Citation Needed - MK Ultra

Episode Date: June 19, 2019

Project MKUltra, also called the CIA mind control program, is the code name given to a program of experiments on human subjects that were designed and undertaken by the United States Central Intelligence Agency—and which were, at times, illegal.[1][2][3] Experiments on humans were intended to identify and develop drugs and procedures to be used in interrogations in order to weaken the individual and force confessions through mind control. The project was organized through the Office of Scientific Intelligence of the CIA and coordinated with the U.S. Army Biological Warfare Laboratories.[4]   Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you’d like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here.  Be sure to check our website for more details.

No, because it goes two bad ones then two good ones. That's the path. So you're saying that the next X-Man movie will be like yes Yeah, good one this come okay, but the end the ending doesn't I don't know Surprise What's this what are you guys doing? Well, okay, so Heath says today's episode is all about mind control We thought we'd tell you about a little project we've been working on for a while. He's gonna like the... Do you remember that first night, the first one that you came to visit Chicago?

Thank you. Yeah, okay, I remember that. Okay, so you had a little bit too much to drink. It's so tough. Guys, guys, I thought we agreed we weren't gonna talk about it. I thought that was the plan. Oh my gosh. It's tight. It's so time. Guys, guys, I thought we agreed we weren't going to talk about it. I thought that was the plan. Oh, it's time. Talk about what? What? Please explain now. I mean, see, so he's literally doing an episode on an ultra. We have to tell him about what what he needs to tell me. Look, guys, I see the irony, but we don't know if we're still

going to need that for a future. So I think maybe we just see Cecil. It's 2019. What would be the point? What are you talking about? I know Noah, but better safe than sorry is all I'm saying on that. Guys, are you just ignored? Do you hear the questions? You know, tell me.

No, Cecil's, maybe he's right. Yeah, plus he probably wants to take it out. Oh, you know, he would want to take it out. You acknowledge me, guys. You acknowledge me guys acknowledge me tell me what happened So so no go no go then guys right? Oh, okay, yeah, okay? Okay guys, let's record you guys ready no go on what yeah, okay take what I am recording recording now recording? That's the button are you listening to me? guys recording now. Recording. That's the button. Are you listening to me?

Guys? Hello and welcome to Citation Needed, the podcast where we choose a subject read a single article about it on Wikipedia and pretend we're experts because this is the internet, and that's how it works now. I'm Noah and I'm gonna be pulling the strings this week but I can't do it without some fellow conspirators. First up, two men under federal observation for unpatriotic pizza preferences, Cecil Anta. under federal observation for unpatriotic pizza preferences, Cecil and Tom. All extra mushrooms, please.

Oh my God. Like all pizza gives me freedom gas now. Well, there you go. There you go. And also joining us tonight are two men under federal observation for the shit that Cecil cuts out of the show in post-production, Heath and Eli. Yeah, Cecil works very closely with William Barr on the edit. I think that's all I'm saying is we get a couple people together and we 2 to 3 times a week 2 to 3 and a week. That is not what you're saying. I guarantee that is not what you end up cats are having been saying.

And before we give you any good reason to want to give us money by actually doing a show for you, I'd like to ask you for money. So please give us money. If you'd like to learn how, be sure to stick around until after we've done the stuff that I'm asking you to pay us for. And with that out of the way, tell us Eli. What person plays think concept

phenomenon or event will we be talking about today? We'll be talking about one of the many, many conspiracies that turned out to be true projects, MK Ultra. Oh, Eli, you're going to pass me on. All right. So, Heath, you've decoded the messages that Forbes and Gulf thijas have been trying to send you through their ads. Are you willing to blow this shit wide open? Ready to go. Let's do this. All right, here's a question I have regretted every time I've ever asked it.

What was Project MK-Ultra? So Project MK-Ultra was a series of experiments conducted by the CIA on human subjects in the US and Canada between 1953 and 1973 in hopes of discovering methods of mind control and enhanced interrogation for use by the military and intelligence communities. And this usually involved the administration of psychoactive drugs like LSD, ecstasy, mescaline, heroin, quailudes, methamphetamine and psilocybin. It's pretty much my favorite 20-year-long government-sponsored drugs giveaway slash torture program.

