textfiles/ufo/UFOBBS/2000/2541.ufo

SUBJECT: THE CONTROLLERS: A NEW HYPOTHESIS OF ALIEN ABDUCTION



FILE: UFO2541




PART 1





                               THE CONTROLLERS:
                     A New Hypothesis of Alien Abduction

                                      by
                                Martin Cannon


                               I. Introduction

   One wag has dubbed the problem "Terra and the Pirates."
   The pirates, ostensibly, are marauders from another solar system; their
victims include a growing number of troubled human beings who insist that
they've been shanghaied by these otherworldly visitors.  An outlandish
scenario -- yet through the works of such authors as Budd Hopkins[1] and
Whitley Strieber[2], the "alien abduction" syndrome has seized the public
imagination.  Indeed, tales of UFO contact threaten to lapse into fashion-
ability, even though, as I have elsewhere noted[3], they may still inflict a
formidable social price upon the claimant.
   Some time ago, I began to research these claims, concentrating my studies
on the social and political environment surrounding these events.  As I
studied, the project grew and its scope widened.  Indeed, I began to feel as
though I'd gone digging through familiar terrain only to unearth Gomorrah.
   These excavations may have disgorged a solution.


THE PROBLEM

   Among ufologists, the term "abduction" has come to refer to an infinitely-
confounding experience, or matrix of experiences, shared by a dizzying number
of individuals, who claim that travellers from the stars have scooped them out
of their beds, or snatched them from their cars, and subjected them to
interrogations, quasi-medical examinations, and "instruction" periods.
Usually, these sessions are said to occur within alien spacecraft; frequently,
the stories include terrifying details reminiscent of the tortures inflicted
in Germany's death camps.  The abductees often (though not always) lose all
memory of these events;  they find themselves back in their cars or beds,
unable to account for hours of "missing time."  Hypnosis, or some other
trigger, can bring back these haunted hours in an explosion of recollection --
and as the smoke clears, an abductee will often spot a trail of similar
experiences, stretching all the way back to childhood.
   Perhaps the oddest fact of these odd tales: Many abductees, for all their
vividly-recollected agonies, claim to love their alien tormentors.  That's
the word I've heard repeatedly: love.
   Within the community of "scientific ufologists" -- those lonely, all-too
little-heard advocates of reasonable and open-minded debate on matters
saucerological -- these claims have elicited cautious interest and a commend-
able restraint from conclusion-hopping.  Outside the higher realms of
scientific ufology, the situation is, alas, quite different.  In the popular
press, in both the "straight" and sensationalist media, within that
journalistic realm where issues are defined and public opinion solidified
(despite a frequently superficial approach to matters of evidence and
investigation) abduction scenarios have elicited two basic reactions: that
of the Believer and the Skeptic.
   The Believers -- and here we should note that "Believers" and "abductees"
are two groups whose memberships overlap but are in no way congruent --
accept such stories at face value.  They accept, despite the seeming
absurdity of these tales, the internal contradictions, the askew logic of
narrative construction, the severe discontinuity of emotional response to the
actions described.  The Believers believe, despite reports that their beloved
"space brothers" use vile and inhuman tactics of medical examination --
senseless procedures most of us (and certainly the vanguard of an advanced
race) would be ashamed to inflict on an animal.  The Believers believe,
despite the difficulty of reconciling these unsettling tales with their own
deliriums of benevolent off-worlders.
   Occasionally, the rough notes of a rationalization are offered:  "The
aliens don't know what they are doing," we hear; or "Some aliens are bad."
Yet the Believers confound their own reasoning when they insist on ascribing
the wisdom of the ages and the beneficence of the angels to their beloved
visitors.  The aliens allegedly know enough about our society to go about
their business undetected by the local authorities and the general public;
they communicate with the abductees in human tongue; they concern themselves
with details of the percipients' innermost lives -- yet they remain so
ignorant of our culture as to be unaware of the basic moral precepts concerning
the dignity of the individual and the right to self-determination.  Such
dichotomies don't bother the Believers; they are the faithful, and faith is
assumed to have its mysteries.  SANCTA SIMPLICITAS.
   Conversely, the Skeptics dismiss these stories out of hand.  They dismiss,
despite the intriguing confirmatory details: the multiple witness events,
the physical traces left by the ufonauts, the scars and implants left on the
abductees.  The skeptics scoff, though the abductees tell stories similar in
detail -- even certain tiny details, not known to the general public.
   Philip Klass is a debunker who, through his appearances on such television
programs as NOVA and NIGHTLINE, has been in a position to affect much of the
public debate on UFOs.  In his interesting but poorly-documented work on
abductions[4], Klass claims that "abduction" is a psychological disease,
spread by those who write about it.  This argument exactly resembles the
professional press-basher's frequent assertion that terrorism metastasizes
through media exposure.  Yet for all the millions of words expectorated by
newsfolk on the subject of terrorism, terrorist actions remain quite rare,
as any statistician (though few politicians) will admit, and verifiable
linkage between crimes and their coverage remains to be found.  For that
matter, there have been books -- bestsellers, even -- on unicorns and gnomes.
People who claim to see those creatures are few.  Abductees are plentiful.
   Both Believer and Skeptic, in my opinion, miss the real story.  Both make
the same mistake:  They connect the abduction phenomenon to the forty-year
history of UFO sightings, and they apply their prejudices about the latter
to the controversy about the former.
   At first sight, the link seems natural.  Shouldn't our thoughts about
UFOs color our thoughts about UFO abductions?
   NO.
   They may well be separate issues.  Or, rather, they are connected only
in this:  The myth of the UFO has provided an effective cover story for an
entirely different sort of mystery.  Remove yourself from the Believer/Skeptic
dialectic, and you will see the third alternative.
   As we examine this alternative, we will, of necessity, stray far from the
saucers.  We must turn our face from the paranormal and concentrate on the
occult -- if, by "occult," we mean SECRET.
   I posit that the abductees HAVE been abducted.  Yet they are also spewing
fantasy -- or, more precisely, they have been given a set of lies to repeat
and believe.  If my hypothesis proves true, then we must accept the following:
The kidnapping is real.  The fear is real.  The pain is real.  The instruction
is real.  But the little grey men from Zeti Reticuli are NOT real; they are
constructs, Halloween masks meant to disguise the real faces of the con-
trollers.  The abductors may not be visitors from Beyond; rather, they may be
a symptom of the carcinoma which blackens our body politic.
   The fault lies not in our stars, but in ourselves.


