We take gangstalking seriously because it destroys lives. It makes people feel isolated and stigmatized. Survivors experience a type of suffering that most others cannot readily understand. The Gangstalking Research Study could help with that.  

Gangstalking refers to being harassed, followed or attacked by unknown groups of people. Associated “signs” and “symptoms” often include, among many others, anxiety, bodily heat sensations, hearing voices (called V2K), inability to concentrate, insomnia, irritability, nervousness, nightmares, skin rashes, tingling sensations, wavy or pulsing sensations on the head or scalp, and irregular fear of people, places, and things. Gangstalking-related distress can significantly alter someone's behavior. 

Gangstalking is well-known in American popular culture, especially through debates and discussions on the Internet. In the medical community, gangstalking is not well known. If someone with an American cultural background exhibits the "signs” and “symptoms” associated with gangstalking, they will usually be diagnosed with a mental illness.

However, if someone from a different cultural background exhibits those same “signs” and “symptoms,” they may receive a completely different diagnosis. People from African, Asian, Caribbean, and Latin American cultures have experiences comparable to gangstalking, but use different words or phrases to describe it. These “culture-bound syndromes,” or “cultural concepts of distress,” have their own category in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (the DSM). 

The Gangstalking Research Study (GRS) is a scientifically rigorous data collection initiative that addresses this controversial topic. Since it involves the direct participation of those who have seen it themselves, it is the first of its kind. 

The GRS is an independent project under the sole supervision of the researchers who designed and conduct it. No public, private, governmental or non-profit agency is otherwise involved. 

The data we collect are confidential and not shared with any other people, group or organization. Participation is voluntary and can be withdrawn at any time. 

We provide a modest financial incentive for participants who take our survey and do interviews.

If you have been gangstalked, we want to know, from your point of view, what it was like. Your story is more than just socially, culturally, and scientifically relevant. It is part of a wider pattern. It can move others toward empathy, accountability, and action. 

The Gangstalking Research Study (GRS) is not a mental health assessment. It does not endorse any controversies. It does not promote any activist causes. We are interested in the "signs" and "symptoms" which make gangstalking unique as told through personal stories. 

Please note that the GRS is not designed to help victims find their perpetrators or attackers. We are here to learn about the miserable and disorienting events associated with gangstalking in an organized and methodical fashion. 

Others say gangstalking is impossible. They hand out diagnoses from their armchairs. The GRS will address the spurious associations and labelling errors that, unfortunately, characterize survivors of gangstalking. It will redraw the blurred boundaries between cause and effect that contribute to wrong assumptions about individuals based on group-level stereotypes. 

On the Internet, outspoken survivors post stories and testimonies. The information they exchange and the ideas they express invite skeptics to dismiss them outright. But the narratives they generate of suffering and victimhood are internally consistent. This is what drives the GRS forward. The collective experience of gangstalking trauma is greater than the sum of its parts. 

The reports and discussions that people see online hint at how the trauma-related symptoms cluster in much less obvious or expected ways, but our knowledge is incomplete. In the absence of more extensive data collection efforts, academic research has run up against the limits of what it can safely conclude. 

The GRS takes the next step. Survivors have much more to say than what they post online, and others should hear it. The GRS will facilitate that process while upholding the dignity and respect that survivors deserve. 

The gangstalking experience is too dynamic to focus solely on mental health variables. That approach is outdated. The GRS is exploring whether the phenomenon belongs in a special category, as a "cultural concept of distress" (or CCD).  

If gangstalking is a cultural concept of distress, the following could apply:

a. Gangstalking could be classified as a socially acceptable outlet for extreme distress, especially in situations where someone feels powerless or overwhelmed. 

b. Gangstalking could be considered a plea for support or a response to injustice, instead of a mental illness.

c. Clinicians could be encouraged to assess someone's explanatory model (how they understand their “symptoms”) in more productive ways by using tools like the Cultural Formulation Interview. 

d. It could be more widely accepted that dismissing gangstalking as false beliefs could harm someone's well-being, increase stigma and compound their distress.

e. A culturally sensitive approach to gangstalking complaints could include validating the individual's distress, collaborating with activist leaders and introducing biomedical care and therapy at times when it might be effective and acceptable. 

f. It could empower clinicians, healthcare providers, first responders and other professionals to recognize gangstalking among individuals who have never even heard the term. 

The GRS adheres to regulations governing the protection of human subjects in behavioral research, including obtaining informed consent. It meets all criteria for ethical approval by an institutional review board (IRB), including minimizing risk, ensuring confidentiality, and protecting vulnerable populations. 

The GRS has ethical approval from California Polytechnic State University's Institutional Review Board (or IRB), which has oversight responsibility for the GRS. The IRB does not have access to the data and is not involved with study design or implementation. It ensures compliance with the three fundamental ethical principles for human subjects research – respect for persons, beneficence, and justice. 

This project is funded by a grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation, a private operating foundation dedicated to providing leadership in support of anthropology and anthropologists worldwide. 

The Wenner-Gren Foundation does not have access to the data and is not involved with study design or implementation.