I Make My Debut Appearance on HI, STRANGENESS!!!

The latest episode of Steve Berg's HI, STRANGENESS podcast just dropped! Here's Steve's description of this nearly two-hour-long interview:

"HI friends! This week, my guest is the legendary fringe culture author, Robert Guffey! Robert has been writing about conspiracy culture for years now, and has contributed a lot of wildly fascinating stories, books, and magazine articles to this field of interest. On this episode, we spend most of the time discussing his new book HOLLYWOOD HAUNTS THE WORLD, which focuses on encoded cinema and cultural taboos. I don't want to spoil too much here, but we get into intel agencies involvement in screenwriting, things you can say in fiction, but not in real life, and a whole lot more. Being a deep fan of cinema history, I have to say that this one hit the spot perfectly for me. Enjoy!" 

Topics include Charles Fort, the Clarion Writers Workshop, Jack Womack, THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, James Randi, Dr. Stephan A. Hoeller, CHAMELEO, Stephen R. Bissette, TABOO, Charles Darwin, TWIN PEAKS, Jack Parsons, L. Ron Hubbard, Marjorie Cameron, George Adamski, William S. Burroughs, PSYCHIC SELF-DEFENSE, the Black Dahlia, Musso & Frank, the JFK assassination, WE'RE WE CONTROLLED?, Jose Delgado, Curt Siodmak, CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN, Roky Erickson, Heaven's Gate, the OSS, SPIES & SAUCERS, HAMLET, THE GAMMA PEOPLE, Robert Aldrich, Nelson Rockefeller, Albert Broccoli, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, WINTER KILLS, Richard Condon, THE PARALLAX VIEW, Loren Singer, Permindex, Ted Kennedy, John Huston, and NOMENCLATURE OF AN ASSASSINATION CABAL! To listen to the entire episode, click HERE!!!

Havana Syndrome Updates

1) From a 1-14-26 CBS News report entitled "What to Know About Havana Syndrome and a Device that Might Be Linked to It":

There's a new development in the years long international mystery over Havana Syndrome: The U.S. has obtained and has been testing a device that officials believe could be linked to the debilitating condition.

Sources said the device was quietly obtained by the Department of Homeland Security in late 2024, almost a decade after symptoms of what became known as Havana Syndrome were first reported by U.S. embassy personnel in Cuba. The Pentagon has since been testing the portable, backpack-sized device, which emits pulsed, radio-frequency energy and contains components of Russian origin.

The sources said Homeland Security investigators believe it may be capable of reproducing the effects described by victims of Havana Syndrome. The Pentagon and DHS did not immediately reply to requests for comment, and the CIA declined to comment [...].

In another case, a State Department security officer who worked in the U.S. consulate in Guangzhou, China, told "60 Minutes" that he and his wife started having symptoms after hearing bizarre sounds in their apartment in 2017.

The security officer, Mark Lenzi, described the sound as a "marble" circling down a "metal funnel" and said he heard it four times — always in the same spot at the same time of day: above his son's crib when he put him to bed at night. He described the sound as "fairly loud" and like nothing he'd heard before. He and his wife began to feel ill shortly after hearing the sounds.

Lenzi said he believed he was targeted due to his work using top-secret equipment to analyze electronic threats to diplomatic missions.

"This was a directed standoff attack against my apartment…it was a weapon," he told correspondent Scott Pelley. "I believe it's RF, radio frequency energy, in the microwave range" [...].

A U.S. intelligence assessment released in 2023 by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence found it was "very unlikely" that a foreign adversary was responsible for the illnesses — a conclusion reaffirmed in an updated review released a year ago. That review found that most of the intelligence community continued to view foreign involvement as highly improbable.

To read the entire article, click HERE.

2) From a 1-12-26 CNN report entitled "Pentagon Bought Device Through Undercover Operation Some Investigators Suspect Is Linked to Havana Syndrome":

A division of the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, purchased the device for millions of dollars in the waning days of the Biden administration, using funding provided by the Defense Department, according to two of the sources. Officials paid “eight figures” for the device, these people said, declining to offer a more specific number.

The device is still being studied and there is ongoing debate — and in some quarters of government, skepticism — over its link to the roughly dozens of anomalous health incidents that remain officially unexplained [...].

The device acquired by HSI produces pulsed radio waves, one of the sources said, which some officials and academics have speculated for years could be the cause of the incidents. Although the device is not entirely Russian in origin, it contains Russian components, this person added.

Officials have long struggled to understand how a device powerful enough to cause the kind of damage some victims have reported could be made portable; that remains a core question, according to one of the sources briefed on the device. The device could fit in a backpack, this person said [...].

The acquisition of the device has been treated by some victims as potential vindication.

“If the [US government] has indeed uncovered such devices, then the CIA owes all the victims a f**king major and public apology for how we have been treated as pariahs,” Marc Polymeropoulos, one of the first CIA officers to go public with injuries he says he sustained in an attack in Moscow in 2017, said in a statement to CNN.

To read the entire article, click HERE. 