THE HYPOTHESIS

   Substantial evidence exists linking members of this country's intelligence
community (including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Advanvced
Research Projects Agency, and the Office of Naval Intelligence) with the
esoteric technology of MIND CONTROL.  For decades, "spy-chiatrists" working
behind the scenes -- on college campuses, in CIA-sponsored institutes, and
(most heinously) in prisons -- have experimented with the erasure of memory,
hypnotic resistance to torture, truth serums, post-hypnotic suggestion, rapid
induction of hypnosis, electronic stimulation of the brain, non-ionizing
radiation, microwave induction of intracerebral "voices," and a host of even
more disturbing technologies.  Some of the projects exploring these areas were
ARTICHOKE, BLUEBIRD, PANDORA, MKDELTA, MKSEARCH and the infamous MKULTRA.
   I have read nearly every available book on these projects, as well as the
relevant congressional testimony[5].  I have also spent much time in university
libraries researching relevant articles, contacting other researchers (who have
graciously allowed me access to their files), and conducting interviews.
Moreover, I traveled to Washington, DC to review the files John Marks compiled
when he wrote THE SEARCH FOR "THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE"[6].  These files
include some 20,000 pages of CIA and Defense Department documents, interviews,
scientific articles, letters, etc.  The views presented here are the result of
extensive and ongoing research.
   As a result of this research, I have come to the following conclusions:
   1.  Although misleading (and occasionally perjured) testimony before
Congress indicated that the CIA's "brainwashing" efforts met with little
success[7], striking advances were, in fact, made in this field.  As CIA
veteran Miles Copeland once admitted to a reporter, "The congressional
subcommittee which went into this sort of thing got only the barest glimpse."
[8]
   2.  Clandestine research into thought manipulation has NOT stopped, despite
CIA protestations that it no longer sponsors such studies.  Victor Marchetti,
14-year veteran of the CIA and author of the renown expose, THE CIA AND THE
CULT OF INTELLIGENCE, confirmed in a 1977 interview that the mind control
research continues, and that CIA claims to the contrary are a "cover story."[9]
   3.  The Central Intelligence Agency was not the only government agency
involved in this research[10].  Indeed, many branches of our government took
part in these studies -- including NASA, the Atomic Energy Commission, as well
as all branches of the Defense Department.
   To these conclusions I would append the following -- NOT as firmly-
established historical fact, but as a working hypothesis and grounds for
investigation:
   4.  The "UFO abduction" phenomenon MIGHT be a continuation of clandestine
mind control operations.
   I recognize the difficulties this thesis might present to those readers
emotionally wedded to the extraterrestrial hypothesis, or to those whose
political WELTANSHAUUNG disallows any such suspicions.  Still, the open-
minded student of abductions should consider the possibilities.  Certainly,
we are not being narrow-minded if we ask researchers to exhaust ALL terrestrial
explanations before looking heavenward.
   Granted, this particular explanation may, at first, seem as bizarre as the
phenomenon itself.  But I invite the skeptical reader to examine the work of
George Estabrooks, a seminal theorist on the use of hypnosis in warfare, and
a veteran of Project MKULTRA.  Estabrooks once amused himself during a party
by covertly hypnotizing two friends, who were led to believe that the Prime
Minister of England had just arrived; Estabrooks' victims spent an hour
conversing with, and even serving drinks to, the esteemed visitor[11].  For
ufologists, this incident raises an inescapable question: If the Mesmeric arts
can successfully evoke a non-existent Prime Minister, why can't a represent-
ative from the Pleiades be similarly induced?
   But there is much more to the present day technology of mind control than
mere hypnosis -- and many good reasons to suspect that UFO abduction accounts
are an artifact of continuing brainwashing/behavior modification experiments.
Moreover, I intend to demonstrate that, by using UFO mythology as a cover
story, the experimenters may have solved the major problem with the work
conducted in the 1950s -- "the disposal problem," i.e., the question of
"What do we do with the victims?"
   If, in these pages, I seem to stray from the subject of the saucers, I plead
for patience.  Before I attempt to link UFO abductions with mind control
experiments, I must first show that this technology EXISTS.  Much of the
forthcoming is an introduction to the topic of mind control -- what it is, and
how it works.

