When the stories of the NSA surveillance came out, it made me wonder what else does the government try to do. Ever heard of those stories about the government trying to control everyone’s minds? Well, it’s a real thing. The CIA conducted something from 1953 to 1964 called Project MKULTRA, which was intended to “develop a capability in the covert use of biological and chemical materials.” It was actually a series of CIA experiments in which they tried to figure out how to control your mind, by conducting dozens of experiments on the effects of biological and chemical agents on American citizens without their knowledge.

The project started out as a response to rumors of Communist mind control being used on American prisoners from the Korean War. Afraid of being left in the enemy’s pseudo-scientific dust, the CIA quickly jumped on the mind control bandwagon. However, they got their procedures wrong in one crucial aspect; instead of experimenting on enemy prisoners that the national media wouldn’t miss, they decided to go ahead and start jamming probes and shooting drugs such as LSD and aerosols into unwitting United States citizens.

Sadly, but not surprisingly, almost no records remain of the 10 years of covert activity. As far as anyone can tell, they were unable to succeed in finding a way to control the way people act or think. Though we’d probably say the same thing if they had succeeded.