In 2024, a Norwegian researcher convinced that directed energy weapons could not cause damage to the human brain attempted an extreme experiment: he made a device emitting powerful pulsed microwave waves and tested it… on himself. The result was catastrophic. According to several sources relayed by the Washington Post, the scientist – whose identity remains secret – experienced neurological symptoms strangely similar to those attributed to the mysterious “Havana syndrome”.
For almost ten years, this medical and geopolitical enigma has fueled hundreds of pages of American reports. In different countries, diplomats and intelligence officers complain of sudden headaches, dizziness, cognitive impairment or nausea; Washington prefers to talk about“abnormal health incidents”.
The Norwegian government reportedly informed the CIA of the results of the experiment, prompting at least two official visits by emissaries from the Pentagon and the White House in 2024. While there is no evidence of the existence of a foreign weapon installed in Cuba, the Norwegian experience demonstrates that “pulsed energy devices” can indeed affect human biology.
“There is compelling evidence that we should be concerned about the ability to design a directed energy weapon capable of threatening human health”says Paul Friedrichs, retired military surgeon and former White House health security adviser under Joe Biden. He declined to comment on the Norwegian case, but his warning speaks volumes about the Pentagon’s renewed interest in these technologies. A rumor relayed by people close to Donald Trump also reported the use of a weapon of this type during the American military operation in Venezuela last January.
The United States has indeed secretly acquired another foreign device operating using pulsed radio waves, according to CNN and independent journalist Sasha Ingber. This device, containing certain components of Russian origin, is currently being analyzed within the Department of Defense. However, the authorities could not determine with certainty its origin.
Unhappy guinea pig
The two devices – one Norwegian, the other foreign – would have contributed to changing certain positions within American intelligence. Two agencies, the NSA and the military’s National Ground Intelligence Center, reportedly revised their conclusions in 2025, estimating that it was now “plausible” that a foreign actor has a capacity capable of causing the effects observed. But the majority of other agencies, including the CIA, continue to judge “very unlikely” a hostile origin.
On the Norwegian side, there is complete silence. The embassy in Washington made no comment and nothing has filtered out about the ministry or laboratory involved. It must be said that the experiment carried out by the local researcher is surprising. The man was until then an ardent critic of the theory linking the health incidents observed in particular in Havana to energy beam weapons. By deciding to be his own guinea pig, he understood that he had perhaps made a mistake, suffering in turn from neurological symptoms of which the Washington Post does not give details. “I don’t know what came over himconfides an anonymous source. He was a bit of an eccentric spirit.”
At the end of 2024, the White House half-heartedly acknowledged the possibility of such a weapon. A manager then summarized: “To say there is nothing here is irresponsible. We need to recognize that we don’t have all the answers and that pulsed electromagnetic energy could explain some cases.” During a meeting at the end of the year, a senior official even assured several victims that the Biden administration believed them.
As you will have understood, the few answers provided by the Norwegian experience in turn raise numerous questions, even if the existence of a microwave weapon no longer seems completely out of a work of science fiction.