It's pretty great. Uh, no, what? You're my favorite government-sponsored slash drugs giveaway slash torture program. It's a drugs give away 20 years though okay he quick aside is there is there a website where we sign up we just trust me you already signed up you don't even realize project mk ultra grew out of a similar program called Project Artichoke that started in 1951 and The plan was to find a way of turning a person into a government assassin money I feel like we already had that in 1951 money

Was that a king Abdullah reference maybe interesting Jordan just so money reference so Doola reference maybe interesting Jordan just so money reference so Little Jordan joke hello is this fucking thing Official goal was to answer the following question. This is from one of their internal memos quote Can we get control of an individual to the point where he'll do our bidding against his will and even against fundamental laws of nature such as self-preservation? End quote. Well, that's easy. Just tell him, once they become a millionaire, they'll get a huge tax cut too.

That's super easy. You can do it. Yeah. They're against self-preservation. That's a question. Or, you know, convince him every podcast has to be exactly an hour long. That's what I thought. All of them just, you're the one.

So the US government figured the best way to create a Manchurian candidate capable of infiltrating enemy intelligence groups and carrying out a precision murder of a highly guarded foreign leader. The best way to do that would be a whole bunch of heroin and LSD. Nice. Plus, they also added torture and hypnosis, hoping to further induce amnesia after the murder. Yeah, that makes perfect sense because when I think, who do I trust, I think heroin.

Really, it's like peanut butter chocolate combination. When I think precision I think LSD. So yeah, I'm just gonna have to. So who win win? What? Yes. So apparently project artichoke was not going amazing. And the people in charge said to themselves,

maybe the problem is that everyone's aware that we're giving them a bunch of crazy drugs. So in 1952, they started just randomly dosing CIA operatives without telling them. Yeah, that's the Cosby Initiative. That's what they call it. Alternative name would be Project Rufiies on fire. I don't know. So this plan included one guy who was kept on a continuous acid trip for 77 days Jesus and then on the 78th day they were like You're welcome for the drugs by the way.... any chance you want to murder joseph stalin first and uh... he responded

and uh... and uh... and uh... uh... and so they went back to the drawing board yeah So they went back to the drawing board. Yeah, they're gonna have to think. This poor fucker is fucking tripping balls for two and a half months.

He has no idea why he could taste the way Frog is spelled. Like, what exactly happens next? Like, somebody in charge is looking at a guy in a state of intentionally-induced log terms like coasters and it's like, and he's right okay give him an umbrella gun let's teach him come with let's go yeah and uh... one other aspect of project artichoke was research into the

application of diseases that might create amnesiac assassins or otherwise be useful as biological warfick oh good i was hoping they gave the heroin and acid department some contagious diseases to play with that's just a way well don't worry they did what you were hoping this included experiments with dengue fever among other things. But just be clear, if you're thinking they were doing this just to murder people, that's not true.

According to another declassified memo that we eventually found, quote, not all viruses have to be lethal. The objective includes those that act as short term and long term incapacitating agents also and quote remember kids if you ever cornered in Nellie throw collar in their eyes Yeah, so apparently the CIA got tired of people making fun of the name artichoke and on April 13th 1953 they decided to fire up project mk ultra the mk stands for technical services staff go fuck yourself and the ultra was their

word for super classified stuff during world war two also ultra sounds way more badass than artichoke and again i don't know probably made fun of so at this point the korean war was winding down and our intelligence community was getting reports about soviet chinese and north korean use of mind control on american p o w's and of course the cold war was ramping up so c i a director alan delis decided to go full throttle on paranoid spy stuff

okay sorry so the u.s. government heard about all the horrible torches and dork by our p.o.w.s. and their immediate reaction was got to get us some of that yeah no i scans that is exactly correct it scans yes uh... also side note on alan dullis according to all your friends who think hilly clinton murdered fifty people could only one of them in jillstein if only one of that

that's one that that that that's so according to everyone who's ever said killerly non-ironically that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that Dullis is also responsible for mind control of the population using fluoride and vaccines. He also helped murder Kennedy. He created the Federal Reserve about 40 years after the Federal Reserve was already created. The Fed is a Ponzi scheme, what's a Ponzi scheme? He's also a Kaiser Soze.

