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#mindcontrol

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Today in Labor History Today in Labor History April 19, 1943: Albert Hoffman, inventor of LSD, tested his first dose and went for a bike ride. This day is now celebrated as Bicycle Day. “... Little by little I could begin to enjoy the unprecedented colors and plays of shapes that persisted behind my closed eyes. Kaleidoscopic, fantastic images surged in on me, alternating, variegated, opening and then closing themselves in circles and spirals, exploding in colored fountains, rearranging and hybridizing themselves in constant flux ...” And from that date forward, working class people could finally afford to go on a trip. Hoffman later went on to isolate psilicyben, the active hallucinogenic ingredient in mushrooms, which he also enjoyed experimenting with.

Sandoz originally marketed the drug as Delysid and sold it in 100 microgram doses. From the late 1940s, through the early 1960s, the drug was legal and numerous psychologists and researchers began experimenting with it as a form of therapy. Many were willing participants in the CIA’s UKUltra mind control experiments, in which LSD was given to people, most of whom without their consent or knowledge. Cary Grant was a frequent and enthusiastic user. As early as the late 1940s, anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson became enthusiastic about its potential to unleash a new era of peace and expanded consciousness. The founder of Alcoholic Anonymous was also an early user and said that it was far more effective at treating alcoholism than any other treatment he knew of. Researcher John Lily, along with Gregory Bateson, began dosing dolphins in the early 1960s, in experiments connected with the U.S. military, in an attempt to learn to communicate with the animals and deploy them as weapons in the cold war. You can read more about Mead and Bateson’s role in promoting hallucinogens and in collaborating with the military and intelligence communities in Benjamin Breen’s book, Tripping on Utopia.

Along the lines of what I've been saying about asking questions, being curious and promoting curiosity, avoiding talking points, and sticking to core values in discussion.

This applies to political dogma as well.

"The only thing that can get someone to think critically about their dogma is to think about their foundation for the dogmas, which is their sense of themselves, their worldview, and their social identities that are important to them."

(Probably paraphrased slightly.)

youtu.be/lzr_1jEkq7Y

Today in Labor History April 13, 1953: CIA Director Allen Dulles launched the MKUltra mind control program. The program ran from 1953 to 1973. It involved giving human subjects LSD and other drugs, often without their knowledge. Then, researchers would try to “weaken” their minds and force confessions through brainwashing and psychological torture. Over 7,000 U.S. war veterans were unwitting test subjects, as well as many Canadian and U.S. civilians. The program was a continuation of Nazi mind-control experiments, which utilized mescaline against Jews and Soviet prisoners, hoping it could be exploited as a “truth” serum. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS), precursor of the CIA, recruited many of these Nazi torturers in the wake of World War II to exploit their knowledge and research. MKUltra was headed by Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, who later devised plans to kill Fidel Castro with an exploding cigar, and saturating his shoes with radioactive thallium to make his beard fall out. He also tried to assassinate Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of Congo, with poison. Several well-known liberals and radicals knowingly participated in MKUltra and its OSS predecessors, either as test subjects (e.g., Ken Kesey, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Hunter), or as researchers (e.g., anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson). Others who have been alleged to have been victims or volunteers include Sirhan Sirhan, Ted Kaczyinski, Charles Manson, and Whitey Bulger.

For a really fascinating look at Margaret Mead's and Gregory Bateson’s exploration with hallucinogens and their connection to MKUltra, check out the recent book, Tripping on Utopia, by Benjamin Breen. And for a truly amazing documentary on the 1961 CIA-supported coup in Congo, check out the 2024 documentary, “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat.” But the film is really about so much more than the coup. It covers Cold War machinations, propaganda, and covert operations in the early 1960s; the superpowers’ jockeying for control of puppet regimes and spheres of influence in the global south; the Pan-African movement; racism in the U.S., the Civil Rights movement, and the repression against it; and, of course, jazz music, including tons of interviews and live footage of Lumumba, Ghanian president and revolutionary Kwame Nkrumah, activist and writer Andree Madeleine Blouin, Malcolm X, Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Miriam Makeba, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, surrealist artist Rene Magritte.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #cia #mindcontrol #torture #lsd #mkultra #castro #nazis #oss #allenginsberg #lumumba #malcolmx #coltrane #jazz #imperialism #kenkesey #margaretmead #charlesmanson #mescaline #castro #soviet #coldwar #books #nonfiction #ussr #communism #film #documentary @bookstadon

An excerpt from the most recent issue of ICSA Today, on how to help someone escape coercive indoctrination, by Dr. Janja Lalich, one of the cult researchers I quote in Recovering Agency.

In short, DON'T PREACH. DON'T ARGUE.

Instead, show someone what having a choice looks like.

"Effective Intervention Approaches

"1. Creating Safe Spaces for Ambivalence: Rather than demanding immediate recognition of abuse or control, effective intervention allows people to safely explore their doubts without threatening their entire meaning system at once. This might mean supporting someone in questioning specific practices while temporarily accepting their continued commitment to the group’s core beliefs.

"2. Reconnecting with One’s Pre-Group Identity: Helping individuals reconnect with aspects of their identity that preceded their involvement in the totalistic environment. This isn’t about erasing their experience but about expanding their frame of reference beyond the bounded system. I describe this as doing something that will hopefully tug at their emotional heart strings, reawakening thoughts, feelings, memories that have been suppressed by the group’s indoctrination processes.

"3. Addressing Practical Constraints: Understanding that bounded choice operates through both ideological and practical constraints. Effective intervention often requires addressing concrete obstacles to leaving—financial dependencies, fear of social isolation, lack of practical life skills—along with psychological barriers.

"4. Building Alternative Support Systems: Recognizing that totalistic environments become self-reinforcing partly because they meet real human needs for belonging and meaning. Intervention must include helping individuals find alternative sources for these needs."

🔥 Leak entdeckt.
Ein internes Protokoll zur Zähmung des modernen Menschen – von einem Whistleblower veröffentlicht.
10 Regeln zur systematischen Entwurzelung.
Ein Dokument, das nie für deine Augen bestimmt war.

Lies, wenn du dich erinnerst, dass du mal frei warst.

👉 explore.timeandspace.online/fr

Time and Space · Spürst du, dass etwas nicht stimmt? Dieses Dokument erklärt, warum.Ein psychologischer Code zur kollektiven Manipulation – aufgedeckt von einem Insider. Dieses Leak verändert, wie du die Welt siehst.