Document:Mind Control and the US Government

 article  by Martin Cannon dated 1992

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Source: Lobster Magazine

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Mind Control and the American Government

The spectre of technofascism haunts the democratic nations. All the powers of the espionage empire and the scientific establishment have entered into an unholy alliance to evoke this spectre: psychiatrist and spy, Dulles and Delgado, microwave specialists and clandestine operators.

Substantial evidence exists linking members of the American intelligence community -- including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Office of Naval Intelligence -- with the esoteric technology of mind control. For decades, 'spychiatrists' working behind the scenes -- on college campuses, in CIA-sponsored institutes, and (most heinously) in prisons -- have experimented with the erasure of memory, hypnotic resistance to torture, truth serums, post- hypnotic suggestion, rapid induction of hypnosis, electronic stimulation of the brain, non-ionizing radiation, and a host of even more disturbing technologies. Some of the projects exploring these areas were ARTICHOKE, BLUEBIRD, PANDORA, MKDELTA, MKSEARCH and the infamous MKULTRA.

The CIA was not the only government agency involved in this research. ^[1] Indeed, many branches of our government took part in these studies -- including NASA, the Atomic Energy Commission, as well as all branches of the Defence Department. Although misleading (and occasionally perjured) testimony before Congress indicated that the CIA's 'brainwashing' efforts met with little success, ^[2] striking advances were, in fact, made in this field. As the late CIA veteran Miles Copeland once admitted to a reporter, 'The congressional subcommittee which went into this sort of thing got only the barest glimpse.' ^[3] Clandestine research into thought manipulation has not stopped, despite CIA protestations that it no longer sponsors such studies. 14-year CIA veteran, Victor Marchetti, confirmed in a 1977 interview that the mind control research continues, and that CIA claims to the contrary are a 'cover story'. ^[4] A brief overview

In the early days of World War 2, George Estabrooks of Colgate University wrote to the Department of War, describing in breathless terms the possible uses of hypnosis in warfare.^[5] The Army was intrigued; Estabrooks had a job. The true history of Estabrooks' wartime collaboration with the CID, FBI ^[6] and other agencies may never be told: after the war he burned his dairy pages covering the years 1940-45, and thereafter avoided discussing his continuing government work with anyone, even close members of the family. ^[7] Occasionally, however, his lips loosened, and he would intimate that his work involved the creation of hypno-programmed couriers and hypnotically-induced split personalities. Whether he succeeded in these areas remains a controversial point. Nevertheless, the eccentric and flamboyant Estabrooks remains a pivotal figure in the early history of clandestine behavioural research.

Which is not to say the he worked alone. World War 2 was the first conflict in which the human brain became a field of battle, where invading forces were led by the most notable names in psychology and pharmacology. On both sides, the war spurred furious efforts to create a 'truth drug' for use in interrogating prisoners. General William 'Wild Bill' Donovan, director of OSS, tasked his team -- including Dr. Winifred Overshulser, Dr. Edward Strecker, Harry J. Anslinger and George White -- to modify human perception and behaviour through chemical means. Their 'medicine cabinet' included scopolamine, peyote, barbiturates, mescaline and marijuhana. Simultaneously, the notorious Nazi doctors at Dachau experimented with mescaline as a means of eliminating the victim's will to resist. Jews, slavs, gypsies and other untermenschen in the camp were surreptitiously slipped the drug; later, mescaline was combined with hypnosis. ^[8]

After the war, a number of Nazi chemical warfare specialists went on to work for the American secret services. These scientists included Karl Tauboeck, whose attempts to find a workable 'truth serum' provided the CIA with a wealth of data -- data derived, ultimately, from ruthless human experimentation. Other Third Reich researchers found covert American employment: Friedrich Hoffman discovered a paralysis-inducing conch shell venom, while Theodore Wagner-Jauregg, Karl Rarh and Hans Turit continued their wartime exploration of Tabun, Sarin and other poison gases. ^[9] These men had acted as the handmaidens of Holocaust, yet American authorities paid no heed; by 1947, when the Navy instituted Project CHATTER, America had fully entered the post-war psy-war era, and the men running such programs were willing to overlook their new hires' bloodstained resumes..

The newly-formed CIA first plunged into this cesspool in 1950 with Project BLUEBIRD, rechristened ARTICHOKE in 1951. To establish a cover story for this research, the CIA funded a propaganda effort designed to convince the world that the Communist Bloc had devised insidious new methods to re-shape the human will; the CIA's own efforts could therefore, if exposed, be explained as an attempt to 'catch up' with Soviet and Chinese work. The primary promoter of this 'line' was one Edward Hunter, a CIA contract employee operating under cover as a journalist (and, later, a prominent member of the John Birch Society). ^[10] When the CIA's mind control program was transferred from the Office of Security to the Technical Services Staff (TSS) in 1953, the name changed again -- to MKULTRA. ^[11] Through MKULTRA the Agency created an umbrella program of positively Joycean scope, designed to ferret out all possible means of invading what George Orwell once called 'the space between our ears'. ^[12] Later still, in 1962, mind control research was transferred to the Office of Research and Development (ORD): project cryptonyms remain unrevealed.

