The project with the code name MK Ultra it was a program created by CIA from 1953 to 1973 in which experiments were conducted mind control with the use of drugs, brainwashing, hypnosis, electroshock and other forms of psychological torture on American, Japanese, Filipino and European citizens (in the latter case almost all political prisoners), almost always unaware of what was happening to them.
The project was born in the early years of Cold Warwhen the American government feared that the Soviet Union had already discovered ways to control the minds of political prisoners, thus uncovering state secrets that could change the fate of the United States and the entire West forever. The “threat” of Communism generated such a level of panic at the top of the US that crazy as it was, MK Ultra began (if you were wondering why it was called that, MK has no precise meaning, while Ultra meant “ultra secret” ).
Following two investigations conducted in the mid-1970s, the program was made known to the public, causing a great stir. The investigators didn’t have an easy time of it, however: in fact, at the end of the project the CIA took care to make all the evidence disappear, but was unable to eliminate all that mass of documents in time. Thus they were found approximately 20,000 documents which brought to light this tremendous series of experiments.
The influence of Nazism on the illegal CIA project
The Americans had not created this project with their own ideas, but had taken inspiration from their great enemies of the Second World War, i Nazis. In the 1940s, in fact, many concentration camps terrible experiments had been carried out on inmates with the aim of influencing their actions and modifying their cognitive functions. It was precisely from these experiments that the Nuremberg Code (during the famous trial of the same name), which drew a clear line between legitimate experimentation and torture. The code is based on this code Ethics Committeean independent body that must protect the rights, safety and well-being of subjects participating in various types of experiments.
Despite this, the MK Ultra program started anyway: when the US military found the documents attesting to the experiments conducted in the Nazi camps, they sent them to the CIA, which proved interested in continuing in this direction.
The objectives of the MK Ultra project
The project was started in April of 1953 by a chemist, Sidney Gottliebon orders of the director of the CIA Allen Dulles. The main purpose was make mind control drugs to be able to use on political prisoners (Soviet, Chinese and North Koreans first and foremost, but also on Fidel Castro and his loyalists), because the US government was convinced that they already had tools in their hands to control the minds of US prisoners. The experiments, however, were conducted on ordinary citizens of all kinds, totally unaware of what was happening to them. Sometimes there were even CIA agents who volunteered, but they soon changed their minds.
Methods were studied for erase the memory and, even, for completely reformat the brain (this part of the experiments was carried out secretly in Canada, in Montreal). But not only that: the scientists who worked on the project studied hard to produce substances that could cause irreversible cognitive impairmentmaking guinea pigs unbearably and chronically tired, touchy and impulsive.
One of the most absurd goals of the MK Ultra was to make the “truth serum” to be used in interrogations on communist spies, but none of the serums had the desired effect. Then countless tests were carried out on thehypnosisin a desperate attempt to bend the will of the guinea pigs and make them carry out violent actions (including murder) that they would forget the next day. In this sense we tried to create “Manchurian Candidates“, or psycho-controlled people at a distance to be transformed into killers (again with unsuspecting guinea pigs). Even this plan, the most ambitious of all, failed miserably, and by the end of 1957 it was clear to the CIA leaders that it was a completely impossible idea. In addition to hypnosis, however, there were also numerous torture-interrogations in which theelectric shockextreme changes in temperature e sensory isolationin order to mentally destroy the guinea pigs.
However, let’s not forget the first part of the project: during the very first years of the MK Ultra, many were used drugs And barbituratesin particular cocaine, α-methyltryptamine, DMT, mescaline, psilocybin, temazepam but above all LSD.
The use of LSD in the MK Ultra project: the beginning of paranoia
When the directors of the ultra-secret project learned of the invention of LSD in Switzerland they thought that this molecule would be perfect for starting mind control tests. So Gottlieb sent a request to the Basel laboratory and paid $240,000 to get about 10kg of LSDenough for 100 million doses (he also bought so much to prevent the Eastern powers from stocking up). The doses were then distributed in prisons, hospitals and clinics to study its effects. And so it was that the agency began to violate the Nuremberg Code with impunity.
The first subjects to whom it was administered were convicts, drug addicts, prostitutes and mental patientsprimary targets “because they couldn’t react.” It was hoped that LSD would cause them to confess or clear their minds of mental problems (which did not happen, but which increased paranoia and antisocial attitudes in many subjects).
Later, however, LSD was also used on ordinary citizens and some volunteers who participated in the project. Over time, some CIA employees, US military personnel and agents suspected of working as spies in the pay of the Soviets became the targets of the same project they were working for: unaware of everything, they were drugged with LSD and interrogated under bright lightsthreatening them to reveal what they knew or their detention in the laboratory would last longer than expected.
According to some of the documents found, the experiments were also conducted in detention centers in Germany, Japan and the Philippines.
The failure of the project and its legacy
Eventually, Gottlieb had to resign himself, concluding that mind control was not possible. The Manchurian candidates would never have been a reality, and against the “Soviet enemy” it was necessary to act with cunning. Thus the trial ended in 1957 and almost all documents destroyedexcept for the 20 thousand that were found following investigations and which were made public in 1975.
The MK Ultra has interested many people over the years, including historians, conspiracy theory lovers and filmmakers. Speaking of this last example, we cannot fail to mention the very famous TV series Stranger Thingswhich drew inspiration from some of the experiments of the terrible CIA program.