The Tale Of The Cursed Bread
Lysergic acid diethylamide or LSD-25 famously known as LSD or Acid was an ‘Everyday Drug’ of the Hippie Era. Usually administered to attain Nirvana, protest against the uprising evil government, and be one with god yada yada…
LSD was first synthesized on November 16, 1938 by Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann at the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland as part of a large research program searching for medically useful ergot alkaloid derivatives. It was later comprehended that it has hallucinogens which can alter the thought pattern and have many psychological effects.
But ever wondered who started off this serene massacre?
-Well, it was none other than the CIA of United States Of America!
TIT-BIT ABOUT THE CIA!
Central Intelligence Agency, famously known as the CIA was the brainchild behind many deceptive scams that took place in the 50’s and 60’s post the World War-II and in the line-of-fire of the Cold War.
CIA was established after the WW-II to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for the branches of the United States military. Basically, they were paid A LOT to do random research and conduct experiments and Pretend to save the country from any form of Threat.
During the cold war, The CIA went rampant with experimentation.
In 1951, the CIA received word from a military envoy that the Swiss drug company Sandoz Pharmaceuticals had 100 million doses of LSD, available to anyone who cared to purchase them. This "anyone" included the Russians -- people who, in the minds of the U.S. military and intelligence communities, were "10-feet tall" shady, powerful and unscrupulous. In the hands of the Soviet Union, entire U.S. cities could be driven mad or made to revolt against the U.S. government from a water supply spiked with LSD.
The Russians, the CIA knew, were engaged in tests to find ways of undermining the behavior and personalities of regular people. They wanted to create a truth serum or learn to program everyday individuals into unwitting and involuntary assassins. So, too, did the Americans.
When the Sandoz supply became known, the United States moved to take it off the market. It turned out Sandoz had manufactured only about 40,000 doses. The United States bought them anyway. And with the LSD in their possession, military researchers and the CIA began conducting their own experiments.
In 1975, Congress held inquiries into the clandestine operation known as MKULTRA, the code name for an umbrella operation covering 149 subprojects. Most of these were involved with exploring new methods of chemical and psychological warfare.
Isn’t It O.K. For A Govt. Body To Experiment ???
Erm…
O.K. for any other agency, but NOT for the CIA. The CIA is prohibited from conducting or engaging in any sort of domestic operation regardless of its magnitude. Unfortunately, CIA skipped that clause of the national treaty and went ahead to do what is considered to be one of the biggest scams and deceptive swindles in the history of the world.
And this is how it takes off!
The Start-off.
· Post World War –II, the US and then USSR were engaged in a bitter cold war to out-do each other in warfare and technological advancement.
· Chemical weaponry, nuke compilation, etc. was a small part of it. World domination and coming out as an over-all winner was the main objective.
· Sending Spies on an overseas mission and espionage was a common thing back then.
· Helping third world countries and freed colonies to rebuild themselves was a turf to exhibit humanitarian sides of the countries.
· Undertaking classified missions and experimenting on foreign land was a norm for both the super-powers.
· Assisting WW-II hit countries and garnering philanthropy votes was on the to-do list.
· Man-In-Space, Man-on-moon… i.e. the SPACE RACE was on the agenda and no stones were left unturned to achieve success and overcome victorious
· And, last but not the least… Experimenting with Drugs!
The Suspicion and the Outcry.
The U.S. always suspected that U.S.S.R. (image above) was involved in some heavy-duty testing of biological and chemical weaponry…LSD being one of them. The fear of a biological war breaking out and also a lack of information on LSD forced the US to rethink its strategies.
So not to be out-run by the opponent, the U.S. started their own project titled MKULTRA.
MKULTRA:
· MKULTRA was the code name for a covert illegal human research program by the CIA.
· The chief aim of the program was the surreptitious use of many types of drugs, as well as other methods, to manipulate individual mental states and to alter brain function.
· The MKULTRA project was started on the order of CIA director Allen Dulles on April 13, 1953, largely in response to Soviet, Chinese, and North Korean use of mind-control techniques on U.S. prisoners of war in Korea.
· The CIA wanted to use similar methods on their own captives and Prisoner of war.
· The CIA was keen on understanding whether LSD could be used in mind-controlling techniques and thought-process altercation.
· To research over the psychological effects of these drugs on a massive scale and its repercussions in the long run.
The Goals
MKULTRA had a multi-million dollar budget and had the financial backing of all the U.S. accounts since the project was considered to be ground-breaking and the analysis would help them give a superior edge against their opponents.
Although a document recovered in 1955 specifies its goals in a very precise manner.
1. Substances which will promote illogical thinking and impulsiveness to the point where the recipient would be discredited in public.
2. Substances which increase the efficiency of mentation and perception.
3. Materials which will prevent or counteract the intoxicating effect of alcohol.
4. Materials which will promote the intoxicating effect of alcohol.
5. Materials which will produce the signs and symptoms of recognized diseases in a reversible way so that they may be used for malingering, etc.
6. Materials which will render the induction of hypnosis easier or otherwise enhance its usefulness.
7. Substances which will enhance the ability of individuals to withstand privation, torture and coercion during interrogation and so-called "brain-washing".
8. Materials and physical methods which will produce amnesia for events preceding and during their use.
9. Physical methods of producing shock and confusion over extended periods of time and capable of surreptitious use.
10. Substances which produce physical disablement such as paralysis of the legs, acute anemia, etc.
11. Substances which will produce "pure" euphoria with no subsequent let-down.
12. Substances which alter personality structure in such a way that the tendency of the recipient to become dependent upon another person is enhanced.
