Last September the CIA confirmedthe existence of a 20-year, $20million research program in "remoteviewing," a subvariety of extrasensoryperception. On October 29, a JackAnderson column added more details, andTed Koppel of ABC's Nightline weighed in with a program on November 28,by which time many newspapers and wireservices had picked up the story.By December, a number of pundits beganlamenting this additional evidenceof the CIA's protean power to wastetaxpayers' money. Curiously, "remote viewing" was anold story, first reported by Andersonhimself on 23 April 1984. Other Anderson columns of U.S. and Soviet interest inpsychic research date back to 1981.Anderson's October 29 update reportedthat this project, which for a time wascontracted out to the Stanford ResearchInstitute (SRI), had been scaledback and put under Pentagon sponsorship, but nevertheless continued. Although the results of these experiments werereportedly mixed, the project retainsits defenders in Congress: Sen.Claiborne Pell (D-RI) and Rep. CharlieRose (D-NC). By 1995, Anderson didn'thave an opinion on the merits of thisresearch, but his 1984 column wassupportive. On Nightline, former CIAdirector Robert Gates implied thatpressure from members of Congress drovethe CIA's original involvement.
Another of Ted Koppel's CIA guests, identified only as "Norm," was atechnical advisor for CIA deputydirector John McMahon and, until 1984,a coordinator for the SRI tests. "Norm"did mention the "eight-martini"results from some experiments; this wasan in-house term for remote-viewingresults so uncannily successful thatobservers needed eight martinis torecover. Still, the general impressionfrom Koppel's show was dismissive. Onlyabout "fifteen percent" of theexperiments, panelists repeated,produced accurate results. Gates arguedthat such research, if undertaken atall, belongs in the academy.
Not for the first time, however,there's more to this story than TedKoppel acknowledges.
Ingo Swann, who was involved in the SRI project from 1972-1988, is upsetwith the media's droll treatment of this revived story. Swann points out that the original motivation behind the "remoteviewing" project was the fear that theSoviets were investing significantresources in applied psychic research,and might be making advances. At thetime, at least, such a rationale wouldhave been considered a plausible one tojustify such a small expenditure ofintelligence money. Nevertheless,almost all mention of this element ofthe story, which had figuredprominently in the first wave of stories on "remote viewing," was dropped in1995.
Furthermore, Swann claims, the"fifteen percent" figure, establishedearly in the SRI project, representedthe baseline accuracy for non-giftedand untrained persons. U.S. intelligence wanted sixty-five percent accuracy, andin the later stages of the project,Swann claims, "this accuracy level wasachieved and often consistentlyexceeded." According to Swann, the keyplayers in the project, and the docu-mentation supporting the real story,remain under the strictest securityconstraints.
However this may be, Anderson'sOctober 29 story reminds us that ESPis very much alive as an object ofintelligence-community interest. Inaddition to "remote viewing" (seeingpeople, places, and events at adistance in space and time), anotherarea of interest is the supposed powerof "micro psycho-kinesis" or "Micro-PK"-- the ability to affect small objects,such as electrical systems, by using the mind. Micro-PK is one step away fromoutright telekinesis, and its supposedpower has obvious attractions for theCIA. Imagine being able to erase acomputer tape from a block away, orinterfere with the avionics of a jetfighter, or detonate a warhead.
Based on the evidence that's on the public record, the dream of harnessingsuch power, or even of establishing itsexistence, may be somewhatoptimistic.
But this fact hasn't stopped astrange band of specialists, many ofwhom have government connections, fromstaking out careers at the intersectionof, so to speak, ESP, the Pentagon, andthe CIA: where people interested inparapsychology work with those inter-ested in weapons research and mindcontrol. These would-be psi-spooks turnup occasionally on talk shows and atconferences on "nonlethal defense."Their ranks include companies likePSI-TECH in Albuquerque, founded by Maj. Edward A. Dames, and figures such asCol. John B. Alexander of the Los AlamosNational Laboratory, who was featured in the February 1995 issue of Wiredmagazine. Dames and Alexander and adozen more blend in with spookier typeswho shun publicity but who show up atUFO and New Age gatherings. One isex-Naval Intelligence officer C.B. Scott Jones, a former aide to Sen. ClaibornePell.
