Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Hurting Head


At the heart of much speculative fiction (and fiction in general) is a question. What if? On Tuesdays I like to throw one out there and see what you make of it. Do with it as you please. If a for-instance is not specified, feel free to interpret that instance as you wish. And if you find this becomes a novel-length answer, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements. ðŸ˜‰

Have you been watching In Search Of on the History Channel? They've done some interesting topics.

A couple weeks ago, the topic was mind control. And they talked about an incident from 2016 when various diplomats in Cuba mysteriously began having concussion symptoms with no apparent cause. (Here's a write up from the New York Times and one from NBC News.)

Take a look at one or both of those articles. I'll wait...

Okay, back now? Here's this week's question:

What if, while travelling someplace, you suddenly developed a headache and other possible concussion symptoms? Do you begin to wonder? Or do you dismiss it as something that just happened due to being out of your usual routine?

In case you'd like to see the episode in which the story was brought up (it was sometime in the second half)...

24 comments:

  1. I didn't know they were running that show again. I remember watching the original with Leonard Nimoy.
    I'd probably dismiss it as just travel. Besides, who would want to target me?

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    1. I really dug Leonard Nimoy's In Search Of.

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    2. They updated it well. Definitely worth the watch.

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  2. Oh, my gosh. I have so much to say here. ~grin~ First, I remember the 2016 incident. Since I didn't read the articles you kindly supplied, I don't know if you have heard they discovered the cause to be microwave weaponry. It's what my husband and I suspected, actually. Scary stuff.

    I remember the original "In Search Of..." How ironic Zachary Quinto is once again filling a role made famous by Leonard Nemoy! Too funny.

    As for me, I'd probably chalk up such symptoms to something mundane. Be well!

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    1. In the episode, they posit that it was attempted mind control. I had not heard about the incident at the time.

      When the show started, the write ups were all about how Quinto was once again reprising something made famous by Nimoy. However, Quinto is actually a producer on the show, so he has a bit more say than Nimoy did in the original.

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  3. I'm very good at dismissing, suppressing and avoiding a trip to the doctor's office, so I'd most probably go on with my life and hope for a good night's sleep to cure it all.

    Very, very spooky and scary story, though. I wonder what influence they have been exposed to? A UFO landing?

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    1. The episode was on mind control, so they were wondering if it was some experiment gone awry. Or perhaps it succeeded... :-O

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  4. Wow, that was really weird to read about. I hadn't heard of it before. What would be really strange is not knowing why one was feeling like that.

    I think I would dismiss it that I was just out of my routine if I had similar symptoms but if they continued, then I probably would want to get checked out.

    betty

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  5. Since I have frequent migraines and had a concussion Jan. 2017, I would dismiss that as "Oh, not another one".

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  6. Huh, it's hard to say. I do get headaches from random things, but I'm also very paranoid...

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  7. I have to watch this because I used to watch it with Leonard Nimoy. Knowing me, I would just chalk it up to overwork or travel or whatever:)

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    1. It's a 10-episode season. You should totally check it out.

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  8. That's an interesting incident. We have no idea what the unknown weapons are, to which one was used on the staff. I don't think it's far-fetched, although it's also possible the staff has made up the story to cover up something.

    What would I do? If there are other people saying the same thing, I would suspect there's something foul at play.

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  9. Probably would have chalked it up as it just being me...being tired, jet lag or something but since the reports in the past have seemed to suggest other stuff I think my mind would go there now.

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    1. I guess the question was: does this now make you paranoid? Because I'm sneaky that way ;)

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    2. yes, I would say that if I had a funny experience I would be paranoid now....course I look at it this way, if it is a way to read my mind...haha, the joke is on them! Nothing there to learn.

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    3. It was more about mind control, not mind reading. Mind reading is a whole 'nother topic.

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    4. Haha....be easy to control and take over this mind!

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  10. Thanks, Liz for sharing this one. Interesting. I should watch the series.

    Regarding that Cuban incident, coincidentally, today there's news again regarding the suspected role of the Russians.

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latin-america/u-s-officials-suspect-russia-mystery-attacks-diplomats-cuba-china-n908141

    If something similar happened to me personally, I would dismiss it, at least initially, that it's a freak one-off incident, triggered by exhaustion or some such thing.

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  11. I've heard this all over the news from when it first started to happen in Cuba. If I was just traveling, I'd chalk it up to travel stress. By the way, there has been a mysterious hum in a community near Rochester, NY - you may want to Google that.

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    1. This may be part of "the hum", not what is happening to U.S. Embassy employees: https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2018/06/01/mysterious-hum-worldwide-rochester-finger-lakes-region-highland-park-taos-bristol-windsor-kokomo/633829002/

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    2. Interesting... I had not heard about this. I wonder what it is.

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I appreciate your comments.

I respond to comments* via email, unless your profile email is not enabled. Then, I'll reply in the comment thread. Eventually. Probably.

*Exception: I do not respond to "what if?" comments, but I do read them all. Those questions are open to your interpretation, and I don't wish to limit your imagination by what I thought the question was supposed to be.