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Lysergamides Was It All Just A Hallucination? The CIA's Secret LSD Experiments

red22

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Nov 23, 2009
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Brittanny Grant, Spring 2015

For my senior thesis project, I researched the CIA's LSD experiments on unwitting human subjects in the 1950s and early 1960s. I asked why the CIA carried out these experiments, what the impact on the victims was, and how the CIA was able to get away with breaking the law in this egregious way. These government-funded experiment were code-named MKULTRA. My thesis is that the CIA conducted these experiments as part of the American's Cold War struggle with world communism. This is also the reason why they were able to get away with these tests. The fallout for the human test subjects was often negative. It was not until the early 1970s, when American's distrust in the government was at an all time high, due to the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal, that these experiments would come to the attention of the public. The congressionally appointed Church Commission researched the evidence, held hearings, and set up committees to monitor the treatment of human test subjects, all in order to prevent anything like this from happening again.

Full text: https://scholarworks.arcadia.edu/senior_theses/13/


Yes, the CIA ran a brothel in San Francisco and tested LSD on unsuspecting patrons. 2025-09-01. Anna Rascouët-Paz. Snopes.


MK-ULTRA
 
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[...]

The congressionally appointed Church Commission researched the evidence, held hearings, and set up committees to monitor the treatment of human test subjects, all in order to prevent anything like this from happening again.

You mean like waterboarding in the War on Terror? How many people were criminally charged and/or convicted for the multitude of abuses that occurred under MK Ultra? How many people were criminally charged and/or convicted for torture (waterboarding) in the War on Terror era? I believe the answers are, respectively, zero and zero.

Forgive me but while the CIA may have gone woke, I'm not aware of anyone even being demoted or fired as a consequence of the terrible acts that were committed. Guantanamo Bay prison is still operating and still has inmates who haven't even been charged with a crime, going for over 20 years now. Some were picked up as kids. This was made possible in large part because of Dick Cheney's massive reforms which he pushed through Congress literally the day after the 9/11 terror attacks. The torturing started soon after. Unlike last time, the Congressional hearings on the revelations of torture led to no legal reforms whatsoever, and in fact, Congress and the president in power have consistently worked to enhance the secret capabilities of the CIA and security state. (This despite the apparent extreme political polarization since the Obama years.)

So now we're *really* in the dark as to what's going on. Officially MK Ultra was a failure, but of course most of the records and reports remain secret, and there is every reason to believe that insights were retained and put to use in other programs. And let's be clear about the intended purpose of Mk Ultra: to control people. The CIA does primarily two things: analysis and operations. Analysis is the acquisition of information and consideration of information which may be public or may be obtained through spies or contacts. Operations is the application of such information to effect great change (overthrow governments, start wars, create/destroy popular movements), albeit covertly. A large amount of propaganda originates from the CIA for example, which essentially affects everyone. The CIA also infiltrates organizations and political interest groups---everything from trade unions to clubs to criminal organizations to various corporations (especially media and social media), groups of activists of all stripes and ideologies, etc. There they may seek to influence or to sabotage activities within the group or redirect their energy toward another target. CIA also focuses on individuals who can be made "useful"---celebrities can be encouraged to popularize certain views. Assassins can be encouraged, manipulated, and assisted to carry out targeted killings. And so on. Drugs undoubtedly are used as tools in many such operations, but we hear nothing about such things these days, and if we did, chances are the journalist would be arrested and/or have to flee to a country outside the "West". I miss the old days when we were more free.
 
Why wouldn't the CIA create a pro war youth movement? I still don't see the benefit to them creating hippy movement. Like it sounds good from a tinfoilers perspective. Why would they want 10s of thousands of people tuning in and dropping out? They want the opposite of that. I think you will find most giant conspiracies with hundred of people eventually come to light. Yeah if you send five guys to whack the president of some banana Republic you might be able to keep it quiet, but it strains my belief that hundreds and hundred of people participated in conspiracies 60 years ago and zero proof or evidence ever came to light.

The testing of psychedelics was super damaging but read into the testing of the deliriants that are classified as chemical weapons now, they fucked some people over for life with that shit. Good read:

Chemical Warfare Secrets Almost Forgotten: A Personal Story of Medical Testing of Army Volunteers with Incapacitating Chemical Agents During the Cold War (1955-1975)
Book by James S. Ketchum
 
I’m sure you found this in your research but if not here is an intro



This far from over, still running and total filth bs currently.

There is a decent audiobook version on audible,

Still roiling.. ever heard of a “TI”.. wtfyt that is?
 
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Why wouldn't the CIA create a pro war youth movement? I still don't see the benefit to them creating hippy movement.
I think a semi-plausible cynical/conspiratorial take is that the CIA tried to co-opt the protest movement that was organizing and pushing against the establishment at that time - that they used manipulative tactics to steer the movement towards a more docile, navel-gazing, individualist culture. Another take is that they were trying to control things, but it didn't turn out at all how they were hoping - a perspective Adam Curtis might share.
 