Once again, it's likely that TedKoppel doesn't have the whole story.It's also likely that he wouldn't becleared to report it if he did. Still,the piddling pool of dollars so fardevoted to this research stronglyimplies that, if the figure is accurate, intelligence-funded parapsychologicalresearch has been a bust.
The uncounted millions the CIA hasspent on mind control suggest justthe opposite. As with "remote viewing,"the attraction of a successful mindcontrol program to the CIA is obvious,and has long been explicitly acknow-ledged as such. The "ManchurianCandidate" scenario -- in which aprogrammed zombie-assassin responds to a post-hypnotic trigger, performs the act, and does not remember it later -- is one ideal type of successful mind control. A reliable truth serum, long the object of a CIA quest, would be another. Both ofthese are operational uses of mindcontrol, its so-called "secondfront."
This term comes from former CIAdirector Allen Dulles. In 1953, Dulles,speaking before a national meeting ofPrinceton alumni, distinguished twofronts in the then-current "battle formen's minds": a "first front" of massindoctrination through censorship andpropaganda, and a "second front" ofindividual "brainwashing" and "brainchanging." Before an audience of fellow Ivy Leaguers, Dulles skipped the usualpieties about democracy. The same year,Dulles approved the CIA's notoriousMKULTRA project, and exempted it fromnormal CIA financial controls.
The distinction between Dulles's"two fronts" eventually becomes diffi-cult to sustain, like the distinctionbetween, say, sociology and psychology.Still, this distinction can be useful in roughing out a spectrum of knownmind-control techniques.
For example, one powerful tool forinducing ideological and behavioralchange is social pressure in acontrolled environment. The"brainwashing" employed during theKorean War did not involve the usedrugs or hypnosis. The Chinese merelyused the same techniques that theyemployed on the population at large, but with more intensity, greater control,and additional rewards and punishmentssuch as food and sleep deprivation. Yetthis frighteningly simple program wasenough to crank up the brainwashingscare in the U.S. Some researchers nowsuspect that this hysterical episode had its origins in CIA-generated propaganda, designed to give the CIA the politicalspace needed to research moresophisticated mind-control techniques.
Many undergraduates learn about the experiments conducted by Solomon Asch in the 1950s, which demonstrated thatexpressed opinions can be easilymanipulated by social pressure, even inobvious cases, such as whether Line A is longer than Line B on a particular card. And Stanley Milgram showed that manyunwitting research subjects wouldadminister a series of escalatingelectric shocks to another, even to thepoint of an apparent heart attack,simply because a white-coated labassistant asked them to continue.Milgram's research suggests that a"Manchurian Candidate" already exists in many of us, and that all that's required to bring him out may be a bit ofpropaganda. The historical evidence forblind human obedience that could becited here is very familiar, and verydepressing.
Still, there's evidence thatPentagon planners are uneasy aboutpotential unruliness among the masspopulations Dulles identified as mindcontrol's "first front." Princetonalumni may perhaps follow and acceptarguments that U.S. interests are atstake in Bosnia, but their sons areunlikely to be on the scene defendingthose supposed interests. The urbanor Appalachian infantryman, and thefamily he comes from, may have otherideas.
Elite unease on this point may liebehind Pentagon enthusiasm for the newwrinkle in military force that goes bythe name "nonlethal" or "less-than-lethal." Its very claim to embody a"humanitarian" form of warfare is aweapon in Dulles's "battle for men'sminds."
Nonlethal technology becomes im-portant in a discussion of mind control, as it involves something very close toit, in a form which might be used tocontrol large populations. Thepropaganda aspect of "humanitarianwarfare" is merely a sideshow; it's thetechnology itself that enlists theenthusiasm of Pentagon planners and lawenforcement officials. Much of this"friendly force" technology involveselectromagnetic fields and directed-energy radiation, and ultrasound orinfrasound weapons -- the same tech-nology that's currently of interest inbrain-stimulation and mind-controlresearch.
A partial list of aggressivepromoters of this new technologyincludes Oak Ridge National Lab, SandiaNational Laboratories, ScienceApplications International Corporation,MITRE Corporation, Lawrence LivermoreNational Lab, and Los Alamos NationalLaboratory. In the 1996 defenseauthorization bill, Congress earmarked$37.2 million to investigate nonlethaltechnologies. And this money looks likea mere ante in the game.
