The Controllers: Page 3 of 11

II. The Technology

A BRIEF OVERVIEW

In the early days of World War II, George Estabrooks, of Colgate University, wrote to the Department of War, describing in breathless terms the possible  uses of hypnosis in warfare[12]. The Army was intrigued; Estabrooks had a  job. The true history of Estabrooks' wartime collaboration with the CID, FBI[13] and other agencies may never be told: After the war, he burned his diary pages covering the years 1940-45, and thereafter avoided discussing his continuing government work with anyone, even close members of the family[14]. Occasionally, he strongly intimated that his work involved the creation of hypno-programmed couriers and hypnotically-induced split personalities, but whether he succeeded in these areas remains a controversial point. Nevertheless, the eccentric and flamboyant Estabrooks remains a pivotal figure in the early history of clandestine behavioral research. Which is not to say that he worked alone. World War II was the first conflict in which the human brain became a field of battle, where invading forces were led by the most notable names in psychology and pharmacology. On both sides, the war spurred furious efforts to create a "truth drug" for use in interrogating prisoners. General William "Wild Bill" Donovan, director of the OSS, tasked his crack team -- including Dr. Winifred Overhulser, Dr. Edward Strecker, Harry J. Anslinger and George White -- to modify human perception and behavior through chemical means; their "medicine cabinet" included scopolamine, peyote, barbiturates, mescaline, and marijuana. (This research had its amusing side: Donovan's "psychic warriors" conducted many extensive and expensive trials before deciding that the best method of administering tetrahydrocannibinol, the active ingredient in marijuana, was via the cigarette. Any jazz musician could have told them as much[15].)

Simultaneously, the notorious NAZI doctors at Dachau experimented with mescaline as a means of eliminating the victim's will to resist. Jews, slavs, gypsies, and other "Untermenschen" in the camp were surreptitiously slipped the drug; later, mescaline was combined with hypnosis[16]. The results of these tests were made available to the United States after the War. [cf. Operation PAPERCLIP, which transferred thousands of German and Japanese intelligence researchers directly into the U.S. intelligence community. "Our Germans are BETTER than their Germans!" - DR. STRANGELOVE -jpg]

In 1947, the Navy conducted the first known post-war mind control program, Project CHAPTER, which continued the drug experiments. Decades later, journalists and investigators still haven't uncovered much information about  this project -- or, indeed, about any of the military's other excursions into this field. We know that the Army eventually founded operations THIRD CHANCE and DERBY HAT; other project names remain mysterious, though the existence of these programs is unquestionable. [? -jpg]

The newly-formed CIA plunged into this cesspool in 1950, with Project BLUEBIRD, rechristened ARTICHOKE in 1951. To establish a "cover story" for this research, the CIA funded a propaganda effort designed to convince the world that the Communist Bloc had devised insidious new methods of re-shaping the human will; the CIA's own efforts could therefore, if exposed, be explained as an attempt to "catch up" with Soviet and Chinese work. The primary promoter of this "line" was one Edward Hunter, a CIA contract employee operating under-cover as a journalist, and, later, a prominent member of the John Birch  society. (Hunter was an OSS veteran of the China theatre -- the same spawning grounds which produced Richard Helms, Howard Hunt, Mitch WerBell, Fred  Chrisman, Paul Helliwell and a host of other noteworthies who came to dominate that strange land where the worlds of intelligence and right-wing extremism meet[17].) Hunter offered "brainwashing" as the explanation for the numerous confessions signed by American prisoners of war during the Korean War and (generally) UN-recanted upon the prisoners' repatriation. These confessions alleged that the United States used germ warfare in the Korean conflict, a claim which the American public of the time found impossible to accept. Many years later, however, investigative reporters discovered that Japan's germ warfare specialists (who had wreaked incalculable terror on the conquered Chinese during WWII) had been mustered into the American national security apparat -- and that the knowledge gleaned from Japan's horrifying germ  warfare experiments probably WAS used in Korea, just as the "brainwashed"  soldiers had indicated[18]. Thus, we now know that the entire brainwashing scare of the 1950s constituted a CIA hoax perpetrated upon the American  public: CIA deputy director Richard Helms admitted as much when, in 1963,  he told the Warren Commission that Soviet mind control research consistently lagged years behind American efforts[19.]

