In 1979, ABC Close Up! released a documentary, ‘Mission – Mind Control’, which was an investigation into the US Army and the Central Intelligence Agency’s 30-year quest for the discovery or development of a mind-controlling drug.
Directed by Richard Roy and produced by Paul Altmeyer, the documentary discussed the brainwashing techniques used, the exploitation of unwitting victims and experiments with psychosurgery, parapsychology and brain implants.
It features interviews with key figures such as John Gittinger, John Marks, and Dr. Timothy Leary, along with a victim of drug testing, James Thornwell. It also explores CIA-funded research in brainwashing at McGill University in Montreal.
ABC Close Up: Mission – Mind Control (1979)
If the video above is removed from YouTube you can watch it on BitChute HERE or Rumble HERE. The following is a brief summary of what is covered by ABC News’ investigation. We have written it in present tense as if the documentary is recent but bear in mind the documentary was released 45 years ago.
Table of Contents
- The Search for Mind Control
- The Origins of Mind Control Research
- George White and the Truth Drug Committee
- LSD and the CIA
- Magic Mushrooms and the CIA
- Unethical Experimentation on Unwitting Subjects
- LSD, the Counterculture and the CIA
- The Dark Side of Espionage and the Case of Frank Olsen
- Army Chemical Corps Experiments and the Death of Harold Blauer
- Other Army Experiments and the Search for Incapacitating Agents
- CIA-Funded Experiments at the Allen Memorial Institute
- Brainwashing and the Cold War
- The Manchurian Candidate and Hypnosis
- Gittinger’s Personality Assessment System
- Remote Control of Animals and Humans
- The End of Mind Control Research?
- The Limits of Mind Control and the Future of Research
The Search for Mind Control
The US intelligence agencies have been searching for a way to perfect mind control for 30 years, with some of those involved agreeing to talk about it for the first time, revealing that they felt sorry for attempting such a thing and knew they were crossing the line.
The search for mind control involved various methods, including learning about human nature in brothels and studying the effects of a magical mushroom ceremony performed by an Indian Shaman.
One experiment involved implanting electrodes in the brain of a bull in a Spanish bullring, allowing a scientist to control its movements.
A man who worked on some of these programmes wrote about his experiences, describing it as “fun.”
The story of the search for mind control is told through the experiences of those involved, including a man who was a victim of one intelligence agency’s attempts to peel back his mind and reveal its deepest secrets.
The Origins of Mind Control Research
The search for mind control began with the Office of Strategic Services (“OSS”) during World War II, led by General Wild Bill Donovan, who encouraged his team to try new and unconventional methods.
Donovan appointed Stanley Lovell, a Boston industrialist, to break new ground in scientific and technical fields, and Lovell was tasked with stimulating the “bad boy” in every American scientist.
The search for mind control continued over the next two decades, involving people such as George White, an OSS Captain who had formerly worked with the Bureau of Narcotics.
White received his early OSS training at a British-run school in Canada, where Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, was also trained. White’s diaries, seen publicly for the first time, reveal the darker side of American intelligence work and his involvement in the search for mind control.
George White and the Truth Drug Committee
According to Mike Burke, a former OSS colleague of White and president of Madison Square Garden Centre, White was a mysterious and fascinating person with impressive technical knowledge of the underworld, having worked with the “swifter elements of society” and being familiar with the “gamier side of life” and “impressive in his technical knowledge of the underworld.”
White was a former associate of Charles Siragusa, a former narcotics officer, and had a reputation for being deadly and dedicated, as referred to by his boss at OSS, Stanley Lovell.
He worked with the truth drug committee at St Elizabeth’s Hospital, experimenting with mescaline, scopolamine and marijuana on unwitting victims, but they soon learned that there was no easy panacea or truth drug.
The goal of the committee, as stated in a 1952 CIA memo, was to control a person to the point where they would do their bidding against their will and even against fundamental laws of nature such as self-preservation.
LSD and the CIA
The discovery of lysergic acid diethylamide (“LSD”) by Dr Albert Hoffman at Sandoz Laboratories in Switzerland led intelligence agencies to believe they had found the panacea, with the CIA showing intense interest in the substance.
