Mind Control, LSD, the CIA and the

American People:
What the Government Does Not Want You to Know.
By Andy Smith 1998-11-23

Mind control is not only possible, but has been done before and is still continuing on
unsuspecting people all over the United States of America. Through various behavior
modifying techniques, including hypnosis and powerful drugs, the ancient desire to
control people with magical potions had come alive again in the 1940's. The US
government, by ignoring fundamental ethical codes throughout their programs aimed at
controlling human behavior, rival the Nazis in cruel and unusual research.

Since World War II, the United States government, mainly the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA), has secretly and, at times, inhumanely, sought a way to control human
behavior. The CIA mind control programs were not only a continuation of the Office of
Strategic Services' (OSS, America's [Link] intelligence agency) quest for a truth drug,
but also the beginnings of a drug culture in America.

As far as we can tell by documented evidence, modern day mind control started in Nazi
Germany, was continued by the US military, then the CIA sunk into it. The CIA
expanded mind control projects more than ever before, testing on thousands of subjects
all over the country, thus violating a basic principle of the CIA.

During [Link] in Nazi Germany, doctors under the S.S. and the Gestapo were testing
mescaline on prisoners at Dachau to try and bring unwilling people under their control
and eliminate their will. Mescaline caused some people to tell their innermost secrets, but
even when combined with hypnosis, the drug never gained the Nazi's confidence as a
mind control drug.

After the war, the Nuremberg trials tried and convicted a small number of those
responsible for the Nazi "medical" horrors. Among the Nuremberg tribunal was a Dr.
Ewen Cameron, who will be discussed later. Even before the verdicts were in at
Nuremberg, US investigating teams were going through the records of the experiments
conducted at Dachau for information that could be used by the military. Military
authorities sent the records back home, which included documents on Nazi mescaline and
hypnosis mind control experiments. None of the Nazi mind control research has been
made available to the public.

At the same time Nazi "doctors" at Dachau were experimenting on Jews and other people
deemed inferior, OSS Director Donovan created a truth drug committee. The committee's
goal was to find or create a drug capable of altering and controlling human behavior and
perception, mainly a substance that would make the subject spill his secrets when
questioned- a "truth drug".

The committee, which included federal narcotics agent George White, tried many
different drugs, including scopolamine, peyote, barbiturates, mescaline and THC, or
marijuana. Marijuana was chosen as the most likely candidate for a truth drug and the
committee, in cooperation with the Manhattan Project tested various forms of the drug.
They tried liquid and vapor forms before finding out that the best way to deliver the drug
was via the cigarette, a secret that had been known for years by jazz musicians and other
users. The OSS scientists made a potent extract of marijuana which was clear, odorless
and tasteless. It was named TD, or Truth Drug, and injected into normal cigarettes with a
needle.

On May 27, 1943, the first field test of marijuana-laced cigarettes was done on August
Del Gracio, a New York gangster. OSS documents state that after smoking the mix of
tobacco and marijuana, Gracio was in a "state of irresponsibility, causing the subject
[Gracio] to be loquacious and free in his impartation of information" ([Link]). The
gangster gave George White, the Federal agent, more information than he had before, and
the operation was considered a success. Marijuana was subsequently tested on 15-18
suspected Communists in the US Army. All the men who smoked the drug gave the feds
more information than they had before. Marijuana did loosen the tongue, but it didn't
control the mind, so the search continued.

The Army justified it's use of drugs, including LSD, for counterintelligence and defense
uses. In 1958 in Edgewood Arsenal, 95 "volunteers" were given LSD. Some were
unaware that they had been drugged and thought they were going insane, others were
polygraphed to see if they could lie better on acid, and others were given LSD and placed
in isolation chambers. STP (Serenity, Tranquillity and Peace) was another drug tested at
Edgewood and it put the user on an intense three day trip. The Army tested it for use as
an incapacitating agent. PCP was tested as well as hundreds of other different drugs,
many of which had never been tested on humans before.

American volunteers for the tests signed a consent form which basically said that they
(the subjects) could end the experiment whenever they wanted to, but only if the
supervising physician agreed. The volunteers were not told exactly what they were
signing up for, nor the risks of LSD. The consent form only informed that "transitory
discomfort may occur" (covert 9). So this program was "volunteer" in name only. The
subjects also had to agree that they would not tell anyone (even a doctor) what really
happened, making it impossible for medical assistance that could be needed after the
testing. The Army tested LSD on approximately 1500 military personnel in the mid-60's,
including many men who took their first trip when acid was given to unwitting GI's at
mess parties.

