Anatomy of a Gaslight: Havana Syndrome
From "mass psychogenic illness" to a symbol of American might in a decade.
It’s January 3rd, and the US, having had enough of an incorrigible and drug-smuggling Latin American leader, deployed hundreds of aircraft and thousands of soldiers to finally capture a defiant head of state.
Manuel Noriega was finally behind bars, with the two-week mission costing 23 American lives.
Exactly 36 years later, on January 3rd, 2026, the US repeats the excursion and captures Nicolas Maduro. However, this time, the entire mission was completed in only hours and without a single American casualty. Why the difference?
This time, the US had the “Discombobulator”:
When first asked about the special weapon that enabled such an lopisde outcome, the president said:
Trump: Well, I’m not allowed to talk about it.
Though immediately goes on:
Trump: Everything was discombobulated. Practically, a shot wasn’t fired…and when we came, they couldn’t do anything.
Intereviewer: …Nothing worked, including humans. It knocks the humans out.
Trump: Well, let’s put it this way, we lost no equipment…in a very bad environment.
Later, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt retweeted an account of the event, which corroborated the use of a disabling super-weapon:
Security Guard: …At one point, they launched something—I don't know how to describe it... it was like a very intense sound wave. Suddenly I felt like my head was exploding from the inside. We all started bleeding from the nose. Some were vomiting blood. We fell to the ground, unable to move.
Interviewer: And your comrades? Did they manage to resist?
Security Guard: No, not at all. Those twenty men, without a single casualty, killed hundreds of us. We had no way to compete with their technology, with their weapons. I swear, I've never seen anything like it. We couldn't even stand up after that sonic weapon or whatever it was.
So the US has a sonic or energy beam weapon that makes people vomit blood.
Just the US, though, right?
Havana Syndrome
From late 2016, US diplomats1 in Cuba started experiencing unusual health symptoms after an acute episode of pain, pressure, and a loud, localized sound. In almost all cases, symptoms lasted for months and included dizziness, headaches, and cognitive problems.
Named after where it first appeared, Havana syndrome (also known as anomalous health incidents) is “not recognized as a disease by the medical community.” A 2024 review listed possible causes as head trauma, viruses, or mass psychogenic illness.
Still, those affected have some recourse, as the 2021 HAVANA Act “authorizes the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of State, and other agencies to provide payments to agency personnel who incur brain injuries from hostilities while on assignment.”
But where should there be a HAVANA act if there may not even be a Havana syndrome?
It’s all part of the gaslight.
The Gaslight
Gaslighting is trying to get someone to question their sense of reality. The term has become popular over the last decade, though honestly, it’s often overapplied to ordinary disagreements.
That said, gaslighting does happen, and Havana syndrome denial increasingly looks like an example.
The critical differences between a disagreement and a gaslight are that 1) the perpetrator knows you know the truth, and 2) they try to manipulate, rather than argue you out of believing it. In this case, there are 4 parts:
Deny: Initially, Havana Syndrome was rejected entirely. The State Department blocked the CDC from accessing medical data for nearly a year. The 2023 intelligence community assessment found that five of seven agencies judged foreign involvement was “highly unlikely,” and officials said there was “no credible evidence” that an adversary had these weapon capabilities. Simultaneously, though, the CIA quietly shut down its Havana station after two more agents were affected.
Stigmatize: The FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit labeled the incidents “mass psychogenic illness” without interviewing affected personnel. A classified report by the JASON advisory group was selectively leaked as evidence that embassy sounds were crickets, though the report itself noted most recordings didn’t overlap with symptom onset and left directed energy as a possible cause. Senior CIA officials privately dismissed victims as exaggerating for financial gain.
Retaliate: Those who went public faced consequences. Mark Lenzi, diagnosed with brain injuries at the University of Pennsylvania along with his family, was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation after he warned colleagues of the danger, despite leadership knowing of similar cases. He was denied promotions, blocked from overseas assignments, and, as late as 2024, given a pre-written cable to end his tour for “personal reasons.” At the CIA, a whistleblower alleged potential obstruction and witness tampering, and dozens of officers filed formal complaints over the agency’s delays.
Hush: HAVANA Act payments, up to $204,000 for qualifying brain injuries, without admission. Claimants are compensated for injuries that are not formally acknowledged to exist.
The Science Catches Up
While acute symptoms reported in Venezuela and by Havana Syndrome victims are often described as accompanied by loud sounds, the microwave auditory effect is well established and was first observed among radar workers during World War II. Microwaves can cause popping or clicking sounds in someone’s head, with the proposed mechanism being slight brain heating that generates a pressure wave transmitted to the cochlea.
Still, not everyone believed the microwave mechanism was physiologically plausible, so in 2024, a Norwegian scientist decided to prove the theory wrong by building a microwave pulse generator and directing it at his own head.
As the Washington Post reports, “it didn’t go well.” He ended up with symptoms consistent with Havana syndrome, and these results were sent by the Norwegian government to the CIA, prompting visits by officials from the Pentagon and White House.
Directed Energy Weapons
The US has a whole suite of directed energy weapons, from lasers to particle beams to their current favorite, microwaves. The disclosed microwave weapons don’t cook people’s brains, but they do heat skin and destroy electronics.
The US “discombobulator” shutting down both troops and equipment, along with the known perceived sonic effects, suggests a microwave weapon. Combine this with the Norwegian scientist’s unfortunate self-experiment, and we have evidence that:
Havana syndrome is caused by microwaves.
The US knows about these weapons because it has its own.
Havana syndrome dismissals are more likely concealment than confusion.
So it was nice of the Norwegians to share their research with their ally, but the US is way ahead of them on “discombobulation”—and doesn’t want you to know.
Why the Cover-up?
There are a few possible explanations for why the US would want to suppress the reporting of Havana syndrome.
The first is simply to conceal the existence of this technology. Yes, one of their adversaries has these capabilities, presumably Russians operating in Cuba, but smaller regional powers (e.g., Venezuela) may not be aware, and this preserves the element of surprise (e.g., Venezuela).
Secondly, acknowledging the attacks creates response obligations at both the agency and national levels. Intelligence agencies would need to implement countermeasures across all sites, and there would be public pressure on the US to retaliate, thereby escalating the situation. The CIA is constantly waging small-scale, covert warfare against various actors, and it may be inconvenient to have its dirty laundry aired.
Finally, suppressing reporting on Havana syndrome also denies adversaries feedback on the effectiveness of their own efforts. Whether one’s efforts are working is among the most valuable intel, and historically, great effort has been made to obfuscate this. One of the most famous examples is Operation Double Cross, which misled Nazi rocket targeting and likely saved thousands of English lives.
However, we now all know, because despite not being “allowed to talk about it,” the president has described US capabilities in front of new cameras. Is this from a shift in US policy? I suspect it was more of a spontaneous Trump moment, both entertaining and confirmatory.
If you are aware of official cover, then you know that many, if not most, American diplomats in Cuba are intelligence agents.