What was studied? Everything -- including hypnosis, conditioning, sensory deprivation, drugs, religious cults, microwaves, psycho-surgery, brain implants, and even ESP. When MKULTRA leaked to the public during the great CIA investigations of the 1970s, public attention focused most heavily on drug experimentation and the work with ESP. ^[13] Mystery still surrounds the area which seems to have most interested ORD, psychoelectronics. Implants

In the late 1950s a neuroscientist named Jose Delgado developed the stimoceiver, a miniature depth electrode which can receive and transmit electronic signals over FM radio waves. By stimulating a correctly-positioned stimoceiver within an individual's cranium, an outside operator can wield a surprising degree of control over the the subject's responses. The most famous example of the stimoceiver in action occurred in a Madrid bull ring. Delgado 'wired' the bull before stepping into the ring, entirely unprotected. The bull charged toward the doctor -- then stopped, just before reaching him. Delgado had halted the animal by simply pushing a button on a black box, held in the hand. ^[14]

Delgado's Physical Control of the Mind: Towards a Psychocivilised Society ^[15] remains the sole full-length work on intracerebral implants and electronic stimulation of the brain (ESB). While subsequent work has long since superceded the techniques described in this book, Delgado's achievements were seminal. His animal and human experiments clearly demonstrate that the experimenter can electronically induce emotions and behavior. Under certain conditions, the extremes of temperament -- rage, lust, fatigue etc. -- can be elicited by an outside operator as easily as an organist might call forth a C-major chord.

Delgado wrote: 'Radio Stimulation of different points in the amygdala and hippocampus in the four patients produced a variety of effects, including pleasant sensations, elation, deep, thoughtful concentration, odd feelings, super relaxation, colored visions, and other responses.' ^[16] The evocative phrase 'colored visions' clearly indicates remotely-induced hallucinations. Speaking in 1966 -- and reflecting research undertaken years previously -- Delgado asserted that his experiments 'support the distasteful conclusion that motion, emotion, and behaviour can be directed by electrical forces and that humans can be controlled like robots by push buttons.' ^[17] He even prophesised a day when brain control could be turned over to non-human operators, by establishing two-way radio communication between the implanted brain and a computer. ^[18]

In a fascinating series of experiments, Delgado attached the stimoceiver to the tympanic membrane, thereby transforming the ear into a sort of microphone. An assistant would whisper 'How are you?' into the ear of a suitably 'fixed' cat, and Delgado could hear the words over a loudspeaker in the next room. The application of this technology to the spy trade should be readily apparent. According to Victor Marchetti, the Agency once attempted a highly-sophisticated extension of this basic idea, in which radio implants were attached to a cat's cochlea, to facilitate the pinpointing of specific conversations, freed from extraneous surrounding noises. ^[19] Such 'advances' exacerbate the already imposing level of 20th century paranoia: not only can our phone be tapped and mail checked, but even Tabby might be spying on us!

Yet the ramifictions of this technology may go even deeper than Marchetti indicates. I presume that if a suitably-wired subject's inner-ear can be made into a microphone, it can also be.made into a loudspeaker. 'Hearing voices' has, of course, long been recognized as a symptom of schizophrenia -- but what if the technological inheritors of the Delagado legacy have discovered a mechanism for inducing, or reproducing, this symptom? How do we tell the difference between a 'manufactured madman' and the real item? This science fictional concept actually lies well within the reach of current technology: not many years after Delgado's experiments with the cat, Ralph Schwitzgebel devised a 'bug-in-the-ear' via which a therapist (odd term, under the circumstances) can communicate with his or her subject. ^[20]

Robert G. Heath, of Tulane University, who has implanted as many as 125 electrodes in his subjects, achieved his greatest notoriety by attempting to 'cure' homosexuality through ESB. In his experiments he discovered that he could control his patients' memory and induce sexual arousal, fear, pleasure and hallucinations. ^[21] Heath and another researcher, James Olds, ^[22] independently illustrated that areas of the brain in and near the hypothalamus have, when electronically stimulated, what they describe as 'rewarding' and 'aversive' effects. Both animals and human beings, when given the means to induce their own ESB of the brain's pleasure centres will stimulate themselves at a tremendous rate, ignoring such basic drives as hunger and thirst. ^[23] (Using fixed electrodes of his own invention, John C. Lilly had accomplished similar effects in the early 1950s. ^[24]) Anyone who has studied the work of B. F. Skinner will find themselves on familiar territory here. Such brain stimulation represents operant conditioning at its most extreme, and most insidious -- for here we see a form of conditioning in which the manipulator renders him or herself invisible. Indeed, Skinner-esque aversive therapy, remotely applied, was Heath's prescription for 'healing' homosexuality. ^[25]

Ralph Schwitzgebel and his brother Robert have produced a panoply of devices for tracking individuals over long ranges; they may be considered the creators of 'electronic house arrest' devices recently approved by the courts. ^[26] Schwitzgebel devices could be used for tracking all of the physical and neurological signs of a 'patient' within a quarter of a mile, thereby lifting the distance limitations which restricted Delgado. ^[27] In Ralph Schwitgebel's initial work, application of this technology to ESB seems to have been limited by cumbersome brain implants with protruding wires. But the technology was soon miniaturized, and a scheme was proposed whereby radio receivers would be mounted on utility poles throughout a given city, thereby providing a 24-hour monitoring capability. ^[28] Like Heath, Schwitzgebel was much exercised about the use of intracranial devices to combat sexual deviation. But he has also spoken ominously about applying his devices to 'socially troublesome persons', which, of course, could mean anyone. ^[29]

Perhaps the most disturbing wanderer in this mind-field is Joseph A. Meyer, of the National Security Agency. Meyer has proposed implanting roughly half of all Americans arrested -- not necessarily convicted -- of any crime. These 'subscribers' (his term) could be monitored continually by computer. Meyer, who has carefully worked out the economics of his mass- implantation system, asserts that taxpayer liability should be reduced by forcing subscribers to 'rent' the implant from the state. Implants are cheaper and more efficient than police, Meyer suggests, since the call to crime is relentless for the poor 'urban dweller' who, this spook-scientist admits in a surprisingly candid aside, is fundamentally unnecessary to a post-industrial economy. ^[30] A question of Timing

How long have the 'spychiatrists' been modifying behaviour by directly accessing their subjects' grey matter? Alas, when dealing with research funded by the engines of national security, one can never know the true origin date of any individual scientific advance. However, if we listen carefully to the scientists who have pioneered this research, we may hear whispers, faint but unmistakable, hinting that remotely-applied ESB originated earlier than published studies would indicate.