Quinuclidinyl benzilate, or BZ, is a powerful hallucinogen whose effects generally last

about three days-but have been known to last as long as six weeks. It's symptoms are
similar to LSD, but much stronger. Edgewood Arsenal conducted BZ studies from 1959-
1975. Many of the estimated 2800 soldiers exposed to BZ said they were never the same
afterwards. BZ did not seem to be the perfect mind control drug, but it did become the
Army's standard incapacitating agent.

BZ weapons, such as BZ in bullets, grenades, bombs, and missile warheads were then
created by the Army. Allegedly, BZ was tested at least 5 times in Vietnam between 1968
and 1970. One of the occasions was Operation White Wing, where grenades containing
BZ were dropped on 500 Viet Congs, only 100 were said to have escaped alive.

The Army stored, and maybe still has, at least 50 tons of BZ, enough to trip out everyone
in the world. Army documents even suggest that there is a contingency plan to use BZ as
a domestic civilian riot control method.

The Military then had two more projects, THIRD CHANCE and DERBY HAT, which
involved giving drugs to unwitting subjects. These two projects involved giving EA-1729
(the Army's name for LSD) to unwitting subjects in the Far East and Europe.

Project THIRD CHANCE was conducted in 1961 in Europe. Ten unwitting subjects were
given LSD and interrogated. These interrogations were only somewhat successful.

DERBY HAT was a project conducted in 1962 in the Far East, seven Asians were given
LSD and interrogated. According to the Select Committee on Intelligence report, the US
Army wanted to "evaluate any different effects the drug might have on Orientals" (covert
3).

In these projects, the interrogators would sometimes threaten to extend the state of the
tripping subjects indefinitely, or to the point of insanity if the subjects would not talk.
This method probably worked wonderfully, since if someone is tripping and they do not
know what is causing their temporary insanity, they would do almost anything to stop it,
since they have no idea how long it lasts or even if it ever stops. According to released
documents, the Army ended unwitting drug testing projects in September of 1963

The Navy also attempted to find a truth drug in project CHATTER. This Navy program
lasted from 1947 to 1953. It tested mescaline as a truth drug, but mescaline failed and the
project was canceled.

The Navy also meddled in the behavioral modification (BeMod) area creating hardened
assassins. Lt. Commander Thomas Narut of the US Naval Hospital said that recruits in
Naples, Florida underwent Clockwork Orange style BeMod sessions. Martin Cannon, an
independent researcher, reports that "Trainees would be strapped into chairs with their
eyelids clamped open while watching films of industrial accidents and African
circumcision ceremonies" (Cannon 20). Unlike the main character in A Clockwork
Orange, who learned repulsion at the sight of violence, the Navy soldiers eventually
accepted and enjoyed bloodshed. The graduates of this program were assassins to be
placed throughout the world.
The Navy has not made any more of it's BeMod or mind control research public and this
has led some to believe the Navy still maybe conducting experiments. This is partly due
to the Navy's seeming interest and involvement in UFOs, which have been connected
with mind control in many ways.

The CIA barged into the mind control research field shortly after its creation and has ever
since been involved in one way or another in mind control. The Agency began its
research with experiments in hypnosis.

Hypnosis, generally speaking, can not make someone do something that they normally
would not do. However, if you can change their beliefs in a situation while they are
hypnotized, you can get the subject to murder or do almost anything else. Hypnosis does
not work on everyone-only about 20% of people make good enough subjects to be placed
in a deep trance, where the hypnotist has the most control of their mind.

The first CIA hypnosis experiments was under project BLUEBIRD. It began in April of
1950 and tried to discover if hypnosis could allow a subject to beat a lie detector. They
also mixed depressants and stimulants with polygraphs and had varying degrees of
successful results.

Between Sept. 1, 1953, and June 1, 1954, the CIA conducted experiments with the goal
of "recall of hypnotically acquired information by very specific signals" (MKULTRA
hypnosis). This was to help in the creation of an agent who could be told sensitive
information under hypnosis and then deliver the information to another party when cued
to do so. In this case, the agent could be tortured or even killed and the enemy would
never get the information out of the agent because he truly does not know that he knows.
This kind of agent had definite uses in covert operations.

Other projects tried to have hypnotized subjects kill someone. Morse Allen, a CIA agent,
proved in a series of experiments using CIA secretaries that hypnotized people could be
forced into doing acts that could later be used to blackmail them.

There has been much discussion over the question of whether or not a programmed
assassin could be created. A programmed assassin would be programmed to kill someone
by means of a very specific cue. This person would not remember killing the victim and
if he did, he would have no idea why he did it. The facts are that programmed assassins
can be created and have been created in experiments.

