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This site is about a conflict of human physiology that shaped history but was undetected  until the 1960's.

In the entire history of man on the planet Earth this phenomenon was discovered only once.

It caused mental breaks for office workers.

You will find this material hard to believe.

This phenomenon is explained in first semester psychology lectures where students don't believe it either.

For that reason I wrote a demonstration that will allow you to experience the phenomenon.

The Everquest Connection page has the explanation and assumes you have not taken basic psychology.

The solution for this problem was the office Cubicle.

This site argues that the this phenomenon causes College Suicides and Missing Students.

The phenomenon causes mental events around the world, Chaco Canyon.

If you use computers in unprotected workspace such as homes, dorms, student apartments, and small business offices read  ...Prevention... at the bottom of most pages.

Long  term exposure can cause severely altered mental states. Qi Gong  Kundalini Yoga

If you are visiting the site as part of a school project send the person responsible for controlling violence at your school to this site.

Page Contents

Introduction and quotes from the Atlanta Journal Constitution 

The Problem      Other Episodes       What Happened?        The Scene At Lenox Square

Prevention

___

 I have spoken Gerdeen Dyer,  the lead writer for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, about this solution. I exchanged emails with another mystery writer with an Internet presence on this story.

When I called the Cold Case Unit of the Atlanta Police Department the officer remembered that there had been problems in the Police Department with the open-room, unprotected-desk system years ago. Now the Department uses Cubicles. He expressed interest in working on this new solution but there will be little time or budget allowed for an almost forty year old case.

You can see the old style office that caused this disappearance any night on Law and Order, NYPD Blue or Barney Miller. Note that none of the desks have privacy panels to block side vision for the desk occupant. This system dominated the business office until the civil engineering discovery that led to the use of Cubicles. The Modern Cubicle

The story in the Atlanta Journal Constitution was so well researched that details were included to allow me to see the connection in that case with the phenomenon on this site.

__________________________________

"It was the strangest disappearance in the history of the city. It frightened the public, embarrassed the politicians, baffled the best investigators. And it left the young woman’s loved ones broken-hearted." 

"Conspiracies normally follow a pattern, and so do crimes of opportunity and crimes of passion. But the Little disappearance seemed to defy such rules of logic. It was in a class by itself."

Buckhead.org, by Gerdeen Dyer (link to story below)

_____________________________________

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The Problem

About fifty years ago engineers and designers were surprised when workers using the first moveable compact close-spaced workstations began having bizarre or psychotic episodes. The problem was peripheral vision reflexes and the solution in the business office by the 1960's was the Cubicle.  Now Systems Furniture workstations are designed with Cubicle Level Protection to do the same thing. The Modern Cubicle

The side-vision-blocking walls of a cubicle prevent a worker 'subliminally seeing' movement to create concentration-breaking vision reflexes. Without Cubicle Level Protection humans will automatically learn to ignore detected movement and the reflexes will appear to stop. Once this happens the connection to consciousness is lost.

But victims cannot stop subliminally seeing movement approaching from behind.

 Sight is not sensory adaptable. You cannot stop seeing objects or movement in you vision field and you cannot prevent your brain subliminally detecting 'threat movement' coming from behind.  Peripheral vision reflexes are created below thought reason and consciousness as part of the subconscious mind. It is not possible to communicate with the part of your brain that creates these reflexes. The normal but subliminal operation of the system that creates the reflex prevents your being aware anything is wrong.

 You cannot detect your brain's continued efforts to alert you and to force a peripheral vision reflex.

Psychology texts say that ignoring the continued attempted reflexes causes a conflict in the mind that builds to a mental break, nervous breakdown, dissociative mental break.

Before this discovery workers had Nervous Breakdowns and the reason was unknown.

Office furniture manufacturers believe the problem only produces a mild episode that resolves with no treatment. That is one effect a high stimulation rate will produce. (ICU Psychosis) They do not see episodes that happen in other ways.