U.S. interest in this "less-than-lethal" technology dates back to theearly 1960s, when the State Departmentbecame aware of low-energy microwaveradiation directed at the U.S. embassyin Moscow. Under the name "ProjectPandora," secret research into theMoscow radiation continued for ten years -- before embassy employees wereinformed that they were on the receiving end. Researchers initially assumed thatthe microwaves were designed to activate bugging devices. But when a largenumber of illnesses were reported at the embassy, a review of Soviet scientificjournals revealed that the Sovietsbelieved microwaves affected cellmembranes and increased the excitability of nerve cells.
Officially, the incidence ofillness at the embassy was ultimatelyblamed on the U.S. shortwave trans-mitting antenna on the embassy roof,which leaked energy and contributed tothe unhealthy environment. Still, thesecrecy surrounding Project Pandoraencouraged further speculation withinthe U.S. intelligence community andelsewhere. For instance, researchersknew that a low-energy microwave beamcould be modulated with an "audiogram,"and actually convey a recognizablemessage into an irradiated brain. Thisled some U.S. spooks to suspect that the Soviets had been attempting to practicemind control on the embassy staff.
Such history brings us back to thesituation of the restless public in ourown jittery, pre-millennial U.S. Today,there seems to be a dramatic increase in the number of "wavies," those who feelthey are being harassed by non-ionizingradiation such as radio or sound waves.Nevertheless, there is little evidenceto support their belief that the secretstate, despite its obvious interest innonlethal technology, is supportingapplied research on unsuspecting average citizens. Several alternativeexplanations suggest themselves.
First of all, the treatment ofmental illness over the past few decades has changed dramatically -- from aninstitutional approach, to an out-patient, community-based system thatrelies on prescription drugs to controlsymptoms and behavior. Greater numbersof sufferers of paranoia, freed frominstitutions, are also free to exercisetheir First Amendment rights.Furthermore, the power to expressoneself has been enhanced by technology-- everything from personal photocopying machines and desktop publishing, to faxmachines and now the Internet. And onthe Internet, almost everyone can findsoulmates.
And "wavies" can make the case that they deserve the benefit of a doubt.Revelations about the Cold War secretstate, from the CIA documents releasedin the 1970s to last year's AdvisoryCommittee on Human Radiation Experiments (which investigated ionizing radiationonly), have produced a socialenvironment in which it can seem diffi-cult to rule out anyone's claim, nomatter how paranoid-sounding. Finally,there is the modern problem of"pollution" in the broadest sense: fromelectromagnetic and chemical, andincluding simple noise. Human reactionsto this pollution, which is a newphenomenon in the history of ourspecies, apparently vary by orders ofmagnitude. Those who are ultra-sensitive may feel harassed, even if no one isintentionally targeting them.
To a disinterested observer, theclaims of the "wavies" are perhaps nomore bizarre than the claims of thosewho have experienced profound religiousconversions. The point is not to be-little anyone's beliefs, but rather toestablish that social factors oftendetermine what we consider to becredible. For thousands of yearssocieties have found it useful to allowsufficient space for religion. Onlyrecently has social space opened up forthe claims of "wavies." The increase intheir numbers is thus predictable,irrespective of whether the secret state is behind their problems or not. (Itisn't, in my opinion.)
This brings us to the "secondfront" mentioned by Allen Dulles in1953: the technology of mind controlapplied on an individual level. Whereasnon-ionizing radiation can be "broad-cast" to large populations, techniquessuch as psychosurgery, implants, andelectronic stimulation of the brain(ESB) are administered on a case-by-case basis. More exotic techniques, whosescientific status and potentialeffectiveness remain uncertain, includeradio hypnotic intra-cerebral controland hypnotic dissolution of memory(RHIC-EDOM), and the use of induced"screen memory" and multiple personality disorder (MPD) for cover purposes.
The closest parallel to the"wavies" within this second frontinclude those who feel that implantswere forced on them, sometimes duringchildhood. Such beliefs obviously tapdeep fears in the popular psyche. Theseason premier of "The X Files" showedFBI agent Scully discovering thatsomeone had planted a microchip near the base of her skull. And accused OklahomaCity bomber Timothy McVeigh apparentlyclaims that an implant was insertedunder his skin, for tracking purposes,during the Gulf War.