In his autobiography The Scientist, John C. Lilly (who would later achieve reknown for his work with dolphins, drugs and sensory deprivation) records a conversation he had with the director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) -- in 1953. The director asked Lilly to brief the CIA, FBI, NSA and the various military intelligence services on his work using electrodes to stimulate directly the pleasure and pain centres of the brain. Lilly refused, noting in his reply: 'Dr. Antoine Remond, using our techniques in Paris, has demonstrated that this method of stimulation of the brain can be applied to the human without the help of the neurosurgeon; he is doing it in his office in Paris without neurosurgical.supervision. This means that anybody with the proper apparatus can carry this out on a person covertly, with no external signs that electrodes have been used on that person. I feel that if this technique got into the hands of a secret agency, they would have total control over a human being and be able to change his beliefs extremely quickly, leaving little evidence of what they had done.' ^[31]

Lilly's assertion of the high moral ground here is interesting. A careful reading of The Scientist reveals that he continued to do work useful to the United States' national security apparatus. His sensory deprivation experiments expanded upon the work of ARTICHOKE's Maitland Baldwin, and even his dolphin research has -- perhaps inadvertently -- proved useful in naval warfare. ^[32] One should note that Lilly's work on monkey's carried a 'secret' classification, and that the NIMH was a common CIA funding conduit.

But the most important aspect of Lilly's statement is its date. 1953? How far back does radio-controlled ESB go? Alas, I have not yet seen Redmond's work -- if it is available in the open literature. In the documents made available to CIA researcher John Marks, the earliest reference to remotely-applied ESB is a 1959 financial document pertaining to MKULTRA sub-project 94. The general sub-project descriptions sent to the CIA's financial department rarely contain much information, and rarely change from year to year, leaving us little idea as to when this sub-project began.

Unfortunately, even the Freedom of Information Act couldn't pry loose much information on electronic mind control techniques, though we know that a great deal of study was done in these areas. We have, for example, only four pages on sub-project 94 -- by comparison, a veritable flood of documents was released on the use of drugs in mind control. ^[33] We know, however, that research into psychoelectronics was extensive; indeed, statements of project goals dating from ARTICHOKE and BLUEBIRD days clearly identify this area as a high priority. Marks' anonymous informant, jocularly nicknamed 'Deep Trance', even told a previous interviewer that, beginning in 1963, the CIA and military's mind control efforts strongly emphasised electronics. ^[34] I therefore assume that the 'dark' MKULTRA sub-projects concerned matters such as brain implants, microwaves, ESB and related technologies.

I make an issue of the timing and secrecy involved in this research to underscore three points:

1. We can never know with certainty the true origin dates of the various brainwashing methods -- often we discover the techniques which seem impossibly futuristic actually originated in the 19th century. ^[35]
2. The open literature almost certainly gives a bowdlerized view of the actual research.
3. Lavishly-funded clandestine researches -- unrestrained by peer review or the need for strict controls -- can achieve far more rapid progress than scientists on 'the outside'.

Remote hypnosis

Over the years, certain journalists have asserted that the CIA has mastered a technology called RHIC-EDOM, Radio Hypnotic Intracerebral Control and Electronic Dissolution of Memory. Together these techniques can -- allegedly -- remotely induce hypnotic trance, deliver suggestions to the subject, and erase all memory for both instruction period and the act which the subject is asked to perform. According to published accounts, RHIC uses the stimoceiver, or a microminiaturized offspring of that technology, to induce a hypnotic state. EDOM is the erasure of memory from consciousness through the blockage of synaptic transmission in certain areas of the brain. By jamming the brain's synapses through a surfeit of acetocholine, neural transmission along selected pathways can be effectively stilled. According to the proponents of RHIC-EDOM, acetocholine production can be affected by electromagnetic means.

Does RHIC-EDOM exist? The term first appeared in a strange 1969 book, Were We Controlled? written by one Lincoln Lawrence, a former FBI agent turned journalist. ^[36] A careful comparison of Lawrence's work with the MKULTRA files declassified ten years later indicates a strong possibility that the writer did indeed have 'inside' sources. Here is how Lawrence describes RHIC in action: 'It is the ultra-sophisticated application of post-hypnotic suggestion triggered at will by radio transmission. It is a recurring state, re-induced automatically at.intervals by the same radio control. An individual is brought under hypnosis. This can be done either with his knowledge -- or without it -- by use of narco-hypnosis, which can be brought into play under many guises. He is then programmed to perform certain actions and maintain certain attitudes upon radio signal.'

Other authors have mentioned this technique: Walter Bowart in Operation Mind Control, and journalist James Moore, who, in a 1975 issue of a periodical called Modern People, claimed to have secured a 350-page manual, prepared in 1963, on RHIC-EDOM. ^[37] He maintains that he received the manual from CIA sources, although -- interestingly -- the technique is said to have originated in the military. According to Moore, RHIC works like this: 'Medically, these radio signals are directed to certain parts of the brain. When a part of your brain receives a tiny electrical impulse from outside sources, such as vision, hearing, etc., an emotion is produced -- anger at the sight of a gang of boys beating an old woman, for example. The same emotion of anger can be created by artificial radio signals sent to your brain by a controller. You could instantly feel the same white hot anger without any apparent reason.' ^[38]

Lawrence's sources imparted an even more tantalising -- and frightening -- revelation: '...there is already in use a small EDOM generator-transmitter which can be concealed on the body of a person. Contact with this person -- a casual handshake or even just a touch -- transmits a tiny electronic charge plus an ultra-sonic signal tone which for a short while will disturb the time orientation of the person affected.' ^[39]

At present there is no evidence that RHIC-EDOM is real. To my knowledge, the only official questioning of a CIA representative concerning these techniques occurred in 1977, during Senate hearings on CIA drug testing. Senator Richard Schweiker had the following interchange with Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, an important MKULTRA administrator:

Schweiker: Some of the projects under MKULTRA involved hypnosis, is that correct?

