The 3 Best Explanations for the Havana Syndrome

The Havana Syndrome was first reported in 2016, but by now more than two dozen cases have been reported all over the world, not only in Cuba but also in Russia, India, Austria and the USA. In this video, I go through the 3 most plausible explanations that have been put forward: mass hysteria, microwaves, and ultrasound, and discuss what speaks for and against them.

The BBC article about the recent case in India which I mention in the intro is here:

The paper with the brain scan results is here:

The recent article in the NYT that I mention is here:

The article in the Guardian about the size of sonic weapons is here:

The book by James Lin is here:

And his recent paper here:

The paper which compared the AP recording to cricket sounds is here:

0:00 Intro
2:18 Mass Hysteria
6:08 Microwaves
10:32 Ultrasound
11:41 So, well
13:12 Sponsor Message

#science

[JanBruunAndersen]

I am not surprised. I too would get a headache and feel dizzy if I was tasked with defending and explaining US policies to foreigners.

[catserver]

I suffer from tinnitus for about twelve years. At first I thought I was hearing fluorescent lighting, electrical devices, or that medication was making the sound (aspirin, acetaminophen, etc.). After telling my doctor about it, because it had become quite loud, they diagnosed tinnitus. I was amazed that no one else was hearing this constant tone. That it was coming from inside my head. It was explained that they believe the hearing loss I have has eliminated a tone or tones my ear no longer can hear, and my brain is "filling in" the tones it thinks should be there. Indiscriminately. Curiously, when I said sometimes it bothered me so much I wished I was deaf, the audiologist said that even deaf people can hear it. I asked a deaf friend if she had ever known of a deaf person with tinnitus, and she herself had it (things can always be worse).
By the way, the sound on the sample you played is very close to the frequency of my tinnitus. Some have theorized that there are some therapeutic benefits to listening to the frequency or frequencies one hears on a regular basis to dampen the daily sound. Also many have said a specific diet or supplements or even meditation can resolve the problem. None of these have resolved this for me, however, it's still 24/7 constant whine in my head. I was also told I would eventually not notice it, and I am still waiting for that to happen.
I don't know what is going on with the Havana Syndrome folks, but I can relate to some of the torment. Regardless of where it comes from, I have to say I will be mighty pissed off if it comes out that something man made caused this. Thank you for your analysis and for giving many scenarios as to what might be going on.

[Richardincancale]

Some other microwave sources in US embassies: 1. Use of satellite comms gear to link back to US (I worked for one of their providers). 2. Many embassies include NSA receiving equipment for monitoring local mobile phone networks and other radio comms, the use of countermeasures to reduce the collection efficiency by jamming is not unknown. 3. On-site communications using encrypted UHF radios.

[Mobius]

My dad worked for the ADT company and installed ultrasonic devices in security facilities in the '80s and '90s. These were to disrupt "enemy" laser devices which could be focused on the exterior windows and listen to people inside the facility. The security devices were an adaptation of the normal ultrasonic motion detectors. We had some at our home and I could hear them. But, most people could not. So the problem could be self inflicted or the inside ultrasonics were being interfered with by exterior ultrasonics.

[timsims]

Hello Sabine, I’m not a scientist and my education is only at a high school level. However I admire your inquisitive mind and insightful point of view. Your video presentation is superior to most of what I see on YouTube. And even though I struggle to grasp the concepts of your lectures I always come away with some precious piece of knowledge!😎🍀⭐️

[joshuascholar]

I remember that a cold war case was based on using microwaves for surveillance in an embassy.
The embassy had been giving a bust of an eagle as a gift and, since it passed inspection, it was placed on the mantlepiece.
But its secret was that it had been designed to be a microphone that modulated a signal from a maser passing through it. A maser being a radio frequency laser, creating the radio equivalent to laser light, ie single frequency, both spatially and temporally coherent and in a focusable beam (these are redundant qualities, but it makes it clearer what you can do with it).
I guess it was the Russians, I don't remember - beaming radio waves through the embassy and picking them up on the other side so they could record conversations inside the embassy.
But the beam was strong enough to harm people who got in its way.

[zakleclaire]

When my dad was in the Navy he was a flightdeck troubleshooter and plane captain for an electronic warfare squadron. One of the "pods" that was often attached to planes was, for all intents and purposes, a massive EM generator that put out so much power that it fry its own control circuits with the EM pulses it put out. If the pilot couldnt eject the pod before landing on the deck, they would have to turn off the majority of their electrical systems on the carrier to make sure nothing got permanently damaged and the troubleshooter was *supposed to* suit up in a specialty EM resistant suit that looked like an EOD bombsuit. During a wargames simulation, an EM pod fried itself and they needed to get that plane down and they system off as fast as possible. My dad, being young and dumb, didnt bother with the suit and just sprinted out and yanked the power cable as fast as he could. Immediately after pulled the cable, he puked his guts out and was sick for the next day with headaches, nausea, hearing shit that wasnt there, and all kinda of weird symptoms.