Pre-order Adam Gorightly & Christopher Graybill's SAUCERS, SPOOKS AND KOOKS!

I just finished watching Adam Gorightly and Christopher Graybill's new documentary SAUCERS, SPOOKS AND KOOKS (based on Gorightly's 2021 book of the same name), which I highly recommend... and not just because I'm in it! Even though I was given a free screener of the film by Christopher Graybill, I pre-ordered a copy to lend my financial support to the project. I'm sure I'll be referring to the film again and again in the near future for research purposes. Gorightly and Graybill did a tremendous job of making a complex, disjointed, nonlinear, decades-spanning tale of dubious aliens and international intrigue surprisingly lucid. You can pre-order the film by clicking right HERE!

Here's the filmmakers' official ballyhoo: 

Saucers, Spooks, and Kooks is a journey through the lesser-known history of the UFO narrative, exploring its origins and evolution — a story that continues to shape how we perceive the current UFO phenomenon.

A cautionary tale of disinformation, Saucers, Spooks, and Kooks follows the story of scientist Paul Bennewitz, who was targeted by a mind-bending counterintelligence campaign that gave rise to enduring UFO lore. The themes of this incident spread into the 1980s UFO scene, and eventually found their way to movies and shows like The X-Files, captivating a new generation of believers. Tropes like the "Greys," underground "Reptilian" bases, and crashed saucers have had an enduring influence on popular culture and still determine how we see the UFO phenomenon today.

If you want to listen to the filmmakers discuss the documentary in their own words, I suggest checking out the 12-10-25 episode of BINNALL OF AMERICA in which Tim Binnall interviews Adam Gorightly and Christopher Graybill about SAUCERS, SPOOKS AND KOOKS at great length. You can hear the entire interview directly below...

Binnall of America: The Revival - E102 | Gorightly & Graybill:

January 6th: When Goofy Met Deadly

"After the insurrection of Jan. 6, a lot of attention was paid to the rise of QAnon, because so many rioters were adherents to this online cult that preached that Trump is a savior prophesized to stop a worldwide Satanic conspiracy. Alarming reports showed millions of Americans believed QAnon myths, such as the divinity of Trump or that Democrats drink children's blood. QAnon is still around, but it gets much less media coverage these days. One likely reason is what we see in these focus groups: bonkerballs levels of conspiracy belief is no longer a fringe phenomenon. QAnon-style beliefs are simply the norm in American society."

--Amanda Marcotte, "Conspiracy Theory Is the New Normal: 2024 Was the Year QAnon Went Mainstream," SALON, 12-26-24 

 

If you want to listen to me discussing my nonfiction book, OPERATION MINDFUCK: QANON & THE CULT OF DONALD TRUMP, at great length on Marc Maron's WTF PODCAST back on July 3rd, 2023, simply click HERE!

 

READ

OPERATION MINDFUCK: QANON & THE CULT OF DONALD TRUMP

BY

ROBERT GUFFEY

 

"It's great."

--Marc Maron, WTF Podcast

"Voltaire suggested that those who can make us believe absurdities can make us commit atrocities, and QAnon provided the practical demonstration. Robert Guffey’s razor-sharp postings illuminate how a collage of Shaver mysteries, Discordian prankster politics and recreational conspiracy theory played out as dissociative American fugue. Jaw-dropping and essential."

—Alan Moore, author of V for Vendetta and Watchmen

"One of the most difficult aspects of confronting QAnon conspiracism is finding the time and resolve to delve into its ever-expanding network of self-reinforcing connections and concepts. Robert Guffey does that work for you in OPERATION MINDFUCK, a codex to madness and a critical examination of how a massive fraction of our culture has imbibed a counter-reality. Guffey also explores underground sources lost on many mainstream historians, bringing us into an (occasionally ingenious) netherworld of outsider thought forms. Guffey is the Ernest Shackleton of paranoia—and one hopes his journey will result in a happier ending."

—Mitch Horowitz, PEN Award-winning author of Occult America and Uncertain Places

"It's practically a guide to your character to discover whether you find this expose of possibly the stupidest political movement in human history funny, alarming, or infuriating.... Highly recommended."

—Richard Smoley, author of Supernatural: Writings on an Unknown History and How God Became God

"OPERATION MINDFUCK: QANON & THE CULT OF DONALD TRUMP by Robert Guffey tackles the conspiracy theories Q draws from, the history of the Q phenomenon, and the eventual attempts by mobs at least partially influenced by Q, and certainly influenced by Donald Trump, to overturn the 2020 Presidential election. The book is well-researched, with a full Bibliography of notes that reference and identify each quote from each source that Guffey cites. Guffey, additionally, has a long background studying conspiracy theories and their origins [...]. Guffey is not a lightweight."

—Steve Henn, author of And God Said Let There Be Evolution

"Whether QAnon is a religion, a cult, a joke, a political movement, or just an online game gone awry, Robert Guffey's OPERATION MINDFUCK: QANON & THE CULT OF DONALD TRUMP is his attempt to figure it all out. Guffey's pedigree in this area is unmatched [...]. Throughout OPERATION MINDFUCK, Guffey follows Theodore Sturgeon's advice he quoted in his book CHAMELEO: 'Always ask the next question.'"