Gottleib: Yes.

Schweiker: Did any of these projects involve something called radio hypnotic intracerebral control, which is a combination, as I understand it, in layman's terms, of radio transmission and hypnosis?

Gottleib: My answer is 'no'.

Schweiker: None whatsoever?

Gottleib: Well, I am trying to be responsive to the terms you used. As I remember it, there was a current interest, running interest, all the time in what affects people's standing in the field of radio energy have, and it could easily have been that somewhere in many projects, someone was trying to see if you could hynotize someone easier if he was standing in a radio beam. That would seem like a reasonable piece of research to do.

Schweiker went on to mention that he had heard testimony that radar (i.e. microwaves) had been used to wipe out memory in animals. Gottlieb responded, 'I can believe that, Senator.' ^[40]

Gottlieb's blandishments do not comfort much. For one thing, the good doctor did not always provide thoroughly candid testimony. During the same hearing, he averred that 99 per cent of the CIA's research had been openly published. If so, why are so many MKULTRA sub-projects still 'dark', and why does the Agency still go to great lengths to protect the identities of its scientists? ^[41] We should also recognise that the CIA's operations are compartmentalized on a 'need-to-know' basis; Gottlieb may not have had access to the information requested by Schweiker. Note that the MKULTRA rubric circumscribed Gottlieb's statement: RHIC-EDOM might have been the focus of another program. (There were several others: MKNAOMI, MKACTION, MKSEARCH, etc.) Also keep in mind the allegation by 'Deep Trance' that the CIA concentrated on psychoelectronics after the termination of MKULTRA in 1963. Most significantly: RHIC-EDOM is described by both Lawrence and Moore as a product of military research; Gottlieb spoke only of matters pertaining to CIA. He may thus have.spoken truthfully -- at least in a strictly technical sense -- while still misleading his Congressional interlocutors.

Personally, I believe that the RHIC-EDOM story deserves a great deal of further research. I find it significant that when Dr. Peter Lindstrom examined x-rays of Robert Naesland, a Swedish victim of brain-implantation, the doctor cited Were We Controlled? in his letter of response.^[42] This is the same Dr. Lindstrom noted for his pioneering use of ultrasonics in neurosurgery.^[43] Lincoln Lawrence's book has received a strong endorsement indeed.

That's Entrainment

Robert Anton Wilson, co-author of The Illuminatus Trilogy, recently has taken to promoting a new generation of 'mind machines' designed to promote creativity, stimulate learning, and alter consciousness -- i.e. provide a drugless high. Interestingly, these machines can also induce 'Out of Body Experiences', in which the percipient mentally 'travels' to another location while the body remains at rest. ^[44] One such device is called the 'hemi-synch'. This headphone-like invention produces slightly different frequencies in each ear; the brain calculates the difference between these frequencies, resulting in a rhythmn known as 'binaural beat'. The brain 'entrains' itself to this beat; that is, the subject's EEG slows down or speeds up to keep pace with its electronic running partner. ^[45] A suitably entrained brain is much more responsive to suggestion, and is even likely to experience vivid hallucinations.

There's more than one way to entrain a brain. Michael Hutchison's excellent book Mega Brain details the author's experiences with many such devices -- the Alphastim, TENS, the Synchro-energizer, Tranquilite etc.. He recounts dazzling, Dali-esque hallucinations as a result of using this mind-expanding technology; moreover, he offers a seductive argument that these devices may represent a true breakthrough in consciousness control, thereby fulfilling the dashed dream of the hallucinogenic '60s and '70s. But what about the possibility of an outside operator literally 'changing our minds' by altering our brainwaves without our knowledge? If these machines can induce an hypnotic state, what's to stop a skilled hypnotist from making use of this state? Granted, most of these devices require some physical interaction with the subject. But a tool called the Bio-Pacer can, according to its manufacturer, produce a number of mood-altering frequencies -- without attachment to the subject. Indeed, the Bio-Pacer III (a high-powered version) can affect an entire room. This device costs $275, according to the most recent price sheet available. ^[46] What sort of machine might $27,5000 buy? Or $275,000? What effects, what ranges might a million dollar machine be capable of?

The military certainly has that sort of money; and they're certainly interested in this sort of technology, according to Michael Hutchison. His interview with an informant named Joseph Light elicited this, for example: 'There are powerful elements in the scientific community, powerful people, who are very much interested in these areas.... but they have to keep most of their work secret. Because as soon as they start to publish some of these sensitive things, they have problems in their lives. You see, they work on research grants, and if you follow the research being done, you find that as soon as these scientists publish something about this, their research funds are cut off. There are areas in bioelectric research where very simple techniques and devices can have mind-boggling effects. Conceivably, if you have a crazed person with a bit of a technical background, he can do a lot of damage.' ^[47]

This last statement is particuarly evocative. In 1984 a violent neo-Nazi group called The Order -- responsible for the murder of talk show host Alan Berg -- established contact with two government scientists engaged in clandestine research to project chemical imbalances and render targeted individuals docile via certain electronic wave frequencies. For $100,000 the scientists were willing to deliver this information. ^[48] Thus at least one group of crazed individuals almost got the goods.

