Scientist Hides Super Power in Plain Sight
A mind controller has finally found a way to profit from his abilities without doing harm to others.
Rajesh Rao has known that he had the ability to control other people’s movements with his thoughts since mentally forcing his father to hand over a lollipop at the age of two. “My dad just basically gave me a horrified look and didn’t want to have anything to do with me for a few days” said Rao adding that his father eventually started acting normal again after convincing himself that he must have been imagining things.
That early experience was only the first setback in Rao’s growing understanding that his seemingly awesome power had little practical use.
Anyone who has been brought up hearing tales about Superman and other fictional heroes instinctively gets that those with super powers must hide their abilities. Rao similarly knew that if his abilities were ever discovered he would be bundled off to a research lab, and his life would constrict to a battery of tests that would over time strip away his humanity.
Dr. Luther Van Horper, an expert on super-human traits at Elmont University explains that the major downside to mind-reading is that using the power necessarily involves another human being. The subject knows they are being controlled, and once the mind reader relinquishes her power, there is nothing to prevent the subject from responding to the mental intrusion.
“Super strength” says Dr. Van Horper, “can easily be hidden so long as the user only uses the power in solitude.” The same applies to super speed, the ability to fly, and obviously invisibility. But mind control can only be used on those the user completely trusts, or on those who are so untrustworthy as to be disbelieved by others, and have no incentive or means to harm the mind reader by themselves.
So Rao refrained from using his ability and decided to become one of those people he most feared, a researcher focused on brain interfacing at the University of Washington. A few years into his academic career, Rao met Andrea Stocco, an Assistant Professor in the Psychology department, and the two became fast friends. Eventually, Rao confessed his hidden talents to Stocco, and the two began dreaming of ways to utilize the mind control powers without exposing him.
Recently, the pair designed an experiment in which they were to be separated into two separate rooms, one containing a computer screen displaying a basic game, and the other containing the controls for that game. Rao was to have access to only the screen, while Stocco would have access to only the controls. Both would be wearing various electrodes and protruding wires to convince the public that Rao’s mind was controlling Stocco’s hand through electroencephalography and transcranial magnetic stimulation.
As expected, the experiment worked perfectly and the researchers uploaded a video to Youtube demonstrating their achievement. They have subsequently been credited as the first humans to document non-invasive brain-to-brain interface, with professional recognition and grants sure to follow.
When asked why he would risk all this by divulging the real story to us, Rao shrugged saying “I felt like I had to tell someone; and anyway other than Andrea, I can only fully trust those who nobody would believe.”
Related articles
- Researcher controls colleague’s motions in 1st human brain-to-brain interface (washington.edu)
- Mind control? Brain controls brain (cnn.com)
- Mind Control Is (Kind Of) Upon Us: Brain-To-Brain Interface Allows Scientist To Control Colleague’s Finger Via Internet (medicaldaily.com)
- Researchers Invented a Mind-Control Mechanism (factsplosion.wordpress.com)
