Table of Contents
Project MKUltra
AKA - CHATTER, BLUEBIRD, MKULTRA, MKNAOMI, MKSEARCH, MKCHICKWIT, MKOFTEN, MONARCH, ARTICHOKE, DERBY HAT
Project MKUltra was the code name for a covert research operation by the Central Intelligence Agency, experimenting into the behavioral engineering of humans through their Scientific Intelligence division. The program began in the early 1950s, was officially sanctioned in 1953, was reduced in scope in 1964, further curtailed in 1967 and finally halted in 1973. The program used unwitting U.S. and Canadian citizens as its test subjects, which led to controversy regarding its legitimacy. MKUltra involved the use of many methodologies to manipulate people's individual mental states and alter brain functions, including the surreptitious administration of drugs LSD, scopolamine and other chemicals, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, isolation, verbal and sexual abuse, as well as various forms of torture.
The research was undertaken at 80 institutions, including 44 colleges and universities, as well as hospitals, prisons and pharmaceutical companies. The CIA would operate through these institutions using front organizations, although sometimes top officials at these institutions would be aware of the CIA's involvement. MKUltra was allocated 6 percent of total CIA funds.
Project MKUltra was first brought public attention in 1975 by the Church Committee of the U.S. Congress, and a Gerald Ford commission to investigate CIA activities within the United States. Investigative efforts were hampered by the fact that CIA Director Richard Helms ordered all MKUltra files destroyed in 1973; the Church Committee and Rockefeller Commission investigations relied on the sworn testimony of direct participants and on the relatively small number of documents that survived Helms' destruction order.
In 1977, a Freedom of Information Act request uncovered a cache of 20,000 documents relating to project MKUltra, which led to Senate hearings later that same year. In July of 2001 some surviving information regarding MKUltra was officially declassified.
Goals
The Agency poured millions of dollars into studies examining methods of influencing and controlling the mind, and of enhancing their ability to extract information from resistant subjects during interrogation.
Some historians have asserted that creating a “Manchurian Candidate” subject through “mind control” techniques was a goal of MKUltra and related CIA projects. Alfred McCoy has claimed that the CIA attempted to focus media attention on these sorts of “ridiculous” programs, so that the public would not look at the primary goal of the research, which was developing effective methods of torture and interrogation. Such authors cite as one example that the CIA's KUBARK interrogation manual refers to “studies at McGill University”, and that most of the techniques recommended in KUBARK are exactly those that researcher Donald Ewen Cameron used on his test subjects (sensory deprivation, drugs, isolation, etc.).
One 1955 MKUltra document gives an indication of the size and range of the effort; this document refers to the study of an assortment of mind-altering substances described as follows:
- Substances which will promote illogical thinking and impulsiveness to the point where the recipient would be discredited in public.
- Substances which increase the efficiency of mentation and perception.
- Materials which will cause the victim to age faster/slower in maturity.
- Materials which will promote the intoxicating effect of alcohol.
- Materials which will produce the signs and symptoms of recognized diseases in a reversible way so that they may be used for malingering, etc.
- Materials will cause temporary/permanent brain damage and loss of memory.
- Substances which will enhance the ability of individuals to withstand privation, torture and coercion during interrogation and so-called “brain-washing”.
- Materials and physical methods which will produce amnesia for events preceding and during their use.
- Physical methods of producing shock and confusion over extended periods of time and capable of surreptitious use.
- Substances which produce physical disablement such as paralysis of the legs, acute anemia, etc.
- Substances which will produce a chemical that can cause blisters.
- Substances which alter personality structure in such a way that the tendency of the recipient to become dependent upon another person is enhanced.
- A material which will cause mental confusion of such a type that the individual under its influence will find it difficult to maintain a fabrication under questioning.
- Substances which will lower the ambition and general working efficiency of men when administered in undetectable amounts.
- Substances which promote weakness or distortion of the eyesight or hearing faculties, preferably without permanent effects.
- A knockout pill which can surreptitiously be administered in drinks, food, cigarettes, as an aerosol, etc., which will be safe to use, provide a maximum of amnesia, and be suitable for use by agent types on an ad hoc basis.
- A material which can be surreptitiously administered by the above routes and which in very small amounts will make it impossible for a person to perform physical activity.
Declassified Papers
MK-ULTRA - Declassified Top Secret Papers
Originally released in four compact discs as TIF files. MKULTRA 1, MKULTRA 2, MKULTRA 3, MKULTRA 4
- In TIFF Format
- Download as zip archives
The following is a related list of documents pertaining to mind control and research of the U.S. military and government
- Brainwashing (CIA Records) [92 Pages] - CIA file on the topic of brainwashing, prepared for J. Edgar Hoover in the 1950s. (Due to the quality of the report, you may have to zoom the pdf to above 100% to read)
- Hypnosis In Intelligence [32 Pages, 4.91mb] - Hypnosis is one of the oldest techniques for altering and controlling human beh1vior. A method that has had its share of mistrust and professional neglect. Hypnosis in the past twenty years has been the subject of serious inquiry and sustained interest. During this time, and even before, professional hypnotists have speculated on the possibilities of using hypnosis in warfare and in intelligence work. They have proposed that hypnosis could be used to strengthen the psychological defenses of captives and that it could be the means of gaining compliance from otherwise uncooperatlve persons. This paper explores some of the operational implications of these proposals.
