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A declassified CIA document dated 7 Jan 1953 [1] describes the creation of multiple personality in 19-year old girls. “These subjects have clearly demonstrated that they can pass from a fully awake state to a deep H [hypnotic] controlled state ... by telephone, by receiving written matter, or by the use of code, signal, or words and that control of those hypnotized can be passed from one individual to another without great difficulty. It has also been shown by experimentation with these girls that they can act as unwilling couriers for information purposes.”

A CIA document dated 10 Feb 1954 [4] describes an experiment on the creation of unsuspecting assassins: “Miss [deleted] was then instructed (having expressed a fear of firearms) that she would use every method at her disposal to awaken Miss [deleted] (now in a deep hypnotic sleep) and failing this, she would pick up a pistol and fire it at Miss [deleted]. She was instructed that she would not hesitate to “kill.” Miss [deleted] carried out these suggestions including firing the (unloaded) gun at [deleted]. After proper suggestions were made, both were awakened. Miss [deleted] expressed absolute denial that the foregoing sequence had happened.”

MKULTRA grew into a mammoth undertaking. The nature of the research included these specific problems:

Can we create by post-H (hypnotic) control an action contrary to an individual’s basic moral principles?
Can we “alter” a person’s personality? Can we guarantee total amnesia under any and all conditions?
Could we seize a subject and in the space of an hour by post-H control have him crash an airplane?
Can we devise a system for making unwilling subjects into willing agents and then transfer that control to untrained agency agents in the field by use of codes or identifying signs?

In a 1971 Science Digest article [6], Dr. G.H. Estabrooks states, “By the 1920’s clinical hypnotists learned to split certain individuals into multiple personalities like Jeckyl-Hydes. During WWII, I worked this technique with a Marine lieutenant I’ll call Jones. I split his personality into Jones A and Jones B. Jones A, once a ‘normal’ Marine, became entirely different. He talked communist doctrine and meant it. He was welcomed enthusiastically by communist cells, and was deliberately given a dishonorable discharge. Jones B was the deeper personality, knew all the thoughts of Jones A, and was ‘imprinted’ to say nothing during conscious phases. All I had to do was hypnotize him, get in touch with Jones B, and I had a pipeline straight into the Communist camp.”

26 July 1963, Memorandum For: Director of Central Intelligence [20] From: CIA Inspector General

The concepts involved in manipulating behavior are found by many people both within and outside the Agency [CIA] to be distasteful and unethical. Nevertheless, there have been major accomplishments both in research and operational employment. Over the ten-year life of the program many additional avenues to the control of human behavior have been designated under the MKULTRA charter, including radiation, electro-shock, and harassment substances. Some activities raise questions of legality implicit in the original charter. A final phase of the testing places the rights and interests of US citizens in jeopardy.

Technical Services Division initiated a program for covert testing of materials on unwitting US citizens in 1955. TSD has pursued a philosophy of minimum documentation in keeping with the high sensitivity of the projects. Some files contained little or no data at all. There are just two individuals in TSD who have full knowledge of the MKULTRA program

One of the declassified documents [21] states, “Learning studies will be instituted in which the subject will be rewarded or punished for overall performance and reinforced in various ways—with electric shock, etc. In other cases, drugs and psychological tricks will be used to modify attitudes. The experimenters will be particularly interested in dissociative states [multiple personality]. An attempt will be made to induce a number of states of this kind, using hypnosis.”

In an experiment described in a document entitled “SI and H experimentation [23] (25 September 1951),” two female subjects took part in an exercise involving the planting of a bomb. Both subjects performed perfectly and were fully amnesic for the exercise: “[Deleted] was instructed that upon awakening, she would proceed to [deleted] room where she would wait at the desk for a telephone call. Upon receiving the call, a person known as “Jim” would engage her in normal conversation. During the course of the conversation, this individual would mention a code word. When she heard this code word, she would pass into a SI trance state, but would not close her eyes and remain perfectly normal and continue the telephone conversation.

