-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 03/20/2017 01:52 AM, jim bell wrote:

*From:* grarpamp <grarpamp@gmail.com>

https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2017/feb/08/senate-worried-psyc

hic-program-was-part-cia-mind-c/

https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r0005002 40009-4

.Senate worried CIA’s psychic program was part of mind control plot

...

“I am glad that this classified and I believe that it should stay classified.”

...

mkultra, stargate, crest, esp, parapsychology, etc

I think it would be interesting to read about this. Not that I expect to hear anything other than negative results, but I'm curious about why they started this inquiry, how long they kept up at it, did they ever think they were getting useful results, etc.

This news is nearly 40 years old and to me, not very interesting because I already know way too much about it. Suggested lines of inquiry: How much of the reported results and subsequent funding of CIA sponsored psychic research was done with an eye to prompting other, less well funded intelligence services overseas to expend resources attempting to duplicate the reported results? How much of the publicity surrounding these projects was intended to support influence operations targeting superstitious foreign leaders and populations? And how much was a straight up scam raiding Uncle Sam's piggy bank to keep "scientists" more aligned with P.T. Barnum's world view than Einstein's in business? FTA: "The letter goes on to say that the Committee hadn’t made “any determination to endorse the experimentation as valid or invalid, [but] it does find that continued activity in this field may offer promise in applications to intelligence problems.” Therefore, Congressman Rose was scheduling a briefing from Doctors Puthoff and Targ, who were involved in the project." Puthoff and Targ were celebrities in the paranormal and pop psychology press at the time, "almost as if" publicity was their principal occupation. In the area of psychic research, they endorsed Israeli stage magician Uri Geller's effects, often accomplished through the agency of Geller's assistant who was allowed free run of the facility where the "tests" were conducted, as demonstrations of genuine telekinesis and ESP. The facility in question was the Stanford Research Institute, a CIA front located in Menlo Park, California. The Stanford Research Institute also produced a remarkably influential document called A Course In Miracles, the de facto Bible of the New Age movement in the 1980s and 90s. ACIM presents as a giant circular argument persuasively selling the proposition that the reader is alone in an otherwise empty Universe, and that all of her experiences are voluntarily projected illusions. (They typical devotee was a successfully divorced upper middle class female in her 40s.) But other people /do/ exist in that ACIM passes judgment on them: Those who are healthy, wealthy and "believers" are morally and spiritually superior to anyone who may be sick, poor or attached to "rationality," so every victim of every misfortune or abuse has volunteered for it. The only way to really help them is to tell them to stop doing that. In the ACIM frame of reference, unconditional belief can solve literally any problem by making it vanish, and the book includes a one year cycle of mental exercises with an emphasis on making "bad things" go away through denial. Its target market was people with lots of disposable income, mobility, and too much time on their hands, and ACIM worked for them. ACIM presents as a very successful psyops a.k.a. mind control operation. It created a durable and influential subculture, splitting a demographic group that has historically supported and promoted liberal and humanitarian political and social movements, taking most of that market's social climbers (opinion leaders) all the way out of the game. But that was probably just a coincidence. :o/ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.22 (GNU/Linux) iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJYz/y4AAoJEECU6c5XzmuqtzsH/3gTT0Sdl4jd6te1u75+EOTi UeBwnoInvOTLx5HT7M2mW5e3WDVvAFfNZ5s//KGRaeDKFgkWMfVmf9yPEOgUHYTb L3fJ/AFP+a4dB6YBdvggknRw9C0Rk/CiskU+ZF/HekJWSHIWLXeW61jajLqIvrFd B462PuOYSgbl4pgs9LmZNsr/pdwZaFq/46ZCNtLQdL1TUnx6VdDub9rPzaMA0wCa /hWK7He4wuiGbF05loZ685zs0vfGwpMcquXq0rGXQeEkbUPzTdrvsrhVjorHBhGE dVL6GwyBWJaIN7Tlzw6nAQ6JUypj3LZjRJmY2ffViYkXLjwi/Y7NmurKy54B+fA= =w3WQ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----