4.4 McAllister. Project MK-Ultra

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4.4 Project MK-Ultra

By Kate McAllister ’22

Beginning in the 1950s, Project MK-Ultra started as a seemingly guiltless research program of the United States’ Central Intelligence Program, but soon became secretive, unethical, and dangerous. As American soldiers returned from the Korean War, it was evident that some individuals had changed in unexplainable ways. It was as if soldiers had been “brainwashed” by the foreign “Communist brainwashers” — the Soviet Union, Korea, China — through the execution of mind control techniques [2]. Perplexed, the CIA director of the time, Allen Dulles, appointed Dr. Sidney Gottlieb to begin experimentation centered around behavior modification as means to understand mind control. The main goal was to master the execution of mind control so that the United States may manipulate foreign leaders through implementation of these techniques [5].

The research conducted by Dr. Sidney Gottlieb was supposed to be experimental. He was to introduce an intervention and then study the direct effects of said intervention. To do so, he would use intrusions such as electro-shock therapy, hypnosis, radiation, and a variety of drugs, toxins, and chemicals. Seemingly, this means of study was reliable, the “X,” an experimental intervention to the subject, would directly cause the “Y,” successful mind control. However, due to Gottlieb’s inability to implement research tactics such as random assignment, control groups, and a double-blind research design, his data collected became unreliable as well as unjustifiable. The projecting question arose: why were these sadistic experiments being conducted? The data was skewed, and the researcher was knowledgeable of his subjects and the data produced by them. These experiments became means of personal vindication which strayed far from their original intention. Dr. Gottlieb—the mad scientist who was free to objectify and control his subjects to the extreme.

Although he experimented with many means of behavioral alteration, Dr. Gottlieb became heavily reliant upon the use of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, LSD. LSD affects the user through intensified thoughts, heightened emotions, and elevated sensory awareness. When ingested in high dosages, such effects may manifest as auditory or visual hallucinations. Gottlieb’s experiments became increasingly sadistic. They were no longer a means of identifying how “X” causes “Y,” for victims of Gottlieb experienced situations such as being locked in sensory deprivation chambers and restrained in a straitjacket while dosed with LSD [5]. Funded by many research centers and universities, Dr. Gottlieb conducted the majority of his experiments in American prisons. However, he also enacted secret experimentation in detention centers Chapter 4. Social Science

throughout Europe and East Asia. By doing so, he was able to capture enemy agents and suspicious individuals and test his drug “potions” as means of escaping legal implications [1].

Despite his horrid secret behavior overseas, Gottlieb, overall, drew data from a range of test subjects. Some individuals freely volunteered, some were coerced through incentives to volunteer, and some were involved in experimentation without knowledge or consent [2]. Despite the presence of a small few who volunteered freely, the majority of his subjects were either given improper informed consent, not debriefed, or placed in great harm outside reason. Gottlieb wished to study reactions without the subject’s knowledge, and to do so, he placed fellow CIA employees, military personnel, doctors, government agents, prostitutes, mentally ill patients and members of the general public in great danger of being drugged without knowledge [5].

James “Whitey” Bulgar, a seasoned criminal and victim of Project MK-Ultra, was dosed with LSD more than 50 times without his consent. In letters written by Bulgar, he notes he and fellow inmates were provided incentives in exchange for their participation. Not only were they incentivized through reduced jail time, but were additionally misinformed in the true nature of the research they were to take part in — they had been told they were taking part in medical research in finding a cure of schizophrenia [6]. Bulgar reports he experienced “hours of paranoia and feeling violent. We experienced horrible periods of living nightmares...I felt like I was going insane” [2]. Bulgar, following his participation in this study, began to turn to more harmful criminal activity—including murder. Some have begun to correlate this change in behavior with the awful treatment he experienced throughout this study. James “Whitey” Bulgar is just one case in which participants were harmed outside of reason, experimented upon without consent, and deceived about the nature of the study.

Frank Olson, a United States Army biochemist and biological weapons researcher, died suddenly following his proclamation that he would leave the CIA. Seen as a security threat to the secret nature of MK-Ultra, Gottlieb arranged for Olson to be drugged with LSD. Frank Olson, ignorant to his participation, was dosed and as an individual previously diagnosed with suicidal tendcies, experienced a psychotic episode leading to his death [5]. In fear of a confidentiality breach, Dr. Gottlieb once again subjected an individual to experimentation without voluntary consent, ultimately leading to the death of Frank Olson.

