WantToKnow.info: All News

Childhood Origins of Altered States in Adults

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Research by Donna M. Thomas at the University of Lancashire ... found that children ages 4 to 5 often describe consciousness as something holistic and love-infused—a connective force linking them to family, nature, and even a purposeful universe. Notably, they do not equate consciousness with an individual “me.” By ages 10 or 11, however, this shifts. Children begin to define consciousness as “I-ness”—an inner presence distinct from roles, relationships, or passing thoughts. In a recent preprint, Donna Thomas and I teamed up to explore the striking parallels between these early exceptional experiences and adults’ pursuit of altered states of consciousness (ASCs). While children may slip naturally into states of self-transcendence or extrasensory sensitivity, adults often rely on “gateway tools” to revisit similar territory—meditation, prayer, breathwork, psychedelics, or other consciousness-altering practices. Using the eight core ASC dimensions identified by Larry Fort and colleagues (2025), we found compelling phenomenological overlaps. Children’s reports of expanded awareness, boundary dissolution, and timelessness look surprisingly similar to adult descriptions of altered states. Whether we interpret these reports metaphorically or metaphysically, one thing is striking: The altered states many adults work hard to induce may share deep roots with the natural modes of awareness that characterize early childhood.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on the nature of reality.

- Psychology Today

What is it like to die? The reassuring science of near-death experiences

Sat, 07 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

It’s hard to listen to accounts of people who’ve had [near-death] experiences and not be moved. Leanda Pringle from Connecticut had a NDE a little over 15 years ago, brought about by a double kidney infection. She experienced floating above her body and felt a sense of being everywhere and nowhere at the same time. “I’ve no idea how long I was floating in that abyss before I began to feel a presence,” she recalls. “As it got closer I began to feel immense bliss. It was beyond anything I had ever felt before in my life. It’s very hard to put that feeling into words. It was as if I was intertwined with it, but at the same time it felt as if it was hugging me.” Tommy McDowell, a retired army veteran from Texas, spent seven days on a ventilator after suffering multiple organ failure induced by sepsis. During that time, he had a NDE that involved feeling a powerful sense of goodness. “It was a transformational presence of peace, comfort, serenity, love and home,” he says. “I was no longer confused. I was no longer alone.” He also saw a cloud of crystallised light that invited him towards it. As he entered, “I could feel embedded trauma, regret and loss washing away from my back and shoulders.” Reflecting on what happened, Tommy says, “I experienced the presence of God. It was overwhelming and occurred in a way that I just don’t have language to fully describe.” By now, scientists have collected thousands of similar testimonies from people who have lived through a NDE.

Note: For more inspiring and credible material on this topic, read our Substack investigations: How Consciousness Research Can Help Heal a Divided World and Insights from Near-Death Experiences Remind Us of Who We Are and What Unites Us. Explore more positive stories like this on near-death experiences.

- BBC News

I changed my views studying near-death experiences; consciousness isn't as we think.

Sun, 24 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

My life, at least at the beginning, followed a very traditional path. I believed science was moving us beyond religion and superstitions about life after death. But as my interest in the unexplainable grew, I started to see trends. Experts who weren't working together were finding the same results: that things science couldn't possibly explain like near-death experiences or psychic phenomena, were happening. I looked at documents from a CIA program where people were asked to send their thoughts — using just their minds — to others. The program concluded that there was a "statistically significant" success in doing this. I read multiple accounts of near-death experiences where a blind person was able to see, or a deaf person was able to hear. I reviewed stories of children who recalled past lives, and could even speak languages that they'd never been taught, at least in this lifetime. As I went to the primary sources and interviewed scientists, I felt like I had opened Pandora's box. I had always felt, and been taught, that science led us away from the paranormal. Now, that belief was turned on its head: I became convinced that science was showing us there is something bigger that can't be explained by our current scientific understanding of the universe. I've come to believe in non-local consciousness, or consciousness that originates outside our physical bodies and outside our brains. To me, this is the most scientifically sound explanation.

Note: For more inspiring and credible material on this topic, read our Substack investigations: How Consciousness Research Can Help Heal a Divided World and Insights from Near-Death Experiences Remind Us of Who We Are and What Unites Us.Explore more positive stories like this on near-death experiences.

- Business Insider

The CIA Watched Him Bend Reality With Just His Mind—Then Tried to Turn His Consciousness Into a Weapon

Sat, 09 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In 1972, American artist and psychic Ingo Swann altered the magnetic field inside a thickly shielded vacuum container located underground for several seconds—by simply thinking about it. As Harold Puthoff, a physicist with the Stanford Research Institute, witnessed the output from his magnetometer changing, he was mind-blown. There was no physical explanation for the reading changing the way it did. And as soon as Puthoff asked Swann to stop thinking about the apparatus, the unexplained changes in the magnetic field abruptly stopped. And in the early 1970s ... the U.S. government agreed. By the time Puthoff and his colleague Russel Targ, another physicist at the Stanford Research Institute ... presented their results at an international meeting on quantum physics and parapsychology, the CIA had already begun working with SRI to perform top-secret research on paranormal phenomena—primarily “remote viewing” for intelligence collection. Remote viewing refers to a type of extra-sensorial perception that involves using the mind to “see” or manipulate distant objects, people, events, or other information that are hidden from physical view. By the mid-1980s, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) took the program over, calling it “Stargate.” The DIA continued the project until the mid-1990s, when the CIA began declassifying its documents on remote viewing research to facilitate an external review of the project, and the DIA quickly followed suit.

Note: Learn more about psychic spying programs and remote viewing. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on intelligence agency corruption and the nature of reality.