Wave Your Brain Goodbye

I am told that many Senate and Congressional representatives have a 'wavie' file. So do many state representatives. Wavies have even pled their case to private institutions such as the Christic Institute, a public interest law firm. ^[49] Wavies claim to be the victims of clandestine bombardment with non-ionising radiation, or microwaves. They report sudden changes in psychological states, alteration of sleep patterns, intracerebral voices and other sounds, and.physiological effects. I've spoken to many. Are these troubled individuals seeking an exterior rationale for their mental problems? I'm sure that is the case in many instances. But the fact is that the literature on the behavioural effects of microwaves, extra-low-frequencies (ELF) and ultra-sonics is such that we cannot blithely dismiss all such claims.

For decades American science and industry have tried to convince the population that microwaves could have no adverse affects on human beings at sub-thermal levels. The attitude was 'If it can't burn you, it can't hurt you.' This approach became increasingly difficult to defend as reports mounted of microwave-induced phsyiological effects. Technicians described 'hearing' certain radar installations; users of radar telescopes began developng cataracts at an appallingly high rate. ^[50] The Soviets have long recognised the strange and sometimes subtle effects of these radio frequencies, which is why their exposure standards have always been much stricter.

Soviet microwave bombardment of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow prompted the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Project PANDORA (later renamed), whose ostensible goal was to determine whether these pulsations - - reportedly at 10 cycles per second, which puts them in the alpha range -- could be used for the purposes of mind control. I suspect that the 'war on Tchaikowsky Street', as I call it, ^[51] was used, at least in part, as a cover story for DARPA mind control research, and that the stories floated in the news, via, for example, Jack Anderson's column, about Soviet remote brainwashing served the same propaganda purpose as the did the bleatings of Edward Hunter during the 1950s. ^[52]

What can low-level microwaves do to the mind? According to a DIA report released under the Freedom of Information Act, microwaves can induce metabolic changes, alter brain functions, and disrupt behaviour patterns.^[53] PANDORA discovered that pulsed microwaves can create leaks in the blood/brain barrier, induce heart seizures, and create behavioural disorganization. ^[54] In 1970 a RAND corporation scientist reported that microwaves could be used to promote insomnia, fatigue, irritability, memory loss and hallucinations.^[55]

Perhaps the most significant work in this area has been produced by Dr. W. Ross Adey at the University of Southern California. He determined that behaviour and emotional states can be altered without electrodes -- simply by placing the subject in an electromagnetic field. By directing a carrier frequency to stimulate the brain and using amplitude modulation to 'shape' the wave into mimicry of a desired EEG frequency, he was able to impose a 4.5 CPS theta rhythm on his subjects -- a frequency which he previously measured in the hippocampus during avoidance learning. This he could externally condition the mind towards an aversive reaction.^[56](Adey has also done extensive work on the use of electrodes in animals.^[57]) According to another prominent microwave scientist, Allen Frey, other frequencies could -- in animal studies -- induce docility.^[58]

As journalist Anna Keeler noted: 'Specific frequencies at low intensities can predictably influence sensory processes.... pleasantness -- unpleasantness, strain -- relaxation, and excitement -- quiescence can be created with the field. Negative feelings and avoidance are strong biological phenomena and relate to survival. Feelings are the true basis of much 'decision-making' and often occur as sub-threshold impressions.... Ideas including names can be synchronized with the feelings that the fields induce.' ^[59]

Adey and compatriots have compiled an entire library of frequencies and pulsation rates which can affect the mind and nervous systems. Some of these effects can be extremely bizarre. For example, engineer Tom Jarski, in the attempt to replicate the seminal work of F. Cazzamalli, found that a particular frequency caused a ringing sensation in the ears of his subjects -- who felt strangely compelled to bite the experimenters! ^[60] On the other hand, the diet-conscious may be intrigued by the finding that rats exposed to ELF waves failed to gain weight normally.^[61] For our present purposes, the most significant electromagnetic research findings concern microwave signals modulated by hypnoidal EEG frequencies. Microwaves can act like the 'hemi-synch' device previously described, entraining the brain to theta rhythms. ^[62] I need not emphasise the implication of remotely synchronising the brain to resonate at a frequency conducive to sleep, or to hypnosis.

Trance may be remotely induced: but can it be directed? Yes. Recall the.intracerebral voices mentioned earlier in our discussion of Delgado. The same effect can be produced by 'the wave'. Frey demonstrated in the early 1960s that microwaves could produce booming, hissing, buzzing and other intracerebral static. (This phenomenon is now called 'the Frey effect'.) In 1973 Dr Joseph Sharp, of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, expanded on Frey's work in an experiment where the subject -- in this case Sharp himself -- 'heard' and understood spoken words delivered via a pulsed-microwave analog of the speaker's sound vibrations. ^[63] Dr. Robert Becker commented that 'Such a device has obvious applications in covert operations designed to drive a target crazy with 'voices' or deliver undetectable instructions to a programmed assassin.' ^[64] Indeed, the former capability could effectively disguise the latter. Who will listen to the victims, when the electronically-induced hallucinations they recount exactly parallel the classical signals of paranoid schizophrenia and/or temporal lobe epilepsy?

Perhaps the most ominous revelations concern the mysterious work of J. F. Schapitz, who in 1974 filed a plan to explore the interaction of radio frequencies and hypnosis. 'In this investigation it will be shown that the spoken word of the hypnotist may be conveyed by modulate electromagnetic energy directly into the subconscious parts of the human brain -- i.e. without employing any technical devices for receiving or transcoding the messages and without the person exposed to such influence having a chance to control the information input consciously.'

