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The CIA's Secret Quest For Mind Control: Torture, LSD And A 'Poisoner In Chief'
During the early period of the Cold War, the CIA became convinced that communists had discovered a drug or technique that would allow them to control human minds. In response, the CIA began its own secret program, called MK-ULTRA, to search for a mind control drug that could be weaponized against enemies.
MK-ULTRA, which operated from the 1950s until the early '60s, was created and run by a chemist named Sidney Gottlieb. Journalist Stephen Kinzer, who spent several years investigating the program, calls the operation the "most sustained search in history for techniques of mind control."
Some of Gottlieb's experiments were covertly funded at universities and research centers, Kinzer says, while others were conducted in American prisons and in detention centers in Japan, Germany and the Philippines. Many of his unwitting subjects endured psychological torture ranging from electroshock to high doses of LSD, according to Kinzer's research.
"Gottlieb wanted to create a way to seize control of people's minds, and he realized it was a two-part process," Kinzer says. "First, you had to blast away the existing mind. Second, you had to find a way to insert a new mind into that resulting void. We didn't get too far on number two, but he did a lot of work on number one."
MK-ULTRA, which operated from the 1950s until the early '60s, was created and run by a chemist named Sidney Gottlieb. Journalist Stephen Kinzer, who spent several years investigating the program, calls the operation the "most sustained search in history for techniques of mind control."
Some of Gottlieb's experiments were covertly funded at universities and research centers, Kinzer says, while others were conducted in American prisons and in detention centers in Japan, Germany and the Philippines. Many of his unwitting subjects endured psychological torture ranging from electroshock to high doses of LSD, according to Kinzer's research.
"Gottlieb wanted to create a way to seize control of people's minds, and he realized it was a two-part process," Kinzer says. "First, you had to blast away the existing mind. Second, you had to find a way to insert a new mind into that resulting void. We didn't get too far on number two, but he did a lot of work on number one."
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/09/758989641/the-cias-secret-quest-for-mind-control-torture-lsd-and-a-poisoner-in-chief
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The CIA's Secret Quest For Mind Control: Torture, LSD And A 'Poisoner In Chief' (Original Post)
Devil Child
Sep 2019
OP
rampartc
(5,263 posts)1. mk ultra got me thinking of sirhan sirhan, and look, there is news ....
Judi Lynn
(160,217 posts)2. Thank you for sharing this. It would be a good idea if people take the time to read it. n/t
Devil Child
(2,728 posts)4. You're welcome Judi Lynn!
I do hope people take the time to read through the article and perhaps the book. More examples from our history which fuel my current skepticism.
I'm surprised you hadn't posted it already!
Cetacea
(7,367 posts)3. Any legal recourse for victims?
I am very close to one.
Nitram
(22,671 posts)5. There are movies around of some of these experiments on military personnel. But one detail
in the article sets off a few BS alarms in my mind. It says "Whitey Bulger was one of the prisoners who volunteered... and he was given LSD every day for more than a year." The body experiences a very high tolerance to the drug after one dose, requiring the dose to be tripled on the day after a trip to overcome the tolerance build up. Daily does of LSD would soon have no effect at all.
Here is a film of a British Army LSD experiment: