Horrifying Stories Behind Mind Control

Just when you thought there was no way humans could get any weirder, you read about this and think “Darned if they didn’t pull it off.” Mind control is a general term for a number of theories proposing an individual's thinking, can be manipulated at will. 

It has also been known as as brainwashing, coercive persuasion or thought control. These terms typically refer to groups or individuals subjected to unethical or manipulative methods to persuade them to behave or think in a certain way.

The term has also been applied to any method, which can be understood as subverting an individual's control over their own thoughts.

Mind control is often described as a coercive persuasion technology applied to cause learning and adoption of a set of behaviors or ideologies under certain conditions.

These theories were eventually expanded by psychologists and the scientific community to explain an even wider spectrum of phenomena such as conversions to new religious movements (NRMs) and ever increasing number of cults. But, let it be known, the American Psychological Association and American Sociological Association hasn’t found any credibility in these theories. 

Decades ago a radio news announcement reported this story. After a heat wave, three inmates of Vacaville Medical Facility in California had died in non-air conditioned cells. Two may have died as a result of medical treatment.  And that was all ever said about the incident. No media inquiries or news stories were written because of these deaths.

But what was the “medical treatment” that may have caused their deaths? Further investigation indicated they were mind control or behavior modification experiments. A closer look uncovers a horror story reminiscent of a Stephen King thriller…one which has been part of the California penal history a long time.

Mind control experiments have permeated mental institutions and prisons in California for decades. But, the story doesn’t end there. The state of California has long been a frontrunner in mind control experimentation. Minority children were subjected to experimentation at abandoned Nike Missile sites. Veterans were also subjected to the programs.  One individual, for example, was arrested for joyriding, given a two-year sentence and held for mind control experiments. He was held for 18 years.

According to an article written by Harry V. Martin and David Caul published in theNapa Sentinel, government experiments were also conducted in the Haight-Ashbury District in San Francisco during the 1970’s. In 1974 Senator Sam Erwin, launched a U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights studying the subject of "Individual rights and the Federal role in behavior modification." However, it wasn’t widely publicized and received little attention. Senator Erwin strongly condemned the federal role in mind control experimentation. But that didn’t stop them…it just fostered more federal funding.

 In 1977, a Senate subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research, chaired by Senator Ted Kennedy, focused on the CIA's testing of LSD on unwitting citizens. Only a few key people within the CIA knew about the program. 

To understand the situation, its essential one knows its origins. The Kennedy subcommittee learned about a CIA Operation called “M.K.-Ultra” through testimony of a Dr. Sidney Gottlieb.  According to Gottlieb the programs’ purpose was to "investigate whether and how it was possible to modify an individual's behavior by covert means". However, Gottlieb was unwilling to tell the Senate subcommittee about these experiments and invoked protection under the National Security Act.  

 He did, however, shed some light on the programs’ origins. The program was initially begun over concerns the Soviets would outdistance the U.S. in this endeavor. But now, through the Freedom of Information Act, researchers can obtain documents regarding the M.K.-Ultra program.

Perhaps the most shocking part of the program involved secretly giving American citizens LSD. The idea originated in November 1941, with William Donovan, founder and director of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor of the CIA during the Second World War.

At that time the intelligence agency was working on a "truth drug" program. Experiments with scopolamine and morphine failed miserably and proved extremely dangerous. The program tested scores of drugs, including mescaline, barbituates, benzedrine, cannabis indica and others.

Tetrahydrocannabinol acetate, a colorless, odorless marijuana extract, was secretly introduced into a cigarette or food.  Initially, the experiments were done on volunteer U.S. Army and OSS personnel, disguised as a treatment for shell shock. These volunteers became known as "Donovan's Dreamers." The experiments were so clandestine only a few top officials knew of their existence.

The experiments were ordered to be discontinued when a memo was written: "The drug defies all but the most expert and search analysis, and for all practical purposes can be considered beyond analysis." Despite the order the OSS continued conducting experiments.

Perhaps the most well known experiment was done by Captain George Hunter White, an OSS agent and ex-law enforcement official. Del Grazio, a notorious New York gangster, aka Augie Dallas, or Little Augie was given cigarettes laced with the acetate without his knowledge or consent. Augie, who had served time in prison for assault and murder, had been one of the world's most infamous drug dealers and smugglers. Under the influence of the drug, Augie disclosed information about underworld operations, including names of high ranking officials bribed by the “Mob.” Donovan issued a new memo stating: "Cigarette experiments indicated that we had a mechanism which offered promise in relaxing prisoners to be interrogated."

When the OSS was disbanded after the war, Captain White continued experimenting with behavior modifying drugs. In 1947, the CIA replaced the OSS and White's service record indicates he worked with the OSS and eventually became a high ranking Federal Narcotics Bureau officer who had been “on loan” to the CIA.

While continuing his efforts, White rented an apartment in Greenwich Village equipped with one-way mirrors and surveillance equipment. He donned a seaman’s disguise. White drugged unwitting acquaintances with LSD and brought them back to his apartment to conduct his abhorrent testing.

During 1955, operations moved to San Francisco. "Safehouses" were established using the code name “Operation Midnight Climax.” Prostitute drug addicts were hired to lure men from local bars after their drinks had been spiked with LSD. White filmed the events. The purpose was to enable the CIA to see if the act of lovemaking could be an efficient method of extracting information from men.

The experiments continued until 1963 when CIA Inspector General John Earman confronted Richard Helms, the director of the CIA and founder of the M.K.-Ultra project. Earman charged the new director, John McCone, had not been properly educated on the M.K.-Ultra Project when taking office. Earman also charged "the concepts involved in manipulating human behavior are found by many people within and outside the Agency to be distasteful and unethical." Continuing his tirade he said "the rights and interest of U.S. citizens are placed in jeopardy".

Captain White wrote a startling letter after leaving government service in 1966. In the letter to Dr. Gottlieb, Captain White wrote these horrifying words. "I was a very minor missionary, actually a heretic, but I toiled wholeheartedly in the vineyards because it was fun, fun, fun," White wrote. "Where else could a red-blooded American boy lie, kill, cheat, steal, rape and pillage with the sanction and blessing of the all-highest?"

Maybe we should ask our government officials if experiments in mind control like these are still being conducted.  But then again, in view of our current state of affairs, its not inconceivable they might be unwitting participants themselves.