Interesting report on that link to the WSJ. And disturbing, to some, I imagine. Speaking for myself, it would be a cold, cold day in hell before I ever consciously gave anyone permission to jab wires into my gray matter. Might make a good movie plot, but I'll keep my humanity, thank you. Things like this always seem to lead to progressively more widespread applications "for the benefit of mankind". Really?
Sometimes, we should take the time to think about whether that's the real goal. Medical science and equipment to treat diseases, repair defects, heal injuries, that's great. Innocent little "procedures" like this could be the first, (and easily sold to the general public) steps to something much more along the lines of re-programming. Anyone standing in line for that? Humans are not much more than an upper class animal, and can be conditioned to accept almost anything, perform almost any task, or have their behaviors changed. We are quite malleable, and even our fears can be eliminated or overridden with the proper "non-invasive" approach.
If this process were to indeed be perfected, what happens when they run out of people with phobias, or "bad memories" that are deemed necessary to treat? (Incidentally, who are the designated "gods" that make the decisions as to who receives these treatments?) Do we then round up all the rednecks, and remove the "redneck" from them? If they one day came to this website and offered, (or ordered) us to "fix" our little "deviances", how many would volunteer? Remembering, of course, that there is no such thing as "perfection" in the medical sciences, and that far less than 100% is an "acceptable risk". To them.
I am no religious zealot, others here know that. And I am no doomer-and-gloomer. I'm just not totally in agreement with the path that some (to me) misguided people want to put humanity on. I would think that we could find much more productive and beneficial things for some of these people to devote themselves to.
On a lighter note, this being a DIY site, with people here self-medicating, people here working to design DIY Noogleberries, finding simpler and cheaper ways to remove hair, etc., I hope I don't hear about someone who read that article, and decides to do some cheap mind altering by asking the local policeman to "tase me bro, but be sure you hit me in the head!" ??