s behavior.” After this, people were given LSD and then subjected to “psychic driving,” during which phrases such as “My mother hates me,” were repeated hundreds of thousands of times.18 Earworms indeed.
1Lady Gaga, BloodPop, Madeon, Justin Tranter “911” Chromatica Interscope Records 2020
2https://www.holosonics.com/videos (All Good Bananas)
4https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Harassment
5Dietrich, Elizabeth E. “Gang stalking: internet connectivity as an emerging mental health concern” Smith College 2015 https://scholarworks.smith.edu/thesis/702/
6Aboujaoude, Elias MD, MA “Psychotic Websites: Does the Internet encourage psychotic thinking?” Psychology Today July 20, 2009 https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/compulsive-acts/200907/psychotic-websites
7Ministry for Security of State, Dictionary of political and operational work, entry Zersetzung
8Williams, Carol J. “An Enduring Legacy of a Divided Era” The Los Angeles Times Nov. 09, 2001 https://www.newspapers.com/clip/70072564/an-enduring-legacy-of-a-divided-era/
9The Manhattan Mercury Jan. 19, 1992 https://www.newspapers.com/clip/70073178/open-stasi-files-show-massive-smear/
10Marysville Journal-Tribune Jan. 2, 1997 https://www.newspapers.com/clip/70074408/new-book-examines-communist-recruitment/
11Gieseke, Jens Der Mielke-Konzern: Die Geschichte der Stasi 1945–1990 Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt Feb. 7, 2006
12Salper, Roberta U.S. Government Surveillance and the Women’s Liberation Movement, 1968–1973: A Case Study Feminist Studies Vol. 34, №3, The 1970s Issue (Fall, 2008), pp. 431–455 Published By: Feminist Studies, Inc. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20459215
13Gage, Beverly “What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals” The New York Times Magazine Nov. 11, 2014 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI%E2%80%93King_suicide_letter
14Mole, Beth “Pulsed Electromagnetic Energy, Ultrasound “Plausibly” Explain Havana Syndrome” Arstechnica 2/3/2022 https://www.google.com/amp/s/arstechnica.com/science/2022/02/pulsed-electromagnetic-energy-ultrasound-plausibly-explain-havana-syndrome/amp/
16 Pompei, F. Joseph “The Use of Airbourne Ultrasonics for Generating Audible Sound Beams” MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA JAES Volume 47 Issue 9 pp. 726–731; September 1999 https://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=12092 17https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/hearings/95mkultra.pdf
18Kinzer, Stephen. Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA search for mind control New York: Henry Holt and Company 2019
*This preface (“unless absolute security is somehow achieved,”) is the only revision I have made to the article. It has been brought to my attention that I am making a philosophical truth claim and am not absolutely certain that absolute security cannot be achieved. However, it is worth considering that in order for this to be achieved, all vulnerabilities would need to be eliminated, and that there is no indication in the history of security to suggest that this is at all likely. I also can’t be absolutely certain that gravity will continue to exist as I’m writing this. The reason I’m adding this is because I was given the impression that because I can’t be absolutely certain about this, I am therefore not justified in writing the statement without the preface as a truth claim.
This article was first published by Shayne Chrystian
March 23, 2023 revised April 4,2023
shaynechrystian@gmail.com
Why Chromatica Matters — Part 2 March 23, 2023, Shayne Chrystian
“The woman in the red dress. I designed her.
-Mouse from The Matrix1
“I am Lorde.”
-Randy Marsh from South Park2
“Alice”3
What if all the singers on the album were actually men?
Using ReSpeecher; voice replication technology which uses “proprietary deep learning (artificial intelligence) techniques to produce high quality synthetic speech,”4 I was able to change a recording of my voice singing to what sounded like a woman’s voice singing.
It is possible for men to not only write the songs that women are then paid or coerced to sing, but also for men to deepfake impersonate women in recorded songs using A.I. with the intent to induce identification and internalization through suggestion in female listeners. Female listeners may believe that they are relating to a fellow woman, when in actuality they may be being manipulated by men.
If this were the case on Chromatica how would the meaning of the songs be different? What about other albums that feature “female” singers?