Identification implants, which arepassive devices that respond to anenergy source and return an identifi-cation number, are similar to the barcodes at the checkout counter in agrocery store. Today's pet owners canhave these devices implanted in theirpets. But anyone who confuses thissimple technology with a chip that tells them what to do is already in trouble.Such a person should consider turningoff the television, logging off theInternet, and checking out a few booksfrom the local library. ID technology is ominous for those concerned withsurveillance and privacy, but it haslittle to do with mind control.
Granted, there are experimental"stimoceiver" implants that canstimulate the brain through electrodes.Mind-control enthusiast Jose Delgadobecame briefly famous when he stopped acharging bull in its tracks with such adevice in 1964. Even allowing forelectronic miniaturization since then,or for the fact that finely-tunedmicrowaves can achieve the same resultsas implanted electrodes, ESB would stillseem to be impractical as a mind-control device. At best it appears to stimulatevarious emotions, and might be used forbehavioral conditioning in a controlledenvironment. This is still quite crudeas a control device. It would be simpler and more reliable to arrange a fatalaccident.
The combination of surveillancetechnology and implanted aversiontherapy conjures up the vision of asociety of victim-robots, with monitorson every utility pole and computersadministering the conditioning. But thenecessary infrastructure would befrightfully expensive.
And no doubt unnecessary. Suffi-cient control over the flow of infor-mation in society can yield results very similar to those that could be achievedby mind-control implants installed inevery individual. Thus the flaw in thereasoning of many researchers: themind-control techniques that have themso worried are usually the mostdifficult techniques one can possiblyimagine. For those who would seek totalcontrol, plain, old-fashionedinformation control -- leavened with afew fascist techniques -- will donicely, thank you.
In 1973, former MKULTRA researcherLouis Jolyon "Jolly" West, from theDepartment of Psychiatry at UCLA,convinced California and federalofficials to sponsor a Violence Center.Governor Ronald Reagan mentioned theproposed Center in glowing terms in aspeech on January 11, and the federalLaw Enforcement AssistanceAdministration (LEAA) approved a$750,000 grant. By this time the federal government, through LEAA, the NationalInstitute of Mental Health (NIMH), theBureau of Prisons, and the CIA, wasoperating or funding numerous behaviormodification programs in prisons,schools, and hospitals. In response toprotests from UCLA students and faculty, the LEAA announced that it would ban the use of its funds for "psychosurgery,medical research, behavior modification-- including aversion therapy -- andchemotherapy."
A year later Louis West was stillhoping to obtain funds from NIMH, but by then it was too late for his proposal.Until the 1970s it was not unusual formental health professionals to proposeprograms that would screen children forthe purpose of early diagnosis andtreatment of the potentially violent.But by the 1970s the trend was in theother direction, as some states enactedlaws that made it more difficult toconfine someone involuntarily as amental patient. By the 1990s the shoe is securely on the other foot.
Twenty years ago it was fashionable for clinicians to blame urban unrest and similar phenomena on the behavior ofindividuals. Now, however, theindividual can disclaim responsibilityfor his actions by blaming externalagencies. Numerous persons have gonepublic with accusations of strangeevents during their childhood,suggesting that they were used as guinea pigs for mysterious men in white coats.Some of their evidence seemssufficiently solid to require furtherinvestigation, and more cases areemerging all the time.
On 15 March 1995, two patients ofNew Orleans therapist Valerie Wolftestified before the Advisory Committeeon Human Radiation Experiments.Although this was outside the purview of the Committee, they were permitted totestify because some of the names ofCIA-connected researchers they mentioned were already familiar to the Committee.These two women remembered sessions when they were around eight years old thatinvolved electric shocks, hypnosis,shots with needles, x-rays, sexualabuse, and even training in intelligence tradecraft. One case occurred from1972-1976 and the other in 1958. Thistestimony was not covered by themedia.
Although the recollections of thetwo women were spontaneous and did notinvolve regression therapy, there isalso a cottage industry developingaround memories of child abuse ingeneral. For the most part these are notconnected with government research, andperhaps many are the result of question- able techniques used by social workers,therapists, police and prosecutors toelicit testimony from children. Juriesare becoming more skeptical of many ofthese cases. This issue has even assumed the dimensions of a religious crusade -- Christian fundamentalists worry aboutevil in the New Age movement, and are on the lookout for cases of "satanicritual abuse" of children. Othersbelieve the CIA has turned children intosplit-personality sex slaves foroperational use.