He's also a Somal Bin Laden. He's Banksy, and he's a Christian Muslim Jewish atheist lizard alien powered by the Allspark. He's a really good guy. Okay, to be fair, it is kind of hard to defend, tell us, when you got to be like, look, we all agree he was giving people acid to try to create super soldier amnesia expires but spy planes in Iran get real Alex Jones that is a problem

very important valid out i mean allen delis is almost certainly he did a whole bunch of evil things but not those specifically that i mentioned okay so again the cold war is really starting to heat up at this point and temperature is at this point just for the Chernobyl is Chernobyl a temperature right around so the u.s. had recently lost its monopoly on nuclear weapons and the second red scare was in full swing with joe macarthe freaking everyone out

and the paranoia included a rumor that a soviet mole had become a high level official within the cia so they started pouring millions of dollars into a wide variety of projects all over the country often under the guise of unrelated research grants to major universities but behind the scenes they were trying to create a truth serum to catch moles

spooler truth serum is not a thing. That's no can't do that. That's not something that exists. But that didn't stop the CIA from trying a bunch of different angles to make it happen. For fuck's sake, truth serum is the greatest thing we never invented. It's like, honey, I'm home. You've wasted the best years of my life and last night night I dropped you fell off the roof and I was happy. Okay, awesome. Listen, maybe we're just going to stick to pills and white wine. Go back to the office. So, to give you an idea of the scope of the operation, here's a list of objectives from a 1955 MK Ultra document.

Objective one, substances which will promote illogical thinking and impulsiveness to the point where the recipient would be discredited in public. So alcohol. Yeah. Okay. Two, substances which increase the efficiency of mentation and perception.

So, adderol. Yeah. I was gonna say affordable college, but yeah. I'm gonna go to that college. Gonna need some Adderall. Number three, materials which will cause the victim to age faster or slower in maturity. Two and three make me think they read way too many tune books while they're coming up. Objective four, find the gomjabok. Yeah. No. Number four, materials which will promote the intoxicating effect

of alcohol. What? More alcohol. Thank you. Yes. Promote the effect. So hot women with alcohol. Yes.

Guys, guys, we'd like a wheel, but we'd like it to make it round this time and roll. Is there anything we can do? Let's put our heads together. Number five, materials which will produce the signs and symptoms of recognized diseases in a reversible way. So they may be used for malingering, et cetera. Oh, et cetera. Yup. So Facebook. Yeah. Who needs to invent something? Just discredit vaccines, guys.

This is super easy. So Facebook. So funny. So funny. You see these things from the past. I bet spreading false rumors about the health of your opponent would matter in an election. Never mind. I would say that drop tap right out of that idea.

Yeah, I don't tell them. Number six, materials which will cause temporary slash permanent brain damage and loss of memory. I'm sorry, did alcohol not exist in 1955? I was thinking bullets. I'm good at this. I'm glad. Bullets, money, and alcohol are a lot of the stuff we need. Yeah. Number seven, substances which will enhance

the ability of individuals to withstand privation, torture, and coercion during interrogation and so-called brainwashing. Bullets would work there. Yeah, because it really just fits in. Number eight would work there. Yeah, it's really just it's in. Number eight, materials and physical methods which will produce amnesia for events proceeding and during their use. Now that was just easy. It's just gently bump them on the head with a hammer and if that was funny enough, then you're

going to reverse it by hitting them again. The medium hammerhead, it's just that's so fun. That's just universally funny. You gotta listen. Come on. Ah, shit. Get a TV. Yeah. Number nine, physical methods of producing shock

and confusion over extended periods of time and capable of surreptitious use, DVD sets of lost. Oh, soon that hurts. Number number 10 substances which produce physical disabilment such as paralysis of the legs acute Anemia, etc So they think someone's gonna be like this drug is amazing. It makes your legs stop working Sweet can I have a drag? It's not working. Sweet, can I have a drag? Because your legs don't work.

It's a drag, it's a leg. It's terrible. Wow, so it's just... That's all. Just... Number 11, substances which will produce a chemical that can cause blisters. A blister's objective.

This is very clearly a group project idea. They kept so they didn't hurt the feelings of the dumb guy. I got it. I got it. Yeah man, that's a good one. They're all so true. Should we kill that guy or give him a knee-j-na.