In another one of Allen's experiments, he hypnotized one secretary and basically told her
to shoot another hypnotized secretary, which the first girl subsequently did. the gun was
unloaded, but only Allen knew it. After the trance was removed, the "killer' had no
memory of the event and denied she would ever shoot anyone.

Murder is not the only anti-social act that people can be forced to do with the use of
hypnosis and post hypnotic suggestions. (Post hypnotic suggestion, or PHS, is a
hypnotically implanted suggestion that is cued by a specific word, sound, etc., that would
trigger the programmed act.) When drugs are added, PHS is much easier and the right
subject could be programmed to do anything.

The Palle Hardrup affair of 1951 is one example. In Denmark, Palle Hardrup robbed a
bank and killed a guard in the process. In court, Hardrup claimed that his hypnotist, Bjorn
Nielsen instructed him to do so. Nielsen admitted to have engineered Hardrup to commit
the anti-social crime as a test of his hypnotic abilities.

Subjects who have been hypnotized to do something out of the ordinary usually will
rationalize their actions as demonstrated by Sirhan Sirhan (RFK's assassin). While in
prison, Sirhan was hypnotized and told to climb the bars of his cage like a monkey.
Sirhan did and after the trance was removed, he was shown video of his actions. Sirhan
insisted that he wanted the exercise and that he acted like a monkey of his own free will.
The question must be asked if an assassin would insist he wanted to kill someone if he
was questioned about it, even if he was only carrying out programmed actions.

In 1960, an MKULTRA program (the main CIA mind control program that will later be
discussed in detail) was created that had 3 goals: 1) to quickly hypnotize an unwitting
subject; 2) to create a lasting amnesia; and 3) to implant a lasting PHS. No information
has been released on this project that could, in theory, turn an unwitting person into an
assassin, except one heavily censored paper on rapid induction of hypnosis.

John Gittinger, an MKULTRA veteran, said that rapid induction of hypnosis on unwitting
subjects worked "fantastically" on some people, and not at all on others. People can even
be hypnotized with a common television or radio.

In case the subject ever remembered being hypnotized and programmed, the "doctors"
would install false memories to cover up what really happened. This way, even if the
subject began to remember things related to his programming, he would remember it
incorrectly. The method of retrieving covered or forgotten, painful, traumatizing
memories is called regression therapy. Regression therapy has brought forth many
forgotten abuses, mind control experiments and other troubling experiences.

In 1992, the False Memory Syndrome Foundation began. Its members believe that
regression therapy is unreliable and that the repressed memories brought forth out by it
are lies implanted by the discovering psychologist. It would not be so suspicious if two of
the board of advisors were not Louis West and Martin Orne, both MKULTRA veterans.
This is a good example of CIA misinformation. Some of the founding members were
responsible for what the FMS was so strongly fighting against.

In mid 1953, the CIA began the most notorious mind control project yet- MKULTRA.
The "MK" allegedly stood for "Mind Kontrol". It was in this project that LSD was first
tested on a wide scale.

The Soviets and the Chinese has massive re-education and brainwashing programs, but
they used no drugs or any sort of electrical ray or machine. The Communist
interrogations usually consisted of isolation, humiliation, and discomfort until the subject
was ready to be re-educated or confess to an alleged crime. As the CIA learned of such
techniques, they thought the US should be far ahead of the Communists in the mind
control arena-and so began project MKULTRA. The CIA claimed that these programs
were necessary to catch up with the Communists in their brain-washing techniques. Ten
years later however, CIA deputy director Richard Helms admitted that the Soviet mind
control research was years behind the American efforts. So the brainwashing scare was
just a propaganda effort by the CIA so they could start their mind control research.

MKULTRA was a huge umbrella which covered about 150 subprojects. Some of the
earlier goals of the project were to develop: substances that would make foreign leaders
and politicians trip out during their public appearances thus discrediting and
embarrassing themselves, chemicals and physical methods to produce amnesia, and
substances that would lower the ambition and working efficiency in men (high and
mighty 1).

MKULTRA was conducted all over the world in hundreds of places in secrecy. A
declassified CIA document explains why the programs were done secretly: "The
knowledge that the Agency is engaging in unethical and illicit activities would have
serious repercussions in political and diplomatic circles..." (xviii Acid Dreams).

Many of the experiments under MKULTRA involved administration of LSD to subjects.

Before they tested LSD on other subjects, MKULTRA men took acid themselves. They
tripped in the office while observing, questioning and analyzing each other. They agreed
to give it to each other unwittingly, such as in someone's coffee, and then observe the
man as he tripped out. Dr. Harris Isbell conducted LSD research on inmates at the
Lexington Federal drug hospital. Some of his subjects were kept on LSD for 77 days
straight. In exchange for volunteering for Isbell's experiments, inmates received heroin.
They could withdraw drugs from their "bank accounts" at any time, and the more you
volunteered, the more credits went into your account.

