The Controllers
A new hypothesis of Alien Abduction
by Martin Cannon
I. Introduction
One wag has dubbed the problem "Terra and the Pirates."
The pirates, ostensibly, are marauders from another solar system; their
victims include a growing number of troubled human beings who insist that
they've been shanghaied by these otherworldly visitors. An outlandish scenario
- yet through the works of such authors as Budd Hopkins1 and
Whitley Strieber,2 the "alien abduction" syndrome
has seized the public imagination. Indeed, tales of UFO contact threaten to
lapse into fashionability, even though, as I have elsewhere noted,3
they may still inflict a formidable social price upon the claimant.
Some time ago, I began to research these claims, concentrating my studies
on the social and political environment surrounding these events. As I studied,
the project grew and its scope widened. Indeed, I began to feel as though I'd
gone digging through familiar terrain only to unearth Gomorrah.
These excavations may have disgorged a solution.
The Problem
Among ufologists, the term "abduction" has come to refer to an
infinitely confounding experience, or matrix of experiences, shared by a
dizzying number of individuals, who claim that travellers from the stars have
scooped them out of their beds, or snatched them from their cars, and subjected
them to interrogations, quasi-medical examinations, and "instruction"
periods. Usually, these sessions are said to occur within alien spacecraft;
frequently, the stories include terrifying details reminiscent of the tortures
inflicted in Germany's death camps. The abductees often (though not always)
lose all memory of these events; they find themselves back in their cars or
beds, unable to account for hours of "missing time." Hypnosis, or
some other trigger, can bring back these haunted hours in an explosion of
recollection - and as the smoke clears, an abductee will often spot a trail of
similar experiences, stretching all the way back to childhood.
Perhaps the oddest fact of these odd tales: Many abductees, for all their
vividly-recollected agonies, claim to love their alien tormentors. That's the
word I've heard repeatedly: love.
Within the community of "scientific ufologists" - those lonely,
all too little-heard advocates of reasonable and open-minded debate on matters
saucerological - these claims have elicited cautious interest and a commendable
restraint from conclusion-hopping. Outside the higher realms of scientific
ufology, the situation is, alas, quite different. In the popular press, in both
the "straight" and sensationalist media, within that journalistic
realm where issues are defined and public opinion solidified (despite a
frequently superficial approach to matters of evidence and investigation)
abduction scenarios have elicited two basic reactions: that of the Believer and
the Skeptic.
The Believers - and here we should note that "Believers" and "abductees"
are two groups whose memberships overlap but are in no way congruent - accept
such stories at face value. They accept, despite the seeming absurdity of these
tales, the internal contradictions, the askew logic of narrative construction,
the severe discontinuity of emotional response to the actions described. The
Believers believe, despite reports that their beloved "space brothers"
use vile and inhuman tactics of medical examination - senseless procedures most
of us (and certainly the vanguard of an advanced race) would be ashamed to
inflict on an animal. The Believers believe, despite the difficulty of
reconciling these unsettling tales with their own deliriums of benevolent
off-worlders.
Occasionally, the rough notes of a rationalization are offered: "The
aliens don't know what they are doing," we hear; or "Some aliens are
bad." Yet the Believers confound their own reasoning when they insist on
ascribing the wisdom of the ages and the beneficence of the angels to their
beloved visitors. The aliens allegedly know enough about our society to go
about their business undetected by the local authorities and the general
public; they communicate with the abductees in human tongue; they concern
themselves with details of the percipients' innermost lives - yet they remain
so ignorant of our culture as to be unaware of the basic moral precepts
concerning the dignity of the individual and the right to self-determination.
Such dichotomies don't bother the Believers; they are the faithful, and faith
is assumed to have its mysteries.
Sancta Simplicitas
Conversely, the Skeptics dismiss these stories out of hand. They dismiss,
despite the intriguing confirmatory details: the multiple witness events, the
physical traces left by the ufonauts, the scars and implants left on the
abductees. The skeptics scoff, though the abductees tell stories similar in
detail - even certain tiny details, not known to the general public.
Philip Klass is a debunker who, through his appearances on such television
programs as NOVA and NIGHTLINE, has been in a position to affect much of the
public debate on UFOs. In his interesting but poorly-documented work on
abductions,4 Klass claims that "abduction" is a
psychological disease, spread by those who write about it. This argument
exactly resembles the professional press-basher's frequent assertion that
terrorism metastasizes through media exposure. Yet for all the millions of
words expectorated by newsfolk on the subject of terrorism, terrorist actions
remain quite rare, as any statistician (though few politicians) will admit, and
verifiable linkage between crimes and their coverage remains to be found. For
that matter, there have been books - bestsellers, even - on unicorns and
gnomes. People who claim to see those creatures are few. Abductees are
plentiful.
Both Believer and Skeptic, in my opinion, miss the real story. Both make
the same mistake: They connect the abduction phenomenon to the forty-year
history of UFO sightings, and they apply their prejudices about the latter to
the controversy about the former.
At first sight, the link seems natural. Shouldn't our thoughts about UFOs
color our thoughts about UFO abductions?
No.
They may well be separate issues. Or, rather, they are connected only in
this: The myth of the UFO has provided an effective cover story for an entirely
different sort of mystery. Remove yourself from the Believer/Skeptic dialectic,
and you will see the third alternative.
As we examine this alternative, we will, of necessity, stray far from the
saucers. We must turn our face from the paranormal and concentrate on the
occult - if, by "occult," we mean secret.
I posit that the abductees have been abducted. Yet they are also
spewing fantasy - or, more precisely, they have been given a set of lies to
repeat and believe. If my hypothesis proves true, then we must accept the
following: The kidnapping is real. The fear is real. The pain is real. The
instruction is real. But the little grey men from Zeti Reticuli are not
real; they are constructs, Halloween masks meant to disguise the real faces of
the controllers. The abductors may not be visitors from Beyond; rather, they
may be a symptom of the carcinoma which blackens our body politic.
The fault lies not in our stars, but in ourselves.
The Hypothesis
Substantial evidence exists linking members of this country's intelligence
community (including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Advanvced
Research Projects Agency, and the Office of Naval Intelligence) with the
esoteric technology of mind control. For decades, "spy-chiatrists"
working behind the scenes - on college campuses, in CIA-sponsored institutes,
and (most heinously) in prisons - have experimented with the erasure of memory,
hypnotic resistance to torture, truth serums, post-hypnotic suggestion, rapid
induction of hypnosis, electronic stimulation of the brain, non-ionizing
radiation, microwave induction of intracerebral "voices," and a host
of even more disturbing technologies. Some of the projects exploring these
areas were ARTICHOKE, BLUEBIRD, PANDORA,
MKDELTA, MKSEARCH and the infamous MKULTRA.
I have read nearly every available book on these projects, as well as the
relevant congressional testimony5. I have also spent much
time in university libraries researching relevant articles, contacting other
researchers (who have graciously allowed me access to their files), and
conducting interviews. Moreover, I traveled to Washington, DC to review the
files John Marks compiled when he wrote THE SEARCH FOR "THE MANCHURIAN
CANDIDATE."6 These files include some 20,000 pages of
CIA and Defense Department documents, interviews, scientific articles, letters,
etc. The views presented here are the result of extensive and ongoing research.
As a result of this research, I have come to the following conclusions:
- Although misleading (and occasionally perjured) testimony before Congress
indicated that the CIA's "brainwashing" efforts met with little
success,7 striking advances were, in fact, made in this
field. As CIA veteran Miles Copeland once admitted to a reporter, "The
congressional subcommittee which went into this sort of thing got only the
barest glimpse." 8
- Clandestine research into thought manipulation has NOT stopped, despite
CIA protestations that it no longer sponsors such studies. Victor Marchetti,
14-year veteran of the CIA and author of the renown expose, THE CIA AND THE
CULT OF INTELLIGENCE, confirmed in a 1977 interview that the mind control
research continues, and that CIA claims to the contrary are a "cover
story." 9
- The Central Intelligence Agency was not the only government agency
involved in this research.10 Indeed, many branches of our
government took part in these studies - including NASA, the Atomic Energy
Commission, as well as all branches of the Defense Department.
To these conclusions I would append the following - not as firmly
established historical fact, but as a working hypothesis and grounds for
investigation:
- The "UFO abduction" phenomenon might be a continuation
of clandestine mind control operations.
I recognize the difficulties this thesis might present to those readers
emotionally wedded to the extraterrestrial hypothesis, or to those whose
political WELTANSHAUUNG disallows any such suspicions. Still, the openminded
student of abductions should consider the possibilities. Certainly, we are not
being narrow-minded if we ask researchers to exhaust ALL terrestrial
explanations before looking heavenward.
Granted, this particular explanation may, at first, seem as bizarre as the
phenomenon itself. But I invite the skeptical reader to examine the work of
George Estabrooks, a seminal theorist on the use of hypnosis in warfare, and a
veteran of Project MKULTRA. Estabrooks once amused himself during a
party by covertly hypnotizing two friends, who were led to believe that the
Prime Minister of England had just arrived; Estabrooks' victims spent an hour
conversing with, and even serving drinks to, the esteemed visitor.11
For ufologists, this incident raises an inescapable question: If the Mesmeric
arts can successfully evoke a non-existent Prime Minister, why can't a
representative from the Pleiades be similarly induced?
But there is much more to the present day technology of mind control than
mere hypnosis - and many good reasons to suspect that UFO abduction accounts
are an artifact of continuing brainwashing/behavior modification experiments.
Moreover, I intend to demonstrate that, by using UFO mythology as a cover
story, the experimenters may have solved the major problem with the work
conducted in the 1950s - "the disposal problem," i.e., the question
of "What do we do with the victims?"
If, in these pages, I seem to stray from the subject of the saucers, I
plead for patience. Before I attempt to link UFO abductions with mind control
experiments, I must first show that this technology
exists. Much of the forthcoming is an introduction to the topic of mind
control - what it is, and how it works.
II. The Technology
A Brief Overview
In the early days of World War II, George Estabrooks, of Colgate
University, wrote to the Department of War, describing in breathless terms the
possible uses of hypnosis in warfare.12 The Army was
intrigued; Estabrooks had a job. The true history of Estabrooks' wartime
collaboration with the CID, FBI.13 and other agencies may
never be told: After the war, he burned his diary pages covering the years
1940-45, and thereafter avoided discussing his continuing government work with
anyone, even close members of the family.14 Occasionally, he
strongly intimated that his work involved the creation of hypno-programmed
couriers and hypnotically-induced split personalities, but whether he succeeded
in these areas remains a controversial point. Nevertheless, the eccentric and
flamboyant Estabrooks remains a pivotal figure in the early history of
clandestine behavioral research.
Which is not to say that he worked alone. World War II was the first
conflict in which the human brain became a field of battle, where invading
forces were led by the most notable names in psychology and pharmacology. On
both sides, the war spurred furious efforts to create a "truth drug"
for use in interrogating prisoners. General William "Wild Bill"
Donovan, director of the OSS, tasked his crack team - including Dr. Winifred
Overhulser, Dr. Edward Strecker, Harry J. Anslinger and George White - to
modify human perception and behavior through chemical means; their "medicine
cabinet" included scopolamine, peyote, barbiturates, mescaline, and
marijuana. (This research had its amusing side: Donovan's "psychic
warriors" conducted many extensive and expensive trials before deciding
that the best method of administering tetrahydrocannibinol, the active
ingredient in marijuana, was via the cigarette. Any jazz musician could have
told them as much.15)
Simultaneously, the notorious Nazi doctors at Dachau experimented with
mescaline as a means of eliminating the victim's will to resist. Jews, slavs,
gypsies, and other "Untermenschen" in the camp were surreptitiously
slipped the drug; later, mescaline was combined with hypnosis.16
The results of these tests were made available to the United States after the
War.
In 1947, the Navy conducted the first known post-war mind control program,
Project CHAPTER, which continued the drug experiments. Decades later,
journalists and investigators still haven't uncovered much information about
this project - or, indeed, about any of the military's other excursions into
this field. We know that the Army eventually founded operations THIRD
CHANCE and DERBY HAT; other project names remain mysterious, though
the existence of these programs is unquestionable.
The newly-formed CIA plunged into this cesspool in 1950, with Project BLUEBIRD,
rechristened ARTICHOKE in 1951. To establish a "cover story"
for this research, the CIA funded a propaganda effort designed to convince the
world that the Communist Bloc had devised insidious new methods of re-shaping
the human will; the CIA's own efforts could therefore, if exposed, be explained
as an attempt to "catch up" with Soviet and Chinese work. The primary
promoter of this "line" was one Edward Hunter, a CIA contract
employee operating undercover as a journalist, and, later, a prominent member
of the John Birch society. (Hunter was an OSS veteran of the China theatre -
the same spawning grounds which produced Richard Helms, Howard Hunt, Mitch
WerBell, Fred Chrisman, Paul Helliwell and a host of other noteworthies who
came to dominate that strange land where the worlds of intelligence and
right-wing extremism meet.17)
Hunter offered "brainwashing" as the explanation for the numerous
confessions signed by American prisoners of war during the Korean War and
(generally) UN-recanted upon the prisoners' repatriation. These confessions
alleged that the United States used germ warfare in the Korean conflict, a
claim which the American public of the time found impossible to accept. Many
years later, however, investigative reporters discovered that Japan's germ
warfare specialists (who had wreaked incalculable terror on the conquered
Chinese during WWII) had been mustered into the American national security
apparat - and that the knowledge gleaned from Japan's horrifying germ warfare
experiments probably WAS used in Korea, just as the "brainwashed"
soldiers had indicated.18 Thus, we now know that the entire
brainwashing scare of the 1950s constituted a CIA hoax perpetrated upon the
American public: CIA deputy director Richard Helms admitted as much when, in
1963, he told the Warren Commission that Soviet mind control research
consistently lagged years behind American efforts.19
When the CIA's mind control program was transferred from the Office of
Security to the Technical Services Staff (TSS) in 1953, the name changed again
- to MKULTRA.20 Many consider this wide-ranging "octopus"
project - whose tentacles twined through the corridors of numerous universities
and around the necks of an army of scientists - the most ominous operation in
CIA's catalogue of atrocity. Through MKULTRA, the Agency created an
umbrella program of a positively Joycean scope, designed to ferret out all
possible means of invading what George Orwell once called "the space
between our ears" (Later still, in 1962, mind control research was
transferred to the Office of Research and Development; project cryptonyms
remain unrevealed.21)
What was studied? Everything - including hypnosis, conditioning, sensory
deprivation, drugs, religious cults, microwaves, psychosurgery, brain implants,
and even ESP. When MKULTRA "leaked" to the public during the
great CIA investigations of the 1970s, public attention focused most heavily on
drug experimentation and the work with ESP.22 Mystery still
shrouds another area of study, the area which seems to have most interested
ORD: psychoelectronics. This research may prove key to our understanding of
the UFO abduction phenomenon.
Implants
Perhaps the most interesting pieces of evidence surrounding the abduction
phenomenon are the intracerebral implants allegedly visible in the X-rays and
MRI scans of many abductees.23 Indeed, abductees often
describe operations in which needles are inserted into the brain; more
frequently still, they report implantation of foreign objects through the sinus
cavities. Many abduction specialists assume that these intracranial incursions
must be the handiwork of scientists from the stars. Unfortunately, these
researchers have failed to familiarize themselves with certain little-heralded
advances in terrestrial technology.
The abductees' implants strongly suggest a technological lineage which can
be traced to a device known as a "stimoceiver," invented in the late
'50s-early '60s by a neuroscientist named Jose Delgado. The stimoceiver is a
miniature depth electrode which can receive and transmit electronic signals
over FM radio waves. By stimulating a correctly-positioned stimoceiver, an
outside operator can wield a surprising degree of control over the subject's
responses.
The most famous example of the stimoceiver in action occurred in a Madrid
bull ring. Delgado "wired" the bull before stepping into the ring,
entirely unprotected. Furious for gore, the bull charged toward the doctor -
then stopped, just before reaching him. The technician-turned-toreador had
halted the animal by simply pushing a button on a black box, held in the hand.24
Delgado's PHYSICAL CONTROL OF THE MIND: TOWARD A PSYCHOCIVILISED SOCIETY25 remains the sole, full-length, popularly-written work on
intracerebral implants and electronic stimulation of the brain (ESB). (The
book's ominous title and unconvincing philosophical rationales for mass mind
control prompted an unfavorable public reaction - which may have deterred other
researchers from publishing on this theme for a general audience.) While
subsequent work has long since superceded the techniques described in this
book, Delgado's achievements were seminal. His animal and human experiments
clearly demonstrate that the experimenter can electronically induce emotions
and behavior: Under certain conditions, the extremes of temperament - rage,
lust, fatigue, etc. - can be elicited by an outside operator as easily as an
organist might call forth a C-major chord.
Delgado writes: "Radio stimulation of different points in the amygdala
and hippocampus in the four patients produced a variety of effects, including
pleasant sensations, elation, deep, thoughtful concentration, odd feelings,
super relaxation, colored visions, and other responses."26
The evocative phrase "colored vision" clearly indicates
remotely-induced hallucination; we will detail later how these hallucinations
may be "controlled" by an outside operator.
Speaking in 1966 - and reflecting research undertaken years previous -
Delgado asserted that his experiments "support the distasteful conclusion
that motion, emotion, and behavior can be directed by electrical forces and
that humans can be controlled like robots by push buttons."27
He even prophesied a day when brain control could be turned over to non-human
operators, by establishing two-way radio communication between the implanted
brain and a computer.28
Of one experimental subject, Delgado notes that "the patient expressed
the successive sensations of fainting, fright and floating around. These
'floating' feelings were repeatedly evoked on different days by stimulation of
the same point..."2930 Under subsequent hypnosis,
the abductee could be instructed to misremember the cause of this floating
sensation.
Ufologists may recognize the
similarity of this sequence of events to abductee reports of the opening
minutes of their experiences.
In a fascinating series of experiments, Delgado attached the stimoceiver to
the tympanic membrane, thereby transforming the ear into a sort of microphone.
An assistant would whisper "How are you?" into the ear of a suitably "fixed"
cat, and Delgado could hear the words over a loudspeaker in the next room. The
application of this technology to the spy trade should be readily apparent.
According to Victor Marchetti, The Agency once attempted a highly-sophisticated
extension of this basic idea, in which radio implants were attached to a cat's
cochlea, to facilitate the pinpointing of specific conversations, freed from
extraneous surrounding noises.31 Such "advances"
exacerbate the already-imposing level of Twentieth-Century paranoia: Not only
can our phones be tapped and mail checked, but even tabby may be spying
on us!
Yet the ramifications of this technology may go even deeper than Marchetti
indicates. I presume that if a suitably-wired subject's inner ear can be made
into a microphone, it can also be made into a loudspeaker - one possible
explanation for the "voices" heard by abductees.32
Indeed, I have personally viewed a strange, opalescent implant within the ear
canal of an abductee. I see no reason to ascribe this device to alien intrusion
- more than likely, the "intruders" in this case were the
technological inheritors of the Delgado legacy. Indeed, not many years after
Delgado's experiments with the cat, Ralph Schwitzgebel devised a "bug-in-the-ear"
via which the therapist - odd term, under the circumstances - can communicate
with his subject.33
Other researchers have made notable contributions to this field.
Robert G. Heath, of Tulane University, who has implanted as many as 125
electrodes in his subjects, achieved his greatest notoriety by attempting to "cure"
homosexuality through ESB. In his experiments, he discovered that he could
control his patients' memory, (a feat which, applied in the ufological context,
may account for the phenomenon of "missing time"); he could also
induce sexual arousal, fear, pleasure, and hallucinations.34
Heath and another researcher, James Olds,35 have
independently illustrated that areas of the brain in and near the hypothalamus
have, when electronically stimulated, what has been described as "rewarding"
and "aversive" effects. Both animals and men, when given the means to
induce their own ESB of the brain's pleasure centers, will stimulate themselves
at a tremendous rate, ignoring such basic drives as hunger and thirst.36 (Using fixed electrodes of his own invention, John C. Lilly
had accomplished similar effects in the early 1950s.37)
Anyone who has studied the abduction phenomenon will find himself on familiar
territory here, for the abductee accounts are replete with stories of
bewildering and inappropriate sexual response countered by extremely painful
stimuli - operant conditioning, at its most extreme, and most insidious, for
here we see a form of conditioning in which the manipulator renders himself
invisible. Indeed, B.F. Skinner-esque aversive therapy, remotely appiled, was
Heath's prescription for "healing" homosexuality.38
Ralph Schwitzgebel and his brother Robert have produced a panoply of
devices for tracking individuals over long ranges; they may be considered the
creators of the "electronic house arrest" devices recently approved
by the courts.3940 thereby lifting the distance
limitations which restricted Delgado.
