Magnetic Stimulation Treatment for Retail Therapy

"IMAGINE movies and computer games in which you get to smell, taste and perhaps even feel things. That's the tantalising prospect raised by a patent on a device for transmitting sensory data directly into the human brain - granted to none other than the entertainment giant Sony."

Those were the words that heralded the New Scientist news of a Sony Patent that allows ultrasonic remote control of people's brains and which featured on "Anything...." some time ago.

Earlier today researchers at Antagonist Twin Towers spied this story about the use of the same Transcranial Magnetic stimulation therapy being used to treat depression.

Source: Newswise

Barbara Baas ran away from home and tried to kill herself as a teenager. As an adult, she has tried more than 15 varieties of antidepressants. But, thanks to a new weapon, she has finally reached a truce in a 45-year battle.

Mrs. Baas says a new treatment for depression is changing her life – so much so that she’s willing to drive 115 miles five days a week from Decatur to UT Southwestern Medical Center where she is participating in an experimental study. She undergoes transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a noninvasive, nonpharmacological technology, in which short pulses of magnetic energy stimulate nerve cells in a specific area of the brain – an area that research has shown to be associated with depression.

All of which sounds great until you remember that the technology is referred to as a weapon, and that TMS is the same technology for which Sony recently acquired a patent to allow remote, fake sensory stimulation in the brains of media consumers.

The story continues with Mrs Baas thoughts (or are they her thoughts?) on the matter:

“I am experiencing joy for the first time in years,” Mrs. Baas, 60, said. “I’m participating in life again. I went shopping at a new store near my home and realized it wasn’t drudgery. I actually enjoyed myself."

Mrs Baas.... Mrs Baas.... it's a very simple choice between that of being a little depressed as you wander through the rest of life, and that of being completely deluded through reliance on sensory information that is not your own and which someone has beamed into your head.

The Antagonist beseeches you to save yourself the 115 mile drive five times a week, and the expensive treatments, and urges you to not worry about the opening of these frivolous new stores about town for it is entirely natural that you feel almost-suicidally depressed at the prospect of buying a load of useless shit for which you have no need.

Live with it, learn from it, and adapt accordingly.