In this edition of Doom Tech, we are looking at the sinister MK-Ultra project - a secret government experiment full of torture, and even death.
It was an attempt by American spy agency CIA to find ways to control people's minds. The project was secretly launched in 1953 to develop and weaponise mind control technology.
The frightening operation continued for over a decade before finally being shut down amid repeated failure. Although many damning documents were destroyed by the CIA in the 1970s, some papers survived, offering a horrific picture.
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MK-Ultra included 162 projects which were conducted separately. Secret detention centres were reportedly built in many places in Europe and East Asia. Prisoners, sex workers, and unwitting psychiatric patients were allegedly used as test subjects. These experiments were done at centres in Japan, Germany, and the Philippines.
Project contracts were also given to universities, and research foundations. Around 80 institutions, and 185 researchers reportedly participated in the studies. In true CIA fashion, many participants were unaware that they were working with, or for, the American spy agency.
So how exactly did CIA try to control people's minds? The methods were not very scientific, according to experts. Journalist Stephen Kinzer, who wrote a book on MK-Ultra, said that the project chief, a chemist named Sidney Gottlieb believed that to control someone's mind, their existing mind had to be destroyed, and a new one inserted in its place.
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To "redesign" people's minds, they were given psychedelic drugs like LSD, MDMA, and mescaline. Heroin, barbiturates, methamphetamine, and psilocybin mushrooms were also allegedly used. In addition, people were subjected to dangerous techniques like extreme electroshock therapy. Sensory isolation, and exposure to extreme temperatures were also used in the experiments.
One of the most chilling parts of MK-Ultra was Operation Midnight Climax. Reports say that CIA used sex workers to lure subjects to a safe house. There, the targets were dosed with drugs like LSD, and observed by CIA agents.
But what exactly prompted the CIA to want to develop and harness mind control?
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Engaged in a Cold War with the Soviet Union, American authorities started suspecting that the USSR had developed mind-control technology. This belief was reportedly bolstered by the behaviour of some American prisoners-of-war who returned to the US after the Korea war. These POWs appeared "brainwashed" and "espoused" Communist propaganda.
CIA's MK-Ultra project was also inspired by experiments in Nazi and Japanese concentration camps, according to Stephen Kinzer. The CIA even hired people who had worked at these concentration camps. Nazi doctors who had experimented with mescaline were employed by the CIA to help with MK-Ultra, as per Kinzer's book.
In a self-incriminating statement, CIA director Stansfield Turner reportedly admitted in 1977 that MK-Ultra was kept secret because of ethical and legal questions around it. He also said that the CIA feared backlash from the public if MK-Ultra was exposed.
As expected, the agency's stated objectives behind MK-Ultra were full of euphemisms. The spy agency said that it wanted to study the alteration of human behaviour using various substances. The CIA wanted to see if drugs could make hypnotising someone easier, and whether some substances could enhance a person's ability to withstand torture.
The agency also wanted to see if drugs could produce amnesia, shock, and confusion. Another objective was to see if some substances could promote the intoxicating effects of alcohol.
After around a decade of failed inhuman experiments, MK-Ultra's chief Sidney Gottlieb decided that mind-control was impossible. Although efforts were made to brush the project under the carpet, the truth eventually emerged.
The US Senate held a hearing on MK-Ultra in the 1970s, and drew some damning conclusions. Senators called MK-Ultra a "massive abridgement of the rights of American citizens". The project was held guilty of showing "fundamental disregard for the value of human life". The Senate noted that the deaths of at least two Americans could be attributed to the programs, and other participants might still suffer from "residual effects".
Despite the unimaginable trauma caused to MK-Ultra test subjects, none of the CIA bigwigs allegedly responsible for the project faced any punishment, reports say.
Because of its mysterious nature, and almost supernatural objectives, MK-Ultra has featured in American pop culture. MK-Ultra is a part of the plot of the Netflix series 'Stranger Things'. Its creators told Rolling Stone magazine that they wanted the show "grounded in science in some way". In the show, a protagonist's mother is depicted as an MK-Ultra test subject. A character named Eleven has special abilities because of the experiments.
Failure to fix accountability for such a barbaric project is one of the darkest blots in the history of a country which calls itself "land of the free and home of the brave".