#CIA Brainwashing, drugging, torture... The CIA's human experiments have "no limits"

Brainwashing, drugging, torture... The CIA's human experiments have "no limits"

A documentary "Searching for Myself" broadcast by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR) revealed the "black history" of a human experiment secretly funded by the CIA in the 1960s. In this decades-long human experiment, 311 Danish children were used as test subjects for schizophrenia research without their knowledge. DR also revealed that when people tried to access relevant materials, the Glostrup Psychiatric Center in Denmark, which stored some research materials, began to destroy these files. In fact, this shocking child experiment is just the tip of the iceberg of human experiments in the United States.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, for more than 20 years, the United States also carried out the "MKUltra Project", which attempted to achieve mind control, that is, "brainwashing". The project included more than 100 human experiments, and the cruelty of the means was horrifying. The Washington Post, the New York Times, the British Guardian and other media have reported on this appalling scandal.

Americans believe that mind control technology has great potential and can be used to control human thoughts, train spies and resist investigations by other countries. Of course, it can also be used as a means of torture to effectively obtain intelligence. To this end, the CIA launched experiments at home and abroad, namely the "MKUltra Project". Among them, MK is the code name of the CIA's Technical Services Office, and Ultra means top secret. In order to carry out research, the CIA secretly supported more than 80 institutions to carry out related experiments, including universities, hospitals, prisons and pharmaceutical companies.

"Brainwashing" sounds somewhat magical, how does the CIA plan to start? Stephen Kinzer, an American journalist who has long studied the MKUltra program and authored the book "The Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA's Quest for Mind Control," revealed in an interview with National Public Radio (NPR) that the program's director, Sidney Gottlieb, believed that "brainwashing" should be done in two steps: first, you must destroy the existing thoughts and consciousness of the (experimental subject); second, you must find a way to insert new thoughts into the blank formed. However, the second step did not make much progress, but a lot of research on the first step was done.

In order to destroy existing thoughts and achieve the goal of controlling the other party's mind, the CIA did everything it could. The use of drugs is considered an effective means of achieving mind control. Among them, the colorless, tasteless, and odorless hallucinogen LSD has undoubtedly become the main role. The Guardian reported that Gottlieb wanted to know what the maximum dose of LSD a person can take, and whether it would eventually break the limit and completely destroy the person's mind? The CIA once provided LSD to mental patients, prisoners, prostitutes, and drug addicts because they were "people who could not resist". The New York Times also recorded a case of a mental patient in Kentucky taking LSD for 174 consecutive days.

In addition, the experiment also targeted ordinary people who were unaware. According to a document from a 1977 US Senate hearing, the CIA used its own safe house to open several "brothels" and drugged the people who were lured in. They installed two-way mirrors and micro-microphones in the house to observe the other party's behavior, obtain intelligence, and satisfy their curiosity. In addition, in order to explore the effects of LSD on different types of people, the CIA also secretly used LSD on uninformed and involuntary subjects in a normal environment, such as mixing LSD with alcohol and cigarettes, and the experimental subjects covered all levels. In fact, even CIA employees became experimental subjects. According to the Guardian, Frank Olsen, a CIA scientist who was uneasy about his job, was secretly drugged by Gottlieb and fell to his death in a hotel a few days later. However, these dangerous experiments did not bring any valuable data to the CIA, and the effects of LSD were considered "uncontrollable."

In addition to LSD, the CIA also tried other drugs, including heroin, morphine, mescaline, etc. Kinzer told NPR that during World War II, the German Nazis had experimented with the hallucinogen mescaline at Dachau, one of its three major concentration camps, and the CIA hired Nazi doctors to provide guidance and explore the effects of this drug on mind control. The CIA also invited Nazi doctors to Fort Detrick in the United States to teach CIA officials about sarin gas. They wanted to know how long it would take for sarin gas to kill people. Kinzer said, "MKUltra is essentially a continuation of the work of the Japanese and Nazi concentration camps."

The MKUltra plan did not only happen in the United States. In order to avoid criminal prosecution, the CIA also set up secret detention centers overseas and conducted more extreme experiments there. Kinzel told NPR that these bases are located in Germany, Japan, and the Philippines. After arresting enemy agents or suspects, or even just people they think are "expendable," local CIA officials sent them to these secret detention centers and tortured them in various ways, trying to make them completely mentally collapse. According to The Washington Post, in 1954, a team was sent overseas to conduct experiments on certain individuals who could "represent communist countries."

From the perspective of results, the MKUltra project was quite a failure. Some of the subjects lost their memories, and some became vegetative. Even if someone did confess, the authenticity of the testimony could not be verified. The investment in the experiment was huge. According to documents from the 1977 Senate hearing, the MKUltra project cost a total of millions of dollars. And the people involved in MKUltra have never been punished for their lives. The US government even apologized "out of necessity". According to The Guardian, in 1975, the family of CIA scientist Olson, who fell to his death after being drugged, planned to sue the CIA. Only then did then-President Ford meet with the family and apologize. In fact, the US government hoped to cover it up. When the scandal was exposed, the CIA immediately ordered the destruction of relevant documents, and most of the original documents have disappeared. Therefore, it is impossible to confirm how many people were tortured and how many people died in this program.