When the CIA's mind control program was transferred from the Office of Security to the Technical Services Staff (TSS) in 1953, the name changed again -- to MKULTRA[20]. Many consider this wide-ranging "octopus" project -- whose tentacles twined through the corridors of numerous universities and around the necks of an army of scientists -- the most ominous operation in CIA's catalogue of atrocity. Through MKULTRA, the Agency created an umbrella program of a positively Joycean scope, designed to ferret out all possible means of invading what George Orwell once called "the space between our ears" (Later still, in 1962, mind control research was transferred to the Office of Research and Development; project cryptonyms remain unrevealed[21].)

What was studied? Everything -- including hypnosis, conditioning, sensory deprivation, drugs, religious cults, microwaves, psychosurgery, brain implants, and even ESP. When MKULTRA "leaked" to the public during the great CIA  investigations of the 1970s, public attention focused most heavily on drug experimentation and the work with ESP[22]. Mystery still shrouds another area of study, the area which seems to have most interested ORD: psychoelectronics. This research may prove key to our understanding of the UFO abduction  phenomenon.

IMPLANTS

Perhaps the most interesting pieces of evidence surrounding the abduction phenomenon are the intracerebral implants allegedly visible in the X-rays and MRI scans of many abductees[23]. Indeed, abductees often describe operations in which needles are inserted into the brain; more frequently still, they report implantation of foreign objects through the sinus cavities. Many abduction specialists assume that these intracranial incursions must be the handiwork of scientists from the stars. Unfortunately, these researchers have failed to familiarize themselves with certain little-heralded advances in terrestrial technology.

The abductees' implants strongly suggest a technological lineage which can be traced to a device known as a "stimoceiver," invented in the late '50s- early '60s by a neuroscientist named Jose Delgado. The stimoceiver is a  miniature depth electrode which can receive and transmit electronic signals over FM radio waves. By stimulating a correctly-positioned stimoceiver, an outside operator can wield a surprising degree of control over the subject's responses.

The most famous example of the stimoceiver in action occurred in a Madrid bull ring. Delgado "wired" the bull before stepping into the ring, entirely unprotected. Furious for gore, the bull charged toward the doctor -- then stopped, just before reaching him. The technician-turned-toreador had halted the animal by simply pushing a button on a black box, held in the hand[24].

Delgado's PHYSICAL CONTROL OF THE MIND: TOWARD A PSYCHOCIVILISED SOCIETY[25] remains the sole, full-length, popularly-written work on intracerebral implants and electronic stimulation of the brain (ESB). (The book's ominous title and unconvincing philosophical rationales for mass mind control prompted an unfavorable public reaction -- which may have deterred other researchers from publishing on this theme for a general audience.) While subsequent work has long since superceded the techniques described in this book, Delgado's  achievements were seminal. His animal and human experiments clearly demonstrate that the experimenter can electronically induce emotions and behavior: Under certain conditions, the extremes of temperament -- rage, lust, fatigue, etc. -- can be elicited by an outside operator as easily as an organist might call forth a C-major chord. Delgado writes: "Radio stimulation of different points in the amygdala and hippocampus in the four patients produced a variety of effects, including  pleasant sensations, elation, deep, thoughtful concentration, odd feelings, super relaxation, colored visions, and other responses."[26] The evocative phrase "colored vision" clearly indicates remotely-induced hallucination; we will detail later how these hallucinations may be "controlled" by an outside operator.

Speaking in 1966 -- and reflecting research undertaken years previous -- Delgado asserted that his experiments "support the distasteful conclusion that motion, emotion, and behavior can be directed by electrical forces and that humans can be controlled like robots by push buttons."[27] He even prophesied a day when brain control could be turned over to non-human operators, by establishing two-way radio communication between the implanted brain and a computer[28].

Of one experimental subject, Delgado notes that "the patient expressed the successive sensations of fainting, fright and floating around. These  'floating' feelings were repeatedly evoked on different days by stimulation of the same point..."[29] Ufologists may recognize the similarity of this sequence of events to abductee reports of the opening minutes of their experiences[30]. Under subsequent hypnosis, the abductee could be instructed to misremember the cause of this floating sensation. In a fascinating series of experiments, Delgado attached the stimoceiver to the tympanic membrane, thereby transforming the ear into a sort of microphone. An assistant would whisper "How are you?" into the ear of a suitably "fixed" cat, and Delgado could hear the words over a loudspeaker in the next room. The application of this technology to the spy trade should be readily apparent. According to Victor Marchetti, The Agency once attempted a highly- sophisticated extension of this basic idea, in which radio implants were attached to a cat's cochlea, to facilitate the pinpointing of specific  conversations, freed from extraneous surrounding noises[31]. Such "advances" exacerbate the already-imposing level of Twentieth-Century paranoia: Not only can our phones be tapped and mail checked, but even TABBY may be spying on us!