Divine mushrooms and psilocybin (the active compound in psychedelic mushrooms)

were tested under Dr. Isbell and in MKULTRA, subproject 58.

Dr. Ewen Cameron conducted some of the most horrific experiments funded by the CIA.
Cameron tested 53 patients at Allan Memorial Institute in Canada. Treatment started with
"sleep therapy", where subjects were knocked out for months, then he would "depattern"
them, which included massive electroshock and LSD dosage. Depatterning was supposed
to wipe out past behavior patterns so new patterns could be installed. Finally, Cameron
put the subjects through "psychic driving", where the patients would be heavily drugged
and confined to "sleep rooms". In the sleep rooms, speakers would be placed under the
subject's pillow, and a tape recorded message would play over and over again for 16 to 24
hours a day. Some subjects heard the same message 250,000 times. This treatment did
not work, it only succeeded in messing up several of the patients for the rest of their lives,
and his theory was discredited.
Not only was LSD tested on volunteers who knew that drugs would be involved in the
experiment, but it was also given to people who had no idea they had been drugged and
people who had volunteered for experiments, but did not know the ordeal would involve
LSD. Some scientists believed that if the subject knew that he would receive LSD, it
would ruin the experiment, so unwitting subjects were more favorable to use, since their
reactions would be more genuine. However, there was a problem over how to find
subjects to perform unwitting testing on. After much thought, Dr. Sidney Gottlieb and the
MKULTRA crew came to the conclusion that the best test subjects would be "the
borderline underworld". These people- prostitutes, drug addicts and other small time
criminals- would be powerless to extract revenge or cry to the government if they ever
found out what the CIA did to them.

CIA officials gave $375,000 in secret funds to Georgetown University Hospital to help
construct a new research building. In return, the Agency would receive one-sixth of the
beds and total space for a hospital safehouse. According to a CIA document, this situation
would give the CIA a good source of "human patients and volunteers for experimental
use" ([Link]).

George White, an agent for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, was chosen to head
MKULTRA subproject #3, which was one of the first programs to test LSD on unwitting
subjects. The subproject was carried out in two adjacent apartments in Greenwich
Village, New York. This pair of apartments was called a "safehouse", and
experimentation began here in 1953.

In the first few months of the safehouse, White tested LSD knockout drugs and THC (the
essence of marijuana). He lured the victims to the safehouse, slipped the drugs in foods,
drinks and cigarettes, then tried to get his subjects to reveal certain information.

White left the Greenwich safehouse, which continued unwitting drug testing, and moved
to San Francisco in early 1955. He then opened a new safehouse in Telegraph Hill in San
Francisco. This safehouse specialized in prostitutes. TSS officials were trying to discover
how they could apply sex to spying. As one TSS official said of the study; "How do you
take a woman who is willing to use her body to get money out of a guy to get things
which are much more important, like state secrets" ([Link]).

The prostitutes who cooperated in these experiments were rewarded with "chits", or
favors. When the girls got arrested, they could use their chits to get out of jail.

TSS officials found that the best time to seek sensitive information from the subjects was
the postsexual period, not at the time of near orgasm as was originally thought. The girl
would boost his ego by staying with him for a few hours and gently lead him into talking
about business matters or whatever it was that she was assigned to find out.

In 1963, during a routine inspection, the Agency's Inspector General discovered the
safehouses and wanted them shut down. Richard Helms, who headed the Clandestine
Services, lied to the General to keep unwitting testing alive. Helms said that the Soviets
had ways of mind control and the US had to keep up. Helms told the Warren
Commission, about the same time, the truth however, that there was no evidence to
suggest that the Soviets were anywhere near where the CIA was. Helms lies kept the
safehouses operating, but not for much longer. Two years after they were discovered, the
safehouses began closing down- the San Francisco safehouse closed in 1965 and one year
later the one in New York was shut down.

Unwitting testing was not only done on adults, but also on children. Dr. Martin Orne, a
founding member of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, conducted CIA funded
mind control experiments on children in the 1950's. Two former patients of CIA-
connected studies testified before the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation
Experiments. The two women say the experiment sessions occurred when they were
about eight years old and involved electroshock, hypnosis, shots (drugs), sexual abuse
and intelligence tradecraft training.

Dr. Sidney Gottleib, under the alias of "Mr. Sheiber", trained children, in 1959 at Deer
Creek camp in Maryland, to be child prostitutes for sexual blackmail operations. Claudia
Mullens testified at the Advisory Committee hearing about the Deer Creek experiments.
Mullens said she was seven years old and was "taught different ways to please men and
at the same time ask questions to get them to talk about themselves. Then we had to recall
everything we learned about them..." (Virtual 150, 151).