Computers are not necessary to cause the psychiatric injury but the act of using a computer requires the same mental investment or concentration to cause you to ignore movement in the room so that you can concentrate and work.

Missing Students    College Suicides

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Other Episodes

Today, one in  three patients spending more that five days in an ICU unit have a mysterious psychotic episode which complicates treatment. Those ICU patients do not have Cubicle Level Protection and can subliminally see, detect, movement as nurses approach unannounced. They quickly recover when they are discharged. That quick onset and quick recovery is noted in the DSM. Psychiatric mental health practitioners are unaware of the cause of Brief Psychotic Disorders. Stress is usually blamed. The rate of exposure is around the clock every fifteen minutes as long as the patients eyes are open. ICU Psychosis

 As the exposure time is lengthened and the number of failed reflexes drops the outcome is different.

Qi Gong, the slow motion martial arts exercise, also causes psychotic mental breaks. Meditation to direct the flow of Qi (chee) in the body engages the same mental state  Knowledge workers must have. Each person can subliminally detect movement of those around them when Qi Gong is performed in groups. Case histories from China say that victims appear to be addicted to the exercise and can't stop gathering others to exercise with them.  Qi Gong Psychotic Episodes

Qi Gong provides a smaller number of stimulation incidents per unit of time compared to the business office and ICU experience. As the number of hours of exercise increases a threshold is reached, different for each person, and the mental break happens.

Acolytes of Kundalini Yoga believe that the sudden onset of hearing voices and the beliefs that you can read minds, move objects with your mind, levitate and dematerialize, are evidence of the Awakening of Kundalini and proof you have successfully  reached a higher plane of existence. Meditation before the exercise trains the mind into a concentrating state. The poses are not held in Kundalini Yoga. They too can detect movement of others near them as they perform in groups while maintaining that contemplative mental state. .  Kundalini Yoga Psychotic Episode

The persistent exposure is stretched in time. Thus a longer time is required before a threshold is reached. The outcome is  more severe with somatic complaints and there are longer lasting psychiatric symptoms.

Indigo Children

New age gurus believe that there are children now being born with strange gifts and powers.

These children see ghosts, speak to dead relatives, and believe they have the power of precognition, knowledge of future events. When you see ghosts that is a hallucination. Hearing and speaking to dead relatives is hearing voices. But the children do not have the life disruption of schizophrenia.

_____________________

As a normal feature of physiology

the phenomenon should be causing cases around the world.

Where are the Cases?

They are disguised as Culture Bound Syndromes.  Chaco Canyon

Each cultural group experiences the onset of the dissociative mental break differently within their cultural experience and belief set. Windigo psychosis, a belief that one is being pursued by or is changing into the Windigo monster, cannibal, historically happened to Native Americans in confined living space during cold winter weather across the northern United States and Canada. The confined living space would provide many opportunities for the phenomenon to be created as one family member works on craft work, to pass the time, and other family members moved about in the room. Chaco Canyon

Culture Bound Syndromes now has a separate page.

There are Culture Bound Syndromes with symptoms so strange that the episodes cannot be mistaken for anything else,  jumping diseases. They were first discovered in the United States as Jumping Frenchmen of Maine Disease. But Latah had already existed in Malaysia. Now the strange "startle matching behavior" is found around the world including some single cases in factories in the United States.

Upon being startled "Latahs" will perform any action they are commanded to do. This includes dancing, stripping off clothes, hitting someone, or copying the actions of others. They may repeat their last words or the last words spoken to them. That is usually only seen in catatonic schizophrenia.

___________________________ 

One of the strangest cases is the Alien Abduction of Barney and Betty Hill.  Barney was a postal worker and it is unlikely he had Cubicle Level Protection in the Post Office in 1961. Barney had been so sick with psychosomatic illnesses that he had been off work for months before the trip into Canada. Instead of having a mental break and 'Going Postal' Barney created a story of alien abduction under hypnosis. The alien Barney drew closely resembles an Alien from the Outer Limits episode "The Bellero Shield." That episode aired just fourteen days before the hypnosis incident.

