Subject: Explaination of Abductions: "The Controllers"

Date: 22 Sep 94 14:26:22 CST

Organization: University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Here is something I found in

alt.conspiracy

walter@netcom.com writes:

>>THE CONTROLLERS:<<

A New Hypothesis of Alien Abduction

by

Martin Cannon

I. Introduction

One wag has dubbed the problem "Terra and the Pirates."

The pirates, ostensibly, are marauders from another solar system; their

victims include a growing number of troubled human beings who insist that

they've been shanghaied by these otherworldly visitors. An outlandish

scenario -- yet through the works of such authors as Budd Hopkins[1] and

Whitley Strieber[2], the "alien abduction" syndrome has seized the public

imagination. Indeed, tales of UFO contact threaten to lapse into fashion-

ability, even though, as I have elsewhere noted[3], they may still inflict a

formidable social price upon the claimant.

Some time ago, I began to research these claims, concentrating my studies

on the social and political environment surrounding these events. As I

studied, the project grew and its scope widened. Indeed, I began to feel as

though I'd gone digging through familiar terrain only to unearth Gomorrah.

These excavations may have disgorged a solution.

THE PROBLEM

Among ufologists, the term "abduction" has come to refer to an infinitely-

confounding experience, or matrix of experiences, shared by a dizzying number

of individuals, who claim that travellers from the stars have scooped them out

of their beds, or snatched them from their cars, and subjected them to

interrogations, quasi-medical examinations, and "instruction" periods.

of their beds, or snatched them from their cars, and subjected them to

interrogations, quasi-medical examinations, and "instruction" periods.

Usually, these sessions are said to occur within alien spacecraft; frequently,

the stories include terrifying details reminiscent of the tortures inflicted

in Germany's death camps. The abductees often (though not always) lose all

memory of these events; they find themselves back in their cars or beds,

unable to account for hours of "missing time." Hypnosis, or some other

trigger, can bring back these haunted hours in an explosion of recollection --

and as the smoke clears, an abductee will often spot a trail of similar

experiences, stretching all the way back to childhood.

Perhaps the oddest fact of these odd tales: Many abductees, for all their

vividly-recollected agonies, claim to love their alien tormentors. That's

the word I've heard repeatedly: love.

I posit that the abductees HAVE been abducted. Yet they are also spewing

fantasy -- or, more precisely, they have been given a set of lies to repeat

and believe. If my hypothesis proves true, then we must accept the following:

The kidnapping is real. The fear is real. The pain is real. The instruction

is real. But the little grey men from Zeti Reticuli are NOT real; they are

constructs, Halloween masks meant to disguise the real faces of the con-

trollers. The abductors may not be visitors from Beyond; rather, they may be

a symptom of the carcinoma which blackens our body politic.

THE HYPOTHESIS

Substantial evidence exists linking members of this country's intelligence

community (including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Advanvced

Research Projects Agency, and the Office of Naval Intelligence) with the

esoteric technology of MIND CONTROL. For decades, "spy-chiatrists" working

behind the scenes -- on college campuses, in CIA-sponsored institutes, and

(most heinously) in prisons -- have experimented with the erasure of memory,

hypnotic resistance to torture, truth serums, post-hypnotic suggestion, rapid

induction of hypnosis, electronic stimulation of the brain, non-ionizing

radiation, microwave induction of intracerebral "voices," and a host of even

more disturbing technologies. Some of the projects exploring these areas were

ARTICHOKE, BLUEBIRD, PANDORA, MKDELTA, MKSEARCH and the infamous MKULTRA.

I have read nearly every available book on these projects, as well as the

relevant congressional testimony[5]. I have also spent much time in university

libraries researching relevant articles, contacting other researchers (who have

graciously allowed me access to their files), and conducting interviews.

Moreover, I traveled to Washington, DC to review the files John Marks compiled

when he wrote THE SEARCH FOR "THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE"[6]. These files

include some 20,000 pages of CIA and Defense Department documents, interviews,

scientific articles, letters, etc. The views presented here are the result of

extensive and ongoing research.

As a result of this research, I have come to the following conclusions:

1. Although misleading (and occasionally perjured) testimony before

Congress indicated that the CIA's "brainwashing" efforts met with little

success[7], striking advances were, in fact, made in this field. As CIA

veteran Miles Copeland once admitted to a reporter, "The congressional

subcommittee which went into this sort of thing got only the barest glimpse."