In 1992 the False Memory SyndromeFoundation began in Philadelphia. Thisorganization criticizes the practice ofregression therapy when it's used tobring out memories of traumaticchildhood experiences. FMSF considersthese repressed memories of incest andsexual abuse to be objectively false,and devastating to family life ingeneral. There's a growing split overthis issue among psychologyprofessionals. To confuse the situationfurther, FMSF has some on their Board of Advisors who may want to cover up theirown work. One is Louis West, another isMartin Orne, one of the key MKULTRAresearchers in hypnosis, and a third isMichael Persinger, who did research onthe effects of electromagneticradiation on the brain for a Pentagonweapons project.
Regression therapy could be athreat to the techniques the CIA mayhave secretly developed involving theuse of hypnosis. Shortly after PearlHarbor, George Estabrooks, chairman ofthe Department of Psychology at ColgateUniversity, was called to Washington bythe War Department. As one of theleading authorities on hypnosis,Estabrooks was asked to evaluate how itmight be used by the enemy. In 1943 hewrote a book, expanded in a secondedition fourteen years later, thatincluded a discussion of the use ofhypnotism in warfare. In his opinion,one in five adult humans are capable ofbeing placed in a trance so deep thatthey will have no memory of it. Theycould be hypnotized secretly by using adisguised technique, and given apost-hypnotic suggestion. Estabrookssuggested that a dual personality couldbe constructed with hypnosis, therebycreating the perfect double agent withan unshakable cover.
Estabrooks' theories regardinghypnosis are disputed by many expertstoday. Frequently the entire topic isdismissed with the notion, promotedby Martin Orne and others, that ahypnotist cannot induce a person toperform an act that this person wouldotherwise find objectionable. But thisin itself appears to be a cover story;if the trance is deep enough, animaginary social environment can beconstructed through which an otherwiseobjectionable act becomes necessary andheroic. Murdering Hitler during wartimewould not be considered criminal, forexample. It may even be easier thanthis: in 1951 in Denmark, Palle Hardruprobbed a bank and killed a guard, andthen claimed that hypnotist BjornNielsen told him to do it. Nielseneventually confessed that Hardrup was atest of his hypnotic techniques, whichincluded telling Hardrup that the moneyfrom the robbery was a means to a nobleend. Hardrup had become Nielsen's robot, and Nielsen was convicted.
In 1976 a book by Donald Baintitled "The Control of Candy Jones" waspublished by Playboy Press. This one-of-a-kind book is the story Candy Jones, who was America's leading cover girlduring the forties and fifties. In 1960Jones fell on hard times and agreed toact as a courier for the CIA. Anexcellent subject for hypnosis, Jonesbecame the plaything of a CIApsychiatrist who used her to exhibit his mastery of mind-control techniques. This psychiatrist used hypnosis and drugs todevelop a second personality withinJones over a period of 12 years. Thissecond personality took the form of acourier who could be triggered bytelephone with particular sounds, andafter the mission was completed and thenormal personality resumed, did notremember anything.
These missions were elaborate, andfrequently involved world travel todeliver messages. According to the book, Jones and other victims were once evensubjected to torture at a seminar at CIA headquarters, as a means ofdemonstrating this psychiatrist'scontrol over his subjects.
Jones married New York radiotalk-show host Long John Nebel in 1972.An amateur hypnotist, Nebel stumbledonto her secret personality, and beganunravelling the story over manysubsequent sessions. Author DonaldBain, a family friend, was invited toreconstruct the story from more than200 hours of taped sessions betweenJones and Nebel. Various researchershave confirmed some pieces of the story, but Bain did not name the major CIApsychiatrist involved, nor did he name a second psychiatrist who Martin Cannonrecently identified this secondpsychiatrist as the late William Kroger, who was an associate of Louis West,Martin Orne, and another MKULTRAveteran, H.J. Eysenck. Whatever thetruth is behind Candy Jones -- and it'sdifficult to see the book as anelaborate hoax -- there's no questionthat hypnotist George Estabrooks raisedissues that the CIA took seriously insecret research for at least 25years.