 Interrupted Journey

___________________________ 

+++

What Happened to Mary Little?

The key to this solution is the fact that two women disappeared, not one. Both women used the same desk in that bank office. Both began to exhibit strange behavior before each disappeared two years apart.

This fact is only mentioned in the last article March 20, 2004, in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. The second woman, Dianne Shields' disappearance and her murder, was thought to be a chance happening. Without the knowledge that the conflict of physiology existed and could cause dissociative episodes the authorities missed this connection.

Little said she was afraid of something but couldn't say what that was. She stopped going out at night. Shields began to disappear for long periods with no explanation. Shields told friends she was working with someone on an important case. None of Shields statements connected to anything going on within the Police Department at the time.

Little was a victim of the phenomenon and began to approach a mental break. Your brain assembles your reality from memory, and inputs from sensors, eyes, ears, nose, and skin. A balance system, inner ear and ambient vision, orients you to the physical world. When the subliminal reflexes begin to happen there is no source your brain can use to identify this input.  Each person perceives this differently. Your brain eventually associates the raw subliminal signals with contemporaneous thought or activity. (Personal Experiences)

Peripheral Vision Reflexes usually when the stimulus approaches from behind. This may be the source of the fear expressed by Little. That fear is also noted in the notes Mark Barton left before he killed his wife and two children with a hammer then shot nine others in day trading businesses in Atlanta, 1999. (Mark Barton, unfinished) Un-attributed fear is mentioned as one of the mental outcomes of the Awakening of  Kundalini. (links on Kundalini Yoga) One of the mass school shooters in prison has similar paranoia. The Conyers Ga. school shooter believes he is being watched through the vents in his shower.

Remember, this phenomenon and conflict of physiology creates the delusions within the frame work of each victims situation, beliefs, and contemporaneous activity. There will be no apparent connection between events in separate cases when the events are caused by this problem. (Czar 52 Crash)

Little began to come unraveled and her mind eventually associated the subliminal signals with her work at the bank. She may have created delusional beliefs that she had done something wrong.  The fear she said she felt  indicates that the delusion probably had some elements of paranoia or persecution. There were rumors of something unusual happening at the bank. Her new husband was a bank examiner. She may have begun to believe that she was about to be arrested for a something  involving a theft or mistake at the bank. There is no way to tell what the delusion was. How do I know this? Personal Experiences (Same link as above.)

A likely possibility:

At some point she made contact with her admirer from her home town. Another possibility is that the two men in the car at the second gas stop were related to her. Whoever she contacted  she communicated the belief to them that she must escape. They believed her. There was no reason not to. Her altered mental state was undetectable. The stolen license plate from her home town was the first preparation to that end. The stolen plate was recorded at the gas stops. Her family identified her signature on the gas charge slips. The rough appearance of the two men in the car with her would have been their attempts at  disguise. They were helping Little disappear.

Serial killers work alone.   The presence of two men in the car at that second gas stop eliminates a serial killer.

The second man was there to help control her and manage the situation. If she had been captured by a serial killer this would not have been necessary.

Why did they use the credit card? Could it  have been a stupid mistake? They didn't continue to use the credit card after that second stop. If Little had a further mental breakdown within the fourteen hours between the two gas purchases they both may have been so rattled they let that slip by.. They would have been unable to detect her altered mental state in the beginning of the disappearance. No one at the bank did. Even with the hints about fear there was not enough outward indications to alarm anyone as to her condition.

