The MK Ultra Project, A Mind Control Program
Nazi experiments on human beings still give us goosebumps. Several of them were aimed at finding the right mechanisms to control the human mind. What not everyone knows is that similar and even darker experiences have taken place in the United States. One of them was the MK Ultra project.
World War II represents a significant change in military strategy. Until then, espionage had never been so important. This happened because the belligerents were aware of the importance of contrasting information in planning attack tactics.
Hitler himself proved that it was possible to control the human mind and manipulate millions of people into actions they would otherwise have rejected. Therefore, by the end of the confrontation, the issue of obtaining information and manipulating the mind was one of the big concerns in the United States. This is how the MK Ultra project was born.
What did the MK Ultra project consist of?
It is actually very difficult to know exactly what the MK Ultra project consisted of. When the press discovered it, in the late 1960s and part of the 1970s, the CIA, which ran the program, ordered the destruction of all records. The only thing that could be saved was a small group of documents.
From this small database, what happened began to be reconstructed. In addition, there are numerous testimonies from victims. However, in the strict sense of the term, one will never be able to know for sure how the MK Ultra project developed. It contained 150 lines of action and we only know of two or three.
However, what little is known tells us about experiences with psychoactive and neurological drugs, as well as other methods. They have been performed on thousands of human beings without their consent. The aim was to observe the effect of these drugs on people, to find out whether they were being tricked into revealing what they knew, or to determine whether it was possible to change their mind at will.
Experiences with human beings
According to the available data, the “researchers” of the MK Ultra project administered drugs, such as LSD, in different ways and at different doses to determine the behavior of “infected people”.
Methods such as electric shock and hypnosis therapy have also been used. In the 1950s, when the project started, there was a lot of talk about “brainwashing”. That is to say, a kind of reprogramming of the mind from these special “treatments”.
The CIA is also known to have tested the effects of various torture techniques. Sometimes they left the “volunteers” several days without sleep and, in the meantime, repeated subliminal messages to them over and over again. Other times, they systematically applied electroshock or synthetic drugs in large quantities.
Psychiatric “volunteers”
The most appalling thing about the MK Ultra project is that thousands of people were brought in to participate. To put it simply, they had access to their guinea pigs by two methods.
The first was applied in psychiatric hospitals. Within institutions, patients were informed that new therapies were being tested. None of the patients in these hospitals were told that this was a CIA-led experiment and that among the “experts” at their head were several former Nazis.
Indeed, one of the most active contributors to the MK Ultra project has been psychiatrist Donald Ewen Cameron. This man was notably the first president of the World Psychiatric Association. But also the president of the American and Canadian psychiatric associations.
Other “volunteers”
The experiments were carried out not only on “mentally ill” people, but also on thousands of citizens considered to be “normal”. They were recruited from the military, universities, public hospitals, brothels and hospices. But also in other sectors of civil society. In exchange for a few dollars, they agreed to participate in these tests. However, they were never made aware of the real goal.
Many of them did not survive the cruel experiences. Others suffered permanent damage. The most publicized case is that of Frank Olson, in the United States. In Canada, the government ended up compensating hundreds of people to cover up the scandal.
A press investigation revealed what had happened. Then, in the United States Congress, a commission was formed to investigate the facts. An independent commission has also been created. In the end, all this work led to the declassification of the documents, in 1973, and that is why the CIA gave the order to destroy the archives.
The MK Ultra project shows how power agencies are able to get what they want. This project did not take place in a dictatorship, but in a country that prides itself on being the champion of democracy in the world. Now, on the troubling question, have there been or would there be other similar experiences elsewhere that we are not yet aware of?
Our thoughts Do mind control techniques exist? It seems so; here we present the best known and most effective.