Why wouldn't the CIA create a pro war youth movement? I still don't see the benefit to them creating hippy movement. Like it sounds good from a tinfoilers perspective. Why would they want 10s of thousands of people tuning in and dropping out? They want the opposite of that. I think you will find most giant conspiracies with hundred of people eventually come to light. Yeah if you send five guys to whack the president of some banana Republic you might be able to keep it quiet, but it strains my belief that hundreds and hundred of people participated in conspiracies 60 years ago and zero proof or evidence ever came to light.

The testing of psychedelics was super damaging but read into the testing of the deliriants that are classified as chemical weapons now, they fucked some people over for life with that shit. Good read:

Chemical Warfare Secrets Almost Forgotten: A Personal Story of Medical Testing of Army Volunteers with Incapacitating Chemical Agents During the Cold War (1955-1975)
Book by James S. Ketchum
From what ive read it was about derailing the very serious and organised anti war movements of the time.

It was a real threat to the war propaganda at the time.
There was very smart and motivated people involved in organising protests and other actions to create awareness about the military industrial complex and the reality of the wars the US was involved in.

So the CIA infilitrated the movements and basicly subverted it into a drug fueled hippie festival.
That made it easier to create public opinion against the anti war crowd.
They could just claim it was a bunch of drugged out hippies that people shouldnt take seriously.

Then later they used Manson and other Mkultra assets to create even more fear and chaos to kill the movement once it served its purpose.

Sadly alot of the "heroes" of the psychedelic movement are most likely government plants.
Bands like the grateful dead was basicly a CIA houseband that was used to spread acid around the nation.
Also look into Huxleys family, not sure who but one of his brother was into all kind of sketchy stuff.
 
Why wouldn't the CIA create a pro war youth movement? I still don't see the benefit to them creating hippy movement.
Do you know about the hegelian dialectic? If not I suggest you read Hegal's books. Along with the works of Helena Blavatsky and related authors like Albert Pike (you'll find others to read as you go since they all cite each other). These authors will lead you towards people like Aleister Crowley who will lead you towards ancient works which are most easily grouped under what some people call the "mystery schools" aka the old religions (pre-modern Judaism off-shoot religions, like Baal worship and related cults of the old world). Bill Cooper's book and old radio show is a decent intro if you don't want to delve too deeply on your own.

The most common mistake people make when it comes to the CIA/Modern intelligence community is thinking that it's actually pro-America or that they actually care about their publicly claimed mission. Well that and thinking this secret community/society didn't exist before the late 1940s. It isn't a modern thing. It has always been with us for as long as humans have walked the Earth. The profane aren't told about its true purpose because they are the profane. Otherwise known as human cattle.

The hippy movement was created for the same reason why they're constantly dividing people into teams like the so-called left/right in modern politics. You control both sides so you can control the overall situation. All the while you give them things to fight about while you nudge them in whatever direction you want them to go. These people and organizations don't think in terms of years, decades or even centuries. They think and plan on the scale of thousands and tens of thousands of years. It would require writing a novel to detail the things they were doing in the 1960s and why they were doing them. The meat of it is the same as its always been: They gave you idols under their control so a real one wouldn't attract a following and throw a monkey wrench in their long term plans.

The further down the rabbit hole you go the more you find manufactured situations. If I laid out in detail what I personally know about what they were doing from the 1940s-1960s you'd just call me a lunatic and write it off as the ramblings of a mad man. Which is by design. The lies go back so far and are so big they're unbelievable.

The hard truth is most of what they taught you and most of the so-called "history" isn't even real. Of course all good lies have a bit of truth contained within them. Which is why they're effective lies. You never really had a chance. You (well we) are the profane. We aren't supposed to know what's really going on or what really happened in history. We're just supposed to be good little cattle and do as we're told. They do not consider us to be the same as them. To them we are not human. We are bred to be exploited and spend our lives ignorant while they extract the maximum amount of labor they can from us until we die. We're supposed to go from birth to grave without questioning anything and doing as we're told. Then if the old books are to be believed they even trick us after death to come back here and do it all over again.

You weren't born into the right bloodline/family. Therefor you weren't educated in these manners while you were being raised. That's 99% of people walking around on this planet. Those of us in the profane that do know some of these secrets are probably less than 1% of the profane. Most people aren't curious enough to ask these kinds of questions in the first place. Most people are too concerned about day-to-day problems like having shelter and food to have time to ask those questions in the first place. Those with food in their bellies who are content with their situation are usually too distracted by the circus to care. Most people are really like cattle on the farm. They don't question why some of their peers never come back when they're loaded up on the truck since the field is fun to run around in and the nice man keeps bringing them hay and sweet feed. They'll never figure out he's planning on murdering them one of these days when it comes time to harvest the meat.

The world is a stage and all that.