                              II. The Technology

A BRIEF OVERVIEW

   In the early days of World War II, George Estabrooks, of Colgate University,
wrote to the Department of War, describing in breathless terms the possible
uses of hypnosis in warfare[12].  The Army was intrigued; Estabrooks had a
job.  The true history of Estabrooks' wartime collaboration with the CID,
FBI[13] and other agencies may never be told: After the war, he burned his
diary pages covering the years 1940-45, and thereafter avoided discussing his
continuing government work with anyone, even close members of the family[14].
Occasionally, he strongly intimated that his work involved the creation of
hypno-programmed couriers and hypnotically-induced split personalities, but
whether he succeeded in these areas remains a controversial point.  Neverthe-
less, the eccentric and flamboyant Estabrooks remains a pivotal figure in the
early history of clandestine behavioral research.
   Which is not to say that he worked alone.  World War II was the first
conflict in which the human brain became a field of battle, where invading
forces were led by the most notable names in psychology and pharmacology.  On
both sides, the war spurred furious efforts to create a "truth drug" for use
in interrogating prisoners.  General William "Wild Bill" Donovan, director of
the OSS, tasked his crack team -- including Dr. Winifred Overhulser, Dr.
Edward Strecker, Harry J. Anslinger and George White -- to modify human
perception and behavior through chemical means; their "medicine cabinet"
included scopolamine, peyote, barbiturates, mescaline, and marijuana.  (This
research had its amusing side: Donovan's "psychic warriors" conducted many
extensive and expensive trials before deciding that the best method of
administering tetrahydrocannibinol, the active ingredient in marijuana, was
via the cigarette.  Any jazz musician could have told them as much[15].)
   Simultaneously, the notorious NAZI doctors at Dachau experimented with
mescaline as a means of eliminating the victim's will to resist.  Jews, slavs,
gypsies, and other "Untermenschen" in the camp were surreptitiously slipped the
drug; later, mescaline was combined with hypnosis[16].  The results of these
tests were made available to the United States after the War.  [cf. Operation
PAPERCLIP, which transferred thousands of German and Japanese intelligence
researchers directly into the U.S. intelligence community.  "Our Germans are
BETTER than their Germans!" - DR. STRANGELOVE   -jpg]
   In 1947, the Navy conducted the first known post-war mind control program,
Project CHAPTER, which continued the drug experiments.  Decades later,
journalists and investigators still haven't uncovered much information about
this project -- or, indeed, about any of the military's other excursions into
this field.  We know that the Army eventually founded operations THIRD CHANCE
and DERBY HAT; other project names remain mysterious, though the existence of
these programs is unquestionable.  [?  -jpg]
   The newly-formed CIA plunged into this cesspool in 1950, with Project
BLUEBIRD, rechristened ARTICHOKE in 1951.  To establish a "cover story" for
this research, the CIA funded a propaganda effort designed to convince the
world that the Communist Bloc had devised insidious new methods of re-shaping
the human will; the CIA's own efforts could therefore, if exposed, be explained
as an attempt to "catch up" with Soviet and Chinese work.  The primary promoter
of this "line" was one Edward Hunter, a CIA contract employee operating under-
cover as a journalist, and, later, a prominent member of the John Birch
society.  (Hunter was an OSS veteran of the China theatre -- the same spawning
grounds which produced Richard Helms, Howard Hunt, Mitch WerBell, Fred
Chrisman, Paul Helliwell and a host of other noteworthies who came to
dominate that strange land where the worlds of intelligence and right-wing
extremism meet[17].)  Hunter offered "brainwashing" as the explanation for the
numerous confessions signed by American prisoners of war during the Korean War
and (generally) UN-recanted upon the prisoners' repatriation.  These confes-
sions alleged that the United States used germ warfare in the Korean conflict,
a claim which the American public of the time found impossible to accept.
[Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, murdered President Kennedy.  -jpg]  Many
years later, however, investigative reporters discovered that Japan's germ
warfare specialists (who had wreaked incalculable terror on the conquered
Chinese during WWII) had been mustered into the American national security
apparat -- and that the knowledge gleaned from Japan's horrifying germ
warfare experiments probably WAS used in Korea, just as the "brainwashed"
soldiers had indicated[18].  Thus, we now know that the entire brainwashing
scare of the 1950s constituted a CIA hoax perpetrated upon the American
public: CIA deputy director Richard Helms admitted as much when, in 1963,
he told the Warren Commission that Soviet mind control research consistently
lagged years behind American efforts[19].
   When the CIA's mind control program was transferred from the Office of
Security to the Technical Services Staff (TSS) in 1953, the name changed
again -- to MKULTRA[20].  Many consider this wide-ranging "octopus" project --
whose tentacles twined through the corridors of numerous universities and
around the necks of an army of scientists -- the most ominous operation in
CIA's catalogue of atrocity.  Through MKULTRA, the Agency created an umbrella
program of a positively Joycean scope, designed to ferret out all possible
means of invading what George Orwell once called "the space between our ears"
(Later still, in 1962, mind control research was transferred to the Office
of Research and Development; project cryptonyms remain unrevealed[21].)
   What was studied?  Everything -- including hypnosis, conditioning, sensory
deprivation, drugs, religious cults, microwaves, psychosurgery, brain implants,
and even ESP.  When MKULTRA "leaked" to the public during the great CIA
investigations of the 1970s, public attention focused most heavily on drug
experimentation and the work with ESP[22].  Mystery still shrouds another area
of study, the area which seems to have most interested ORD: psychoelectronics.
This research may prove key to our understanding of the UFO abduction
phenomenon.