Yet the ramifications of this technology may go even deeper than Marchetti indicates. I presume that if a suitably-wired subject's inner ear can be made into a microphone, it can also be made into a loudspeaker -- one possible explanation for the "voices" heard by abductees[32]. Indeed, I have personally viewed a strange, opalescent implant within the ear canal of an abductee. I see no reason to ascribe this device to alien intrusion -- more than likely, the "intruders" in this case were the technological inheritors of the Delgado legacy. Indeed, not many years after Delgado's experiments with the cat, Ralph Schwitzgebel devised a "bug-in-the-ear" via which the therapist -- odd term, under the circumstances -- can communicate with his subject[33].

Other researchers have made notable contributions to this field. Robert G. Heath, of Tulane University, who has implanted as many as 125 electrodes in his subjects, achieved his greatest notoriety by attempting to "cure" homosexuality through ESB. In his experiments, he discovered that he could control his patients' memory, (a feat which, applied in the ufological context, may account for the phenomenon of "missing time"); he could also induce sexual arousal, fear, pleasure, and hallucinations[34]. Heath and another researcher, James Olds[35], have independently illustrated that areas of the brain in and near the hypothalamus have, when electronically stimulated, what has been described as "rewarding" and "aversive" effects. Both animals and men, when given the means to induce their own ESB of the brain's pleasure centers, will stimulate themselves at a tremendous rate, ignoring such basic drives as hunger and thirst[36]. (Using fixed electrodes of his own invention, John C. Lilly had accomplished similar effects in the early 1950s[37].) Anyone who has studied the abduction phenomenon will find himself on familiar territory here, for the abductee accounts are replete with stories of bewildering and inappropriate sexual response countered by extremely painful stimuli -- operant conditioning, at its most extreme, and most insidious, for here we see a form of conditioning in which the manipulator renders himself invisible. Indeed, B.F. Skinner-esque aversive therapy, remotely applied, was Heath's prescription for "healing" homosexuality[38].

Ralph Schwitzgebel and his brother Robert have produced a panoply of devices for tracking individuals over long ranges; they may be considered the creators of the "electronic house arrest" devices recently approved by the courts[39]. Schwitzgebel devices could be used for tracking all the physical and neurological signs of a "patient" within a quarter of a mile[40], thereby lifting the distance limitations which restricted Delgado. In Ralph Schwitzgebel's initial work, application of this technology to ESB seems to have been limited to cumbersome brain implants with protruding wires. But the technology was soon miniaturized, and a scheme was proposed whereby radio receivers would be mounted on utility poles throughout a  given city, thereby providing 24-hour-a-day monitoring capability[41].

Like Heath, Schwitzgebel was much exercised about homosexuality and the use of intracranial devices to combat sexual deviation. But he has also spoken ominously about applying his devices to "socially troublesome persons"... which, of course, could mean anyone[42].

Bryan Robinson, of the Yerkes primate laboratory has conducted fascinating simian research on the use of remote ESB in a social context. He could cause mothers to ignore their offspring, despite the babies' cries. He could turn submission into dominance, and vice-versa[43].

Perhaps the most disturbing wanderer into this mind-field is Joseph A. Meyer, of the National Security Agency, the most formidable and secretive  component of America's national security complex. Meyer has proposed implanting roughly half of all Americans arrested -- not necessarily convicted -- of any crime; the numbers of "subscribers" (his euphemism) would run into the tens of millions. "Subscribers" could be monitored continually by computer wherever they went. Meyer, who has carefully worked out the economics of his mass-implantation system, asserts that taxpayer liability should be reduced  by forcing subscribers to "rent" the implant from the State. Implants are cheaper and more efficient than police, Meyer suggests, since the call to crime is relentless for the poor "urban dweller" -- who, this spook-scientist admits in a surprisingly candid aside, is fundamentally unnecessary to a post-industrial economy. "Urban dweller" may be another of Meyer's euphemisms: He uses New York's Harlem as his model community in working out the details of his mind-management system[44].

ABDUCTEE IMPLANTS

If we are to take seriously abductee accounts of brain implants, we must consider the possibility that the implanters, properly perceived, DON'T look much like the "greys" pictured on Strieber's dustjackets. Instead, the visitors may resemble Dr. Meyer and his brethren. We would thus have an explanation for both the reports of abductee brain implants and, as we shall see, the "scoop marks" and other scars visible on other parts of the abductees' bodies. We would also have an explanation for the reports of individuals  suffering personality change after contact with the UFO phenomenon. Skeptics might counter that the time factor of UFO abductions disallows this possibility. If estimates of "missing time" are correct, the abductions rarely take longer than one-to-three hours. Wouldn't a brain surgeon, operating under less-than-ideal conditions (perhaps in a mobile unit) need more time?  NO -- not if we accept the claims of a Florida doctor named Daniel Man.He recently proposed a draconian solution to the overblown "missing children problem," by suggesting a program wherein America's youngsters would be implanted with tiny transmitters in order to track the children continuously.

