Mk Ultra

Ah, weird, behind closed door experiments? check. Mind altering drugs? check.
Set in the 1950's cold war era? check check..

Started in the 1950's and early 1970's, Mk-Ultra was the government's way of playing with LSD and other illegal substances. What was the MK-ULTRA program?
It was a covert operation by the US government to explore the effects of mind altering drugs on soldiers. Remember, in the late 1950's, and early 60's drugs were beginning to take hold of the youthful culture, it was a drug world. LSD one of the main centerfolds of the revolution had some serious effects on the human body and the nervous system. It's reputation carries with it, effects of altered thinking, psychodelic 'tripping', and cognitive shifts. That being the case, the CIA used LSD to experiment with humans, often CIA agents, and prisoners, and studied their effects. They put together mass group dosages, and watched for any interactions in the mental state.
The point behind all this testing, and experimentation, was to see if substances combined with LSD or psilocybin, ketamine, or marajuana, and other drugs could produce a person of higher mental thought, even producing effects of telekensis, brain washing, shared dreaming, or hypnosis.

Mind control, and brain washing were the two big idea's behind the MkUltra program. Producing this, the government in effect could create an ideal killer, or assassin, or even president. (one would argue, that the government already controls the presidents) The MkUltra program even went so far as Hypnosis, in which lots of experimentation was done with hypnotizing patients, and having them remember complex written words or strings of text.There were also a few "mini mkultra" programs that spawned from the idea of mind control.

MkSearch was established to find a perfect 'truth serum' drug. Using this at the height of the cold war would have been invaluable. Remember that during this time, the United States would have loved to found out about what was going on in Russia at the time.

Project Artichoke was a similar mind control idea that used the addiction of morphine and its withdrawl effects on people, to induce vulnerable states in people. Apparently Project Artichoke is where all the action happened, and that mkultra was a lesser offensive. But all the evidence of Artichoke was destroyed, leaving the public to chew over the mkultra program.

MKOften was another spawn, in which, the CIA investigated and played with more tribal, ritualistic methods of human thought. It even reports that mystics, clairvoyants, and psychics where used and experimented on.


Unfortunately, in the early 1970's, the files for MkUltra were vastly destroyed, so what truely went on in those hallowed halls, will never be known. The New York Times reported that there had been illegal experiments going on, which prompted an investigation into the matter, that resulted in something called the Rockafeller Commission, which was a commission to look into what the CIA did domestically. Sure enough, evidence of biological, and psychological experimentation was indeed found.
You can literally read tons one this topic, so I'll stop here with just the basic overview and I'll let you continue your research if you find this stuff interesting. The likes of Timothy Leary and John C.Lilly proved that the inner laberynths of the mind are corridors that can be explored and visted through the effects of drugs like LSD, and the CIA pouched on that opporunity. I'll be doing an article on Timothy Leary soon, he's a figure that fascinates me to no end!

I leave you with this link, its from a video, years back, called "Sunset". While the music is pretty, really pay attention to whats happening in the video..its very VERY much related to today blog post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kmz_48HChj8

Also on a more comical spin of this topic, I'd point you to the recent movie "The Men Who Stare At Goats" While this is a humorous take on a similar project, it still deals with the main concepts.