According to sources, Dr. Arthur Gulf, one of the senior officials at the Bureau of International Swap Affairs main office in Bethesda, MD, has been jailed.
We have few details at this time, but reportedly Dr. Gulf had been at odds with colleagues for some time. The charges apparently relate to aggravated assault in the workplace. Gulf has often been quoted as being somewhat antagonistic toward colleagues, especially Co-Director of Research Dr. Howard Bergman who months ago was swapped with 12-year-old Manuella Perez of Mexico City.
No BISA officials are yet available for comment.
We will have more on this story as it develops.
Showing posts with label Bergman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bergman. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Friday, June 1, 2007
Nick: Small Steps
In his last column, Alex alluded to seeing me at the Bethesda Conference and seeming to have a chip on my shoulder. Well, wouldn't you? It's been two months and I still don't have a handle on my life.
I lashed out at him a little bit, which afterward made me feel like a bit of a bitch. I guess I felt he didn't understand anything about what I was going through since he hasn't been swapped (yet) and in my opinion has a limited understanding of what we go through, even he's spend all these months talking to every swapee he can possibly get in touch with. There's nothing like first-hand experience.
And then Dr. Bergman drops this bomb, casting doubt on my identity. I wonder if she really believes that she's just a little Mexican girl with a scientist's brain. If she doesn't miss the touch of his wife or being able to lift his kids up. And if he really, really thinks it's temporary, if he's really not worried about spending years of his life growing into a young girl's body. Because I know I am.
I didn't want to be anything. For the longest time, my biggest ambition as a swapee was to keep my head down, make a living, stay independant and just coast. But months go by and make it seem impossible. Every morning I wake up on the couch, wait for a body that's rightfully mine to get out of the shower, change into a fresh pair of panties, and feel so damn lonely. Even my new best friend doesn't understand, and for a long time, I didn't think Traci was willing to listen.
I was feeling crappy already when I finally sat down to have a talk about it with Traci. I didn't know who to turn to. I thought about Cherrie, but she was occupied and I didn't want to lay the trip on her (plus, it'd open up other issues I'd rather keep bottled for now.) All my old friends are in Chicago, and they're men so I don't even think they think about me the same way they used to. I needed someone I could trust. So I called Traci over to the table on Tuesday before the conference and just bared my soul. At first I didn't even think he was listening. Then he starts breaking down and for the first time in my life, I see my grown male (former) body crying.
"I'm sorry," he sobs, "Oh God, I'm a mess." He wipes his eyes and tells me that he and Rose had split up, that he had become the kind of man he hated, who was concerned mostly with sex and a good time and didn't understand what was going on until it was too late. That he'd pushed away a woman who was a good friend and patient girlfriend because of his newfound male stupidity. I thought it was a cop-out to blame the body, but I guess that without being raised that way it doesn't come with training wheels.
And there we were, two lonely swapped people commiserating in the night, sharing tears and stories when something unexpected happened... he kissed me, or I kissed him, or somebody kissed the other anyway. And it was seriously the first intimate contact I'd had in all my time as a woman and, despite the nagging guilt at the back of my mind, I didn't want it to let up.
And that's the story of how I lost my female virginity.
Trust me, I felt awful afterward, and he did too - especially because from his perspective he was committing the very crime he'd just confessed. But I admitted that, at the time, I wanted it, and even felt better for having had it, but didn't think we should continue that. It was just, a big step. I don't know, maybe now I'll be less afraid of intimacy, of opening up and being a person again, not just an employee and citizen.
Which is why I took Bergman's revelation badly. Because I'm not her, I'm not Traci at all, and I don't want things to change, because I want to believe that I, Nick Blanchard, am growing as a person, as a woman.
But, having told that story, there is still one very important chapter to write...
-Nick
I lashed out at him a little bit, which afterward made me feel like a bit of a bitch. I guess I felt he didn't understand anything about what I was going through since he hasn't been swapped (yet) and in my opinion has a limited understanding of what we go through, even he's spend all these months talking to every swapee he can possibly get in touch with. There's nothing like first-hand experience.
