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 federal spy agencies, 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

Blue Grotto, Capri Island, Italy (1900) by Detroit Publishing Company.

Source: Library of Congress

https://pdimagearchive.org/images/b656ed61-4a1b-4ec8-a4de-bd1f08e6fa70

#grottoes #aesthetes #water #mescaline #sunlight #psychedelics #peyote #passengers #drugs #blue #boats #art #publicdomain

"If the Doors of Perception has a theological shortcoming, it’s Huxley’s curious neglect of habitual grace."

#psychedelics #mescaline #mysticism

https://simonekotva.substack.com/p/getting-high

Psychedelic experiences may offer a lasting boost in perceived life meaning

https://www.psypost.org/psychedelic-experiences-may-offer-a-lasting-boost-in-perceived-life-meaning/

#health #medicine #mentalhealth #psychology #neuroscience #cognitivescience #brainscience #psychedelic #psilocybin #lsd #dmt #mescaline #consciousness

今天讀到一篇有趣的2025年仙人掌研究，想不到部分觀賞用仙人掌居然也含麥斯卡林！？不說了，我要先去訂購仙人掌🌵了👋👋👋

#麻菇觀音
#podcast #ai
#psychedelic #KnowledgeShare
#mescaline #仙人掌

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2UBfsMxH1HWoMxaGX1Y4hH?si=eOryNpM6S22KiaYatQ0bgw

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

[r] images d’un monde visionnaire / henri michaux, éric duvivier. 1963

In 1964, Sandoz, the company that first synthesized LSD in 1938, commissioned Belgian poet and painter Henri Michaux (24 May 1899 – 19 October 1984) to create a film to show the power of hallucinogenic drugs.

From the channel Éclair brut: https://youtu.be/GplnLRYhjWY

Le film présente diverses altérations perceptives et visuelles qui peuvent être provoquées par différents hallucinogènes, ici la mescaline puis le haschich. Reprenant les travaux du poète Henri Michaux sur le « monde visionnaire » (‘Misérable miracle’ (1956), ‘Paix dans les brisements’ (1959), ‘L’infini turbulent’ (1957), ‘Connaissance par les gouffres’ (1961)), le film montre les types d’images qui apparaissent, disparaissent, se créent sous l’action de ces deux substances. Mais il s’insère surtout dans le cadre d’un projet scientifique visant à rendre compte d’expériences sur des substances hallucinogènes, permettant de mieux comprendre les psychoses. Les états hallucinatoires provoqués par certains psychotiques sont montrés comme analogues voir identiques à certaines pathologies psychiques.

#art #arte #asemicWriting #ÉclairBrut #EricDuvivier #HenriMichaux #mescalina #mescaline #scritturaAsemica