[8]

2. Clandestine research into thought manipulation has NOT stopped, despite

CIA protestations that it no longer sponsors such studies. Victor Marchetti,

14-year veteran of the CIA and author of the renown expose, THE CIA AND THE

CULT OF INTELLIGENCE, confirmed in a 1977 interview that the mind control

research continues, and that CIA claims to the contrary are a "cover story."[9]

3. The Central Intelligence Agency was not the only government agency

involved in this research[10]. Indeed, many branches of our government took

part in these studies -- including NASA, the Atomic Energy Commission, as well

as all branches of the Defense Department.

To these conclusions I would append the following -- NOT as firmly-

established historical fact, but as a working hypothesis and grounds for

investigation:

4. The "UFO abduction" phenomenon MIGHT be a continuation of clandestine

mind control operations.

I recognize the difficulties this thesis might present to those readers

emotionally wedded to the extraterrestrial hypothesis, or to those whose

political WELTANSHAUUNG disallows any such suspicions. Still, the open-

minded student of abductions should consider the possibilities. Certainly,

we are not being narrow-minded if we ask researchers to exhaust ALL terrestrial

explanations before looking heavenward.

Granted, this particular explanation may, at first, seem as bizarre as the

phenomenon itself. But I invite the skeptical reader to examine the work of

George Estabrooks, a seminal theorist on the use of hypnosis in warfare, and

a veteran of Project MKULTRA. Estabrooks once amused himself during a party

by covertly hypnotizing two friends, who were led to believe that the Prime

Minister of England had just arrived; Estabrooks' victims spent an hour

conversing with, and even serving drinks to, the esteemed visitor[11]. For

ufologists, this incident raises an inescapable question: If the Mesmeric arts

can successfully evoke a non-existent Prime Minister, why can't a represent-

ative from the Pleiades be similarly induced?

But there is much more to the present day technology of mind control than

mere hypnosis -- and many good reasons to suspect that UFO abduction accounts

are an artifact of continuing brainwashing/behavior modification experiments.

Moreover, I intend to demonstrate that, by using UFO mythology as a cover

story, the experimenters may have solved the major problem with the work

conducted in the 1950s -- "the disposal problem," i.e., the question of

"What do we do with the victims?"

If, in these pages, I seem to stray from the subject of the saucers, I plead

for patience. Before I attempt to link UFO abductions with mind control

experiments, I must first show that this technology EXISTS. Much of the

forthcoming is an introduction to the topic of mind control -- what it is, and

how it works.

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. Neverthe-

less, 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 confes-

sions 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 demon-

strate 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 micro-

phone. 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 appiled, 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 implant-

ing 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].

REMOTE HYPNOSIS

Hypnosis provides the (highly controversial) key which opens the door to

many abduction accounts[51]. And obviously, if my thesis is correct, hypnosis

plays a large part in the abduction itself. One thing we know with certainty:

Since the earliest days of project BLUEBIRD, the CIA's spy-chiatrists spent

enormous sums mastering Mesmer's art.

I cannot here give even a brief summary of hypnosis, nor even of the CIA's

studies in this area. (Fortunately, FOIA requests were rather more successful

in shaking loose information on this topic than in the area of psycho-

electronics.) Here, we will concentrate on a particularly intriguing

allegation -- one heard faintly, but persistently, for the past twenty years

by those who would investigate the shadow side of politics.

If this allegation proves true, hypnosis is NOT necessarily a person-to-

person affair.

The abductee -- or the mind control victim -- need not have physical

contact with a hypnotist for hypnotic suggestion to take effect; trance could

be induced, and suggestions made, via the intracerebral transmitters described

above. The concept sounds like something out of Huxley's or Orwell's most

masochistic fantasies. Yet remote hypnosis was first reported -- using

allegedly parapsychological means -- in the early 1930s, by L.L. Vasilev,

Professor of Physiology in the University of Leningrad[52]. Later, other

scientists attempted to accomplish the same goal, using less mystic means.

Over the years, certain journalists have asserted that the CIA has mastered

a technology call RHIC-EDOM. RHIC means "Radio Hypnotic Intracerebral

Control." EDOM stands for "Electronic Dissolution of Memory." Together, these

techniques can -- allegedly -- remotely induce hypnotic trance, deliver

suggestions to the subject, and erase all memory for both the instruction

period and the act which the subject is asked to perform.

RHIC uses the stimoceiver, or a microminiaturized offspring of that tech-

nology to induce a hypnotic state. Interestingly, this technique is also

reputed to involve the use of INTRAMUSCULAR implants, a detail strikingly

reminiscent of the "scars" mentioned in Budd Hopkins MISSING TIME. Apparently,

these implants are stimulated to induce a post-hypnotic suggestion.