[mityador]

You don't need to assume many incompetent spies for the ultrasound hypothesis at all. Multiple otherwise quite competent secret agencies trying to eavesdrop at the same time (without knowing or coordinating with each other) could lead to the same result as well. Given the position of the US in the international relations, it seems quite plausible to me.

[MartianSolarbuddy]

You sure touched a hot button with this episode! Last year I donated a device to the International Spy Museum in Washington DC that was powered by remote microwave beams and would re-broadcast local conversations in the VHF range. But as an old radar hand, I completely doubt the microwave explanation. Thanks for a very balanced analysis.

[al_lahn]

Sabine has quickly risen to the top of my list of favorite scientists on YouTube.

[PaulMontgomery]

The sound recording is very similar to what I would sometimes hear around an ultrasonic device used to measure water levels in a flume at water treatment plants. The device was made by Fisher Porter Co which uses an ultrasonic transducer mounted inside a fiberglass horn to direct the energy. The noises I heard were produced inside a concrete pit and could only be heard in particular areas inside this pit. My conclusion was that the ultrasonic sounds from the transmitter were being bounced off the walls of the pit and at certain places within the pit, an interference pattern was being set up that resulted in sounds within the human hearing range.

[sageinit]

Here is a VERY IMPORTANT & very little known quote by the person which discovered the microwave hearing *&* the skull vibration effect (which aren't the same thing) back during the advent of radar, Allan H. Frey, who posted this in 1996 on Usenet:
"There is a microwave hearing effect that occurs at very low power densities and a skull vibration effect that occurs when very high energies are applied to the head. There is some confusion in the literature because the vibration effect has often been referred to as a microwave hearing effect, but it is not the same phenomena."

99.9% of literature on this fails to account for this distinction, most shameful of all the, albeit not quite traditional literature, Mythbusters episode on the subject

[billkelly]

Patient: It hurts when I touch it.
Doctor: Don't touch it.

Patient: It hurts when I press here, it hurts when I press, there, and it hurts when I press over there.
Doctor: You have a broken finger.

[Uffeful]

Spying is interesting. In Sweden we had issues with sounds under water that sounds like a submarine. Our navy gathered marine life scientists and they said it was herring farts. That earned them a ignoble prize. And in the end we had a Whiskey on the rocks :)

[craigiedema]

I suffer a psychosomatic reaction to a few triggers that cause me to gag. I know it's 'all in my head' I'm acutely aware that my reaction has nothing to do with anything physically wrong - yet the symptoms, which are very real, persist none the less. I think we have to careful in equating psychosomatic with imagined.

[illogicmath]

My deepest congratulations to you Sabine for your nice message to the patrons. This did seem to me a very balanced message where initially you thank all the patrons equally and then you thank especially the tier 4 patrons, which I think is an excellent gesture on your part.

[atklm]

Microwaves and ultrasound waves are very easy to detect. I would imagine that they have such sensors in embassies already. I think it wouldn't be too difficult to make a wrist watch that could tell, if not in high detail, but easily if abnormal microwaves or ultrasound is present.

[darioinfini]

I'd like to add my personal experience with related phenomenon. Decades ago I had a neighbor who would play OBNOXIOUSLY loud music at middle of the night parties during work nights. It was the kind of volume that said we DGAF about anybody, so there was little point in complaining. As an electrical engineer at the time, and also having significant passive aggressive tendencies, I set out to build an ultrasonic sound system to invoke "behavioral modification". That is, to project a directed audio beam into their backyard with controllable frequency (from the ear piercing high frequency end all the way to the ultrasonic range) and adjustable power level. The idea was when they played their music loud I would turn on what I came to call the "Sonic Disruptor" to painful levels. They would experience headaches and would turn down the music. I would accordingly turn down my Sonic Disruptor. In this way I proposed to modify their behavior covertly so as to produce more peaceable results in the neighborhood.

The system I built consisted of a control box with a long cable going out my bedroom to a tree in my backyard and intercepting a shotgun plexiglass asembly with two high powered tweeters within. That way I could hang that assembly in the tree and being mostly transparent would not be noticed.

I took the thing to work to demonstrate to my coworkers and they all said to turn it off, either in the hearable range or in the ultrasonic range where it created pressure in the ear without sound thereby causing confusion and discomfort.

The irony is that by the time I was ready to install it and put it to use -- THE OFFENDING NEIGHBORS MOVED OUT!! So I never got a chance to use it in "combat" so to speak.

Anyway, when I heard this story when it first broke that's what came to mind. Someone is playing psychological games with people using near ultrasonic audio.

[MaryAnnNytowl]

Very interesting video, Sabine! A lot of interesting stuff covered in it. Hadn't heard of the Frey effect. I had heard that brain changes had been found in the ones suffering from the Havana Syndrome, but hadn't seen anything with nearly as much detail as is found here, either.

You rock, Sabine!

[sibbyeskie]

We know that adversaries are developing ‘psychotropic’ weapons. I mean, this little grey computer in our heads is almost certainly more vulnerable to concentrated energy/interference than we hope. The good news is wifi telepathy in some sense might be possible. The bad news is wifi telepathy might be possible