Periodically, the CIA discloses millions of pages in declassified documents that become
a part of the public record.
In these, many top-secret projects and studies of the past are revealed that many find surprising
if not unbelievable.
Some of the craziest may be rather embarrassing if not flat-out damaging to the CIA’s reputation.
Let’s explore some of the weirdest government-sanctioned operations with psychics, cats, drugs, and
prostitution in this episode of the Infographics Show, CIA Declassified Documents That Will
Blow You Away.
Up until surprisingly recently, the CIA believed in psychic abilities and that they could be
utilized to benefit the government.
According to CIA intelligence, they also thought the Russians believed the same.
In fact, from 1969 to 1971, the CIA was concerned that the Soviet Union was training its citizens
with psychic powers in the area of intelligence collection.
Evidence suggested that the Soviet’s efforts were funded by a 60-million-ruble budget in
1970 which was later increased to 300 million five years later.
In alarm, the CIA concluded that efforts must have been met with success to justify this
additional expenditure, not to mention the large number of suspected technicians and
scientists involved.
The CIA decided that for their country’s future security they, too, needed to investigate
psychic powers.
To this end, the CIA created several programs to study remote viewing, or the ability of
an individual with psychic abilities to perceive something that a normal person cannot because
it’s obscured from view, far away, or happened at another point in time.
In other words, something understood using only their minds and without the use of sight,
hearing, touch, taste, or smell and in absence of being given any information via person
or device or the use of simple logic.
According to declassified documents, the CIA believed that every person possesses this
ability to some extent as a means of self-preservation and that though this talent is generally underdeveloped
in the general population it can be strengthened and utilized successfully with the correct
training.
The use of remote viewing by the US government had three given benefits: that it was a talent
that required little action on behalf of the viewer, had minimal associated costs, and
as far as the CIA knew, could not be prevented or defended against.
It first explored this concept in 1972 at the Stanford Research Institute in California
under program Scanate.
It began with just a couple seemingly psychically gifted individuals, including a New York artist
known as Ingo Swann, who was also a Scientologist.
In fact, many of the other study subjects were Scientologists as well.
All trainees were required to have a 65% psychic accuracy rate, and those involved claimed
to surpass this minimum over the course of their training.
In other words, things looked quite promising.
The CIA also reached out to television personality Uri Geller who had made himself famous by
allegedly bending spoons with his mind.
They tested Geller’s abilities in 1973.
To do this the CIA placed him in a room shielded from sight, sound, or electricity.
They then picked a random word from a dictionary, illustrated its meaning, and taped it to a
wall outside of the room Geller was in.
For the word “fuse” the experimenters drew a firecracker, and Geller sketched a
drum, or as he described it, a cylinder object that made sound.
For the word bunch, experimenters drew 24 grapes and so did Geller.
24 of them exactly.
However, when a scientist later drew a picture of a rabbit, Geller was unable to replicate
anything similar.
It wasn’t his only failure.
Though his initial experiments still convinced the CIA of his gift, others later labeled
him a fraud.
Then came projects where this supposedly effective skill was applied in sensitive matters of
government security, such as the proposed 1977 Gondola Wish program thought up by the
Army Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence.
The given purpose for the program was to train personnel to collect sensitive intelligence
using psychic abilities and thereby determine potential threats, weaknesses, and methods
for defense.
When it became operational the following year it was given the new name Project Grill Flame
and its research was conducted at Fort Meade in the state of Maryland.
Eventually journalist Jack Anderson got ahold of information about these CIA-endorsed psychic
experiments and wrote about them in April of 1984.
That same year the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council gave its opinion,
and it was not a flattering one.
Unsurprisingly, the army’s funding was cut.
However, that didn’t stop the experiments which were renamed and transferred elsewhere.
By 1991 the latest program was code-named Star Gate.
Star Gate and its supporting research cost the US government $20 million and included
forty personnel, 23 of which were remote viewers.
Three of these psychics worked at Fort Meade for years and were consulted by different
government agencies on a need by need basis.
During its run, Star Gate claimed to have many unbelievable or “eight martini” successes
after which those involved downed eight beverages in order to calm down.
Among other promising finds, one remote viewer was able to narrow down where a Soviet bomber
had crashed in Africa, only missing the exact mark by a few miles.
Another predicted that a Soviet submarine with 20 missile launch tubes would be sent
out in 100 days and two, one of which fit the viewer’s description, were seen 120
days later.
When asked about Libyan chemicals a remote viewer thought a ship called either Patua
or Potua would go from Tripoli to Libya with them in its cargo.
A ship called Batato did sail that route.
However, what exactly it was carrying was never determined.
Psychics supposedly helped with the identification of tunnels and underground structures in Iraq
as well.
There were even rumors that they hinted at the location of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, though
this has never been unquestionably verified.
However, for these successes there were many flat-out failures as well.
In 1974 a viewer asked to describe a Soviet airfield got minor details correct but several
additional ones wrong.
Psychics were also unable to locate any plutonium in North Korea when asked in 1994.
A statistician found that psychics working for the government had given correct information
just 15 percent of the time and incorrect details the remaining 85.
Similarly, a psychologist asked to evaluate their findings had little favorable to say.
As a result, the American Institutes for Research recommended termination of the program in
November of 1995.
