Periodically, the CIA discloses millions of
pages in declassified documents that become a part of the public record. In these, many top-secret projects and studies
of the past are revealed that many find surprising if not unbelievable. Some of the craziest may be rather embarrassing
if not flat-out damaging to the CIA’s reputation. Let’s explore some of the weirdest government-sanctioned
operations with psychics, cats, drugs, and prostitution in this episode of the Infographics
Show, CIA Declassified Documents That Will Blow You Away. Up until surprisingly recently, the CIA believed
in psychic abilities and that they could be utilized to benefit the government. According to CIA intelligence, they also thought
the Russians believed the same. In fact, from 1969 to 1971, the CIA was concerned
that the Soviet Union was training its citizens with psychic powers in the area of intelligence
collection. Evidence suggested that the Soviet’s efforts
were funded by a 60-million-ruble budget in 1970 which was later increased to 300 million
five years later. In alarm, the CIA concluded that efforts must
have been met with success to justify this additional expenditure, not to mention the
large number of suspected technicians and scientists involved. The CIA decided that for their country’s
future security they, too, needed to investigate psychic powers. To this end, the CIA created several programs
to study remote viewing, or the ability of an individual with psychic abilities to perceive
something that a normal person cannot because it’s obscured from view, far away, or happened
at another point in time. In other words, something understood using
only their minds and without the use of sight, hearing, touch, taste, or smell and in absence
of being given any information via person or device or the use of simple logic. According to declassified documents, the CIA
believed that every person possesses this ability to some extent as a means of self-preservation
and that though this talent is generally underdeveloped in the general population it can be strengthened
and utilized successfully with the correct training. The use of remote viewing by the US government
had three given benefits: that it was a talent that required little action on behalf of the
viewer, had minimal associated costs, and as far as the CIA knew, could not be prevented
or defended against. It first explored this concept in 1972 at
the Stanford Research Institute in California under program Scanate. It began with just a couple seemingly psychically
gifted individuals, including a New York artist known as Ingo Swann, who was also a Scientologist. In fact, many of the other study subjects
were Scientologists as well. All trainees were required to have a 65% psychic
accuracy rate, and those involved claimed to surpass this minimum over the course of
their training. In other words, things looked quite promising. The CIA also reached out to television personality
Uri Geller who had made himself famous by allegedly bending spoons with his mind. They tested Geller’s abilities in 1973. To do this the CIA placed him in a room shielded
from sight, sound, or electricity. They then picked a random word from a dictionary,
illustrated its meaning, and taped it to a wall outside of the room Geller was in. For the word “fuse” the experimenters
drew a firecracker, and Geller sketched a drum, or as he described it, a cylinder object
that made sound. For the word bunch, experimenters drew 24
grapes and so did Geller. 24 of them exactly. However, when a scientist later drew a picture
of a rabbit, Geller was unable to replicate anything similar. It wasn’t his only failure. Though his initial experiments still convinced
the CIA of his gift, others later labeled him a fraud. Then came projects where this supposedly effective
skill was applied in sensitive matters of government security, such as the proposed
1977 Gondola Wish program thought up by the Army Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence. The given purpose for the program was to train
personnel to collect sensitive intelligence using psychic abilities and thereby determine
potential threats, weaknesses, and methods for defense. When it became operational the following year
it was given the new name Project Grill Flame and its research was conducted at Fort Meade
in the state of Maryland. Eventually journalist Jack Anderson got ahold
of information about these CIA-endorsed psychic experiments and wrote about them in April
of 1984. That same year the National Academy of Sciences
National Research Council gave its opinion, and it was not a flattering one. Unsurprisingly, the army’s funding was cut. However, that didn’t stop the experiments
which were renamed and transferred elsewhere. By 1991 the latest program was code-named
Star Gate. Star Gate and its supporting research cost
the US government $20 million and included forty personnel, 23 of which were remote viewers. Three of these psychics worked at Fort Meade
for years and were consulted by different government agencies on a need by need basis. During its run, Star Gate claimed to have
many unbelievable or “eight martini” successes after which those involved downed eight beverages
in order to calm down. Among other promising finds, one remote viewer
was able to narrow down where a Soviet bomber had crashed in Africa, only missing the exact
mark by a few miles. Another predicted that a Soviet submarine
with 20 missile launch tubes would be sent out in 100 days and two, one of which fit
the viewer’s description, were seen 120 days later. When asked about Libyan chemicals a remote
viewer thought a ship called either Patua or Potua would go from Tripoli to Libya with
them in its cargo. A ship called Batato did sail that route. However, what exactly it was carrying was
never determined. Psychics supposedly helped with the identification
of tunnels and underground structures in Iraq as well. There were even rumors that they hinted at
the location of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, though this has never been unquestionably verified. However, for these successes there were many
flat-out failures as well. In 1974 a viewer asked to describe a Soviet
airfield got minor details correct but several additional ones wrong. Psychics were also unable to locate any plutonium
in North Korea when asked in 1994. A statistician found that psychics working
for the government had given correct information just 15 percent of the time and incorrect
details the remaining 85. Similarly, a psychologist asked to evaluate
their findings had little favorable to say. As a result, the American Institutes for Research
recommended termination of the program in November of 1995. However as crazy as trying to get information