Schwitzgebel devices could be used for
tracking all the physical and neurological signs of a "patient"
within a quarter of a mile,
In Ralph Schwitzgebel's initial work, application of this technology to ESB
seems to have been limited to cumbersome brain implants with protruding wires.
But the technology was soon miniaturized, and a scheme was proposed whereby
radio receivers would be mounted on utility poles throughout a given city,
thereby providing 24-hour-a-day monitoring capability[41]. Like Heath,
Schwitzgebel was much exercised about homosexuality and the use of intracranial
devices to combat sexual deviation. But he has also spoken ominously about
applying his devices to "socially troublesome persons"... which, of
course, could mean anyone.42
Bryan Robinson, of the Yerkes primate laboratory has conducted fascinating
simian research on the use of remote ESB in a social context. He could cause
mothers to ignore their offspring, despite the babies' cries. He could turn
submission into dominance, and vice-versa.43
Perhaps the most disturbing wanderer into this mind-field is Joseph A.
Meyer, of the National Security Agency, the most formidable and secretive
component of America's national security complex. Meyer has proposed implanting
roughly half of all Americans arrested - not necessarily convicted - of any
crime; the numbers of "subscribers" (his euphemism) would run into
the tens of millions. "Subscribers" could be monitored continually by
computer wherever they went. Meyer, who has carefully worked out the economics
of his mass-implantation system, asserts that taxpayer liability should be
reduced by forcing subscribers to "rent" the implant from the State.
Implants are cheaper and more efficient than police, Meyer suggests, since the
call to crime is relentless for the poor "urban dweller" - who, this
spook-scientist admits in a surprisingly candid aside, is fundamentally
unnecessary to a post-industrial economy. "Urban dweller" may be
another of Meyer's euphemisms: He uses New York's Harlem as his model community
in working out the details of his mind-management system.44
Abductee Implants
If we are to take seriously abductee accounts of brain implants, we must
consider the possibility that the implanters, properly perceived, DON'T look
much like the "greys" pictured on Strieber's dustjackets. Instead,
the visitors may resemble Dr. Meyer and his brethren. We would thus have an
explanation for both the reports of abductee brain implants and, as we shall
see, the "scoop marks" and other scars visible on other parts of the
abductees' bodies. We would also have an explanation for the reports of
individuals suffering personality change after contact with the UFO phenomenon.
Skeptics might counter that the time factor of UFO abductions disallows
this possibility. If estimates of "missing time" are correct, the
abductions rarely take longer than one-to-three hours. Wouldn't a brain
surgeon, operating under less-than-ideal conditions (perhaps in a mobile unit)
need more time?
No - not if we accept the claims of a Florida doctor named Daniel
Man. He recently proposed a draconian solution to the overblown "missing
children problem," by suggesting a program wherein America's youngsters
would be implanted with tiny transmitters in order to track the children
continuously. Man brags that the operation can be done right in the office -
and would take less than 20 minutes.45
Conceivably, it might take a tad longer in the field.
A Question of Timing
The history of brain implantation, as gleaned from the open literature, is
certainly disquieting. Yet this history has almost certainly been censored, and
the dates manipulated in a nigh-Orwellian fashion. When dealing with research
funded by the engines of national security, one can never know the true origin
date of any individual scientific advance. However, if we listen carefully to
the scientists who have pioneered this research, we may hear whispers, faint
but unmistakable, hinting that remotely-applied ESB originated earlier than
published studies would indicate.
In his autobiography THE SCIENTIST John C. Lilly (who would later achieve a
cultish reknown for his work with dolphins, drugs and sensory deprivation)
records a conversation he had with the director of the National Institute of
Mental Health - in 1953. The director asked Lilly to brief the CIA, FBI, NSA
and the various military intelligence services on his work using electrodes to
stimulate directly the pleasure and pain centers of the brain. Lilly refused,
noting, in his reply:
Dr. Antoine Remond, using our techniques in Paris, has demonstrated that
this method of stimulation of the brain can be applied to the human without the
help of the neurosurgeon; he is doing it in his office in Paris without
neurosurgical supervision. This means that anybody with the proper apparatus
can carry this out on a person covertly, with no external signs that electrodes
have been used on that person. I feel that if this technique got into the hands
of a secret agency, they would have total control over a human being and be
able to change his beliefs extremely quickly, leaving little evidence of what
they had done.46
Lilly's assertion of the moral high ground here is interesting. Despite his
avowed phobia against secrecy, a careful reading of THE SCIENTIST reveals that
he continued to do work useful to this country's national security apparatus.
His sensory deprivation experiments expanded upon the work of ARTICHOKE's
Maitland Baldwin, and even his dolphin research has - perhaps inadvertently
proved useful in naval warfare.47 One should note that
Lilly's work on monkeys carried a "secret" classification, and that
NIMH was a common CIA funding conduit.48
But the most important aspect of Lilly's statement is its date. 1953? How
far back does radio-controlled ESB go? Alas, I have not yet seen Remond's work
- if it is available in the open literature. In the documents made available to
Marks, the earliest reference to remotely-applied ESB is a 1959 financial
document pertaining to
MKULTRA subproject 94. The general subproject descriptions sent to the
CIA's financial department rarely contain much information, and rarely change
from year to year, leaving us little idea as to when this subproject began.
Unfortunately, even the Freedom of Information Act couldn't pry loose much
information on electronic mind control techniques, though we know a great deal
of study was done in these areas. We have, for example, only four pages on
subproject 94 - by comparison, a veritable flood of documents were released on
the use of drugs in mind control. (Whenever an author tells us that MKULTRA
met with little success, the reference is to drug testing.) On this point, I
must criticize John Marks: His book never mentions that roughly 20-25 percent
of the subprojects are "dark" - i.e., little or no information was
ever made available, despite lawyers and FOIA requests. Marks seems to feel
that the only information worth having is the information he received. We know,
however, that research into psychoelectronics was extensive indeed, statements
of project goals dating from ARTICHOKE and BLUEBIRD days
clearly identify this area as a high priority. Marks' anonymous informant,
jocularly named "Deep Trance," even told a previous interviewer that,
beginning in 1963, CIA and the military's mind control efforts strongly
emphasized electronics.49 I therefore assume - not rashly, I
hope - that the "dark" MKULTRA subprojects concerned matters
such as brain implants, microwaves, ESB, and related technologies.
I make an issue of the timing and secrecy involved in this research to
underscore three points:
- We can never know with certainty the true origin dates of the various
brainwashing methods - often, we discover that techniques which seem impossibly
futuristic actually originated in the 19th century. (Pioneering ESB research
was conducted in 1898, by J.R. Ewald, professor of physiology at Straussbourg.50)
- The open literature almost certainly gives a bowdlerized view of the
actual research.
- Lavishly-funded clandestine researchers - unrestrained by peer review or
the need for strict controls - can achieve far more rapid progress than
scientists "on the outside."
Potential critics should keep these points in mind should they attempt to
invalidate the "mind control" thesis of UFO abductions by citing an
abduction account which antedates Delgado.
The Quandary
We have amply demonstrated, then, that as far back as the 1960s - and
possibly earlier still - scientists have had the capability to create implants
similar to those now purportedly visible in abductee MRI scans. Indeed, we have
no notion just how advanced this technology has become, since the popular press
stopped reporting on brain implantation in the 1970s. The research has no doubt
continued, albeit in a less public fashion. In fact, scientists such as Delgado
have cast their eye far beyond the implants; ESB effects can now be elicited
with microwaves and other forms of electromagnetic radiation, used with and
without electrodes.
So why - if we take UFO abduction accounts at face value - are the "advanced
aliens" using an old technology, Earth technology, a technology
which may soon be rendered obsolescent, if it hasn't been so rendered already?
I am reminded of the charming anachronisms in the old Flash Gordon serials,
where swords and spaceships clashed continually.
Do they also watch black-and-white television on Zeta Reticuli?
Remote Hypnosis
Hypnosis provides the (highly controversial) key which opens the door to
many abduction accounts.51 And obviously, if my thesis is
correct, hypnosis plays a large part in the abduction itself. One thing we know
with certainty: Since the earliest days of project BLUEBIRD, the CIA's
spy-chiatrists spent enormous sums mastering Mesmer's art.
I cannot here give even a brief summary of hypnosis, nor even of the CIA's
studies in this area. (Fortunately, FOIA requests were rather more successful
in shaking loose information on this topic than in the area of
psycho-electronics.) Here, we will concentrate on a particularly intriguing
allegation - one heard faintly, but persistently, for the past twenty years by
those who would investigate the shadow side of politics.
If this allegation proves true, hypnosis is not necessarily a
person-to-person affair.
The abductee - or the mind control victim - need not have physical contact
with a hypnotist for hypnotic suggestion to take effect; trance could be
induced, and suggestions made, via the intracerebral transmitters described
above. The concept sounds like something out of Huxley's or Orwell's most
masochistic fantasies. Yet remote hypnosis was first reported - using allegedly
parapsychological means - in the early 1930s, by L.L. Vasilev, Professor of
Physiology in the University of Leningrad.52 Later, other
scientists attempted to accomplish the same goal, using less mystic means.
Over the years, certain journalists have asserted that the CIA has mastered
a technology call RHIC-EDOM. RHIC means "Radio Hypnotic Intracerebral
Control." EDOM stands for "Electronic Dissolution of Memory."
Together, these techniques can - allegedly - remotely induce hypnotic trance,
deliver suggestions to the subject, and erase all memory for both the
instruction period and the act which the subject is asked to perform.
RHIC uses the stimoceiver, or a microminiaturized offspring of that
technology to induce a hypnotic state. Interestingly, this technique is also
reputed to involve the use of intramuscular implants, a detail
strikingly reminiscent of the "scars" mentioned in Budd Hopkins'
MISSING TIME. Apparently, these implants are stimulated to induce a
post-hypnotic suggestion.
EDOM is nothing more than missing time itself - the erasure of memory from
consciousness through the blockage of synaptic transmission in certain areas of
the brain. By jamming the brain's synapses through a surfeit of acetocholine,
neural transmission along selected pathways can be effectively stilled.
According to the proponents of RHIC-EDOM, acetocholine production can be
affected by electromagnetic means. (Modern research in the psycho-physiological
effects of microwaves confirm this proposition.)
Does RHIC-EDOM exist? In our discussion of Delgado's work, I have already
cited a strange little book (published in 1969) titled WERE WE CONTROLLED?,
written by one Lincoln Lawrence, a former FBI agent turned journalist. (The
name is a pseudonym; I know his real identity.) This work deals at length with
RHIC-EDOM; a careful comparison of Lawrence's work with MKULTRA files
declassified ten years later indicates a strong possibility that the writer did
indeed have "inside" sources.
Here is how Lawrence describes RHIC in action:
It is the ultra-sophisticated application of post-hypnotic suggestion
triggered at will [italics in original] by radio transmission. It is a
recurring hypnotic state, re-induced automatically at intervals by the same
radio control. An individual is brought under hypnosis. This can be done either
with his knowledge - or without it by use of narco-hypnosis, which can be
brought into play under many guises. He is then programmed to perform certain
actions and maintain certain attitudes upon radio signal.53
Other authors have mentioned this technique - specifically Walter Bowart
(in his book OPERATION MIND CONTROL) and journalist James Moore, who, in a 1975
issue of a periodical called MODERN PEOPLE, claimed to have secured a 350-page
manual, prepared in 1963, on RHIC-EDOM.54 He received the
manual from CIA sources, although - interestingly - the technique is said to
have originated in the military.
The following quote by Moore on RHIC should prove especially intriguing to
abduction researchers who have confronted odd "personality shifts" in
abductees:
Medically, these radio signals are directed to certain parts of the brain.
When a part of your brain receives a tiny electrical impulse from outside
sources, such as vision, hearing, etc.,an emotion is produced - anger at the
sight of a gang of boys beating an old woman, for example. The same emotion of
anger can be created by artificial radio signals sent to your brain by a
controller. You could instantly feel the same white-hot anger without any
apparent reason.55
Lawrence's sources imparted an even more tantalizing - and frightening -
revelation:
...there is already in use a small EDOM generator-transmitter which can be
concealed on the body of a person. Contact with this person - a casual
handshake or even just a touch - transmits a tiny electronic charge plus an
ultra-sonic signal tone which for a short while will disturb the time
orientation of the person affected.56
If RHIC-EDOM exists, it goes a long way toward providing an earthbound
rationale for alien abductions - or, at least, certain aspects of them. The
phenomenon of "missing time" is no longer mysterious. Abductee
implants, both intracerebral and otherwise, are explained. And note the
reference to "recurring hypnotic state, reinduced automatically by the
same radio command." This situation may account for "repeater"
abductees who, after their initial encounter, have regular sessions of "missing
time" and abduction - even while a bed-mate sleeps undisturbed.
At present, I cannot claim conclusively that RHIC-EDOM is real. To my
knowledge, the only official questioning of a CIA representive concerning these
techniques occurred in 1977, during Senate hearings on CIA drug testing.
Senator Richard Schweicker had the following interchange with Dr. Sidney
Gottlieb, an important MKULTRA administrator: SCHWEICKER: Some of
the projects under MKULTRA involved hypnosis, is that
correct?
GOTTLIEB: Yes.
SCHWEICKER: Did any of these
projects involve something called radio hypnotic intracerebral
control, which is a combination, as I understand it, in
layman's terms, of radio transmissions and hypnosis.
GOTTLIEB: My answer is "No."
SCHWEICKER: None
whatsoever?
GOTTLIEB: Well, I am trying to be responsive to the
terms you used. As I remember it, there was a current
interest, running interest, all the time in what effects people's
standing in the field of radio energy have, and it could easily
have been that somewhere in many projects, someone was trying
to see if you could hypnotize someone easier if he was
standing in a radio beam. That would seem like a reasonable piece
of research to do.
Schweicker went on to mention that he had heard testimony that radar (i.e.,
microwaves) had been used to wipe out memory in animals; Gottlieb responded, "I
can believe that, Senator."57
Gottlieb's blandishments do not comfort much. For one thing, the good
doctor did not always provide thoroughly candid testimony. (During the same
hearing he averred that 99 percent on the CIA's research had been openly
published; if so, why are so many
MKULTRA subprojects still "dark," and why does the Agency
still go to great lengths to protect the identities of its scientists?58)
We should also recognize that the CIA's operations are compartmentalized on
a "need-to-know" basis; Gottlieb may not have had access to the
information requested by Schweicker. Note that the
MKULTRA rubric circumscribed Gottlieb's statement: RHIC-EDOM might have
been the focus of another program. (There were several others: MKNAOMI,
MKACTION, MKSEARCH, etc.) Also keep in mind the revelation by "Deep
Trance" that the CIA concentrated on psychoelectronics after the
termination of MKULTRA in 1963. Most significantly: RHIC-EDOM is
described by both Lawrence and Moore as a product of MILITARY research;
Gottlieb spoke only of matters pertaining to CIA. He may thus have spoken
truthfully - at least in a strictly technical sense - while still misleading
the Congressional interlocutors.
Personally, I believe that the RHIC-EDOM story deserves a great deal of
further research. I find it significant that when Dr. Petter Lindstrom examined
X-rays of Robert Naesland, a Swedish victim of brain-implantation, the doctor
authoritatively cited WERE WE CONTROLLED? in his letter of response.59 This is the same Dr. Lindstrom noted for his pioneering use
of ultrasonics in neurosurgery.60 Lincoln Lawrence's book
has received a strong endorsement indeed.
Bowart's OPERATION MIND CONTROL contains a significant interview with an
intelligence agent knowledgeable in these areas. Granted, the reader has every
right to adopt a skeptical attitude toward information culled from anonymous
sources; still, one should note that this operative's statements confirm, in
pertinent part, Lawrence's thesis.61
Most importantly: The open literature on brain-wave entrainment and the
behavioral effects of electromagnetic radiation substantiates much of the
RHIC-EDOM story - as we shall see.
That's Entrainment
Robert Anton Wilson, an author with a devoted cult following, recently has
taken to promoting a new generation of "mind machines" designed to
promote creativity, stimulate learning, and alter consciousness - i.e., provide
a drug-less high. Interestingly, these machines can also induce "Out-of-Body
Experiences," in which the percipient mentally "travels" to
another location while his body remains at rest.62 This
rapidly-developing technology has spawned a technological equivalent to the
drug culture; indeed, the aficionados of the electronic buzz even have their
own magazine, REALITY HACKERS. I strongly suspect that we will hear much of
these machines in the future.
One such device is called the "hemi-synch." This headphone-like
invention produces slightly different frequences in each ear; the brain
calculates the difference between these frequencies, resulting in a rhythm
known as the "binaural beat." The brain "entrains" itself
to this beat - that is, the subject's EEG slows down or speeds up to keep pace
with its electronic running partner.63
The brain has a "beat" of its own.
This rhythm was first discovered in 1924 by the German psychiatrist Hans
Berger, who recorded cerebral voltages as part of a telepathy study.64 He noted two distinct frequencies: alpha (8-13 cycles per
second), associated with a relaxed, alert state, and beta (14-30 cycles per
second), produced during states of agitation and intense mental concentration.
Later, other rhythms were noted, which are particularly important for our
present purposes: theta (4-7 cycles per second), a hypnogogic state, and delta
(.5 to 3.5 cycles per second), generally found in sleeping subjects.65
The hemi-synch - and related mind-machines - can produce alpha or theta
waves, on demand, according to the operator's wishes. A suitably-entrained
brain is much more responsive to suggestion, and is even likely to experience
vivid hallucinations.
I have spoken to several UFO abductees who describe a "stereophonic
sound" effect - exactly similar to that produced by the hemi-sync
- preceding many "encounters." Of course, one usually administers the
hemi-synch via headphones, but I see no reason why the effect cannot be
transmitted via the above described stimoceiver. Again, I remind the reader of
the abductee with an implant just inside her ear canal.
There's more than one way to entrain a brain. Michael Hutchison's excellent
book MEGA BRAIN details the author's personal experiences with many such
devices - the Alpha-stim, TENS, the Synchro-energizer, Tranquilite, etc. He
recounts dazzling, Dali-esque hallucinations, as a result of using this
mind-expanding technology; moreover, he offers a seductive argument that these
devices may represent a true breakthrough in consciousness-control, thereby
fulfilling the dashed dream of the hallucinogenic '60s.
I wish to avoid a knee-jerk Luddite response to these fascinating
wonderboxes. At the same time, I recognize the dangers involved. What about the
possibility of an outside operator literally "changing our minds" by
altering our brainwaves without our knowledge or permission? If these machines
can induce a hypnotic state, what's to stop a skilled hypnotist from making use
of this state?
Granted, most of these devices require some physical interaction with the
subject. But a tool called the Bio-Pacer can, according to its manufacturer,
produce a number of mood altering frequencies - WITHOUT attachment to the
subject. Indeed, the Bio-Pacer III (a high-powered version) can affect an
entire room. This device costs $275, according to the most recent price sheet
available.66 What sort of machine might $27,500 buy? Or
$275,000? What effects, what ranges might a million-dollar machine be capable
of?
The military certainly has that sort of money.
And they're certainly interested in this sort of technology, according to
Michael Hutchison. His interview with an informant named Joseph Light elicited
some particularly provocative revelations. According to Light:
There are important elements in the scientific community, powerful people,
who are very much interested in these areas... but they have to keep most of
their work secret. Because as soon as they start to publish some of these
sensitive things, they have problems in their lives. You see, they work on
research grants, and if you follow the research being done, you find that as
soon as these scientists publish something about this, their research funds are
cut off. There are areas in bioelectric research where very simple techniques
and devices can have mind-boggling effects. Conceivably, if you have a crazed
person with a bit of a technical background, he can do a lot of damage.67
This last statement is particularly evocative. In 1984, a violent neo-Nazi
group called The Order (responsible for the murder of talk-show host Alan Berg)
established contact with two government scientists engaged in clandestine
research to project chemical imbalances and render targeted individuals docile
via certain frequencies of electronic waves. For $100,000 the scientists were
willing to deliver this information.68
Thus, at least one group of crazed individuals almost got the goods.
Wave Your Brain Goodbye
Every Senator and Congressional representative has a "wavie" file.
So do many state representatives. Wavies have even pled their case to private
institutions such as the Christic Institute.69
And who are the wavies?