EDOM is nothing more than missing time itself -- the erasure of memory from

consciousness through the blockage of synaptic transmission in certain areas of

the brain. By jamming the brain's synapses through a surfeit of acetocholine,

neural transmission along selected pathways can be effectively stilled.

According to the proponents of RHIC-EDOM, acetocholine production can be

affected by electromagnetic means. (Modern research in the psycho-physio-

logical effects of microwaves confirm this proposition.)

Does RHIC-EDOM exist? In our discussion of Delgado's work, I have already

cited a strange little book (published in 1969) titled WERE WE CONTROLLED?,

written by one Lincoln Lawrence, a former FBI agent turned journalist. (The

name is a pseudonym; I know his real identity.) This work deals at length with

RHIC-EDOM; a careful comparison of Lawrence's work with MKULTRA files declas-

sified ten years later indicates a strong possibility that the writer did

indeed have "inside" sources.

Here is how Lawrence describes RHIC in action:

It is the ultra-sophisticated application of post-hypnotic

suggestion TRIGGERED AT WILL [italics in original] by radio

transmission. It is a recurring hypnotic state, re-induced

automatically at intervals by the same radio control. An

individual is brought under hypnosis. This can be done either

with his knowledge -- or WITHOUT it by use of narco-hypnosis,

which can be brought into play under many guises. He is then

programmed to perform certain actions and maintain certain

attitudes upon radio signal[53].

Other authors have mentioned this technique -- specifically Walter Bowart

(in his book OPERATION MIND CONTROL) and journalist James Moore, who, in a

1975 issue of a periodical called MODERN PEOPLE, claimed to have secured a

350-page manual, prepared in 1963, on RHIC-EDOM[54]. He received the manual

from CIA sources, although -- interestingly -- the technique is said to have

originated in the military.

The following quote by Moore on RHIC should prove especially intriguing

to abduction researchers who have confronted odd "personality shifts" in

abductees:

Medically, these radio signals are directed to certain

parts of the brain. When a part of your brain receives a

tiny electrical impulse from outside sources, such as vision,

hearing, etc.,an emotion is produced -- anger at the sight of

a gang of boys beating an old woman, for example. The same

emotion of anger can be created by artificial radio signals

sent to your brain by a controller. You could instantly feel

the same white-hot anger without any apparent reason[55].

Lawrence's sources imparted an even more tantalizing -- and frightening --

revelation:

...there is already in use a small EDOM generator-transmitter

which can be concealed on the body of a person. Contact with

this person -- a casual handshake or even just a touch --

transmits a tiny electronic charge plus an ultra-sonic signal

tone which for a short while will disturb the time orientation

of the person affected[56].

If RHIC-EDOM exists, it goes a long way toward providing an earthbound

rationale for alien abductions -- or, at least, certain aspects of them. The

phenomenon of "missing time" is no longer mysterious. Abductee implants,

both intracerebral and otherwise, are explained. And note the reference to

"recurring hypnotic state, reinduced automatically by the same radio command."

This situation may account for "repeater" abductees who, after their initial

encounter, have regular sessions of "missing time" and abduction -- even while

a bed-mate sleeps undisturbed.

At present, I cannot claim conclusively that RHIC-EDOM is real. To my

knowledge, the only official questioning of a CIA representive concerning

these techniques occurred in 1977, during Senate hearings on CIA drug testing.

Senator Richard Schweicker had the following interchange with Dr. Sidney

Gottlieb, an important MKULTRA administrator:

SCHWEICKER: Some of the projects under MKULTRA involved

hypnosis, is that correct?

GOTTLIEB: Yes.

SCHWEICKER: Did any of these projects involve something

called radio hypnotic intracerebral control, which is a

combination, as I understand it, in layman's terms, of radio

transmissions and hypnosis.

GOTTLIEB: My answer is "No."

SCHWEICKER: None whatsoever?

GOTTLIEB: Well, I am trying to be responsive to the

terms you used. As I remember it, there was a current

interest, running interest, all the time in what effects

people's standing in the field of radio energy have, and

it could easily have been that somewhere in many projects,

someone was trying to see if you could hypnotize someone

easier if he was standing in a radio beam. That would

seem like a reasonable piece of research to do.

