The creators of the cellular phone, personal computer, Magnetic Imaging Resonance (MRI) scanner, and even top NASA engineers and scientists all acknowledge the role Star Trek played in the birth of their technological advances.

Documentary film maker Alan Handel sat down with these top inventors in his film “How William Shatner Changed the World.” While their specialties and areas of expertise range from astrophysics to telecommunications, the one thing all have in common was their quest to make real their favorite Star Trek technologies.

One such gadget was the famous “communicator” William Shatner was always speaking into while playing the role of the dashing Captain James T. Kirk. The communicator allowed Kirk to give orders to his ship or crewmates from great distances.

Today, chatting on a mobile phone is commonplace, but back in the late Sixties the only way to make a call was to use a phone plugged into the wall.

Dr. Martin Cooper found himself tripping over his phone cord when he saw Star Trek appear on the TV playing in the background. Cooper watched with envy as Captain Kirk calmly conversed while walking across an alien landscape.

“Suddenly there was Captain Kirk talking on his communicator,” remembers Cooper. “Talking! With no wires!”

Cooper, who was General Manager of Systems at Motorola, thought to himself, we need to communicate the way they do on Star Trek. “To the rest of the world it was a fantasy. To me it was an objective.” It was the moment the cellular phone was born.

It took a few more years to turn the dream into reality, but in April of 1973 Martin Cooper made the world’s first cellular phone call on his prized invention, the Motorola Dyna-Tac. With true Star Trek flair, Cooper rang his competitor, Joel Engel, chief of research at Bell Labs.

While the clunky 2.5 pound Dyna-Tac was a far cry from Captain Kirk’s sleek communicator, today’s cell phones are almost identical. They even flip open to speak.

Every day we’re catching up to the futuristic vision inspired by Star Trek. No where could this be more true than with the personal computer. In the 50s and 60s computers were huge room sized machines. But onboard the Starship Enterprise they could sit on a desk or even fit in your pocket.

This tantalizing vision of computers that were small enough to be used for everyday tasks helped to inspire the Computer Revolution and the quest to create the microchip.

It sounds like an exaggeration until you discover that the first working personal computer, the Altair 8800, was named after a fictional galaxy from Star Trek. On this Star Trek inspired computer both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates developed the world’s first software. Their subsequent companies, Microsoft and Apple Computers, would change the world forever.

And now millions of people carry Personal Digital Assistants like the Palm Pilot or Windows Smartphone – devices that could have come right out of the hands of Mr. Spock. And in a way…they did.

Robert Haitani, the designer of the Palm Pilot, revealed to the San Francisco Chronicle, “my first sketches were influenced by the Enterprise bridge panels…Years later the first Treo (a combo phone and wireless PDA) had a form factor similar to the communicator. You could stand there and talk into it like Captain Kirk.”

More than just adding convenience, the television show’s effect on innovation may one day save your life. On Star Trek, advanced energy medicine could cure every human sickness. Dr. John Adler, a brain surgeon from the Stanford School of Medicine, works every day to turn that dream into reality.

“In the 1960s diagnosis of many illnesses required messy and painful exploratory surgery,” explains Adler. “It was very common to do a big operation on a patient, open their skull, look inside, and find nothing.”

“By contrast, Dr. Macoy’s Sick Bay on the Enterprise did diagnosis quickly and painlessly without having to cut open patients. Star Trek gave the medical community a tantalizing glimpse into the future.” Doctors in Star Trek would wave a handheld device called a “tricorder” over patients and instantly diagnosis and heal on the spot.

The trick was Star Trek medicine used energy instead of scalpels. Now Adler is leading a revolution to bring real energy medicine into hospitals and doctor offices around the world.

Dr. Adler is the inventor of the “cyber knife,” a highly focused computer controlled laser that can remove cancer without ever opening up the patient with a single cut. “Not quite as cool as the Star Trek tricorder,” he laughs, “But we’re getting there.”

And Star Trek has helped us to decide just how far we want to go. It is the worst kept secret of America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration that Star Trek is the force that lured many of their top scientists and engineers to join the space program. NASA even named their first space shuttle “Enterprise” in honor of the fictional ship that inspired so many of the shuttle’s designers as children.

“I was always fascinated by Star Trek. It offered a vision of what could be,” explained Dr. Marc D. Rayman, Chief Propulsion Engineer of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, during his interview for Handel’s documentary.

When prompted Raymon rattles off whole chunks of memorized lines from Star Trek, spouting the science fiction he has turned into science fact. His boyhood hero was Scotty, Chief Engineer of the Enterprise.

“One of the reasons I think the control room in the space mission simulator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab is so cool is that it looks like something right off the Starship Enterprise,” says this designer of real life space ships.

Raymon and his colleagues have even used the science fiction of Star Trek as the starting point for developing real space technologies. Raymon helped develop Ion Propulsion, a highly advanced thrust technology. He first heard of it on a Star Trek episode, forty years before he made it real. “The opportunity to connect what I saw on Star Trek to what I’m doing now is very exciting.”

And the Star Trek vision helped launch not only NASA’s space craft, but the careers of those who fly them. Many astronauts credit the TV show with shaping their life long dream. These future astronauts aspired to the same mission as the crew of the Enterprise, “to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

For Mae Jemison, who would become the first black woman in Space, Star Trek offered a vision not only of attractive alien worlds, but a better Earth to call home. Growing up amidst the racial and social turmoil of America in the early Sixties, Star Trek’s gender and racial equality offered a brighter future.

Jemison’s girlhood hero was the sexy and sharp communications officer of the Enterprise, Lieutenant Uhura. “Not only because she was an African-American woman on the show,” Jemison told Handel, “but because it was the first time a woman was portrayed as technically savvy and a full member of a crew. That opened up possibilities.”

Indeed, Gene Roddenberry wanted the show to serve as a blueprint for a more harmonious tomorrow. “Gene said that the Starship Enterprise was a metaphor for the Starship Earth,” explained George Takai who played Mr. Sulu, “and he believed the strength of this starship was in its diversity.”

Star Trek even made history in 1968 when black Lieutenant Uhura and white Captain Kirk shared the first interracial kiss ever seen on American television. “Star Trek gave us the opportunity to consider social problems in this context of a completely different world,” says Jemison, “and showed us and how we can learn to get beyond them.”

The show’s optimistic vision of the future provided the fuel that inspired Mae Jemison to earn a PhD and eventually lifted her all the way into space aboard the shuttle Endeavour.

“When I was on the space shuttle I would begin my communications with ‘All hailing frequencies are open’,” said Jemison. It was the signature line of her TV hero, Lieutenant Uhura, and Jemison’s way of paying tribute to the show that helped her believe she could rise above every limitation and soar amongst the stars.

In 1993 Jemison saluted to Star Trek when she exchanged her NASA uniform for an Enterprise costume and made a guest appearance on the sequel show, Star Trek: The Next Generation. And in 1996 she hosted the 30th Anniversary celebration.

While Jemison and her astronaut colleagues were inspired by Star Trek to take mankind’s first baby steps toward the stars, other scientists were motivated by the show to find out who we might meet when we finally get there.

Are we alone in the universe? It is a question man has been asking since the dawn of time. Our most sophisticated attempt to find the answer is a project called SETI, The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, which uses massive radio telescopes in the hope of hearing a faint signal from an alien civilization.

Leading this search for real life aliens is Dr. Seth Shostak, SETI’s chief astronomer. You guessed it, he’s a Star Trek fan. “I still have very pleasant memories of my grad school days when we would have our physics homework spread out on the floor and Star Trek playing in the background,” reminisces Shostak. “The emotional appeal of that show had a lot to do with the fact that I went into astronomy.

And Shostak says that Star Trek has actually helped legitimize his field. “Decades ago, when SETI first got underway, the public’s reaction was fairly skeptical. I think that has changed. They have met Mr. Spock and seen lots of aliens on Star Trek. They’re convinced now that they are out there.”

But more importantly, Star Trek convinced generations that no matter who we find or don’t find on other planets, we can make this one a better place to live.

“Rodenberry possessed something very rare in Hollywood,” said William Shatner, “something called morality. To him Star Trek was far more than a TV show, it was a vision of the future in which mankind would use their advanced technology to march across space. And there would be no greed, no war, no hate, and no hunger – a perfect tomorrow where we would all just get along.”

While the social vision of Star Trek seems a long way off, our technology is looking more and more like the techno-wizardry of the television show that has inspired so much innovation.

In 1991 Gene Roddenberry died, but he left behind a planet remarkably changed by his vision. In recognition of his contribution to moving mankind one step closer to reaching the stars, NASA launched his ashes into space. In death, as he did in life, he travels ahead of the rest of us “boldly going where no man has gone before.”

The End
By Lance Laytner
Copyright 2009
Meritum Media

click on photos for Lightbox

Many of the key technologies of our modern world were inspired by the TV Show Star Trek. For 40 years the world's top inventors have been laboring to bring to life the dream gadgets they first saw on their favorite TV show. PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA

The Star Trek "Communicator" allowed Captain Kirk to stay in touch with his crew while exploring alien worlds. The inventor of the cellular phone was inspired by seeing the Communicator in action. PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA

The cellular phone was inspired by the Star Trek "Communicator." The two devices are almost identical and both even flip open to talk. PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA

In today's world talking on the go seems normal, but back in the early 60s when Star Trek was first aired, all phones worked only with cords. PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA

Martin Cooper, the inventor of the world's first cellular phone, the Motorola Dyna-Tac, first had the idea from watching Captain Kirk talk over his Communicator. PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA

Before Star Trek, computers were massive machines taking up whole rooms. But the crew of the Star Trek Enterprise had small useful computers that could be carried around with them. This "Tricorder" inspired the inventors of the personal computer and the Palm Pilot. PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA

The world's first personal computer, The Altair 8800, was named after a fictional galaxy mentioned on Star Trek by the computers inventor, a die hard fan. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates wrote the first software on this computer, bringing in the Computer Age. PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA

The designer of the Palm Pilot, Rob Haitani, says he used the bridge of the Starship Enterprise as his inspiration. PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA

Star Trek offered an exciting future for the medical profession where energy instead of scalpels healed the sick. PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA

Star Trek's vision of diagnosis without painful exploratory surgery planted the seeds for the invention of medical imaging technology like the MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA

The Enterprise's beloved Chief Engineer, Scotty, inspired a whole generation to enter the space program and become the engineers and scientists who went on to build the Space Shuttle, Earth's first real life space ship. PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA

Dr. Marc D. Rayman, Chief Engineer of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, says Star Trek inspired him to become an engineer and seek a career at NASA. This brilliant scientist has memorized almost all the lines of his childhood hero, Scotty. PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA

The sexy and sharp communications officer of the Enterprise, Lieutenant Uhura offered young black girls growing up in the racially divided America of the 1960s a vision of a brighter future and helped inspire them to build it. PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA

Mae Jemison was inspired by her childhood hero, Lieutenant Uhura, to become an engineer and astronaut. The show’s optimistic vision of the future provided the fuel that inspired Mae Jemison to earn a PhD and eventually lifted her all the way into space aboard the shuttle Endeavour. PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA

Mae Jemison was inspired by her childhood hero, Lieutenant Uhura, to become an engineer and astronaut. The show’s optimistic vision of the future provided the fuel that inspired Mae Jemison to earn a PhD and eventually lifted her all the way into space aboard the shuttle Endeavour. PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA

In addition to visions of advanced technology, Star Trek displayed a dizzing array of aliens. One of the most terrifying is "The Borg," displayed here. The Borg merged tissue and technology and some Earthlings think it is a great idea. PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA

This young disciple of the "Cyborg Movement" believes that merging man and machinery is the next step in Human Evolution. Notice the eerie similarity to The Borg. PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA

Dr. Seth Shostak is the Chief Astronomer for SETI, the Search for Exter Terrestrial Life project. Shostak first became interested in finding aliens by watching Star Trek and attributes the show to his choice in career. PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA

SETI scientists scan deep space with huge Radio Telescopes in the hopes of picking up a signal from an alien civilization light years away. The NASA started project was first met by skepticism until Star Trek made aliens seem more plausible to the public. PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA

Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, used the show to offer an optimistic vision of mankind's future where greed, hate, bigotry and hunger were all solved. In recognition for his role in inspiring the space program, NASA launched his ashes into space after his death in 1991. PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA

The dashing Captain Kirk played by actor William Shatner became the face of the allure of space, The Final Frontier. PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA

The Star Trek crew was carried to distant galaxies aboard the Starship Enterprise which could travel faster than the speed of light. PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA

NASA's first Space Shuttle was named "Enterprise" after the fictional spaceship that helped inspire its designers. PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA

Star Trek has helped inspire 40 years of technological innovation, and every day we draw closer to Star Trek's vision. This TV show has helped map what the world of tomorrow will look like today. PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA

But despite the incredible beatings, Troy remains unharmed. No, he does not have super powers. Like Tony Stark, the fictional creator of the Iron Man armor, Hurtubise’s invincibility comes from his skills as an inventor.

After twenty years of development, spending his entire family savings, and almost one thousand hours of construction, Troy Hurtubise claims to have built a suit of armor that can protect the wearer against any attack.

“This is The Trojan,” says Hurtubise as he walks out wearing a hard black shell looking like a cross between Iron Man, a ninja assassin, and a giant black insect. “It is the first full exoskeleton ballistic suit of body armor.”

The space age looking suit of armor includes two magnetic hip holsters for holding death-dealing weaponry, a solar powered air-conditioning unit, laser targeting sensors calibrated to the wearer’s line of sight, a pepper spray capable of dispersing a mob of 40 people, and even a world clock with a readout for 20 time-zones unfolding out of the crotch protector.

Underneath the perfectly form fitting joints that allow for running or even rolling maneuvers, lies a mysterious substance of Hurtubise’s design called “shadow armor” that Troy claims can stop knives, bullets, shrapnel and even explosives.

But while Troy has yet to secure a military contract, this is by no means his first suit of armor. In fact, Hurtubise has done real-world field testing that would sound extreme even for a comic book hero.

When Troy was 20 years-old he was attacked by a grizzly bear. Although he survived the skirmish, Troy says part of him will always be frozen in time, seeing his own reflection mirrored in the hard black eyes of an enraged 680 kilogram beast.

That close encounter on August 4th, 1984 set Troy upon a quest for invincibility that he has pursued ever since. Hurtubise consulted physicists, biologists, and zoologists about the exact amount of force and dangers a human would face in a bear attack.

He set to work on armor prototypes using materials salvaged from his junk yard business and super strong composites of his own design. After seven years and $150,000 dollars, Troy hobbled into the world spotlight wearing his 140 kilogram Ursa VI bear protection suit. Troy is naturally 172 cm tall, but in the armored suit he towers at 220 cm.

Images of Troy wearing the massive armor while being hit by speeding trucks, standing in raging bonfires, knocked down by chain-held swinging tree trunks, and fired at with double barreled shotguns quickly became a sensation. In 1996 the Canadian National Film Board made a full documentary that is to this day a cult classic praised by mayhem fans. Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino, known for screen violence, highly endorsed the documentary.

But even fighting bears can grow boring after a while and Hurtubise eventually put aside his armored aspirations and pursued a host of other inventions for nearly a decade - until the Iraq War.

“I started getting calls and letters from friends of mine in Iraq and Afghanistan,” says Hurtubise. “They asked if I could help them survive I.E.D.’s (Improvised Explosive Devices). They wanted the strength of the bear suits, but with flexibility and lightness needed on the battlefield.”

Troy immediately went to work. “Well, I went back to my earlier designs. I did look at Star Wars and I looked at H.A.L.O. the video game.” Hurtubise believes that the best designs come from creativity, not just engineering prowess.

“Then I started talking to the professionals in the field: United States Rangers, Green Berets, and Canadian Special Forces. I told them what I was building and asked them what they need – what has to be part of the suit. They just broke in and started interrupting, saying ‘we need this, this, and this.’ And that’s how I went about the design.”

Hurtubise believed that this ground up approach, talking to the soldiers, rather than the generals or politicians, is what would make his armor succeed where huge military Research and Development budgets failed.

Hurtubise believed the key was to talk to the soldiers who really need a better way of staying alive on the battlefield. “The Brass doesn’t understand it and the politicians couldn’t spell war, let alone comprehend what these guys have to go through,” says Troy, whose brother was in the Canadian military for many years.

Hurtubise set about interviewing every soldier returning from the war zone he could find. “I got a Ranger coming back from Iraq. He said, ‘Troy, we’re getting killed with our face – we’ve got no protection for our face. Your suit goes full helmet, it looks good but we are in 120 degrees out there!’ So what do I have to come up with? Now the suit has got an intake fan and full solar-powered air-conditioning.”

“A sniper told me that one of the problems our guys face is when they get in an ambush situation with sniper fire the guy in front can see where the sniper is, but has no good way to signal back the shooter’s location so he can be taken out. Well, I developed the solution with an eye doctor. When you put the helmet on, a laser tracking system that is perfectly centered puts a laser beam along your line of sight. All a soldier would have to do is order, “Follow the red dot and fire!’”

And the Trojan Armor conceals a few tricks Hurtubise picked up in his bear fighting days, too. “The Rangers told me that Black Hawk Down is the kind of situation they can face at any moment. Imagine one soldier left, out of bullets, with 40 insurgents coming at him with machetes.”

Troy drops into a crouch and flips open a spray gun hidden into the right forearm of his armor. “The way you stop 40 people instantly is the same way you stop a bear,” says Troy. “I learned the hard way there is no bear spray that is going to stop a bear because all sprays have only 1% Capsaicin,” says Troy, speaking of the stun chemical found in pepper spray. “Want to stop a bear or an angry mob, go for 3%. This is not the pepper spray police officers use. This stuff is illegal.”

Troy says he thought of everything, all he needed was the backing of the military. “We’ve already done the ballistic tests, I know it works. I’ll show you that our boys are going to walk out of these vehicles when a bomb goes off. I’ll wear the suit. I’ll show you what this thing can do!”

Troy was ready to go and said he could immediately start mass producing armor units for just $15,000 dollars. But so far he has had no military buyers.

And although Troy Hurtubise has been able to withstand being peppered by shotguns, run over by trucks, and thrown off of cliffs; he has not been able to fend off bankruptcy.

It turns out that the comic book creators of Iron Man were right to make Tony Stark a billionaire – invincibility is an extremely expensive hobby.

After seeing no financial return on his twenty year and $150,000 investment, Troy Hurtubise who dreamed of saving troops on the battlefield finds himself in need of a bit of rescue himself.

Hurtubise put everything on the line to build his armor and ended up losing his junkyard business and going deep into debt.

Troy even tried to earn enough money to support his wife and children by selling his first prototype suit of armor in an internet auction on eBay but the bidding never reached his $35,000 bare minimum asking price.

But Troy has not given up on his dreams and is already hard at work on his next suit of armor which he claims will be even tougher than all his previous suits. Once you’ve wrestled with a 850 kilogram bear, financial troubles just don’t seem so scary.

- The End -
Copyright 2009
Meritum Media

But fears of a Big Brother future where governments monitor which citizens show up at political rallies, bosses keep track of how many hours an employee sits at their desk, and jealous spouses demand an accounting of every delayed errand hounded VeriChip Corp. since they first announced plans to begin implanting RFID chips in humans in 2001.

A tremendous backlash from privacy advocates, cautious government regulators, and ordinary people who found the idea of microchips under their skin just plain creepy held up widespread adoption of the chip and led to rapid turnovers of corporate management at VeriChip’s Florida offices.

“This just simply goes way too far outside the realm of what we believe in as a society,” said Randall Marshall, of the American Civil Liberties Union back when the VeriChip human trials were first announced.

But society has changed since 9/11, citizens of most countries have now bargained away some privacy for more security. And VeriChip Corp has learned from past mistakes - like proposing a GPS tracking system to go with their chip, an idea that was greeted with horror.

The American Food and Drug Association has given VeriChip a complete green light and every day more people are being injected with the tiny 12mm microchip now sporting the current, more benign sounding title “The VeriMed Patient Identification System.”

It seems like VeriChip Corporation has finally gotten it right and the net result is that, more and more, human beings may end up on the Net - tagged by radio waves that will allow authorized people to access their records with the same way we now track our packages from the FedEx website.

And even the most diehard privacy pundits can’t argue with its success. Even with a relatively small number of early adopters, the VeriMed microchip has already managed to help save at least two lives in its first six months of use.

After a terrible car accident during a high speed chase, New Jersey police officer Sgt. William Koretsky was brought into Hackensack University Medical Center with head, neck and back injuries.

Chasing down a criminal, Koretsky hit a steel pole dead on going 40 miles per hour without wearing a seat belt and slammed into the steering wheel after the airbags in his police car failed.

But the danger didn’t end with the crash. Koretsky has diabetes.

Thankfully, Hackensack University Medical Center is one of the 110 hospitals that have committed to using the VeriChip technology and after doctors scanned the unconscious cop, they discovered the VeriMed microchip and were able to see that he was diabetic.

Koretsky credits the microchip with saving his life and VeriChip Corporation points to his experience as a perfect case study.

Here is how it worked. Months earlier Koretsky visited a local doctor after agreeing to take part in the VeriChip trial. The chip is so small that it is injected just like a shot of medicine.

“It takes just a few seconds and there are no sutures required, just a Band-Aid,” explained Allison Tomek, VP of Corporate Communications at Applied Digital Solutions, the parent company of VeriChip Corporation.

