MKULTRA: Not Just for Paranoids Anymore
February 4th, 2007 at 9:17 am (Mind Control/MKULTRA, Nazis from Outer Space)
In all of these cases, these subjects have clearly demonstrated that they can pass from a fully awake state to a deep H (hypnotic) controlled state via the telephone, via some very subtle signal that cannot be detected by other persons in the room and without the other individual being able to note the change. It has been shown clearly that physically individuals can be induced into H by telephone, by receiving written matter, or by the use of code, signals or word and that control of those hypnotized can be passed from one individual to another without great difficulty. It has also been shown by experimentation with these girls that they can act as unwilling couriers for information purposes and that they can be conditioned to a point where they can believe a change in identity on their part even on the polygraph. – Project ARTICHOKE Document from 1953
In order to appreciate the posts which follow, you’ll need a little background on MK-Ultra, the CIA’s longrunning program researching techniques of mind control. Most of the documents for MK-Ultra and related programs, like Artichoke, ended up in the shredder, though a few boxes survived.
But I suppose I need to warn everyone ahead of time: when you get into discussions of mind control, especially when researching via internet, you get a lot of unverifiable information such as claims by alleged victims of these programs or alleged “insider” information. The problem is that much of what such victims claim is well within the realm of possibility, even if we confine ourselves to the programs for which we have surviving government documents. There is almost nothing in the accounts of people claiming to have been used by MKULTRA style programs which are not verified at least as an area of interest of these mind control programs. Deliberately created multiple personalities, voices in the head, harassment by electro-magnetic devices, induced hallucinations, “missing time” and even brain implants. ALL of these are documented as having at least been attempted in these CIA programs. So a few comments before I continue, especially directed toward those who think they might be victims of such programs.
1. Just because these programs really existed (and almost certainly still do), does not mean that any of these things are happening to you personally. If you believe they are happening to you, you may be suffering from a mental illness such as paranoid schizophrenia.
2. However, it might also be true that these things have happened or are happening to you.
3. There is no way for me to know, or anyone else to whom you may share such stories, whether number 1 or number 2 applies in your case. I apologize in advance for not taking any person’s story as gospel truth. All I can say is that it might be true, but I don’t know you and have no way to verify your story.
4. Either way, I would not recommend the internet as a starting point for sorting out what is going on with your mental health. If you are delusional, you will begin to incorporate this material into your delusions. If you are an MKULTRA victim, you still run the risk of coming to distrust your own memories when you read accounts such as this, wondering if you simply incorporated these stories into your own fuzzy memories.
5. If you are currently in psychological distress due to such issues, I urge you to walk away from this site and other, similar sites. Find a therapist you trust. Avoid those who specialize in these matters as some of them I am coming to suspect are bad guys seeking to push various agendas. Find a therapist who will hear your stories without judgment and deal with their effects on you. Get yourself healthy. Then, come back here and help me nail the bastards.
6. Finally, it is possible that government bad guys can INDUCE schizophrenia type symptoms…i.e. cause a nervous breakdown. In that case, the ultimate cause of your breakdown can be saved for later investigation. GET STABLE BEFORE YOU GET ACTIVE. I’m very serious here…I have known people to crack up under such investigations. (In fact, as we will see, on at least one occasion the Air Force intentionally fed disinformation to a UFO researcher which ultimately put him in a psychiatric hospital. I’ll have a future post called “William Moore is an Evil Scumbag” or something along those lines with more details. Until then, you can read the overview of his case at wikipedia.)
Sorry for the long digression. If your mental health is in good shape, none of the above was needed, but I couldn’t proceed without putting it in.
I’m going to use as my primary source for this post the book Bluebird : Deliberate Creation of Multiple Personality by Psychiatrists by Colin Ross. Ross is a specialist in Dissociative Identity Disorder, (formerly called multiple personality disorder) and so his book focuses on that particular subproject of MK-Ultra. However, it is an excellent overview because he bases all of it on existing government documentation and rarely speculates beyond what those documents reveal. He does an excellent job of cross referencing these documents and has several helpful tables and lists in appendices which lay out the projects and the main players behind them. Ross himself I’m not so sure about, as he goes out of his way to excuse the CIA for all of this and blames only the psychiatrists involved. The CIA, he says, is all that stands between him and the gulag and should continue mind control research. Though, one supposes, without the use of psychiatrists. Or something…it’s a very muddy position and maybe he’s just issuing such disclaimers to avoid getting “suicided.” Who knows….(To add to the somewhat bizarre nature of Ross’s book (despite the great information) I could not help but notice that prominently situated after the table of contents on an otherwise blank page is a 44 character alphanumeric code beginning KD2358LEB21891… and continuing in that fashion. I have no idea what it is or why it is there. If any codecrackers out there want a shot at it, send me an email and I’ll give you the whole code. I’m not printing the whole thing because I don’t know wtf it’s about. I even wrote to ask but got no reply.)