Richard Helms implied that the CIA had tinkered with child mind control, but no one
pushed into the matter. He said that "cybernetics can be used in molding of a child's
character...the amassing of experience, [and] the establishment of social behavior
patterns..." (Virtual 168).

More evidence of child mind control came to light in 1995 during the President's
Advisory Committee on Radiation Experiments. Valerie Wolf, a New Orleans
psychologist, testified that "most of these patients [children apparently influenced by
certain kinds of electronic stimulation of varying frequencies] responded to certain
sounds. clickers, metronomes, or just clicking the tongue or hand clapping. Patients
would vacillate from calm to robotically asking, 'Who do you want me to kill?'''. (Virtual
150, 151). The children were triggered to try to commit suicide, attack the therapist, or
leave the office with the intent to kill somebody. The Advisory Committee requested the
records of human radiation experiments from the CIA, but in October 1995, its final
report showed dissatisfaction with the CIA's cooperation and recommended that the CIA
provide more information than it did.

To rob a child of his or her innocence by making them perform sexual acts, altering their
behavior by electronic means or any of the other BeMod tactics used by the CIA is
inexcusable and disheartening.

Another major concern for TSS officials was a disposal problem with the victims of mind
control research projects. At first the disposal problem was solved by committing
subjects to insane asylums- even some that were mentally sound before the experiment.
Some were killed in the experiment and others received icepick lobotomies, which
removed or permanently destroyed brain tissue creating confusion and amnesia. Instead
of institutionalizing them, etc., they began to erase the memory via hypnosis, drugs and
implants. Then in order to solve the problem of memory leaks and repressed memories,
false stories, or screen memories were poured in.

A couple of subjects disposed of themselves. Dr. Frank Olson was a Department of the
Army employee who was unwittingly given LSD. He went into deep depression and the
night before he was to enter a sanitarium, he killed himself by jumping out of the tenth
floor window of a hotel. Another subject was killed in an experiment. Harold Blauer, a
tennis professional, received an injection of MDA (methyl di-amphetamine) and died a
few hours later. The two listed above are surely not the only subjects that died in or from
drug experiments. The CIA used people who would not be missed, like the homeless, for
the more dangerous research, that way if they died-no big deal. The only reason we know
of these two deaths are because they were either famous or their death was a public event,
like Olson's suicide

When MKULTRA officially ended in 1963, CIA researchers had, according to their
public statements, found no sure way to brainwash people. They could create
"vegetables", but these people could have no operational use. The CIA research spanned
across at least 80 institutions, including 44 universities and colleges, 15 private research
facilities and companies, 12 hospitals or clinics and 3 penal institutions. The estimated
cost of these projects was $10 million of taxpayer's dollars.

MKULTRA really did not end, it just became MKSEARCH. Only seven of the 149
subprojects were carried over into MKSEARCH, all the other subprojects were either
canceled or moved back to the regular CIA projects. The first subproject was two more
years of sex and unwitting drug testing in the safehouses by George White. The second
was the production of biological weapons on a large scale. The third was custom-made
chemical weapons for attacks by the CIA. The fourth subproject was, as a CIA document
says, "clinical testing of behavioral control methods" ([Link]) on inmates at the
Cal. Medical Facility at Vacaville. Another was collecting data on the creation, use and
effects of drugs. The sixth subproject was Dr. Maitland Baldwin's strange lobotomy
experiments involving sensory deprivation, radio energy waves, etc. In one experiment,
Baldwin cut off the head of one monkey and tried to transplant it on the neck of another
decapitated monkey. The last was Dr. Charles Geschickter's experiments, which included
knocking out monkeys with radar waves. The downfall of knocking subjects out with
radar waves was that it can fry important parts of the brain. MKSEARCH went on until
June of 1972 when Gottlieb ended the program.

The CIA's mind control programs went unnoticed by the public and most of the federal
government until Nelson Rockefeller headed a commission to investigate CIA abuses.
Among the long list of abuses mentioned was Frank Olson's death. It interested many
people how an unnamed Army employee had jumped out a hotel window to his death
after CIA men had given him LSD without his knowledge. This interest led to hearings
on the CIA's unethical research.
In 1977, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and Senator Edward Kennedy's
Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research held one joint hearing on behavior
control and drug experimentation. The Select Committee later dropped out of the
proceedings, but the Subcommittee went ahead. The Kennedy hearings did not add much
to what was already known, it did not deal with inconsistent testimonies and did not try to
find out what the CIA learned from "turning on" thousands of people, destroying the lives
of others and other damage they did to the American people. Most doctors could not
perform mind control experiments on their own, but by doing the same experiments
under the CIA, he had protection from the law, secrecy and pride in himself for serving
his country.