- Popular Mechanics

4 alien species have been pulled from crashed UFOs, ex-government researcher claims

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The US has recovered four distinct species of extraterrestrial life from crashed UFOs. Dr. Hal Puthoff, former Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program advisor and CIA-funded researcher, made the claim alongside “Age of Disclosure” director Dan Farrah. “People who have been involved in recoveries have said there are at least four types. Four separate types,” the 89-year-old said. “Now I have not had direct access to that but I believe the people who I talked to — four separate types of life.” The Stanford-trained quantum physicist did not detail the supposed alien species — but his longtime collaborator and former AAWSAP colleague Dr. Eric Davis claimed last year that Grays, Nordics, Insectoids, and Reptilians are the names of the biological lifeforms pulled from the wreckage of downed or crashed UFOs. Each alien species has two arms and legs and a humanoid appearance, Davis claimed, citing intelligence reports. Nordics are a race of highly-human-like creatures who, despite being from a far-flung planet, closely resemble people of northern Europe. Reptilians are scaley skinned lizard-like creatures with human limbs, long tails, who walk upright. Grays are small, massive-eyed, hairless creatures. Insectoids are bug-like humanoids. Former Air Force Intelligence officer and UAP Task Force member David Grusch testified under oath in Congress in 2023 that the US was in possession of “non-human biologics” recovered from dozens of crashed UFOs.

Note: Don't miss our new video UFO Disclosure Explained: New Solutions for Humanity w/ Daniel Sheehan and Amber Yang. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on UFOs. Then explore the comprehensive resources provided in our UFO Information Center.

- New York Post

Top Scientist Jacques Vallée Says UFO Databases Logged 260,000 Sightings and 'Non-Human Creatures'

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Few names carry as much weight in the UFO world as Jacques Vallée. A respected computer scientist, astronomer and long time investigator of unidentified aerial phenomena, Vallée has advised governments and space agencies for decades. He says scientific databases linked to a defence intelligence programme logged around 260,000 screened UFO sightings and hundreds of reports involving non-human creatures. The claim is explosive not just for its scale but because Vallée speaks as someone who helped build the system himself. Vallée explains that several years ago he initiated a system of multiple databases used by a DIA sponsored programme at Bigelow Aerospace. He says he worked as a cleared member of a scientific team tasked with studying UFO and UAP phenomena. According to Vallée, the data warehouse contained approximately 260,000 screened reports of anomalous objects in flight. Crucially, he adds that the same databases also logged hundreds of reports involving creatures described as live or dead and linked to crashed or landed vehicles of unknown origin. Researchers documented a total of seven creatures. Vallée notes that all of the creatures he referenced appeared to breathe air normally. He links these descriptions to professional observations made shortly after the incidents, including anatomical and behavioural notes recorded before the death of at least one recovered entity.

Note: Dr. Jacques Vallée's work involved working closely with Dr. Allen Hynek, the scientific advisor to the US Air Force's Project Blue Book; co-developing the first computerized map of Mars for NASA in 1963; and playing a key role in the development of the early Internet. Reported UFO/UAP craft may represent far more than unexplained aerial phenomena. They could point toward breakthrough technologies capable of transforming life on Earth. A New Technological Paradigm? What UFO Disclosure Could Mean for Clean Energy, Human Consciousness, and Our Shared Future, we draw on the most reputable, verifiable, and credible sources to help you make sense of this emerging issue. For more, don't miss our new video UFO Disclosure Explained: New Solutions for Humanity w/ Daniel Sheehan and Amber Yang.

- International Business Times

Lawmaker requests UFO talk from private contractor

Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Whistleblower David Grusch, whose testimony regarding alleged secret UFO-retrieval programs kicked off a series of congressional hearings, has stated private contractors are being used to make it more difficult for lawmakers to obtain information on certain programs. “If you really want to hide something from Congress, you don’t put it in a government file cabinet. You hand it to a private contractor. That’s why my investigation is following the trail into RAND, MITRE, Aerospace Corp, MIT Lincoln Labs, and the Northrop Grummans of the world,” [Rep. Eric] Burlison said on X. The MIT Lincoln Laboratory, along with others, including MITRE, RAND, IDA, the Aerospace Corporation, JPL and Sandia, was designed in the 1940s and 1950s to retain wartime scientific capability outside the civil service. That structure has led to a network of private nonprofits with classified access that ordinary contractors do not have and that also operate one legal step removed from the executive branch. Grusch alleged in his testimony before Congress that private contractors are carrying out UFO crash-retrieval and reverse-engineering programs to shield them from congressional oversight. That has been echoed by lawmakers, including Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., one of the leading voices around UFO disclosure, who has accused the Department of Defense of siloing information to avoid questions from Congress.

Note: Reported UFO/UAP craft may represent far more than unexplained aerial phenomena. They could point toward breakthrough technologies capable of transforming life on Earth. A New Technological Paradigm? What UFO Disclosure Could Mean for Clean Energy, Human Consciousness, and Our Shared Future, we draw on the most reputable, verifiable, and credible sources to help you make sense of this emerging issue. For more, don't miss our new video UFO Disclosure Explained: New Solutions for Humanity w/ Daniel Sheehan and Amber Yang.