They claim to be victims of clandestine bombardment with non-ionizing
radiation - or microwaves. They report sudden changes in psychological states,
alteration of sleep patterns, intracerebral voices and other sounds, and
physiological effects. Most people never realize how many wavies there are in
this country. I've spoken to a number of wavies myself.
Are these troubled individuals seeking an exterior rationale for their
mental problems? Maybe. Indeed, I'm sure that such is the case in many
instances. But the fact is that the literature on the behavioral effects of
microwaves, extra-low-frequencies (ELF) and ultra-sonics is such that we cannot
blithely dismiss all such claims.
For decades, American science and industry tried to convince the population
that microwaves could have no adverse effects on human beings at sub-thermal
levels - in other words, the attitude was, "If it can't burn you, it can't
hurt you." This approach became increasingly difficult to defend as
reports mounted of microwave-induced physiological effects. Technicians
described "hearing" certain radar installations; users of radar
telescopes began developing cataracts at an appallingly high rate.70
The Soviets had long recognized the strange and sometimes subtle effects of
these radio frequencies, which is why their exposure standards have always been
much stricter.
Soviet microwave bombardment of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow prompted the
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Project
PANDORA (later renamed), whose ostensible goal was to determine whether
these pulsations (reportedly 10 cycles per second, which puts them in the alpha
range) could be used for the purposes of mind control. I suspect that the "war
on Tchaikovsky Street," as I call it,71 was used, at
least in part, as a cover story for DARPA mind control research, and that the
stories floated in the news (via, for example, Jack Anderson's column) about
Soviet remote brainwashing served the same propaganda purposes as did the
bleatings of Edward Hunter during the 1950s.72
What can low-level microwaves do to the mind?
According to a DIA report released under the Freedom of Information Act,73 microwaves can induce metabolic changes, alter brain
functions, and disrupt behavior patterns. PANDORA discovered that
pulsed microwaves can create leaks in the blood/brain barrier, induce heart
seizures, and create behavioral disorganization.74 In 1970,
a RAND Corporation scientist reported that microwaves could be used to promote
insomnia, fatigue, irritability, memory loss, and hallucinations.75
Perhaps the most significant work in this area has been produced by Dr. W.
Ross Adey at the University of Southern California. He determined that behavior
and emotional states can be altered without electrodes - simply by placing the
subject in an electromagnetic field. By directing a carrier frequency to
stimulate the brain and using amplitude modulation to "shape" the
wave into a mimicry of a desired EEG frequency, he was able to impose a 4.5 cps
theta rhythm on his subjects - a frequency which he previously measured in the
hippocampus during avoidance learning. Thus, he could externally condition the
mind towards an aversive reaction.76 (Adey has also done
extensive work on the use of electrodes in animals.77)
According to another prominent microwave scientist, Allen Frey, other
frequencies could - in animal studies - induce docility.78
The controversial researcher Andrijah Puharich asserts that "a weak (1mW)
4 Hz magnetic sine wave will modify human brain waves in 6 to 10 seconds. The
psychological effects of a 4 Hz sine magnetic wave are negative - causing
dizzyness, nausea, headache, and can lead to vomiting." Conversely, an 8
Hz magnetic sine wave has beneficial effects.79 Though some
writers question Puharich's integrity (perhaps correctly, considering his
involvement in the confused tale of Uri Geller), his claims here seem in line
with the findings of less-flamboyant experimenters.
As investigative journalist Anne Keeler writes:
Specific frequencies at low intensities can predictably influence sensory
processes... pleasantness-unpleasantness, strain-relaxation, and
excitement-quiescence can be created with the fields. Negative feelings and
avoidance are strong biological phenomena and relate to survival. Feelings are
the true basis of much "decision-making" and often occur as
subthreshold impressions.... Ideas including names [my italics] can be
synchronized with the feelings that the fields induce.80
Adey and compatriots have compiled an entire library of frequencies and
pulsation rates which can affect the mind and nervous system. Some of these
effects can be extremely bizarre. For example, engineer Tom Jarski, in an
attempt to replicate the seminal work of F. Cazzamali, found that a particular
frequency caused a ringing sensation in the ears of his subjects - who felt
strangely compelled to BITE the experimenters!81 On the
other hand, the diet-conscious may be intrigued by the finding that rats
exposed to ELF waves failed to gain weight normally.82
For our present purposes, the most significant electromagnetic research
findings concern microwave signals modulated by hypnoidal EEG frequencies.
Microwaves can act much like the "hemi-synch" device previously
described - that is, they can entrain the brain to theta rhythms.83
I need not emphasize the implications of remotely synchronizing the brain to
resonate at a frequency conducive to sleep, or to hypnosis.
Trance may be remotely induced - but can it be directed? Yes. Recall the
intracerebral voices mentioned earlier in our discussion of Delgado. The same
effect can be produced by "the wave." Frey demonstrated in the early
1960s that microwaves could produce booming, hissing, buzzing, and other
intra-cerebral static (this phenomenon is now called "the Frey effect");
in 1973, Dr. Joseph Sharp, of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research,
expanded on Frey's work in an experiment where the subject - in this case,
Sharp himself - "heard" and understood spoken words delivered via a
pulsed-microwave analog of the speaker's sound vibrations.84
Dr. Robert Becker comments that "Such a device has obvious
applications in covert operations designed to drive a target crazy with
'voices' or deliver undetectable instructions to a programmed assassin."85 In other words, we now have, at the push of a button,
the technology either to inflict an electronic
gaslight - or to create a true Manchurian Candidate. Indeed,
the former capability could effectively disguise the latter. Who will listen to
the victims, when electronically-induced hallucinations they recount exactly
parallel the classical signals of paranoid schizophrenia and/or temporal lobe
epilepsy?
Perhaps the most ominous revelations, however, concern the mysterious work
of J.F. Schapitz, who in 1974 filed a plan to explore the interaction of radio
frequencies and hypnosis. He proposed the following:
In this investigation it will be shown that the spoken word of the
hypnotist may be conveyed by modulated electro-magnetic energy
directly into the subconscious parts of the human brain [my italics] -
i.e., without employing any technical devices for receiving or transcoding the
messages and without the person exposed to such influence having a chance to
control the information input consciously.
He outlined an experiment, innocent in its immediate effects yet chilling
in its implications, whereby subjects would be implanted with the subconscious
suggestion to leave the lab and buy a particular item; this action would be
triggered by a certain cue word or action. Schapitz felt certain that the
subjects would rationalize the behavior - in other words, the subject would
seize upon any excuse, however thin, to chalk up his actions to the working of
free will.86 His instincts on this latter point coalesce
perfectly with findings of professional hypnotists.87
Schapitz's work was funded by the Department of Defense. Despite FOIA
requests, the results have never been publicly revealed.88
Final Thoughts on "The Wave"
I must again offer a caveat about possible disparities between the "official"
record of electromagnetism's psychological effects and the hidden history. Once
more, we face a question of timing. How long ago did this research REALLY
begin?
In the eary years of this century, Nikola Tesla seems to have stumbled upon
certain of the behavioral effects of electromagnetic exposure.89
Cazamalli, mentioned earlier, conducted his studies in the 1930s. In 1934, E.L.
Chaffe and R.U. Light published a paper on "A Method for the Remote
Control of Electrical Stimulation of the Nervous System."9091 that an "electromagnetic
gap" separates us from Soviet advances, East European literature in this
area has been closely monitored for decades by the West. ARTICHOKE/BLUEBIRD
project outlines, dating from the early 1950s, prominently mention the need to
explore all possible uses of the electromagnetic spectrum.
From the very beginning of their work with microwaves, the Soviets explored the
more subtle physiological effects of electromagnetism - and despite the
bleatings of certain right-wing alarmists
Another point worth mentioning concerns the combination of EMR and
miniature brain electrodes. The father of the stimoceiver, Dr. J.M.R. Delgado,
has recently conducted experiments in which monkeys are exposed to
electromagnetic fields, thereby eliciting a wide range of behavioral effects -
one monkey might fly into a volcanic rage while, just a few feet away, his
simian partner begins to nod off. Fascinatingly, when monkeys with brain
implants felt "the wave," the effects were greatly intensified.
Apparently, these tiny electrodes can act as amplifiers of the
electromagnetic effect.92
This last point is important to our "alien abduction" thesis.
Critics might counter that any burst of microwave energy powerful enough to
have truly remote effects would probably also create a thermal reaction. That
is, if a clandestine operator propagated a "wave" from outside an
abductee's bedroom (say, from a low-flying helicopter, or from a truck
travelling alongside the subject's car), the power necessary to do the job
might be such that the microwave would cook the target before it got a chance
to launder his thoughts. Our abductee would end up like the victim of the
microwave "hit" in the finale of Jerzy Kozinsky's COCKPIT.
It's a fair criticism. But Delgado's work may give us our solution. Once an
abductee has been implanted - and if we are to trust hypnotic regression
accounts of abductees at all, the first implanting session may occur in
childhood - the chip-in-the-brain would act an an intensifier of the signal.
Such an individual could have any number of "UFO" experiences while
his or her bed partner dozes comfortably.
Furthermore, recent reports indicate that a "waver" can achieve
pinpoint accuracy without the use of Delgado-style implants. In 1985,
volunteers at the Midwest Research Institute in Kansas City, Missouri, were
exposed to microwave beams as part of an experiment sponsored by the Department
of Energy and the New York State Department of Health. As THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC93 described the experiment, "A matched control group sat
in the same room without being bombarded by non-ionizing radiation."
[My italics.] Apparently, one can focus "the wave" quite narrowly - a
fact which has wide implications for abductees.
III. Applications
So we now have some idea of the tools available to the "spy-chiatrists."
How have these tools been used?
This question necessarily involves some detective work. The Central
Intelligence Agency, under duress, provided some, though not enough,
documentation of its efforts to commandeer "the space between our ears."
We know that these efforts were extensive, long-term, and at least partially
successful. We know also that these experiments used human subjects. But who?
When?
One paradox of this line of inquiry is that, for many readers, the victims
elicit sympathy only insofar as they remain anonymous. Intellectually, we
realize that MKULTRA and its allied projects must have affected
hundreds, probably thousands, of individuals. Yet we react with deep suspicion
whenever one of these individuals steps forward and identifies himself, or
whenever an independent investigator argues that mind control has directed some
newsworthy person's otherwise inexplicable actions. Where, the skeptic may
rightfully ask, is the documentation supporting such accusations? Most of the
MKULTRA "paper trail" was (allegedly) burnt at Richard Helms'
order; what's left has been censored, leaving black ink smudges wherever the
names originally appeared. Claimed mind control victims can, for the most part,
only give us testimony - and how reliable can such testimony be, especially in
light of the fact that one purpose of MKULTRA was to induce insanity?
Anyone asserting that he was victimized by the program might well be seeking an
extrinsic excuse for his own psychopathology. If you say that you are a
manufactured madman, you were probably mad to begin with: Catch 22.
When John Marks wrote THE SEARCH FOR "THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE."
he received numerous letters from people insisting that they had been drugged,
"waved," or otherwise abused by the CIA or the military. Most of
these communications went directly into his crank file. Perhaps many deserved
that destination; I know of at least one that did not.94
Marks did, however, devote much attention to Val Orlikov, a former "patient"
of perhaps the most notorious figure in the annals of American medical crime:
Dr. Ewen Cameron, a CIA-funded scientist heading the Allan Memorial Institute
at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. Cameron, a highly-respected mental
health researcher,95 experimented with a technique he called
"psychic driving," a brainwashing program which involved inflicting
upon a subject an endless tape loop blaring selected messages, 16-to-24 hours
a day, combined with massive electroshock and LSD. The project's "guinea
pigs" were patients who had come to Allan Memorial with relatively minor
psychological complaints. Cameron's experiments failed and his theories were
discredited, which may explain why the CIA and its apologists now feel
relatively comfortable discussing the Frankensteinian efforts at Allan
Memorial, as opposed to more successful work elsewhere.
Orlikov's testimony has received much respectful attention from those
writers who have examined MKULTRA, and correctly so. When I studied the
files at the National Security Archives, I was particularly keen to read her
original letters to John Marks, for these pages had led to the unmasking of an
especially heinous CIA project. The letters, interestingly enough, proved just
as vague, disjointed, and bizarre as similar correspondence which researchers
routinely dismiss. Orlikov can't be blamed for the hazy nature of her
recollections; a certain amount of fog is to be expected, given the nature of
the crime perpetrated against her. The important point is that her story,
ultimately, was found to be true. All of which leads me to wonder: Why did HER
claims prompt investigation when those of others prompt only dismissal? Perhaps
the answer lies in the fact that Orlikov's husband became a Canadian Member of
Parliament. Any victims of CIA experimentation who wish to be taken seriously
ought, perhaps, first make sure to marry well.
Of course, we can easily forgive previous writers and readers whose
researches into MKULTRA have been biased in favor of complacency.96 But we can't let this natural prejudice cripple our present
investigation. Let us examine, then, a few of the "horror stories"
from the mind control literature and highlight possible correlations to
abductee testimony.
Palle Hardrup's "Guardian Angel"
As mentioned previously, I have not delved much into the subject of
hypnosis in this paper - primarily because of space and time limitations, but
also because discussions of the possibilities of hypnosis per se tend
to cloud the issue of its use in conjunction with the above-mentioned
electronic techniques. Obviously, however, hypnosis is a major weapon in the
mind controller's armament; in a forthcoming full-length work, I intend to deal
with this subject at much greater length.
Needless to say, one of the primary objectives of MKULTRA and
related projects was to determine whether one could hypnotically induce someone
to commit an anti-social act. This possibility remains one of the most hotly
debated issues in hypnosis, for conventional wisdom asserts that no individual
can be hypnotized to commit an action which violates his interior moral code.
Martin Orne, editor of the presitigious INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND
EXPERIMENTAL HYPNOSIS agrees with this axiom,97 and he is in
a position to codify much of the established view on this topic. Orne,
however, is a veteran of MKULTRA, and furthermore seems to have lied -
at least in his original communications - to author John Marks about his
witting involvement in subproject 94.98 While I respect much
of Orne's ground-breaking work, his pronouncements do not hold, for this
layman, an Olympian unassailability.
To be sure, many other hypnosis experts, untainted by Company connections,
also discount the possibility that anti-social actions can be induced. But a
number of highly-experienced professionals - including Milton Kline, William
Kroger, George Estabrooks, John Watkins, and Herbert Spiegel - have argued that
such actions can, at least to some degree, be elicited by an outside
manipulator.
Occasionally, claims of hypnotically-induced anti-social behavior find
their way into the courtroom; one such case, which led to the incarceration of
the hypnotist, was the Palle Hardrup affair. This incident occurred in Denmark
in 1951.99 Palle Hardrup robbed a bank, killing a guard in
the process, and later claimed that he had been instructed to do so by the
hypnotist Bjorn Nielsen. Nielsen eventually confessed to having engineered the
crime as a test of his hypnotic abilities.
The most significant aspect of this incident concerns the "pose"
Nielsen adopted to work his malicious designs. During the hypnosis sessions,
Nielsen hypnotically suggested that he was Hardrup's "guardian angel,"
represented by the letter X. Hardrup testified that "There is another room
next door where Nielsen and I go and talk on our own. It is there that my
guardian spirit usually comes and talks to me. Nielsen says that X has a task
for me."
One of these tasks was arranging for Hardrup's girlfriend to have sex with
the hypnotist. The other tasks, he mentioned, included robbery and murder.
Nielsen convinced his victim that "X" wanted the robbery funds to be
used for worthwhile political goals. The end, Hardrup was told, justified the
means.
Compare this scenario to that encountered in the typical contactee case, in
which alien "guardians" convince their victims/subjects that the
encounter will eventually serve some unspecified "higher purpose."
Indeed, in my interviews with abductees who have established a "long-term"
relationship with their visitors, I have found that some of them originally
believed themselves in contact with Hardrup-like angelic guardians. Only in
recent years was the "angel" pose discarded and the true "alien"
form revealed.
Thus we have one possible means of overcoming the proposition that hypnosis
cannot induce anti-social behavior. If a hypnotist lacks scruples, and has
access to a particularly susceptible subject, he can induce a misperceived
reality. Actions which we would abhor in an everyday context become
acceptable in specialized circumstances: A citizen who could never commit
murder on a surburban street might, if drafted into an army, kill on the field
of battle. In hypnosis, the mind becomes that battlefield. In the words of Dr.
John Watkins,
We behave on the basis of our perceptions. If our perceptions of a
situation can be altered so as to cause us to misconstrue it, or to develop a
false belief, then our behavior in relation to it will be drastically altered.
It is precisely in the area of changing perceptions that the hypnotic modality
demonstrates its most powerful effects. Hallucinations both under hypnosis, and
posthypnotic, can easily be induced in the suggestible subject. He can be made
to ignore painful stimuli, be apparently unable to hear loud sounds, and "see"
individuals who are not present [my italics]. Moreover, attitudes and
beliefs can be initiated in him which are quite abnormal and often contrary to
those which he previously held.100
If traditional hypnosis, unaided, can achieve such changes in perception,
one can only imagine the possibilities inherent in the combination of hypnotic
techniques with the psychoelectronic research previously described.
Scientists such as Orne and Milton Erickson101 have
taken issue with Watkins' assertions. But the Hardrup case would appear to bear
Watkins out. If someone can be convinced that he, like Jeanne D'Arc, acts under
the influence of a supernatural higher power, then previously unthinkable
capabilitites may be evinced and "impossible" actions carried forth.
Indeed, when we consider the extreme personality changes - and occasionally,
the heinous actions, elicited by leaders of certain cults, and occult groups,102 we understand the desirability of installing a hypnotic "cover
story" within a supernatural matrix. People will do for God - or the
Devil, or the Space Brothers - what they would not do otherwise.
The date of the Hardrup affair corresponds to the institution of
BLUEBIRD/ARTICHOKE; it doesn't require much imagination to see how this
case could have served as a model to the scientists researching those and
subsequent projects.
Screen Memory
According to declassified documents in the Marks files, a major difficulty
faced by the MKULTRA researchers concerned the "disposal problem."
What to do with the victims of CIA-sponsored electroshock, hypnosis, and drug
experimentation? The Company resorted to distressing, but characteristic,
tactics: They disposed of their human guinea pigs by incarcerating them in
insane asylums, by performing icepick lobotomies, and by ordering "executive
actions."103
A more sophisticated solution had to be found. One of the goals of the
CIA's mind control efforts was the erasure of memory via hypnosis (and drugs,
electronics, lobotomies, etc.); not only would this hide what occurred during
the experimental indoctrination/programming sessions, it would prove useful in
the field. "Amnesia was a big goal," confirms Victor Marchetti, who
points out its usefulness in dealing with contract agents: "After you've
done it, the agent doesn't even know what he's done... you send him in, he does
the job. When he comes out, you clean his head out."104
The big problem: Despite hypnotically-induced amnesia, there would be
memory leaks - snippets of the repressed material would arise spontaneously, in
dreams, as flashbacks, etc. A proposed solution: Give the subject a "screen
memory," a false story; thus, even if he starts to recall the material, he
will recall it incorrectly.
Even the conservative Dr. Orne notes that:
A S [subject] who is able to develop good posthypnotic amnesia will also
respond to suggestions to remember events which did not actually occur. On
awakening, he will fail to recall the real events of the trance and will
instead recall the suggested events. If anything, this phenomenon is easier to
produce than total amnesia, perhaps because it eliminates the subjective
feeling of an empty space in memory.105
Not only would the screen memories fill in the uncomfortable blanks in the
subjects' recollection, they would protect against revelation. One fear of the
MKULTRA scientists was that a hypno-programmed individual used as, say,
a courier, could be un-programmed by another hypnotist, perhaps working for the
enemy. Thus, the MKULTRA scientists decided to instill multiple
personalities - multiple cover stories, if you will - to confuse any "unauthorized"
hypnotist.106
One case using this technique centered on an assassin named Luis Castillo,
who, after his capture in the Philippines, was extensively de-briefed and
studied by experts in the employ of the National Bureau of Investigation, that
country's equivalent to our FBI. Castillo was discovered to have had at least
four separate personalities hypnotically instilled; each personality
could be triggered by a specific cue. In one state, he claimed to be Sgt.
Manuel Angel Ramirez, of the Strategic Air Tactical Command in South Vietnam;
supposedly, "Ramirez" was the illegitimate son of a certain
pipe-smoking, highly-placed CIA official whose initials were A.D.107
Another personality claimed to be one of John F. Kennedy's assassins.
