[HN Gopher] If you are harassed by lasers
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If you are harassed by lasers
Author : 1970-01-01
Score : 86 points
Date : 2025-09-26 19:12 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.laserpointersafety.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.laserpointersafety.com)
| mrguyorama wrote:
| It's fascinating how much of this has to be devoted to "You are
| probably not seeing a laser. You are probably not being harassed
| by an organized group"
|
| People who have delusions or people deep into their conspiracy
| theories have an insane level of _insistence_. They will refuse
| to accept "That's just not how that works" as an answer. It's
| scary.
| jandrese wrote:
| There are diagnoseable mental illnesses that cause people to
| believe they are being targeted by sinister forces. They can't
| believe because their brain is malfunctioning.
| ryandrake wrote:
| Reddit's r/gangstalking is where they meet. Yet another group
| that might benefit from therapy or mental help.
| lawlessone wrote:
| The kind of reinforcement they give each other is the same
| kind some people are now getting from chatbots instead.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| Wait, that isn't a parody sub?
| culi wrote:
| Nope. The phenomenon is more widespread than people
| realize. Here's an Aeon piece worth reading about it
|
| https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-psychiatric-narrative-
| hinders...
| vintermann wrote:
| I think what they feel is that they've had some experience,
| and they have an unshakeable feeling that it's _deeply
| significant_.
|
| As Philip K. Dick said, of his own "laser pointer" incident:
| "If you were me, and had this happen to you, I'm sure you
| wouldn't be able to leave it alone."
|
| Remember, that even for us healthy people, there's ultimately
| no _objective_ answer to what 's important or not. There may
| be more or less objective _conditional_ answers (e.g. if it
| 's important that I don't starve to death tomorrow, it's
| important that I eat), but those already assumes something is
| important. It has to bottom out in something that's important
| _for its own sake_ , something whose importance can't be
| justified from something else's importance.
|
| I think the "gangstalking" people have had experiences that
| their mind does not allow them to dismiss. They may be
| capable of accepting _different_ explanations for why the
| experience mattered - but they can 't accept that it _isn 't_
| important, because it's somehow a _root_ important thing for
| them.
|
| In that very same Philip K. Dick essay, he more or less
| apologized for this, and listed up various different
| explanations that he'd tried. But he was lucky enough that
| his "ultimate importance" experience was basically pleasant.
| The genuinely paranoid people are not so lucky.
| armada651 wrote:
| The problem with such delusions is that people desperately need
| a physical explanation. Because the alternative is that they
| are seeing things that are not real, which is an even scarier
| thought than some organized group pointing lasers at you.
| munificent wrote:
| _> They will refuse to accept "That's just not how that works"
| as an answer._
|
| For many people with mental illness, it's not a "refusal". That
| implies agency and deliberate choice from a properly
| functioning mind. When it's the mind itself that is
| malfunctioning, those kinds of verbs don't really work. The
| very _definition_ of "delusion" is a thing you are compelled
| to believe even in the absence of evidence. If you are able to
| stop believing it, if you are able to _not_ refuse to change
| your belief, then it 's not a delusion in the first place.
|
| Further, some people suffering in this way have anosognosia,
| which means not only are they delusion, but their mind is also
| incapable of perceiving its own malfunction.
| goopypoop wrote:
| "That's just not how that works" isn't an answer; it's a
| dismissal.
|
| Who's convinced by "lol no ur stupid"?
| OkayPhysicist wrote:
| Every biohacking community ends up with a page like this
| talking about implants. "Yes, we implant ourselves with little
| devices that interact with electromagnetic radiation. No, you
| probably didn't have such a device implanted in you without
| your knowledge. If you did, it wouldn't be much use to your
| adversaries. Please seek psychiatric help".
| tencentshill wrote:
| The run-on sentence style paranoid people type is getting a lot
| more common online.
| culi wrote:
| Sounds like the writings of a "targeted individual". Or
| "gangstalking". It's a more common phenomenon than people
| realize. There's even a subreddit community of individuals
| experiencing this
|
| https://old.reddit.com/r/Gangstalking/
|
| Here's a fascinating Aeon piece on the phenomenon
|
| https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-psychiatric-narrative-hinders...
| jlarocco wrote:
| Honestly, "That's just not how that works" isn't a very
| convincing argument.