IMPLANTS

   Perhaps the most interesting pieces of evidence surrounding the abduction
phenomenon are the intracerebral implants allegedly visible in the X-rays and
MRI scans of many abductees[23].  Indeed, abductees often describe operations
in which needles are inserted into the brain; more frequently still, they
report implantation of foreign objects through the sinus cavities.  Many
abduction specialists assume that these intracranial incursions must be the
handiwork of scientists from the stars.  Unfortunately, these researchers
have failed to familiarize themselves with certain little-heralded advances
in terrestrial technology.
   The abductees' implants strongly suggest a technological lineage which can
be traced to a device known as a "stimoceiver," invented in the late '50s-
early '60s by a neuroscientist named Jose "Bob" Delgado.  The stimoceiver is a
miniature depth electrode which can receive and transmit electronic signals
over FM radio waves.  By stimulating a correctly-positioned stimoceiver, an
outside operator can wield a surprising degree of control over the subject's
responses.
   The most famous example of the stimoceiver in action occurred in a Madrid
bull ring.  Delgado "wired" the bull before stepping into the ring, entirely
unprotected.  Furious for gore, the bull charged toward the doctor -- then
stopped, just before reaching him.  The technician-turned-toreador had halted
the animal by simply pushing a button on a black BoX, held in the hand[24].
   Delgado's PHYSICAL CONTROL OF THE MIND: TOWARD A PSYCHOCIVILISED SOCIETY[25]
remains the sole, full-length, popularly-written work on intracerebral implants
and electronic stimulation of the brain (ESB).  (The book's ominous title and
unconvincing philosophical rationales for mass mind control prompted an
unfavorable public reaction -- which may have deterred other researchers from
publishing on this theme for a general audience.)  While subsequent work has
long since superceded the techniques described in this book, Delgado's
achievements were seminal.  His animal and human experiments clearly demon-
strate that the experimenter can electronically induce emotions and behavior:
Under certain conditions, the extremes of temperament -- rage, lust, fatigue,
etc. -- can be elicited by an outside operator as easily as an organist might
call forth a C-major chord.
   Delgado writes: "Radio stimulation of different points in the amygdala and
hippocampus in the four patients produced a variety of effects, including
pleasant sensations, elation, deep, thoughtful concentration, odd feelings,
super relaxation, colored visions, and other responses."[26]  The evocative
phrase "colored vision" clearly indicates remotely-induced hallucination; we
will detail later how these hallucinations may be "controlled" by an outside
operator.
   Speaking in 1966 -- and reflecting research undertaken years previous --
Delgado asserted that his experiments "support the distasteful conclusion that
motion, emotion, and behavior can be directed by electrical forces and that
humans can be controlled like robots by push buttons."[27]  He even prophesied
a day when brain control could be turned over to non-human operators, by
establishing two-way radio communication between the implanted brain and a
computer[28].
   Of one experimental subject, Delgado notes that "the patient expressed the
successive sensations of fainting, fright and floating around.  These
'floating' feelings were repeatedly evoked on different days by stimulation
of the same point..."[29]  Ufologists may recognize the similarity of this
sequence of events to abductee reports of the opening minutes of their
experiences[30].  Under subsequent hypnosis, the abductee could be instructed
to misremember the cause of this floating sensation.
   In a fascinating series of experiments, Delgado attached the stimoceiver
to the tympanic membrane, thereby transforming the ear into a sort of micro-
phone.  An assistant would whisper "How are you?" into the ear of a suitably
"fixed" cat, and Delgado could hear the words over a loudspeaker in the next
room.  The application of this technology to the spy trade should be readily
apparent.  According to Victor Marchetti, The Agency once attempted a highly-
sophisticated extension of this basic idea, in which radio implants were
attached to a cat's cochlea, to facilitate the pinpointing of specific
conversations, freed from extraneous surrounding noises[31].  Such "advances"
exacerbate the already-imposing level of Twentieth-Century paranoia: Not only
can our phones be tapped and mail checked, but even TABBY may be spying on us!
   Yet the ramifications of this technology may go even deeper than Marchetti
indicates.  I presume that if a suitably-wired subject's inner ear can be made
into a microphone, it can also be made into a loudspeaker -- one possible
explanation for the "voices" heard by abductees[32].  Indeed, I have personally
viewed a strange, opalescent implant within the ear canal of an abductee.  I
see no reason to ascribe this device to alien intrusion -- more than likely,
the "intruders" in this case were the technological inheritors of the Delgado
legacy.  Indeed, not many years after Delgado's experiments with the cat,
Ralph Schwitzgebel devised a "bug-in-the-ear" via which the therapist -- odd
term, under the circumstances -- can communicate with his subject[33].
   Other researchers have made notable contributions to this field.
   Robert G. "Bob" Heath, of Tulane University, who has implanted as many as
125
electrodes in his subjects, achieved his greatest notoriety by attempting to
"cure" homosexuality through ESB.  In his experiments, he discovered that he
could control his patients' memory, (a feat which, applied in the ufological
context, may account for the phenomenon of "missing time"); he could also
induce sexual arousal, fear, pleasure, and hallucinations[34].
   Heath and another researcher, James Olds[35], have independently illustrated
that areas of the brain in and near the hypothalamus have, when electronically
stimulated, what has been described as "rewarding" and "aversive" effects.
Both animals and men, when given the means to induce their own ESB of the
brain's pleasure centers, will stimulate themselves at a tremendous rate,
ignoring such basic drives as hunger and thirst[36].  (Using fixed electrodes
of his own invention, John C. Lilly had accomplished similar effects in the
early 1950s[37].)  Anyone who has studied the abduction phenomenon will find
himself on familiar territory here, for the abductee accounts are replete with
stories of bewildering and inappropriate sexual response countered by extremely
painful stimuli -- operant conditioning, at its most extreme, and most
insidious, for here we see a form of conditioning in which the manipulator
renders himself invisible.  Indeed, B.F. Skinner-esque aversive therapy,
remotely appiled, was Heath's prescription for "healing" homosexuality[38].
   Ralph Schwitzgebel and his brother Robert have produced a panoply of
devices for tracking individuals over long ranges; they may be considered
the creators of the "electronic house arrest" devices recently approved by
the courts[39].  Schwitzgebel devices could be used for tracking all the
physical and neurological signs of a "patient" within a quarter of a mile[40],
thereby lifting the distance limitations which restricted Delgado.
   In Ralph Schwitzgebel's initial work, application of this technology to
ESB seems to have been limited to cumbersome brain implants with protruding
wires.  But the technology was soon miniaturized, and a scheme was proposed
whereby radio receivers would be mounted on utility poles throughout a
given city, thereby providing 24-hour-a-day monitoring capability[41].  Like
Heath, Schwitzgebel was much exercised about homosexuality and the use of
intracranial devices to combat sexual deviation.  But he has also spoken
ominously about applying his devices to "socially troublesome persons"...
which, of course, could mean anyone[42].
   Bryan Robinson, of the Yerkes primate laboratory has conducted fascinating
simian research on the use of remote ESB in a social context.  He could cause
mothers to ignore their offspring, despite the babies' cries.  He could turn
submission into dominance, and vice-versa[43].
   Perhaps the most disturbing wanderer into this mind-field is Joseph A.
Meyer, of the National Security Agency, the most formidable and secretive
component of America's national security complex.  Meyer has proposed implant-
ing rougly half of all Americans arrested -- not necessarily convicted --
of any crime; the numbers of "subscribers" (his euphemism) would run into the
tens of millions.  "Subscribers" could be monitored continually by computer
wherever they went.  Meyer, who has carefully worked out the economics of his
mass-implantation system, asserts that taxpayer liability should be reduced
by forcing subscribers to "rent" the implant from the State.  Implants are
cheaper and more efficient than police, Meyer suggests, since the call to crime
is relentless for the poor "urban dweller" -- who, this spook-scientist admits
in a surprisingly candid aside, is fundamentally unnecessary to a post-
industrial economy.  "Urban dweller" may be another of Meyer's euphemisms: He
uses New York's Harlem as his model community in working out the details of his
mind-management system[44].