- NewsNation

Free Energy from the Vacuum? Warp Drive Pioneer Unveils Battery-Free ‘MicroSparc’ That Allegedly Draws Power from the Quantum Vacuum

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Casimir Inc, a company founded and led by former DARPA-funded NASA warp drive pioneer and founder of the EagleWorks Lab, Harold G. “Sonny” White, has [announced] the pending 2028 commercialization of MicroSparc, a chip that the company claims uses customized microscale geometries to capture unlimited ‘free’ energy from the quantum world. “Think: no batteries, no cords, and no charging—just continuous power from harvested quantum vacuum fields,” a company spokesperson explained. In an email to The Debrief, Dr. White ... explained that MicroSparc’s use of customized Casimir cavities, which his team had researched with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), does not violate the laws of physics. Instead, the noted advanced propulsion physics researcher said their MicroSparc design leverages 20th-century discoveries in quantum physics, such as quantum tunneling and Casimir cavities, to capture usable energy that could fuel small, low-power electronics in the near future. Its technology can potentially be scaled to power cars, homes, or even entire cities without the need for harmful fossil fuels or other greener, yet costly, fuel alternatives. Decades of research in quantum physics and mechanics have revealed that at the quantum level, the classically ‘empty’ vacuum is filled with “fluctuating electromagnetic fields and virtual particles that constantly appear and disappear.” White noted that the Casimir Effect, on which its company is based and for which it is named, provides clear proof of this quantum vacuum behavior. When asked if MicroSparc would constitute a “zero-point” energy device like those featured in science fiction ... Dr. White appeared to agree in general terms.

Note: The technology is based on the idea that empty space itself contains energy. Using advanced nanoscale engineering, background energy can be captured and converted into a continuous electrical current. Similarly, reported UFO/UAP craft could point toward breakthrough technologies capable of transforming life on Earth. Our Substack, A New Technological Paradigm? What UFO Disclosure Could Mean for Clean Energy, Human Consciousness, and Our Shared Future, we draw on the most reputable, verifiable, and credible sources to help you make sense of this emerging issue. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on new energy and the nature of reality.

- The Debrief

Tech company claims its new caps and beanies can read your mind and put it on a screen — no brain implant required

Thu, 07 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A new tech company claims it has developed a hat that can literally read your mind — then translate it onto a computer. Much has been discussed about brain implants which require ... putting microchips directly onto your grey matter, but new company Sabi says that’s not necessary for its beanies and caps. They have 70,000 to 100,000 sensors built in them which can “pinpoint exactly what and where neural activity is happening ... to decode what a person is thinking,” then translate it to a computer command, according to CEO Rahul Chhabra. Tom Oxley, the CEO and founder of Synchron ... is working in the same field as Neuralink, trying to give severely disabled patients the ability to communicate through their brainwaves. The company are partnered with Apple and their chips are implanted through an injection into the jugular vein in the neck, then the chip moves up a blood vessel near the brain’s motor cortex in order to read brainwaves. “Non-invasive wearables sit outside the skull, so the signals they pick up are much weaker and less precise. That makes it very difficult to achieve the kind of speed and accuracy needed for real-time control, especially for clinical applications like restoring function in paralysis,” said Oxley. Until Sabi’s tech arrives and revolutionizes our brainwaves, we’ll be stuck behind the keyboard in the near future, at least in America. China has recently approved their first implanted brain computer interface for commercial use.

Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on microchip implants and mind control.

- New York Post

Medical advances could be used to develop mind-altering brain weapons, scientists warn: ‘Wake-up call’

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Advances in neurological medicine might seem like a boon to humanity. However, UK scientists are warning that the tech could also be used to develop “brain weapons” that can alter human consciousness, perception, or behavior. This apocalyptic “wake-up call” was floated in the book, “Preventing Weaponization of CNS-acting Chemicals: A Holistic Arms Control Analysis,” by researchers Michael Crowley and Malcolm Dando. Dando, a biological and weapons control expert, said that the “same knowledge that helps us treat neurological disorders could be used to disrupt cognition” and “induce compliance.” It could even be used in the “future [to] turn people into unwitting agents,” like something out of a dystopian thriller, he argued. According to Crowley ... humanity has entered a new age of warfare where the “brain itself could become a battlefield” due to the increased ubiquity and sophistication of pharmaceutically-induced mind control. “The tools to manipulate the central nervous system – to sedate, confuse or even coerce – are becoming more precise, more accessible and more attractive to states,” Crowley said. Dando and Crowley are traveling to the Hague ... for a key meeting of the Conference of the States Parties (CSP), an international body that oversees the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention. While the convention prohibits the use of chemical weapons in war, there is a loophole that might permit their use in other sectors, like law enforcement. To safeguard against this possibility, Dando and Crowley propose a multi-pronged “Holistic Arms Control” approach.

Note: Read about the Pentagon's plans to use our brains as warfare, describing how the human body is war's next domain. Learn more about biotech dangers. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on non-lethal weapons and mind control.

- New York Post

The Small Wisconsin City That Defeated a Giant Data Center

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A small Wisconsin city has just notched a big win in its fight against a proposed data center, thanks to grassroots community organizing and support from a growing statewide coalition. And to help guide other communities facing similar challenges, organizers in Menomonie have helped develop a toolkit for taking on hyperscale data centers. As of last October, there were about 3,000 new data centers being built or planned nationwide. Soon, a wave of data center projects was washing over Wisconsin towns. Data centers bring few permanent jobs and can drain municipal water resources, drive up electric bills, rob cities of tax revenues, and cause damaging noise, light and air pollution. Residents in Port Washington have complained about the disruption caused by around-the-clock construction at the new data center. Families near the construction in Beaver Dam have reported that their wells have run dry. Menomonie residents took to social media and the streets to raise the alarm about the data center proposal and organize community members. They met to share information, staged demonstrations and began attending city council meetings in growing numbers. By September 2025, there were over 10,000 Menomonie residents and allies in a Stop the Menomonie Data Center Facebook group — more than half the town’s population. Pressure from local campaigners was so great that Mayor Randy Knaack announced at a September 22 city council meeting that he had notified Balloonist that the city would not be moving forward with a development agreement. More good news came in January when the Menomonie City Council voted unanimously to place additional regulations on data center projects. One of the statewide coalition’s greatest achievements is the Big Tech Unchecked Toolkit. Published in December 2025 by Healthy Climate Wisconsin and other coalition partners, the toolkit includes information on what data centers are, their impacts on communities and success stories from struggles across Wisconsin, including Menomonie’s.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing social division and reimagining the economy.