The tiny pill-shaped gadget holds an antenna and micro-chip encased in silicone to prevent rejection by the body and is slicked with a substance called Bio-Bond that forms a cocoon of scar tissue in the body that keeps the chip from moving around.

The VeriMed microchip uses no batteries but lies asleep until scanned by the necessary reader. The chip is then charged by the energy of the scan, wakes up and begins transmitting a sixteen digit number by radio waves.

When the doctors about to treat Sgt. Koretsky after his car crash got the number by holding the scanner six inches above his arm, they went online to the database setup by VeriChip Corporation, logged in with their password, and entered Koretsky’s 16 digit ID.

Instantly Bill Koretsky’s complete medical records, insurance information, and medications list were available and could be printed out for hospital staff. Doctors saw Koretsky was diabetic and began giving him the necessary medicine to prevent him from slipping into a coma.

VeriChip Corporation imagines a world where every doctor’s visit is that easy.

Anyone who has seen a loved one seriously injured knows how frustrating hospital Emergency Rooms can be. It goes against every instinct to sit their rattling off lists of allergy medicines and verifying insurance when someone your care about is in pain.

With the VeriMed microchip checking into the hospital would be as easy as checking out at the grocery store. And that is what is fueling its ever more rapid adoption by the elderly who find themselves well out ahead of their grandkids in this particular technological frontier.

“I think someone has to take the first steps and it has got to be done,” said Suzan Shipper, 57, who had her 84 year-old husband suffering from Alzheimer’s disease chipped and decided to be implanted herself, too.

The Shippers are taking part in a two year trial tracking users’ and doctors’ experiences with the RFID chip. The trial is being sponsored by Alzheimer’s Community Care, a local South Florida non-profit that provides services for dementia patients and their families.

“The families think it is great,” says Mary Barns, CEO of Alzheimer’s Community Care. “They feel for the first time there is a better protection out there for their safety.”

That’s definitely what motivated Suzan Shipper who is counting on the chip to help return her husband to her Palm Beach, Florida home if they get separated and he is unable to remember where they live or even his name.

“How often in the paper do you see that someone wanders away?” asks Mrs. Shipper. “It happens all the time. My friend got a call that her mother was out at 4am knocking on neighbors’ doors trying to get in.”

It gives Suzan Shipper a sense of peace knowing that she’ll never again have to fearfully call hospitals and police stations the way she once did when her husband once got confused and took of on his electric scooter with her car keys, leaving her stranded and he lost for half a day.

“If they scan his arm they can pull his address and phone number up on the computer,” says Shipper with visible relief. “And they can also print out his medications with no mistakes in communication.”

When told about how the VeriMed microchip works the healthy 57 year-old decided it was a good idea for her, too. “I got a chip because I could get hit by a truck and they could pull up my records and see I’m allergic to latex.”

Suzan says people who are worried about getting chipped have got it wrong. “There is absolutely no pain at all, you don’t feel it going in,” she says. “The dentist is much worse.”

And privacy concerns? “The database only contains what I want,” answers Shipper. “I just keep our medical records, insurance, stuff like that on it. And I can change that whenever I want from any computer.”

Mary Barns says all one hundred of her Alzheimer Community Cares patients are reporting similar good feelings about the microchip in their bodies or the body of their loved ones.

Barns adds that the technology has already helped in at least one emergency situation. “In St. Lucy county one of our caregivers brought their spouse to the hospital after they stopped breathing. But the caregiver was in such a heightened emotional state they couldn’t talk. The VeriMed chip allowed the hospital to get all the necessary medical records and rescue the patient.”

With the implant procedure free and the only requirement being a mandatory two years subscription to VeriChip’s medical database at a cost of $9.95 a month, many taking part in the study feel it is some of the best money they are spending on healthcare.

But all these health benefits may come with a few health risks, too. A series of animal studies dating to the mid-1990’s, indicates a greater than normal risk of cancer in animals implanted with an RFID chip.

“There’s no way in the world, having read this information, that I would have one of those chips implanted in my skin, or in one of my family members,” said Dr. Robert Benezra, head of the Cancer Biology Genetics Program at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York in comments to the Associated Press.

Some in the medical community are asking why the FDA would approve a technology for human use if it seems it could lead to illness.

The anti-VeriChip internet website WeThePeopleWillNotBeChipped.com is even running a campaign spoofing the famous “Got Milk?” ads, asking “Want Cancer? Get VeriChip.”

And the blogosphere erupted with recriminations when a possible conflict of interest was found concerning the VeriChip’s approval for human use.

At the time of the FDA’s approval, Tommy Thompson led the Department of Health and Human Services which exercises oversight of the FDA. Two weeks after the implantable microchip’s approval on Jan. 10, 2005, Thompson left his post. Within five months in the civilian sector, Thompson became a board member of VeriChip Corp. and Applied Digital Solutions. He was compensated in cash and stock options.

Thompson says he had no personal relationship with the company as the VeriChip was being evaluated, nor did he play any role in FDA’s approval process.

As for Applied Digital, they vigorously denounce concerns over their product, pointing to several other medical studies that conclude RFID chips are safe in animals, the fact that the FDA is standing by its approval, and an impressive 15 year record of implanting their chips into millions of animals with no red flags by veterinarians that there is a health risk to pets.

Despite the concerns of a few, it may be too late to hold back the tide of humans being implanted with Radio Frequency ID devices.

RFID is literally everywhere: last year alone, 500 million RFID chips were shipped to the U.S. military and companies like Wal-Mart for use in inventory tracking. Tolls on highways and bridges are increasingly charged automatically through RFID, the latest US Passports contain one of the chips, and even your pet may be one of the six million who have been chipped since 1991 in Applied Digital’s “Home Again” Program, their original business.

VeriChip Corp. even helped during Hurricane Katrina, making the job of coroners infinitely easier by implanting flood victims corpses’ with their RFID chip for free, so that bodies could be easily tracked and returned to loved ones once they stepped forward.

In a world where RFID has proven so useful, it may seem foolish not to extend the benefits of the radio web to people.

But there is one thing all sides of the implant controversy can agree on – being chipped needs to remain voluntary.

Wisconsin passed legislation this summer banning mandatory chipping. And Ohio is following suit, after a Cincinnati company told workers they’d have to be implanted to access a data center.

VeriChip Corp. says they quite agree. “The overall standards of our company,” says Allison Tomek, “is that VeriMed is a voluntary procedure.”

- The End -
By Lance Laytner
Copyright 2008
Meritum Media

But, now the Colombian government is inviting Dr. Chapin to become a partner in their war against landmines. “We would like to use this as an experiment to see whether this kind of humanitarian de-mining really can be done using my rats,” says Chapin. “I’ve done it in the lab and now I want to prove it in a real environment.”

Colombian police under the command of Colonel Javier Cifuentes had already begun experimenting with rats over the last year. The lightweight rodents do not accidentally trigger mines to detonate – an often fatal problem using dogs. But, Cifuentes and his team are learning that rats’ bad reputations are well deserved and it is hard to get the vermin to behave.

The Colombians hope that Chapin’s Robo-rats will solve their problems. “Our rats are difficult to work with and sometimes run off when we try to use them outside,” says Cifuentes. “When that happens we lose a huge investment of time and money. Since Dr. Chapin’s technique could allow us to control the animals, obviously, we are very interested.”

Another big advantage of the Robo-rats is how quickly they can be trained. Says Cifuentes, “Right now it takes us six months or more to train our rats using a similar method to how we train dogs.”

But the robo-rats can be taught in a fraction of the time. “Robo-rats are ready to hunt for landmines after just ten days. We really program the animals rather than train them,” explains Dr. Chapin. “It’s all done with electronics.”

Soon a battalion of Chapin’s furry bionic soldiers may land in Colombia ready to save civilians from the killing fields protecting hidden cocaine crops and rebel bases.

“We are very excited by the potential here,” says Cifuentes. “If this works not only our country, but the whole world could be different.” Every 28 minutes someone on earth steps on a landmine and is killed or maimed.

Rats have been hated as crop killers and disease carriers for millennia, but now may become a symbol of hope to Colombians, plagued for decades by this deadly man-made infestation far worse than vermin.

Colombia has the world’s second highest incidence per-capita of civilian casualties due to landmines each year, trailing only war-torn Angola in Africa. Children playing in the countryside often never return and poor farmers looking for empty fields sometimes lose their lives to hidden landmines. The entire country has been traumatized by the daily reports of senseless deaths and the site of thousands of children missing limbs.

The human toll exacted by landmines has haunted Javier Cifuentes all his life, and in his youth he made a promise to himself that somehow, someday he would alleviate the suffering of his countrymen.

After completing a university education, the idealistic young Cifuentes enlisted in the Colombian police force. Quickly distinguishing himself, Cifuentes eventually rose to the rank of Colonel.

Never forgetting the horrors that originally made him choose a path of public service, Cifuentes remained on the lookout for a way he might use his police position to help his people.

When Cifuentes read of a program in Africa to use rats to find landmines, the Colonel realized he had at last found his answer. On fire with the idea of reproducing the program in Colombia, Cifuentes quickly began putting together a team.

Cifuentes first turned to Colombia’s elite animal commandos, the “Carabineeros.” Battle hardened by decades of frontline war against the drug lords, the Carabineeros are among the world’s greatest experts in training horses and dogs for combat and law enforcement operations. Two Carabineeros were reassigned to the Colonel and he quickly put them to work with their first group of rats.

Next Cifuentes recruited a veterinarian to care for the health of the animals, a research scientist from Nacional University in Bogotá, and a military explosives expert who could replicate the conditions that the rats will face in the mine fields.

With his small team of six humans and eight rats, Colonel Javier Cifuentes is determined to break the legacy of three decades of clashes with rebel separatists and narcotics kings that have made walking through the Colombian countryside a deadly game of Russian Roulette where every step could be your last. Till now the money expense has been unthinkable. It costs three dollars to plant a mine and one thousand dollars to defuse it.

But, that may soon change thanks to these remarkable rodents and the work being done on both American continents. According to Javier Cifuentes, the partnership with Chapin may prove the final, critical piece in their battle against the hidden killers.

“We don’t have access to the same kind of technology readily available in first world countries,” explains Cifuentes. “Having a partner in New York will be a tremendous benefit. There are things Americans can just walk into a store and pickup that take us weeks to order.”

“Right now I’m looking into doing the implant surgery and initial training here in Brooklyn,” says Chapin, “then we’ll take the rats down to Colombia for the final training in the wild.”

The surgery will take place at Chapin’s laboratory at the SUNY Health Science Center at the Brooklyn State University of New York.

Under anesthesia, super small, hair-thin wires are driven into specific areas of the rat’s brain. The wires are capped with plugs allowing electricity to run from a battery into the rat’s brain. The plugs are cemented onto the rat’s skull. Then the rat is given a tiny backpack with a battery, receiver, and computer chip allowing scientists to control the animal by laptop computer and joystick. A small camera helmet on the rat’s head allows scientists to see what the rat sees and control it like a toy car.