And then Dr. Bergman drops this bomb, casting doubt on my identity. I wonder if she really believes that she's just a little Mexican girl with a scientist's brain. If she doesn't miss the touch of his wife or being able to lift his kids up. And if he really, really thinks it's temporary, if he's really not worried about spending years of his life growing into a young girl's body. Because I know I am.
I didn't want to be anything. For the longest time, my biggest ambition as a swapee was to keep my head down, make a living, stay independant and just coast. But months go by and make it seem impossible. Every morning I wake up on the couch, wait for a body that's rightfully mine to get out of the shower, change into a fresh pair of panties, and feel so damn lonely. Even my new best friend doesn't understand, and for a long time, I didn't think Traci was willing to listen.
I was feeling crappy already when I finally sat down to have a talk about it with Traci. I didn't know who to turn to. I thought about Cherrie, but she was occupied and I didn't want to lay the trip on her (plus, it'd open up other issues I'd rather keep bottled for now.) All my old friends are in Chicago, and they're men so I don't even think they think about me the same way they used to. I needed someone I could trust. So I called Traci over to the table on Tuesday before the conference and just bared my soul. At first I didn't even think he was listening. Then he starts breaking down and for the first time in my life, I see my grown male (former) body crying.
"I'm sorry," he sobs, "Oh God, I'm a mess." He wipes his eyes and tells me that he and Rose had split up, that he had become the kind of man he hated, who was concerned mostly with sex and a good time and didn't understand what was going on until it was too late. That he'd pushed away a woman who was a good friend and patient girlfriend because of his newfound male stupidity. I thought it was a cop-out to blame the body, but I guess that without being raised that way it doesn't come with training wheels.
And there we were, two lonely swapped people commiserating in the night, sharing tears and stories when something unexpected happened... he kissed me, or I kissed him, or somebody kissed the other anyway. And it was seriously the first intimate contact I'd had in all my time as a woman and, despite the nagging guilt at the back of my mind, I didn't want it to let up.
And that's the story of how I lost my female virginity.
Trust me, I felt awful afterward, and he did too - especially because from his perspective he was committing the very crime he'd just confessed. But I admitted that, at the time, I wanted it, and even felt better for having had it, but didn't think we should continue that. It was just, a big step. I don't know, maybe now I'll be less afraid of intimacy, of opening up and being a person again, not just an employee and citizen.
Which is why I took Bergman's revelation badly. Because I'm not her, I'm not Traci at all, and I don't want things to change, because I want to believe that I, Nick Blanchard, am growing as a person, as a woman.
But, having told that story, there is still one very important chapter to write...
-Nick
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Bethesda Swap Conference Spring 2007 Report
I arrived early last tuesday morning at the Bethesda BISA complex, which has grown over the past month to include numerous surrounding buildings as well as new construction. Trolling the grounds were people of all demographics, many of whom swapees, but all seeking answers. The directorial staff of BISA, including Drs. Arthur Gulf and Howard Bergman, would hopefully provide.
When Dr. Arthur Gulf took the podium alongside a small latin girl, I could virtually immediately sense what the first item of discussion would be. The girl stepped up to the podium and spoke.
Earlier this month, she explained, the bodies of Dr. Howard Bergman and 12-year-old Manuella Perez of Mexico City, Mexico, were swapped. At this time, the mind of Dr. Bergman, in the body of Miss Perez, would be fulfilling Bergman's duties at BISA.
The wording seemed odd to me, and they were pressed to explain. "We have reason to believe that the swaps are, in fact, a temporary inversion of psyches. That through some yet-unknown catalyst, one person's identity is temporarily washed onto another's and vice versa, but will very likely become supressed and negated."
This got a generally positive reaction from the crowd, except for a few Church of the Holy Redeemer supporters, who booed audibly.
Questioned as to when this would occur, Bergman explained they had no idea. Their most conservative estimate was that within a year of the first swap, early swapees might be restored. However, a more likely scenario is that it could take many years for all or most of the swaps to be reversed, and that's assuming they reach a "breaking point" after which they slow or stop altogether.
"Much is still not known," Gulf explained, "but we are expanding our knowledge by leaps and bounds each and every day."
Now that the BISA infrastructure is in place on five continents, about 20 major cities with offices established or in development, swaps should be accepted as a very normal part of life, albeit one that brings numerous surprises and inconveniences.