However as crazy as trying to get information on Russian or other types of targets with
the use of psychics may seem, the CIA has done other odd things as well.
For example, the US government at one point tried to get recordings of critical intel
by using a microphone wearing animal according to a declassified 1967 memo.
This plan, called Project Acoustic Kitty was also thought up during the Cold War era as
a way to spy on the Soviets, specifically on the Kremlin and those in embassies.
And the CIA planned to train cats, renowned for taking direction from no one or anything
save their stomach and insatiable curiosity, to do it.
The project started with one cat and a recording device.
According to diagrams, a radio transmitter was inserted in the back of the cat’s head
and a microphone was placed in its ear.
The power supply was imbedded beneath its fur and down the front of its body and an
antenna ran along its spine to its tail.
The operation to attach the device took approximately one hour to complete.
However, the project itself took five years.
It was difficult to determine the best placement of each piece of the recording device or come
up with one that could be both functional and indiscernible once attached.
Then, of course, the cat also required training.
However, despite their best efforts, the feline failed to cooperate.
While this comes as a surprise to no cat owner anywhere, it apparently was unanticipated
by the CIA.
The cat would get easily distracted by things around it or wander away to get food instead
of focusing on the key objective during training.
Then there was also its first official mission, which was a dismal failure.
The cat was sent to spy on two men seated on a bench but was instead hit by a car while
crossing the street.
After years of hard work and $20 million dollars of government money, Project Acoustic Kitty
was, for obvious reasons, discontinued.
While the death of the cat was unfortunate, there was no scandal when it died and Project
Acoustic Kitty ended.
The same could not be said for MKUltra, another CIA project that resulted in a Congressional
hearing when it was not cats, but human beings involved in questionable experimentation.
The MKUltra program was given a green light in 1953 and continued for the next ten years,
though what we know about it for certain is limited to its surviving pages.
Many, understandably, were destroyed to protect those involved.
The motivation for the program, once again, was an attempt by the US government to keep
abreast of Soviet advancements, this time in the area of mind-control.
The CIA had reason to believe that the Soviets had been attempting to both make and purchase
all available LSD for this purpose.
This in turn led the CIA to conclude that the drug could have brain warfare applications,
though little was known about it in the states.
To determine its exact uses, several scientists agreed that an experiment involving unsuspecting
participants would prove helpful.
The government did this in Program MKUltra.
MKUltra ultimately got out of hand and resulted in government representatives giving drugs
to thousands of Americans without their consent or knowledge.
The drugs were used to see if they could mimic alcohol intoxication, aid in hypnosis, boost
torture endurance, or create amnesia or confusion.
The government hoped that they could assist with interrogations as well.
Unfortunately, many of those who were experimented upon had little say in the matter.
They were selected from among the most vulnerable of the population, such as prisoners addicted
to drugs, sex workers, or the terminally ill.
Two Americans died and many more suffered because of the related experiments carried
out by the CIA and contracted universities and research institutions.
One of those who was killed was a CIA employee who had consumed a drink that had been laced
with LSD by his supervisor.
Nine days later, he was dead, after falling 13 floors from the Hotel Statler.
After his death, President Gerald Ford apologized to his family and they were given a wrongful
death settlement.
However, some suggest that beyond this and its other known casualty, the program had
additional far reaching effects.
Some claim MKUltra’s experiments are related to JFK’s assassination to the actions of
Charles Mason, however there is no concrete proof of either.
As shocking as MKUltra was, further paperwork has revealed yet additional drug-related and
government-supported experiments.
For example, LSD was also used in the CIA’s Operation Midnight Climax from 1953 to 1964.
This program was carried out by an army captain and CIA operative known as George Hunter White
and targeted the residents of New York and San Francisco.
White took CIA “safe houses” and used them to create makeshift brothels with suggestive
decorations and where prostitutes were given cash to engage in sexual activities.
These actions were observed behind two-way mirrors after LSD or other drugs were added
to clueless men’s drinks.
A memo found from related documents has made some question whether the real purpose of
Operation Midnight Climax wasn’t to observe the drugged men but rather the prostitutes
to see if they would be effective government spies.
By having sex with the enemy, it was thought that they could get information that could
prove useful to the government.
Indeed, the CIA worked to determine when during the process of seducing a man that a woman
could ask questions to get critical intel.
The answer was directly after sex, not before.
LSD experimentation of all kinds ground to a halt in 1963.
The Inspector General deemed that the agency needed to follow different research ethics
and discontinue all experiments on unsuspecting citizens.
Congressional hearings followed.
However, CIA agents claimed they couldn’t remember a lot of details and because many
files had been destroyed, little could be done in the area of accountability.
Given the documents we do have that detail these shocking government-initiated events,
missing pages make us wonder just how much and what exactly remains unknown still.
It is pure luck that some documentation of MKUltra was mistakenly left behind while the
rest was destroyed.
However, the CIA could have avoided the resulting outrage or bewilderment by simply having used
better logic and judgment and never having done most of these operations to begin with.
Psychic experimentation and drugging citizens are clearly not the greatest ideas.
And who in their right mind would try to train
a cat?
Which of these were the most mind-blowing?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our other video called FBI vs CIA How Do They Compare!
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