ABDUCTEE IMPLANTS

   If we are to take seriously abductee accounts of brain implants, we must
consider the possibility that the implanters, properly perceived, DON'T look
much like the "greys" pictured on Strieber's dustjackets.  Instead, the
visitors may resemble Dr. Meyer and his brethren.  We would thus have an
explanation for both the reports of abductee brain implants and, as we shall
see, the "scoop marks" and other scars visible on other parts of the abductees'
bodies.  We would also have an explanation for the reports of individuals
suffering personality change after contact with the UFO phenomenon.
   Skeptics might counter that the time factor of UFO abductions disallows
this possibility.  If estimates of "missing time" are correct, the abductions
rarely take longer than one-to-three hours.  Wouldn't a brain surgeon,
operating under less-than-ideal conditions (perhaps in a mobile unit) need
more time?
   NO -- not if we accept the claims of a Florida doctor named Daniel Man.
He recently proposed a draconian solution to the overblown "missing children
problem," by suggesting a program wherein America's youngsters would be
implanted with tiny transmitters in order to track the children continuously.
Man brags that the operation can be done right in the office -- and would take
less than 20 minutes[45].
   Conceivably, it might take a tad longer in the field.


A QUESTION OF TIMING

   The history of brain implantation, as gleaned from the open literature, is
certainly disquieting.  Yet this history has almost certainly been censored,
and the dates manipulated in a nigh-Orwellian fashion.  When dealing with
research funded by the engines of national security, one can never know the
true origin date of any individual scientific advance.  However, if we listen
carefully to the scientists who have pioneered this research, we may hear
whispers, faint but unmistakable, hinting that remotely-applied ESB originated
earlier than published studies would indicate.
   In his autobiography THE SCIENTIST, John C. Lilly (who would later achieve
a cultish reknown for his work with dolphins, drugs and sensory deprivation)
records a conversation he had with the director of the National Institute
of Mental Health -- in 1953.  The director asked Lilly to brief the CIA, FBI,
NSA and the various military intelligence services on his work using electrodes
to stimulate directly the pleasure and pain centers of the brain.  Lilly
refused, noting, in his reply:

            Dr. Antoine Remond, using our techniques in Paris, has
         demonstrated that this method of stimulation of the brain
         can be applied to the human without the help of the neuro-
         surgeon; he is doing it in his office in Paris without neuro-
         surgical supervision.  This means that anybody with the proper
         apparatus can carry this out on a person covertly, with no
         external signs that electrodes have been used on that person.
         I feel that if this technique got into the hands of a secret
         agency, they would have total control over a human being and
         be able to change his beliefs extremely quickly, leaving
         little evidence of what they had done[46].