She was told that upon conclusion of the telephone conversation, she would carry out instructions: [Deleted] was shown an electric timing device. She was informed that this device was a bomb, and was then instructed how to attach and set the device. After [deleted] learned how to set and attach the device, she was told to take the timing device which was in a briefcase, and proceed to the ladies room. In the ladies room, she would be met by a girl whom she had never seen who would identify herself by the code word “New York.” [Deleted] was then to show this individual how to attach and set the timing device and further instructions would be given that the timing device was to be carried in the briefcase to [deleted] room, placed in the nearest empty electric-light plug and concealed in the bottom, left-hand drawer of [deleted] desk, with the device set for 82 seconds and turned on.”

P. Janet asked a “deeply hypnotized female to commit several murders before a distinguished group of judges, stabbing some victims with rubber daggers and poisoning others with sugar tablets.” The subject did all these without hesitation. [30]

J.G. Watkins “induced a soldier to strike an officer by suggesting that the officer was a Japanese soldier.” [43] In another experiment, two subjects who were told to throw sulphuric acid at a laboratory assistant (protected by glass) complied with the hypnotist’s commands. [44]

Dr. Delgado, a neurosurgeon and professor at Yale, [57][58][59][60][61][62] received funding for brain electrode research on children and adults. He did research in monkeys and cats, and in one paper describes the cats as “mechanical toys.” He was able to control the movements of his animal and human subjects by pushing buttons on a remote transmitter box. In 1966, Delgado asserted that his experiments “support the distasteful conclusion that motion, emotion and behavior can be directed by electrical forces. Humans can be controlled like robots by push buttons.” [63]

An article in the February 18, 1979 Wilmington Sunday News Journal states: “The ARTICHOKE interrogation was conducted in a safe house in the remote countryside staffed by security-cleared personnel. It was conducted under medical cover of a routine physical and psychological assessment. The Subject was transported to the safe house in a ‘covert car.’ At the safe house he was given a conventional interrogation and then some whiskey. This was followed by two grams of Phenobarbital, which put him to sleep. A lie detector test was given, and the Subject was given intravenous chemicals. Following the chemically-assisted interrogation, the ARTICHOKE techniques were applied in three stages. A false memory was introduced into the Subject’s mind without his conscious control. The procedure was repeated again with interrogation added.”

Another ARTICHOKE document describes “Analogous Case #3.” “A CIA Security Office employee was hypnotized and given a false identity. She defended it hotly, denying her true name and rationalizing with conviction the possession of identity cards made out to her real self. Later, having had the false identity erased by suggestion, she was asked if she had ever heard of the name she had been defending as her own five minutes before. She thought, shook her head, and said, ‘That’s a pseudo if I ever heard one.’ Apparently she had true amnesia for the entire episode.

The usage of electric shock to the brain for the creation of amnesia with hypnosis was discussed by an ARTICHOKE document dated 3 December 1951: “[Deleted] is reported to be an authority on electric shock. He is a psychiatrist of considerable note. [Deleted] explained that electric shock might be of considerable interest to the ‘Artichoke’ type of work. He stated that the standard electric-shock machine (Reiter) could be used. He stated that using this machine with convulsive treatment, he could guarantee amnesia for certain periods of time, and particularly he could guarantee amnesia for any knowledge of use of the convulsive shock. He stated that the lower setting of the machine produced a different type of shock. When this lower current type of shock was applied without convulsion, it had the effect of making a man talk. He said that this type of shock produced in the individual excruciating pain. He stated that there would be no question that the individual would be quite willing to give information if threatened with the use of this machine. It was [deleted]'s opinion that an individual could gradually be reduced through the use of electro-shock treatment to the vegetable level.”