Bergman said she did not know at this time what would become of swapees whose original bodies had died. They may stay as they are, or it is quite possible they will revert, depending on the still-unknown nature of the "de-swap" process. If it involves a maintained connection between the two, then severing that conncetion may prevent de-swapping. If it involves the swapee merely "remembering" his or her original identity, there is not much to worry about.
Beyond that, there were a number of roundtable discussions, panels, workshops for people who had been swapped. Most notably, a group for those who had inherited addictions from their swap-partner, whether to cigarettes or heroin. Many of those people were in bad shape.
The Church was attempting to recruit. There was a preview trailer, met with thunderous applause, for an upcoming film about the swaps featuring numerous actors who have been swapped, including America Ferrera and Matt Damon (who will take on Ferrera's role on ABC's "Ugly Betty" this fall.)
I saw my friend Nick at the conference, and we got a cup of coffee. She has been absent from the blog recently, and told me it was because she was "dealing with stuff, and some of what I'm hearing here is only making me feel worse." She also asked I keep our conversation private and off-the-record, which I am only slightly ignoring.
On the last day, a Volkswagen pulled up to me on the street, driven by a young African-American woman. She got out of the car, leaned against it and told me, "You're a tough guy to track down."
I looked at her and asked her if I knew her (because at these events you never know,) and she said we had met once before, at a support group on Ohio. I thought back and told her I didn't remember her (and my entry seems to confirm this, since I described everyone there and no African-American woman was among them.) She pulled out a pack of Camel cigarettes, which I remembered seeing a man there smoke.
"I've been in this body for almost a week and I still can't smoke these sumbitches without coughing," she said as she lit the cigarette in her lips.
She could not be the man I had met there; he'd told me he had already swapped, and I see no reason why he would have lied. There has not been a documented case of a person swapping twice, but this woman carried herself, with the same hunched shoulders, titled head and curled lips of the man I had met in Canton who refused to tell his name.
"Just who are you?" I asked her.
"You want to interview me, right?" she smiled. I told her I was actually on my way to the airport, so she took out a business card (which read "Mary Patton Designs") and scribbled something on the back; a pager number and the letter Q.
"Let me know when you wanna talk, 'kay sugar?"
With that, she flicked her cigarette down and coughed, extinguishing it with her open-toed shoe and got back in to drive away.
On the plane-ride home, I furiously scribbled my notes and about a dozen question I thought this Q person might be able to answer. I have yet to hear back.
When Dr. Arthur Gulf took the podium alongside a small latin girl, I could virtually immediately sense what the first item of discussion would be. The girl stepped up to the podium and spoke.
Earlier this month, she explained, the bodies of Dr. Howard Bergman and 12-year-old Manuella Perez of Mexico City, Mexico, were swapped. At this time, the mind of Dr. Bergman, in the body of Miss Perez, would be fulfilling Bergman's duties at BISA.
The wording seemed odd to me, and they were pressed to explain. "We have reason to believe that the swaps are, in fact, a temporary inversion of psyches. That through some yet-unknown catalyst, one person's identity is temporarily washed onto another's and vice versa, but will very likely become supressed and negated."
This got a generally positive reaction from the crowd, except for a few Church of the Holy Redeemer supporters, who booed audibly.
Questioned as to when this would occur, Bergman explained they had no idea. Their most conservative estimate was that within a year of the first swap, early swapees might be restored. However, a more likely scenario is that it could take many years for all or most of the swaps to be reversed, and that's assuming they reach a "breaking point" after which they slow or stop altogether.
"Much is still not known," Gulf explained, "but we are expanding our knowledge by leaps and bounds each and every day."
Now that the BISA infrastructure is in place on five continents, about 20 major cities with offices established or in development, swaps should be accepted as a very normal part of life, albeit one that brings numerous surprises and inconveniences.
Bergman said she did not know at this time what would become of swapees whose original bodies had died. They may stay as they are, or it is quite possible they will revert, depending on the still-unknown nature of the "de-swap" process. If it involves a maintained connection between the two, then severing that conncetion may prevent de-swapping. If it involves the swapee merely "remembering" his or her original identity, there is not much to worry about.