The rats are programmed in a maze. When the rat comes to a choice between right or left scientists tell it where to go. Moving the joystick right or left sends a signal to the backpack providing a tiny jolt of electricity to the brain of the rat.

“There is no pain,” assures Dr. Chapin, “the brain has no pain sensors.” The rat feels it is being touched on one side of its face or the other. When the rat moves in the direction of the touch, it is rewarded with a jolt of electricity to the pleasure center of its brain producing ecstasy. Soon the rat is addicted and eager to go wherever directed to get more pleasure.

“The few times it was tried with humans they experienced intense euphoria and well being,” says Dr. Chapin. “It is the same area of the brain stimulated by addictive drugs like cocaine.”

Ironically, if Colonel Cifuentes has his way these Robo Rat “addicts” will help stop the flow of cocaine out of Colombia into other countries. “Depending on the success of this project, we are looking at other ways the rats could be useful,” says the Colonel. “We would also like to train the animals to look for drugs, especially since this is such a big problem in my country.”

But the first step is to prove to the world what the rats can do. Colonel Javier Cifuentes has staked his personal reputation on the project and has directly managed ever step, working long hours of overtime to fit it in around his other duties as Director of the Sibate Police Academy.

The original plan did not include Chapin’s remotely controlled rats, so the training process has been long and costly.

Says the Colonel, “The first phase is for the animal and human to bond together and overcome any initial shock. The handlers spend as much time as possible with the rodents letting them crawl over their bodies and playing together. Next we begin to train the animal to detect explosives in the lab using mazes. We’ve been doing that for about six months now and feel we are ready to move on to the most difficult phase.”

“The third phase is having the animal detect explosives in open spaces. This is the hardest part because the rat is no longer restricted by a maze and the wind may carry the scent of the mines in a way that confuses the animal. The other major difficulty is that the animal may wander away from the job of detecting mines by any number of distractions.”

Here is where Dr. Chapin’s partnership can payoff in a big way. The Robo-Rat training is more than an electronic leash. It actually conditions the rodents to want to find explosives as willing search partners.

“The rat has a video camera on its back so we see what it sees and guide it wherever we want. It only takes us about a week and a half.” says Chapin. “But that is just the first step. Then the rat has to change from being guided by us to going off on its own to find explosives. We’re driving first, then we tell the rat to get in the drivers seat and take control.”

Each time the rat finds a landmine it is sent waves of euphoric pleasure directly into its brain. Soon the animal’s chief concern is finding more explosives and they are hooked. Says Chapin, “this is far more powerful than the simple food reward used by most animal trainers.”

Pure pleasure fuels the animals search for landmines but the people involved in the Colombian anti-landmine program need money. “Colombia has a limited budget for everything and getting funding for the program has been difficult,” says Cifuentes. “We have done everything locally within our own police budget, but we really will need international support if the project is going to work.”

Dr. John Chapin is looking into U.S. grants for the program like the one he originally received for the robo-rat research from DARPA, the US military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. That grant recently ran out and Chapin hopes the potential of the work in Colombia will attract new funding.

Javier Cifuentes wants to appeal directly to donors around the world looking to stop the continual tragedy of landmine injuries and deaths. Potential investors may include the United Nations, the Association of American States, as well as private donors.

Princess Diana of Britain was heavily involved in efforts to cleanup and disarm landmines before her death in 1997 and helped establish a foundation that may want to contribute to the work in Colombia. Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Atlantic Airlines gives heavily to anti-landmine charities and Chapin and Cifuentes hope he will consider backing their work.

Philanthropists would have a hard time finding a more worthy cause. The sad truth is that much of the world lives with that fear on a daily basis. Says Cifuentes, “If this works, robo-rats will change everything.”

– The End –
Copyright 2008
By Lance Laytner
Meritum Media

Now drug companies are scrambling to get their hands on the patent and rush the drug to market.

And Maria Rupnick may go down in history as the woman who won the war on fat – a war that claims the lives of several million people each year due to obesity related diseases like diabetes and heart disease.

The drugs are called angiogenesis inhibitors and they work by killing off the blood vessels that feed tumors. Unlike radiation and chemotherapy, they do not have the negative side-effects of nausea or hair loss.

But this miracle medicine is proving even more effective at fighting fat than battling cancer.

“I didn’t go into this to find a cure for obesity,” explains Dr. Rupnick, “Fat just looked like the best way to study whether or not blood vessels control normal tissue just like they control tumors.”

Fat and cancer share a unique property – both need a lot of blood to keep growing. To get it, they form tubes called blood vessels that hook into veins and arteries.

“They sprout,” says Rupnick, “like new branches on a tree.”

This process of forming new blood vessels is called ‘angiogenesis’ and angiogenesis inhibitors interfere with it in a number of ways depending on the particular drug.

If you stop the tumors from growing new blood vessels by using angiogenesis inhibitors, then the cancer can no longer grow or spread.

Maria Rupnick wanted to know if the drugs would have the same effect on fat. “If there is angiogenesis in fat growth, then if you stop the angiogenesis you should stop the fat growth.”

To test her theory, Rupnick recruited hundreds of super fat mice. Each are the rodent equivalent of a Sumo Wrestler, weighing more than three times the weight of a normal mouse.

The mice belong to a particular strain called OBOB. “They are a normal mouse that lacks the hormone lepton,” explains Rupnick. “Lepton tells the brain, ‘I’m full.’

These animals don’t have that so they eat and eat. They end up being furry balls of fat with a tail.”

When Dr. Rupnick and her team began giving the fat mice the angiogenesis inhibitors, they expected the animals would stop gaining weight.

“We not only saw that,” recalls Rupnick, “but they lost a tremendous amount of weight! They were losing 1/60th of their body weight every day. They quickly went from their obese weight of more than 75 grams to the weight of their normal counterparts at 25 grams.”

What is that in human terms? “So if someone were 75 kilograms, he would lose 1.5 kilograms a day!” says the excited scientist.

“Depending on the angiogenesis inhibitor, they lost more or less. Taken off the drug, they would regain the weight. We did that over and over again.”

At first the researchers were worried that the drugs were poisoning the animals and that was why they were losing so much weight.

“But the animals were fine,” says Rupnick. “OBOB mice are usually sedentary, but these guys actually became active like their normal counter-parts.”

“So I spoke to experts in the obesity field and they didn’t buy it,” remembers Rupnick. “I received pretty harsh criticism. I was even told by one very prominent person that they had seen many young scientist’s careers crash and burn by doing things just like this.”

“A lot of whether or not you make it or break it in science depends on the decisions you make at a given crossroads and how far ahead you can see. And there is such a fine line between persistence and stubbornness.”

“It was a frightening decision to keep going, because I didn’t have an explanation for what was happening. And the paper got rejected so many times I lost count. And the grants got rejected.”

Despite the opposition and lack of funding, Maria Rupnick decided she couldn’t ignore the amazing results. The obesity epidemic was too serious to pass up an opportunity to help.

“I initially wanted to go into research because you could potentially help thousands of people, in a hospital you only help one at a time.” Dr. Rupnick felt this was her chance and redoubled her efforts to prove her work.

“We spent a lot of time trying to make sure the animals weren’t sick,” says Rupnick. “We had veterinarians check them and the animals were fine.”

“But a pharmacologist and toxicologist told me I could never 100% prove they weren’t being poisoned. I went home depressed and watched Law and Order on television. The attorneys were having a hard time proving their case. Then one said, ‘Well, if we can’t prove that this person committed the crime. Than we have to prove who really did it.’”

“It was an ‘AHAA moment’ for me. I had spent months trying to disprove toxicity. What I should have done instead was figure out what was causing the weight loss. If it is a normal, what is it?”

After months of searching, Dr. Maria Rupnick found the missing piece of the puzzle. It turns out that it was something that stares us in the face every time we put on a bathing suit and check to see if we look fat.

Fat is special.

Explains Rupnick, “if you eat ten pizzas, you’ll gain weight. Even if your weight has been stable forever. And if after ten years you suddenly don’t have access to food, your fat tissue is going to shrink.”

We’ve all experienced putting on a few pounds during the Holidays or struggling to lose ten pounds for that vacation to the beach, so we take it for granted. But, biologically speaking, this is very unique. Your heart doesn’t get bigger or smaller depending on what you eat.

“The blood vessels in fat tissue must specialize to accommodate that ability to grow and shrink,” says Rupnick. And that was the key.

Like many people, blood vessels become less adaptable as they get older. Your heart won’t grow or shrink because its blood vessels are too old and rigid.

But fat is the Peter Pan of the body, it never quite grows up. “The blood vessels that supply fat tissue never fully mature,” explains Rupnick. “That keeps them readily able to grow or shrink as you need.”

But this eternal youth has a price. “The payback is they are vulnerable to angiogenesis inhibitors.” That was the missing link, the reason the fat was melting away.

As its blood vessels die off, the fat cell is forced to get rid of bulky fat to survive –Like sailors on a sinking ship who start throwing everything overboard to stay afloat.

This discovery goes way beyond helping people lose fat, it will also help angiogenesis inhibitors beat cancer.

Chemotherapy and radiation kill cancer by destroying everything around it, including healthy tissue. It is like a nuclear bomb. The big advantage of angiogenesis inhibitors is they only attack the cancer, like a smart missile.

But, despite their promise, the results have been mixed. The US Food and Drug Administration has approved one angiogenesis inhibitor called Avastin, but many others have been held up by mixed results in clinical trials.

Dr. Rupnick’s findings are the missing link. Angiogenesis inhibitors can be made more effective by first using drugs that de-mature the blood vessels in the tumors making them more vulnerable.

The opposite can make fighting fat even easier. Maria Rupnick discovered that if she gave the mice drugs to age the blood vessels in their fat, then the mice became frozen at whatever weight they were. “They just stabilized out,” says Rupnick, “the animals couldn’t gain weight or lose weight.”

Now Rupnick and her team are developing a two step fat fighting system. First they melt away excess fat with angiogenesis inhibitors, then they lock the new weight in with drugs that mature the blood vessels within the fat.

Imagine safely losing 30 pounds in a week and then taking a pill along with your daily vitamins that will guarantee that you will never gain it back. It will be a revolution in how we deal with fat.

“The problem we had in treating obesity is that we didn’t understand it,” says Rupnick. “We blamed it on the patient.”

Doctors would never tell someone with diabetes, “just be more disciplined.” But that is exactly what many fat people are told. “Obesity is a deregulation of body weight just like diabetes is a deregulation of blood sugar,” says Rupnick. “It is a disease.”

And now being fat may have a cure.

When asked when we might see these drugs on the market, Dr. Rupnick said it was too early to say. “Obesity being the epidemic that it is, the FDA wants to push it towards clinical trials as fast as possible. But, I think it is too dangerous to even speculate.”

