At Whale Hunting, we don’t just report—we pursue. Our Expeditions are long-haul investigations into the unseen machinery of power: how secrets are kept, how truth gets buried, and what it takes to unearth it.

One of those Expeditions begins today. It’s a return to the story that launched our team into some of the world’s most sensitive corridors: Havana Syndrome. You may have heard the official verdict—“no clear evidence of a weapon,” case likely closed. But behind the scenes, the story didn’t stop. We kept digging. And the deeper we went, the more the scientific and intelligence communities quietly confirmed what we suspected: this isn’t over.

That’s why we’re relaunching this investigation—not as just a spy story, but as a forensic one. Starting today, we’ll bring fresh reporting, new interviews, and a systematic, evidence-first approach. We’ll map the data, break down the science, and examine the things hiding in plain sight.

If you’re a free subscriber, you’ll get access. If you want to go deeper, become a paid member. Either way, we invite you to join the hunt.

If you have an interest in investigating, please write us at syndrome@projectbrazen.com and we'll figure out how to collaborate. Need more confidential means? Click here for options.

Science, Spycraft, and the Hunt for a Weapon

It sounds like the plot of a thriller: diplomats and spies around the world stricken by an invisible force, suffering brain injuries after hearing strange noises in the night. “Havana Syndrome” – as these baffling incidents came to be known – remains one of the most fascinating unsolved stories of our time. It’s a blend of geopolitics, covert warfare, and medical mystery: starting in Cuba in 2016 and spiraling into a global whodunit involving world capitals, intelligence agencies, and scientists racing to grasp the truth.

Despite multiple investigations, what caused the syndrome is still hotly debated, and the implications are enormous. Was it a new kind of directed-energy weapon, quietly heralding an era of sci-fi spycraft? Or an elaborate mass illusion, as some skeptics claim? The U.S. government itself has been polarized – “some kind of focused energy weapon or a mass psychogenic illness,” as one analysis put it. What’s clear is that something real happened to these people, and as we relaunch our long-term investigation into what are simply calling “The Syndrome,” or "Syndrome," we invite you to join us in scrutinizing the evidence with a fresh, science-first approach. This is not just a story to listen to; it’s a mystery to solve, and the truth could reshape our understanding of both national security and the human brain.

What Is Havana Syndrome? (The Story So Far)

In late 2016, staff at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba – including undercover CIA officers – began experiencing an alarming array of neurological symptoms. Many recalled being hit suddenly by painful high-pitched sounds or pressure sensations coming from a specific direction, often at night in their homes or hotel rooms. The effects were dramatic: piercing ear pain, vertigo, splitting headaches, nausea, ringing in the ears, vision problems, and cognitive difficulties, to name a few. Some people struggled to stand or speak; a few later developed chronic brain injuries. One CIA officer, for example, was overcome in his Moscow hotel room by an “incredible case of vertigo, nausea, ringing in [his] ears,” and was later diagnosed with traumatic brain injury that ended his career. In Havana, nearly every CIA officer at the station fell ill in a matter of weeks. Victims described how the mysterious sound or sensation would cease if they moved just a few steps away, only to resume when they returned – as if they were literally in a beam of something.

By early 2017, word of these “anomalous health incidents” leaked, and the U.S. government quietly evacuated most of its Havana Embassy staff. Over the next several years, similar incidents began cropping up across the globe – approximately 1,500 personnel in 96 countries have reported sudden-onset “Havana Syndrome” symptoms to date. Clusters appeared in China, Europe, and even Washington D.C., often targeting American diplomats, military officers, and spies. Affected individuals were largely intelligence and national security personnel – people with access to sensitive programs or working on adversary nations like Russia. This pattern did not go unnoticed. (Attorney Mark Zaid, who represents two dozen Havana Syndrome victims, notes that “the vast majority” of his FBI-afflicted clients were doing something related to Russia at the time.) Such details fueled suspicion that a hostile actor – perhaps Moscow – might be behind the incidents, though no perpetrator has been confirmed.

The U.S. government’s reaction has seesawed. Initial skepticism (“maybe it’s just crickets or collective anxiety”) gave way to alarm as more cases emerged, prompting Congress to pass bills providing support to victims. Yet different agencies reached conflicting conclusions – the CIA’s internal study in 2022 reportedly found no evidence of a widespread campaign, while a panel of scientific experts convened by other agencies pointed to external energy exposure as the likely cause. A 2020 study by the National Academies of Sciences likewise concluded that the pattern of symptoms was “consistent with exposure to some form of directed, pulsed radiofrequency energy” – essentially, some kind of directable energy device. And investigators at the State Department, Defense Department, FBI, and others have all taken turns searching (often secretly) for answers. Still, no smoking-gun device or culprit has been found. Physical evidence is frustratingly scant: the best audio recordings of the noise were analyzed and determined to be crickets chirping, not an ultrasonic weapon, and no anomalous radiofrequency signals were detected during attacks despite efforts with sensors. This absence of hard evidence has emboldened skeptics who suggest a psychological origin, but it has not settled the matter. After eight years, Havana Syndrome remains, in the words of one report, “one of the most confounding challenges” in national security.

(For a thorough narrative of the global spread of these incidents – from Havana and Guangzhou to Vienna and Washington – check out our team’s investigative podcast, The Sound: Mystery of Havana Syndrome, which dives deep into this bizarre modern mystery.)

Following the Science: Could a Covert Energy Weapon Be Responsible?

From the beginning, doctors and scientists have been grappling with how an attacker could remotely inflict these symptoms without leaving a trace. The leading hypothesis – and the one we focus on here – is some form of directed energy, likely microwave radiation. This isn’t as far-fetched as it might sound. Decades of research (much of it Cold War-era) showed that microwave beams can interact with the human nervous system in strange ways.