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..."29 Ufologists may recognize the
similarity of this sequence of events to abductee reports of the opening
minutes of their experiences.30 Under subsequent
hypnosis, the abductee could be instructed to misremember the cause of
this floating sensation.
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.39
Schwitzgebel devices could be used for tracking all the physical and
neurological signs of a "patient" within a quarter of a mile,40
thereby lifting the distance limitations which restricted Delgado.
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."90
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 alarmists91
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.
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