He outlined an experiment, innocent in its immediate effect yet chilling in its implications, whereby subjects would be implanted with the subsconscious suggestion to leave the lab and buy a particular item, the action triggered by a certain 'cue' word or action. Schapitz felt certain that the subjects would rationalize the behaviour, chalking up the action to the working of free will. ^[65] His instincts on this latter point coalesce perfectly with findings of professional hypnotists. ^[66] Schapitz' work was funded by the Department of Defence. Despite Freedom of Information Act requests, the results have never been revealed. ^[67]

Final thoughts on 'the wave'

I must again offer a caveat about possible disparities between the 'official' record of electromagnetism's psychological effects and the hidden history. Once more we face a question of timing. How long ago did this research really begin? In the early years of this century, Nikola Tesla seems to have stumbled upon certain of the behavioural effects of electromagnetic exposure. ^[68] Cazamelli, mentioned above, conducted his studies in the 1930s. In 1934 E. L. Chaffee and R. U. Light published a paper on 'A Method For the Remote Control of Electrical Stimulation of the Nervous System.'^[69] From the very beginning of their work with microwaves, the Soviets explored the more subtle physiological effects of electromagnetism; and despite the bleatings of certain right-wing alarmists that an 'electromagnetic gap' separated us from Soviet advances, the literature in this area from the former Soviet bloc has been closely monitored for decades by the West. ^[70] ARTICHOKE and BLUEBIRD project outlines, dating from the early 1950s, prominently mention the need to explore all possible uses of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Another point worth mentioning concerns the combination of EMR and miniature brain electrodes. The father of the stimoceiver, Dr. Delgado, has recently conducted experiments in which monkeys are exposed to electromagnetic fields, thereby eliciting a wide range of behavioural effects -- one monkey might fly into a volcanic range while, just a few feet away, his simian partner begins to nod off. Fascinatingly, when monkeys with brain implants felt 'the wave', the effects were greatly intensified. Apparently these tiny electrodes can act as an amplifier of the electromagnetic effect. ^[71]

Critics might counter that any burst of microwave energy powerful enough to have truly remote effects would probably also create a thermal reaction. That is, if a clandestine operator propagated a 'wave' from outside an unwitting subject's bedroom (say, from a low-flying helicopter), the power necessary to do the job might be such that the microwave would cook the target before it got a chance to launder his thoughts. It is a fair criticism. But if our 'wavie' had previously been implanted with a Delgado- style device, it would act as an intensifier of the signal. Such an individual could have any number of remotely-induced hallucinatory experiences.while his or her bed partner dozes comfortably. Furthermore, recent reports indicate that a 'waver' can achieve pinpoint accuracy without the use of Delgado-style implants. In 1985 volunteers at the Midwest Research Institute in Kansas City, Missouri, were exposed to microwave beams as part of an experiment sponsored by the Department of Energy and the New York State Department of Health. As The Arizona Republic described the experiment, 'A matched control group sat in the same room without being bombarded by non-ionizing radiation.' ^[72]

Parting observations

Too much of the preceding remains mired in the past; we know, however, that the present practitioners of mind control have their eye on the future. Information regarding current research remains, of course, quite sketchy. We know that one project, SLEEPING BEAUTY, is directed toward the battlefield use of mind-altering electromagnetic weaponry. Jack Verona, a highly placed, highly secretive DIA chief, heads this project, which employs (among others) Dr. Michael Persinger of Laurentian University. According to sources I have interviewed, Verona counts among his associates the mysterious C. B. Scott Jones, the well known (infamous, in some circles) aide to Rhode Island senator Claiborne Pell.

Jones, a 16-year veteran of Naval Intelligence, pursues a strange array of interests. Not only does he frequently lecture on the subject of UFOs (he 'vetted' the credentials of several intelligence operatives who gave journalist William Moore putative 'inside' information on this topic), Scott Jones has also established a controversial presence in the field of parapsychology as the current head of the American Society for Psychical Research. Another Scott Jones associate, Edward Dames, recently founded a company called PSI-tech, which allegedly performs 'remote viewing' experiments for both the government and corporate clients. ^[73] Scott Jones has been a key source for writer Michael Drosnin (author of Citizen Hughes) who is now writing a book on mind control.

Two separate sources have described to me another ongoing mind control project, MONARCH. The ramifications of this alleged program are so appalling, and the claims so large, that I hesitate to deliver any details without further confirmation. Suffice it to say, this project supposedly involves the deliberate creation of severe multiple personality disorder, a still under-researched psychological phenomenon which invariably results from some type of childhood trauma, or abuse.

At this point the reader has every reason to ask 'But why?' With the Cold War melted into oblivion, what is the purpose of these technofascist intrusions into innermost thoughts and actions? How do the researchers of these technologies justify their work to themselves? What overriding objective do they hope to achieve? The doctor who started it all, George Estabrooks, once suggested an ominous answer to this question. Ornery by nature, and -- towards the end -- perhaps a bit too fond of his liquor, 'Esty' possessed a looser tongue than did his colleagues in clandestine study. In 1968 Estabrooks told a reporter for the Providence (Rhode Island) Evening Bulletin that he had conducted extensive hypnosis work on behalf of the CIA, FBI and military intelligence. (An astonishing admission: at this early date, no other researcher had dared to let this particular cat loose from its well-sealed bag.) 'Dr. Estabrooks said that the key to creating an effective spy or assassin rests in..... creating a multiple personality, with the aid of hypnosis', a procedure which the good doctor described as 'child's play'. Estabrooks even offered the suggestion that Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby 'could very well have been performing through hypnosis.'

The article's date? May 13, 1968, two weeks before the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy: the title? "To sleep: perchance to kill".