Altered mental states example:   Those  who practice advanced Kundalini Yoga openly state that they can levitate, dematerialize, read minds, control others through their thoughts, and possess supernatural powers, yet their day to day existence belies the narrowly focused altered, (psychotic), mental state. The point is that they are not executing a scam. They believe they can do these things and will attempt them for audiences. They write books, speak before groups, do TV interviews, and are revered as enlightened. Some control vast fortunes heaped on them by devoted followers. Yet in their daily living experience they function normally.  Kundalini Psychotic Episodes

Outbreak of Disappearances:   In the case of the disappearance of Ron Tammen, Miami of Ohio student, April 1953, he functioned normally up to the point that he walked away. He was seen later that night when he walked up to a house to ask directions to a bus stop. There was no bus stop.  He was in a confused state, didn't know his own name, and poorly dressed for the cold night. Pictures in Adobe files sponsored by the Library at Miami University show the open unprotected desk in a room for two people. There may have been other sources of exposure because other students had disappeared, recovered and returned. The psychology department called it a 'Case of Amnesia.' They expected Tammen to return too. He has been missing fifty-one years. Mysterious Disappearances and Missing Students , site pages have the same material and links.

The two gas purchases may have been an effort to persuade police that they were traveling away from the Charlotte area when they actually returned to an area near the home town. Once they had an inkling of her true mental state they would have been unsure of what she had told others. The fourteen-hour delay could have been the time necessary to allow her to recover enough to travel. They may have needed time to regroup after they fully understood her condition.

___________________

These Disappearances Are Still Happening

They are still as strange as Mary Little's was.

Look at the recent disappearance of Maura Murray. (Feb 2004) She had a break of some type in front of witnesses. Her supervisor had to help her to her room. But they failed to detect she was having a mental event. Witnesses thought  Murray was crying because of the phone conversation. Later Police learned the call was with her sister and should not have caused the extreme stress event witnesses saw. Within a few days Murray had damaged two cars and disappeared. She has not been seen since a construction worker saw her walking along a rural road the night she disappeared.     Missing Students

Tara Grinstead, Ocilla Georgia,  appears to be the latest victim. Grinstead was a teacher and Master's Degree student with night courses in Tifton Georgia. Like Murray there were unexplained stories that she had emotional outbursts and had failed to appear for one school day, then left early another day without explanation. She attended a beauty pageant, had dinner at the home of a school executive with family, then drove home and went to bed. She disappeared later that night. Clothes she had worn to the two other events that night were left in her bedroom. Her car is still parked at her home. There has been no sighting of her since. Missing Students-- click the same link above-- has her story with links to sources.

___________________________

++

The scene at Lenox Square

Little  made contact with someone  she thought would rescue her. In her mind she had to get away. The scene with blood in the car was staged to throw off the Police so they would think she had been killed. Police suspected a staged scene because of the small amount of blood in the car. Small details show she was already in an altered state. The underwear rolled and stuck beside the seat instead of torn and thrown around points to bizarre thinking. At the second gas stop she hid her face. She didn't want to be recognized even though her companions wanted the impression to be that they were all traveling away from the area. She could not suppress her fear even to carry out the planned subterfuge.

In my conversation with the Cold Case Officer I learned that Police looked at boyfriends in the initial investigation. But the stolen plate points to the home town and two men were seen in the car with her. There must be someone she dated who still pursued her. She relied on that person.

It is possible the two men were her relatives but I have been unable to investigate that possibility. Her mother not knowing what happened and contacting the detectives over the years with questions argues against that. But at one point her mother asked that the investigation not proceed. Does this mean she learned what happened?

Detective work can only go so far after the long time this case has been unsolved. Only media attention will break the case.

If she survived she probably continued to decline and may not have knowledge of who she was. After so long a time those who helped her may now be willing to come forward. They still may not know the story they were told didn't happen. All they would have to go on is the delusional story she told them.

This case can be solved if every thing falls to the Police Department's advantage. With this new information  the only investigation area is who she knew and dated. The possibility of a random serial killer is out of the picture. That is unless you believe she dated the serial killer by chance and  that person took someone else in to their confidence.

.

Diane Shields

Shields disappeared two years later and had moved to another job. It may have been just luck that Shields encountered the same poorly designed workplace in the second job. It is also possible that the problem continued to build after that first heavy exposure and subsequent lower exposure took more time to build to the dissociative state.

