Those who have done even cursory reading into the subject of mind control have heard of the CIA's 1960s project, MK-ULTRA, or its predecessor, ARTICHOKE. These cold war programs gave the CIA carte blanche to explore the possibilities of controlling the human mind. Virtually every reference to such experiments includes documentation of these two programs as proof of our government's willingness to do things that most of us would not approve. What is rarely mentioned is that these "umbrella" programs encompass scores of individual projects.

Although details about individual projects are sparse at best, in Search for the Manchurian Candidate (Random House, 1980), a well-established primer for this subject, author John D. Marks documents what was left of their financial trails. Most investigators overlook one very important fact: This documentation applies only to the CIA. Until recently, mind control activities of other intelligence agencies have only been sources of speculation.

Similarly, when considering issues of government coverups, including UFOs, it is assumed that the CIA is "the big dog on the block." Why? Probably because the CIA is the most visible facet of U.S. intelligence, and most of us have been raised to associate these three initials with anything "secretive" about the United States government. It is becoming increasingly clear that this might not be the case.

:: A New Perspective Emerges ::

A body of information, which grows more compelling almost daily, has surfaced in the past few years. A new perspective on issues that range from mind control to "nonhuman" contact is available for the first time. This perspective might have remained hidden forever if not for the immeasurable strength and courage of victims of various experiments who are beginning to come forward. These people are beginning to recover memories suppressed by technological means and to heal wounds inflicted upon them in the name of national security. As noted in Gordon Thomas' Journey Into Madness, The True Story of Secret CIA Mind Control and Medical Abuse (Bantam, 1989), these are not merely victims of random experiments funded by the CIA at medical or academic institutions such as Canada's Allen Memorial Hospital (some of whom have received out-of-court settlements from the CIA in response to legal action). An increasing number of victims now emerging recall details of experiments that involve different agencies and military installations, and even include being used by "operations" as mind-controlled human tools.

Why have such memories surfaced? How can spontaneous memories of being used as an emotionless military-human tool be put into context? What do these victims and their accounts have in common? Are there researchable facts?

For decades the psychological community's knee-jerk reaction- and that of society as a whole- has been that anyone who claims experiences beyond what fit into the observer's comfort zone is clearly "crazy." I have interviewed dozens of clinicians across the country who proudly say that they are "not" investigators and feel no compulsion to aid patients who seek corroboration of seemingly outlandish memories that surface in the course of therapy. I have also been involved in a case in which four therapists disregarded corroborated memories as delusions, solely because of the horrific nature of the abuse.

For most of this century, victims of sexual abuse were thought to be "neurotic" or delusional. Until the past decade, people struggling to heal from multiple personalities and ritualized abuse were diagnosed as schizophrenic or as suffering from a schizophrenic disorder. Ritual abuse does not necessarily mean Satanism. Rather it includes repeated, highly-structured abuse over a long period of time. The patterns of abuse can be superimposed on virtually any orthodox belief system.

Survivors have been hospitalized and drugged until they stopped displaying "symptoms" that were unpalatable to clinicians. Yet, these symptoms are often an integral part of the natural healing processes. This is where the connection lies.

When multiple personality disorder began to gain acceptance as an identifiable and treatable product of extreme dissociation, it forced the psychological community to accept the existence of a form of child abuse that was previously inconceivable. Only recently have the multifaceted systems of personalities in such victims been identified as structured MPD- the creation of alter personalities who carry certain beliefs or "jobs" as a result of deliberately structured patterns of abuse. In other words... mind control.

Simply put, when subjected to extreme trauma, many children dissociate or withdraw into their own minds as a form of escape. This leaves a void that is filled by the creation of another personality who bears the pain. When the trauma ceases, the original person is unaware of what happened. Because it happened to "someone else," the victim is spared the horror or pain. As more and more abuse is inflicted, more "alters" are created. This establishes a "system of traumatized victims" residing beneath amnesiac barriers within the mind of the "multiple." These "traumatized alters" can be hollow and fragmented or they can be complete "snap shots" of the victim at the time of splitting that have remained frozen in pain though decades passed. Until alters are allowed to emerge and heal, memories as well as physical trauma are preserved with photographic accuracy. When this includes reliving horrific experiences through abreaction, it becomes one of the symptoms" that has confused psychological professionals for years.

