ah, welcome to wells fargo, ascribing diseases to the evil doing of anatomy is an old human habit that can be traced in many historic injustices from the witchcraft trials they call upon. one would think that in this age of science and rationality would have moved beyond costing unproven recrimination, at least at the state level, but not so fast. take the so called havana syndrome and mysterious condition set to be afflicting that american diplomatic and military personnel abroad. it's barely diagnosed with whiteness. seem to be an act of aggression. what is it symptomatic off? well, to discuss that i'm not joined by rovers by filling me on there. we see a lot. you're in the department of psychological medicine at the university of hoffman and also have an ascension math psychogenic, illness. the real story behind the embassy, mystery, and hysteria. dr. bartholomew's. great to talk to you. thank you very much for your

time. thank you. it's been more than 300 years since the salem witch trials, which are now considered to be one of the most notorious cases of bio mass hysteria in colonial america. and was trying to me about it is how similar the preferred its symptoms back than worth to be described. manifestations of the so called havana syndrome had ace loss of balance and hearing, piercing sensation, disorientation, compromised mental ability. do you see anything in common there? absolutely. and you know, when i think of this case, what i think of is shakespeare in a midsummer night's dream. and there's a quotation from that that goes like this, or in the night. imagining some fear. how easy is a bush, suppose it of bare. and in this case, we are literally talking about the russian bear and look,

i can summarize this entire episode in a single sentence, and it goes like this. it comes from an old medical outage. when you hear the sound of speech in the night 1st, thank horses, not zebra, it's the doctors at the state department. but for the most exotic, hi, pompous is early on, and people keep attacking me and they say, you don't know what you're talking about. concussion like symptoms, white matter track changes. hearing loss, brain damage, that's not bad psychogenic illness. but that's just not true. if you look at the 2018 journal, the american medical association study, even before that study was published, information was being linked to the press that many of the victims had these mysterious white matter track changes in their brains. about a year later, when the study finally came out,

they found only 3 patients with white matter track change. it's if you go on the streets of moscow today, and you randomly pick 21 people, you have a similar breakdown because white matter track changes are common and everything from depression to migraine headaches, to normal aging star professor sell me. i think it's easy to understand the relatively easy to understand how something like this could have happened in the late 17th century in rural massachusetts and in the 21st century in havana. as well as frankly all over the place because american diplomats in russia, china yet not india astronomy at the united kingdom and host of other countries. while several 100 similar complaints one could possibly explain both and global scale of the problem and it's very young. they're select 50, it's

a distinct bias for the americans. sure. look, are we to believe that the russians have developed some kind of secret microwave or sonic device and are going down to columbia and targeting a home of one of the diplomats to make their family members sick? i mean, it's really absurd when you think about this. and what's happened here is people are getting confused because you've got 2 different phenomenon going on. you've got the initial case of what happened in cuba, which is a classic textbook case of mass psychogenic illness. and then you've got what's going on around the world, which is slightly different. what is mass psychogenic illness? and the other is more mass suggestion, because what happened is after the initial report of what happened in cuba, the state department issued an alert to diplomats and intelligence officers

around the world to be on the lookout for anomalous health incidence. and then the department of defense recently contacted all of its $2900000.00 service personnel and contractors to also be on the alert for anomalous health incidents and those incidents of havana syndrome. as you mentioned before, things like difficulty concentrating, insomnia memory problems. there are so vague as to be experienced by just about everyone who has ever lived in any given week. right. and so now people all over the world who are military personnel, or intelligence officers or diplomats working for the american government, are now on the lookout for these anomalous health incidence. and literally, people are getting up in the morning and sneezing and attributing it to van a syndrome a mean because it's so vague. now, even if it's, even if it's

a case of mass hysteria, i think it definitely deserves to be dealt with. and people may me professional how, but i would guess that it's efficiency would depend on what you stipulate or hypothesize to be the main cause and how close it is to reality. you have worked on this case for quite some time on i confident then that american officials at this point can afford to pursue science with an open mind on the best interests of the victims at har. absolutely notch. because what you got here is a case of science mixing with politics. let me give you an example. recently senator mark or rubio came out and said anybody who advocates the mass psychogenic illness, explanation it's quackery. and what's really disingenuous,