During the Vietnam war, U.S. engineers with the help of South Vietnamese participants made a recording called “Ghost Tape Number Ten” which consisted of sound effects and altered voices, saying things like, “my friends, I have come back to let you know that I am dead,” and “Don’t end up like me. Go home friends, before it’s too late!” Improper burial of the dead resulting in spirts of the dead wandering the earth is a common belief in Vietnam. The 6th Psychological Operations Battalion (6th PSYOP) of the U.S. army tried to exploit this using strategically placed soldiers carrying loudspeakers playing the recording throughout the jungle at night in an effort to demoralize and scare the Viet Cong.5,6
Throughout history, there have been many practices that have oppressed females, both physically and socially. Foot binding, for example, severely restricted movement. Over 90 million girls and women over the age of ten in Africa are estimated to have undergone female genital mutilation as a matter of social convention.7 For much of history, and what is still the case in many parts of the world, married women were considered legally unable to refuse sex with their husbands.8 These are examples of patriarchy.
“Sour Candy”9
This song contains several aspects. Blackpink, a K-Pop girl group, features on the track. There is a line in the song that includes a narration, in first-person, of undressing.
In South Korea, people, mostly women, have been filmed and photographed without their knowledge or consent with illegally and secretly placed hidden cameras and miniature spy cameras and the films and photographs have been disseminated over the internet. These cameras have been installed in places such as women’s bathrooms, change-rooms, and motel rooms. The Korean term for this is Molka which comes from molrae-kamera which translates as “sneaky camera.” Molka refers to the cameras as well as the footage. According to police data, around 1,100 cases of molka occurred in 201010 but in 2018, there were almost 6,800.11
The following shows one large example; over the course of three months, more than 800 couples had been secretly live-streamed having sex in 30 motels across 10 cities in South Korea. The men responsible had used a foreign server to try and evade detection. They were eventually arrested.12
Also, in 2019 there was a scandal in Seoul, South Korea, known as the Burning Sun Scandal. It involved K-Pop idols and law enforcement officials. The details would require me to cite hundreds of sources so I will just mention that the Burning Sun nightclub was investigated for allegations of prostitution, police corruption, and drug trafficking.11 Related to this is the Jung Joon-young KakaoTalk chatroom scandal, which included messages that exposed alleged crimes at the Burning Sun. The leaked messages were used in a police investigation that resulted in gang rape convictions.13 Big Bang singer and one of Burning Sun’s directors Seungri was found guilty of three instances of illegal sharing of photos and for mediating prostitution.14 On November 29, 2019, Jung was found guilty of the rape of several drunk unconscious women and the molka of these women.13
Cybersex trafficking is a huge problem. People (mostly women and children) are imprisoned in rooms and forced to engage in sexual acts and/or rape on webcam, while the audience sometimes gives commands. The communications can be encrypted making it difficult to identify perpetrators (AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) has never been cracked). Less than 5% of traffickers are prosecuted.15
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According to the Wikipedia article for Chromatica, “the album centers on ideas of unwavering happiness and the pursuit of healing.”16
Children have been given Methylphenidate (Ritalin) to “treat” “attention deficit hyperactivity disorder” “diagnosed” by “trained professionals.” If these people (Health Care Providers (HCP)) can convince parents (Surrogate Decision Makers (SDM)) to have their children undergo these “treatments” then could they not convince these parents that their children need to undergo deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery? Deep Brain Stimulation surgery involves implanting wire electrodes into particular areas of the brain in order to stimulate them with electricity. The electrodes are connected to what is called an implanted pulse generator (IPG), which consists of a battery, programmable microprocessors, and antenna and is surgically implanted under the skin near the collarbone. The wire connecting the electrodes to the IPG goes under the skin to the back of the head, down, and over the shoulder.17
More than 1 in 10 Americans take antidepressants.18 6.3% of 20–44-year-old and 10.4% of 45–64-year-old American women and 3% of 13–19 years old Americans are on anti-anxiety medication.19 How many people can be convinced that this DBS procedure can “cure” their “depression”?
As of 2019 about 160,000 DBS surgeries have been performed worldwide.20 So far, they have been performed for Parkinson’s, Dystonia, Medication resistant epilepsy, essential tremor, and medication-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).17 There is also research and experimentation suggesting that DBS surgery can be effective in treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)21, depression22, alcohol use disorder23, schizophrenia24, addiction25, and anxiety disorders26. Other experiments have claimed to be able to induce panic and fear through the use of DBS27.