Edit: I do apologize for not being too direct. I don't mean to come off as being a know-it-all. Everyday I discover something else that shatters what I (used to) believe was true.

You may find this little short film from the BBC interesting:



Near the end there is a short mention about why LSD was introduced to the "youth movement" of the 1960s. There is more truth contained within this short piece of "satire" than most people are willing to admit. It's as true now as it was in 1968.

Part of their religion/beliefs is a rule where they openly tell you what they're doing. They believe if they tell you what they're doing/plan to do and you do nothing to stop them then it absolves them of all responsibility/wrong-doing (some might call it "sin"). In other words: If you're too stupid to realize you're being fucked over then it wasn't wrong to take advantage of you in the first place. If you pay attention you'll see this being done fairly often. They regularly openly admit to what they're doing/plan to do through media and other ways (books, speeches etc.).

Another tip: They regularly communicate openly through the media and elsewhere with signs, symbols and numbers (which are symbols of course). If you learn some of these signs and symbols you'll get a better understanding of what's going on in the world. I don't want to get much into these symbols at the moment. I'll just leave it at if you recognize patterns you'll see the same ones repeated over and over again. For a laugh try searching old news articles for "33 dead" or "33 injured" sometime. Or pay more attention when walking through city centers. For example: You'll see the same flame burning over JFK's grave regularly on top of things like the obelisk in Dealey Plaza.

As far as who "they" are which is regularly asked; "They" are not us. Meaning they are not what they consider to be the profane (you and I). If you're interested in names you can find many of them on the peerage. The bloodlines go back as long as we have records. Although they do regularly change their family names slightly over time. They in-breed and only marry between the select bloodlines. There are of course many of the profane that are bought off and help to move their plans along either knowingly or unknowingly. Some merchant families have bought their way into the bloodlines over the years as well. Although, it seems to be rare and requires doing something pretty extreme to be accepted in. The majority of people serving in organizations like the CIA are not aware of what the organization is really up to. Same goes for people developing things like weapon systems or advancing the sciences. Such people simply contribute labor/time/effort in return for paper money or other meaningless things. This is done through compartmentalization (e.g. "need to know" basis).

I don't claim to have all the answers but I'm certainly trying to navigate my way to eventually discovering them. But most answered questions usually lead to more questions. It's a frustrating situation to navigate.
 
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This just came up in my feed:

"They started MKUltra, which involved a lot of former Nazi scientists and massive doses of LSD that ruined many lives. I have access to the documents that survived the destruction order, and it was called Super Spy. These weren’t public records—I went to this guy’s house, talked to a family member, and these were old files that survived the CIA’s destruction order. It got really weird because these guys had a lot of power."

h‍ttps://x.com/ShawnRyan762/status/1989045601498210742

There's a 15 min. clip on that page. A shorter clip: h‍ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZujGq6VwxjI

"In this explosive episode, Shawn Ryan sits down with Chase Hughes, a former Navy Chief and leading expert in behavior profiling and psychological operations (PsyOps), to expose the powerful mechanisms behind modern mind control."

I think the clips come from this:

h‍ttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/253-chase-hughes-real-mkultra-documents-alien-deception/id1492492083

Also came across this book in my search for the source:

The Man who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms & the CIA. Thomas Powers. 1979.

Richard Helms came up with the idea of MK-ULTRA.

Also came across this interview of Hughes while searching for the source of that clip:

https://nci.university/podcast-request (scroll down to Mind Control & Covert Influence: The Real Truth...)

I skipped around for a few seconds and just so happened upon the exact spot where he talks about MK-ULTRA:

1:11:04 "What do we not know about CIA?"

 
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This book contains a bit of info on this.

Drink Spiking and Predatory Drugging: A Modern History. Pamela Donovan. 2016. Palgrave MacMillan. 9781349934904.
 
After WWII, the CIA undertook experiments with psychedelic compounds like LSD, in the hope of discovering pharmacological weapons. The holy grail was a "truth serum" that might be used to extract secrets from the enemy. But the CIA wasn't the first to meddle with psychedelics in this way - in fact these experiments were first initiated in Nazi Germany.

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/latenightlive/nazi-psychedelic-lsd/104367108
 
Well maybe literature from this era , and back to nazi Germany, will become available. I would be interested in reading it
 
When The CIA Spiked An Entire Village As An Experiment | Witness | US Corruption History Documentary



CIA Covert Experiments: Human Guinea Pigs & Mind Control | Investigative Documentary

 
Godfather Of Modern Torture & His Experiments Funded By CIA | Witness | Eminent Monsters Documentary



CIA's secret brainwashing experiment: Former patients sue U.S. government (1984)

 
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Edit: I do apologize for not being too direct. I don't mean to come off as being a know-it-all.
You don't come off that way. I've read a lot of what you write and it's good. Besides, the thing about not being omniscient is that we always find new things to delight us. Unfortunately a lot of those new things and ideas don't satisfy good-natured curiosity, but horrify us.
 
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