|
| If you can't explain why it doesn't work that way, there's no
| reason anybody should believe you.
| ascorbic wrote:
| It's a very carefully-worded page from somebody who has clearly
| had to deal with a large number of people suffering from
| paranoid delusions.
| rolph wrote:
| in preparation for the shift to projected energy weapons,
|
| "If you see light or feel heat from an unknown source"
|
| the whole thing reads a little like a paranoia trigger.
| lawlessone wrote:
| >"If you see light or feel heat from an unknown source"
|
| "If you see the flash, it's already too late"
| anon84873628 wrote:
| I read it as sympathetic to the paranoid people who believe
| these things, and gently steering them towards medical help
| instead.
| wildzzz wrote:
| The section above seems to explain why this article is written
| the way it is. Many people do experience sensations or see
| things that we otherwise cannot. They may have heightened
| sensitivity or could have a mental or neurological condition
| that produces these experiences. Some people may feel like they
| are going crazy seeing or hearing things that aren't actually
| there. Others feed into the experiences and believe they exist,
| like targeted individuals do. Someone that may be unsure if
| they are really seeing lasers or feeling indeterminate heating
| may and hasn't totally fallen down the DEW or TI rabbit hole
| could benefit from seeing something that basically says "I
| believe you're hearing/seeing/feeling these things, there may
| be medical explanation so you may want to see a doctor."
| JALTU wrote:
| It's in the title itself! lol
| Theodores wrote:
| Only the paranoid survive... I am going there.
|
| What about LIDAR on self-driving cars?
|
| I have heard that these damage cameras and I am curious as to
| whether they are equally damaging to eyeballs.
|
| Do I need my tin hat or is there nothing to worry about?
| donnybrook007 wrote:
| great instructions for AI to learn
| Exoristos wrote:
| A long page of human drama at
| https://laserpointersafety.com/sentences/sentences.html, e.g.:
| "Suspended sentence, rehab for 55-year-old who aimed a laser pen
| at a helicopter after it interrupted his audiobook".
| pryelluw wrote:
| That hole page explains why aliens won't come visit.
| nurettin wrote:
| I have seen a crab brush his eye with one of his foldable
| mouth arms. We already have aliens. They are more weird than
| anything I saw on star trek.
| moralestapia wrote:
| >A South Australia Police helicopter checking on COVID
| compliance during a three-day lockdown [...]
|
| Whew.
| stepanhruda wrote:
| Fighting noise pollution with light pollution
| culi wrote:
| If you want more "human drama" read up on Hong Kong protesters'
| extensive use of lasers against police and security cameras. A
| powerful enough laser can pretty quickly render a security
| camera unusable. Ofc it can also blind someone (even indirectly
| looking at the beam) quite easily
| Onavo wrote:
| It can also set off the alcohol-in-tube fire alarms
| trod1234 wrote:
| A lot of helicopters today are being used to harass entire
| neighborhoods where complaints to local government go
| completely unresolved, so I can emphasize with that situation,
| not that I'd ever do something that stupid.
|
| Its not uncommon to have them hovering for 1-2 hours straight
| 3-7 times a week, every week, at times with no active calls on
| the community police dashboard almost entirely between 11pm and
| 4am, often less than 1000 feet in altitude (high dBs enough to
| shake windows).
|
| That aside, using a helicopter as a broadcast mechanism over a
| loudspeaker to a neighborhood is entirely unacceptable during
| hours people normally sleep.
|
| Everyone is complaining and they've been doing that at least 3
| years now.
|
| How many times can you hear, "Missing person, or Felony
| Suspect", black shirt, denim pants, black suspect, call 911",
| or "suspicious person, black hoodie, call 911", before they
| lose all credibility. Around 10?
|
| It seems really racist too, always hispanic or black, where the
| descriptions provided apply to most if not all people of those
| demographics.
|
| Makes the average person feel like we live in a police state
| without due process or a rule of law when the only means to
| resolve is front-of-line blocked through local government which
| ignores complaints.
|
| I shouldn't be hearing this at 2am regularly, some people work.
| lostlogin wrote:
| When you have a helicopter circling your house for hours, you
| do start to lose rational thought.