The fact that the drugs have already been approved for treating cancer will go a long way in speeding up the process. It is possible we might begin seeing ‘fat melting’ medicines available world-wide in the very near future.

But there are still questions to be answered. “There is a huge difference between a mouse and a man. Right now we can say that we can make mice look pretty good,” says Maria Rupnick. “We don’t have any indications yet that it won’t translate to humans, but the place where you always get into trouble in science and medicine is that you don’t know what you don’t know. Still, I would say it is hopeful.”

If the drugs end up fulfilling their promise we may be entering a Fat Free millennium. Since the 1930’s most industrialized countries have been fortifying milk and bread with nutrients. This century may eventually see the same being done with the ‘anti-fat drugs’ being developed by Maria Rupnick.

“The only way you can get a drug from the lab to the bedside is to have a drug company pay for it. There is no other way to fund, develop, or market these things.

Because of that reason, it may end up going in that direction and I can’t control that.”

But the idea disturbs her. “Obesity is a disease, and I want this to be a treatment for a disease,” says Rupnick, “not to lose 5 pounds for the little black dress on Saturday.”

“If your objective is to eat poorly, and not exercise, and just take the pill a couple of days before you want to go out; I couldn’t be more opposed to that. Because the drug itself may be safe, but what you’re really doing is abusing yourself. This is not supposed to allow you to eat ten thousand hamburgers.”

But despite Doctor Rupnick’s reservations, her drugs may end up being used in precisely that way.

- The End -
Lance Laytner
Meritum Media
Copyright 2008

click on photos for LIGHTBOX

THESE TWO MICE WERE ONCE ALMOST IDENTICAL. AFTER JUST

DOCTOR MARIA RUPNICK MAY GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS THE

THIS FAT MOUSE MAY SAVE YOUR LIFE. OBESITY CAUSES A NUMBER OF HEALTH PROBLEMS INCLUDING HEART DISEASE AND DIABETES. THE RESEARCH BEING DONE ON THIS MOUSE MAY SPELL THE END OF OBESITY AND A NEW ERA OF IMPROVED HEALTH. PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER MERITUM MEDIA

OUR BODIES WERE SIMPLY NOT BUILT FOR THE KIND OF OVEREATING THAT IS POSSIBLE IN OUR MODERN WORLD. THE RESULT IS 'GLOBESITY,' A WORLD-WIDE EPIDEMIC OF FAT RELATED DISEASES. PHOTO BY RON LAYTNER EDIT INTERNATIONAL

IF ANGIOGENESIS INHIBITORS PROVE AS SUCCESSFUL ON HUMANS AS THEY HAVE ON THESE MICE, THE CHOICE BETWEEN FAT AND THIN MAY BE AS EASY AS TAKING A PILL WITH YOUR VITAMINS. PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER MERITUM MEDIA

HUNDREDS OF MICE HAVE BEEN TESTED BY DR. RUPNICK AND OTHER LABS AND THE RESULTS ARE IRREFUTIBLE - ANGIOGENESIS INHIBITORS WORK BETTER THAN COULD HAVE BEEN IMAGINED. PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER MERITUM MEDIA

WHEN RUPNICK FIRST STARTED WEIGHING THE MICE AFTER GIVING THEM THE DRUGS, SHE WAS SHOCKED. THE MICE WERE LOSING MORE THAN 1/60th OF THEIR BODY WEIGHT EACH DAY. PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER MERITUM MEDIA

EVERY PHASE OF HER WORK IS CAREFULLY DOCUMENTED BY MARIA RUPNICK, A TOP AMERICAN SCIENTIST WHO EARNED A MEDICAL DOCTORATE FROM HARVARD AND A PHD FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON UNIVERSITY IN PHYSIOLOGY, CELL BIOLOGY, AND MATHEMATICAL MODELING. PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER MERITUM MEDIA

HERE A CLUSTER OF FAT CELLS IS SHOWN WITH THE HELP OF A HIGH POWERED ELECTRON MICROSCOPE. THE TENDRILS THAT LOOK LIKE YELLOW VINES ARE BLOOD VESSELS. ANGIOGENESIS INHIBITORS KILL THEM CAUSING THE FAT CELLS TO SHRINK AND EVENTUALLY DIE. PHOTO BY SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

LIKE A PROUD PARENT, MARIA RUPNICK SHOWS OFF THE MICE THAT MAY CHANGE THE FUTURE OF WEIGHT LOSS. PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER MERITUM MEDIA

The one man who really knows what happened in Saddam’s day to day life is Latif Yahia who served as body double for Saddam’s son, Uday. He was not called as a witness at Saddam’s trial. Here is what he would have said.

Latif Yahia had been a school classmate of the dictator’s son and looked like his twin brother. He thought he’d been forgotten. but a few years later Yahia, then an
Iraqi officer serving in the Iran-Iraq war, was suddenly summoned home to Uday’s palace in Baghdad.

In strode Uday Hussein. “I want you to be me,” the President’s son declared, “Everywhere, always. You will be my fidai, my double.”

“You will be the son of the president under my direction. You’ll have the most beautiful life on earth. Everything that’s mine will also be yours. You’re going to be my brother.”

Latif politely declined. He could not accept the task. It would be too much for him.

“What? You don’t want to be the son of Saddam Hussein,” Uday screamed. Two bodyguards seized Latif and dragged him from the room. He was blindfolded and
thrown into a car.

Latif was locked inside a psycho-torture cell. The walls, floors and lights were bright red. The cell was too small to lie down in or stand up leaving him to squat. There was no toilet or even a bucket for waste and eventually Latif was forced to lie in his own filth.

After seven days Uday came by. “Latif. How are you? You’ve changed your mind haven’t you? I’ll sic my dogs on you and have your sisters raped if you refuse again.”

Latif gave in and became Uday’s double in November of 1987.

The Iraqi dictator had several doubles. Whenever Saddam Hussein felt danger he had a double stand in. One had already been assassinated in 1984, but he had several left.

Doubles were chosen from the Hussein family, usually a cousin closely resembling the dictator. But none looked like Uday. That’s when Uday remembered his old classmate who did.

Latif Yahia was cleaned up and taken directly to Uday’s palace on the Tigris River and placed in Uday’s own room. “Uday wants it this way,” said an Iraqi Intelligence
officer. “You are now his brother.”

Recalls Latif, “They brought clean clothes daily and the best food I’ve ever eaten. The servants had to treat me as the president’s son. I felt powerful. I began to like this life.”

Latif’s first lesson was to learn how to not react in disgust or become sick at Hussein regime cruelty. He was taken to a viewing room holding thousands of videos of torture sessions.

Saddam’s son had learned the same way. “Uday told me whenever he seemed weak or squeamish as a child his father would beat him with an iron bar and then force
him to watch videos of prisoners being tortured.”

It worked. “Just wait until I become president,” Uday promised, “I’ll be crueler than my father ever was. You mark my words. You’ll yearn for the days of Saddam
Hussein.”

Yahia saw victims have their hands and feet drilled through with electric drills. He watched people suspected of bad mouthing the regime have their mouths pulled
apart until their jaws broke. He was forced to witness the torture of families: men forced to rape their wives in front of their horrified young children and saw a video of
parents screaming helplessly behind a glass wall in which they could see their naked children in a room with a bee hive, being stung hundreds of times.

Next Latif watched Uday open Olympic style games in honor of the Iraqi dictator, inspect entire Iraqi army battalions, sit at the head of parades in honor of his own birthday and wine and dine foreign diplomats and Arab leaders at million dollar dinners.

“I studied from nine in the morning to Muslim evening prayers, practicing how Uday Hussein sat, held his cigar, everything. In time I could predict how he would act
and move. Uday never looked anyone in the eye, never shook anyone’s hand, and greeted everyone arrogantly.”

One day a pair of foreign doctors with Slavic accents showed up at the palace. “They tested every inch of my body to see if it matched Uday and were pleased. “My skin coloring was 99 percent similar to Uday’s. Shape of face, hair, ears, nose, build, all were almost identical. I was only one inch shorter than Uday and about four pounds lighter.” But that was no problem. I was to wear lifts in his shoes.

“Our voices were also almost exactly alike, but the doctors said I would need surgery to get Uday’s lisp.” The next day Latif Yahia’s teeth were ground down and implants screwed in. “They asked me to say something and it was utterly bizarre. I was lisping.”

Ismail al-Azami, Uday’s private hair dresser, spent hours sculpting Latif’s hair to match Uday Hussein’s. Yassem Al-Helou, Uday’s fashion advisor helped Latif choose
from amongst Uday’s thousands of Italian suits, Swiss watches, and Italian shoes. Uday changed suits four times a day.

Latif visited Uday’s garage of luxury sports cars. “Not one cost less than $100,000 US dollars. He had more than a hundred Maseratis, Ferraris, Porsches, Jaguars,

Mercedes in all models and colors.”

Uday even enacted a law prohibiting Ferrari imports so he would be the only person in Iraq to own one. Extravagant Uday had a paint shop behind his Palace Garage
and each day had cars painted to match the color of his suit.

Uday always drove himself. Says Latif, “I learned to drive like Uday, at 100 miles an hour within a line of sports cars constantly switching positions. Potential attackers
could never be sure which car was Uday’s.”

Latif learned how to leave a building. “Uday’s bodyguards would crowd around and run him to the open door of his car.”

When double training was finished, there was one final test. Latif was summoned to meet Saddam Hussein himself. “My walk to the President would decide my fate. If
he rejected me, I was a dead man.”

The Iraqi dictator circled Latif Yahia observing every feature and gesture. “Saddam smiled, spread his arms and exclaimed – ‘Yes, it’s you. Allah gave me two sons
and you’re the third!’”

Says Latif, “Nothing about Saddam in person appeared cruel, cold or repulsive. He was a man with strong charisma captivating everyone. Now I was a member of his
Clan. I would learn secrets hidden from millions. I was Saddam Hussein’s third son, just as he said.”

But not once in all his training was there time off to be himself. “My parents hadn’t heard from me in six months. I could have fallen on the battlefield or been taken
prisoner by the Iranians.”

Every day Latif had to be Uday Hussein, and Uday was a monster. “I witnessed horrific crimes and began to hate the man whose double I had become. Uday was a

brutal rapist with an obsession for beautiful women.”

Every day Uday Hussein and his bodyguards drove around the university and the girls’ schools until the president’s son saw a girl he fancied. He would stop her and
ask her to spend the night with him. If she refused his bodyguards would grab her and bring her back to the palace.

There Uday would rape the girl. If she resisted, after he was done, he would give her to the whole team of bodyguards. If she was really a lot of trouble, like one
architectural student named Nahle Sabet who had the nerve to publicly reject him, Uday would throw her naked to his pack of wild dogs which ripped her to pieces
while he watched, drinking champagne and laughing.