Shields died when someone she was dealing with took advantage of her altered mental state. In her condition she probably could not judge the seriousness of the confrontation and refused to be quiet. Her mouth was stuffed with paper. There is no way to know  what that confrontation was. Again, knowing that Shields may have contributed to the situation with delusional beliefs might bring information out even at this late date.

I suggested to the Cold Case Detective  that this new slant would be a reason to get national TV attention to the old case. It would serve more than one purpose.

____________________

Other Recent Disappearances

"Jim Watson Framed Case"

Beverly Watson was a book keeper in a country club working long hours. She began to change the details about how she broke an arm near the point of her initial disappearance. A pivotal point in Jim Watson's trial was the prosecution's argument that she would not go out in cold weather without a coat. In an altered mental state she could have done anything. The possibility that she was seen in K-Mart after he husband was said to have killed her has higher believability when you add the possibility that  phenomenon caused the initial disappearance to the case facts. The Beverly Watson Disappearance is now a separate page

If  you know a witness to the events of the Beverly Watson case email me or send them to this site. 

Unknown Case

I have been unable to find another case a local bank person told me about. The story I got was that a woman walked out her kitchen door and disappeared. Her remains were found years later. I do not have a date, name or location other than  it happened in Georgia near Atlanta.. The story is believed to be in one of Ann Rule's books. If you can supply the title of that book email me from  any email link on the site.

Janet March

Janet March disappeared in Nashville after telling her husband she was  taking a vacation. This story has been aired three times on 48 Hours Investigates. The facts don't add up in that story. There is conflict in the account from both points of view. The Janet March case now has a separate page.

Joseph Morse

A similar disappearance is that of Joseph Morse. The mechanical engineering student walked away from Georgia Tech while packing to leave the morning of finals. This summer Detective Forbes of the Georgia Tech Police Department found Joseph Morse. The details are not available except to mention that Morse died in Miami Florida the day after he disappeared from Georgia Tech. Missing Students

Solving any of these cases or finding evidence that the conflict of physiology was involved due to a incorrectly designed  workstation would bring attention to all of the stories.

______________________________

Links

Buckhead.Org

This story, by Gerdeen Dyer,  can be accessed without registration or fee but it does not have all the facts the AJC story does. .

"It was the strangest disappearance in the history of the city. It frightened the public, embarrassed the politicians, baffled the best investigators. And it left the young woman’s loved ones broken-hearted."

http://www.buckhead.org/history/mystery/msl_a.html

Atlanta Journal Constitution

The March 20, 2004 story "Unknown: What happened to Mary Shotwell Little," is archived at the Atlanta Journal Constitution site. Free registration allows a search on the AJC site. The archive stacks at AJC require a fee to view the full article; The story when published covered two full newspaper pages. See other sources in the links below.

 That AJC Stacks Search returned:

"Thirty-nine years ago, newlywed Mary Shotwell Little disappeared from the parking lot at Lenox Square. Atlanta's most famous missing persons case has baffled police and the FBI ever since, and the mystery remains . . . UNSOLVED
Author: JIM AUCHMUTEY, GERDEEN DYER, PAT KOESTER

Staff Date: March 21, 2004 Publication: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The (GA) Page Number: A1 Word Count: 5426" (Copy-Paste Quote- AJC)
 

http://AJC.com

One Missing Person. ORG

This missing persons site seems to have the text of this story. It is attributed to the AJC.

http://news.onemissingperson.org/GA-OCT-14-1965-What-happened-to-Mary-Shotwell-Little.html

Charlotte Observer

I did not check this story dated April 4, 2004 to see if it is the verbatim copy of the AJC article.

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/8351459.htm?1c

Free Republic

Archived posts of the discussion at Free Republic has the story from AJC including pictures.  None of the discussion group was aware of the phenomenon and this solution.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1102670/posts

To be continued 03/16/08 21:25 -0600

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