they're in really upsetting for someone like myself, was advocated that is there are 2 sick work reports, classified reports that came out. one was in 2018, the secret jason group, which is a group of a lead us scientists who looked at microwave radiation. and the most likely explanation in that report was only released recently under the freedom of information act. and they concluded that best psychogenic illness played a major role, and it was virtually impossible to be microwaves. the other classified report was that done by the f b i. it's never been released, but it was recently leaked, and their conclusion was, it wasn't microwaves. it was mass psychogenic, illness, and people like marco rubio would have known full well that these 2 classified reports were there. they would have been familiar with the contents. and at the

same time that they knew those reports were there many officials in the u. s. government have been peddling the microwave free effect claim and that it's not vast psychogenic illness which is just very disingenuous on their part. now, while the psychic janica origin hypothesis is being discouraged, as you say, the media is right for speculation that it was indeed an act of aggression by the russians. so i saw that the washington post reported recently that they had of the cia william burns. mentioned that this issue raised this issue during the talks with his russian colleagues here in moscow and reported me even threatened some state to state action. the americans, for one reason or another conclude that it was indeed the work of the russians. she's even more frightening than the n s. i could jenny gong, mark massey, syria hypothesis given the military potential on both sides. absolutely. and

it's very, very concerning. i mean, if you look at the national academy of sciences report, which came out and december of 2020, you would expect that to be a dispassionate science if analysis. if you look at the people on that panel, they had no experts on mass psychogenic illness and they had no experts on folks. microwave radiation, which were the 2 main explanations that they were looking at. a friend of mine, simon wesley kings college london, was initially on that panel. he is a world authority, a mass psychogenic illness. he gave an interview in which he stated that he thought it was possible that mass psychogenic illness could explain what was going on based on what he had seen. after that, they kicked him off the panel. so what you're seeing here is a mixture of science and politics. the other thing that's interesting is pamela. spry, one, the former ambassador to

a couple of different countries was name by joe biden. as the head of the panel investigating of an, a central for the u. s government. and recently she was on a zoom call with several of anna syndrome patients. and one of them asked her, they said, what about the f. b i report which was leaked and they said it was mass hysteria. you don't believe that, do you? and she said, well, i'm holding open the possibility of mast psychogenic illness. right. after that, there was an outcry in she was forced to step down and people were saying things like, we're not crazy. you know, we're not mentally ill with that's not what mass psychogenic illnesses, mass psychogenic, illness doesn't mean that you're crazy. it is a collective stress response based on a belief. and everyone has beliefs and everyone is potentially susceptible. but professor sell me. that's what i am. lucas, so how cool?

because, you know, you mentioned several in fact several sounds and examples though there is i could get it illnesses and some of them rise sporadically, but in most cases there are some be sitting conditions that will benefit. hi, i'm dan. chase is usually used by a certain political motivations. if that's indeed the case with has on ascension, that is being handled both scientifically and administratively with a certain political agenda in mind. my question is, what would possibly be gained from handling it this way? because i simply don't see having biden administration could benefit from, you know, hundreds if not thousands of diplomatic personnel coming out with some strange symptoms. asking for compensation, let alone are raising tensions. another nuclear power. you mentioned important work,

their compensation because lawyers have now become involved and you're going to see tens of thousands of cases all over the world. now an american service personnel wanting to be potentially compensated. you know, that's a very important aspect to a van, a syndrome now, because the symptoms are so vague and they are found all over the place. you know, there's an interesting case that happened in 1954 in the united states in the pacific northwest, where the u. s. was doing testing of the atomic bomb in the pacific ocean. and a rumor started that fallout was coming down on the pacific northwest, particularly in the region of seattle, washington, and people started to see these pit marks on their windscreen. and it became so concerning that the governor of washington state owned president

eisenhower and asked for assistance in an investigation was conducted. and the researchers concluded that people started looking at their wind screens instead of through their wind screens as they normally do. and there's a similar parallel here with an a syndrome because people have anomalous health issues all the time. but now, any time a diplomat or an american service personnel has some type of help incident, it's automatically looked at in a new frame. that this may be a syndrome and you know, the other reason why i think this is so much a political issue is the word and the word here is embarrassing. that thing that the u. s. government, under trunk,

and now buying have miss identified the mating calls of crickets and sa cadence, because that's what actually happened when they looked at these recordings that people and now they huge potential cost john pack. let's take a very short break right now, but we will begin right on that after short breaks. ah . is your media a reflection of reality? in the world transformed? what will make you feel safer? isolation for community. are you going the right way, or are you being that somewhere? direct? what is true? what is faith?