A document entitled, “Hypnotic Experimentation and Research, 10 February 1954” [24] describes a simulation experiment of relevance to the creation of Manchurian Candidate assassins: “Miss [deleted] was then instructed (having previously expressed a fear of firearms) that she would use every method at her disposal to awaken miss [deleted] (now in a deep hypnotic sleep), and failing this, she would pick up a pistol nearby and fire it at Miss [deleted]. She was instructed that her rage would be so great that she would not hesitate to “kill” [deleted] for failing to awaken. Miss [deleted] carried out these suggestions to the letter including firing the (unloaded) gun at [deleted] and then proceeding to fall into a deep sleep. After proper suggestions were made, both were awakened and expressed complete amnesia for the entire sequence. Miss [deleted] was again handed the gun, which she refused (in an awakened state) to pick up or accept form the operator. She expressed absolute denial that the foregoing sequence had happened.”

In 1963 a CIA Inspector General’s report on MKULTRA stated that the program was “concerned with research and development of chemical, biological, and radiological materials capable of employment in clandestine operations to control human behavior” and that radiation was one of the additional “avenues to control the human behavior.” [10] Sub-project 86 proposed “artificial means of establishing positive identification” (known as covert marking) involving ionizing radiation implanted or injected into predetermined sites in the human body. [11]

The British government, on 9 August 1971, unleashed one of its largest deep interrogation experiments. Irish internees were made to stand with hoods over their heads while electronic noise was played through speakers or headphones. They were naked, half-starved, and abused. Professor Robert Daly: [17][18] ”Being awakened in the middle of the night, being beaten, lied to, and insulted, was all part of the ‘unfreezing process’ through which psychological defenses were broken down, and terror and humiliation were induced. Hence, the photographing in the nude, being forced to urinate while running, the sadism and abuse. The aim of the treatment was to cause temporary insanity, a severe psychological injury liable to having lasting consequences.” The unprecedented operations in Northern Ireland, prompted Amnesty International and the European Court of Human Rights to intervene

Dr. Lilly once reminded the director of the National Institute for Mental Health of an important dilemma: “Dr. Remond has demonstrated that this method of stimulation of the brain can be applied to the human without the help of a neurosurgeon. This means that anyone with the proper apparatus can carry this out on a person covertly, with no external signs that electrodes have been used on that person. If this technique got into the hands of a security agency, they would have control over a human being and be able to change his beliefs extremely quickly, leaving little evidence of what they had done.” [40]

A 1951 declassified document [25] clarifies the kind of people that were employed by the CIA to teach hypnotism. “On 2 July 1951, instruction began with [deleted] relating some of his sexual experiences. [Deleted] stated the he had constantly used hypnotism as a means of inducing young girls to engage in sexual intercourse with him. [Deleted] stated that many times while going home on [deleted], he would use hypnotic suggestion to have a girl turn around and talk to him and suggest sexual intercourse to him; and that as a result of these suggestions induced by him, he spent approximately five nights a week away from home engaging in sexual intercourse.”

Dr. Lilly said that his experiments had proven that electrical stimuli in specific areas of the brain could cause either intense rewarding or intense punishing experiences in humans. He summarized, “At any time an adult human being can be reduced to the childish level. Such a state can be induced by lack of sleep, by starvation, by torture, by isolation, by profound confinement, by drugs, by direct electrical stimulation. An adult can be forced to learn by means almost thoroughly beyond his control. I am speaking here of powerful means used ruthlessly with few scruples.” [37] P. 62

Dr. Lilly describes the technique of electrode implantation. [38] “Electrodes could be implanted in the brain without using anesthesia. During the process of implantation, there was no more pain than that of a needle prick in the scalp. Short lengths of hypodermic needle tubing equal in length to the thickness of the skull were quickly pounded through the scalp into the skull. These stainless steel guides furnished passageways for the insertion of electrodes into the brain to any desired distance. Because of the small size of the sleeve guides, the scalp quickly recovered from the small hole made in it, and the sleeve guide remained imbedded in the bone for months to years. At any time he desired, the investigator could palpate [rub] the scalp and find the location of each of the sleeve guides. Once one was found, he inserted a needle down through the bone. After withdrawing the needle, the investigator placed a small sharp electrode in the track made by the needle and pressed the electrode through the skull and down into the substance of the brain to any desired depth.”