Beyond that, there were a number of roundtable discussions, panels, workshops for people who had been swapped. Most notably, a group for those who had inherited addictions from their swap-partner, whether to cigarettes or heroin. Many of those people were in bad shape.
The Church was attempting to recruit. There was a preview trailer, met with thunderous applause, for an upcoming film about the swaps featuring numerous actors who have been swapped, including America Ferrera and Matt Damon (who will take on Ferrera's role on ABC's "Ugly Betty" this fall.)
I saw my friend Nick at the conference, and we got a cup of coffee. She has been absent from the blog recently, and told me it was because she was "dealing with stuff, and some of what I'm hearing here is only making me feel worse." She also asked I keep our conversation private and off-the-record, which I am only slightly ignoring.
On the last day, a Volkswagen pulled up to me on the street, driven by a young African-American woman. She got out of the car, leaned against it and told me, "You're a tough guy to track down."
I looked at her and asked her if I knew her (because at these events you never know,) and she said we had met once before, at a support group on Ohio. I thought back and told her I didn't remember her (and my entry seems to confirm this, since I described everyone there and no African-American woman was among them.) She pulled out a pack of Camel cigarettes, which I remembered seeing a man there smoke.
"I've been in this body for almost a week and I still can't smoke these sumbitches without coughing," she said as she lit the cigarette in her lips.
She could not be the man I had met there; he'd told me he had already swapped, and I see no reason why he would have lied. There has not been a documented case of a person swapping twice, but this woman carried herself, with the same hunched shoulders, titled head and curled lips of the man I had met in Canton who refused to tell his name.
"Just who are you?" I asked her.
"You want to interview me, right?" she smiled. I told her I was actually on my way to the airport, so she took out a business card (which read "Mary Patton Designs") and scribbled something on the back; a pager number and the letter Q.
"Let me know when you wanna talk, 'kay sugar?"
With that, she flicked her cigarette down and coughed, extinguishing it with her open-toed shoe and got back in to drive away.
On the plane-ride home, I furiously scribbled my notes and about a dozen question I thought this Q person might be able to answer. I have yet to hear back.
Friday, May 18, 2007
No news is good news
There will not be a real update until Tuesday, or maybe next Friday. Nick might send in another blog entry, but she's been kind of a recluse lately. The reason for this is that I'm going on a brief "summer vacation" (although I know it's still spring.) First, down to Bethesda for a conference at BISA, then a little R&R getaway. It's a Canadian long weekend, and I'm making it longer.
Still, there's always something going on. I have a few stories lined up for later once I get back. I'm sure Dr. Gulf and Dr. Bergman will have plenty to tell me. And of course, if you're dying to get in touch, you can leave a comment or e-mail your questions/swap stories to Ken Moorehead (who has very graciously allowed me to drop his personal e-mail on here for weeks now and has gotten very little of the credit he deserves.)
The last thing I wanted to say was that Newsweek recently did a cover story on gender. They actually contacted me and I spoke briefly to their reporter, because of my previous project but nothing I said was too relevant to the angle of the article. One of the unsolved mysteries of the Swap phenomenon is that 70% of them occur across gender lines (a number which has held consistent as the swaps have increased.) Most puzzling, to me especially, has been that the reaction has not been... consistent. And why should it be?
You have the Frickmans, an early swap case, a husband and wife who had the fortune to be swapped when in the throes of passion. Apparently, the lingering effect was that the new Mrs. Frickman took very enthusiastically to her wifely duties. Then of course there is Nick, who has been a woman for about two months now and yet wouldn't consider herself as such if you spoke to her (and remains quite convincing as "gender neutral.") Meanwhile, the person in Nick's body, Traci, has very gradually toughened up and become "male," but it was gradual. So you've got a number of alternative possibilities for when these swaps occur.
If gender is, as the article postulates (and I agree) hardwired into the brain by physiology and environment, I wonder what effect it truly has on the swapees? Do the hormones of the new body overrule the old instincts? And what about everyone looking at you and talking to you differently? You would certainly think, wouldn't you, that the swaps would be creating transgendered individuals - crossdressers, people on the waiting list of surgery, etc - but by and large, people are just getting on with their lives.
