by Jon E. Lewis
The Priory of Sion, Christ’s children ruling Gaul, the mistranslation of “Sangreal”, the discovery by Father Berenger Sauniere of the Holy Grail at Rennes-le-Chateau is … all humbug, set afoot by a hoaxing minor French aristocrat, Pierre Plantard de Saint-Clair, who wanted to give himself regal glory by planting “evidence” that he was the rightful king of France. (He would have done a more persuasive job if the key Middle Ages documents “found” at the Bibliothèque Nationale had been written in medieval and not modern Latin.) Even so, aspects of the Mary Magdalene conspiracy hold up. The early Catholic Church did ban and burn gospels not in accordance with its views. Courtesy of the discovery in 1948 by an Egyptian peasant called Muhammad Ali al-Samman of a buried collection of “Gnostic” texts at Nag Hammadi the content of some of these banned gospels is now known. The role they assign to Mary is controversial. In the Gospel of Philip, Jesus is declared to be “the partner of Mary Magdalene, [and he] loved her more than all the disciples and often kissed her on the mouth”. In Greek, the language of the Gnostic texts, “partner” can also mean “companion”; but whether “bride” or “close friend”, it is abundantly obvious that in this early strain of Christianity Mary was regarded as being a crucial figure in Christ’s ministry. There is even a Gospel of Mary Magdalene in the Nag Hammadi haul. A key incident in this gospel is a confrontation between Mary and the apostle Peter, in which Peter tries to humiliate Mary on the grounds that she is a woman, but is roundly told off by Jesus.
Even if Mary was the literal bride of Christ – and it is a big if – there is no guarantee that children came from the union. But it is a matter of historical record that various early Church dignitaries, from St Peter to St Paul (whose Letter to Timothy is an unintentional classic of misogyny) to Pope Gregory the Great, suppressed pro-Mary Magdalene currents in early Christianity and denigrated her role in Christ’s ministry. They would not have seen themselves as conspirators, but fighters for “orthodoxy” in what was effectively a theological battle.
Further Reading
Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, Holy Blood, Holy Grail, 1982
Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code, 2003
Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels, 1980
MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE
What do Robert F. Kennedy, John Lennon, Martin Luther King and Israeli Premier Yitschak Rabin have in common? All four are alleged to have been assassinated by remote-controlled, hypnotized killers or “Manchurian candidates”.
The expression “Manchurian candidate” comes from Richard Condon’s 1959 bestselling novel of that name, which features a brainwashed killer under the control of Chinese and Soviet intelligence located in Manchuria during the Korean War. The assassin is an American POW repatriated to the US, where he is programmed to kill the president.
Condon did not pluck the scenario out of thin air. During the Korean War, the Communists were understood to have achieved conspicuous success in brainwashing US POWs into confessing to war crimes they could not possibly have committed. Although a 1953 investigation by Drs Harold Wolff and Lawrence Hinkle of Cornell Medical College found that the Chinese had not used hypnosis or drugs to “re-educate” POWs (relying rather on violence to produce “confessions”), this did not stop the Agency heading pell-mell into a secret project to create a programmed assassin using hypnosis and drugs. Set up by CIA head Allen Dulles in 1953, Project MK-ULTRA experimented with LSD, electronic brain implants, mescaline, psilocybin, radiation, barbiturates, amphetamines and sensory deprivation on hapless subjects as it sought the Holy Grail of mind control. Probably the most grotesque of the MK-ULTRA experiments was subcontracted to Montreal psychiatrist D. Ewen Cameron, which involved the “breaking down of ongoing pattern of the patient’s behaviour by means of particularly intensive electroshocks” while LSD was simultaneously applied. Some of Cameron’s subjects received electro-convulsive therapy at thirty to forty times the normal rate, this followed by weeks of LSD-induced coma in which they were played an endless loop of noise or speech.
At one stage, MK-ULTRA consumed 6 per cent of the CIA’s entire budget. Whether the CIA succeeded in programming a Manchurian candidate is unknown. The Agency has always claimed that its attempt to produce a real life Raymond Shaw – Condon’s assassin character – was fruitless, and this was also the conclusion of a Senate Committee headed by Ted Kennedy when the MK-ULTRA programme was finally dragged out into the light by the New York Times in 1974.