The main hypnotist involved with this case labelled these hypnotic
alter-egos "Zombie states." The report on the case stated that "The
Zombie phenomenon referred to here is a somnambulistic behavior displayed by
the subject in a conditioned response to a series of words, phrases, and
statements, apparently unknown to the subject during his normal waking state."
Upon Castillo's repatriation to the United States, the FBI claimed that he
had fabricated the story. In his book OPERATION MIND CONTROL, Walter Bowart
makes a convincing case against the FBI's claims. Certainly, many aspects of
the Castillo affair argue for his sincerity - including his
hypnotically-induced insensitivity to pain,108 his
maintenance of the story (or stories) even when severly inebriated, and his
apparently programmed suicide attempts.
If Castillo told the truth, as I believe he did, then he manifested both
hypnotically-induced multiple personality and pseudomemory. The former remains
controversial; the latter has been repeatedly replicated in experimental
situations.109
This point is vitally important for students of the abduction phenomenon.
We CANNOT assume the accuracy of abduction descriptions given during subsequent
hypnotic regression. Moreover, we cannot even assume the accuracy of
spontaneously-arising recollections (i.e., abduction memories not elicited
through hypnotic regression). Indeed, responsible skeptics have argued that
hypnotic regression may prove inadvertently harmful, in that it may lock in
place a false remembrance. (Note, however, that other psychiatric professionals
consider hypnotic regression the best technique, however flawed, in unlocking
amnesia.110 For my part, I maintain an ambivalent and
cautious attitude toward the use of hypnosis in abductee work.)
Granted, it is all too easy for the debunkers to cry "confabulation"
to dismiss hypnotic testimony which does not conform to our preconceptions
about the possible; I do not intend to make this same error. Whenever skeptics
offer the phenomenon of pseudomemory to rationalize abduction claims, they cite
experimental situations in which
pseudomemory was originally created by a hypnotist
111 These experiments can not be cited as proof that an
individual abductee spontaneously conjured up a fantasy (which just happens to
correspond to the details of hundreds of similar "fantasies").
Rather, laboratory studies of pseudomemory creation prove
my point: Pseudomemory can be induced by previous hypnosis.112
In other words, an abductee may talk of aliens - when the reality was
something else entirely.
In correspondence with me, a noted abduction researcher wrote of an
instance in which an abductee recounted seeing a helicopter during his
experience; as the abductee testimony progressed, the helicopter turned into a
UFO. During one of the (quite few) regression sessions I attended, I heard an
exactly similar narrative. Hopkins would argue that the helicopter was a "screen
memory" hiding the awful reality of the UFO encounter. But does Occam's
razor really cut that way? Shouldn't we also consider the possibility that the
object in question really WAS a helicopter - which the abductee was instructed
to recall as a UFO?
The Super Spy
Among the released BLUEBIRD/ARTICHOKE/MKULTRA papers was the
following handwritten memorandum, unsigned and undated:
I have developed a technic which is safe and secure (free from
international censorship). It has to do with the conditioning of our own
people. I can accomplish this as a one-man job.
The method is the production of hypnosis by means of simple oral
medication. Then (with NO further medication) the hypnosis is re-enforced daily
during the following three or four days.
Each individual is conditioned against revealing any information to an
enemy, even though subjected to hypnosis or drugging. If preferable, he may be
conditioned to give FALSE information rather than NO information.
In the margin of this document, one of Marks' assistants wrote, "Is
this Wendt?" The reference here is to G. Richard Wendt, a professor
employed by Project CHATTER who, in 1951, led both his Naval employers
and the CIA on a mind control merry goose chase, when an experiment similar to
that described above failed to produce results.113 Even if
the above memorandum does describe an operational failure (and the
tactics described in this memo do not seem very feasible to me), we should not
rest complacent. We now know that, in at least ONE case, more sophisticated
techniques made the above scenario a reality.
I refer to the case of Candy Jones.
Her story has filled at least one book 114 and ought,
one day, to give rise to another. Obviously, I cannot here give all the details
of this fascinating and frightening narrative. But a precis is mandatory.
Ms. Jones (born Jessica Wilcox) achieved star status as a model during
World War II, and later established her own modelling agency. An FBI man
requested her to allow her place of business to be used as a "mail drop"
for the Bureau and "another government agency" (presumably, the CIA);
Candy, deeply patriotic, accepted the proposition gladly. Toiling on the
fringes of the clandestine world, Candy eventually came into contact with a "Dr.
Gilbert Jensen," who worked, in turn, with a "Dr. Marshall Burger."
(Both names are pseudonyms.) Unknown to her, these doctors had been employed as
"spy-chiatrists" by the CIA. Using a job interview as a cover, Jensen
induced hypnosis, found Candy to be a particularly responsive subject - and
proceeded to use her as other scientists would use a rhesus monkey. She became
a test subject for the CIA's mind control program.
Her job - insofar as it is known - was to provide a clandestine courier
service.115 Estabrooks had outlined the basic idea years
earlier: Induce hypnosis via a disguised technique, give the messenger
information to memorize, hypnotically "erase" the message from
conscious memory, and install a post-hypnotic suggestion that the message (now
buried within the sub-conscious) will be brought forth only upon a specific
cue. If the hypnotist can create such a courier, ultra-security can be
guaranteed; even torture won't cause the messenger to tell what he knows -
because he doesn't know that he knows it.116 According to
the highly respected Dr. Milton Kline, "Evidence really does exist that
has not been published" proving that Estabrooks' perfect secret agent
could be successfully evoked.117
Candy was one such success story. Success, in this context, means that she
could be - and was - brutally tortured and abused while running assignments for
the CIA. All the MKULTRA toys were brought into play: hypnosis, drugs,
conditioning - and electronics. Using these devices, Jensen and Burger managed
to:
- install a "duplicate personality,"
- create amnesia of both the programming sessions and the field assignments,
- turn Candy into a vicious, hate-mongering bigot, the better to isolate her
from the rest of humanity (previously, her associates considered her noteworthy
for her racial tolerance; her modelling agency was one of the first to break
the color barrier), and
- program her to commit suicide at the end of her usefulness to the Agency.
The programming techniques used on her were flawed. She breached security
when she married famed New York radio personality John Nebel,118
who, using hypnotic regression, elicited the long-repressed truth. Eventually,
the "Other Candy" was bade farewell, and the programming broken.
Skeptics might find Candy's story as incredible as the abduction accounts -
after all, an amateur had conducted her hypnotic regression, and the
possibility of confabulation always lurks. Nevertheless, I feel that the
veracity of her narrative has been established beyond reasonable doubt. In her
hypnotic regression sessions, she recalled being programmed at a
government-connected institute in northern California - which, as John Marks'
investigators later proved, was indeed heavily involved with government-funded
brainwashing research.119 Marks himself believes Candy's
story - not least, because the details of the programming methods used on her
were substantiated by documents released AFTER her book was published.120 Interviews with Milton Kline, Dr. Frances Jakes, John
Watkins and others provided the testimony that the programming of Candy Jones
was feasible - and Deep Trance substantiated the story.121
Recently, the case has received important "indirect" confirmation:
Investigators interested in follow-up research have filed FOIA requests with
the CIA for all papers relating to Candy Jones. The agency admits that it has a
substantial file on her, but refuses to release any part of it. If her tale is
false, then why would the CIA be so reluctant to deliver the information?
Indeed, why would they have a file in the first place?122
The final confirmation of Candy's tale requires a revelation - one which I
make with some trepidation, even though the individual named is dead.
"Marshall Burger" was really Dr. William Kroger.123
Kroger, long associated with the espionage establishment, had written the
following in 1963:
...a good subject can be hypnotized to deliver secret information. The
memory of this message could be covered by an artificially induced amnesia. In
the event that he should be captured, he naturally could not remember that he
had ever been given the message... however, since he had been given a
post-hypnotic suggestion, the message would be subject to recall through a
specific cue.124
If Candy confabulated her story, why did she name this particualr
scientist, who, writing theoretically in 1963, predicted the subsequent events
in her life?[125]
After l'affair Jones, Kroger transferred his base of operations to
UCLA - specifically, to the Neuropsychiatric Institute run by Dr. Louis Jolyon
West, an MKULTRA veteran. There he wrote HYPNOSIS AND BEHAVIOR
MODIFICATION,126 with a preface by Martin Orne (another
MKULTRA veteran) and H.J. Eysenck (still another MKULTRA
veteran). The finale of this opus contains chilling hints of the possibilites
inherent in combining hypnosis with ESB, implants, and conditioning - though
Kroger is careful to point out that "we are not concerned that man might
be conditioned by rewards and punishments through electronic brain stimulation
to be controlled like robots."127 HE may not be
concerned - but perhaps WE ought to be.
The control of Candy Jones gives us much information useful to our "alien
abduction" hypothesis.
- Her torture sessions - inflicted during her programming by her CIA
masters, and on missions by as-yet mysterious persons - seem strikingly like
the otherwise senselessly painful "examinations" allegedly conducted
aboard alien spacecraft.
- Her personality shifts roughly parallel those experienced by certain UFO
abductees.
- Despite her brutalization, she remained "loyal" to Drs. Jensen
and Burger. This bewildering behavior reminds me of my first abductee
interviews, during which I heard ghastly descriptions of UFO torture sessions -
followed by protestations of limitless love for the alien pain-mongers.
- Like many abductees, Candy had to attend regular "conditioning"
sessions. Repeated exposure to the programming is necessary to effect
continuous control.
- To maintain their hammerlock on her mind, Candy's handlers programmed her
to remain isolated. Specifically, they instilled a deep paranoia toward other
human beings; "outsiders" were probable enemies, out to use or abuse
her. I have seen this pattern consistently in my own work with abductees.128 Skeptics would argue that unreasonable abductee fears
probably indicate paranoid schizophrenia - one symptom of which can, indeed, be
hallucinatory experiences. But most abductees are easily hypnotized, while
paranoid schizophrenics are extremely difficult to "put under,"
according to Dr. Edward Simpson- Kallas, a psychiatrist with wide experience in
the area of forensic hypnosis.129 If, however, those
unreasonable fears had been hypnotically induced, the contradiction is
resolved.
- Candy was the product of an unhappy childhood, hence her propensity toward
multiple personality.130 Many of the "repeater"
abductees I have interviewed had similarly depressing family histories.131
- The story of Candy Jones also has what we might call a "negative
relevance" to the abduction accounts. Because the Controllers did not
establish a hypnotic cover story, or pseudomemory, the true facts of the case
managed to percolate into her conscious mind. No matter how thorough the
posthypnotic amnesia, leaks will occur - hence the need for a false memory, to
fill the gap of recollection. The CIA learns from its mistakes. Candy's
hypno-programming broke down in early 1973 - the year the "alien disguise"
became (if my hypothesis proves correct) standard operating procedure.132 (Milton Kline accepted the Candy Jones story, but
considered the job amateurish and inconsistent with the best work done at that
time.133 Perhaps the major fault was the lack of a
pseudomemory cover story?)
Bases of Suspicion
"Underground base" rumors are as hot as jalapenos in the UFO field
right now, and several of these stories involve abductions.
For example, a sideshow of the famous Bentwaters UFO case involves the
abduction of an airman named Larry Warren to an underground cavity beneath the
military base. There, while in what he later described as "a bit of a
drugged state," he saw aliens and human beings - military figures -
working side-by-side.134
I have spoken to another abductee, Nancy Wright, who was allegedly taken to
an underground chamber ten miles north of Edwards AFB, California. As this was
a multiple-witness event, and Ms. Wright has not attempted to capitalize on the
story for financial gain, I tend to credit her story.135
According to abduction researcher Miranda Parks, an elderly couple living
in the vicinity was also abducted in an exactly similar fashion.136
In 1979, Paul Bennewitz and Leo Sprinkle researched a particularly
controversial abduction involving a young woman (name unrevealed) who was
apparently taken to a facility where aliens processed fluids and body parts
from a cattle mutilation. This investigation seems to have led to the
government harassment of Bennewitz, in which some form of mind control (or, as
I have previously referred to it, "electronic GASLIGHT") may have
played a part.137
How do we account for these tales of alleged alien skullduggery carried out
in conjunction with the military? I, for one, cannot credit the generally
unsubstantiated tales of "cosmic conspiracy" now promulgated by
ex-intelligence agents such as John Lear and William Cooper. While I cannot
assert insincerity on the part of these men, I often wonder if they have been
used as conduits - witting or unwitting - in a sophisticated disinformation
scheme.
A simpler, though no less chilling, explanation for the "base"
abductions may be found in the story of Dr. Louis Jolyon West, now notorious
for his participation in MKULTRA experiments with LSD.138
Inspired by VIOLENCE AND THE BRAIN (a book by Drs. Frank Ervin and Vernon H.
Mark which ascribed inner city turmoil to a "genetic defect" within
rebellious blacks), West proposed, in 1973, a Center for the Study and
Reduction of Violence, where potentially violent individuals could be dealt
with prophylactically.
And who were these individuals? According to West's proposal, the
noteworthy factors indicating a violent predisposition were "sex (male),
age (youthful), ethnicity (black) and urbanicity." How to deal with them? "...by
implanting tiny electrodes deep within the brain, electrical activity can be
followed in areas that cannot be measured from the surface of the scalp... it
is even possible to record bioelectrical changes in the brains of freely-moving
subjects, through the use of remote monitoring techniques..." By
monitoring the subjects' EEGs remotely, potentially violent episodes could be
identified.
For our purposes, the most significant aspect of this proposal had to do
with location. In a secret communication to Dr. J.M. Stubblebine, director of
the California State Department of Health (fortunately, this missive was "leaked"
to the public), West disclosed that he intended to house his Center in an
abandoned Nike missile base, whose location was accessible yet relatively
remote. "The site is securely fenced," West wrote. "Comparative
studies could be carried out there, in an isolated but convenient location, of
experimental model programs, for the alteration of undesirable behavior."139
Public outcry stopped these plans. But was this scheme truly eliminated? Or
was it merely modified, stripped (temporarily) of its overtly racial overtones
and relocated to some less-accessible spot?
One thing is certain: A CIA "spy-chiatrist" favored secret
behavior control experimentation in a remote military installation. Perhaps
someone within the espionage establishment's mind-modification divisions still
thinks highly of the idea. If so, the disposal problem would once again rear
its ugly head, should "visitors" to these installations ever reappear
in outside society. Again, a hypno-programmed cover story - the less
believable, the better - would prove invaluable.
The Scandinavian Connection
Many books have been written about abductees, yet few exist about the
victims of mind control. I cannot understand this situation; the reality of
UFOs is still controversial, yet the existence of mind control was verified in
two (heavily compromised) congressional investigations and in thousands of FOIA
documents. Nevertheless, the abductees find many a sympathetic ear, while those
few who dare to proclaim themselves the victims of known government programs
rarely find anyone to hear them out. Our prejudices on this score are
regrettable, for if we listened to the "controllees" we would hear
many details strikingly similar to those mentioned by UFO abductees.
Two cases in point: Martti Koski and Robert Naeslund.
Koski, a Finnish citizen, claims to have been a victim of mind control
experimentation while visiting Canada. Shortly after his experience began, he
attempted to broadcast his situation to the world and draw attention to his
plight. Few listened. Many of his details were bizarre, and not being a native
speaker of English, he could not express himself convincingly to those he
approached for help. Yet many aspects of his story correspond closely to known
details of
MKULTRA and related programs.
Naeslund, a Swedish citizen, tells a similar story. Moreover, his claims
were backed by special evidence: X-rays revealed an implant in his brain.
Naeslund actually went to the extreme of having his implant tested by
electronic technicians employed by Hewlett-Packard. A Greek surgeon performed
the necessary trepanation to remove the device.
Many aspects of the Koski and Naeslund stories correspond to my hypothesis.
Koski, for example, was at one point told that the doctors afflicting him were
actually "aliens from Sirius." At another point, he was led to
believe that he was under direction of "the Lord." (As I previously
indicated, manipulation of religious imagery could help induce anti-social
behavior; the subject's super-ego can be nullified if he believes that he
follows commands from on high. Such manipulation may explain the more bizarre
aspects of Betty Andreasson Luca's abduction.140)
Naeslund's implant was originally placed through his nasal cavity. He first
realized that something terrible had happened to him after an experience of
missing time, followed by an inexplicable nosebleed.
This detail will be instantly familiar to anyone who has studied
abductions; I have encountered it in my own conversations with abductees. For
an excellent example in the UFO literature, I refer the reader to the case of
Susan Ransted, as detailed in Kevin D. Randle's THE UFO CASEBOOK;141
the background of alleged contactee Diane Tessman is also noteworthy in this
regard.142 Intriguingly, I have located a reference in the
open literature to the use, in animal study, of nasally-implanted electrodes
for the measurement of electro-magnetic radiation effects.143
There are other claimed mind control victims bearing evidence of implants;
note, especially, the fascinating case of James Petit, a CIA-connected pilot
and alleged brainwashing alumnus; X-rays of his cranium have revealed
abductee-style implants - fitting, perhaps, since his body bears abductee-style
scars.144 Conversely, certain abductees will, if allowed a
thorough and sympathetic hearing, deliver testimony strongly agreeing with
Koski's narrative.
Helicopters and Disks
The bizarre story of Rex Niles and his sister (not named in news accounts)
may shed interesting light on a variety of abductee cases, particularly that of
Betty and Barney Hill.145 Niles, the high-rolling owner of
a Woodland Hills defense subcontracting firm (Rex Rep) was fingered by
authorities investigating defense industry kickbacks. He became an
extraordinarily cooperative witness in the investigation - until he was
targeted by his enemies, who allegedly used psychoelectronics as harassment.
The following excerpt from the LOS ANGELES TIMES article on Niles is
particularly compelling:
He [Niles] produced testimony from his sister, a Simi Valley woman who
swears that helicopters have repeatedly circled her home. An engineer measured
250 watts of microwaves in the atmosphere outside Niles' house and found a radioactive
disk underneath the dash of his car. [my italics]
A former high school friend, Lyn Silverman, claimed that her home computer
went haywire when Niles stepped close to it.
No aliens in this story - yet how similar it is to tales of alien
abduction! The low-flying helicopters, of course, are frequently reported by
abduction victims - the Betty Andreasson Luca case provides the best known
example.146 The haywire electronics equipment is also
frequently encountered in putative abduction cases; I have spoken
(independently) to three women who claimed to have been able to disturb or shut
off televisions and stereos simply by walking past the devices; one woman even
claimed she had switched off her TV simply by pointing at it.
But the radioactive disk is especially intriguing. As former FBI agent Ted
Gunderson recently explained to my associate Alexander Constantine, magnetic
radioactive disks have long been used by the clandestine services as
cancer-inducing "silent killers" - i.e., as tools of assassination.
Not only that. The disc calls to mind one little-remembered detail of the Hill
case - the dozen-or-so circular "shiny spots," each the size of a
silver dollar, found on the trunk of her car directly after the abduction. A
compass needle reacted wildly when placed near these spots. Could they have
marked the location where an electromagnetic or radioactive device, similar to
that found by Niles, was placed on the car? (Such a device might have been held
to the spot magnetically, hence the circular impressions.) If so, then the
disorienting EMR could have helped induce the Hills' "UFO sighting."
The Military and Mind Control
Some time ago, I attended hypnotic regression sessions in which the subject
- a claimed UFO abductee - recalled undergoing a mysterious "brain
operation" at a veteran's hospital in California. The operation was
performed by human beings, not aliens. Interestingly, this same hospital was
mentioned in two other cases I encountered. These other claims were not made by
abductees, but by people alleged to have been victims of mind control
experimentation.
One of these claimants, a former Navy SEAL who undertook numerous dangerous
missions in Vietnam, favorably impressed me with the wealth of detail in his
story.147 This individual - I've taken to calling him "the
trained SEAL"- had received specialized combat training at a military base
in California; he claims that at one point during this training he was drugged,
hypnotized, possibly placed under some form of electronic control, and
subjected to the extremes of pain/pleasure operant conditioning. One peculiar
detail of his story concerns the "reward" aspect of the conditioning:
When properly acquiescent, he was given unlimited sexual access to a woman
who, the SEAL avers, was herself the victim of brainwashing.
Unbelievable as this last claim may seem, I found it oddly resonant when I
later interviewed a prominent abductee in the Southern California area, who
bravely offered me details on a puzzling, albeit quite delicate, incident in
her past. Still an attractive woman, she recalled for me - indeed, seemed
strangely compelled to describe - an early love affair with a young soldier
training at a military base near her home. She cannot recall the soldier's
name. All she remembers is that one day he started living at her family's
house; she has no memory of how the arrangement began, and her parents have
never felt comfortable discussing the matter. Although unattracted to this
soldier, she felt compelled to become intimate with him, adopting a pliant,
obeisant attitude that was quite out of character for her. Later, the soldier
went on to covert missions in Vietnam.