I will specifically be pointing out verified programs in the known MKULTRA literature which could, in theory, be used to … oh, I don’t know … convince someone they were being abducted by aliens, for example.
The quote which led this post shows that at the very least, the CIA had learned how to hypnotize someone so effectively that he or she could perform tasks about which they remain unaware. In addition, notice the reference to inducing a trance state via very subtle signals given verbally, by gesture or even over the phone. Notice also that the transition to trance state is so subtle that others observing the subject will not notice.
Here’s another example, again taken directly from MKULTRA files, in this case called “Hypnotic Experimentation and Research, 10 February, 1954.”
Miss ___________ was then instructed (having previously expressed a fear of firearms in any fashion) that she would use every method at her disposal to awaken Miss _____________ (now in a deep hypnotic sleep) and failing this, she would pick up a pistol nearby and fire it at Miss ___________. She was instructed that her rage would be so great that she would not hesitate to “kill” ____________ for failing to awaken. Miss _______ carried out these suggestions to the letter including firing the (unloaded pneumatic pistol) gun at ________ and then proceeding to fall into a deep sleep. After proper suggestions were made, both were awakened and expressed complete amnesia for the entire sequence. Miss __________ was again handed the gun, which she refused (in an awakened state) to pick up or accept from the operator. She expressed absolute denial that the foregoing sequence had happened. (Ross p. 37)
If you are starting to think that this sort of hypnotic technique is being utilized in many ways beyond “alien abductions” I’m inclined to agree with you. The recent DC sniper case comes to mind. The sheriff was sent a letter which demanded that he publicly say a nonsense phrase (”We have caught the sniper like a duck in a noose.”). Soon after, both snipers were found sleeping soundly in their car. In fact, I am now convinced that this sort of technique is in fairly widespread use but will have to save that discussion for future posts.
The possibilities for what can happen after a subject is put into a trance state are not limited by complexity. Consider this description of a fairly elaborate scenario from a 1951 experiment:
________ was instructed that upon awakening, she would proceed to ________ room where she would wait at the desk for a telephone call. Upon receiving the call, a person known as ‘Jim’ would engage her in normal conversation. During the course of the conversation, this individual would mention a code word to ________. When she heard this code word she would pass into a SI (special interrogation) trance state, but would not close her eyes and remain perfectly normal and continue the telephone conversation. She was told that thereafter upon conclusion of the telephone conversation, she would then carry out the following instructions:
___________being in a complete SI state at this time, was then told to open her eyes and was shown an electric timing device. She was informed that this timing device was an incendiary bomb and was then instructed how to attach and set the device. After ______ had indicated that she had learned how to set and attach the device, she was told to return to a sleep state and further instructed that upon concluding of the aforementioned conversation, she would take the timing device which was in a briefcase and proceed to the ladies room. In the ladies room, she would be met by a girl whom she had never seen who would identify herself by the code word “New York.” After identifying herself, ______ was then to show this individual how to attach and set the timing device and further instructions would be given the individual by ___________ that the timing device was to be carried in the briefcase to _______ room, placed in the nearest empty electric-light plug and concealed in the bottom, left-hand drawer of ___________ desk, with the device set for 82 seconds and turned on. ___ was further instructed to tell this other girl that as soon as the device had been set and turned on, she was to take the briefcase, leave ______ room, go to the operations room and go to the sofa and enter a deep sleep state. _____________ was further instructed that after completion of instructing the other girl and the transferring to the other girl of the incendiary bomb, she was to return at once to the operations room, sit on a sofa, and go into a deep trance state. (Ross p. 37)
Again, it is chilling to speculate on the possible uses to which such techniques could be used…for what defines this age of chaos so well as “suicide bombers” and “lone crazed gunmen”? But that, too, will have to wait.
