Psychotronics
conceptOccult & Esoteric · Defense & Military-Industrial
Everyone in this story reaches for mind power, and every single one of them ends up using a radio.
Who they are
The term of art in American military writing of the 1970s and early 1980s for mind acting directly on matter. Defined by Lieutenant Colonel John B. Alexander in the Army's own journal in December 1980; already in official use by July 1972.
What they do
Thought moving or changing physical things. Alexander also calls it bioenergetics and claims there are weapons already working on this principle.
How it works
Watch what each document does with it rather than arguing about whether it works. Alexander defines it in December 1980. 'From PSYOP to MindWar', written to answer him, calls the whole category weak, imprecise and narrow and switches to television and radio. Paulson, two years earlier with no clearance, teaches telepathy and then wires his network with short wave radio.
Why it matters
Three reaches for the mind, three substitutions to broadcast, three sets of sources with nothing in common. The pattern is not that any of them proved mind powers. It is that all three arrived at the same ordinary instrument — a transmitter pointed at a population — and only one of them had a government behind it.
The engine's record — word for word
Term of art in US military writing of the 1970s-80s for mind acting on matter. Defined in alexander_new_mental_battlefield_1980: psychotronics 'may be described as the interaction of mind and matter', also called bioenergetics, with the claim of 'weapons systems that operate on the power of the mind and whose lethal capacity has already been demonstrated.' Already in official use by July 1972: ST-CS-01-169-72 lists psychotronics among the terms used for parapsychology, and notes its own scope 'does not permit a discussion of psychotronic genera[tors].'
Engine read: the recordable pattern is not whether it works, it is that every document of the window picks the category up and puts it down. Alexander defines it (Dec 1980). mindwar, written to answer him, calls it 'weak, imprecise, and narrow' and routes to television + radio. paulson_collective_screen teaches telepathy and then wires the network with short wave radio. Three reaches for the mind, three substitutions to broadcast, three disjoint bibliographies. Runs concurrent with the funded programme (stargate).
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