   Lilly's assertion of the moral high ground here is interesting.  Despite
his avowed phobia against secrecy, a careful reading of THE SCIENTIST reveals
that he continued to do work useful to this country's national security appar-
atus. His sensory deprivation experiments expanded upon the work of ARTICHOKE's
Maitland Baldwin, and even his dolphin research has -- perhaps inadvertently
proved useful in naval warfare[47].  One should note that Lilly's work on
monkeys carried a "secret" classification, and that NIMH was a common CIA
funding conduit[48].
   But the most important aspect of Lilly's statement is its date.  1953?
How far back does radio-controlled ESB go?  Alas, I have not yet seen Remond's
work -- if it is available in the open literature.  In the documents made
available to Marks, the earliest reference to remotely-applied ESB is a 1959
financial document pertaining to MKULTRA subproject 94.  The general subproject
descriptions sent to the CIA's financial department rarely contain much
information, and rarely change from year to year, leaving us little idea as to
when this subproject began.
   Unfortunately, even the Freedom of Information Act couldn't pry loose much
information on electronic mind control techniques, though we know a great deal
of study was done in these areas.  We have, for example, only four pages on
subproject 94 -- by comparison, a veritable flood of documents were released on
the use of drugs in mind control.  (Whenever an author tells us that MKULTRA
met with little success, the reference is to drug testing.)  On this point, I
must criticize John Marks: His book never mentions that roughly 20-25 percent
of the  subprojects are "dark" -- i.e., little or no information was ever made
available, despite lawyers and FOIA requests.  Marks seems to feel that the
only information worth having is the information he received.  We know,
however, that research into psychoelectronics was extensive indeed, statements
of project goals dating from ARTICHOKE and BLUEBIRD days clearly identify this
area as a high priority.  Marks' anonymous informant, jocularly named "Deep
Trance," even told a previous interviewer that, beginning in 1963, CIA and the
military's mind control efforts strongly emphasized electronics[49].  I
therefore assume -- not rashly, I hope -- that the "dark" MKULTRA subprojects
concerned matters such as brain implants, microwaves, ESB, and related
technologies.
   I make an issue of the timing and secrecy involved in this research to
underscore three points:  1. We can never know with certainty the true origin
dates of the various brainwashing methods -- often, we discover that techniques
which seem impossibly futuristic actually originated in the 19th century.
(Pioneering ESB research was conducted in 1898, by J.R. ("Bob" Dobbs) Ewald,
professor of physiology at Straussbourg[50].)  2. The open literature almost
certainly gives a bowdlerized view of the actual research.  3. Lavishly-funded
clandestine researchers -- unrestrained by peer review or the need for strict
controls -- can achieve far more rapid progress than scientists "on the
outside."
   Potential critics should keep these points in mind should they attempt to
invalidate the "mind control" thesis of UFO abductions by citing an abduction
account which antedates Delgado.


THE QUANDARY

   We have amply demonstrated, then, that as far back as the 1960s -- and
possibly earlier still -- scientists have had the capability to create implants
similar to those now purportedly visible in abductee MRI scans.  Indeed, we
have no notion just how advanced this technology has become, since the popular
press stopped reporting on brain implantation in the 1970s.  The research
has no doubt continued, albeit in a less public fashion.  In fact, scientists
such as Delgado have cast their eye far beyond the implants; ESB effects can
now be elicited with microwaves and other forms of electromagnetic radiation,
used with and without electrodes.
   So why -- if we take UFO abduction accounts at face value -- are the
"advanced aliens" using an old technology, an EARTH technology, a technology
which may soon be rendered obsolescent, if it hasn't been so rendered already?
I am reminded of the charming anachronisms in the old Flash Gordon serials,
where swords and spaceships clashed continually.
   Do they also watch black-and-white television on Zeta Reticuli?