- Reasons to be Cheerful

These women are raising endangered butterfly larvae from prison: ‘They reconnect with their own brilliance’

Fri, 04 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Trista Egli was standing in a greenhouse, tearing up strips of plantain and preparing to feed them to butterfly larvae. Egli is one of seven women incarcerated at the Mission Creek correctional facility, located a two-hour drive from Seattle, who are part of a year-long program that takes captured butterflies, harvests their eggs, and oversees the growth of the larvae before they are released into the wild where they will turn into adults. Last year, scientists working with the team released more than 10,000 larvae. Many of the women speak of their pride working on a project that feels like it is making a positive contribution to the world. Lynn Cheroff, 42, said she had been thrilled to talk about it with her two young children when they come to visit. Another woman, Jennifer Teitzel, appreciates the sense of order and discipline the program demands. Every detail about the eggs and larvae has to be collated and recorded. It is the women’s responsibility, and nobody else’s, seven days a week. The program run by Washington state department of corrections (DOC), is part of an effort to prepare the women for life once their sentences are over and to smooth the path to work or college. Kelli Bush, the co-director of Sustainability in Prisons Project, [says] the program also gives them confidence. “They reconnect with their own brilliance, they reconnect with their own intelligence,” she says. “It’s routine to hear people say ‘I didn’t think I was smart and I’m realising I’m doing science’.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on repairing criminal justice.

- The Guardian

‘It beats getting stoned on the street’: how Portugal decriminalised drugs – as seen from the ‘shoot-up centre’

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

At a portable cabin in Porto, addicts queue up to use heroin and crack cocaine in safety, with medical staff on hand. The government-funded service ... provides them with clean needles, strips of aluminium foil, and other materials to facilitate their drug-taking and prevent infections. The overarching ethos of the centre revolves around harm prevention. The centre ... serves as a highly visible flagship of Portugal’s long-standing policy of drug decriminalisation. Motivated by a widespread belief that the war on drugs was failing, the country’s lawmakers agreed to decriminalise the acquisition, possession and private use of small amounts of drugs [in 1999]. Since its inauguration, Porto’s centre has clocked up 63,000 visits from more than 2,000 drug users – the vast majority of whom use either crack cocaine or heroin. Only two overdoses have occurred, both of which were treated successfully on the spot. [Psychologist Diana] Castro also points to the 1,500 or so screenings undertaken, and the 89 individuals now receiving treatment for hepatitis C as a consequence. About 10 people have also entered detox programmes of their own volition. All those caught by the police with class A drugs are required to attend a government-run “integrated response” clinic, where their use levels are assessed and a treatment programme proposed. These clinics house psychotherapists, psychiatrists, social workers, pharmacologists and primary healthcare specialists.

Note: Read more about Portugal’s innovative healthcare system that heavily emphasizes social prescribing to meet the deeper social, emotional, and community-rooted causes of addiction. Explore more positive stories on repairing criminal justice.

- The Guardian

More than 3-in-4 allegations of sexual assault against federal prison staff are going unresolved

Wed, 06 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Allegations of rape and sexual misconduct against federal corrections officers by inmates have spiked in recent years, the Government Accountability Office found in its review of enforcement of the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). From 2014 through 2022, federal inmates logged nearly 4,000 complaints of sexual abuse against prison staff. Just 9% of those were substantiated by BOP, though 77% saw investigations end inconclusively. A similar trend emerged from sexual abuse allegedly committed by incarcerated individuals, with 81% of those cases reaching inconclusive findings. GAO separately found federal prison guards faced around 3,000 allegations of sexual abuse from 2020 through 2024, a significant uptick in incident rate from prior years. From 2014 through 2022, BOP averaged 433 allegations against its staff per year. In 2023 and 2024, that spiked to 857 per year. Employees told the auditors that they have insufficient staffing for responding to allegations of sexual abuse, including a shortage of investigators. Longstanding personnel shortages at the agency have led to less general supervision that in turn allows misconduct to fester, officials told GAO. Abusers also employ tactics to avoid repercussions. Most of the corrections officers with whom GAO spoke said abusers know where they can go to evade cameras and some said the video quality is poor or not retained for a sufficient amount of time.

Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on prison system corruption and sexual abuse scandals.

- Government Executive

ICE’s “less lethal” crowd-control weapons can still be deadly

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The wave of violence by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection has brought law enforcement’s use of force coming under renewed scrutiny. So-called “less lethal” weapons are drawing criticism because these weapons, especially when misused by law enforcement, still seriously injure and sometimes kill. Kaden Rummler, a 21-year-old in Santa Ana, California, was shot in the face by a federal agent with a less lethal round while demonstrating against the killing of Renee Good, a Minneapolis resident who was killed by Jonathan Ross, a veteran ICE officer. In a video of the California shooting, the officer in question appears to point his weapon directly at Rummler’s face, fracturing his skull and leaving shrapnel in his face, ultimately rendering him blind for life in one eye and with serious injuries. Less lethal weapons refer to a broad category [including] weapons like stun guns, pepper spray and a variety of concussive projectiles. It also includes other crowd dispersal weapons like flashbang grenades and tear gas, the latter of which is banned in war among signatories of the Geneva Convention, but still commonly used by domestic law enforcement in many countries, including the U.S. Many of these weapons still have the potential to kill or maim the people they are deployed against, even in the best of circumstances. And often these weapons are not deployed as they are intended to be, resulting in more serious injury or death.

Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on non-lethal weapons and the erosion of civil liberties.

- Salon

The CIA’s House of Horrors: Frank Olson’s Fatal Trip

Fri, 10 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

On November 18, 1953, a group of seven men gathered for a meeting. Three were from the US Army’s biological weapons center at Fort Detrick; the other four were CIA officers from the Agency’s Technical Services Division. [On] November 19, the scientists shared an after-dinner glass of Cointreau. The CIA’s Dr. Sidney Gottlieb had decided to spike the Cointreau with a heavy dose of LSD. Gottlieb didn’t tell the officers they had been drugged. One member of the group, Dr. Frank Olson from Fort Detrick ... became “psychotic.” Olson was the army’s foremost expert on biological warfare. Sidney Gottlieb’s deputy, Richard Lashbrook ... took Olson back to New York. Late that night, Lashbrook claimed, he awoke to see Olson run across the room and jump through a curtained and closed window. Olson crashed down to the street from the tenth-floor room. Lashbrook immediately began to cover the CIA’s tracks. His first phone call was not to a hospital or the police, but to Gottlieb. When the police arrived, Lashbrook told them ... that Olson might have killed himself because of job-related stress. Eric Olson was present when his father’s body was exhumed. The forensic pathologist, Dr. James Starrs ... found a deep bruise on Olson’s forehead. The bruise was severe enough to have rendered Olson unconscious, but probably didn’t result from the fall. Starrs also discovered no evidence of cuts from broken glass that should have been present had Olson leaped out a closed window.

Note: Explore the Frank Olson Project to find out more about this tragic case. Learn more about the CIA's MK ULTRA program. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on intelligence agency corruption and mind control.

- Counterpunch

CIA Ran MK-ULTRA Experiments on Prisoners of War in U.S. Custody, Declassified Docs Confirm

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Korean prisoners of war in the 1950s were subjected to early MK-ULTRA experiments while in American custody, according to recently declassified CIA documents which confirm these experiments for the first time. The only reporting that previously referenced Koreans being used as guinea pigs for these experiments was journalist John Marks’s landmark 1979 book, The Search for the “Manchurian Candidate.” Using CIA documents, Marks traced the now-infamous MK-ULTRA project to its start, when it was known as Project Bluebird. In the book, Marks describes how, in October 1950, 25 unnamed North Korean POWs were chosen as the first test subjects to receive “advanced” interrogation techniques, with the overt goal of “controlling an individual to the point where he will do our bidding against his will and even against such fundamental laws of nature as self-preservation.” The declassified documents, which the National Security Archive released between December 2024 and April 2025, are available through a special collection titled “CIA and the Behavioral Sciences: Mind Control, Drug Experiments and MK-ULTRA.” [A] memo includes detailed plans for interrogation teams trained to utilize the polygraph, various drugs, and hypnotism “for personality control purposes.” In a later memo from February 2, 1951, there are inquiries into acquiring six “hypospray” devices: experimental instruments designed to covertly inject sedatives through the skin via “jet injection.”

Note: Read a timeline of known incidents of human experimentation. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on intelligence agency corruption and mind control.

- The Intercept

CIA whistleblower testifies on Fauci's role in COVID origin debate

Wed, 14 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

James Erdman III, a veteran CIA special operations officer, told the Senate Homeland Security Committee that the CIA monitored the phones and computers of Director’s Initiatives Group analysts investigating COVID-19’s origins. He said this surveillance included their investigative work and contact with whistleblowers, and involved Americans working under directives from the president and the Director of National Intelligence. Erdman said CIA analysts concluded multiple times between 2021 and 2023 that a lab leak was the most likely origin of COVID-19, but that leaders altered these conclusions in public reports. He testified that in August 2021, just before a planned release of a lab-leak finding, Dr. Anthony Fauci met with intelligence officials and shared a list of experts he knew, after which the assessment was changed. Erdman also alleged the CIA removed MKUltra and JFK assassination files from the office of DNI Tulsi Gabbard before they were due for declassification. Representative Anna Paulina Luna accused the agency of defying a presidential order and gave a 24-hour deadline for their return, threatening a subpoena. The House Oversight Committee sent a notice to CIA Director Ratcliffe to preserve and return the documents, citing their relevance to ongoing inquiries. Senator Rand Paul, who chaired the hearing, said the testimony supported claims of a cover-up over COVID-19’s origins and broader transparency issues.

