- Through Project MK-ULTRA, the CIA hoped to find out what methods or substances would:
-promote the intoxicating effects of alcohol
-make hypnosis easier and more effective
-increase the ability of a person to withstand brain-washing and torture
-cause amnesia
-produce paralysis - LSD
-Many experiments used the drug Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).
-The effects of LSD were unknown at the time.
-The CIA wondered if it would make people act against their will.
- Other substances used in testing included:
-heroin
-morphine
-alcohol
-marijuana
-combinations of substances - Methods used in testing included:
-electro-shock
-insulin shock
-harassment
-sensory deprivation
-long periods of darkness
-use of repetitive noises and sounds
-use of gas propelled aerosols
-radiation
-sleep-deprivation
-starvation
-hypnosis
- The idea was to traumatize people to the point of brainwashing them and to destroy their thinking patterns.
- The research and testing of Project MK-ULTRA usually resulted in permanent psychological damage for the test subjects that survived.
- The research and testing of Project MK-ULTRA usually resulted in permanent psychological damage for the test subjects that survived.
- CIA psychiatrist Donald Ewen Cameron(pictured at left) claimed to be researching ways of correcting schizophrenia by reprogramming the psyche, but all he did was permanently disable his patients.
- His experiments were so secret and inhumane that the CIA moved them to Canada to keep them hidden from Americans.
- He died during the middle of Project MK-ULTRA and his family destroyed all of his records.
- Since then, experts have assumed that he was probably designing a system through which he could take out information from resistant people during interrogation.