Victims of MKULTRA don't usually get high-level briefings about the program, but I was given glimpses of what those psychopaths were up to because, for one, my direct handler had a penchant for bragging. Also, although I was only a boy when they started on me, I had a central role in advancing the techniques used on me; my ability to resist their demands on my intellect was diminished by the controls they placed on me.
Some personal observations:
- Don't believe anything about which division of which agency is up to what. The intelligence community is a shell game, and everyone of consequence has a license to compartmentalize, which means they lie about what they are doing and for whom, even to their colleagues and official superiors.
- At some point in mid-1970s a large contingent of MKULTRA, perhaps the whole remnant, decamped from the Central Intelligence Agency. From what I can tell through my tiny peekhole, they lost none of their access to facilities and assets but lost all of their accountability.
- The article is spot-on about how underappreciated the role of hypnosis is. In MKULTRA, psychology is not the science of the mind but the art of human control. Hypnosis offers the preferred leash where individuals are compelled to specific acts. I was told that the intelligence community intended to misdirect the entire academic community of psychology, distorting their research to detract attention from the proprietary techniques used by intelligence operatives; I don't know if they did.
- I've been subjected to a range of what is called torture. No one will admit it, but torture is just a recreation for the psychopath within. At most, it's a crude adjunct to clever manipulation. That said, there is nothing comparable physical pain so severe and widespread that it overwhelms your ability to retain a central identity. The desperation turns you sideways to time.
- Hypnosis doesn't scale for control of populations, but many of the refinements of instructions for hypnotics improved the handbooks of propaganda.
This conclusion to the article rings true:
>"The essence of the matter is that America’s mind control saga is not confined to the annals of CIA history, or even CIA torture rooms. In psychiatry, in social science, in the entertainment business and in social media, MKULTRA is the fabric of our lives."
Some personal observations:
- I've been subjected to a range of what is called torture. No one will admit it, but torture is just a recreation for the psychopath within. At most, it's a crude adjunct to clever manipulation. That said, there is nothing comparable physical pain so severe and widespread that it overwhelms your ability to retain a central identity. The desperation turns you sideways to time.- Hypnosis doesn't scale for control of populations, but many of the refinements of instructions for hypnotics improved the handbooks of propaganda.
This conclusion to the article rings true: >"The essence of the matter is that America’s mind control saga is not confined to the annals of CIA history, or even CIA torture rooms. In psychiatry, in social science, in the entertainment business and in social media, MKULTRA is the fabric of our lives."
[edited for paragraphing]