New Files Reveal Chilling Details of CIA’s Secret Mind Control Program MKUltra: Civilians Unknowingly Drugged and Tortured
The veil of secrecy surrounding the CIA’s notorious MKUltra program has been partially lifted with the declassification of 20 new documents spanning over 1,200 pages. These files, released by the National Security Agency on December 23, expose the terrifying extent of a Cold War-era mind control program that subjected unwitting American civilians to psychological and physical torment.
Between 1953 and 1964, MKUltra encompassed 144 projects involving drugs, psychological torture, and sensory manipulation, all aimed at controlling human behavior. Led by CIA Deputy Director Allen Dulles, the program justified its existence as a countermeasure to Soviet and Chinese psychological warfare.
Newly unearthed details reveal shocking practices, including the administration of LSD, sleep deprivation, electroshock therapy, and “psychic driving”—forcing subjects to listen to repetitive, pre-recorded messages while under drug-induced states to reprogram their minds.
The CIA’s Technical Services Section (TSS) Chemical Division pursued methods to:
Induce illogical thinking and amnesia.
Render individuals more susceptible to hypnosis.
Enhance endurance to torture and coercion.
Create substances for physical disablement, euphoria, or mental confusion.
Safehouses in urban areas, known as “black sites,” became clandestine laboratories for these experiments. Pharmaceutical companies, such as Eli Lilly, mass-produced LSD for the agency, while notable subjects included organized crime figure James “Whitey” Bulger, who described horrific hallucinations and paranoia during the experiments.
The files also revisit the infamous “Operation Midnight Climax,” where the CIA used prostitutes to lure victims into safehouses, unknowingly drugging them with LSD as agents observed through one-way mirrors.
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Though much of MKUltra’s documentation was destroyed in 1973 on the orders of CIA Director Richard Helms, surviving records surfaced during the 1975 Church Committee hearings, sparking outrage and reforms in intelligence oversight.
These revelations paint a chilling picture of a dark chapter in U.S. history, blurring the lines between science, ethics, and power. Read the declassified files below to uncover the full extent of MKUltra’s horrors.
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