Declassified records have revealed disturbing details about the CIA's infamous MKUltra program, which involved drugging and psychologically torturing Americans in secret mind-control experiments. More than 1,200 pages of documents released in 2025 described methods including induced sleep, electroshock treatments and so-called 'psychic driving,' in which heavily drugged subjects were subjected to repeated messages for weeks or even months in attempts to reprogram their minds.
Scope and Operations of MKUltra
The covert operation ran from 1953 to 1964 and included 144 known projects focused on developing drugs and interrogation techniques designed to weaken individuals, manipulate behavior and force confessions through brainwashing. A 1955 CIA document revealed the agency was developing drugs and techniques designed to manipulate human behavior, including substances intended to promote irrational thinking, erase memories, alter personalities and help people endure torture during interrogations.
The files also described plans for 'knockout pills' used in secret druggings and approved experiments involving large doses of LSD administered to human volunteers as part of the MKUltra program. Although the CIA destroyed most MKUltra records in 1973, the program's existence was exposed two years later during a sweeping investigation led by Senator Frank Church.
Political Controversy and Lawmaker Reactions
The experiments, once dismissed by many as a conspiracy theory, have now returned to the center of political controversy after allegations surfaced Wednesday claiming the CIA seized '40 boxes of JFK and MKUltra files' that were being processed for declassification. The claims sparked outrage on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers have given the agency 24 hours to return the files or face subpoenas and possible contempt proceedings.
The allegations were made by CIA officer James Erdman, who testified before the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, claiming a federal cover-up of COVID-19 origins. Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna shared on X: 'The CIA has 24 hours to return the documents to Tulsi Gabbard's office or else I will make a motion to issue a subpoena. These documents have been requested by Congress.' Tennessee Representative Tim Burchett also voiced concerns, saying: 'The CIA lied about MK Ultra existing. They were sued and were forced to admit it, but say they aren't doing it now. Which lie do you believe? Subpoena and preserve these documents now.'
Details from the Declassified Documents
The National Security Archive released 20 documents on December 23, revealing subjects of the Cold War-era MKUltra included criminals, mental patients and drug addicts, but also Army soldiers and average citizens who were given drugs without their knowledge. A CIA spokesperson previously told the Daily Mail: 'The MKULTRA program ran from 1953 until the lack of productive results and ethical concerns about unwitting testing led to its cessation in 1963. CIA is committed to transparency regarding this chapter of its history, including by declassifying information on the programs and making it publicly available on CIA.gov.'
The files state that former US Director of the CIA Allen Dulles ordered the agency to develop mind-controlling drugs to be used against the Soviets during the Cold War. 'We in the West are somewhat handicapped in brain warfare,' he said. Among those caught up in the experiments was notorious gangster James 'Whitey' Bulger, who took part in the program while imprisoned at the Atlanta penitentiary in 1957. Bulger later claimed he was one of eight inmates used as test subjects and said the men were left in states of panic and paranoia during the experiments.
Materials and Methods
In 1955, the secret program listed 17 'materials and methods' that the division was working on, including substances that 'promote illogical thinking, would help individuals to endure privation, torture and coercion during interrogation' and attempts at 'brain-washing.' The list also featured substances that would 'produce physical disablement, including paralysis, and others that alter personality structure' or that 'produce pure euphoria with no subsequent let-down.' A 'knockout pill' was also to be developed, which would be used in 'surreptitious druggings and to produce amnesia, among other things.'
Another declassified document dated June 7, 1956, discusses an MKUltra subproject to be led by Carl Pfeiffer of Emory University, who was known to conduct experiments on prisoners. Pfeiffer was approved to develop 'an anti-interrogation drug' and 'tests in human volunteers.' The objectives included administering 'large doses of LSD-25 in normal human volunteers.' Sidney Gottlieb, a chemist and spymaster who headed the CIA in the 50s and 60s, admitted in the report that activities were of a 'highly unorthodox nature.' Because of that, it was 'impossible to require that they provide a receipt for these payments, or that they indicate the precise manner in which the funds were spent,' he wrote.
One of the last documents of the program, published in 1963, revealed researchers involved with MKUltra used 'radiation, electro-shock, various fields of psychology, psychiatry, sociology, and anthropology, graphology, harassment substances, and paramilitary devices and materials' during the secret initiative. It focused on drug experiments conducted at CIA safehouses, using suspect criminals as test subjects, but also 'unwitting subjects drawn from all walks of life.' 'It was noted earlier that the capabilities of MKUltra substances to produce disabling or discrediting effects or to increase the effectiveness of interrogation of hostile subjects cannot be established solely through testing on volunteer populations,' it reads. As of 1960, however, the CIA was unable to develop a knockout pill, truth serum, aphrodisiac or recruitment pill. Also during that time, the report noted that 25 of the 144 projects 'remained in existence at present' 1960.