One hindrance to finding the whole truth was that there were very few documents that
proved these experiments actually happened. Sid Gottlieb ordered that virtually no
records of the testing be kept. In 1973, when Gottlieb retired from the CIA, he and
Richard Helms destroyed what they thought were the last existing documents on the
program. In his testimony, Gottlieb said the purpose of MKULTRA and related programs
was to see if and how a person's behavior could be altered by covert means. He did not
comment on the success of the programs however.

Testimonies were not in depth and some of those who testified agreed among themselves
only to say just enough to satisfy the committee and no more. Dr. Gottlieb agreed to
testify at the hearing only after receiving a grant of immunity from criminal prosecution.
When unwitting LSD testing was brought up, neither Gottlieb nor any other MKULTRA
veterans confessed to ever giving LSD to an unwitting subject, or even observing
experiments like that- except in the case of Frank Olson. They rested all the blame for the
unwitting testing on George White, who conveniently enough, is dead and can not defend
himself. Throughout the hearings on MKULTRA, Agency personnel told stories of the
mistakes in experiments, many of them humorous. This kind of clumsiness was an
effective public relations for the CIA, deflecting serious investigation from drug-related
misdeeds. We will probably never hear the entire truth on the government's attempts at
mind control, and maybe we would not want to. As one MKULTRA veteran said to John
Marks, declining to be interviewed: "Lots of things are not fit for the public. This has
nothing to do with democracy. It has to do with common sense" ([Link]).

An accidental product of MKULTRA and related programs was the "crazies" that were
roaming all over the country. Dr. Hackney, a psychiatrist who did BeMod experiments
for the CIA around 1970-1975, describes when he began to figure out that these people
perhaps really were not insane. Most of the patients' flashbacks involved the military in
some way, they were in various rooms, and being tortured or taught things- like how to
kill or something like that. After becoming more involved in the flashback issue, going to
conventions with people from all over the world, it was apparent that the patients' "stories
were all very consistent" (Hackney). Studies showed that these people were very
conditioned and brainwashed when they were between 18 and 21, and it worked great,
except that it tended to unravel when the victim was about forty. Repressed memory
syndrome was offered as the answer, but the mainstream said these people were not
brainwashed by the government and that their shrinks had convinced them they were
brainwashed.

Hackney conducted experiments involving how much pain a subject could withstand and
how they would condition under various pain. These experiments were done at the
Veterans Administration Hospital in Minnesota on veterans that were homeless, or had
no trace to anyone else. So they only used the throwaways of society. They were already
considered crazy by society- so no one would listen to them if they complained about
these BeMod experiments.

CIA mind control research damaged hundreds of people-some damage was evident at the
time of experimentation while other damage took years to manifest. A number of subjects
became sick for a few hours or days and some even required hospitalization. That is one
reason why MKULTRA veterans have tried to hide their roles in experiments; fear from
victims' lawsuits claiming damaged health. Even so, some victims have sued the
government and received large sums of money for their damages.

James Thornwell, an unwitting subject of LSD testing in project THIRD CHANCE, sued
the US government for $10 million in the late 1970's. In 1980, the US House of
Representatives gave him a settlement of $650,000.

Nine of Dr. Cameron's former patients have also sued the US government for $1 million
each. They said they were still suffering from the trauma they endured at Allan. These
nine were all unwitting and willing subjects. The government appointed one lawyer to
look into these nine claims. The commission concluded that the government bears no
"legal or moral responsibilities" for the experiments. The commission suggested a
$100,000 payment to each survivor, not because the government was guilty of doing
wrong, but, according to its statement, a way of showing "a collective sense of
accountability for events that took place in good faith with ill effect" (Virtual 28). It
seems hard to believe that the government had good faith in these experiments not
causing permanent brain damage, when in fact, some of the experiments were aimed at
doing so.

Besides suing the government for damages, people have also sued the government
through the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA). In 1984, two men filed suit under the
FOIA requesting the names of private researchers who did work for the CIA in
connection with MKULTRA and the institutions where it took place. The district court
ordered about half of the researchers' and institutions' names to be released, while the
other half were still held because they had either been promised confidentiality by the
CIA, or they were working in other CIA activities apart from MKULTRA (Petitioners 1).
These other activities could have been MKSEARCH or any other BeMod program,
including Army projects.

