◆ SpookStack

Approved For Release 2003/0 9H Py GIA-RDP96-00788R001300020001-6 ST-CS-O1--169-72 July 1972 5. (U) A report that appeared in 1971 discusses some US air personnel problems when encountering Soviet aircraft over the Mediterranean Sea (220). “By far, the most dangerous encounters occur after dark. For safety's sake, both the BADGERS and the PHANTOMS usually turn on their navigation lights (which they would never do in a combat situation ), but sometimes the Russians come in blacked out, or shine searchlights in the eyes of the PHANTOM pilots - causing a temporary loss of night vision - or trickily switch their navigation lights on and off." 6. (S/NFD) Some of the nocturnal incidents described above suggest that the Soviets have not overlooked the possibility of utilizing bright and flashing lights as a means of altering behavior. It is interesting to note that the period of active research in Soviet laboratories, as will be discussed in PART B below, coincides with the reports of their employment of unusual flashing lights against US and NATO personnel. PART B - Soviet Research in Photic-Flicker 1. () A series of conclusions were drawn on the effects of flicker at a symposium held in the US in 1957 (221). Although the meeting and papers presented are fifteen years old, the facts presented appear to be relevant to this discussion. The conclu- sions reached by the group at Tulane were as follows: (1) There appears to be general agreement that flicker has the potentiality of causing considerable interruption of the normal functions of the human nervous system. (2) One manifestation of such interruption may take the form of sleep, unconsciousness, hypnotic states, or other forms of interference with consciousness. Another nanifestation of inter- ference consists of annoying or irritating sensations such as queasiness, discomfort referable to the eyeball and caused by excessive pupillomotor activity, headaches, or general sensations of apprehension. A third type of manifestation concerns visual illusions including color sensations, patterns of movement and development of odd shapes. These may interfere with visual recog- nition of any objects which actually are in the visual field. (3) Those flicker effects which interfere with consciousness appear at frequencies related to the alpha rhythm of the EEG, or at 10 Hz. Annoying or irritating sensations seem to occur with aperiodic flashes or with rhythmic flashes at 3-5 Hz. Visual illusions appear to be produced by frequencies above 10-12 Hz. 79 NO FOREIGN DISSEMINATION Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001300020001-6