The Sounds of Manipulation (Let the Bodies Hit the Floor)

Rayguns being used to control the masses, hidden radio frequency towers and a couple who constantly hears a strange noise that cannot be placed. Are these plot points in a new sci-fi novel? What is all this noise stuff about? These are not the sounds of music but the sounds of manipulation.

My last post was about the positive effects of musicians who strive for excellence and put on a good show. This post is about the exact opposite: how sounds can also be used to influence people in an entirely different manner. Now don't think that I'm about to get all Tipper on you and say that Ozzy or Jello Biafra must be censored. C'mon now, you know me better than that. Let me go through a seemingly unrelated series of discoveries so that maybe you can bounce up to my idea bubble.

1. Years ago, our friend Charles mentioned to Vincent and me that sounds were being used to manipulate people. Charles is an amazing musician, DJ, artist, and is light years ahead of many of us in the thinking department, so I trusted what he said, although I wasn't sure what he meant. I figured, okay, I can see that some music causes people to act one way, other music has a different effect, and people have probably studied that and made certain choices based on that. After all, we have certain kinds of music being played when we go shopping in certain places, when I was kickboxing the trainers played a certain kind of music to get us pumped (and it worked). This, and his own general brilliance, influenced Vincent to write a poem about how different sounds have different effects on us. But this idea was pretty much left at that. Until...

2. ...we moved to San Antonio. As I've mentioned before, San Antonio is a military town and, in my opinion, decisions are made in order to keep people in a military frame of mind. The main thing that I've noticed is that if you look at our free radio stations, we only have one jazz station and it was only started about two or three years ago, if I heard the DJ correctly. There are a ton of hard rock, classic rock, and metal stations. Now, I like this music and I don't think that in and of itself, it causes people to be violent, okay? That is not what I am writing here. However, because this music is played repeatedly and the actual selection of songs is limited, it does tend to limit ideas. When Vincent and I initially had people over to our place or drove new friends around, they had no idea what we were playing on our stereo or car MP3. They literally had less access to ideas. Furthermore, the kinds of repeated songs are of the "Let the Bodies Hit the Floor" nature. I used to really like that song, until I heard it for the 500th time in less than a few months. I mean, it's old and they still play it out here. But finally, what we must consider is that there is no alternative, literally. It's either pop hits, country/Tejano, or the rock I write of. There is an "alternative program" on one of the low end stations, and I never know exactly when it is going to be there or how long it is going to last, although the schedule posted claims to have a lot more than the bluegrass music I usually hear. Now, the importance of this hit home while watching "Stop-Loss" last night. One of the prominently featured songs was, you guessed it, "Let the Bodies Hit the Floor." Who would've thought that music that was supposed to be counterculture would actually become useful to the military? I've heard that they even use Rage Against the Machine music when torturing, er, um, questioning detainees of the military (note the posts at the link).

3. The Blue Boogie, our loft, needed to detain some of its own prisoners when we first moved in. We had a bug problem. Nothing serious or gross, just annoying. We had a ton of little fruit flies that would get drunk on our dollar. Not kidding. We'd leave a wine glass to go get something across the room and little flies would be swimming around in the glass seconds later. I thought it was funny but this was not where I was going to live. A loft is cool, but I got standards. Bombing the place didn't work and we didn't like the idea of harsh chemicals possibly affecting us or our kitties, so we bought these little Black and Decker items that scare away bugs and rodents by emitting sounds at a frequency that disorients the little buggers. It worked! Occasionally, we get a resurgence but once they hang about and hear the noise, they all die and/or leave. I casually asked Vincent one day if these little wall units could have an affect on us, or if there were different items somewhere that had a freaky frequency just for humans. We knew the answer to that one.

4. Activate, a good little email newsletter, sent me a link to this article. Basically, a company has made a device that can beam microwave sounds into our heads. The article speculates how it will be used. Military functions are primary, but they are not opting out of possible uses for advertisers. Some experts complain about fried brains, but hey, we're already doing that.

5. Vincent and I have always been against the idea of government-tracking devices (cell phones) but due to the horrendous looks we get when we travel and have to borrow a line, I ended up buying one that I just use when on trips. However, even if you don't own one, you may be exposed to towers that connect these devices and what effect these towers have on your brain remains to be seen. Charles sent me this link on the hidden towers (The news report begins at 1:15; I also recommend looking at the video on GMOs hidden ingredient and TV, the drug of the nation). Now, when you look at the video on these towers, it is important to note that these radio frequency beams are often hidden in church towers. Yes, it brings in revenue for the church, but the place is what struck me when I read...

6. ...this article today. It goes to show you that even Yahoo! can have a decent article every now and then if you know what to look for. Leona and her husband cannot concentrate and even have trouble sleeping because of a weird noise. The noise started after their local church had some work done. No one seems to want to give them an answer as to where the noise is coming from.

So all this info., 1-6, spells something pretty obvious to me. Sound, that we may or may not be aware of, will soon be used or is already being used to influence us. Perhaps one day this will be more obvious to all or perhaps it will become wallpaper, background fuzz that isn't even heard anymore. Kind like how cell phones were once obvious, something to giggle at or be annoyed by but are now a part of the elaborately designed wallpaper, background, not even offensive at the dinner table. What will these frequencies be used for? What are they already being used for? How have they already influenced our actions? How do we counteract it if we don't even know exactly what to counteract? Do they just make us sleepy? Or do they keep us working? Or do they keep us apathetic or self-centered? Do they keep us from fighting or do they cause fights?

Any ideas? Or is that what these frequencies have already limited?