Some people have called the JFK assassination an extension of mind control
experimentation and they back up their conspiracy with some interesting facts. Dr. Louis
West, well known for his work in MKULTRA with LSD experiments, psychiatrically
treated Jack Ruby, Oswald's assassin. West did not live or practice in Dallas, but he was
assigned to the Ruby case. West, in 1964, concluded that Ruby was crazy, since Ruby
would not admit to being insane. Ruby was then treated for mental disorders, until a
different doctor put him on "happy pills". The pills did not cheer him up and two years
later Ruby died in prison of cancer. Those who believe this was part of the government
cover-up point to the fact that one of MKULTRA's goals was to create a substance that
would cause cancer, an ideal way to kill someone who is in the public eye, since more
direct approaches are too noticeable.

The CIA's widespread LSD testing led to a drug culture in America. Once a subject had
tried acid, he usually would want to trip again sometime later. In huge universities and
hospitals, the CIA and the Army carried out large scale testing programs. The CIA placed
posters on the campuses advertising that you would be paid for participating in a drug
study and they usually had not only enough students who wanted to try LSD (or trip
again), but a long waiting list as well. Once a student tried acid, he would usually trip at
least a couple more times, and of course he could not buy it from the doctors using it for
testing, so he would turn to the up and coming acid dealer. Only years later did the truth
come out that some of the acid dealers were actually CIA-connected men.

Hundreds of scientists, health professionals and students would turn on after hearing
lectures on LSD. Harold Abranson, a CIA contractor, would speak favorably of acid at
conferences and seminars, after which many of the audience would wind up trying LSD.
If these people liked the experience, they would tell their friends, who would tell their
friends and so on.

Some of the first trips for fun were started when Army soldiers stole LSD from the
laboratories at Edgewood and used it for recreational purposes.

Ronald Stark was a CIA agent from 1960 on who was jailed for selling marijuana,
morphine and cocaine. Stark made 50 million hits of LSD and sold them on the black-
market in the late 60's and early 70's. He was later released from prison after a judge
learned of Strak's true identity. Apparently, CIA agents can break the law and spread
drugs around without any serious repercussions. Just Stark's story alone proves the CIA
helped boost the drug culture of the 60's significantly and intentionally-but that is not all
they did. The CIA helped underground chemists set up acid laboratories in the San
Francisco Bay Area in 1967 to "monitor" events in the Haight-Ashbury district. Who
would monitor these events? None other then Dr. Louis West, who rented a house in
Ashbury, for observation purposes.

Many of the acid spokesmen were turned on CIA connected programs. Three of these
men first tripped in programs at Stanford University: Ken Kesy (leader of the Pranksters),
Allen Ginsberg (the beat poet), and Robert Hunter (lyricist for the Grateful Dead). Hunter
later recommended LSD to the rest of the band. Various writers, actors, musicians and
film makers, including Jack Nicholson, also first tried acid in government programs.
Professor Timothy Leary began a psilcybin research project at Harvard after he returned
from his first psychedelic experience in Mexico. Leary's research was under the approval
of Dr. Harry Murray, who was in charge of the Personality Assessment part of the OSS
during [Link]. There are also indications that Leary received CIA-channeled money
through various government agencies.

John Marks gives the CIA some leniency when he says "No one at the Agency apparently
foresaw that young Americans would voluntarily take the drug [LSD]-whether for
consciousness expansion or recreational purposes. It would become supreme irony that
the CIA's enormous search for weapons among drugs -fueled by the hope that spies
could...control life with genius and machines -would wind up helping to create the
wandering, uncontrollable minds of the counterculture". ([Link]) But Marks
neglects Stark's 50 million hits of LSD he sold, and the fact that the CIA has been
involved in selling drugs to the American people numerous other times. CIA personnel in
southeast Asia brought and sold heroin to the US. For eight years, heroin was smuggled
inside the returning corpses of American military men who died in Vietnam- then sold to
major city urban ghettos. Another example of CIA drug dealing was the Iran-contra
scandal, where drugs were sold directly and indirectly by the CIA to inner cities.

Over the course of the government's testing, thousands of people were given drugs, many
of whom tried drugs again, which were available from different non-governmental
sources. In 1967, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences reported
that "techniques for controlling behavior and modifying personality will grow more
efficient by the year 2000. Thousands of experts at conditioning are now trying out their
behavior-changing techniques on tens of thousands of people [my emphasis]- in
classrooms, prisons, mental hospitals, day-care centers [my emphasis], factories, [and]
nursing homes...". (Virtual 109) We will probably never know exactly how many people
the government's BeMod programs damaged or turned on to LSD and other drugs, but
without a doubt the number is at least in the thousands. If these thousands each turned on
one or two friends to drugs, then we have in the tens of thousand range of acid heads, and
thus a counterculture movement is born.