REMOTE HYPNOSIS

   Hypnosis provides the (highly controversial) key which opens the door to
many abduction accounts[51].  And obviously, if my thesis is correct, hypnosis
plays a large part in the abduction itself.  One thing we know with certainty:
Since the earliest days of project BLUEBIRD, the CIA's spy-chiatrists spent
enormous sums mastering Mesmer's art.
   I cannot here give even a brief summary of hypnosis, nor even of the CIA's
studies in this area.  (Fortunately, FOIA requests were rather more successful
in shaking loose information on this topic than in the area of psycho-
electronics.)  Here, we will concentrate on a particularly intriguing
allegation -- one heard faintly, but persistently, for the past twenty years
by those who would investigate the shadow side of politics.
   If this allegation proves true, hypnosis is NOT necessarily a person-to-
person affair.
   The abductee -- or the mind control victim -- need not have physical
contact with a hypnotist for hypnotic suggestion to take effect; trance could
be induced, and suggestions made, via the intracerebral transmitters described
above.  The concept sounds like something out of Huxley's or Orwell's most
masochistic fantasies.  Yet remote hypnosis was first reported -- using
allegedly parapsychological means -- in the early 1930s, by L.L. Vasilev,
Professor of Physiology in the University of Leningrad[52].  Later, other
scientists attempted to accomplish the same goal, using less mystic means.
   Over the years, certain journalists have asserted that the CIA has mastered
a technology call RHIC-EDOM.  RHIC means "Radio Hypnotic Intracerebral
Control."  EDOM stands for "Electronic Dissolution of Memory."  Together, these
techniques can -- allegedly -- remotely induce hypnotic trance, deliver
suggestions to the subject, and erase all memory for both the instruction
period and the act which the subject is asked to perform.
   RHIC uses the stimoceiver, or a microminiaturized offspring of that tech-
nology to induce a hypnotic state.  Interestingly, this technique is also
reputed to involve the use of INTRAMUSCULAR implants, a detail strikingly
reminiscent of the "scars" mentioned in Budd Hopkins MISSING TIME.  Apparently,
these implants are stimulated to induce a post-hypnotic suggestion.
   EDOM is nothing more than missing time itself -- the erasure of memory from
consciousness through the blockage of synaptic transmission in certain areas of
the brain.  By jamming the brain's synapses through a surfeit of acetocholine,
neural transmission along selected pathways can be effectively stilled.
According to the proponents of RHIC-EDOM, acetocholine production can be
affected by electromagnetic means.  (Modern research in the psycho-physio-
logical effects of microwaves confirm this proposition.)
   Does RHIC-EDOM exist?  In our discussion of Delgado's work, I have already
cited a strange little book (published in 1969) titled WERE WE CONTROLLED?,
written by one Lincoln Lawrence, a former FBI agent turned journalist.  (The
name is a pseudonym; I know his real identity.)  This work deals at length with
RHIC-EDOM; a careful comparison of Lawrence's work with MKULTRA files declas-
sified ten years later indicates a strong possibility that the writer did
indeed have "inside" sources.
   Here is how Lawrence describes RHIC in action:

         It is the ultra-sophisticated application of post-hypnotic
      suggestion TRIGGERED AT WILL [italics in original] by radio
      transmission.  It is a recurring hypnotic state, re-induced
      automatically at intervals by the same radio control.  An
      individual is brought under hypnosis.  This can be done either
      with his knowledge  -- or WITHOUT it by use of narco-hypnosis,
      which can be brought into play under many guises.  He is then
      programmed to perform certain actions and maintain certain
      attitudes upon radio signal[53].

   Other authors have mentioned this technique -- specifically Walter Bowart
(in his book OPERATION MIND CONTROL) and journalist James Moore, who, in a
1975 issue of a periodical called MODERN PEOPLE, claimed to have secured a
350-page manual, prepared in 1963, on RHIC-EDOM[54].  He received the manual
from CIA sources, although -- interestingly -- the technique is said to have
originated in the military.

   The following quote by Moore on RHIC should prove especially intriguing
to abduction researchers who have confronted odd "personality shifts" in
abductees:

         Medically, these radio signals are directed to certain
      parts of the brain.  When a part of your brain receives a
      tiny electrical impulse from outside sources, such as vision,
      hearing, etc.,an emotion is produced -- anger at the sight of
      a gang of boys beating an old woman, for example.  The same
      emotion of anger can be created by artificial radio signals
      sent to your brain by a controller.  You could instantly feel
      the same white-hot anger without any apparent reason[55].

   Lawrence's sources imparted an even more tantalizing -- and frightening --
revelation:

         ...there is already in use a small EDOM generator-transmitter
      which can be concealed on the body of a person.  Contact with
      this person -- a casual handshake or even just a touch --
      transmits a tiny electronic charge plus an ultra-sonic signal
      tone which for a short while will disturb the time orientation
      of the person affected[56].

   If RHIC-EDOM exists, it goes a long way toward providing an earthbound
rationale for alien abductions -- or, at least, certain aspects of them.  The
phenomenon of "missing time" is no longer mysterious.  Abductee implants,
both intracerebral and otherwise, are explained.  And note the reference to
"recurring hypnotic state, reinduced automatically by the same radio command."
This situation may account for "repeater" abductees who, after their initial
encounter, have regular sessions of "missing time" and abduction -- even while
a bed-mate sleeps undisturbed.
   At present, I cannot claim conclusively that RHIC-EDOM is real.  To my
knowledge, the only official questioning of a CIA representive concerning
these techniques occurred in 1977, during Senate hearings on CIA drug testing.
Senator Richard Schweicker had the following interchange with Dr. Sidney
Gottlieb, an important MKULTRA administrator:

         SCHWEICKER:  Some of the projects under MKULTRA involved
      hypnosis, is that correct?
         GOTTLIEB:    Yes.
         SCHWEICKER:  Did any of these projects involve something
      called radio hypnotic intracerebral control, which is a
      combination, as I understand it, in layman's terms, of radio
      transmissions and hypnosis.
         GOTTLIEB:    My answer is "No."
         SCHWEICKER:  None whatsoever?
         GOTTLIEB:    Well, I am trying to be responsive to the
      terms you used.  As I remember it, there was a current
      interest, running interest, all the time in what effects
      people's standing in the field of radio energy have, and
      it could easily have been that somewhere in many projects,
      someone was trying to see if you could hypnotize someone
      easier if he was standing in a radio beam.  That would
      seem like a reasonable piece of research to do.

