> do you think someone can affect the brain waves of others just by being near them

No, not in the sense I think you mean it. But if someone you thought was very attractive did nothing but stood next to you that would affect your brain waves, yes. It's one of the things about brains - they respond to the environment, so pretty much anything can affect brain waves, that's what so difficult about understanding the data.

Ok.

But strictly in a hypothetical, a state actor could develop a sadness ray ?

I could imagine a B52 or something flying over a major city and beaming out sadness (or whatever emotion you want).

On the other side, once this science is understood better you could have recreational brain wave modification. A happy beam if you will.

Any books you can suggest on the topic?

I can't quite tell if you're pulling my leg, but if not, you're thinking of electromagnetic waves, which are entirely different. Brain waves are fluctuations in the activity of the brain's electrical circuits and couldn't be influenced in that way.

I’m not making this up, there are some theories that this technology might already exist to an extent.

> The team of three experts concluded that incident was a widescale use of electronics to carry out a so-called neuro-weapon attack

https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2018/9/6/ex...