Hypnosis was not the only possible technique for mind control studied under MK-Ultra. As Ross says,
Drugs, magnetic fields (extremely important in our discussion), sound waves, sleep deprivation, solitary confinement and many other methods were studied… (p 38)
Another aspect to MK-Ultra style projects is the deliberate creation of amnesia or “false memories” to screen the subject from wondering about “missing time.” After one person was interrogated under “Project Artichoke”,
A false memory was introduced into the Subject’s mind without his conscious control of the process, which took 15 to 20 minutes. (report of ARTICHOKE Operations, 20 to 23 January, 1955 as cited in Ross, p. 27)
In one proposal to the CIA, a hypnotist discusses hypnotizing of “our own people” so that they will be conditioned against providing information,” even though subjected to hypnosis or drugging. If preferable, he may be conditioned to give false information rather than no information. (Handwritten note in ARTICHOKE files cited in Ross, p. 40. Underlining in original.)
In one experiment, they quickly created an entirely separate identity in a woman subject.
A CIA Security Office employee was hypnotized and given a false identity. She defended it hotly, denying her true name and rationalizing with conviction the possession of identity cards made out to her real self. Later, having had the false identity erased by suggestion, she was asked if she had ever heard of the name she had been defending as her own five minutes before. She thought, shook her head and said, “That’s a pseudo if I ever heard one.” Apparently, she had a true amnesia for the entire episode. (Untitled ARTICHOKE document in Ross, p. 33.
Other aspects of the MKULTRA projects which will interest us include the work with hallucinogens such as LSD and psilocybin (mushrooms). A variety of such drugs were tested as aids for interrogation and in inducing hypnotic trances and dissociative states. Often subjects of these experiments were unwitting. Sometimes they were children.
Sometimes they were children.
In one experiment is summarized by Ross (p. 78):
… they gave LSD or psilocybin to 50 boys age 7 to 15. The children took these hallucinogens daily for weeks or months at a time. The dosage of LSD was 150 micrograms, a hallucinogenic dosage level of the drug equivalent to a strong adult street dose. In another study, children given LSD were 6 to 12 years old. Some of Dr. Bender’s child subjects received LSD daily for a year or longer.
Ross goes on to emphasize that there’s no direct evidence the above experiment was funded by CIA but was evidence of the “permissive nature” of the psychiatric community toward such clearly abusive practices.
One feature of the alien abduction phenomenon that is now standard fare are implants. Maybe it is aliens doing the implanting, but that does not mean humans aren’t capable of the same. Ross discusses experiments in which operators could gain such control as to basically be able to “steer” a cat around a room or stop a charging bull in its tracks by pressing a remote control linked to a receiver buried in the bull’s brain. Such technology was investigated so that animals could be used as delivery devices for chemical or biological agents or bombs.
You will not be surprised to learn, I suppose, that experiments with brain implants were also done on children. In one 11-year old boy, implants even caused him to switch gender identity. He began to identify as a female despite his biologically male body and previous lack of gender confusion. Ross describes several other cases in which brain implants were used on children.
And this was what they were up to 50 years ago. I hear tell technology has advanced since then. I hear rumors that they even have TV’s that play in color….
Naturally, Ross discusses how all of the above were utilized in attempts to create “Manchurian Candidates”, people who had “alter” personalities created within them who carried out tasks unknown to the conscious subject. This goes well beyond even the experiments in hypnosis outlined above and included the deliberate creation of an entirely separate identity, with its own personality, likes and dislikes and political and religious orientations.
The only scientist to publicly confirm the creation of “Manchurian Candidates” was George Eastabrooks. While it is possible Eastabrooks was exaggerating his own successes, here is one example of what he said he could do:
I will take a number of men and will establish in them through the use of hypnotism the condition of split personality. Consciously they will be ardent Communists, phanatical adherence (sic) to the party line, ready and eager to submit to any discipline which the party may prescribe. Unconsciously they will be loyal Americans just as grimley (sic) determined to thwart the Communists at every turn in the road.
These men will again have no knowledge of anything that occurs in the hypnotic state - will have no knowledge of ever having been hypnotized and can only be hypnotized by such persons as the original operator may choose. consciously they will associate with the Communists and learn all the plans of the organization. Once every month or at such time is advisable they will be contacted by a member of our intelligence department, hypnotized, and as loyal Americans will tell what they know. This sounds unbelievable, but I assure you, it will work. (Ross p. 164)
In fact, Eastabrooks said he had done just this during World War 2. In addition, as you probably now expect, Eastabrooks also had a history of experimenting on children. In the thirties (pre-CIA, obviously) he did hypnotic experiments on children in two schools in upstate New York. He also corresponded with J. Edgar Hoover about using hypnosis to interrogate juvenile delinquents.
