From the Pages of History: MKULTRA (1953)
A chance connection on The Octopus Murders led me to a great primer on MKULTRA via Neuro Transmissions
I caught the first hint of MKULTRA early last year while reading Colonel Andrew Marriott (Ret) and I was stunned that so far back in the Cold War could impact soldiers of my generation. Then I spotted it on the Octopus Murders connections infographic. MKULTRA, the project that Richard Helms ordered all files destroyed. OK, I didn’t know that?
Two really good primers. The first via the ABC. Academic papers from the 1960s reveal how a CIA-funded 'mind control' program came to Australia. Excerpt:
In the winter of 1960, Martin Orne, remembered as one of the 20th century's greatest psychologists, touched down in Sydney.
The American professor was due to begin a three-month sabbatical at the University of Sydney, attracted by its world-renowned psychology faculty.
Professor Orne was one of the leading researchers into hypnosis, something the Sydney team awaiting his arrival was also interested in. They were all trying to apply a scientific approach to a practice long associated with magic and mystery.
"I suddenly found myself surrounded by people who were entrenched in the issues of hypnosis."
But, unbeknownst to the Sydney university staff and students, documents recently retrieved by the ABC confirm that Professor Orne was receiving funding from the secretive intelligence program MK-Ultra, which was in turn funded by the CIA.
Orne was a keen psychologist, well regarded for his scepticism and scientific rigour, but the CIA had questionable motives.
The second primer is fresh off the press. Neuro Transmissions has just released a 50-minute YouTube video which details the MKULTRA program from recruiting Nazi’s under Operation Paperclip (1945) until its eventual official unravelling in the 1970s. Fascinating and a solid recommend.
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Neuro Transmissions has a dedicated channel titled Nebula. They have a lot of really interesting material.
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UPDATES
30.05.2024: Reviewed/Updated: Minor amendments. References updated
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REFERENCES
Marriot, A.G. (2022) If you wake at Midnight. The Lariam wonder drug scandal. Austin Macauley. London, UK
IMDb (2024) American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders. [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31030101/] Netflix. Page accessed 29.04.2024
Neuro Transmissions (25.04.2024) How “good people” facilitated horrific CIA mind control experiments. [see YouTube above] YouTube. Page accessed 29.04.2024
Nofil, B [2024] THE CIA'S APPALLING HUMAN EXPERIMENTS WITH MIND CONTROL [https://www.history.com/mkultra-operation-midnight-climax-cia-lsd-experiments] History.com. Paged accessed 30.05.2024
Watson, J. (5.08.2021) Academic papers from the 1960s reveal how a CIA-funded 'mind control' program came to Australia [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-05/how-a-cia-mind-control-program-came-to-australia/100308002] The History Listen, ABC. Page accessed 29.04.2024