on Russian or other types of targets with the use of psychics may seem, the CIA has
done other odd things as well. For example, the US government at one point
tried to get recordings of critical intel by using a microphone wearing animal according
to a declassified 1967 memo. This plan, called Project Acoustic Kitty was
also thought up during the Cold War era as a way to spy on the Soviets, specifically
on the Kremlin and those in embassies. And the CIA planned to train cats, renowned
for taking direction from no one or anything save their stomach and insatiable curiosity,
to do it. The project started with one cat and a recording
device. According to diagrams, a radio transmitter
was inserted in the back of the cat’s head and a microphone was placed in its ear. The power supply was imbedded beneath its
fur and down the front of its body and an antenna ran along its spine to its tail. The operation to attach the device took approximately
one hour to complete. However, the project itself took five years. It was difficult to determine the best placement
of each piece of the recording device or come up with one that could be both functional
and indiscernible once attached. Then, of course, the cat also required training. However, despite their best efforts, the feline
failed to cooperate. While this comes as a surprise to no cat owner
anywhere, it apparently was unanticipated by the CIA. The cat would get easily distracted by things
around it or wander away to get food instead of focusing on the key objective during training. Then there was also its first official mission,
which was a dismal failure. The cat was sent to spy on two men seated
on a bench but was instead hit by a car while crossing the street. After years of hard work and $20 million dollars
of government money, Project Acoustic Kitty was, for obvious reasons, discontinued. While the death of the cat was unfortunate,
there was no scandal when it died and Project Acoustic Kitty ended. The same could not be said for MKUltra, another
CIA project that resulted in a Congressional hearing when it was not cats, but human beings
involved in questionable experimentation. The MKUltra program was given a green light
in 1953 and continued for the next ten years, though what we know about it for certain is
limited to its surviving pages. Many, understandably, were destroyed to protect
those involved. The motivation for the program, once again,
was an attempt by the US government to keep abreast of Soviet advancements, this time
in the area of mind-control. The CIA had reason to believe that the Soviets
had been attempting to both make and purchase all available LSD for this purpose. This in turn led the CIA to conclude that
the drug could have brain warfare applications, though little was known about it in the states. To determine its exact uses, several scientists
agreed that an experiment involving unsuspecting participants would prove helpful. The government did this in Program MKUltra. MKUltra ultimately got out of hand and resulted
in government representatives giving drugs to thousands of Americans without their consent
or knowledge. The drugs were used to see if they could mimic
alcohol intoxication, aid in hypnosis, boost torture endurance, or create amnesia or confusion. The government hoped that they could assist
with interrogations as well. Unfortunately, many of those who were experimented
upon had little say in the matter. They were selected from among the most vulnerable
of the population, such as prisoners addicted to drugs, sex workers, or the terminally ill. Two Americans died and many more suffered
because of the related experiments carried out by the CIA and contracted universities
and research institutions. One of those who was killed was a CIA employee
who had consumed a drink that had been laced with LSD by his supervisor. Nine days later, he was dead, after falling
13 floors from the Hotel Statler. After his death, President Gerald Ford apologized
to his family and they were given a wrongful death settlement. However, some suggest that beyond this and
its other known casualty, the program had additional far reaching effects. Some claim MKUltra’s experiments are related
to JFK’s assassination to the actions of Charles Mason, however there is no concrete
proof of either. As shocking as MKUltra was, further paperwork
has revealed yet additional drug-related and government-supported experiments. For example, LSD was also used in the CIA’s
Operation Midnight Climax from 1953 to 1964. This program was carried out by an army captain
and CIA operative known as George Hunter White and targeted the residents of New York and
San Francisco. White took CIA “safe houses” and used
them to create makeshift brothels with suggestive decorations and where prostitutes were given
cash to engage in sexual activities. These actions were observed behind two-way
mirrors after LSD or other drugs were added to clueless men’s drinks. A memo found from related documents has made
some question whether the real purpose of Operation Midnight Climax wasn’t to observe
the drugged men but rather the prostitutes to see if they would be effective government
spies. By having sex with the enemy, it was thought
that they could get information that could prove useful to the government. Indeed, the CIA worked to determine when during
the process of seducing a man that a woman could ask questions to get critical intel. The answer was directly after sex, not before. LSD experimentation of all kinds ground to
a halt in 1963. The Inspector General deemed that the agency
needed to follow different research ethics and discontinue all experiments on unsuspecting
citizens. Congressional hearings followed. However, CIA agents claimed they couldn’t
remember a lot of details and because many files had been destroyed, little could be
done in the area of accountability. Given the documents we do have that detail
these shocking government-initiated events, missing pages make us wonder just how much
and what exactly remains unknown still. It is pure luck that some documentation of
MKUltra was mistakenly left behind while the rest was destroyed. However, the CIA could have avoided the resulting
outrage or bewilderment by simply having used better logic and judgment and never having
done most of these operations to begin with. Psychic experimentation and drugging citizens
are clearly not the greatest ideas. And who in their right mind would try to train a cat? Which of these were the most mind-blowing? Let us know in the comments! Also, be sure to check out our other video
called FBI vs CIA How Do They Compare! Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t
forget to like, share, and subscribe. See you next time!