in the world corrupted, you need to descend a join us in the depths or remain in the shallows. ah ah! with bring you the very latest every out the day. this is awesome. now snow from everyone here with her. mm.

ah one come back to was the 1st with very 1st film you are all on a engine mass, psychogenic, illness and the story behind the mystery. and hysteria, professor, sell me, you mentioned the making a that potential hypothesis i think, was initially suggested by the by the cubans. and while it sounds a bit funny, you know, the, the issue i have with it is that if you go back to those initial i cases the, the whole case i originated that the low level of c i, a officials and have on them. but they were supposedly affected, not that the embassy compound, but rather at 2 large hotels. and i think that residential building or something where people of other nationalities are also present if that was indeed the evil

doing of cekada or the natural behavior when they're foreigners be effective as well. you know, in cases of vast psychogenic illness, it's important to understand the historical. busy context in november of 2016, the c i, a officers walking near their homes and havana and hearing the strange sounds. they weren't sure what to make of them. and they said that it was almost like a beam of sound being pointed at their homes. in late december of 20161 of them had your pain and headache and he went to the embassy clinic, which is very common symptoms. and afterwards he made it unusual comment. he said, you know, it's almost like someone is pointing a beam of sound at my home at night. and they didn't think too much of that. but

then a couple of other officers mentioned the same thing. and then this theory developed that the russians, or maybe the chinese were pointing some new acoustical device at the americans as a form of harassment. and what's really interesting here is when more recently you've had claims of microwave radiation and the fray effect, it's not the fray effect. we know that now, because in 2018, a top secret classified report of a lead scientist called the jason group, looked at the possibility of the fray effect. and these scientists eliminated the fray effect because what, what happened was of the 1st 21 victims, 8 of them reported their attack. now, if it's microwaves,

you can't record the microwaves because they're not a sound the microwaves. bombard your head and stimulate a nerve in your ear or rain. there's a debate as to which one it is, and you get the perception of a barely discernable clicking sound. but the for the that's right. and when they looked at the recordings of those 8 recordings, they concluded that they were the maiden calls of these short tail cricket. and some other recordings that were done turned out to appear to be assessed as cicadas . so it's just not possible. i mentioned the tailor which trials before, many historians knows that that say one village was known for its world and factious population. there were many arguments over property and raising right as well as over value. it was a highly pure and righteous society. now,

given the level of political flores ation in the united states, especially following the election of donald trump, when some of those 1st reports of the have been john occurred. do you think it may have been a factor in the emergence of this here? well, this is a case of a bad journalism, bad government and bad science. there really should be an investigation of the journal of the american medical association and how they ever published the 2 studies they did. my 1st career was as a journalist. about 40 years ago in the united states. and, you know, one journalist look into stories like this. you can't be an expert on everything, acoustical weapons, or microwaves or all this other stuff. so you have to rely on experts. but in this case, the experts at the journal of the american medical association have really let us

down. i don't know how those studies were ever published in the 1st books. well, you would be blame on one journal, but you know, as a, as a journalist who has been covering american politics over the last 5 years. and, you know, look at the case of the whole russian gate and the narrative that it was essentially the crime. linda has installed donald trump in the white house and you know, whatever was the level of russian interference in the american elections, it definitely wouldn't have raised to the level of, you know, electing a president for a country of more than 300000000 in the it's pretty much every american major, mainstream american outlet run with this story. so, and by the way, it was also the democrats, the democrats from made the conscious decision to portray from as a russian agent. they knew it wasn't the case. we know that from the weaklings, but they made a conscious public relations decision as a way of, you know,

destroying his image. i wonder the biden administration is dealing, what essentially it saw it's on, and it's a fairly light case at this point. a big issue that's going on right now, it's very frustrating to me as so many news organizations in so many leaks of officials and in american government. he pushing this idea that the diplomats in cuba had brain damage. if you can show me that they had brain damage, i'll resign my position in the department of psychological benson often. university . this absolutely unequivocally, not the case. what happened was in 2019, the journal of the american medical association publish the study, which looked at the small cohort of patients in cuba. and they found brain anomalies. brain anomalies are not the same as brain damage. it's very common