Hopefully I'll be able to pick Dr. Bergman's brain about it.
Still, there's always something going on. I have a few stories lined up for later once I get back. I'm sure Dr. Gulf and Dr. Bergman will have plenty to tell me. And of course, if you're dying to get in touch, you can leave a comment or e-mail your questions/swap stories to Ken Moorehead (who has very graciously allowed me to drop his personal e-mail on here for weeks now and has gotten very little of the credit he deserves.)
The last thing I wanted to say was that Newsweek recently did a cover story on gender. They actually contacted me and I spoke briefly to their reporter, because of my previous project but nothing I said was too relevant to the angle of the article. One of the unsolved mysteries of the Swap phenomenon is that 70% of them occur across gender lines (a number which has held consistent as the swaps have increased.) Most puzzling, to me especially, has been that the reaction has not been... consistent. And why should it be?
You have the Frickmans, an early swap case, a husband and wife who had the fortune to be swapped when in the throes of passion. Apparently, the lingering effect was that the new Mrs. Frickman took very enthusiastically to her wifely duties. Then of course there is Nick, who has been a woman for about two months now and yet wouldn't consider herself as such if you spoke to her (and remains quite convincing as "gender neutral.") Meanwhile, the person in Nick's body, Traci, has very gradually toughened up and become "male," but it was gradual. So you've got a number of alternative possibilities for when these swaps occur.
If gender is, as the article postulates (and I agree) hardwired into the brain by physiology and environment, I wonder what effect it truly has on the swapees? Do the hormones of the new body overrule the old instincts? And what about everyone looking at you and talking to you differently? You would certainly think, wouldn't you, that the swaps would be creating transgendered individuals - crossdressers, people on the waiting list of surgery, etc - but by and large, people are just getting on with their lives.
Hopefully I'll be able to pick Dr. Bergman's brain about it.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Briefs: 2007 to be "Summer of the Swap"
June 21st, the first day of summer, will has been named by the BISA to be "Swap Awareness Day 2007," as preliminary estimates suggest to officials that 2007 will be the "Summer of the Swap."
"Our working theory," explains BISA's Dr. Howard Bergman, "Is that climate and temperature has an effect on the number of swaps that occur. As the summer heats up in North America, we may be seeing more swaps than ever before."
Bergman explains that during the winter months, swaps were far more common in areas in the southern United States, Australia, and Brazil. As spring wore on, temperate areas such as the coastal United States (particularly the Pacific Northwest,) Canada, England, mainland Europe and Japan were affected more and more.
BISA is still far from learning what factors induce a swap, or determine who is swapped with whom. They hope to refine their current theories by "Swap Awareness Day" in order to further spread awareness.
BISA reminds people that, to their knowledge, it is impossible to be swapped twice, although a swap could strike any two people, regardless of physical type of georgraphy, at any waking moment. Nobody has yet been swapped while sleeping, however.
Bergman also warns to avoid supposed "swap protection," a scam presented as a method of avoiding being swapped. "Protection" may come in the form of machinery (most often a cannibalized TiVo or Wireless Router,) medication (usually sugar pills, prozac, or vitamins) or even hypnosis. There is no remedy for a swap, only acceptance and conditioning once it has occurred.
Swaps currently affect one in every 2000 people in North America, one in 10 000 worldwide. The North American number may drop as low as one in 500 by August.
"Our working theory," explains BISA's Dr. Howard Bergman, "Is that climate and temperature has an effect on the number of swaps that occur. As the summer heats up in North America, we may be seeing more swaps than ever before."
Bergman explains that during the winter months, swaps were far more common in areas in the southern United States, Australia, and Brazil. As spring wore on, temperate areas such as the coastal United States (particularly the Pacific Northwest,) Canada, England, mainland Europe and Japan were affected more and more.
BISA is still far from learning what factors induce a swap, or determine who is swapped with whom. They hope to refine their current theories by "Swap Awareness Day" in order to further spread awareness.
BISA reminds people that, to their knowledge, it is impossible to be swapped twice, although a swap could strike any two people, regardless of physical type of georgraphy, at any waking moment. Nobody has yet been swapped while sleeping, however.
