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The Horrifying Details Of Project MK Ultra

1206 Words5 Pages

Sarah Pacer
Ms. Wasserman
Honors English 11
24 February 2023
The Horrifying Details of Project MK-Ultra The CIA conducting hundreds of clandestine experiments on the public seems like something out of the newest sci-fi blockbuster, but this nightmare is far from fiction. The objective of Project MK Ultra: destroy the existing mind and insert a new mind into the “resulting void” (Gross). From 1953-1973, The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency was kept busy with its experimentation to control human behavior and destroy the human ego. Drugs like lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), MDMA (ecstasy), and mescaline, as well as paralytics and electroshock therapy, were the focal point of the search for brain warfare during the Cold War. To execute the plan …show more content…

Bulger is a former organized crime boss who found himself serving time at the Atlanta penitentiary in 1957. Bulger was told he would be participating in a trial to cure schizophrenia. He was given extremely high doses of LSD every day for over a year. After being asked what he endured during his time there, Bulger said, “Total loss of appetite. Hallucinating. The room would change shape. Hours of paranoia and feeling violent. We experienced horrible periods of living nightmares and even blood coming out of the walls. Guys turning to skeletons in front of me. I saw a camera change into the head of a dog. I felt like I was going insane” (Nofil). After leaving the institution, Bugler realized the horrific experiment that had happened to him. He wrote, “I was in prison for committing a crime, but they committed a greater crime on me” (Gross). He told his friends, “he was going to find that doctor in Atlanta who was the head of that experiment in the penitentiary and go kill him” (Gross). LSD’s ability to incapacitate its victim made it the mind-controlling drug that the CIA was searching for. Bulger’s experience highlights the utter lack of supervision that led MK-Ultra to conduct these inhumane experiments. Ken Kesey, the author of the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, actually volunteered for the MK-Ultra experiments while in college at Stanford University. Kesey became a sensational promoter of LSD, going on to host LSD parties he called “Acid Tests”. These parties influenced, “the early development of hippie culture and kick-started the 1960s psychedelic drug scene” (History.com Editors). The CIA allowed Kesey to take home capsules of LSD. By promoting the use of LSD, Kesey allowed more lives to become hijacked by the

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Ken Kesey is an author from the 1960’s, who is best known for his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Kesey’s novel was written as a result of his many trials with experimental drugs. While he was under the influence of drugs, like LSD, he would brainstorm ideas for his novel. After sobering, he would re-visit the ideas and get rid of what he thought to be ‘trash’ (Lehmann-Haupt). Kesey got a job working on the psychiatric ward of a hospital to earn extra money.

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