- Individual Rights and the Federal Role in Behavior Modification - A Study Prepared by the Staff of the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Ninety-third Congress, Second Session. - A brief narrative description of the journal article, document, or resource. This report responds to a directive issued to the Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights to conduct an investigation into behavior modification programs, with particular emphasis on the federal government's involvement in the technology of behavior control and the implications of this involvement for individual rights. Two basic considerations motivated the investigation: first, the concern that the rights of human subjects of behavioral research are sufficiently protected by adequate guidelines and review structures; and second, the question of whether the federal government has any business participating in programs that may alter the substance of individual freedom. Although the material included in this report is by no means comprehensive, some initial findings are apparent: (1) there is widespread and growing interest in the development of methods designed to predict, identify, control, and modify individual behavior; (2) few measures are being taken to resolve questions of freedom, privacy, and self-determination; (3) the Federal government is heavily involved in a variety of behavior modification programs ranging from simple reinforcement techniques to psychosurgery; and (4) a number of departments and agencies fund, participate in, or sanction research involving various aspects of behavior modification.
- Interrogation: Science and Art [371 Pages] - U.S. military personnel and intelligence officers in particular are expected to gain accurate information from detainees or prisoners and thus need to know “what works” in “educing” information through interrogation, strategic debriefing and information elicitation. This book presents the work of 13 specialists in law, psychology, military intelligence, neuroscience, computer science, conflict management and library science. The authors review what is known and not known about educing information.
- On Resisting Social Influence [34 Pages] - Resisting social influences becomes important when such influences can be appropriately thought of as 'mind control.' When information is systematically hidden, withheld or distorted it is impossible to make unbiased decisions. Under these circumstances, people may be subtly led to believe they are 'freely' choosing to act. It is precisely this kind of decision that persists and most affects our behavior since we come to believe in those attitudes and actions for which we have generated our own justifications. The thesis of this essay is that 'mind control' exists not in exotic gimmicks, but rather in the most mundane aspects of experience. Because it does, it is possible to reduce our susceptibility to unwanted coercive control by increasing our vigilance and learning to utilize certain basic strategies of analysis. In this paper, we present resistance strategies which are broadly applicable to the wide array of mind-manipulation attempts that surround us daily–in a 'self- help' format that provides for ready accessibility. Findings from relevant social-psychological research, from interviews and personal experiences with con men, cultists, super-salesmen and other perpetrators of mind control comprise the reservoir of information from which we have drawn.
References
DOD and CIA Research with Psychoactive Substances: MKULTRA, MKNAOMI, MKSEARCH, MKCHICKWIT, and MKOFTEN
by Krystle Cole - 1/26/2008
When Wray Forrest volunteered for the military research study at the Edgewood Arsenal, all they told him was that he would be testing medications that would help the troops. He volunteered because he wanted to do something to help his country; little did he know, he was about to be subjected to oral administrations and injections of several different psychedelic substances. “After weeks of psychological evaluations, they led us into a room where a doctor handed us each a little paper cup with a tablet in it. We were told to take our medication, and then we were each locked into a padded room so the doctors could observe us. I started to see bugs crawling all around me and I tried to walk down stairs that weren’t there.”
Wray was only paid $2 per day for his 60 day stay at the facility and was given no follow up treatment or counseling. To this day, he still has long lasting side effects, flashbacks and cardiovascular problems, from the medications his doctors instructed him to take. And since he was active duty military, he cannot sue for damages. “I go into a psychiatrist’s office and start to tell them about MKULTRA and what I was subjected to, and they think I am making it all up. Most people have never even heard about what they did to us.”
They made the test subjects wear medical wrist bands (to the left) or carry medical identification cards if they went off the facility grounds. This way, if they acted strange or if someone saw all the injection marks on their arms and reported them to the police, they could easily be identified and returned to the facility.
Wray is one of the thousands of soldiers that were military test subjects during the 1950’s through early 1970’s. They were either part of the research project code named MKULTRA, or one of its many successor programs, like MKNAOMI, MKSEARCH, MKCHICKWIT, or MKOFTEN. These research programs were funded by the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), largely in response to alleged North Korean use of mind-control techniques on United States prisoners of war in Korea. They hoped to discover a set of psychoactive drugs and/or other methods, like electroshock and hypnosis, which could be used to brainwash and control opposing forces. They also attempted to create a truth serum that would make interrogations easier. Many different psychoactive substances, like BZ, scopolamine, LSD, and PCP, were tested, just to name a few.
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