The cynics are legion, however. By 1974, CIA director Richard Helms had destroyed the bulk of the MK-ULTRA files because of a “burgeoning paper problem”. Suspicious? Almost as suspicious as the 1953 defenestration suicide of Dr Frank Olsen, a CIA researcher, who had voiced opposition to the MK-ULTRA project. On later exhumation Olsen’s body was found to have marks on the skull consistent with a repeated attack. Suspicious? Almost as suspicious as the accidental death by drowning of ex-CIA director William Colby in 1993 days after being subpoenaed to testify about Olsen.
Cults like the Scientologists are widely held to achieve brainwashing. Is it really plausible that the CIA with millions of dollars and legions of scientists failed where L. Ron Hubbard succeeded?
Then there is the assassination of Robert Kennedy in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on 4 June 1968. Dozens of witnesses saw “lone nut” Sirhan Sirhan pull the trigger on Kennedy. But Sirhan himself could never recall the shooting, and to this day protests his innocence. William Turner and John Christian in The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy and Philip Melanson in The Robert F. Kennedy Assassination all suggest that Sirhan was programmed by hypnosis to kill Kennedy. One leading expert, Dr Herbert Spiegal, estimates that Sirhan is among the 10 per cent of the population most susceptible to hypnosis. Under hypnosis by prosecution psychiatrist Dr Seymour Pollack, Sirhan answered the question, “Who was with you when you shot Kennedy?” as follows: “Girl the girl, the girl …” A girl in a polka-dot dress was seen running from the Ambassador shouting “We shot him!” If Sirhan was a Manchurian candidate, then the girl was his handler. According to a BBC Newsnight investigation in 2006, several CIA operatives were also in the Ambassador on the fateful night, although they had no reason to be there, since the CIA has no domestic jurisdiction.
The CIA had a plausible motive to kill RFK: if RFK had succeeded to the White House he might have uncovered evidence of the CIA’s complicity in the killing of his brother. The CIA also had the immoral appetite to kill an American politician: a 1954 CIA memo specifically proposed using a hypno-programmed killer to assassinate “a prominent [deleted] politician or, if necessary, against an American official”.
The official version remains that Sirhan alone killed RFK. Few believe it.
Further Reading
John Marks, The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind Control, 1989
Philip H. Melanson, The Robert F. Kennedy Assassination: New Revelations on the Conspiracy and Cover Up, 1991
Gordon Thomas, Journey into Madness: The True Story of Secret CIA Mind Control and Medical Abuse, 1989
William Turner and John G. Christian, The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, 1978
DOCUMENT: DECLASSIFIED MKULTRA MEMOS
I) The CIA memo below was written on April 18, 1958 by Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, chief of the Chemical Division of the Agency’s Technical Services Staff.
DRAFT/
18 April 1958
MEMORANDUM FOR: THE RECORD
SUBJECT: MKULTRA, Subproject No. 83
1. The purpose of Subproject No. 83 will be to support the editorial and technical survey activities of [deleted] assigned to the [deleted] and is covered as an employee of the [deleted]. During the past six months, his activities have been to make technical surveys of social and behavioral science matters of interest to TSS/CD/Branch III. During this period he has been carried on the budget of the [deletion]. However, it was originally proposed that as soon as he demonstrated his ability, he would be established as an independent project and his activi
ties widened.
2. [Deleted] has completed a detailed survey of handwriting analysis. He has prepared a review of current attitudes towards handwriting analyses as reflected by scientific researchers in the technique; fringe or pseudo-scientific developments in the field; general attitudes of psychiatrists, psychologists and other behavioral scientists to the techniques; and attitudes of document analysts and law enforcement agencies to the method. He has isolated the various “schools” of handwriting analysis, both American and European, and has prepared a readable, accurate and informative document that can be made available to potential consumers of handwriting analyses. More important, however, he has assembled data making it possible to design relevant and meaningful research into the usefulness and applicability of handwriting analyses to intelligence activities.
3. On the basis of the many contacts developed by [deleted] it is now possible to undertake systematic research. During the next year, [deleted] will be responsible for the development of a research project on handwriting analysis. The recommendations for the design of this project, as developed by [deleted] are included as Attachment No. 2.
4. In addition [deleted] will begin to develop similar technical surveys on other controversial and misunderstood areas. These will include, though not necessarily in the next year:
a) a revision and adaptation of material already developed on deception techniques (magic, sleight of hand, signals, etc.)
b) psychic phenomena and extrasensory perception
c) subliminal perception
d) hypnosis
e) “truth serums”
f) expressive movements (body type, facial characteristics, etc.)
He will also assist the [deleted] in editing the material they develop including annual reports, project summaries, and conference notes.