Man brags that the operation can be done right in the office -- and would take less than 20 minutes[45].  Conceivably, it might take a tad longer in the field.

A QUESTION OF TIMING

The history of brain implantation, as gleaned from the open literature, is certainly disquieting. Yet this history has almost certainly been censored,  and the dates manipulated in a nigh-Orwellian fashion. When dealing with research funded by the engines of national security, one can never know the true origin date of any individual scientific advance. However, if we listen carefully to the scientists who have pioneered this research, we may hear whispers, faint but unmistakable, hinting that remotely-applied ESB originated earlier than published studies would indicate.

In his autobiography THE SCIENTIST, John C. Lilly (who would later achieve a cultish reknown for his work with dolphins, drugs and sensory deprivation) records a conversation he had with the director of the National Institute of Mental Health -- in 1953. The director asked Lilly to brief the CIA, FBI, NSA and the various military intelligence services on his work using electrodes to stimulate directly the pleasure and pain centers of the brain. Lilly refused, noting, in his reply: Dr. Antoine Remond, using our techniques in Paris, has demonstrated that this method of stimulation of the brain can be applied to the human without the help of the neuro-surgeon; he is doing it in his office in Paris without neuro-surgical supervision. This means that anybody with the proper apparatus can carry this out on a person covertly, with no external signs that electrodes have been used on that person.  I feel that if this technique got into the hands of a secret agency, they would have total control over a human being and be able to change his beliefs extremely quickly, leaving little evidence of what they had done[46].

Lilly's assertion of the moral high ground here is interesting. Despite his avowed phobia against secrecy, a careful reading of THE SCIENTIST reveals that he continued to do work useful to this country's national security apparatus. His sensory deprivation experiments expanded upon the work of ARTICHOKE's Maitland Baldwin, and even his dolphin research has -- perhaps inadvertently proved useful in naval warfare[47]. One should note that Lilly's work on monkeys carried a "secret" classification, and that NIMH was a common CIA funding conduit[48].

But the most important aspect of Lilly's statement is its date. 1953?  How far back does radio-controlled ESB go? Alas, I have not yet seen Remond's work -- if it is available in the open literature. In the documents made available to Marks, the earliest reference to remotely-applied ESB is a 1959 financial document pertaining to MKULTRA subproject 94. The general subproject descriptions sent to the CIA's financial department rarely contain much information, and rarely change from year to year, leaving us little idea as to when this subproject began.

Unfortunately, even the Freedom of Information Act couldn't pry loose much information on electronic mind control techniques, though we know a great deal of study was done in these areas. We have, for example, only four pages on subproject 94 -- by comparison, a veritable flood of documents were released on the use of drugs in mind control. (Whenever an author tells us that MKULTRA met with little success, the reference is to drug testing.) On this point, I  must criticize John Marks: His book never mentions that roughly 20-25 percent of the subprojects are "dark" -- i.e., little or no information was ever made available, despite lawyers and FOIA requests. Marks seems to feel that the only information worth having is the information he received. We know,  however, that research into psychoelectronics was extensive indeed, statements of project goals dating from ARTICHOKE and BLUEBIRD days clearly identify this area as a high priority. Marks' anonymous informant, jocularly named "Deep Trance," even told a previous interviewer that, beginning in 1963, CIA and the military's mind control efforts strongly emphasized electronics[49]. I therefore assume -- not rashly, I hope -- that the "dark" MKULTRA subprojects concerned matters such as brain implants, microwaves, ESB, and related technologies. I make an issue of the timing and secrecy involved in this research to underscore three points: 1. We can never know with certainty the true origin dates of the various brainwashing methods -- often, we discover that techniques which seem impossibly futuristic actually originated in the 19th century.  (Pioneering ESB research was conducted in 1898, by J.R. Ewald, professor of physiology at Straussbourg[50].) 2. The open literature almost certainly gives a bowdlerized view of the actual research. 3. Lavishly-funded clandestine researchers -- unrestrained by peer review or the need for strict controls -- can achieve far more rapid progress than scientists "on the outside."

Potential critics should keep these points in mind should they attempt to invalidate the "mind control" thesis of UFO abductions by citing an abduction account which antedates Delgado.