Nah, let's give him an ingrown hair in a slight Charlie horse. That'll work. That's what we should do. I'm just picturing like a room fill of trained assassin stroding around and heals one size too small to fill. Yeah! Shafey! God!

And number 12, substances which alter personality structure in such a way that the tendency of the recipient is to become dependent upon another person becomes enhanced. Come. What? Money. Okay, I get the second one, not the first one. All right.

Okay, yeah, we're all gonna pretend we don't get the first one. All right. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. such a type, the individual under its influence will find it difficult to maintain a fabrication under questioning. Okay, he can't lie anymore.

Ask him anything. Well, he's vomiting on himself and hitting on Heath's mom, he lost all standards for personal decencies and empty shell of his former self and capable of basic cognition. He can't lie, but Jesus, he can't do anything else. What the fuck do you give him? To Kayla. Yeah. Come also works for this one. If you don't believe me, let me come on you and see if you can line me in. Go on, keep a straight face.

Uh, for fortices. Substances which will lower the ambition and general working efficiency of men when administered in undetectable amounts. A liberal arts degree. It is always undetectable, yeah. According to ensils, all he needs is a female boss, I guess, for this one. Jesus Christ. Number 15, substances which promote weakness or distortion of the eyesight or hearing faculties, preferably without permanent effects.

Kid Rock concert. Dr. T. 16. A knockout pill which can be surreptitiously administered in drinks, food, cigarettes, as an aerosol, etc., which will be safe to use provide a maximum of amnesia and be suitable for use by agent types on an ad hoc basis. Well, whatever it is, Brock Turner just ordered a case of it. So, yeah. So, basically they tried to build the flashy thing for men in black and failed.

That makes a lot more sense. They tried to build the flashy thing for men and black and failed. That makes a lot more sense. They tried to build an aerosol flashy thing. Yeah. Yep. And finally, number 17, a material which can be surptitiously administered by the above routes and which in very small amounts will make it impossible for a person to perform physical activity. What did they call this one, Heath?

What one? Scotch, right? Scotch Bullets. I was going to say block of cheese, but yeah, okay. I get very distracted. I like to juggle it and eat it and play with it. Start swatting it up a wall. So despite being a super dumb idea and arguably pure evil, the way we were doing it, the CIA decided to focus a lot of its effort during the MK-Ultra project on studying LSD.

They were convinced that they'd be able to make Soviet spies defect against their will, given the perfect version and application of the LSD. And in order to figure out those ideal conditions, they started testing the drug on mental patients, prisoners, drug addicts, and sex workers here in the US. In one example, a mental patient in Kentucky was given acid for 174 days in a row. Holy shit. Yup. The lesson we learned from the 77-day test was that we chickened out too early on that. And just for the record, we were incorrect. The guy in Kentucky also did not kill Stalin or cruise chaff or Fidel Castro. Nor did he defect from not being a spy, whatever that would mean.

It's just like day 175, finally, back to, oh man, I'm still crazy. This is, right. Right. I just love the idea that when selecting their test subjects for this, they chose a Kentucky mental hospital patient circa 1950, like, what the fuck was their control group?

Dr. how's our patient? Ah, not so good, he's hallucinating, he has no concept of time, he spends all day alternating between laughing hysterically and having an endless chain of epiphany is about interconnectedness of things that are in no way connected, so I... Excellent. Let's give that are in no way connected. So I, excellent. Let's give that other guy some LSD. Yes. What?

Yes. So at some point in the late 50s, the CIA decided to go full steam with the LSD research. And we didn't want the Russians doing the same thing. So we bought 10 kilograms of pure LSD. Oh, I'm just a killer. Yeah, just to be clear, it was all the dealers because I want to be very clear about this. That was all of it.

We bought all the assets in the world. And to give you some context, a single dose of acid starts at around forty micrograms yes which means we bought about two hundred fifty million doses of a second uh... cia was trying to decide how much acid they needed and some guy in charge was like

will need enough to dose the entire population of the u-s uh... well also plus uh... some extra for the party later. Call it 75 million doses for the party. So get 250 million doses or all the acid, whichever is more. Oh, it's the same? Great, okay, nailed it. 250 million. That's...

