History of Science, Technology, the Environment, and Medicine

During the Cold War, the CIA launched the MKULTRA project to develop methods of mind control. Experiments conducted as part of MKULTRA involved sex, drugs, hypnotism, chemical comas, electric shocks, and sensory deprivation. Most of the experiments were unsuccessful, but because Sidney Gottlieb, the head of MKULTRA, destroyed the project’s files upon retiring from the CIA in 1973, anyone can fill in the gaps in the record with their wildest imagination. MKULTRA can be (and has been) misconstrued as a project that traffics young women, controls popstar Britney Spears, and hosts human hunting expeditions for government officials. John Lisle will explain the history of MKULTRA and its undying influence on conspiracy culture.

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John Lisle has a Ph.D. in history from the University of Texas, where he now teaches courses on the history of science. His new book, Project Mind Control (due out next month from Macmillan) uses dozens of newly discovered depositions to tell the inside story of MKULTRA. He has received research and writing awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Institute of Physics.