| LargoLasskhyfv wrote:
| ...don't read to much
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valis_(novel)#Synopsis
| number6 wrote:
| I read and read and it totally reminded me of Valis
| h1fra wrote:
| what's up with the submit date? @dang
| cpach wrote:
| Apparantly their user name is '1970-01-01'
| ric129 wrote:
| that's the submitters' user name, not the submission date
| amelius wrote:
| More dangerous are infrared lasers.
| giantg2 wrote:
| Or UV
| notherhack wrote:
| Is there an effective anti-IR coating for eyeglasses like there
| is for UV? Seems like a good thing to have but a web search
| doesn't turn up much. It might interfere with facial
| recognition, but maybe that's a feature.
| compass_copium wrote:
| Zenni sells one now, with privacy as a selling point
| mrob wrote:
| Thin films of gold are reflective in the infrared and
| transparent in blue/green optical wavelengths. Gold can be
| applied to most surfaces by various physical vapor deposition
| processes in a vacuum.
| ottah wrote:
| Any laser light strong enough to damage your vision, might
| also pass through a optical coating. Distance can attenuate
| the strength, but really the only defense is proper rated
| glasses for the spectrum.
| gblargg wrote:
| What about visible lasers that lack an IR filter and have more
| IR energy in the beam?
| ascorbic wrote:
| They will at least trigger the blink reflex
| javier_e06 wrote:
| My backyard neighbor installed a backup generator with a very
| annoying green led that shines right through my kitchen window. I
| hate HOA's and I don't live in one but I really lost sleep about
| this. One night I just went a back there and put a small green
| sticker on the plastic case. Still shines on but the annoying
| glow shines elsewhere. Inspection passed.
| AnotherGoodName wrote:
| There was a time in the electronics world when bright, house
| illuminating leds first came about and manufacturers used them
| in place of the dull red/green indicators. Black tape
| everywhere. Macbooks were one of the worst offenders. They had
| an extremely bright and worst of all pulsating led that was on
| when the device was in standby. Used to shine right through
| laptop bags and keep everyone nearby awake.
|
| Fortunately that fad is somewhat over and manufacturers mostly
| learnt not to put in the brightest led they could source.
| giantg2 wrote:
| I think I've used more electrical tape covering LEDs than I
| have for any other purpose.
| thr0w wrote:
| Was just about to post this - thought I was neurotic for
| taping over LED displays in the 2000s. My sight and hearing
| get annoyingly sensitive when I'm in bed at night.
| zerocrates wrote:
| I still have electrical tape right now over the power LED on
| my computer case: it's a pretty bright white LED that pulses
| in sleep and as far as I know my motherboard won't let me
| turn that behavior off. I guess I could have just pulled the
| leads to the LED instead.
|
| Now that I think about it, that was probably actually one
| motherboard ago and it might be different now... but the
| tape's working just fine so who needs to check?
| paxys wrote:
| The situation still hasn't improved all that much. Just
| looking around I have electrical tape over the LEDs of my
| modem, router, computer monitor, soundbar, humidifier, fan,
| entryway intercom, thermostat. And these are all new devices.
| doubled112 wrote:
| I use stickers designed for dimming LEDs. They're almost
| like a thick window tint cut into various shapes. Dim
| enough to stop the LED from being annoying but you can
| still see its status.
|
| A little more expensive, but they look a little nicer too.
| layer8 wrote:
| https://www.lightdims.com/
| doubled112 wrote:
| I think those are the ones. I've been working on the pack
| of them for years.
| thewebguyd wrote:
| The one that got on my nerves recently is a little bedside
| 3-in-1 wireless charger.
|
| Has one of the brightest LEDs I've seen lately right on
| front of the charger whenever a device is on it. Why would
| they put a bright light on a night-stand accessory, and put
| it in the front where its shining right into your eyes as
| you try to sleep?
|
| Or better yet, why have an LED on it at all in the first
| place? Any device I'm putting on it has its own charging
| indicator, I don't need the charger itself to have one.
| Analemma_ wrote:
| IME consumer electronics have gotten a lot better about
| this, but appliances and other things outside the tech
| sphere are still awful. My portable AC unit has a bright-
| as-hell seven-segment display for the temperature which
| shows "--" even when it's turned off!
| formerly_proven wrote:
| This might just be amateur EEs doing their thing in an
| organization that doesn't constrain these aspects of the
| product. Data sheet says If(cont)=20 mA? Okay, 20 mA it
| is.