Yeah, just to put that in perspective, to even see that much acid, you would have basically had to hang out with me from 94 all the way through 99 Speaking of which I have to argue with the sapient flowers. They're begging for some dog food again So we're gonna break for a little apropos of nothing. You tell them I Johnson how goes subject X not well, sir. Oh come on guys. I'm doing great. We tried LSD cocaine heroin I feel like the last one was starting to work all to know effects sir No, I get I just a little bit more and I would probably totally be a spy

Damn it What if we up the doses I like this guy? Well, we could try sir But his his dosages are already near lethal so I don't know that that's science It seems we have no choice Record the results then get back to me. I'll be in my office. Yes, sir Yes, sir and bring him some cookies. What? Whoa did you hear what he just said about the cookies? Really Steve. What?

And we're back when we last left off the CIA was looking at a mentally ill Kentucky and on a hundred and seventy three day acid bids and wondering how much more acid it was gonna take to turn him into jet leave what did the intelligence agency do next so mk ultra had a bunch of different sub-projects that we know about. And here's a review of some of those highlights, starting with Operation Midnight Climax. I'm in my mid 40s. Best I can do is Operation 930 Climax. Oh, you're really going to be watching that flex

so to carry out midnight climax the cia set up brothels inside agency safe houses where prostitutes would lure their johns and then spiked their drinks with acid and each room had one way mirrors with agents on the other side observing the resulting behavior and also filming everything for science for science observing the resulting behavior and also filming everything. For science. For science. For science. For science.

I'm gauging it with my penis. I have to hold it up to the thing. Guys. So yeah, they did not discover a way to use the LSD as truth serum because again, you can't. But they did realize that sexual blackmail was even more powerful when people have crazy acid sex. And you get them on. So basically, we figured out the old p-tap technique, except using drugs instead of the typical sober behavior of the president of the United States.

To be clear though, not that there's anything wrong with P stuff. I just want all P-no-shade. That's cool. You know, P stuff. ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Another major facet of MK Ultra was large-scale experimentation on staff members within the US government. Dr. Sidney Gottlieb was the chemist in charge of the operation, and he thought LSD could be used to sabotage a foreign leader by dosing the guy right before an important meeting. So the idea was that like, you know, Khrushchev would get secretly drugged by one of our heroine ninjajas pyro bots cruis jiff would walk into his war room

and he tell his russian generals to cancel all their cold war stuff and focus instead on i don't know communicating with the holographic mermaid who's holding together the fabric of the universe it's not clear whether this ever worked out. Yeah, can you imagine if they tried that on Trump? All right, Mr. President, you ready for your big speech? You know it, Taller. This is going to be the best speech ever.

Oh, Mr. President Inski, I mean, President, I have some water before you go out there. Thank you, person, who I trust entirely. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, who was that guy? Who cares? Time to get out there. People of the United States of America today, I resigned my position as president. I've dis honored this country, I've dis honored my office, and I've done terrible irreparable damage to democracy itself. I'd like to step aside from my recently appointed vice president, Hillary Clinton. Wow, that's, that's a not to go as expected. No, you have any more of that water? No. Oh,

You have any more of that water? No. Oh. Oh. Yeah, so in order to test for useful applications on potential spies, Dr. Gottlieb had a whole bunch of CIA people start taking LSD just to see what might happen. At first, he'd have two people start tripping in a room together and just take notes on each other for hours.

And then it was somebody's job to read those notes. Again, no major breakthroughs. Oh, huh, not a lot of insight in 30 pages of for real. I think I hear, I think I can hear my hair growing right now. Listen, put your hair up to my head. You can hear my hair grow. That's my head. You can hear my hair to roll. Oh, that's my hair. What the fuck, when I get high at work, I get fired. No matter, nobody ever asked for my notes as a mitigate this country.

Wait, I love that so much because getting high and taking notes is my exact job description on the other shows. So, after the consensual testing didn't work out, Gottlieb started dosing his own personnel without their knowledge, just like we did during Project Artichoke. In case it wasn't clear, that's a war crime. A war crime. And a peace crime. It's all the crimes.

That's crime. After World War II, just to be clear, we agreed on something called the Nuremberg Code, which said no doing that. Basically, don't do any Nazi stuff. Well, obviously that went out the window. And pretty soon, surprise acid trips, basically turned into a giant,

ongoing prank war within the CIA. This did not go well. No? Okay, but to be fair, they only had 250 million doses of LSD linger. I mean, when all you have is a hammer, every problem is a shape-shifting burrito filled with crafting crunch.