Once a propensity for splitting is established, other personalities are created, often to care for the injured children "inside." Other personalities may emerge as protectors or to keep the secrets of abuse hidden, because letting out the information would bring the "group" more abuse. These natural survival mechanisms can and have been manipulated to create "layers" of alters on more subliminal levels. These adaptive alters can be programmed to perpetuate the will of the abusers and even respond to "triggers" to carry out tasks without the knowledge of the "host personality."

Deeper layers of "programmed" alters have been discovered in adult multiples who have had the strength, courage and support to heal their internal "family." Often these are enemies within who attempt to stifle the healing process rather than to allow the secrets out. After successful deprogramming, levels of sophisticated mind-control efforts that penetrate deeper and deeper into the mind have been discovered. Some have identified specific government agencies using drugs, excessive electro- convulsive therapy (ECT) "tones" and other technology to induce complex "altered states" and break down the victim's personal defenses.

:: A Brutal History ::

It is from this hidden place, deep within the minds of helpless victims, that some of the most brutal endeavors in human history have been waiting to be revealed. By manipulating natural processes of dissociation, perpetrators preserved in their victims the very memories they sought to erase. They pushed the mechanisms of multiple personalities in the minds of children beyond their limits at a time when the international psychological community thought the condition was a myth.

Wait! Experimenting on children? Adults finding that their lives are shattered by emerging memories of horrific abuse? "Layers" of hidden places within minds trying to heal from severe trauma, including brutal sexual, physical and emotional abuse? How credible could such accounts be? Why?

Patients in advanced stages of their healing processes have spontaneously recalled and "relived" being exchanged or handed over to government or military personnel as early as age three. Completely independent cases recall being among groups of children who were tested for their psychic ability and debriefed in military settings. Interrogations by one intelligence agency to find out what another agency was doing was common. Experiments included attempts to communicate with dolphins. Other reports from underground facilities in Nevada, New Mexico and California have included exposure to extraterrestrials.

Bizarre? Yes, and unbelievable if not for researchable consistency. Victim testimony for example, includes aspects of the inner workings of the National Security Agency (NSA), such as the use of color coding in security compartmentalization. They have clearly identified medical and mind-control technology that is known to exist, such as electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) as a memory disruption tool. This was one of the noted side effects of ECT, which was taken to an extreme in CIA-funded experiments. At least one victim has accurately described remote facilities that have been confirmed to exist, such as an NSA retreat nicknamed "The Farm," near Wilmington, Virginia. This, combined with the sheer numbers of spontaneously emerging cases, offers a compelling body of information.

This is the coupling of perhaps the most complex psychological, political and conspiratorial issues ever raised. Has the government been involved in fostering occult activity in certain groups for the sake of creating a "farming ground" for mind- control subjects? CIA funding of occult research is well documented through the remaining financial record of that agency's operations. Is there truth to the content of memories preserved through suppression for nearly three decades? My own research indicates there is. Details have been as striking as literal translations of foreign languages overheard by victims; and of corroborations between unrelated cases that have identified the same perpetrator in the same place at the same time.

Just as UFO abductee claims gain impetus from the sheer number of unrelated, yet nearly identical cases, many surfacing mind- control victims describe identical experiences. One big difference is that beneath complex layers of conditioned responses and barriers to memory, these victims are identifying human technology that can be verified to exist, including the use of tone-generating devices and electro-convulsive-therapy equipment as tools to manipulate the mind or to suppress the memory.

Accounts of "nonhuman" contact or of witnessing abductions of "civilians" are consistent with abductee reports. In fact, the only real obstacle to receiving these reports with some degree of credibility is the belief that no individual could endure so much. It is a conceptual limitation not a contradiction in the memory of the victim.

[Bob Lingenfelter is the significant other of one such survivor and is founder of the Society for the Investigation of Dissociative Response, a professional association dedicated to research, therapeutic development and survivor support.]

email  eotl@west.net