Schweicker went on to mention that he had heard testimony that radar (i.e.,

microwaves) had been used to wipe out memory in animals; Gottlieb responded,

"I can believe that, Senator."[57]

Gottlieb's blandishments do not comfort much. For one thing, the good

doctor did not always provide thoroughly candid testimony. (During the same

hearing he averred that 99 percent on the CIA's research had been openly

published; if so, why are so many MKULTRA subprojects still "dark," and why

does the Agency still go to great lengths to protect the identities of its

scientists?[58]) We should also recognize that the CIA's operations are

compartmentalized on a "need-to-know" basis; Gottlieb may not have had access

to the information requested by Schweicker. Note that the MKULTRA rubric

circumscribed Gottlieb's statement: RHIC-EDOM might have been the focus of

another program. (There were several others: MKNAOMI, MKACTION, MKSEARCH,

etc.) Also keep in mind the revelation by "Deep Trance" that the CIA

concentrated on psychoelectronics AFTER the termination of MKULTRA in 1963.

Most significantly: RHIC-EDOM is described by both Lawrence and Moore as a

product of MILITARY research; Gottlieb spoke only of matters pertaining to CIA.

He may thus have spoken truthfully -- at least in a strictly technical sense --

while still misleading the Congressional interlocutors.

Personally, I believe that the RHIC-EDOM story deserves a great deal of

further research. I find it significant that when Dr. Petter Lindstrom

examined X-rays of Robert Naesland, a Swedish victim of brain-implantation, the

doctor authoritatively cited WERE WE CONTROLLED? in his letter of response[59].

This is the same Dr. Lindstrom noted for his pioneering use of ultrasonics in

neurosurgery[60]. Lincoln Lawrence's book has received a strong endorsement

indeed.

Bowart's OPERATION MIND CONTROL contains a significant interview with an

intelligence agent knowledgeable in these areas. Granted, the reader has every

right to adopt a skeptical attitude toward information culled from anonymous

sources; still, one should note that this operative's statements confirm, in

pertinent part, Lawrence's thesis[61].

Most importantly: The open literature on brain-wave entrainment and the

behavioral effects of electromagnetic radiation substantiates much of the RHIC-

EDOM story -- as we shall see.

So we now have some idea of the tools available to the "spy-chiatrists."

How have these tools been used?

This question necessarily involves some detective work. The Central

Intelligence Agency, under duress, provided some, though not enough, documen-

tation of its efforts to commandeer "the space between our ears." We know that

these efforts were extensive, long-term, and at least partially successful. We

know also that these experiments used human subjects. But who? When?

One paradox of this line of inquiry is that, for many readers, the victims

elicit sympathy only insofar as they remain anonymous. Intellectually, we

realize that MKULTRA and its allied projects must have affected hundreds,

probably thousands, of individuals. Yet we react with deep suspicion

whenever one of these individuals steps forward and identifies himself, or

whenever an independent investigator argues that mind control has directed some

newsworthy person's otherwise inexplicable actions. Where, the skeptic may

rightfully ask, is the documentation supporting such accusations? Most of the

MKULTRA "paper trail" was (allegedly) burnt at Richard Helms' order; what's

left has been censored, leaving black ink smudges wherever the names originally

appeared. Claimed mind control victims can, for the most part, only give us

testimony -- and how reliable can such testimony be, especially in light of the

fact that one purpose of MKULTRA was to induce insanity? Anyone asserting that

he was victimized by the program might well be seeking an extrinsic excuse for

his own psychopathology. If you say that you are a manufactured madman, you

were probably mad to begin with: Catch 22.

When John Marks wrote THE SEARCH FOR "THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE" he received

numerous letters from people insisting that they had been drugged, "waved," or

otherwise abused by the CIA or the military. Most of these communications went

directly into his crank file. Perhaps many deserved that destination; I know

of at least one that did not[94].

Marks did, however, devote much attention to Val Orlikov, a former "patient"

of perhaps the most notorious figure in the annals of American medical crime:

Dr. Ewen Cameron, a CIA-funded scientist heading the Allan Memorial

Institute at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. Cameron, a highly-respected

mental health researcher[95], experimented with a technique he called "psychic

driving," a brainwashing program which involved inflicting upon a subject an

endless tape loop blaring selected messages, 16-to-24 hours a day, combined

with massive electroshock and LSD. The project's "guinea pigs" were patients

who had come to Allan Memorial with relatively minor psychological complaints.

Cameron's experiments failed and his theories were discredited, which may

explain why the CIA and its apologists now feel relatively comfortable

discussing the Frankensteinian efforts at Allan Memorial, as opposed to more

successful work elsewhere.

Orlikov's testimony has received much respectful attention from those

writers who have examined MKULTRA, and correctly so. When I studied the files

at the National Security Archives, I was particularly keen to read her original

letters to John Marks, for these pages had led to the unmasking of an

especially heinous CIA project. The letters, interestingly enough, proved just

as vague, disjointed, and bizarre as similar correspondence which researchers

routinely dismiss. Orlikov can't be blamed for the hazy nature of her

recollections; a certain amount of fog is to be expected, given the nature of

the crime perpetrated against her. The important point is that her story,

ultimately, was found to be true. All of which leads me to wonder: Why did

HER claims prompt investigation when those of others prompt only dismissal?

Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that Orlikov's husband became a Canadian

Member of Parliament. Any victims of CIA experimentation who wish to be taken

seriously ought, perhaps, first make sure to marry well.

Of course, we can easily forgive previous writers and readers whose

researches into MKULTRA have been biased in favor of complacency[96]. But we

can't let this natural prejudice cripple our present investigation. Let us

examine, then, a few of the "horror stories" from the mind control literature

and highlight possible correlations to abductee testimony.

SCREEN MEMORY

According to declassified documents in the Marks files, a major difficulty

faced by the MKULTRA researchers concerned the "disposal problem." What to do

with the victims of CIA-sponsored electroshock, hypnosis, and drug experiment-

ation? The Company resorted to distressing, but characteristic, tactics: They

disposed of their human guinea pigs by incarcerating them in insane asylums, by

performing icepick lobotomies, and by ordering "executive actions."[103]

A more sophisticated solution had to be found. One of the goals of the

CIA's mind control efforts was the erasure of memory via hypnosis (and drugs,

electronics, lobotomies, etc.); not only would this hide what occurred during

the experimental indoctrination/programming sessions, it would prove useful in

the field. "Amnesia was a big goal," confirms Victor Marchetti, who points out

its usefulness in dealing with contract agents: "After you've done it, the

agent doesn't even know what he's done...you send him in, he does the job.

When he comes out, you clean his head out."[104]

The big problem: Despite hypnotically-induced amnesia, there would be memory

leaks -- snippets of the repressed material would arise spontaneously, in

dreams, as flashbacks, etc. A proposed solution: Give the subject a "screen

memory," a false story; thus, even if he starts to recall the material, he will

recall it incorrectly.

Even the conservative Dr. Orne notes that:

A S [subject] who is able to develop good posthypnotic amnesia

will also respond to suggestions to remember events which did not

actually occur. On awakening, he will fail to recall the real

events of the trance and will instead recall the suggested events.

If anything, this phenomenon is easier to produce than total

amnesia, perhaps because it eliminates the subjective feeling of

an empty space in memory.[105]

Not only would the screen memories fill in the uncomfortable blanks in the

subjects' recollection, they would protect against revelation. One fear of

the MKULTRA scientists was that a hypno-programmed individual used as, say, a

courier, could be un-programmed by another hypnotist, perhaps working for the

enemy. Thus, the MKULTRA scientists decided to instill multiple personalities

-- multiple cover stories, if you will -- to confuse any "unauthorized"

hypnotist.[106]

One case using this technique centered on an assassin named Luis Castillo,

who, after his capture in the Philippines, was extensively de-briefed and

studied by experts in the employ of the National Bureau of Investigation, that

country's equivalent to our FBI. Castillo was discovered to have had at least

FOUR separate personalities hypnotically instilled; each personality could be

triggered by a specific cue. In one state, he claimed to be Sgt. Manuel Angel

Ramirez, of the Strategic Air Tactical Command in South Vietnam; supposedly,

"Ramirez" was the illegitimate son of a certain pipe-smoking, highly-placed CIA

official whose initials were A.D.[107] Another personality claimed to be one

of John F. Kennedy's assassins.

The main hypnotist involved with this case labelled these hypnotic alter-

egos "Zombie states." The report on the case stated that "The Zombie pheno-

menon referred to here is a somnambulistic behavior displayed by the subject

in a conditioned response to a series of words, phrases, and statements,

apparently unknown to the subject during his normal waking state."

Upon Castillo's repatriation to the United States, the FBI claimed that he

had fabricated the story. In his book OPERATION MIND CONTROL, Walter Bowart

makes a convincing case against the FBI's claims. Certainly, many aspects of

the Castillo affair argue for his sincerity -- including his hypnotically-

induced insensitivity to pain[108], his maintenance of the story (or stories)

even when severly inebriated, and his apparently programmed suicide attempts.

If Castillo told the truth, as I believe he did, then he manifested both

hypnotically-induced multiple personality and pseudomemory. The former remains

controversial; the latter has been repeatedly replicated in experimental

situations[109].

This point is vitally important for students of the abduction phenomenon.