In 1963, a neurophysiologist named Jose Manuel Rodriguez Delgado performed an experiment in which he was able to stop a bull that was charging at him by pressing a button on a transmitter he was holding, which sent a radio signal to a “stimoceiver,” a device of his own invention; a deep brain stimulation implant connected to a pulse generator that had been surgically implanted in the bull’s brain. The bull had been put under sedation and its head in a stereotaxic device during the implantation surgery. Notably, at the time there was no published bull brain atlas.28
During current DBS surgeries on humans, the person undergoing the surgery is awake during the placement of the electrodes to provide feedback to the surgeon on subjective effects of the stimulation. In one instance a 33-year-old German man who had been diagnosed with OCD and anxiety went to a hospital in order to replace his DBS battery and when the voltage parameters on his stimulator was adjusted he was asked to give a rating from 1–10 on his feelings for both happiness and anxiety. At 1 volt he gave a 2 for happiness and 8 for anxiety. At 4 volts however, he gave a 10 for happiness and 0 for anxiety. “It’s like being high on drugs,” he said.29
“About 2% of children and 4% to 8% of adolescents are affected by major depressive disorder.”30 “9.4% of children aged 3–17 years (approximately 5.8 million) had diagnosed anxiety in 2016–2019.”31
The brain cannot be accurately understood in isolation from its environment. If a child is deprived of an environment that involves speech, this can cause severe problems for the development of the brain areas associated with speech (Broca’s Area). This is known as language deprivation.32 A study published in 2018 indicates that there may be a relation between digital media use and symptoms of “attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.”33 If problematic behaviours and states of brain development exist, perhaps it is the ecosystem, in interaction with individuals, that is causing them, in which case treating the brain in isolation without trying to solve and/or understand any social and/or environmental causal factors would be ignorant and/or dismissive of them. Consequently, the social and/or environmental problems may continue to become worse and more severe due to neglect. Perhaps there is a reason that some people are experiencing, even for long periods of time, intense sadness, fear, and anger.
— — — -
Dr. Guy Rosenschein, found guilty of seven counts of distribution and one count of possession of visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, was a pediatric surgeon.34 Dr. Albert de Villiers, 54, was the top public health doctor in Alberta’s north zone for 16 years before becoming chief medical officer of health for B.C.’s Interior Health and in 2020 was convicted of sexual assault and sexual interference of a child.35 Dr. Michael Graff, practised medicine at a southwest Edmonton clinic and is a convicted sex offender for trying to get what he thought was a 14 year old girl to send him naked pictures of herself. Graff currently intends to seek work as a surgical assistant.36
James Kohut was a neurosurgeon who received his licence to practice medicine in 1998. He was arrested in May of 2017 on multiple charges of sexual offences against children. Police obtained videos of him molesting or encouraging molestation of children, a 3-year-old and 10-year-old boy, with accused conspirators Emily Stephens, 30, and Rashel Brandon, 43. Kohut is accused of luring multiple women online with plans to impregnate them and have sex with the children to perpetuate “taboo sex families.” Kohut was found dead in his cell on October 13, 2019.37,38
A Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgery can be performed for around $35,000 to $100,000. Human traffickers are making about $150 billion yearly. About 10,000 DBS surgeries can be performed for about $1 Billion.
— — — -
On the front cover of Chromatica Lady Gaga is depicted as wearing footwear that could not be used to walk in. Her right shoe’s heel consists of what seems to be about an 8-or-9-inch knife blade and her left shoe’s heel, a curved horn. Her fingernails look to be about 6 inches long. Surrounding her are coiled lengths of wire. A tattoo on her right arm shows a muted trumpet. She appears to be sprawled out on a metal grate and behind it is a background of bubble-gum pink, the same color as Gaga’s hair.