Of course, a young person's psycho-sexual development is never smooth, and
the incident related above may merely have represented one peculiarly upsetting
bump in that notoriously rough road. Still, some of the details of this story -
particularly the parents' attitude, the woman's personality shift, and her
subsequent memory lapses - are striking, and I treat with respect the abduc-
tee's intuition that this minor enigma in her personal history could, if
properly understood, shed light on her later "missing time"
experiences.
Could the "trained SEAL" have been right? Was there, is
there, a coterie of hypno-programmed soldiers conducting particularly hazardous
missions? And do the programmers have at their disposal a "ladies'
auxiliary," so to speak, of hypnotized camp followers?
If the SEAL's story stood alone, skeptics could easily dismiss it (provided
they did not sit, as I did, face-to-face with the story's teller, listening to
all the grisly and unsettling details). But other veterans have added their
voices to this grim tale. Daniel Sheehan, of the Christic Institute, claims
that his organization has spoken to half-a-dozen individuals with narratives
similar to my SEAL informant. All had received "processing," so to
speak, within the context of standard military training; after programming and
specialized combat instruction by mercenaries, the recruits were placed "on
hold," to be used as situations arose - and some of those situations
occurred within the United States.148
Walter Bowart began his own researches into mind control by placing an ad
in SOLDIER-OF-FORTUNE-style publications, asking for correspondence from
veterans who experienced inexplicable lapses in memory or strange behavior
modification techniques while serving in Vietnam; he received over 100 replies.
Bowart devoted an entire chapter to one of these respondents - an Air Force
veteran named David, who ended his four-year tour of duty recalling only that
he had spent the time, "having fun, skin diving, laying on the beach,
collecting shells.... It never dawned on me until later that I must have DONE
something while I was in the service." (An obvious example of screen
memory.) He was also "assigned" a girlfriend whose name he cannot now
recall, despite the length and deep intimacy of the affair.149
The parallels to the SEAL's story and the abductee's account should be obvious.
We even have a confession, of sorts, from a scientist who specialized in
one aspect of this sort of training. Lt. Commander Thomas Narut, of the U.S.
Naval Hospital at the NATO headquarters in Naples, Florida, [Ed: ???] admitted
during a lecture in Oslo that recruits in Naples underwent CLOCKWORK
ORANGE-style behavior modification sessions. Trainees would be strapped into
chairs with their eyelids clamped open while watching films of industrial
accidents and African circumcision ceremonies - films frequently used by
psychologists as a means of inducing stress in experimental situations. Unlike
the protagonist in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, who learned revulsion at the sight of
violence, Narut's soldiers were taught to accept and enjoy bloodshed, to view
it with equanimity. Similar techniques were used to dehumanize potential
enemies. Graduates of this program became, in Narut's words, "hit men and
assassins," to be placed in American embassies throughout the world.
When questioned by reporters about these claims, the American government
denied the story; Narut - after a long incommunicado period and apparent
coercion - later explained to journalists that he had merely spoken
theoretically. If so, why did he originally describe the behavior modification
procedure as an ongoing program?150
And while it may seem frivolous to return to the subject of abductions
after examining such grim data, I should remind the reader of the many
abduction accounts in which abductees recall being forced to watch certain
stress inducing motion pictures. The aliens, it seems, have learned a few
lessons from Dr. Narut.
Narut, of course, concentrated on selective programming of individual
American soldiers; on the other side of the mind control spectrum, Defense
Department specialists have also concentrated on methods to render entire enemy
battalions "combat ineffective." Electromagnetic weaponry, intended
to wipe out the aggression of the enemy, is the province of DARPA, under the
direction of Dr. Jack Verona. These projects remain fairly mysterious; we do
know, however, that one operation, SLEEPING BEAUTY, employed the
services of Dr. Michael Persinger, a scientist who has expressed interesting
views regarding UFOs.
Persinger discovered a method of using ELF waves to induce the brain's MAST
cells to release histamine; should a battlefield commander wish to subject his
enemy to mass bouts of vomiting, Persinger's trick could do the job even faster
than a Tobe Hooper movie. The method works on animals. "The question,"
writes mind control researcher Larry Collins, "is how to get from point A
to point B without violating one of the most rigorous commandments of
Government ethics - thou shalt not conduct experiments like that on human
beings."151
If Collins had studied the record a little more carefully, he might realize
that the government hasn't always regarded this commandment as something graven
in stone. As Milton Kline put it:
Ethical factors involved in most research would preclude having positive
results. Those ethical factors don't always hold with government research. The
research which has given really positive results has not been limited by
ethical constraints.152 [my italics]
The Ultimate Motive for Mind Control
Hypnosis hard-liners of the Orne school would almost certainly dismiss the
foregoing veterans' accounts of the use of hypnosis, drugs and behavioral
conditioning on American fighting men. Why, the skeptics would ask, would
anyone attempt to create a "Manchurian Candidate" when the military
services, using entirely conventional means, can create a "Rambo"?
There have always been recruits for even the most hazardous duties; what need
of hypnosis?
The need, in fact, is absolute.
The modern battlefield has little place for the traditional soldier.
Advanced weaponry requires an increasing level of technical sophistication,
which in turn requires a cool-headed operator. But the all-too-human combatant
- though capable of extraordinary acts of courage under the most stressful
conditions imaginable - does not possess inexhaustible reserves of sang-froid.
Eventually, breakdowns will occur. Per-capita psychiatric casualties have
increased dramatically in each successive American conflict. As Richard
Gabriel, the excellent historian of the role of psychiatry in warfare, writes:
Modern warfare has become so lethal and so intense that only the already
insane can endure it.... Modern war requiring continuous combat will increase
the degree of fatigue on the soldier to heretofore unknown levels. Physical
fatigue - especially the lack of sleep - will increase the rate of psychiatric
casualties enormously. Other factors - high rates of indirect fire, night
fighting, lack of food, constant stress, large numbers of casualties - will
ensure that the number of psychiatric casualties will reach disastrous
proportions. And the number of casualties will overburden the medical structure
to the point of collapse.
The ability to treat psychiatric casualties will all but disappear. There
will be no safe forward areas in which to treat soldiers debilitated by mental
collapse. The technology of modern war has made such locations functionally
obsolete...153
According to Gabriel, the military intends to meet this challenge by
creating "the chemical soldier," a designer-drugged zombie in
fighting man's uniform:
On the battlefields of the future we will witness a true clash of ignorant
armies, armies ignorant of their own emotions and even of the reasons for which
they fight. Soldiers on all sides will be reduced to fearless chemical
automatons who fight simply because they can do nothing else.... Once the
chemical genie is out of the bottle, the full range of human mental and
physical actions become targets for chemical control.... Today it is already
possible by chemical or electrical stimulation to increase the aggression
levels of the human being by stimulating the amygdala, a section of the brain
known to control aggression and rage. Such "human potential engineering"
is already a partial reality and the necessary technical knowledge increases
every day.154
While this passage speaks of drugs and electronics, we can safely assume
that the planners of battle would not refrain from using any other promising
technique.
Gabriel writes primarily of large-scale battle scenarios, but based on his
information, we can fairly deduce that the mind-controlled soldier will also
play a role in the surgical strike, the covert operation, the infiltration
behind enemy lines by units of the Special Forces. On such missions, United
States personnel have increasingly relied on torture as a means of
interrogation and intimidation,155 and as such barbarism
becomes standard procedure the American fighting man of the future will need
to find within himself unprecedented reserves of brutality. Will the average
recruit, culled from the nation's suburbs and reared on traditional ideals,
possess such reserves?
Vietnam proved that the soldier, despite a barrage of propaganda intended
to cloud his discernment, will sense the difference between fighting for
legitimate defense interests and fighting to protect political hegemony. To
forestall this realization, or to render it irrelevant, military planners must
withdraw the human combatant and replace him with a new species of warrior. The
soldier of the future will not discern; he will merely do. He will not be a
butcher; he will be the butcher's knife - a tool among tools,
thoughtless and effective.
And it is my contention that to create this soldier of the future, the
controllers will need a continuing program, one designed to test each new
method and combination of methods for conquering the human mind.
One primary goal of this program must include expanding the human capacity
for stress and violence. Subjects enrolled in such experimental procedures will
experience pain, and will learn to accept the pain. Eventually, they will learn
to inflict it, without remorse or even remembrance. The nation who first
creates this new soldier will possess a decisive advantage on the "conventional"
battlefield - as will the nation which first develops a means of using mass
mind control techniques to disable entire enemy platoons. This paramount
military necessity is the reason why I will never believe any unconvincing
reassurances that our nation's clandestine scientists have foregone or will
forego research into behavior modification. This research will never be mere
history. What's past is present, and today's covert experimentation will become
tomorrow's basic training.
A prototype of the future warrior may already be with us. The Navy SEAL I
interviewed spoke in horrifying detail of dismemberment without emotion, of
rape as routine, of killing without affect. And then
forgetting that he has killed. Even years later, he could not recall
the stories behind many of the wounds on his own body. He claims that whenever
he would need the services of the veteran's hospital, doctors would
re-hypnotize him shortly after his admission, while a physician specifically
cleared for such work would examine his medical history, which was highly
classified and kept under lock and key.
According to the SEAL's testimony, his memory block cracked little by
little, as a result of events too complex to recount here. Finally, years after
Vietnam, he was able to remember what he did.
Amnesia was a blessing.
IV. Abductions
Press and public now regard abductees as tony curiosities, yet science, for
the most part, still banishes their tales to the domain of the damned, as
Charles Fort defined damnation. So too with claimed victims of mind control.
The Voice of Authority tells us that
MKULTRA belongs to history; like Hasdrubal and Hitler, it threatened
once, but no more. Anyone insisting otherwise must be silenced by glib
rationalization and selective inattention.
Yet these two topics - UFO abductions and mind control - have more in
common than their mutual ostracization. The data overlap. If we could chart
these phenomena on a Venn diagram, we would see a surprisingly large
intersection between the two circles of information. It is this overlap I seek
to address.
Note, however, that I can NOT address all the other interesting and
important issues raised by the UFO abduction experience. For example, I have
written, admittedly rather vaguely, of nasal implants reported by abductees -
the sort of detail which might place an account in the "high strangeness"
category, and of course, a detail central to my thesis. But what percentage of
the percipients speak of such implants? A truly scientific analysis would
provide a figure. Unfortunately, I haven't the resources to compile a
sufficiently large abductee sample from which one could draw statistics. Nor
can I make an over-arching qualitative analysis, measuring the value of "high
strangeness" reports against other abductee claims. All I can do is note
the available literature, and leave the reader to wonder, as I do, whether the
compilers of that literature concentrated on exceptional cases or were biased
in favor of the less fantastic abductee accounts. I have supplemented readings
of the abduction literature with my own interviews with percipients - which,
since abductees tend to know other abductees, can give a surprisingly wide view
of the phenomenon. This view has been broadened still further by my talks and
correspondence with other members of the UFO community.
Of course, we must recognize the difference between testimony and proof. No
one can state definitively that abduction reports have a basis in objective
reality (however misperceived). Ultimately, all we have are stories. Some of
these stories may be of questionable veracity; others may be contaminated by
investigator bias; many are insufficiently detailed. No one research paper can
resolve all abduction controversies, and many necessary battles must be fought
on other fields.
Still, the testimony won't go away - and we certainly have enough to allow
for comparisons. I maintain that an unprejudiced overview of abduction reports
in the popular press and the less-familiar material on mind control will
demonstrate a striking correlation. Once other abduction researchers have been
educated in the ways of
MKULTRA (and this paper is intended as an introductory text) they may
note a similar pattern. If so, we can then begin to write a revisionist history
of the phenomenon.
The abduction enigma contains within it sub-mysteries that slide into the
mind control scenario with surprising ease, even elegance - mysteries which fit
the E.T. hypothesis as uncomfortably as a size 10 foot fits into a size 8 shoe.
As we have seen, the MKULTRA thesis explains the reports of abductee
intracerebral implants (particularly reports involving nosebleeds), unusual
scars, "telepathic" communication (i.e., externally induced
intracerebral voices) concurrent with or following the abduction encounter,
allegations that some abductees hear unusual sound effects (similar to those
created by the hemi-synch and cognate devices), haywire electronic devices in
abductee homes, personality shifts, "training films," manipulation of
religious imagery, and missing time. Needless to say, the thesis of clandestine
government experimentation readily accounts for abductee claims of human beings
"working" with the aliens, and for the government harassment that
plays so prominent a role in certain abductee reports.
Let's look at some more correlations.
The Hill Case and the "Advanced" Aliens
Earlier, I asked, "Do the aliens also watch black-and-white
television?" in reference to their alleged use of old-fashioned,
Terra-style brain implantation devices. Abduction accounts abound in other
examples of alien "retro-technology." The most striking example can
be found in the Betty and Barney Hill incident, the details of which are too
well-known to recount here.156 As we have already glimpsed
during our discussion of the Rex Niles affair, the Hills' "interrupted
journey" abounds in data which, taken together, permits the construction
of an alternative explanation.
At one point during the alleged UFO abduction, the "examiners"
inserted a needle in Betty Hill's navel, telling her that this practice
constituted a test for pregnancy.157 Some ufologists158 rashly assume that Betty Hill's "pregnancy test"
is evidence of advanced extraterrestrial technology, since her 1961 account
pre-dates the official announcement of amniocentesis, which does indeed make
use of a needle inserted into the navel. But we now have much less invasive
means of testing for pregnancy than amniocentesis. True, amniocentesis is still
sometimes used to gather information about the fetus, but the wielders of a
highly evolved technology would certainly use other methods of determining the
existence of pregnancy in the first place.
Betty Hill's testimony reminds us of certain other abduction accounts,
which contain descriptions of "healings" surprisingly similar to the
procedures associated with still-experimental electromagnetic therapy
techniques, such as those described in Robert O. Becker's THE BODY ELECTRIC.
For example, abductee Deanna Dube described for me an abduction-related "regeneration"
of her long-damaged heart; had she been familiar with Becker's work,159 she might have been a bit less rapid to ascribe her
healing to otherworldly influences.
Medical breakthroughs often undergo years of testing before their official "discovery."
For some of these tests, finding volunteers present a major obstacle. If we
accept the proposition that the Hill incident originated in an external and
objective stimulus, we must then ask ourselves which scenario is more likely:
Did Betty Hill encounter human beings using a technique ten years ahead of its
time? Or did she encounter aliens (reputedly a "billion years ahead of us")
using science from eons before their time?
One must also ask why Betty Hill's aliens seemed to have no grasp of basic
human concepts (such as how we measure time) - yet they knew enough about us to
speak English fluently and had even mastered our slang. Were these real aliens,
or humans engaging in theatricals (and occasionally muffing their lines)? For
that matter, why did Betty Hill originally recall her abductors as humanoid,
only later describing them as aliens?
The Hill case provided a particularly controversial piece of evidence - the
celebrated "star map" recalled by Betty Hill under hypnosis. In later
years, an Ohio schoolteacher named Marjorie Fish made an ingenious and laudable
attempt to discover a match for this map by constructing an elaborate
three-dimensional model of nearby star systems; whether she succeeded remains a
matter for keen debate.160 For now, I prefer to avoid
taking sides in this dispute and will confine myself to insisting that pro-ET
ufologists answer (without resorting to glib ripostes) a point first
raised by Jacques Vallee: the map makes no sense as a navigational aid.
Vallee notes that, even if we grant the Fish interpretation, the stars are not
drawn to scale - and at any rate, alien spaceships would surely be navigated
the same way we guide our own spacecraft: via computers and telemetry161 The validity of the Fish interpretation is irrelevent; the
point is that
any such chart would have no value to an interstellar
star-farer.
Fish's work raises other controversies: Allegedly, the map points to Zeta
Reticuli as the aliens' home system and pictures Zeta Reticuli as a single
star, a view consistent with scientific opinion of the 1960s. Yet in later
years scientists discovered that Zeta Reticuli is binary.162
Moreover, how did our abductee manage to remember so accurately a complex chart
glimpsed in passing? Even allowing for the possibility of increased accuracy of
recollection under hypnotic regression, the memory feat here seems remarkable.
Consider the circumstances of the abduction: Kafka on hallucinogens couldn't
have conceived of the nightmare vision confronting Betty Hill that night - yet
for some reason this particular arrangement of stars emerged as her most
intensely-detailed recollection of the experience.
This memory (if not confabulated during regression, a possibility we should
always weigh) is comprehensible only as an example of
artificially-induced hypermensia. In other words, Betty Hill was directed
to store that chart within her subconscious. The celebrated star map ought to
be recognized for what it was: a prop, a seemingly confirmatory circumstantial
detail meant to convince her - and perhaps us - of the reality of her
abduction.
The question of motive arises. Why - if my thesis is correct - were these
two fairly innocuous individuals chosen for this new variation on the old MKULTRA
tricks?
The selection might, of course, have been arbitrary. Or perhaps
circumstances now irretrievably lost to history rendered the couple a
convenient target. Interestingly, Barney Hill had become acquainted (through
church functions) with the head of Air Force intelligence at Pease Air Force
Base; perhaps this relationship first brought the Hills to the attention of
members of the intelligence community. Arguably, the Hills could have been
fingered for a wide variety of reasons; as a general rule, the clandestine
services prefer to satisfy a number of itches with one scratch.
In fact, the espionage establishment had one particularly compelling reason
to focus on the Hills. Barney Hill (a black man) and his wife held important
positions in several civil rights organizations, including the NAACP.163 The abduction took place during the 1960s, when the NAACP
and allied groups fell victim to an increasingly paranoid series of attacks
from the FBI and other governmental agencies (under operations COINTELPRO,
CHAOS, GARDEN PLOT, etc.).164 At that time,
infiltration of civil rights groups proved a difficult chore; while most
left-leaning groups provided easy targets for FBI stooges, the average
undercover operative would have had an exceptionally difficult time posing as a
black activist. (In 1961, the only black people on the FBI's payroll were the
servants in J. Edgar Hoover's home.)
In light of these facts, we should recall Victor Marchetti's anecdote about
the cat that the CIA had "wired for sound." Perhaps an ambitious
covert scientist proposed a similar experiment, in which a human being would
play the role that had once been assigned to the unfortunate feline? As
Estabrooks noted, the ultimate espionage agent would be the spy who doesn't
KNOW he is a spy. Barney Hill, a well-regarded figure with a near-genius-level
IQ, was a safe bet to obtain a leadership role in any group he joined; he would
have been remarkably well-positioned, had any outsiders wished to use his ears
to over-hear prominent black organizers in confidential discussion.
Of course, many intelligence professionals would counter this suggestion by
reminding us that eavesdroppers on the civil rights movement had plenty of
less-flamboyant methods: Bugging, "black bag" jobs, paying for
information, etc. The point is valid. But if the technology to create a "human
bug" was developed circa 1961 - and there is documentation suggesting that
such is indeed the case165 - the intelligence agencies
would surely have wanted to test the possibilities in the field. And
considering the expense of such a test, why not conduct the experiment in such
a way as to reap the maximum benefits? Why NOT choose a Barney Hill?
Arms and the Abductee
Budd Hopkins told the follwing story during his lecture at the Los Angeles "Whole
Life Expo."166 He considers the case "very
good... lots of corroborating witnesses for parts of it." Though not,
presumably, for this part.
Hopkins' informant, after the by-now familiar UFO abduction, was given a
gun by the aliens. Not a Buck Rogers laser weapon - this was something Dirty
Harry might have packed.
The abductee was also given someone to shoot. Not a little grey alien,
another human being, tied to a chair. The "visitors" told their armed
abductee that this captive had done "evil on earth, and he's a bad person.
You have to kill him." If the abductee didn't do as asked, he would never
leave the ship.
The captive proclaimed his innocence, and pleaded for his life. The
abductee, caught in the middle of all this, became quite upset. (Worth noting:
he seems to have at least considered the aliens' request to shoot
someone he had never met.) Ultimately, the abductee turned the gun on the
aliens and said, "Nobody's going to get shot here."
According to Hopkins, "The aliens said 'Fine. Very good.' They took
the gun from him; the man [presumably, the captive] got up, walked away,
disappeared, and they went on to the next thing." Obviously, this little
drama had been staged - a test of some sort.
