The CIA's Darkest Crimes: The Secret of the "MK-Ultra" Program
In the mid-20th century, the U.S. intelligence community launched a plan that still shocks people today. In 1953, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officially launched a project whose goal was nothing else but to study and control human consciousness.
From Origins to Experiments on Consciousness
The history of the "MK-Ultra" program dates back to 1947. At that time, the U.S. Navy began searching for new interrogation methods and psychological intervention techniques — which had not yet involved complete control over consciousness. Thus, the "Chatter" project (the English original meaning is "chat, chatter") was born, aiming to find ways to make people tell the truth.
However, the prototype of this program appeared even earlier. In 1938, Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann synthesized a substance, and several years later, this substance changed the course of history. In 1943, Hofmann accidentally touched a small amount of the substance on his skin, experiencing the effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), a powerful hallucinogen. As early as the 1940s, the medical community began using hallucinogens in experiments — doctors used them for "hallucinogenic psychotherapy," observing the effects of these drugs on people's perception and behavior.
Information about these experiments soon caught the attention of the U.S. military. During the height of the Cold War, the U.S. Department of Defense (the Pentagon) and intelligence agencies speculated that combinations of various psychoactive substances could be used as "truth serums." Thus, scientific experiments transformed into the foundation of an awareness control program.
The First Step: "Chatter" Project
By the end of 1947, although the U.S. Navy researchers had limited knowledge, they firmly believed that effective interrogations required the use of anesthetics. The "Chatter" project focused on this direction.
According to declassified U.S. Navy documents from September 9, 1951, researchers injected experimental subjects with small amounts of psychoactive substances and observed their reactions for hours. One participant claimed for 15 consecutive hours that he was "a television set."
Some experiments were conducted under the guise of treating schizophrenia and other mental illnesses, but the results were questionable. The military admitted that this method was ineffective, yet their interest in "psychological chemistry" grew stronger.
From "Chatter" to "MK-Ultra"
In 1953, the "Chatter" project was terminated, but at that very moment, a key change occurred within the CIA. Sidney Gottlieb became the head of the toxicology department — a man later known as the "CIA's chief poisoner." He was knowledgeable in chemical and biological weapons and decided to take laboratory experiments to real-world scenarios.
It was under his leadership that the "MK-Ultra" program was initiated. This program integrated dozens of sub-projects, all centered around the study of human psychology. According to data from the U.S. Congress, the first recorded action under the "MK-Ultra" program was called "Midnight Climax," starting in 1954.
In this operation, CIA agents, in cooperation with other institutions, opened multiple brothels in San Francisco and secretly added psychoactive substances to customers' drinks. Through this way, they could observe how people behaved under the influence of drugs in real situations.
Secret Operations and Experimental Victims
However, evidence provided by journalist Hank Albarelli in 2009 showed that the CIA had already conducted field experiments earlier. One such incident occurred in August 1951 in the French town of Pont-Saint-Esprit. This event was recorded in history as the "Cursed Bread Incident": hundreds of people suddenly went mad, experienced hallucinations, jumped out of windows, and attacked neighbors.
Later, it was discovered that the cause of the event was not the contaminated bread as initially thought, but rather LSD that CIA agents had mixed into the flour. This became one of the first large-scale tests of psychoactive substances against unsuspecting civilians by the CIA.
At that time, the "MK-Ultra" program did not yet officially exist — the projects "Bluebird" and "Artichoke" were being carried out at that time, both aimed at controlling consciousness. However, it was the "MK-Ultra" program that later integrated the results of these two projects, becoming the largest of such programs.
Sidney Gottlieb — the Man Who Tried to Control Consciousness
Sidney Gottlieb left a reputation in history as "one of the most mysterious and cruel scientists in the intelligence community." His laboratory research covered a wide range: from hypnosis, electroshock interventions, sensory deprivation experiments, to chemical drug testing, without exception.
When the CIA realized that the project might be exposed, most of the files were destroyed, but some archives survived. Thanks to the investigations of journalists and the hearings of the U.S. Congress, the world came to know the horrifying details.
"Treatment" That Turned People into "Zombies"
Donald Cameron, a Canadian doctor, was one of the executors of the program. He worked for the CIA. Cameron believed that mental illness could be cured by "clearing" the existing consciousness and reprogramming the brain. His experimental methods centered on depriving people of their perceptual abilities — combining drugs, electroshocks, and prolonged sensory deprivation.
The experimental subjects were placed in a near-comatose state and were asked to listen to the same sentence repeated on a tape recorder for hours. The experimenters believed that through this method, they could "rewrite" a person's consciousness. However, in reality, those who initially came for "treatment" due to mild depression ended up with severe mental disorders.
This experiment became one of the most notorious examples of "inhuman experiments under the guise of science."
"MK- Naomi" Sub-project: Traceless Weapons
One of the branches of the "MK-Ultra" program was the "MK- Naomi" project. Under this project framework, the CIA developed toxic substances and secret delivery methods. During the 1975 U.S. Congress hearing, CIA director William Colby demonstrated a special weapon — a gun that fired poisoned darts.
Senator Frank Church showed the weapon to the media. It looked like a modified Colt M1911 pistol, equipped with an optical sight, with an effective range of up to 100 meters. It was almost silent when firing, and there was no trace of poisoning found during autopsies.
This pistol became a symbol of the CIA's "overstepping" — its research had extended from psychoactive substances to the field of chemical weapons.
Scale and Consequences
Decrypted data shows that during the 20 years the "MK-Ultra" program existed, the CIA launched more than 100 sub-projects related to consciousness control, chemical and biological research.
Most reports have been destroyed, but the remaining documents can still reveal that the CIA systematically experimented on humans under the excuse of "scientific research" — often without the consent of the experimental subjects.
Even in the United States, when the truth was exposed, society was shocked. For many people, the "MK-Ultra" program became a symbol of moral decay in the intelligence community: there, scientific ambition had been distorted into cruel acts.
Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7573627001022579209/
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