The values that are internalized from socialization during childhood and adolescence can be very difficult to change later in life. The power of enculturation can be seen in Somalia for example, in which 98% of females aged 15–49 have undergone female genital mutilation, 63% of which involve Type 3 FGM or “infibulation,”39 which includes the removal of the labia minora, and the sewing up of the labia majora which leaves a single hole about 2–3mm for the passage of urine and menstrual fluid, and may or may not include the amputation of the clitoris. Females who do not undergo the procedure are stigmatized, excluded, and shamed, and this has been perpetuated generation after generation for centuries. This stigmatization, exclusion, and shame act as powerful psychological conditioners, negative reinforcements that are in effect punishments, influencing behaviour and values. Conversely, undergoing the procedure confers social status, honour, value, pride, and inclusion.40 This is one extreme.
I would argue that there is another extreme.
In her book Slavery Inc. The Untold Story of International Sex Trafficking, Lydia Cacho describes children that were subjected to sexual abuse at such a young age and conditioned to behave hypersexually by being rewarded for it and punished for behaving otherwise that it becomes part of their personalities. That at nine years old and younger, they often have experienced no other way of life.41
A patriarchal society can be characterized by a long-term process of socialization and enculturation, selectively conditioning girls, from prepubescence through the teenage years and into adulthood, with the intention of creating disempowered and incapacitated people who have internalized the values of the culture.
“Babylon”42
Only about 4 million American women are involved in archery, either as a target sport or as bowhuntresses.43
1Lana and Lilly Wachowski (formerly known as Larry and Andy Wachowski) The Matrix Warner Bros. 1999
2Parker, Trey South Park Season 18 Episode 3 “The Cissy” October 8, 2014
3Lady Gaga, BloodPop, Axel Hedfors, Justin Tranter, Johannes Klahr “Alice” Chromatica Interscope Records 2020
4https://marketplace.respeecher.com/about-us
5Hoyt, Alia “Ghost Tape №10: The Haunted Mixtape of the Vietnam War” https://science.howstuffworks.com/agent-orange.htm
6NH Mallet “Operation Wandering Soul — Ghost Tape Number 10 and the Haunted Jungles of Vietnam” Military History Now October 29, 2012 https://militaryhistorynow.com/2013/10/30/trick-or-treat-the-strange-tale-of-ghost-tape-no-10/
7Global strategy to stop health-care providers from performing female genital mutilation UNAIDS, UNDP, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNIFEM, WHO, FIGO, ICN, IOM, MWIA, WCPT, WMA, Geneva: World Health Organization, 2010 http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/70264/1/WHO_RHR_10.9_eng.pdf
8https://en.m.wikipedia.org?wiki?Marital_rape_laws_by_country
9Lady Gaga, BloodPop, Matthew Burns, Rami Yacoub, Madison Emiko Love “Sour Candy” Chromatica Interscope Records 2020
10“”Spycam Porn” Sparks Record Protests in South Korea” The Straits Times August 3, 2018 https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/spycam-porn-sparks-record-protests-in-south-korea
11Kang, Haeryun “The K-Pop Sex Scandal is Just the Beginning” The Washington Post March 19, 2019 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/03/19/k-pop-sex-scandal-is-just-beginning/
12May, Tiffany and Lee, Su-Hyun “1600 Motel Guests Were secretly Streamed Live in South Korea, Police Say” New York Times March 21, 2019 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/21/world/asia/korea-spycam-hotel-livestream.html
13Chin, Carmen “Ex-Big Bang Member Seungri’s Prison Sentence Reportedly Reduced by Half” NME January 27, 2022 https://www.nme.com/news/music/ex-big-bang-seungri-prison-sentence-reduced-by-half-burning-sun-3147810
14Ju-young, Park “Seungri involved in spycam scandal: police” The Korea Herald March 28, 2019 https://m.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20190328000476
15Meltzer, Elia “70+ Disheartening Worldwide Statistics on Human Trafficking” https://etactics.com/blog/statistics-on-human-trafficking-worldwide
16https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromatica
17“Deep Brain Stimulation” Cleveland Clinic https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/21088-deep-brain-stimulation
18Cox, Elizabeth “8 Things You Might Not Know About Antidepressants” Mental Health June 23, 2020 https://healthtalk.unchealthcare.org/8-things-you-might-not-know-about-antidepressants/
19Elflein, John “Anti-anxiety medication use in the U.S. in 2019, by age group and gender” July 17,2020 https://www.statista.com/statistics/1133682/antianxiety-medication-use-by-age-gender-us/
20Andres M Lozano, Nir Lipsman, Hagai Bergman, Peter Brown, Stephen Chabardes, Jin Woo Chang, Keith Mathews, Cameron C. McIntyre, Thomas E. Schlaepfer, Michael Schulder, Yasin Temel, Jens Volkman, and Joachim K. Krauss “Deep brain stimulation: current challenges and future directions” Nature Reviews Neurology March 2, 2019 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6397644/#:~:text=Over%20160%2C000%20patients%20worldwide%20have,numbers%20increasing%20each%20year1.