5. [Deleted] will be under the supervision of the Executive Secretary of the [deleted] and will continue to work out of the [deleted] offices. Additional space for his activity is necessary and is included in the summary budget attached. Accounting for money spent will be included in the regular [deleted] audit.
6. The total cost of this subproject will be $25,000.00 for a period of one year beginning 1 May 1958. Charges should be made against Allotment 8–2502–10–001.
7. [Deleted] has been cleared for access to Top Secret material by the Agency.
II) This memo, again from Sidney Gottlieb, records his approval of a test on “the biochemical, neurophysiological, sociological, and clinical psychiatric aspects of L.S.D.”
DRAFT – [deleted] 9 June 1953
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
SUBJECT: Project MKULTRA, Subproject 8
1. Subproject 8 is being set up as a means to continue the present work in the general field of L.S.D. at [deleted] until 11 September 1954.
2. This project will include a continuation of a study of the biochemical, neurophysiological, sociological, and clinical psychiatric aspects of L.S.D., and also a study of L.S.D. antagonists and drugs related to L.S.D., such as L.A.E. A detailed proposal is attached. The principal investigators will continue to be [deleted] all or [deleted].
3. The estimated budget of the project at [deleted] is $39,500.00. The [deleted] will serve as a cut-out and cover the project for this project and will furnish the above funds to the [deleted] as a philanthropic grant for medical research. A service charge of $790.00 (2% of the estimated) is to be paid to the [deleted] for this service.
4. Thus the total charges for this project will not exceed $40, 290.00 for a period ending September 11, 1954.
5. [deleted] (Director of the hospital) are cleared through TOP SECRET and are aware of the true purpose of the project.
[deleted]
Chemical Division/TSS
APPROVED:
[signature of Sidney Gottlieb]
Chief, Chemical Division/TSS
III) A memo from Gottlieb of the CIA on the Agency’s early experiments with hypnosis.
DRAFT-SG/111 11 May 1953
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
SUBJECT: Visit to Project [deleted]
1. On this day the writer spent the day observing experiments with Mr. [deleted] on project [deleted] and in planning next year’s work on the project (Mr. [deleted] has already submitted his proposal to the [deleted]).
2. The general picture of the present status of the project is one of a carefully planned series of five major experiments. Most of the year has been spent in screening and standardizing a large group of subjects (approximately 100) and the months between now and September 1 should yield much data, so that these five experiments should be completed by September 1. The five experiments are: (N stands for the total number of subjects involved in the experiment).
Experiment 1 – N-18 Hypnotically induced anxieties to be completed by September 1.
Experiment 2 – N-24 Hypnotically increasing the ability to learn and recall complex written matter, to be completed by September 1.
Experiment 3 – N-30 Polygraph response under Hypnosis, to be completed by June 15.
Experiment 4 – N-24 Hypnotically increasing ability to observe and recall a complex arrangement of physical objects.
Experiment 5 – N-100 Relationship of personality to susceptibility to hypnosis.
3. The work for next year (September 1, 1953 to June 1, 1954) will concentrate on:
Experiment 6 – The morse code problem, with the emphasis on relatively loser I.Q. subjects than found on University volunteers.
Experiment 7 – Recall of hypnotically acquired information by very specific signals.
[deleted] will submit detailed research plans on all experiments not yet submitted.
4. A system of reports was decided upon, receivable in June, September and December 1953, and in March and June 1954. These reports, besides giving a summary of progress on each of the seven experiments, will also include the raw data obtained in each experiment. At the completion of any of the experiments a complete, organized final report will be sent to us.
5. After June 1, [deleted] new address will be:
[deleted]
6. A new journal was observed in [deleted] office:
Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis published quarterly by the Society for C. F. & E. H., publisher is Woodrow Press, Inc., 227 E. 45th Street, New York 17, N.Y. Price is $6.00
To date two numbers issued, Vol. 1 #1 January 1953, and Vol. 1 #2 April 1953.
7. A very favorable impression was made on the writer by the group. The experimental design of each experiment is very carefully done, and the standards of detail and instrumentation seems to be very high.
Sidney Gottlieb
Chief
Chemical Division, TSS
IV) A 1955 CIA document reviewing the Agency’s research and development of mind-altering substances and methods, including materials which will render the indication of hypnosis easier or otherwise enhance its usefulness.
DRAFT
[deleted]
5 May 1955
A portion of the Research and Development Program of TSS/Chemical Division is devoted to the discovery of the following materials and methods:
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 indication 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 “brainwashing”.
8. Materials and physical method
s 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 anaemia, 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.
