The Korean War (1950 - 1953) not only provided the material for the novel, film and series MASH, but also reinvigorated political and scientific interest in the issue of Mind Control. It was during this war that captured US military personnel were paraded in front of television cameras denouncing their part in the war, apparently turning their backs on their beliefs and values and adopting communist principles.
It could be suggested that the Cold War paranoia that existed in the US and fuelled McCarthyism provided the idea fertilizer for the need to believe that people's minds could be controlled. The idea that good 'ole capitalist-democratic US military folk could 'become communists' by choice was something that was not considered. The POW's that 'turned their back on democracy' and 'adopted the communist evil' must have had their 'minds changed' or..... 'washed'.
The concept of Brainwashing and Mind Control, popularised in such films as The Manchurian Candidate and the often forgotten, but superb, Ipcress File 'must be a scientific' reality - and the Koreans could do it!
In response to the evidence that 'brainwashing' had been done the US Office of Scientific Intelligence began what we now know as the MK ULTRA project.
MK ULTRA was a covert CIA operation which started in the 1950's and continued into the 1960's. Unwitting citizens, volunteer (and non volunteer) military personnel as well as hospital patients were all used in various experiments relating to 'mind control' and 'brainwashing'
The project was brought to the public's attention in the mid 1970's and under a Freedom of Information request some 20,000 documents were brought before the US Senate 1977 when MKULTRA was declassified.
What makes this is conspiracy theorists dream come true is the fact that early investigations of the project were hampered by the then Head of the CIA Richard Helms ordering MKULTRA documents destroyed in 1973 when he possibly foresaw the potential political storm approaching.
Researchers link MKULTRA to a much earlier CIA project known as "Paperclip" which focused on bringing Nazi Scientist and their work to the US. Some of these scientists had specific knowledge of 'torture' and 'brainwashing' techniques which the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency wanted to know more about. It is known that some scientists recruited under operation Paperclip evaded trials for War Crimes - indeed US, Soviet and European agencies were involved in recruiting Nazi scientists and technologists in one would assume the belief that their contributions to the future outweighed their involvement in the past.
Paperclip gave rise to several programmes dedicated to mind control and torture techniques. Project Chatter explored the use of drugs in interrogation; Project Artichoke (aka Project Bluebird) which explored the use of hypnosis and morphine addiction.
Declassified material indicates that Project Artichoke was set up to answer the question...
"Can we get control of an individual to the point where he will do our bidding against his will and even against fundamental laws of nature, such as self-preservation?
Both Project Chatter and Project Artichoke were closed in 1953.
MK UKLTRA, under the directorship of Allen Dulles (Head of CIA) was officially started on 13th April 1953 and it continued the work of the previous projects.
Some of the highlights of MK ULTRA were:-
Administering LSD to CIA employees, military personnel, doctors, other government agents, prostitutes, mentally ill patients, and members of the general public in order to study their reactions
Investigating the effect of injecting a barbiturate into one arm and an amphetamine into the other of willing (?) subjects. The barbiturates were released into the person first, and as soon as the person began to fall asleep, the amphetamines were released. The person would then begin babbling incoherently, and it was sometimes possible to ask questions and get useful answers
An attempt to create hypnotically induced anxieties, and hypnotically increasing ability to learn and recall complex written matter alongside studying hypnosis and polygraph examinations.
Hypnosis was also used in an attempt to increase the ability to observe and recall complex arrangements of physical objects as well as inducing anterograde and retrograde amnesia.
Hypnosis was used in conjunction with psychoactive drugs in order to 'see what would happen'.
In Canada the MK ULTRA project funded the work of Donald Cameron who worked with schizophrenic patients with the aim of defining a scientifically based system for extracting information from 'resistant sources.'
I guess that means torture?
Cameron's work, which built upon the ideas of Donald Hebb, included sensory deprivation, electro-convulsive therapy (at 'shock' levels as high as forty time the 'norm') and various paralytic drugs.
Cameron was really working on 'brain washing' believing that his schizophrenic patients life would be improved by the 'removal' of existing memories and 'reprogramming of the psyche'.
Some of his patients were placed into drug induced comas for weeks at a time whilst he played tapes of noise or simple repetitive statements. Most of his patients had entered his hospital for minor problems such as anxiety disorders and post-natal depression and many of whom suffered permanently from his treatments.
The KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation Manual dated July 1963 was one of the outcomes of MK ULTRA.
The fact that so many MK ULTRA documents have been lost means that almost anyone can make claims and allegations in terms of the practical use of Mind Control technologies. The fact that in recent years other research, conducted with volunteers and under ethical guidelines, cast doubt on the use of many of the individual techniques as reliable tools for mass mind control, is often ignored by those who seek to promote disinformation for whatever reason.
There is no doubt that the human mind and the behaviours which result from mental processing can be influenced and, for want of a better word, manipulated. Psychological traumas induced by intense physical-emotional situations are after all result from the way the mind, the personality had responded to the environment the person has been exposed to (PTSD, Stockholm Syndrome, Anxiety Disorder) the question is perhaps less about direct attempts at mind control (torture, cult indoctrination) but the degree to which we can be controlled without our knowledge.
It's perhaps a weird irony that one of the indicators of schizophrenia or dissociative personality disorder is the sense that personal perceptions, emotions and behaviours are being influenced by 'someone' or 'something else' which means that if there are people who are consciously aware of being 'controlled' then it is easy to dismiss them as being 'ill'.
Great care and a healthy degree of skepticism needs to be brought into play when considering any current conspiracy claim relating Mind Control and MKULTRA.
The argument that 'they got away with it in the past' is, of course a statement of 'fact' and merely serves to confound those who are really looking for evidence, facts and answers. Where secrecy and lies have been discovered, trust and 'plausible deniability' is harder to accept.
Dr Alan Jones in an NLP Trainer, Motivational Speaker and Educational Coach who has worked with a wide range of clients including international organisations, education authorities, professional training providers and individuals. He is an Accredited de Bono Thinking Skills Consultant. His colleagues recognise not only his particular skills as a trainer and presenter but also his eclectic interests. He is a magician (Member of the Magic Circle), mentalist, writer and broadcaster. His 'pet' personal projects are Magic 4 Learning (teaching personal and learning skills through magic and conjuring); The Rational Mystic (bringing skepticism, mysticism and critical thinking together); EQUALISE (a Peer Mentoring project based upon key aspects of Emotional Intelligence and Emotional Literacy) and Mind Alignment/Achieve! - a project built upon NLP principles, aspects of Transpersonal Psychology and Emotional Intelligence which aims to inspire, motivate and encourage personal change.
You can find out more about his work by visiting http://www.aljones.net
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