Bergman also warns to avoid supposed "swap protection," a scam presented as a method of avoiding being swapped. "Protection" may come in the form of machinery (most often a cannibalized TiVo or Wireless Router,) medication (usually sugar pills, prozac, or vitamins) or even hypnosis. There is no remedy for a swap, only acceptance and conditioning once it has occurred.
Swaps currently affect one in every 2000 people in North America, one in 10 000 worldwide. The North American number may drop as low as one in 500 by August.
Friday, April 6, 2007
First BISA swap inquiry challenges previous notions
In the preliminary draft of his first BISA-sponsored inquiry into swapping, Dr. Howard Bergman makes some startling assertions that are giving clarity for the first time to the phenomenon.
"Our original understanding was that some force, what we're calling Factor-X for now, has physically been removing the entire contents of swapees' brains and replacing them," explains Bergman, head of Psychology for the American BISA in Bethesda, MD. "we're already seeing it's much more complicated than that."
"There were irregularities in swapee CAT scans that were unaccounted for," he explains. "The same pattern emerged with each of them on their first scan, but we've been continually scanning a few subjects and found very distinct developments."
Notes Dr. Arthur Gulf, a colleague at BISA, "The pattern developments were mirrored between swapees... there is a definite link, which could be extremely useful if we ever discover how to reverse the process."
Bergman was first pointed in this direction by a swap occurring between an American who suffered from mild Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and a Japanese businessman.
The American, Derek Schultz, was swapped all the way across the Pacific Ocean. "It was more like a dream than anything else, I was surrounded by all these Japanese guys in suits and I had a drink in my hand. I don't drink, but I had some anyway." He explains the most confusing part to researchers. "I completely understood everything everyone around me was saying. I speak Japanese now."
What this appears to mean to Dr. Bergman, is that swaps may not in fact be as black-and-white as a new brain in an old body. "There are some things we can anticipate, sensory reactions and injuries that stay with the body despite their apparent connection with the brain. This appears to have been an incomplete swap, which suggests that more of the original body's mind is retained than previously thought."
What this would mean to swapees is that their identity isn't removed, only buried beneath a new set of memories and personality.
"Potentially, in the long-term," theorizes Bergman, "The old personality could re-assert itself. We're learning new things about this all the time."
Brian Keller, a 16-year-old Vancouver boy who was swapped with a single mother of one earlier this year, disagrees. She emphatically denies any of her body's previous memory remains in her.
"I don't see what they're getting at," she explains, "I know who I am, and I don't see this changing that."
Bergman explains that this theory will be proven or disproven as the months wear onward and more is learned about the swaps.
As Bergman, Gulf, and their colleagues at BISA continue their research new leads present themselves all the time, as do new questions.
"There's always the one big question," says Gulf, "Of what, exactly, is responsible. Until we know that, I doubt we can ever truly call our work done."
"Our original understanding was that some force, what we're calling Factor-X for now, has physically been removing the entire contents of swapees' brains and replacing them," explains Bergman, head of Psychology for the American BISA in Bethesda, MD. "we're already seeing it's much more complicated than that."
"There were irregularities in swapee CAT scans that were unaccounted for," he explains. "The same pattern emerged with each of them on their first scan, but we've been continually scanning a few subjects and found very distinct developments."
Notes Dr. Arthur Gulf, a colleague at BISA, "The pattern developments were mirrored between swapees... there is a definite link, which could be extremely useful if we ever discover how to reverse the process."
Bergman was first pointed in this direction by a swap occurring between an American who suffered from mild Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and a Japanese businessman.
The American, Derek Schultz, was swapped all the way across the Pacific Ocean. "It was more like a dream than anything else, I was surrounded by all these Japanese guys in suits and I had a drink in my hand. I don't drink, but I had some anyway." He explains the most confusing part to researchers. "I completely understood everything everyone around me was saying. I speak Japanese now."
What this appears to mean to Dr. Bergman, is that swaps may not in fact be as black-and-white as a new brain in an old body. "There are some things we can anticipate, sensory reactions and injuries that stay with the body despite their apparent connection with the brain. This appears to have been an incomplete swap, which suggests that more of the original body's mind is retained than previously thought."
What this would mean to swapees is that their identity isn't removed, only buried beneath a new set of memories and personality.