I submit that this surreal incident is incomprehensible as either an
example of alien incursion or of "Klass-ical" confabulation. The
scenario described here EXACTLY parallels numerous experiments in the hypnotic
induction of anti-social action as revealed both in the standard hypnosis
literature and in declassified ARTICHOKE/MKULTRA documents. For example,
compare Hopkins' account to the following, in which Ludwig Mayer, a prominent
German hypnosis researcher, describes a classic experiment in the hypnotic
induction of criminal action:
I gave a revolver to an elderly and readily suggestible man whom I had just
hypnotized. The revolver had just been loaded by Mr. H. with a percussion cap.
I explained to [the subject], while pointing to Mr. H., that Mr. H. was a very
wicked man whom he should shoot to kill. With great determination he took the
revolver and fired a shot directly at Mr. H. Mr. H. fell down pretending to be
wounded. I then explained to my subject that the fellow was not yet quite dead,
and that he should give him another bullet, which he did without further ado.167
Of course, if a conservative hypnosis specialist were asked to comment on
the above account, he would quickly point out that hypnotic suggestions which
work in an experimental situation would not easily succeed outside the
laboratory; on some level, the subject will probably sense whether or not he's
playing the game for real.168 Similarly, a conservative
abduction researcher would, in reviewing Hopkins' material, emphasize the
problems inherent in using testimony derived during regression, where the
threat of confabulation lurks. I'll concede both arguments - for the moment -
only to insist that they are beside the point. The matter of primary
importance, the sticking point which neither Klass nor Hopkins can comfortably
confront, is the convergence of detail between Mayer's hypnosis experiment and
the testing event related by Hopkins' abductee. Why are these two stories
so similar? Did the good Dr. Mayer take pupils from Sirius?169
Hopkins says he knows of other instances in which abductees found
themselves in similar crucibles. So do I.
One person I spoke to can remember (sans hypnosis) being handed a
gun inside a ziplock baggy and receiving instructions that she will have to use
this weapon "on a job." Early in my interviews with her (and with no
prompting from me) she recited an apparent cue drilled into her consciousness
by the "entities" (as she calls them): "When you see the light,
do it tonight," followed by the command, "Execute." (One can
only speculate as to how such commands would be used in the field; we will
discuss later the use of photovoltaic hypnotic induction.) Though her personal
feelings toward firearms are decidedly negative, she vividly describes periods
in her "everyday" life when she feels an uncharacteristic, yet
overpowering urge to be near a gun - a quasi-sexual desire to pick one up and
touch the metal.170
She is not alone. Another has been so affected by gun fever that he became
a security guard, just to be near the things.171 The
abductees I have spoken to connect this sudden surge of Ramboism to the UFO
experience. But I suggest that the UFO experience may be merely a cover story
for another type of training entirely.
One of the primary goals of BLUEBIRD, ARTICHOKE, and
MKULTRA was to determine whether mind control could be used to
faciliate "executive action" - i.e., assassination.172
It isn't difficult to imagine the media's reaction if a public figure were
murdered by someone acting at the behest of the "space brothers." Who
would dare to speak of conspiracy under such circumstances? The hidden
controllers could choose a myth structure that conform's to the abductee's
personality, then pose as higher beings, who would whisper violence into the
ear of the percipient. Using this ruse, the trick that scientists such as
Ludwig Mayer could perform in the lab might now be accomplished in the field.
As Estabrooks' associate Jack Tracktir (professor of hypnotherapy at Baylor
University) explained to John Marks, anti-social acts can be induced with "no
conscience involved" once the proper pretext has been created.173
They Will Think It's Flying Saucers
Jenny Randles contributes an anecdote from Great Britain which dovetails
nicely with this hypothesis.
In 1965, "Margary" (a pseudonym) lived in Birmingham with her
husband, who one night told her to prepare for a "shock and a test."
As Randles describes what she calls a "rogue case":
They got into his car and drove off, although her memory of the trip became
hazy and confused and she does not know where they went. Then she was in a room
that was dimly lit and there were people standing around a long table or flat
bed. She was out on it and seemed "drugged" and unable to resist. The
most memorable of the men was tall and thin with a long nose and white beard.
He had thick eyebrows and supposedly said to Margary, "Remember the
eyebrows, honey." A strange medical examination, using odd equipment, was
performed on her.
Both the husband and the scientists, using (apparently) hypnotic
techniques, flooded her mind with images that, she was told, would be
understood only in the future. According to Randles, "At one point one of
the 'examiners' in the room said to Margary in a tone that made it seem as if
he were amused, "They will think it's flying saucers." The
husband also revealed that he had a second identity. After the abduction, this
husband (am I going too far to assume his employment with MI6 or some cognate
agency?) left, never to be seen again.174 Margary did not
recall the abduction until 1978.
This affair can only baffle a researcher who insists on fitting all
abduction accounts into the ET hypothesis; once we free ourselves from that set
of assumptions, explanations come easily. I interpret this incident as a case
in which the controllers applied the flying saucer cover story sloppily, or to
an insufficiently receptive subject. If my thesis is correct, the UFO "hypnotic
hoax" technique would still have been fairly new in 1965, particularly
outside the United States; perhaps the manipulators hadn't yet got the hang of
it. The odd comment about the scientist's eyebrows may refer to an item of
disguise donned for the occasion. The unscrupulous hypnotist, unsure about his
ability to induce an impenetrable amnesia - and mindful of the price paid by
his forerunners in mesmeric criminality175 - would
understandably want to hedge his bets; by indulging in the British penchant for
theatrics, he could further protect his anonymity.
A similar incident was brought to my attention by researcher Robert Durant.
The relevant excerpt of his letter follows:
Now I want to turn to a case that I have been investigating for several
months. The subject is an abductee. Standard abduction scenario. Twice
regressed under hypnosis, the first time by a well-known abduction researcher,
the second time by a psychologist with parapsychology connections.
In the course of many hours of listening to the subject, I discovered that
she has had close personal contact over a long period of time with several
individuals who have federal intelligence connections. She was hypnotized many
years ago as part of a TV program devoted to hypnosis. Her abductions began
shortly after she attended several long sessions at a laboratory where,
ostensibly, she was being tested for ESP abilities. Two other people who were "tested"
at this same laboratory have also had abductions. All three were told by the
lab to join a local UFO group. During her abductions, the principal alien spoke
to the subject in the English language in a normal manner, not via telepathy.
She recognized the voice, which was at one time that of her very close friend
of yesteryear who was then and is now employed by the CIA. The other voice was
that of an individual who works in Washington, has what I will call very strong
federal connections as well as a finger in every ufological pie, and who just
happened to bump into her at the aforementioned laboratory. He also
anticipated, in the course of telephone conversations, her abductions. When the
subject confronted him about this and the voice, he claimed to be psychic. (!)176
The "ESP" connection is suggestive; the MKULTRA documents
betray an astonishing interest on the part of the intelligence agencies in
matters parapsychological.
Some researchers would object that examples such as this are rare; most
abductions contain no such overt indications of intelligence involvement. But
have investigators looked for them? As mentioned in the introduction, a false
dichotomy limits much ufological thought; as long as the abduction argument
swings between the ET hypothesis and purely psychological theories, researchers
will not recognize the relevance of certain key items of background data.
Glimpses Of The Controllers
In an interview with me, a northern-California abducteee - call him "Peter"
- reported an experience which was conducted NOT by a small grey alien, but by
a human being. The percipient called this man a "doctor." He gave a
description of this individual, and even provided a drawing.
Some time after I gathered this information, a southern-California abductee
told me her story - which included a description of this very same "doctor."
The physical details were so strikingly similar as to erase coincidence. This
woman is a leading member of a Los Angeles-based UFO group; three other women
in this group report abduction encounters with the same individual.177
Perhaps those three women were fantasists, attaching themselves to
another's narrative. But my northern informant never met these people. Why did
he describe the same "doctor"?
One of the abductees I have dealt with insisted, under hypnosis, that her
abduction experience brought her to a certain house in the Los Angeles area.
She was able to provide directions to the house, even though she had no
conscious memory of ever being there. I later learned that this house is indeed
occupied by a scientist who formerly (and perhaps currently) conducted
clandestine research on mind control technology.
This same abductee described a clandestine brain operation of some sort she
underwent in childhood. The neurosurgeon was a human being, not an alien. She
even recalled the name. (Note: This is not the same individual referred to
above.) When I heard the name, it meant nothing to me - but later I learned
that there really was a scientist of that name who specialzed in electrode
implant research.
Licia Davidson is a thoughtful and articulate abductee, whose fascinating
story closely parallels many found in the abductee literature - except for one
unusual detail. In an interview with me, described an unsettling recollection
of a human being, dressed normally, holding a black box with a protruding
antenna. This odd snippet of memory did NOT coincide with the general thrust of
her abduction narrative. Could this remembrance represent an all-too-brief
segment of accurately-perceived reality interrupting her hypnotically-induced
"screen memory"? Peter clearly recalls seeing a similar box during his
abduction.
Interestingly, Licia resides in the Los Angeles suburb of Tujunga Canyon, a
prominent spot on the abduction map; Many of the abductees I have spoken to
first had unusual experiences while living in this area. Near Tujunga Canyon,
in Mt. Pacifico, is a hidden former Nike missile base; more than one abductee
has described odd, seemingly inexplicable military activity around this
location.178 The reader will recall the connection of Nike
missile bases to the disturbing story of Dr. L. Jolyon West,
a veteran of MKULTRA.
Cults
Some abductees I have spoken to have been directed to join certain
religious/philosophical sects. These cults often bear close examination.
The leaders of these groups tend to be "ex"-CIA operatives, or
Special Forces veterans. They are often linked through personal relations, even
though they espouse widely varying traditions. I have heard unsettling reports
that the leaders of some of these groups have used hypnosis, drugs, or "mind
machines" on their charges. Members of these cults have reported periods
of missing time during ceremonies or "study periods."
I strongly urge abduction researchers to examine closely any small "occult"
groups an abductee might join. For example, one familiar leader of the UFO
fringe - a man well-known for his espousal of the doctrine of "love and
light" - is Virgil Armstrong, a close personal friend of General John
Singlaub, the notorious Iran-Contra player, who recently headed the neo-fascist
World Anti-Communist League. Armstrong, who also happens to be an ex-Green
Beret and former CIA operative, figured into my inquiry in an interesting
fashion: An abductee of my acquaintance was told - by her "entities,"
naturally - to seek out this UFO spokesman and join his "sky-watch"
activities, which, my source alleges, included a mass channelling session
intended to send debilitating "negative" vibrations to Constantine
Chernenko, then the leader of the Soviet Union. Of course, intracerebral voices
may have a purely psychological origin, so Armstrong can hardly be held to task
for the abductee's original "directive."179
Still, his past associations with military intelligence inevitably bring
disturbing possibilities to mind.
Even more ominous than possible ties between UFO cults and the intelligence
community are the cults' links with the shadowy I AM group, founded by Guy
Ballard in the 1930s.180 According to researcher David
Stupple, "If you look at the contactee groups today, you'll see that most
of the stable, larger ones are actually neo-I AM groups, with some sort of tie
to Ballard's organization."181 This cult, therefore,
bears investigation.
Guy Ballard's "Mighty I AM Religious Activity," grew, in large
part, out of William Dudley Pelly's Silver Shirts, an American Nazi
organization.182 Although Ballard himself never openly
proclaimed Nazi affiliation, his movement was tinged with an extremely
right-wing political philosophy, and in secret meetings he "decreed"
the death of President Franklin Roosevelt.183 The I AM
philosophy derived from Theosophy, and in this author's estimation bears a
more-than-cursory resemblance to the Theosophically-based teachings that
informed the proto-Nazi German occult lodges.184
After the war, Pelley (who had been imprisoned for sedition during the
hostilities) headed an occult-oriented organization call Soulcraft, based in
Noblesville, Indiana. Another Soulcraft employee was the controversial
contactee George Hunt Williamson (real name: Michel d'Obrenovic), who
co-authored UFOs CONFIDENTIAL with John McCoy, a proponent of the theory that a
Jewish banking conspiracy was preventing disclosure of the solution to the UFO
mystery.185 Later, Williamson founded the I AM-oriented
Brotherhood of the Seven Rays in Peru.186 Another famed
contactee, George Van Tassel, was associated with Pelley and with the
notoriously anti-Semitic Reverend Wesley Swift (founder of the group which
metamorphosed into the Aryan Nations).187
The most visible offspring of I AM is Elizabeth Clare Prophet's Church
Universal and Triumphant, a group best-known for its massive arms caches in
underground bunkers. CUT was recently exposed in COVERT ACTION INFORMATION
BULLETIN as a conduit of CIA funds,188 and according to
researcher John Judge, has ties to organizations allied to the World
Anti-Communist League.189 Prophet is becoming involved in
abduction research and has sponsored presentations by Budd Hopkins and other
prominent investigators. In his book THE ARMSTRONG REPORT: ETs AND UFOs: THEY
NEED US, WE DON'T NEED THEM[sic],190 Virgil Armstrong
directs troubled abductees toward Prophet's group. (Perhaps not
insignificantly, he also suggests that abductees plagued by implants alleviate
their problem by turning to "the I AM force" within.191)
Another UFO channeller, Frederick Von Mierers, has promulgated both a cult
with a strong I AM orientation192 and an apparent con-game
involving over-appraised gemstones. Mierers is an anti-Semite who contends that
the Holocaust never happened and that the Jews control the world's wealth.
UFORUM is a flying saucer organization popular with Los Angeles-area
abductees; its founder is Penny Harper, a member of a radical Scientology
breakaway group which connects the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard with
pronouncements against "The Illuminati" (a mythical secret society)
and other betes noir familiar from right-wing conspiracy literature.
Harper directs members of her group to read THE SPOTLIGHT, an extremist tabloid
(published by Willis Carto's Liberty Lobby) which denies the reality of the
Holocaust and posits a "Zionist" scheme to control the world.193
More than one unwary abductee has fallen in with groups such as those
listed above. It isn't difficult to imagine how some of these questionable
groups might mold an abductee's recollection of his experience - and perhaps
help direct his future actions.
Some modern abductees, with otherwise-strong claims, claim encounters with
blond, "Nordic" aliens reminiscent of the early contactee era.
Surely, the "Nordic" appearance of these aliens sprang from the
dubious spiritual tradition of Van Tassell, Ballard, Pelley, McCoy, etc. Why,
then, are some modern abductees seeing these very same other-worldly
Uebermenschen?
One abductee of my acquaintance claims to have had beneficial experiences
with these "blond" aliens - who, he believes, came originally from
the Pleiades. Interestingly, in the late 1960s, the psychopathically
anti-Semitic Rev. Wesley Swift predicted this odd twist in the abduction tale.
In a broadcast "sermon," he spoke at length about UFOs, claiming that
there were "good" aliens and "bad" aliens. The good ones,
he insisted, were tall, blond Aryans - who hailed from the Pleiades. He
made this pronouncement long before the current trends in abduction lore.
Could some of the abductions be conducted by an extreme right-wing element
within the national security establishment? Disagreeable as the possibility
seems, we should note that the "lunatic right" is represented in all
other walks of life; certainly hard-rightists have taken positions within the
military-intelligence complex as well.
Grounds For Further Research
John Keel's ground-breaking OPERATION TROJAN HORSE, written in an era when
abductees still came under the category of "contactees," includes the
following intriguing data, gleaned from Keel's extensive field work:
Contactees often find themselves suddenly miles from home without knowing
how they got there. They either have induced amnesia, wiping out all memory of
the trip, or they were taken over by some means and made the trip in a
blacked-out state. Should they encounter a friend on the way, the friend would
probably note that their eyes seemed glassy and their behavior seemed peculiar.
But if the friend spoke to them, he might receive a curt reply.
In the language of the contactees this process is called being used...I
have known silent contactees to disappear from their homes for long periods,
and when they returned, they had little or no recollection of where they had
been. One girl sent me a postcard from the Bahama Islands - which surprised me
because I knew she was very poor. When she returned, she told me that she had
only one memory of the trip. She said she remembered getting off a jet at an
airport - she couldn't recall getting on the jet or making the trip - and there
"Indians" met her and took her baggage.... The next thing she knew
she was back home again.194
Puzzling indeed - unless one has read THE CONTROL OF CANDY JONES, which
speaks of Candy's "blacked out" periods, during which she travelled
to Taiwan as a CIA courier, adopting her second personality. The mind control
explanation perfectly solves all the mysteries in the above excerpt - save,
perhaps, the odd remark about "Indians."
Hickson and Mendez' UFO CONTACT AT PASCAGOULA contains the interesting
information that Charles Hickson awakes at night feeling that he is on the
verge of re-awakening some terribly important memory connected with his
encounter - yet ostensibly he can account for every moment of his adventure.
Hickson also received a letter from an apparent abductee who claims that
the grey aliens are actually automatons of some sort - perhaps an unconscious
recognition of the unreality of the hypnotically-induced "cover story."195 In this light, the film version of COMMUNION - whose
screenplay was written by Whitley Strieber - takes on a new interest: The
abduction sequences contain inexplicable images indicating that the "greys"
are really props, or masks.
COMMUNION and TRANSFORMATION contain passages detailing what seems to be a
hazily-recalled Candy-Jones-style espionage adventure, in which Strieber was
shanghaied by a "coach" and a "nurse" (both human beings)
who apparently drugged him.196 Recall the example of Keel's
informants. Moreover, TRANSFORMATION contains lengthy descriptions of alien
beings working in apparent collusion with human beings.
Abductee Christa Tilton also recalls both human beings and aliens playing a
part in her experience. Ever since her abduction, she claims, she has been "shadowed"
by a mysterious federal agent she calls John Wallis.197
Christa's husband, Tom Adams, has confirmed Wallis' existence.198
In his REPORT ON COMMUNION, Ed Conroy - who seems to have become a
participant in, and not merely an observer of, the phenomenon - describes
harassment by helicopters, which as we have already noted, seems to be quite a
common occurrence in abductee situations.199 Researchers
blithely assume that these incidents represent governmental attempts to spy on
UFO percipients. But this assertion is ridiculous. Helicopters are extremely
expensive to operate, and the engines of espionage have perfected numerous
alternative methods to gather information. After all, we now have a fairly
extensive bibliography of FBI, CIA, and military efforts to spy on numerous
movements favoring domestic social change. Why have no veterans of CHAOS or
COINTELPRO (either victim or victimizer) spoken of helicopters? Obviously the
choppers serve some other purpose beyond mere surveillance. One possibility
might be the propagation of electromagnetic waves which might affect the
perceptions/behaviors of an implanted individual. (Indeed, I have heard rumors
of helicopters being used in electronic "crowd control" operations in
Vietnam and elsewhere; alas, the information is far from hard.)
Contactee Eldon Kerfoot has written of his suspicions that human
manipulators, not aliens, may be the ultimate puppeteers engineering his
experiences. He describes a sudden compulsion to kill a fellow veteran of the
Korean conflict - a man Kerfoot had no logical reason to distrust or dislike,
yet whom he "sensed" to have been a traitor to his country.
Fortunately, the assassination never materialized.200 But
the situation exactly parallels incidents described in released ARTICHOKE
documents concerning the remote hypnotic induction of anti-social behavior.
One last speculation
Renato Vesco's INTERCEPT BUT DON'T SHOOT201 outlines a
fascinating scenario for the "secret weapon" hypothesis of UFOs. Vesco
points out that if these devices are one day to be used in a superpower
conflict, the attacking power would be well-served by the myth of the UFO as an
extraterrestrial craft, for the besieged nation would not know the true nature
of its opponent. Perhaps, then, one purpose of the UFO abductions is to
engender and maintain the legend of the little grey aliens. For the hidden
manipulators, the abductions could be, in and of themselves, a propaganda coup.
Final Thoughts
I do not insist dogmatically on the scenario that I have outlined. I do not
wish to dissuade abduction researchers from exploring other avenues - indeed, I
strongly encourage such work to continue. Nor can I easily account for some
aspects of the abduction narratives - for example, any suggestions I could
offer concerning the reports of genetic experimentation would be extremely
speculative.
But I do insist on a fair hearing of this hypothesis. Criticism is
encouraged; that which does not destroy my thesis will make it stronger. I ask
only that my critics refrain from intellectual laziness; mere differences in
world-view do not constitute a valid attack. God is found in the details.