John Gittinger, a recently retired chief psychologist for the CIA, noted that LSD was a powerful drug that could potentially disable a whole city by putting a small amount in the water supply.
The CIA was concerned that the Russians would get hold of LSD, but there was no direct proof of Soviet involvement, although intelligence information suggested that Sandoz Laboratories was about to put 100 million doses of LSD on the open market. However, it was later revealed that this information was incorrect, and the United States had prepared to buy the entire supply based on a mistake made by a military attaché in Switzerland who got milligrammes and kilogrammes mixed up.
John Marks, a consultant for the report and author of ‘The Search for the Manchurian Candidate’, has filed numerous Freedom of Information suits against the CIA and uncovered new material on the agency’s work with mind control.
The CIA received intelligence that there were 100 million doses of a certain substance on the market, but it was later found that there were only a few hundred doses, a mistake of a million times.
In a 2023 article we noted that Aldous Huxley, author of ‘Brave New World’, was involved in a CIA programme that used LSD to brainwash people. We wrote:
“Huxley’s move from the UK to America was not happenstance. According to Marilyn Ferguson in her book ‘The Aquarian Conspiracy’, in the 1930s Huxley was sent to the US by the British government ‘as the case officer for an operation to prepare the United States for the mass dissemination of drugs … In effect, Huxley and [others] laid the foundations during the late 1930s and the 1940s for the later LSD culture’. Over the years Huxley was involved in dubious activities including the use of LSD to ‘brainwash influential people’ and being in contact with the president of Sandoz, who was fulfilling a CIA contract for MK-Ultra, consisting of large quantities of LSD.”—George Bernard Shaw, the Fabian Society and a ‘Brave New World’, The Exposé, 19 June 2023
Magic Mushrooms and the CIA
Dr. Sydney Gottlieb, a chemist, oversaw the CIA’s research into drugs and behaviour programmes but declined an interview request.
The CIA was interested in the magic mushrooms because they believed a drug derived from them could remain an agency secret and be used to cause changes in behaviour and mental attitude.
The CIA searched for “magic mushrooms” in remote areas of southern Mexico, using a part-time chemist and an amateur mycologist to try to turn them into a drug. Amateur mycologist R. Gordon Wasson discovered and recorded the ancient mystical rites of the mushrooms from a local Shaman or magical Priestess, Maria Sabina. Wasson and his colleagues developed the drug psilocybin from the magic mushrooms.
Unethical Experimentation on Unwitting Subjects
The CIA considered using the substances on unwitting people, including hostile agents and American citizens.
A decision was made at the highest levels of the CIA to test the substances on unwitting Americans, with the goal of making the testing “operationally realistic.” A former CIA official described the decision to test on unwitting victims, stating that they knew they were crossing a line and chose vulnerable people on the fringes of society.
The CIA recruited underworld figures, including prostitutes, drug addicts and small-time criminals for their experiments, as they were powerless to seek revenge if they discovered the truth.
George White, a high-ranking narcotics official, was chosen by the CIA for his expertise in the underworld and his willingness to bend the law. White set up “safe houses” in New York and San Francisco, where the CIA conducted experiments on drug testing, sexual behaviour, and manipulation. The safe houses were used to study how prostitutes could be used to extract information from men and the CIA learned a lot about human nature in the process.
LSD, the Counterculture and the CIA
The CIA’s experiments also involved testing LSD on unsuspecting victims and the agency spent millions of dollars on LSD research at universities across the country.
The CIA’s involvement in LSD research contributed to the spread of the counterculture movement of the 1960s and Dr. Timothy Leary, a prominent figure in the movement, was funded and supported by the CIA.
The CIA’s support for LSD research led to hundreds of young psychiatrists experimenting with the drug, which ultimately contributed to its widespread use.
However, some researchers argue that the CIA’s involvement in LSD research was not the primary cause of the counterculture movement, but rather a contributing factor.
The CIA’s role in the counterculture movement of the 1960s is still a matter of debate, but it is clear that their experiments with LSD and other hallucinogens had a significant impact on the era.