"Potentially, in the long-term," theorizes Bergman, "The old personality could re-assert itself. We're learning new things about this all the time."
Brian Keller, a 16-year-old Vancouver boy who was swapped with a single mother of one earlier this year, disagrees. She emphatically denies any of her body's previous memory remains in her.
"I don't see what they're getting at," she explains, "I know who I am, and I don't see this changing that."
Bergman explains that this theory will be proven or disproven as the months wear onward and more is learned about the swaps.
As Bergman, Gulf, and their colleagues at BISA continue their research new leads present themselves all the time, as do new questions.
"There's always the one big question," says Gulf, "Of what, exactly, is responsible. Until we know that, I doubt we can ever truly call our work done."
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
International Bureau begins taking appointments this week
March 21st, the first day of Spring, will bring relief to the many confused, mortified individuals who have been made victims of the swap phenomenon in the past 3 months, with the opening of the very first Bureau of International Swap Affairs.
BISA is an initiative launched by the United Nationd when they were first made aware of the issue last month, following the swap of Finnish ambassador Kirsten Linonen with an Australian-born tour guide at the Louvre in Paris, Michael Kent. BISA's duty will be to keep records of all swaps, both within a nation's orders and between.
"The idea is that once someone is swapped, they will report to the nearest bureau to get all their affairs in order," says Aaron Beaulieu, Director of the American branch. "That includes a registration card to correspond to their original birth certificate, a new driver's license, passport, and any other form of identification."
The Bureau will also employ counsellors trained to help swapees adapt to their new roles.
"Something we stress is that when you swap into a new body, you are not that person," says Dr. Howard Bergman, head of psychology for BISA, "You remain yourself, only in a new context."
Beaulieu notes that there are certain exceptions. "While we will be attempting to keep people in circumstances as similar as possible to their original selves, a grown man in a three-year-old's body, for instance, will not be permitted to drive or buy alcohol. This situations will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis."
BISA will be taking appointments, but unfortunately, are taksed with a three-month backlog of appointments, totally some 1500 swapees.
Laughs Beaulieu, "The paperwork is going to be insane."
BISA's other function will be to study and observe the swaps, and attempt to crack the mystery of their origins. Joining Beaulieu and Bergman in this capacity will be two neurologists, American Arthur Gulf and Russian Pavel Alexiev, Scottish sociologist Katherine Duncan-Stuart, and Japanese engineer Osamu Fujiwara, who is "fascinated by the technology that must be involved."
"As a man of science, I can't literally believe the force behind this is, for example, supernatural or extraterrestrial," said Fujiwara, "But it seems beyond any technology we currently have to dig in to a person's brain and remove the data in there."
"After observing only three months of cases," says Gulf, "It would be difficult for anyone to believe these things are absolutely random. The patterns are there, but not clearly defined. If they were random there would be a smaller concentration of swaps in a single nation and an even distribution between genders. What we're seeing is a lot of Americans for only a few Europeans and Asians. There is a direct force selecting who is swapped, where and when."
Adds Alexiev, "We also cannot rule this out as a form of global terrorism, although it is not our leading theory."
Alexiev and Gulf say that they are still far from determining a cause or cure, but that every reported swap they study gives them a better understanding.
The first BISA office is based in Bethesda, MD, and will open on Mar 21. April will see the opening of offices in Chicago, Dallas-Ft. Worth and San Francisco. The Bureau also hopes to have offices in Toronto, London, Paris, and Kyoto by the end of May. By the end of 2007, 28 of the 50 American states, five Canadian provinces, three counties in the U.K. and seven European nations will have BISAs. New York City will be home to the privately-owned SwapCentre, a $3.5 million complex that will serve a similar function to BISA.
"I don't see it as a competition," says Robert Kleinberg, who is the primary backer behind the venture, "We are very interested in this matter and want to contribute."
Until more BISA offices are established, the senior staff offers a few tips to anyone who is swapped:
Get in contact with your previous body as soon as possible. Discuss the situation, get all the information you need.
Arrange to exchange clothes and any necessary personal items. This also includes medicine and personal grooming.
Come clean. As embarrassing as it might be for you to call up friends and family and utter the phrase, "I've been swapped," the sooner you get through with it, the sooner you can get on with your life.