   Schweicker went on to mention that he had heard testimony that radar (i.e.,
microwaves) had been used to wipe out memory in animals; Gottlieb responded,
"I can believe that, Senator."[57]
   Gottlieb's blandishments do not comfort much.  For one thing, the good
doctor did not always provide thoroughly candid testimony.  (During the same
hearing he averred that 99 percent on the CIA's research had been openly
published; if so, why are so many MKULTRA subprojects still "dark," and why
does the Agency still go to great lengths to protect the identities of its
scientists?[58])  We should also recognize that the CIA's operations are
compartmentalized on a "need-to-know" basis; Gottlieb may not have had access
to the information requested by Schweicker.  Note that the MKULTRA rubric
circumscribed Gottlieb's statement: RHIC-EDOM might have been the focus of
another program.  (There were several others: MKNAOMI, MKACTION, MKSEARCH,
etc.)  Also keep in mind the revelation by "Deep Trance" that the CIA
concentrated on psychoelectronics AFTER the termination of MKULTRA in 1963.
Most significantly: RHIC-EDOM is described by both Lawrence and Moore as a
product of MILITARY research; Gottlieb spoke only of matters pertaining to CIA.
He may thus have spoken truthfully -- at least in a strictly technical sense --
while still misleading the Congressional interlocutors.
   Personally, I believe that the RHIC-EDOM story deserves a great deal of
further research.  I find it significant that when Dr. Petter Lindstrom
examined X-rays of Robert Naesland, a Swedish victim of brain-implantation, the
doctor authoritatively cited WERE WE CONTROLLED? in his letter of response[59].
This is the same Dr. Lindstrom noted for his pioneering use of ultrasonics in
neurosurgery[60].  Lincoln Lawrence's book has received a strong endorsement
indeed.
   Bowart's OPERATION MIND CONTROL contains a significant interview with an
intelligence agent knowledgeable in these areas.  Granted, the reader has every
right to adopt a skeptical attitude toward information culled from anonymous
sources; still, one should note that this operative's statements confirm, in
pertinent part, Lawrence's thesis[61].
   Most importantly: The open literature on brain-wave entrainment and the
behavioral effects of electromagnetic radiation substantiates much of the RHIC-
EDOM story -- as we shall see.


THAT'S ENTRAINMENT

   Robert Anton Wilson, an author with a devoted cult following, recently has
taken to promoting a new generation of "mind machines" designed to promote
creativity, stimulate learning, and alter consciousness -- i.e., provide a
drug-less high.  Interestingly, these machines can also induce "Out-of-Body-
Experiences," in which the percipient mentally "travels" to another location
while his body remains at rest[62].  This rapidly-developing technology has
spawned a technological equivalent to the drug culture; indeed, the aficionados
of the electronic buzz even have their own magazine, REALITY HACKERS. [Now
defunct.  -jpg]  I strongly suspect that we will hear much of these machines in
the future.
   One such device is called the "hemi-synch."  This headphone-like invention
produces slightly different frequences in each ear; the brain calculates the
difference between these frequencies, resulting in a rhythm known as the
"binaural beat."  The brain "entrains" itself to this beat -- that is, the
subject's EEG slows down or speeds up to keep pace with its electronic
running partner[63].
   The brain has a "beat" of its own.
   This rhythm was first discovered in 1924 by the German psychiatrist Hans
Berger, who recorded cerebral voltages as part of a telepathy study[64].  He
noted two distinct frequencies: alpha (8-13 cycles per second), associated
with a relaxed, alert state, and beta (14-30 cycles per second), produced
during states of agitation and intense mental concentration.  Later, other
rhythms were noted, which are particularly important for our present purposes:
theta (4-7 cycles per second), a hypnogogic state, and delta (.5 to 3.5 cycles
per second), generally found in sleeping subjects[65].
   The hemi-synch -- and related mind-machines -- can produce alpha or theta
waves, on demand, according to the operator's wishes.  A suitably-entrained
brain is much more responsive to suggestion, and is even likely to experience
vivid hallucinations.
   I have spoken to several UFO abductees who describe a "stereophonic sound"
effect -- EXACTLY SIMILAR TO THAT PRODUCED BY THE HEMI-SYNCH -- preceding many
"encounters."  Of course, one usually administers the hemi-synch via head-
phones, but I see no reason why the effect cannot be transmitted via the above-
described stimoceiver.  Again, I remind the reader of the abductee with an
implant just inside her ear canal.
   There's more than one way to entrain a brain.  Michael Hutchison's excellent
book MEGA BRAIN details the author's personal experiences with many such
devices -- the Alpha-stim, TENS, the Synchro-energizer, Tranquilite, etc.  He
recounts dazzling, Dali-esque hallucinations, as a result of using this mind-
expanding technology; moreover, he offers a seductive argument that these
devices may represent a true breakthrough in consciousness-control, thereby
fulfilling the dashed dream of the hallucinogenic '60s.
   I wish to avoid a knee-jerk Luddite response to these fascinating wonder-
boxes.  At the same time, I recognize the dangers involved.  What about the
possibility of an outside operator literally "changing our minds" by altering
our brainwaves without our knowledge or permission?  If these machines can
induce a hypnotic state, what's to stop a skilled hypnotist from making use
of this state?
   Granted, most of these devices require some physical interaction with the
subject.  But a tool called the Bio-Pacer can, according to its manufacturer,
produce a number of mood altering frequencies -- WITHOUT attachment to the
subject.  Indeed, the Bio-Pacer III (a high-powered version) can affect an
entire room.  This device costs $275, according to the most recent price
sheet available[66].  What sort of machine might $27,500 buy?  Or $275,000?
What effects, what ranges might a million-dollar machine be capable of?




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