Origins
Headed by Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, MKULTRA was started on the order of CIA director Allen Dulles in April 1953, largely in response to alleged Soviet, Chinese, and North Korean uses of mind control techniques on US prisoners of war in Korea. The CIA wanted to use similar methods on their own captives. The CIA was also interested in being able to manipulate foreign leaders with such techniques, and would later invent several schemes to drug Fidel Castro.
In 1964, the project was renamed to MKSEARCH. The project attempted to produce a perfect truth drug for use in interrogating suspected Soviet spies during the Cold War, and generally to explore any other possibilities of mind control.
Because most of the MKULTRA records were deliberately destroyed in 1972 by order of the Director at that time, Richard Helms, it is impossible to have a complete understanding of the more than 150 individually funded research projects sponsored by MKULTRA and the related CIA programs.
Dr. Sidney Gottlieb approved of an MKULTRA subproject on LSD in this June 9, 1953 letter.
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Dr. Sidney Gottlieb approved of an MKULTRA subproject on LSD in this June 9, 1953 letter.
Experiments were often conducted without the subjects' knowledge or consent.
The experiments
Central Intelligence Agency documents suggest that the agency considered and explored uses of radiation for the purpose of mind control as part of MKULTRA. Other early efforts focused on LSD, which appears to have formed the majority of research as time went on. Experiments included dosing CIA employees, military personnel, other government agents, prostitutes, mental patients, and members of the general public with LSD to study their reactions, usually without the subject's knowledge.
The experiments often took a sadistic bent. Gottlieb was known to torture victims by locking them in sensory deprivation chambers while dosed on LSD, or to make recordings of psychiatric patients' therapy sessions, and then play a tape loop of the patient's most self-degrading statement over and over through headphones after the patient had been restrained in a straitjacket and dosed with LSD. Gottlieb himself took LSD frequently, locking himself in his office and taking copious notes.
Efforts to "recruit" subjects were often illegal without any drugs being administered. In Operation Midnight Climax, the CIA set up several brothels to obtain a selection of men who would be too embarrassed to talk about the events. The brothels were equipped with two-way mirrors and the "sessions" were taped for later interpretation.
Some subjects' participation was consensual, and in these cases, the subjects appeared to be singled out for even more horrific experiments. In one case, a selection of volunteers was given LSD for 77 days straight.
LSD was eventually dismissed by the researchers as too unpredictable in its effects. Although useful information was sometimes obtained through questioning subjects on LSD, not uncommonly the most marked effect would be the subject's absolute and utter certainty that they were able to withstand any form of interrogation attempt, even physical torture.
Another technique was connecting a barbiturate IV into one arm and an amphetamine IV into the other. The barbiturates were released into the subject first, and as soon as the subject began to fall asleep, the amphetamines were released. The subject would begin babbling incoherently at this point, and it was sometimes possible to ask questions and get useful answers. This treatment was discarded as it often resulted in the death of the patient from physical side effects of the drug combination, making further interrogation impossible. Other experiments involved heroin, mescaline, psilocybin, scopolamine, marijuana, alcohol, and sodium pentothal.
There is no evidence that the CIA (or anyone else) has actually succeeded in controlling a person's complex actions through the "mind control" techniques that are known to have been attempted in the MKULTRA projects, and the area is often plowed by conspiracists. Nonetheless, the secrecy of the government and the file destruction makes a full investigation of claims impossible.
Known Participants
People who have admitted direct participation or who are widely known to have participated directly:
* Dr. John C. Lilly - admitted participation
* Dr. Timothy Leary - admitted participation
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