So that sounds so good right now. And just to give you an idea, how bad of an idea it is to surprise people with LSD, here's a couple examples of what can happen. In one case, an operative got a surprise dose in his coffee, had a psychotic breakdown, and started running through the streets of Washington, D.C., screaming at all the monsters, which was not rational behavior until much more recently. So he literally said, uncivil. Despite that warning sign, we kept going with it we even continue the experiments after an army chemist

named frank ulson uh... fell slash jumped to his death out of a thirteenth floor window following a surprise acid trip side note fell slash jumped might actually mean murdered by the c-i-a-just pin in that for later will okay but i'm not tying yarn around it

alright that's where i draw the line how do these people get anything done i need to get this powerpoint finish but i am terrified of my keyboard right now that i'm typing on loose teeth man loose teeth so no technique experimented with involved injecting a subject with a strong downer in one arm followed by amphetamine in the other arm. Why? Why the other? I know the note. They shoot up the

downer first and when the subject started falling asleep they'd shoot up the speed. Again, I have no idea why this would be useful. Outside of a speedball addict in the department who tricked everyone well you put enough people on lsd in the office and weird shit is gonna start what if we did the cross the meridians left and right well regardless according to somebody clearly just making shit up on Wikipedia with no citation. Quote.

That's me. It was probably like, the person would begin babbling incoherently and it was sometimes possible to ask questions and get useful answers and quote, and no, it was not. No, no, that depends on the question. I bet like, what does abject terror mixed with futility sound like with work for example? I don't know the answer to that. I'm like the CIA here just invented. He's fucking wasted.

Give him a cup of coffee and let him drive home. That's exactly what they invented. So in addition to the drug experiments, MK Ultra also included a few smaller operations that worked with audio-based mind control. One example called the Perfect Concussion Project, medium hammer. That would have been way better than this one. Perfect Concussion was based around the theory that we could blast people with sub-oral frequencies that would erase

their memory. But the research team quickly realized that if something's sub-oral, then you can't hear it. So that was nothing and the program never got carried out. That was an awkward day. It was in the 1960s, Eli's standing there all excited with his speakers. 1960s Heath is like, so what do you think sub means? Another example of sound-based mind control was part of a large MK-ultra experiment that we conducted in Canada.

At some point, somebody in the CIA realized thatians are basically just like americans except without any u.s. constitutional rights uh... hired a british psychiatrist named ono camera who is the creator of something called the psychic driving technique which involved playing a repeating message to the sleeping person in order to reprogram their psyche

you know to quit smoking or murder Fidel Castro. So, also, by the way, did I mention that Cameron was maniacally evil? You have lied it. If it wasn't clear already, yes, he was. He went up to Montreal, he put a bunch of Canadian mental patients into super long drug-induced comas and played them spoken commands on loop. Some of these comas lasted for months at a time, one of them lasted for three months, I think, and obviously this led to a whole bunch of

physical and psychological damage for the subjects. That included amnesia, forgetting how to talk, forgetting their parents, thinking their interrogators were their parents, and incontinence. But again, no amnesiac assassin robots were created. What the, nobody ever explained to this guy that sleep and a coma are different things, are different words.

You can just teach people to kill other people by promising the bottom 10% of every graduating class a chance to see the world in a job it's impossible to be fired from. Unless you trans. We need to go back and give a little love to the Wikipedia article that added incontinence to that. It's like they were forgetting all good stuff. Also, there was shit everywhere. I'm gonna be dead. It's like, ah, ah. Did you shit yourself?

This program's a failure. Oh, that's it. I'm ready to kill Stalin, but I'm shitting everywhere. This is ridiculous. He's gonna smell you, come. You guys got to tweak the coma. Maybe it was a longer coma I need on a bomb. I'm shitting right now, this is crazy.