No woman was safe. One day Uday saw two newlyweds walking hand in hand. He wanted the woman and his bodyguards grabbed the couple. Saad Abd al-Razzek

Nihaya was an Iraqi army officer decorated for bravery in the Iran-Iraq War but that didn’t help him or his new wife.

Uday took the girl to a hotel suite. She pleaded with him not to defile her - she had only been married yesterday. Uday beat her until she was bloody then raped her.

“The president’s son emerged from the bedroom grinning after having satisfied himself,” recalls Latif.

“Suddenly we heard a long, piercing scream then silence. The girl had jumped from the seventh floor.” Her officer husband was soon sentenced to death for ‘insulting
the president.’”

Once near a Nineveh hotel Uday saw a pretty young girl no older than fifteen. He found her attractive and had her kidnapped. Uday raped the girl who lay silently and
then let her go, bruised and bleeding to stumble back to the hotel to find her parents.

“It turns out the girl had been deaf since birth,” remembers Latif. “She tried desperately to communicate what had happened to guests in the hotel lobby, but couldn’t
make her hysterical, silent crying be understood.”

When Uday’s was informed he commanded his bodyguards to grab her again so she wouldn’t make trouble for him. They took her to the nearby forest and gang raped
her before killing her and burying the body.

Uday’s always slept with the winner of the Miss Iraq contest. But when attractive student Ilham Ali Al-azami won she turned him down. Uday abducted Miss Iraq to
his palace. He raped her over and over again and then as punishment for her defiance allowed all his bodyguards to rape her for an entire week. Then Uday circulated a

rumor that the girl was a slut and let her go. The girl’s father, a devote Muslim, was so ashamed he killed his own daughter. When the aging father appeared at Uday’s
palace Uday had the old man shot.

Uday learned rape and murder from his father. “We once came upon Saddam Hussein’s men in black Mercedes limousines chasing two young women. They hit them
and drove over the girls a few times. Then they dragged the bodies to the Tigris River. When Uday asked the men what was going on he came back grinning and told
me, ‘Whores of my father,’”

Reveals Latif Yahia, “Saddam’s family, the Tikriti clan, were a bunch of criminals. When Saddam came to power it was like the mafia taking control of a country. Iraq
really became Tikriti Iraq just like Arabia became Saudi Arabia.”

But Iraq wasn’t enough. Saddam Hussein next turned to Kuwait. Uday divided his men into three teams: The Car Team would take every Mercedes and BMW left in
Kuwait. The Property Team would empty houses abandoned by Kuwaitis. The Electronics Team would gather valuable electronics.

Yahia directed the Car Team and auctioned them off in Iraq, raising $125 million USD in cash for Uday. But the plunder of Kuwait created an international outcry. Uday
Hussein was mentioned by name and his reputation suffered.

One of Uday’s intelligence officers suggested why not blame Latif? He was forced to make a televised confession. The Iraqi TV newscaster said Latif Yahia had been
sentenced to death and would be executed in the next few days.

It was a sham. He was kept alive to continue as double. “Until now my family and friends thought I had disappeared. With my confession I became both disgraced and
officially dead. I could never have a life in Iraq. I would have to escape.”

But then the first Gulf War began. The real Uday Hussein fled to Switzerland while Latif risked assassination in his place. For much of the war the double hid from
Allied bombing in the famous bunkers of Saddam Hussein.

After Iraqi troops withdrew from Kuwait, fighting began at home. Kurds and Shiite Muslims tried to overthrow the dictator. The Hussein regime hunted them down and
killed thousands.

One day Uday brought Latif and others to a meeting with Saddam Hussein at his bombed personal palace. Seeing the damage up close so enraged Saddam he ordered his men to bring him prisoners.

Troops quickly returned with thirty captured Kurdish rebels. “Saddam shot each one at close range. He emptied clip after clip,” says Yahia. “Then he demanded another sixty men and killed them too. Finally he laughed and said he felt better.”

During the rebellion Latif Yahia was posing as Uday and visiting troops fighting rebels in Basra when his convoy came under attack. “The armored windshield of my car
burst into a thousand pieces,” he remembers, “then I was hit by grenade fragments.”

Doctors told him they could save his legs and arms but his right pinky finger would have to be amputated. Uday Hussein burst into the hospital the next day after returning from Switzerland.

He lined up the hospital staff, “If you don’t save his finger I will kill you all.” Uday knew if his double lost a finger he would have to have a finger cut off too.

The finger was saved and Latif returned to a shattered Baghdad. “Hundreds of thousands had no way to feed their families. But Uday didn’t care. He continued to party
openly, without shame.”

Uday’s threw a multi-million dollar extravaganza on his birthday. A thousand dined on lobster and delicacies. Hundreds of beautiful girls were invited. At one point
Uday shouted, “Rip the whores’ clothes off!” His friends shredded the womens’ clothing and the party turned into a massive orgy.

The next day Uday summoned Latif and screamed, “Why are you sneaking around after my girlfriend?” Latif was stunned. He never approached Uday’s women. The
story was just a pretense. “I can tell you despise me, that you want to get away. I am going to have to educate you again.”

The double was imprisoned at the al-Radvania secret police barracks, kept in a tiny cell open to the sun and 120 degree heat and given no water for days. Torturers worked over Latif for hours every day. Needles were driven under his nails. He was whipped with electrical cable.

Yahia’s back became badly infected, he was starved and delirious. After 27 days Uday appeared. “How did you like your education?” Would you like a few more
weeks?” Latif was completely broken at this point and begged for mercy.

Next, Uday ordered all hair removed from Latif’s body, a torture worse than death for religious Muslims. Then they dumped Latif in front of the home of his parents who
thought he’d been executed years before. “I crawled to the house. My mother didn’t recognize the horrible creature. When I told her who I was she almost went crazy
from shock.”

At a private clinic doctors managed to heal Latif’s infection and many broken bones. “I had my family visit only at night and for their own safety never told them
anything about the last five years.”

Yahia sent a secret appeal to the Kurdistan Democratic Party. Kurds smuggled him out of Baghdad to northern Iraq and then up into Turkey. There Latif requested
asylum at an American military base after showing pictures of himself with Uday Hussein. US Army Colonel John Nab realized Yahia’s intelligence potential. Latif was
interrogated by the CIA which confiscated everything he’d smuggled out of Iraq.

He was offered American citizenship, but instead chose to join part of his wealthy family living in Austria. On March 9, 1992 Latif Yahia landed at Vienna’s Shwechat
Airport believing he was free.

An international rescue agency smuggled out Latif’s wife Bushra and daughter Tamra. The Iraqi set up successful businesses with part of his family’s large fortune in
foreign bank accounts.

But when Latif Yahia wrote a book called “I Was Saddam’s Son” the Saddam regime retaliated. Relatives were imprisoned in Baghdad. Iraqi intelligence threatened his
business clients.

Then came the offer Saddam Hussein gave his own son in law who defected, returned and was executed. “Come back to Iraq and all will be forgiven. We want you to
come home.” Yahia refused but one day found a note from his wife telling him she couldn’t take it any more. Bushra had taken Tamara and their new baby daughter
and returned to Iraq. They were never heard from again.

Latif Yahia survived four assassination attempts after leaving Iraq. Once, in Austria, Iraqi agents crashed a truck into a phone booth in which he was standing. For
years he secretly ran his businesses around the world - always on the move.

With the death of the man he was forced to emulate and the execution of the Iraqi dictator, Yahia finally has hope for a different life.

But only for himself, not for Iraq. He has little hope for democracy in his country.

“Whoever will take over after when the politicking is done will be just as cruel and evil. That is and always will be the way it is in Iraq.”

– The End –
By Lance Laytner
Copyright 2008
Meritum Media

President Saddam Hussein with Uday Hussein following an assassination attempt on his son. The person actually wounded was Latif Yahia, his double. Photo MERITUM MEDIA/Reuters

Latif Yahia, ex-double of Saddam Hussein's now deceased eldest son Uday. The 39-year-old wealthy Iraqi fled Iraq in 1991 after surviving assassination attempts while impersonating Uday Hussein and then being tortured by the dictator's son. He was witness to many rapes and murders and may be called upon by the prosecution in the trial against Saddam Hussein. MERITUM MEDIA/ REUTERS

Former Iraqi Dictator Saddam Hussein (left), in his military uniform, awards his son Uday (ACTUALLY DOUBLE LATIF YAHIA) bravery medal during celebrations to mark the first anniversary of the Gulf War. Picture taken from Iraqi television. PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA

Here you can see the uncanny resemblance that existed between Uday Hussein and his body double, Latif Yahia. This similarity was aided by cosmetic surgeries and years of intensive trainning in how to impersonate the dictator's eldest son. PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA

As body double Latif Yahia had access to the Hussein regime's inner councils. Latif had to be able to speak convincingly as the son of Saddam Hussein. PHOTO MERITUM MEDIA/REUTERS

IN A PALACE LIKE THIS ONE, SHOWN DAMAGED BY COALITION FORCES, LATIF YAHIA LIVED IN LUXURY AS THE DOUBLE OF UDAY HUSSEIN, THE ELDEST SON AND HEIR OF THE IRAQI DICTATOR. INSIDE, UNSPEAKABLE RAPES AND MURDERS TOOK PLACE. PHOTO FROM MERITUM MEDIA/REUTERS

This photo was taken during the raid on the compound in which Uday and Qusay Hussein were hiding. Both sons of Saddam were killed by the U.S. Military forces in the raid. PHOTO FROM MERITUM MEDIA

This now famous photo shows the once mighty dictator of Iraq shortly after being captured by U.S. military forces in Iraq. PHOTO FROM MERITUM MEDIA

A STATUE OF PRESIDENT SADDAM HUSSEIN FALLS IN CENTRAL BAGHDAD. A statue of Iraq's President Saddam Hussein falls as it is pulled down in central Baghdad April 9, 2003. U.S. troops blew parts off of a 20-foot (six metre) high statue of President Saddam Hussein in central Baghdad. Onlooking Iraqis danced in contempt for the man who ruled them with an iron grip for 24 years. In scenes reminiscent of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Iraqis earlier took a sledgehammer to the statue of Saddam. Photo from MERITUM MEDIA

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Latif Yahia, ex-double of Saddam Hussein's now deceased eldest son Uday. The 39-year-old wealthy Iraqi fled Iraq in 1991 after surviving assassination attempts while impersonating Uday Hussein and then being tortured by the dictator's son. He was witness to many rapes and murders and may be called upon by the prosecution in the trial against Saddam Hussein. MERITUM MEDIA/ REUTERS

The world’s leading champion of Brain Music Therapy is Dr. Galina Mindlin, a 20 year veteran of psychiatry with a medical degree and two doctorate degrees: one in neurophysiology and another in neuropsychology.

Before going into medicine, Dr. Mindlin studied the arts while growing up in Moscow. When she began learning about the human brain, she was amazed to see patterns reminiscent of music.