We CANNOT assume the accuracy of abduction descriptions given during subsequent

hypnotic regression. Moreover, we cannot even assume the accuracy of spon-

taneously-arising recollections (i.e., abduction memories not elicited through

hypnotic regression). Indeed, responsible skeptics have argued that hypnotic

regression may prove inadvertently harmful, in that it may lock in place a

false remembrance. (Note, however, that other psychiatric professionals

consider hypnotic regression the best technique, however flawed, in unlocking

amnesia[110]. For my part, I maintain an ambivalent and cautious attitude

toward the use of hypnosis in abductee work.)

Granted, it is all too easy for the debunkers to cry "confabulation" to

dismiss hypnotic testimony which does not conform to our preconceptions about

the possible; I do not intend to make this same error. Whenever skeptics

offer the phenomenon of pseudomemory to rationalize abduction claims, they cite

experimental situations in which PSEUDOMEMORY WAS ORIGINALLY CREATED BY A

HYPNOTIST[111]. These experiments can not be cited as proof that an individual

abductee spontaneously conjured up a fantasy (which just happens to correspond

to the details of hundreds of similar "fantasies"). Rather, laboratory studies

of pseudomemory creation prove MY point: Pseudomemory can be induced BY

PREVIOUS HYPNOSIS[112].

In other words, an abductee may talk of aliens -- when the reality was

something else entirely.

In correspondence with me, a noted abduction researcher wrote of an instance

in which an abductee recounted seeing a helicopter during his experience; as

the abductee testimony progressed, the helicopter turned into a UFO. During one

of the (quite few) regression sessions I attended, I heard an exactly similar

narrative. Hopkins would argue that the helicopter was a "screen memory"

hiding the awful reality of the UFO encounter. But does Occam's razor really

cut that way? Shouldn't we also consider the possibility that the object in

question really WAS a helicopter -- which the abductee was instructed to recall

as a UFO?

THE MILITARY AND MIND CONTROL

Some time ago, I attended hypnotic regression sessions in which the

subject -- a claimed UFO abductee -- recalled undergoing a mysterious "brain

operation" at a veteran's hospital in California. The operation was performed

by human beings, not aliens. Interestingly, this same hospital was mentioned

in two other cases I encountered. These other claims were not made by

abductees, but by people alleged to have been victims of mind control experi-

mentation.

One of these claimants, a former Navy SEAL who undertook numerous dangerous

missions in Vietnam, favorably impressed me with the wealth of detail in his

story[147]. This individual -- I've taken to calling him "the trained SEAL"--

had received specialized combat training at a military base in California; he

claims that at one point during this training he was drugged, hypnotized,

possibly placed under some form of electronic control, and subjected to the

extremes of pain/pleasure operant conditioning. One peculiar detail of his

story concerns the "reward" aspect of the conditioning: When properly

acquiescent, he was given unlimited sexual access to a woman who, the SEAL

avers, was herself the victim of brainwashing.

Unbelievable as this last claim may seem, I found it oddly resonant when I

later interviewed a prominent abductee in the Southern California area, who

bravely offered me details on a puzzling, albeit quite delicate, incident in

her past. Still an attractive woman, she recalled for me -- indeed, seemed

strangely compelled to describe -- an early love affair with a young soldier

training at a military base near her home. She cannot recall the soldier's

name. All she remembers is that one day he started LIVING AT HER FAMILY'S

HOUSE; she has no memory of how the arrangement began, and her parents have

never felt comfortable discussing the matter. Although unattracted to this

soldier, she felt compelled to become intimate with him, adopting a pliant,

obeisant attitude that was quite out of character for her. Later, the soldier

went on to covert missions in Vietnam.

Of course, a young person's psycho-sexual development is never smooth, and

the incident related above may merely have represented one peculiarly upsetting

bump in that notoriously rough road. Still, some of the details of this story

-- particularly the parents' attitude, the woman's personality shift, and her

subsequent memory lapses -- are striking, and I treat with respect the abduc-

tee's intuition that this minor enigma in her personal history could, if

properly understood, shed light on her later "missing time" experiences.

Could the "trained SEAL" have been right? Was there, IS there, a coterie

of hypno-programmed soldiers conducting particularly hazardous missions? And

do the programmers have at their disposal a "ladies' auxiliary," so to speak,

of hypnotized camp followers?

If the SEAL's story stood alone, skeptics could easily dismiss it

(provided they did not sit, as I did, face-to-face with the story's teller,

listening to all the grisly and unsettling details). But other veterans have

added their voices to this grim tale. Daniel Sheehan, of the Christic

Institute, claims that his organization has spoken to half-a-dozen individuals

with narratives similar to my SEAL informant. All had received "processing,"

so to speak, within the context of standard military training; after pro-

gramming and specialized combat instruction by mercenaries, the recruits were

placed "on hold," to be used as situations arose -- and some of those

situations occurred within the United States[148].