21Hamani, Clement; Davidson, Benjamin; Corchs, Felipe; Abrahao, Agessandro; Nestor, Sean M.; Rabin, Jennifer S.; Nyman, Alexander J.; Phung, Liane; Goubran, Maged; Levitt, Anthony; Talakoub, Omid; Giacobbe, Peter; and Lipsman, Nir “Deep brain stimulation of the subgenual cingulum and uncinate fasciculus for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder” Science Advances Volume 8, Issue 48 December 2, 2022 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adc9970
22Delaloye, Sibylle; Holtzheimer, Paul E. “Deep Brain stimulation in the treatment of depression” Diologues in Clinical Neuroscience Volume 16, Issue 1, 2014 March 16, 2014 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3984894/
23“Brain surgery for alcohol use disorder: patient in North American first trial shares his story” December 16, 2019 https://sunnybrook.ca/media/item.asp?c=1&i=2028&f=deep-brain-stimulation-alcohol-use-disorder-frank-plummer
24Shapiro, Marc “A New Application of Deep Brain Stimulation for Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia” Neurologic Winter 2022 September 12, 2021 https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/articles/a-new-application-of-deep-brain-stimulation-for-treatment-resistant-schizophrenia
25Tony R. Wang, MD; Shayan Moosa, MD; Robert F. Dallapiazza, MD, PhD; W. Jeffrey Elias, MD; and Wendy J. Lynch, PhD “Deep brain stimulation for the treatment of drug addiction” Neurosurgical Focus Aug. 2018 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6329833
26Han-Tao Li, Dane C. Donegan, Daria Peleg-Raibstein, and Denis Burdakov “Hypothalamic deep brain stimulation as a strategy to manage anxiety disorders” April 11, 2022 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2113518119#:~:text=Therefore%2C%20we%20developed%20a%20deep,a%20variety%20of%20stressful%20situations.
27N. A. Shapira, M. S. Okun, D. Wint, K. D. Foote, J. A. Byars, D. Bowers, U. S. Springer, P. J. Lang, B. D. Greenberg, S. N. Haber, and W. K. Goodman “Panic and fear induced by deep brain stimulation” Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry Volume 77, Issue 3 March 2006 https:// www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2077710/
28Marzullo, Timothy C. “The Missing Manuscript of Dr. Jose Delgado’s Radio Controlled Bulls” Journal of Undergrad Neuroscience Education Spring 2017 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5480854/
29Frank, Lone “Can Electrically Stimulating Your Brain Make You Too Happy” The Atlantic March 21, 2018 https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/03/pleasure-shock-deep-brain-stimulation-happiness/556043/
30“Depression in Children and Youth” https://kidsnewtocanada.ca/mental-health/depression#:~:text=treatments%2C%20or%20both.-,Prevalence%20of%20depression,affected%20by%20major%20depressive%20disorder.
31Rebecca H. Bitsko, Phd; Angelika H. Claussen, PhD; Jesse Lichstein, PhD; Lindsay I. Black, MPH; Sherry Everett Jones, PhD, JD; Melissa L. Danielson, MSPH; Jennifer M. Hoenig, PhD; Shane P. Davis Jack, PhD; Debra J. Brody, MPH; Shiromani Gyawali, MS; Matthew J. Maenner“ Mental Health Surveillance Among Children- United States, 2013–2019” Supplements February 25, 2022 https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/su/su7102a1.htm
32Berit, Brogaard D.M.Sci., Ph.D. Reviewed by Jessica Schrader “The Feral Child Nicknamed Genie” Psychology Today July 10, 2017 https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/the-superhuman-mind/201707/the-feral-child-nicknamed-genie
33Chaelin K. Ra, MPH; Junhan Cho, PhD; Matthew D. Stone, BA; Julianne De La Cerda, BA; Nicholas I. Goldenson, BA; Elizabeth Moroney, MA; Irene Tung, MA; Steve S. Lee, PhD; and Adam M. Leventhal, PhD “Association of Digital Media Use with Subsequent Symptoms of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Among Adolescents” JAMA July 17, 2018 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2687861
34“Pediatric Surgeon Sentenced to Prison for Possession, Distribution of Child Pornography” https://www.justice.gov/usao-nm/pr/pediatric-surgeon-sentenced-prison-possession-distribution-child-pornography#:~:text=Pediatric%20surgeon%20sentenced%20to%20prison%20for%20possession%2C%20distribution%20of%20child%20pornography,-Tuesday%2C%20January%2031&text=ALBUQUERQUE%2C%20N.M.%20%E2%80%93%20Alexander%20M.M.%20Uballez,over%2017%20years%20in%20prison.