Note: Watch our 15-minute video on the cover-up of COVID origins. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on intelligence agency corruption and the COVID cover-up

- MSN News

How Federal Health Agencies Downplayed the Risk of Myocarditis and Other Adverse Events Following COVID-19 Vaccination

Wed, 21 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This interim report highlights records the Subcommittee has reviewed regarding HHS’s awareness of and response to cases of myocarditis—a type of heart inflammation—following COVID-19 vaccination. [Some] documents ... have remained hidden from the public and Congress for years. U.S. health officials knew about the risks of myocarditis; Those officials downplayed the health concern; and U.S. health agencies delayed informing the public about the risk of the adverse event. The records [show]: The Israeli Ministry of Health notifying officials at the CDC in late February 2021 of “large reports of myocarditis, particularly in young people, following the administration of the Pfizer vaccine.” Discussions among CDC officials in May 2021 on whether to issue a HAN [Health Alert Network message] on myocarditis, noting that health care professionals across the nation may not be aware of the risk because “providers aren’t reporting these cases to VAERS [Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System].” A CDC official providing up-to-date information on the status of the HAN to Pfizer Inc. (“Pfizer”) and Moderna, Inc. (“Moderna”) representatives, indicating CDC’s preference to keep the vaccine companies more informed about vaccine adverse events, rather than the American people. Draft meeting notes from late May 2021 exchanged between U.S. public health officials which included the question: “Is VAERS signaling for myopericarditis now?”; and the answer: “For the age groups 16-17 years and 18-24 years, yes.”

Note: Our Substack investigation, The Nuanced View on COVID Vaccine Injuries and Lawsuits, examines how whistleblowers, FDA advisers, and vaccine-injured people exposed irrefutable evidence of COVID vaccine harms, data integrity issues, and failures within the VAERS reporting system. The investigation also explores how Big Tech platforms, pharmaceutical companies, and health organizations engineered the information environment around COVID through censorship and media manipulation.

- Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations

We Are Bombarding America’s Forests With Roundup

Fri, 01 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Unbeknownst to most people, logging companies and the US Forest Service have been spraying massive amounts of herbicide in clear-cut and fire-ravaged forests of California—and throughout the nation. And not just any herbicide, but glyphosate, a potent and problematic weed killer best known by the brand name Roundup. My first hint of all this was a single word in a letter the Forest Service sent to me and my neighbors about a year and a half ago. Lassen, it said, was to be part of an ambitious new wildfire recovery project. This was welcome, as the fires had burned perilously close to our properties. Then I came to the word “herbicides.” The Forest Service would, starting in spring 2026, spray glyphosate on some 10,000 acres of public land in Lassen to wipe out leafy plants and shrubs that might compete with replanted conifers. The amount applied annually in state forests—266,000 pounds of pure glyphosate in 2023, the latest year for which data was available—is nearly five times what it was two decades ago. Monsanto orchestrated, financed, and even ghostwrote studies that were published in peer-reviewed scientific journals ... papers that state and federal agencies have relied upon to justify copious spraying of Roundup. The only potential human risk acknowledged in the Forest Service’s [risk] assessment has to do with people unknowingly ingesting glyphosate after foraging for mushrooms and plants in recently sprayed areas.

Note: Our Substack, "The Pesticide Crisis Reveals The Dark Side of Science. We Have The Solutions to Regenerate," uncovers the scope of Bayer/Monsanto's media propaganda machine and the widespread conspiracy to poison our food, air, and along with the powerful remedies and solutions to this crisis. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on environmental destruction and toxic chemicals.

- Mother Jones

In a MAHA win, House passes Farm Bill stripped of language that would have protected pesticide companies

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Federal lawmakers on Thursday passed the House version of the Farm Bill, removing controversial language that would have provided some protections for pesticide companies facing lawsuits over alleged health harms. Members of the US House of Representatives voted 280-142 to pass an amendment to the bill striking sections that would have established “nationwide uniformity for pesticide labeling” effectively preventing states from leveraging labeling requirements aimed at protecting consumers. The provisions were aimed at blocking “failure to warn” claims against pesticide manufacturers like Bayer, which has been sued by more than 100,000 people around the US alleging the company failed to warn that glyphosate herbicides could cause cancer. The amendment ... also eliminates language that would have prevented states and local communities from establishing no-spray zones near schools, as well as a mandate that would have weakened protections from pesticide discharge for waterways. Even with the removal of pesticide preemption language ... the House Farm Bill includes the Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression Act (EATS or Save our Bacon Act), a measure that would prevent state and local governments from “interfering” with interstate commerce by blocking their ability to pass ag policies. These include laws such as California’s Prop 12, which promotes humane treatment of livestock.

- The New Lede

Modern Ag Alliance is a Bayer lobbying and PR group

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Modern Ag Alliance, launched by Bayer in 2024, enables the company to lobby and campaign through an entity that looks like a coalition of farm organizations, not a single giant chemical corporation. MAA represents itself as a “diverse coalition, founded by Bayer, that today represents more than 110 agricultural organizations.” But public records suggest it functions as a front group for Bayer’s interests. Tax records reveal that a Bayer vice president sits on the board of directors, and nearly all of its budget has gone to a public relations firm that also works for Bayer. Bayer itself describes the MAA as a key part of its lobbying. The company has portrayed the MAA – whose tagline is “Pesticides power America’s ag” – as its strategy for “fighting back” against glyphosate concerns and lawsuits. MAA is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, a structure that allows it to raise unlimited funds for advocacy or lobbying while keeping donors secret. Disclosed members of the Modern Ag Alliance include large agribusiness trade groups, and national and state commodity crop growers’ groups. Many of these groups have financial relationships with Bayer and other pesticide firms, via sponsorships, partnerships or direct funding, though these ties are often opaque. The MAA lobbies for legislation that ... would make it harder for Americans to use state-law failure-to-warn claims to sue pesticide manufacturers for cancer and other injuries.