That's my origin story. And what are the offshoot of MK-Eltra that's worth mentioning was called Project MK Search. In 1964, we decided that MK-Eltra needed its own dedicated wing that was entirely focused on poison The goal was to create biological chemical and radioactive toxins for the purposes of mind control Or just regular murdering with poison either way whatever we could do with those was fine and apparently we did

really well with this project fine. And apparently we did really well with this project or we did terrible and evil depending on how you look at it. By 1971 we did invented over 26,000 new weaponized poisons. That's part of the case search. And to go along with this we also started working on a plan to poison giant flocks of birds with our new stuff and send them into enemy territory to infect everyone. That's why it's called a murder of crows. Right, it's a good one. Report, Cartier of the CIA.

Let's see MK Ultra. Ooh, zero spies. Project Artichoke, zero successes. Project Search 26,000 successes. Great week, guys. Great week guys. Great week. Yeah, it really, really was. That was a success to them. And one last detail about MK Search. Two years into its operation in 1966, somebody decided that the poison research should probably happen in tandem with learning dark magic. So what?

Yeah, we started up a branch of MK Search called Project MK Often, which took over the animal testing part, along with Demon Science. I'm not a here. According to a 2007 book by Gordon Thomas called Secrets and Lies, the CIA wanted to quote explore the world of black magic harness the forces of darkness and challenge the concept that the inner reaches of the mind are beyond reach and quote as part of the operation they hired fortune tellers palm readers clairvoyance astrologistsists, mediums, psychics, demonology

experts, witches, warlocks, and Satanists. Jesus. Okay, so obviously we are the good guys. So as the good guys, let's go ahead and, uh, it's hard as well. We assume and believe are the supernatural forces of perfect evil Like the good guys do that's right it down. I'm just picture to spy in little black glasses Elbow and James Earl Jones. Hey man that dark side shit was that just for the movie or is that something you Project MK ultra finally got shut down in 1973 during the government-wide panic caused by

Watergate. The CIA director at the time was Richard Helms and considering the operation was aggressively evil, he had all the files about MK Ultra destroyed, which was a smart move on his part because in 1974 the New York Times ran a report that accused the CIA of doing a Whole bunch of terrible things that they definitely definitely did and this led to a congressional investigation That eventually uncovered a collection of documents the CIA forgot to shred and proved an enormous series of war crimes and peace crimes and just all the crimes as a result in of war crimes and peace crimes and just all the crimes. As a result, in 1976, President Gerald Ford issued an executive order that said, basically, I can't believe we have to spell this out, but just as a reminder, still, no Nazi-style

experiments on people without their consent. That was the rule the whole time, guys, just again, it's been, we already did this. It's called Nuremberg Code. We really don't want to break things with the word Nuremberg in it. So don't do that. Just some guy high as fuck on LSD, staring at the shredder with that one box of classified documents.

And he's shaking his head back, and they're like, no fucking way that time. Ah! All right, well, that brings us back to frank ulson the guy who fell jumped out of a thirteen floor window and died after being secretly dosed with acid so his family got extra suspicious after all the revelations about mk ultra came out

and they accused the cia i.e. of murder uh... there was never a trial but the ulson family did get a settlement of seven hundred fifty thousand dollars from the u.s. government in nineteen seventy five and they also got a public apology from president for but only about the non-consensual

l.s.d. thing the white house was officially oh not sorry about the murder Which not sorry later found out is pretty much definitely what happened in 1994 Olsen's body was exhumed and cranial injuries were found that suggested he was knocked unconscious Before being thrown out the window and the medical examiner at the time ruled it a homicide based on the new evidence I'm sorry. What do you mean you guys tried killing him? Okay, to be fair we were all on a ton of acid That's just I'm thinking to myself. I've been tripping enough to hit myself on the head and throw myself out of window before So that's not necessarily a homicide. So MK Ultra had plenty of consequences that were arguably fairly negative. Oh really?

The sure rights violations, the dead people blah blah blah blah blah. But there was a fun upshot. And it was largely thanks to the American novelist essayist proto-hippy Ken Keezy. While he was studying at Stanford, Keezy actually volunteered for some LSD experiments that turned out to be part of MK-Ultra. And based on this experience, he became a major force in making recreational LSD into a big part of the counter-culture movement of the 60s and 70s.ies basically he took a bunch of the free government acid and started telling everyone hey um...

this stuff is fucking great if you're not a weird interrogation room with nerds it's actually good for that too but it even makes shitty jam bands sound good and uh... he started hosting giant lsd parties called acid tests and getting a whole generation into the drug

yet sure but try getting some in new york in twenty seventeen uh... twenty nineteen was a while and look at her minute and uh... by the way one other prominent subject of the lsd testing at stanford along with ken kizzi, was musician Robert Hunter, known for his work with the great full dead. That's shinin'. And Jam Bann, you were just talkin' about.

