Can the European Incoherent Scatter Scientific Association, or EISCAT Scientific Association, use its technologies for mind control, as a video on social media claims? No, that's not true: EISCAT Scientific Association Director Axel Steuwer told Lead Stories that there is "absolutely no mind control possible" with the program's systems, which primarily measure physical elements of the upper atmosphere using the same frequency ranges as conventional radio and TV. The woman in the video and post making the claim -- now-deceased Rauni Kilde, also known as Rauni-Leena Luukanen-Kilde -- is described by some academics as a "well-known figure in the Finnish alternative spiritual milieu" who, since the mid-1980s, "developed conspiracy theories." The video falsely implies that Kilde is alive and was a chief medical officer in Finland. She died in 2015 at the age of 75.
The claim originated in a video posted on Instagram on May 16, 2024, (archived here) in which a person identified in onscreen text as "Dr. Rauni Kilde, Former Chief Medical Officer for Lapland (Finland)" stated:
Oh, it [EISCAT] can be used for mind control, of course, like HAARP. and that is the danger because people know nothing about mind control. They don't know that your thoughts can be changed, your attitudes, your feelings...
A caption that accompanied the post read:
Many conspiracy people dont understand that HAARP is old technology. The EISCAT system is Scandinavia is one of if not the biggest, baddest ionospheric manipulation systems in the world. It has all of the capabilities of HAARP such as weather modification and mind manipulation but at a much larger scale.
Are they causing fake auroras and steering the weather? Maybe, maybe not. But scientifically speaking it IS possible and this tech can make it so everyone is so docile they just roll over and take it.
Welcome to The System.
Below is how the post appeared at the time of this publication:
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken Mon May 20 09:40:00 UTC 2024)
Two EISCAT representatives told Lead Stories that the claims made in the video are false.
"There is absolutely no mind control possible with our systems. We measure primarily physical parameters in the upper atmosphere using the same frequency ranges VHF [very high frequency] and UHF [ultra high frequency] as conventional radio and TV," Axel Steuwer (archived here), EISCAT Scientific Association director, wrote Lead Stories in an email received on May 22, 2024.
Emma Unander (archived here), EISCAT Scientific Association project administrator, added that there are "a lot of conspiracies around EISCAT"-- mind control, weather modification, and geoengineering among them.
"None of which are true," Unander wrote Lead Stories in an email received on May 22, 2024.
EISCAT describes itself (archived here) as a nonprofit scientific organization established in 1975 by six European countries to conduct ionospheric and atmospheric measurements with radars that study space weather, space debris and the aurora borealis. Ten radars exist worldwide to study "incoherent scatter," or changes in atmospheric electromagnetic properties. These include four antennae above the Arctic Circle in Finland, Sweden, and Norway that can only be used for civilian research.
Ground-based diagnostics used by EISCAT detect incoherent scatter (scattering of electromagnetic waves by random fluctuations and interferences in the atmosphere) from the ionosphere and middle atmosphere, according to the organization (archived here):
The EISCAT UHF system was designed as a tristatic radar, that is, three facilities that work together... In Norway there are two different EISCAT facilities that work in UHF and VHF. Recently the remote sites in Finland and Sweden were converted to the VHF frequency.
The ionosphere is part of Earth's upper atmosphere made of electrically charged particles created when solar radiation ionizes, or electrically charges, atoms and molecules in parts of the atmosphere, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center (archived here). The ionosphere is influenced by the sun's energy, solar flares, and Earth's magnetic field, causing it to change consistently, writes NASA (archived here). Disturbances in the ionosphere can impact satellite-based systems, making this an important area of research, as Lead Stories previously reported in April 2024. Incoherent scattering (archived here) systems like those employed at EISCAT employ VHF and UHF waves to measure these disturbances and changes.
Lead Stories determined through a Google keyword search (archived here) that the clip shared on Instagram was shared to YouTube in an earlier video posted on February 26, 2018, (archived here) at the 7:22 minute mark. However, we were not able to determine when the interview took place.
Kilde was indeed a doctor and formerly a provincial medical officer in Rovaniemi, Lapland. Throughout her career, she was said to have expressed interests in parapsychology, alternative spirituality, and UFO, according to the 2012 book UFO Religions (archived here). Though the video falsely implies that Kilde is alive and was a chief medical officer in Finland, she died (archived here) in 2015 at the age of 75.
A 2012 article published in Post-secular Religious Practices (archived here), a publication series published by the Donner Institute for Research in Religious and Cultural History in Finland (archived here), described Kilde as being a "well-known figure in the Finnish alternative spiritual milieu." Kilde, a well-known author on parapsychology and ufology, described "the psychic abilities of mankind to visitations from extraterrestrial beings." The article continued:
Since the mid-1980s Luukanen-Kilde has developed conspiracy theories about an elite group governing the world in secret... Her conspiracy theory view of the world offers explanations for all kinds of personal, national, as well as global problems and disasters. Personal health problems, tragic incidents such as school shootings, economic crises and unemployment, earthquakes and floods can, according to her belief system, all be attributed to a single cause; namely to the actions of a clandestine, malevolent group. The popularity of Luukanen-Kilde's books and lectures can be seen as an example of how people in late modernity are seeking alternative interpretations of themselves and of world events.
Other Lead Stories fact checks related to technology can be read here.