Walter Bowart began his own researches into mind control by placing an ad in

SOLDIER-OF-FORTUNE-style publications, asking for correspondence from veterans

who experienced inexplicable lapses in memory or strange behavior modification

techniques while serving in Vietnam; he received over 100 replies. Bowart

devoted an entire chapter to one of these respondents -- an Air Force veteran

named David, who ended his four-year tour of duty recalling only that he had

spent the time "having fun, skin diving, laying on the beach, collecting

shells...It never dawned on me until later that I must have DONE something

while I was in the service." (An obvious example of screen memory.) He was

also "assigned" a girlfriend whose name he cannot now recall, despite the

length and deep intimacy of the affair[149]. The parallels to the SEAL's story

and the abductee's account should be obvious.

We even have a confession, of sorts, from a scientist who specialized in one

aspect of this sort of training. Lt. Commander Thomas Narut, of the

U.S. Naval Hospital at the NATO headquarters in Naples, Florida, admitted

during a lecture in Oslo that recruits in Naples underwent CLOCKWORK-ORANGE-

style behavior modification sessions. Trainees would be strapped into chairs

with their eyelids clamped open while watching films of industrial accidents

and African circumcision ceremonies -- films frequently used by psychologists

as a means of inducing stress in experimental situations. Unlike the

protagonist in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, who learned revulsion at the sight of

violence, Narut's soldiers were taught to accept and enjoy bloodshed, to view

it with equanimity. Similar techniques were used to dehumanize potential

enemies. Graduates of this program became, in Narut's words, "hit men and

assassins," to be placed in American embassies throughout the world.

When questioned by reporters about these claims, the American government

denied the story; Narut -- after a long incommunicado period and apparent

coercion -- later explained to journalists that he had merely spoken

theoretically. If so, why did he originally describe the behavior modification

procedure as an ongoing program?[150]

And while it may seem frivolous to return to the subject of abductions after

examining such grim data, I should remind the reader of the many abduction

accounts in which abductees recall being forced to watch certain stress-

inducing motion pictures. The aliens, it seems, have learned a few lessons

from Dr. Narut.

Narut, of course, concentrated on selective programming of individual

American soldiers; on the other side of the mind control spectrum, Defense

Department specialists have also concentrated on methods to render entire

enemy battalions "combat ineffective." Electromagnetic weaponry, intended to

wipe out the aggression of the enemy, is the province of DARPA, under the

direction of Dr. Jack Verona. These projects remain fairly

mysterious; we do know, however, that one operation, SLEEPING BEAUTY, employed

the services of Dr. Michael Persinger, a scientist who has expressed

interesting views regarding UFOs.

Persinger discovered a method of using ELF waves to induce the brain's MAST

cells to release histamine; should a battlefield commander wish to subject his

enemy to mass bouts of vomiting, Persinger's trick could do the job even

faster than a Tobe Hooper movie. The method works on animals. "The question,"

writes mind control researcher Larry Collins, "is how to get from point A to

point B without violating one of the most rigorous commandments of Government

ethics -- thou shalt not conduct experiments like that on human beings."[151]

If Collins had studied the record a little more carefully, he might realize

that the government hasn't always regarded this commandment as something

graven in stone. As Milton Kline put it:

Ethical factors involved in most research would preclude

having positive results. Those ethical factors don't always

hold with government research. THE RESEARCH WHICH HAS GIVEN

REALLY POSITIVE RESULTS HAS NOT BEEN LIMITED BY ETHICAL

CONSTRAINTS[152]. [my italics]

ABDUCTIONS

Press and public now regard abductees as tony curiosities, yet science, for

the most part, still banishes their tales to the domain of the damned, as

Charles Fort defined damnation. So too with claimed victims of mind control.

The Voice of Authority tells us that MKULTRA belongs to history; like Hasdrubal

and Hitler, it threatened once, but no more. Anyone insisting otherwise must

be silenced by glib rationalization and selective inattention.

Yet these two topics -- UFO abductions and mind control -- have more in

common than their mutual ostracization. The data overlap. If we could chart

these phenomena on a Venn diagram, we would see a surprisingly large inter-

section between the two circles of information. It is this overlap I seek to

address.