| dotancohen wrote:
| I much prefer two or three coats of black nail polish. It
| looks much nicer than tape, is more durable, and the light
| can barely be seen - just enough to see it when you want
| to. Like it should have been from the factory.
| cdjk wrote:
| The pulsing macbook leds were horrible. I was in college
| then, living in dorms or other shared housing where my laptop
| was always in my bedroom overnight. I got in the habit of
| putting a dark shirt over it.
| dkenyser wrote:
| My brand new Netgear router I just bought is so bright it's
| actually blinding if I catch a glimpse late at night so we
| might not be out of the woods just yet.
| bboygravity wrote:
| I can highly recommend aluminum tape or copper tape. Doesn't
| let any light through and super easy to apply.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _One night I just went a back there and put a small green
| sticker on the plastic case_
|
| Did you try talking to them about it first?
| ottah wrote:
| This is more important, you have to give people a chance to
| rectify the situation.
| actionfromafar wrote:
| Depending on the neighbours, may be asking for more trouble.
| nenenejej wrote:
| One night I just went a back there and...
|
| Expects vandalism or more serious crime.
|
| ...put a small green sticker
|
| Ok, good engineer!
| brikym wrote:
| What do you suggest I do about Ford pickup trucks with
| annoyingly high, bright high beams?
|
| Maybe a light bar for the rear of the car and some reflective
| material for the sunvisor?
| actionfromafar wrote:
| Green stickers
| scrps wrote:
| Not to hijack your post with a PSA but I think you'll endorse
| it...
|
| If you are building a product and it has any indicator lights
| please dim/diffuse/lightpipe them.
|
| It seems to be a trend these days of ultra bright LEDs for
| indicators, I have so many devices I've either disconnected,
| dimmed or taped over the LEDs because it is so bloody bright.
| brikym wrote:
| Please forward this to the billboard advertising industry.
| mmaunder wrote:
| Someone pointed a laser at someone.
| numb7rs wrote:
| On a side note, this site reacts to window size changes (phone
| rotation portrait <-> landscape) with a really nice animated
| shuffle of the content. It's more visible on the "Sentences" page
| linked in another comment [0]. I've not seen that before, and
| certainly wasn't expecting it on a site that is otherwise pretty
| no-frills.
|
| [0] https://laserpointersafety.com/sentences/sentences.html
| gweinberg wrote:
| Phish has a helpful song explaining how to deal with laser
| ahrassment:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YpLTljxq6M&list=RD2YpLTljxq...
| Animats wrote:
| The US military doesn't even use laser pointers much any more.
| Maybe for pointing at a map during a briefing, but not for
| pointing at the enemy. Single-pulse range finders, yes.
| Continuous laser designators are "Hi, I'm an enemy, kill me now."
| They were more popular in the 1980s before everybody else got IR
| sensing technology.
| LorenPechtel wrote:
| Yeah, a beam of anything is asking for a beam-rider to find it.
| (Doesn't have to be a missile--wake-follower torpedoes are a
| form of beam-rider. They don't look for a ship, they try to
| follow a wake until they run under/into a ship. Passive so the
| enemy doesn't hear your sonar pinging, nor do sonar masking
| systems have any effect on it. The weakness is such torpedoes
| are very predictable and can be tricked into going for a towed
| decoy.)
| ACCount37 wrote:
| There are still a few laser designators and munitions that use
| them. Mostly LGBs, as far as I'm aware - JDAMs didn't eat
| everything yet.
| groos wrote:
| Some statistics from the sentencing page:
|
| Median age 27 Male: 98% Female: 2% Youngest: 19 Oldest: 64 Median
| prison time: 12 months Median probation time: 24 months
|
| All of the above were Copilot inferred. Don't know why I need to
| know the above, though. :-)
| merksoftworks wrote:
| I dug around on this web page and found outlinks to:
|
| The "Stop Gangstalking Awareness Group", and especially this page
| about "Understanding Neuro Weapons." LaserPointerSafety has not
| evaluated the accuracy or usefulness of this group or their
| information. (Thanks to M.D. in July 2024 for bringing this to
| our attention.)
|
| These are kind of kooky links:
| https://web.archive.org/web/20240509210655/https://stopgangs...
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(page generated 2025-09-26 23:00 UTC)