The Disturbing Story Of The Montreal Experiments

This is part two of our discussion on mind control. If you haven't watched part one, I recommend you do so now. Link down in the description. Last week we talked about MKUltra, a CIA program designed to crack the human mind. We explored what the agency was willing to do to American citizens, and even its own employees. Today, we will be concluding the story of MKUltra. And the horrors yet to be seen here on Mystery Archives. It was 1957 when Mother Jean Steele was admitted into the Allen Memorial Institute. In Montreal, Canada, she was supposed to be getting treatment for her manic depression, but over the next three years, we will find that Jean was never truly to be the same again. Jean said that during her time in the hospital, her and other patients were subjected to horrible experiments, and at one point, she herself was reduced to the mental state of a toddler. During a moment when her husband had tried to take her away from the hospital, she attempted to leap out of the car because she didn't want to leave. Even once she was back in normal society, she said that her emotions had been stripped and the experience took away her soul. Knowing what we know about MKUltra, what could be so terrible as to shatter someone's mind And psychologically reduce them to the state of an infant. Jean was just one of many people who endured the traumatic techniques employed during MKUltra's sub-project 68, also known as the Montreal Experiments. Though the exact number of victims is unknown, no less than 300 citizens have applied for compensation from the Canadian government since the 1950s and 60s. None of them were ever informed of what they would experience, and none of them consented. Much of our knowledge of what took place in the Allen Memorial Hospital comes from the testimonies of these eyewitnesses. The victims were allegedly dosed with LSD, in addition to paralytic drugs, and electroconvulsive therapy at 30 to 40 times the normal voltage. They would be put into drug-induced comas for weeks or even months while being in sensory isolation and forced to listen to audiotapes on repeat. These experiments not only didn't treat the mental illnesses of those people involved, but resulted in destroying dozens, if not tens of dozens, of minds. This permanent damage included incontinence, amnesia, Forgetting how to do simple and crucial tasks and forgetting or having erasure of valuable memories. And by forgetting these valuable memories, the patients would often imprint upon the very people who were inflicting the damage upon them. Psychosis and hysteria were common, and a daughter of one of the victims reported people muttering to themselves, screaming, and rocking back and forth. In a state of abandon. In particular, all of the patients were terrified of the man who walked the halls. Dr. Cameron. Dr. Donald Cameron was a psychiatrist and a contemporary of Freud, but where he differed from Freud, he genuinely believed that mental illness was both contagious and a sign of weakness. He pioneered a procedure known as psychic driving as an attempt to cure schizophrenia, which he believed was caused not by a fundamental problem in the brain, But by memories themselves. Psychic driving was designed to break down a person's personality so that a new one could be built. And while Cameron's work in the hospital certainly succeeded in fracturing the mind, it did not cure the illness he was allegedly trying to treat. Documents detail that Cameron was never aware of MKUltra and was paid by a CIA front organization to relocate to the Institute to carry out research from 1957 to To 1964, through his work, Cameron succeeded in accomplishing the goals that MKUltra was founded on, to complete and serve as the gateway to the human brain. Not simply for mind control or brainwashing, as believed, but MKUltra's ultimate aim, torture. Since MKUltra was formed to obtain information from Soviet agents, or other potential sources Sources of Information Enhanced methods of interrogation were paramount. The program was officially ended in 1973, but that was simply the beginning of the legal trials. And these legal trials brought forth these dark shadowy programs to the public eye. The program was officially ended in 1973, Legal proceedings in both America and Canada have brought much of the secretive experiments to light in witness testimonies and official documents. However, MKUltra's legacy has not dampened further exploration into other means of mind control. Psychic driving laid the groundwork for the CIA's torture method, which is still used to this day. And in addition, it is also used by cults to brainwash their members. You could say MKUltra succeeded in cracking open the human mind, but at the unfortunate cost of hundreds of human psyches. And even though it ended in 1973, some believe it simply carried on in a different form and under a different name, but that is a topic for another day. If you made it this far, please leave us a like and let us know what you thought down in the comments below, and don't forget to subscribe with the bell so you never miss a new upload. Also, don't forget to check out our channel memberships if you do want to support our work. This has been Cody here at Mystery Archives. Thank you so much for watching, And always remember to question everything, and we will see you next time.