Make an appointment. Even if there isn't a BISA opening in your area soon, many therapists, doctors and counsellors are prepared to help.
Adapt. The most important thing is to continue living your life as best you can.
"Every swap occurs with a different degree of magnitude," says Gulf, "Sometimes it's as if the swaps are designed to leave vital information, food preferences, sense memory, and so forth. People find their own behavioral patterns altered, and that often bothers them more than their new physiology."
BISA is an initiative launched by the United Nationd when they were first made aware of the issue last month, following the swap of Finnish ambassador Kirsten Linonen with an Australian-born tour guide at the Louvre in Paris, Michael Kent. BISA's duty will be to keep records of all swaps, both within a nation's orders and between.
"The idea is that once someone is swapped, they will report to the nearest bureau to get all their affairs in order," says Aaron Beaulieu, Director of the American branch. "That includes a registration card to correspond to their original birth certificate, a new driver's license, passport, and any other form of identification."
The Bureau will also employ counsellors trained to help swapees adapt to their new roles.
"Something we stress is that when you swap into a new body, you are not that person," says Dr. Howard Bergman, head of psychology for BISA, "You remain yourself, only in a new context."
Beaulieu notes that there are certain exceptions. "While we will be attempting to keep people in circumstances as similar as possible to their original selves, a grown man in a three-year-old's body, for instance, will not be permitted to drive or buy alcohol. This situations will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis."
BISA will be taking appointments, but unfortunately, are taksed with a three-month backlog of appointments, totally some 1500 swapees.
Laughs Beaulieu, "The paperwork is going to be insane."
BISA's other function will be to study and observe the swaps, and attempt to crack the mystery of their origins. Joining Beaulieu and Bergman in this capacity will be two neurologists, American Arthur Gulf and Russian Pavel Alexiev, Scottish sociologist Katherine Duncan-Stuart, and Japanese engineer Osamu Fujiwara, who is "fascinated by the technology that must be involved."
"As a man of science, I can't literally believe the force behind this is, for example, supernatural or extraterrestrial," said Fujiwara, "But it seems beyond any technology we currently have to dig in to a person's brain and remove the data in there."
"After observing only three months of cases," says Gulf, "It would be difficult for anyone to believe these things are absolutely random. The patterns are there, but not clearly defined. If they were random there would be a smaller concentration of swaps in a single nation and an even distribution between genders. What we're seeing is a lot of Americans for only a few Europeans and Asians. There is a direct force selecting who is swapped, where and when."
Adds Alexiev, "We also cannot rule this out as a form of global terrorism, although it is not our leading theory."
Alexiev and Gulf say that they are still far from determining a cause or cure, but that every reported swap they study gives them a better understanding.
The first BISA office is based in Bethesda, MD, and will open on Mar 21. April will see the opening of offices in Chicago, Dallas-Ft. Worth and San Francisco. The Bureau also hopes to have offices in Toronto, London, Paris, and Kyoto by the end of May. By the end of 2007, 28 of the 50 American states, five Canadian provinces, three counties in the U.K. and seven European nations will have BISAs. New York City will be home to the privately-owned SwapCentre, a $3.5 million complex that will serve a similar function to BISA.
"I don't see it as a competition," says Robert Kleinberg, who is the primary backer behind the venture, "We are very interested in this matter and want to contribute."
Until more BISA offices are established, the senior staff offers a few tips to anyone who is swapped:
Get in contact with your previous body as soon as possible. Discuss the situation, get all the information you need.
Arrange to exchange clothes and any necessary personal items. This also includes medicine and personal grooming.
Come clean. As embarrassing as it might be for you to call up friends and family and utter the phrase, "I've been swapped," the sooner you get through with it, the sooner you can get on with your life.
Make an appointment. Even if there isn't a BISA opening in your area soon, many therapists, doctors and counsellors are prepared to help.
Adapt. The most important thing is to continue living your life as best you can.
"Every swap occurs with a different degree of magnitude," says Gulf, "Sometimes it's as if the swaps are designed to leave vital information, food preferences, sense memory, and so forth. People find their own behavioral patterns altered, and that often bothers them more than their new physiology."
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