4.4 McAllister. Project MK-Ultra 45

The Central Intelligence Agency of the United States began the search for mind control as a defensive tactic, but Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, had different goals. He was to find means of mind control, but to do so, he felt one must rid away the current human mind so that a new one may be implanted in place. Gottlieb succeeded and failed. He destroyed the human mind, successful in finding various ways to doso, but left changed “voids” in humans with no way to implant the new mind he desired [4]. He ultimately destroyed lives, and with the removal of the active head of the CIA, destroyed details of the experiments and records of Project MK-Ultra too [1].

Project MK-Ultra’s sole purpose is to emphasize the necessity of research procedures which safeguard an individual’s right to be properly informed, guaranteed privacy, not deceived, not coerced to participate, and properly debriefed, including being made knowledgeable of how the data collected will be of use. Due to the violation of almost all these principles by the execution of Dr. Gottlieb, those involved in the study were placed in unreasonable and unpredictable harm. “Volunteers” were deceived, failed to be debriefed, or simply sentenced to the study without consent. As seen in the case of Frank Olson, researchers were placed in unpredictable harm with the threat of becoming a non-consensual subject looming. 3rd party members were placed in danger of those altered by the experiments which took place, as seen in the case of James “Whitey” Bulgar, and society became threatened by the introduction and popularization of LSD. Project MK-Ultra, began justifiably in the pursuit of a means of national defense, but the means in which Dr. Gottlieb executed the study is inexcusable.

In address to the Institutional Review Boards, through the original execution of Project MK-Ultra, Dr. Gottlieb was trying to find a direct causation for mind control by an experimental approach. However, an approach which guarantees ethical practices will be followed may be more properly done through an observational study. In this way, the participant is not under direct control of the researcher, but is rather being observed in the effect of the intervention. In an altered research design, there would not be unnecessary exposure to risk for subjects, and where risk is necessary, let it be reasonable in relation to anticipated benefits.

In selection of subjects, voluntary participation with proper informed consent, no attempts of deceptions, and ensured privacy should be followed. For the means of initial experimentation, the subject pool should not include individuals susceptible to coercion such as children, prisoners, or those with impaired decision making. The study should follow a large randomized cohort of individuals following a double-blind procedure, ensuring no data will be skewed while obtaining a large representative data set. Informed consent should be appropriately documented, and provisions to protect the privacy of subjects and data should be made.

Regarding the necessity of such a study, I find the pursuit of “mind control,” despite the implementation of ethical standards, to be naturally unethical and brings forth no benefit. The original intention of such a study was to implement harm. The CIA of the United States wished to find a way to terrorize their wartime enemies as the result of the horrifc treatment of our troops. I believe that a study founded with the purpose of “revenge” can bring forth no true benefit besides participants’ suffering, for they are surrendering themselves and their mind to complete control, a power which should never be given to any researcher.

Rather than pursuing further study of the human mind through the goal of dominance and control, I feel it is important to observe the mind and its reaction to certain interventions in hopes of furthering the development of brain reading technology. Dr. Gottlieb wished to find the “X” variable which directly caused the “Y” variable, or mind control. Instead of attempting to find direct causation, it may be more beneficial to conduct similar research through observation. In other words, how does the “X” variable affect the “Y” variable, or the behavior of the subject. We should invest in further exploration to understand the human mind through current technology such as the fMRI and electroencephalography [3]. The goal: measure brain activity and further technological advancements in the pursuit of understanding the human brain, not to obtain control.

References [1] Terry Gross. The CIA’s Secret Quest for Mind Control: Torture, LSD and a ’Poisoner in Chief ’. Sept. 2019. URL: https : / / www . npr . org / 2019 / 09 / 09 / 758989641 / the - cias - secret - quest for - mind - control - torture - lsd - and - a poisoner- in- chief (cited on pages 44, 45). [2] History.com. The CIA’s Appalling Human Experiments with Mind Control Channel. URL: https: / / www . history . com / mkultra - operation midnight - climax - cia - lsd - experiments (cited on page 44). [3] Queensland Brain Institute. How to Measure Brain Activity in People. Mar. 2018. URL: https://qbi. uq . edu . au / brain / brain - functions / how measure - brain - activity - people (cited on page 45). [4] Stephen Kinzer. The Secret History of Fort Detrick, the CIA’s Base for Mind Control Experiments. Sept. 2019. URL: https://www.politico.com/