13. Project Artichoke: Complete Mind Control
The ultimate goal of the CIA’s research into mind-control techniques was to uncover a means of getting someone to do the bidding of another, entirely against his or her own will. One of the most diabolical schemes invented as part of this research was Project Artichoke, which used means such as forced morphine addiction and withdrawal, hypnosis, complete isolation, and sensory deprivation to try to create amnesia and thereby inhibit the person’s ability to make decisions of his or her own volition. In other words, they were trying to create their very own Manchurian candidate.
Most of the experimentation was conducted overseas, in places like Europe, the Philippines, Japan, and Southeast Asia. Declassified documents revealed that one of the project’s goals was to coerce a citizen to assassinate under the guise of hypnosis, whether or not he or she was a willing participant. One conclusion of the project was that an involuntary assassination probably could not happen because the effects of hypnosis are limited and brainwashing someone is more difficult than one might think. Still, a handwritten note at the end of the project files concluded that the task – presumably of involuntary assassination – would be carried out despite operational limitations.
In other words, declassified CIA documents from the Cold War era provide the perfect plots for Hollywood movies.