Founded 1876 daily since 1892 online since 1998
Monday March 26, 2018 vol. CXLII no. 29
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New book on LSD, CIA blows readers’ minds BEYOND THE BUBBLE
STUDENT LIFE
REBECCA NGU :: PRINCETONIAN STAFF WRITER
ROTC Cadets walking along the Delaware and Raritan Canal towpath.
ROTC cadets at U. share perspectives on service By Sarah Sakha
Thank you for your service 0620 14 FEB Cadet Major Natalie Fahlberg ’18 walked past Scully Hall and circled Carl Icahn Laboratory as she made her way to Jadwin Gymnasium. In the pitch black, her silhouette was barely discernible. Fahlberg wore her uniform with her ruck, a backpack weighing 35 to 50 pounds. Though the temperature was 31 degrees, she was unperturbed as she strode confidently forward. Her hair was pulled tightly back into a neat bun at the nape of her neck, right be-
low her cap. Fahlberg, the Executive Officer (XO) of the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps and the only female in the senior Army ROTC class, joined her fellow cadets at Jadwin Gym to complete a short two-mile ruck march. At a pace of 17.5 minutes per mile, the cadets moved in formation. In late March, as part of their basic training, the cadets will march 12 miles in under three hours, with a pack weighing up to 70 pounds. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, cadets make this very walk to Jadwin Gym for early morning physical training, or ‘PT’ in
LOCAL NEWS
ON CAMPUS
Editor-in-Chief Emerita
By Sarah Warman Hirschfield and Linh Nguyen Associate News Editor and Staff Writer
A new book, “Blowing America’s Mind: A True Story of Princeton, CIA Mind Control, LSD and Zen,” documents the experiences of two University alumni who were subjects in LSD and hypnosis experiments at the now defunct New Jersey NeuroPsychiatric Institute’s Bureau of Research. Under the research objectives of Dr. Humphry Osmond, who coined the word “psychedelic” and guided Aldous Huxley on the mescaline trip featured in The Doors of Perception, John Selby ’68 and Paul Jeffrey Davids ’69 were hypnotized and given LSD to explore altered states of consciousness. In 1977, news broke of Project MKUltra, a program of experiments on human subjects undertaken by the Central Intelligence Agency to develop drugs and procedures for interrogations and torture. The program, which started in the early 1950s and ended in 1973, used front organizations, such as colleges, hospitals, and prisons, to conduct the experiments while hiding the research’s connection with the CIA. “We knew we had volunteered for hypnosis and LSD research,” said Davids, “but the fact that it was being funded by the CIA and that the doctors we trusted … were working for the CIA — we didn’t know about [until] 10 years later, when MKUltra was exposed.” On Aug. 3, 1977, former CIA Director Stansfield Turner confirmed that “86 institutions were involved” in “149 separate research projects.” The University and Columbia University were two of these institutions, notified personally by the CIA in a set of letters admitting that University students “had apparently been involved in a phase of CIA
testing between 1953 and 1964.” According to a 1977 article in the LA Times, CIA experimentation with LSD began “out of concern in the 1950s that the Russians and the Chinese had developed effective techniques in mind control,” resulting in fear that “American prisoners of war or American diplomats” would become victim to these tactics. A news release from the University Office of Communications on Sept. 1, 1977, provided further details about the experimentation, including that “CIA funds totaling $4,075 were paid in 1953 and 1958 for research by two individuals who were then affiliated with the University.” The release also refutes any claims that the “University as an institution was involved in this research.” In email correspondences to former University President William Bowen on Aug. 31, 1977, former University Research Board chair Robert May confirmed that a Chemistry Department faculty member was paid $753 for “characterizing the alkaloids present in seeds of [Ipomoea] Sidaefolia Choisy” which are known to have “‘disorienting effects when ingested.’” May could not confirm “whether the chemistry was done in a Princeton laboratory or not.” “I saw a notice up on the bulletin board in the [psychology] department when I was a junior,” said Selby. After completing a questionnaire and an interview with Dr. Bernard S. Aaronson, a hypnotist, Selby was signed off by the department to count his work at the Institute as course credit. According to the New York Times, before the Institute existed the first of three mental health facilities on the now-abandoned plot of land in Skillman, N.J., was open — the New Jersey State Village for Epileptics. This village was built in 1898 and was See LSD page 2
Standoff at Panera Bread ends in death of gunman By Allie Spensley Assistant News Editor
An armed man inside Panera Bread at 136 Nassau St. was shot and killed by police Tuesday afternoon after close to five hours of negotiations with law enforcement officials. The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office has identified the man as Scott Mielentz, 56. Mielentz was a resident of Lawrenceville, New Jersey, and previously lived in Newtown, Pennsylvania. Shortly after 10 a.m., members of the Princeton Police Department surrounded Mielentz inside of Panera. After customers and employees evacuated the establishment, law enforcement officials continued to negotiate with him. The situation ended shortly before 3 p.m. when the police shot and killed Mielentz, according to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office. Nassau Street was shut down between Washington Road and Witherspoon See PANERA page 2
BENJAMIN BALL :: PRINCETONIAN STAFF WRITER
Over spring break, a deer crashed through the window of Wu Hall. The deer was not injured.
Oh, deer, another one: Deer visits Wu Hall By Benjamin Ball Staff Writer
A deer smashed through a first f loor window into Wu Hall early Saturday afternoon, leaving a large amount of broken glass on the f loor. The deer entered the east side of Wu, through a window behind the card swipe station facing Wilcox Hall, before climbing up the stairs to the second-
In Opinion
Today on Campus
SEE PAGE 4 FOR A CROSSWORD
Noon: Big Chief Wears a Golden Crown: Art of the New Orleans Black Masking Indians. An exhibition of ceremonial suits and aprons made by Chiefs of New Orleans Black Masking Indian Tribes. CoLab, 122 Alexander Street
Contributing columnist Rohit Dilip argues that first-year students need more access to academic advice from upperclassmen, not advisers.
See ROTC page 6
f loor lobby. Public Safety officers quickly closed off the building and stationed themselves around the area. Paul Schorin ’19 was on his way to meet some friends in Wu when they told him, “Don’t come — there’s a deer.” “I was like, ‘Oh, they must be joking; my friends are so kooky,’ but they weren’t,” said Schorin. “As I look up, See OH, DEER page 2
WEATHER
COURTESY OF JOHN SELBY AND PAUL DAVIDS
The new book by U. graduates documents the experience of patients at the New Jersey Neuro-Psychiatric Institute.
military vernacular. That means that cadets must wake up by 0530, before the sun rises. On 14 FEB, sunrise was at 0653. While Fahlberg and the other cadets were at Jadwin Gym, campus was eerily desolate — a background of towering buildings with pitch-black windows. The sidewalks that would soon be alive with hustling students were empty. 0635 Cadet Captain Teddy Waldron ’18 called the company to order. Thirty-five cadets, with rucks in tow, awaited instructions in the lobby of Jadwin Gym. Three injured cadets sat out dur-
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