Oh, how dare you. Down low number. Say so more like some email. Just throw it on the list. Just throw it on the list. American Beauty is just timeless, anyway. So, Hunter also helped spread the word about how the CIA accidentally made their

truth serum experiment into an intro course on a super fun drug. Hunter described the acid trip experience as follows. This is just beautiful, so I gotta give you this quote. Here's what he said. Picture yourself swooping up a shell of purple with foam crests of crystal drops. Soft nigh, they fall onto the sea of morning creep very softly mist. And then sort of cascade, tinkly bell-like, must I take you by the hand, ever so slowly type, and then conglomerate suddenly into a peel of silver, vibrant, uncomprehendingly,

blood singingly, joyously resounding bells By my faith if this be insanity then for the love of God permit me to remain insane and quote So what renders you verbally illiterate Slam poet ever Super into the seasons of friends I feel like a god whatever into the seasons of friends i feel like a you've got a really watch man he always make sense

all right so he if you had to summarize what we've learned today in what sentence what would it be they were on a break They were on a break. They were on a break. No, seriously, I learned that MK Ultra was a terrible CIA project that did get revealed. That's key. All right, you're a subset of some other larger group of things. And that's what we do here in the United States. All right, so are you ready for a quiz from our panel? Ready for a quiz. in our states. All right, Jory, you ready for a quiz from our panel? Ready for a quiz.

All right, Heath, what's the worst part about working at the CIA? A, they're so straight laced. Laced is what you do, right? So you want it. You get it, you get it. Heath gets me. Okay, B, they keep tabs in you.

See, on tabs, unplanned business trips, or D. The president doesn't believe you when you tell him another government is meddling in our Surs D it feels like D. I'm gonna go secret answer E Getting assigned to find a tape of a p-taped not existing, a tape of that not happening. That is correct. That is correct. All right, Heath. CIA obviously has our best interest at heart.

Unless, thank you. Okay. You are a member of a hostile foreign government. B, mentally ill, a drug addict drug addict a sex worker or a prisoner c in the c-i-a no seriously it's like a frat hazing if the frat house was on a boat sailing in international waters and everyone is a cycle path

uh... yeah okay i think i might go with uh... e again which is one is a cycle path. Yeah. Uh, yeah. Okay, I think I might go with, uh, E again, which is reject the premise about the best interest at heart. So, well, so D, I guess. Yeah, weapons grade, frat house. D. Weapons grade, frat house it is. All right.

Heath, what part of doing LSD did MK Ultra fail to explore in their experiments. Interesting. Is it A, the human capability for waiting on a couch while a guy goes to get drugs? Is it B, how long the average patient takes to think, God, I fucking hope that was LSD. See, the exact ratio of dude who's freaking out to people who are not freaking out, it takes to ruin a party. And T. There's an important one, the bees in my teeth. Yeah. Well, with C, the ratio, I feel like the party can just go on. It just becomes a different party whichever way you move that ratio, but it's still. It's a party, right?

I'm saying it's A, the capacity for waiting on the couch, because if you told me to murder Castro while I'm on that couch and I'm trying to deal with that fucking weird girl from the perfume ad, she's somehow in black and white and she she she's got tuberculosis she's snifffully I probably figure out a way to murder Castro at that point. That's very very convincing but unfortunately all answers are secret answers when you're on acid so it's quibble. Man. Alright well as soon as Heath implied that it would take more than one freaking out dude to ruin the fucking party

We knew that Eli was gonna be the winner here. So Eli you are the winner and you get to pick next week's essayist Ooh, I'm gonna go with Noah. Oh Alright fine. Well for Cecil Tom Eli and he's done. No one thing can you for hanging out with us today? We'll be back next week and by, I'll be an expert on some notes. You should also listen to us say more words on other shows too. And if you'd like to help keep this show going, you can make a prepsidination at patreon.com slash

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