Note, however, that I can NOT address all the other interesting and

important issues raised by the UFO abduction experience. For exmaple, I have

written, admittedly rather vaguely, of nasal implants reported by abductees --

the sort of detail which might place an account in the "high strangeness"

category, and of course, a detail central to my thesis. But what percentage

of the percipients speak of such implants? A truly scientific analysis would

provide a figure. Unfortunately, I haven't the resources to compile a

sufficiently large abductee sample from which one could draw statistics. Nor

can I make an over-arching qualitative analysis, measuring the value of "high

strangeness" reports against other abductee claims. All I can do is note the

available literature, and leave the reader to wonder, as I do, whether the

compilers of that literature concentrated on exceptional cases or were biased

in favor of the less fantastic abductee accounts. I have supplemented readings

of the abduction literature with my own interviews with percipients -- which,

since abductees tend to know other abductees, can give a surprisingly wide view

of the phenomenon. This view has been broadened still further by my talks and

correspondence with other members of the UFO community.

Of course, we must recognize the difference between testimony and proof. No

one can state definitively that abduction reports have a basis in objective

reality (however misperceived). Ultimately, all we have are stories. Some of

these stories may be of questionable veracity; others may be contaminated by

investigator bias; many are insufficiently detailed. No one research paper can

resolve all abduction controversies, and many necessary battles must be fought

on other fields.

Still, the testimony won't go away -- and we certainly have enough to allow

for comparisons. I maintain that an unprejudiced overview of abduction reports

in the popular press and the less-familiar material on mind control will

demonstrate a striking correlation. Once other abduction researchers have been

educated in the ways of MKULTRA (and this paper is intended as an introductory

text) they may note a similar pattern. If so, we can then begin to write a

revisionist history of the phenomenon.

The abduction enigma contains within it sub-mysteries that slide into the

mind control scenario with surprising ease, even elegance -- mysteries which

fit the E.T. hypothesis as uncomfortably as a size 10 foot fits into a size 8

shoe. As we have seen, the MKULTRA thesis explains the reports of abductee

intracerebral implants (particularly reports involving nosebleeds), unusual

scars, "telepathic" communication (i.e., externally induced intracerebral

voices) concurrent with or following the abduction encounter, allegations that

some abductees hear unusual sound effects (similar to those created by the

hemi-synch and cognate devices), haywire electronic devices in abductee homes,

personality shifts, "training films," manipulation of religious imagery, and

missing time. Needless to say, the thesis of clandestine government experi-

mentation readily accounts for abductee claims of human beings "working" with

the aliens, and for the government harassment that plays so prominent a role in

certain abductee reports.

Let's look at some more correlations.

GLIMPSES OF THE CONTROLLERS

In an interview with me, a northern-California abducteee -- call him "Peter"

-- reported an experience which was conducted NOT by a small grey alien, but by

a human being. The percipient called this man a "doctor." He gave a descrip-

tion of this individual, and even provided a drawing.

Some time after I gathered this information, a southern-California abductee

told me her story -- which included a description of this very same "doctor."

The physical details were so strikingly similar as to erase coincidence. This

woman is a leading member of a Los Angeles-based UFO group; three other women

in this group report abduction encounters with the same individual[177].

Perhaps those three women were fantasists, attaching themselves to another's

narrative. But my northern informant never met these people. Why did he

describe the same "doctor"?

One of the abductees I have dealt with insisted, under hypnosis, that her

abduction experience brought her to a certain house in the Los Angeles area.

She was able to provide directions to the house, even though she had no

conscious memory of ever being there. I later learned that this house is

indeed occupied by a scientist who formerly (and perhaps currently) conducted

clandestine research on mind control technology.

This same abductee described a clandestine brain operation of some sort she

underwent in childhood. The neurosurgeon was a human being, not an alien.

She even recalled the name. (Note: This is not the same individual referred to

above.) When I heard the name, it meant nothing to me -- but later I learned

that there really was a scientist of that name who specialzed in electrode

implant research.

Licia Davidson is a thoughtful and articulate abductee, whose fascinating

story closely parallels many found in the abductee literature -- except for one

unusual detail. In an interview with me, described an unsettling recollection

of a human being, dressed normally, holding a black box with a protruding

antenna. This odd snippet of memory did NOT coincide with the general thrust

of her abduction narrative. Could this remembrance represent an all-too-brief

segment of accurately-perceived reality interrupting her hypnotically-induced

"screen memory"? Peter clearly recalls seeing a similar box during his

abduction.

Interestingly, Licia resides in the Los Angeles suburb of Tujunga Canyon, a

prominent spot on the abduction map; Many of the abductees I have spoken to

first had unusual experiences while living in this area. Near Tujunga Canyon,

in Mt. Pacifico, is a hidden former Nike missile base; more than one abductee

has described odd, seemingly inexplicable military activity around this

location[178]. The reader will recall the connection of Nike missile bases to

the disturbing story of Dr. L. Jolyon West, a veteran of MKULTRA.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste -- and a worse thing to commandeer.