in small groups. when you look at brain scans to find vine or anomalies, and these anomalies were very minor and they have conflated anomalies with brain damage. it is not been found whatsoever that there was brain damage in the diploma action. cuba, but it keeps getting reported over and over again. you so diplomatically avoided my direct question about the manipulation of, of the narrative. i'm the, that's your ride, but i wanted to say i can rephrase my question a little bit because i think the level of psychological flores ation in the united states is very fine. this, this is what allows for such psychogenic infections to originate. and brad, very rapidly. what do you foresee another case, this slide about, chart cur,

for example, the q or non conspiracy. do think it's, it's sad by the then the lar, psychic energy, do you think they maybe are the cases when people will be easily led to believe that somebody is out there trying to break them or cause them damage? yet look, it's very concerning what's going on with the american government in with the american media and how they have handled this case. and the situation is right for an incubation of further cases like this. you know, at some point you have to listen to science and the scientists, and that's not the case here. the national academy of sciences, the senate foreign relations committee, they interviewed mostly believers. where are the skeptics? the national academy of sciences didn't interview many of the skeptics. the

prominent skeptics who had been speaking on this case and the same with the senate foreign relations committee. and there's this misunderstanding out here that mass psychogenic illness is somehow some kind of mental disorder or calling people crazy . it is absolutely not the case. and people, i would assume i need somehow dealing with that because after all are being posted somewhere, overseas is indeed a stressful job. and maybe if people are so susceptible to those theories, maybe they need help. now i have time for just one question and i want to ask you about the media because i know that before your single out the media as a, as a main driver and amplifier of the psychogenic illnesses. and it's very interesting that the point of view made that people are now wanting in line now using social media and media to relieve that psychic stress the way they used to go,

for example, to the church, but instead of being discharged. the stress is being collectively accumulated, it's sort of, you know, continuous that it's infectious power. can you talk more about that? what would possibly be done to prevent this isolated case of psychogenic illness from spreading all around the globe among let's say, a one countries, diplomatic personnel or even bigger groups yet? well, there's a danger here for the future, and we have to get our house in order in the united states army, us citizen. i'm a new zealand. simpson. and it's really embarrassing to me when you have such partisanship out there. and now on both sides coming together on this, and they have not looked at the science and they haven't listened to the mainstream scientist. i'm not a rogue scientist, i'm a straight down the line, mainstream scientists. and those studies in the journal,

the american medical association, any neurologist or medical doctor worth their salt, takes the time to examine those studies. those studies are very flawed, and we need to listen to mainstream science. but unfortunately, the waters have been muddy bipartisan politics. and it's destroying the united states of america, and we've saw the last few years. and it's very concerning. it's very alarming. and it's, it's disturbing. well, let's hope that somebody will take a lesson or 2 from this. very interesting and yes, funny. although, as we discussed before, it would be pretty dangerous, given that this issue is now being discussed with been the military intelligence of russia, the united states, but all the nuclear capabilities that they have. anyway, professor told me we have to live in there. thank you very much for being with us.

thank you. and thank you for watching hope to see you again next week. when will the part? ah ah, it's an open secret that private military companies have been playing a role in our conflicts world wide. u. s. government doesn't track the number of contractors and uses in places iraq or afghanistan, the united states army and the military and general is so reliance on the private sector. i would call that dependency,

but we don't know who's the on the ground presence of these companies overseas. we just don't out west and private military companies can in their turn use so cool subcontractors from countries with trouble pass. the chances are quite good that they had also been child diligence processes. i was a child, as well as my job professional job is, is with the whole one full according to the fact that that with, with no food, no minimum own wall, which i mean to be merciless killing machines. now they fight and die in other people's was people carol, lot one or a dead soldier or dead marine shows up in this country and we start asking yourself, why did they die? why, what were they fighting for? nobody bothers down to about the contractors in

with canada as a prime minister is reportedly rushed to a safe evacuation side as more than 10000 truckers and their supporters gather outside parliament to protest against vaccine mandates. well, canadian state media tries to blame russia for the unrest. we got a report from the protest on parliament hill in ottawa. hey, i'm surrounded by some stocks right now. i'm turning right in front of parliament. there is an absolute unyielding determination on the part of the doctors and not leave until all the madness about canada or god. and the stories that shaped the week mid rising tensions in europe ukraine dominates both.