19-02-2010, 01:18 AM
(This post was last modified: 19-02-2010, 03:51 AM by Austin Kelley.)
Thank you for your astute comments, Jan.
My sense is that the real insiders of the black ops psych/chem warfare world were well aware of the effects of LSD by the mid-'50's. A significant number had tried it themselves and knew the ups and downs of it all quite well.
It's clear that it could promote an exalted, enlightened feeling that could catalyze rapid changes in core values, especially in the direction of a less grounded, less rationally-oriented way of being. It would make the tripper especially ripe pickings for new religious and personal growth movements, even for saucer cults, quasi-Templar drug dealing brotherhoods and etc.
The release of LSD into the popular culture was implemented by people with very real ties to the deep power structure: Hollingshead (British Embassy), Leary & Alpert (MKULTRA research), Kesey, Hunter, Garcia (MKULTRA test subjects), Stewart Brand (US Army Intel), Owsley (Stanley Family, Skull & Bones), Ron Stark (CIA/DIA), Hubbard (OSS) etc. etc.
So why not kill a few birds with the same "stone"?
You get thousands or even millions of guinea pigs, you blast emerging social movements, fund secret bank accounts and give operatives access in to people who are undergoing rapid psychological transformation and baring their inner souls.
It's a spook's dream...
My sense is that the real insiders of the black ops psych/chem warfare world were well aware of the effects of LSD by the mid-'50's. A significant number had tried it themselves and knew the ups and downs of it all quite well.
It's clear that it could promote an exalted, enlightened feeling that could catalyze rapid changes in core values, especially in the direction of a less grounded, less rationally-oriented way of being. It would make the tripper especially ripe pickings for new religious and personal growth movements, even for saucer cults, quasi-Templar drug dealing brotherhoods and etc.
The release of LSD into the popular culture was implemented by people with very real ties to the deep power structure: Hollingshead (British Embassy), Leary & Alpert (MKULTRA research), Kesey, Hunter, Garcia (MKULTRA test subjects), Stewart Brand (US Army Intel), Owsley (Stanley Family, Skull & Bones), Ron Stark (CIA/DIA), Hubbard (OSS) etc. etc.
So why not kill a few birds with the same "stone"?
You get thousands or even millions of guinea pigs, you blast emerging social movements, fund secret bank accounts and give operatives access in to people who are undergoing rapid psychological transformation and baring their inner souls.
It's a spook's dream...