A newly released CIA document reveals a chilling blueprint to manipulate minds through covert drugging experiments. The report, added to the CIA's reading room in 2025, details the government's once top-secret Project Artichoke that ran from 1951 to 1956, focusing on behavior control, interrogation techniques and psychological manipulation. The seven-page document, titled 'Special Research for Artichoke,' with an attachment labeled 'Suggested Fields for Special Research Relative Artichoke,' outlines proposals to develop chemicals capable of altering human behavior. It discusses drugs designed for both immediate effects, like truth serums and long-term influence, potentially administered through food, water, alcohol or cigarettes. Researchers also suggested that such substances could be disguised in medical treatments such as vaccinations or injections. The CIA was also looking into methods beyond chemicals, listing hypnosis, sensory deprivation, gases and other psychological methods for interrogation and behavioral control. Artichoke served as a precursor to the CIA's MKUltra program, which later broadened mind-altering experiments on a larger scale. The researchers involved in the secret program emphasized that long-term compounds should be capable of producing 'an agitating effect (producing anxiety, nervousness, tension, etc.) or a depressing effect (creating a feeling of despondency, hopelessness, lethargy, etc.).'
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