Tuesday, January 31, 2023 https://www.justice.gov/usao-nm/pr/pediatric-surgeon-sentenced-prison-possession-distribution-child-pornography
35The Canadian Press Staff “Former B.C., Alta., Public Health Doctor Guilty of Sex Crimes Against a Child” CTV News February 7, 2023 https://www.google.com/amp/s/beta.ctvnews.ca/local/edmonton/2023/2/7/1_6263545.amp.html
36Gerein, Keith “Registered Sex Offender Doctor Allowed to Practice” Edmonton Sun June 2, 2017 https://edmontonsun.com/2017/06/01/registered-sex-offender-doctor-allowed-to-practice
37Truesdell, Jeff “Brain Surgeon Accused of Child Sex Abuse Allegedly Wanted to Create ‘Sexual Families’ with Young Children: Docs” People June 21, 2017 https://people.com/crime/brain-surgeon-allegedly-wanted-sexual-families-exploit-young-children/
38“Newsmaker 2019: Case against neurosurgeon ended abruptly after suicide” Santa Cruz Sentinel January 6, 2020 https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2020/01/05/newsmaker-2019-case-against-neurosurgeon-ends-abruptly-after-suicide/amp/
39Moxey, Jordan M.; Jones, Laura L. “A Qualitative Study Exploring How Somali Women Exposed to Female Genital Mutilation Experience and Perceive Antenatal and Intrapartum Care in England” BMJ Open Volume 6 Issue 1 2016 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4716221/
40J. Abdulcadir, C. Margairaz, M. Boulvain, and O. Irion “Care of women with female genital mutilation/cutting” Swiss Med Wkly. 2011; 141:w13137 January 3, 2011 https://smw.ch/index.php/smw/article/view/1232/1349
41Cacho, Lydia Slavery Inc.: The Untold Story of International Sex Trafficking published in English in 2012 originally published in Spanish in 2010.
42Lady Gaga, BloodPop, Martin Joseph Leonard Bresso, Rami Yacoub “Babylon” Chromatica Interscope Records 2020
43Schmitt, Kristen “Intro to Archery: The Rise of Women Bowhunters” May 6, 2015 https://www.deeranddeerhunting.com/content/blogs/women-bowhunters
P.S.
There is one caveat I feel I have to make about Chromatica, and it is about the biblical reference in the song “Babylon.” Babylon has cultural significance beyond Judaism and Christianity. The city actually existed and actually was destroyed in 689 BC. I felt that referencing Babylon was relevant, however there is a reference in the song to the Tower of Babel, which is an explicit biblical reference. I have many problems with the Bible. God as described and depicted in the Bible is quoted as making statements that I feel are unjustifiable. The fifth commandment of the ten commandments in Exodus; “Though shalt honour thy mother and thy father,” is just one example. People can and have been the result of rape. Fathers can and have sexually molested their children. This moral prescription is nonsense.
However, Lady Gaga may actually be aware of this. If this album is an example of drawing attention to and raising awareness of, through juxtaposition, malicious tactics and techniques of manipulation, Lady Gaga may be subtly revealing yet another trick that might be used. “Oh, what’s that? You oppose Babylon but you support the Bible? Well, let me tell you about what God said in Exodus…” Like it’s a trap. Maybe Lady Gaga is saying, “look out for traps.”
This Article was published April 28, 2023
By Shayne Chrystian
shaynechrystian@gmail.com
