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Abstract

Project MK Ultra refers to a set of top-secret CIA experiments that took place from 1953 to 1973 and involved unwitting subjects being administered drugs and hypnosis. As there is little information currently existent digitally relating to the project, an archive was established through this essay which relates information regarding the truth of what happened during the experiments without conspiracy theories as are often found in relation to this project. After having done research on the project as a whole and subsequently finding fifteen artifacts that communicate important truths about the project, it can be concluded that the CIA, in a time of mass national paranoia, abused their powers in the search of techniques to assist in espionage and other similar practices. This can be seen in the detrimental effects which the experiments had on individuals who took place in them as is discussed in a few of the artifacts. The other artifacts reveal the CIA’s true intentions during the experiment, concluded to be a form of control over other nations in espionage by more thoroughly understanding the use of drugs and hypnosis on the brain. Valid intentions were thus shifted to abuse of power as the agency performed the experiments often without the subject’s knowledge of what was truly taking place. It was because of the underlying reasons for the experiment that it was able to be done and still remains a topic about which talking is not common.

Publication Date

2020

Keywords

MK Ultra; Project; Project MK Ultra; archive; CIA

Disciplines

Experimental Analysis of Behavior

Project MK Ultra: a Site of Forgotten Calamity
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