One can not lay all the blame for the drug culture at the CIA's feet. Doing so would
ignore the times of the rebellion, mistrust and confusion. While the CIA may not have
been solely responsible for the counterculture, they certainly gave it a much needed boost
and support.

Almost all of the subjects on mind control research focus on things done 20-40 years ago-
as if the CIA abandoned mind control because a few secrets came out in various
Congressional testimonies. The CIA and other government branches are still very
interested in electromagnetic brain manipulation. There is a thirty year gap between
declassified research and the most advanced technology known and available to the
American government.

There are currently numerous associations and groups of people who claim that the
government is not only continuing electronic mind control, but conducting it on them and
the government is ignoring their pleas to stop. Within these groups of "victims" it is hard
to distinguish between who is lying and who is genuinely telling the truth. The reason for
this is that the purpose of some mind control research was to induce insanity. Anyone
who claims to be a victim is saying that their brain and memory has been tampered with,
and therefore may not be reliable in the first place. A fine example of a catch-22.

Besides people's claims, there is solid proof on continuing mind control research. In
1996, Congress earmarked $37.2 million to investigate (which would include
experiments on human subjects) "nonlethal technologies". (MK and secret state 3)
Nonlethal technology is a term for mind control by means of drugs, micro and radio
waves and other electronic means of altering the brain from a distance.

President Clinton, in a memorandum dated March 27, 1997, said the government is
allowing classified radiation experiments and research involving humans as long as the
government agency follows a set of guidelines that includes certain exemptions. This
kind of public statement clearly indicates that classified mind control research is still
going on.

There is a law in effect that allows open air testing of biological and chemical agents on
civilians as long as public officials are notified at least 30 days prior to the testing.
Biological agents would include diseases and infections, while chemical agents would
include BZ, LSD and other behavior changing chemicals.

Also there are shadows of suspicion that government mind control played a role in the
Oklahoma City bombing. Timothy McVeigh, the alleged mad bomber, was once assigned
to a Pentagon contractor that conducts classified research in electronic warfare. McVeigh
complained that he had been implanted with a microchip by federal agents. Also, during
the week of the Oklahoma City bombing, a low-frequency hum was heard by many
across the country. Another interesting fact connecting the Oklahoma City bombing to
mind control is the involvement of Dr. Louis West. He led the psychological trauma team
to treat victims' families and survivors of the explosion.

The government's mind control research created far more problems than it solved. Not
only is the government having to use millions of tax dollars to pay survivors of their
unethical research, but the federal government is spending billions of dollars fighting a
drug problem that it helped create. Anyone with an unbiased mind can see that America
will never win the war on drugs as long as our government continues to supply our
country with drugs and lies about doing so.

Mind control is swiftly becoming one of the big conspiracies of the day, and hopefully
because of this, more information will be released and discovered on this topic. The
general public does not believe that mind control is possible, but the frightening truth is
that mind control is possible, has been done before, and is still continuing on unwitting
subjects. Nowadays, a person could be experimented on without their permission or
knowledge and they may not even realize they are being controlled.

Mind control is no longer confined only to hypnosis and drugs, but in propaganda and
electronic means. The best way to avoid and recognize mind control is to be informed
about past, present and future research. Unfortunately, our government is not eager to
release this sort of information, and until they do, we will never know the entire truth of
the Army's, the Navy's and the CIA's history of unethical mind control. In my opinion, I
think Dr. Sidney Gottlieb spoke the best summary of government mind control when he
said, "The bottom line on this whole business has not yet been written."

Works Cited
Bowart, Walter. Operation Mind Control. New York: Dell. 1978.

Canon, Martin. The Controllers. 9 Sept. 1998.

Cong. Report. Feb. 3 1997: 97-178F

Constantine, Alex. Virtual Government. Venice: Feral House. 1997.

Covert Testing on Human Subjects by Military Intelligence Groups. 10 Sept. 1998.

Delgado, Jose. Physical Control of the Mind: Towards a Pyschocivilized Society. New
York: Harper Torchbooks. 1969.

Hackney, Gary. Personal Interview 15 Sept. 1998

Krupey, G.J. Excerpt from The High and the Mighty: JFK, MPM, LSD and the CIA. 10
Sept. 1998.

Lee, Martin A. Acid Dreams. New York: Grove Press. 1985

LSD and the Army. 10 Sept. 1998.

Marks, John. The Search for the Manchurian Candidate. 1-21 Sept. 1998.

Mind Control and the Secret State.

MKULTRA Hypnosis Experiments. 10 Sept. 1998.

Petitioners V. Central Intelligence Agency. 25 August 1998.