- US Right to Know

Why are young people getting colon cancer? A common weed killer may be linked, scientists say

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A new study suggests a common weed killer may be linked to the mysterious global rise of young colorectal cancer. The first-of-its kind study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Medicine, suggests that picloram — a herbicide used globally to kill woody plants and shrubs while keeping grasses intact — could explain the rising incidence of colon and rectal cancer cases in people under 50. [Senior study author Jose] Seoane's team found that certain "fingerprints" appeared in the DNA of young colorectal cancer tumors they studied, and those fingerprints were linked back to exposures, including: Smoking; Poor diets, lacking fresh vegetables, beans, nuts and other "Mediterranean" staples; Obesity; Educational attainment (which is also linked to poorer diets); and finally, the weed killer picloram. His team checked to see if this same pattern persisted across populations, comparing the incidence of young colorectal cancer in seven US states, including California, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, New Mexico, Utah, and Washington, to the level of county-wide pesticide use. The strongest pesticide signal of all tied to higher rates of young colon cancer was for picloram. (In second place was glyphosate.) Picloram, which was developed in the 1960s, was one of many herbicides used in the "agents" the US Military used to clear forest during the Vietnam War. It works by disrupting the way plant hormones normally function, and can persist in the soil for years.

Note: Our Substack, "The Pesticide Crisis Reveals The Dark Side of Science. We Have The Solutions to Regenerate," uncovers the scope of the widespread conspiracy to poison our food, air, and along with the powerful remedies and solutions to this crisis. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on health and toxic chemicals.

- Business Insider

Pesticide exposure linked to 150% higher cancer risk in major study

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A major new study published in Nature Health has found a strong connection between environmental exposure to agricultural pesticides and an increased risk of cancer. Pesticides are commonly found in food, water, and the surrounding environment, often as complex mixtures rather than single substances. This has made their health effects difficult to measure. Most previous research has focused on individual chemicals in controlled settings, which does not reflect how people are exposed in real life. By combining environmental monitoring, national cancer registry data, and biological research, scientists from the IRD, Institut Pasteur, University of Toulouse, and the National Institute of Neoplastic Diseases (INEN) in Peru provide new insight into how pesticide exposure may contribute to the development of certain cancers. Peru ... includes regions with intensive agriculture, diverse climates and ecosystems, and significant social and geographic inequalities. "We first modeled the dispersion of pesticides in the environment over a six-year period, from 2014 to 2019, which allowed us to create a high-resolution map and identify areas with the highest risk of exposure," explains Jorge Honles, PhD in epidemiology at the University of Toulouse. The team then compared these exposure maps with health data from more than 150,000 cancer patients recorded between 2007 and 2020. Regions with higher environmental pesticide exposure also had higher rates of certain cancers. In these areas, the likelihood of developing cancer was about 150% greater on average. The research also highlights how pesticide exposure may affect the body long before cancer is diagnosed. Molecular studies conducted at the Institut Pasteur, led by Pascal Pineau, show that pesticides can interfere with processes that maintain normal cell function and identity. These disruptions occur early and may accumulate over time without obvious symptoms. Vulnerable populations, including Indigenous and rural communities, may face the greatest risks.

Note: This landmark study demonstrates a significant link between pesticide exposure on a national scale and biological changes that increase the risk of cancer. Our Substack, "The Pesticide Crisis Reveals The Dark Side of Science. We Have The Solutions to Regenerate," uncovers the scope of the widespread conspiracy to poison our food, air, and along with the powerful remedies and solutions to this crisis. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on food system corruption and toxic chemicals.

- Science Daily

Marine Animals in the Strait of Hormuz Don’t Get a Ceasefire

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Beneath the surface of the Strait of Hormuz and the surrounding Gulf lies a biological sanctuary. The region is home to around 7,000 dugongs and fewer than 100 Arabian humpback whales—a nonmigratory population that cannot leave these waters. Naval mines, residual military activity, and congested shipping lanes mean the strait remains a high-risk environment—not just for vessels but also for the ecosystems beneath them. Underwater explosions and military sonar don’t just scare whales, they can physically blind them, leading to stranding and death. The Arabian humpback whale, unlike its cousins in the Atlantic, does not migrate. For them, the Gulf is not a corridor but home, a permanent habitat. Olivier Adam, a researcher at Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi, says that the Gulf’s resident cetaceans—better known as marine mammals—have limited options: Either abandon their habitat or remain and endure prolonged exposure to noise. In the case of Arabian humpback whales, relocation is not realistic, as they are one of the only populations that do not migrate between feeding and breeding areas. “These baleen whales have no way to escape,” he says. Whales rely on sound for nearly every essential function: feeding, navigation, reproduction, and social interaction. When that acoustic environment is disrupted, the effects are immediate. In shallow coastal zones, where biodiversity is concentrated, even small disruptions can cascade through the ecosystem.

Note: Read more about the decimation of populations of whales and dolphins over the last decade resulting from the year-round, full-spectrum military practices carried out in the oceans. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on war and marine mammals.

- Wired

Indictment of Fauci adviser shines new light on efforts to conceal COVID-Era communications

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The indictment Tuesday of a top adviser to former NIAID Director Anthony Fauci on charges of conspiring against the United States casts a spotlight on years of efforts to subvert public records laws and conceal key COVID-era communications from the public. The adviser, David Morens ... is accused by federal prosecutors of using private email accounts to conduct government business, deleting records and coordinating with others to conceal communications related to COVID origins, high-risk coronavirus research and grant funding. According to the indictment, Morens and others agreed in writing to “intentionally hide” their communications from public records requests. Morens ... discussed strategies to “make emails disappear” to evade FOIA searches and avoided creating written records altogether – actions that Morens later admitted and apologized for during congressional testimony. Other records show Morens in ongoing contact with [Peter] Daszak and a small circle of allies after the pandemic’s onset. Their communications include strategizing about how to restore EcoHealth Alliance’s standing with federal funders, counter scrutiny from Congress and the media, and shape public narratives around the origins of COVID-19. While [Anthony] Fauci is not a direct participant in the communications cited in the indictment, the document refers to a “Senior NIAID Official 1” whose description corresponds with the former director.