Notes

1. ^ Much of the information in this article is derived from the files compiled by John Marks, author of The Search for the Manchurian Candidate (expanded Dell edition, 1988). The files, now stored at the National Security Archives in Washington, D.C., contain some 20,000 pages of declassified CIA documents and other materials, including the notes of interviews with scientists employed by American intelligence. In an interview with John Marks, hypnosis expert Milton Kline, a veteran of clandestine experimentation in this field, averred that his work for the government continued. Since this interview took place in 1977, years after the CIA allegedly.halted mind control research, we must conclude either that the CIA lied, or that another agency continued the work. In another interview with Marks, former Air Force -- CIA liaison L. Fletcher Prouty confirmed that the Department of Defense ran studies either in conjunction with or parallel to those operated by the CIA.
2. ^  See generally Project MKULTRA, the CIA's Program of Research in Behavioural Modification, joint hearing before the Select Committee on Health and Scientific Research of the Committee on Human Resources, United States Senate (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1977).
3. ^  Robert Eringer, 'Secret Agent Man', in Rolling Stone, January 16, 1986.
4. ^  John Marks interview with Victor Marchetti (Marks files).
5. ^  A copy of this letter can be found in the Marks files.
6. ^  Estabrooks attracted an eclectic group of friends, including J. Edgar Hoover and Alan Watts.
7. ^  Interview with daughter Doreen Estabrooks in Marks files.
8. ^  Marks, pp. 4-6.
9. ^  Hunt pp. 157-74; Marks files.
10. ^  Hunter invented the term 'brainwashing' in a September 24 1950 Miami News article. Hunter was an OSS veteran of the China theatre, which also produced Richard Helms, Howard Hunt, Mitch Werbell, Fred Crisman and Paul Halliwell.
11. ^  Marks, pp. 60-61. A folk etymology has it that the MK of MKULTRA stands for 'Mind Kontrol'. According to Marks, TSS prefixed the cryptonyms of all its projects with these initials. Note, though, that MKULTRA was preceded by a still-mysterious TSS program called QKHILLTOP.
12. ^  Marks, pp. 224-229. Seven MKULTRA sub-projects were continued, under TSS supervision, as MKSEARCH. This project ended in 1972. CIA apologists often proclaim that 'brainwashing' research ceased in either 1962 or 1972. These blandishments refer to the TSS projects, not to the ORD work, which remains terra incognita for independent researchers. Marks discovered that the ORD research was so voluminous that retrieving documents via FOIA would have proven unthinkably expensive.
13. ^  For a description of the research into parapsychology, see McRae, the best book available on a subject which awaits a truly authoritative text.
14. ^  Allegedly, this experiment took place in 1964. However the pseudonymous 'Lincoln Lawrence' at p. 36 makes an interesting argument that the demonstration took place some years earlier.
15. ^  Much of Delgado's work was funded by the Office of Naval Intelligence, a common conduit for CIA funds during the 1950s and 60s. Gordon Thomas misleadingly implies that CIA interest in Delgado's work began in 1972.
16. ^  J. M. R. Delgado, 'Intracerebral Radio Stimulation and Recording in Completely Free Patients', in Schwitzgebel and Schwitzgebel (eds.).
17. ^  David Kreech, 'Controlling the Mind Controllers', in Think 32 (July-August), 1966.
18. ^  Delgado (1969)
19. ^  Ranelagh p. 208. Marchetti casts this story in the form of an amusing anecdote: after much time and expense, a cat was suitably trained and prepared -- only, on its first assignment, to be run over by a taxi. Marchetti neglects to point out that nothing stopped the Agency from getting another cat. Or from using a human being.
20. ^  Scheflin and Opton p. 347
21. ^  Gordon Thomas p. 276.
22. ^  Olds 1962 p. 554; and Olds 1967.
23. ^  Mark and Ervin, Chapter 12, excerpted in Individual Rights and the Federal Role in Behaviour Modification, prepared by the Staff of the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Committee of the Judiciary, United States Senate (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1974).
24. ^  Lilly p. 90. Monkeys allowed to stimulate themselves continually via ESB brought themselves to orgasm once every three minutes, sixteen hours a day.
25. ^  Scheflin and Opton, pp. 336-7. Heath even monitored his patient's brain responses during the subject's first heterosexual encounter. Such is the nature of the brave new world before us.
26. ^  Schwitzgebel and Bird pp. 99-105.
27. ^  Gordon Thomas p. 277. In Schwitzgebel and Bird, Schwitzgebel details how the radio signals may be fed into a telephone via a modem and thus analyzed by a computer anywhere in the world.
28. ^  Scheflin and Opton, pp. 347-349.
29. ^  Tackwood p. 226.
30. ^  Scheflin and Opton pp. 351-35. 'Urban dweller' may be another of Meyer's euphemisms. He uses New York's Harlem as his model community in working out the details of his mind-.management system.
31. ^  Lilly, p. 91.
32. ^  Marks, pp 151-4.
33. ^  Whenever an author tells us that MKULTRA met with little success, the reference is to drug testing. On this point, I must criticize John Marks. His book never mentions that roughly 20-25 per cent of the MKULTRA sub-projects are 'dark' -- i.e., little or no information was ever made available, despite lawyers and FOIA requests. Marks seem to feel that the only information worth having is the information he received.
34. ^  The story of 'Deep Trance', an MKULTRA 'insider' who provided invaluable information, is somewhat involved. I do not know who Trance is/was, and Marks may not know either. He contacted 'Trance' via a writer of an article published shortly before research on The Search for The Manchurian Candidate began, addressing his informant 'Dear Source whose anonymity I respect'. I respect it too -- hence my reticence to name the aforementioned article, which may mark a trail to Trance. The fact that I have not followed this trail would not prevent others from doing so.