According to Ross, “The deliberate creation of multiple personality in children is an explicitly stated plan in the MKULTRA Subproject Proposal submitted for funding on May 30, 1961.” Here is a quotation from that subproject, though this particular quote does not mention children so I am uncertain if it is clearly the case that this quote applies to working with children.
In working with individual subjects, special attention will be given to disassociative states, which tend to accompany spontaneous ESP experiences. Such states can be induced or controlled to some extent with hypnosis and drugs…The data used in this study will be obtained from group ESP experiments which have yielded significant results, high scoring subjects from special groups such as psychotics, children and mediums, and from psychological tests…
The experimenters will be particularly interested in disassociative states, from the abaissment de niveau mental to multiple personality in so-called mediums, and an attempt will be made to induce a number of states of this kind, using hypnosis. (Ross, from an unnumbered introductory page).
I think you can see where this is going. Hallucinogens, hypnosis, amnesia, screen memories and no lack of nerve in utilizing children for these experiments. Even the interest in ESP (if that was not simply a cover for some of this) will feature prominently in our discussion as we look at issues such as Puharich and the Nine, and the Scientologists of Stargate.
This has been a fairly brief introduction to MKULTRA and a poor one at that, but we will return in more detail to various aspects of MKULTRA as we continue our discussion of government manipulation of the UFO and abductee phenomenon. For now, just to give you a bit more of an idea as to how this ties in, I’d like to introduce you to Dr. Louis Jolyon West. West was a bigwig in MKULTRA circles. We will learn more about him in our next post, but here’s a partial list of some papers published by Dr. West:
Sleep deprivation
Lysergic acid diethylamide: It’s effects on the male asiatic elephant (the elephant died, by the way)
Brainwashing
Hypnosis and experimental psychopathology
Sensory isolation
Psychiatry, brainwashing and the American character
Psychobiology of racial violence
Dissociative reaction
Hallucinogens
Flight from violence: Hippies and the green rebellion
Hippie culture
Campus unrest and the counter culture
Contemporary cults: Utopian images, internal reality
Cults, liberty and mind control
Persuasive techniques in contemporary cults
(all taken from Ross, pp. 107-108)
I’ll leave you for now with a quote from Dr. West:
Unpublished studies by the writer have led him to a greatly expanded concept of dissociation. Dissociative phenomena are found in everyday life. Such manifestations include “highway hypnosis”, states of “fascination” in flyers, hypnagogic and phantasy hallucinations, transient anaesthesias, and many other examples. These reactions have many features in common with a variety of clinical disorders including “sleep paralysis”, trance states, Gilles de la Tourette’s disease, latah, “Arctic hysteria”, and a number of other disturbances in addition to the well-known dissociative reactions of the text-books.
There is considerable experimental evidence pointing to the significant role played by dissociative mechanisms in the production of the various phenomena of hypnosis. In fact, hypnosis may be considered to be a pure-culture, laboratory-controlled dissociative reaction. Of the entire phenomenology of the various states described above, there is not one single manifestation which cannot be produced experimentally in the hypnotic subject. Thus, through the use of hypnosis as a laboratory device, the dissociative mechanisms can be studied with a high degree of objectivity.
Of increasing interest at the present time are the actions of a variety of new drugs which alter the state of psychological functioning. Some of these agents produce disturbances of perception and integration (mescaline, lysergic acid, etc). Others produce alterations of autonomic reactivity through inhibition of central (hypothalmic?) functions, so that “emotional responsiveness” is diminished (reserpine, chorpromazine, etc.). The effects of these agents upon the production, maintenance, and manifestations of dissociated states has never been studied. (Ross, p. 110).
West wrote those words in 1956. Eight years previously, he had been appointed Chief Psychiatrist at Lackland Airforce Base in San Antonio. Within a few years, a young boy in that city would begin having a series of bizarre, hallucinatory experiences in a park not ten miles from Lackland. The experiences would profoundly shape his life. And he, in turn, would profoundly shape American culture with the book which sealed the deal on the birth of a new archetype…the “grey” alien.
His name was Whitley Strieber, and he will be the subject of the next post.
