Tinfoil hat

Humorists have created the term tinfoil hat to describe headgear lined with aluminium foil, traditionally worn by eccentrics concerned with mind-controlling radiation.

This draws on the stereotypical image of belief in mind control by ESP, microwave radiation or other technological means as part of the symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia. The delusion of "mind control rays" generally seems very real to those thus afflicted, and the making and wearing of improvised defences against the imagined rays is a commonly observed phenomenon in people afflicted by severe paranoid delusions.

See also:

• Microwave auditory effect
• Tinfoil Hat Linux
• Biophoton
• James Tilly Matthews

External Links

• Stop Alien Abductions -- instructions for making a "thought screen helmet" from 3M Velostat
• Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie -- parody