I recognize the dangers inherent in making this thesis public. New and
distressing abductee confabulations may result. I would prefer that the
audience for this paper be restricted to abduction
researchers, not victims, who might be unduly influenced. However, in a
society that prides itself on ostensibly free press, such restrictions are
unthinkable. Therefore, I can only beg any abduction victims who might read
this paper to attempt a superhuman objectivity. The thesis I have outlined is
promising, and (should trepanation ever provide us with an example of an actual
abductee implant) susceptible of proof. But mine is not the only hypothesis.
The abductee's unrewarding task is to report what he or she has experienced as
truthfully as possible, untainted by outside speculation.
Whether or not future investigation proves UFO abductions to be a product
of mind control experimentation, I feel that this paper has, at least, provided
evidence of a serious danger facing those who hold fast to the ideals of
individual freedom. We cannot long ignore this menace.
A spectre haunts the democratic nations - the spectre of
technofascism. All the powers of the espionage empire and the
scientific establishment have entered into an unholy alliance to evoke this
spectre: Psychiatrist and spy, Dulles and Delgado, microwave specialists and
clandestine operators.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste - and a worse thing to commandeer.
Endnotes
1. Budd Hopkins, MISSING TIME (New York: Richard Marek
Publishers, 1981) and INTRUDERS (New York: Random House, 1987).
2. Whitley Strieber, COMMUNION (New York: Beech Tree
Books, 1987).
3. Cannon, "Psychiatric Abuse of UFO Witness,"
UFO magazine, vol. 3, no. 5 (December, 1988)
4. Philip Klass, UFO ABDUCTIONS: A DANGEROUS GAME
(Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1988). Klass makes some sharp observations, which
are undercut by his refusal to interview abductees directly. The work has no
footnotes and depends heavily on the work of Dr. Martin Orne - of whom more
anon.
5. See bibliography.
6. New York: Bantam Books, 1979.
7. See generally PROJECT MKULTRA, THE CIA'S PROGRAM OF
RESEARCH IN BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION, joint hearing before the Select Committee on
Health and Scientific Research of the Committee on Human Resources, Unites
States Senate (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1977).
8. Robert Eringer, "Secret Agent Man," ROLLING
STONE, 1985.
9. John Marks interview with Victor Marchetti (Marks
files, available at the National Security Archives, Washington, D.C.).
10. In an interview with John Marks, hypnosis expert
Milton Kline, a veteran of clandestine experimentation in this field, averred
that his work for the government continued. Since the interview took place in
1977, years after the CIA allegedly halted mind control research, we must
conclude either that the CIA lied, or that another agency continued the work.
In another interview with Marks, former Air Force-CIA liaison L. Fletcher
Prouty confirmed that the Department of Defense ran studies either in
conjunction with or parallel to those operated by the CIA. (Marks files.)
11. Estabrooks, HYPNOSIS (New York: E.P. Dutton &
Co., Inc., 1957 [revised edition]), 13-14.
12. A copy of this letter can be found in the Marks
files.
13. Estabrooks attracted an eclectic group of friends,
including J. Edgar Hoover and Alan Watts.
14. Interview with daughter Doreen Estabrooks, Marks
files, Washington, D.C.
15. Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shlain, ACID DREAMS (New
York: Grove Press, 1985) 3-4; Marks, THE SEARCH FOR "THE MANCHURIAN
CANDIDATE", 6-8
16. Marks, ibid. 4-6.
17. Edward Hunter, BRAINWASHING IN RED CHINA (New York:
Vanguard Press, 1951.). Hunter invented the term "brainwashing" in a
September 24, 1950 Miami NEWS article.
18. "Japan's Germ Warfare Experiments," THE
GLOBE AND MAIL (Toronto), May 19, 1982.
19. Walter Bowart, OPERATION MIND CONTROL (New York:
Dell, 1978), 191-2, quoting Warren Commission documents. We cannot fairly
derive from this statement a sanguine attitude about PRESENT Soviet
capabilities; in this field, even outdated technology suffices for mischief.
20. Marks, THE SEARCH FOR "THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE",
60-61. A folk entymology has it that the "MK" of MKULTRA stands for "Mind
Kontrol." According to Marks, TSS prefixed the cryptonyms of all its
projects with these initials. Note, though, that MKULTRA was preceded by a
still-mysterious TSS program called QKHILLTOP.
21. Ibid., 224-229. Seven MKULTRA subprojects were
continued, under TSS supervision, as MKSEARCH. This project ended in 1972. CIA
apologists often proclaim that "brainwashing" research ceased in
either 1962 or 1972; these blandishments refer to the TSS projects, not to the
ORD work, which remains TERRA INCOGNITA for independent researchers. Marks
discovered that the ORD research was so voluminous that retrieving documents
via FOIA would have proven unthinkably expensive.
22. For a description of the research into
parapsychology, see Ronald M. McRae's MIND WARS (New York: St. Martin's Press,
1984). The best book available on a subject which awaits a truly authoritative
text.
23. Abduction researcher and hypnotherapist Miranda
Park, of Lancaster, California, reports that she has viewed such anomalies in
abductee MRI scans. See also Whitley Strieber, TRANSFORMATION (New York: Beech
Tree Books, 1988) 246-247. At this writing, both Strieber and Hopkins report
initially promising results in their efforts to document the presence of these
"extras" in abductees.
24. Allegedly, the experiment took place in 1964.
However, in WERE WE CONTROLLED? (New Hyde Park, NY: University Books, 1967),
the pseudonymous "Lincoln Lawrence" makes an interesting argument (on
page 36) that the demonstration took place some years earlier.
25. New York: Harper and Row, 1969. Much of Delgado's
work was funded by the Office of Naval Intelligence, a common conduit for CIA
funds during the 1950s and '60s. (Gordon Thomas' JOURNEY INTO MADNESS (New
York: Bantam, 1989) misleadingly implies that CIA interest in Delgado's work
began in 1972.)
26. J.M.R. Delgado. "Intracerebral Radio
Stimulation and Recording in Completely Free Patients," PSYCHOTECHNOLOGY
(Robert L. Schwitzgebel and Ralph K. Schwitzgebel, editors; New York: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston, 1973): 195.
27. David Krech, "Controlling the Mind Controllers,"
THINK 32 (July-August), 1966.
28. Delgado, PHYSICAL CONTROL OF THE MIND
29. Delgado, "Intracerebral Radio Stimulation and
Recording in Completely Free Patients," 195.
30. Note, for example, Charles Hickson's account of the
Pascagoula Incident. Charles Hickson and William Mendez, UFO CONTACT AT
PASCOGOULA (Tuscon: Wendelle C. Stevens, 1983).
31. John Ranleigh, THE AGENCY (New York: Simon and
Shuster, 1986): 208. Marchetti casts this story in the form of an amusing
anecdote: After much time and expense, a cat was suitably trained and prepared
- only, on its first assignment, to be run over by a taxi. Marchetti neglects
to point out that nothing stopped the Agency from getting another cat. Or from
using a human being.
32. Of course, this suggestion raises the knotty
question of whether the abductees suffer from a form of schizophrenia, which
may also be characterized by "voices." I refer the reader to the work
of Hopkins, Strieber, Thomas Bullard, and others who have described the
difficulties of ascribing all abductions to psychotic states.
33. Alan W. Scheflin and Edward M. Opton, Jr., THE MIND
MANIPULATORS (London: Paddington Press, 1978), 347.
34. Thomas, JOURNEY INTO MADNESS, 276.
35. James Olds, "Hypothalamic Substrates of Reward,"
PHYSIOLOGICAL REVIEWS, 1962, 42:554; "Emotional Centers in the Brain,"
SCIENCE JOURNAL, 1967, 3 (5).
36. Vernon Mark and Frank Ervin, VIOLENCE AND THE BRAIN
(New York: Harper and Row, 1970), chapter 12, excerpted in INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS
AND THE FEDERAL ROLE IN BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION, prepared by the Staff of the
Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Committee of the Judiciary, United
States Senate (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1974).
37. John Lilly, THE SCIENTIST (Berkeley, Ronin
Publishing, 1988 [revised edition]), 90. Monkeys allowed to stimulate
themselves continually via ESB brought themselves to orgasm once every three
minutes, sixteen hours a day. Scientific gatherings throughout the world saw
motion pictures of these experiments, which surely made spectacular cinema.
38. Scheflin and Opton, THE MIND MANIPULATORS, 336-337.
Heath even monitored his patient's brain responses during the subject's first
heterosexual encounter. Such is the nature of the brave new world before us.
39. Robert L. Schwitzgebel and Richard M. Bird, "Sociotechnical
Design Factors in Remote Instrumentation with Humans in Natural Environments,"
40. Thomas, JOURNEY INTO MADNESS, 277. In the BEHAVIOR
RESEARCH METHODS AND INSTRUMENTATION article referenced above, Schwitzgebel
details how the radio signals may be fed into a telephone via a modem and thus
analyzed by a computer anywhere in the world.
41. Scheflin and Opton, THE MIND MANIPULATORS, 347-349.
42. Louis Tackwood and the Citizen's Research and
Investigation Committee, THE GLASS HOUSE TAPES (New York: Avon, 1973), 226.
43. Perry London, BEHAVIOR CONTROL (New York: Harper and
Row, 1969), 145
44. Scheflin and Opton, THE MIND MANIPULATORS, 351-353;
Tackwood, THE GLASS HOUSE TAPES, 228.
45. "Beepers in kids' heads could stop abductors,"
Las Vegas SUN, Oct. 27, 1987.
46. Lilly, THE SCIENTIST, 91.
47. Marks, THE SEARCH FOR "THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE",
151-154.
48. Interestingly, Lilly has come out of the closet as a
sort of proto-Strieber; THE SCIENTIST recounts his close interaction with alien
(though not necessarily extraterrestrial) forces which he labels "solid
state entities."
49. The story of Deep Trance, an MKULTRA "insider"
who provided invaluable information, is somewhat involved. I do not know who
Trance is/was and Marks may not know either. He contacted Trance via the writer
of an article published shortly before research on THE SEARCH FOR "THE
MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE" began, addressing his informant "Dear Source
whose anonymity I respect." I respect it too - hence my reticence to name
the aforementioned article, which may mark a trail to Trance. The fact that I
have not followed this trail would not prevent others from doing so.
50. London, BEHAVIOR CONTROL, 139.
51. See generally, UFO magazine, Vol. 4, No. 2;
especially the interesting contribution by Whitley Strieber.
52. Lawrence, WERE WE CONTROLLED?, 36-37; Anita Gregory,
"Introduction to Leonid L. Vasilev's EXPERIMENTS IN DISTANT INFLUENCE,"
PSYCHIC WARFARE: FACT OR FICTION (editor: John White) (Nottinghamshire:
Aquarian, 1988) 34-57.
53. Lawrence, WERE WE CONTROLLED?, 38.
54. Bowart, OPERATION MIND CONTROL, 261-264.
55. Ibid., 263.
56. Lawrence, WERE WE CONTROLLED?, 52.
57. HUMAN DRUG TESTING BY THE CIA, 202.
58. Note especially the Supreme Court's decision in
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY ET Al. V. SIMS, ET AL. (No. 83-1075; decided April
16, 1986). The egregious and dangerous majority opinion in this case held that
disclosure of the names of scientists and institutions involved in MKULTRA
posed an "unacceptable risk of revealing 'intelligence sources.' The
decisions of the [CIA] Director, who must of course be familiar with 'the whole
picture,' as judges are not, are worthy of great deference...it is conceivable
that the mere explanation of why information must be withheld can convey
valuable information to a foreign intelligence agency." How do we square
this continuing need for secrecy with the CIA's protestations that MKULTRA
achieved little success, that the studies were conducted within the Nueremberg
statues governing medical experiments, and that the research was made available
in the open literature?
59. Letter, P.A. Lindstrom to Robert Naeslund, July 27,
1983; copy available from Martti Koski, Kiilinpellontie 2, 21290 Rusko,
Finland. Lindstrom writes that he fully agrees with Lincoln Lawrence, author of
WERE WE CONTROLLED?
60. Bowart, OPERATION MIND CONTROL, 265. I have
attempted without success to contact Dr. Lindstrom.
61. Ibid., 233-249. This interview was repinted without
attribution in a bizarre compendium of UFO rumors called THE MATRIX, compiled
by "Valdamar Valerian" (actually John Grace, allegedly a Captain
working for Air Force intelligence).
62. Robert Anton Wilson, "Adventures with Head
Hardware," MAGICAL BLEND, 23 [of course], July 1989.
63. Michael Hutchison, MEGA BRAIN (New York: Ballantine,
1986); Gerald Oster, "Auditory Beats in the Brain," SCIENTIFIC
AMERICAN, September, 1973.
64. Marilyn Ferguson, THE BRAIN REVOLUTION (New York:
Taplinger, 1973), 90.
65. Ibid., 91-92. The presence of delta in a waking
subject can indicate pathology.
66. Bio-Pacer promotional and price sheet, available
from Lindemann Laboratories, 3463 State Street, #264, Santa Barbara, CA 93105.
67. Hutchison, MEGA BRAIN, 117-118. Compare Light's
observations about "the grant game" to Sid Gottlieb's protestations
that nearly all "mind control" research was openly published.
68. Thomas Martinez and John Gunther, THE BROTHERHOOD OF
MURDER (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1988), 230.
69. Interview, Sandy Monroe of the Los Angeles office of
the Christic Institute.
70. See generally Paul Brodeur, THE ZAPPING OF AMERICA
(Toronto, George J. MacLeod, 1977).
71. Until recently, the American Embassy was on a street
named after the composer.
72. It was finally determined that the microwaves were
used to receive transmissions from bugs planted within the embassy. DARPA
director George H. Heimeier went on record stating that PANDORA was never
designed to study "microwaves as a surveillance tool." See Anne
Keeler, "Remote Mind Control Technology," FULL DISCLOSURE #15. I
would note that the Soviet embassy was "bugged and waved" in Canada
during the 1950s, and according to the Los Angeles TIMES (June 5, 1989), the
Soviet embassy in Britain had been similarly affected.
73. Ronald I. Adams R.A. Williams, BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION (RADIOWAVES AND MICROWAVES) EURASIAN COMMUNIST
COUNTRIES, (Defense Intelligence Agency, March 1976.) Brodeur notes that much
of the work ascribed to the Soviets in this report was actually first
accomplished by scientists in the United States. Keeler argues that this report
constitutes an example of "mirror imaging" - i.e., parading domestic
advances as a foreign threat, the better to pry funding from a suitably-fearful
Congress.
74. Keeler, "Remote Mind Control Technology."
75. R.J. MacGregor, "A Brief Survey of Literature
Relating to Influence of Low Intensity Microwaves on Nervous Function"
(Santa Monica: RAND Corporation, 1970).
76. Keeler, "Remote Mind Control Technology."
77. Larry Collins, "Mind Control," PLAYBOY,
January 1990.
78. Allan H. Frey, "Behavioral Effects of
Electromagnetic Energy," SYMPOSIUM ON BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS AND MEASUREMENTS
OF RADIO FREQUENCIES/MICRO- WAVES, DeWitt G. Hazzard, editor (U.S. Department
of Health, Education and Welfare, 1977).
79. Quoted in THE APPLICATION OF TESLA'S TECHNOLOGY IN
TODAY'S WORLD (Montreal: Lafferty, Hardwood & Partners, Ltd., 1978).
80. Keeler, "Remote Mind Control Technology."
81. L. George Lawrence, "Electronics and Brain
Control," POPULAR ELECTRONICS, July 1973.
82. Susan Schiefelbein, "The Invisible Threat,"
SATURDAY REVIEW, September 15, 1979.
83. E. Preston, "Studies on the Nervous System,
Cardiovascular Function and Thermoregulation," BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF RADIO
FREQUENCY AND MICROWAVE RADIATION, edited by H.M. Assenheim (Ottawa, Canada:
National Research Council of Canada, 1979), 138-141.
84. Robert O. Becker, THE BODY ELECTRIC (New York:
William Morrow, 1985) 318-319.
85. Ibid.
86. Ibid., 321.
87. See Bowart's OPERATION MIND CONTROL, page 218, for
an interesting example of this "rationalization" process at work in
the case of Sirhan Sirhan, who was convicted for the assassination of Robert F.
Kennedy. In prison, Sirhan was hypnotized by Dr. Bernard Diamond, who
instructed Sirhan to climb the bars of his cage like a monkey. He did so. After
the trance was removed, Sirhan was shown tapes of his actions; he insisted that
he "acted like a monkey" of his own free will - he claimed he wanted
the exercise.
88. Keeler suggests that the proposal was revealed only
because Schapitz' sensationalistic implications may have worked to his
discredit - and therefore hide - the REAL research. Personally, I don't accept
this argument, but I respect Keeler's instincts enough to repeat her caveat
here.
89. Margaret Cheney's TESLA: A MAN OUT OF TIME (New
York: Dell, 1981), the most reliable book in the sea of wild speculation
surrounding this extraordinary scientist, confirms Tesla's early work with the
psychological effects of electromagnetic radiation. See especially pages
101-104; note also the afterword, in which we learn that certain government
agencies have kept important research by Tesla hidden from the general public.
90. Noted in Lawrence, WERE WE CONTROLLED?, 29.
91. Particularly one Thomas Bearden of Huntsville,
Alabama; I have in my possession a document written by Bearden associate Andrew
Michrowski which identifies Bearden as an intelligence agent for an undisclosed
agency.
92. Kathleen McAuliffe, "The Mind Fields," OMNI
magazine, February 1985.
93. May 5, 1985.
94. I refer to an individual who later wrote a very
clear-headed and thoughtful letter to Dr. Paul Lowinger, who has graciously
made his files available to me. For now, I feel compelled to withhold this
person's name.
95. Cameron became president of the American Psychiatric
Association, the Canadian Psychiatric Association, and the World Association of
Psychiatrists, He previously sat on the Nueremberg panel, helping to draw up
the statutes governing ethical medical behavior!
96. In particular, Opton and Scheflin's overview, though
excellent in scope and detail, continually seeks reassurring interpretations of
evidence which points toward more distressing conclusions.
97. Martin T. Orne, "Can a hypnotized subject be
compelled to carry out otherwise unacceptable behavior?" INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL HYPNOSIS, 1972, Vol. 20, 101-117.
98. Marks mentions, in a letter to Orne, the latter's
claim to have been an unwitting participant in subproject 84. Yet the papers
released concerning subproject 84 clearly establish the Agency's willingness to
put Orne in the know; Orne later admitted to Marks that he was made aware of
his CIA sponsorship (Marks, THE SEARCH FOR "THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE",
172-173). In an interview with Marks, Orne discounted the story of Candy Jones
(which we shall recount later) by insisting that if such an experiment had
occurred "someone in some agency would have come to me." Why would
they come to him about a super-secret project, unless Orne had a high security
clearance and worked extensively with intelligence agencies? Note also that
Orne conducted extensive studies for the Office of Naval Research from June 1,
1968 to May 31, 1971. He has also been funded by DARPA. Moreover, I consider
noteworthy the fact that Orne somehow became president of the Society for
Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis despite the fact that the organization had
decided not to have a president. (This fact was related to Marks by a prominent
hypnosis specialist in an off-the-record interview that I probably wasn't
supposed to see.)
99. The story has been told many times. See Turner and
Christian's THE KILLING OF ROBERT F. KENNEDY, 207-208; also Peter J. Reiter,
ANTISOCIAL OR CRIMINAL ACTS AND HYPNOSIS (Springfield, Illinois: Charles C.
Thomas, 1958).
100. John G. Watkins, "Antisocial behavior under
hypnosis: Possible or impossible?" INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR CLINICAL AND
EXPERIMENTAL HYPNOSIS, 1972, Vol. 20, 95-100.
101. Milton H. Erickson, "An experimental
investigation of the possible anti-social use of hypnosis," PSYCHIATRY,
1939, vol. 2. Erickson argues that if a hypnotist has convinced his subject to
misperceive reality, then resulting actions cannot be considered "anti-social,"
for the actions would be acceptable within the subject's internal reality
construct. This argument strikes me as semantic quibbling.
102. See generally Flo Conway and Jim Seigelman,
SNAPPING (New York: Lippincott, 1978).
103. Lee and Schlain, ACID DREAMS, 8-9.
104. John Marks interview with Victor Marchetti,
December 19, 1977 (Marks files).
105. Martin T. Orne, "On the Mechanisms of
Posthypnotic Amnesia," THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND
EXPERIMENTAL HYPNOSIS, 1966, vol. 14, 121-134. Orne's work with post-hypnotic
amnesia was funded by NIMH, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and
the Office of Naval Research. I should like to hear what innocent explanation,
if any, the Air Force has to offer to explain their interest in post-hypnotic
amnesia.
