MK-Ultra

Random memory time!

When I was in college, I had to write a research paper, the subject matter had to be something from the 60s. It was the final paper for the class and would account for a ridiculous portion of the final grade. The professor was extremely conservative, and didn’t appreciate an outspoken, pierced, tattooed chick with a purple mohawk in her very distinguished honors English 101 class. Let’s just say we would butt heads often. So, being the sarcastic, somewhat vindictive rebel that I was, I decided to fuck with her and write a kick ass paper on how the use of LSD became popular in that timeframe and imagined the mental pain it would cause her to have to give me an A on the paper and in the class all because of a paper about illicit drug use.

I started researching. The main topic was going to be Timothy Leary, his impressive education and career, and the fact that he would encourage people to do acid. However, my research took a turn in a whole different direction when I came across something about classified CIA experiments with LSD. (They were declassified in the early 2000s) I dug into it, and oh my, the things I found!

During the project code named MK-Ultra, the goal was to find an effective method of mind control or a type of truth serum. Initial efforts focused on LSD, and included sometimes unwitting subjects from both the US and Canada. The “research” also employed other hallucinogens, as well as shock therapy, and various forms of torture. They expanded to include some crazy shit with barbiturates and amphetamines administered back to back in an effort to produce an uninhibited state where the subject would just answer questions truthfully. They also would tape therapy sessions, give the subject LSD, then put them in a sensory deprivation tank or solitary confinement and play back the most horrible moments from the taped therapy on a loop, just to see how that would impact the person. Seriously sick shit – several people died as a result of this fucking insane quest for mind control.

I wound up writing a killer, scathing research paper about this project. And yes, I got an A, albeit with some disparaging comments from the professor about the opinions insinuated in the paper.