Note: Watch our 15-minute video on the cover-up of COVID origins. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on government corruption and the COVID cover-up.

- US Right to Know

Psychology says the single biggest predictor of happiness isn’t income, relationships, or health – it’s the ability to be present in an ordinary moment without wishing it were something else

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The single biggest predictor of how happy you are at any given moment isn’t your income, your relationship status, your health, your career, or the city you live in. It’s whether your mind is focused on what you’re doing right now or wandering somewhere else. That’s the whole finding. Present equals happy. Absent equals unhappy. Everything else is details. In 2010, Harvard psychologists Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert published a paper in the journal Science with a title that sounds like a Buddhist proverb: “A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind.” They developed an iPhone app that pinged 2,250 people at random intervals throughout the day, asking three questions: What are you doing? What are you thinking about? How happy are you? People’s minds wandered from what they were doing 46.9 percent of the time. And when their minds wandered, they were consistently less happy than when they were focused on whatever was in front of them. This held true regardless of the activity. What you’re thinking about matters more than twice as much as what you’re doing. You could have the perfect life — the career, the partner, the health, the house — and spend most of it mentally somewhere else, and the somewhere else would make you miserable. We don’t struggle with presence during peak experiences. Nobody’s mind wanders during their wedding or the birth of their child or the moment they land the job they wanted. Those moments are vivid enough to command attention. They handle presence for you. The problem is that peak experiences make up maybe two percent of your life. The other ninety-eight percent ... is ordinary, and your capacity to be present during ordinary moments determines the quality of your entire existence. That’s where happiness actually lives. In the ninety-eight percent. In the ability to be present in an ordinary moment without wishing it were something else.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this in our comprehensive inspiring news articles archive focused on solutions and bridging divides.

- Space Daily

Is the key to better aging all in our mind?

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Many older adults also show significant improvements in their physical and cognitive health over time, according to a new study. The reason why seems to lie in how they think about aging. People who viewed getting older positively were more likely to show improvements in their cognitive skills and their walking speed. By contrast, folks in the study who held more negative ideas about aging tended to see a decline in these skills. That suggests people’s beliefs can have a dramatic effect on their biology, the researchers say. “Our findings suggest there is often a reserve capacity for improvement in later life,” said study co-author Becca Levy. “And because age beliefs are modifiable, this opens the door to interventions at both the individual and societal level.” The new study included more than 11,000 adults aged 65 and up. 45 percent of the participants saw a positive development in either their scores on a cognitive test or their walking speed—a critical measure of fitness. Notably, when the researchers averaged the participants’ scores, they saw an expected decline in ability as people aged. But on the individual level, that picture didn’t hold up for everyone. “Many people equate aging with an inevitable and continuous loss of physical and cognitive abilities,” Levy said. “What we found is that improvement in later life is not rare, it’s common, and it should be included in our understanding of the aging process.”

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on amazing seniors.

- Scientific American

How Art Is Making People Healthier

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

When Jamie Schuler teaches her Friday dance classes, some of her students stay seated. Most of the up to two dozen dancers have Parkinson’s disease or other conditions that impact their mobility. A mashup of physical therapy and artistic expression developed by New York’s Mark Morris Dance Group, Schuler’s classes are designed to help participants manage aspects of their diseases, like coordination, balance and gait, while declaring dance an art form for everyone. Some of the dancers have even joined 3rd Law, the company that puts on the classes, in live, on-stage professional performances. Community-based workshops like this reflect a growing body of scholarship linking the arts to improved outcomes in physical and mental health. The research is fueling a push to make arts more accessible ... while hospitals, therapists and clinical researchers are increasingly bringing art and culture into environs for healing. Today, about half of U.S. hospitals have some kind of arts program. But UF Health has uniquely interwoven its arts program with its medical practice. Through the hospital’s chart system, doctors and nurses make referrals to UF Health Shands Arts in Medicine, which includes a roster of in-house artists. In 2025, practitioners with the program had 13,000 arts engagements with the health system’s patients, ranging from dance classes for expecting mothers in high-risk pregnancies, to painting or making mosaics with young patients.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on inspiring disabled persons and the power of art.

- Reasons to be Cheerful

Four ways AI is being used to strengthen democracies worldwide

Sun, 23 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

There are risks to democracy from AI, but there are also opportunities. AI is being used by some to make democracy better, stronger, and more responsive to people. CalMatters, a non-profit, non-partisan news organization. Since 2023, its Digital Democracy project has been collecting every public utterance of California elected officials – every floor speech, comment made in committee and social media post, along with their voting records, legislation, and campaign contributions – and making all that information available in a free online platform. CalMatters this year launched a new feature that takes this kind of civic watchdog function a big step further. Its AI Tip Sheets feature uses AI to search through all of this data, looking for anomalies, such as a change in voting position tied to a large campaign contribution. These anomalies appear on a webpage that journalists can access to give them story ideas and a source of data. This is not AI replacing human journalists; it is a civic watchdog organization. And it’s no coincidence that this innovation arose from a new kind of media institution – a non-profit news agency. AI technology is not without its costs and risks, and we are not here to minimize them. But the technology has significant benefits as well. AI is inherently power-enhancing, and it can magnify what the humans behind it want to do. It can enhance authoritarianism as easily as it can enhance democracy. It’s up to us to steer the technology in that better direction.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on technology for good.

- The Guardian