106. Bowart, OPERATION MIND CONTROL, 242-243.
107. Obviously Allan Dulles. This may have been a
hypnotically-induced delusion; on the other hand, Dulles' legendary sexual
rapacity makes this claim rather less unlikely than one might first assume.
108. Always the best indicator of whether or not
hypnosis is genuine; I can't understand why Orne didn't use this test in the
Blanchi case.
109. Herbert Spiegel, "Hypnosis and evidence: Help
or hindrance," ANN. N.Y. ACAD. SCI.; 1980, 347, 73-85.
110. See, for example, Kroger, HYPNOSIS AND BEHAVIOR
MODIFICATION, 21-22
111. See especially Klass, UFO ABDUCTIONS: A DANGEROUS
GAME, 60-61. Orne, interviewed here, makes reference to the work summarized in
his article "The use and misuse of hypnosis in court" (INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL HYPNOSIS, 1979, vol. 27, 311-341.)
112. Klass argues that ufologists, in conducting
hypnotic regression sessions, inadvertently cue their subjects. A close reading
of his text reveals that he never proves or claims that such "cues"
have taken place in any individual instance; he simply believes that cueing
MIGHT have occurred. Had Klass been more willing to deal with abductees
directly, he might have found evidence of cause and effect; as it stands, his
argument really amounts to no more than a suggestion. For all that, I find his
ideas regarding therunning of "clean" hypnotic regression sessions
potentially valuable.
113. Marks, THE SEARCH FOR "THE MANCHURIAN
CANDIDATE", 34-37.
114. Donald Bain, THE CONTROL OF CANDY JONES (Chicago,
Playboy Press, 1976).
115. The use of hypnotized couriers in warfare goes
back to the 19th century.
116. Estabrooks, HYPNOTISM, 193-214.
117. John Marks interview with Milton Kline, December
22, 1977 (Marks files). In another interview, Professor Clare Young (a
colleague of Estabrooks' at Colgate University) confirmed that Estabrooks'
hypnosis work for the government has never been published.
118. Or could her marriage have been part of the
program? "Long John," as he was popularly known, was famous in UFO
circles, and had provided a forum for such early-day contactees as Howard
Menger. He also knew Jackie Gleason, a prominent (if unlikely) name in the "crashed
disc" rumor vaults. Could Candy have been assigned to discover what Nebel
knew?
119. Marks files. John Marks did excellent work on the
Candy Jones story; he erred - almost unforgivably - on the side of conservatism
when he refused to include information about this incident in his book. I know
the name of the institute involved; however, since Candy saw fit to keep this
aspect of her story secret (probably for sound legal reasons), I shall follow
her lead.
120. Scheflin and Opton, THE MIND MANIPULATORS,
446-447.
121. Interviews, Marks files. One of Marks' informants
offered the interesting speculation that Candy's torture sessions were not
conducted in the field, but in the lab - her entire mission might have been a
hypno-programmed fantasy.
122. The information about Candy's CIA files stems from
a telephone interview with Candy Jones. A problem looms here: CIA cover stories
unravel like the skin of an onion; once you remove the outer layer, the next
lie is revealed. In the case of Candy Jones, the substrata of buncombe involves
allegations that she WILLINGLY complied with the CIA, and used Jensen's
hypnosis experiments as a rationalization for her compliance. Such is the
explanation offered by certain of Marks' informants; alas, Opton and Scheflin
seem to have bought this line. Anyone familiar with the vile acts of
self-degradation to which Candy's programmers subjected her will laugh this
story out of court. No one, short of a severely psychotic masochist, would
willingly undergo what she went through.
123. Marks files.
124. William Kroger, CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL HYPNOSIS
(Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1963), 299.
125. Recently, ufologist Jim Moseley, an acquaintance
of Candy's, has claimed that an unidentified source on Nebel's "inner
circle" once, off-the-record, pronounced Candy's story "a crock."
This assertion deserves careful and respectful consideration. Still, Moseley
won't identify his source, and we have no way of telling if this insider spoke
from instinct or certain knowledge, or indeed, what he really meant. Did he
feel Candy was fantasizing or fibbing? If the former, why did her
hallucinations match details of MKULTRA released only after publication of her
book? If the latter, how are we to explain the many hypnotic regression tapes,
at least some of which were made available to outside investigators? (Fairly
elaborate, for a hoax.) In any case, how could Candy have known the fact
(confirmed by Marks' associates) that Kroger taught "Jensen" at a
certain West-coast institute? Why, if the story was "a crock," would
Candy risk libel suits by naming - to associates and investigators, if not to
the general public - real-life hypnotherapists? All in all, I would suggest
that Moseley's "insider" was speaking glibly, and did not know the
true facts.
126. Philadelphia, Lippincott, 1976.
127. Ibid., 415.
128. Similar paranoid outbreaks led to the dissolution
of Dr. Richard Neal's UFO abductee group in Los Angeles, according to a phone
interview I had with Dr. Neal.
129. Affidavit of Dr. Simpson-Kallas in the case of
Sirhan-Sirhan, 1973; see Bowart, OPERATION MIND CONTROL, 225.
130. All true MPs have experienced some form of abuse
or trauma, psychological or physical, during childhood.
131. One was ritually abused in an occult setting. If I
were a "spy-chiatrist" scouting potential fodder for mind control
experiments, I would seek out abused children from military families. (A
military background would ensure that the "right" doctor gets access
to the child.) Abduction researchers should look for such a pattern.
132. I refer here to the vast upsurge in alien
abductions which took place that year; see generally Kevin Randle, THE OCTOBER
SCENARIO (Middle Coast, 1988). Of course, abductions (or, according to my
hypothesis, disguised mind control operations) occurred previous to this year.
133. John Marks interview with Milton Kline, December
22, 1977 (Marks files).
134. Brenda Butler ET AL., SKY CRASH, expanded edition
(London: Grafton Books, 1986), 305-321, 354-355.
135. Telephone interview with Nancy Wright.
136. Telephone interview with Miranda Parks.
137. William Moore, "UFOs and the U.S. Government,"
FOCUS, vol. 4, June 30, 1989. Moore's role in the affair strikes me as highly
questionable, even scandalous - although at least here we have one instance of
direct and irrefutable "insider" testimony of government harassment.
138. Some have also raised questions about his
psychiatric treatment of Oswald assassin Jack Ruby. I find it odd that a CIA
mind control veteran - who did NOT reside or practice in Dallas - should have
been assigned to the Ruby case.
139. Samiel Chavkin, THE MIND STEALERS (New York:
Houghton Mifflin, 1978), 96-107.
140. Raymond Fowler, THE ANDREASSON AFFAIR (New York:
Prentice Hall, 1979).
141. New York: Warner Books, 1989; 198-202.
142. Ruth Montgomery, ALIENS AMONG US (Ballantine,
1985), 49. My article "Psychiatric Abuse of UFO Witness," referred to
earlier, also documents this phenomenon.
143. Chung-Kwang Chou and Arthur W. Guy, "Quantization
of Microwave Biological Effects," SYMPOSIUM OF BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS AND
MEASUREMENT OF RADIO FREQUENCY/MICROWAVES, edited by Dewitt G. Hazzard (U.S.
Department of Health, Education and Welfare, 1977).
144. MIAMI HERALD, May 28, 1984 and June 6, 1984;
NATIONAL EXAMINER, vol. 22, no. 18, April 30, 1985. Although the EXAMINER is a
supermarket tabloid, and therefore a questionable source, this periodical has
rendered researchers the service of printing the X-ray of Petit's brain,
showing the implant.
145. Los Angeles TIMES, March 28, 1988.
146. Raymond Fowler, THE ANDREASSON AFFAIR, PHASE TWO
(Reward, 1982). This book includes rare photographs of the unmarked helicopters
which have plagued this abduction victim and her family.
147. A mutual friend described for me an incident in
which the former SEAL, mistakenly perceiving a threat, almost instantly felled,
and nearly killed, a man twice his size. Whatever the truth of my informant's
other statements, he certainly has received advanced combat training.
148. Fenton Bresler, WHO KILLED JOHN LENNON? (New York:
St. Martin's Press, 1989), 45-46.
149. Bowart, OPERATION MIND CONTROL, 27-42.
150. Denise Winn, THE MANIPULATED MIND (London, Octagon
Press, 1983), 72-73; Bresler, WHO KILLED JOHN LENNON?, 41; see generally: Peter
Watson, WAR ON THE MIND (London: Hutchison, 1978) (Watson broke the story on
Narut for the London TIMES).
151. Larry Collins, "Mind Control," PLAYBOY,
January 1990.
152. John Marks interview with Milton Kline, December
22, 1977 (Marks files).
153. Richard A. Gabriel, NO MORE HEROES (New York: Hill
and Wang, 1987), 124.
154. Ibid., 150-151.
155. See generally: Mark Lane, CONVERSATIONS WITH
AMERICANS (Simon and Shuster, 1970); A.J. Langguth, HIDDEN TERRORS (New York:
Pantheon, 1978).
156. John G. Fuller, THE INTERRUPTED JOURNEY (New York:
Dell, 1966).
157. This detail plays a part in other abductions - for
example, it crops up in the Betty Andreasson Luca case. See Raymond Fowler, THE
ANDREASSON AFFAIR (New York: Bantam, 1980), 50-51.
158. Stanton Friedman, for example; the reader is
referred to his 1988 Whole Life Expo lecture, "UFOs: A Cosmic Watergate."
159. THE BODY ELECTRIC, 196-202.
160. The Fish map has received wide discussion; for a
representative sampling, the reader is directed to the aforementioned Friedman
lecture (note 158); Terence Dickenson, "The Zeti Reticuli Incident,"
ASTRONOMY, December, 1974; Klass, UFO ABDUCTIONS: A DANGEROUS GAME, 20-23; and
John Rimmer, THE EVIDENCE FOR ALIEN ABDUCTIONS (Weillingborough: Aquarian,
1984), 88-92. Incidentally, Klass has proposed to Friedman a test regarding the
ability to recall such material accurately under hypnotic regression; Friedman,
for reasons best known to himself, declined the offer to participate.
161. Jacques Vallee, DIMENSIONS (Chicago: Contemporary,
1988), 266.
162. See Rimmer, THE EVIDENCE FOR ALIEN ABDUCTIONS,
91-92. None of this is meant to denigrate Marjorie Fish, whose work has
received universal praise.
163. Fuller, THE INTERRUPTED JOURNEY, 18-19.
164. Athan G. Theoharis and John Stuart Cox, THE BOSS:
J. EDGAR HOOVER AND THE GREAT AMERICAN INQUISITION (Philadelphia: Temple
University Press, 1978), 325; Chip Berlet, "The Hunt for the Red Menace,"
COVERT ACTION INFORMATION BULLETIN, no. 31 (winter, 1989); J. Edgar Hoover,
COINTELPRO (memo), March 4, 1968.
165. For example, Delgado's work pre-dates the Hill
incident. Moreover, one of the few pages released on MKULTRA subproject 119
concerns "a critical review of the literature and scientific developments
related to the recording, analysis and interpretation of bioelectric signals
from the human organism, and activation of human behavior by remote means."
The review took place in 1960-61. Presumably, the CIA wanted to DO something
with the information so derived.
166. "UFO Abductions Workshop," Whole Life
Expo, March, 1988.
167. Ludwig Mayer, DIE TECHNIC DER HYPNOSE (Munich:
J.H. Lehmanns Verlag, 1953), 225; quoted in: Heinz E. Hammerschlag
(translation: John Cohen) HYPNOTISM AND CRIME (Hollywood: Wilshire Book
Company, 1957), 24-25.
168. Numerous articles discuss this possibility; see,
for example, William C. Coe ET AL. "An Approach Toward Isolating Factors
that Influence Antisocial Conduct in Hypnosis," THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
OF CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL HYPNOSIS, 1972, vol XX, no. 2, 118-131, as well as
other reports in that issue. The difference between the laboratory and the "field"
settings may account for the success of Mayer's experiment and the apparent
failure of the "aliens."
169. For a description of a quite similar experiment
conducted under CIA auspices in 1954, see "CIA able to control minds by
hypnosis, data shows," THE WASHINGTON POST, February 19, 1978.
170. Abductee interview, "Veronica." The
reader will, I hope, forgive my use of a pseudonym here. For the most part, I
hope to deal in this work with published cases. Suffice it to say, Veronica's
testimony proved fascinating, troubling, convoluted, problematical; in spite of
all the questions raised by this case, I still believe it to have substantial
bearing on my thesis. The reader will forgive me for severing relations with
this abductee before completing an investigation; she keeps a mini-armory next
to her bed.
171. Abductee interview, "Veronica," At one
point, she ran an informal abductee/contactee group; as a result, she was able
to describe many other cases to me.
172. One ARTICHOKE document explicitly details a failed
attempt to use hypnosis to induce the assassination of a foreign leader. The
document is undated; the experiment took place January 8-January 15, 1954.
Document reproduced in CIA PAPERS, vol. 1 (Ann Arbor, MI: Capitol Information
Associates, 1986),39-41.
173. John Marks interview of Prof. Jack Tracktir (Marks
files).
174. Jenny Randles, ABDUCTIONS (London: Robert Hale,
1988), 52-53.
175. As in, for example, the Palle Hardrup affair.
176. Private correspondence, Robert Durant to the
author.
177. Abductee interview, "Polly." I won't give
the facial details here; suffice it to say that this abductor, like Margary's
(noted earlier), has something of the smell of greasepaint about him.
178. The base is mantioned in Ann Druffel's and D.
Scott Rogo's THE TUJUNGA CANYON CONTACTS (New York: Signet, 1989) [expanded
edition], 157.
179. On the other hand, Armstrong asks us to accept his
own channelled material, so he would have an awkward time should he choose to
challenge the "psychic impressions" of others.
180. Jacques Vallee, MESSENGERS OF DECEPTION (Berkeley:
And/Or Press, 1979), 192-193.
181. Curtis G. Fuller (editor), PROCEEDINGS OF THE
FIRST INTERNATIONAL UFO CONGRESS (New York: Warner Books, 1980), 307.
182. For information of Pelley, see John Roy Carlson,
UNDER COVER (New York: Dutton, 1943).
183. Gerald B. Bryan, PSYCHIC DICTATORSHIP IN AMERICA
(Los Angeles: Truth Research, 1940). An essential book-length expose of
Ballardism. One of Bryan's sources alleges that Ballard, before founding the I
AM group, may have practiced some variety of black magic.
184. The student should carefully compare the I AM
dogma with the available information on pre-Third Reich occultism; the best
sources are James Webb's masterful analyses, THE OCCULT ESTABLISHMENT and THE
OCCULT UNDERGROUND (La Salle, Illinois: Open Court Publishing, 1976).
185. Vallee, MESSENGERS OF DECEPTION, 192-194.
186. Even a cursory examination of Williamson's SECRET
OF THE ANDES (London: Neville Superman, 1961), written under the pseudonym
Brother Philip, will reveal the I AM connections.
187. Personal sources. Van Tassell's "Integration,"
a domed structure allegedly built under extra-terrestrial guidance (located
near Twentynine Palms, California) prominently displays, to this day, key I AM
artifacts such as the portraits of Jesus and Saint Germain (commissioned by
Ballard).
188. "The Afghan Arms Pipeline," COVERT ACTION
INFORMATION BULLETIN, no. 30 (summer, 1988).
189. Telephone interview with John Judge.
190. Village of Oak Creek, Arizona: Entheos, 1989, 119.
I can't recall ever encountering another book title which contained so many
grammatical errors. Armstrong's accomplishment is genuinely impressive.
191. For further information on I AM, Prophet's
organization, saucer cults, and other groups, see the appropriate sections of
J. Gordon Melton's ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN RELIGION.
192. Ruth Montgomery, ALIENS AMONG US (New York:
Ballantine, 1985), 128-188.
193. Penny Harper, "Are Aliens Taking Over the
Earth?" WHOLE LIFE TIMES, January 1990.
194. John Keel, WHY UFOS: OPERATION TROJAN HORSE (New
York: Manor Books, 1970) [paperback edition], 228.
195. Hickson and Mendez, UFO CONTACT AT PASCAGOULA,
242.
196. Strieber, COMMUNION, 134; TRANSFORMATION, 109.
197. "Contactee: Firsthand," UFO magazine,
vol. 4, no. 2, 1989.
198. Telephone conversation, Tom Adams.
199. Ed Conroy, REPORT ON COMMUNION (New York: William
Morrow, 1989), 365-385.
200. "Contactee: Firsthand," UFO magazine,
vol. 3, no. 3.
201. New York: Zebra, 1971. See especially note 2,
Chap. 9.
Selected Bibliography On Mind Control
ACID DREAMS, by Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shlain (Grove, 1985). Outstanding
work on MKULTRA and drugs.
THE BODY ELECTRIC, by Robert Becker (Morrow, 1985). Important.
THE BRAIN CHANGERS, by Maya Pines (Signet, 1973). Outdated, but an
excellent chapter on the stimoceiver and related technologies.
BRAIN CONTROL, by Elliot Valenstein (John Wiley and Sons, 1973). Highly
conservative; outdated; still worth reading.
CIA PAPERS, compiled by Capitol Information Associates (POB 8275, Ann
Arbor, Michigan, 48107). Interesting selection of MKULTRA documents.
THE CONTROL OF CANDY JONES, by Donald Bain (Playboy Press, 1976). Mandatory
reading.
HUMAN DRUG TESTING BY THE CIA, hearings before the Subcommittee on Health
and Scientific Research on the Committee on Human Resources, United States
Senate (Government Printing Office, 1977).
HYPNOTISM, by George Estabrooks (Dutton, 1957). See especially the chapters
on hypnosis in warfare and crime. Some modern experts in clinical hypnosis
decry Estabrooks' work. These "experts" tend to have a history of
funding by CIA cut-outs and military intelligence. I suspect they denounce
Estabrooks not because his work was shoddy, but because he let the cat out of
the bag.
INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AND THE FEDERAL ROLE IN BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION, by the
Staff of the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Committee of the
Judiciary, United States Senate (Government Printing Office, 1974).
MEGABRAIN, by Michael Hutchison (Ballantine, 1986). The only popular book
on modern mind machines.
MESSENGERS OF DECEPTION, by Jacques Vallee (And/Or, 1979). Vallee has been
criticized, correctly, for including in this book invented "conversations"
with a composite character he calls Major Murphy. But the section on cults in
this book bears a haunting resemblance to stories I have heard in my own
investigations.
THE MIND MANIPULATORS, by Opton and Scheflin (Paddington Press, 1978).
Conservative, but extremely useful as a reference work.
MIND WARS, by Ronald McCrae (St. Martin's Press, 1984).
OPERATION MIND CONTROL, by Walter Bowart (Dell, 1978). The best single
volume on the subject. Difficult to find; indeed, this book's rapid
disappearance from bookstores and libraries has aroused the suspicions of some
researchers. (Tom David Books, POB 1107, Aptos, CA 95001, carries this work.)
PHYSICAL CONTROL OF THE MIND, by Jose Delgado (Harper and Row, 1969).
Outdated but still essential.
PROJECT MKULTRA, joint hearing before the Select Committee on Health and
Scientific Research of the Committee on Human Resources, United States Senate
(Government Printing Office, 1977).
PSYCHIC WARFARE: FACT OR FICTION? edited by John White (Aquarian, 1988).
See especially Michael Rossman's contribution.
PSYCHOTECHNOLOGY, Robert L. Schwitzgebel and Ralph K. Schwitzgebel (Holt,
Rhinehart and Winston, 1973).
THE SCIENTIST, by John Lilly (expanded edition: Ronin, 1988). Bizarre -
Lilly is an ex-"brainwashing" specialist who claims to be in contact
with aliens. Is he controlled or controlling?
THE SEARCH FOR "THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE", by John Marks (Bantam,
1978). An invaluable book. However, many people have made the mistake of
assuming it tells the full story. It does not.
WERE WE CONTROLLED? by Lincoln Lawrence (University Books, 1967). Explores
possible connections to the JFK assassination. Dr. Petter Lindstrom's
endorsement of this work makes it mandatory reading.
WHO KILLED JOHN LENNON? by Fenton Bresler (St. Martin's Press, 1989).
Interesting thesis concerning the possible use of mind control on Mark David
Chapman. Better in its analysis of Chapman than in its history of mind control.
In my own work, I have encountered data which may help confirm Bresler's
theory.
THE ZAPPING OF AMERICA, by Paul Brodeur (MacLeod [Canadian edition], 1976).
Contains a good chapter on microwave mind control technology.
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