The MKULTRA implementing documentsspecified that "additional avenues tothe control of human behavior" were toinclude "radiation, electroshock,various fields of psychology, sociology, and anthropology, graphology, harassment substances, and paramilitary devices and materials." The word "radiation" gavethe Advisory Committee on HumanRadiation Experiments a reason torequest a search of records on humanexperimentation from the CIA. Theirfinal report, released last October,expressed dissatisfaction with the CIA's response, and recommended that the CIAget their act together so thatlegitimate requests can be accommo-dated better in the future.
One problem is the compartmentation of the CIA's record-keeping systems.Another is that the CIA immediatelydecided that the Committee's purview was restricted only to ionizing radiation -- the type of radiation of interest innuclear testing, as opposed to theelectromagnetic and sound waves thatmight be used for mind control. Finally, those documents that the CIA did release were heavily redacted. The Committeenoted that they had "received numerousqueries about MKULTRA and the otherrelated programs from scholars,journalists, and citizens who have beenunable to review the complete record."In fact, most of the MKULTRA recordswere destroyed in 1973 by the order ofRichard Helms, who waived an internalCIA regulation to do so. It was also the practice of MKULTRA to maintainas few records as possible.
If ESP, waves, implants, satanicritual abuse and post-hypnotic robotsaren't sufficient, recently the subjectof mind control has been of thecredibility enjoyed by victims of alienabduction, researcher Julianne McKinneypromotes the view that the entire UFOphenomenon was created by the secretstate. A more thorough researcher,Martin Cannon, also promotes this view.In a long monograph titled "TheControllers," he explains the UFOphenomenon as a "screen memory" coverstory induced by U.S. intelligence toprotect their own mind-controlexperiments.
On the other hand, the implicitassumption behind McKinney and Cannonthat it must be either/or -- eitheraliens from outer space or spooks witha bag of secret tricks -- seemsarbitrary. If the ethically-challengedU.S. intelligence community has provenanything during the last half-century,it's that they would not find itobjectionable to work on behalfof aliens from outer space, and againstthe interests of humankind.
Another possible scenario is thataliens are real, U.S. intelligence knows more than they are telling, and theysend out disinformation agents to keepthe issue at merely a low simmer. Bymuddying the waters with kook-biz, theykeep it from becoming officially-credible spook-biz, at which point itmight boil over into eschatology, masshysteria, and vigilantism.
UFO researchers have recentlybecome interested in the Aviary, a group of former and current U.S. spooks, along with some defense-contractingscientists, who may or may not haveofficial status. Apparently the missionof this group is to discredit anyserious research into UFOs. Its membersinclude Col. John B. Alexander, HaroldPuthoff from the remote viewing project, and Jack Vorona of the DefenseIntelligence Agency (formerly the bossof Michael Persinger). The names ofothers are floating around the Internetas well.
Some Aviarians claim to beUFOlogists themselves, or are friendlyand good-natured with other UFOlogists,and some genuine UFO researchers arequick to squabble with otherresearchers. This makes it nearly im-possible to sort out who is disinforming whom, and difficult to distinguish thewhite hats from the black hats. Since he began looking into the Aviary, Britishresearcher Armen Victorian has beenburgled eight times, his car broken into three times, his telephone tapped, and a bug was discovered in his home. All this happened courtesy of British in-telligence and police, reportedly as afavor for the CIA.
Something is going on here, andchances are excellent that it's nothappening merely for our generalamusement. Whoever the men in black turnout to be, it's not the casually-titillated viewer of "The X Files" thatworries them. Instead, it's therelentless researchers who track theircareers and publicize their deeds,hoping that one day the state will haveno secrets, and that those who live offof its impoverished taxpayers will, inthe end, be held accountable.
Those involved in parapsychology,mind control, and UFOlogy who havegovernment connections make up a smallcommunity; the same names reappearconstantly. Ranged against them are theindependent researchers -- also a smallcommunity. Leaving aside LauranceRockefeller, who is funding someactivity in this area, presumably out of personal interest, there don't appear to be mysterious sums of money floatingaround. That means the field is open for dedicated researchers with modestresources. And that's the good news,because we need to be watching everymove the psi-spooks make.
