- All that have participated
in the army tests in which you are
particularly interested in on the subject of LSD,
the entire list of those individuals,
plus their volunteer agreement,
has gone to the surgeon general.
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- I really wanted to dive into this topic,
because the entire field of psychology
is just so fascinating to me.
And while there are a lot of theories out there
about how governments use psychology,
today I want to walk you through some of the studies
that we know happened, why they were developed,
and what, if anything, we've learned from them.
During the 1950s and '60s, the U.S. was involved
in the Cold War, which if you were unaware
was a period after World War II when two ideologies,
communism and capitalism,
were battling for global positioning,
on one side, the U.S. and its allies,
and on the other, the former Soviet Union, now Russia,
China, and their allies.
At that time, the United States feared that
the communists were using mind control tactics
on their soldiers who were being
held captive in North Korea.
And so, in 1953 the head of the CIA, Allen Dulles,
green-lit the MK-Ultra project, with the goal
of running experiments to figure out how they too
could control an enemy's mind using a combination
of drugs and psychological techniques.
Over time, the MK-Ultra studies began
to be known as one of the government's worst abuse of power
and disregard of basic human rights.
In the more than 150 studies performed as part
of the CIA's MK-Ultra project, they attempted to develop
mind control techniques with a combination
of various psychedelics like LSD, MDMA,
otherwise known as ecstasy, and psilocybin.
They used stimulants like methamphetamines
and barbiturates like heroin.
Additionally, they exposed some of their test subjects
to electroconvulsive therapy, and even experimented
with paralytics, such as anesthesia.
It's reported that these studies were conducted
in the U.S. and Canada on prisoners,
students at university, and even hospital patients,
although we are unsure as to how many people
were in the experiments, since not all even knew
that they were participating.
I mean, can you imagine not knowing
that your physician is dosing you with psychedelics?
How terrifying.
One of the studies within MK-Ultra
that we know the most about was Operation Midnight Climax,
which took place in San Francisco
and in New York City from the years of 1954 to 1965.
In this twisted experiment, the CIA employed prostitutes
who lured men to safe houses where agents
then dosed them with LSD using food, drink, or cigarettes.
Then through a two way mirror,
and with recording devices hidden in the rooms,
CIA agents observed the men's behavior.
They reported that all but one man who was high on LSD
gave them more information than they expected.
But ultimately, after 11 years of study
the results of Operation Midnight Climax
were deemed inconclusive as LSD was found to be
too unpredictable to be used in counterintelligence efforts.
Next, we have what is commonly
referred to as the Montreal Experiments.
They too were funded by the CIA
and conducted between 1957 and 1964
by Dr. Donald Cameron at the Allan Memorial Institute
of McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
These experiments were reportedly started as a way
to cure schizophrenia through what Dr. Cameron called
his psychic driving technique.
He claimed that this technique changed memories
and erased his patient's thoughts.
These reported results are what probably
attracted the attention of the CIA and MK-Ultra,
which if you remember, was created with the goal
of developing mind control techniques.
Dr. Cameron's unorthodox and controversial methods
included electroconvulsive therapy, sensory deprivation,
and drug induced sleep using Thorazine,
which is an antipsychotic medication.
Once asleep, he would inject patients with LSD
and then play these pre-recorded audio tapes to them
over and over, sometimes for up to 16 hours a day.
Of the 300 known subjects, some were previously
diagnosed with schizophrenia,
but many others suffered from other mental illnesses,
such as anxiety or depression.
And all of the subjects signed up for these studies
in hopes of seeing some improvement in their symptoms.
Instead, the majority experienced retrograde amnesia.
Some regressed to a childlike state,
having to relearn basic skills,
and many even having to be potty trained again.
It was devastating.
Overall, we don't know how many people were harmed
by MK-Ultra, but we do know that the majority of studies
occurred between 1953 and 1964,
and in 1973 the American government was
under extreme pressure due to the negativity
surrounding the Watergate scandal.
As a result, then CIA director Richard Helms
abruptly shuttered the MK-Ultra program
and ordered all related documents destroyed.
They did however accidentally overlook some 8,000 documents
and that's what people have been using
to piece together what actually happened
during the MK-Ultra experiments.
Even though the studies themselves were halted,
the permanent damage had already been done.
A few individuals even decided to sue the government
for the trauma and pain they endured,
and I couldn't find any documentation to find out
if they won their case or not,
but I really hope that they did.
And that was the end of MK-Ultra.
Or was it?
From 1955 to 1973 the U.S. Army Chemical Corps conducted
classified human subject research
at the Edgewood Arsenal facility in Maryland.
They were looking for chemicals that would have
similar psychological effects are nerve agents,
but with less lethality.
When pressed, the U.S. government stated
that the studies were conducted so they could develop
new pharmaceuticals, protective clothing,
and vaccines for the soldiers in the field.
Along with testing mustard gas and pesticides,
they also tested psychoactive agents, like LSD and PCP.
Over 7,000 military personnel and about 1,000 civilians
were subjects in this experiment,
and they were each exposed to roughly
250 different chemical agents.
When reading about this
on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website,
they stated that, and I quote,
"long term follow up was not planned
"as part of the DoD studies."
The National Academies of Science reviewed
the potential health effects from these experiments,
and did not find any significant long term physical harm,
except for some veterans exposed to larger doses
of mustard agents.
In 1975, they brought the director of the program,
Dr. Van Murray Sim, before Congress,
where he was chastised for his methods
and lack of follow up care.
- [Man] These people specifically that they were gonna be
exposed to a drug like LSD, and what the effects
of that might be on them?
- Well, let me answer that, sir, in two ways.
For instance, the literature on LSD
contained about at least 1,000 references by 1960.
Today, it's four times that amount.
Now, most of this of course was done entirely
outside in the open, in universities,
in nonprofit institutes, both here and in other countries.
So, this is nothing new.
One of the things that you do not tell a subject
is when they go on any type of drug test
is you cannot tell them specifically what that chemical is
and you cannot, for the purposes of the test,
tell them everything that they might experience,
because that is a individual thing,
and secondly, you're prejudicing the experiment
by leading them into suggestive thoughts about it,
and they were all told that they were going
to undergo a test with a chemical,
and that they were told approximately
the amount of time, the duration of the test,
what the test procedure would consist of,
whether they would get it by mouth or otherwise,
and were told that it was a drug
that might influence their behavior.
- He and his team were forced to notify all subjects
and volunteers of the exact nature
of their chemical exposure.
They also awarded some financial compensation
to a few families who lost loved ones as a result
of the Edgewood Arsenal human experiments,
and in the end, Congress dismissed Dr. Van Murray Sim
because they didn't believe there to be
any long term harm to the over 8,000 subjects involved.
Psychology in and of itself isn't inherently bad.
In fact, what I talk about on YouTube
usually focuses on the positive and helpful aspects of it.
But as you can see, when it comes to developing
military tools it appears as though there are no limits
to what a government will or will not do
to be a leader in the field.
Beyond that, the hardest thing for me to get over
was the fact that I was unable to find any evidence
that these studies rendered results that were
then used to help our troops.
And yes, I know that much of the documentation was
destroyed, but wouldn't you think that they would be
excited to share the positive side
of their over 150 studies they performed,
especially if they wanted to avoid any more negative press?
Up next, we will be moving into how some businesses
use psychology to get us to spend more money,
possibly on things that we don't even need.
So, stay tuned.
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