35. ^  Pioneering ESB research was conducted in 1898, by J.R. Ewald, Professor of Physiology at Straussbourg. See Perry London.
36. ^  One source tells me that the man's real name is Arthur J. Ford. I have no confirmation of this.
37. ^  Bowart pp. 261-264.
38. ^  Ibid p. 263.
39. ^  'Lincoln Lawrence' p. 52.
40. ^  Human Drug Testing by the CIA (United States Government Printing Office, 1977), Hearings before the Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research of the Committee on Human Resources, United States Senate.
41. ^  Note especially the Supreme Court's decision in Central Intelligence Agency et al versus Sims et al (no 83-1075, decided April 16 1986). The egregious and dangerous majority opinion in this case held that disclosure of the names of scientists and institutions involved in MKULTRA posed 'an unacceptable risk of revealing intelligence sources'. The decisions of the [CIA] Director, who must of course be familiar with 'the whole picture', as judges are not, are worthy of great deference.... it is conceivable that the mere explanation of why information must be withheld can convey valuable information to a foreign intelligence agency.' How do we square this continuing need for secrecy with the CIA's protestations that MKULTRA achieved little success, that the studies were conducted within the Nuremberg statutes governing medical experiments, and that the research was made available in the open literature?
42. ^  Letter, P.A. Linstrom to Robert Naeslund, July 17 1983; copy available from Marti Koski, Kiilinpellontie 2, 21290, Rusko, Finland, who also claims to be a victim of such experiments. Lindstrom writes that he fully agrees with 'Lincoln Lawrence'.
43. ^  Bowart, p. 265. I have attempted, without success, to contact Dr. Lindstrom.
44. ^  Robert Anton Wilson, 'Adventures with Head Hardware', in Magical Blend, 23, July 1989.
45. ^  Hutchison pp. 199-201; Oster.
46. ^  Bio-Pacer promotional and price sheet, available from Lindemann Laboratories, 3463 State Street, 264, Santa Barbara, CA 93105.
47. ^  Hutchison pp. 117-8. Compare Light's observations about 'the grant game' to Sid Gottleib's protestations that nearly all 'mind control' research was openly published.
48. ^  Martinez and Guinther, p. 230.
49. ^  Interview with Sandy Munroe of the Los Angeles office of the Christic Institute.
50. ^  See generally, Paul Brodeur.
51. ^  Until recently the American Embassy was on a street named after the composer.
52. ^  It was finally determined that the microwaves were used to receive transmission from bugs planted within the embassy. DARPA Director George H. Heimeier went on record as stating that PANDORA was never designed to study 'microwaves as a surveillance tool'. See Keeler. I would note that the Soviet embassy was 'bugged and waved' in Canada during the 1950s, and, according to the Los Angeles Times (5 June 1989), the Soviet embassy in Britain has been similarly affected.
53. ^  Adams and Williams. Brodeur notes that much of the work ascribed to the Soviets in this report was actually first accomplished by scientists in the United States. Keeler argues that this report is an example of 'mirror imaging' -- i.e. parading domestic advances as a foreign threat, the better to pry funding from a suitably-fearful Congress.
54. ^  Keeler
55. ^  MacGregor
56. ^  Keeler
57. ^  Larry Collins, 'Mind Control', in Playboy, January 1990..
58. ^  Allan Frey, 'Behavioural Effects of Electromagnetic Energy', in Hazzard (ed.).
59. ^  Keeler
60. ^  Lawrence (1973).
61. ^  Susan Schiefelbein, 'The Invisible Threat', in Saturday Review, 15 September 1976.
62. ^  E. Preston, 'Studies on the Nervous System Cardiovascular Function and Thermoregulation', in Assenheim (ed.) pp. 138-41.
63. ^  Becker, pp. 318-9.
64. ^  Ibid.
65. ^  Ibid. p. 321
66. ^  See Bowart, p. 218 for an interesting example of this 'rationalization' process at work in the case of Sirhan Sirhan, who was convicted of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. In prison, Sirhan was hynotized by Dr. Bernard Diamond, who instructed Sirhan to climb the bars of his cage like a monkey. He did so. After the trance was removed, Sirhan was shown tapes of his actions. He insisted that he 'acted like a monkey' of his own free will -- he claimed he wanted the exercise!
67. ^  Keeler suggests that the proposal was revealed because Schapitz's sensationalistic implications may have worked to discredit -- and therefore hide -- the real research. Personally, I don't accept this argument, but I respect Keller's instincts enough to repeat her caveat here.
68. ^  Margaret Cheyney's Tesla: Man Out of Time (New York, Dell, 1981), the most reliable book in the sea of wild speculation surrounding this extraordinary scientist, confirms Tesla's early work with the psychological effects of electromagnetic radiation. See especially pp. 101- 4. Note also the afterword in which we learn that certain government agencies have kept important research by Tesla hidden from the general public.
69. ^  Noted in 'Lincoln Lawrence' p. 29.
70. ^  Paticularly one Thomas Bearden of Huntsville, Alabama. I have a document written by Bearden associate Andrew Michrowski which identifies Bearden as an intelligence agent for an undisclosed agency. According to one source I have interviewed, Bearden may be connected with a paramilitary outfit in New Mexico. The man's precise position in this game is unclear.
71. ^  Kathleen McAuliffe, 'The Mind Fields', in Omni, February 1985.
72. ^  May 5, 1985
73. ^  Ruth Sinai, 'ESP used in Iraqi weapons hunt', in Nashville Banner, November 18, 1991. Although I am uncomfortable with the dangerous topic of government-sponsored ESP research, I must note that 'psychic warfare' was the concern of several MKULTRA sub-projects: covert American interest in this field goes back at least to the 1940s. Information on Scott Jones derives from confidential sources, as well as a privately distributed 1992 paper by Robert Durant.

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