The Brain: A Secret History - Mind Control

 

I have digging a little into the CIA experiments from the 1950s through the 1970s (Project Bluebird, Project Artichoke, MKULTRA), specifically their work in creating multiple personalities in victims in order to make them into assassins. The reality of these experiments is not in question - they happened and the CIA declassified a lot of the documents (which makes me wonder how bad are the experiments they did not declassify). One of the more compelling books on the subject is Bluebird : Deliberate Creation of Multiple Personality by Psychiatrists (2000) by Colin Ross, M.D.

This research project was inspired by a first person account of similar experiences - I am a skeptic regarding any wide-ranging government mind control efforts, organized and coordinated satanic cult activity, and the creation of very specific and widely seen "alters" that are programmed for very detailed activities in survivors with dissociative identity disorder (formerly known as multiple personality disorder - MPD).

That said, I would be not at all surprised if there are groups organized around pedophilia and child prostitution who use some of these techniques to control and instill fear in the children they victimize.

Moreover, I have little doubt that there are sociopathic gurus, fundamentalist preachers, and other forms of religious or political "leaders" who employ some of these mind control techniques - knowingly or unknowingly - to control their followers and manipulate them into doing what the leader wishes, whether it's financial (Andrew Cohen), sexual (Marc Gafni, Genpo Roshi, and a list of others), or some other objective. 

Anyway, this is the beginning of several posts on this topic.

Here is the description from BBC Four for the original broadcast of the video below:

In a compelling and at times disturbing series, Dr Michael Mosley explores the brutal history of experimental psychology.

To begin, Michael traces the sinister ways this science has been used to try to control our minds. He finds that the pursuit of mind control has led to some truly horrific experiments and left many casualties in its wake. Extraordinary archive captures what happened - scientists systematically change the behaviour of children; law abiding citizens give fatal electric shocks; a gay man has electrodes implanted in his head in an attempt to turn his sexuality.

Michael takes a hallucinogenic drug as part of a controlled experiment to try to understand how its mind-bending properties can change the brain. This is a scientific journey which goes to the very heart of what we hold most dear - our free will, and our ability to control our own destiny.

This is disturbing stuff, but not nearly as much so as the documentary on CIA mind control projects I will post tomorrow.

The Brain: A Secret History

In a compelling and at times disturbing series, Dr Michael Mosley explores the brutal history of experimental psychology.

Mosley embarks on three journeys to understand science's last great frontier - the human mind - as he traces the history of the attempts to understand and manipulate the brain. Experiments on the human mind have led to profound insights into how our brain works - but have also involved great cruelty and posed some terrible ethical dilemmas.

Mind Control. To begin, Michael traces the sinister ways this science has been used to try to control our minds. He finds that the pursuit of mind control has led to some truly horrific experiments and left many casualties in its wake. Extraordinary archive captures what happened - scientists systematically change the behavior of children; law abiding citizens give fatal electric shocks; a gay man has electrodes implanted in his head in an attempt to turn his sexuality.

The other two episodes in the series are on emotions and how we learn about healthy brains by studying broken brains.

Emotions. In this film, Michael investigates how scientists have struggled to understand that most irrational and deeply complex part of our minds - our emotions. Michael meets survivors - both participants and scientists - of some of the key historical experiments. Many of these extraordinary research projects were captured on film - an eight-month-old boy is taught to fear random objects, baby monkeys are given mothers made from wire and cloth, and an adult is deliberately violent before a group of toddlers.

Broken Brains. Dr Michael Mosley concludes his series exploring the brutal history of experimental psychology by looking at how experiments on abnormal brains have revealed the workings of the normal brain. He meets remarkable individuals like Karen, who suffered from a rare condition - alien hand syndrome - which meant that one of her hands constantly attacked her. And Julia, who seems to have recovered from her stroke - until experiments reveal she is unable to recall the name of any object.