“Music and brain waves are actually very similar,” says Dr. Mindlin, “both are a combination of different frequencies and patterns.”

Mindlin was intrigued when former Moscow colleague Yakov Levine created a computer program that could convert raw brain waves into music.

“What could be more soothing than the sound of your own brain?” asks Mindlin. “At a subconscious level you recognize these rhythms.”

Like an infant soothed by the familiar sound of its mother’s heart-beat, listening to music that matches our own unique brain waves creates a tremendously calming effect.

“It is a form of bio-feedback,” explains Mindlin. A part of our brain recognizes the pattern as its own and like a tuning fork the brain falls into the same rhythm.

That is why Dr. Mindlin’s patients are guided into a deep, calm state of relaxation while their brain waves are being recorded in her Manhattan office. Brain Music Therapy captures that peaceful state and allows the listener to instantly shrug off anxiety whenever they hear their “brain music.”

It is essentially pure relaxation captured in the form of music.

Recording the brain waves is easy and comfortable. A specially designed mesh cap that looks like a black rubber spider web is placed over your head. It feels sort of like a shower cap.

The cap positions tiny cups over certain areas of the skull. The cups are filled with gel that oozes down to your scalp. The gel picks up activity coming from your brain. Electrodes placed in the top of the gel carry those signals to a laptop computer that records your brain waves.

This simple EEG (electroencephalogram) recording can be done at Dr. Mindlin’s office or at any properly equipped hospital.

Mindlin dims the lights and guides you through a series of relaxation exercises. I was told to think of a place where I felt calm and happy and decided on a cabin in the woods next to a soothing, bubbling river where I once spent a peaceful vacation.

After about 20 minutes, enough had been recorded. The file was to be sent to Moscow and there turned into music by a sophisticated computer program. I would get a CD in a few weeks with my own personal brain music.

The whole process start to finish takes about 45 minutes including filling out a brief psychological questionnaire that helps determine how Dr. Mindlin will direct you to use the Brain Music. The price of the treatment is $550 dollars, far less expensive than any other guided therapy for insomnia, anxiety, or depression.

Every Brain Music CD contains two “songs” – the Relaxation File, and the Activating File. Says Dr. Mindlin, “The Relaxing File helps you sleep and with stress. The Activating File boosts energy, concentration, and productivity.”

Once you receive your CD, treatment is as easy as slipping on a pair of headphones. I personally experienced an absolute end of my insomnia and noticeably less fatigue in only a few days, but Dr. Mindlin says that it may take up to three weeks for some patients to notice a change.

“It is medicine in the form of music,” explains Mindlin in a soothing Russian accent. “You usually take it every day, but it depends on your unique brain architecture.”

When my CD arrived, I was eager to hear what songs my brain might sing. I sat back with my eyes closed to hear the rhythm of my mind.

Out of the headphones came a soothing symphony that sounded like classical piano music with an Asian motif – maybe sushi, karate and Japanese study have left their mark.

“Our brain waves are even more personal than a fingerprint,” Mindlin says, “no two sound alike.”

As I listened, I wondered if the Brain Music of famous people might some day be popular – what would Einstein’s brain have sounded like? What about rock stars or classical musicians, would their minds create more beautiful melodies?

Whether or not it sounds good is really beside the point according to Dr. Mindlin. The power of the music is that it corresponds to YOUR mental states.

“When my colleagues first noticed the effects of Brain Music we weren’t sure what was going on,” says Mindlin. “Since ancient times, music has been used for healing.” Was this just another example?

Apparently not, a series of rigorous double-blind scientific studies conducted by its Russian discoverers proved that the full power of Brain Music only works for the listener whose brain created it.

Listening to someone else’s Brain Music does no more good than listening to normal music. But, hearing your own Brain Music provides almost magical benefits.

Approximately 1 in 8 people suffer from insomnia in most developed countries. While one or two nights without sleep is a minor inconvenience, weeks or months of sleep deprivation can become debilitating.

For long-term sufferers, the continual fatigue is imprisoning. But Brain Music is a prison break.

“After 4 nights listening to my Brain Music, I had my first night of sleep in over a year,” reports Lynda Erkiletian, 47, whose insomnia was totally cured. “It quiets the mind, you stop thinking about things that keep you up.”

“This completely changed my life,” she reports. “In addition to allowing me to sleep, it put me in a peaceful frame of mind. It helped get me back on track.”

For over a year after the sudden loss of her closest friend to breast cancer, Lynda tossed and turned every night.

Sleeplessness was destroying her life, but as a single mother of four, she was afraid to take sleeping pills. “One of my concerns about taking [sleep] medication was that I would get into such a deep sleep that I wouldn’t be able to hear my children if they needed me. With Brain Music Therapy I don’t have to be concerned about being hung over from medication if there is an emergency.”

“It is safe, it is natural, and it is healthy,” agrees Dr. Mindlin. “It causes no side-effects at all.”

One of my patients is a young woman with General Anxiety Disorder,” shares Galina Mindlin. “She didn’t want to be on any medications because she very much wanted to get pregnant. Brain Music Therapy helped her anxiety and allowed her to avoid medications.”

Doctor Mindlin claims Brain Music Therapy is perfect for frayed nerves. “Patients use it after arguing with their spouse, boss, or teenage kid,” says Mindlin. “I have moms who love it. When the children scream they just slip on the headphones and relax.”

“I was willing to try anything because I suffer from anxiety,” says Vance Harmond, a 71 year-old Manhattan business owner, “I don’t like to take too much medication and the Brain Music Therapy helped me a great deal.”

“I also work with executives from Fortune 500 Companies,” reports Mindlin. “They accomplish more in a shorter time to meet deadlines.”

And Brain Music works for even severe anxiety. “I treat a few people who have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from 9-11,” reveals Dr. Mindlin. “They have less flashbacks and less anxiety.”

Brain Music Therapy also heightens creativity. “Dancers and actors use a combination of the Relaxing File then Activating File to focus for performance.”

According to Dr. Galina Mindlin, Brain Music even chases away the blues. “It helps people fighting depression and Bipolar Disorder;” great news for the hundreds of millions around the world.

Many antidepressants have troubling side-effects including loss of sexual desire, weight gain, anxiety, and addiction. But, Brain Music “causes no side-effects or addiction. Brainwaves are natural and belong to us.”

But what if you are too relaxed, falling asleep on the job or staggering from one cup of coffee to the next?

“One of my patients is the manager of a coffee shop who stopped drinking coffee because his Activating File works better. But he doesn’t tell his customers about me,” says Dr. Mindlin with a smile.

Unlike too much coffee or tea, it doesn’t leave you jittery and wired – just naturally awake and alert as if you had a full night sleep.

I find listening to my own my three minute Activating File wakes me up more than three cups of coffee. In fact, it helped me write this article.

For many of us, falling asleep on the job is only a minor inconvenience. But for soldiers it can mean the difference between life and death.

“I also work with several military officers,” reveals Galina Mindlin. “They use it to wake up on short notice, sleep in shifts, or stay awake for long missions.”

And, of course, in the world of professional sports where milliseconds can mean the difference between victory and defeat “people are always looking for a safe advantage.” says Dr. Mindlin. “A Canadian study showed athletes performing much better after listening.”

In today’s fast paced world it, seems like athletes are not the only ones constantly running. “It shouldn’t be like this,” says Dr. Galina Mindlin, “so many people stressed out in this competitive environment. I see this as a great opportunity to help people.”

And thousands agree. Due to the overwhelming demand for the treatment, Galina Mindlin is now training other doctors and psychiatrists in Brain Music Therapy and is looking for partners within the U.S. and around the world. In the meantime, Dr. Mindlin makes house calls with her equipment.

When asked what is the best feature of Brain Music Therapy, Mindlin answers that it quickly helps you tap into the healing power we all already possess.

This is the same kind of mental control that Buddhist monks spend a life time cultivating, but Brain Music Therapy takes out most of the work.

“To use meditation to the full extent, you really need to practice for years and years. Brain Music Therapy doesn’t require any special training,” says Dr. Galina Mindlin, “there is no effort.”

“We all have busy lives now, from corporate managers to moms navigating car pools. This is the treatment for modern society.”

- The End -
By Lance Laytner
Copyright Meritum Media

click on photos for LIGHTBOX

Each of our brains is constantly creating a symphony. PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER, MERITUM MEDIA

Like an infant soothed by the familiar sound of its mother’s heart-beat, listening to music that matches our own unique brain waves creates a tremendously calming effect. PHOTO BY RON LAYTNER, MERITUM MEDIA

Brain Music therapy begins with a modified electroencephalogram (EEG) which records our own unique brain rhythm. PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER, MERITUM MEDIA

Doctor Galina Mindlin is the foremost American practioner of Brain Music Therapy. A veteran psychiatrist with two doctorate degrees, she believes that the treatment is ideal because it is clinically proven and has no side effects. PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER, MERITUM MEDIA

Dr. Mindlin

Before going into medicine, Dr. Mindlin studied the arts while growing up in Moscow. When she began learning about the human brain, she was amazed to see patterns reminiscent of music.“Music and brain waves are actually very similar,” says Dr. Mindlin, “both are a combination of different frequencies and patterns.” PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER, MERITUM MEDIA

With a laptop and some suprisingly portable equipment, Dr. Mindlin can record brain waves to create music almost anywhere. Mindlin is also in the process of trainning other psychiatrists in America and abroad to perform the procedure. PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER, MERITUM MEDIA

After recording your brain waves, the data is sent to a special lab in Moscow that runs it through a special computer program that converts your brain waves into music. The file is shipped back to you and treatment is as easy as slipping on a pair of headphones. PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER, MERITUM MEDIA

Gazing into the future, Dr. Mindlin envisions a time when Brain Music Therapy becomes a common part of overall health strategy. “It is safe, it is natural, and it is healthy,

I personally found Brain Music Therapy remarkably effective. My work often throws off my sleep schedule and I often struggle with both exhaustion and insomnia. With Brain Music Therapy my sleep troubles vanished and, as a bonus, it helped my back pain, as well. PHOTO FROM MERITUM MEDIA

According to both clinical studies and individual reviews, Brain Music Therapy provides almost magical benefits giving relief for insomnia, exhaustion, anxiety, depression, and even Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. For many, this safe and inexpensive treatment is providing hope for the first time in years. PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER, MERITUM MEDIA

A specially designed mesh cap positions tiny cups over certain areas of the skull. The cups are filled with gel that oozes down to your scalp. The gel picks up activity coming from your brain. Electrodes placed in the top of the gel carry those signals to a laptop computer that records your brain waves. PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER, MERITUM MEDIA

Rowing twelve hours a day Mateu estimates he can make the 4,720 kilometer journey in about two and a half months. He plans to leave December 2nd, 2006 and hopes to arrive in Antigua in the middle of February of 2007.

