CARTOONS

To some, children’s animation is yet another form ofnot-so-subtle mind control. And so it was hardly a surprisewhen the connection between animation and mindcontrol became quite literal. A somewhat bizarre incidentin Japan, which induced nausea and epileptic-type fits inmore than seven hundred children, provoked a wide-scaleinquiry into the physical effects that television may haveand the motives behind the inducement of these physicalreactions.It would appear that these convulsions were caused by aspecific episode of a certain hit animation series, which hadreached enormous popularity amongst the Japanese youth.A colorful explosion behind one of the popular charactersused strobe lighting which seems to have stimulated nervecells, causing seizures, breathlessness, impaired vision andnausea.It would seem that strobe lighting produces an effectsimilar to hypnosis and that this was not the first time thatscreen addicts have suffered from epilepsy-type seizures.And electronic stimuli seem to be able to induce electricalcharges in an individual’s brain, again causing epileptic fits. The question remains whether these cartoons, ever-popularamong the Japanese young, could have used their harmlessveneer as a disguise to experiment on their fans. TheU.S. Pentagon has allegedly looked into the effects of strobelighting to produce a nonlethal weapon, and Russia has apparentlyproduced a computer virus going by the name of“666” affecting bodily functions by the same means.