—Roy Christopher, author of Dead Precedents: How Hip-Hop Defines the Future

 

 "[Guffey's] expertise shines through in every chapter of this book. Operation Mindfuck: QAnon and the Cult of Donald Trump is not only a well written and well researched look into the abyss of bullshit known as QAnon, but it is also very funny and quite sad at the same time—an interesting, entertaining, and sometimes frightening read."

 

--Razorcake 

"If you are still dazed from this [QAnon] business, then Robert Guffey has written a book just for you. In readable yet well researched fashion, he lays it all out: where it began, who, why, how. He can’t make it go away for you—or me, for that matter—but he can make the whole bizarre business a bit less confusing... [T]his book is what you need. Get your fire lit, your cup of coffee (or something far stronger), curl up (in fetal position, if necessary), and prepare to learn."

 

--Seattle Book Mama

Anti-surveillance Graffiti

In a censorship-ridden society, where objective facts are hard to come by, you often need to rely on alternative means of communication to get at the truth. Back on July 26, 2025, while driving through Los Angeles, I took the following three photographs of graffiti spray painted on the walls of multistory buildings located on East Washington Boulevard. As far as I can tell, the graffiti reads as follows: "GANGSTALKERS HELP ICE PROTECTED CRIMINALS" and "GANGSTALKERS HELPING ICE HYPOCRITE SNITCHES." 

 

When I returned home to Long Beach later that afternoon, I stumbled across related graffiti scrawled on a sidewalk located on Bellflower Boulevard...

 

Keeping all of these ephemeral messages in mind, here's a relevant excerpt from Sam Biddle's 12-19-25 THE INTERCEPT article entitled "ICE Hires Immigrant Bounty Hunters from Private Prison Company GEO Group": 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has hired a subsidiary of for-profit prison company GEO Group to aid in hunting down immigrants at their homes and places of work, according to records reviewed by The Intercept.

ICE has secured a deal with surveillance firm BI Incorporated as part of a new program, first reported in October by The Intercept, to use private bounty hunters to determine the locations of immigrants in exchange for monetary bonuses.

BI, which was acquired by the GEO Group in 2011, is one of several firms hired by ICE to provide “skip tracing” services, in which its teams of corporate investigators will use surveillance to track immigrants across the country to their homes and places of work so federal agents can easily swoop in and make arrests.

Records show ICE has already paid BI $1.6 million, with the potential for the contract to grow to as much as $121 million by the time it concludes in 2027.

ICE’s push to privatize its hunt for immigrants has drawn the scrutiny of Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., who warned it “invites the very abuses, secrecy, and corruption our founders sought to prevent” [...].

BI also touts its suite of software products, including case management applications for monitoring the movements of immigrants and other targets, as well as tools that allow agencies to chart a target’s “geographic and spatial location data” across Google Maps. It is unknown if the company has access to commercial mobile device locational data, or relies solely on body-mounted trackers [...].

404 Media reported Thursday that ICE had also contracted with AI Solutions 87, “a company that makes ‘AI agents’ to rapidly track down targets.”

To read the entire article, click HERE.

"The Black Ambulance" in DIRTY MAGICK MAGAZINE

2026 is only a few hours old, and I already have a new story published! Please visit Charles Brown's DIRTY MAGICK MAGAZINE to read my brand new novelette, "The Black Ambulance" (which has been serialized in two parts). You can read a preview of Part One directly below... 

The Black Ambulance Part One

by Robert Guffey

When I was thirteen, I remember standing on a street corner, waiting for a light, eager to cross the street so I could catch the beginning of my favorite television show. It was about 8:15 at night and I was coming home after having dinner at a friend’s house. The light went from red to green and I was just about to step into the street when something told me to stay where I was.

I have no idea what I really mean by that. All I know is that I didn’t want to cross the street at all. I just stood there, watching, waiting. For what, I didn’t know.

A second later, a car—a big white car that looked like something out of the 1950s—came whizzing around the corner at a crazy speed and shot right through the crosswalk. Right where I would’ve been standing if I’d crossed the street a moment before. I got cold all of a sudden. Sweat poured from my forehead and my armpits and the back of my neck. I watched, frozen now, as the car swerved all over the road, then careened off the street and slammed into a storefront only a few blocks away from me. Everything was silent after that.

I glanced around. This was an area of downtown that was deserted after six o’clock or so. No one seemed to be around. I started walking toward the wreckage, slowly.

As I drew closer, I noticed that the driver’s door was hanging open. I circled around the back of the car and saw something I’ll never forget. Blood everywhere. The driver, an older man, I have no idea how old, now lay crumpled on the pavement. He was half in and half out of the car as if he’d tried to crawl away and had passed out.

I looked from side to side, wondering if I should do something to help. I knew CPR, or at least I sort of did. Perhaps I should...

To read the entire story, subscribe to DIRTY MAGICK MAGAZINE by clicking right HERE!