13. A material which will cause mental confusion of such a type that the individual under its influence will find it difficult to maintain a fabrication under questioning.
14. Substances which will lower the ambition and general working efficiency of men when administered in undetectable amounts.
15. Substances which promote weakness or distortion of the eyesight or hearing faculties, preferably without permanent effects.
16. A knockout pill which can surreptitiously be administered in drinks, food, cigarettes, as an aerosol, etc., which will be safe to use, provide a maximum of amnesia, and be suitable for use by agent types on an ad hoc basis.
17. A material which can be surreptitiously administered by the above routes and which in very small amounts will make it impossible for a person to perform physical activity.
· This is where it all goes down the drain…
There were many loop-holes in MKULTRA. Namely,
· The Project was Illegal!!!
· Experiments were often conducted without the subjects' knowledge or consent. In some cases, academic researchers being funded through grants from CIA front organizations were unaware that their work was being used for these purposes.
· Prostitutes and pimps were roped in to help out the service unknowingly by bringing in customers and then spiking their drinks while CIA officials promptly took notes of the reaction while sitting behind a one-way mirror. By doing this, the CIA not only encouraged prostitution, but also freely distributed illegal substances amongst the masses.
· Forty-four American colleges or universities, 15 research foundations or chemical or pharmaceutical companies and the like including Sandoz (currently Novartis) and Eli Lilly & Co., 12 hospitals or clinics (in addition to those associated with universities), and three prisons are known to have participated in MKULTRA.
· After the WW-II, many POW Nazi scientists were in CIA’s captive…but all thanks to MKULTRA, they were made to sign an agreement that they could help conduct experiments with these drugs and they would all be cleared from their criminal charges!
· CIA started conducting experiments on their very own agents! They would slip in the drugs into their food or poison the air and watch the effects on the personnel. At one point the practice was so prevalent that the CIA even hired stage magicians to train agents in sleight of hand techniques for use in their mickey-slipping.
THE 2 MOTHERS OF THEM ALL!!!
THE FIRST…
Ever heard of a whole village going crazy…?
And not just the normal crazy…I mean the insanely lunatic craziness-crazy…
Well, that was the case almost 60 years ago in a quite village of France where CIA officials ended up spiking the whole village of Pont-Saint-Esprit.
An amazingly gripping story that I would aptly title,
“The Tale Of The Cursed Bread”
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For 50 years, residents of the French village of Pont-Saint-Esprit have tried to understand the "cursed bread" incident, a moment of terrifying mass insanity and hallucinations that left at least five dead and dozens in asylums. Now the mystery is solved: the CIA secretly spiked the bread from the bakery with enormous quantities of LSD as part of its cold war mind-control experiments. The allegation originates with H. P. Albarelli Jr., an investigative journalist who uncovered the documents while researching.
On August 16, 1951, the inhabitants were suddenly racked with frightful hallucinations of terrifying beasts and fire.
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| No,they werent so colorful. |
One man tried to drown himself, screaming that his belly was being eaten by snakes. An 11-year-old tried to strangle his grandmother. Another man shouted: "I am a plane", before jumping out of a second-floor window, breaking his legs. He then got up and carried on for 50 yards. Another saw his heart escaping through his feet and begged a doctor to put it back. Many were taken to the local asylum in strait jackets.
Time magazine wrote at the time: "Among the stricken, delirium rose: patients thrashed wildly on their beds, screaming that red flowers were blossoming from their bodies, that their heads had turned to molten lead."
The Motherly Mother Of Them All!!!
Taking all the wrong-doings into consideration, the CIA can never EVER be forgiven for this one…
Some things are so dark, so brutal and so irredeemable that even the kindliest priest would roundhouse kick you right of the confessional if he heard you admit to them. And there’s one thing that the CIA did with Project MKULTRA that cannot ever be forgiven.
Author Ken Kesey,the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest widely credited with kickstarting the entire hippy movement in the early 60s, was himself a subject of MKULTRA’s experiments. It was unknown to Kesey at the time exactly what the experiments were for, or by whom–as it’s doubtful he would’ve been quite as stoked to join up if he’d known the government was attempting to erase his personality using Nazi science–but his participation in the MK-ULTRA drug studies was what eventually led him to start the Merry Pranksters, who first widely advocated the “mind-expanding” properties of LSD and eventually gave rise to the modern hippy.
Robert Hunter, an American lyricist and singer was another famous personality to advocate LSD and along with Ken Kesey he was a test subject in Stanford University.
Stanford test subjects were paid to take LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline. These experiences were creatively formative for Hunter:
Sit back picture yourself swooping up a shell of purple with foam crests of crystal drops soft nigh they fall unto the sea of morning creep-very-softly mist...and then sort of cascade tinkley-bell like (must I take you by the hand, every so slowly type) and then conglomerate suddenly into a peal of silver vibrant uncomprehendingly, blood singingly, joyously resoundingbells....By my faith if this be insanity, then for the love of God permit me to remain insane.
THE END:
Subsequently the whole drama was brought into the open through investigations by Sen. Frank Church of Idaho, the Congressman, the Church Committee and by a presidential commission known as the Rockefeller Commission in 1975 but till then most of the evidential paperwork was destroyed and the test-subjects and agents had gone insane due to over dosage.
Sen. Frank Church of Idaho, the Congressman who opened the first CIA inquiry that led to the revelation of MKULTRA.