He will be taking no partner to help him if he is injured, and no rescue boat trailing behind to save his life. If Andreu Mateu succeeds he will be the first Spaniard to row an ocean solo and the newest participant in an extreme sport that pushes the limits of human endurance.

The first ocean was rowed over a hundred years ago. In 1896 a pair of Norwegians, George Harbo and Gabriel Samuelsen, made history successfully rowing the Atlantic from New York City to France in 53 days.

It took seventy years before anyone worked up the courage to try again. In 1966 two Englishmen attempted the trans-Atlantic crossing. They were lost at sea and their boat never recovered.

But one month later another couple of Brits made it. Three years after, four teams succeeded. Every year since another handful of hardy souls have attempted an ocean. The sport of ocean rowing was born.

But, it has remained a small extreme sport with only a few crossings attempted each year, and even less accomplished successfully. Danger and fatigue scare most away.

In other extreme sports the risk is intense but brief. Skydiving lasts moments, snowboarding an afternoon, and mountain climbing maybe a few weeks – but in ocean rowing the perils last for months on end.

Andreu’s mother is right, the odds don’t look good. “Out of every hundred people who try to row an ocean only 60% succeed,” says Andreu, “38% have to be rescued, and 2% are lost at sea.”

While the danger seems to be part of the appeal for the adventurous Spaniard, he does have some concerns. “One is being run over by a ship. My boat is only seven meters long. No one expects such a small boat out in the middle of the ocean. Big ships just put on their auto-pilot at night. If you get run over, you’re finished.”

To help his chances, Andreu has installed a special device called Sea-me which makes his tiny boat look bigger on radar. It also alerts him to radar-using ships within three miles – enough warning to move if there is a boat heading towards him while he is sleeping.

But all man-made problems are nothing compared to the fury of storms on the open sea. Says Mateu. “I can prepare the boat, I can prepare myself physically and mentally. But, I cannot control the weather. If I hit a hurricane and suddenly have fifty foot waves, then I could be in real trouble. So that worries me a little.”

In a storm, Andreu must climb into the tiny sleeping cabin, lock the hatch and wait it out for hours or even days.

The “cabin” is really more like a double sized coffin with just enough room to fit one man lying down, a little food, and enough air to last out a storm.

In a really big storm the little boat will be tossed around like a toy, a beating that would sink any normal vessel. “But this boat is unsinkable,” insists Andreu.

The boat is made of extremely thick plywood able to withstand the crashing of huge waves. The haul is divided into ten independent sections; some filled with Styrofoam, others with air. If a hole flooded several sections with water, the others would keep the boat afloat.

Even being flipped by large waves is no problem, says Andreu. “When the boat capsizes, it turns again upright.” This miracle is accomplished with special weights in the center of the boat – the ballast.

But there is a catch. “If you have the hatches open and you capsize, the boat does not self-right,” says Andreu. It can go down. That means for the entire storm you have to lie locked within the tiny sleeping space while the boat rolls and rolls down the sides of waves as tall as hills.

Even in calm seas it is best to leave the hatch closed. “A rogue wave could come at any time and sink you,” he admits. But it is a constant psychological battle between keeping the hatch closed for safety and the need for air. It feels like being buried alive. “I know I will sometimes sleep with it open. It will be a gamble every time.”

Even though the boat won’t sink in a storm, Andreu could be thrown around so much that his bones break. To help avoid injury, he has lined the inside of his tiny cabin in foam, making a kind of snug cocoon. “But if I break an arm or my nose and cannot continue, then I’ll have to radio for help and wait to be rescued.”

It could be a long wait. In a disaster where his boat sinks, a radio in Andreu’s life-preserver will continue an S.O.S beacon. But he says “It could take as long as four days if no ship is nearby.” This could be a real problem because the icy cold water of the Atlantic in the winter kills in six or seven hours.

What about sharks?

“I’ll tell you, man, the sharks are on land, I’m safer in the water!” On the way to our interview an angry Spanish motorist got out at a stop light and started attacking Andreu’s car.

To Andreu three months alone at sea are attractive. “We live in a crazy world. I want a break from my hectic life running from one place to another, cell phones, bills, taxes – I just need to get away.”

In 1992 Andre Mateu had been working for five years in New York City at the commercial office of the Embassy of Spain. “One day I decided to change my life. I wrote something I called ‘Where the Hell I come from, Where the Hell I Am, and Where the Hell I Want To Be.’ I listed my dreams: flying planes, traveling in a hot air balloon, SCUBA diving, sailing an ocean, seeing the world. I realized that the common denominator was traveling by different modes of transportation.”

Andreu immediately disconnected his phone and sold all he owned. Then he set out on what he called “The Transcovery Project.”

Andre Mateu spent three years traveling through 120 countries using more than a 130 modes of transportation. “I put all my dreams in one basket and did them. I bicycled across Europe, swam the Straits of Gibraltar, motorcycled through Africa, flew by a hot air balloon, and many others.”

When Andreu returned to Spain he drew upon his remarkable journey to create his company, Dreams and Adventures. “We organize team building activities for most of the Fortune 500 companies,” he says.

But after ten years of creating adventures for others, Andreu is ready for his own. In three years roaming the world, one experience above all others stood out. “I would always say the best was when I sailed alone across the Atlantic. Being alone in the middle of the ocean is an amazing sensation.”

“One day I read someone had done it rowing. I said, ‘Wow! That is something!’ For the last ten years I kept thinking one day I should row the Atlantic. On January 1st I was taking a vacation in Rio de Janeiro with a very sweet Brazilian girl. I thought about my goals and said, “OK, this year I will row the Atlantic.”

“I went to an Internet Café and searched for “ocean rowing.” The first page to come up was the Ocean Rowing Society. In the whole world there are about a hundred people interested in this extreme sport – maybe less now because some died.”

“I have been talking with fifteen people who have rowed an ocean, and I have learned all the tricks,” says Mateu, “so now to me it is a piece of cake.”

So what are the tricks? How do you prepare for such a brutal challenge?

“Making the decision is the hardest part. But once you decide you are 50% there. All you need then is the will to do it and the enthusiasm.”

Next is information. Andreu started reading about boats and oars, how to avoid storms, safe routes, navigating by the stars in case his electronics break down. “There is so much you need to know,” says Andreu.

“But most importantly, you need the right tool. The tool to row an ocean is your boat.” Mateu decided to build his own. “Making a new boat is just a bit more expensive than buying it second-hand, but a lot safer. Like a used car, you never know what a second-hand boat has been through.”

“I also thought that if I build my boat with my own hands I will be able to fix it if I have trouble in the middle of the ocean.” Andreu spent $60,000 dollars on materials and even brought in a master boat builder from the Ukraine to live with him for six weeks and make sure the boat is perfect. Andreu named his boat the “Isidoro Arias” after a dear friend and fellow adventurer who disappeared at sea.

Andreu’s boat is fitted with the very best in navigation equipment. GPS, radar, a satellite phone, and even a laptop computer are aboard and powered by solar panels.

“Now I only have the last part, which is rowing,” says Mateu. For almost three months Andreu will be rowing 12 hours a day, seven days a week. “You end up with big blisters. So that is going to be one of the hard things I am going to face - pain in my ass and pain in my hands.”

Food shouldn’t be a problem. “I am going to take a rod and fish a lot, I’ll have canned food, and I’m also going to take freeze dried food – the kind astronauts have or people climbing Mount Everest.”

Andreu will be taking a total of 400 kilos of supplies. This includes a special medical kit prepared by a doctor to give him access to any medicines he might need in an emergency during his almost three months at Sea and advanced super light fiber clothes that are water-resistant and keep him warm in cold or cool in heat.

Water will come from an advanced desalination machine that makes fresh water from the ocean. “Water is very important. Most people who don’t make it fail because they have a problem with their water maker.”

What about physical conditioning?

“I’m not really concerned about training,” says Mateu. “All my friends keep asking me why I don’t workout more. They think you have to be a big muscled guerilla to row an ocean. If I start with a very fit body it might be a little easier. But, other rowers tell me once you start you get in shape in about fourteen days of rowing. So my training will be during the first weeks of the crossing.”

Ocean rowers say nothing can really prepare you for having to row twelve hours a day, seven days a week, for almost three months. “It isn’t a race, if I get tired I can take a rest. But I know that if I don’t row an average of twelve hours each day I will never make it to Antigua before my food runs out,” says Andreu.

Why would anyone want to go through such torture?

“Certainly there are storms and hardships, but also moments of incredible beauty. We always have walls around us,” explains Mateu, “too many problems, too many phone calls. But on the ocean you pay attention to things you normally miss. You watch the sea, you watch the sky, at night you see the stars clearly. It is a great feeling.”

Andreu confided the greatest orgasm he ever had was alone in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on his trip around the world. “Normally, people use the word orgasm only for sex, but sometimes I have what I call ‘orgasms of happiness’,” he explains. “Out there I had the highest percentage of orgasms of happiness per week. I was so happy I started screaming like a crazy person.”

“It is a strange feeling. You feel so small, alone in Nature for so many miles. But, you also feel a bit of a hero because you are risking your life for a big challenge,” explains Mateu. “You feel you are emulating Christopher Columbus and are on a great adventure.”

It is addictive. “People who have finished the Atlantic think, now I should do the Pacific or the Indian oceans,” says Andreu. “I will probably want to do the Pacific next.”

How will the journey change you? What will you look like on the other side of the challenge?

“I think it will give me a kind of cool attitude towards some things that now worry me,” says Andreu, “After this experience I will realize they are not so important. I feel I am going to come back in two months renewed.”

And he will return with greater health. “Spending so much time in an office, I have gained weight,” says Mateu. “Now I will be forced to row 12 hours a day, otherwise I will never get to Antigua. I expect to lose 15 kilos.”

This is typical for Andreu Mateu. Most people who gain weight go on a diet, he rows an ocean. “One day I got a fortune cookie. It said, ‘you will never know what you can do until you try it.’ This is the mentality I applied in all my challenges around the world.”

Always pushing himself, Andreu decided to go solo – something few ocean rowers dare. “Solo is the top of this extreme sport, most rowers do it with two people in the boat,” says Andreu. “Doing it solo the reward in happiness and self-esteem is going to be bigger.”

One of Andreu Mateu’s challenges in his trip around the world was swimming the Straits of Gibraltar. “After, people came up to me and touched my arm. They said, “‘Wow! You must be very strong’,” he recalls. “I told them, ‘Don’t touch my arm. The muscle is not in my arm, the muscle is in my mind.’”.

Andreu hopes some friends will come to greet him as he rows into the harbor on the Western side of the Atlantic. He hopes to toast his success with dear friends.

But, the possibility of another toast remains for Andreu Mateu. Of those killed by wind and wave thousands of miles from shore, almost always the body is never recovered. For this reason, the Ocean Rowing Society has a toast they say at every meeting. They lift their glasses high and remember, “To those still at sea.”

By Lance Laytner
Copyright 2008
Meritum Media