10 Unbelievably Cruel Studies (Done In The Name Of Science)

5. The CIA Tries Mind Control

If you think giving acid to an elephant was bad enough, well, you must have forgotten about the CIA. Over the years the American domestic intelligence agency has been involved in all sorts of murky, immoral behaviour, both at home and abroad. They really outdid themselves when they started up Project MKUltra, though, an ongoing series of experiments better known as the CIA's mind control program. Yes, there was a period in American history where the government was legitimately looking into whether it was possible to brainwash people. Mainly with large doses of hallucinogenics. The program began way back in the fifties and only halted twenty years later when details of the experiments started leaking to the public. And the public weren't happy. That probably had something to do with the fact that almost every aspect of the research was totally illegal, from experimenting on unwitting US and Canadian citizens to hiring prostitutes to lure people to CIA safe houses where they would slip them some drugs and then watch the consequences from behind a one-way mirror. Yeah, there were sex workers on the government payroll for a while there. Not only that but, in concert with the US military and dozens of universities across the country, Project MKUltra saw tens if not hundreds of participants - who ranged from foreign prisoners of the government to everybody folks who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time - subjected to various other chemical substances, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, isolation, verbal and sexual abuse, as well as various forms of torture. Did we mention that the program had a few ex-Nazi scientists on board? Yep, okay, now it makes a lot more sense. And obviously they never cracked the mind control thing...or is that we're programmed to tell you? No, absolutely not, citizen, now read some more articles and don't question anything. Ahem.